If you’re a horror and cult film fan chances are you have some titles from Shout Factory’s Scream Factory label. Recently we had a chance to interview the men behind the High-Def scares of this company, Cliff MacMillan and Jeff Nelson.
CHC: It's been a little over a year since the Scream Factory label made its initial splash, are you pleased with how far you've come with as many quality titles that you guys have produced?
JEFF: Extremely pleased! We’ve certainly exceeded what modest expectations we had when we first created the brand and have been amazed by the fan reaction and all of the great titles we’ve been able to pump out in such a short amount of time. It’s surreal at times actually.
CLIFF: very pleased. We put out a lot of titles in one year. I’m not sure we can put that many out in 2014 without going a little mad.
CHC: The recent release of the Vincent Price Collection is easily one of my favorite Blu-ray sets this year. The new bonus features in particular were definitely a reason cheer. How was the production on that and are you looking into more Price or AIP titles?
CLIFF: It’s always hard to produce extras for older films. We lucked out when someone from PBS contacted us about the Vincent Price introductions. Those really made the set special. The new interview with his daughter Victoria Price also made the set special. She was wonderful to work with.
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When Boris Karloff took on the iconic role of Frankenstein's Monster in James Whale's classic Frankenstein he became one of genre's elite actors in the 1930's. As his career progressed, Karloff would become a fixture on the proverbial Mount Rushmore of horror (along with people like Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Sr. and Jr.). Amazingly, this break in Whale's film came because Dracula star Bela Lugosi felt the character was a little weak because of the lack of lines. Karloff thankfully seized this opportunity and followed Frankenstein with many memorable performances until his passing in 1969. His work in the 1950's and 1960's with Roger Corman and AIP became the capper to what was really an awesome career. Daniel Haller's Die Monster Die (aka Monster of Terror) was one of Karloff's later performances and even though he was up in years, and in bad health, he still had it. After knocking The Vincent Price Collection out of the park, Scream Factory has tackled more AIP goodness in this release for the Blu-ray format.
Vincent Price is one of those rare breeds of actor that simply put - is bigger than life. His versatility and scene-eating prowess made the majority of his features so engaging to fans of genre that has undoubtedly put him at horror legend status. Whether it was his work on Roger Corman's Poe titles or his other AIP excursions, his involvement was almost a sure thing that what you were about to see was something truly special. The folks at Scream Factory have been hard at work on preserving Vincent's legacy with their four Blu-ray set that includes six of his finest contributions to genre - The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of Red Death, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Witchfinder General, The Haunted Palace and The Fall of the House of Usher. All titles have been restored for the glorious high-definition format and, yes, like previous Scream Factory releases it's loaded with extra features both new and ported from the MGM DVD releases
