Double Feature Picture Show Freestyle Party, Volume 2 - The Mike's Favorite Blu-Rays of 2017

The beginning of the new year is a time for lists, and if there's one thing I love as much as double features...it's lists. They're like longer double features with more features and more double, unless they have an odd number. Then it's like double and a half, I think. I'm not good at math. The point is this -  I think it's kind of fantastic that lists exist.

I will at some point make a list of my favorite movies released in 2017, but I'm not gonna do that yet. There's a simple reason for this: The Shape of Water isn't playing in my neck of the Iowa yet, and I'll be a monkey's uncle if I'm gonna make a list of movies I love without giving a movie that turns The Creature from the Black Lagoon into a noir love story a chance to get on that list.

The next idea I had was a list my favorite blu-ray releases of 2017, because blu-rays are a thing I buy a lot. A really cool thing about physical media in 2017 is that there are already a whole  lot of movies that are already on disc. Which means that companies really have to do some digging and work hard to find something collectors are going to go out of their way to find. Which means that a lot of one-of-a-kind blu-ray releases occurred this year, and that's a darn good thing.

As I was preparing this list, one of my favorite writers, Stephanie Crawford, tackled the same topic over at the delightful F This Movie! website. Because her list and mine would have overlapped a lot - Suspiria, His Girl Friday, Streets of Fire, Effects, Re-Animator, and Liquid Sky were all insta-buy-and-loves for me - I decided to link it here and let you see that list too. Her great list also allows me to focus on 10 films that didn't make that top 10, which means you all now have 20 movies you can buy.

I know! It's a list double feature! You are welcome.

As if that wasn't enough - and enough is never enough! - I'm also going to suggest double feature partners for each of the movies on my list. Yes, that's gonna be a lot of movies. If you don't like movies this list might not be for you.

The Mike's 10 Favorite Blu-Ray Releases of 2017

Honorable Mentions: Band of the Hand (Mill Creek Entertaiment), George A. Romero Between Night And Dawn (Arrow Video), Heat: Director's Definitive Edition (20th Century Fox), The Hidden (Warner Archive), Into the Night (Shout Factory), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (Criterion Collection), The Old Dark House (The Cohen Film Collection), One Dark Night (Code Red/Kino Lorber), Slaughter High (Vestron Video), Snapshot (Vinegar Syndrome), The Vagrant (Scream Factory), The Valley of Gwangi (Warner Archive)

10 - Demon Wind (Vinegar Syndrome)

Vinegar Syndrome has been great at finding and restoring obscure genre flicks for a few years, and they might have been even better at finding and restoring adult titles in 2017. That's not to say they did a poor job of finding genre titles, because Demon Wind is the first of three movies they landed on this list. 

I didn't know Demon Wind before it was announced by Vinegar Syndrome this summer, but finding this low-budget Evil Dead 2 wannabe in 2017 was a real treat. It's a raw movie compared to Raimi's work, but it's a different kind of raw. The acting is a little goofier, the effects have some issues, and at times it seems more like a traditional demon/zombie flick than the inventive trilogy Raimi created. That's all fine and good - if we use the Evil Dead trilogy as a standard measuring stick for horror movies we're gonna be disappointed by most of 'em - because Demon Wind still feels charming and unique, and lands a few great in-jokes that poke fun at horror films of the era.

Double Feature it with: Demon Wind has some obvious connections to horror classics, and I even see some ties to John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. But the look and tone of the film remind me of another goofy demon flick from the same time frame, Highway to Hell. Get lost with some bubbly-faced demons for a night, you'll thank me later. 

9 - Slither (Scream Factory)

James Gunn brought the Guardians of the Galaxy to the big screen twice in the last five years, and with his current power position in one of Hollywood's biggest franchises it was the perfect time to revisit Slither, his 2006 horror comedy about a town and its residents being overtaken by alien slugs. If you've seen the movie, you know it's funnier than it sounds, thanks to an A-list cast and some incredibly sharp dialogue.

Since this is a relatively recent film, Scream Factory had plenty of bonus features available to choose from. It seems like they picked all of them. Fans of Gunn and his Troma roots will find a lot to love about how this movie was made, and casual horror fans should enjoy the film's gore and humor. It might seem too soon to look at Slither as a cult classic, but I think this movie's going to stick around for a long time - and this blu-ray is going to help make that happen.

Double Feature it with: Slither works best with the 1980s horror comedy that its creatures most resemble, Night of the Creeps. This is only one of the influences on Gunn's film, but I think a then and (almost) now double feature of the two films would be a blast.

8 - Kill, Baby...Kill! (Kino Lorber)

Kill, Baby...Kill! has long been a holy grail for me as a collector, as the only decent DVD edition of the film was part of a box set that went OOP and jumped in price many years ago. I had seen the film, one of Italian master of horror Mario Bava's best offerings, a few times on a public domain DVD set, but seeing it restored on Kino Lorber's US blu-ray release was a highlight of the year for me.

The Kino blu doesn't look perfect, but I think that's a good thing for a film from 1966. You can tell it was hard to get the film to look this good, but it's nice that the restoration didn't  tinker too much and make it feel inauthentic. There are a lot of good blu-rays of classic Italian horror out there (being able to type that just made me a little aroused), and though this isn't one of the best looking discs you'll find it is probably one of the most important we've seen in a while.

(P.S. - Yes, I know I'm cheating and this was an honorable mention on Stephanie's list that I said I wasn't gonna steal from. But I HAD to.)

Double Feature it with: Bava's Blood and Black Lace, made two years before Kill, Baby...Kill!, might be the best looking horror movie of all-time. It was one of 2016's best blu-ray releases, and I see no reason why we shouldn't put the two classics together as a double feature now that they're both on blu-ray. Get down with Italian horror!

7 - One Million Years B.C. (Kino Lorber)

"The lovely Raquel," as Morgan Freeman once described her, gets a 4K update on this stacked disc from Kino Lorber, which features both the European and American cuts of the Hammer Films produced dinosaur epic that's full of Ray Harryhausen's magical monsters. The two cuts are nothing new - 20th Century Fox had them together on a bargain DVD for years, but the new image transfer on this disc is absolutely stunning to anyone interested in fur-clad men and women or dinosaur destruction or any of the other treats this cult classic offers.

One Million Years B.C. isn't one of the most important films of the 1960s, and the fact that it gets this kind of a package in 2017 is a special treat for kids like me that grew up in awe of Harryhausen's creations. My only wish is that the film featured a version of Raquel that's taller than the dinosaurs, as featured on the film's cover, because THAT would be one hell of a movie to see. 

Double Feature it with: Warner Archive restored another old-fashioned dinosaur special effects classic, The Valley of Gwangi, this year. Since I already listed it as one of my honorable mentions, it makes perfect sense to bring it back here. If you know a kid who likes dinosaurs and hasn't been too tainted by modern special effects yet, get both of these movies and watch their eyes grow. 

Hmmm...that might be a good idea for later in this list too. (Hashtag: foreshadowing.)

6 - Willard (Scream Factory)

A killer rat film with a revenge twist, Willard is one of the few American horror hits of the 1970s that for some reason never made its way to DVD. So when Scream Factory announced that it - along with the sequel, Ben - would make its debut on blu-ray - that was a pretty big deal. I didn't know much about the film until Crispin Glover starred in a remake in 2003, and I'd been waiting to see what the fuss was all about for a long time.

When I got the chance to watch both of these films this year, I was very pleased with what I found in Willard. Young Bruce Davison - who grew up to be quite the character actor - wasn't quite compelling yet, but acting opposite the likes of Ernest Freakin' Borgnine and Elsa Freakin' Lancaster protects him from a lot of potential problems. The film's rat actors are well-trained and surprisingly sympathetic. The movie's dated and feels a little bit like it was made for TV, but there's a charm to be found in that. This one was worth the wait.

Double Feature it with: I mentioned that Willard feels a bit like a made for TV, and I think it might be fun to pair it with my favorite made for TV horror of the 1970s, The Initiation of Sarah.  You'll get a male lead for one, a female lead for the other, and nice doses of bullying and revenge via mind control in both.

5 - Red Mob (Vinegar Syndrome)

If I had been snatched at birth by Russians - they steal elections now, who knows what they were capable of in the 1980s! - and then allowed to make a movie when I was 12 and The A-Team had just premiered in Mother Russia, that movie would have looked almost exactly like Red Mob.

This is kind of a cheat pick - Red Mob was offered only briefly as a limited edition on Vinegar Syndrome's website, and is being released to the masses later this month - but for my money this is one of the most unique special edition releases we've seen released in a long time. I don't know who the person is who sits in a room somewhere and says "Hey, I've got an idea - let's dig up this Russian action epic from the early '90s and make it pretty!" but whoever that guy is deserves a raise. This movie is excessive in all the right ways, which makes it pure entertainment. And yeah, I'm bumping it up the list a lot just because it's so crazy to me that this blu-ray exists.

Double Feature it with: I'm not sure what the American equivalent to Red Mob might be. It's got a little bit of Commando and a little bit of Red Dawn and a little bit of every other '80s and early '90s action movie in it. I might go with a Rutger Hauer flick to give the double feature a European feel, so let's say we double feature Red Mob with the Hauer vehicle Wanted: Dead or Alive, which also could use a blu-ray update.

4 - The Unholy (Vestron Video)

Do you like horror films about priests losing their faith? What about tempting redheaded demonesses? If you answered yes to one or both of these questions, The Unholy might just be the '80s horror movie for you.

The reboot of the Vestron Video label has provided a lot of '80s cult hits on blu over the last two years, and The Unholy was met with less fanfare than a lot of their other titles, particularly this years releases of The Gate and Slaughter High. What lifts The Unholy above these other titles for me is how dreamlike and surreal this film is, especially in the final act. Cuban born director Camilo Vila's film shares a lot of style with some of the great Italian horror films of the '70s and '80s, and this visually impressive film benefits more from the upgrade to blu than some of the other titles from the label. It's not a tight film, but it's haunting and seductive. I'll take that in a demon vs. priest film every day.

Double Feature it with: William Peter Blatty's not-quite sequel to The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration, ticks a lot of the same boxes that The Unholy does. It doesn't rely on sex appeal and temptation as much as The Unholy does, but it does a great job of making the characters question their faith while keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat with great visuals and a twisting plot. Watch it first, then end the night with The Unholy's smutty finale.

3 - My Chauffeur (Vinegar Syndrome)

Vinegar Syndrome brought a horror film, an action film, and now an R-rated '80s comedy to this list. My Chauffeur is led by some great '80s talent - Valley Girl's Deborah Foreman and Flash Gordon himself, Sam J. Jones - and features a bunch of unique and entertaining side performers including Howard Hesseman and Penn & Teller.

Stuck on bargain DVD megapacks for decades, My Chauffeur finally shines with all the brightness of Foreman's charming smile on this blu-ray disc. It's a raunchy little romp that allows Foreman to show off her comedic talents throughout, and it's hard to believe she wasn't a bigger star of the era based on the few films she did shine in. Plus it's got one hell of an incest joke. If that doesn't sell you on the flick - OK, you might be more normal than I am.

Double Feature it with: As a child of the 1980s, I have a great fondness for the comedies of this era. My Chauffeur falls into a different category than a lot of the family comedies I saw growing up, thanks to its R rating and adult humor, much like one of my favorite movies - Secret Admirer. These movies don't have a lot in common in plot, but both do a great job of finding juvenile humor in adult situations.

2 - House: Two Stories (Arrow Video)

We're staying in the '80s again, this time with a packed two-disc box set from Arrow Video, led by House - which I think holds its own against the best horror comedies of its era. This is a goofy haunted house film from Friday the 13th Part 2 director Steve Miner, with a witty script (co-written by the great Fred Dekker) and winning performances by the cast (Night Court's Richard Moll is having so much fun haunting this house). It's paired here with its sequel, House II: The Second Story, which takes the saga in a crazier direction and pulls no punches while mixing '80s teen horror with random Aztec curses.

Both of these films had been through some difficult times on DVD, and Arrow's restoration of them here makes me so happy. I never even bothered to see House II, due to the DVD release being pan and scan, so the opportunity to see it for the first time as a double feature with the original that I love so much was one of my favorite horror viewing moments of the year. Add in the fact that Arrow always goes all out with special features, booklets, and a beautiful box to hold the discs, and this was nearly my favorite thing I purchased this year.

Double Feature it with: This is already a double feature, so why don't we double feature it with another original horror of the time and its sequel. I see a lot of parallels between House and Fright Night. And Fright Night also has a zany sequel (Fright Night Part 2, which just landed on Amazon Prime after near a decade out of print on DVD!) that's worth seeing too. A House/Fright Night week should keep any '80s horror fan happy.

1 - The Lost World (Flicker Alley)

Nearly 70 years before Jurassic Park - not quite an era, but a good chunk of time - special effects master Willis O'Brien brought the first dinosaur epic I remember seeing as a child, The Lost World, to silent cinema screens. Teaming with director Harry Hoyt and a cast that included future Oscar winner Wallace Beery and his amazing beard, O'Brien brought hid stop-motion animation talents to the production and created iconic images that helped future generations fall in love with dinosaurs. (As they should.)

For more than ten years the best way to see this film was as a special feature on a disc featuring a big budget remake from the 1960s (which is pretty entertaining too), until Flicker Alley released this disgustingly cool restoration of the silent classic in September. The studio, whose purpose is to preserve film history, also does an amazing job of supplementing the film with information about O'Brien's work, including commentaries, deleted scenes, and short films he made before The Lost World. But the coolest extra on the disc might be the test footage from an unfinished follow up film - Creation - which inspired producers to hire him to create the title character for a little film called King Kong.

If we're looking at the most important blu-rays of the year from a film history standpoint, it's hard to argue against The Lost World. It brought back an important piece of visual effects history and made sure that future generations will always be able to see how Willis O'Brien made things happen in the early days of the movies.

Plus it's got dinosaurs. Really, really cool dinosaurs. And that's a good thing too.

Double Feature it with: This is kind of obvious, and I already said it. The dinosaur action here ties in beautifully with the undeniable magic of King Kong, and spending the night with these two classic monster movies from O'Brien sounds like a perfect double feature to me. It's like they say, sometimes the simplest answer is also the correct one.

I hope you find something great for your collection this year, whether it's a disc from this list or Stephanie's. (Seriously, you need that Suspiria disc!) It's still a great time to be a movie collector, and here's to all these studios and the great work they're doing to make sure that some of these obscure and unique titles will never be lost in time. They had a great year, and I'm sure they'll keep it up in 2018.