I wrote last year about our love of Shout Factory and its sub division Scream Factory. They've done amazing the last six years with their releases, and the care they take with them, along with the choices of titles. They've constantly kept up great work, and with San Diego Comic-Con coming up with their planned list of titles to announce there, let's look at a few more titles we would love to see from them! The list is presented in no particular order.

Let's Scare Jessica To Death

     Let’s get started with what may end up being the most divisive choice on the entire list. Some see Let’s Scare Jessica to Death as a creepy, atmospheric, and tension filled subtle film, while others would argue that it’s a bore. I would tell you where I fall in that camp but, well, it’s on this list. I’ve always found LSJtD worthy of the ‘hushed’ cult following around it, seeing it as a great example of a very quiet yet masterfully made dream-fever of a tale. Yes, it is slow and focuses more on building onto itself, but if you go into it with the right attitude and frame of mind, it can easily become a go-to in mood setting films, perfect for those cold, eerie night in October. Let’s Scare Jessica was released by Warner Bros. as an on-demand disc back in 2013, but it would be nice to see on blu-ray, giving it a chance to possibly be discovered by more people who would appreciate it.

Near Dark

    Possibly on of the best vampire films made, Near Dark had a very impressive DVD release in the early 00’s and a disappointing one on Blu-Ray in 2009, which did have a decent, lengthy documentary with it. One of the major problems with the Blu-ray release is it tried to play off the popularity of another film, hoping to bring in some possible new buyers in how it was marketed. See if you can guess what they tried to piggy-back off of.

    This is disappointing because the film is so much more than just an ordinary romance with a vampire character. Near Dark is from Kathryn Bigelow and showcases her talents early in her career. Like most horror films, the atmosphere here is fantastic, but Bigelow also shows her expertise in other genres as well, mainly some action. Near Dark not only includes a phenomenal bar scene and some interesting vampires, but may also hold one of the most beloved ones in the entire horror community.
    Bill Paxton as Severen is a joy to behold, like Paxton was in most things, but here we get a performance that is a great example of controlled, gleeful unhinged-ness worth seeing the movie alone. It celebrated its 30th Anniversary last year, and I think it’s time we get a proper release that pays it the much needed love it deserves.

Frailty

    Bill Paxton wasn’t simply just a great actor, but turned out to be a pretty good director as well. Frailty was his first film and still stands as an underrated classic that is unfortunately not as widely known or remembered as it should be. The story of two brothers raised by their religious father, who suddenly believes he was given a power by God to see humans who are demons in disguise in order to deal with them, builds its mystery and suspense in a very slow-burn way, but has you hooked from the very beginning. It keeps you on edge constantly, leaving you worried and tense every frame, waiting to see how it all pulls together in the end. It is a film reveling in subtlety and performances, and both are absolutely perfect. Frailty deserves a special edition that dives into its makings, and one that will extend it to a wider audience that it so deserves.

Jacob’s Ladder

    Though they began primarily as releasers of classic and cult horror, Scream Factory has expanded to different aspects of both labels in various ways. It’s why a psychological thriller like Frailty would be a great release for them, as would Jacob’s Ladder.      Relying brilliantly on tension and mystery in a slow-burn, Jacob’s Ladder, like Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, does wonders in making you feel in a dreamlike state for the majority of its runtime, except here it’s more of a straightforward nightmare, portraying a sense of dread that is masterfully handled in every scene. It winds you up tighter and tighter as it goes, throwing imagery at you that is really hard to forget and has since gone on to influence a number of works, most notably Silent Hill.
     Its influence towards so many other works is a reason why I’ve always found it odd that the film has never been given a proper, ‘deep-dive’ release. There is much to explore and talk about; from its aforementioned influence on media spanning games, films, and television, to its themes and plot. It would honestly make a fantastic double feature with Frailty, both leaving you wonder what may be real, or the truth, from the beginning all the tension-filled way to the end.

Ginger Snaps 2 & 3

    Scream Factory did a great job with the release of the original Ginger Snaps back in 2014 when they featured it as a Collector’s Edition title. There are quite a few films they have released that they were able to do sequels and follow-ups for, and I’m sure their work on these two sequels would be just as great as those as well. Not only would there work here be great, but Ginger Snaps 2 and 3 are both sequels that are more enjoyable than they probably have any right to be, working off what came before to expand on using themes in horror (#2) or spinning off from the plot in interesting ways (#3). The two are some more modern sequels that do honestly deserve to be wider seen, as some who may have seen the original may not have done so with the two others, or may even somehow not know one or the other exist.

Pin

     To even describe the plot of Pin in a single sentence feels like giving away more than I should. I do feel that it is a movie best experienced going in, completely blind, on a late night and letting it unfold in front of you.     Released Direct-to-Video in the States, Pin is a fantastically odd and unnerving Canadian sit. It’s received quite a heap of acclaim over time as an underrated and underseen horror film. Though that is true, it still feels as though the film remains vastly overlooked or unheard of by quite a few horror fans. Unfortunately, no matter the amount of praise it has received over the internet and from the community, Pin has not gotten a wide release since its arrival on DVD back in 2001. The film was released in the US on VHS in January of 1989, so its 30th anniversary is coming up, which would be just as perfect as a time to strike as the film would be perfect in the Scream library.

Vincent Price Collection IV

     What would be involved? Not sure! But Shout/Scream Factory had done an incredible job with the first three sets, with two dedicated to more well-known classics from the master and Vol. III being a nice mix of films out of the usual we’d expect. I would love more of that if that is the direction they would continue to go.
     Besides giving us our great horror fill of the always fantastic Price, the sets also did a fantastic job in showcasing just how excellent an actor he was, ranging from playing a no-nonsense bastard of a villain in Witchfinder General to the one-man performances of Edgar Allan Poe, and I would gladly welcome a deeper dive into the actor’s filmography. Whether it’d be some more horror or another variety set, you can never go wrong with such a charismatic performer as Vincent Price was.

Dellamorte Dellamore

     Based on a novel by Tiziano Sclavi and directed by Michele Soavi in what would be his final Italian horror film before focusing on television films, Dellamorte Dellamore has, for years, been regarded as a wildly underrated horror film of not just the 90’s, but all time. The easiest way to describe the plot would be to say that it stars Rupert Everett as the caretaker of a cemetery who has to deal with newly deceased folk returning back to the world of the living a few days after they die, making sure they’re dead so that things don’t escalate to even worse scenarios. To say more would be to take away from the experience of the movie, which is better going in completely blind. Needless to say, it’s a hard film not to like or even enjoy.
     One of the factors, unfortunately, for its constant status as a forgotten gem lies in the fact that it isn’t really easily available in North America. Even upon its release, its title was changed to Cemetary Man and its home media release hasn’t been great either here, with the one DVD release from 12 years ago being long out of print. It would be great to see a company like Shout Factory get a hold of it and release it themselves on this side of the pond. Not only that, like with everything else, they would undoubtedly find and create a great heap of extras to go along with it and explore the film the way it deserves.

The Final Spot
     I’m leaving number ten open for you in the comments! There are tons and tons of great films out there, either genuinely great or ones to enjoy during a fun night with some friends. So, what are some horror or cult films, either forgotten or long out of print, that you would love to see get added to the Scream Factory library?