13 Ghosts News

Video Patrol: 'Life on Mars: Series 2,' 'William Castle Collection' Submitted by SHNS on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 14:54 The final eight episodes on the second box from Acorn are so incredible, I tore through them in a matter of days.

Once upon a time, meaning half a century ago, in the days when filmgoers were even more innocent and tolerant of Hollywood's enthusiasm for concocting shameless shlock than they are today, a movie called The Tingler was released.

No, this 90-minute color diversion nominally involves the 13 daughters of international diplomats, home on vacation from their boarding school.

The disc: The William Castle Film Collection The details: The William Castle Film Collection piles up eight, count 'em eight, of Castle's gleefully absurd horror films from the early 1960s in one bountiful package.

This has been called the decade of The Blair Witch. The 1999 movie ushered in the use of the internet to promote films.

The problem with a TV festival of William Castle films is that they don't come with all the gimmicks that accompanied them in the original theatrical showings of his B-movies. The most famous are the random joy buzzers affixed to some theater seats during the screenings of the 1959 "The Tingler" . "Straight-Jacket" , released in 1964, featured Joan ...

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Two-Disc Special Edition Bigger! Louder! Longer! All of these adjectives and more could be used to quite accurately describe Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen , Michael Bay's $200 million, 150-minute follow-up to his 2007 "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots" flick, Transformers .

Michelle Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates star in this ill-fated romantic drama as rival courtesans in pre-World War I Paris.

William Castle was part director, part producer and all showman, generating buzz for low-budget pics like 13 Ghosts , The Tingler and House on Haunted Hill with silly theater gimmicks like flying skeletons and buzzing seats -- in some ways a precursor to the much-hyped roll-out of Paranormal Activity .

The approach of another Halloween is reason enough for video labels to start coughing up their hair-raisers. We begin our annual survey with some "safe for kiddies" fare and proceed to less wholesome diversions.

The Tingler 1959 // 82 Minutes // Not Rated 13 Ghosts 1960 // 84 Minutes // Not Rated Homicidal 1961 // 87 Minutes // Not Rated Mr.

T ransformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Blu-ray is the ultimate exercise in form over content.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was one of the bigger recent examples of the gulf between movie critics and moviegoers.

Okay, I've said this before, but some days the film and video gods really do seem to be smiling on us.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that it will release the WILLIAM CASTLE FILM COLLECTION October 20.