News

February 21st isn’t necessarily a busy week on the home entertainment front, but horror and sci-fi fans definitely should keep an eye on several intriguing releases that arrive this Tuesday. The Oscar-nominated thriller Nocturnal Animals is coming to Blu-ray and DVD via Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and Arrow Video is giving the cult classic Psychomania an HD overhaul for their 2-Disc Special Edition.

Other notable releases for February 21st include Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio, It Watches, House on Haunted Hill / Tormented double feature, and Kill, Granny, Kill.

Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio (BBC Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)

This Christmas sees The Doctor join forces with a masked Superhero for an epic New York adventure. With brain-swapping aliens poised to attack, the Doctor and Nardole link up with an investigative reporter and a mysterious figure known only as The Ghost. Can the Doctor save Manhattan?...

A motorcycle gang comes back from the dead to wreak havoc on the living in 1973's Psychomania, aka The Death Wheelers. Following the recent UK Blu-ray / DVD release of the cult film, Arrow Video has now announced that they will bring the zombie bikers stateside in February with their Us Blu-ray / DVD release of Psychomania, complete with a 2K restoration from preservation negatives and plenty of bonus features.

From Arrow Video: "New Us Title: Psychomania Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD

Zombie bikers run amok is southern England.

Pre-orders links should be live soon!

Release Date: 21st February 2017

The United States gave motorcycle-mad cinemagoers Easy Rider, The Wild One and The Wild Angels. The United Kingdom gave them Psychomania, the tale of zombie bikers run amok is southern England.

The Living Dead are a delinquent biker gang, fond of causing havoc on British roadways and making out in graveyards. Gang leader...

Curious about all those Region B Hammer Blu-rays from overseas, the ones requiring a region-free player? As a public service, Savant has solicited an expert opinion (you'll have to take my word for that) of a film restoration/transfer specialist who is also an informed fan of the filmic output of the little horror studio at Bray. I know, real Hammer fans buy first and worry about quality later, but this little guide might be of help to the rest of us budget-conscious collectors.

A 'Guest' article Written by a trusted Savant correspondent.

(Note: I receive plenty of emails asking for advice about the quality of Region B Blu-rays, most of which I don't see. I have access to industry people qualified to compare and judge the discs, but they stay off the record, because their employers forbid them to go online with their opinions. They must sometimes simmer in...

By Hank Reineke

Perhaps it is only fitting that area meteorologists would forewarn ominously that the Mahoning Drive-in Theater’s “Christopher Lee Tribute” might take place on a cold and dark and stormy night. After all, it was the villainous film legacy of the actor – who passed away at age 93 on June 7th of this year – to have frightened generations of moviegoers in such a bleakly nightmarish rain-soaked setting. As it happened, while the shivery autumnal chill on Saturday night was undeniable, there was – happily - nary a sprinkle of precipitation to obscure one’s windshield view of the drive-in’s massive CinemaScope screen.

The Mahoning Drive-in, located amidst the Pocono Mountains surrounding Lehighton, Pennsylvania, is – quite frankly – an anomaly amongst the anomalies of surviving drive-in theaters. Whilst most remaining drive-ins have been forced to move cautiously and expensively to digital projection systems or else suffer their screens going dark,...

It has been dismissed over the years as cheesy, cheap and laughable but, as has been the case on many occasions, Hammer Films have had the last laugh. They boast a back-catalogue that is to horror movies what The Rolling Stones’ discography is to rock music. Fifty-nine years after the release of their first horror movie proper (The Quatermass Xperiment), Hammer’s films have survived scrutiny and re-evaluation and have now attained National Treasure status. Moreover, in terms of sheer importance, the Hammer films were some of the most influential of the past half-century. The ripple-effect of their imitators cashing in on their success would beget the careers of some of the biggest names in Hollywood today.

And yet since 1984 Hammer has been a dormant entity, existing only in the memory: a pile of ashes, a cape and a signet ring waiting to be reanimated by the crimson, jugular discharge of some poor,...

Hammer Horror director Don Sharp has died, aged 90.

The Australia-born moviemaker passed away in Cornwall, England earlier this month, according to Variety. No other details of his death had been released as WENN went to press.

Sharp was best known for being brought in to revive the flagging Hammer Film studio in Britain in the 1960s after the company suffered a drop in popularity. He went on to direct numerous horror pictures for the firm including The Kiss of the Vampire, The Devil-Ship Pirates and Rasputin: The Mad Monk.

His other film work outside of Hammer included directing The Face of Fu Manchu and The Brides of Fu Manchu with Sir Christopher Lee. He was also behind the 1978 remake of The Thirty Nine Steps, starring Robert Powell, a 1974 film version of TV drama Callan with Edward Woodward, and 1979's Bear Island with Donald Sutherland and Vanessa Redgrave.

Some really sad news has emerged this holiday week as we've lost a true icon of our industry. While his name may not jump out at you unless you're as obsessive as we are, his movies have been making people leap out of their skin for decades.

According to Variety, Don Sharp, an Australia-born film director who was brought in to revive Hammer Films' sagging horror franchise in the mid-1960s -- and succeeded -- despite having no experience in the genre, died December 14th in Cornwall, England. He was 90.

Though the names most closely associated with Hammer are Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, it was director Terence Fisher who shaped the Gothic horror films that starred those actors. Fisher had directed films like Horror of Dracula and The Revenge of Frankenstein in the late 1950s, but the company lost its confidence in the helmer when his 1962 entry The Phantom of the Opera,...

He was born in Australia, but worked mostly in England. Don Sharp directed several Hammer Horror films including Kiss Of The Vampire, one of the best and most unusual. Sharp directed Christopher Lee in six films including Rasputin The Mad Monk and two .60s Fu Manchu movies. His bizarre biker/zombie hybrid Psychomania was way ahead of its time and with Curse Of The Fly he showed himself to be a master of making the best with low-budget conditions of work, hiding his monsters in the shadows and employing atmosphere and music to create effective horror. Sharp also worked on British television, directing several episodes from The Avengers. Don Sharp died Sunday December 18th at age 89.

From the tribute by Hammer historian Marcus Hearn at the official Hammer website:

Don Sharp had never seen a horror film before producer Anthony Hinds screened a selection for him at Hammer House in...

Director of eerily atmospheric Hammer horror films including The Kiss of the Vampire

In 1962, Don Sharp was a minor ex-actor, hack writer and jobbing director of British B-films, when he was offered the chance to make a gothic horror movie for Hammer, "the studio that dripped blood". In the event, The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) rescued both Sharp, who has died aged 90, and Hammer from the doldrums.

The studio, which had suffered several expensive flops, turned to Sharp due to his experience in low-budget film-making. Sharp, who claimed to have never watched a horror movie, let alone directed one, quickly steeped himself in the Hammer style by spending a week or so watching past successes, principally those directed by Terence Fisher and Freddie Francis. The Kiss of the Vampire, made with a smaller budget and an unstarry cast, recruited mostly from television, scored at the box office, and Sharp became associated with horror movies thereafter.

The unstoppable philistine known as Death claims another Trailers From Hell patron saint.

Horror legend Jimmy Sangster has died, which should — in your exploration of genre classics (or just watching through the numerous trailers for films that feature his name) — mean something to you. If it doesn’t, Tim Lucas has an all-encompassing reminder of why it should:

After his first screenwriting credit (Joseph Losey’s A Man On The Beach, 1955), Sangster’s list of screenplay credentials form an impressive overview of Britain’s contribution to fantastic cinema over four decades:

X – The Unknown (1956), Blood Of The Vampire (1958), The Mummy (1959), The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), The Hellfire Club (1959), Jack The Ripper (1960), The Terror Of The Tongs (1960), Taste Of Fear (aka Scream Of Fear, 1961), The Pirates Of Blood River (1961), Maniac (1963), Paranoiac (1963), Hysteria (1964), The Devil-ship Pirates (1964), The Nanny (1965, his personal favorite), the Bulldog Drummond adventure Deadlier Than The Male (1967), The Anniversary...

We are saddened to hear of the passing of Jimmy Sangster today, at the age of 83. While Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing may be the first names Hammer Horror fans think of, Sangster was just as influential when it came to the success of Hammer’s films in the 50′s and 60′s.

Having written The Mummy, Horror of Dracula, and The Curse of Frankenstein, Jimmy Sangster was one of the men responsible for the creating some of Hammer’s most beloved films and horror franchises. After the success of those films, Sangster worked consistently with Hammer as a writer on dozens of films in the 60′s, including Dracula: Prince of Darkness. In the 70′s, Sangster tried his hand at directing and took on The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust For a Vampire.

Jimmy Sangster was married to his longtime wife and actress Mary Peach and they lived together in London.