My Top Five Blu-rays Of 2021

 

It's the end of another screwed-up year. But hey, I did get to actually attend some baseball games....and I even went to a movie convention, the Monster Bash Conference in Pennsylvania. And I spent plenty of money (as usual) on home video releases of obscure films. 

So it's time for my yearly Top Five Blu-rays list. For 2021 three of the entries on it are considered examples of "Euro Gothic" cinema, and four of the entries come from two companies, Severin and Arrow. 

1. THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE COLLECTION from Severin

A fantastic set, and a must for fans of the iconic actor. Five of Lee's lesser known films, all made in Europe, magnificently restored and uncut, along with a ton of extras. I wrote a blog post on this set in June. 

2. MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN from Arrow Video

I haven't written a blog post on this yet--I will eventually--because I still haven't got through everything in this release. MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN (1960) is a very eerie Euro Gothic--and Arrow presents FOUR different versions of the film! The "main" version has been brilliantly restored--the color is absolutely sumptuous--and this has a boatload of extras as well. 

3. COLD WAR CREATURES: FOUR FILMS FROM SAM KATZMAN from Arrow Video

None of the films in this set are what I would call great, or even very good--but the presentation is top notch, with all the bells & whistles one now expects from any Arrow release. I wrote a full blog post on this in September, and individual posts on each of the films in the last few months. 

4. AN ANGEL FOR SATAN from Severin

The last Italian Gothic starring the Queen of that genre, Barbara Steele, finally gets an official major home video release, and with an audio commentary featuring the lady herself. My blog post on this was written in November. 

5. DOCTOR X from Warner Archive

The good folks behind last year's stupendous Blu-rays of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN gift us with another amazing restoration job, this time on one of the wildest Pre-Codes...and we get both the color and black and white versions. My review on this was posted in April.