BLU-RAY/DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

• “The Lighthouse: A Dark & Stormy Tale” Featurette
• Audio Commentary with Co-Writer & Director Robert Eggers
• Deleted Scenes

THE LIGHTHOUSE stars Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Willem Dafoe (1986, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Platoon; 2000, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Shadow of the Vampire; 2017, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, The Florida Project; 2018, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, At Eternity’s Gate) and Robert Pattinson in a pair of Oscar-worthy performances.

Executive produced by Academy Award nominee Arnon Milchan (1997, Best Picture, L.A. Confidential; 2015, Best Picture, The Revenant) and Academy Award nominee Michael Schaefer (2015, Best Picture, The Martian), THE LIGHTHOUSE is poised to one of the year’s best films. Special Features include an audio commentary with the co-writer & director Robert Eggers, deleted scenes, and more. THE LIGHTHOUSE will be available on Blu-ray plus Digital and DVD for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.

THE LIGHTHOUSE arrives on Digital December 20, On Demand January 7, and on Blu-ray (plus Digital) and DVD January 7 from Lionsgate.

Creepy Co. Spooky Throw Blankets

On Sale At – Creepy Company

A great Horror gift idea and a perfect excuse to curl up with the horror lover in your life under these hellishly comfortable fleece blankets from the fine folks at Creepy Co. An ultra high-quality print of the cover art for R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps classic “The Haunted Mask”, Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD (pictured), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the original Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark would already be a great horror gift idea, but having that print on a warm and fuzzy blanket just in time for winter? Count us in! PS: Whatever print you pick, we can confirm thorough extensive scientific / cat related testing these are a perfect addition to any bedroom or home theatre.

NECA Action Figures

On Sale At – Amazon

NECA continues to bring the best in b-movie and horror icons to life with their range fully posable 8″ figures. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with Herbert West from Re-Animator, become your own Dr. Loomis with a Killer Michael Meyers set or build your own “David Cronenberg Cinematic Universe” with a ghoulish Dr. Decker recreation from Clive Barker’s creature-feature classic “Nightbreed“? For the casual fan or dedicated collector this is always a great horror gift idea. These figures aren’t cheap bootlegs or movie cash-ins: NECA brings great build quality across the board and they’re easily available from Amazon or your local Comic retailer… but hurry, sine NECA figures are a sure fire hit for any horror nerd in your life, they tend to sell out FAST around the holidays!

Retro-A-Go-Go Vac-Tastic Wall Art

On Sale At – Retro-A-Go-Go

From our personal Favourite MARS ATTACKS (Pictured) to classics like The Munsters, The Creature From The Blue Lagoon and everyone’s favourite cable-tv vixen Elivra, Retro-A-Go-Go delivers kitschy, kooky fun for your spooky decor needs with their Vac-Tastic plastic wall art. Full colour and in eye popping 3D, these are ridiculously goofy fun and a great, lighthearted horror gift idea for any room in your house .. and surprisingly affordable given their impressive size.

Darcy The Mail Girl T-Shirt

On Sale At – Fright Rags

Our #1 Ho-rorr crush Diana Prince has been immortalized on her own officially licensed t-shirt from the fine folks at Fright Rags! Any true “The Last Drive In” Mutant would be happy to wear the iconic Darcy the mail girl, drawn in a super cute classic pin-up style, and show their undying support for Joe Bob and the drive-in traditions of blood, breasts and beasts! For other great horror gift ideas, dive into their site: since each style is limited you’ll be able to get something uniquely special for your special someone.

Horror Decor Candles

On Sale At – Horror Decor

From the seasonally scented Krampus candle to the more summery aromas of “Camp Crystal Lake” and our Screamish staff favourite, the beeswax based “Buffalo Bill’s Skin Lotion” wax candle, Horror Decor has a ton of cheeky choices perfect for the lair any horror fan. Going strong since 2007, be sure to take a look at the rest of the great horror gift ideas in Horror Decor’s online store, from Blockbuster pot-holders to Chop-Top plushies for the Tobe Hooper fan in your life.

Salem’s Lott Hot Sauces

On Sale At – Hot Sauce Unlimited

Hand crafted in Canada by former musician and hot-sauce afficiando Jeff Salem, we’re 100% addicted to his hot sauces after discovering them at Rue Morgue’s Spooky Flea Market last year on the hunt for more horror gift ideas. Baring the grisly visages from some classic horror icons, these super flavourful and wickedly spiced hot sauces add a punch to anything without resulting in death or dismemberment, and can be shipped anywhere in the world. We highly recommend “Be Careful” and the new “Shroom Of Doom” to have your own Hot One’s style showdown.

Dumbgood Goosebumps Collection

On Sale At – Dumbgood

Rep some inner 90s nostalgia with this super slick lime green goosebumps puffer jacket and help the Horror lover in your life find their own Killer style. Dumbgood has been coming with seriously inspired throwback looks this year and their entire line of Goosebumps and Blockbuster themed clothing are perfect horror gift ideas with an extra splash of style.

Bootleg VHS Enamel Pins

On Sale At – Bootleg VHS Goods

Enjoy a little wayback playback with these dope enamel pins that harken to the days of badly dubbed cassettes being traded between friends. From our personal favourites like Hellraiser and Videodrome (pictured) to Sci-Fi and 80s Teen Comedy Classics, Bootleg VHS has something for every movie fan to find a home for on their own super sweet jacket.

Beastwreck CTHUL-AID Hoodie

On Sale At – Beastwreck

One of our favourite illustrators working out there, Beastwreck has another perfect Horror gift idea for the H.P. Lovecraft fan in your life with their ultra-comfortable and low-key hilarious CTHUL-AID hoodie. Enjoy a refreshing beverage as you flee in terror from the hideous elder gods and stay warm all winter to boot in a classic zippered hoodie!

H. H. HOLMES MURDER CASTLE PRINT

On Sale At – Holly Carden

A classy way to let people know you’re a sick and twisted individual, this incredible cut-away print of notorious World’s Fair serial murder H.H. Holmes from artist Holly Harden offers a “the way things work” style guide to his murder castle that’s a perfect horror gift idea equally suited for any true crime fanatic or history buff. See each of his ghastly traps in an adorable illustration printed on archival paper in a super cutes 12x12in size you can handily frame.

Profondo Rosso – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

On Sale At – Mondo Tees

A great horror gift idea equally suited to vinyl junkies or cinephile alike, this absolutely gorgeous double LP from Death Waltz is a stunning remaster of Goblin’s seminal score to Giallo master Dario Argento’s untouchable classic Profundo Rosso (Deep Red). Printed on heavyweight 180 gram vinyl and packaged in a beautiful gatefold sleeve, this is some serious collector business sure to please even the harshest critics and provide a much better holiday soundtrack than whatever Michael Buble might be singing.

Subscription To SHUDDER

On Sale At – Shudder

If you’re a last minute shopper and need a guaranteed great horror gift idea for someone in your life, don’t forget that you can pre-pay for a year of AMC’s amazing SHUDDER steaming service and turn over the login to your friend or loved one. With hundreds of movies and shows to choose from, Shudder is a no-brainer for any horror fan to have, and who doesn’t love being able to have a year of guaranteed blood and guts to come home to?

Literally ANYTHING from Vinegar Syndrome

On Sale At – Vinegar Syndrome

Restoration experts and exploitation archivists Vinegar Syndrome are amongst the very best when it comes to unearthing forgotten films and returning then to all their horrible glory. With a deep library of Horror gift ideas to choose from, like the classic Mutant-Cat-On-A-Cruise-Ship mayhem of “Uninvited” and the late, great Rowdy Roddy Piper’s “Hell Comes To Frogtown” to actually good classics like Mausoleum and the original Amityville Horror, Vinegar Syndrome offers up rarities that any movie fan will fiend for.  With in-house 4k restorations, endless extra features and always incredible box art, these are great additions to any collection. Beyond horror, their drive-in era and exploitation movie selections run deep, with truly bizarre, amazing and otherwise obscure oddities galore, so there is literally nothing you couldn’t choose that won’t make somebody happy.

“It’s the perfect place for my collection!” Exclaimed Kirk in an interview with NOW. “Being inside is more like being on the set of The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. German expressionism all the way! Or H.P Lovecraft, in the Cthulhu mythos, the elder gods’ living areas were made out of angels and planes that were not meant for human existence”.

Current director and CEO Josh Basseches is hoping to “transform people’s lives by helping them understand the past, make sense of the present and shape a shared future” Which is a fantastic mission to stand behind, all the while curating and programming more modern and relevant exhibits like IT’S ALIVE. “If you look at the history of these posters, and the movies they represent, you can track what issues were causing anxiety and fear throughout the 20^th century”. This collection, like Josh says is full of dread, terror and a historical timeline of not only horror but styles of lithography, typography and art. Oh …and some fucking insane guitars from Hammett’s personal collection, displayed beautifully.

Basseches found an ideal partner in Hammett, who famously paid over $1 million USD for Frank Frazzetta’s Conan The Conqueror book cover art, has been preaching the horror lithography gospel for years. Taking a once dead art and bestowing it cultural and commercial value and significance. No one would point to a Frankenstien poster and say, ‘That’s going to sell for $25,000. Lo and behold, that’s a cheap price now,” Hammett laughed while sitting down with NOW.

Combining high horror art and a classic natural art history museum is a match made in heaven, because it opens the sometimes-stuffy reputation of museums to a more pop culture savy clientele that museums strive for. Organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. IT’S ALIVE is one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of classic horror and sci-fi movie posters. Exploring the connection between artistry, emotion and popular culture through a selection of incredible works from 20^th century cinema.

IT’S ALIVE was curated in a beautiful way that acts as a time capsule and walk through yesteryear – to discover exactly what were the collective fears in past eras. Whether it was the breakthrough scientific discoveries, fear of nuclear war with the Soviet Union post-WWII or the rise of women’s rights in the 60s, Horror and sci-fi always shine a spotlight on society itself, it just replaces politicians and people with demons, ghosts and goblins.

Take a little peak at some of the incredible works of art below. And please visit this exhibition before it’s gone January 5^th, 2020 at the Royal Ontario Museum.

“Being inside is more like being on the set of The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari.” – Kirk Hammett

The third movie of Carpenter’s loose Apocalypse Trilogy (Which includes “Prince Of Darkness” and “The Thing”), ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ starts with cynical, skeptical insurance agent John Trent (played by the always amazing Sam Neill) who we meet after being committed to an asylum, proclaiming not to be crazy. He is then introduced to Dr. Wrenn (David Warner in a great little cameo, one of many memorable character actors who pop up throughout) who hears Trent’s story about the events that led to his current situation. Unfolding in an extended flashback, Trent’s been hired to find Svengali-like novelist Jürgen Prochnow as Sutter Cane , currently the #1 Horror writer in the world, who’s disappeared along with his latest manuscript. His publisher, Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston!) at Arcane Publishing (one of many fun Lovecraft references peppered throughout the film) wants to know if it’s a hoax to build publicity, or if their golden goose really has flown the coup, which is strange because Trent’s just been attacked in broad daylight by an axe-wielding ghoul spewing those immortal words: “Do you read Sutter Cane?”. The publisher assigns Cane’s editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), to accompany him. Linda explains that Cane’s stories have been known to cause disorientation, memory loss and paranoia in “less stable readers”, and that the man who attacked Trent earlier was Cane’s agent.

As his waking dreams become increasingly horrifying, Trent notices that lines hidden on Cane’s book’s covers form the outline of New Hampshire and mark a location alluded to be Hobb’s End, the fictional setting for many of Cane’s works. They set out to find the town. Linda experiences bizarre phenomena in a surreal, Lynchian sequence during the late night drive, and they suddenly arrive at Hobb’s End in daylight. Trent and Linda search the small town, encountering deformed people and bizarre landmarks believed to be as fictional as Cane’s novels. Here the film suffers it’s only, and brief, lag in action, as the two detectives puzzle through the clues Cane’s left behind. Quickly though, ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ shifts gears again into the final act’s fever dream of 4th-wall breaking, tentacled monstered madness, with far too many twists to go any further in revealing the plot if you’re one of the few who’ve not yet seen it.

One of Carpenter’s most technically impressive films, the effects from KNB (including Evil Dead’s / Creepshow’s Greg Nicotero) are amongst some of the last great practical puppets put to film, buttressed against some, at the time, impressive work from Industrial Light & Magic, and of course, we get another synth-soaked Carpenter score for the film, including his wildly goofy heavy-metal intro that ..somehow.. works perfectly to set the film’s tone. Shot in Toronto by longtime collaborator Gary B. Kibbe (who shot Big Trouble In Little China & They Live!), the film oozes that John Carpenter aesthetic in its excellent use of lighting, shadow and location, while simultaneously keeping the “fictional” feel of ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ story intact, making great use of local landmarks and clever set dressing in the apocalyptic final act. By bringing together two major influences in style under one story, Carpenter left a lasting legacy with one of his final great Horror films.

‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ is not perfect, but it is very, very close, and if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s really no excuse. Available on a fantastic Blu-Ray re-release from late last year, as well as on Shudder, you can check out the trailer below to put you in the mood for madness.

The opening finds two terrified kids fleeing a rural Canadian farm house in the desolate night, chased by two burly men. The girl never makes it past the lawn, as the duo hand her a nasty, fiery fate. The boy manages to escape into the surrounding forest. He’s soon spotted by the side of the road by local cop Carter (Aaron Poole), who at first assumes James (Evan Stern) is just a drunk kid, but soon realizes he requires serious medical attention. Unfortunately, the only nearby Hospital is barely open, with a skeleton crew packing things up for a move to a new building in the wake of a fire. In addition to the soon-retiring Dr. Powell (Twin Peaks own Kenneth Walsh in a literally jaw dropping turn), there’s Carters estranged wife (Kathleen Munroe) and a few doleful patients, including a nearly-due pregnant teen (Grace Munro).

But these things often happen in the world of Horror, and The Void is no exception: the hospital is soon surrounded by silent, hooded cultists with very sharp knives…and then things get REALLY weird. After a violent psychotic eye-gouging and a few creature mutations, it’s clear something is afoot within the Hospital itself, and the intro’s apparently homicidal duo (Daniel Fathers, Mik Byskov) return. It turns out are they actually trying to stop further outbreaks of transmutation, and as our characters descend into the Hospital’s depths to escape the encroaching evils outside, they discover Dr. Powell has been “playing God,” as well as defying death and nature, with nightmarish “experiments” that have opened a portal (The Void, If you will) into another dimension.

These sequences are the The Void’s absolute best parts: a mix of sci-fi mystical horror and Hellraiser-esque gore that keep us locked in step with the ever accelerating ways Gillespie and Kostanski showcase their film-making skills — which include prosthetic makeup and digital FX design, art direction, even the sound design and music. A dizzying, dark and disturbing film made on a minuscule budget, The Void shines as it’s own unique take on Body Horror, while also being clearly crafted by true Horror lovers. The deeply hued, hushed palate of Cinematographer Samy Inayeh’s widescreen framing recalls classic John Carpenter, the creature designs are inspired and Kenneth Walsh creates in Dr. Powell a truly memorable and malevolent villain that would make Lovecraft himself proud. We can happily overlook the clunky acting of some of the leads and the sometimes confusing timelines and instead lose ourselves in the metaphysical mayhem these indie filmmakers have delivered.

Check the trailer below, this one is available to stream on Shudder, and we highly recommend The Void for a night of otherworldly gore during spooky season!

But wait! Here comes B-movie icons Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, Chopping Mall) and Ken Foree (Dawn Of The Dead) to the rescue, with evidence that something more than murder is afoot at Pretorious’s spooky farmhouse. Once there, they reboot the resonator and all kinds of funny business abounds, with Tillinghast slowly turning into a mutated albino,, Crampton’s prim Dr. McMichaels transforming into a raging Dominatrix, and RIVERS of gooey gore flowing freely. In fact, there’s SO MUCH gore, it ran afoul of the MPAA rating board, which initially refused to give From Beyond an “R” rating because of it, giving it a dreaded ‘X’ rating. Gordon cut 5 minutes (which are included in a recent Blu-Ray remaster from Shout Factory), but don’t worry, there’s still plenty of mutant sex, violence and cosmic rays to please any fan of Eldritch horrors.

To keep costs down, Gordon shot From Beyond in Italy (where he later filmed Castle Freak) at a studio called Dinocitta. He estimated that the movie may have cost around $15 million to make if he had worked in the States, filming it abroad kept the budget down to only $3 Million. Even with the b-movie price tag, and with Re-Animator already an underground hit, From Beyond still ran out of money, and the rushed ending shows, one of the films only let downs.

However, As he did with Re-Animator, Gordon took cryptic, threadbare stories from HP Lovecraft’s deepest catalog, ones that only featured hints of the cosmic horrors within (nothing in the original is as explicit and Lovecraft’s descriptions of Cthuhlu, Yog Sogoth and other Eldritch OG’s), and turned it into a sex-soaked, superbly surreal, gloriously gruesome, psychedelic nightmare. You can catch From Beyond streaming, as always, on Shudder.

From the moment Spectrevision announced Color Out Of Space, I was skeptical but equal parts excited to harshly observe and judge Richard Stanley’s return to the big screen. And he did not disappoint. Tentacle memes and evil creatures aside, Stanely understands the real horror behind Lovecraft’s master storytelling style is not just about good vs evil more so an evil you cannot escape, understand or even describe. Both Lovecraft and Stanley perfectly encapsulate how insignificant humanity is in the broader spectrum of the cosmos, and how utterly terrifying and unforgiving that can be.

Color Out Of Space isn’t a page for page adaptation of Lovecraft’s legendary short story, however.  From the original (about an idyllic homestead in the 1900’s torn to bits by an otherworldly illness  in the form of a meteorite) Stanley has cleverly adapted the setting into modern day which added another element of modern cosmic dread, while avoiding shitty flickering lights and no cell service 21^st century horror tropes.

What affected me so deeply about this story when reading the short and again seeing this incredible film, was how perfectly Stanley showed just how little the universe gives a shit about human pain and suffering. As well, somehow managed to make a horrifying monster that…was neither a monster or visible at any point of the story.

– How do you define something so alien that it can’t be fought, can’t be reasoned with, and can break any mind that dares to look at it?

Looming existential dread aside, Color Out of Space doesn’t lack in the horror department either; Filled to the brim with body horror using incredible practical effects that would make even Screaming Mad George blush. Can’t forget a tomato slam dunking, alpaca farming and COMPLETELY unhinged Nicolas Cage who may have topped his Mandy performance in terms of absurdity.

For once, a veteran of the genre presented a classic horror story without an ounce of post-modern irony while still paying proper justice to Lovecraft’s impossibly difficult landscapes to capture on film.

This movie will come with tons of neckbeards and 4chan types acting as if the movie wasn’t made for them, and it wasn’t. It was a big fuck you to modern horror and sci-fi fanbases while still bringing something totally fresh and insanely detailed and full of easter eggs for Lovecraft fans.

Wether you hate or love this one, it’ll keep fans of both Stanely, Lovecraft and genre film talking and re-watching at least 2 times, which to me signals something brilliant.