Post by tav7623 on Oct 18, 2010 10:34:36 GMT -5
Hey everyone tav here with part 5 in my series of reviews on Horror Documentaries. This part will loosely (meaning I won't cover every single horror movie that has a feature length documentary just the major horror movies)focus on feature length documentaries that are included as a bonus feature on horror DVD/Blu-ray releases as well as focus on upcoming horror documentaries.
I feel the best place to start is with one of the very first horror movie DVD's to include a feature length documentary as a bonus feature which was the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy 9 disc DVD box set which included 4 somewhat unconventional (and in the case of part 3 butchered) documentaries, 1 for each movie in the box set and a bonus disc featuring both behind the scenes feature length documentaries that appeared on the now rare and hard to find Alien and Aliens laser discs. The documentaries covered pretty much every aspect surrounding the making of these movies except for part 3 which only lightly touches up the trouble behind the scenes between director David Fincher and the suits at Fox ( Fincher is completely absent from the part 3 documentary and from most of the Alien 3 bonus features). Flash forward to 2005 where two DVD's released had feature length documentaries they were the Jaws 30th Anniversary 2 disc DVD and Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects 2 disc DVD. In both cases the documentaries were put on their own disc because they were both over 2 hours long and were very thorough especially the Devil's Rejects documentary which literally covers 26/27 of the 30 days of production. Then in 2007 Anchor Bay released a 2 disc edition of Re-Animator which had a 1 hr and 10 minute long documentary and a 20th Anniversary edition of Hellraiser which also included a documentary Hellraiser: Resurrected, both docs focused exclusively on the movie they were included with and are loaded with interviews. In the past three years Blu Ray entered the fray with it's 25 to 50 gb discs companies were able to fit more bonus features on a single disc that would normally require two DVD's. A perfect example being the 2009 DVD re-release/ Blu Ray release of An American Werewolf in London which had a fan made feature length documentary about the making of An American Werewolf in London called "Beware the Moon". A few weeks ago another classic horror movie was given the Blu Ray treatment with a 2 disc set which had 4 documentaries (3 exclusive to this edition) and 2 versions of the movie complete with an audio commentary from the director....the movie......The Exorcist
Coming Attractions
over the past few entries I've briefly mentioned a few upcoming solo disc documentaries, some are coming out with in the next couple of weeks while others are coming out next year and in the case of one we may never get to see it on DVD/Blu Ray at all. First let me cover the one that will be coming out this week on DVD, which is The Psycho Legacy. The Psycho legacy will cover every movie in the Psycho franchise, include behind the scenes footage and rare cast interviews. Next up is Unearthed: The Hellraiser Saga which will be released next year supposedly around the time the Hellraiser remake is suppose to be released and will focus on all 8 movies in the series and will have exclusive artwork by Hellraiser creator Clive Barker. As for the documentaries we may never see on DVD there are two of them one is called Bogeymen 2: Masters of Horror and is hosted by Bruce "Don't call me Ash" Campbell which originally aired on Showtime in 2002, was then re-edited for the Sci Fi channel to air in 2004 and has for the most part since disappeared and legitimate copies of both versions are hard to find even on torrents. The second one is called " The Shark is still Working" and is about the impact of the Jaws series. This documentary is currently circling the film festival circuit, was made back in 2007, and is hosted by Roy Schneider who died about a year after making this documentary.
Further viewing
This section will focus on recommendations of other horror movie related documentaries that I did not review or mention as part of this 5 part series.
The American Nightmare (General Horror Movie Documentary)
The Real Amityville Horror ( bit.ly/dfceYk )
The Best Worst Movie (Troll 2 documentary)
Horror Effects (Tom Savini s1pecial effects tutorial documentary)
Horror Business ( Making a low budget Indie Horror movie doc)
I hope you enjoyed this series, as always please let me know what you think, and come back tomorrow for the 1st day of my 13 Days of Halloween event which will be kicked off with my review of the 1987 movie Hellraiser.
I feel the best place to start is with one of the very first horror movie DVD's to include a feature length documentary as a bonus feature which was the 2003 Alien Quadrilogy 9 disc DVD box set which included 4 somewhat unconventional (and in the case of part 3 butchered) documentaries, 1 for each movie in the box set and a bonus disc featuring both behind the scenes feature length documentaries that appeared on the now rare and hard to find Alien and Aliens laser discs. The documentaries covered pretty much every aspect surrounding the making of these movies except for part 3 which only lightly touches up the trouble behind the scenes between director David Fincher and the suits at Fox ( Fincher is completely absent from the part 3 documentary and from most of the Alien 3 bonus features). Flash forward to 2005 where two DVD's released had feature length documentaries they were the Jaws 30th Anniversary 2 disc DVD and Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects 2 disc DVD. In both cases the documentaries were put on their own disc because they were both over 2 hours long and were very thorough especially the Devil's Rejects documentary which literally covers 26/27 of the 30 days of production. Then in 2007 Anchor Bay released a 2 disc edition of Re-Animator which had a 1 hr and 10 minute long documentary and a 20th Anniversary edition of Hellraiser which also included a documentary Hellraiser: Resurrected, both docs focused exclusively on the movie they were included with and are loaded with interviews. In the past three years Blu Ray entered the fray with it's 25 to 50 gb discs companies were able to fit more bonus features on a single disc that would normally require two DVD's. A perfect example being the 2009 DVD re-release/ Blu Ray release of An American Werewolf in London which had a fan made feature length documentary about the making of An American Werewolf in London called "Beware the Moon". A few weeks ago another classic horror movie was given the Blu Ray treatment with a 2 disc set which had 4 documentaries (3 exclusive to this edition) and 2 versions of the movie complete with an audio commentary from the director....the movie......The Exorcist
Coming Attractions
over the past few entries I've briefly mentioned a few upcoming solo disc documentaries, some are coming out with in the next couple of weeks while others are coming out next year and in the case of one we may never get to see it on DVD/Blu Ray at all. First let me cover the one that will be coming out this week on DVD, which is The Psycho Legacy. The Psycho legacy will cover every movie in the Psycho franchise, include behind the scenes footage and rare cast interviews. Next up is Unearthed: The Hellraiser Saga which will be released next year supposedly around the time the Hellraiser remake is suppose to be released and will focus on all 8 movies in the series and will have exclusive artwork by Hellraiser creator Clive Barker. As for the documentaries we may never see on DVD there are two of them one is called Bogeymen 2: Masters of Horror and is hosted by Bruce "Don't call me Ash" Campbell which originally aired on Showtime in 2002, was then re-edited for the Sci Fi channel to air in 2004 and has for the most part since disappeared and legitimate copies of both versions are hard to find even on torrents. The second one is called " The Shark is still Working" and is about the impact of the Jaws series. This documentary is currently circling the film festival circuit, was made back in 2007, and is hosted by Roy Schneider who died about a year after making this documentary.
Further viewing
This section will focus on recommendations of other horror movie related documentaries that I did not review or mention as part of this 5 part series.
The American Nightmare (General Horror Movie Documentary)
The Real Amityville Horror ( bit.ly/dfceYk )
The Best Worst Movie (Troll 2 documentary)
Horror Effects (Tom Savini s1pecial effects tutorial documentary)
Horror Business ( Making a low budget Indie Horror movie doc)
I hope you enjoyed this series, as always please let me know what you think, and come back tomorrow for the 1st day of my 13 Days of Halloween event which will be kicked off with my review of the 1987 movie Hellraiser.