Andrew is quick to misunderstand, and the story builds to an incendiary finale as the sea captain’s house burns to the ground, portrait inclusive. If you know your horror films or horror fiction, you already know that this familiar story is only a matter of human record insomuch as it was first recorded, pen on paper, in 1927 by H.P. Lovecraft as “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.” First pub- lished posthumously in the May and July 1941 is- sues of WEIRD TALES, it was filmed for the first time only a few years after this broadcast by Roger Corman as THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963), star- ring Vincent Price as the husband, Debra Paget as the wife, and Frank Maxwell as the family friend. For decades, this American International release has generally been accepted as the first filmed dramatization of Lovecraft’s work.


Purists might point to the changed names, the sea captain legend and the modern setting as rea- sons not to credit Lovecraft, but such arguments become petty when we consider that THE HAUNTED PALACE and “The Captain’s Guests” were both credited to the same writer: Charles Beaumont. —Tim Lucas


Shell Out Again For GAMERA


Previously known for multi-pack releases of less-than-stellar looking public domain titles, Mill Creek Entertainment has been making real strides recently with respectable-looking editions of li- censed fare. Kaiju fans were rewarded a few months back by a surprise Blu-ray double feature release of GAMERA, GUARDIAN OF THE UNI- VERSE and GAMERA 2: ATTACK OF THE LEGION ($14.98), followed recently by the remaining se- quel, GAMERA 3: REVENGE OF IRIS ($9.98). The 1080p 1.85:1 presentations look significantly bet- ter than the versions issued on DVD in 2003 by ADV Films, and the DTS HD 5.1 and Dolby Digi- tal 5.1 options are also quite satisfying. The double feature disc offers no extras, but IRIS contains 172m of supplements for all three movies. The one area where the DVDs fall short is their English subtitles. The subtitles on the first movie do not translate any of the numerous intertitles or news- paper headlines and GAMERA 3’s subtitles are sim- ply abominable with numerous lines missing and much needless paraphrasing. Poorly-voiced En- glish dubs are included for each film and we ended up watching IRIS in this manner simply to make sure we were not missing any important plot points. The discs are nevertheless desirable, especially


given their overall superiority and Mill Creek’s low price, but should not have made it through their final quality control session without this issue be- ing addressed. The two releases have also been packaged together as a Blu-ray triple feature for $19.98. —John Charles


INTRUDER’s Back With More


Back in the early days of home video when the term “unrated version” was invoked by only a few gutsy independent labels, Scott Spiegel’s IN- TRUDER (1989) was highly anticipated by gore fans whose appetites had been thoroughly whetted by numerous gruesome stills that had popped up in various horror publications. However, thanks to a distribution deal with Paramount Home Video, which would handle only rated product, the ver- sion that finally hit stores was horribly emascu- lated, robbing the movie of almost all its grotty charm. An uncut VHS version showed up in collector’s circles not long after, but the poor im- age quality made for a trying viewing experience. A subsequent DVD release in 2006 through Charles


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