June 16, 2008 - New horror DVD's coming out this week...

It's actually a very slow week in horror... the only real new release is "Alive or Dead", although "The Sitter" is hitting DVD shelves for the first time, I think. I didn't like the cover art for either of those films, so I'm going with the old-school "The Dead Pit" cover, which is being rereleased today... and that's right, when the dead start walking, you'd better start running!

"Alive or Dead" is being released by Lionsgate and it was written, produced, directed, shot and edited by Stephen Goetsch. Looking through Goetsch's credits, it looks like he's spent the bulk of his career as an editor, although he did make "Bleeding Iowa" back in 1999. I haven't seen the movie and I'm having a hell of time finding out any information about it other than that it's about a girl who gets trapped inside a violent killer's mobile torture chamber - a yellow bus - and she becomes the sole pupil in his twisted special needs class. Actually, sounds pretty good...

"The Sitter" is actually "While the Children Sleep", which is from Russell Mulcahy, who isn't really a household name, even though I think he should be. For me, the highlight of his filmography has to be "Highlander", it's a classic... no question. He also went on to do "Highlander II: The Quickening", "Resident Evil: Extinction" and a few other films of note. However, that's not the most interesting thing on his resume. He's made tons of music videos and what was his first? The Buggles - "Video Killed the Radio Star", which also happens to be the first music video that MTV ever aired. Crazy, huh? I thought it was. Oh, by the way, "The Sitter" is about a nanny that goes a little bonkers... you know, by killing people.

Since it's a slow week in horror, let's mention the rerelease of "The Dead Pit". Is "The Dead Pit" a classic? I don't know, I remember absolutely loving it... almost 15 years ago. To be honest, it's one of those films that I saw, once, forever ago and I can't recall much about it, except for the basic plot of the earthquake that releases the undead, who were buried in the basement of an insane asylum. It was originally released in 1989 and it was co-written and directed by Brett Leonard, who also made "The Lawnmower Man", "Virtuosity" and, more recently, "Man-Thing" and "Feed". It was the first film that he wrote and directed and because I've been looking into it, I'm going to make a point of going back and watching it again.

I know absolutely nothing about the "Tokyo Shock Horror Pack Triple Feature (Japanese Hell, Cursed and Samurai Chicks)", but I do know that Tokyo Shock came out with "Machine Girl" and it's f'ing awesome. Actually, they usually come out with quite violent films... aside from "Machine Girl", they also released a personal favorite, "Ichi the Killer" from Takashi Miike.

Wow, this "Undead Horrors (5-Pack)" comes with "Zombie Cop" in it, cool... never heard of the other films included. Also, if you click on it, I love how the title says 5-pack, but when you get down to the product description it's called a 4-disc set with a bonus feature. Really? Wow, I wasn't going to pick it up, but since there's a bonus feature...