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Horror In Your House: A Return to ‘Dead Pit’!
It has been a long time since we’ve seen such a week Horror In Your House. This Tuesday (June 17) there isn’t much arriving in at a retailer near you, but if you’re scratching for something new to watch during the red hot summer you have a few options, such as Code Red’s special edition release of THE DEAD PIT. Read on to see the full list.
Horror in Your House
June 17, 2008
By: Tex Massacre
ALIVE OR DEAD: Lionsgate
While traveling down a desolate road Maria comes upon an apparently abandoned school bus. A girl has written “HELP ME” in one of the windows and Maria quickly discovers the messy secrets that lie in the back of the bus. As the killer reappears Maria finds herself now hidden and trapped as the killer takes them on the ride of their lives. Their journey leads to a bizarre location in the desert where they’ll quickly learn their enemy is not who they think. The girls must figure out whom to trust if even each other if they hope to return home alive or dead.
THE DEAD PIT (special edition): Code Red/BCI (TEX’S PICK OF THE WEEK)
Zombies rise up from a terrifying pit beneath a notorious mental asylum to do the bidding of the evil Dr. Ramzi the crazed doctor who twenty years before was walled up alive in the crazy house after someone discovered his horrific experiments involving formaldehyde and illegal lobotomies. Following each experiment the doctor would casually toss the dead victims into the pit. While his captor slowly bricks him up Ramzi swears that he will have revenge. When enigmatic Jane Doe is admitted into the asylum for severe amnesia and she turns out to have amazing subconscious psychic power that wakens Ramzi from his hellish sleep he gets his revenge. Jane and Ramzi seem to be psychically linked and he draws his power from her as he begins to resurrect his former victims. He then sends his small zombie army out into the hospital to find new recruits. Gory creative killing occurs for Ramzi’s zombies are not only quick they are also semi-intelligent. Now only Jane the doctor who originally killed Ramzi a psychotic demolitions expert and a lunatic zombified nun can stop them.
TEX SAYS: Time to kick that nostalgia back in gear and pick up this late 80’s zombie flick. Too bad the DVD cover box doesn’t have the battery-operated glowing red eyes like to original one did!
THE SITTER (a.k.a. WHILE THE CHILDREN SLEEP): Genius
When prosperous California couple Carter and Meghan search for the perfect nanny they believe they’ve found their answer in sweet Abby Reed. But no sooner does she arrive than she begins to arouse suspicion in friends and neighbors who one by one start dying. By the time Meghan looks deeper into her past it’s too late. Abby’s work has already begun.
TEX SAYS: Beware! If you know going in that this flick premiered on the Lifetime Network, you might be better prepared for the outcome. Not terribly bad, but very HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE!
TOKYO SHOCK TRIPLE FEATURE (JAPANESE HELL, CURSED, SAMURAI CHICKS; 3-disc rerelease): Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters
JAPANESE HELL -is a thoroughly sinister cautionary tale, part horror show, part costumed morality play taken to unforgiving extremes. Evildoers beware: those who do not turn from their wicked ways get their hideous, gory comeuppance in Japanese Hell!
CURSED -the normally cheerful Nao finds herself in a very unhopeful working environment. At the convenience store where she works, every shift is the graveyard shift. As she goes about her duties, a dark and foreboding presence swirls around her. Vengeful spirits have been awakened and are taking over the establishment. With their humanity crushed, the owner and his wife have already gone insane. Now, one by one, the customers are becoming possessed.
SAMURAI CHICKS -on the southern islands of Japan lies the Orion Dancers Academy where girls learn to sing and dance. Or so they’d like you to believe. Actually, the dance academy is a front for a school for female warriors-in-training. Disguised as singers and actresses in Tokyo, these girl-warrior secret agents are out to gain independence from the island. While watching a music video, they are able to unlock secret codes hidden within the popstar’s dance moves that enable them to complete their missions. However, a sinister rival organization is out to thwart their mission at every turn. When the final confrontation arrives, the girls will have to put their exhaustive training to the ultimate test.
UNDEAD HORRORS (5 movies, 4 discs): Fat Cat/Tempe
Fat Cat DVD presents a 4-disc set of gory zombie terror featuring 5 splatter-filled movies: DEADLANDS: THE RISING, THE STINK OF FLESH Special Edition, GHOUL SCHOOL and ZOMBIE COP plus bonus feature MAXIMUM IMPACT!
Scream Factory brought Frank LaLoggia’s 1988 Halloween movie Lady in White to Blu-ray several years back, and now Vinegar Syndrome gives the film a 4K Ultra HD upgrade.
Vinegar Syndrome’s Lady in White 4K release is available now and shipping now!
Watch the trailer below and grab your copy from Vinegar Syndrome today.
This limited edition 4-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray x 3 set comes with a spot gloss hard slipcase + slipcover combo (designed by Dylan Haley), includes a 40-page perfect bound book and is limited to 8,000 units. It is only available on their website and at select indie retailers.
The full Special Features package includes…
- 4-disc Set: 1x 4K Ultra HD (High Bitrate BD100) / 3x Region A Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Presented in three versions: 126-min Pre-Release Director’s Cut (UHD+BD), the 118-min Extended Home Video Cut (BD), and the 113-min Theatrical Cut (BD)
- New group commentary track with writer/director Frank LaLoggia, alongside actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut
- New commentary track with Frank LaLoggia, moderated by Scott Neumyer for the Extended Home Video Cut
- New commentary track with authors Emma Westwood and Stephen A. Russell for the Extended Home Video Cut
- Archival commentary track with Frank LaLoggia for the Extended Home Video Cut
- “Learning How to Fly” (10 min) – an interview with actress Karen Powell
- “A Snapshot in Time” (9 min) – an interview with actress Lisa Taylor
- “Human Touches” (6 min) – an interview with actress Lucy Lee Flippin
- “Still Relevant” (16 min) – an interview with actress Rose Weaver
- “75% Listening, 25% Editing” (9 min) – an interview with editor Steve Mann
- “Welcome to Willowpoint Falls” (6 min) – a location featurette hosted by Benjamin Scrivens, founder of Fright-Rags
- “Dream Talking: Looking Back” – a visual group commentary for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut with Frank LaLoggia, and actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou (103 min)
- Deleted Scenes with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (36 min)
- Behind-the-scenes footage with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (16 min)
- Extended behind-the-scenes footage (73 min)
- Introduction from the 20th anniversary dvd release
- Promotional ‘industry sales’ trailer (7 min)
- 40-page perfect bound book with essays by film historians Molly Henery, Mark H. Harris, and Heidi Honeycutt (limited edition only)
- Multiple radio spots
- Theatrical trailer
- Multiple TV spots
- Workprint trailers (7 min)
- Still gallery
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- English SDH subtitles
1962. Nine-year-old Frankie Scarlatti enjoys a homespun childhood in a rustic Western New York town. The entire community gets into the spirit of Halloween, but then two bullies prank Frankie by locking him in his school cloakroom, leaving him trapped for the night. Alone and afraid, his slumber is interrupted when the ghost of a little girl appears, and Frankie witnesses the specter of her murder by an unseen assailant. Later, while recovering at home, the girl’s ghost appears to him again. With help from his older brother, Frankie begins investigating the circumstances of her death. He soon discovers that her murder was one of several unsolved crimes connected to a local child-killer. As the town’s bucolic veneer fades and long-buried secrets and tensions bubble to the surface, all of the clues to the mystery seem to point towards a huge mansion inhabited by a reclusive woman known as “The Lady in White.”
A nostalgia-driven ghost story wrapped within an intricate murder mystery and coming-of-age drama, writer-director-composer Frank LaLoggia’s passion project Lady in White remains one of the most beautiful and original American horror films of the 1980s. Featuring acclaimed actors Alex Rocco (The Godfather), Len Cariou (Executive Decision), and Sydney Lassick (Carrie, The Unseen), it boasts the first starring role by Lukas Haas (Mars Attacks, Inception) as well as breathtaking photography by Academy Award® winner Russell Carpenter (True Lies, The Lawnmower Man). Vinegar Syndrome is honored to bring this genre masterpiece to 4K UHD, newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative and presented in three versions: its pre-release director’s cut, its extended home-video version, and its original theatrical version, along with an abundance of both new and archival extras.
Paul Lê wrote here on Bloody Disgusting back in 2023, “Over the years, fans have described this film as gateway horror, but they liken it more to The Watcher in the Woods than, say, Hocus Pocus or Casper. There are chilling moments that warrant its PG-13 rating.”
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