High on Horror High -- Plus, a Cinema Wasteland Update!

Have we mentioned lately that Code Red is rapidly becoming one of our favorite DVD labels? In addition to unleashing Slithis last month, the company has finally announced the specs for its upcoming Horror High DVD: a brand new widescreen transfer, an interview with actor Austin Stoker, bonus TV footage shot for the Twisted Brain version of the film, and an uncut theatrical trailer.

On top of that, the company plans to unleash the obscure swan song of actor Joe Spinell, The Undertaker (a.k.a. Death Merchant, 1988) in October. Although videos of this otherwise unreleased film have been circulating for years, this will mark the first legit DVD release of the title. Our friend Steven Puchalski over at Shock Cinema wrote a nice article on the film for Fangoria a few years back (issue #229).

Joe Spinell in The Undertaker

Getting back to Austin Stoker, we mentioned here that he would be at the October Cinema Wasteland show in Cleveland.

Since then, the folks at Wasteland have updated the guest list to include Ohio filmmaker Jim Van Bebber (who made the jaw-dropping Deadbeat at Dawn in 1988), along with frequent collaborators Mike King and Marc Pitman (who also appeared in Van Bebber's The Manson Family).



And that's not all -- Texas filmmaker Matt Devlen, co-producer and director of Tabloid (1985), will also be on hand to discuss his work with Bret McCormick on Ozone! Attack of the Redneck Mutants (1986) and The Abomination (1986). Joining Devlen will be actress Barbara Dow and fellow Texas director Glen Coburn, who also worked on Tabloid, but who is better known for directing the inventive Bloodsuckers from Outer Space (1984).



All and all, the next Wasteland is shaping up to be a cornucopia of regional horror, and we plan to make the trek north to drink it all in.

Book Update: We finally wrapped up the intro to the book, and a gaggle of horror historians is currently reading through it to check for errors and, later, mock me mercilessly for making them. I've also begun the laborious task of writing captions for the photos. Next up: copy editing the whole thing. Again.