New to View: Aug. 21
By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Aug. 21, unless otherwise noted:
The Tingler (Blu-ray)
Details: 1959, Scream Factory
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Master showman William Castle created “Percepto,” a gimmick to lure moviegoers into theaters, for this Vincent Price chiller.
“The Tingler” followed the Castle-Price collaboration of “House on Haunted Hill.”
In “The Tingler,” Price stars as a doctor obsessed with discovering the root cause of fear. In his studies, he finds a parasitic creature that grows on the spinal cords of terrified people.
If they scream, the Tingler, as he named it, can be destroyed. If they don’t it will sever the spinal cord and kill the victim.
He captures a Tingler after a deaf-mute woman has been scared to death by her devious husband.
However, the creature escapes and flees into a movie theater. And this is where the “Percepto” comes into play. Movie theaters that cooperated with Castle would wire random seats so that unsuspecting customers would get a tangible electric shock during the climatic moments of the movie.
It was a fun novelty idea that helped promote the movie.
Of course, Price gave his usual sincere and dramatic performance, which also added to the movie’s enjoyment.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an interview with cast member Pamela Lincoln, a new commentary track with author-historian Steve Haberman, an interview with publicist Barry Lorie, a featurette, “Scream for Your Lives! William Castle and ‘The Tingler,’ ” Castle’s drive-in “Scream” scene and original “Scream scene and the original 1959 theater lobby recording.
NCIS: The Fifteenth Season
Details: 2017-18, CBS DVD-Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This was a season of change for this highly-rated CBS series.
Both Pauley Perrette, who played forensic specialist Abby Sciuto, and Duane Henry, who portrayed MI6 Officer Clayton Reeves, departed the show by season’s end.
Before they did, however, they contributed to most of the 24 episodes features in this six-disc set, as Mark Harmon’s Gibbs and his team foiled terrorist attacks, both at home and abroad, and solved puzzling crimes that kept you guessing until the last minute.
As always, the episodes featured some personal items about the characters that helped keep viewers invested in the series.
Technical aspects: 16:9 full-screen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus offerings include a behind-the-scenes look at creating an on-screen hurricane for an episode, a conversation with Harmon and semi-regular Joe Spano, cast and creators discuss the four-part story arc about a case gone wrong, an overview of the season and commentaries on a couple of episodes.
Blindspot: The Complete Third Season
Details: 2017-18, Warner Home Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: In this third season of the hit NBC series, a new set of tattoos emerge, thus allowing for 22 additional episodes of thrills, mysteries and excitement for Jane Doe and her allies.
The season, which begins two years after the second-season finale, finds FBI Agent Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) finally tracking down Jane, who has been on the run.
The discovery of her new body art compel her to return to the FBI and creating new puzzles for the agents who work with Jane and Weller to decipher.
Of course, they reveal new conspiracies, threats — and the team’s darkest secrets.
Technical aspects: Widescreen picture; English 5.1 Dolby audio surround; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include a featurette on behind-the-scenes activities on the set, a bound and gag reel and deleted scenes.
Tideland (Blu-ray)
Details: 2005, Arrow Video
Rated: R, drug use
The lowdown: Terry Gillam adapted and directed this movie, based on the cult novel by Mitch Cullin.
The story centers on 9-year-old Jeliza-Rose, who endures her unhappy life in a remote part of Texas.
The girl dreams up an elaborate fantasy world as an escape, but that world is threatened by her junkie parents, played by Jeff Bridges and Jennifer Tilly, and the influence of her eccentric neighbors.
Their incursions turn her dreams darker in this feature the blends Southern Gothic with whimsy and a bit of the macabre.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.34:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental offerings include interviews with Gillam, Bridges, Tilly, producer Jeremy Thomas and costar Jodelle Ferland; B-roll footage; a featurette on filming green screen; an introduction by Gillam; a making of featurette, a 45-minute documentary on the making of the movie; and an illustrated collector’s booklet with new writing about the movie.
Strait-Jacket (Blu-ray)
Details: 1964, Scream Factory
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Joan Crawford was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1930s and ’40s, first at MGM and later at Warner Brothers.
By the 1960s, she was all but forgotten, considered a relic of old Hollywood by then-contemporary filmgoers.
But, she returned to the spotlight when she and Bette Davis costarred in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” a Gothic thriller that did well at the box office and received decent reviews.
The only problem was, at least for Crawford, she could no longer play the love interest against the younger leading men of the 1960s.
So, to stay in the public eye, she basically made schlock and thrillers.
“Strait-Jacket,” produced and directed by William Castle, was a little of both.
Crawford stars as Lucy Harbin, who goes crazy when she finds her husband in bed with another woman. Lucy axes the couple to death, unaware that her 3-year-old daughter witnessed the killing.
Lucy spends 20 years in a mental institution for the killings.
After her release, she moves in with her brother, Bill (Leif Erickson) and his wife, Emily (Rochelle Hudson), and her daughter, Carol (Diane Baker), now a young woman of 23.
Soon after her release, a series of axe murders occur in and around her neighborhood, and police immediately focus on Lucy.
You can probably guess the real killer. If not, just see the film and enjoy the surprise finale.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.78:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A new commentary track, a “Joan Had Me Fired” interview with Anne Helm featurette, an “On the Road with Joan Crawford” featurette, an interview with publicist Richard Kahn, a making of featurette, an ax-swinging screen test and Crawford costume and makeup tests comprise the extras.
Blue Bloods: The Eighth Season
Details: 2017-18, CBS DVD-Paramount Home Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This six-disc set contains all 22 eighth-season episodes of this popular CBS series that focuses on the challenges — professional and personal — of the Reagan family who strive to help the people of New York on the streets as cops and in the court as lawyers.
The season finds the usual combination of family members solving crimes, dealing with political intrigue, facing legal battles and bickering with each other at their traditional Sunday dinners.
The series has reached the point where visiting the Reagans feels very comfortable and entertaining as it mixes drama with some light bantering, especially among the Reagan siblings.
Technical aspects: 16:9 full-screen picture; English 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an overview of the season, a featurette on the show’s visual effects, a gag reel, deleted scenes, and the pilot episodes of “Bull” and “Seal Team.”
Bleeding Steel (Blu-ray + digital)
Details: 2018, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: R, violence, language
The lowdown: Jackie Chan stars in this drama as a Hong Kong police inspector who is tracking down a deranged mechanically-enhanced criminal.
Chan’s Lin discovers that a geneticist’s biochemical invention has been surgically implanted into his missing daughter.
He recruits a known hacker to help him find the links between the device in his daughter, the criminal’s army of minions and an unusual phenomenon called “bleeding steel.”
The movie is loaded with thrills as Chan remains one of the premier action stars in the world.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.40:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English and Mandarin 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH, English and Spanish subtitles.
Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
The Coolest Guy Movie Ever Made (DVD + digital download) (Virgil Films)
Watch the Sky (DVD + VOD) (Breaking Glass Pictures)
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
Adrift (Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (Magnolia Home Entertainment)
Dead Love (Wild Eye Releasing)
Ocean’s 8 (Warner Home Video)
Arizona (RLJE Films, Aug. 24)
Love Hurts, Series 2 (Acorn TV, Aug. 27)
Tangled Lies (Acorn TV, Aug. 27)
I am a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook. My movie reviews also can be found at Rottentomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com