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Kenneth Wannberg, composer and Emmy-winning music editor who worked on nearly half of all John Williams’ films dating back to the late 1960s, died Jan. 27 at his home in Florence, Oregon. He was 91.

Wannberg was best known as Williams’ music editor, working closely with the composer on more than 50 of his films. He assisted Williams throughout the scoring process, from providing detailed descriptions of sequences to be scored to more technical aspects such as trimming or modifying music during the last stages of post-production.

He music-edited the first six “Star Wars” films, the first three “Indiana Jones” films and such other landmark Williams scores as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

During his 50-year career in films, Wannberg worked with many other composers including Bernard Herrmann (“Journey to the Center of the Earth”), Jerry Goldsmith (“The Mephisto Waltz”), Michael Convertino...

The Changeling

Blu ray

Severin Films

1980/ 1.85:1 / Street Date August 7, 2018

Starring George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas

Cinematography by John Coquillion

Directed by Peter Medak

The success of 70’s shockers like The Devils, The Exorcist and Alien – grindhouse films in big budget drag – opened the door to increasingly explicit studio fare – moviemakers were happy to accommodate and upped the ante in the bargain.

1980 alone saw the release of Sean Cunningham’s seminal slasher Friday the 13th, Ken Russell’s evolutionary freak out Altered States and, infamously, the unvarnished (and x-rated) depredations of Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust.

But it was The Shining, with its rotting ghosts, blood-soaked hallways and promise of never-ending horror that personified Reagan era fright films.

Into this heavy atmosphere ambled Peter Medak’s The Changeling, an unassuming murder mystery disguised as a ghost story. Compared to its over the top contemporaries, Medak’s film seemed...

While ghost stories and the supernatural have made a recent resurgence at the box office (think The Conjuring and Hereditary), there was a time in horror when they lay as dormant as a long-forgotten spirit: the early ’80s. Okay, The Amityville Horror (1979) did big business, and The Shining (1980) did well, but these were exceptions, not rules. Audiences were more apt to take in masked killers and teens in peril than adults dealing with psychic crises of the soul and heart. Leave it to Severin Films to unearth and give the deluxe Blu-ray treatment to The Changeling (1980), Peter Medak’s riveting meditation on retribution and the deep shadows of the past that is long overdue for celebration.

Celebrated composer John Russell (George C. Scott – Patton) moves to Seattle four months after his wife and daughter are killed in a horrendous roadside accident. Looking for a place to write in peace, he...

August’s horror and sci-fi home media releases are off to a great start, as we have numerous titles arriving this Tuesday that fans are going to want to add to their collections. Severin Films has put together a stellar limited edition release of The Changeling, and Scream Factory is resurrecting John Carpenter's Someone’s Watching Me! on Blu-ray as well. Scream Factory has also teamed up with IFC Midnight for a trio of releases—Pyewacket, Lowlife, and Wildling—and Marrowbone arrives on both formats, too.

Other notable releases for August 7th include Predator and the Predator 3-Movie Collection in 4K, Desecration, The Keeping Hours, and Dead Shack.

The Changeling Limited Edition

It is perhaps the most chilling supernatural thriller of our time. It remains a career peak for star George C. Scott and director Peter Medak. Now the film that Martin Scorsese calls, "One of the scariest movies ever made,...

We've known that Severin Films has been working on a new Blu-ray edition of 1980's The Changeling, but today they officially announced their special features and limited edition bundle offerings, which include a poster, enamel pin, soundtrack CD, and replica ball:

"It is perhaps the most chilling supernatural thriller of our time. It remains a career peak for star George C. Scott and director Peter Medak. Now the film that Martin Scorsese calls “one of the scariest movies ever made” finally comes to Blu-ray: Academy Award® winner Scott delivers “one of his greatest performances ever” (BloodyGoodHorror.com) as a Manhattan composer consumed by grief after his wife and daughter are killed in a shocking accident. But when he moves to a secluded Victorian mansion, he will find himself haunted by a paranormal entity that may unleash an even more disturbing secret. Trish Van Devere (The Hearse), two-time Oscar® winner Melvyn Douglas...

“May you live to be a thousand years old, sir.” Still the most widely unheralded great movie on the books, John Patrick Shanley’s lightweight/profound fable is an unmitigated delight. See Tom Hanks at the end of the first phase of his career plus Meg Ryan in an unacknowledged career highlight. How can a movie be so purposely insubstantial, and yet be ‘heavier’ than a dozen pictures with ‘big things to say?’

Joe Versus the Volcano

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1990 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date June 20, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Abe Vigoda,

Dan Hedaya, Barry McGovern, Amanda Plummer, Ossie Davis

Cinematography Stephen Goldblatt

Production Designer Bo Welch

Film Editors Richard Halsey, Kenneth Wannberg

Original Music Georges Delerue

Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg and Teri Schwartz

Written and Directed by John Patrick Shanley

I think I found...

by Jesse Miller, MoreHorror.com

When his wife and son leave for a vacation, mild-mannered businessman Bart (Peter Weller) stays behind to get some work done on his latest project.

However, that all changes when he becomes obsessed with capturing a mischievous rodent that begins to cause destruction to his beautiful home, one expensive object at a time.

Bart becomes fixated with capturing the rat so much that he is absentminded during his work hours and hard at work at setting up traps during the evening. At one point, he even interrupts a perfectly pleasant dinner amongst colleagues with random statistics and facts about rats. Yes, these facts are all startling (if true) but even still, his descent into what appears to be madness is a little out of the blue.

Of Unknown Origin is billed as a “suspense-horror” but it feels more like an oddball dark comedy with very slight undertones of horror.