Halloween is arguably the most movie-friendly holiday. After all, it’s a perfect excuse to stay inside, watch a classic (or brand-new) horror movie with somebody you’re comfortable screaming in front of. And this year, various home video companies have unleashed an embarrassment of riches onto the market.
From cult classics to stone-cold favorites to brand-new movies making their Blu-ray debut, there’s something for every discerning horror fan, and we’ve got a handy guide to the best new horror Blu-rays and 4K releases arriving on home video just in time for Halloween.
“Paranormal Activity:” The Ultimate Chills Collection (Paramount Home Video, $67.99)
In 2007, a found footage horror movie called “Paranormal Activity” started making the festival rounds. Made for $15,000, it was reportedly scary enough to spook Steven Spielberg, who watched an early cut on DVD. Picked up by Paramount, who sunk another $200,000 into filming a scarier ending, it was released in 2009 and started one of the most unstoppable horror franchises in modern cinema. This deluxe box set is festooned with extras, including an entire bonus disc devoted to a new, feature-length documentary called “Unknown Dimension: The Story of Paranormal Activity.” (This is the only place, outside of Paramount+, that you can also watch last year’s “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin.”) Fans of the franchise or newcomers to the series will both revel in the presentation of the movies and the abundance of supplemental material on hand. Ready to get haunted?
“Child’s Play,” “Child’s Play 2,” “Child’s Play 3” 4K (Shout! Factory, $36.98 each)
Chucky is really having a moment. Between his Syfy series, the 2019 remake and a still ubiquitous onslaught of merchandise, everything is coming up “Child’s Play.” In fact, it’s easy to forget how excellent the original movies were – specifically the first three installments, which have been lovingly restored by Shout! Factory and handsomely packaged on 4K ultra-HD Blu-ray. There is a wealth of special features packed into the accompanying Blu-ray discs (including making-of documentaries, photo galleries and original featurettes), but the real star of the show is the movies themselves, which look better than you’ve ever seen them. Stefan Czapsky in “Child’s Play 2” (arguably the platonic ideal of a “Child’s Play” movie) particularly pops. Chucky looks like he could reach out and grab you, making the experience all the more terrifying.
“The Lost Boys” and “Poltergeist” (Warner Bros. Home Video, $33.99 each)
This Halloween Warner Bros. has resurrected two of its biggest 1980s horror favorites and they look amazing. Seriously, we threw on the “Lost Boys” disc and were blown away. (Michael Chapman, Martin Scorsese’s cinematographer on “Raging Bull” and “Taxi Driver,” shot “The Lost Boys.”) Ditto “Poltergeist,” where the optical and make-up effects take on an even more tactile realism. (Can you believe that movie was rated PG?) All of the special features from earlier releases are present and accounted for on these new discs and, perhaps most incredibly, there’s actually a new transfer on the bonus Blu-ray disc. Meaning that if you have to watch on a regular Blu-ray player, you’ll get a new take on “Poltergeist” and “The Lost Boys” too. How’s that for an extra Halloween treat?
“Halloween” 4K Collection (1995-2002) Box Set (Shout! Factory, $129.98)
Shout Factory/Scream Factory released the original 1978 “Halloween” and a slew of its sequels last year around this time. But they didn’t put all of them out … Thanks to a weird licensing agreement, “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers,” “Halloween H20” and “Halloween: Resurrection” had to be packaged and sold together and here they are! While this wasn’t the high point of the franchise, it marks an interesting lull in the series, before it veered into uncharted territory with the two Rob Zombie remakes and returned to more stable ground with the 2018 continuation. Both versions of “The Curse of Michael Myers” are presented here in beautiful 4K, meaning you can choose which one you prefer – the more coherent “Producer’s Cut” or the battier, more bloody “Theatrical Cut” (we’re partial to the latter, if only because a young Paul Rudd seems to have grown a sense of humor in between principal photography and the reshoots). And “H20” is a lot of streamlined fun too (the work of uncredited screenwriter Kevin Williamson is really felt when you re-watch). The less said about “Halloween: Resurrection,” the better, but completists shouldn’t be without this beautiful box set.
“Return of the Living Dead,” “The Funhouse,” “Army of Darkness” 4K (Shout! Factory, prices vary)
Cult classics, assemble! Shout/Scream Factory has brought three beloved cult classics – Dan O’Bannon’s “Return of the Living Dead,” Tobe Hooper’s “The Funhouse” and Sam Raimi’s “Army of Darkness,” and transferred them to beautiful 4K Blu-ray. Each of these movies is absolutely wonderful and if you’re a genre fan you have undoubtedly purchased them at least once before on home video (the editions of “Army of Darkness” I’ve owned over the years has damn near reached double digits) but these are all very worthy of a new purchase. The picture quality and sound are unbeatable and all of the extras that came before have been ported over to the new editions (including the multiple versions of “Army of Darkness”). And if, for some reason, you’ve never seen these movies before, this is a perfect excuse to pick them up now (“The Funhouse” has flown under the radar for too long but is one of the most visually ravishing horror movies of the 1980s).
“La Llorona,” “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Cure” (Criterion, $39.95 each)
Criterion’s entire October slate is super Halloween-y (and also includes their new 4K remaster of David Lynch’s “Lost Highway” and Kasi Lemmons’ voodoo-infused “Eve’s Bayou”) but in the interest of budgetary restrictions and the truly spooky, let’s focus on three releases – “La Llorona,” “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “Cure.” Frank Capra’s classic, darkly tinged screwball comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace” (which is set on Halloween, making it even more essential) comes complete with a new audio commentary, a 1932 radio adaptation starring Boris Karloff and more. “Cure,” from 1997, represents the peak of Japan’s horror resurgence and was a huge source of inspiration for Bong Joon-ho, and comes complete with a new transfer (that briefly ran theatrically) and extras like a conversation between director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and “Drive My Car” Ryusuke Hamaguchi (who was Kurosawa’s student). And “La Llorona,” a haunting ghost story and Guatemala’s entry for the 2020 Best Foreign Language Feature Oscar, comes with a new documentary featuring interviews with the cast and crew. What more could you want?
“Nope” 4K (Universal Home Video, $44.98)
The year’s very best horror movie is finally available on 4K disc and it is a stunner. If you didn’t see Jordan Peele’s latest genre masterwork, it concerns a brother-and-sister duo (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) who take over their father’s horse farm and soon find themselves menaced by a sinister UFO. Bigger and grander than anything Peele had attempted before, the 4K disc perfectly captures the beautiful IMAX cinematography (by Hoyte van Hoytema) and has a great selection of special features, including an hour-long making-of documentary called “Shadows.” Be warned, though: none of the special features illuminate some of the bigger “Nope” mysteries but they do tantalize all the same.
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” 4K Blu-ray (Vinegar Syndrome, $49.98)
The reassessment of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” (like “Poltergeist,” directed by Tobe Hooper) is finally complete, with this bells-and-whistles-filled home video release from specialty label Vinegar Syndrome. Initially met with befuddlement, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” took a different tone than its bone-chilling predecessor, instead going for a mixture of laughs and frights and walking that tonal tightrope for the entire running time. (Dennis Hopper co-stars as a chainsaw-wielding lawman bent on revenge.) This new package, put together by Vinegar Syndrome, features a transfer “restored from the never-before-accessed for home video 35mm original camera negative” and features hours of special features, many of them new (and exclusive) to this release. If you’re a fan of the sequel, this release is essential.
