DVD & Blu-Ray News Roundup

Arrow Spring Releases
Arrow Video is planning to release Demons, Demons 2 and fucking Forbidden Zone on Blu-Ray this spring!  I have no idea if these will end up getting released state-side as of yet.  Here’s the specs/covers:

Forbidden Zone (5/7/2012)
Reversible sleeve with 3 original poster artworks and newly commissioned artwork cover
Double-sided fold-out artwork poster
Collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by critic David Hayles
Brand new High Definition restoration of the Black and White and Colour versions of the film
Optional 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio / LPCM Uncompressed Mono Audio
Optional English SDH subtitles
Audio commentary with director Richard Elfman and writer-actor Matthew Bright
A Look into Forbidden Zone – extensive behind the scenes documentary featuring interviews and archive footage, including scenes from Elfman’s lost film The Hercules Family
Two complete scenes from The Hercules Family
Outtakes
Deleted Scenes
Oingo Boingo Music Video Private Life
Original Theatrical Trailer
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Region ABC

Demons (4/2/2012)
Double-sided fold-out poster
Collector’s Booklet featuring brand new writing on Demons by Calum Wadell
Collector’s Comic: ‘Demons 3’ Part 1 of 2! Not ‘The Ogre’. Not ‘The Church’. Not even ‘Black Demons’! For the first time ever, Arrow Video presents an original sequel to the cult classics.
Remastered from a brand new HD restoration of the film
Optional English and Italian audio
Optional English subtitles for Italian and English (SDH) audio
The audio recollections of director Lamberto Bava, Special Make-Up Creations Artist Sergio Stivaletti and Journalist Loris Curci
The audio recollections of the cast and crew, a brand new commentary
Dario’s Demon Days: Producer Dario Argento discusses the inception of Demons
Defining an Era in Music: Composer Claudio Simonetti on the Demons Soundtrack
Luigi Cozzi’s Top Italian Terrors: Cozzi discusses the highpoints of Spaghetti Splatter
Original trailer
Restored from the original camera negative by Cineteca di Bologna
Original Aspect Ratio - 1.66:1 (16x9)
Region - ABC
Demons 2 (4/9/2012)
Four option reversible sleeve with original poster and video artwork with additional fifth artwork panel featuring all-new Jeff Zornow artwork
Double-sided fold-out poster
Collector’s Booklet featuring brand new writing on Demons by Calum Wadell
Collector’s Comic: ‘Demons 3’ Part 2 of 2! Not ‘The Ogre’. Not ‘The Church’. Not even ‘Black Demons’! For the first time ever, Arrow Video presents an original sequel to the cult classics.
Remastered from a brand new HD restoration of the film
Optional English and Italian audio
Optional English subtitles for Italian and English (SDH) audio
The audio recollections of director Lamberto Bava, Mechanical Creations & Transformation Artist Sergio Stivaletti and Journalist Loris Curci
Creating Creature Carnage: Extensive Interview with makeup man Sergio Stivaletti
Bava to Bava: Luigi Cozzi tracks the history of the Italian horror film; from Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava to the end of the golden age with Michele Soavi and Lamberto Bava as well as considering recent Italian horror films.
Original trailer
Restored from the original camera negative by Cineteca di Bologna
Original Aspect Ratio - 1.66:1 (16x9)
Region - ABC

Looks like all three are all region (thank god) so even if they don’t get released over here you should be able to pick them up.  Hell, I’m thinking about pre-ordering Forbidden Zone right now.

Masters of Cinema
Eureka Entertainment has released thier list of Masters of Cinema releases for the first half of 2012.  There are a few must have titles in here: Lifeboat (Hitchcock), Ugetsu Monogatari & Sansho Dayu (Mizoguchi) come out on April 23rd and on June 25th we get Double Indemnity and The Lost Weekend (Wilder).  I don’t believe that they’ve released tech specs for these as of yet, so I don’t know if they will be all region or not.  I would assume though that the Hitchcock and Wilder films will be Region B locked.

It’s Alive!
Here’s a listing on Amazon.fr for It’s Alive on Blu-Ray.  I really can’t imagine that this will get released in the States so this is probably your only chance.  I can’t read French so I have no idea what anything says on this page so I can’t really give you any details.

Dracula
thedigitalfix.com has a nice post up about the new Blu-Ray of Dracula: Prince of Darkness.  Scroll down for screen captures from the new transfer.

Abomination
I’m sure I’m the only one here to have seen The Abomination.  An amazingly strange, shot on super8 film, post dubbed with thick southern accents epic from 1986, The Abomination has been hard to find.  It was released on VHS in the 80’s but that tape is hard to come by these days.  Well, it seems that a company called Muther Video is selling a double feature of that and Ozone Attack of the Redneck Mutants (which I have not seen).  Muther Video I guess is the company that originally released Ozone Attack of the Redneck Mutants on VHS so I'm assuming that this is a legitimate release.  The disc is going for 35 bucks, which seems a bit steep to me.  I have no idea what the quality is like either.  But still, The Abomination is out on DVD!