I have to express my disappointment, however, that the studios have yet to dig deep into their catalogue releases to afford us nice, new high-def transfers of horror classics like the iconic black-and-white Universal monster films of the thirties and forties, or those fantastic, blood-red Eastman-color Hammer spectacles from the fifties and sixties. It’s a shame that such important classics perpetually get treated like second-class citizens by the major studios. I mean, even the DVD releases of groundbreaking Hammer releases The Curse of Frankenstein and The Horror of Dracula have only been offered in bare-bones, albeit relatively handsomely-transferred DVD editions. Why not assemble a new special feature packed collector’s edition Blu-ray, while some stars of the films are still willing and able to participate? And though Universal’s classic monster DVD editions are wonderful to behold, brimming with documentaries and commentary tracks, they could really use a high-def face lift, if you ask me.

All right, sorry for the rant. I know it’s only a matter of time before all of those amazing films find their way to Blu. I just hope we see them sooner rather than later. In the meantime, check out all the awesomeness now available to us in high-def. Some of these discs, newly released and listed below are truly great and are must-haves for all film fans!

Happy Blu-Halloween!

10. IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN

The third prime-time animated Charlie Brown special has been a Halloween classic for almost fifty years now. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was released in 1966 and looks pretty decent on Blu, considering its age. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack also includes It’s Magic, Charlie Brown as well as a short 14-minute featurette on the history of the animated specials.

Amazon: $18.49

9 . MANIAC

William Lustig‘s Maniac is one crazy-ass serial killer flik. It’s got Joe Spinell giving a sometimes nuanced, sometimes crazy performance of a lifetime as murderer Frank Zito and more gory make-up effects than you can shake a stick at, thanks to Dawn of the Dead splatter-guru Tom Savini. The new Blu-ray from Blue Underground looks pretty grim (black crush, noise and an overall dull image presentation) but packs a wallop in the extras department, with two commentary tracks, a host of interviews in HD and more spread over this two-disc set.

Amazon: $17.99

8. VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL

I don’t want to beat a dead horse here but I think FUNimation‘s Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl is a pretty fun little piece of fluff. I covered the Blu-ray release in more depth in the full review of the disc (which you can read in full here) so I don’t want to go overboard heaping the praise on this bad boy, but let me just say in short, that if you think you might enjoy seeing monsters that look like attractive Japanese schoolgirls hacking away at each other while showers of blood spray the screen red, well, you’re in for a treat!

Amazon: $19.49

7. SPLICE

Ahhhh Splice. It’s been a week since my viewing of this film and I still don’t know how I feel about it. It’s pretty creepy, that’s for sure – following Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley‘s misadventures with genetic mashups and the strangely attractive, sometimes naked girl-thing that the experiments produce. The disc looks and sounds pretty great and has a few featurettes that give a fairly decent look behind the scenes of the production. All in all, pretty cool, in a gross, Cronenberg kind of way…

Amazon: $26.99

6. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD

BRAAAAAIIINNNSSS!!! I’m pretty sure that no zombie had ever moaned for brains before Dan O’Bannon‘s groundbreaking Return of the Living Dead. Am I wrong? These are some damn chatty living dead! The film is equal parts horror and comedy and eighties rock and roll through and through. The Blu-ray presents the film looking and sounding way better than ever and includes a nice selection of bonus features (commentary, featurettes, zombie-subtitles and more). Fans will want to scoop this one up immediately!

Amazon: $11.49

5. THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

I can’t get over just how stunning the Rocky Horror Picture Show disc looks and sounds on this newly released Blu-ray disc. I mean, I’m not a huge fan of the film. I’ve seen it a number of times over the years but never, ever has it been so visually vivid or sonically dynamic! The image is derived from a 2K/4K master struck from the original camera negatives and the audio is presented in a haunted-house rocking DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1! This is one amazing Blu-ray disc, packaged in a really nice hardcover digi-book and brimming with special features. It’s a must-have for any fan of the film!

Amazon: $18.49

4. HOUSE (HAUSU)

I feel like I’ve been waiting for this Criterion Collection Blu-ray release of House (also known as Hausu in its native Japan) forever! After almost a year of hints that the film would join the collection, House finally hits shelves this week and it is tremendous. As you’d expect from any Criterion release, the film has never looked or sounded so good and never been released in any home video edition that featured as many special features as this. For a full rundown of the disc, read our previously published article here: Criterion announces October Blu-ray titles: Seven Samurai, The Magician, Paths of Glory, House, The Darjeeling Limited

Amazon: $34.99

3. POLTERGEIST

This isn’t the first release of Tobe Hooper‘s (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) Poltergeist on Blu-ray. In fact, the initial 2008 digi-book release is superior to this newly released one in one critical way – the hardcover digi-book packaging! That said, this is a great, genuinely spooky movie, with a solid script and some wonderful performances. The Blu-ray disc is the same as in the 2008 package, featuring a really rock-solid transfer, a surprising killer Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track and a 30-minute, two-part look at real-life ghost hunters.

Amazon: $15.99

2. PSYCHO

Alfred Hitchcock‘s horror classic Psycho has never looked or sounded better than on this brand new, remastered 50th Anniversary Blu-ray edition. The previously available DVD transfer was sorely lacking and Universal has gone to great pains to improve upon it for the films high-def debut. The robust collection of supplemental material is truly impressive, featuring all of the DVD extras in addition to a brand new commentary track, “Hitchcock/Truffaut” audio interviews and a couple of featurettes.

Amazon: $17.99

1. THE EXORCIST

This incredible two disc Blu-ray edition of The Exorcist is, hands down, the finest new horror release on the format this season. Aside from the fact that the film is probably the best of the bunch on my list, the rest of the package also reigns supreme, featuring a gorgeous, hardcover digi-book, both versions of the film (original theatrical and extended cuts) and so many special features it’ll make your head spin (pun intended)! Read our previously published article for a full breakdown of the 2-disc Blu-ray set details: The Exorcist coming to Blu-ray in October.

Amazon: $25.99

ALSO NEWLY AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS HALLOWEEN
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about and purchase the Blu-ray disc:

READ MORE: Top 10 New Blu-ray Discs for Halloween 2009

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I’m going to have to get a second job. There isn’t a single title in Criterion‘s October release slate that isn’t a must-own for me. They are all films I love, most from directors I’m quite passionate about (Kurosawa, Anderson, Kubrick, Bergman.) What’s a film nut to do but offer up all of his hard earned cash to the gods of home video?

PS: See, I told you Criterion was preparing Hausu for Blu-ray disc!

Special Features:

• All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Two audio commentaries: one by film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie; the other by Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck
• A 50-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
• My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima produced by the Directors Guild of Japan
• Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, a new documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that impacted Kurosawa’s masterpiece
• Theatrical trailers and teaser
• Gallery of rare posters and behind-the scenes and production stills
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Kenneth Turan, Stuart Galbraith, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet and an interview with Toshiro Mifune

Special Features:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• New visual essay by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
• Brief 1967 video interview with director Ingmar Bergman about the film
• Rare audio interview with Bergman conducted in English by filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Stig Björkman
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoff Andrew, a reprinted essay by Assayas, and an excerpt from Bergman’s autobiography Images: My Life in Film

Special Features:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• New audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins
• Television interview from 1979 with star Kirk Douglas
• New video interviews with Kubrick’s longtime executive producer Jan Harlan, Paths of Glory producer James B. Harris, and actress Christiane Kubrick
• Excerpt from a French television program about real-life World War I executions similar to the events dramatized in Paths of Glory
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: An essay by Kubrick scholar James Naremore

Special Features:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• Constructing a House, a new video piece featuring interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, story scenarist and daughter of the director Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura
• Emotion, a 1966 experimental film by Obayashi
• New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil)
• Theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by Chuck Stephens

Special Features:

• New high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson (with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition)
• Anderson’s short film Hotel Chevalier (part one of The Darjeeling Limited), starring Natalie Portman, with commentary by Anderson
• Audio commentary featuring Anderson and cowriters Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola
• Behind-the-scenes documentary by Barry Braverman
• Anderson and filmmaker James Ivory discussing the film’s music
• Anderson’s American Express commercial
• On-set footage shot by Coppola and actor Waris Ahluwalia
• Audition footage, deleted and alternate scenes, and stills galleries
• Original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Richard Brody and original illustrations by Eric Anderson

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Studios are starting to get wise to the notion that a lot of us would buy our favourite TV shows on Blu-ray if given the opportunity. And, from the looks of things, we’re going to have a lot more choice this coming fall. I’m particularly excited to get my hands on the Human Target Blu-ray set, as it was easily the best new show of last season. I’m also looking forward to the second season of Fringe on Blu. Aside from being the best new show of the previous season, the first Blu-ray disc set looked like a million bucks in high-def!

We’ve got all the information for the two Universal titles, House: Season Six and The Office: Season Six, but the rest, all from Warner Home Video are still unofficial with loose release dates culled from Amazon pre-order pages. We’ll update the page when we learn more about them.

Special Features:

• BD-LIVE: Access the BD-Live Center through your Internet-connected player to get even more content, watch the latest trailers and more!
  • MY SCENES: Bookmark your favorite scenes from the series.
• U-CONTROL:
  • A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO DIAGNOSTIC MEDICINE: A multi-disc picture-in-picture feature.
• pocket BLU: USHE’s groundbreaking pocket BLU app uses iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Blackberry, Android, Windows and Macintosh computers to work seamlessly with a network-connected Blu-ray player and offers advanced features such as:
  • Advanced Remote Control: A sleek, elegant new way to operate your Blu-ray player. Users can navigate through menus, playback and BD-Live functions with ease.
  • Video Timeline: Users can easily bring up the video timeline, allowing them to instantly access any point in their favorite episode.
  • Mobile-To-Go: Users can unlock a selection of bonus content with their Blu-ray discs to save to their device or to stream from anywhere there’s a Wi-Fi network, enabling them to enjoy exclusive content on the go, anytime, anywhere.
  • Browse Titles: Users will have access to a complete list of pocket BLU-enabled titles available and coming to Blu-ray Hi-Def. They can view free previews and see what additional content is available to unlock on their device.
  • Keyboard: Enter data into a Blu-ray player with your device’s easy and intuitive.
• CRAZY COOL EPISODE: EPIC FAIL FEATURETTE: Features amazing visual effects from the episode “Epic Fail.”

• FEATURETTES
  • BEFORE BROKEN: AN EXCLUSIVE ORIGINAL SHORT: Featuring Hugh Laurie and shot on location with no script and no plan, experience House’s emotional journey at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital from an all-new up close and intimate perspective as originally envisioned by director/executive producer Katie Jacobs in a never-before-seen original short.
  • A DIFFERENT POV: HUGH LAURIE DIRECTS: Hugh Laurie does double duty as Dr. House and director of the episode “Lockdown.”
  • NEW FACES IN A NEW HOUSE: A discussion about the challenges and opportunities that are presented when a show must hire more than 30 new actors to perform pivotal roles in an extremely important episode.
  • A NEW HOUSE FOR HOUSE: An in-depth feature highlighting the amazing Mayfield hospital set from the two-hour season premiere episode, “Broken.”
• FEATURE COMMENTARIES
  • BROKEN COMMENTARY with director/executive producer Katie Jacobs, writer/executive producer Russel Friend & writer/executive producer Garrett Lerner.
  • 5-TO-9 COMMENTARY with series star Lisa Edelstein and writer/executive producer Thomas L. Moran.
  • WILSON COMMENTARY with series star Robert Sean Leonard and writer/supervising producer David Foster, M.D.

Special Features:

• BD-LIVE: Access the BD-LIVE Center through your Internet-connected player to get even more content, watch the latest trailers and more!
  • My Scenes: Bookmark your favorite scenes from the series.
• pocket BLU: USHE’s groundbreaking pocket BLU app uses iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Blackberry, Android, Windows and Macintosh computers and more to work seamlessly with a network-connected Blu-ray player and offers advanced features such as:
  • Advanced Remote Control: A sleek, elegant new way to operate your Blu-ray player. Users can navigate through menus, playback and BD-LIVE functions with ease.
  • Video Timeline: Users can easily bring up the video timeline, allowing them to instantly access any point in their favorite episode.
  • Mobile-To-Go: Users can unlock a selection of bonus content with their Blu-ray discs to save to their device or to stream from anywhere there’s a Wi-Fi network, enabling them to enjoy exclusive content on the go, anytime, anywhere.
  • Browse Titles: Users will have access to a complete list of pocket BLU-enabled titles available and coming to Blu-ray. They can view free previews and see what additional content is available to unlock on their device.
  • Keyboard: Enter data into a Blu-ray player with your device’s easy and intuitive keyboard.

• “Podcast” Minisode: In the exclusive version of the minisode “Podcast,” Gabe (Zach Woods) tries to impress corporate by recording a podcast for the Sabre website. However, his plans for a small meaningful, profile of Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) quickly unravel as the rest of the office forces Gabe to become the reluctant host of a late night style talk show.
• Welcome to Sabre Featurette: Full-screen version of the corporate welcome video starring Kathy Bates and Christian Slater
• Episode Commentary: Commentaries featuring the cast and crew of The Office on episodes such as “The Promotion,” “Niagara,” “The Lover,” “Murder,” “Secret Santa,” “Sabre,” “The Delivery” and “Happy Hour.”
• More than Four Hours of Deleted Scenes
• Two Extended Episodes
• Blooper Reel
• The Office Promos: Dwight’s Tribute to Canada & My Favorite Memories

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Killer lampshades. Girl-hungry grand pianos. Spooky cats with sparkling eyes. Hausu is, without question, the freakiest, most peculiar horror film ever made. And now, it seems that Criterion have gotten their mitts on it and are preparing it for home video!

It didn’t take a lot of imagination to deduce that the greatest home video label of all time would eventually end up producing Hausu. After all, the film is being released theatrically by Janus Films, who have a very close relationship with the label, as well as already being available on DVD in the UK through the Masters of Cinema label, which quite often shares releases with Criterion. My prayers for a domestic release of Hausu were answered this morning when Criterion posted this Tweet in response to a fan:

“We’re working on it… @Graygrrrl: @eliroth I hope @Criterion releases House so the rest of us can see it!“

THEY’RE WORKING ON IT!! I know, that’s not much news to cling on to at this point. But it is confirmation that they’re well on their way to producing something and that we’re that much closer to being able to see Hausu in our homes! Now all we need to do is politely write to Criterion and ensure that the film is released on Blu-ray as well as DVD, just as Cabin Fever director Eli Roth has, via his Twitter account:

“Amazing news!! Let me know how I can help promote it. “House” should be required viewing by law. Do a Blu Ray!!“

Here’s a look at the Masters of Cinema DVD release of Hausu from the UK:

Special Features:

* New digital anamorphic widescreen transfer
* Japanese with optional English subtitles
* An extensive 90-minute selection of interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, co-screenwriter Chigumi Obayashi, actress Kumiko Oba and Toho promotional executive Shoho Tomiyama
* Theatrical trailer
* A luxurious booklet, with new writing, stills, promotional material and more.

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