We've been singing the praises of Scream Factory for years as the leading curator and home entertainment provider of many memorable cult movie classics has always delivered the goods, bringing us some of our favorite flicks to Blu-ray and collectors edition DVD while going out of their way to please fans. We're always stoked to hear of a new title announcement from Scream Factory and we're always appreciative of how they pull out all the stops to bring us what we want. Now Scream Factory has taken to their Facebook page to share some updates on some eagerly awaited titles, including John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, Jeff Burr's FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM, and William Wesley's SCARECROWS.
Let's start with ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, shall we? Scream Factory has now shared that the release date for this title is March 21, 2015, and that the current plan is to make it a 2-disc Blu-ray set. Full specs (listing new and existing extras) will be announced sometime in February, and finished, newly-designed artwork will be unveiled in early January, so be on the lookout!
Fans spoke, and Scream Factory listened. Originally announced as part of a double feature Blu alongside the Lou Alzado-starring cult classic DESTROYER, William Wesley's 1988 chiller SCARECROWS will now be a standalone release with plenty of extra features! The release will happen sometime during Scream Factory's "Summer of Fear Part 2" campaign, which is happening in May through August of next year. I dig this move as I feel SCARECROWS deserves a standalone Blu-ray release. Even though it's been many years since I've seen the film, it has always stuck with me and I'll be excited to pick this one up when it gets a release next summer.
Scream Factory also took to Facebook to inform everyone of a slight delay on their upcoming blu-ray release of the Vincent Price-starring FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM. The street date is now March 24, 2015 (it was previously February 17). Director Jeff Burr has promised Scream Factory some great extras and they needed a little more time to get those delivered. There's no doubt that the short wait will be worth it.
Finally, it was revealed that the recently announced Bruno Mattei film CRUEL JAWS will not be coming out as a double feature with EXTERMINATORS OF THE YEAR 3000 next year as originally planned. EXTERMINATORS will now be a standalone Blu-ray release at a lower price. The reason for this is because CRUEL JAWS contains several scenes of unauthorized footage from Jaws 1-3 and other Italian-made shark films that makes it impossible for Scream Factory to release this in the U.S. & Canada without risking legal ramifications. While they gave serious thought about editing out the material (which would be quite a bit of scenes to remove), they ultimately realized that doing that would not satisfy the film’s fans or new ones they wanted to attract. I say it's a good move on their part. I'm still excited enough for EXTERMINATORS OF THE YEAR 3000, so I could do without CRUEL JAWS.
I'll continue to scream it to the heavens: Scream Factory f'n rocks!