Masters of Horror - Starz/Anchor Bay Preps 4 Volumes on Blu-ray! Dates, Cost, Box Art

A few weeks ago we passed along word from Starz Home Entertainment President Bill Clark, that the first season of Masters of Horror would come to the Blu-ray Disc format before the end of this year. We jumped to the conclusion that this would be a single box set, similar to the "Season 1 Box Set" on DVD that's planned for a late August release. Now we know better!

This week's new issue of trade magazine Video Business has a special section about the state of the hi-def format war, talking about both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Related ads, from the studios that are aimed at retail chain buyers, can be found throughout that section. One such ad is from Starz/Anchor Bay, showing off their coming Horror genre line-up for the Blu-ray format, and the last four entries pictured are 4 separate volumes which will make up the first season of Masters of Horror on Blu-ray. Here's what you can expect, and when you'll see it:

• Masters of Horror - Season 1, Volume I (October 16th)
  1. "Cigarette Burns" (John Carpenter)
  2. "Dreams in the Witch House" (Stuart Gordon)
  3. "Fair Haired Child" (William Malone)
  
  
• Masters of Horror - Season 1, Volume II (October 16th)
  1. "Jenifer" (Dario Argento)
  2. "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)
  3. "Deer Woman" (John Landis)
  
  
• Masters of Horror - Season 1, Volume III (November 13th)
  1. "Incident On and Off A Mountain Road" (Don Coscarelli)
  2. "Dance of the Dead" (Tobe Hooper)
  3. "Pick Me Up" (Larry Cohen)
  
  
• Masters of Horror - Season 1, Volume IV (December 11th)
  1. "Imprint" (Takashi Miike)
  2. "Homecoming" (Joe Dante)
  3. "Haeckel's Tale" (John McNaughton)
  4. "Chocolate" (Mick Garris)

Cost for each of these 4 releases will be $29.97 SRP in the USA, and CA$36.98 SRP in Canada. A small peek at the cover art for these four releases can be found at the bottom of this story, taken from the trade magazine advertisement. Note that the 4 pictures are exactly as scanned from the ad, but we re-arranged the layout of those pictures to form a more "square" shape, so we could present these in a slightly larger shot than we otherwise could have fit.

Before that is another picture, this time from the DVD side of things. If you haven't moved into the hi-def world yet (or if you did but chose HD DVD instead of Blu-ray), then you're interested in either the "Mausoleum set" with all the first season episodes in one limited edition crypt-like package, or else you're interested in getting the two half-season sets that Starz/Anchor Bay is putting out at the same time (August 28th: Masters Of Horror - Season 1 Box Set, Volume 1and Masters Of Horror - Season 1 Box Set, Volume 2. Each one will have six discs in it, which means that something is missing! The unaired episode "Imprint", by Takashi Miike, will not be found in either of those sets, even though it WILL be found in the "Mausoleum set" release (and on the Blu-rays)! Why not? We were unable to find out the reason behind this decision. What we do have, though, is a first look at the box art for those two half-season releases. Below that you'll find the Blu-ray pics: