13 New Blu-Rays and 4Ks Worth Trick-or-Treating for

“Interview with the Vampire” 4K (Warner Bros., $29.98)

Neil Jordan’s sumptuous period epic, based on the beloved Ann Rice novel of the same name, makes its long-awaited 4K Blu-ray debut, perhaps inspired by the success of the recent AMC series. Whatever the reason, we’re thankful that it’s finally here. If you haven’t seen “Interview with the Vampire” in a while, the movie is still really, really great. It follows Louis (Brad Pitt), an 18th century plantation owner turned into a vampire by the ageless, charismatic Lestat (Tom Cruise). Together, they have a little girl vampire (Kirsten Dunst) and rack up quite the body count. A truly lush historical drama, full of sweep and scale, it’s never looked or sounded better on 4K and there are even some brand-new special features, including a collection of never-before-seen deleted scenes and a pair of new mini-documentaries – one about creating the world and the other about the cinematography. Get swept up in “Interview with the Vampire” all over again this Halloween.

“The Frighteners” 4K (Arrow, $49.95)

If you buy only one title on this list, make it Arrow’s new 4K edition of Peter Jackson’s masterpiece “The Frighteners.” One of Jackson’s best films, it stars Michael J. Fox as a paranormal investigator who is both genuinely psychic and in cahoots with ghosts. Things take a darker turn when he runs afoul of a serial killer bent on continuing his ghastly work from beyond the grave.

Featuring mind-blowing visual effects from a young Weta and a terrifically creepy Danny Elfman score, “The Frighteners” is one of Jackson’s most overlooked gems and a key step in his evolution as a filmmaker. His next project? A little movie called “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” He couldn’t have made that without making this first.

This is the definitive edition of the modern classic. You get both the theatrical and director’s cuts in 4K, plus open-matte versions of both cuts on Blu-ray. The extras disc includes the feature-length documentary “No Way to Make a Living: A Look Back at The Frighteners,” making its U.S. debut, and the nearly five-hour making-of documentary originally produced for the film’s LaserDisc release. (Yes, really.) There’s also a commentary track, Jackson’s 10th-anniversary introduction and a 41-minute conversation with Weta effects maestro Richard Taylor.

This set is so good, it’s scary.

“Backrooms” 4K (A24, $35)

One of this year’s breakout horror hits, A24’s “Backrooms” has come to 4K in an edition exclusive to the A24 shop. (It will be available elsewhere in November but if you want it for Halloween, you’ve got to head there first.) The film, about a small-town furniture store owner in the early 1990s (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) who gets enchanted by a liminal alternate reality accessible by a portal in the basement wall, is unnerving and eerie. The movie’s young filmmaker, Kane Parsons, has announced himself as a major talent. It’s not just one of the best horror movies of the year, it’s one of the best movies of 2026, period. And thankfully this release is festooned with gripping extra features, including the “Everything Must Go” footage that was present in the last part of the movie’s theatrical run, a commentary track with Parsons and others, visual effects breakdowns and a look at how they created the “Backrooms” world. It’s all just as fascinating as the movie itself. We’re ready for the sequel please.

“The Blair Witch Project” (Lionsgate Limited, $49.95)

Lionsgate Limited, the coolest boutique label that happens to be housed inside a large Hollywood studio, has a pair of awesome releases for Halloween – a 4K steelbook version of Darren Lynn Bousman’s cult musical “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” complete with new special features and a new commentary track; and this, the big daddy, a commemorative Blu-ray set of “The Blair Witch Project.” The movie, which caused an outright sensation when it was released back in 1999, is the faux documentary tale of a group of young filmmakers who get lost in the woods looking for the elusive Blair Witch, a local legend. It inspired a host of copycat “found footage” movies (some good, some not-so-good) and even started a mini-franchise which continues to this day (a new installment, from Blumhouse Atomic Monster will be out next year). This is the definitive collection for “Blair Witch” die-hards, featuring three (!) versions of the movie – a festival cut, restored cut and the original release version, a 104-page production journal, and all the legacy features (commentaries, “The Curse of the Blair Witch” mockumentary which aired on television, deleted scenes, interviews, the whole shebang). This is a treasure trove for “Blair Witch” aficionados and if you’ve never seen the film before, a great entry point.

“Hostel”/”Hostel: Part II” 4K (Shout Factory, $79.98)

Eli Roth has reached something of a career plateau. He lost control of the expensive boondoggle “Borderlands” during reshoots and earlier this year released the abominable “Ice Cream Man,” an odious, largely pointless horror movie full of AI imagery and gross-out gags. We’ve come a long way from his days making movies for Steven Spielberg and hanging out with Quentin Tarantino.

But once upon a time, Roth was one of the most exciting genre filmmakers working, with an explosive debut in “Cabin Fever” and a genuine phenomenon in his follow-up, “Hostel.” Unfairly lumped in with the “torture porn” subgenre — a label shaped, in part, by the Bush administration’s amoral abuses of power during the War on Terror — “Hostel” is a horror-comedy about a group of friends who fall victim to an organization that sells people to clients for murder and torture. Its sequel, which swaps the guys for a group of women, is even funnier and, in some ways, grosser. (Both films were executive produced by Tarantino.)

This long-overdue box set features new 4K transfers of both movies in their unrated editions, along with commentary tracks, archival special effects features and a fifth disc of new supplements. It’s pretty much everything you could ask for, including a SteelBook case for each movie. The set is enough to make you wish Roth could recapture his glory days. We’re not so sure he will.

“The Silence of the Lambs” 4K (Criterion, $49.95)

There’s been a circuitous path to get here. Criterion first released Jonathan Demme’s masterpiece “The Silence of the Lambs” on LaserDisc in 1991. (Remember those?) The label later lost some of its home-video rights, and the film appeared on VHS and DVD without Criterion before returning to the collection on DVD in 1998. MGM issued subsequent VHS, DVD and Blu-ray editions, and Criterion brought the film back on Blu-ray in 2018, two decades after its DVD release.

Kino Lorber released the film on 4K in the U.S. in 2021, but Arrow’s 2024 restoration, released overseas, was said to improve on both picture and sound quality. (It quickly sold out — before we could get our hands on it, in fact.) Now Criterion has its own 4K edition, and it’s gorgeous. The restoration was supervised by cinematographer Tak Fujimoto and features Dolby Vision HDR.

While there are no new supplements on the 4K disc, the collection’s wealth of extras remains indispensable. They include a 1994 commentary track with Demme, actors Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, screenwriter Ted Tally and former FBI agent John Douglas; a 2005 interview with Demme and Foster; and four documentaries. The booklet also features writings by original author Thomas Harris, now 86 and famously elusive.

“The Pope’s Exorcist” 4K (Sony, $39.95)

“The Pope’s Exorcist,” released theatrically in 2023, was a sleeper hit, making more than $77 million worldwide on a budget of just $18 million. It was buoyed by Russell Crowe’s performance, as a real-life demon hunter dispatched in the late 1980s to a haunted church in Spain, that oscillated between winningly over-the-top and deeply sincere. And the movie stuck around; while not a huge hit, there is persistent talk of a follow-up that would see Crowe investigating further supernatural disturbances. And out of nowhere Sony unleashed a new 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray! There’s nothing new on it, special features-wise, as far as we can tell, but it looks and sounds better than ever – this goofy, funny, scary, goopy movie is a real treat. If you missed out on it, this is a perfect opportunity to catch up with “The Pope’s Exorcist.”

“Watchers” (Toy Robot Video, $34.95)

Toy Robot Video, a terrific new sublabel from Arrow, is finally bringing late-1980s oddity “Watchers” to Blu-ray. (Weirdly, Shout had made the subpar sequel “Watchers II” available a few years ago.) While not exactly a lost classic, there is a lot to love about 1988’s “Watchers,” which adapts an amiably goofy Dean Koontz novel about a kid (Corey Haim) who develops an attachment to a preternaturally intelligent dog, who is being hunted by both a genetic mutant and a shadowy government organization. It is loosely adapted from the Koontz novel, which came out the year before and served as one of the author’s first big hits. The movie was produced by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna’s Carolco and distributed in America by Universal, where it made less than a million dollars. But there’s a certain late-night cable charm to “Watchers” that allows you to overlook some of the glaring plot holes and silly special effects. This is an admirably overloaded disc, featuring new interviews with the director and several cast members (including Michael Ironside), plus original marketing materials (always fun). Watch it with your own super-intelligent dog.

“Identity” 4K (Arrow, $49.95)

Before James Mangold was making Oscar contenders like “A Complete Unknown” and taking over the Indiana Jones franchise from Steven Spielberg, he directed this nifty, twisty little thriller. The setup of “Identity” is pretty standard: A group of strangers, including John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Ray Liotta and Clea DuVall (hey, it was 2003!), find themselves trapped in a seedy motel run by a shifty John Hawkes during a massive rainstorm. And wouldn’t you know it? People start dropping dead in increasingly ghoulish ways.

The movie goes a little overboard with the twists, but it’s ultimately satisfying and entertaining, with stylish direction and cinematography and a terrific score by Alan Silvestri. This deluxe collection from Arrow includes both the theatrical cut and the slightly longer director’s cut in 4K UHD, with impressive picture and sound quality. The set also features new interviews, along with archival extras such as commentary tracks, deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes footage. It’s a great package for an unsung gem.

“The Shining” part of “The Complete Kubrick” box set (Criterion, $599.95)

“The Complete Kubrick,” the just-released, 30-disc box set from the Criterion Collection, is undoubtedly the most exciting and essential physical-media release of 2026. And if you need another reason to pull the trigger (yes, the price tag is admittedly steep!), consider Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Shining.”

The 1980 film is an undeniable classic and a Halloween favorite, one that has been watched and dissected countless times in the decades since its release. (Just watch Rodney Ascher’s nifty documentary “Room 237.”) So imagine the excitement of seeing a version of the movie that has never been released on home video in the United States before. That’s what you get with the “Shining” package.

The international version is often described as Kubrick’s final cut, making its inclusion particularly fascinating. It comes with a new commentary by Lee Unkrich, the Pixar filmmaker and “Shining” obsessive who edited the definitive book “Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining.’” Elsewhere in the set’s “Shining” section are a newly restored 4K version of Vivian Kubrick’s documentary “Making ‘The Shining,’” archival interviews and documentaries, additional commentary tracks and a show reel for Steadicam operator Garrett Brown.

“Frankenstein” 4K (Criterion, $59.95)

Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning “Frankenstein” gets new life on home video, no additional electricity required. The film, which premiered on Netflix last year, arrives on disc courtesy of Criterion, which has released deluxe editions of most of del Toro’s films. (We’re still waiting patiently for a Criterion-approved version of “Blade II.”)

It’s exciting enough that “Frankenstein,” starring Oscar Isaac as the brilliant but callous doctor and Jacob Elordi as the tortured creature (a role that earned him an Oscar nomination), has escaped its digital prison and arrived on a gorgeous 4K UHD disc with Dolby Atmos sound. But this four-disc set contains two 4K UHD discs: one with the original theatrical cut and another with “The Reborn Cut,” an eight-minute-longer director’s cut approved by del Toro. How about that?

There are also plenty of special features, including a documentary about the making of the director’s cut, a commentary track with del Toro, a Q&A moderated by Martin Scorsese, interviews with cast members and department heads, and original marketing materials. It’s basically everything you could want from a “Frankenstein” release, all in one handy package. It’s a spooky-season must-own.

“Little Shop of Horrors” 4K (Warner Bros., $29.95)

rank Oz’s 1986 musical classic comes to 4K UHD for the first time, and it looks like a million bucks. “Little Shop of Horrors” was a notoriously difficult shoot, with actors having to perform at different speeds to accommodate Audrey II, the cumbersome mechanical puppet, and work on a huge, elaborate set constructed in London. (The actors reportedly kept ice cubes in their mouths while filming to prevent their breath from showing.)

But the film, adapted from the off-Broadway musical by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, is a feat of filmmaking. It’s just as entertaining and emotionally rewarding as it was 40 years ago. Better yet, you get both the theatrical cut and the director’s cut, featuring the downbeat, plants-take-over-the-world ending, in glorious 4K.

There are even new interviews with Oz and Ellen Greene, who played Audrey off-Broadway and on screen. (She returned to the role in 2015 opposite Jake Gyllenhaal as Seymour.) The set also includes archival features exploring the creation and rediscovery of the original ending, along with a look at the making of the Audrey II puppet, which remains as impressive as ever.

Get this release and watch it with the theater kid in your life.

Rob Zombie’s Firefly Trilogy 4K (Lionsgate, $44.95)

Rob Zombie’s Firefly Trilogy has had a slippery history on home video — at least when it comes to 4K UHD discs. “House of 1,000 Corpses,” the controversial feature that Universal made but was too afraid to release, has never been available on 4K disc until now. “The Devil’s Rejects” was previously available as an Amazon-exclusive 4K disc, while “3 From Hell” was widely available on 4K. Now, all three films, which follow the murderous Firefly family as they unleash unmitigated terror wherever they go, are available in one handsome, eight-disc box set from Lionsgate.

There are a couple of downsides, including the fact that the unrated cut of “The Devil’s Rejects,” arguably the trilogy’s high point, is available only on Blu-ray. But this is a wonderful, beautifully packaged collection of Zombie’s gonzo trilogy. If you’ve never seen the films, they shape-shift from haunted-house horror show to 1970s-style crime film to Sam Peckinpah-style action movie and back again, each revealing new things about both the individual movies and the series as a whole. The third film didn’t get as much attention as it probably deserved; it was a fitting send-off for these psychopathic freaks. This box set is a true celebration of Zombie’s singular vision.