New to View: Jan. 4

By Bob Bloom
The following titles are being released on Tuesday, Jan. 4, unless otherwise noted:
Antlers (Blu-ray + digital code)
Details: 2021, Fox Home Entertainment
Rated: R, violence, gruesome images, language
The lowdown: This horror feature, directed by Scott Cooper, who also was one of the three screenwriters, and produced by Guillermo del Toro, centers on a young boy whose dark secrets lead to deadly encounters with a mythical creature — the wendigo.
The movie, set in an isolated Oregon town, features Keri Russell as a kind-hearted school teacher and Jesse Plemons as her brother, the local sheriff, who try to help the troubled boy.
Trauma, both physical and mental, is at the heart of this story, which features a very solid performance by young Jeremy T. Thomas as the boy who seems linked to the wendigo.
The movie features strong audio and visual transfers. “Antlers” earned a 60 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 descriptive audio and French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus materials include an evil within featurette, which looks at the creation of the movie; an exploration of modern horror with Del Toro; an artifacts and totems that helped create the look and feel of the small community;  a “Gods Walk Among Us” featurette that looks at the special effects; a metamorphosis that looks at the transformative performance by Scott Haze; and “Cry of the Wendigo” featurette that looks at the movie’s folklore; and a 2020 Comic-Con panel about the movie.

Zeros and Ones (Blu-ray + digital)
Details: 2021, Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Rated: R, bloody images, violence, sexual content, drug use
The lowdown: What is better than one Ethan Hawke? How about two of them.
Hawke plays twin brothers in this thriller, directed by Abel Ferrara, that deals with a soldier, J.J. (Hawke), who is called to Rome to stop an imminent terrorist bombing.
J.J. also seeks information about his imprisoned brother, Justin (also Hawke), who has information that may thwart the attack. Throughout the night, J.J. races across Rome to a series of encounters. His aim is to keep the Vatican from being blown up.
This political thriller, which runs a mere 86 minutes, is typical Ferrara — murky, baffling, intriguing and never dull.
A majority of critics praised the film, awarding it a 62 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 (16×9 enhanced) widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Spanish 5.1 Dolby digital; English, SDH, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles.

Shake Hands with the Devil (Blu-ray)
Details: 1959, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: James Cagney and Don Murray star in this drama about the Irish War of Independence.
The movie, set in 1921, stars Murray as Kerry O’Shea, an American medical student living in Ireland. O’Shea learns that his well-regarded medical professor, Sean Lenihan (Cagney), is also a leader of the rebel army.
Even though O’Shea’s father and roommate have been killed by British troops, he refuses to join the rebellion. But, after he is unjustly imprisoned and tortured by the British “Black and Tans,” he has a change of heart, committing himself to fight for Ireland’s freedom.
The movie, which earned a 67 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, features a strong supporting cast, including Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Michael Redgrave, Sybil Thorndike and Richard Harris.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.66:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: An interview with Murray is the major bonus component.

Rich and Strange (Blu-ray)
Details: 1931, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This early British sound movie is a comedy directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie centers on a married couple, Fred and Emily Hill, who leads a boring existence in a London suburb.
But when the Hills come into an inheritance from a wealthy uncle, Fred chucks his job and he and Joan take a world cruise to enjoy what they have been missing.
They get more than they bargained for as their journey becomes entangled with a series of romantic misadventures.
The message is clear: money does not buy happiness, especially in a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.20:1 full-screen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an introduction to the movie, a commentary track with film historian Troy Howarth and an audio excerpt from the Hitchcock-Truffaut interviews.

Only the Animals (Blu-ray)
Details: 2019, Cohen Media Group
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A French thriller centering around the disappearance of a beautiful woman and the links among the characters who may — or may not — be involved.
After a snowstorm, the woman’s car is found on a road to a remote village. Police are looking at five people who may be suspects. Each of them has a secret of his or her own.
The movie slowly begins to travel to various international locations as the ties between the suspects are gradually revealed.
Like Kurosawa’s “Rashomon,” the movie examines the same events through the eyes of different characters. The methodical buildup to the facts in the case is what makes this movie exciting to view.
Critics believed so as well, awarding the movie a 92 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.

All My Sons (Blu-ray)
Details: 1948, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster head the cast in this adaptation of Arthur Miller’s play about a family torn apart by a wartime tragedy.
Lancaster portrays Chris Keller who, returning from World War II, to learn he is engaged to Ann Deever (Louisa Horton), the fiancée of his missing-in-action and presumed-dead brother. Events unearth ghosts of the past, Keller’s father, Joe (Robinson), reveals that he and his business partner, Ann’s father, Herbert (Frank Conroy), shipped damaged airplane parts that led to the deaths of several servicemen.
Only Herbert Deever was convicted of the crime, even though Joe was equally guilty.
The revelation upends the children of both families, adding to the damaged psyches already shattered by war and tragedy.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track by film historians Kat Ellinger and Lee Gambin is the main bonus feature.

The Vampire Lovers: Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray)
Release date: Dec. 21
Details: 1970, Scream Factory
Rated: R, violence, nudity, sexual situations
The lowdown: Ingrid Pitt stars in the first of Hammer’s “Karnstein Trilogy,” a series of vampire movies with lesbian storylines.
Pitt portrays Marcilla Karnstein who attacks young girls and other residents of an 18^th-century European town to avenge the killing of her fellow vampires years earlier.
The movie, which costars Peter Cushing, George Cole, Kate O’Mara and Dawn Addams, is inspired by the 1872 novella, “Carmilla,” by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.
This was one of the turning point for Hammer horror, in which sex — and nudity — was emphasized as much as blood.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Bonus offerings include an interview with film historian Kim Newman, a “Trailers From Hell” episode with Mick Garris, a commentary track with director Roy Ward Baker, Pitt and screenwriter Tudor Gates, another with film historians Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby, an interview with actress Madeline Smith, a featurette about the movie, a look at Hammer Films of the 1970s and a reading of “Carmilla” by Pitt.

China (Blu-ray)
Details: 1943, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Alan Ladd and Loretta Young star in this wartime drama about an American gasoline salesman (Ladd) in 1941 China who supplies his product to the highest bidder — including the enemy Japanese.
His neutral business attitude is tested on a trip to Shanghai when he meets an American schoolteacher (Young) and her Chinese students who tell him of Japanese cruelty.
He surprises himself by joining a band of Chinese guerrillas on a robbery mission.
The movie, set prior to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, is one of the many wartime propaganda movies that preaches cooperation between the United States and her allies.
“China,” directed by John Farrow, also features William Bendix, Philip Ahn, Sen Yung and Iris Wong.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A commentary track by Eddy Von Mueller is the main extra.

Golden Earrings (Blu-ray)
Details: 1947, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Marlene Dietrich plays Lydia, a Gypsy, and Ray Milland is British Col. Ralph Denistoun in the drama on the eve of World War II.
Denistoun is sent to Germany to steal a poison gas formula created by a Nazi scientist. On his journey, Denistoun meets Lydia, who keeps him safe. And with her help — including disguising Denistoun as a Gypsy — he can successfully complete his mission.
Along the way, of course, this mismatched couple begin a romance and fall in love.
The story of espionage and intrigue was directed by Mitchell Leisen. It costars Murvyn Vye, Bruce Lester, Reinhold Schunzel, Dennis Hoey and Quentin Reynolds.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: The major supplemental offering is an interesting commentary track by film historian Dennis Del Valle.

The Crime of the Century (Blu-ray)
Details: 1933, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Director William Beaudine, whose career behind the camera stretched from the pre-World War I silent era to episodes of “The Green Hornet” television series in the 1960s, directed this mystery-thriller starring Jean Hersholt as a mentalist and hypnotist who goes to a police station to confess to a murder.
The problem is, the crime hasn’t happened yet. But soon bodies begin to turn up as does stolen money.
Stuart Erwin plays the wisecracking crime reporter — a staple in these kind of 1930s movies — who tries to solve the case, while also falling for the hypnotist’s daughter.
The cast also includes Wynne Gibson as the hypnotist’s greedy wife, Frances Dee as his daughter as well as David Landau and Gordon Westcott.
Beaudine directed mostly B-movies, many at Monogram Pictures in the 1940s, where he helmed movies with the East Side Kids, The Bowery Boys and Charlie Chan programmers with Sidney Toler and Roland Winters.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 full-screen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: A delightful commentary track with film historian Lee Gambin and costume historian Elissa Rosa is the main extra.

Double Door (Blu-ray)
Details: 1934, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: A gothic thriller about a matriarch, played by Mary Morris in her only film role, who rules her family with an iron fist.
The family lives in one of those old spooky New York City mansions where you can smell murder.
Morris’ Victoria Van Brett does what she can to thwart the happiness of any of her younger sister and stepbrother. The house, of course, has secrets, one of which is locked behind a certain double door.
The cast of this gloomy outing includes Evelyn Venable, Kent Taylor, Sir Guy Standing and Anne Revere.
An interesting character name in the film is that of Venable’s character — Anne Darrow, very close to the name of Fay Wray’s character, which was Ann Darrow, in “King Kong.”
I guess young women named Darrow attract monsters of many ilks.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.37:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include two commentary tracks, one with film historian-author Tom Weaver and the other with film historian David Del Valle and film historian-archivist Stan Shaffer.

The Naked Ape (Blu-ray)
Details: 1973, Code Red-Kino Lorber
Rated: PG
The lowdown: Desmond Morris’ pop-zoology best-seller inspired this movie that, through a series of live-action and animated vignettes, traces the evolution of sex and offers insights into why we behave as we do.
The movie features Johnny Crawford (“The Rifleman”) and Victoria Principal (“Dallas”) in a part-documentary, part-satire look at love, courtship, jealousy and violence.
The movie’s executive producer was “Playboy” publisher Hugh Hefner.
The film was not well regarded upon its release, but since we supposedly are in more enlightened times, it should not be so shocking.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.

Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
The Djinn (Blu-ray & DVD) (RLJE Films)
The Superdeep (Blu-ray & DVD) (RLJE Films-Shudder)
Weathering With You (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray) (Shout! Factory-GKids)

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
A Mouthful of Air (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Last Night in Soho (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
Monsters in the Closet (Gravitas Ventures)
American Siege (Vertical Entertainment, Jan. 7)
Aware: Glimpses of Consciousness (Area23a, Jan. 7)
El Deafo (Hulu, Jan. 7)
The Kindred (Vertical Entertainment, Jan. 7)
See for Me (IFC Midnight, Jan. 7)
The Tender Bar (Amazon Prime, Jan. 7)

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, 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 at ReelBob or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.