If you haven’t heard of Scream Factory (a brand of Shout Factory), they specialize in bringing obscure and cult classic horror and sci-fi films to Blu-ray and DVD.
These films are often long-forgotten or neglected by the studios. Scream Factory certainly isn’t the only company out there pulling these movies from the archives and restoring them, but they’re doing it better and with more heart than anyone else.
Not only do they take great care in sorting out all the right’s holder issues to make it happen at all and do a wonderful job with the video and audio transfers, because they’re true fans, they also go to great lengths to put together special features that nearly no company on the planet puts as much effort into.
In no particular order, here are the titles I’d love to see get the royal treatment:
Lady in White
This one makes me cry every time. A beautiful, melancholy-filled ghost story that threatens the innocence of youth.
The Gate
I love horror movies set in suburbia (think Poltergeist). It just taps into your nightmares in such a perfect way. This is a story of a couple kids who accidentally release little demons through a mysterious hole in their backyard while the parents are away.
The Devonsville Terror
This one is insanely underrated or even seen. It’s a sad tale of modern women who move into an archaic old town where their ideas are not appreciated or tolerated (especially by one who is a school teacher) by the men of the town who torture and kill the women assuming them to be witches, teaching their children things like “God might be a woman.”
The Changeling
Your typical “moves into a big ol’ scary house, strange things start to happen, they have to research and uncover what the ghost wants to set them free” type ghost story, but perhaps one of the first of these types and regardless, more of the same is just fine when done well. My guess would be that this movie was eclipsed by the other ghost film released that same year, The Shining.
Night Gallery
While there’s already a decent DVD release of this TV series, I’d love it to get the Blu-ray treatment with special features like Rod Serling’s other TV classic The Twilight Zone. While I of course love the brilliance that is The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery showcases (pun intended) much darker, sadder, and esoteric stories from master writer Serling.
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
The remake of the classic Night of the Living Dead and my absolute favorite zombie movie of all time. There was a lackluster limited Blu-ray release by Twilight Time which has colorization issues a few years back, but we need a proper transfer from the masters.
Tales from the Darkside
Both the TV series and movie could use Blu-ray releases from Scream Factory. Tales from the Darkside is essentially Creepshow: the series, and every bit as good and well, creepy.
Cat’s Eye
Not as rare as the others, but just such a cool film. Honestly, I’ve yet to find an adaptation of a Stephen King story that I don’t like. This movie spins three tales of horror together, following the life of a stray cat.
Silver Bullet
Here, we have another one of King’s stories. A boy in a wheelchair tries to save his town and himself from a werewolf that no one else believes exists. This definitely plays on the fears of being alone and helpless.
Waxwork
I’d love to see Waxwork and its sequel Waxwork II: Lost in Time, get a double-feature release from Scream Factory. These movies are packed full of horror homages and for such low budgets, have incredible style. Waxwork is much more dark, a straight horror, and its sequel plays around much more with parody, to the heights of over-the-top goofiness like an Evil Dead film. Both movies are great fun.
Communion
In my opinion, this movie is hands-down, the most terrifying alien abduction movie ever conceived. One of the most insane performances by Christopher Walken.
Slaughterhouse Rock
This one has never even seen an official DVD release. Your best bet is a bootleg. These are the films that most desperately need to be saved. Like Prison, a film that did get a Scream Factory release, we’re in the setting of a prison once again with creepy happenings.
Sometimes They Come Back
This has seen some non-US Blu-ray releases, but nothing proper in Region 1 or Region Free. A man and his family return to his hometown where his brother and the gang he ran with died when he was a child. These ghosts begin to haunt and taunt this family.
It
Not rare in the least, we all know Pennywise the clown, this multiverse creature or alien that feeds on the flesh and fear of children, taking any form it needs to based on its prey’s worst nightmares. They’re actually remaking the TV movie into a theatrical film, which is said to be much closer to the level of violence and fear of the book, which I’m looking forward to. In the meantime, would absolutely love to see this released on Blu-ray.
The Elephant Man
Not quite sure if this title would be suitable as a Scream Factory release, more likely a Shout Factory release, as it’s not so much a horror film as it is a drama. The story plays on the all-to-real idea that society is cruel to and rejects the unknown, especially those who are deformed and grotesque in appearance, but slowly reveals the kindness and intelligence of the man beneath the physical embodiment.
Candyman
Since Scream Factory has already released its sequel, I would imagine they’re in-talks to try and get the rights, permission, or deal to distribute the first Candyman on Blu-ray too. Candyman is one of the most masterful and elegant horror films ever made, based on the real life urban legend of “The Hook”.
House
A very fun and highly stylistic haunted house horror and comedy movie. A writer, after dealing with a nasty divorce following the assumed death of their son, moves back into the house where their son had disappeared from.
Critters
And the three sequels. The Critters movies are very fun and very 80s. Set in a rural area, little furry, rolling aliens attack and eat everything, being hunted by otherworldly, shape-shifting bounty hunters and the local town drunk.
Little Monsters
Not exactly a kids movie or family movie, it’s pretty scary in fact. A boy finds a portal to a strange world of monsters under his bed. A world where children and babies disappear to (either by accident or by being kidnapped). A place where there are no parents or rules. The longer the children stay, they eventually turn into monsters themselves. The ramifications of this are actually pretty lonely and nightmarish. There’s definitely a message of a cautionary tale of running away from a home. A message that family is the most important thing most have, even if they think it’s hard and that the grass is greener on the other side.
Freddy’s Nightmares
Yet to even be released on DVD, this horror anthology series hosted by none other than Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Freddy Krueger, is actually pretty good.
American Gothic
If you want to talk about cult classic horror TV shows, search no further. Set in a small town who’s sheriff, if not the devil himself, is certainly an evil beyond human.
In Dreams
Extremely underrated, this is a film of a woman and a serial killer who are somehow connected to one-another in their dreams. While we’ve seen this story a few times before, this film is particularly stylistic and melancholy-filled with a very strange and sad backstory.
The Keep
Here’s another long-lost movie without even a DVD release that needs saving. This is an extremely atmospheric film where Nazis unleash a demon from its tomb and are being hunted and killed one-by-one.
Ben
You know the song “Ben” by Michael Jackson (The Jackson 5)? This is the film he made it for. A boy befriends a rat who he names Ben. Ben is the leader of a pack of rats who are intelligent and kill people.
The Witches
This is an absolute classic from childhood. A boy stumbles onto a witch’s plot and they turn him into a mouse. He (as a mouse throughout most of the movie) and his grandma then have to work together to foil this plot.
Return of the Living Dead II
Some barrels containing the chemicals that reanimate the dead fall off a military truck and some kids stumble upon it.
That’s quite a list I’ve amassed here, but probably really only scratches the surface of all the great movies and TV shows that Scream Factory will deliver to us in our homes in the years to come.
What would you love to see them release next?
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