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I scream, you scream, we all scream for ...
It's not for ice cream this month. Based on anecdotal evidence, the home entertainment industry is setting a new record in 2009. It's for the number of horror titles released before Halloween.
Two new series recently arrived from Anchor Bay, famous for its genre catalogue. By re-branding and re-packaging 16 titles, the distributor launched both The Horror Legacy Series and The Horror Society: Horror Film Series. That's a whole lotta horror goin' on. The legacy titles date from 1974-1986 while the society operates only in the current decade.
The six legacy titles and 10 society titles are each released separately, letting you pick and choose favourites. All have been on DVD before.
With 16 titles, we can only offer quick hits. Here goes on The Horror Legacy Series:
Black Christmas (1974): Bob Clark's Canadian Yuletide classic features Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin and other familiar faces fleeing a serial killer. The movie heavily influenced the genre.
Tenebre (1982): Five years after Suspiro made him a horror icon and inspired by a personal nightmare with a stalking fan, Italian Dario Argento made one of his best films. This is the story of a novelist who discovers his book has inspired a serial killer.
Re-animator (1985): Start Gordon's extreme cult classic played with the H.P. Lovecraft story about re-animating corpses.
Phenomena (1985): Argento directed Jennifer Connelly as a girl telepathically connected to insects. Argento was now shooting in English, with Italian versions dubbed later. This is the uncensored version.
Demons (1985): Set in a cinema, this terrorizor was Argento's first collaboration with director Lamberto Bava.
Demons 2 (1986): The Argento-Bava team returned with Dario introducing his daughter Asia Argento into the genre. This is the gorier uncut version.
And now for The Horror Society titles:
Dead & Breakfast (2004): Director Matthew Sleutwyler cast big, getting David Carradine -- among others -- to participate in his trashy road trip to terror.
The Girl Next Door (2004): Taken from the Jack Ketchum novel, Gregory Wilson's movie chronicles child abuse on an unimaginable scale.
The Lost (2006): Another Ketchum novel turns into unholy horror, this time through director Chris Silvertson.
Abominable (2006): With silly scares, filmmaker Ryan Schifrin plays with the Bigfoot/Sasquatch legend.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006): Scott Glosserman's clever thriller is a mock doc about a serial killer who yearns for fame. The cast includes quality support players from Scott Wilson to Robert Englund.
Hatchet (2006): Adam Green plunges tourists into the horrors of a Louisiana swamp.
End of the Line (2007): Montrealer Maurice Deverdeaux shot his terrific crazy-cult thriller in the Toronto subway.
Jack Brooks Monster Slayer (2007): Ottawa filmmaker Jon Knautz's silly romp lets a plumber seek revenge.
Spiral (2007): Adam Green follows Hatchet with a psycho-terror story, this one co-starring Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer.
Scarce (2008): Filmmakers John Geddes and Jesse T. Cook put cannibalism on the horror menu.