Hello!

←  We have A New Banner up. Is there a middle step between ‘Shelter In Place’ and ‘Second Wave’ that I’ve skipped over?  We also tried to show some discretion with the banner’s tagline. The text was for a while going to be ‘Waiting for the Second Wave,’ but I wanted to express wondering concern, not morbid anticipation. The first banner stayed up for two months — it would be nice if this one were to become old-news obsolete without delay.

The irreplaceable Gary Teetzel has rounded up some happy future Blu-ray horror news for us… Scream Factory has announced that their September lineup will include the delayed How to Make a Monster and War of the Colossal Beast ↑.

Plus, Scream is also going to reissue Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Death separately and in a new pressing of their older Vincent Price Collection, Volume 1.

The first difference is that the Public Broadcasting Service introductions that previously accompanied the Price pictures will no longer be there (although new extras will be added). The second is that Masque will be presented in two cuts, the previous version but also the Academy of Arts and Sciences’ new restoration, which I am told looks fantastic and adds a few new moments of screen time. Gary writes:

“The big additions are the scene between Esmeralda and Hop-toad, and a longer version of the scene between Jane Asher and Price on the battlements, where Price releases the hawk. Censor cuts restored: the word ‘God’ from Asher’s exclamation in the opening scene in her village; a longer version of Asher being tossed into the tub; possibly one line of dialogue during the bal masque at the end. I think that’s it, but I’m not 100% certain.”

This will be a reward for patient horror fans that remember the old (mid- 1990s?) discussion of missing scene fragments and shots from Masque back in the old, indispensable Video Watchdog magazine.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson