Halloween approaches, and its multimedia ghouls beckon binge-watching, horror-cinema-enamored mortals to their entertainment rooms. In preparation for the viewing sessions, here’s some suggestions of scary elevision shows recently released in the Blu-ray format sure to set the macabre mood.
The Walking Dead: The Complete Fifth Season (Anchor Bay Entertainment, Not Rated, $79.99) — Rick Grimes and his group of zombie apocalypse survivors might finally have found refuse in the walled community of Alexandria, Virginia, as they struggled though last year’s potent season of AMC’s popular television show.
Don’t count on it as life is once again a complex challenge, especially with a stop at Grady Memorial Hospital, as the series plays out over this 5-disk Blu-ray set containing all 16 episodes in 1080p, high-definition.
Binge-watchers will devour the gory, bloody action as they watch the team battle reanimated corpses and their brethren in a celebrated drama that pulls no punches when exploring what it takes for humans to survive amidst a world filled with anarchy and the undead.
Frightening extras: Viewers get six optional commentary tracks tied to five episodes offering words from production staff such as director Greg Nicotero, executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and Scott M. Gimple, and actors Norman (Daryl Dixon) Reedus, Lauren (Maggie Greene) Cohan and Steven (Glenn Rhee) Yuen, to name a few.
Also, a pair of short featurettes (averaging 4 minutes each) tied to every show cover interviews with cast and crew and technical challenges. And, save for Halloween night, a 5-minute roundup of at the most gruesome effects of the season.
SEE ALSO: Best Blu-ray horror movies: ‘Army of Darkness,’ ‘Christine,’ ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’
American Horror Story: Freak Show (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Not Rated, $34.99) — One of the more grotesque and horrifying anthology television shows in the history of the medium returned to Fox with a miniseries centered on themes of discrimination surrounding a classic freak show barely surviving in Jupiter Florida in the 1950s.
This 3-disk, Blu-ray set compiles all 13 episodes of the show that presented an excellent ensemble cast led by Jessica Lange as the show’s proprietor, Kathy Bates as the bearded lady, Sarah Paulson as the Tattler Siamese Twins, Evan Peters as Lobster Boy and Denis O’Hare as a con artist looking for a quick profit if he can turn some of the group into specimens.
A word of warning folks, disturbing and sometimes-violent imagery abounds despite this being a prime-time television show. By far the most shocking character is a homicidal clown named Twisty. He blew off his jaw with a shotgun and roams the countryside kidnapping children and indiscriminately slaughtering adults. Actor John Carroll Lynch portrayal of the maniac is an unforgettable nightmare.
Frightening extras: Best of the bunch of featurettes includes a 20-minute overview of the season (worth a look after watching all of the episodes), 13 minutes on the creation of Twisty the Clown (creeeeeepy) and a truly memorable 28 minutes on casting the show.
The later offers some frank interviews with the “differently-abled” actors. For example, Mat Fraser, who plays Paul the Illustrated Seal, discusses his career, his truncated appendages and living with phocomelia (a condition tied to a pregnant woman taking thalidomide that caused malformed limbs of the child).
Supernatural: The Complete Tenth Season (Warner Home Video, Not Rated, $54.97) — Viewers not tuned into the demon hunting exploits of the Winchester brothers may find it hard to believe that their show has been on the CW network for over a decade.
However, the appeal of its stars — Jensen Ackles as Dean and Jared Padalecki as Sam — combined with some clever as well as witty writing and some great ghouls and monsters gives plenty of reason to watch clearly one of the best fantasy horror television series ever made.
This latest high-definition set offers 23 episodes of the fifth season on four Blu-ray disks to allow fans to leisurely learn about Dean’s Mark of Cain issues and his brother’s attempts to help him while stuck in the middle of an eternal struggle between heaven and hell.
Frightening extras: Besides three optional commentary tracks from cast and crew on select episodes, binge-watchers get almost three more hours of featurettes that cover shooting the 200th episode; a Comic Con interview panel; an extended look at the rabid fan base; the cast and crew reminiscing about their favorite season’s episodes; and most important for newbies, a look at the mythology of the Mark of Cain and First Blade in the “Supernatural” universe.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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