Q&A Exclusive – ‘The Collector’ Himself Juan Fernández Helps Dissect His Man Of Mayhem For Halloween
Welcome fright fans! Halloween is almost upon us and seemingly out of tricks it felt like time for a little tasty treat. For both the genre geeks and my own beloved boss and cool critic Brian White I’m presenting something truly special this year to celebrate the dark magic of All Hallows’ Eve. I, much like Brian, am a massive admirer of the 2009 Marcus Dunstan helmed five-star original outing The Collector, a terrifying tale of two professional gents – one a master thief and the other a cunning killer – who find themselves trapped in a house together and both use their own ‘specific set of skills’ to fight and survive the night. From the suspenseful staging to the eclectic array of brutal booby traps, The Collector is a true hidden horror gem that ups the ante on traditional thriller themes. But besides the earnest work by lead man Josh Stewart as relatable robber Arkin, there’s a singular tasty turn that truly gives the flick its damn fine film flavor.
See, popular old television shows getting modern make-overs through a rebooted feature film and is nothing new. Its been going on for a long time, yet people make a complaint like they’re being fresh (“No original ideas any more, but I don’t go see or care for the zillions of original ideas that DO come out.”). Shout Select is bringing the Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks-led 1987 Dragnet update to Blu-ray for the very first time. This film made some good money at the box office upon release, but looking around I dunno if its super popular, but its gotta have some sort of cult base. Maybe its one that is in need of being returned to and reassessed. Looks like I’ll be tasked with that as I review this new collector’s edition that comes with a fresh new commentary and new interview with star Alexandra Paul. You can pick up a copy on October 30th to have Dragnet in time for…Halloween? 
Thirty seven years ago, one of the most nitty gritty, down home and independently independent films of all time came and scared the hell out of audiences. It introduced us to Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, both of whom would carve out some terrific legacies in mainstream and geek filmdom. The film itself has paved the way for home video infamy as well. Like the Halloween franchise, which I laid out the epic history of last month, all three Evil Dead films have had an ungodly amount of home video releases. Now, the first film (And in December, the sequel) has made its way to the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. Its release gives hope that more classic horror titles will be coming (And hopefully soon). The Evil Dead actually comes with a really friendly price tag so order yourself a copy from the link below. 
Its a real shocker that 1983’s Valley Girls is JUST NOW in 2018 making its debut on Blu-ray. Sure, its hitting its 35th anniversary mark, but it had a 30th and a 25th that could have made it prior. This is a well reviewed and pretty popular film. One would have thought this would have made it by now. There was a special edition DVD of it for its 20th anniversary, so they know people care. Anyway, rights are being wronged by the folks who usually do such things. Yes, of course its Shout Factory, under their Shout Select banner. With this new Blu-ray release, they are giving it Collector’s Edition treatment with brand new bonus features and retaining pretty much all of them from that old DVD release. You can finally own the film when it comes to Blu-ray October 30th. 
With the great pumpkin holiday soon upon us all, it seems fitting that there are five horror titles via the indie outings dissected below – all with varying degrees of satisfaction. (At least for yours truly!) Tales mired with a myriad of twists and turns that demand secrecy, redemption in the boxing ring, stones with time travel power, dancing that leads to dark deeds, brutal bachelorette parties, gals who hold a forty year grudge and quick ‘morning after’ scenarios make up the six feature films and one digital series covered in this weeks edition of Encapsulated Movie Reviews. Check out the critical skinny on The Dark, Glass Jaw, Silencio, Suspiria, Killer Kate!, Halloween and the digital series Waking Up With Strangers below!
The world must cope with the loss of Superman – and the sudden emergence of four would-be heirs to the title – in the all-new, action-packed Reign of the Supermen, part of the popular series of DC Universe Movies. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC, the feature-length animated film arrives from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Digital starting January 15, 2019, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-rayCombo Pack on January 29, 2019.
Your prayers have been answered when “
Do I have your attention yet? That’s a 30-film collection on Blu-ray, which retails for 150 bones. And that’s right! You read the title right! Straight from Dracula’s Castle we have been given the Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection on Blu-ray to give away to one lucky reader of Why So Blu this Halloween season. Woohoo! It doesn’t get any BIGGER than that! So before we get into the semantics on how to enter for free and set yourself up for success I do want to capture below everything you’ll find here in this 30-film collection via the original press release from this past August. And then…and only then…at the end of this post you’ll find the pertinent details on how to bring this bad boy home. Good luck! Oh and by the way there’s also a MASSIVE Blu-ray review of it all on our site over 
The nightmare is about to begin…again. “Santa” is back in the sequel to the infamous 1984 cult classic and horror holiday favorite.
About a decade ago, I remember first seeing a new title from Image Comics called The Astounding Wolf-Man. Taking the concept of a super hero and combining it with a werewolf was definitely unique, though some may dispute the title character’s super hero-ness. Nevertheless, I flipped through a few pages and felt the artwork was rather cartoonish…at first. After reading the issue in its entirety, I thought it to be a great marriage of dialogue and visuals. Fast-forward to 2018 and Image releases another supernatural-inspired series with that similar animation-style art, the Exorsisters. Would history repeat itself and I’d find myself loving this story?
We have the making of a bit of a modern cult classic going right now in that of director Panos Cosmatos follow up to Beyond the Black Rainbow. Its Mandy, the movie with Nicholas Cage that had the crazy ass trailer making people saying “I’ve got to see this!” And many are. The film’s plan was to play some festivals and have a little theatrical run, with it being moreso pushed on the digital/streaming platforms. Mandy has done so well in its little run that its expanded and may have been in need of going much wider than it was anticipated. The cool fact of this ordeal is that the movie is succeed while it is able to be watched to rent or purchase via streaming. And the Blu-ray I am reviewing here is coming out next week (October 30th). If a film is something people WANT to see in theaters, they will show up. Plus, the word of mouth on this one has been quite good. I wish I’d have the opportunity to see it theatrically, but alas, its not shown up in my neighborhood yet. But, with its popularity being compared to that of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, maybe I’ll be able to catch it on a revival screening! 
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again feels somewhat of a silent assassin from this summer’s box office. The film took in almost $125 million domestically and almost $450 million worldwide. Until Crazy Rich Asians, the film had a firm spot in the Top 10. Its almost like its predecessor, which was actually somewhat of a phenomenon back in 2008. But, if I told you it made more money globally than Iron Man, you’d think I was crazy. That’s the truth though. Why did they do a sequel? Look how big that first film was. They earned it and obviously there were people there for it. Ten years later probably brought some fondness but I feel like had they done it within three years of the first it might’ve been a bit bigger. Whatever, whatever. This sequel was still a big deal. Big enough that if they’d want to make a trilogy, the audience is probably there. Though, I think this film serves more as a nice encore to the fantastic concert you saw before. You can pick up this second album/remix album/original demos 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray when it arrives on October 23rd from Universal! 
While there’s no current tie in (Gifted Season 2, maybe?), Fox is on the right track in releasing more X-Men films to the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. It dropped the 3 First Class film right away on the format as well as the Deadpool movies and Logan. Now comes the original trilogy of films that started it off. The crown jewel of this set being the original sequel, X2: X-Men United, considered by many to be one of the best comic book super hero films of all time. Now, we sit shy just X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Yuck) and The Wolverine (PLEASE!!!) of having the entire 11 film Fox X-Men franchise on the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. That’s pretty impressive! You can grab yourself a copy of the adventure from Toad to “Phoenix” now by clicking the Amazon link! 
After recently seeing Sony Picture’s Venom in theaters a few weeks ago, I caught the trailer for the upcoming animated feature film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. While the movie looks to be rather promising, I didn’t think much more of it at the time than a new format of introducing Spider-Man to the big screen. A day later I saw news of the soon-to-be released Spider-Geddon comic book mini-series, which the cover seems to portray as a massive love letter to every rendition of Spider-Man that has been created in recent memory. It seems there is much more going on than a Spidey slug fest and a new movie cartoon.
vvThis whole newfound relationship between Shout!/Scream Factory and Warner Bros for Blu-rays has been nothing short of a dream come true and has come swinging right out of the gate. Here we are talking about a Collector’s Edition now of George A. Romero and Stephen King’s collaborative effort and horror anthology masterpiece Creepshow with a new 4K scan and LOADS of bonus material. There’s no complaining about double dipping, as this is one to just dive right into. They’ve even given the film some special packaging treatment to boot. Trust me, this one is impressive to even just hold in your hand, let alone put in your player and watch. Its coming just in time for Halloween horror watching, so get your pre-order in as it arrive October 23rd! 
