House of Horror (Archive)

Tag: Anchor Bay

  • Demons

    Demons
    Tagline: They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs.
    Released: 1985
    Starring Urbando Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, and Fiore Argento
    Directed by Lamberto Bava
    Written by Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini, and Dardano Sacchetti

    Format: DVD
    Distributed by Anchor Bay
    DVD Release Date: September 25, 2007

    Features:
    Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
    Dolby Surround 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0
    Audio Commentary with Director Lamberto Bava, Mechanical and Transformation artist Sergio Stivaletti, and journalist Loris Curci
    Behind the Scenes Footage
    Trailers

    Premise: They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs! In 1985, Italian horror masters Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava unleashed this landmark splatter shocker about a group of strangers invited to a sneak preview at a mysterious movie theater, only to be trapped inside and transformed one-by-one into carnage-crazed monsters. It’s a one-of-a-kind combination of creepy terror and relentless gore-orgy, featuring a pounding soundtrack of ‘80s metal, a throbbing score by Claudio Simonetti (SUSPIRIA), and gut-churning special effects by Sergio Stivaletti (CEMETARY MAN, PHENOMENA). This is DEMONS as you’ve never seen it before, with every blood-drenched frame now fully remastered for the ultimate in ooze-spewing, flesh-flaying, spine-ripping madness!

    Plot Breakdown: When Cheryl and her friend Kathy arrive in a subway station, they come across a mysterious man in a metal mask handing out flyers advertising the opening of a new theater. The two friends decide to visit the theater, where they sit down to a horror film along with a small group of other moviegoers. Meanwhile, a prostitute who cut herself on a metal mask hanging in the lobby goes to the bathroom to inspect her wound. Her cut festers and mutates, turning her into a ravenous demon that is able to transform others into demons with just a scratch. The demon plague spreads rapidly, forcing the desperate moviegoers to fight for their lives against a legion of hell-spawned beasts. With the help of two young men, George and Ken, Cheryl and Kathy must find a way to escape the madness before they too become hideous demons.
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  • Day of the Dead

    Day of the Dead
    Tagline: The darkest day of horror the world has ever known…
    Released: 1985
    Starring Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy, Antoine Dileo, and Sherman Howard
    Directed by George A. Romero
    Written by George A. Romero

    Format: VHS
    Distributed by Anchor Bay
    VHS Release Date: May 26, 1998

    Premise: In this third and final shocker in the legendary trilogy from writer/director George A. Romero (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD), a small group of scientists and soldiers have taken refuge in an underground missile silo where they struggle to control the flesh-eating horror that walks the earth above. But will the final battle for the future of the human race be fought among the living or have they forever unleashed the hunger of the dead? Lori Cardille, Joe Pilato, Richard Liberty and Howard Sherman star in this controversial classic with groundbreaking gore effects by Tom Savini and featuring the most intense zombie carnage ever filmed.

    If there’s one thing that rarely gets old in the horror genre, it’s zombie films. Yes, they do get over-used in movies and yes sometimes it doesn’t work out, but all of us monster-lovers and gore hounds love those undead brain-munchers just the same. While many directors have careers in depicting the undead on celluloid (and have inspired interest in plenty of today’s rookie filmmakers to take up the genre as well), the godfather and possibly the messiah of zombie films would most definitely be George A. Romero. Romero has a great selection of films, most specifically his Dead series. While the series was chock-full of hot zombie action, what really made them different from other horror flicks were the side stories of the human characters who try to survive as well as satirical stabs at our culture, such as the consequences of mass hysteria in Night of the Living Dead (1968) and consumerisim in Dawn of the Dead (1978).

    Plot Breakdown (spoilers): The third film in the series was released in 1985, Day of the Dead. While the sequel took place sometime after Dawn, Day took place on a military base possibly far far away from the city where the infamous zombie-infested mall stood. Also, in the second film the numbers of the walking undead were rising but still had a good number of humans defending themselves from it, but in this installment a rather large percentage of the United States (or possibly the whole planet) has been infected and only several soldiers and a few scientists are left to fight against them. The basic plot of the third film is that survivors of a militia and scientists are stranded and have to defend themselves from the zombies that are not only clawing at the fence that surrounds the base, but also underground, where they also capture the flesh-eating creatures for a (mad)scientist to experiment on. The mad examiner, Dr. Logan, is working on a series of experiments where he tries to contain the small percentage of humanity left in the monsters in order to find a way to not destroy the dead, but to tame them much like you would tame a dog (rather, a dead dog who might be more interested in tearing out your throat and eating it than playing fetch).
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  • Demons 2

    Demons 2
    Tagline: A film by Lamberto Bava
    Released: 1986
    Starring David Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi Tassoni, and Bobby Rhodes
    Directed by Lamberto Bava
    Written by Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava

    Format: DVD
    Distributed by Anchor Bay
    DVD Release Date: September 25, 2007

    Features:
    Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
    Dolby Surround 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0
    Audio Commentary with Director Lamberto Bava, Mechanical and Transformation artist Sergio Stivaletti, and journalist Loris Curci
    Trailers

    Premise: One year after Demons tore its way through the world’s gore-loving hearts, Italian horror maestros Dario Argento and Lambero Bava returned once again, unleashing a flood of demonic carnage upon the screen. This time, the residents of a luxury high-rise apartment building are transformed into monsters for a gut-spattered siege, complete with acid blood, cannibal kids, zombie dogs, and a birthday party gone horribly wrong. Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni (Argento’s Opera), Bobby Rhodes (Demons) and Asia Argento (in her first film role) star in this insane shock from “The Golden Age of ‘80s Italian Splatter,” now fully remastered.

    Plot Breakdown (spoilers): On the night of her birthday party, Sally is watching a horror film on TV about a group of explorers going into the walled-off forbidden zone, where the demons invaded in the first film. The explorers’ curiosity resurrects one of the demons, who then comes out of Sally’s TV to spread its own brand of demonic misery in her high-rise apartment building. Now, the residents in the building must fight for their survival against a swelling wave of blood-thirsty demons.
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  • Hatchet (Unrated Director’s Cut)

    Hatchet (Unrated Director’s Cut)
    Tagline: Old School American Horror
    Released: 2007
    Starring Joel Moore, Deon Richmond, Tamara Feldman, and Kane Hodder
    Directed by Adam Green
    Written by Adam Green

    Format: DVD
    Distributed by Anchor Bay
    DVD Release Date: December 18, 2007

    Features:
    1.78:1 Widescreen Presentation
    Dolby Surround 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0
    Feature-length audio commentary with director Adama Green, cinematographer Will Barratt, and actors Joel David Moore, Deon Richmond, and Tamara Feldman.
    The Making of Hatchet
    Meeting Victor Crowley
    Guts and Gore
    Anatomy of a Kill
    A Twisted Tale
    Gag Reel
    Theatrical Trailer

    Premise: Get ready for one of the most talked-about, red-blooded American horror movies of the past 20 years: When a group of New Orleans tourists take a cheesy haunted swamp tour, they slam face-first into the local legend of deformed madman Victor Crowley. What follows is a psycho spree of seat-jumping scares, eye- popping nudity, skull-splitting mayhem and beyond. Joel David Moore (DODGEBALL), Deon Richmond (SCREAM 3) and Mercedes McNab (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) star – along with horror icons Tony ‘Candyman’ Todd, Robert ‘Freddy Krueger’ Englund and Kane ‘Jason’ Hodder – in this screamingly funny carnage classic that Fangoria hails as “a no-hold-barred homage to the days when slasher films were at their reddest and wettest!”

    Plot Breakdown (spoilers): Ben and a group of friends are on vacation in New Orleans, enjoying the sights and sounds of Mardi Gras. Ben is in the process of trying to get over his recent breakup with his girlfriend, so he and his friend Marcus decide to go on a haunted swamp tour to get his mind off his troubles. Joining them on the tour are sleazy porn “director” Shapiro and the two girls he’s filming, mysterious loner Marybeth, husband and wife tourists Mr. and Mrs. Permatteo, and shady tour guide Shawn. The theme of their tour centers around the legend of Victory Crowley, a deformed man who suffered an accidental death at the hands of his own father. Their swamp tour is cut short when their boat sinks, stranding them in the middle of the swamp. As it turns, out the legend of Victor Crowley is very real and very dangerous. Now, they must try to escape the woods before Crowley unleashes his bloody vengeance on them all.
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