Welcome to Mandatory and ComingSoon’s weekly Binge & Buy, a Digital HD, Blu-ray, and DVD column for the week of Oct. 2! You can find detailed write-ups of different titles released this week, including a number of new films, reissues, combo packs, and TV seasons, none of which you can live without.
New Movies on Blu-ray/DVD
As the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the U.S. border, federal agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) calls on the mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), whose family was murdered by a cartel kingpin, to escalate the war in nefarious ways.
The First Purge and The Purge: 4-Movie Collection
The latest chapter in the Purge series takes us back to the very beginnings of the horrific government policy that makes murder and mayhem legal for one night.
Danny Trejo returns as the ruthless bookie Goldberg in the wildest, bloodiest, Death Race ever. After a failed attack on an inmate and legendary driver, Frankenstein, Black Ops specialist Connor Gibson (Zach McGowan) infiltrates a super-maximum federal prison with one goal – enter the immoral and illegal Death Race and take Frankenstein down.
Take The October Challenge: 31 Days, 31 Horror Movies
Your best friend has just been infected with a horrifying virus that will soon turn her into a rabid, rampaging cannibal zombie. Do you: try to save her? Or kill her before she kills you?
This gripping, stranger-than-fiction espionage thriller brings to life the incredible true story of Moe Berg (Paul Rudd), the professional baseball player who became a World War II spy.
Haunted by a horrific childhood trauma for 20 years, Holly struggles with vivid, disturbing nightmares that leave her detached and unable to live a normal life. Then an old friend recommends Holly meet with charismatic cult leader Bruce O’Hara, and she is led on a twisted journey of waking dreams that will begin to unravel the fabric of reality and reveal the truth about Holly’s family…and a terrifying destiny.
Five graduate students are conducting a study to prove the theory that once you’ve passed 200 hours without sleep, you will never need sleep again. As the hours tick by and their struggle to stay awake intensifies, they each start to have strange and unsettling experiences.
Mad Max meets Turbo Kid in this electrifying fantasy/sci-fi adventure. In a barren landscape ravished by war, Molly, a super-powered young woman, roams the violent post-apocalyptic landscape, armed only with a bow and arrow.
Orlando Bloom stars as Danny Stratton, a washed-up private security agent who is given a chance to clear his name and escort a valuable Chinese antique out of Shanghai. When his team is ambushed, Danny must risk his life to save the priceless artifact and restore his reputation in this explosive action-packed thriller.
Adrenaline-Pumping Action: Best Movies Starring Vin Diesel
The agents of the Federal Security Service of Russia and the U.S. Secret Service are forced to work together to prevent a full-scale international crisis.
Reissues
Del Tenney’s monster movie/beach musical from 1963 gets a loving new Blu-ray release from Severin Films. You may have seen them making fun of the goofy monster costumes and the excessive emphasis on sodium in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, but this one includes the original film with a retrospective documentary, an interview with the band The Del-Aires and an archival interview with Denney. Highly recommended to fans of B-horror!
The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler
Kino Lorber has issued two must-have TV movies from producer Dan Curtis that introduced Darren McGavin’s iconic Carl Kolchak. The original 1972 Night Stalker involves the intrepid reporter hunting a for-real vampire through the streets of Las Vegas. The 1974 sequel Night Strangler has Kolchak transplanted to Seattle and searching the old underground city for a new supernatural evil. Richard Matheson wrote both films and eventually paved the way for the short-lived series, which inspired The X-Files, among other things.
Those who think the hallmarks of the slasher genre were cemented in John Carpenter’s Halloween need look no further than this 1946 thriller about a mute woman stalked by a black-gloved maniac who kills women with disabilities.
Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Richard Chamberlain, Jose Ferrer, Patty Duke Astin, Lee Grant and Bradford Dillman all star in Irwin Allen’s 1978 killer bee cult classic.
Zsa Zsa Gabor headlines this cheapo sci-fi spoof from 1958 about a planet ruled by women, which features recycled effects and costumes from other sci-fi pics of the era.
Man Up: The Top 15 Best Sci-Fi Gladiator Movies
Another cult classic from writer/director Bert I. Gordon (Beginning of the End, The Amazing Colossal Man) stars Lon Chaney in a story about uranium and a large beast with one eye!
New on Digital HD
As he struggles to balance his home life and superhero duties, Scott Lang finds he must suit up as Ant-Man again, joining the Wasp on an urgent mission to uncover secrets from the past.
Alone, and targeted on an isolated farm, 12-year-old Henry finds himself at the center of a maelstrom of terror, and a dark family legacy, when his secretive grandfather dies suddenly in the night.
Henry Long desperately seeks a cure for the condition that leaves him unable to feel physical pain. But when he meets the beautiful and mysterious Shani, he gets much more than he bargained for…
TV on Blu-ray and DVD
Saved By the Bell: The Complete Collection
Missing your favorite pals from Bayside High? It’s alright, ’cause you’re Saved by the Bell! Conduct your own class reunion with this Max-ed out collection of the iconic ’90s Saturday morning sitcom.
The Love Boat: Season Four Volume One and Season Four Volume Two
Join Captain Stubing in a two-volume set with eight discs collecting all the episodes from the classic TV series.
The Beverly Hillbillies: The Official Fifth Season
Join the fun with the Clampett Family as they rub elbows with the rich and famous in Beverly Hills.
Soul Food: The Complete Series
Watch all four seasons (74 episodes total) on 19 discs as the beloved Showtime series is collected in the same place for the first time ever.
The Originals: The Fifth and Final Season
The final season of The Originals begins seven years after the core members of the Mikaelson family – Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol – each absorb a quarter of the Hollow’s dark energy and flee New Orleans to keep their beloved city and young Hope safe.
