The Cabinet of Caligari
(Fox Home Entertainment, List Price: $14.98) This long-lost film from the drive-in heyday of 1962 is an odd duck. Largely unrelated to the landmark 1919 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this one plays out like an extended version of “The Twilight Zone” or “The Outer Limits.” (Small wonder, since it's written by author Robert Bloch of Psycho fame.) This slightly surreal tale finds a young woman (Glynis Johns from Mary Poppins) stuck at the creepy country estate of Dr. Caligari (Dan O'Herlihy from Robocop) following an auto accident. The inhabitants of the place are all pretty strange, and Caligari himself is like a perverted version of Sigmund Freud. The film is slow-going, but features an unforgettable atmosphere and a classic twist ending. Perfect for fans of twisty old psycho-thrillers.
The Flesh Eaters
(Dark Sky Films, List Price: $19.95) This 1964 cheapie is sometimes credited as the first “gore” film. Well, it's pretty tame by today's standards, but it does feature plenty of bikini babes, lots of kooky dialogue and even a few well-stripped corpses. The plot finds a bunch of youngsters stranded on a tropical island where a mad Nazi scientist (is there any other kind?) has created humongous flesh-eating microbes. I think you can imagine where this is going. The disc features an unedited version of the film (all the blood and cleavage intact), theatrical trailers and a deleted scene. Trivia note: Director/producer Jack Curtis went on to be the voice of Pops Racer in the American dub of “Speed Racer.”
Night of the Lepus
(Warner Home Video, List Price: $19.97) I love DVDs. Who among us could ever have imagined a day when we'd see a digitally remastered anamorphic widescreen print of 1972's killer rabbit opus Night of the Lepus? Not I, for one. This one is pretty legendary in stupid movie circles–mostly because the filmmakers were serious. Think about it: Somebody, somewhere came up with the concept for a film about gigantic murderous bunny rabbits … and thought it was a good idea. This is certainly the career low point for stars Stuart Whitman, Rory Calhoun and Janet Leigh (not to mention “Star Trek”'s DeForest Kelly). Sadly, there's no “making of” documentary, but the Dolby Digital soundtrack does allow you to hear the giant bunnies growl louder than ever. (Somebody forgot to tell the filmmakers that rabbits don't have voice boxes.)
Ringu: Anthology of Terror
(Dreamworks/Universal, List Price: $59.99) The American horror hits The Ring and The Ring 2 were, of course, inspired by a series of films in Japan (which were, in turn, based on the novels by Kôji Suzuki). Released in 1998, Hideo Nakata's Ringu is largely responsible for launching the J-horror craze that is still spilling into America (in the form of remakes like The Grudge and Dark Water). Ringu is included in this tight-knit boxed set, alongside sequels Rasen, Ringu 2 and Ring 0. For the uninitiated, Rasen and Ring 2 are both direct sequels to the original film about a deadly videotape haunted by a very angry ghost. Rasen is based on Suzuki's book Spiral, and was not all that well received. Ringu 2 was shot immediately afterward and was considered the “official” sequel to the movie. It bears quite a bit more resemblance to the American film The Ring 2. Ringu O is based on Suzuki's short story “Ring: Birthday” and is actually a prequel to the original story. The films are all slow, atmospheric and quite creepy–not the kind of thing for those in search of fast thrills, but an absolute must-have for fans of J-horror. Rasen is, admittedly, a fairly weak film, and the set has virtually nothing in the way of extras. Still, the films are flawlessly transferred in their original aspect ratios and it's nice to finally see a boxed set of all these films in America.
The Val Lewton Collection
(Warner Home Video, List Price: $59.95) During his tragically brief Hollywood career, Val Lewton never directed a single film. But he was so influential as a producer that the films he was involved in all bear that unmistakable “Val Lewton” style. Lewton's films were rarely all-out scare-fests, but they each possessed a Gothic, mist-shrouded, shadow-haunted look that made them classics of the supernatural thriller genre. This long-overdue boxed set features eight of Lewton's most atmospheric outings: Cat People, Curse of the Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, The Body Snatcher, Isle of the Dead, The Leopard Man, The Ghost Ship and The 7th Victim. Most of the films (all shot between 1942 and 1946) have modern commentary. (The Exorcist's William Friedkin, for example, weighs in on Leopard Man.) There's also a new documentary, Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy, making this one jam-packed set for the old-school horror lover.
