Shout! Factory in November

from "Let's Scare Julie" (Jud Cremata, 2019)

It's the last big release month of 2020 for the folks at Shout! Factory, with 16 titles coming out in November. The schedule has shifted a lot over the past few months, with "Event Horizon" in particular seeing its street date move multiple times. It's not a huge deal, though; there's some good stuff coming out in time for the stuffing of stockings and whatnot. Let's take a peek, shall we?

November 3

Well, I guess I'm a week late on this post, which makes me a real bum-ass. GKids has reissued a trio of their classic animation catalog on Blu-ray, a welcome return after each of these went out of print in the recent past. 2009's "The Secret of Kells", and 2010's "Chico & Rita" and "A Cat In Paris" all received Oscar noms for Best Animated Feature, and set GKids up as a strong home for progressive animation. Each of these came out under their prior distributor; "The Secret of Kells" never got a Blu-ray release in the States. While there aren't any new additions to these releases, it's great to get to revisit each of these acclaimed features without having to track down a copy in the secondary market.

Jud Cremata's debut, "Let's Scare Julie", came out in October via video-on-demand, and came out a month late via this Scream Factory release. The conceit is that a bunch of teenaged girls pull a prank on their neighbor, which has terrible results. I'm always down for a well-choreographed single-take movie, and the cast, a lot of whom we've already seen via streaming releases, makes this look like a potential fountain of new talent. With a cheap price point, this is definitely a title I'll end up getting; whether I order it now, or wait a few weeks until it's $10 or less at Walmart, is the only question.

"Misbehaviour" is one of those films that I'll see a trailer for in a 25-minute compilation on YouTube, say, "Hey, that looks like a larf!", then promptly forget about. That's not a mark of its quality; it's more an indictment of the current theatrical distribution and marketing models. Phillipa Lowthorpe's second feature, in the midst of an acclaimed career in television, looks to be the kind of film that Miramax and Lionsgate made their names on 20 years ago, and the sort that Shout! Studios is building a strong catalog out of. Set during the 1970 Miss World Pageant, "Misbehaviour" is a collision of race, gender, and culture, starring the likes of Kiera Knightly, Suki Waterhouse, and Greg Kinnear. I'm down to give it a look.

November 10

Stop: Hammer time! Here's another in Scream Factory's long series of Hammer Films reissues. This time, it's 1960's "The Brides of Dracula", the sequel to 1958's "(Horror of) Dracula", directed again by Terrance Fisher and starring Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. Yeah! This has been available as a standalone British release for years, and as part of Universal's 2016 "Hammer Horror 8-Film Collection", but has received a really nice release via Scream Factory. The print has received a 2K scan, and is viewable in both a 1.85:1 and a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. There are also new features highlighting Fisher, D.P. Jack Asher, and score composer Malcolm Williamson. Add a new commentary track, carry-over features from the earlier UK releases, and a killer cover, and this Collector's Edition is on my wishlist!

I'm definitely interested in GKids' release of the 2019 French animated feature "Marona's Fantastic Tale" ("L'extraordinaire Voyage de Marona"). Ya like dags? Well, Marona is a dog what ping-pongs from name to name and owner to owner, in a tale of blind love. This got a bit of theatrical play before COVID-19, and while the story seems a bit sad (it's all told in retrospect after MARONA WAS HIT BY A CAR!!!!), the blend of animation styles looks fantastic.

"How To Make A Monster" reads like a 50s meta-thriller; a master make-up artist is fired by the new owners of American International Pictures and creates monsters to seek revenge. It's a Arkoff/Nicholson presentation, starring Henry from "Valley Of The Dolls"! It has both a teenage werewolf AND a teenage Frankenstein! It's a B-movie freakout! You get a 2K fine grain scan, two commentary tracks, a featurette on director Herman Cohen, an interview with both teenage monsters (hopefully in character), and the trailer to the movie.

It's been a minute since there have been any "Sesame Street" releases, and, normally, yeah, you'd say "Who cares?" if you don't have kids. But these first two "Old School" releases, covering 1969 to 1974 and 1974 to 1979 should be fairly interesting to collectors who follow classic television. Each volumes has five complete season premieres, along with an archival release (the pitch film on Volume 1, the pilot episode on Volume 2). It should be of no small interest to also see the entertainers featured from those first ten seasons: everyone from Jackie Robinson to Richard Pryor to Lena Horne all make appearances over these two volumes. This is the era of "Sesame Street" I was raised on; I'm really excited to introduce my niece to this huge influence.

Colonel Glenn Manning (one of the pseudonyms I travel under) returns disfigured, brain damaged, starving, and still 70 ft. tall after falling off the Hoover Dam in "War of the Colossal Beast", the 1958 sequel to the previous year's "The Amazing Colossal Man". This quickly-assembled AIP B feature has recycled footage, a mentally disabled antagonist, and some dogshit FX. Of course it got the MST3K treatment. This Blu-ray debut gets a 2K scan, commentary from film historian C. Courtney Joyner, filmmaker Donald F. Glut and monster historian Eric Hoffman, a featurete on director Bert I. Gordon, and the alternate 16mm ending originally created for syndication. It's a bit weird to see this come out before Scream releases "The Amazing Colossal Man". But what do I know?

November 17

GKids released some really nice editions of "Weathering With You" back in September. But the Collector's Edition coming out in November looks to be the definitive version. It's a 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo, and includes Radwimps' soundtrack from the film. The set also includes a feature-length making-of documentary, a 108-page art book, a mini poster and a decal, along with all the extras that appeared on the previous GKids releases. If you've been holding off on snagging a copy, and/or have a UHD player, this is the version to buy.

One can make an argument that the definitive television version of Las Vegas appeared via the 1994 NBC Friday Night Mystery movies "MacShayne: Winner Takes All" and "MacShayne: Final Roll Of The Dice". One can make that argument, but they'd probably be wrong. You, however, can determine it for yourself, via this first-ever home video release. Starring the Gambler himself, Kenny Rogers, as a small-time hustler fresh out of the clink, these got your Nana all worked up back when you were in middle school.

These last two are releases I've actually been looking forward to. I've read a ton of good reviews of this year's "Relic", an IFC Films release that I think would have gotten a lot more publicity had COVID-19 not squashed its theatrical run. Produced by the Russo Brothers and Jake Gyllenhall, Natalie Erika James's first feature is a meditation of family and infirmity, wrapped within a haunted house story. The recaps I've read so far tell me this is a slow burn that really blows up in the third act. As with "Let's Scare Julie", I'll be keeping an eye out for an inexpensive copy of this over the next few months.

I have a ton of fond memories of "Twins" when I was a kid. I actually experienced Arnold Schwarzeneggar first in comedic roles like this; I wasn't going to get to go see "Red Heat" or "Commando", but I could go see this and "Kindergarten Cop" with my parents. It was also my first exposure to comedy legend Danny Devito, and the first time I'd seen an Ivan Reitman film. So, you know...fond memories. There are a pair of new featurettes on this Blu-ray debut, along with the theatrical trailer. But you ain't buying it for all that; you're looking for the mismatched antics of the Terminator meeting the Penguin. And this movie delivers twice as many antics as you can handle!!!

from "Brides Of Dracula" (Terence Fisher, 1960)

There are a lot of titles in November, but not a ton of must-haves. "Twins" probably tops that list for me, with the two new horror releases also ranking up there. Had I not already bought a copy, I'd probably queue up for that "Weathering For You" Collector's Edition as well. There are a few noteworthy releases coming in December: a new pair of Studio Ghibli steelbooks, Dave Franco's "The Rental", and another Kenny Rogers TV movie collection. I'm back in less than 30 to tell you all about them!