Home Video Roundup: DEATHSTALKER and More New Releases From Kino, The Criterion Collection, Warner and Made By Mutant

Dave Canfield aka The Creature Feature Preacher here to opine on all things physical media. I’ve got titles from The Criterion Collection, Warner Brothers and Kino and a very special vinyl release from Made By Mutant. It’s a rich mix of the new, the retro and the arthouse.

I’ve been waiting for Dante’s Peak to hit 4K for awhile. It has the perfect blend of kitschy earnestness and spectacular disaster effects as well as a first rate cast featuring Pierce Brosnan as the hunky volcano expert and Linda Hamilton as the hot single mom. The secondary cast isn’t bad either, featuring John Carpenter regulars Charles Callahan and Peter Jason. This has a lengthy 'making of' documentary and an audio commentary featuring director Roger Donaldson.

Dead Again (1991) finally hits 4K this month. This romantic thriller cum noir is one of those under-appreciated minor gems of the 90s. Directed by Kenneth Branaugh, the film stars his then-wife Emma Thompson as Grace, an amnesiac taken under the wing of Mike Church, a private detective played by Branaugh, bent on getting to the bottom of what’s causing her night terrors.

A friend suggests hypnosis and past life regression, sending the pair on a terrifying journey back to the 1940s and an unsolved murder. The rest of the cast is luminous, including the legendary Derek Jacobi, Andy Garcia, Derek Jacobi, Campbell Scott, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams appearing in supporting roles. The end result is a pulpy nod to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock and the perfect viewing for when a stormy night rages just outside the living room window. Included are commentaries, one with Kenneth Branagh and another with producer Lindsay Doran and screenwriter Scott Frank.

I have loved Mimic (1997) since I first saw it on theatrical release. It’s a fascinating take on science gone amuck. Part monster movie, part cautionary tale and available here in a three-disc set containing director Guillermo del Toros preferred director’s cut and the original theatrical version, both in 4K.

This is definitely an instance of the director’s cut improving on the original and it’s wonderful to see the film recovered from the relentless studio interference that hobbled del Toro’s vision in the theatrical version. The cast here is simply phenomenal and includes Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin, Charles S. Dutton, Giancarlo Giannini, F. Murray Abraham.

One cool bit of trivia is that Doug Jones played the lead mutant cockroach man that grabs Mira Sorvino off the subway platform. In fact, this film is how Jones and del Toto forged their creative partnership. This three-disc set ports over the numerous and uniformly excellent special features of the previous Blu-ray director’s cut released and adds a new audio commentary by horror cinema expert Arne Venema and cinema author Stefan Hammond on the theatrical cut.

America 3000 (1986) is an awfully fun diversion from the over-serious and unintentionally hilarious barbarian dystopia films of the 1980s. It is the year …uh…3000. The world is populated by humans and mutants but love is a thing of the past. Will men and women learn to do the things that men and women do again, or stay savagely separated and at war?! It’s an actual battle of the sexes until one intrepid man and one ferocious woman rekindle hope.

Hey, it ain't exactly Romeo and Juliet but it’s full of rubbery mutant fighting goodness, foam rubber clubs and loincloth wearing factions. 4K? Are you high? This is Blu-ray baby! You do get a new audio commentary by writer/director David Engelbach, moderated by filmmaker Douglas Hosdale and an interview with actress Laurene Landon. Landon actually has quite a genre pedigree having appeared in Roller Boogie (1979), Full Moon High (1981), Airplane II:The Sequel (1982), The Stuff (1985), Maniac Cop (1988), and Maniac Cop 2 (1990) among many others.

The Flesh and Blood Show (1972) marked the movement of director Pete Walker from crime thrillers to the outright horror that would become his trademark. Those currently waiting to see Severin’s David Gregory-directed documentary on Grand Guignol theater tradition can treat themselves to this fictional bit of gruesomeness about a group of young actors attempting to stage a new Grand Guignol style show at a theater that was shuttered after a cursed production of Othello.

One by one, Pete Walker dispatches them via decapitations, drownings, etc. Other delights include possibly psychotic squatters, naked people and 3D sequences presented in both anaglyphic red/blue and 3D TV friendly stereoscopic transfer. Glasses provided for the anaglyphic version.

Extras on the disc are especially nice and feature an audio commentary by film historians Kat Ellinger and Martyn Conterio, Flesh, Blood, and Censorship, an Interview with Pete Walker, by Elijah Drenner and interviews with actress Jenny Hanley, actor Stewart Bevan, and third assistant director Terry Madden, by James McCabe.

Steve Kostanski is that rarest of filmmakers. His name on a project virtually guarantees a great time at the movies. His contributions to the collective Astron-6 resulted in the absolutely electric batshit films Manborg (2011), Father’s Day (2011), and The Editor (2014). His solo efforts have created a universe all his own cobbled together from the genuinely horrifying essence of The Void (2016), the vulgar pre-adolescent joyousness of Psycho Goreman (2020), the hilariously muppetty yet moving grossness that is Frankie Freako (2024) and the sword and sorcery silliness of Deathstalker (2025), the remake of Deathstalker (1983). The list could go on and on. His love of practical effects has been used to pay homage to everything genre fans love and I’m never less than thrilled to hear he’s working on something new.

Deathstalker had it’s raucous premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025 and is now out on Blu-ray, courtesy of Scream Factory. It’s yet another example of how Kostanski has mastered the art of combining kitsch with characters viewers will care about and journeys that have real felt stakes. He doesn’t just create atmosphere, he tells stories. More than anything else, his love for the films that helped shape him shines.The Blu-ray contains numerous extras, including two separate audio commentary tracks.

The Criterion Collection was kind of enough to send a couple titles my way recently. Cloud (2025) by Kiyoshi Kurasawa is a tense but comic anticapitalist thriller, well worth the time, whether you are familiar with Kiyoshi’s brilliant oeuvre or not. This Blu-ray edition is pretty bare bones, featuring one interview with the famed director. But the film is a must see from this last year.

The gripping Classe tou risque (1960), starring Lino Ventura and Jean-Paul Belmondo, is a neglected and refreshingly raw French noir of the 1960s and tells the story of a gangster beset by his past after he comes out of hiding, only to discover all his old bridges have burned. Presented in 4K, special features include excerpts from Claude Sautet, ou La magie invisible, a 2003 documentary on the director by N. T. Binh and Dominique Rabourdin, an interview with Classe tous risques novelist and co-screenwriter José Giovanni and archival interview footage featuring actor Lino Ventura discussing his career. The booklet contains essays by filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier and Binh, a reprinted interview with director Claude, and a 1962 tribute by Jean-Pierre Melville.

Warner Brothers also sent 4K copies of All The President's Men (1976), this year's best picture Oscar winner One Battle After Another (2026) and Ben Hur (1959). Both Ben Hur and All The President's Men have a ton of special features, while One Battle After Another comes as a bare bones edition. All look absolutely stellar in 4K.

Lastly, Made by Mutant Records sent in their double vinyl presentation of Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. Wow! A gorgeous bi-fold cover housed in a bespoke die-cut skin slipcase. This is Alexandre Desplat's third collaboration with Guillermo del Toro; it is every bit as lush and evocative as it’s Academy Award nomination, and Gothic roots, would suggest. A grand score for a grand reimagining of the classic Frankenstein tale as one big redemptive arc. This evokes both the 1930’s-1940’s scores that formed the musical language of Frankenstein and looks ahead to the continued influence of Mary Shelley’s timeless story.

Home Video Roundup: DEATHSTALKER and More New Releases From Kino, The Criterion Collection, Warner and Made By Mutant

Around the Internet

Recent Posts

OVER YOUR DEAD BODY: Watch The Red Band Trailer For Jorma Taccone's Black Action Comedy