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That's perhaps the best looking double feature type cover I've ever seen.

Shout announced three more MGM titles today

Cannon films X-RAY (1981 - aka: HOSPITAL MASSACRE with Barbi Benton), SCHIZOID (1980 - starring Klaus Kinski) and THE GODSEND (1980 - starring Donald Pleasence's daughter, Angela) are on tap for a release late in 2013! All three have never been out on DVD before.

As mentioned yesterday, these films will not show up on our schedule until later in 2013 so we cannot confirm they will be on Blu-ray as we have not seen the masters yet. We say this only to manage expectations. More details on these fun flicks will be presented next year

The trailer for Schizoid turned up on one of the recent 42nd Street Forever compilations - apparently Kinski plays a therapist whose group members, in a Color of Night anticipating twist, all start getting murdered! The film also features Christopher Lloyd, along with Craig Wasson a few years before Body Double but the same year that he was also in The Outsiders and Carny.

Cliff posted at blu-ray.com that Shout is releasing Bruce Lee films next July.

Rather blah announcement today.

Sadly, we don't have the rights to the original SCANNERS...but we were able to get them for its sequels. SCANNERS II: THE NEW ORDER (1991) and SCANNERS III: THE TAKEOVER (1992) will finally make their debuts on DVD in 2013...and possibly Blu-ray too.

More details will emerge on these head-exploding titles next year. Happy Friday!

Shout is supposed to announce "several big titles" at HorrorHound Weekend on 11/16.

This week's Facebook announcement:

The much-requested THE HORROR SHOW (1989 - with Lance Henriksen and also known as "House III" in some circles) and THE VAGRANT (1992 - starring Bill Paxton) will finally make their debuts on DVD in 2013.

More specific details on these two next year. Happy Friday!

The "Big 6" are:
The Fog
The Howling
The Burning
Lifeforce
Night of the Comet
Day of the Dead

I'm sure they will get questions about Dawn of the Dead. It will be interesting to see what their answer is.

AV Maniacs is doing a post panel interview with Cliff Mac, hopefully the interviewer will ask about Dawn of the Dead.
Here is Screams facebook announcement of the six titles

***EXCLUSIVE "SUPER-SIZED" ANNOUNCE!***

The wait is over! We can now officially reveal some really cool and beloved horror classics from the 80s that will be coming from the "Factory" in 2013:

- THE FOG (1980): John Carpenter's seaside ghostly revenge flick with Adrienne Barbeau and Jamie Lee Curtis. New extras are in the works! First time on Blu-ray

- THE BURNING (1981): Summer Camp. Garden shears. Tom Savini effects. Need we say more? First time on Blu-ray

- THE HOWLING (1981): Joe Dante's ultimate werewolf pic with superb Rob Bottin effects. First time on Blu-ray.

- LIFEFORCE (1985): Tobe Hooper's space vampires and light-show extravaganza finally gets its first ever anamorphic widescreen presentation! First time on Blu-ray.

- NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984): Shopping and zombies highlight this post-Doomsday cult classic. First time on Blu-ray.

- DAY OF THE DEAD (1985): George Romero's splattery undead classic gets a new collector's edition with new extras.

More details on all of these frightfests will be revealed more next year. Have a great weekend!

Today's announcement is the last Friday announcement that they are doing.

Day of the Dead is with Taurus Entertainment. Shout probably licensed the whole library which would include films like Kentucky Fried Movie, Sleepaway Camp, etc. I do find it a little weird that they only announced Day of the Dead. If they had picked up Dawn, you'd think it would have been announced.

I'm definitely getting The Fog. I may replace my Anchor Bay of Day of the Dead if the new disc is a notable upgrade (and it *should* be, considering how DNR'd the old disc is).

Great stuff. I almost rewatched my UK DVD of The Fog yesterday and don't currently own Day Of The Dead in any incarnation. Will wait for reviews to see if the latter improves on the Arrow blu.

Those are all fantastic. The only one I may not get is Day of the Dead, and will just wait to see how the extras stack up on it, but it is still a great film!

Night of the Comet and Lifeforce are the must buys for me. Lifeforce is amusingly goofy but a great personal favourite as I remember seeing it in my early teens and being extremely disturbed by the dessicated zombies, but also just as much by that strangely sleazy sexual encounter in a London park that starts the plague spreading unnoticed in the background like the most virulent kind of STD!

It plays like a wonderfully off-kilter lost Quatermass film, except without Professor Quatermass to solve anything! (I think I get that impression because of the amusing way that Britain is apparently at the heart of the space expedition to Halley's Comet! The idea that Britain is an integral part of space exploration is by far the most difficult to swallow aspect of the entire film!)

It also has one of Patrick Stewart's craziest roles as he gets drugged into a coma and slapped around a bit! Plus a fantastic action/adventure score (by Henry Mancini)! (Although that orchestral piece is poorly used - only for the end credits - while Michael Kamen does some electronic noodling over the actual scenes of the films themselves!)

Here's the trailer.

Here is what Jameson281 had to say at the Classic Horror Film Board about the 5 MGM titles Shout announced last night:

I'm a little surprised, since none of the MGM titles were on the Shout Factory list I saw back at the start of the year. THE FOG, THE HOWLING and LIFEFORCE were all considered for release this year by Fox. The HD masters of the first two (done by other companies) were poor, especially THE HOWLING, which looked nothing like the Dante-supervised DVD. I hope they remaster them. LIFEFORCE (both cuts) was remastered fairly recently and approved by Hooper, so I'm guessing they'll use the existing MGM transfer(s).

colinr0380 wrote:Those are all fantastic. The only one I may not get is Day of the Dead, and will just wait to see how the extras stack up on it, but it is still a great film!

Night of the Comet and Lifeforce are the must buys for me. Lifeforce is amusingly goofy but a great personal favourite as I remember seeing it in my early teens and being extremely disturbed by the dessicated zombies, but also just as much by that strangely sleazy sexual encounter in a London park that starts the plague spreading unnoticed in the background like the most virulent kind of STD!

It plays like a wonderfully off-kilter lost Quatermass film, except without Professor Quatermass to solve anything! (I think I get that impression because of the amusing way that Britain is apparently at the heart of the space expedition to Halley's Comet! The idea that Britain is an integral part of space exploration is by far the most difficult to swallow aspect of the entire film!)

It also has one of Patrick Stewart's craziest roles as he gets drugged into a coma and slapped around a bit! Plus a fantastic action/adventure score (by Henry Mancini)!

Here's the trailer.

I don't think I've seen 'Lifeforce ', but 'Night of the Comet' is a real charmer: I have it on VHS, recorded from tv, but I see the complete movie is up on YouTube

I tweeted to ask Jason Alexander if he was going to contribute to THE BURNING Blu-ray, his answer:

WHYYYYYYY?!

If not that, then I wonder how he would feel talking about his brief appearance in Jacob's Ladder then?

Just finished watching the AV Maniacs interview with Cliff MacMillan and he confirmed (it was really noisy during the first half of the interview, so if I got any titles wrong, I'm sorry):
Exterminator 2
Rolling Thunder (Blu-ray only, pretty sure he said all the MGM MOD they got will be Blu-ray only)
Dark Angel
Cohen and Tate
Captain America
More Empire films
Tank Girl
Eve of Destruction
Unholy Rollers
6 Jackie Chan Movies
Big Boss
Fist of Fury
Way of the Dragon
Game of Death

I missed this when I watched the interview, but over at the Classic Horror Film Board, Jameson281 pointed out that Cliff said Shout will be releasing "a few Vincent Price movies."

Glad I didn't spring for the MOD of Cohen & Tate! Let's hope they add some of the extended gore Eric Red uploaded on YouTube a while back. Intrigued to hear what other Empire titles they come up with too. Lots of people will be excited about Unholy Rollers, I'm sure.

JamesF wrote:Lots of people will be excited about Unholy Rollers, I'm sure.

Indeed, I ♥ Roberta Collins. Rolling Thunder is also good news, even if it turns one of my MODs into a coaster.

Over at Blu-ray.com forums, Cliff confirmed that they will be doing a new transfer for The Fog, so I expect that they'll be doing a new one for The Howling. He also said that they picked up some other titles from Taurus Entertainment but not Sleepaway Camp.

Yeah, ROLLING THUNDER is the true gold here. Glad I never shelled out for the R2 Blu.

Why are you glad? Are they going to use a new transfer or include more supplements?

perkizitore wrote:Why are you glad? Are they going to use a new transfer or include more supplements?

It'll be a little bit cheaper.

Totally missed this, but Jane Campion's adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady is coming to Blu-Ray, courtesy of Shout! Factory.

This title used to be hard-to-find on DVD, with used copies going for $100+, so this is definitely good news. I've never seen this film, but I know some critics, like Amy Taubin, absolutely love it - I think it placed in the top ten of the Village Voice's best-of-the-'90s critics poll. I thought Sweetie and An Angel at My Table were Campion's best, with The Piano (while good) marking the beginning of her decline, but maybe this will change my mind.

Robert A. Harris has already reviewed it:

"It's a decent looking conversion from film to Blu-ray, but understand that as typical Universal product, what you're going to be getting is a bit older transfer, that might have been fine, but appears to have been needlessly sharpened a bit. Nothing terrible. Just not what it might have been, for a bit of less work...I would have loved to see a newer transfer, but this will suffice."