Warner Archives has a nice selection of rare sci fi/fantasy/horror DVDs, and many of these would make great Xmas gifts for some of those genre fans on your list who seem to have everything. Here's ten choice selections and you can find plenty more at this link.
The Green Slime
Description: After a perilous mission to a huge asteroid, a crew returns to its space
station, unaware a bit of ooze from the asteroid clings to a crewman’s
uniform. The green goop grows – into murderous, tentacled monsters. And
as station members fight to live, gunk from the monsters’ wounds turns
into more monsters! That’s the story. Now enjoy as our heroes fight to
preserve Earth and, unintentionally, our own senses of humor with a
movie that Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called “one of the
funniest made-in-Japan sci-fi monster movies ever.” Kinji Fukasaku,
whose later work was championed by Quentin Tarantino, directs. The world
would be a far more bleak and joyless place without marvels like The
Green Slime.
Moon Zero Two
Description: William Kemp (James Olson) was a celebrated planetary voyager years
back, the first to set foot on Mars. It’s now 2021, and the celebration –
and the era of exploration – is over. Kemp pilots a lunar-based
scavenger craft, retrieving adrift satellites for scrap. But he’ll find
the adventure he longs for when he agrees to help a woman hunt for her
missing brother at a mining camp on the moon’s dark side. “The first
moon Western” blazoned ads for this film rife with cowboy-genre motifs.
Sci-fi fans may note another influence. From sets to costumes to scenes
of men in the blackness of space, Moon Zero Two seems to draw
inspiration from a pivotal classic released two years earlier, Stanley
Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
No Blade of Grass
Description: No room to run! No place to hide! Maddened by fear they turn against
each other! An environmental catastrophe destroys civilization.
Thousands are starving. Millions are dead. Resources are used up,
poisoned and polluted. Found among the survivors are the Custance clan.
Led by father John (Nigel Davenport) and mother Ann (Cornel Wilde’s
spouse and frequent collaborator Jean Wallace), the Custance clan sets
out on a quest for safety in a savage world that may just end up turning
them into the very thing they are fleeing. Actor-turned-independent
director Cornel Wilde created 8 unique films over the span of two
decades. But nothing prepared the audiences of 1970 for the sights that
awaited them in No Blade of Grass. Raw, uncompromising and violent
–maybe too much so, as the film went largely unseen. Now available in a
full, uncut edition, No Blade of Grass can at last be seen in all its
grim, daring, gory glory.
The Snow Devil
Description: Big, hairy and very scary. When a Himalayan weather station is smashed
to smithereens by creatures who leave super-sized footprints, suspicion
falls on Abominable Snowmen. A heroic expedition braves snow-whipped
precipices and discovers the dreaded humanoids. But wait – these are
extraterrestrial yetis who zipped in from outer space to conquer Earth
by melting the polar ice caps with high-energy proton fields. Will
mankind be global-warmed into surrender? Antonio Margheriti (aka Anthony
Dawson) of The Wild, Wild Planet and War of the Planets fame directs
this cult-classic freakfest that's a Big Foot tangled up in a shoestring
f/x budget.
Atlantis, The Lost Continent
Description: Rejoice, citizens of Atlantis! Princess Antillia, lost upon uncharted
seas, has been guided home by intrepid Greek fisherman Demetrios. In a
strange act of Atlantean gratitude, Demetrios is cast into slavery. He
will endure the macabre House of Hell. Fight for his life before a
cheering arena throng in the Ordeal of Fire and Water. And rescue the
princess again as they flee the realm’s volcanic doom. Welcome to
Atlantis, the Lost Continent, where royal guardsmen wear uniforms that
could easily be from the wardrobe of Ming the Merciless and where some
unfortunate slaves are turned into bovine-headed beasts. Yes, that kind
of movie: popcorn-worthy and spearheaded by legendary fantasy film
producer George Pal (The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine).
The Boy With the Green Hair
Description: Made in the hopeful post-World War II era that produced such classics of
social conscience as Gentlemen’s Agreement, Pinky and Home of the
Brave, this provocative film is a fable for its time – and ours. It
tells the supernatural-tinged story of an orphan who finds a safe haven
in small-town America…until the day his hair turns green. Then the
townfolk turn against him, frightened by the change they cannot
understand. A call for tolerance, an inspiring statement that
“different” doesn’t mean “threatening,” The Boy with Green Hair boasts a
fine cast (Robert Ryan, Pat O’Brien, Dean Stockwell), a popular theme
song (Nature Boy) and the feature-film debut of director Joseph Losey
(The Servant, The Go-Between).
Earth II
Description: In the peaceful space colony called Earth II, even toy guns are banned.
But something far more dangerous threatens this ideal world: a Chinese
satellite armed with three nuclear warheads. The citizens of Earth II
decide to disarm the warheads, despite China’s warning that anyone who
interferes will instigate a thermonuclear World War III. Outstanding
special effects and a name cast (headed by 2001: A Space Odyssey co-star
Gary Lockwood) highlight this space-frontier chiller that brings
audiences to the terrifying edge of Doomsday. Can men and women of peace
triumph over the awesome power of nuclear weapons? Earth II has an
answer.
Time Trax: The Complete First Season
Description: It began in the future. A scientist turning to evil, a time machine
called TRAX, criminals who vanish and a lawman with a mission. He has
one weapon and a computer named SELMA. With them he will travel to a
time more innocent than his own. Now he is among us. A special breed of
man, a hunter, traveling through our world searching for fugitives from
his own, knowing he cannot go home until he has found them all. His name
is Darien Lambert and this is his story. Producer extraordinaire Harve
Bennett (The Mod Squad, The Six Million Dollar Man, Star Trek II: The
Wrath of Khan) returns to episodic TV for this tale of a haunted lawman
dispatched across time to retrieve fugitive felons and the evil
scientist who sent them there. Dale Midkiff stars as fugitive retrieval
specialist Captain Darien Lambert, along with Peter Donat (Mordicai
Sahmbi) and Elizabeth Alexander (SELMA) in this Six-Disc, 21-Episode
Collection.
Sky Commanders: The Complete Animated Series
Description: Deep in the South Pacific, a tumultuous and untamed new continent has
erupted, spawned by a highly unstable new element, known as Phaeta-7. If
this powerful new element could be controlled, whoever possessed it
would be the undisputed ruler of the world! One man, General Lucas
Plague, is determined to hold that title. And it's up to a rugged team
of mountaineering experts, led by Commander Mike Summit, to stop him.
Employing revolutionary new gravity-lock and laser-cable technology to
traverse the ever-changing terrain of the High Frontier, Mike Summit's
Sky Commanders, and General Plague's Raiders, are locked in mortal
combat, with the fate of the entire world hanging in the balance! That
narration heralded the arrival of a Sci-Fi show that truly boasted sky
high action, depicting the battles of a group of hi-tech climbers
against a terror militia for control of the planet in this complete
2-Disc, 13-Episode Collection.
Man From Atlantis: The Complete Series
Description: Go deeper below the surface than ever before with the adventures of the
being who is both human and aquatic. Atlantis survivor Mark Harris
(played by Patrick Duffy just before starting his lengthy run on Dallas)
breathes underwater, withstands extreme depth pressures and wields
superhuman strength. And those astounding abilities are showcased in
this 4-Disc Collection containing All 13 Exciting Episodes. Submerge
with Mark and the crew of the Foundation for Oceanic Research submarine
Cetacean (including costars Belinda J. Montgomery and Alan Fudge) into a
world of science-fiction wonders. Guest stars include Victor Buono (in
several episodes as the villainous Mr. Schubert), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
Pernell Roberts, Rene Auberjonois and Pat Morita.
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