And so it begins. The Masters of Horror are coming to DVD and the complete details for the first set has become available. What follows below is the Press Release that I received and it has all the info you could possibly want on the pending release. Here ya go:
When night overtakes day, when dreams morph into nightmares, when terror conquers reason, you will find them…lurking in the movies, on the airwaves and now in your DVD player. From the creative minds behind some of the most horrifying and groundbreaking cinema of all time comes…the “Masters of Horror!” IDT Entertainment’s Anchor Bay Entertainment – a leader in horror DVD programming – announces the March 28, 2006 DVD debut of two features from the critically acclaimed “Masters of Horror” film anthology. These bloodcurdling tales – “Cigarette Burns” directed by John Carpenter (“Halloween,” “The Thing,” “They Live”) and “Dreams in the Witch House” directed by Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator,” “Pit and the Pendulum,” “Dolls”) – are also loaded with hours of bonus supplements to please the horror faithful and neophytes alike.
Each DVD package boasts original art from renowned genre artists Jeremy Caniglia, Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith and includes a limited edition collectible trading card. SRP is $16.98 for each edition, with the “Masters of Horror Carpenter/Gordon 2-Pack” priced at $29.98 SRP. Pre-book is January 28, 2006.
“Our goal has always been to present the best horror catalog for home entertainment consumers,” says Anchor Bay Entertainment President and CEO Ted Green, “and with ‘Masters of Horror’ we are presenting the very best directors working in the field.”
“Masters of Horror” had its genesis in a series of bi-monthly informal dinners attended by some of the horror genre’s most respected directors. Premiering on the Showtime cable network in October 2005 to critical and public acclaim, “Masters of Horror” elevates the anthology to a completely new – and unnerving – level of storytelling. Each one-hour film stands alone as an exercise in terror, written and directed by some of the genre’s leading practitioners.
In John Carpenter’s “Cigarette Burns,” written by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan, film “detective” Kirby Sweetman (Norman Reedus) is hired by a mysterious patron (Udo Kier) to track down the only known existing print of “Le Fin Absolue du Monde,” or “The Absolute End of the World,” a film shown only once and rumored to have driven its audience into a homicidal rage. (“Cigarette Burns” refer to the momentary dots that appear at the top right hand corner of a film print to indicate reel changes.) As Kirby’s investigations go deeper and deeper into the film’s reputation and actual history, he discovers a cinematic conspiracy that stretches from life to death and from Heaven to Hell.
Stuart Gordon’s “Dreams in the Witch House” cements Gordon’s reputation as a leading dramatizer of the horror literature of H.P. Lovecraft. Adapted from Lovecraft’s short story by Gordon and his frequent collaborator Dennis Paoli, “Dreams” spins the strange tale of college student Walter Gilman (Ezra Godden) who rents an attic room in a quaint but dilapidated building. Studying interdimensional string theory, Walter soon becomes haunted by nightmares involving witches, supernatural animals and even Satan himself. When Walter accidentally uncovers the gateway to a parallel universe, he starts to lose his grip on reality and begins to suspect that he might be an unwitting pawn in a satanic ritual that demands the life of his neighbor’s infant!
Horror.com declared “Scary and sexy, ‘Masters of Horror’ grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go,” while Entertainment Weekly gave the series an “A-“ and The Horror Channel exclaimed “Horror is a dish best served terrifying and the Masters have provided us with a feast!"
Anchor Bay Entertainment has created extensive bonus materials for each DVD release of “Masters of Horror,” assembling and presenting never-before-seen value-added features, behind-the-scenes supplements and extras available on DVD and DVD-ROM that provide hours of chilling insights.
JOHN CARPENTER’S CIGARETTE BURNS offers such features as:
Widescreen Presentation (1.77:1), enhanced for 16x9 TVs
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
“Celluloid Apocalypse: An Interview with John Carpenter”
Behind The Scenes: The Making of Cigarette Burns
Audio Commentaries with director John Carpenter and writers Drew McWeeny & Scott Swan
Trailers
Still Gallery
John Carpenter Bio
Original Screenplay (DVD-ROM)
Screen savers (DVD-ROM)
STUART GORDON’S DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE includes the following value-added extras:
Widescreen Presentation (1.77:1), enhanced for 16x9 TVs
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
“Dreams, Darkness and Damnation: An Interview with Stuart Gordon”
Behind The Scenes: The Making of Dreams in the Witch House
SFX: Meet Brown Jenkin
Audio commentary by writer/director Stuart Gordon, Actor Ezra Godden and DVD Producer Perry Martin
Trailers
Still Gallery
Storyboard Gallery
Stuart Gordon Bio
Original Screenplay (DVD-ROM)
“Dreams in the Witch House” by H.P. Lovecraft (DVD-ROM)
Screen savers (DVD-ROM)
