This autumn the BFI will make available on DVD a superb collection of rare and previously unseen ghost and horror titles from the BBC archives. Released as part of the BFI’s GOTHIC: THE DARK HEART OF FILM blockbuster project (see the link above), these long-unseen gems will delight many fans of British horror and classic TV drama.
Highlights in October include:
The legendary Play for Today drama Robin Redbreast (1970) – an unsettling tale of ‘folk horror’ that’s considered a precursor to 1973’s The Wicker Man (DVD)
The three surviving, terrifying episodes of the long-unseen 1972 ghost story anthology Dead of Night (DVD)
Classic Ghost Stories (1986), five spine-tingling tales from the pen of MR James, presented by Robert Powell (DVD)
An extended six-disc repackage of the best-selling BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas (DVD)
Highlights in November include:
A BFI Flipside Dual Format Edition presentation of the BBC’s Schalcken the Painter (1979). This highpoint of BBC arts filmmaking will be presented in High Definition from a rare 16mm source recently discovered in the BFI National Archive
The 1977 BBC gothic horror anthology Supernatural starring a host of British acting legends including Billie Whitelaw, Robert Hardy, Denholm Elliot and Jeremy Brett (DVD)
Other Gothic releases include:
Scary Stories – a collection of creepy films from The Children’s Film Foundation featuring The Man From Nowhere (1976), Haunters of the Deep (1984) and Out of the Darkness (1985) (September 2013, DVD)
A three-disc Dual Format special edition of Rupert Julian / Lon Chaney’s original The Phantom of the Opera (1925) (November 2013)
The BFI National Archive digital re-mastering of Thorold Dickinson’s dark psychological drama Gaslight (1940) (November 2013, Dual Format Edition)
