Cutting Class
By Jessica Dwyer

To get into the Halloween spirit we’re heading back the vaults for this aged slice of 80’s cheese which is getting ready to be released on DVD later this month for the first time in…ever. Cutting Class was one of those flicks that popped up all over VHS in the late 80’s, early 90’s. Rip offs of earlier slasher films, it was in the vein of April Fool’s Day, Prom Night, and Return to Horror High. It’s sometimes whispered about and vaguely remembered by those chosen few who actually watched it when it was first released, before being lost to the ether. Some would say they wish it had stayed lost.
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Warner Directors’ Series: Stanley Kubrick

Back in 1999 when Warner Bros. released the first DVD set of Stanley Kubrick’s legendary film canon, there was a definite buzz amongst the film geek crowd of covetous delight. My buddy Mark, fresh out of film school, was one of the first to run out and snap up the set; me, I was surprisingly indifferent. “You’re gonna regret it later,” Mark would taunt, “You know you want it!” Of course I wanted it! – who wouldn’t want a petite library of movie history, of one of cinema’s true masters? But even then the possibility of the medium meant there were superior examples of discs with commentaries, hours of bonus footage… none of which appeared on that first Kubrick box. Though the bare-bones package was tempting, and later went out of print, I resisted… and I get the last laugh.
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Planet Terror

I’ve previously made my thoughts clear on the Siamese-twin-separation of Planet Terror from its Grindhouse sister, Death Proof, in a previous pick, so I’ll spare you the bitch-rant this time. Truth be told, both films are enough fun to recommend outside their original intended context… Robert Rodriguez’s no-holds-barred zombie bloodbath perhaps even more than Tarantino’s slasher pic. While the latter adheres to then upends the conventions of its chosen genre, Planet Terror dives straight into the night-in-hell apocalypse of your horror-loving dreams and delivers a nonstop thrill ride.
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Poltergeist: Special Edition: Now here’s a special edition that isn’t, and a lack of extras that it is much harder to excuse. Without question one of the finest American horror films ever made, the Tobe Hooper-directed, Spielberg-penned and produced yarn about a typical suburban family terrorized by unruly spirits who abduct their daughter deserves better – a commentary with stars Craig T. Nelson and Jo Beth Williams, maybe, one or two of the production featurettes that ARE out there (you can check YouTube!)? Hell, I’d even excuse a feature on the much-ballyhooed “Poltergeist Curse” surrounding all the actors who subsequently died. All we get on this purported special edition is a mini-doc on poltergeist phenomenon that has nothing to do with the film. Abysmal… still, it’s my second favorite movie of all time, so I can’t not recommend it. At least there’s a restored anamorphic transfer.
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Caligula: Three-Disc Imperial Edition

I’m beginning to feel as though I’m too often feasting on my own words with regard to double-dipping; a number of my picks over the past several months have been re-releases of stuff that’s already out in non-vanilla editions with decent extras. Sometimes, though, when the circumstances are right you just can’t deny the value in an upgrade, and this week’s triple-disc reissue of Caligula is a prime example.
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