Going throught the list of Midnite Movies coming out tomorrow, I would appreciate any consumer guidance on what's a fave rave and what's a must to avoid. I'm familiar with a couple of the films (the EC movies, THE RETURN OF DRACULA, THE VAMPIRE), but the majority of them are films I haven't seen and in some cases, haven't heard of (MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND, MAN IN THE ATTIC - Yow!).

The Midnite Movies are (I'm leaving off THE FLY, ROTLD, and all of the Vincent Price movies...):

PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES / THE BEAST WITH 1,000,000 EYES

THE RETURN OF DRACULA / THE VAMPIRE

YONGARY / KONGA

THE BEAST WITHIN / THE BAT PEOPLE

CHOSEN SURVIVORS / THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING

A BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER / MAN IN THE ATTIC

THE FOOD OF THE GODS

TALES FROM THE CRYPT / VAULT OF HORROR

GORILLA AT LARGE / MYSTERY OF MONSTER ISLAND

DEVILS IN DARKNESS / WITCHCRAFT

THE HOUSE ON SKULL MOUNTAIN / THE MEPHISTO WALTZ

THE BURNING

SCARECROWS

Among those I've seen:

PHANTOM FROM 10, 000 LEAGUES is mostly a muddled bore.

BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES is a cheat but kinda fun, and also historically important as one of the first (or perhaps THE first) Corman directing gigs, albeit sans credit.

KONGA's junk, but amusing junk due to Michael Gough's campy, over the top performance.

I usually like Bert I Gordon movies, but FOOD OF THE GODS is vile, due in no small smart to the real life animal death scenes on view.

MYSTERY OF MONSTER ISLAND is really a kids movie, from the demented mind of Juan Piquer Simon, the man who brought the world PIECES. But unlike PIECES, it's deathly dull, and really only for Peter Cushing and/or Paul Naschy completists.

You'll find plenty of people on this board who'll sing the praises of THE BURNING for you, but I found it fairly unremarkable. I think residual, nostalgia-fueled fondness for pretty much any 80s slasher film is a prerequisite for getting anything out of it.

That covers what I'm familiar with.

I'm quite interested in the DEVILS IN DARKNESS / WITCHCRAFT and CHOSEN SURVIVORS / THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING discs mainly because the second-billed features are films I've been curious to see for quite some time and are also the work of noted Hammer veterans (Don Sharp and Terence Fisher). I've already seen both DEVILS and CHOSEN, both of which have been become likewise scarce over the years. DEVILS is a mid-60s British film that I enjoyed, and while CHOSEN is unremarkable it does boast a good cast, a terrific Fred Karlin score, and it will be great to finally see a decent print of the film.

SCARECROWS is likely going to pick up some new fans once the discs are in circulation. It is a surprisingly effective little horror film which suffered a horrible VHS transfer rendering the many dark scenes tough to watch, and that is how most viewers know it. In recent years the Canadian specialty channel Scream has been running a superior print of SCARECROWS, an enormous benefit given the fact you could now actually see what is happening in the film. A good choice for a Halloween night movie line-up.

FOOD OF THE GODS? Great poster! As for the film - you've got Marjoe Gortner, Ida Lupino, Pamela Franklin and Ralph Meeker battling giant rats, wasps, and whatnot courtesy of Bert I.Gordon. It's a throwback to the films he was making in the 1950s, and if the rumors are true a number of rats snuffed it in the course of making the movie. Gordon shot the film in British Columbia and there's a football scene at the beginning that was filmed in Empire Stadium (long since demolished) where I saw my first football game.

What si up with the menu design of Scarecrows? Seriously. Are there other Midnight Movie titles with menus like that?

TCM recently showed MAN IN THE ATTIC with (saucy) Jack Palance portraying the tittular character based on Jack the Ripper. Although a paint-by-numbers job, if you like most things Palance is in, like myself, you'll enjoy his subdued (for Palance) performance of a serial killer with Oedipal issues.

I'll be picking this one up.

THE BEAST WITH 1,000,000 EYES is pretty slow and dull, I think. And, of course, there ain't no "beast" with "1,000,000" eyes!

THE BEAST WITHIN is good fun if you're into bladder makeup effects. It belongs to that strange subgenre of early '80s movies where alien creatures rape human women (INSEMINOID, XTRO, HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP, THE INCUBUS...). It has a great genre cast and a Les Baxter score that sounds like it's from a '50s SF flick, which I think was the director's intent. THE BAT PEOPLE I've only seen on MST3K, which is where it belongs.

CHOSEN SURVIVORS was thought to be something of an obscure classic. I bet it plays much better on DVD than on the dark print I saw. Nice TV-level cast and an oddball premise. Certainly worth watching. I'm quite curious about THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING.

THE FOOD OF THE GODS is pretty entertaining in that man-this-movie-sure-is-stupid way that nearly all Bert Gordon films work. If you liked EMPIRE OF THE ANTS, you will likely enjoy this one too. As was pointed out above, if Gordon wasn't really killing rats, he sure was abusing the snot out of them. Lots of shots of rats exploding in slow-motion.

TALES FROM THE CRYPT / VAULT OF HORROR is coming from Netflix this week.

GORILLA AT LARGE is a fun, colorful, ridiculous circus mystery originally filmed in 3D with an awesome cast. It's silly, of course, but I really had a good time watching it.

THE BURNING is probably for slasher fans only. I assume this is the uncut version with all of Savini's gore effects intact. I think it's an A-level slasher, partially because of Savini's work and partially because of the cast of soon-to-be stars (Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, Ned Eisenberg, Larry Joshua).

SCARECROWS is a clever, suspenseful movie that I've enjoyed both times I've seen it. Track down a copy of DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (why isn't this on DVD?) and SCARECROW SLAYER for a spooky triple bill.

I've already received a couple of the Fox Midnite Movies discs.

CHOSEN SURVIVORS/EARTH DIES SCREAMING arrived with two copies of the EARTH DIES SCREAMING disc and no copies of the CHOSEN SURVIVORS disc. I personally don't care, but that might bother others.

WITCHCRAFT has the credits matted at 1:66-1, then presents the film full-frame.

DEVILS OF DARKNESS is presented at about 1:85-1. The packaging claims that it is 2:35-1 (it isn't), and claims that the running time is 124 minutes (it isn't, it's about 88 minutes or so).

The rats in Food of the Gods are being hit by blood squibs/pellets not real bullets. If you slow motion the picture you can see these squibs splatting into the rats - a couple of them even fall off as the rats are thrown back by their impact.

Yeah, have there been any reviews confirming these are both the unrated versions?

Food of the Gods vile? Hold on there partner – I don’t think Mr. Skinner would approve of that! F.O.T.G. (as the Skinners immediately took to writing on their jars) is a long time favorite of mine, going all the way back to its hallowed place in ‘nature runs amok’ week on NY’s 4:30 movie (right alongside Empire of the Ants and stuff with bees). I actually think this is BIG’s finest hour as a filmmaker – with the exception of some dodgy wasp effects, the rest of the show has some amazingly effective ‘giant’ visuals, mostly involving the rats. Bert must have actually shelled out some real money for the fake rat heads, because they look damn good – particularly after taking his track record into account. Look at the attack on Mr. Skinner in the red VW; it’s a very suspenseful scene, with wonderful matching between shots of real rats attacking a toy and fake rat heads going after the actor. The cast is also pure gold, with Ralph Meeker at his most wonderfully loathsome. All this, and Marjoe!

Notice please that I’m avoiding the animal abuse issue entirely. I usually despise any violence towards animals being depicted onscreen, faked or not, but for some reason it just doesn’t bother me in this case.

Well, I posted specs on my site for the disc in terms of running times, if that is any help.

http://hkfilmnews.blogspot.com/2007/09/cel...ox-and-mgm.html

We're getting some review copies so if you tell me what to check for I'll make sure to see if its cut or not.

Thanks Ian. I just found a review at Fango for THE BURNING and SCARECROWS and it confirms they are both the uncut versions.

http://www.fangoria.com/ghastly_review.php?id=4941

I remember seeing FOOD OF THE GODS and EMPIRE OF THE ANTS on a double bill back in the day. Both had pretty cheesy effects for the era; they wouldn't have looked so bad in b&w in the 1950s or on TV, but in color on the big screen in the 70s, the audience laughed. I remember liking EMPIRE more because it was less depressing and had a more attractive cast--I was a big fan of Joan Collins and Robert Lansing. And it was a blast to see old character actor Tom Fadden (one of Eddie Mars' thugs in THE BIG SLEEP) turn up as a farmer. In FOOD, Marjoe creeped me out and it was sad to see one of my favorite actresses, Ida Lupino, looking so uncomfortable and unattractive. And Ralph Meeker looked and sounded like he was drunk.

Cool, thats great to hear. I have to say the covers are really nicely done and really got me interested in checking these flicks out. Though it seems Scarecrows was done by a fan of the blind dead series (nothing wrong with that). :)

I found none of these today at Best Buy. Nice going, BB!

I found WITCHCRAFT, THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, and WITCHFINDER GENERAL today in my mailbox. Nice going, NetFlix & Deep Discount DVD! ;)

And I found the Classic Sci-Fi Set Vol. 2 at Best Buy today (Manhattan, 5th and 44th). Haven't browsed it yet but the box says THE LAND UNKNOWN is 2.35 and CULT OF THE COBRA and THE LEECH WOMAN are 1.85 (all anamorphically enhanced). Look for copies under New Releases and Sci-Fi (under C, for Classic).

But no Midnite Movies or FLY set there. I know BB wants to get people in the store to buy their box but surely they'd stop and pick up a few more, too; otherwise, it's right back to Amazon or DDD. (Other NY Best Buys with more retail space for DVDs might have them, of course.)

I believe Dark Night of the Scarecrow is now owned by WB. I too have been wanting to see a DVD for some time now. There was a VHS release from Key Video in the mid-80s.

I went by one of our local Best Buy stores today and I didn't see any of these titles -- at least those I was looking to buy. Scanning their website you can special order the discs but seemingly none of them, including SCARECROWS, TALES FROM THE CRYPT/VAULT OF HORROR and THE BURNING, are being carried on the shelves of any of their stores.

Wow. I knew it was getting bad in there but I didn't expect this type of exclusion.

BeAst WisheS -- L

Mother of Mercy, I didn't realize GORILLA AT LARGE was in the line up! If you like gorilla murder movies, this one is great. Has any gorilla-murder picture had such a cast?: Cameron Mitchell, Anne Bancroft, Raymond Burr and Lee Marvin ... and George "Ro-Man" Barrows as the gorilla! And it ws shot at an amusement park, if you're one whose heart palpatates at old skool fun park footage. I don't think it's been on video at all before.

What the hey IS MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND? It's not that Terence Stamp dinosaur movie, is it? If so: it is boring.

Yeah, same here. Frankly, I've been finding Best Buy pretty useless of late.

I work at a bookstore with a music/DVD department, so with my discount, these MGM titles will likely be less than what Best Buy charges, and I should have the ones I want by the end of the week. My orders of FROM BEYOND and THE CURSE/CURSE II: THE BITE (I know, those two are garbage, but they're guilty pleasures, especially CURSE II--where else can you find Jamie Farr slumming in a radioactive snake movie produced by Ovidio G. Assonitis?) arrived today, with THE BURNING, WITCHFINDER GENERAL, and TALES FROM THE CRYPT/VAULT OF HORROR forthcoming, probably tomorrow or Thursday.

But yeah, back to Marty's point. For releases like these from MGM, I don't even bother with Best Buy anymore, which is a shame, since they used to have a great selection. In a way, I can see that DVDs are basically loss leaders and Best Buy really doesn't make anything from them, and I appreciate that they DO have a business to run. That said, I'm just saying...their selection pretty much blows.

Yep, which is why AMAZON and DEEPDISCOUNT have been getting about 99.9% of my DVD buying business of late.

Today I received these from DEEP DISCOUNT:

WITCHFINDER GENERAL
THE RETURN OF DRACULA / THE VAMPIRE
PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES / BEAST WITH 1,000,000 EYES
YONGARY / KONGA
THE BEAST WITHIN / THE BAT PEOPLE
TALES FROM THE CRYPT / VAULT OF HORROR
DEVILS OF DARKNESS / WITCHCRAFT
BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER / MAN IN THE ATTIC
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (NEW RELEASE)
GORILLA AT LARGE / MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND
FROM BEYOND
and... as an added, unexpected bonus, there was an extra copy of the YONGARY / KONGA double-feature in the package, too, free o' charge! Thanks DEEP DISCOUNT DVD!

The rest of the bunch, SCARECROWS, CURSE 1&2, etc. are coming from AMAZON in the next few days, I imagine.

FYE is getting most of these, apparently (the only title I picked up was CHOSEN SURVIVORS/ EARTH DIES SCREAMING), and right now they have a 3 for 2 sale so it comes out to 10 each, not so bad...

What is with the awful menus on SCARECROWS and WITCHFINDER GENERAL? They have a generic haunted house on the hill and the poster in a frame on the left along with menu options. THE BURNING's menus are different but still not very attractive. It looks like it was designed for some serial killer movie with the typewriter font.

. . . well, I do not know if it is "that Terence Stamp dinosaur movie", but he is in this one, along with Peter Cushing - it appears to be about " . . . a mysterious, uncharted island populated by terrifying creatures and gold-digging bandits" . . . makes no reference to being "boring" . . .

Eh... probably something else then. ;)

. . . another item of interest about MAN IN THE ATTIC (1954) - aside from the fact I saw it as a kid and it has sort of stuck with me for 50 plus years - is the fact it is a remake of John Brahm's THE LODGER (1944), in which Laird Cregar plays the sort of Jack The Ripper character, which was itself a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's THE LODGER (1926/1932) . . . we will finally get the Brahm movie on October 9th, as it is one of the three Brahm films that make up the FOX HORROR CLASSICS release - the others being HANOVER SQUARE (1945) and THE UNDYING MONSTER (1942) . . . It is sometimes fun to look at various versions of the same story, particularly when each of them is well made and/or (probably the case with MAN IN THE ATTIC) has an interesting actor in the lead . . .

Bob, I got mine from the same store. Clerk, said I kid you not that I got the last one.

I also have a story about about how to get most of the new MMs for 8.49!
http://hkfilmnews.blogspot.com/2007/09/get...es-for-849.html

A posted review on Amazon says that the MGM DVD of WITCHFINDER GENERAL is missing the extra violent and sexy bits found in the international version on the UK DVD. Pity, as the ancient laserdisc contained all this stuff in quality that matched the surrounding footage. Don't get rid of your UK DVDs, folks...

Jeff,

That was intentional as the director didn't like the violence and nudity. Weirdo I know. :) This was intended to represent the Directors Cut of the film before AIP redid it.

Here is some more info
http://p075.ezboard.com/fmonsterkidclassic...icID=1240.topic

Fixed some of the links that didn't display right
http://hkfilmnews.blogspot.com/2007/09/get...es-for-849.html

Interesting, Ian; I was there around 2:30pm. Traffic must have really picked up by rush hour. I hope they're with Albert Dekker fans like us and not on eBay. :)

Back to Midnite Movies: Is there anyone out there who buys all of them? Even the ones that I draw the line at?

Yeah, it was nuts, they were actually closing at 7:30 because 50 cents was doing an in store promotion (I arrived at 6ish). The thought of all those potential fans in the are was a really cool thought I had when I got the title. much better than the ebay one. :)

True, the director didn't like the nudity (which was filmed by someone else), but the violence was all his. The violence should be intact in this director's cut MGM disc.

The extra nudity in the "Continental" print of Witchfinder General consists of alternate takes of existing shots where the actresses are more conservatively clothed in the UK version (or not present at all in one example). They all occur in the tavern scenes involving Vincent Price and Robert Russell.

There is no extra violence in this version and Hilary Dwyer's brief topless shots are in both versions.

The MGM release is the uncut version of the original British cinema release.

Tim Lucas blogged about WITCHFINDER over at VideoWatchblog..it's well worth a looksie.
The nudity was not part of Reeve's vision and is not included. Many wish it were in there as an axtra, along with the AIP opening and closing bits that were unique to their edit.
As to the violence, it is all there and more. Tim notes and provides grabs of 2 violent bits not found in all previous US releases.
Don't belive Amazon reviews...me, I always side with the Watchdog!

The original British cinema release was hacked, so this may be more of a true director's cut.

WhiteBoysaidwhat?

As I've pointed out to Tim before, the old laserdisc included at least some of the extra witch-torture, namely the extended burning bit represented in his framegrab, and I'm pretty sure that all of it was present, actually. I am glad to hear that the violence is intact and the score is restored. However, this release is still compromised by cropping apparently, which Tim neglects to mention in his write-up. Why the hell wouldn't they letterbox the whole thing, instead of just the credits? Way to set the standard of video transfers back about 20 years...

I'm a bit better-disposed to the transfer than Tim is (not to say he's not pleased with it overall).

It's timed a hair bright, perhaps, and *maybe* a llittle warmly-colored, but not by much, and I wouldn't go so far as to adjust display settings to compensate.

There's no resultant degradation to the image here, unlike the oversaturation in say, THE CANDY SNATCHERS or THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA (sorry Subversive). Those transfers look artificial to me, whereas WITCHFINDER looks *very* film-like, and not inconsistent with my experience with it at Film Forum years ago in 35mm. Spot-checking against the previous PAL Metrodome disc reveals a slightly colder timing there, but again - not by much. And the new transfer is much more detailed.

I think the new release presents an accurate reflection of the original photography.

You're confusing WITCHFINDER GENERAL with WITCHCRAFT. I watched the former last night and it's definitely 16:9 throughout (though the clips from the film shown during the documentary are 1.33:1).