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Just from watching the trailer, I sat down to watch Werewolves with some low expectations. What intrigued me was the look of the werewolves. They look more practical than they do in movies these days, like they're animatronic beasts right out of an '80s movie. I like that a lot.

Werewolves is reminiscent of films like The Howling and Wolfen, with the same level of cheesiness and plot holes. It’s also fun. The lycanthropes are not as spectacular as the ones in 2010’s The Wolfman featuring Anthony Hopkins and Benecio Del Toro, or Josh Harnett’s werewolf in the Penny Dreadful TV series. These creatures were as I expected with their growling, rivers of drool, and massive teeth. We get occasional information about who they once were thanks to personal items such as dog tags and a protective vest with the words ‘wolf killer’ on it. The action...

It’s the first day of Amazon’s annual Prime Day, with hundreds of products discounted — including prices slashed on horror movies!

We’ve rounded up some of the scariest deals for you…

4K Ultra HD Collections:

The Mummy Trilogy – $26.99 The Shining / 2001: A Space Odyssey / Full Metal Jacket – $29.99 Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection Vol. 1 – $32.99 Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection Vol. 2 – $34.99 The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection Vol. 1 – $33.99 The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection Vol. 2 – $34.99 Batman: 4-Film Collection (1989-1997) – $39.99 Resident Evil Collection – $56.49 The Toxic Avenger Collection – $72.50 Rosemary’s Baby / Pet Sematary / Crawl / Smile / Sweeney Todd – $74.49 Universal Classic Monsters: Limited Edition 8-Film Collection – $99.99

Steelbook 4K UHDs:

Insidious – $15.37 Last Action Hero – $17.55 Fright Night – $20.99 King Kong (1976) – $26.49 Friday the 13th: 8-Movie Collection – $29.99 Ghostbusters / Ghostbusters II – $33.99

Individual 4K UHDs:

Brawl In Cell Block 99 – $8.99 Get Out – $9.99 The Thing – $10.99 Escape from L.A. – $10.99 Cloverfield – $10.99 Pacific Rim – $10.99 Godzilla vs. Kong – $10.99 A Quiet Place...

The 1980s were a decade full of big hair, punk rock, video games, political drama, and leg-warmers. It was also full of werewolves. In 1981 alone, there were four werewolf flicks in the theaters, those being Wolfen, An American Werewolf in London, Full Moon High, and the subject of this very article, The Howling. The rest of the decade saw many more lycanthropes lighting up the silver screen, including The Beast Within, The Company of Wolves, Silver Bullet, The Monster Squad, Monster Dog, and a plethora of Howling sequels. With so many werewolf movies coming out in a stretch of just ten years, only the truly unique ones that could stand apart from the rest would be remembered as classics. One such classic that innovated upon the typical werewolf mythology is The Howling.

As previously mentioned, Joe Dante’s The Howling has had stiff competition since its release, with the film...

The Wolfen episode of The Black Sheep was Written and Narrated by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Brandon Nally, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

A black sheep doesn’t have to be considered bad to have that loving title and distinction. I mean, some of them are considered quite bad and need the layers peeled down to show off the good inside. There are other cases though. A movie can also be a black sheep if it was buried by a more popular outing like The Last Broadcast being utterly forgotten after the behemoth The Blair Witch Project made its appearance. Sometimes, like Last Broadcast, it can just be buried withing its own genre, decade, year, or as in today’s title, all 3. I’ve seen more than a few comments for this one so let’s take a look at werewolves in 1981. No,...

Ever since cinema's origins, werewolves have been a massive part of the greater horror canon, but they've never had a better year at the movies than 1981. For a few decades, these giant dog-like beasts had taken a back seat in the mind of the movie-going public, but in '81, audiences were treated with two bangers and an attempt at greatness with An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, and Wolfen. It's odd that there was such a huge craze going on so long after the original werewolf run back in the '40s, but maybe this huge drought is what led to two major classics coming out of the early '80s. These three have plenty in common, but they do enough to stand out in their own ways to justify all being released in the same year.

It’s fair to think that movie music is usually at its best when you don’t notice it playing in the background. The better composers know they shouldn’t overpower a scene; they enhance it. Yet there are times when the music should catch enough of our notice that it gives us hints about what’s going on, or what’s to come, mixing with the movie to turn a big moment into something even more memorable. This often overlaps with the use of leitmotif, a signature theme that associates itself with an individual or a recurrent situation, like the way John Williams’ “Imperial March” tells us Darth Vader is here, or that the Empire is up to something dreadful.

Music is too important a tool for filmmakers to ignore, even if the audience can. The right score can make a movie iconic, and the right leitmotif will make a character immortal.

Steven Felder, a producer who worked on hundreds of episodes of CSI and in various capacities on Miami Vice, FBI: Most Wanted, Reversal of Fortune and many other TV series and films, died February 19 of pneumonia.

A rep confirmed the death to Deadline. Felder’s age was not available.

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Felder began his career in film in the late 1970s, serving as second unit director on Jonathan Demme’s Last Embrace. He went on to work on features including Wolfen and Jumpin’ Jack Flash before pivoting to TV in the mid-’80s. Felder was first Ad or unit production manager on about two dozen episodes of NBC’s Miami Vice...

Chris Chesser, the producer known for his work on the sports comedy “Major League,” has died. He was 74.

Chesser died suddenly Feb. 2 while at his Los Angeles home, brothers Alan and Steve Chesser announced Tuesday. The cause of death has yet to be confirmed.

In 1974, the producer took his first steps into the entertainment industry as an executive in international sales at Columbia Pictures. Two years later, Chesser became general manager of the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Between 1980 and 1983, Chesser helmed two production companies: he served as vice president of production at Marble Arch Productions and functioned as head of production for Filmways, until the company was acquired by Orion Pictures.

Films Chesser supervised as a production executive include “Sharkey’s Machine,” “The Great Santini,” “Caddyshack,” “Wolfen,” “Arthur,” “Excalibur” and “On Golden Pond.” He also assisted in developing the features “Spinal Tap” and “Absence of Malice.”

The late filmmaker...

Chris Chesser, the film and documentary producer best known for bringing the iconic baseball comedy Major League to the big screen, has died. He was 74.

Chesser died suddenly Feb. 2 at his Los Angeles home, his brothers, Alan and Steve Chesser, announced. No cause of death was revealed.

As a production executive, Chesser supervised such notable films as The Great Santini (1979), Caddyshack (1980), On Golden Pond (1981), Wolfen (1981), Arthur (1981), Sharky’s Machine (1981) and Excalibur (1981).

He supervised production on the British comedy Yellowbeard (1983), starring Graham Chapman, and helped develop Rob Reiner’s Spinal Tap (1984) at Embassy Pictures and Sydney Pollack’s Absence of Malice (1981) at Columbia Pictures.

Chesser and Irby Smith produced Paramount’s Major League (1989), which was written and directed by David S. Ward and starred Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Wesley Snipes and Rene Russo.

After earning his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and his master’s from the American Graduate School of International Management,...

Chris Chesser, the independent film and documentary producer whose credits include the hit Charlie Sheen 1989 comedy Major League, died suddenly at his home in Los Angeles on February 2. He was 74.

His death was announced today by his brothers Alan and Steve Chesser. A cause of death was not disclosed.

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Chesser began his film career in New York in 1974 as an executive in international sales for Columbia Pictures. He became General Manager of the American Film Institute in Los Angeles in 1976.

In 1978 he became executive assistant at the newly formed Orion Pictures to co-founder Mike Medavoy, and from 1980 to 1983 he served as Vice President of Production for Marble Arch Productions and...

Easily my favorite movie reference in "Scream" is the line, "What's that werewolf movie with E.T.'s mom in it?" That would be Joe Dante's gloriously seedy "The Howling," one of three lycanthrope flicks that hit theaters in 1981. Unabashedly sticking to its B-movie roots, the film outperformed Albert Finney vs. Real Wolves in "Wolfen," but got left a little in the dust by "An American Werewolf in London." Perhaps that was no surprise because John Landis was on a hot streak after "Animal House" and "The Blues Brothers," and his first foray into horror was slicker, more expensive, and, despite its fair share of shocks, generally more respectable than Dante's low-budget shocker.

More's the pity. Despite the cult appeal of his earlier movies, Landis was more of a commercial crowdpleaser in the '80s and I always got the sense that he was a little ashamed of the...

Robert Morse, who translated Broadway stardom into a film career in the 1960s, then re-emerged decades later as one of the stars of “Mad Men,” has died. He was 90.

Writer-producer Larry Karaszewski, who serves as a VP on the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, tweeted news of Morse’s death on Thursday.

“My good pal Bobby Morse has passed away at age 90,” he wrote. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming People v Oj & hosting so many screenings.”

Morse was Emmy nominated five times for playing the sage Bertram Cooper, the senior partner at the advertising firm that was the focus of AMC’s prestigious series “Mad Men,” from 2007 to 2015. In 2010, he shared the SAG Award that “Mad Men” won for outstanding performance by...

In what can be called movie geek comfort food, Battle: Los Angeles and Krull have become cult favorites over the years. Why? You can watch either movie while doing other things keeping an extra eye on the screen, have devout fans who can recite the dialogue verbatim and will defend both movies to the end. Guilty pleasures, yes, cult status, definitely.

Even HBO Max has it listed as such.

The 2011 sci-fi and 1982 fantasy films have come to HBO Max and are available to stream now.

“Marines don’t quit.”

Battle: Los Angeles, starring Aaron Eckhart, and from director Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath Of The Titans), is the exciting story of a squad of U.S. Marines who become the last line of defense against a global invasion. It gets the military right than most war movies. Numerous Marine units assisted in filming and the movie contains some awesome scenes with Black Hawks,...

Robert Blalack, a towering figure in the world of visual effects, died on Wednesday. His wife Caroline Charron-Blalack confirmed the news to Deadline. He was 73.

Blalack said he specialized in “solving the Visual Effects requirements of ‘can’t be done’ Motion Picture productions.” He proved the truth of that statement on his second film project, a 1977 space opera by the name of Star Wars.

At the age of 29, he designed and supervised the Star Wars VistaVision Composite Optical production pipeline, which allowed all the groundbreaking 365 VistaVision VFX shots in Star Wars. Much of what he created for the film was built on a (relative) shoestring. With a VFX budget of just $1.6 million for the film, Blalack made use of obsolete VistaVision optical composite equipment from Hollywood’s Golden Years that could be had for a song.

“My task was to scavenge the Hollywood junkyards for any VistaVision Composite Optical mechanics,...

On this episode of Corpse Club, Heather Wixson, Emily von Seele, and Derek Anderson continue Daily Dead's Class of 1981 retrospective series with a look back at the werewolf movies of 1981, including An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, and Wolfen!

You can listen to the new episode of Corpse Club right now on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, YouTube, Pandora, and SoundCloud.

Looking for more scary good Corpse Club content? Be sure to check out our Corpse Club website and memberships. Not only can you view past episodes, but you can also sign up to be an official Corpse Club member to enjoy a wide range of rewards, including a shirt and pin that are to die for, access to bonus content, and the ability to suggest an episode topic!

Missed out on our previous episodes? Don't despair, our entire backlog is waiting for you on our website!

Veteran casting director Cis Corman has died. She was 93.

Corman worked repeatedly with many top filmmakers. Her credits include Martin Scorsese classics such as The King of Comedy, Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ. She also worked on Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate as well as the Barbra Streisand-directed films Yentl and The Prince of Tides.

Corman later served as president of Streisand’s production companies Barwood Films and Barwood Television. She was remembered by Streisand on Wednesday as her “best friend and surrogate mother.”

Streisand recalled she first met Corman when she was 16 and Corman 34, noting she treasured Corman’s “lifelong friendship, her intelligence, her taste, her integrity.”

“We shared the conviction that a film has to serve some key social purpose,” said Streisand, “And the issues addressed in our television projects included the significant and disregarded history of women in film,...

Say what you will about Todd Phillips Joker but its production design is on point (making it all the more remarkable that one of the film’s 11 Oscar nomination was not for Mark Friedberg’s stellar work). The film seems to be set in a late ’70s, early ’80s New York (a.k.a. Gotham) when the city was at its grittiest, somewhere vaguely in between the New York of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) and the New York of Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy (1982), the two films that Joker shamelessly tips its green wig to. In actual fact, however, it turns out that the film is set in a very specific time, namely the last week of July 1981. But more of that later.Unsurprisingly to anyone who reads this column, I love movie posters within movies and I love movie marquees. Joker opens and closes with a couple...

We’ve got a ton of great titles on the docket for this final week of home media releases in August. Michael Dougherty’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters is hitting various formats on Tuesday, and if you’re looking for some oddball entertainment, The Banana Splits Movie should undoubtedly do the trick. For all you sci-fi fans out there, the classic V miniseries is finally making its way to Blu, and Scream Factory is also giving both The Leech Woman and Fear in the Night the HD treatment as well.

Vinegar Syndrome is showing some love to Hell Comes to Frogtown this week, and the Warner Archive Collection is bringing home several of their films on DVD, including Wolfen, Of Unknown Origin, The Hand, and Dracula Has Risen From the Grave. Also, one of the more disturbing psychological thrillers I’ve seen in some time, Ladyworld, is being released on DVD on August 27th,...

The second installation of his classic horror remake hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but Andy Muschietti is already thinking about the terrifying tale he’d like to reboot next. The It: Chapter Two director revealed at ScareDiego that he’d love the chance to revive The Howling for a new generation of moviegoers.

The filmmaker says that it’s a flick he feels many audiences may not be familiar with, given the other similarly plotted pics that came out that year. In his opinion, now would be an awesome time to resurrect the werewolf genre, and he’s apparently not the only one who thinks so, as Bill Hader also claimed that the idea would be “rad.” If the project gets off the ground, maybe the It: Chapter Two star will want to team up once again with the director?

The Howling was the first of three notable werewolf...

Chicago – He moved deftly from British matinee idol to formidable movie star to reliable character actor, and was nominated four times for an Academy Award (no wins). Albert Finney had a nearly 50 year stage and screen career that encompassed virtually all types and genres of acting. He died in London on February 7th, 2019. He was 82.

He was born Albert Finney Jr., and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating at age 20 in 1956. He became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company shortly thereafter, and appeared on the stage throughout the late 1950s, and throughout his career. His debut film role was “The Entertainer” in 1960. He was the title character in the Oscar Best Picture “Tom Jones” (1963), and other films in that decade included “Night Must Fall” (1964), “Two for the Road” (1967) and “Charlie Bubbles”.

An Early Career Albert Finney

Photo credit: File Photo

His most fruitful film era was arguably the 1980s and ‘90s,...

Finney with Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's "Two for the Road".

By Lee Pfeiffer

Albert Finney, who rose to fame and acclaim as one of Britain's generation of actors known as "Angry Young Men", has died at age 82. A chest infection was cited as cause of death. Finney was among an exciting new generation of British actors who burst upon the scene in the 1950s and 1960s, reaping critical praise for their realistic portrayals often of troubled men who were being constrained by socio-economic conditions that afflicted the lower income class in post-War Britain. His star-making role came in director Karl Reisz's "kitchen sink" classic, the 1960 film "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" which reflected the frustrations of the working class. Finney called upon his real life experiences growing up in Northwest England under somewhat spartan living conditions.

As a newly-minted star, he screen tested for director David Lean for...

Albert Finney, renowned British actor and Oscar-nominated star of films like Tom Jones, Under the Volcano and Erin Brockovich, has died at the age of 82.

“Albert Finney, aged 82, passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side. The family request privacy at this sad time,” a family spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC.

One of Britain’s most revered stage and screen actors, Finney earned four Best Actor Academy Awards nominations and one nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Finney received both an...

Frank Adonis, who appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Raging Bull and Casino along with tough-guy roles in dozens of other films and TV shows, has died. He was 83. His wife told TMZ that he died Wednesday night in Las Vegas after a long illness and had been on a ventilator.

Born Frank Scioscia on October 27, 1935, in Brooklyn, he made his film debut with an uncredited role in 1971’s The French Connection. Adonis had small roles in such films as Lucky Lucianoi, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight and Shaft’s Big Score! during that decade before landing a role in Raging Bull, Scorsese’s seminal 1980 boxing biopic starring Robert De Niro. He would go on to appear in the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s mobbed-up pics Goodfellas (1990) — his Anthony Stabile (above left) was present for the classic, cringe-inducing “funny like a clown?” scene — and Casino (1995).

Adonis’ many other credits included...

The Snarling is coming. And it looks pretty awesome! There's a full moon out in the first trailer for this horror comedy thriller. We've got zombies, werewolves, and one very disturbed director who just wants to finish his movie. We could be looking at a cult classic in the making.

Let's hope The Snarling lives up its trailer. There's a lot of potential for fun to be had here. We have bickering crew members on a zombie movie set, plenty of death by fangs, and one very cool looking werewolf that owes more than a little to Wolfen and The Holwing.

When Halloween's over, the party won't stop. Coming this November from Wild Eye Releasing, a bristled comedy-horror jaunt like no other. It truly is Shaun of the Dead meets An American Werewolf in London when The Snarling, from writer-director Pablo Raybould, hits Us shores.

Laurence Saunders, Chris Simmons,...

1981 was the Year of the Werewolf in horror; An American Werewolf in London and The Howling were easily the leaders of this particular pack, with Larry Cohen’s comedy Full Moon High offering up another unique monster spin. There was one other film that put its own twist on lycanthropy, and that’s Michael Wadleigh’s Wolfen, laden with social commentary writ large in place of silver bullets and gypsy fortune tellers. And it’s all the better for it.

Released Stateside in July by Orion Pictures, Wolfen (based on the novel by Whitley Strieber) only returned $10 million on its $17 million budget; critics however were very kind, unlike audiences who probably were expecting more traditional tropes for a trip to the movies. This is not that film; a measured pace and a heightened sense of intent set it apart from the others. (Plus the antagonists are shape shifting wolves, but...

From the Austin Daily Texan, September 22, 1966

Film-Makers’ Co-Op Shows ‘The Wild One’

The Gulf Coast Film-Makers’ Co-Op, an off campus student organization, will inaugurate its Film Factory at 8 p.m., Friday.

Founded to encourage student film-making, Film-Makers’ Co-Op is a result of interest among university students for a place to show and make films. Spokesmen cite the fact that at present there isn’t any University course for the beginning student who wants to make creative films, and of the two courses devoted to film on campus, both are oriented for radio and TV majors.

The Group has received support from the New American Cinema groups on both east and west coasts. Independent film-makers like Bruce Baillie and Robert Nelson from California have provided films for the first program. In New York, Pop Artist Andy Warhol will provide his newest film, “Camp” with Baby Jane Holzer and Jack Smith, for...

Released in August 1981, An American Werewolf in London was the third major werewolf movie of the year. Coming after Joe Dante's terrific The Howling and Michael Wadleigh's spooky Wolfen, some wondered what John Landis could bring to the table, especially after the excesses of his previous comedy, The Blues Brothers. Landis has noted that Universal's classic monster movies were the first monsters he saw as a child in the 1950s and his original screenplay paid homage to them, even as he created a new mythology for werewolves. He mixed black comedy into a horror stew and sprinkled a bit of romance on top, producing a fresh vision revolving around a hapless college student (David Naughton) who survives a horrible attack only to find himself transforming into a murderous...

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Released in August 1981, An American Werewolf in London was the third major werewolf movie of the year. Coming after Joe Dante's terrific The Howling and Michael Wadleigh's spooky Wolfen, some wondered what John Landis could bring to the table, especially after the excesses of his previous comedy, The Blues Brothers. Landis has noted that Universal's classic monster movies were the first monsters he saw as a child in the 1950s and his original screenplay paid homage to them, even...

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"I may be dead, but I'm still pretty." Whether you want to watch Buffy Summers and company battle supernatural beings for the first time or re-live all your favorite moments from the show, reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are playing now on Pop TV. Also: The Drawing short film starring Clarke Wolfe in its entirety, a trailer / acquisition news for Gehenna: Where Death Lives, an excerpt from Duncan Ralston's Woom, the lineup for Ithaca Fantastik Film Festival, and The Master Cleanse at Screamfest.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Pop TV: Reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are now playing on Pop TV.

To learn more, visit:

http://poptv.com/buffy_the_vampire_slayer/

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Watch Short Film The Drawing in its Entirety: Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA: The Drawing is coming! The Drawing is here! The Drawing is a modern monster horror short infused with 80s synth overtones.

I actually really like the minimalist title art for the original Alien, which famously fades in, slowly and methodically, line by line, in the movie's eerie opening shot. It's an elegant treatment for an elegant film, and jibes with the subtle tone established by director Ridley Scott. I bring this up because We Are Mutants just debuted an unused title treatment for Alien by illustrator Michael Doret and Todd Schorr that is beautiful and exciting to look at and also, I think, better in isolation than it would have been in the context of the film. As cool as the treatment is, it would have given viewers the wrong idea about the movie they were about to watch -- less sophisticated monster movie than pulpy creature feature. "The title treatment I designed for Ridley Scott’s Alien never made it into the public arena," Doret -- who later designed the...

Debuting on the Syfy this Monday, April 11th is Hunters, the newest genre series from executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and Natalie Chaidez that focuses on a highly classified government organization known as the Exo-Terrorism Unit (Etu), which tracks down and fights alien terrorists. The new series is based on Whitley Strieber’s acclaimed science fiction novel Alien Hunter and stars Nathan Phillips (Wolf Creek), Britne Oldford (American Horror Story), and Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck).

Recently, Daily Dead sat down with Hurd, Chaidez and Oldford to discuss what fans can expect from Hunters, the challenges that came along with adapting the material for television, how Hunters reflects the current political landscape, and much more. Read on for our interview with the trio and be sure to check out Hunters when it premieres on Syfy on April 11th at 10:00pm Est / 9:00pm Cst.

How did this project get developed...

It starts with a cry of pain. Then a look of terror or ecstasy. And then the body starts to change. Hair grows from the knuckles. Maybe the eyes turn black. Sometimes fangs sprout. Before you know it, the person in front of you isn’t a person anymore. The Transformation can be the most horrific moment in a horror film because it’s where the internal becomes the external. No more false faces. No more hiding. And depending how fearsome the new being is, no more running as well.

***

An American Werewolf in London (1981)– London wolf calling

It starts out so innocently. Knowing that a full moon is approaching, David Kessler (David Naughton) locks himself in the home of nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agutter) in order to be able to transform into a werewolf peacefully, not killing any innocent people and proving that he doesn’t have to commit...

Roundly dismissed upon its release by critics in 1983, Tony Scott’s classy, stylish art-house vampire film The Hunger arrives on Blu-ray as a demure addition to the Warner Bros. Archive Collection. A notable cult item still lacking of a deserving reappraisal for its significant merits, the film has long languished in obscurity with the exception of its references to the explicit lesbian sex scene shared between Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon (featured in a first-wave resurgence of interest in Lgbt cinematic themes with the documentary version of Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet, 1991). It represents one of three cinematic adaptations from horror writer Whitley Streiber, following the also forgotten Wolfen (1981), starring Albert Finney.

Miriam Blaylock (Deneuve) is an ancient yet breathtakingly beautiful vampire. Her lover of the past three centuries, John (David Bowie) has suddenly begun to age and decay, apparently something that has eventually happened to all of her past lovers,...

August 18th is bringing horror and sci-fi fans a bounty of home entertainment choices this week, especially if you’re into cult classics and indie genre films. Titles arriving on Tuesday include newer movies like Cub, Ejecta and Closer to God as well as the latest from the Soska Sisters, Vendetta. Several older films are getting an HD overhaul on Blu-ray too, including Nomads, The Hunger, Nightmare Castle, The Wife Killer and the supernaturally-infused Burn, Witch, Burn which was also co-penned by Richard Matheson.

And while it may not necessarily be a full-on genre movie, it’s worth noting that Shout! Factory is also releasing the criminally underrated cyber-adventure/thriller Hackers onto Blu-ray this week to celebrate its upcoming 20th anniversary.

Burn, Witch, Burn (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray)

The powers of dark magic rule the night in this chilling masterpiece of supernatural horror as a

college campus turns into a nest of evil.

Long considered to be one of British auteur Tony Richardson’s greatest miscalculations is his 1970 film Ned Kelly, certainly the most notable but arguably the definitive version as concerns one of Australia’s most infamous outlaws. Arriving on Blu-ray for the first time, the title remains a curious novelty, one of a handful of on-screen appearances featuring The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger in a high-profile role. As many of these once-reviled titles go, the history behind the making of the film tends to overshadow the compromised product, and Richardson’s failed period piece is no exception.

In the late 1800s Outback, horse thief and aspiring bank robber Ned Kelly (Jagger) is released after serving a three year prison sentence. Harassed by the law and his angry neighbors, the ornery bushranger is forced into action when his mother (Clarissa Kaye) is unjustly accused of murder and sentenced to prison. His resulting...

Two weeks ago, composer James Horner died after his private plane crashed in Southern California. He was 61, two decades younger than John Wiliams but with a resume not unlike the Maestro’s. A composer whose understated presence made his career more legend than legendary, Horner possessed an under-the-radar kind of genius that, short of two Oscar wins, seemed obvious only in hindsight. Braveheart, Glory, Titanic, Field of Dreams, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and The New World are all stunning examples of strong thematic composition, yet even Horner’s smaller ventures — in scores for Wolfen, Cocoon, or Battle Beyond the Stars — raised genre fare above B-movie status.

Horner could make the most out of the smallest things; he often had to, especially if that overnight deadline for Aliens is to be believed. He had deftness with nuance and complexity while always inviting the audience into those ideas, and...

Academy Award-winning composer James Horner, whose career spanned more than 35 years, has died in a plane crash, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 61. Horner is credited with composing music for more than 150 film and television productions, beginning with 1978's The Watcher, when he was just 24. He worked initially for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, scoring music for low-budget genre films like The Lady in Red and Battle Beyond the Stars, then worked on Oliver Stone's directorial debut The Hand, as well as atmospheric thrillers like Wolfen, before moving onto blockbusters with 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.   Thereafter, he became incredibly busy; the following year alone he scored eight movies. He received his first Academy...

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James Horner, the Academy Award-winning film composer responsible for the unforgettable scores from films like Titanic, Braveheart and Avatar, died Monday in a plane crash outside Santa Barbara, California. He was 61. While early reports stated that a single-engine plane owned by the composer had crashed into a remote area, it was later confirmed that Horner was piloting the plane and was the crash's lone fatality.

"We have lost an amazing person with a huge heart and unbelievable talent," Horner's assistant Sylvia Patrycja wrote on Facebook (via The Hollywood Reporter). "He died doing what he loved.

Braveheart, Aliens, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, Apollo 13, Wolfen, Legends Of The Fall, Krull, Battle Beyond The Stars, A Beautiful Mind, Titanic. The list goes on and on.

The prolific Oscar winning composer James Horner has died in a plane crash at the age of 61. (June 22, 2015). Variety confirmed the news Monday evening.

Brilliant Composer James Horner, friend & collaborator on 7 movies has tragically died in a plane crash. My heart aches for his loved ones.

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) June 23, 2015

Listen to samples of his genius. James Horner will be profoundly missed.

From James Horner’s bio (Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency):

Having composed the music for more than 130 film and television productions, including dozens of the most memorable and successful films of the past three decades, James Horner was one of the world’s most celebrated film composers.

He earned two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for...

The '80s was a great decade for werewolf movies. 1981 alone gave us two stone-cold classics of the genre: Joe Dante's "The Howling" and John Landis's "An American Werewolf in London." But what of Michael Wadleigh's "Wolfen"? The 1981 adaptation of Whitley Strieber's novel may be less fondly remembered than its contemporaries, but it enjoys something of a cult status today, hailed by admirers for its mixture of social commentary, police procedural and straightforward horror elements. (Some would even argue that it's not really a werewolf movie at all.) Now, more than 30 years on from its theatrical debut, "Wolfen" is hitting Blu-ray for the first time -- and to mark the occasion we're posing the question: what is the best werewolf movie of the 1980s? Are you a "Company of Wolves" adherent? A "Teen Wolf" aficionado? Or do you prefer the low-budget charm of Larry Cohen's...

The first week of June is looking to be excellent for those horror and sci-fi fans looking to add some new titles to their home entertainment collections. Two great cult classics—Scarecrows and Wolfen—are coming to high-definition, and we have Monsters: Dark Continent to look forward to as well. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s genre-bending Spring is coming to DVD and Blu-ray (the latter being a Best Buy exclusive) and, for those of you waiting for WolfCop on Blu-ray, you’ll finally be able to bring the furry fiend home in HD.

A bevy of indie horror movies are also making their way onto DVD this week and the Wachowski’s Jupiter Ascending is arriving on 3D Blu-ray and standard DVD for those of you who may have missed the sci-fi actioner in theaters. And for all you Pitchfork fans out there, Hayride 2 will also be available on Tuesday.

An in-the-works Galaxy Quest TV series, the Blu-ray of 1981's Wolfen, and details on Daredevil’s sophomore season are all featured in our latest round-up.

Galaxy Quest TV Series: Variety reports that Paramount Television is looking to do a TV series take on the 1999 sci-fi-comedy, Galaxy Quest, which starred Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman. Robert Gordon, the co-writer of the feature film that poked fun at sci-fi conventions, such as the high fatalities of redshirts on Star Trek, is in talks to be involved in the TV version, along with the 1999 film's director, Dean Parisot, and its executive producers, Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for further updates.

Synopsis of the Galaxy Quest film (via Blu-ray.com): "They're not astronauts... they only played them on TV. For four seasons, from 1979 to 1982, the crew of the N.S.E.A. Protector donned their uniforms...

Fans of the Alien Hunter novel rejoice, it’s getting a TV version called Hunter with a The Walking Dead producer…

Syfy (Dominion, Helix, formerly Battlestar Galacticia) is looking to invest even more in geeky programming it would seem – news today broke that they’re working on a new series based on the best-selling novel Alien Hunter by Whitley Strieber.

Strieber is a prolific author, whose work has previously been adapted thrice for the big screen – Wolfen, The Hunger and Communion (all in the 1980s) were the resultant films.

The new show will be titled Hunters, and will run for thirteen episodes. Gale Anne Hurd, an executive producer for The Walking Dead, is on board to produce the show, which should premiere in 2016.

The novel centred around a cop disappearing in Philadelphia and the existence of a covert government team hunting for extra-terrestrial terrorists. It will be adapted for screen by Heroes’ Natalie Chaidez.

Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now turns 35 this month and James Gray (The Immigrant) has written an amazing appreciation for Rolling Stone. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Michael Ventura on John Cassavetes's Love Streams (1984), Luc Moullet on Luis Buñuel's Death in the Garden (1956), New York Times profiles of Sam Taylor-Johnson, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Ava DuVernay, Sarah Polley, Lisa Cholodenko and Lana Wachowski, Grady Hendrix on Lee Myung-Se, Glenn Kenny and Ben Sachs on Richard Linklater, Sean Nortz on Michael Wadleigh's Wolfen (1981), Steven Shaviro on Bobcat Goldthwaite's Willow Creek (2013) and much, much more. » - David Hudson...

Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now turns 35 this month and James Gray (The Immigrant) has written an amazing appreciation for Rolling Stone. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Michael Ventura on John Cassavetes's Love Streams (1984), Luc Moullet on Luis Buñuel's Death in the Garden (1956), New York Times profiles of Sam Taylor-Johnson, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Ava DuVernay, Sarah Polley, Lisa Cholodenko and Lana Wachowski, Grady Hendrix on Lee Myung-Se, Glenn Kenny and Ben Sachs on Richard Linklater, Sean Nortz on Michael Wadleigh's Wolfen (1981), Steven Shaviro on Bobcat Goldthwaite's Willow Creek (2013) and much, much more. » - David Hudson...

Above: Pedro Costa's Horse Money

The Locarno Film Festival has announced their lineup for the 67th edition, taking place this August between the 6th and 16th. It speaks for itself, but, um, wow...

"Every film festival, be it small or large, claims to offer, if not an account of the state of things, then an updated map of the art form and the world it seeks to represent. This cartography should show both the major routes and the byways, along with essential places to visit and those that are more unusual. The Festival del film Locarno is no exception to the rule, and I think that looking through the program you will be able to distinguish the route map for this edition." — Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director

Above: Matías Piñeiro's The Princess of France

Concorso Internazionale (Official Competition)

A Blast (Syllas Tzoumerkas, Greece/Germany/Netherlands)

Alive (Jungbum Park, South Korea)

Horse Money (Pedro Costa,...

1981 was a heck of a year for werewolf movies. Of course, this would still be true had the only one to be released that year been John Landis’ genre-defining classic, An American Werewolf in London. But mere months earlier, another tale of lynanthropic terror hit screens, one which has sadly fallen into obscurity: Michael Wadleigh’s Wolfen.

The two films share a lot in common. Both focus on supernatural wolf creatures cutting a swath of carnage through major urban centers, both make heavy use of then-new Steadicam technology to represent the point of view of the beast as it stalks its unsuspecting prey, and both see the beast come into conflict with that most recognizable guardian of modern society: the police. But as similar as the films are, when one opens the hood and looks deeper, they’ll find that the two films are so ideologically opposed that it becomes...

Whenever it seems like the werewolf movie has been completely forgotten, we get a nice reminder that this immortal legend of horror cinema will always have its fair share of supporters. It was way back in 1981 when The Howling, Wolfen, and An American Werewolf in London hit the screens, and while there was a semi-resurgence with Ginger Snaps (2000), Dog Soldiers (2002), and (to a degree) The Wolfman (2010), we don't seem to get half-decent lycanthropic cinema all that frequently.

  "Decent" seems a good way to describe Late Phases, the new werewolf feature from the admirably eclectic director Adrian Bogliano (Penumbra, Cold Sweat, and Here Comes the Devil are among his most recent films), because the flick has too many good intentions and legitimately strong assets to allow its narrative missteps to ruin the whole package. Put more simply: Late Phases has a more than a few "slow spots" and it has trouble...

Ya see, the thing about werewolves? They're just uncultured, man. I mean, they don't even have the friggin' common courtesy to use a door in the correct fashion. Case in point: this latest still from Late Phases which finds its own exit.

From the Press Release

Principal photography has commenced on Adrian Garcia Bogliano's highly anticipated feature Late Phases. Shooting is currently under way in the Hudson Valley of upstate New York.

Several cast additions have also been announced. Set to star alongside Nick Damici (Stake Land, Premium Rush, We Are What We Are) is Cheap Thrills star Ethan Embry along with Erin Cummings ("Spartacus") and Lance Guest (Halloween II, The Last Starfighter). Tom Noonan (The House of the Devil, AMC's "Hell on Wheels") is the latest genre favorite to join the cast.

Bogliano has assembled an ensemble of supporting players plucked from a gamut of classic films: Tina Louise...

Dark Sky Films has released the first photo from their thriller Late Phases, featuring star Nick Damici. The studio has also announced that production is under way in upstate New York, with Ethan Embry, Erin Cummings, Lance Guest, and Tom Noonan joining the cast. Take a look at this photo, then read the press release for official details regarding director Adri&#225n Garc&#237a Bogliano's thriller.

Principal photography has commenced on Adri&#225n Garc&#237a Bogliano's highly anticipated feature, Late Phases. Shooting is currently underway in the Hudson Valley of upstate New York.

Several cast additions have also been announced. Set to star alongside Nick Damici (Stake Land, Premium Rush, We Are What We Are) is Cheap Thrills star Ethan Embry along with Erin Cummings (Spartacus) and Lance Guest (Halloween II, The Last Starfighter). Tom Noonan (The House of the Devil, AMC's Hell on Wheels) is the latest genre favorite to join the cast.