Stephen (ed.) - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18

Peter Jackson’s overblown King Kong remake became even more bloated with a three-disc “Deluxe Extended Edition” on DVD that included nearly forty minutes of deleted scenes, 230 new visual effects and a mind-numbing six hours of original special features. Thankfully, it was only available for a limited time.

Meanwhile, Jackson’s ongoing lawsuit against New Line Cinema over revenue disclosure from The Fellowship of the Ring resulted in further delays in green lighting the studio’s Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit .

Warner Bros’ Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection was a three-disc DVD compilation of classic 1930s MGM horrors. Mark of the Vampire, The Mask of Fu Manchu, Doctor X, The Return of Doctor X, Mad Love and The Devil Doll featured commentaries by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones, Greg Mank, Scott McQueen, director Vincent Sherman and Steve Haberman.

Sony Pictures’ Icons of Horror: Boris Karloff was a two-disc collection containing Columbia Pictures’ The Black Room, The Man They Could Not Hang, Before I Hang and The Boogie Man Will Get You , all making their DVD debut. If that wasn’t enough, then Universal’s three-disc The Boris Karloff Collection bought together such disparate titles as Night Key, Tower of London (1939), The Climax (in Technicolor), The Strange Door and The Black Castle , all featuring the screen’s “Master of Horror”. Disappointingly, both sets were extremely light on extras.

The two-disc 75th Anniversary editions of Universal’s Frankenstein and Dracula contained all the familiar bonus features, along with two new documentaries about stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi and audio commentaries by Rudy Behlmer, Sir Christopher Frayling, David J. Skal and Steve Haberman.

Universal also finally released a long-awaited two-disc set of Inner Sanctum Mysteries: The Complete Collection , featuring all six films in the “B” movie series (1943–45) based on the old radio series and starring Lon Chaney, Jr.

Fox’s The Mr Moto Collection Vol.1 starred Peter Lorre as the inscrutable Japanese investigator in Thank You Mr Moto, Think Fast Mr Moto, Mr Moto Takes a Chance and Mysterious Mr Moto . Meanwhile, The Charlie Chan Collection Vol.1 featured Earl Derr Biggers’ Honolulu-based detective in Charlie Chan in London, Charlie Chan in Paris, Charlie Chan in Egypt and Charlie Chan in Shanghai , all starring Warner Oland. The set also included Fran Trece , the Spanish-language version of the “lost” entry in the series, Charlie Chan Carries On .

Anchor Bay Entertainment’s six-disc “Ultimate Collection of Video Nasties”, Box of the Banned 2 , contained five hardcore horror films from the 1970s and ’80s ( The Witch Who Came from the Sea, Contamination, Tenebrae, Don’t Go Near the Park and Evilspeak ) along with David Gregory’s documentary Ban the Sadist Videos 2 and various other extras.

From Britain’s DD Home Entertainment, Hammer Horror: The Early Classics was a box set featuring The Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass 2, X The Unknown and Four Sided Triangle. Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense: The Complete Collection collected all thirteen feature-length episodes of the 1970s TV series, and The Peter Gushing Collection brought together The Abominable Snowman, Island of Terror, The Blood Beast Terror and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell .

Released under the distributor’s “Classic Horror” label, Blood of the Vampire, Corridors of Blood and the obscure Daughter of Darkness all featured informative booklets written by Jonathan Rigby and Marcus Hearn.

Kim Newman and Stephen Jones contributed the booklets to the Network DVD releases of James Whale’s The Old Dark House, The Medusa Touch , and Hammer’s Countess Dracula, Hands of the Ripper and Twins of Evil , along with audio commentaries that also featured director Jack Gold and actresses Ingrid Pitt and Angharad Rees.

A two-disc special edition of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, included three documentaries, a vintage featurette and an excerpt from The Andy Williams Show featuring Davis singing the title song.

The two-disc special edition of The Green Mile featured more than two hours of bonus material, including a new half-hour documentary, Stephen King: Storyteller , that included interviews with Frank Darabont, William Goldman, Tom Hanks, Stephen Jones, Lawrence Kasdan, Kim Newman, David J. Schow, Peter Straub, Bernie Wright-son and King himself.

Original cast members Anne Francis, Earl Holliman, Richard Anderson, Warren Stevens and Robby the Robot reunited in mid-November for a 50th Anniversary screening of MGM’s 1956 classic Forbidden Planet at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. The remastered DVD also featured three documentary supplements plus outtakes and test scenes. Additionally, the two-disc tin set included The Invisible Boy and a 1958 episode of TV’s The Thin Man featuring Robby, along with collector’s cards and a 3.5-inch tall model of the screen’s most iconic robot.

New label Casa Negra Entertainment began releasing classic Mexican horror films in restored subtitled versions on DVD. Remastered and uncut, The Brainiac had never officially been released on DVD before, while “The Vampire Collection” showcased the classic El Vampiro and its sequel El Ataud del Vampiro on a two-disc set. A bonus on Black Pit ofDr MIMisterios de Ultratumba was the original English continuity script, while The Witch’s Mirror and The Curse of the Crying Woman both included the English-language dub tracks.

The first direct-to-DVD release from Warner Bros’ specialty horror division Raw Feed, John Shiban’s Rest Stop featured Jaimie Alexander menaced by yet another backwoods psycho.

Set in a world of murderous children, Clive Barker’s The Plague was actually co-written and directed by Hal Masonberg.

I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer was released directly to DVD, while the similarly-distributed The Tooth Fairy was scripted by TV veteran Stephen J. Cannell, amongst others.

From Retro Shock-O-Rama Cinema, Joe Sarno’s cult 1974 vampire film The Devil’s Plaything was released in a widescreen version with a new mini-documentary about the director and an insert booklet by Michael J. Bowen.

Bill Moseley, Tim Thomerson, Phil Fondacarro and Tommy Chong all made special appearances in Charles Band’s Evil Bong , and Monarch of the MoonlDestination Mars! , released on the Dark Horse Indie label, was a two-disc DVD set spoofing 1950s sci-fi films.

The Munsters Two-Movie Fright Vest paired Munster Go Home! with the TV movie The Munsters’ Revenge . From Paramount came a three-disc set, The Wild Wild West: The Complete First Season ( 1965–66 ), and a second volume of The Time Tunnel ( 1966–67 ) featuring fifteen episodes over four discs.

Superman: The 1948 and 1950 Theatrical Serial Collection from Warner Bros, was a four-disc DVD set that included all the chapters from both The Adventures of Superman and Atom Man vs. Superman (both starring Kirk Alyn as The Man of Steel).

When released on DVD in the UK, Point Pleasant: The Complete Series included five previously unaired episodes of the disappointing Fox series.