Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Tarantula and The Deadly Mantis coming to Blu-Ray from Shout this March!

Indeed!



Thank you Shout Factory!

Now if only Shout would stop price fixing and ripping people off...

I wonder if they'll include the mst3k version of The Deadly Mantis as a special feature. Apparently they did so with the release of The Brain That Couldn't Die?

I love Tarantula. I love it even though it starts John Agar.

It seems that between the Warner Archive, Shout Factory, and Kino that pretty much every classic horror and sci-fi movie is going to be released on Blu-ray pretty soon. Then of course we have the much-anticipated, little actual concrete information on, Criterion release of Godzilla films.

Oh that's awesome news! Tarantula is one of my favorite '50s sci-fi movies. Them! is the superior film, of course, but I think I like Jack Arnold's attempt just as much. On the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of The Deadly Mantis, but a Blu-Ray upgrade is essential. Most of the mid-2000s DVD releases of these Universal films were marred by incorrect aspect ratios, however, Universal generally just released unmatted fullscreen transfers. I've been "fixing" this with mixed results by using the zoom function on my TVs. Mantis was a mess, though. I think it was the only title in that lot that was neither presented in its correct aspect ratio or unmatted. It was pan and scanned and it looked as bad then as it does now.

I hate to be rude, but I didn't know what the phrase "**** eating grin" meant until I saw John Agar's face.

^ I think they should just label some releases as 'Deluxe' or some such other title to let you know the fact that this is going to be a pricier release. I understand that licensing these films from major studios, especially the ones that everyone knows are going to be big sellers, isn't exactly cheap. When you combine that with the massive amount of special features that they often produce... But, there are better ways of doing it.

Shout Factory is also releasing the Val Lewton film The Body Snatcher on Blu-ray... man, they're really chipping away at my Most Wanted on Blu-ray list.

One of the worst things about these hi-def re-issues is that we're going to be paying a helluva lot more for what many/most of us already had on DVD, as they continue to release these titles one at a time instead of 2 or three titles per disc, or bundled as they originally came. That sucks, but that's the price you pay to upgrade, I suppose.

As for John Agar, when I see his name on a cast list I know I'm gonna be getting something just a little more... dunno... fun? Love the guy. It's so sad that he went through mist of his life thinking that his work was unnoticed and ignored. Touches my heart about the story where - very late in his life - he was at some convention or other and got a standing ovation after they screened HANDS OF DEATH.. and he just broke down in tears, never realizing his impact nor how much his genre work was loved by so many.

Okay, let me get all the stuff that may be coming out straight in my head...

- Criterion has some manner of Godzilla release (they also have Rodan and War of the Gargantuas) in the works and popular opinion seems to think that they'll want to schedule the release sometime around these new American Godzilla movies.
- Vinegar Syndrome apparently has licensed some Japanese monster movies, and we think they're probably Gorath and Human Vapor?
- Kraken still releasing Garo stuff, Shout Factory is still releasing Super Sentai series.
- Discotek media has Juspion and Message From Space releases coming soon.
- And now that Tsuburaya is actively licensing stuff to the US who knows what's going to come of that. Something awesome, I hope!

What I'm trying to say is that I feel I will spending a lot of money pretty soon, so it might be time to start saving my pennies.

Also, with the Gamera releases from Mill Creek out of print I have a sneaky suspicion that someone will relicense those soon. There's just too many cult video labels putting out genre stuff.

Man, I’m so far behind on my genre Blu-rays. Half the ones I’ve put in my amazon wishlist are out of print. I’m hoping that 2019 will be the year I start catching back up on that stuff. It’s been kinda low priority for a few years now because life.

I'm really hoping we'll get to see Arrow Video do their magic on some Kaiju tiles. They're also my dream company for a Gamera Trilogy release.

As much as I'd like them to do kaiju stuff this upcoming year I think 2020 is going to be our best bet due to the fact that Godzilla vs Kong is going to have more hype than G:KotM that's just my personal opinion. I'd love to be wrong.

Ideally I'd love to see Toho start doing domestic Japanese 4K BD releases for classic Godzilla stuff then in 2020 I'd love for Criterion and Sony to pump out their library of films on 4K.

Streaming Isn’t Everything, and Blu-Rays Are Back to Prove It
https://www.wired.com/story/blu-ray-res ... 288S0yanaM

To compliment Shout's Street Fighter set Arrow has announced their Sister Street Fighter set!

They're also doing an awesome looking set of the Japanese Ring movies... but it's UK only.

After licensing the title out twice to Twilight Time, now Sony proper is releasing Fright Night on Blu-ray next month!

I only hope the remake of The Blob is also in store... it also might be a good idea to make those Harryhausen titles available again, right? Though, there are so many region free options for those movies the lack of a currently available North American release is hardly any impediment at all.

Besides Mothra and H-man the Sony title I want released most is Night of the Demon.

We need a good Harryhausen set. He did what... 15 movies?