pygospa

Thank you. I'll try my best. I probably would have to go back to hospital, but last two weeks it was so hot that it would have been impossible to bear (I ran around in nothing but my boxers at home ), and today it started up again, but it's my last day of vacation and tomorrow I'll be back working. Didn't want to shock my employer by being in hospital right after a month of vacation. "All good things come in threes" - if it (= stomach aches, and wormitting) happens one more time, I'll go back again. Fingers crossed that it won't happen! Apparently the situation prevails, but Wicked managed to send out parcels anyhow (not sure how, probably they payed extra, or something). @Veum had just one order/parcel and it arrived. I am pretty happy about it. Had a really bad feeling and somewhat felt a bit responsible as you wouldn't be ordering them if it wasn't for me.

Release: ??? Link: ??? Price: ???€ Even though I stated that I am hesitant when it comes to announcements from Anolis previous to their actual pre-order announcements (especially if you don't have any covers and it's impossible for us "normal" forum users to later edit our posts to add additional information), I made an exception with The Revenge of Frankenstein and now I'll do one with "Frankenstein Created Woman" as well. Why? Because Anolis finally posted the three mediabook cover variants we are to expect as well as the Amaray on the backside of their cover card for their Quatermass 2 release. And for this reason, plus their Facebook announcement from recently (plus all the other announcements - see below), I decided to make another exception, even though there is not much to go on yet. The Bride of Frankenstein is one of the longest awaited Hammer release by Anolis. Why? Well, two reasons, I guess: First, this release was the very first Hammer release Anolis ever did, back in 2002, kicking of one of the most sought after series of releases by Anolis and making Anolis famous even internationally. They even had another logo, back in those days! Being the first of their releases, this sold out the longest, and became (for a while) the most expensive release of Anolis Hammer releases. It was also the only release of this movie in Germany, no other release on either DVD nor Blu-ray; and it being one of the first releases, I guess the quantity wasn't as high as for later releases, adding to the rarity of this release and making people want it so much more. So, no re-release for this since 18 years! And to add on this, there is also no European Blu-ray release. The only releases up to now are from Region A countries, and Australia. Second, this release was the first that Anolis announced for their Blu-ray series; in 2012! They announced at Christmas 2012 that starting with April 2013 they'd be releasing a new Hammer movie every other month, starting with "Frankenstein Created Woman". There was a lot criticism on their design choices and then all of a sudden everything got quiet. Next announcement came in September 2013, stating that their plan and announcement for releasing movies that haven't been released yet on Blu-ray (i.e. the three listed above), was a bad idea as they only got horrible masters from the studios that did not meet their expectation on quality. And for this reason, they got 6 masters they cannot use, and don't know if and when there will be a replacement for these. And for this reason they would postpone any announcements until they finally have the master and know everything is going to work out. Also they decided to create exclusive new extras as a additional bonus for collectors, further postponing their releases. And then in November 2013 they finally came out with their first release: "Quatermass and the Pit". Since this day, people have been asking about "Frankenstein Created Woman" - if you search for it on their Facebook page, nearly every release announcement lights up, because someone is asking for it in the comments - and Anolis ignored that question. Until 2019, when in their "The Devil Rides Out" they announced it as thier next release with a release date for February 2020: February came, February went, no Frankenstein. Instead we got "Terror Beneath the Sea", "Prince of Darkness" (preorders for the coffin edition), "Tales of Terror", "It! Terror from Beyond Space", "Donovan's Brain", "Quatermass 2" and now "The Angry Red Planet". And what about the Woman of Frankenstein? Well, it wasn't all radio silence. On March 29th Anolis actually posted this: I.e., it says that the reason for delaying "Frankenstein Created Woman" is the delay of the documentary "Frankenstein and the Two Faces of Eve" that Dima Ballin from "Diabolique Films" is creating exclusive for Anolis, which will contain a couple of interesting interview partners, including Joe Dante. They even posted a trailer, stating that it is finnished now (i.e. March 29th) and that now Anolis will be writing the subtitles for the German audience, and that after that everything is ready to go into production. Here's the trailer for the documentation: While anolis has failed to mention another release date, it is probably obvious that another postponing would be a rather bad move, antagonizing all the fans that have been asking in the comments for years, now (earliest comment asking for "Frankenstein Creates Woman" is from 2014, and since then this questin has been asked every year). So, Anolis reiterating that it is going to be released this year, both on Facebook as well as on thier recent releases cover card, is probably a safe indication that it will actually come this year. You've been informed. And of course, I will inform you, once pre-order information will be relased and higher resolution packet shots are available. But for now, let's stop with some words about the movie itself. Frankenstein was the first classic gothic movie icon that Hammer used for their Horror release (disregarding any previous horror movies that where mostly linked to sci-fi, or other movies they did, that had nothing to do with horror at all). They started off with "The Curse of Frankenstein" and this was also the first time that Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee would appear together in a Hammer Horror movie (actually it wasn't the first time they both met on set, as both of them where also seen in the movies "Hamlet" (1948), "Moulin Rouge" (1952) and "Alexander the Great" (1956) - but all these roles they both weren't lead roles and sometimes even not credited, as they didn't even have lines in the movies, or just did the narrator). But "The Curse of Frankenstein" Peter Cushing had his first lead role with Christopher Lee as co-star; and while Peter Cushing was an instant star, Christopher Lee first had to get rid of the mask that hid him, before becoming a star (with Dracula, co-staring Peter Cushing). Frankenstein also became the first Hammer Horror series (with many more to follow), and "Frankenstein Created Woman" is the fourth installment of that series, with all the others being (bold titles are already released by Anois, italic underlined titles are announced, normal titles are neither): The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) <-- This is actually not a continuation, but a parodist remake of "The Curse of Frankenstein". Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) In "Frankenstein Created Woman", Baron Victor Frankenstein once more creates a monster. But instead of digging up corpses, putting the pieces together and infusing live to this body, "Frankenstein Created Woman" tells the story of an transformation. This time, the soul of a living girl who is deformed by a paralisis of half her face, is transported into a new body, leading for confusuion and the urge to kill. With this movie, director Terence Fisher (who also did "The Curse of Frankenstein" and "The Revenge of Frankenstein") manages to give the story a new perspective: While the first installments always focussed on the apperence of Frankensteins monster, which makes others (i.e. the "normal" people) hate and hunt it, this time the soul of an "ugly" person is transformed into a "beautiful" body, making it not about how people react to the "monster" but instead about the preson itself - what it does to the soul of a person to wake up in another body. Or in other words, the topic changed from physical aspects to metaphysical ones. We still have Peter Cushing performing as Baron Victor Frankenstein (he does for all but the 1970s "The Horror of Frankenstein"), but the monster has of course changed, and is played by austrian-born Susan Denberg (born as Dietlinde Zechner), who moved to the USA for modelling and acting. Her career was rather brief: She starred in one Episode of "Twelve O'Clock High" in 1966 as "German girl", then as Ruta in "An American Dream" (1966), as Magda Kovacs - on of "Mudd's Women" in on of the 1966 episodes of Star Trek, became "Miss August" of the 1966 playboy edition, and then landed the co-lead as Christina in this movie. After this one, she decided to return to Austria and hasn't acted since. However, a famous roumor is that she died at the end of the 1960s, which is untrue; besides being well and alive she was married, has a son and lives as Dietlinde Scotti in Vienna. And now, as usually, here's the trailer:

Just a teeny tiny information flyer, but this is what Anolis printed on the backside of the cover card for their Quatermass 2 release: With this flyer they once more commit to the "coming soon" release for "Prince of Darkness" which was initially announced for release in the first quater of 2018, which they also did on facebook. So both, the coffin edition as well as the three other Mediabook covers and the Amaray will probably comming this year, and even though they did not reiterate the date, I guess they'll try to fulfill their December 2019 claim for Halloween this year. I already pre-ordered the coffin-version at the beginning of this year, and I'll probably also order cover B additionally to this release - normally I never double dip on the releases for Anolis, but I don't like the coffin-cover and I also did not like the cover on their original Dracula release [see picture below] but stuck with the coffin release of that one as well, and now whenever I look at that release in my collection I feel a slight regrett of not getting the cover B in addition to the coffin as well. This will not happen with this release!

I did, I did Placed my order last week, for Biggles and Madhouse. As usually I am a bit annoyed by the fact that I now have to place a single order and pay extra shipping. But, you know... if that's the only thing you worry about, than you're living a pretty good life, I guess Still haven't picked up that book, however. Probably, I won't, I guess. I don't see myself reading this, if I don't know the movies, and if I do get them, they'll probably have some extras (a booklet, featurettes, etc.). But yeah, those are my orders. I also received the package containing Beautiful People, The Pit and the Pendulum, Quatermass 2 and The Riff. But I hadn't had the time yet to photograph and present them (some health issues I am having ). I'll try my best, but focus on posting news if they are any as they are probably of more value for everyone interested.

And here is an explicit reminder for @Grendel and @Mad-martigan, who as far as I know are the only ones trying to collect all of these. If you know anyone else who is interested in these, or has started collecting them due to my posts, please mention them here - as usually this is highly limited and gone, once it's sold out. As usually, Wicked Vision is the first to respond with a shop listing, but other shops (like Pretz, JPC, etc.) will follow in the comming week, so if this is sold out at Wicked Vision, keep your eyes open for one of the other shops.

Release date: 25.09.2020 Buy link: Wicked-Vision Price: €28.99 Discs: Dual Format (BD+DVD) Booklet: 24 pages Out of the blue and totally unexpected, after (re-)announcing already 3 titles for next half year (Dracula - Prince of Darkness, Frankenstein Created Woman (still need to make a post for that) and The Revenge of Frankenstein) which had some people joking on Facebook), Anolis announced yet another title - and this time it's not only a planned release, but it's already pre-orderable: Number three of the "Der Fluch der Galerie des Grauens" will in fact be "The Angry Red Planet", which on the edition will be printed with the German title "Weltraumschiff MR-1 gibt keine Antwort" (which translates to "Spaceship MR-1 is not responding"), so now we have: It! Terror from Beyond Space Donovan's Brain The Angry Red Planet Regarding the package, there won't be any surprises (as typical for these series releases), i.e. a standard black DVD keepcase (G1 size) with a flap for holding two discs, as the set comes with a BD and a DVD disc which will be identical in content. The artwork will be fitting to the previous releases as well, with the spine creating a spine-image if combined with all other releases in the proper order, and it will feature the German cinema release poster (which is rather similar to the international poster, but has some changes [the rocket in the background, and the three guys in the forground shooting the martian bat-rat-spider], and this set will also come once again with a booklet, that features an essay in German by Dr. Rolf Giesen on 24 pages. We only get a few extras on the disc: Audio commentary by Dr. Rolf Giesen [German] US and German trailers German title sequence US and German advertisement advice Movie programs Picture gallery And for all you US/CA readers out there: There is a Shout Factory Region A release for both countries, but I could not find any information on any extras with that release, so probably this release has much more to offer than the Shout Factory one, but of course, they'll probably share the blu-ray master. Let's get to the movie, which was released under a number of different titles ("The Angry Red Planet", "Invasion of Mars", "Journey to Planet Four"; as well as in German "Weltraumschiff MR-1 gibt keine Antwort" and "Abenteuer auf dem Mars" [Adventures on Mars]) : It's a 1959 science fiction film in color (which most of the Galerie des Graunes films aren't) by danish-american director screenwriter and actor Ib Jørgen Melchior, who also did "The Time Travelers" (1964), "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" (1964) or the English language script for Mario Bava'2 "Planet of the Vampires" (1965). The budget was so low ($200.000 USD), and time constraints where so short (9 days of filming), that the film was using a new filming technique which they coined "CineMagic": The usage of drawings for all the sets as well as special effects. You can see this "effects" when looking at the trailer. As the effects are not really visually believing, this technique was only reused once more for the 1962 film "The Three Stooges in Orbit" by Edward Bernds. The film tells the story of "Mars Rocket 1", the first manned mission to Mars, which was supposed to be lost and destroyed in space, but unexpectedly returns to earth - however, instead of 4 people only two survived: Iris Ryan (Naura Hayden) and Tom O'Bannion (Gerald Mohr). In their debriefing they tell of the wonders they experienced on Mars. As always, I'd like to close with a trailer of the movie - enjoy:

Release: ??? Link: ??? Price: ???€ Normally I am really hesitant when announcing releases by Anolis, because normally, there is no telling when the release will actually come, even if it gets announced long in advance. I've talked about this in greater detail in this post, but just for a little fresh me up: The last two announced Hammer Horror releases we are still waiting for are "Dracula - Prince of Darkness" (announced in 2017 for Q1 of 2018) and "Frankenstein Created Woman" (announced in 2019 for Feb. 2020), so hoping for Anolis to keep their word on an planed release before there is an actual pre-order announcement is not too clever; up to now Anolis has promised both titles to be released in this year. And just 2 days ago, Anolis announced a third Hammer release for this year: "The Revenge of Frankenstein". But why am I breaking this rule, of waiting until there is actually a pre-order date? Because, with this release, Anolis announced that they have been waiting for the exclusive documentary that they tasked Diabolique Films with wihch should be released as an extra for this release. It sounds like this was the only component messing for "The Revenge of Frankenstein" and it is actually finished. But to not just take their word for it, they released a trailer for just that extra, called "The Birth of Hammer Horror": So this release could actually really happen this year! Still, on Facebook people are joking if Anolis could really pull of three announced films in half a year, in which they already have one release nearly ready for shipping. Anolis seems confident, with their coffin edition of their "Prince of Darkness" release already being up for preorder (however not the accompanying 3 other cover artworks), and reiterating that Frankenstein Created Woman will definitely be released "really soon". So let's see what the next weeks and months will hold. There is nothing else known for the release up to now. Normally, Anolis Hammer releases will come in at least two cover artworks (however there were releases that just came with one cover) for the Mediabook and will always also have an Amaray release accompanying this set. Mediabooks will have exclusive extras and are limited to an unknown quantity and be gone forever once sold out (while the Amaray releases will - theoretically - be provided in "unlimited" quantity). Regarding the movie, it is the first sequel to the Frankenstein series (which btw is the first classic Gothic horror story Hammer did) consisting of seven movies (bold titles are already released by Anois, italic underlined titles are announced, normal titles are neither): The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) <-- This is actually not a continuation, but a parodist remake of "The Curse of Frankenstein". Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) Out of these, "The Revenge of Frankenstein" is regarded the best of the series, with the highest ratings by film critics. It is also part of most "Top 10 Hammer" movies lists. While "The Curse of Frankenstein" is actually based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, this tells the first original Hammer Frankenstein story: "Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is sentenced to die for creating his famous monster, but flees to Germany only to redo the work he has already done - with the help of Dr. Hans Kleve (Francis Matthews) he creates a new monster (Michael Gwynn), who in turn pursues the nurse Margaret (Eunice Gayson)." Besides the already famous Cushing and Matthews (Rasputin the Mad Monk, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, A Woman Possessed), we also have Eunice Gayson, who is famous for being the very first Bond-girl, playing Sylvia Trench in both, "Dr. No" and "From Russia with Love", making her also the only Bond-girl that appears in more than one movie. Enjoy the trailer:

News. News. News, pt. 2 Together with their no. 38 of the Wicked Vision Collector's Edition they also announced their no. 40, which for some reasons didn't get so much attention by Wicked (regarding posts and advertisement) compared to their no. 39. But anyways, Madhouse will be the no. 40, and it is already open for pre-orders: Cover A, limited to 333 copies Cover B, limited to 333 copies Cover C, limited to 444 copies If you get covers A or B, and you are one of the 100 first pre-orderers, you'll again get the typical wicked vision collectors card, but if you get cover C, there will - once more - be a special limited card with personalisation and signed by the artworker Timo Wuerz, for the first 111 pre-orderers. Other than that there is not much on the discs, unfortunately: New audio commentary with David Del Valle and Phoef Sutton from 2019 "Revenge of Dr. Death" (Making of) Trailers Picture gallery. Release date is the same as Biggels: Sept. 25th. And again, wicked uploaded a new re-cut trailer with the new HD material, so don't look at the one linked above, but instead, here you go: German dubbing: PS: If you are wondering - no. 40 did not get a post but was announced together with 39, so there is no promotion picture showing the 3 covers, this is only seen in the YouTube trailer videos.

PS: There is also a "Re-Cut" trailer that Wicked uploaded, which is probably most interesting for the really great HD quality (compared to what I linked above). So here you go: And for all the German readers (are there any reading my lengthy mediabook news posts?!), there is also one with German dubbing, in case you need it:

News, news, news. Biggles will be the No. 39 of Wicked's Collector's Series. Release will be Sept. 25th of this year, and pre-orders have already begun a few days ago! Cover A, limited to 333 copies Cover B, limited to 333 copies Cover C, limited to 333 copies Again, there will be a limited and numbered collectors card for the first 100 preorders (and only at the Wicked shop). Regarding the extras, there is quite a lot: "My Friends Call Me Biggles" - Interview with Neil Dickson "A Matter of Time" - Interview with Alex Hyde-White "The Stunts of Biggles" - Interview with stuntman Dinny Powell (this is an exclusive extra to this release) "Saturday Superstore" (1986) [TV recording] "Blue Peter" (1986) [TV recording] Making-of documentation Music videos Game promotion video German + original trailer TV adverts picture galery 24 page booklet featuring an essay from Christoph N Kellerbach Original stereo audio track for German and English, as well as German and English subtitles

Oh, so the DHL can send to US again? Great! And I am sooooo happy to hear that! Is that all you orders, or are you still waiting for something? And do you like your new movies?

PS: Of course, I will. I guess, we are at our summers break right now. Temperatures are next to 30°C here, which for Germany is really high, most people are on vacation (actually I am as wel, till Sept. 1st), so everything is a bit slower. But yeah, hardly any news for interesting releases, right now. If I stumble upon news I'll always share as fast as possible.

I am really sad to hear that, @Veum. But I also know it is totally out of the hand of Daniel. He is really pissed at that situation himself, he has a lot of orders just taking up his space because he cannot send them to USA, and DHL is not helpful at all. There is no prognosis or anything. I think best for you guys in the US would be to maybe use a proxy, or if possible one of the hubs or something. I mean parcels from Canada to USA is still possible, isn't it? Maybe @Grendel can help? You can definately contact him, and request to send it to another address, which can relay it to you. Weeks/Months ago he said he is postponing some of the planned releases, due to the USA-Situation but I guess it's just not possible anymore to postpone things from his side as well. All I know is that he is also feeling really frustrated and helpless. Lots of US customers are also asking on Facebook, and he can just refer to the DHL which says: No shipping to USA permitted (except for really steep additional costs, which don't make any sense at all). I am also really sorry to not have better news for you, my friend. I totally empathize with you. I would feel really bad as well, if it was my order I would be waiting for. 😰 I even feel guilty advertising German editions, if you cannot get them Good cover choices. I chose the same ones Except for that book, I didn't order that one (yet?). Maybe I still will, haven't made up my mind yet...

Guten morgen! Jup, bin erst seit ner Stunde ungefär wach. Urlaub ist schon geil. Was noch geiler ist: Das geht noch bis Ende des Monats so - aufgestauter Resturlaub von 2 Jahren ist auch geil 😆 (gut, die 2 Jahre waren extrem stressig, und alle Urlaubspläne sind wegen Corona eh nichtig, aber was solls: Positiv denken, ich hab jetzt seit ner Woche URLAUB!!!) Konnte mich nicht dazu druchringen. Wird jetzt doch die E3. Bitte mach, dass sie das Lenticular nicht wieder verkacken. Bitte, mach dass sie es diemal hinkriegen!

Oh jeh. Da ist ja eins hässlicher als das nächste 🙊🙈 Am ehesten sagt mir ja noch die E3 zu, ist ein wenig abwechslungsreicher gestaltet, als die anderen beiden (E1 benutzt 3 mal das Bank-Motiv [FS-Front, FS-Back, Steelbook] und dann auch noch diese Text-Rückseite? 😩; E2 hat das Laufmotiv auch noch mal auf dem Steelbook, ist recht eintönig, grau). E3 efält mir sowohl von den Farben als auch von den abwechslungsreicheren Motiven (weißes Steelbook, buntes FS blauer Folder) am besten. Aber es ist ein Lenticular, und eigentlich wollte ich davon wieder die Finger lassen, nachdem die letzten Lenticulars wieder totale Reinfälle waren, und mich echt nicht glücklich machen. Warum zur Hölle macht FA denn jetzt 2x Doppellenticular-Slips?! Bleibt dann am Ende doch nur das E1... *grummel*

@Grendel I've also ansered you here, but again, it got withheld for reviewing Bit annoying that this is happening so often. I really wonder, what I am doing wrong. There shouldn't be any trigger words or other things in it... but well. You'll have to wait for it. I already "reported" it, so hopefully some moderator/administrator will be notified. I'm sorry also for them to give them so much work, but I don't get it, it's as if the forum software has a personal grudge against me 😭 "Horror Forum Software from Outa Space" - that would be a neat film title, wouldn't it?

You guys are too fast for me (or more specifically I am too slow because I write so much. I was answering the last ~30 Minutes to the PM with you and @Mad-martigan 😜 ). Yes, Wicked removes the tiltes, once they are sold out. I don't like it either, as they usually have great product pages with all the interesting infos. Already asked Daniel if this could be changed, but I guess it was a long process to get the shop running at all - he's probably happy it is finally running, and is not planing to endanger this any time soon I feel like I've written this somewhere already, but cannot find it myself, so I'll write it (again?) : Wicked is not doing these releases and has nothing to do with the planing, producing or advertising them. You know that Wicked announces their plans for sometimes the entire next year long beforehand. Also, they release covers long time ahead, and they open their pre-orders a month before the release date. You know what to expect and usually Daniels plans are followed through. But that's their own releases - Daniel - if he had prior knowledge - would probably not share it with anybody else, since it's not his place to do so. With the last Anolis releases, he always waited until Anolis announced them, and then commented on these announcements that he will be carrying them in his shop as well, and links his shop. Now, let's get to Anolis - with them it is a totally different thing. Anolis seldom announces releases and plans long ahead, usually because they hardly ever manage to follow through, if they do. So usually, you'll only get the announcement a week prior to pre-order date. That's it. Anolis is totally chaotic, and when you look at their plans, e.g. this Announcement from 2012! These where the first three Releases that Anolis announced for their Hammer Horror Mediabooks. From these three, only one is released: "Shock". It was released not on August 2013, but instead on June 2016. "Frankenstein schuf ein Weib" was finally announced 2019 (on the back-side of the front cover card - everybody collecting Anolis is anxious to turn around that front cover card, for seeing the next release - this is the first way you'll actually get knowledge about this), for Febuary 2020. Since them no more information. It's not yet here. Let's look at another example: Reality: Blut für Dracula - hasn't been released yet, but might be released in October 2020 Wie schmeckt das Blut von Dracula? - Q3 of 2018 Draculas Rückkehr - Q4 of 2018 Dracula Jagt Mini-Mädchen - Q3 of 2018 As I have said in the first post: The last boxes took Anolis ~4 years per box. So after Anolis has already released the first two titles in such short time, I guess for the comming titles we'll have to wait a few more months. "The Angry Red Planet" is the planned no. 3, but as the past has shown, just because Anolis plans this, there is no guarantee that this will actually happen - it could become any number of the set - with a good chance that it is no. 3, but no guarantees And how can wicked now beforehand, if even Anolis doesn't know themselves?

Yes, that's exactly how I feel. I am not grossed out by watching a lot of gore or violence, etc., if it serves the plot! If it's the other way round, however, i.e. the movie is all about the gore and the plot is just there so the gore scenes are losely connected, than that's something I don't like. This will probably be the case with this release, so yey me, for getting this. But well, we'll see. I have to confess, that - strangely enough - I did still like the trailer in parts, and am interested in how these different themes all fit together. They probably won't, but I usually try to see for myself, so let's hope for the best. Don't know if you realized, but I also linked the trailer to their second release that was already announced, and that trailer I even liked a bit better So let's see where this will take us... Thank you so much for that feedback - I really appreciate it. And btw, please always feel free to point out these "mistakes" I make. I'd like to improve my English, but after a certain level of learning, it's hard to get better (at least without any feedback). In German we have the term "reißerisch" which could apply to both, "racy" as well as "gross" (reißerisch and racey even sound similar, as if they had the same stem once in prehistoric times). And I would have seen "gross" more in the sense of "yukky". Now I know better. Thanks I had to laugh at that as well - it's unfortunately only on facebook, if you visit the Wicked shop and look at the cover it's "uncensored". But yeah. It's really strange, how the USA has such a big problem with nipples - I don't get that at all. Btw. is it the same for Canada as well? Just wondering, because I know you are similar in a lot of ways to the US (except of course, according to my trustworthy sources [South Park 🤣] you are much more friendly and have strange heads/mouths). It's always funny to see how differently different people have evolved; in Germany you are allowed to see just nakedness, even with 12 years, and sexual content with 16. On the other hand we are much stricter on violence, which is why we have this rather complicated FSK vs SPIO/JK system, including the "Index" which can be filled by the government basically at free will (if it did not pass the FSK), making it basically impossible to sell these movies in Germany (which is why movie collectors always had a close bond to Austria and there are Austrian movie shops specialized in these movies just for the German market - because "Index" just means, that you are forbidden to sell it - you are however never forbidden to buy or own it 😂). For you guys, they get an R-Rating and everything is peachy (except if there are nipples! ). So strange, how these things evolve and manifest themselves in communities. Just weird. But I also often think that, when I see different rating systems - sometimes you find an 12-years rating of one country and its an 18-years on the other, or vice versa. Always puzzles me...

Hey @Grendel! Thanks for your feedback and your kind words. It's so much more fun doing these posts when you know that there is someone out there actually also appreciating them, and being able to get something out of them 🙂 So thank you, for this feedback! Highly appreciated. I totally get you on this, and to be quite honest - if I started collecting them on DVD, I would have doubted to ever get into Blu-ray with them. Well, probably I'd had, because on DVD not all titles where available anyways, we in Germany had Anolis and Koch who did a comparable series (in Amarays with Fullslip-like slipcover - I think they had 11 titles), and maybe one or the other cheaper made box-set. But yeah, not much to go on, and the real quality boost, with having them re-scanned from film with a 2K or even 4K sampling rate and new masters, and longer versions - all this shenanigans only came with the release of the Blu-rays. At least for me it feeels like this will be the format that these films will go down with - 4K hasn't hit the physical media market as it was hoped for (how could it, if even Blu-ray wasn't really established, yet?), and I do not think that companies will go through all this hassle of re-scanning, cleaning up, color correcting, etc. pp. for a 4K release. They'd probably be happy if they started out with a 4K scan (which for these classics they usually don't, as far as I can tell - mostly I read about a brand new 2K scan), else they'd probably just blow it up to 4K. I'd doubt that there is much you can still get much more out of these classics anyways; I mean, often even the HD format does so much good to the image that it actually starts looking bad (because some cinematographers knew that certain things wouldn't be visible on the current technology, and therefore seem realistic - pastic stones, matte paintings, etc. - with HD they are easily spotted). So for me, even if I ever switch to 4K, I'd be contempt with my HD releases of these classics and probably wouldn't switch up, if it was possible. But up to now, I actually haven't seen any classic movie (i.e. 70s and earlier) being released on 4K. Usually, it's the newer stuff, where the master was already in 4K or the movie got released just recently. And I bet a lot of blow-ups are out there as well. And I don't think we'll ever see much else, as the 4K disc market is so much smaller than the HD market is, and even the HD market never unfolded the same potential as DVD did. And the Hammer collecting community (whose existance I won't dispute) is a small one as it is. Can you imagine a lot of people getting 4K releases of any of the lesser known Hammer classics? The other thing is of course the question about if it makes sense for ones own situation, and as you probably know, I don't think so. So in that regard, for me it makes totally sense to pay up "one last time" (so to speak), and get the greatest edition there is for the last time (sounds so dramatic ) I wasn't too sure if that is also true internationally, I do know that it's true for German releases. There are sometimes boxsets with Blu-rays from one of the other labes we've got, and sometimes even "premium" releases, e.g. the famous Warner/Hoanzl mediabooks I already ranted about in one of the other threads. None of them have the quality of the package, the extras (especially the booklet), or even picture and audio quality. But to be quite honest, I haven't checked out any international competitors. I was lucky because - by sheer luck and accident - I started out with the right edition from the get-go. I wouldn't have compared quality at that time I wouldn't have checked differences, etc. That was the reason I fell for the worse Warner/Hoanzl releases to begin with - it would have been even better to just get an Amaray release from the UK, rather than those cheaply done Medabooks. But you only learn by making mistakes, I guess... And that's the reason why I never got into those boxsets. It's probably a rather stupid notion. I was really intreagued by those box sets that Indicator produced and is still producing. But, one or two of them would make me double dip, and then I already start calculating - is it still worth it, if I pay more for the other releases (because that double dip does not add any value, so actually the price is not divided among all titles, but among the rest of the titles ). Or also: What happens if Anolis would still release these titles (one of the things I am not so happy about is the missing "mission statement". Is Anolis actually planing to one day have all the Hammer titles released? Are they only concentraring on certain titles? The often refer to the series as the "Hammer Horror" series, does that imply, that imply that movies such as "She", "One Million Years B.C." and others will not be part of their lineup? But Anolis at least had the right to these movies (and when they started the Blu-ray series they claimed that they could renew all their licenses, so people expected to see movies like "She", "Slave Girls", "A Challenge for Robin Hood" or "Sword of Sherwood Forest"), yet they are not coming and it seems like they probably never will. On the other hand, movies like "Hands of the Ripper", "Paranoiac!", etc. are also more psychological thrillers than horror movies, and Quatermass is more science fiction than horror. So where are they going?). Then again, Wicked already did two Hammer releases, "Hammer House of Horror" series, as well as "Kiss of the Vampire" (so there could be someone picking up those titles Anolis is leaving out intentionally, and their releases are worth their money as well) and Anolis are currently releasing a lot of titles we've seen at Indicator before (Happy Birthday to Me, Terror, Night of the Demon), so not sure if in time all the Indicator titles will also be released by Anolis. If so, there is again a huge number of Hammer titles as well (but up to now, this only applied to titles not part of any of the Hammer boxes). So what's actually my point in all these ramblings? I guess you either try to avoid double dipping, which then means that you cannot by any boxsets at all (because you never know what the future will hold), or you try to live with double dipping, because you cannot avoid it, if it is more important to you to get all the movies, as we don't know if any one label will be able (and willing!) to secure the rights to all of these titles - which I never counted, but estimate to be at least 100? (because again, you never know what the future will hold). Avoiding double dipping by persuing getting all titles, only seems to be possible if you had this magic crystall ball that everyone likes to have (or the Delorian - if I was McFly, I wouldn't have gone for the Sports Almanac, I would have gotten the back catalogue of all blu-ray releases 🤣 - it would have ended with the first part, because try making a sequel with the bad guy getting a catalogue of all hammer blu-rays ever released 😂). In your case, with having all those films on Blu-ray already, to be quite honest, I probably wouldn't go for the single releases by Anolis - at least not all of them. I mean, the Indicator boxsets for instance, look totally stunning, and I would (and probably will) buy them. But they cost as much as would two of the Anolis single releases for double the films. So, coming from the Anolis collecting side, getting those boxes might still make sense for Indicator as they have them theme based, and there are a lot of films that Anolis has not yet released, and might maybe never release, as they are not "horror". But coming from owning all movies from different companies, here is what I would do: I'd only go for (a) my most favourite movies of the bunch - e.g. I really love that movie (that most people actually hate?!) "Hands of the Ripper" - that would have been one, I would have gone for, because of it's beautiful cover artwork and the booklet, and (b) the ones that would actually add value that I didn't already have. E.g. the "Dracula" release that Anolis did, was even longer than the one coming from Arrow/Shout Factory(?) just half a year earlier, because they found a copy in Japan that had footage that was thought to be forever lost. That would have been something where I'd double dip because it adds (perceived psychological) value to the releases I'd already own, as it is longer, or improved in a way that I would actually really feel, or that are just in the collection because I love the movie so much. But getting them all? I probably wont (but well - you know - never say never. You start off with the noblest of intentions, and soon you are surrounded by all of them and deeply in dept, because you started off with just one of them, and then _blank_, and all of a sudden you had them all and don't remember what happened 🤪). So, it's the last of their releases, and I have to say, prices are fair; the asking price when this was new, was arround 25€~30€ (depending on where you bought it, and if it was dual format or single). So this is a good price, except of course the "Night of the Demon" one, because that one also just used to cost ~30€. However that one movie is desired - was also one of the first that sold out with Indicator, if I remember correctly? So maybe one can argue that it's okey. What I dislike about the offer is, that only 8 films are listed, so you need to get the two missing ones separately. "The H-Man" (Das Grauen schleicht durch Tokio) is sold separatly at around 50€, and "Battle in Outer Space" (Krieg im Weltraum) is around 70€~80€. Given that he also wants 70€ for the first release, that would make you end up at around 400€, if you want to complete the set yourself. I think that it is probably cheaper to try and get a complete set. Those sell at around 300€~350€, if you are lucky. But to be quite honest - I was considering getting them as well for a while now, and always postponed it, because getting the set is also a lot of money at once, and then I feel like they might be not worth it (even though now I started with box four getting them separately as they are released - it's just not that much money upfront - but it will add up to similar prices), and they might become more and more expensive as more time passes. I still think it's a good offer though, and maybe if you get the lot, he'd go down with the entire price a bit; but adding up these prices he listed, you are at around 250€, which is still quite fair. I am not sure, though, if I would double dip any of these movies, as you said you own all of them already? However you decide - best of luck, and keep us updated, please Would be a great chance for you to actually open up a thread next to these ones, and fill them with lovely pictures and ramblings about the movies :

So, regarding this release, I actually - as a blind buy - ordered Cover D. And I am not sure, if that was clever at all, as the trailer looks like great production value, but also extremely brutal, and I don't like brutal movies that are just - and without any sense or aesthetics - plain brutal and bloody. BUT, I wanted to order Quatermass 2, I still needed something to get up to 50€ (as I did not want to bother Daniel once more to actually include this to my last order), and so I thought, why not give it a try, how bad could it be, and it's done in parts by Anolis and I have a great track reckord with Anolis releases since forever. Now I just saw the IMDB rating and it's a devistating 3,8/10. Boy oh boy, what did I just order there? Well, we'll see, I'll keep you posted as usual, and if you know anything about this movie, please share it with us Btw. I chose cover D because, I did not like the collage like arrangement of cover B (even though I love Ralf Krauses style), and Cover C is just to racy (is it how you say it in English?) for my taste. Naked girl (playing with herself?) bloody guy on top of her, the zombie, and the guy pointing the gun at the beholder of the Mediabook - not my taste. So, cover A looks great, but cover D is somewhat funny if you take the motif and the title, as they are so deeply in contrast. That's what I ended up with Let's see if I end up regretting this and sell it on eBay right after watching it

Release: 28.08.2020 Link: Cover A, Cover B, Cover C, Cover D (*) Price: 29,99€ Ladies and gentelmen, there is a new player in town! Today, together with their own home label release Anolis also announced another Mediabook release that they where also involved with, but that will be released via a brand new lable named "Excessive Pictures". And for their first release they decided to go with the movie "Beautiful People", in English also known as "The Dead House". It is an Italian home invasion horror film by Amerigo Brini, starring Danny Cutler, David White, Kate Marie Davis and Andrea Pascali -- all of them so unknown that there aren't even Wikipedia pages for them. The story feels a bit like they are trying too much: It's a home invasion, rape & revenge, mad scientist and zombie horror movie, with a pretty bloody and gruesome trailer, but other than that, not much to find out about the movie, as it also seems to run under the radar. This release is done in Germany with no FSK rating (so it's running the danger to be indexed), and it is done because there is already a German FSK 18 release that was cut by 3 Minutes, so this is the only uncut release you'd get. The only other release that is also uncut (at least as far as I could find) is an Amaray from Australia. Regarding the extras it feels a bit like a typical Anolis release, as we get a featurette ("Talking with the Actors"), behind the scenes, a featurette on the Filming Locations, deleted scenes, trailer, picture galery and storyboard comparison. Quite something. Also there is a 28-page booklet written by the producers of the movie(!), Andrea Cavalletto, Giorgio Rosati and Amerigo Brini. That's something you don't get every day? There are four cover artworks, and according to Anolis two of them are newly commisioned, one by Ralf Krause, the other by Rick Melton. While there's no information on which is which, it actually is pretty easy to figure out. Ralf Krause has a pretty obvious style, and it can only be cover B. Cover A is not newly commissioned as it is used on the FSK-18 variant, and cover D is actually shown on the back side of that FSK-18 release, so only one left is cover C, and that perfectly fits to the other images I was able to find by Rick Melton. So B + C are the exclusively artworks. Anolis also released a little teaser: The second release by Excessive Pictures will be "The Demon's Rook" which is also suposed to come this year, and again be a collaboration between Anolis and Excessive Pictures, unter the Excessive Pictures flag. What do you think about this movie? Has anybody seen it? Will you get this? If so, which would be the cover you chose?

Release: 28.08.2020 Link: Cover A, Cover B, Cover C (*) Price: 28,99€ I just looked up my old threads because I wanted to see what I wrote when writing about this collection series, but guess what? Until now, I haven't written about this collection series! And this is especially strange, as I've written about Anolis "Phantastische Klassiker" series, as well as their "Galerie des Grauens" series. But, their main and most important series, the "Anolis Hammer Horror" series I left out entirely. And this is especially strange as this series is probably the most important to me. So as this is the very first time, allow me to go far afield for this post. I started collecting DVDs at around ~2000 (+/- 1 Year, probably). I cannot reproduce the exact date, but since then I've been collecting, and since then (at 2000 I was around 16 years old), I only collected contemporary movies, as well as a few classics from the 90s that I grew up with. Oldest movies in my collection where probably the 70s, but these where sparse: Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien, Halloween. But older? No, sir. I did not find any interest in classics and never saw movies from the 60s or 50s, etc. This changed, when all of a sudden, at around 2014 - I just started collecting Blu-rays and people where talking about these new releases by Anolis, that just started a year ago. It was recommended to me, and I looked them up and heard about these Hammer films (I didn't know anything about Hammer Studios), and though: Well, that's probably uninteresting for me. But people kept talking about it, and all of a sudden I realized that there where actually at least 2 movies that I knew: At least one of the Dracula movies, and the Hound of the Baskervilles - I saw these in TV because as a child I used to love both, Dracula as well as Sherlock Holmes. So, in 2016 I finally tried it out, and got Anolis 13th Hammer Horror release, "Gruft der Vampire" (OT: "The Vampire Lovers") just when it was released. To be quite honest, I hated it, but - I loved the release, the extras, all the information, and after seeing all these, I liked the movie more than after watching it the first time. Next, I got a few of the older releases, starting with "Dracula und seine Bräute" (OT: "Brides of Dracula"), "Frankensteins Ungeheuer" (OT: "Evil of Frankenstein") and "Hände voller Blut" (OT: "Hands of the Ripper") - and these where really good. Thus started my journey into the real classic movies, stumbling upon movies such as Roger Corman movies, Terence Fisher and Freddi Francis movies, Mario Bava films, William Castle movies, George A. Romero films, Universal Classic monsters, Hammer Horror, Amicus Productions, and so many more. And it all started with Anolis Hammer Horror release. This is why this label is so important to me. I wrote a bit in detail about the label Anolis on the post I did to "It! Terror from Beyond Space", focussing on the "Galerie des Grauens", this time I'd like to focus on their Hammer releases. So Anolis was founded in 1998 and started out with Kaiju classic movies on VHS. In 2001 they switched to DVD and in 2002 they secured 20 Hammer Studios titles for Germany as DVD release. They where the first to gain these rights, and they decided to do something special with them, so they made it a collectible series, with spine numbering, and an image that streached over all spines (which artificially limited them to 20 titles), with a booklet. A few also had a small number of extras, if there was still space on the DVD. And they promise that this was the only release they'll do of these movies - a promis that Anolis keeps like no other label: There won't be any second prints, or cheaper re-releases. Which is why after finishing their 20 titles in 2004, for a long time they did not pick up with Hammer. It was in 2012 that they actually announced their plans of picking up Hammer once more, but for an HD release. They actually openly asked the community, about their oppinion. They did not want to make collectors of the old release angry, so they decided that this new series will not come with a DVD combo (as is usual for Mediabooks) but as single BD. To add value to the collection, there will be new booklets instead of copying the old ones, new artworks that weren't used with the DVD release, as well as adding extras and producing new extras as well - this way, people who own the DVD could still gain something from these releases. Plus, different to all their other series releases, they decided to not do a spine image or spine numbers, allowing owners of the DVDs to just get the new titles and keep their DVDs when a title was re-released. Also, because a lot of people asked why certain titles where not released with the 20 titles, Anolis wanted to be open to keep this series running as long as possible. This was the consensus that was found with old DVD collectors. And actually, the Hammer DVD releases did not drop in value - even today the DVDs range from 30€ to 130€, and the whole set has absurde asking prices. It was planned that every release would come in one limited Mediabook release as well as in an non-limited keep case with same disk but no booklet and the standard cover artwork (to preserve these classics). However, they had to change this as early as their second release: People where so unhappy with the french cover variant, that Anolis decided to "exceptionally" offer a second cover variant. This exception became the standard since their fourth release, and four their Dracula releasees they bumpt it up to 3 Mediabook cover variants. Here's a list of what they've released so far: Quatermass and the Pit [Das Grüne Blut der Dämonen] Twins of Evil [Draculas Hexenjagd] The Mummy's Shroud [Der Fluch der Mumie] The Curse of the Werewolf [Der Fluch von Siniestro] Hands of the Ripper [Hände voller Blut] Countess Dracula [Comtesse des Grauens] Plague of the Zombies [Nächte des Grauens] The Evil of Frankenstein [Frankensteins Ungeheuer] The Reptile [Das Schwarze Reptil] The Brides of Dracula [Dracula und seine Bräute] The Quatermass Xperiment [Schock] Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell [Frankensteins Höllenmonster] The Vampire Lover [Gruft der Vampire] Captain Clegg [Die Bande des Captain Clegg] Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter [Captain Kronos - Vampirjäger] The Witches [Der Teufel tanzt um Mitternacht] The Phantom of the Opera [Das Rätsel der unheimlichen Maske] Nightmare [Der Satan mit den langen Wimpern] Horror of Dracula [Dracula] Paranoiac! [Haus des Grauens] Taste the Blood of Dracula [Wie schmeckt das Blut von Dracula] Dracula A.D. 1972 [Dracula jagt Mini-Mädchen] Dracula has Risen from the Grave [Draculas Rückkehr] Rasputin, the Mad Monk [Rasputin - Der Wahnsinnige Mönch] The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb [Die Rache des Pharao] To the Devil... a Daughter [Die Braut des Satans] Vampire Circus [Circus der Vampire] The Devil Rides Out [Die Braut des Teufels] So far, I've collected all of them in one cover artwork - except for the first one - not because I don't want it, but because I cannot find it for a price that I would still be willing to pay (50€ including insured shipping), as it is sold from 120€ - 200€ But let us FINALLY come to the release that was actually announced today! After Anolis has already released "Das grüne Blut der Dämonen" (OT: "Quatermass and the Pit") [as their first release] and "Schock" (OT: "The Quatermass Xperiment"), we finally get the completion of the "Quatermass Tirlogy" with "Feinde aus dem Nichts" (OT: "Quatermass 2"). As its predecessor "The Quatermass Xperiment", "Quatermass 2" is a black-and-white science-fiction horror movie by Val Guest and with Brian Donlevy as the name-giving protagonist "Prof. Bernard Quatermass". It was released in 1957, and as Shock, the story revolves once more around hostile aliens that want to invade the earth. As you can see in the first image, there are three Mediabook cover artworks, cover A features the US movie poster artwork, cover B features the rare Belgian movie poster and cover C was used in France. On the disk there'll be an audio commentary with Nigel Kneale and Val guest, an German exclusive audio commentary with Dr. Rolf Giesen and Volker Kronz, a "vintage" version of the movie, i.e. the german Cinema version in 1.37:1 [while the normal version on the disk will be 1.79:1], the "World of Hammer" episode on "Science Fiction", a super-8 version of the movie, a featurette(?) on the comic adaption, and picture galeries and trailers. Compared to the only other release out there (by Shout Factory in the US), these extras are basically shared (with the exception on the comic adaption and the german audio commentary, as well as the super-8 and vintage versions of the movie), but Shout Factory's release actually features two additional audio commentaries by film historians, as well as an Interview with Val Guest. It's more or less even, with the Shout Factroy being more English friendly, of course. But, we also get the 32-page booklet, which will - as usually - also contain rare picture material, such as international movie posters, lobby cards, etc. Are you interested in this release? Do you own any other Anolis Hammer releases? What Cover would/will you pick? As usually I am interested in your thoughts, and to shorten the wait for the release, here is the trailer: (*) Full disclosure on the link: This can be bought at any Mediabook store around; I would have listed another one but that one's not liked here, which I respect. Wicked however only has a really limited quantity of these books. If you don't get it via them, you can also try jpc, and others (which I do not have any experiences with, so no recommendation here). Amazon usually also carries some, but they are usually much more expensive right from the beginning. Also keep in mind, that currently there is still a block from Germany to the US (apprently by the DHL), so if you are from the US please try getting them via detour or a hub (e.g. over Canada); if you cannot, I know that Wicked will keep your orders and send them out as soon as they can.

To add on this one: It's a three disc set, with each disc containing one of the movies on either BD or UHD. There is no DVD copy included, and you have to choose between these two configurations. The BD variant is ~15€ cheaper, at 31,38€, while for the UHD you'll pay 46,71€. BD-Variant (same like as abouve) UHD-Variant Also, you might know that just few months prior to this release, there was an release by Arrow Video for "The Woman". However, that version just includes the "Offspring" movie on the two disc set. "Darlin'" is missing in that release. The 4K masters will probably be the same that Arrow has used, and nearly all listed extras are similar - so if you got the Arrow Release you won't get any additional extras, except, of course the missing "Darling'" movie, which makes this release fare more superior, especially considering that this also is a mediabook, which is the superior packaging (but in all fairness, the Arrow release does come with a slip cover, a reversible cover and also a booklet - so one might argue that these are rather similar in quality of package). Last but not least: FSK refused the rating, so lawyers rated it, and it got a "SPIO/JK - keine schwere Jugendgefährdung" (not heavily liable to corrupt the youth), making it impossible to advertise and openly sell it in Germany. And also while "keine schwere Jugendgefährdung" is not automatically indexed (different to "schwer Jugendgefährdend"), this could still happen, as only a FSK seal protects releases from being indexed. Maybe a reason to get it rather now than later.

:( I wrote a lengthy comment describing the release and what I like and what I don't like, but while dragging the images to this post, it got deleted :( :( :( I spent at least half an hour describing it. Sorry, but I am not doing that again; this is so frustrating :( . So here are just the pictures. Enjoy!

Hey @Grendel, my forgetful friend I did a typical writeup on both of them, and you actually commented on both of them But no worries, I am rather forgetful myself, so I can totally sympathize with you Sorry, if I wasn't too clear on that, but yes, basically it is the OST, but with more tracks, I guess - maybe unused songs?