DECK THE HALLS WITH BLOODY CADAVERS,
TRA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA!
Yes, as if you didn’t know already, Christmas is speeding towards us like that unstoppable and overwhelming truck in Duel. It’ s a jolly time in which the colours red and green can be seen everywhere. Your bank account gets redder as your face flushes green with envy. Oh joy. Anyone placed a bet on whether it’ll be a white Christmas or not? Anyway, whilst Santa and his pointy-eared minions are hard at work turning children into materialistic consumerists, here’s the month’s first newsletter, packed with some great Cult DVD and Blu-Ray news.
COMING SOON!
Out early next month is the highly anticipated DVD and Blu-Ray release of The Troll Hunter! As I’ve said for the past few weeks in the newsletter, this is truly one of the best of the year and is highly recommended! The critics and fans are going crazy over this film and there’s plenty of reasons for that. The incredible effects the great plot and the humour all add up to one heck of a film! There’s plenty of Cult Labs related stuff to sink your teeth into regarding The Troll Hunter. There’s the official forum where you can find out all you need about Momentum’s DVD/Blu-Ray release of the film. Then there’s the FanHub which is brimming and bubbling with loads of fun things from Troll Hunting Tips, an interview with Fangoria to a Mark Kemode video review. What’s more, if you pre-order the film through Play, you’ll also recieve a pack of exclusive Troll Hunter Top Trump cards! Now that’s cool! The Troll Hunter is out of the 9th of January.
- Also out (slightly later) in January is Shameless Screen Entertainment’s release of Dario Argento’s ‘missing’ Four Flies On Grey Velvet. This release not only marks 40 years since it was made and it’s 20th anniversary since it was ‘found’ but it also marks the first time this film has EVER been available on Blu-Ray! Pretty impressive, eh? The film is a true gem and easily among Argento’s best work. Visit the Official Announcement thread for all the details of this release. Shameless’ release of Dario Argento’s Four Flies On Grey Velvet is due for release on DVD and Blu-Ray on the 30th January. Visit the Official mini-forum for more details and to share your opinion.
CULT CHRISTMAS FILMS!
To celebrate Christmas, over the next few Weekly Newsletters, I’ll be adding a new section detailing some of my favourite Cult Christmas movies, from well-known and well-loved festive films to those obscure and plain what-the-hell-is-this films. So kicking it off, here’s a couple of great Xmas Flicks…
- Silent Night, Deadly Night – this is without doubt one of my all time favourite Slasher films and Christmas movies. It’s just so much fun! What’s not to like here? A killer ‘Santa Claus’, Linnea Quigley doing what she does best (getting naked and killed), amazing deaths, plenty of gore, a creepily catchy theme song, evil nuns, and oh so much more. If you’re after a Christmas film covered in the red stuff, then this is the perfect choice!
If you’re after something a little more obscure for your holiday cult fix, may I suggest the frankly disturbing ‘kids’ film Santa Claus from 1959. With a generic title like that, you’d most likely expect a similarly generic film, right? WRONG! This European freak of a film has a few baubles missing from the Christmas Tree. The film centers around a suspicious Santa who, in his spaceship, is surrounded by various machines (including one with huge LIPS!) and seemingly uses child labour to create the toys. There’s robotic reindeer, super disturbing human dancing dolls and about every un-PC racial stereotype you can (and can’t) imagine. Oh and did I mention he fits a Devil? If you fancy scaring your children for life, then this is the film to do it with Good luck!
BAH! HUMBUG!
All this talk about harmony and joy and Santa and snow and happiness and urgh, it’s enough to drive a Scrooge crazy! Thankfully, over this month there’ll be a short section of a totally un-Christmassy and very grim, gross and just plain nasty info. So if you’re already sick of this festival chit-chat, then look no further. Bah! Humbug! Ever heard of a Teratoma? No? Well, it sounds like something straight out of a Cronenberg movie. The nicknamed ‘monster tumour’ is no ordinary tumour. Oh no. This tumour can grow hair, skin, nails, teeth and even parts of organs! Disgusting! However, whilst it may sound vomit-enducing, there’s been new evidence to suggest that perhaps this tumour may hold the secret to curing Cancer.
If you’re struggling for a topic of conversation over the Christmas dinner, why not mention the tumour that grows hair and teeth? It’ll go down a treat!
Bah, humbug!
THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Anyway, back to Cult Labs. This week in The Twilight Zone Official UK forum, Nosferatu@Cult Labs has created this week’s featured thread. It’s all about Feelgood episodes from The Twilight Zone and includes such classics as One For The Angels (Season One), The Fugitive (Season Three) and The Changing Of The Guard (Season Three). What do you think of Nos’ choices? Are you a fan of either of those episodes? Or perhaps you prefer the doom-and-gloom episodes more? Why not let us know what you think over on the Topic of the Week thread!
Don’t forget to make a note in your diary for the next Twilight Zone Tuesday! On the 13th of Decemeber at 9pm over on Twitter, we’ll be watching one of the greatest Christmas stories ever told; The Twilight Zone’s Night Of The Meek. Staring Art Carney (from Last Action Hero) and The Magnificent Seven‘s Val Avery, this remains a true Christmas Classic and is bound to get your festive juices running. Visit the thread and let us know if you can make it!
Don’t forget, there’s not long left until the 5th Volume of the original The Twilight Zone is released on DVD and Blu-Ray. To have yours on pre-order, click here.
PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H
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This week in the Prisoner forum our featured discussion is all about your most under-appreciated and over-rated characters to ever visit Cell Block H. Perhaps you’ve always secretly found Doreen to be a bit annoying and adore the minor character that is the terrible social worker, Mrs Forster like myself? Or perhaps you’re more inclined to agree with Robert who picked Noeline Burke as his most overrated character and Lisa Mullins as an under-rater. Or perhaps you have your own? Well, don’t hesitate! Let us know what you think over on the Topic of the Week thread!
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Also, on the Prisoner forum, member Screwbaiter has shared with us some incredible fan artwork that really shows just how talented our members are. They are quite simply amazing! Come and visit his new thread of pictures and share your opinions.
WIN! WIN! WIN! BECAUSE WE’RE GENEROUS LIKE THAT.
This week, rahter than giving away a pre-selected DVD, we’re giving away ANY Arrow Video DVD or Blu-Ray of you
r choice to help complete your Arrow collection! Talk about spoiling you! All you have to do is come up with a film that would look hillariously ridiculous if Arrow released it, such as The Care Bears Movie. We’ve already recieved loads of fantastic entries, but if you think you can top it, go for it! This Weekly Competition ends 0n Sunday 4th December and can be entered here.
This huge Competition also marks the end of this years Weekly Competitions (most likely). Instead, we’re having a Competition Countdown to Christmas in which each and every day I’ll be giving away a great DVD or Blu-Ray to a lucky winner! So be sure to enter those.
Also, keep your eyes pealed for some Super Comps. If you fancy winning Twilight Zone Vol. 1-4, or Prisoner: Cell Block H – Vol.1 – 10 then be ready!
Anyways, that’s it for this week
There are so many ways you can get involved with all the cult film fun at Cult Labs:
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