As technology continues its steady march forward, movies adopt new techniques for filming. Old movies, meanwhile, make the leap forward to better, more realistic formats, jumping from VHS to DVD or DVD to Blu-ray. Grainy film is replaced with crisp digital images, and while some connoisseurs may prefer the old techniques, others dream of their favorite film making it to Blu-ray.
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Some films have yet to make this leap, however, and perhaps never will. Whether due to a lack of popularity, critical lambasting, financial constraints, or some other consideration, some movies have yet to make the jump to Blu-ray. Many such movies, especially in the horror genre, have cult followings despite the older technology used to make and preserve them. Here are some horror films that are still awaiting the Blu-ray treatment.
8Night Terrors
Directed by Tobe Hooper (the man who brought audiencesThe Texas Chain Saw MassacreandPoltergeist) and starring Robert Englund (iconic for playing Freddy Krueger inThe Nightmare on Elm Street),Night Terrorshad the potential to be a truly special horror movie.
What it was instead was the half-baked story of a young American visiting her archeologist father overseasonly to fall into the clutches of a cult leader descended from the Marquis de Sade.Crippled by budget cutsand horror cliches,Night Terrorsnever became the horror mainstay that Hooper and Englund’s other work did, but it still deserves a Blu-ray adaptation, if only as a “what-if?”
7Iced
Skiing and slasher films don’t exactly go hand-in-hand, but that didn’t stop 1989’sIcedfrom trying to make the connection. A group of childhood friends attends the opening of an upscale ski resort, only to be set upon by a mysterious figure with murder in mind.
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Icedeven commits one of the cardinal sins of the slasher genre by keeping its kills mostly off-screen.Psychocan get away with that style of filming, butteenage audiences had different expectations for a low-budget murder-fest the likes ofIced,which is perhaps part of the reason the film never took off. Despite that directorial choice,Icedis a fun, wonky, thoroughly ’80s film that would be great to relive in higher definition.
6976-Evil II
A 1992 supernatural horror slasher that would feel right at home in the mid-’80s,976-Evil IIis, like the original film, rarely discussed outside of cult horror buff circles, but its niche nature doesn’t make it any less great.Centered around a hotline to hell, the film is decidedly tongue-in-cheek,with the cast and crew well-aware of the kind of film they were making. That’s for the best.
There’s no pretension here, just asilly and unpredictablefollow-up to the equally silly original. Some ideas on display are genuinely fun and engaging, even if their execution often leaves something to be desired, and it would be a shame for such a weird piece of media to remain relegated to older technology forever.
5Midnight Offerings
Rob Holcomb’s 1981 made-for-television horror flick stars Melissa Sue Anderson, Mary Beth McDonough, and Patrick Cassidy in the story of a teenage witch who is only too happy to murder people in order to keep her boyfriend David from flunking out of school.
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Unfortunately, David has eyes for the new girl in school, Robin. Even more unfortunately, Robin also has magical powers, andsoon enough the two teenage witches find themselves in violent conflict with one another.Midnight Offeringsis exceptionally cheesy, but lead-witch Vivian is a genuinely interesting character, in part because of the choice to castLittle House on the Prairie’s"Mary" as Vivian.
4Prom Night III: The Last Kiss
Prom Night III: The Last Kissis about as garishly wince-inducing as one could expect from a direct-to-TV movie. It’s a comedy-horror film, with more emphasis on comedy, though more horror might have been wrung from the story if the script and performances had been a few notches less off-kilter.
The moral ofProm Night III: The Last Kissmight be"don’t befriend the ghost of a murdered prom queen,“but that’s not a lesson that the protagonist is capable of taking to heart. It’s the side characters and the villain who really command the show here, anyway.The weirdness on show here holds up.Viewers looking for an over-the-top blast of DTV goodness will find it here, but unfortunately not on Blu-ray.
3Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out
TheSilent Night, Deadly Nightfranchise is longer than many fans remember, featuring five numbered entries as well as a remake.Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Outfeatures Bill Mosely (Chop Top inThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre IIand Otis inHouse of 1000 Corpses) as Rickythe killer Santa.
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There’s only so much that even a massive horror talent like Bill Mosely can do, and the film is not without its faults. Surviving the finale of the second film,the third film finds Ricky alive, in a coma for the last six years, and with a glass dome affixed to his head in an effort to repair his damaged skull.Should Ricky have received this treatment? Probably not. But since it kept the franchise alive, one can hardly complain. The third film should receive a Blu-ray adaptation if only to keep Bill Mosely’s sinister brand alive.
2Cast A Deadly Spell
1981’sCast a Deadly Spellis a strange mashup of the horror and film noir genres buta classic in every way.It’s 1940s Los Angeles, and everyone has supernatural powers, except for investigator Harry Philip Lovecraft (played by Fred Ward). Wealthy client Amos Hacksaw recruits Lovecraft to track down an ancient text.
Lovecraft soon realizes, however, thatthe text contains curses that Amos intends to use to achieve world domination.Cast a Deadly Spellcaptures the look and feel of old LA, which is one of the major reasons that this film deserves to be on Blu-ray. Anything that looks and feels so satisfying deserves to be preserved with newer technology.
1Evil Laugh
The depth of cheese on display in the 1986 horror filmEvil Laughis second to none. When some medical students and their dates discover a cackling slasher while repairing an abandoned building over the weekend, things turn bloody.The gore is solid, but just about everything else is questionable.The addition of dancing didn’t exactly help elevate the film either.
Lambasted by many critics as empty and derivative,Evil Laughnonetheless appeals to a certain corner of the horror audience for whom “cheesy slasher” are magic words. Nothing so awkward should fade into obscurity.
