Halloween prep involves draping fake cobwebs over windowpanes, lighting jack-o’-lanterns and buying a sick amount of Snickers Minis. But don’t forget to scare-ify your movie collection. Here are five ways to spook up your DVD library.
Creepy classics. For the scariest night of the year, Universal Studios has released 75th-anniversary editions of the 1931 classics “Dracula” and “Frankenstein.” Each DVD is packed with extras, including featurettes on their iconic stars, Bela “Fangs” Lugosi and Boris “Blockhead” Karloff. (Universal Studios, not rated, $26.98 each.)
Foreign frights. Belgian filmmaker Fabrice Du Welz’s “Calvaire” is one disturbing piece of cinema. Sharing themes with slasher movies and psychological thrillers, the 2004 film tells the familiar story of a man whose car breaks down in an isolated backcountry, where he is terrorized by a deranged innkeeper and the area’s twisted residents. What separates “Calvaire” from other terror-in-the-sticks flicks are the extended surreal scenes and an ever-present sense of threat. (French with English subtitles. Palm Pictures, not rated, $19.98.)
Made-for-TV badness. Sometimes you want to watch a movie that isn’t so much horrifying as horrifyingly bad, and this year’s “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America” fits the bill. The mass graves and disease-tormented bodies might be disturbing if the B-movie acting wasn’t so distracting. (Sony Pictures, not rated, $21.99.)
New nail-biters. Just out on DVD, this year’s “Slither” has alien invaders, mutant monsters, acid-spitting zombies and enough slime and gore to keep you grossed out till next Halloween. James Gunn wrote and directed a loving homage to horror flicks that borrows overtly from some of the genre’s biggest titles. (Universal Studios, rated R, $29.98.)
Spellbound kids. Long before Harry Potter climbed onto his Quidditch broom, the 1971 Disney classic “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” was teaching us that not all witches are potion-brewing, child-eating hags. When the three Rawlins children are sent from London to the countryside to wait out World War II, they take up residence with Eglantine Price, an apprentice witch. (Walt Disney Video, rated G, $19.99.)
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