This is the lightest week of home entertainment releases in the fall so far, but there are some interesting offerings including a scary old school horror film, a better-than-expected teen-targeting techno-thriller, the first U.S. release of one of the great shonen anime action series, and an offbeat family drama that features one of Viggo Mortensen’s best performances.

Theatrical Movies

Although there are no “mega” releases this week there are some good ones.  The horror film Lights Out (Warner Bros., “PG-13,” $28.98, BD $29.98) is the first feature directed by David Sandberg, and it marks him as a director whose career horror film fans will want to follow.  Lights Out features a great cast headed by Teresa Palmer and Maria Bello and plenty of traditional horror movie “jump scares” that will have you leaping out of your seat, even if you are watching the film alone in a well-lit room.

For those who enjoy indie dramas this week’s top release is Captain Fantastic (Universal, “R,” 240 min., $29.98, BD $34.98), which, in spite of its title is a family drama, not a superhero film.  Viggo Mortensen stars as a devoted father (and ex-hippie) who is raising his kids in relative isolation in the rural Northwest until a tragedy forces a reckoning with “civilization.” 

Also of interest is Nerve (Lionsgate, “PG-13,” 96 min., $29.98, BD $39.98), a teen-friendly techno-thriller starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco in a saga about an online game in which players accept increasingly dangerous real life challenges in exchange for money.  In spite of its tenuous premise, this YA style saga received a solid 64% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and is surprisingly watchable.

Anime

This week’s top release is Hunter x Hunter: Set 1 (Viz Media, 325 min., $34.98, BD $54.97), which contains the first 13 episodes of the 148-episode 2011-2014 Hunter x Hunter series produced by Madhouse that is based Yoshihiro Togashi’s classic manga.  This new version of Hunter x Hunter (Nippon Animation produced a 62-episode adaptation that debuted in 1999) started airing on Adult Swim this past April, and is one of the best shonen action series ever, so fans of Naruto and DBZ should definitely check it out.

The Perfect Insider (Sentai Filmworks, 275 min., Subtitles Only, $49.98, BD $59.98) is an 11-episode 2015 series from A-1 Pictures that is based on a mystery novel by Hiroshi Mori that has also been adapted into a live-action TV series.  This saga of an engineer and the daughter of his mentor who solve a series of murders at an Artificial Intelligence lab that is hidden away on a remote island demonstrates the range of anime in Japan, which encompasses all the major filmmaking genres including science fiction and mysteries.

Also due on Tuesday are the In Search of the Lost Future: Complete Collection (Funimation, 300 min., Subtitles Only, BD/DVD Combo $54.97), which contains the 12-episode 2012 series from Studio Feel that is based on a romance visual novel with a title inspired by Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past; a new Blu-ray edition of the 1994 anime Streetfighter II: The Animated Movie (Discotek, 102 min., $29.95); and the classic Hana Yori Dango TV & Movie: Complete Collection (Discotek, 1300 min., $69.95), which contains all 51 episodes (plus a 30-minute movie) of the 1990s Toei series based on the shojo manga by Yoko Kamio that was released here (by Viz Media) as Boys Over Flowers.

TV on DVD

The top releases this week are all from overseas.  Agatha Raisin: Series 1 (Acorn Media, 462 min., $59.99) is a delightful English village murder mystery series that mixes humor and mayhem in an 8-episode season of intriguing mysteries based on the novels of M.C. Beaton.  Breezy, high-flying ad maven Agatha Raisin (Ashley Jensen) “retires” to a small village in the Cotswolds where she soon finds herself embroiled in a second career as an amateur sleuth.

Also of great interest is the Australian legal drama, Janet King—Series 2: The Invisible Wound (Acorn Media, 463 min., $49.99), which stars Marta Dusseldorp as a Crown Prosecutor attempting to stop the flow of illegal guns into the country, who finds that nothing is clear cut in this dark saga, which is full of stunning twists and turns.

The best vintage TV release of the week is Miami Vice: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, 5,504 min., $69.98), which contains all 110 pastel-colored episodes on twenty discs. And for the real Don Johnson fans, on Friday the 28th Nash Bridges: The Complete Collection (VEI, 3660 min., BD $144.44) debuts in high def.

The only animated TV show out this week is the single-disc Transformers: Rescue Bots—Vol. 11: Bots Battle for Justice (Shout Factory, 110 min., $14.93).