The Coolest New Physical Media We Saw This Week

If you’re the kind of person who considers Chuck Norris movies to be good fun (I count myself in that unfortunate category), then you might want to check out Eureka Entertainment’s newest release. The British boutique Blu-ray label has just released Slaughter in San Francisco, a low-budget 1974 kung-fu movie that features a young Norris as a drug kingpin. The movie looks trashy as all hell but the transfer looks amazing and the fight scenes are fun. From a 2K restoration, Eureka has released a 1080p HD presentation of both the original Hong Kong theatrical release of Slaughter as well as its U.S. export version. The packaging includes a Limited Edition slipcover, along with a collector’s booklet and plenty of disc special features.

Danny Boyle’s 1996 Trainspotting is one of the best movies about drug addiction ever. Whether it’s a dead baby crawling on a ceiling or Ewan McGregor getting sucked into a toilet, Boyle’s movie is one wild visual ride, with tons of memorable imagery, hilarious dialogue, and compelling performances. Last month, The Criterion Collection released a new 4K version of the movie and, as always, they did a really nice job with it. Criterion’s new release is a dual version, with one 4K UHD disc and one Blu-ray. The 4K digital restoration of the film was supervised by Boyle.

Saul Bass was one of Hollywood’s most influential graphic designers, helping to create memorable title sequences and movie posters for the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. As a director, Bass only made one film—a bizarre science fiction movie called Phase IV, which is all about ants. Boutique disc label Vinegar Syndrome has now re-released Bass’s film as a special Limited Edition 3-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray set and man does it look gorgeous. Vinegar Syndrome’s Limited Edition release comes with a slipcover and a 40-page booklet that includes tons of information about the making of the movie. The discs also come with a host of special features.

Believe it or not, there are still companies that release movies on VHS. One of those companies is little known record label Terror Vision Records, which is based in Savannah, Georgia. In addition to releasing new vinyl, cassette tapes, and Blu-rays, Terror Vision sells new VHS tapes of 80s’ era horror movies with titles like Wood Chipper Massacre and Cannibal Campout. The nostalgia factor alone here is likely enough to get a decent amount of buyers. Terror Vision hasn’t released any new VHS lately but its older releases are just plain cool and worth pointing out.

In the early aughts, Ninja Five-O was a very popular Gameboy Advance game, originally published by Konami. To this day, the game is still very popular—only now the game cartridge can go for as much as $700 a pop on eBay. Helpfully, Limited Run Games is putting out a digital version of the game for PS5 and PS4, which will be accessible via the company’s Carbon Engine—a portability tool that can transfer legacy game content into modern systems. That said, Limited Run Games is known, primarily, for releasing games on physical media, and it has promised to put out a physical version of the game, but hasn’t clarified when that will happen. So technically this one is actually a digital release of a physical game, but the physical game will also be getting a re-release soon...hopefully.

Don Siegel’s 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake is a fun movie and a great watch and now its gotten a beautiful new Limited Edition 4K re-release from Arrow Video. The movie features stellar performances from Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum, and adequately captures America’s Cold War-era political paranoia via the glory of 1970s celluloid grain. The new release features a 4K UHD Blu-ray presentation of the film in Dolby Vision with original uncompressed stereo 2.0 and 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio sound. It also comes with a nice slip-cover, and tons of special features.

Body Double is one of those movies I have to re-watch every couple of years. Brian DePalma’s movies make no sense but they’re beautifully shot and they scratch whatever terrible ‘80s nostalgia itch I’ve been blessed with. This month, the movie’s soundtrack was re-released on vinyl by boutique label Waxwork Records. The packaging looks really beautiful and includes blue and red vinyl records and new artwork. The score for Body Double was composed by Pino Donaggio, who memorably composed scores for a number of other 70s/80s horror movies, including The Howling and Don’t Look Now.

The 2015 thriller Green Room is one of my favorites of the genre. Director Jeremy Saulnier’s third outing as a filmmaker is beautifully shot and features a great performance from late actor Anton Yelchin. Mostly though, the movie—which is about a punk rock band facing off against a group of criminal neo-Nazis—is great because you get to see Sir. Patrick Stewart, known primarily for his performance as Star Trek’s genteel Jean Luc Picard, play a vicious neo-Nazi. Saulnier’s movie is getting a new release from British disc label Second Sight, which is releasing the movie in a dual format as both 4K UHD and Blu-ray. The Limited Edition packaging comes with a host of special features, as well as a 120-page booklet about the making of the movie. The release, which will be available on March 18th, is currently available for pre-order.

Majyuo: King of Demons is a 1995 2D side-scrolling game from Japan. The game, which has something of a cult following online and sells for very high prices on eBay, has never been released for U.S. and European audiences before. Now, Retro-Bit Games is releasing a limited edition collector’s cartridge, which will be available to Western audiences for the first time. Retro-Bit has translated the game into English while retaining the original score and visuals. The package comes with a slipcover and a manual which Retro-Bit says has been “faithfully” translated from the original Japanese.

For cinephiles, Stanley Kubrick needs no introduction. Pretty much every movie the guy ever directed is amazing. Now, one of his early efforts, the war picture Fear and Desire, has gotten a new release from noted film distributor Kino Lorber. The release is a dual disc 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray package and includes a host of special features, including several of Kubrick’s early short films.

Troma Entertainment has released some of the worst movies ever made but it’s still a company that is near and dear to my heart. Troma is perhaps best known for its Toxic Avenger franchise, but the movie studio has churned out a steady spew of B-list (and, to be honest, D-list) movies over the decades, many of which are horror or science fiction. Now, boutique record label Mystic Vault has released a compilation album of Troma soundtracks on vinyl. The record includes tracks from a variety of Troma’s cult classics, including Nightbeast, whose score was notably composed by a teenage J.J. Abrams. Here’s a taste: