The Last House on the Left (SE) --  You know the drill by now: Just before the remake comes out, we get a re-issue of the original flick. Lionsgate did it for My Bloody Valentine, Paramount did it for Friday the 13th, and now, just in time for Rogue's remake, MGM delivers a Special Edition of this infamous little terror flick. It's stamped with an UNRATED label on the DVD case, although the flick's been UNRATED since 1972, so I don't see what the excitement is all about. But yes, this early collaboration between Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham (both of whom would go on to dabble, just a bit, in the horror field) is quite the memorable shocker. It's a basic "rape and revenge" tale but it still packs a punch today. Obviously the jury is still out on the remake. Extras include a cast commentary, three new featurettes, one deleted scene, some previously unseen footage (!), and an unfinished short film from Mr. Craven. Looks like it's about time to add this one to my collection...

Also in the re-issue department we have Dario Argento's Four Flies on Black Velvet, which all slasher fans should have seen by now, and a Blu-Ray edition of Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, which (obviously) is also worth checking out. And speaking of Blu-Ray, Friday the 13th Part 2 and Part 3 show up in that style today. (Hope you didn't buy 'em a few weeks ago!) Ooh, and the original House on Haunted Hill gets a 50th Anniversary release this week. That sounds like fun!

If you're looking for "new stuff," the pickings are pretty slim this week: I've heard nothing but snoring about The Haunting of Molly Hartley, and it's so tough to know what you're getting with video flicks called Scourge, Red Sands, and Cyclops. But hey, that's what Netflix is for, right?

And that's pretty much the long and the short of an unimpressive week. I've heard a few good things about the Korean import Epitaph, but that's really all we got this week. Sorry to say the first week of March doesn't look much better. Go dig in to your horror collection and rediscover some good stuff. That's why you have a collection!