December 19, 2014

The Best Horror & Genre Blu-ray Releases of 2014

Were addicted to Blu-rays. We admit it.

There's no better way to watch a movie that you love, than to watch it on Blu-ray. For us, that mantra is twice as true when it comes to the Horror films that we love, especially those of the older variety. Fortunately for us, companies like Scream Factory, Synapse, Twilight Time, Severin, Grindhouse Releasing, and many others, are always working their asses off to give we fans the best possible editions of the movies that we love, which almost always feature gorgeous new transfers, crisp audio tracks, fantastic commentaries, and abundant Special Features.

They don't just throw a movie on a disc and ship it out; they actually care about the films that they restore and release, and more importantly, they care about the fans getting maximum enjoyment out of them. Everyone involved in producing the Blu-ray discs listed below deserves a solid round of applause for not only giving Horror fans so many great titles in 2014, but for making them the best releases that they possible could.

Below you'll find what for us were The Best Horror & Genre Blu-ray releases of 2014. If you've yet to discover them for yourselves, you really should do so when possible, because this year has given us some truly outstanding Home Video releases.

*And as always, click the pics for info on the flicks.

Our personal favorite Blu-ray release of 2014 (and maybe ever) is Twilight Time's Limited Edition release of the 1988 remake of The Blob. This movie is one of our all-time favorite flicks; most of that is probably due to sentimental attachment, but that doesn't at all take away from the fact that it's a great movie and a great remake. It's just got that perfect 80's feel about it, and it's hard not to love.

This Blu-ray was limited to a run of 5000 copies, so if you didn't grab one for yourself before it sold out, then you'll have to hope that Twilight Time releases it again in a few years, like they're doing with Fright Night in February.

Click here to listen to the best closing credits song ever.

Curtains is an under-appreciated slasher flick from the early 80's that was given new life this Summer, with this new Blu-ray release from Synapse. It's a good film, with plenty of memorable moments, but it's also a wildly uneven film, and it definitely feels like it's two separate movies that were essentially jammed together to create one finished product... mainly, because that's exactly what it is.

This Blu-ray release by Synapse is a remarkable thing because they took what has always been a dark, nearly-unwatchable movie, and painstakingly restored it into a crisp and gorgeous film. They made it watchable, maybe for the first time ever. Having seen the older VHS & DVD versions of Curtains, we can honestly say that watching this Blu-ray was like seeing the movie for the first time.

Synapse's release of Curtains is one of the most impressive Blu-ray transfers of an old, barely-watchable movie that we've ever seen. Add to that the fact that Curtains is also a solid, underrated Slasher flick too, and you can't go wrong with this disc.

This Halloween Bl-ray Box Set contains so much material, that it basically took us the entire month of October to get through. 10 movies, 14 cuts of those movies, and hours of Bonus Features spread across all of the discs (plus a dedicated Bonus Disc)... this is as definitive of a collection that the Halloween Series will ever see, and a Must Own for any true Halloween fan.

4 hours of interviews and behind the scenes footage chronicling the entirety of Freddy's universe, this is maybe the most complete Doc that we've ever seen. Oh, and it's also jam-packed with 4 more hours of Bonus Features. Even if you don't love the Nightmare on Elm Street series, this documentary is a stellar watch. This is a Must Own of the highest caliber for Horror fans, and it would be a bargain at twice the price.

Horror Documentaries just don't get much better than this.

For many reasons, this Limited Edition of Clive Barker's Nightbreed: The Director's Cut, may be the biggest Horror Blu-ray release of 2014. Decades in the making, Scream Factory has gone above and beyond to give fans a proper release of this 1990 classic, and it shows. This one comes with the steep price of $71.89, but for Nightbreed fanatics, it's more than worth it.

Ah, 80's Lance Henriksen fighting an 80's Stan Winston monster. How can you not love that? Pumpkinhead is a great movie that will always hold a special place in our hearts, and it still plays as well today as it did back in 1988. Scream Factory, as usual, did a great job with this disc.

Not only is Scanners finally available on Blu-ray for the first time ever, but it's a Criterion Collection disc to boot! As Cronenberg flicks go, The Brood is our absolute fave, but Scanners is still a great movie that is near and dear to our collective hearts; after all, this movie is responsible for us seeing our first exploding head on film, and that's a pretty big deal to us.

This is now our favorite Criterion disc that we own.

One of our favorite movies of 2014, Snowpiercer is a Must Own for us, and we'd argue that it is for you too. We hesitate to call this Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi gem a masterpiece (because, hyperbole), but it really is one hell of a brilliant film. It looks and sounds great, and its nearly 2 hours worth of Special Features were fun to comb through.

If you haven't seen it yet, why not?

If we have to say anything about this movie, you're in the wrong place, my friend. We will say though that the 4k transfer on this disc is gorgeous, and that it's the best it's ever looked & sounded. The extras are fantastic and plentiful too.

For Twin Peaks fans, Christmas came in July this year when Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery was released on Blu-ray. Now, this show was good, but it's also really bizarre and quirky, so if you're curious about it, maybe stream a few episodes on Netflix before coughing up $80 for this massive set. If you do end up liking it though, then every penny of that $80 will be worth it to not only have the entire series in Blu-ray, but also the movie (Fire Walk With Me), and a wealth of great Bonus Features.

*It doesn't come with a slice of cherry pie though. Sorry.

The discs below represent some of the absolute best Blu-ray releases of 2014; some because they were technically sound, others because they were just great movies/TV Shows that we had to own on Blu-ray. They just did it for us.

Either way, if you're looking for a great watch that comes in a great package, these releases are a great place to start.

AlienBloody BirthdayBloody MoonCannibalCapDawnDemonsDemons2FinalGodzillaGOTGHannibalHobbitLordPicnicPromSleepawayStage

5 comments :

  1. I love your site, its my fav horror blog out there and I have followed tons. Anyways, do you have a list like this from previous years? OR all your blu-ray recommends in one place, you have very good taste in horror!!

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  2. Thank you Anon :)

    We do not have a Blu-ray list from previous years, as this is the first time we decided to do it. We do have "Best of" lists from 2008-2013 on the right sidebar though, if you want to click them and read up on each year's movies.

    Also, every Tuesday we do a Blu-ray/DVD column, so if you search for "Digital Dread" up in the search bar at the top, you can look back through all of those posts for Blu-ray info and such.

    Hope that helps.

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  3. Please write more posts like this. As a fan of your blog, this really helpful for me to pick recommended titles for my collection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not a problem.

      We do a weekly "Digital Dread" column which talks about new releases, and I'm just about to make a permanent "Best Blu-ray's of 2015" post on the sidebar.

      A Blu-ray collection is a beautiful thing!

      Delete