The summer is finally approaching. However, this being an English summer, it's always a good idea to have some rainy day viewing lined up in reserve. Here are some of the releases lined up for the next three months...
First, a few titles which have actually just come out. A very nice steelbook of The Fly (1986) has hit the racks this week, courtesy of 20th Century-Fox. David Cronenberg's take on the 1958 classic provides an enjoyable twist on the original. Its tragic love story of sorts is one of its director's most moving works - no, really! Odeon have given a high-def upgrade to Pete Walker's House Of Whipcord (1974), whilst Re-Animator (1985) gets the deluxe treatment from Second Sight, following their rather lovely release of the same team's From Beyond.
Arrow Films continue their trawl through Vincent Price's filmography as The Complete Dr. Phibes (1971/72) arrives (slightly delayed) on June 16th. Nobody does revenge like Vinnie, and this promises to be a real treat. Memo to Arrow - more from the AIP catalogue please!!!
June 23rd sees a mixed bag. The quite odd and still slightly unnerving Bloody Birthday (1980) sees killer kids on the loose from 88 Films. Hammer curio Captain Clegg (aka Night Creatures) (1961) hits BD from Final Cut - whilst not a Hammer horror as such, this is still an interesting entry in the studio's catalogue with plenty of familiar studio faces and gothic flouishes. Peter Cushing fans should definitely investigate this one, as well as Night Of The Big Heat (1967), one of a pair of films Terence Fisher made for the tiny Planet Film Productions. That's coming from Odeon.
I'm especially pleased to see Hammer's Hands Of The Ripper (1971) in a high-def edition from Network. Always a personal favourite of mine, and director Peter Sasdy's masterpiece in my opinion. That's out on July 7th.
Moving on to July 14th, there's some 80's Italian horror with Michele Soavi's Stage Fright (1987) on Blu-Ray from Exposure Cinema. Nucleus follow up Video Nasties: The Ultimate Guide with the "does what it says on the tin" titled Video Nasties: The Ultimate Guide Part 2, this time focusing on a further 82 titles which appeared on Section 3 of the DPP list.
On July 21st, The Last Horror Film (1982) sees Caroline Munro's horror star stalked by Joe Spinell at the Cannes Film Festival - the story of the guerrila film making tactics employed in the production of this particular item is possibly more interesting than the film itself, but see what you think. 88 Films release that on July 21st, and the same day sees Final Cut's presentation of Hammer's take on The Phantom Of The Opera (1962), as Herbert Lom dons the mask (more from him in August).
If I'm not contactable for a while after July 29th, it'll probably be down to a marathon screening of Twin Peaks. Yes, a mega collection (The Complete Mystery) hits Blu-Ray from CBS/Paramount, lovingly supervised by David Lynch himself, including the Fire Walk With Me movie, tons of deleted scenes and a veritable smorgasbord of extras. Short of including coffee and cherry pie, this will be about as definitive as possible.
There's another appearance from Herbert Lom in our release schedule as Michael Armstrong's Mark Of The Devil (1972) makes a welcome BD debut from Arrow on August 4th, whilst the 18th sees their releases of The 'Burbs (1986) and Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1987), a particular guilty pleasure of mine. Network have the 1980 anthology The Monster Club out on the 18th, as Vincent Price and John Carradine provide the links between three grim tales from the pen of R. Chetwynd-Hayes.
Night Of The Comet (1985) is scheduled from Arrow for September 22nd as we head into the autumn, and wait to see what delights the reissue labels have ready for this year's Halloween, but in the meantime there's plenty here to keep horror fans happy over the summer. Please note, as always that release dates are subject to change.
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