Did you know we aren't even halfway through our 2014 Gift Guide? Part of that is the special attention I'm paying to Scream Factory. This is part two of the multi-part series showcasing all their titles for the year. As I mention in the video, these things make amazing stocking stuffers. They're relatively cheap and if you have a horror fan in the house then odds are they will be thrilled to add them to a growing collection.
Scream Factory reminds me of when MGM launched it's Midnight Movies label. It was so much fun to collect them and watch that logo on the spine take up an increasing amount of shelf space. It was also fun to hear about a previously unavailable film making a blu-ray debut. Scream Factory is even more fun. They not only release time honored favorites. They go out of their way to find relatively obscure stuff and more often than not offer neat perks like reversible artwork and lots of special features.
This episode features a film that looms large in the career of Lance Henriksen and Stan Winston, Pumpkinhead. Winston had hoped to create his own iconic monster and Pumpkinhead has gone on to become a favorite among genre fans spawning a series of sequels (one of which, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, also makes it's blu-ray debut from Scream Factory) action figures, model kits and other paraphenalia. Also making blu-ray debuts are a pair of neglected George Romero films. The Dark Half, starring Timothy Hutton is a solid thriller based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Monkey Shines is an odd little movie that uses an image for it's poster that seems inspired by the Stephen King short story though the film itself is not based on his work. The classic Phantom of the Paradise has long been unavailable in any decent form which seems odd given it's Brian DePalma pedigree. If you've never seen it, just buy this edition. It's packed packed packed with special features Oh, and did I mention that Guillermo del Toro counts it among his very favorite films.
That's it for this episode of The Stack Holiday Gift Guide 2014. Like I said we aren't even halfway done and have barely scraped the surface of the big box sets. I've got part two of the look at Warner Home Entertainment, a few episodes covering every single release from Drafthouse Films and stuff to show you from BBC, Shout Factory!, Fox and MPI Home Entertainment.