Halloween Horror Titles From Sony and Fox (1 Viewer)

According to Ron Adams' Creepy Classics website, we'll be getting a couple of nice box sets from:

Sony: The Werewolf (1956), Creature With the Atom Brain, Zombies of Mora Tau, The Giant Claw, and one other title.

Fox: Chandu the Magician, The Undying Monster, Man Hunt (1941), The Lodger (1944), and Hangover Square

Interesting; for ages these two were rumoured to be appearing in Fox's noir line, now they are categorising them as horror. Either way, I'm pleased to be seeing them on the slate at last.

great news! I'll be snapping up both setss.

And still no Night of the Creeps from Sony. :frowning:

Whoa that Fox set is right up my alley w/ The Lodger, Hangover Square and Man Hunt.

Really hope this pans out.

Sony is actually going into their catalog and releasing obscure guilty pleasures like THE GIANT CLAW?!? I never thought I'd see the day. Now I know anything is possible. You wonder why they just sat on the MGM catalog when they still had the chance to take advantage of it.

However, I don't understand the theme for Man Hunt.

If Sony is reading this, I hope it's not too late to add CRY OF THE WEREWOLF (1944) to this collection! It's not a '50s film, but it's horror - and where would it get released, if not here?

Neither do I, but they can call this a screwball comedy set for all I care as long as they come out.

If this is indeed true, I'm all over that Fox set!!!

Yeah, MAN HUNT (1941) is a weird inclusion but, if mislabelling it as horror means that we'll be getting one of Fritz Lang's best films sooner rather than later, I'm all for it!

Actually, out of the 5 Fox titles, only THE UNDYING MONSTER (1942) has so far eluded me: I've watched MAN HUNT a couple of times on Italian TV and the other 3 I caught up with while I was in Hollywood between November 2005-January 2006.

All of which, however, leads me to ask yet again: where is the DVD of THE RETURN OF DRACULA (1958), dammit:frowning:!?

Hmmm. Good old Sony. They withhold MIA Hammer titles such as THE GORGON and BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB and SCREAM OF FEAR, but give us THE GIANT CLAW, which doesn't qualify as a "Halloween" title, as it's about as frighening as a marshmellow on a stick and is, to boot, considered one of the worst movies ever made. C'mon, Sony - Universal is getting its act together after years of wasted time.... how about you?

Yes, the Hammer titles are probably more worthy films than what has been announced, but I'm happy that Sony is releasing anything at this point. And to be quite honest, I am thrilled about THE GIANT CLAW - maybe it is one of the worst of all time, but I still love it and it fetches a heck of a lot more for an original VHS than THE GORGON ever did.

Maybe Sony has other release plans as well that we haven't heard about yet. Maybe the Hammer titles are in the works, too, but they are making sure to do them right (ya, I know, wishful thinking). In any event, just that they are looking into their catalog at all is reason to be happy.

Glad to see someone else like SCREAM OF FEAR. Also, sony could have released the MIA Toho titles like MOTHRA, H-MEN as well as the Hammers films. I can see the board meeting

Executive #1 "We need to release a catalog title for Halloween to compete withe the Universal sets."

Executive #2 "How about the Hammer titles? Alot of classic horror fans been requesting these for years"

Executive #1 "Nah, they aren't campy. Too serious."

Executive #2 "How about the Toho library we possess?"

Executive #1 "Nah, Godzilla isn't in any of them!! Besides, Old horror needs to be funny for the new MTV generation! Something for the MST crowd"

Executive #3 "How about THE GIANT CLAW, voted one of the worst horror films ever made? I believe MST did air this once"

Executive #1 "Perfect!"

I think the cult classic "The Giant Claw" is getting a bum rap here. It was a staple during the 1970s especially on Chiller Theater. I am excited to see it coming and still looking for The Deadly Mantis as well.

Eric

True, and I do know THE GIANT CLAW does have it's fans, and I too own the rare VHS of this thru Goodtimes. I guess it's just that we been waiting for Sony to dig into their vault for all the classic stuff from Hammer, Toho, etc, and the best they came up with after years and years of waiting was GIANT CLAW.

How about Curse of the Fly, Fox. It's a lot better than Return of the Fly which has been released on dvd. Apparently it's enough of a Studio Classic to be released in other regions but not enough to be released in the US.

I'm thrilled to learn that Sony will be releasing THE GIANT CLAW. Nice work!

One other Fox title that's missing is DR. RENAULT'S SECRET (1942)... this is a film starring J. Carrol Naish as a half-man/half-animal, in the traditon of ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, or The Island of Dr. Moreau. I just thought I'd mention it just on the chance that Fox is reading.

Note to Mario: THE RETURN OF DRACULA is MGM.

Wow. Never heard of these. I'll have to do some research by October. I hope the price point is low.

Yeah, I can't get all excited about these when my Hammer DVD collection is still lacking titles.

Of course, you can always stick two fingers up at the studios by getting these titles from a different region.

BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB, CURSE OF THE FLY are already available here in the UK, and THE GORGON is amongst a group of thirteen Hammer titles planned by an independent here, as is MOTHRA.

The only thing wrong with "The Giant Claw" is that goofy bird. If they hadn't used that Mexican marionette, the movie would be no worse than the average Universal-International 50s science fiction, such as "The Deadly Mantis," "The Land Unknown" and "The Monolith Monsters" of the same year. It even seems like a Universal, with Jeff Morrow in it.