Screen Anarchy Last Minute Gift Guide 2025 Episode 3: Severin, Criterion Collection, Mutant Records, Collectibles and Collectible Packaging

Welcome to episode three of the Screen Anarchy Last Minute Gift Guide for 2025.

This episode highlights homes entertainment releases from Severin and The Criterion Collection. I like to think that the difference between this and other gift guides is I try to keep it affordable and only put things in it that personally interest me. The output of both these labels is rarely less than interesting and often essential.

I honestly don’t know how Severin keeps up their release schedule. It’s a constant deluge of rarities and forgotten gems that span genre and are often being given deserved treatment for the first time. They don’t seem to have the words bare bones in their vocabulary. Virtually everything they put out offers expert commentary, cast and crew interviews and great packaging.

First up are two box sets. The first is called High Tension and features late 80s TV output of Lamberto Bava. This box makes a great companion to the Cauldron Brivido Giallo Lamberto Bava box set covered in episode two. But unlike Brivido, High Tension offers more giallo-tinged fare.

This is the first time these films have been made available, as they were deemed too extreme for broadcast at the time. Kudos to Severin for rescuing yet another group of neglected titles. I’m slowly working my way through the set. I started with School of Fear (1999), an occult thriller that deserves renewed interest for showcasing Bava’s ability to create unnerving atmosphere.

I also managed to take in a viewing of The Prince of Terror (1989), a home invasion thriller set in the world of horror film production. It was every bit as bat-shit crazy as the disc cover claimed and I can’t wait to show it to friends. Also included are relative rarities that completists will really enjoy. Eyewitness (1989) and The Man Who Wouldn’t Die (1989) mix equal parts horror, giallo styled violence and tension. All the discs here come replete with interviews with The Prince of Terror and Eyewitness also offering audio commentaries. School of Fear also includes a CD of Simon Boswell’s excellent soundtrack. The whole thing comes packaged in a heavyweight slipcase.

It's amazing to think that all these were made in one year and right on the heels of the material covered in the Cauldron set. These are feature films. Not forty-five minute to hour long episodes. Through all his TV material Bava manages to put his atmospheric yet often tongue in cheek stamp on the final product. I haven’t always been a Lamberto Bava fan but these films and those of the Cauldron, Brividi Giallo box set have changed that for good. Time to dip into the collection for more.

I also want to recommend their recent 4K releases of Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) featuring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who. These films have always been a controversial part of the Who-verse with some hardcore fans refusing to take them into the canon because of their tone and continuity problems.

That’s a shame. The word that most typifies them is fun. One might also use the term endearing. They play almost like children’s films or like musicals with the music and embody the sort of campy high-spirited adventure that can be found in At the Earth’s Core (1976), which also featured Cushing as an eccentric scientist.

The extras on these two discs are amazing. Dr. Who and the Daleks features three separate audio commentaries. The extra disc is packed with interviews with cast and production personnel and Whovian experts. Invasion Earth features two audio commentaries and a raft of expert interviews. Taken together these two releases are like the Tardis. Their size by no means indicates the enormity within.

Next up from Severin were some films I’d never seen before. Now I recommend them heartily to you.

Any Monty Python fans in your house? Get them a copy of The Odd Job (1978). Graham Chapman plays a British middle-classman who hires someone to kill him only to discover that he very much wants to live. Oh, and did I mention it’s directed by Peter Medak? It’s way funnier than its obscurity would suggest. Tons of extras on this, including an intro by Medak and a bunch of interviews. Great forgotten gem.

I also received a copy of the obscure 50s sci-fi film, Unknown World (1951). When the term 50’s sci-fi is used, people usually jump straight to monster movies of the period. But the 1950’s started with movies about exploration, before aliens and giant monsters started stomping American towns and cities. This film is about a group of scientists who venture to below the earth’s crust to seek shelter amidst the threat of nuclear war. It’s a surprisingly serious film, nonetheless fraught with all the campiness we associate with the genre. Audio commentary and cast and expert interviews round out this most welcome addition to my 50’s sci-fi shelf.

Last up are Criterion releases. Flow (2024) won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film 2024. It deserved to. It was an indie containing almost no dialogue and manages to tell a complex, emotionally layered story with universal appeal celebrating the fragile nature of friendship and what can be accomplished through community.

Some feel Criterion has slipped in recent years when it comes to providing special features on their discs. That is most definitely not the case here. Included are three discs. One 4K containing both Flow and the director's first feature Away and two Blu-rays containing filmmaker commentary, full length animatic, interviews, making of documentary, short films and a sticker sheet. Also included is a booklet with essay.

For everyone who loves their giant Criterion Godzilla booklet the addition of a 4K Criterion release of Godzilla VS Biollante (1989) is a no brainer purchase. The film is one of the most visually spectacular of the eighties Godzilla films and it is breathtaking in 4K. Criterions presentation includes an audio commentary, an archival making of and archival featurette on the creation of Biollante and a deleted special effects, TV spots and trailers as well as a booklet with essay. The booklet also folds out into a gorgeous Biollante poster.

Of all the Criterion releases, I was most excited to get Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley (2024). Sure enough, it contains the much heralded black and white extended cut as well as the theatrical. Nightmare Alley never really got the love it should have. It is peak del Toro when taken along his other stateside work. Perfectly cast, deeply atmospheric and a marvelous companion to the original version. The term noir is thrown around a lot but this masterwork is noir through and through.

The beautiful black and white midway-themed packaging is complimented by a myriad of extras exploring the film’s themes. The theatrical and black and white extended director’s cuts each get their own 4K disc. The extended cut features del Toro commentary. Also included are del Toro introductions for each cut, a new making of documentary, interviews and an essay by crime fiction and true crime expert Sarah Weinman.

Ah, Eastern Condors (1987). This another one of those deeply personal movie memories for me. I first saw it at Fantastic Fest as part of a retrospective put on by Grady Hendrix. He warned us ahead of time that the film was hard to source for collectors. But after being completely awed by it I tracked down an international bootleg.

The film was co-directed by Sammo Hung and Raymond Chow and features spectacular action and fight sequences as well as a welcome dose of camp humor. It would be tempting to describe this film merely as fun (it is very, very, fun) but it’s also jaw dropping. Show this to any kid and see if you don’t end up fending off martial mayhem come playtime. There will be giggling!

The disc includes audio commentary, filmmaker interviews and, best of all, a live-action performance of the films set pieces from the 1987 Miss Asia Pageant. You also get a booklet essay from critic Sean Gilman.

Last up from Criterion is a film I’m watching over the holidays, Arthur Penn’s Night Moves (1975). How I haven’t seen it yet is beyond me. It is constantly brought up in conversation about the greatest paranoid thrillers of the 1970s. You hear it mentioned in the same breath as Klute (1971), and The Parallax View (1974). The fact that’s by Penn (The Miracle Worker [1962], Bonnie and Clyde [1967]), Little Big Man [1970]) and stars Gene Hackman at the height of his powers has my hopes high. You get quite a bit with this disc including an audio commentary, behind the scenes featurette and cast and crew interviews. You also get an essay by critic Mark Harris.

If you’ve followed me this far, you may as well keep going. The last part of this final episode covers collectibles and collectible home entertainment packaging. I won’t go into detail here but you can scroll through the gallery and watch the video to see me prattling on excitedly Alamo Drafthouse stuff, Mutant Records releases of Sinners (2025) and Late Night with the Devil (2024) soundtracks and about Hammer’s six-disc 4K release of The Curse of Frankenstein , Vinegar Syndrome’s unique take on The Tenant(1976) (4K), the BFI Music Box Edition of The Third Man (1949) (4K), Arrow’s Shawscope Volume 4 and Umbrella’s superb collector’s editions of Freaked (1983) (4K) and The Keep (1983) (4K).

That’s a wrap for this year. Most of this stuff can still be had last minute if you’re in a bind or wondering what to do with that Gift Card or Christmas gift cash. I wish you well.

Screen Anarchy Last Minute Gift Guide 2025 Episode 3: Severin, Criterion Collection, Mutant Records, Collectibles and Collectible Packaging

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