The William Castle Film Collection (13 Frightened Girls / 13 Ghosts / Homicidal / Strait-Jacket / The Old Dark House / Mr. Sardonicus / The Tingler / Zotz!) DVD
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: William
EAN: 0043396272552
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
Label: Sony Pictures
Languages: EnglishOriginal Language
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
MPN: 27255
Number Of Items: 5
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: October 20, 2009
Running Time: 692 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 10/20/2009
Amazon.com:
"Eight tales of tongue-in-cheek terror from one of the movies' masters of ballyhoo await classic horror fans in the lavish William Castle Film Collection. The five-disc set represents some of the high points of the producer-director's career at Columbia Pictures, after he'd established himself as a maverick with a taste for eye-popping promotional gimmicks with the Allied Artists hits Macabre (1958) and House on Haunted Hill (1959), neither of which is included here. The set kicks off with the obscure 13 Frightened Girls (1963), a lightweight thriller about espionage at a girls' school, but soon launches into high gear with 13 Ghosts (1960), a terrifically fun chillfest about a family that inherits a haunted mansion and the title gaggle of spooks, which can only be seen (by characters and audience alike) via a special ""Ghost Viewer."" Castle's homages to Psycho--the grisly Homicidal and Strait-Jacket, which stars an unrestrained Joan Crawford in a tale of ax murders penned by Psycho scribe Robert Bloch--are partnered on a second disc, while a third features Castle's team-up with England's Hammer Films for a darkly comic remake of the Boris Karloff classic The Old Dark House (1963) and an adaptation of Ray Russell's grisly Gothic chiller, Mr. Sardonicus (1961). The final double feature pairs one of Castle's most offbeat titles--the fantasy-comedy Zotz! (1962), which, like Old Dark House, stars Tom Poston as a nebbish who discovers a magical coin--with one of his best loved and most outrageous efforts, The Tingler (1959), with Vincent Price as a scientist who discovers a creature that feeds on human fear. While by no means a complete collection of Castle's film output--he continued to direct and produce well into the late '60s and '70s, most notably Rosemary's Baby (1968)--the Film Collection is a fine presentation of some of his most memorable projects, with a few enjoyable oddities thrown in for good measure.
Were the Film Collection simply the movies themselves, it would be a solid addition to any cult collector's treasure vault, but what makes the set truly special is the wealth of extras that accompany the features. Brand-new making-of documentaries are offered for each of the films save Zotz, 13 Frightened Girls, and The Old Dark House; each discusses Castle's elaborate promotional gimmicks in detail, from The Tingler's ""Percepto"" (electrically wired seats) to Sardonicus's ""Punishment Poll"" (cards given to audience members to decide the fate of the title villain). Extensive news clips, photographs, and comments from a host of fans and critics, including David Del Valle, David Skal, Bob Burns, Castle's daughter Terry, Strait-Jacket star Diane Baker, and The Tingler's Darryl Hickman (who seems bemused by the film's favored status), make these featurettes invaluable to Castle completists. The gimmick in 13 Frightened Girls is given plenty of coverage in its extras--its cast of schoolgirls was culled from an international contest, and each was featured in a special intro shot for their respective country--while Strait-Jacket offers Crawford's costume screen test as well as a trial run at lopping off costar George Kennedy's head (!), plus an amusing promo clip in which Castle, Bloch, and their star plot out the perfect murder. There are also two episodes from the Castle-produced supernatural TV anthology Ghost Story (one under its retitle, Circle of Fear), both of which feature the man himself in typically grandiose cameos, as well as original U.S. and some international trailers for each title. And if that's not enough, there's also a fifth disc devoted entirely to the 2007 documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, which details his life and career of making people scream, via archival footage and a who's who of horror and science fiction, including Joe Dante, John Landis, Roger Corman, Fred Olen Ray, the late Forrest J. Ackerman, and countless others, each weighing in on the joys and thrills of William Castle's feature films. --Paul Gaita"
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Castle freaks will want to have this collection for obvious reasons, but the best thing about it is the special features, which include a fifth bonus disk with an excellent full-length documentary about Castle's career.
The documentary features interviews with Castle's daughter, as well as Leonard Maltin, John Waters, John Landis, and others who provide intelligent commentary and insight.
It's not surprising to learn that Castle admired Hitchcock, and there was a bit of professional ... Read More
Rating:  -
Sony's latest attempt to cash in on the king of gimmick-driven theatrical showmanship is a quality effort, but its title is misleading; perhaps "The Columbia Castle Collection" would have been more appropriate. Then again, although Columbia distributed all of these titles, the famed studio only produced one of the films in this set (the incomparably silly "Zotz!"), while the rest were products of William Castle Productions.
At the very least, this can't really be THE William Castle Film Collection ... Read More
Rating: -
Another almost perfect release from Columbia! Following the Toho and Hammer collections, this set for William Castle fans is almost perfect. All the movies look fantastic, much improved over their last releases. New to DVD are ZOTZ!(a personal favorite), THE OLD DARK HOUSE(really good) and 13 FRIGHTENED GIRLS (fun!). Even if you have the last releases it is great to have them again and they all look really good. The only down side is the trailer for HOMICIDAL is I believe a tv spot without Castle, and the OLD DARK ... Read More
Rating:  -
Please come out with the whole seasons of Ghost Story/Circle of fear and don't just tease us with two!!! As a child i loved that show and have wished to see it on dvd for some time now. Please Sony make it happen!!!
Rating: -
Gang, this is a collection of William Castle films that were theatrically released by Columbia! Sony/Columbia doesn't deserve criticism for not releasing films owned by other studios. It would be up to the individual studios who own the other pictures to release them. So, Universal should release THE NIGHT WALKER and LET'S KILL UNCLE, and possibly reissue I SAW WHAT YOU DID. Warner should release MACABRE, which is part of the Allied Artists catalog that Warner owns. HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL has been released by Fox. ... Read More
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