Happy Halloween! To mark the annual fright-fest, here are six new horror DVDs–among the nearly 400 new and re-released genre titles released since August–worth tracking down. You probably won’t watch any tonight, but they’re a good bet the next time you’re in the mood for something creepy, spooky or “altogether ooky.” Click on the title, and a new window will open at DVD Price Search, showing the lowest online prices for that release.

“From Beyond”

From Beyond (MGM, $20): Stuart Gordon’s 1986 horror film about a machine that opens the mind to new worlds is lurid, kinky and unsettling. It perfectly realizes the off-kilter vision of author H.P. Lovecraft, just like the director’s 1985 adaptation of “Re-Animator.” Its debut on DVD comes in the form of an unrated director’s cut, although Gordon laments that some excised scenes remain lost. Cool extras: Commentary by Gordon and stars Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs; details on the restoration; interviews.

28 Weeks Later (Fox, $30; also on Blu-ray Disc, $40): Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s 2007 sequel to Danny Boyle’s zombie thriller 28 Days Later is just as frightening as the original, including one of the most intense opening sequences in recent memory. Cool extras: Commentary by and interviews with Fresnadillo, Boyle and others; worthwhile deleted scenes; an animated “graphic novel”; and a making-of featurette.

Note: Also new is a fine Blu-ray release of 28 Days Later (Fox, $40).

Sam Katzman: Icons of Horror Collection (Sony, $25): Katzman was one of the great producers of cheap B movies, so it’s fitting that this two-disc set contains four of his 1950s horror films for the price of one: The Giant Claw, Creature With the Atom Brain, Zombies of Mora Tau and The Werewolf. This is great, goofy stuff, and these schlock productions have never looked better, including three in widescreen presentations. Cool extras: Three vintage shorts to set the mood for a cinematic trip to yesteryear; trailers.

Black Sheep (Weinstein, $25): Katzman probably would have loved to get his hands on this quirky black comedy about a New Zealand farm where the sheep are killers. It’s shear terror. Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop did the special effects. Cool extras: Filmmakers’ commentary; deleted scenes; making-of featurette; bloopers.

Fox Horror Classics (Fox, $27): Three of director John Brahm’s 1940s trillers–The Undying Monster, The Lodger, Hangover Square, the latter two starring Laird Cregar as an out-of-control killer–get fantastic treatment in this essential three-disc for fans of classic horror. Cool extras: Commentary by film scholars, restrospectives; restoration comparisons; image galleries; vintage radio-show versions. 

The Addams Family, Vol. 3 (MGM, $30): This six-disc set contains the final 21 epsiodes of the campy, funny 1960s TV series about the macabre family who seemed better grounded than the “normal” people who ventured into their bizarre household.  Cool extras: Commentary on selected episodes; trivia for one episode.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 9:24 am and is filed under DVDs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.