Sam’s Best Horror Bluray & DVD Releases of 2011

With more to choose from in this category than there was in theatrical releases I’m going to expand this to a list of 10, which I’ll give you in alphabetical order… because ranking things is hard.

These are all UK releases but most are also available in North America so be sure to and seek them out.

ALICE  DVD / BR  (Jan Svankmajer) : The BFI’s loving restoration of Czech surrealist Svankmajer’s take on the Lewis Carroll stories was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, as the film had never, to my knowledge, been available to own before in the UK. Svankmajer plays up both the horror and the surreality of Carroll’s stories from the off (his White Rabbit is a stuffed animal that lifts itself out of its glass box, and is always trying to keep its stuffing from falling out). The film is largely rendered with stop motion animation, but Svankmajer doesn’t use plasticine, instead this ‘wonderland’ is made up of dilapidated toys, animal bones and skulls, and raw meat. Svankmajer’s films are perfect for the HD format; they are feasts of detail and disturbing beauty, and Alice is a brilliant reinvention (and reclamation from the Disneyfied tellings it is often given) of a classic story.

THE BEYOND  DVD/BR  (Lucio Fulci) : Talking of surrealism, here’s Lucio Fulci’s most full on tilt at surreal filmmaking. The Beyond is easily the best of Fulci’s Zombie films (though not his best film, but we’ll get there), casting ethereally beautiful English actress Catriona MacColl as a woman who has just inherited a New Orleans hotel and ends up discovering that it is where one of the seven gates to hell resides. Isn’t that always the way? You think ‘it’s a fixer upper’ and then… ZOMBIES. Fulci takes us smoothly and scarily between real and surreal worlds, crafting images and characters that seem entirely otherworldly (Cinzia Monreale’s character may be a figment of MacColl’s imagination). The gore is brutal, but as impressively realised as ever, with – as I’ve noted before – the greatest exploding head in cinema, Scanners be damned, a highlight, and all this is beautifully presented on Arrow Video’s Blu Ray, which reveals detail while preserving film grain and provides a host of extras.

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST  DVD / BR  (Ruggero Deodato) : The fact that this thing exists in the UK just makes my jaw drop. Cannibal Holocaust. On Blu Ray. With only 15 seconds of cuts (the muskrat killing). There are actually two cuts of Deodato’s found footage style masterpiece here; the original version (minus those 15 seconds) and a newly prepared version in which Deodato has manipulated the film to obscure some of the animal cruelty footage. Happily he’s done this without cutting out the sequences or lessening their impact, and in a way that fits well with the guerilla styling of the footage. Cannibal Holocaust‘s reputation as one the most brutal films ever made is well earned, and it retains all of its impact 31 years after it was made, and it still has more and more provocative ideas than most horror movies. This Shameless Blu Ray is likely the best this film will ever look.

 DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING  DVD  (Lucio Fulci) So, here is Lucio Fulci’s best film. This underseen Giallo may largely lack the brutal violence and extravagant bloodletting of his later horror films (though a chain whipping sequence is insanely graphic and painful to watch), but it more than makes up for it with a compelling mystery, colourful characters and stylish direction from Fulci, whose craftsmanship, sadly, continues to go underappreciated. The dubbing is painful, which is a shame, as it would be nice to be able to hear what I suspect are strong turns from Florinda Bolkan and Barbara Bouchet, among others, but that shouldn’t put you off this thrilling and entertaining film, now marking its first ever UK release on the DVD from Shameless.

THE FRIGHTENERS  BR  (Peter Jackson) : Jackson’s first major studio effort is a strange little stopgap in his career; big budgeted and full of spectacle, but still inflected with the same maverick approach that made Braindead (or Deadalive) such lunatic fun. Michael J Fox (solid as ever) plays a paranormal investigator who uses the fact he can talk to ghosts to set up hauntings that he can ‘exorcise’ for profit. But when gruesome murders start happening in his small town Fox is suspected and pursued by an insane FBI agent (Re-Animator‘s Jeffrey Combs). This is Jackson cutting loose and having fun in between a more serious project (see below) and the massive undertaking of Lord of the Rings, and the feeling translates. The ghost effects are excellent and the film squares the funny/scary circle beautifully. Fox is good, but he’s a little swamped by hammily hilarious villainy from Dee Wallace Stone and Jake Busey. The Blu Ray ports over extensive extras, including a Director’s Cut of the film and a near 4 hour making of film. An exhaustive package for an underrated film.

HEAVENLY CREATURES  DVD / BR  (Peter Jackson) : Peter Jackson’s chilling but exuberantly told true story of two Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker (Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey) whose close friendship caused them to brutally murder Parker’s mother remains by far the best film he has made. Winslet and Lynskey (who may not be a star, but has become one of Hollywood’s truly interesting character actresses) both debut here, and both are exceptional as the this pair of fantasists so wrapped up in their imaginary world (which Jackson depicts through a mix of prosthetics and CGI) that they end up going to the most extreme ends possible to preserve both it and their relationship.

This is largely a drama, but Jackson’s genre grounding leaks through in his frequent use of extreme angles (there’s quite a bit of Raimi influence at work here) and in the final, upsettingly realistic, murder sequence. The film has come to UK Blu Ray and DVD thanks to Peccadillo Pictures, and the restored print is beautiful, but it is worth noting that the extended version of the film, never released in the UK, has just come to US Blu. Fans will likely want both, but this remains an essential release.

 NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET BOXSET  BR  (Wes Craven / Various) Wes Craven’s original Nightmare on Elm Street was one of the first Blu Rays I bought after getting my player this year, but I may have to upgrade to this boxset, depending on how the other films look. Yes, the NOES series is a touch patchy – the films that directly involved Craven; the original, Dream Warriors and New Nightmare are the true essentials – but there are rewards to be had from the rest of the franchise.

Freddy’s Revenge is fascinatingly misconceived (and hilarious), Dream Master is silly fun and Dream Child has a great central idea, but never quite pulls it off. Freddy’s Dead, on the other hand, is one of the worst films of the 90′s. Overall though, this is a great franchise, one of the most influential in horror, and any self-respecting fan ought to own it in HD.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA  BR  (Rupert Julien) : I can only imagine what it must have been like to see this film when it was first released in 1925, it’s still startling today; the sheer scale of it, Lon Chaney’s brilliant performance, and the incredible reveal of his nightmarish (self-devised) make up all still work as well 86 years on as they must have done then.

It’s great to see films of this vintage receiving and truly benefiting from a Blu Ray upgrade (Birth of a Nation looks astounding), and it will be a particular treat to see the justly celebrated two strip technicolor scene of the Phantom dressed as the red death at a masked ball and how that scrubs up in HD. Park Circus’ UK release has both the 1925 silent version and the 1929 sound reissue (at two speeds, 24 and 20FPS). I’m looking forward to discovering this set and digging into the various versions of this great film.

TENEBRAE  BR  (Dario Argento)  : Argento is hit and miss for me (though there is much of his work I still need to see), but with Tenebrae all of the elements of his cinema really come together, and the result is one of his best films. To some degree Tenebrae is a self-reflexive Giallo (its hero is a crime fiction writer and the murders appear to be inspired by his work), and Argento uses this to answer some of his critics.

That’s not really the point though, not so much as some typically stylish murder sequences, bravura camera moves and a pounding, brilliant, Goblin score. Arrow Video give Tenebrae the deluxe treatment here, with a great looking transfer (it impressed me even when it was shown projected on a cinema screen), two commentaries, a booklet and many featurettes.

WITCHFINDER GENERAL  BR  (Michael Reeves) : Michael Reeves’ second, and tragically his last, film, made when he was just 24, has had a rough ride over the years. It was heavily cut, and went unloved for a long time, but it has lately been restored and recoginsed as a British horror classic (though that process seems to be slower going in the US, where it is afflicted with the awful title The Conqueror Worm). The story of witch hunter Matthew Hopkins (played by Vincent Price, who hated making this film, but ultimately correctly recognised it as his finest work) may only be true in the broad strokes, but that doesn’t make it any less disturbing.

Price plays Hopkins as a psychopath made more dangerous by the conviction (and general acceptance) that he and his equally loathsome assistant are doing ‘the Lord’s work’. Extremely violent for its time, Witchfinder General remains a disturbing piece of work, and Odeon Entertainment have done right by it here, with a faithful and impressive transfer and a clutch of solid extras, some ported from the DVD release, some new for this edition.