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I don’t know about you, but this writer is more than ready to start looking forward to the Halloween season. And one of the staples of my own ongoing cinematic celebration every year is checking out all the wonderful classic horror movies that Turner Classic Movies airs on their channel. And considering the mess that 2020 has been over the last several months, I thought this year it might be helpful to also include all the genre films that will be playing on TCM throughout the month of September, as it’s never too early to get ready for Halloween.

Check out all the great classic horror movies playing on the small screen over the next two months on TCM, and be sure to set those DVRs so you don’t miss any of the classic films that are sure to get you into the Halloween spirit this year.

Thursday,...

We already have a lot of new content to look forward to in September from the main streaming platforms, and Amazon Prime are no exception. As well as showcasing one of Will Smith’s less-successful pictures, Amazon are also putting out some great horror titles as we head into the fall, including classics like Wes Craven’s original The Last House on the Left, and several 1960s and 1970s curios from American International Pictures (Aip). What horror films can we expect, then, on Prime next month?

Well, in terms of The Last House on the Left, Craven’s directorial debut attracted controversy in the 1970s and beyond for its rape-revenge plot and generally exploitative tone. Made for just $87,000, Last House went on to be a box office success, and launched Craven’s career. The production has been banned at various times in its history, and received a 2009 reboot, which arguably...

We’re still a couple of weeks out from The Boys returning with its second season, but based on the footage we’ve seen so far, it certainly looks as if we’re in for another wild ride. One that may even top the first run of the show, which was one of the best things that we’d seen on television in a long time.

Of course, trying to predict how something as crazy as The Boys is going to end up is a fool’s errand, but let’s not forget that it won’t be the only new thing arriving on Amazon Prime in September. Far from it, in fact.

Earlier today, the streaming service announced their entire line-up of new titles for next month and it’s a meaty list, comprising both films and television shows. And though The Boys may be the highlight for many...

An election season is fast-approaching in the U.S. So for its new releases in September 2020, Amazon Prime is bringing back one of its most political shows.

The Boys season 2 premieres its first three episodes on September 4. Though the show on its face is a superhero story, viewers of season 1 will know it’s really about America’s troubling embrace of entertainment with fascism. Sounds fun and not at all terrifying right before a presidential election!

That’s not the only bleak Amazon original on the schedule for September. British TV adaptation Utopia arrives on September 25. This Gillian Flynn-produced series follows fans of a comic book who believe it predicts…world-ending pandemics. Darn it. Amazon’s only original film this month is a…documentary about voter suppression from Liz Garbus called All In: The Fight for Democracy. Yikes.

For those of us who want to relax with some ‘member berries,...

The Three Stooges Collection –

Volumes 1 and 2

Blu ray

Mill Creek Entertainment

1941-1965 / 1:33, 1:85 / Street Date April 21, 2015

Starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Joe DeRita

Cinematography by Franz Planer, Scotty Welbourne, William P. Whitley

Written by Raphael Hayes, Norman Maurer

Directed by Sidney Salkow, Edward Bernds, Norman Maurer

A frenetic mix of baggy-pants vaudeville and the Spanish Inquisition, the eye-poking exploits of The Three Stooges have appalled faint-hearted sophisticates and overprotective mothers for close to a century.

The team’s lowdown influence still lingers – not in the brutal roughhousing demonstrated by the lads in their most frantic moments but in their low class assault on upper class sensibilities – from the semen-sculpted hair-do of the Farrelly Brothers’s There’s Something About Mary to Johnny Knoxville’s Jackass to the mortifying contagion of diarrhea suffered by Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids, the Stooge abides.

And then there’s the Farrelly’s ode to brainlessness,...

A few years ago, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the death of influential film critic Pauline Kael, I wrote the following:

“I think (Kael) did a lot to expose the truth… that directors, writers and actors who often work awfully close to the surface may still have subterranean levels of achievement or purpose or commentary that they themselves may be least qualified to articulate. It’s what’s behind her disdain for Antonioni’s pontificating at the Cannes film festival; it’s what behind the high percentage of uselessness of proliferating DVD commentaries in which we get to hear every dull anecdote, redundant explication of plot development and any other inanity that strikes the director of the latest Jennifer Aniston rom-com to blurt out breathlessly; and it is what’s behind a director like Eli Roth, who tailors the subtext of something like Hostel Part II almost as...

If we’re going to use it as an insult, let’s define our terms.

The film industry seems to have no shortage of words that either serve as synonyms or subsets of “adaptation,” most of which are brought to you by the letter “R”: reboot, reimagining, rendition, redo, revival, retelling, recreation, reanimation (and looking to the other 25 letters in the alphabet, version, homage, makeover, update). One, however, is not treated quite like the others, and that word is “remake.” When filmmakers bring it up by choice, it usually seems to be to explain why their films should not be thought of by that term, thank you very much.

Perhaps you know exactly what I’m talking about. Or perhaps you think I’m reading far too much into things. After going through over 500 pages of research on remakes and adaptations, I myself thought the latter just as possible as the former.

So...

Shout Factory opens the crypt once more, for the last remaining UA and Aip fright movies starring our favorite gentleman of horror. The label lays on the extras, with Steve Haberman commentaries and episodes of Science Fiction Theater. Now where are the Vincent Price cooking shows? The Vincent Price Collection III Master of the World, The Tower of London, Diary of a Madman, An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe, Cry of the Banshee Blu-ray Scream (Shout!) Factory 1961-72 / B&W + Color / 1:85 & 1:66 widescreen / 420 min. / Street Date February 16, 2016 / 69.97 Starring Vincent Price Directed by William Witney, Roger Corman, Reginald Le Borg, Kenneth Johnson, Gordon Hessler.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Scream Factory now brings us Part Three of its Vincent Price collection, pretty much emptying the closet over at MGM. Not counting his twilight feature The Whales of August every Vincent Price film under the MGM banner will soon be out on Blu-ray.

This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the month of December 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.

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Follow-Up Black Friday / Holiday Disc Purchases Mystery Science Theater Kickstarter Star Wars: The Force Awakens DVD Beaver Blu-ray and DVD of the Year: 2015 News CES: Ultra HD Blu-ray News Disney: Snow White Signature Collection Warner Archive Blu-ray releases January 2016: The Ice Pirates, The Wrong Man, A Mighty Wind, Flicker Alley: L’inhumaine Thunderbean: Yuletide Flickers Arrow Video: Waking Life, Cult Cinema: An Arrow Video Companion Twilight Time: March/April titles. January pre-orders Olive Films: March Titles Disney Movie Club: Blackbeard’s Ghost Milestone: Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, Volume 1 Episode Links & Notes

12/1

Downhill Racer Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1 Fort Massacre...

Though he's perhaps best known for writing The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne also left his mark on the macabre, penning tales that can still be told to chilling effect around the campfire. Three of these stories made it onscreen in Sidney Salkow's 1963 anthology horror film, Twice-Told Tales. Not long after announcing they are bringing Burnt Offerings to Blu-ray and DVD this October, Kino Lorber has revealed they have another Halloween goodie up their sleeve, as they will also release Twice-Told Tales on Blu-ray and DVD before the flickering flames of jack-o'-lanterns cast shadows across your doorstep.

Via Facebook, Kino Lorber announced they will release Twice-Told Tales (1963) on Blu-ray and DVD with a brand new HD transfer this October.

Directed by Sidney Salkow, Twice-Told Tales stars Vincent Price, Sebastian Cabot, Brett Halsey, Beverly Garland, Richard Denning and Joyce Taylor. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates on this release.

One of my fondest memories growing up as a young horrorphile was catching as many scary movies and fright-filled specials as I could during the month of October in order to prepare for Halloween night. With the hundreds of channel options out there for viewers these days, I thought it might be fun to break down where genre fans can catch various movies, specials and even Halloween-themed cartoons over the next 31 days so that you can start planning out your viewings in advance.

Here are some of the thrills and chills coming to your televisions this October. Please keep in mind that full schedules have not been announced everywhere yet, so we’ll be sure to update you guys with any additions to the calendar. All times listed are Et/Pt:

Wednesday, October 1st

2:00pm – The Dead (SyFy)

4:30pm – Dead Season (SyFy)

6:30pm – Halloween II (2009) (SyFy)

9:...

The craft stores know something you don’t know. That’s right. It’s time for the 2014 Halloween Season TV Preview! This is where we let you know about the time and channel for everything we can find on TV having to do with Halloween or Horror for the month of October and sometimes late September. This will include holiday specials, horror movies, TV show premier dates and Halloween episodes of your favorite series as well as documentaries that might be considered scary. Anything and everything that might get your ghost good.

I always start with TCM because you can tell they take such care in developing their lineup. Be sure to check out their Thursday nights. This is truly a unique year for that station.

A quick note: We are not going to be able to get it all. So many different markets and channels and providers… it’s...

TCM devotes Thursday nights in October to Vincent Price, the versatile actor whose career lasted more than five decades and extended far beyond the horror films for which he was best known.

The chronological lineup includes such classics as The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), The Three Musketeers (1948) and While the City Sleeps (1956).

And on Oct. 23 and Oct. 31, Price’s talents in the horror genre are on full display in 17 films, just in time for Halloween.

Thursday, Oct. 3

8 p.m. – The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

10 p.m. – Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Midnight – The Keys of the Kingdom (1945)

2:30 a.m. – The Three Musketeers (1948)

5:15 a.m. – The Bribe (1949)

7 a.m. – The Long Night (1947)

Thursday, Oct. 10

8 p.m. – The Baron of Arizona (1950)

9:45 p.m. – His Kind of Woman (1951)

Midnight – The Las Vegas Story (1952)

1:30 a.m. – Dangerous Mission (1954)

3 a.m. – Son of Sinbad (1955)

4:45 a.m. – Serenade (1956)

Thursday,...

Last year we ran a schedule of every TV/Cable network schedule we could find that could be construed as Horror or Halloween related for the month of October. Let’s just say it proved useful for our readers and even for our staff when they were looking to find something to watch, wanted to program their DVR’s or didn’t want to miss out on some great “live” Horror. Isn’t there something about having a movie fed to you on TV as opposed to watching it on Blu-ray or DVD or streaming? We may not like commercials, but the randomness that you can associate with a TV program itinerary is novel. It removes a little bit of control from the audience who is all to concerned with being in control these days (just look at the reasons behind publishing a piece like this).

So here’s the 2013 Halloween Seasonal TV Preview,...

Did you know that Christopher Lee and Vincent Price share the same birthday? Vincent Price would have been 102 years old today, and I have a list of his films you should check out, along with an embedded version of House on Haunted Hill that you can watch for free.

While many remember Vincent Price for Edward Scissorhands, The Fly, and the Corman-produced Poe adaptations, there are plenty of lesser-known classics. For those of you haven’t seen The Last Man on Earth, I highly suggest watching it. You’ll notice how similar it is to the modern zombie story and looks like it served as inspiration for George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Here are some other Price films that you may want to check out:

House of Wax, The Tingler, Tales of Terror, Twice-Told Tales, The Comedy of Terrors, The Masque of the Red Death, Witchfinder General,...

An almost spectral-looking 2011 portrait by artist Rich Bernal of Vincent Price as he appeared in The Raven. Commissioned for the St. Louis Vincentennial.

2011 is the birthday centennial for Vincent Price, and the anniversary was celebrated by various magazines, blogs, film screenings and other events that honored the late actor. It was most memorably observed in Price’s hometown of St. Louis, where the Vincentennial was marked by a series of events organized primarily by Price fan Tom Stockman. Local newspaper reporter Raymond Castile and I attended many of the screenings, interviews, museum and gallery events in the more-than-month-long observance of the multifaceted man many think of as the “King of Horror.”

Raymond talked with a number of fans from around the world about their love of Price (including myself), and their encounters with him in life or on the screen. I later talked with a number of Vincent Price’s...