April 15, 2008 - New horror on DVD today... including the kick-ass film, "Inside"

I've already discussed "Inside" (À l'intérieur) in a post yesterday and I've been blowing this movie for a while now. So, just do yourself a favor and go get it. It's a French film, directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (Bustillo wrote it, as well) and they're also the two guys that were supposed to remake "Hellraiser", but... after seeing "Inside" and reading the first draft of their interpretation of "Hellraiser", the producers got a bit scared and decided to 'go another route'. So, the guys who make one of the most talked about, f'ed up films of the year write you a truly horrific vision of "Hellraiser" and you back out??? Seriously... come on. I'm smelling a music video director being brought on to pump out a flashy PG-13 version. Garbage. Anyhow... again, support horror and go check out "Inside".

"AVPR", or "Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem", if you're not into the brevity thing, was directed by 'the Brothers Strause' (Colin and Greg) and was written by Shane Salerno. The Strause brothers are actually special effects guys, having founded their own company, Hydraulx, which produced effects for such films as "300", "T3" and "Titanic". As for directing, this is their first feature film. Shane Salerno wrote the script and he's done a few quality Hollywood films, such as: "Shaft" and "Armageddon". The Strause boys actually pitched an idea for the first "AVP", which was rejected. So this could've been a great chance for them to thumb their respective noses at the studios, as well as get the franchise back on the right foot, but... this sucked. It sucked bad and I'm very surprised that it's made over $128Million worldwide. Oh, further to sucking, it was nominated for two Golden Raspberry's in the fields of 'Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie' and 'Worst Prequel or Sequel'. Unfortunately, the awards went to "I Know Who Killed Me" and "Daddy Day Camp". Don't fret "AVP", maybe you'll get 'em next time. Actually, please don't. Just let the franchise die.

Once again, the Sci-Fi orignals keep coming. "Loch Ness Terror", which was originally called "Beyond Loch Ness", was produced by Insight Films for the Sci-Fi Channel and was directed by Paul Ziller. I swear that the Sci-Fi channel keeps directors and writers on salary, there seems to be a handful of them and they just keep making this stuff. Ziller started out doing some low-budget horror, like "Pledge Night" and "Bloodfist IV: Die Trying", but then he got in to the Sci-Fi gravy train, with films like: "Snakehead Terror", "Swarmed", "Android Apocalypse"... My take - if you want a regular paycheck and you like low-budget sci-fi and horror, just get your resume over to the Sci-Fi Channel. Once you're in over there, you've got the golden ticket.... to make lots of low-budget, horror/sci-fi crap.

I guess the orginal title, "Polycarp", didn't exactly portray what the distributors were hoping for. So, they went with the less subtle title, "Kinky Killers". Directed by George Lekovic and written by Ken Del Vecchio, "Kinky Killers" is probably everything that you think it is... there's a sexy psychiatrist and her patients are being murdered in bloody, satanic rituals that involve sex and mutilation. Then there's the detective who discovers that some beautiful women are the prey.... or, wait... are they doing the preying? Who cares, when sex, nudity, gore and murder are involved, everyone's a winner.

Okay, I really wanted to write up something about "Queen Cobra" because it's being independently distributed. However, as I haven't actually seen it and I can't find anything online about it, there's not much I can say. I can say that it's directed and edited by Lewis Schoenbrun, who's edited more horror movies than the Sci-Fi channel has made. I can also say it's written by Keith Schaffner, who wrote a couple other low-budget horrors. Well, actually, I can also tell you that it takes place on a college campus where students are being slaughtered by a monstrous half-woman, half-snake creature, but that's it... and man alive, that doesn't sound bad! Let this be a lesson, if you're going to independently distribute your film, there's a few basic things you can do: a trailer on Youtube, a simple website and maybe send a screener or two out to some people to review.

So, please do NOT mistake the DVD being released today, "The Curse of Lizzie Borden II - Prom Night" as anything to do with the "Prom Night" series. This is the sequel to the 2006, low budget horror, "The Curse of Lizzie Borden"... they just tacked on the 'Prom Night' in hopes of some sort of residual effect from the "Prom Night" remake that's in the theaters right now. This one is directed by Eric Swelstad and written by Jeremiah Campbell, who actually also wrote the next film that I'm going to talk about...

"Attitude for Destruction", which is brought to you by Cleopatra/Music Video Distribution and is a self-proclaimed rock horror film. It's about a Guns N' Roses - esque band called Hollywood Roses... who kill their lead singer in order to get signed, but then the lead singers girlfriend, who made a pact with the devil, brings him back from the dead, so he can go on a killing spree, slaughtering all who have crossed him. It's a really low-budget, shot on DV film and it's got a lot of things I like in it, including a body building midget, but... here's my problem. Remember how it's brought to you by Cleopatra? Well, they happen to also be the the company that releases albums from, you guessed it, Hollywood Roses. So, this film is really just a big, long, low-budget music video / promotional ad for Hollywood Roses, the LA based Guns N' Roses tribute band. Ahh... whatever, it's got a midget in it... I'll check it out.

Click on the links below to buy any of the DVD's discussed above: