Little Shop of Horrors 4K (1986)

           To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of director Frank Oz’s film version of the off off Broadway musical - that was itself inspired by a film that has become a legend in itself - Warner Bros. are bringing out LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS on 4K UHD in standard, steelbook and collector’s editions.

Why is the original film a legend? Made in 1960 and the brainchild of writer Charles B Griffith (who also voiced Audrey the man-eating plant) and producer-director Roger Corman, it's the story of browbeaten Seymour Krelborn who works in a flower shop and finds fame when he discovers a ‘strange and interesting new plant’ which turns out to need human blood to survive.  Allegedly it was shot over just a couple of days. (“We were going to play tennis,” quipped Corman, ever the showman, “but it was raining”).

The film was eventually turned into a musical and then into a big budget Hollywood picture with Rick Moranis as Seymour, Ellen Greene as the woman he loves, Vincent Gardenia as Mr Mushnik the flower shop owner, and Levi Stubbs and about forty other people as Audrey the Man-Eating Plant. Despite featuring memorable toe-tapping songs and likeable characters, preview audiences were upset with the original ending, and so more than ten minutes of complex and extensive effects work (and one of the songs) were sacrificed and a new ending filmed, which was then what audiences got to see when the film was released.

This is being mentioned because Warners’ new 4K gives you the option of playing the original director’s cut (103 minutes) or the version that was seen in cinemas (94 minutes). There’s an archival Frank Oz commentary on the theatrical version, with the original ending separate with an accompanying commentary amongst the ported over extras.

New to this disc is a featurette (15 minutes) in which Frank Oz and Ellen Greene share their memories of making the film, and a new piece on the creation of Audrey II (eight minutes). Otherwise extras are archival including Frank Oz discussing the director’s cut from 2012 and nine minutes of deleted scenes and out-takes.

If you go for the collector’s version you get the film on UHD and Blu-ray discs in a steelbook as well as two posters, a 34 page booklet, 4 character cards and 2 behind the scenes cards. You can also get the steelbook alone, or a standard edition which contains the UHD disc only. 

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is out in 4K from Warner Bros. in collectors, steelbook and standard UHD editions on Monday 19th October 2026

Adulthood (2025)

 

Signature Entertainment are releasing director Alex 'BILL & TED' Winter's black comedy that veers more towards the black than the comedy.

Brother and sister Noah (Josh Gad from FROZEN and...er...PIXELS) and Meg (Kaya Scodelario from CRAWL) are reunited when their invalid mother suffers a stroke. Planning to clear out her house they make the unexpected discovery of a body walled up in the cellar. Assuming their mother must have been the perpetrator they dispose of it in a nearby quarry.

Unfortunately their mother has already confessed all from her hospital bed to her carer Grace (Billie Lourd). Grace then decides to blackmail Noah and Meg who, instead of going to the police, rope in their psychotic friend Bodie (Anthony Carrigan) to scare Grace. Grace then brings in an even bigger man to scare Noah and Meg, and things get worse and considerably bloodier from there.

An entertaining dark comedy that features useless (Noah), desperate (Meg) and just plain mad (Bodie) characters being thrown into a situation where no-one acts rationally, ADULTHOOD benefits from some decent performances and a script that will have you guessing as to where it's all actually going right up to the end. There's nothing outstandingly new or original here but if black comedies are your thing you won't consider your time wasted with this one. Here's a trailer:

Alex Winter's ADULTHOOD is out on digital from Signature Entertainment on Monday 17th November 2025

Severance (2006)

Icon are releasing SEVERANCE, the horror comedy Bristol-born film-maker Christopher Smith made in between CREEP (2004) and TRIANGLE (2009), on 4K in a limited edition dual disc UHD and Blu-ray set with extras, a poster and four art cards.

A group of office workers from the Palisade weapons company are off on a team-building weekend in Hungary. They get lost in a forest and end up having to deal with areas filled with landmines, huge mantraps, and psychotic guerrillas armed with flamethrowers, machine guns, and very big knives who have vowed to kill anyone connected with Palisade. 

So far, so we’ve-seen-it-all-before, but SEVERANCE has several things going for it that many of its predecessors in the being-chased-around-the-woods subgenre have lacked. Firstly the acting is very good right across the board. Characters are fleshed out well and quickly endear themselves to the audience. Tim McInnerney does a great job as the unpleasant, ineffectual leader of the group whose exit scène nevertheless elicits genuine sympathy, Laura Harris (probably best known for TV series Dead Like Me and Robert Rodriguez's THE FACULTY) shows she can do more than be the brittle blonde, and Danny Dyer is actually very good as the dope head with a constant supply of spliffs and ecstasy who’s never quite sure if what is happening to him is real or not. 

        The direction is right on the button, which is all the more of an achievement when you take into account that the script veers between hilarity and out and out horror, yet Smith never makes a mistake – this is one of the few films where you will be chortling merrily one minute and then be genuinely horrified the next. And by the time the characters meet their demise you’re truly sorry (and in at least one case really upset) to see them go. 

On its original release SEVERANCE was plugged as another SHAUN OF THE DEAD. It isn't. Whereas Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright’s film was essentially a comedy with gory bits, SEVERANCE is a genuine horror film that manages to seamlessly include bits that really make you laugh. If you're of a disposition to enjoy such things, you'll find your spine tingling quite a few times with the sheer deliciousness of the whole endeavour.

Icon's release comes with a ported over commentary track with the cast and crew (present on both the UHD and Blu-ray disc). Unique to the Blu-ray (and not provided for review) are eight featurettes, behind the scenes footage, deleted scenes and out-takes and two new interviews for this edition - one with director Christopher Smith and the other with star Andy Nyman. 

Christopher Smith's SEVERANCE is out in a limited edition dual format 4K UHD and Blu-ray edition from Icon on Monday 20th October 2025

The Return of the Living Dead 4K (1985)

 

One of the best zombie movies of all time is getting a 4K release from Arrow Films in both UHD and Blu-ray editions, with two discs in each set.

In the years running up to the release of both RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and George A Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD (also 1985) the movie press had been full of speculation about how Romero and his NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD co-writer John Russo would separately take  things forward, as the two of them had both retained the legal right to make sequels to the 1969 film. A 'tie-in' paperback, written by Russo, had even hit US and UK bookshops with mention that 'A sequel film will be released soon' on the cover, even though the plot of the eventual RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD movie bore little relation to it.

Full credit, then, to writer-director Dan O'Bannon who solved the tricky legal problem of 'How do you do a sequel to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD without it feeling it could be in the same universe as DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)?'. He did it very cleverly, too, slyly suggesting, with a twinkle in his eye that RETURN was set in the 'real' world and giving the film a punky, bouncy aesthetic that felt very different to Romero's sequels but somehow also managed to squeeze a little bit of satire in amongst all the fun. 

Arrow's 4K transfer looks far more vivid than any previous version, but if you are an ROTLD obsessive be warned that the music track Deadbeat Dance by The Damned is still removed due to rights issues. Obsessives will also want to know that the tarman's voice is still the redubbed version, as is the voice of the confederate soldier who asks them to 'send more cops'. Also, a curious music edit sees Roky Erikson's Burn the Flames cutting out much earlier than in previous versions so you are just left with Frank's unaccompanied scream. 

        Extras include four commentary tracks ported over from the previous Shout Factory release - Dan O'Bannon and production designer William Stout; Stout and the cast; actors Thom Mathews and John Philbin with FX artist Tony Gardner; and a fan track by Gary Smart and Chris Griffiths.

Other extras are essentially archival from the Shout Factory double disc Blu-ray set from 2016, including an interview with Russo (15 minutes), a featurette on the effects (33 minutes), a making of (21 minutes), location tour (10 minutes), designing the dead (14 minutes), a piece about 1980s horror classics (24 minutes) and a featurette on the film's soundtrack (30 minutes). Talking of the soundtrack, why has nobody interviewed (or even mentioned) British composer Francis Haines who provides the memorable main title music ('The Trioxin Theme')? This is a man who has done everything from SPLIT SECOND to CBeebies, and the story behind The Trioxin Theme itself is surely worthy of a featurette, originating as it did from a Dungeons and Dragons cassette tape ('The First Quest') that was then revamped for the movie.

Arrow's set comes with a second Blu-ray disc in both editions featuring the two hour long documentary More Brains which tells you all you need to know about the film (apart from what I've mentioned above about the soundtrack). This disc also comes with Dan O'Bannon's final interview (29 minutes), 15 minutes of deleted scenes from the documentary, a 10 minute location tour and ROTLD in 3 minutes from the interviewed cast members. The set comes with a reversible sleeve (no Graham Humphreys artwork, by the way) double sided poster and a booklet with new writing on the film.

Dan O'Bannon's THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD is out from Arrow on 4K in a two disc set (either UHD and Blu-ray or two Blu-rays) on Monday 13th October 2025

Deadstream (2022)

"Excellent Found Footage Horror Comedy"

It might be the best, actually, although admittedly there aren't many of them out there. After enjoying great success on the festival circuit (including Frightfest 2022) followed by a streaming release on Shudder, the writing and directing team of husband and wife Joseph and Vanessa Winter's DEADSTREAM is getting a Blu-ray release from Arrow.

Disgraced YouTuber Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winters) made a name for himself performing daft and potentially dangerous stunts until one of them went wrong. Now he has a plan to win back not just viewers but sponsors as well: a live-streaming event in which he is going to explore an abandoned and quite possibly haunted house. In doing so his bumbling releases evil spirits and it's not long into the livestream that things start to take a turn for the sinister.

That rarest of beasts, DEADSTREAM is a comedy horror that's frequently very scary and very funny, often at the same time. It benefits greatly from a tremendous creepy setting, careful attention to detail on the part of the film-makers, and an EVIL DEAD 'throw anything and everything at its hapless central character' attitude. If that sounds like your kind of thing then you are going to love it.

Extras on Arrow's Blu-ray include an excellent commentary track from Winters and Winters as well as DP Jared Cook and co-star Melanie Stone, which goes to prove that good found footage horror is not a simple case of 'point the camera and wobble it a bit'. It also makes you want to watch the film again (you'll find out why) and that's no bad thing.

Other extras include the two minute, charming, To Hell and Back, a Winters short film from 2019, a tiny intro 'Just for you in the UK' and four deleted and four extended scenes. There are eight featurettes on the makeup effects (14 minutes), on set (12 minutes), test footage (17 minutes), cameras and lighting (11 minutes), sound design (20 minutes), out-takes (4 minutes), and two short pieces on real-life scary stories related to the location (10 minutes in all). There's also loads of cam footage. The set also comes with a booklet featuring new writing on the film and a reversible sleeve.

DEADSTREAM is out on Blu-ray from Arrow Films on Monday 1st September 2025

Doctor Vampire (1990)

"If the CARRY ON team ever made a vampire picture..."

That sounds crazy, doesn't it? But it doesn't take too much of a stretch of the imagination to see how those two 'genres' collide in Jamie Luk's raving mad, extremely silly vampire sex comedy that's getting a UK Blu-ray release courtesy of Eureka.

Dr Chiang Ta-Tsung (Bowie Lam from John Woo's HARD BOILED) is on holiday in the UK when his Volkswagen Polo breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He comes across a castle, and when he goes in it appears to be a fully functioning British pub complete with fruit machines. There also happen to be gorgeous girls busy draining men of blood. Our hero doesn't spot this, though, until he's seduced by a lady vampire who bites him on the penis.

Back in Hong Kong amidst the hilarity of being a doctor in a sex comedy hospital, Chiang's girlfriend spots bitemark-style spots of blood on his underpants and Chiang himself develops a need for dark glasses. The head of the vampires (Peter Kjaer) decides to come to Hong Kong because apparently the doctor's blood is the best he has ever tasted. Meanwhile the foundations of a new hospital block are about to be purged of any possible ghosts by a Buddhist ceremony. Could all of this collide in a supremely wacky climax?

Imagine Jim Dale as the hero, Charles Hawtrey as the vampire count, and Kenneth Williams as the head of the hospital and you'll quickly see how this could be a Carry On film. For slightly younger viewers, the word 'Troma' will likely pop into your head during the final act where the doctor and his friends get transformed into...well, I'm still not sure. What I am sure of is that DOCTOR VAMPIRE is exceptionally silly, but if gags like a hospital patient turned into a hopping vampire with a permanent erection make you chuckle (and I'll admit it did raise a smile here) then you may well have a good time with this.

Extras include two commentary tracks, both of which are new. One has East Asian film experts Frank Djeng and John Charles while the other has Hong Kong cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. Stacey Abbott (author of Celluloid Vampires) gives us a 20 minute piece contextualising the film in terms of other vampire nmovies around at the time, while Mary Going provides a 22 minute essay on all the ways a vampire has been slain throughout cinema history. Finally, you get a collector's booklet with new writing on Hong Kong vampire films from MR VAMPIRE to DOCTOR VAMPIRE by Katarzyna Ancuta.

DOCTOR VAMPIRE is out on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment on Monday 24th February 2025

Mother Father Sister Brother Frank (2024)

 

"Jolly Black Comedy Fun"

Writer-Director Caden Douglas' black comedy is getting a Digital release from Miracle Media.

The four members of the Jennings family are settling down to their regular Sunday night dinner together, and it turns out they all have secrets. Mother (Mindy Cohn from Apple+ TV show Palm Royale) and Father (Enrico Colantoni, still probably best known to genre fans for playing Mathesar in 1999's GALAXY QUEST) are reluctant to reveal theirs, although it's essential they do so.

Meanwhile brother Jim (Iain Stewart) is about to get divorced, while his already divorced sister Jolene (Melanie Leishman from 2014's musical STAGE FRIGHT) is pregnant. Then Uncle Frank (Juan Chioran) turns up and it quickly becomes obvious that something needs to be done about him.

A quirky, gory comedy that feels a bit like if the director of WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE decided to make a feature length episode of sitcom Friday Night Dinners, MOTHER FATHER SISTER BROTHER FRANK starts quietly but director Douglas skilfully allows things to get riotously out of hand as incident is piled upon incident. It's a deliciously silly film centred around murder and the subsequent disposal of the body, and if you're in the right mood you'll find plenty to smile at. Here's a trailer:

Caden Douglas' MOTHER FATHER SISTER BROTHER FRANK is out on Digital from Miracle Media on Monday 27th January 2025