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Western horror movies are among the most underrated in the industry, but their potential cannot be denied. The sub-genre is a rare combination of a genre with dwindling popularity (Western) and the widely loved horror variety of movies, making it a classically entertaining mix. With no end in sight, many Western horror movies have come out over the years. The popularity of this unlikely fusion grew exponentially in the 1950s with entries such as The Beast of Hollow Mountain, Teenage Monster, Curse of the Undead, and The Living Coffin.

Abbott & Costello perform at full strength in this very good, very silly jungle safari comedy. It’s definitely for kids and nostalgic fans — with equal parts slapstick, cornball repetitive vaudeville gags, and Lou Costello’s weirdly endearing infantile schtick. An impressively beautiful restoration has pulled it back from the pit of Public Domain ugliness. Plus ClassicFlix & the 3-D Archive appoint this 2-D movie with a tall stack of creative, relevant extras.

Africa Screams

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 79 min. / Special Limited Edition / Street Date June 30, 2020 /

Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck, Max Baer, Buddy Baer, Hillary Brooke, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, Burt Wenland, Charles Gemora, Arthur Hecht, Bill Walker, Martin Wilkins.

Cinematography: Charles Van Enger

Film Editor: Frank Gross

Original Music: Walter Schumann

Written by Earl Baldwin

Produced by Edward Nassour

Directed by Charles Barton

I can’t say that I was one of the zillion...

Wow! Prime stop-motion animation from the heyday of monstrous science fiction, in a new restoration that puts a brilliant shine on those creepy crawly critters. Richard Denning fights giant arachnids while Mara (swoon) Corday frets and wrings her hands, waiting for the next kissing scene. The new scan clears up a lot of flaws, and gives us a much better look at the Lost Art of stop-motion magic.

The Black Scorpion

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1957 / B&W / 1:78 widescreen / 88 min. / Street Date March 20, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas, Mario Navarro, Carlos Múzquiz, Pascual García Peña

Cinematography Lionel Lindon

Special Effects Willis H. O’Brien, Pete Peterson

Art Direction Edward Fitzgerald

Film Editor Richard L. Van Enger

Original Music Paul Sawtell

Written by Robert Blees, David Duncan and Paul Yawitz

Produced by Jack Dietz, Frank Melford

Directed by Edward Ludwig

The ’50s big-bug monster show...

By Hank Reineke

The blending of two disparate but popular film genres – in this case, the horror/sci-fi film with the saddle opera - was hardly new when The Valley of Gwangi hit the big screen in 1969. This film’s most identifiable predecessor, one pitting cowboys against a prehistoric monster, might be The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956), but truth be told Hollywood had been combining these two genres almost from the very beginning. In the 1930s and ‘40s, audiences thrilled to the ghostly monochrome exploits of such western serial heroes as Ken Maynard, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Buster Crabbe with such films as Tombstone Canyon (1932), The Vanishing Riders (1935), and Wild Horse Phantom (1944). Universal’s Curse of the Undead (1959) was a later but no less interesting experiment for Hollywood’s preeminent fright factory. The studio removed the vampire from the usual atmospheric Gothic trappings of old Europe and dropped him onto the sagebrush plain.

Scream Factory will release The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956) and The Neanderthal Man (1953) early next year as a 2-disc Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. We’ve been provided with official release details and a look at the cover art:

“This January 2014, loyal fans are invited to combat the winter chills with a double dose of 50s high-camp creature features when Edward Nassour and Ismael Rodriguez’s The Beast Of Hollow Mountain, starring Guy Madison (Blood of the Executioner) and Patricia Medina (Snow White and the Three Stooges), and E.A Dupont’s The Neanderthal Man, starring Robert Shayne (How To Make A Monster), Richard Crane (Devil’s Partner), Doris Merrick (Untamed Women), Joyce Terry (The Beatniks) and Beverly Garland (It Conquered The World, The Alligator People), arrive on home entertainment shelves together in a double-feature 2-Disc Blu-ray™+ DVD Combo Pack on January 28, 2014. This highly collectible home entertainment release features anamorphic...

Up next from our friends over at Scream Factory is a double dose of campy creature feature fun, when The Beast of Hollow Mountain and The Neanderthal Man link up and come home together. Read on for the skinny!

From the Press Release

This January 2014, loyal fans are invited to combat the winter chills with a double dose of 50s high-camp creature features when Edward Nassour and Ismael Rodriguez’s The Beast Of Hollow Mountain, starring Guy Madison (Blood of the Executioner) and Patricia Medina (Snow White and the Three Stooges), and E.A Dupont’s The Neanderthal Man, starring Robert Shayne (How To Make A Monster), Richard Crane (Devil’s Partner), Doris Merrick (Untamed Women), Joyce Terry (The Beatniks) and Beverly Garland (It Conquered The World, The Alligator People), arrive on home entertainment shelves together in a double-feature 2-Disc Blu-ray™+ DVD Combo Pack on January 28, 2014. This highly collectible home...

With all of the classic horror titles that Scream Factory will be bringing to Blu-ray over the next six months, it’s a good chance that you’ve missed an announcement or two. There have also been a couple of date changes and we have a list of more than thirty upcoming titles.

Many of the movies listed below will be released to Blu-ray and DVD, while a handful are DVD only or Blu-ray only. We’re covering every upcoming Scream Factory release, so make sure to check back regularly for trailers, clips, box art, and additional release details.

The Amityville Trilogy Box Set (10/1) All Night Horror Marathon (What’s the Matter with Helen, The Vagrant, The Godsend, The Outing) (10/8) The Vincent Price Collection (10/22) Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear (10/22) All Night Horror Marathon 2 (Cellar Dweller, The Dungeonmaster, Contamination 7, Catacombs) (10/29) Body Bags (11/12) Assault on Precinct 13 (11/19) Night of the Comet (11/19) Eve of Destruction...

Initially I set out to compile a list of specific movies to watch after you’ve seen Riddick, in the same fashion as I’ve done for other new releases. But in an attempt to pick out titles worth recommending, I couldn’t choose. The thing about Riddick is that it’s not too directly derivative of any individual precursors. While the original movie in the franchise, Pitch Black, could mostly be traced back to 3:10 to Yuma given its central setup involving a prisoner transport plot, Riddick is more of a typical Western with tropes found in too many examples to mention. Part of the problem might be that it’s kind of all over the place. In the first act we follow Riddick (Vin Diesel) through a solo outing on a desolate planet. He faces trials of survival against monsters, making the early section more like a Harryhausen movie than a cowboy flick, though...