Cinefantastique Online

Not many exciting horror, fantasy, or science fiction titles blasting their way onto home video on Tuesday, March 9. The one high-profile theatrical release is PLANET 51, an animated science fiction comedy in which the usual alien arrival scenario is reversed – with the human astronaut seen as a scary invader. Cinefantastique’s John T. Stanhope gave the film a weak review when it played in theatres; now it arrives on DVD and Blu-ray.

EVANGELION: 1.11 YOU ARE NOT ALONE also arrives hits store shelves in DVD and Blu-ray format. This is the latest iteration of the popular franchise, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION.

After that, it’s just a few re-releases of public domain titles that seem to come out every six months in some new packaging or in a slightly different combination. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and CARNIVAL OF SOULS appear in something called the Cinema Insomnia Slime Line series, hosted by someone calling himself “Mr. Lobo” – whoever he is. I’m hoping the “Slime Line” refers to some green goo that is actually part of the packaging.

And finally there is a new box set called Undead: The Vampire Collection 20 Movie Pack, which includes NOSFERATU, THE BAT (both the silent version and a ’50s remake with Vincent Price), COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE (with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, also known as THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA), THE DEVIL BAT (with Bela Lugosi), HORROR EXPRESS (with Lee and Cushing together again), LAST MAN ON EARTH (with Price again), NIGHTMARE CASTLE (with Barbara Steele), THE VAMPIRE BAT, THE VAMPIRE HAPPENING, and TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE (with Steele again), plus some other assorted Euro-trash titles. Two points are worth making about this set: (1) Many of the films, despite their titles, are not about vampires; (2) Why would anyone buy this box set when pretty much all of the titles are already available on similar box sets – and not only that, being largely in the public domain, many of them are available for free streaming viewing on the Internet.