Let’s face it: horror fans are, as a group, a little bit obsessive. When we sink our teeth into something we do not do it barely or easily, we take a big, honkin’ bite. If we become infatuated with a director, we want to see every film they’ve made, read a book about them, hear people talk about them, watch documentaries about them, and so on. And the same is true for national horror cinemas, regional American horror cinemas, important eras, actors, subgenres, and the like. And in recent years, a handful of visionary producers of physical media have recognized an opportunity in our longing and have invented and are currently inundating us with boxed sets. These comprehensive, exhaustive, wonderful monsters have become a gravitational center point for our genre. But just a handful of years ago they mostly didn’t exist or were announced only every few years. Nowadays, we get several per year from companies like Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Indicator, Arrow, and Scream! Factory, just to name a few. So, we figured it was time for Discover the Horror to take a long look at the history and impact of these monolithic pieces of film history.

Movies mentioned:

100 Years of Horror, Abby (1974), Alien (1979), Beast of Blood (1970), Beyond Dream’s Door (1989), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), The Black Cat (1934), Blade in the Dark (1983), Blood of Ghastly Horror (1967), The Body Snatcher (1945), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Carnival Magic (1983), Carnival of Blood (1970), Cat People (1942), City of the Living Dead (1980), Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972), The Chooper (1971), Creature with the Atomic Brain (1955), Curse of the Cat People (1944), Dawn of the Mummy (1981), Day of the Animals (1977), Deathdream (1974), Demons (1985), Demons 2 (1986), Deranged (1974), The Devil-Doll (1936), Dracula (1931), Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976), The Eroticist (1972), Fiend with the Electronic Brain (1967), Final Exam (1990), Flesh for Frankenstein (1973), The Fly (1958), Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), Frankenstein (1931), Freaks (1932), Friday the 13^th (1980), The Ghost Ship (1943), The Giant Claw (1957), The Godfather (1972), Godzilla (1954), Grizzly (1976), Gruesome Twosome (1967), Hellraiser (1987), Help Me . . . I’m Possessed (1974), House by the Cemetery (1981), I Bury the Living (1958), Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975), Images in a Convent (1979), The Invisible Man (1933), Isle of the Dead (1945), I Spit on Your Grave (1978), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Jaws (1975), Killer Shrews (1959), Legacy of Blood (1978), The Leopard Man (1943), Mad Love (1935), Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976), The Manster (1959), Mark of the Vampire (1935), Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), The Mole People (1956), The Mummy (1932), The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals (1969), Murders in the Zoo (1933), The Mystic (1925), New York Ripper (1982), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Night of the Strangler (1972), Old Dark House (1932), The Omen (1976), One on Top of the Other aka Perversion Story (1969), The Outing (1987), Phantasm (1979), Pieces (1982), The Psychic (1977), Psycho A Go-Go (1965), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Return of Dracula (1958), The Return of the Fly (1959), Santa Sangre (1989), The Seventh Victim (1943), She-Devils on Wheels (1968), Star Wars (1977), Sting of Death (1966), Tale of the Mummy (1998), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Thing (1982), Three on a Meathook (1972), The Unknown (1927), The Werewolf (1956), Whiskey Mountain (1977), Winterbeast (1992), Wizard of Gore (1970), The Wolf Man (1941), Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)