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Even Mario Bava’s succinctly titled horror “Hatchet for the Honeymoon” 54 years ago did not imagine a more vividly unpleasant entrée to wedlock than “Crumb Catcher,” Chris Skotchdopole’s feature directorial bow. In this mix of home-invasion thriller and grotesque comedy, a just-hitched young couple already on each other’s last nerves are surprised by uninvited visitors, causing the night to go from bad to very much worse. If you can withstand spending nearly two hours in the company of these grating, argumentative characters, there are rewards to be had in a skillfully wrought, twisty suspense tale that releases to limited U.S. theaters on July 19.

Introduced posing for photos immediately after their wedding, Shane (Rigo Garay) and Leah (Ella Rae Peck) do not appear to be much of a love match. He’s clearly discomfited by the high-end surroundings, which her otherwise disapproving parents apparently bankrolled; she unthinkingly “corrects” his every spoken thought.

Hey everyone! We have one last batch of horror and sci-fi home media releases headed our way before the end of the month, and this week’s offerings are massive, with well over 20 titles coming out on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD this Tuesday alone.

One of my favorite creature features ever is getting some love in HD finally, with Scream Factory’s 4K release of Lewis Teague’s Alligator (and its sequel is headed to Blu-ray this week as well), and the horror comedy Dead Heat is also getting a 4K upgrade. For all you giallo fans out there, Forgotten Gialli: Volume 3 is being released tomorrow and features three more Italian classics genre fans are going to want to own, and Severin Films is keeping busy with a ton of titles this week too: Bloody Pit of Horror, Black Candles, Night of the Demon, and The Halfway House.

Other titles...

Let’s offer up a slow clap for the slow-moving films; the ones that want you to lean in and invest a little extra time (or a lot) to get to know the characters better, or weave words and deeds into the fabric of the story to enrich the experience. Sometimes it’s just shitty editing. So it goes; but The Corruption of Chris Miller (1973), a Spanish psychothriller sucker-punched by moments of grisly grandeur, slowly turns to unveil a sordid tale of deception, trust, carnal curiosity, and the occasional striking murder. It moves with deliberation and respect for the tale.

Released at home in May and not hitting Stateside until September of ‘75, The Corruption of Chris Miller received solid reviews for the most part, with critics praising director J.A. Bardem’s (Death of a Cyclist) deft touch with the quiet moments just as much as the explosive violence. Marketed...

August’s home media offerings are wrapping up in a big way this week, and I hope you’ve got your wallets ready because there are a ton of releases that genre fans are going to want to add to their collections. Fulci fans should be excited for the arrival of both The House by the Cemetery and The New York Ripper in 4K, courtesy of Blue Underground, and Severin is having their own Fulci fiesta this week, too, with their releases of Aenigma, Demonia as well as the recent documentary Fulci for Fake.

Scream Factory also has a killer lineup of titles headed home on Tuesday, including the Collector’s Edition of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie and the Universal Horror Collection: Volume 6.

Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for August 25th include Dead Pit, The Beast Must Die, The Last Victim, Live Feed, Gemini, Hallucinations, and Alien Scum.

Read the fine print... you may have just mortgaged your life. Classic 80s horror cult movie The House by the Cemetery from The Godfather of Gore, Lucio Fulci, is getting an amazing 3-disc blu-ray release on January 21 from Blue Underground.

Catriona MacColl (The Beyond), Paolo Malco (The New York Ripped), Ania Pieroni (Tenebre), Carlo De Mejo (City of the Living Dead), and Dagmar Lassander (Hatchet for the Honeymoon) star in this outrageous Italian shocker from Lucio Fulci (Zombie). Blue Underground is now proud to present The House by the Cemetery in a new 4K restoration from the original uncut and uncensored camera negative, fully loaded with exclusive new and archival Extras!

A young family moves from their cramped New York City apartment to a spacious new home in New England. But this is no ordinary house in the country: the previous owner was the deranged Dr. Freudstein, whose monstrous human...

Special Mention: Dressed To Kill

Directed by Brian De Palma

Written by Brian De Palma

1980, USA

Genre: Thriller

Brian De Palma’s films, like Tarantino’s, are a cinematic mash-up of influences from the past, and in De Palma case he borrows heavily from Alfred Hitchcock. Obsession is De Palma’s Vertigo, Blow Out his Rear Window, and with Dressed to Kill the director set its sights on Psycho. Dressed To Kill is more thriller than horror but what a stylish and twisted thriller it is! The highlight here is an amazing ten-minute chase sequence set in an art gallery and conducted entirely without dialogue. There are a number of other well-sustained set pieces including a race in the subway system and even, yes, a gratuitous shower murder sequence. Dressed To Kill features an excellent cast (Michael Caine, Nancy Allen, Angie Dickinson), a superb score (courtesy of Pino Donaggio) and...

The hardest part about choosing my favourite horror films of all time, is deciding what stays and what goes. I started with a list that featured over 200 titles, and I think it took me more time to pick and choose between them, than it did to actually sit down and write each capsule review. In order to hold on to my sanity, I decided to not include short films, documentaries, television mini-series and animated films. I also had to draw the line at some point in deciding if certain movies should be considered horror or not. In such cases where I was split down the middle in deciding, I let IMDb be the judge for me. And in some cases, I’ve included these titles as special mentions. Long story short, I can’t include every movie I like, and I have to draw the line somewhere. With that said,...

Submit your vote for Reviewer of the Year!

Every year, the Classic Horror Film Board recognizes the best in the horror/sci-fi/fantasy realm with the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. Fans of the genre can vote for their favorites in over thirty categories, and this year, Cinelinx would like to ask you to vote for one of our own, staff writer Victor Medina, as Reviewer of the Year (Category 29)! We've even included the ballot below so you can vote!

Votes must be submitted by copying and pasting the ballot into your personal email, making your choices, including your name, and sending it in. Votes for Reviewer of the Year are write-in only, so you must be sure to include Vic's name yourself under Category 29 when you vote. Pre-filled ballots are not allowed, so we can't do it for you! Remember, you must write in "Victor Medina, Cinelinx.com" yourself.

Bava’s bizarre 1970 psychodrama Hatchet For The Honeymoon is one of his few masterworks that remains less celebrated, and that’s a shame, because it’s a triumph of style, satire and bizarre, obsessive imagery. Fangoria and Toronto’s Revue Cinema (499 Roncesvalles Avenue) will present a special screening of Hatchet Wednesday, October 24 at 9 p.m., and are honored to have as special guest for the evening revered pianist, artist and composer Stephen Forsyth, who starred as Hatchet’s murderous, mentally unbalanced lead and was a major star in Italy during the 1960s, starring in several high-profile, violent spaghetti Westerns and thrillers. Fango editor Chris Alexander will sit down with Forsyth for an in-depth discussion dissecting Bava’s unique directing approach and reflecting on those long-gone, never-forgotten days when the internationally exported genre cinema was king.

Wanna see the film and meet Mr. Forsyth for free?

To win a double pass...

Bava’s bizarre 1970 psychodrama Hatchet For The Honeymoon is one of his few masterworks that remains less celebrated, and that’s a shame, because it’s a triumph of style, satire and bizarre, obsessive imagery. Fangoria and Toronto’s Revue Cinema (499 Roncesvalles Avenue) will present a special screening of Hatchet Wednesday, October 24 at 9 p.m., and are honored to have as special guest for the evening revered pianist, artist and composer Stephen Forsyth, who starred as Hatchet’s murderous, mentally unbalanced lead and was a major star in Italy during the 1960s, starring in several high-profile, violent spaghetti Westerns and thrillers. Fango editor Chris Alexander will sit down with Forsyth for an in-depth discussion dissecting Bava’s unique directing approach and reflecting on those long-gone, never-forgotten days when the internationally exported genre cinema was king.

Wanna see the film and meet Mr. Forsyth for free?

To win a double pass...

Interviewed by Michael Juvinall, MoreHorror.com

I recently had the immense pleasure of sitting down face-to-face with the famed Italian horror director, Lamberto Bava. Bava’s films are primarily in the horror, giallo, and fantasy genres.

Bava is the son of the legendary Italian director, Mario Bava and grandson of Eugenio Bava, a special effects artist and director from the silent days of Italian cinema. He grew up on the sets of his father’s films, learning all that he could about the business. He worked for 15 years under his father as his personal assistant, assistant director, and screenwriter on such films beginning with Planet of the Vampires (1965), Kill Baby, Kill (1966), Danger: Diabolik (1968), Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970), Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), Baron Blood (1972), and Lisa and the Devil (1974).

Bava then began working with Ruggero Deodato on his infamous Jungle Holocaust (1977) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980) films, then with Dario Argento as...

Valerio Zurlini, writer-director, is someone I find a little hard to pin down: a career which contains both Girl with a Suitcase (1961), in which prostitute/aspiring actress Claudia Cardinale becomes houseguest of a teenage boy (but it's Not like Risky Business) and Desert of the Tartars (1976), an existential historical epic based on a novel which David Lean had planned to film at one point. What initially seems to unite the work is a rare seriousness: Zurlini is earnest, almost humorless, and at times despairing.

The strikingly titled Black Jesus (1968 - the Italian title translates, more subtly, as Sitting on His Right) is a good example of Zurlini's willingness to follow a story into the darkest places. It's based blatantly on the true story of Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected Congolese leader, who was deposed, tortured and assassinated under the watchful eye of the Un, and with the probable connivance of the Us and Belgium.

The term “giallo” initially referred to cheap yellow paperbacks (printed American mysteries from writers such as Agatha Christie), that were distributed in post-fascist Italy. Applied to cinema, the genre is comprised of equal parts early pulp thrillers, mystery novels, with a willingness to gleefully explore onscreen sex and violence in provocative, innovative ways. Giallos are strikingly different from American crime films: they value style and plot over characterization, and tend towards unapologetic displays of violence, sexual content, and taboo exploration. The genre is known for stylistic excess, characterized by unnatural yet intriguing lighting techniques, convoluted plots, red herrings, extended murder sequences, excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and unusual musical arrangements. Amidst the ‘creative kill’ set-pieces are thematic undercurrents along with a whodunit element, usually some sort of twist ending. Here is my list of the best giallo films – made strictly by Italian directors, so don’t expect Black Swan, Amer or...

The Tuesday before Halloween is bound to have a lot of genre titles. There are some good ones too like Attack the Block, Blue Underground releases Fulci in High-Definition with Zombie and The House by the Cemetery, also Criterion releases The Island of Lost Souls on DVD & Blu-Ray and the most talked about film of last year, A Serbian Film finally hits the shelves. Read below, if you dare, for all your DVD and Blu-Ray releases for this week and if you plan on purchasing any films through Amazon, click on the buttons provided as they help us out with paying the bills around here.

Animal Attack Two Pack (Maneaters Are Loose/ Shark Kill)

Two savage and rare TV movies in the 1970s “Animal Attack” genre that have rarely been seen since their initial release, now back in print and together at last on DVD.

Buy the DVD @ Amazon.

For the horror buff, Fall is the best time of the year. The air is crisp, the leaves are falling and a feeling of death hangs on the air. Here at Sound on Sight we have some of the biggest horror fans you can find. We are continually showcasing the best of genre cinema, so we’ve decided to put our horror knowledge and passion to the test in a horror watching contest. Each week in October, Ricky D, James Merolla and Justine Smith will post a list of the horror films they have watched. By the end of the month, the person who has seen the most films wins. Prize Tbd.

Justine Smith (11 viewings) Total of 31 viewings

Purchase

Spider Baby or The Maddest Story Ever Told

Directed by Jack Jill

This movie is very fun, not so much scary as gleefully depraved. The film revels in it’s childhood attitude,...

Now here is some news we've been waiting to hear! The wonderfully loony folks over at Blue Underground are bringing yet another Lucio Fulci classic into the world of high definition, and we've got your first look right here!

Look for The House by the Cemetery to be in stores on September 27th. Even more interesting? We also hear that Blue Underground will release Fulci's Zombie (aka Zombi 2, Zombie Flesh Eaters) to Blu-ray on October 25th. Stay tuned for more on that one soon.

From Their Website

Catriona MacColl (The Beyond), Paolo Malco (The New York Ripper), Ania Pieroni (Tenebre), Carlo De Mejo (City Of The Living Dead), and Dagmar Lassander (Hatchet For The Honeymoon) star in this outrageous Italian shocker from 'The Godfather of Gore,' Lucio Fulci (Zombie, City Of The Living Dead). Now Blue Underground proudly presents the definitive version of The House By The Cemetery...

The customer reviews of Hatchet for the Honeymoon on Netflix were wildly varied such that it dissuaded me from seeing it for a while. The difficulty being that I don't have much of a track record with Mario Bava aside from the breathtaking Black Sunday so it was hard to decide. It's not like there's an established relationship like with Dario Argento I know I will watch them all even if I have to grin and bear it through some. Having said all that I will give this film a pass but if you haven't seen Bava it is definitely not the title you should start off with. What is...