Screen Anarchy Last Minute Gift Guide 2025 Episode 2: Shout Factory, Warner, Neon Eagle and Cauldron

Welcome to Episode two of the Screen Anarchy Last Minute Gift Guide for 2025.

 

The first episode highlighted releases from Kino. This episode covers stuff that was sent by Shout Factory, Warner Brothers, Neon Eagle and Cauldron.

 

I like to think that the difference between this and other gift guides is that I try to keep it affordable and only put things in it that personally interest me. I’m recommending what I love from the last year in home entertainment. Old school gun fu anyone? Blaxploitation? 4K upgrades or obscure Italian horror?

 

I approached Shout Factory about covering several of their Hong Kong releases for deeply personal reasons. I will never forget my first viewing of Hard Boiled (1992) in the early 90s. Besides the joy of discovering it with close friends, Hard Boiled redefined what I expected of action cinema going forward. To this day it remains my favorite John Woo film. There are stunts in it that literally defy imagination.

 

I used to haunt eBay trying to find a cheap copy of the rare Criterion Collection DVD release. I still have my Dragon Dynasty DVD signed by John Woo himself. But Shout Factory blew me out of the water with this 4K edition. The transfer is direct from the original negative. It contains three audio commentaries, two of them brand new. A special features disc that is absolutely packed and a 52-page booklet with four essays. The set comes packaged in a stunning green hardshell slipcase. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that we have John Wick because of John Woo.

 

Next up was The Killer (1989). I had purposefully avoided seeing it. Waiting years for a decent stateside release. While I had decided that I would save most my Shout Factory Hong Kong stash for an uninterrupted holiday movie marathon, I just couldn’t resist popping The Killer in early. I left my viewing in awe. John Woo does things with music, and slow-motion, here that remain unequaled in my eyes.

 

The Killer is, simply put one of the greatest of all action films. It creates pathos, poetry even as it explodes off the screen in a hail of bullets. Shout Factory duplicates the virtues of their Hard Boiled release. You get a gorgeous 4K transfer from the original negative, three audio commentaries (two of them new), a packed special edition disc and a lengthy booklet of essays. The hardshell slipcase is red and compliments the green Hard Boiled release perfectly. Merry Christmas!

 

I have managed to save the rest of Shout Factory’s Hong Kong releases for my Christmas marathon.  That means that myself and a group of friends will be getting first-time viewings of action classics City on Fire (4K) (1987), the A Better Tomorrow Trilogy (4K) (1986, 1987, 1989), Peking Opera Blues (4K) 1986) and the A Chinese Ghost Story trilogy (Blu-ray) (1987, 1990, 1991). These are all packed with new extras and commentaries, and feature film academics and noted Hong Kong cinema experts such as Grady Hendrix, James Mudge, David West and others. I’m in no way trying to give short shrift to these releases. They are every bit as exciting as The Killer and Hard Boiled. Any Hong Kong cinema fan will be overjoyed to get these under the tree

 

This next box set from Shout Factory won’t be included in my holiday marathon because it will get a marathon all on its own. I had the honor of interviewing Jet Li many years ago. But it was long after he had established himself as a martial arts legend. His early work is the stuff superlatives were invented to describe. Simply put, one of the greatest, if not the greatest martial arts actor ever. This 4K box set contains five of his best films; Fung Sai Yuk (1993), Fung Sai Yuk II (1993), Tai Chi Master (1993), The Bodyguard from Bei Jing (1994) and Fist of Legend (1994). Each film features a commentary and a second disc packed with extras. 

 

Shout Factory also sent both Blaxploitation Volume I and II 4K sets. You get 12 films. Many are classics such as Black Caesar (1973), Hell Up in Harlem (1973), Coffy (1973), Sheba Baby (1975), Truck Turner (1974), Foxy Brown ((1974), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) and Slaughter (1972). I do find the boxes a little light on extras. But the ones included are pretty good. Between Volume 1 and 2 you get a feature length look at the history of the AIP Blaxploitation cycle. All the films in Volume 1 contain at least audio commentaries and Foxy Brown on vol 2 gets a wealth of extras. 

 

Moving on, Warner Brothers has sent a slew of 4K new releases and upgrades including Weapons (2025), Conjuring 4 (2025), and The Corpse Bride (2005). For the most part, Warner 4Ks of new releases tend to be bare bones in terms of special features. You might get a few featurettes but that’s about it.

 

But when it comes to 4K upgrades, they have a wonderful habit of porting over previous special features. Both The Corpse Bride (2005) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection contain previous extensive extras, and you also get theatrical and uncut versions of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and A Nightmare on Elm Street Five: Dream Child (1989). 

 

Last are three releases from Neon Eagle and Cauldron Films. City of the Living Dead (1980) is one of Lucio Fulci’s most beloved films and is the first film in what became unofficially known as his Gates of Hell trilogy (the other two films being The Beyond (1981) and House by the Cemetery (1984). The set is comprised of three discs. One 4K disc of the film, one Blu-ray disc of the film and a Blu-ray of extras. You get a whopping four audio commentaries and a third disc containing many interviews and archival extras from previous editions. 

 

Cauldron also sent along Brividi Giallo a nifty Blu-ray box set of four Lamberto Bava films originally made for Italian TV. Lamberto may be best known for Demons (1985) but he inherited his father’s penchant for lurid Gothicism and displays it here in all its gooey glory.

 

He’s getting a good bit of love from the physical media industry stateside. This is second of two box sets of his work to hit shelves this year, the first being the High Tension box set from Severin, which also collects some of his made for Italian TV output from the late eighties. While High Tension focusses mainly on giallo-tinged fare, Cauldron’s Brivido Giallo box set offers films of a more supernatural aspect. Actual monsters abound.

 

Last night I took in Dinner with a Vampire (1989), a surprisingly funny, practical effects fest about five actors who get the callback from hell when they are invited to a famous horror director’s castle only to discover his next project is his own death. He’s a vampire looking for eternal rest and if they can’t find a way to kill him, they will be his next victims. There’s even a fun homage to Marty Feldman’s Igor from Young Frankenstein (1974).

 

Other films in the box include Graveyard Disturbance (1987), Until Death (1988) and The Ogre (1988). The packaging is first rate. Beautiful slipcase with removable band, reversible covers, a poster for every film and even a soundtrack CD of Simon Boswell’s score for Graveyard Disturbance. This plus numerous extras on each disc make this an Italian horror fan essential. 

 

My last recommendation this episode is Neon Eagle’s release of The Great Chase (1975). It’s a Japanese action film that mixes equal parts karate action with slapstick and broad humor. There’s no way I can do it justice. It seems to fit in neatly with the sort of surrealism and pop art aesthetics I associate with Black Tights Killers (1966), Tokyo Drifter (1966), and Branded to Kill (1967). It comes with a gorgeous slipcase and reversible cover, audio commentary, interview featurette and booklet with essay. 

 

My next episode will cover Severin, The Criterion Collection, and Collectibles and Collectible Packaging. Merry Christmas.