Other Releases Available:

Releases Reviewed:

Beast From Haunted Cave is an old flick with a beastly number of releases available.

Everything I'll mention is DVD; there is no HD option currently. The Synapse release has a few notable elements. Elvira hosts a double feature. Madacy and AMC offer 2 packs that might be best avoided. A Drive In Monsters 6 pack offers a few classic monster flicks at a reasonable price.

I got mine in the Drive In Movie Classics 50 pack.

Video:

1.33: The video is TV standard ratio (which appears to be a pan-&-scan reformat of the original widescreen). The picture is so low quality I didn't realize I was looking at snow until I saw the characters wearing skis. It's a little trashy with a couple of scenes that are far too dark. There's a blotch in one corner for a while. It eventually grows and takes over the whole picture for a few frames like a film monster at which point the overall quality degrades and skips some for a while. When it clears up it's OK for the rest of the movie.

Audio:

2.0 mono: The audio is distorted and takes some effort to make out. There are some pops during the edits and white noise.

Packaging:

The packaging from this company changes from time to time, but mine has each disc in a paper sleeve. All of those fit into a large plastic case. You can read more details of the set as a whole in the Drive In Movie Classics buying guide.

This is not the extended cut of the film. The runtime is 72 minutes.

A Mill Creek logo pops up from time to time. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?

Extras:

There are no extras of any kind.

Other Editions:

Synapse offers a DVD that includes the 1.33 pan-&-scan that everyone else has plus a widescreen presentation. This is the only version I saw that mentioned being the extended cut. Comments say that the quality of the print is quite good, possibly the best on the market. Extras include liner notes and a trailer.

Elvira hosts a double-feature with Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. The video looks like it is the 1.33 pan-&-scan. You can count on some clips of Elvira, but I can't tell if there are any other extras offered. I found a number of comments, but they weren't particularly helpful. The best I can say is that they all seem more or less pleased with the release.

The Madacy 2 pack is with The Brain that Wouldn't Die, but the quality is said to be exceptionally crappy. It does offer trailers as extras.

The AMC double-feature is one I figured might be a decent chance at a fair release, but details are completely absent. For the prices I saw listed this one deserves to be completely ignored.

Lastly is the Drive In Monsters 6 pack. It offers the 1.33 ratio and lists no other details. I only mention it here because it's a fair price for 6 movies with at least a couple of the others in the pack being OK (though certainly not great).

Not one of the spec listings I saw said what the audio was so I suspect that you won't get anything other than mono. I found no other mention of extras and no specs or comments that provide any useful info about the other releases out there.

Final Thoughts:

The Synapse DVD is easily your best bet if you're hunting a decent version of this flick. I can't recommend the Drive In Movie Classics version partially because of the bad presentation quality and partially because of that annoying logo. Go for that one only if you can't find another reasonably priced option.