Horror and Suspense

• Nosferatu | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £13.98   |  Saving you £6.01 (42.99%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Made in 1922, FW Murnau's Expressionist masterpiece Nosferatu--A Symphony of Horrors is an unofficial but reasonably faithful condensation of parts of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Alongside Metropolis (1926) it is one of the very few European features from the 1920s that is still regularly shown, and apart from being the first great horror film it laid the foundations of the vampire genre to the present day. Wearing astonishing rodent-like make-up Max Schreck cuts such an iconic figure as the undead Count that the 2001 comedy-horror Shadow of the Vampire suggested he wasn't acting at all! Although Murnau's film was revolutionary and technically adventurous for the time, a modern audience will have to make some allowances for the fact the movie now seems both dated and technically primitive: Murnau's stylised lighting and camera effects have been endlessly imitated and improved upon since, and even its greatest defenders generally admit the film barely raises a shudder, let alone a full-blooded scare. Nevertheless, Nosferatu holds a strange dreamlike grip on the imagination and its incalculable influence on fantasy and horror cinema means this is essential viewing for anyone seriously interested in the development of motion picture art. On the DVD: Presented in Academy at 1.37:1 and with James Bernard's new orchestral score in well-recorded stereo Nosferatu looks and sounds as good as it has in decades. Bernard, composer of Hammer's Dracula (1958) among others, has written a superior score that captures the film's subtitle, "A Symphony of Horrors", and truly brings the images alive in a way previous scores have not. This restored version presents for the first time on video or DVD the blue and brown tints of the original cinema prints and replicates the original hand-designed inter-title cards which with their distinctive designs make the film much more of a compete visual experience. More importantly, this DVD offers approximately another quarter of an hour of material over the usually distributed American version. However, the restoration has not extended to repairing the many lines, scratches, variations in brilliance and other evidence of print damage present throughout. The film is perfectly watchable, being very much what one would expect from the early 1920s. There are text biographies and notes on Murnau and James Bernard, DVD-ROM material on the restoration of the print and a perceptive 23-minute discussion by film expert Christopher Frayling on many aspects of the movie. --Gary S Dalkin

• After Dark Originals Boxset | DVD | (24/10/2011) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-5.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

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• The Awakening | DVD | (26/03/2012) from £6.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Starring Dominic West (The Wire, 300), Rebecca Hall (The Town) and Oscar-nominee Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), THE AWAKENING is the chilling supernatural thriller from Nick Murphy.

• A Nightmare On Elm Street | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £5.86   |  Saving you £14.13 (241.13%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Nightmare on Elm Street is the only Elm street film that falls into the "really scary" category. A dead murderer returns in the dreams of the children of his old enemies, and torments them. Wes Craven tamps down the humour that would overtake the films and goes all out for shivers. There are several memorably surreal horror sequences involving tongued telephones and bottomless baths as Craven's unhealthy imagination runs riot. With Heather Langenkamp as the plucky Nancy, John Saxon and Ronee Blakely as her dim bulb parents, Amanda Wyss and young Johnny Depp as teen victims, and Robert Englund as "Fred" Krueger. -- Kim Newman

• Sadomania | DVD | (22/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Previously banned in the UK! In all the annals of exploitation cinema there has never been anything quite like Sadomania: take a luscious young bride (former Playboy centrefold Ursula Buchfellner) thrust into a brutal prison camp run by a sadistic female warden (the stunning transsexual adult film star Ajita Wilson). Add generous helpings of lesbian lust bestial perversion and some extreme violence. Then mix in a jaw-dropping performance by the film's controversial direct

• Faces in the Crowd | DVD | (01/10/2012) from £13.48   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A horror-thriller centered on a woman living with 'face-blindness' after surviving a serial killer's attack. As she lives with her condition, one in which facial features change each time she loses sight of them, the killer closes in.

• The Cabin in the Woods | Blu Ray | (24/09/2012) from £20.19   |  Saving you £6.06 (32.01%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favourites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, a mind blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out.

• Bride Of Chucky | DVD | (25/09/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Brace yourself: this is a clever, consistently entertaining and even inspired continuation of the mean-spirited slasher series. For those not in the know, Chucky is a mop-top kid's doll come to life with the soul of a serial killer and the voice of Brad Dourif (doing his best Jack Nicholson). Revived by his former paramour Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly, looking every inch a life-size Barbie in stiletto heels and skintight black leather), Chucky proceeds to turn his human sweetie into a pint-sized Talking Tina doll with attitude, and together they hit the road for a magic amulet and young new bodies to inhabit. They hitch a ride with sweet young runaways Katherine Heigl and Nick Stabile and leave a trail of corpses bloodied, burned and cut to ribbons. The kids are cute, but the real heat is generated by the latex lovers who use murder as foreplay and consummate their renewed romance in a night of passionate sex ("Shouldn't you wear a rubber?" "I'm all rubber!"). Hong Kong director Ronny Yu (The Bride with White Hair) directs with a light touch and against all odds transforms walking dolls Chucky and Tiffany into funny, energetic, full-blooded characters: l'amour fou has never been more crazy. John Ritter costars as Heigl's overprotective uncle (another obstacle on the road to dolly freedom) and Alexis Arquette is hilarious as a lanky goth nerd. The wild conclusion leaves room for another high-concept sequel. The DVD features two commentary tracks, a behind-the-scenes documentary, and "Jennifer Tilly's Diary." --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• I'm Still Waiting for You | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Thirteen years ago on Valentine's Day two young lovers were brutally murdered at the local Lovers Lane. The killer a maniac wielding a steel hook was arrested by the police and incarcerated in a nearby state institution for the criminally insane.But the murders left a permanent mark on two families; the dead lovers were married....but not to each other.Psychiatrist Jack Grefe has devoted the last thirteen years to keeping the killer behind bars as at the time of the murders the killer (aka The Hook) was his patient.Now it's Valentine's Day again and 'The Hook' had escaped.

• The Brood | DVD | (25/10/1999) from £12.98   |  Saving you £3.01 (23.19%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Arguably the best and most personal of director David Cronenberg's early films, The Brood is an extremely unsettling horror film about familial disintegration and emotional trauma taken to a monstrous extreme. Art Hindle stars as a man embroiled in a bitter custody struggle with his estranged wife (Samantha Eggar), who is undergoing therapy at psychiatrist Oliver Reed's controversial institute. Reed's treatment causes his patients to give form to their inner conflicts, and Eggar--whose psyche is at the boiling point from childhood abuse as well as the custody trial--creates a horde of homicidal humanoid children who enact bloody revenge on anyone who has threatened their "mother". Cronenberg's first feature with name actors and composer Howard Shore has its share of gruesome moments, but the film's subtext--how emotional violence impacts a family--is its most chilling aspect. --Paul Gaita

• Wishmaster 4 - The Prophecy Fulfilled | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £4.16   |  Saving you £9.83 (236.30%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Perversity depravity and fear are at an all time high as the hell-raising Wishmaster unleashes his undying love and three wishes on a beautiful new victim. A victim whose crucial third wish is one that the Wishmaster cannot fulfill without leaving a trail of terror devastation and blood in his wake. Wishmaster 4 is a film that fulfills your deepest desire for a highly seductive thriller filled with unspeakable horror titillating forbidden passion and riveting suspense from beg

• Halloween II | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £4.89   |  Saving you £1.10 (22.49%)   |  RRP £5.99

  You can't kill the boogeyman", explained John Carpenter in the original, and to prove it Michael Myers returns in the handsome but grisly sequel Halloween 2. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode but spends most of her time cowering in a hospital gown, and Donald Pleasance runs around like a maniac as the panicky doctor desperate to hunt down Myers before he kills again. Carpenter writes and produces with partner Debra Hill and together they replace the mystery and uncertainty of the original with an exponentially bigger body count, some strange tales about the Druids and Pagan ceremonies, and the now-familiar family ties between Michael and Laurie. First-time director Rick Rosenthal (Bad Boys) paces the film at a brisk jog and directs it with a clean, crisp style, taking the murders out of the dark to display them in all their nasty detail. --Sean Axmaker

• Sherlock Holmes - Hound Of The Baskervilles / Voice Of Terror | DVD | (12/03/2007) from £5.95   |  Saving you £7.04 (118.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Blood For Dracula | DVD | (22/05/2006) from £12.15   |  Saving you £7.84 (64.53%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the minds of Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey comes this cult horror film starring Udo Kier and Joe Dallesandro one of the most prominent actors from 'The Factory'. Tired and sickly Count Dracula (Udo Kier) travels to Italy in search of a virgin bride. He and his domineering assistant Anton stumble across the supposedly virginal DiFiore family. Unfortunately the DiFiore daughters are less than virginal thanks to the determined efforts of servant Mario Balato (Joe Dallesandro

• Scanners | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £6.73   |  Saving you £-0.74 (-12.40%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Cameron Vale is living on the fringe of society self-induced due to his telepathic ability to read other people's minds. Darryl Revok has the same condition and is the head of an underground association of so-called Scanners that want world domination. When Vale is taken to Dr Paul Ruth as a result of supposed insanity he's enlisted into a program that will involve him in a battle against his fellow Scanners.

• Sleepless | DVD | (11/12/2006) from £24.98   |  Saving you £-11.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Dario Argento's 2001 feature Sleepless didn't receive a cinematic release in the UK, and it's not hard to see why. The movie often feels like Argento on auto-pilot, rehashing images and ideas and camera angles from his more inspired films like Suspiria or Tenebrae. The dialogue is leaden, the plot is a plodding whodunnit (and most of the time it's hard to care who) and the acting, with the exception of the veteran Max von Sydow, is mostly atrocious and crudely dubbed. But then again, no one ever came to an Argento movie for the plot or the dialogue, and least of all for the acting. The key to his mastery has always been the atmosphere of a nightmare that he conjures up, with all its jagged imagery and complete absence of narrative logic. The less sense it makes, the scarier it gets. Sleepless never attains anywhere near a level of nightmarish intensity, but it has its moments--especially the least rational ones. Although the plot involves no elements of the supernatural, and everything is finally (if cumbersomely) explained, it's episodes like the first killing (where the murderer traps his victim on a speeding train he couldn't possibly have boarded) that strike most effectively home. The action involves a retired police inspector (von Sydow) lured back to investigate a series of killings in Turin that replicate murders he was assigned to 17 years earlier. As always with Argento, knives figure prominently, as do prowling steadicam tracking shots, old dark houses and females butchered in any number of gory and far-fetched ways. The film looks unfailingly good, courtesy of its rich dark palate of colours, Ronnie Taylor's sinuous camera, and Argento's favourite group Goblin contribute an edgy, insidious score. On the DVD: Sleepless on DVD comes with a clear, sharp transfer that's a pleasure to watch, with no loss of detail even in the many underlit scenes. Picture is matched for clarity by the terrific 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. This, unlike the truncated US and German DVD releases, is the full 117-minute original, shown in 1.85:1 widescreen. The two-disc set includes a generous helping of extras: stills gallery, the theatrical trailer (in Italian only, though), a 15-minute "making of" featurette, plus an informative one-hour documentary, Dario Argento--An Eye for Horror, narrated by Mark Kermode and previously shown on Channel Four at Christmas 2001.--Philip Kemp

• Inner Sanctum | DVD | (12/12/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Fred Olen Ray's sequel to Inner Sanctum. Full of hallucination scenes, erotic nightmares, and other gimmicky devices (sometimes nested three deep), the film tells the story of nurse Jennifer Reed (Tracy Brooks Swope), who -- when she was still played by Tanya Roberts in the first movie -- killed her murderous husband after he attempted to do the same to her. Jennifer's brother-in-law Bill (Michael Nouri from Flashdance) and his wife (Sandahl Bergman) come to stay with her. When a series of hook-murders begins, the traumatized woman and her guests must determine who is drugging her and setting up the killings. None of it really matters, however, as the mystery is secondary to all of the sex and violence. There are numerous softcore couplings, as well as some pretty silly hallucinations (sex with a decaying corpse, Jennifer's graveyard dance with an undead Kato Kaelin), and even a catfight to keep the punters happy. Ray casts the film with the usual names (Robert Quarry, Margaux Hemingway, David Warner, Joe Estevez).

• Dark Breed | DVD | (18/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Captain Saxon, and agent for the top secret Omega agency, has been given the assignment of tracking down and either capturing or killing the crew members of a secret space mission who returned to Earth against orders. It seems that they were all infected with an alien parasite, and they were trying to bring its eggs back to Earth. The eggs were lost in an accident, and both Saxon and the astronauts are trying to locate them. What could the government want them for?

• Gangsters vs Vampires | DVD | (13/09/2013) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Cold Prey 3 | DVD | (10/06/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A