HORROR CLASSICS COLLECTION (DVD/3 DISC) DVD

Night of the Living Dead
When unexpected radiation raises the dead, a microcosm of Average America has to battle flesh-eating zombies in George A. Romero's landmark cheapie horror film. Siblings Johnny (Russ Streiner) and Barbara (Judith O'Dea) whine and pout their way through a graveside visit in a small Pennsylvania town, but it all takes a turn for the worse when a zombie kills Johnny. Barbara flees to an isolated farmhouse where a group of people are already holed up. Bickering and panic ensue as the group tries to figure out how best to escape, while hoards of undead converge on the house; news reports reveal that fire wards them off, while a local sheriff-led posse discovers that if you "kill the brain, you kill the ghoul." After a night of immolation and parricide, one survivor is left in the house.... Romero's grainy black-and-white cinematography and casting of locals emphasize the terror lurking in ordinary life; as in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), Romero's victims are not attacked because they did anything wrong, and the randomness makes the attacks all the more horrifying. Nothing holds the key to salvation, either, whether it's family, love, or law. Topping off the existential dread is Romero's then-extreme use of gore, as zombies nibble on limbs and viscera. Initially distributed by a Manhattan theater chain owner, Night, made for about 100,000 dollars, was dismissed as exploitation, but after a 1969 re-release, it began to attract favorable attention for scarily tapping into Vietnam-era uncertainty and nihilistic anxiety. By 1979, it had grossed over 12 million, inspired a cycle of apocalyptic splatter films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and set the standard for finding horror in the mundane. However cheesy the film may look, few horror movies reach a conclusion as desolately unsettling. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Revolt of the Zombies
Designed as a follow-up to the Halperin Brothers' phenomenally successful White Zombie, Revolt of the Zombies unfortunately isn't nearly as good. The story is set in Cambodia in the years following WWI. Evil Count Mazovia (Roy D'Arcy) has come into possession of the secret methods by which dead men can be transformed into walking zombies and uses these unholy powers to create a race of slave laborers. An expedition is sent to the ruins of Angkor Wat, in hopes of ending Mazovia's activities once and for all. Unfortunately, Armand (Dean Jagger), one of the members of the expedition, has his own agenda. Stealing a set of secret tablets, he sets about to create his own army of zombies, targeting those whom he considers to be enemies. But Armand is hoist on his own petard when the zombies rebel and turn against him. The anachronistic moviemaking techniques which contributed so much to the atmosphere and entertainment value of White Zombie are totally out of place in Revolt of the Zombies; also, Dean Jagger's performance lacks the conviction necessary for this sort of horror fare. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dementia 13
A young Francis Coppola was given the job of directing this moody low-budget chiller after begging producer Roger Corman for the opportunity to reuse the sets for another film which Corman was shooting in Ireland. The story centers on the dysfunctional Haloran family, who live in a state of perpetual sorrow in a spooky Irish castle. Still mourning the death of her young daughter Kathleen -- who drowned in the lake seven years ago -- Lady Haloran (Ethne Dunn) tortures herself regularly by visiting the girl's grave (when she's not shrieking and collapsing in anguish every five minutes). When daughter-in-law Louise Haloran (Luana Anders) loses her husband to a heart attack, she manages to conceal the body for fear of being cut out of Lady Haloran's will. To further complicate matters, a mysterious interloper begins prowling the grounds with an axe to grind... a very big axe. This enjoyable, quirky psycho-thriller is enlivened by Coppola's inventive camera setups, atmospheric locations and Patrick Magee's over-the-top performance as the leering family doctor. Despite some ragged editing (probably not Coppola's doing), this has relatively high production values for a spare-change Corman project. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

The Corpse Vanishes
Despite the typical Monogram drawbacks -- murky photography, stolid staging, ramshackle sets -- The Corpse Vanishes remains one of the more deliciously outrageous horror exercises of the 1940s. Bela Lugosi, as hammy as ever, stars as Dr. Lorenz, a European horticulturist whose octogenarian wife (Elizabeth Russell) needs fluids from the glands of young virgins to remain forever young and beautiful. Jumping to conclusions, the insane medico's rationale seems to be that the best place to find a virgin is at the altar. Consequently, seven young women are in short order poisoned by a mysterious orchid just before their "I do's" and brought in a catatonic state to Dr. Lorenz' mansion in Brookdale. Cub reporter Pat Hunter (Luana Walters) is on to the scheme and visits the Lorenz estate under the pretense of researching an article on orchids. With a typical sound-stage storm brewing up, she agrees to spend the night, and what a night it proves to be. Not only is poor Pat awakened by a visit from Dr. Lorenz' slobbering, hunchbacked helper, Angel (Frank Moran, who stalks her while eating a drumstick), the reporter is also slapped in the face by the disagreeable countess, snubbed by a nasty dwarf (Angelo Rossitto), and nearly suffers the same fate as the poor brides when rescued in the nick of time by an enraged housekeeper (Minerva Urecal) and her boyfriend, Dr. Foster (Tristram Coffin). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride
The final installment in Hammer Studios' Dracula series is also the least interesting of the lot. A fairly direct follow-up to Dracula A.D. 1972, this sequel finds the Count (Christopher Lee) developing a potent strain of bubonic plague which he and his devil-worshipping disciples plan to release from 1970's London to wipe out nearly all life on earth. His efforts are challenged once again by the dedicated Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), leading to a rather uninvolving climax. Despite the always-welcome presence of Lee and Cushing, this installment plays too flagrantly with the time-honored Hammer Gothic formula, giving Dracula actual dialogue and surrounding the leads with a dull, amateurish supporting cast -- with the possible exception of Joanna Lumley (later of BBC-TV's Absolutely Fabulous). This also marked Lee's final performance as the Count and signaled the beginning of the end for Hammer's horror heyday. Also known as Satanic Rites of Dracula and Dracula is Dead and Well and Living in London. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

The Vampire Bat
Bloodsucking winged creatures who may take human shape appear to have returned after centuries of dormancy to the middle-European municipality of Kleinschloss in this atmospheric, low-budget hriller from small-scale Majestic Pictures, and the burgomaster (Lionel Belmore) demands answers. With victims scattered everywhere, all bearing the distinctive puncture marks, police detective Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) finds himself completely stymied. Brettschneider, who refuses to accept what he considers mere superstition, is not pleased when that eminent physician Dr. Otto Von Niemann (Lionel Atwill) hints that there may indeed be such things as murderous human bats. Herman Gleib (Dwight Frye), the village idiot, meanwhile, just happens to have a fondness for the nocturnal creatures -- "They're so soft!" -- and the villagers, as they are wont to do, grab their torches and commence a manhunt. Poor Herman is destroyed, but there is another killing. And this time the victim is Georgiana (Stella Adams), Dr. Von Niemann's housekeeper, who failed to serve the physician his late-night coffee. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Cast Judith O'Dea as Barbara Russ Streiner as Johnny Duane Jones as Ben Karl Hardman as Harry Keith Wayne as Tom Judith Ridley as Judy Marilyn Eastman as Helen Kyra Schon as Karen Dorothy Stone as Claire Duval Dean Jagger as Armand Louque Roy D'Arcy as Col. Mazovia Robert Noland as Clifford Grayson George Cleveland as Gen. Duval Fred Warren as Dr. Trevissant Carl Stockdale as Ignacio McDonald Teru Shimada as Buna William Crowell as Hsiang Bela Lugosi as Dr. Lorenz Luana Walters as Pat Hunter Tristram Coffin as Dr. Foster Elizabeth Russell as Countess Lorenz Minerva Urecal as Fagah Kenneth Harlan as Keenan Vince Barnett as Sandy Joan Barclay as Alice Wentworth Frank Moran as Angel Gwen Kenyon as Peggy Woods Christopher Lee as Count Dracula Peter Cushing as Prof. Lorrimer Van Helsing Michael Coles as Insp. Murray William Franklyn as Torrence Freddie Jones as Prof. Keeley Joanna Lumley as Jessica Richard Vernon as Col. Matthews Patrick Barr as Lord Carradine Richard Mathews as Poiier Lockwood West as Freeborne Maurice O'Connell as Hanson Valerie VanOst as Jane Lionel Atwill as Dr. Otto von Niemann Fay Wray as Ruth Bertin Melvyn Douglas as Karl Brettschneider Maude Eburne as Gussie Schnappmann George E. Stone as Kringen Dwight Frye as Herman Gleib Robert W. Frazer as Emil Borst Rita Carlisle as Martha Mueller Lionel Belmore as Burgermeister Gustave Schoen William V. Mong as Sauer

Crew Daniel Hall - Art Director Frank Strayer - Director Otis M. Garrett - Editor Charles Hall - Production Designer Ira Morgan - Cinematographer Philip Goldstone - Producer Edward T. Lowe - Screenwriter Daniel Hall - Art Director Frank Strayer - Director Otis M. Garrett - Editor Charles Hall - Production Designer Ira Morgan - Cinematographer Philip Goldstone - Producer Edward T. Lowe - Screenwriter Daniel Hall - Art Director Frank Strayer - Director Otis M. Garrett - Editor Charles Hall - Production Designer Ira Morgan - Cinematographer Philip Goldstone - Producer Edward T. Lowe - Screenwriter Daniel Hall - Art Director Frank Strayer - Director Otis M. Garrett - Editor Charles Hall - Production Designer Ira Morgan - Cinematographer Philip Goldstone - Producer Edward T. Lowe - Screenwriter Daniel Hall - Art Director Frank Strayer - Director Otis M. Garrett - Editor Charles Hall - Production Designer Ira Morgan - Cinematographer Philip Goldstone - Producer Edward T. Lowe - Screenwriter Daniel Hall - Art Director Frank Strayer - Director Otis M. Garrett - Editor Charles Hall - Production Designer Ira Morgan - Cinematographer Philip Goldstone - Producer Edward T. Lowe - Screenwriter

Night of the Living Dead
When George A. Romero, a Pittsburgh-based director of TV commercials and industrial films, persuaded a few buddies to pitch in some money for a case of film stock so that he could shoot a zombie movie on the weekends, he had no idea that he would forever change the American horror movie. With his first effort, Romero shattered the rules of the horror genre; Night of the Living Dead retained many of the iconic elements of the traditional horror movie, but without the emotional buffering of most films that preceded it. In this film, the good guys didn't win, the monsters became only more powerful, the authority figures protecting us were both dangerous and inept, the source of the contagion was both unexplained and unstoppable, and, as friends and families were pitted against each other, no one got away unscathed. The early films of Herschell Gordon Lewis predated it in putting graphic gore on screen, but while Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs seemed almost comical in their candy-colored carnage, Night's stark black-and-white images of zombies feeding on their human victims possessed a blunt and troubling realism that broke new, stomach-churning ground. And while Night's political allegories are more subtle than those of such later Romero films as The Crazies and Dawn of the Dead, its open distrust of authority and depiction of society on the verge of collapse certainly mark it as a film of the Vietnam era; the grim fate of Duane Jones, the film's sole heroic figure and only African-American, had added resonance with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X fresh in the minds of most Americans. At a time when most horror movies took the tack that fear could be fun, Night of the Living Dead offered terror without a spoonful of sugar, and the genre would never be the same again. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
 

Revolt of the Zombies
(not reviewed)
 

Dementia 13
(not reviewed)
 

The Corpse Vanishes
Bela Lugosi's stint with Monogram is usually considered a waste of the great star's talents, but The Corpse Vanishes may just be the exception. For once, Lugosi doesn't have to carry the whole show by himself, but is offered good support from the cat-like Elizabeth Russell ("Don't touch me, you gargoyle," she shrieks at poor Angelo Rossitto), the always watchable Minerva Urecal and the peppy Luana Walters, the film's true star. Usually wasted in typically empty ingénue roles, Walters tears into this assignment with gusto, matching Lugosi all the way, but always with her tongue firmly planted in cheek. One question remains, however: Why is Dr. Lorenz sleeping in a casket? ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
 

Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride
(not reviewed)
 

The Vampire Bat
Often cited as the cream of the crop among independently produced chillers of the 1930s, The Vampire Bat does indeed pack a wallop. Perhaps no longer able to frighten a modern, so-called more sophisticated audience, Frank Strayer's compact little horror treatise is nevertheless so well cast and produced with such élan as to consistently entertain. The physical trappings are entirely comparable to the Universal horror films of the era -- in fact, filmed on the studio lot, The Vampire Bat benefits from several of the famous standing sets -- and the cast is perhaps even better than what the larger studio would be willing to provide. Lionel Atwill adds yet another of his patented devilishly calculating Mad Doctors and Fay Wray is as comely as ever, even if she doesn't scream a single time. Add to that a young Melvyn Douglas as the male ingénue (a major improvement over Universal's tepid David Manners) and such grand genre perennials as Dwight Frye, Lionel Belmore, Robert Frazer, and Maude Eburne, and there is nary a dull moment. Eburne, incidentally, as Wray's hypochondriac aunt, becomes the subject of one of filmdom's funnier closing lines. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
 

Night of the Living Dead - Film Awards: Library of Congress, U.S. National Film Registry (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: DD2: Dolby Digital Stereo Additional Features: Biographies Direct scene access MPAA Rating: PG DVD Discs Included: 3 DVD Sides: 3 DVD DVD Region Code: Content Length: 438 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- Disc 1 1. The Cemetery [9:19] 2. Alone [9:44] 3. Together [10:49] 4. Broadcast [7:57] 5. The Cellar [8:30] 6. Traumatized [3:33] 7. The Plan [10:11] 8. Search & Destroy [13:15] 9. Infected [8:42] 10. Roundup [5:12] 1. Ego [10:08] 2. Angkor [10:45] 3. Phnom Penh [11:56] 4. An Explanation [9:22] 5. The Secret [8:45] 6. Sacrifice [11:08] Side #2 -- Disc 2 1. Heart Troubles [9:08] 2. Ghost Stories [10:21] 3. Visions [8:15] 4. Toys [10:25] 5. Missing [11:18] 6. The Tiara [6:46] 7. A Shrine [9:10] 8. Wedding Day [7:51] 9. Credits [1:31] 1. Corpse Thief [9:38] 2. Stop and Search [10:41] 3. Hitching a Ride [9:55] 4. A Nightmare [10:52] 5. Strange Tricks [12:01] 6. A Charming Addition [9:57] Side #3 -- Disc 3 1. Sacrifice [12:35] 2. Briefing [8:14] 3. Van Helsing [9:43] 4. Bitten [7:05] 5. The Cellar [9:22] 6. Means to an End [7:44] 7. Sniper [6:39] 8. The Master [5:45] 9. The Prisoner [5:07] 10. Four Horseman [9:03] 11. Thorn [4:50] 12. Credits [:50] 1. Vampires at Large [9:29] 2. Poor Soul [9:56] 3. A Human Bat [13:35] 4. Witch Hunt [5:26] 5. Careless [12:04] 6. The Secret of Life [9:06]