Hello!  January slams in with new announcements for devotees of the fantastic:

KL Studio Classics has announced a horror rarity — Charles Marquis Warren’s 1957 possession tale Back from the Dead.

There’s at yet no exact release date. Back from the Dead has been very difficult to see, especially in ‘Regalscope,’ really CinemaScope rebranded; its companion Regalscope production The Unknown Terror came out from Viavision [Imprint] in 2021.

I believe the movie was filmed in or near the art enclave of Laguna Beach; the notable cast includes Peggie Castle, Arthur Franz, Marsha Hunt ( ! ), Don Haggerty, James Bell and Ned Glass.

The renewed interest in the title makes one hope that the rights for the Regalscope film Kronos might now be clear, putting that much-desired Sci-fi classic back in play. It would really benefit from a full restoration & remaster.

 

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Vinegar Syndrome has posted a Promo Trailer for their upcoming 4K disc of The Horrible Dr. Hichcock.

They’ve also released more details for this release, that should please American collectors unable to play the Radiance Region B disc from back in October. The upcoming release is a combo 4K + Blu-ray item. It appears to be from the same remaster, with 3 separate cuts and some of the same extras.

Commentaries: instead of Radiance’s choice of Kat Ellinger or Tim Lucas, Vinegar Syndrome gives us Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth & Nathaniel Thompson, or a select track with Barbara Steele speaking with Russ Lanier.

We’ll see if we get a chance to review the disc. Hichcock was for so long ‘not there,’ or impossible to see in a quality presentation — and now we suddenly have competing releases.

Having committed to this particular show long ago, I don’t mind the personal double-dip. We’re told not to look for this on Amazon — it’s said to be a Vinegar Syndrome exclusive, through their website only.

 

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Wait, there’s more from Vinegar Syndrome, as reported by Gary Teetzel:

“Vinegar Syndrome posted online yesterday that they’ll be releasing Saul Bass’s Sci-fi thriller Phase IV on 4K Ultra-HD later this year — with multiple cuts!  So we’ll finally get to see it with the original trippy montage at the end.”

The movie’s home video release became an issue eight years ago, when a legendary original ending was screened once at a now-defunct L.A. venue called Cinefamily. We wrote that up in our 2015 review of Olive Films’ Phase IV Blu-ray.

 

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Didn’t I just title drop The Unknown Terror up above?  Advisor Gary again amends the CineSavant release outlook: KL Studio Classics has announced a triple-bill Blu on the way entitled Sci-Fi Chillers Collection.

The disc set’s contents feature the Regalscope / Fox The Unknown Terror previously viewable on the Australian collection, and the Paramount / Eugene Lourie rampaging-cyborg fave The Colossus of New York. They’re both vintage favorites, and Unknown is still relatively hard-to see here.

The third picture I’ve never quite made it through, Francis D. Lyon’s Destination Inner Space. It certainly can boast a name cast: Scott Brady, Sheree North, Gary Merrill, John Howard, Biff Elliot, Roy Barcroft. It’s in color, but am I remembering correctly … was this the picture originally released in the U.S. in B&W?

Anyway, we never discourage even marginal Sci-fi . . . with the right encouragement, maybe Kino Lorber or Vinegar Syndrome is properly positioned to properly release pictures held by collectors, like the hotly-desired Kronos! touted above, or more titles held by collectors, like the ’63 The Day of the Triffids.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson