Eureka! has announced its October 2022 line-up today as it delivers a quadruple threat of Horror / Thriller gems. Featured amongst this line-up The Most Dangerous Game, a classic horror from the makers of King Kong; The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a million-dollar super-production of a Victor Hugo novel; Maniacal Mayhem, three more tales of terror from the vaults of Universal Pictures starring Boris Karloff; plus a Standard Edition re-issue of Vampyr.

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (USA 1932) | Blu-ray | 24 October 2022 | £18.99

Based upon the ever-popular short story by Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game remains a hugely influential masterpiece 90 years after its release.

Big game hunter, Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea), barely survives a shipwreck in shark infested waters and washes ashore on the private island of the sinister Count Zaroff (played with a delightful zeal by Leslie Banks). Zaroff fancies himself an accomplished hunter also —only his preferred quarry, is man!

Taking full advantage of the lavish jungle sets created for King Kong; The Most Dangerous Game was filmed at night after filming for Kong had concluded for the day, with many cast and crew pulling double duty on both productions. After 90 years, it is still a thrilling piece of filmmaking – filled with stunning production designs, wonderful optical effects, and—of course—thrilling action.

The Masters of Cinema Series presents The Most Dangerous Game in its UK debut on Blu-ray, from a 2K restored scan of the original camera negatives.

BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase [2000 copies]
• 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restored scan of the original camera negatives
• Optional English SDH
• Brand new audio commentary with author Stephen Jones and author / critic Kim Newman
• Brand new interview with author / critic Kim Newman on the “hunted human” sub-genre
• Brand new interview with film scholar Stephen Thrower
• A collector’s booklet featuring a new essay by Craig Ian Mann, illustrated with archival imagery

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (USA 1923) | Blu-ray | 17 October 2022 | £18.99

Perhaps the grandest of Universal’s silent films—and featuring arguably it’s first iconic movie monster—The Hunchback of Notre Dame stars Lon Chaney in the role which transformed him from a respected character actor to a global superstar.

Chaney stars as Quasimodo, the mocked and vilified bell-ringer of Notre Dame who selflessly protects the starcrossed street performer Esmerelda (Patsy Ruth Miller), who is in an ill-fated love affair with the dashing Captain Phoebus (Norman Kerry).

A “Super Jewel” adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel, Universal spared no expense on this lavish production, and were rewarded with the most financially successful silent film they had released up to that point. Lon Chaney’s performance and make-up work are already legendary, but the rest of the film is as deserving of praise – a beautiful nightmare now fully restored in 4K and making its UK debut on Blu-ray as part of the Masters of Cinema series

BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase [2000 units]
• 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a 4K restoration conducted by Universal Pictures
• Music by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum & Laura Karpman (presented in uncompressed LPCM stereo)
• Brand new audio commentary with author Stephen Jones and author / critic Kim Newman
• Brand new interview with author / critic Kim Newman on the many adaptations of Victor Hugo’s novel
• Brand new interview with film historian Jonathan Rigby
• A collector’s booklet featuring a new essay by journalist Philip Kemp, illustrated with archival imagery

MANIACAL MAYHEM (USA 1936/1940/1951) | Blu-ray | 17 October 2022 | £24.99

Three more tales of terror from the vaults of Universal Pictures, all starring the iconic Boris Karloff.

Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi both star In The Invisible Ray (dir. Lambert Hillyer, 1936), which sees Dr Janos Rukh (Karloff) exposed to a mysterious element that turns him into a deadly luminescent maniac who devises a plot to bump off his personal and professional rivals.

Then, in Black Friday (dir. Arthur Lubin, 1940), Karloff is the amoral brain surgeon, Dr Sovac, who transplants part of a gangsters brain into the body of his dying friend, creating a terrifying Jekyll-and-Hyde figure who starts murdering his former criminal associates (including, again, the wonderful Béla Lugosi).

Finally, the incomparable Charles Laughton plays the sadistic Sire Alain de Maletroit in The Strange Door (dir. Joseph Pevney, 1951). Maletroit has kept his own brother locked in a dungeon for twenty years, and now wants to ruin the life of his niece by forcing her to marry a violent rogue. His plan is upset when the “rogue” is unexpectedly noble-hearted and attempts to rescue the girl, aided by an abused servant (Karloff).

BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• Limited Edition slipcase [2000 copies]
• 1080p presentation of all three films across two Blu-ray discs
• All films presented from 2K scans of the original film elements
• Optional English SDH
• Brand new audio commentary tracks on The Invisible Ray and The Strange Door with author Stephen Jones and author / critic Kim Newman
• Brand new audio commentary track on Black Friday with Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby
• “The Sire de Maletroit’s Door” radio adaptations
• Stills Galleries
• Trailers
• A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on all three films by film writers Andrew Graves, Rich Johnson, and Craig Ian Mann [2000 copies]

VAMPYR (STANDARD EDITION) (Germany 1932) | Blu-ray | 17 October 2022 | £15.99

The first foray into sound filmmaking by one of cinema’s pivotal artists, Vampyr remains a cornerstone work of the horror genre. The dreamlike tale of an occult-obsessed student’s visit to a small French village, as he is drawn into the unsettling mystery around a stricken family’s struggle with malevolent forces, remains an unparalleled evocation of the uncanny.

Adapting the haunted stories of Sheridan Le Fanu, Dreyer’s ceaseless innovation delivers a tour-de-force of supernatural phantasmagoria and creeping unease, via audacious camerawork and sound design.

Presented from an all-new 2K restoration by the Danish Film Institute, supported by the MEDIA program Creative Europe, and taking more than a decade to complete – materials from several European archives (including the BFI, CNC and DFI) have been meticulously scanned and assessed to create the highest quality and most faithful version of Vampyr possible. Now unveiled for the film’s 90th anniversary, one of the most visually and aurally distinctive horror films ever made finally comes to Blu-ray in the UK, in a definitive incarnation that achieves the full experience Dreyer intended audiences to have.

Read our review of the Limited Edition Blu-ray here.

BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• All-new 2K digital restoration of the German version by the Danish Film Institute, completed in 2020 after an extensive decade-long restoration process, with uncompressed mono soundtrack
• Optional unrestored audio track
• Two audio commentaries: one by critic and programmer Tony Rayns; the second by filmmaker and Vampyr fan Guillermo del Toro
• Visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer’s Vampyr influences
• New video interview with author and critic Kim Newman on Vampyr's unique place within vampire cinema
• Two new video interviews with music and cultural historian David Huckvale on the film's score and its adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu
• Carl Th. Dreyer (1966) – a documentary by Jörgen Roos
• Two deleted scenes, removed by the German censor in 1932
• The Baron – a short MoC documentary about Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg
• Optional English subtitles
• A collector’s booklet featuring a 1964 interview with Baron Nicolas de Gunzberg (producer and actor "Allan Gray"), an essay by Dreyer on film style, and writing by Tom Milne, Jean and Dale Drum, and film restorer Martin Koerber