Tuesday, December 11, 2007

New horror worth checking out on DVD today

From now on, instead of writing about each movie that comes out, I'm just going to write about the ones worth mentioning. Saves me some time and makes this all a little more worth while... who needs to read about something that no one cares about? Anyways...

Brightly Entertainment has so much faith in the campy "Bikini Bloodbath" that they went out and finished the rest of the trilogy before the first one even came out - expect "Bikini Bloodbath 2: Bikini Bloodbath Car Wash" and "Bikini Bloodbath 3: Bikini Bloodbath Christmas" to hit the shelves in the next year or so. This first in the trilogy is about seven high school girls at a slumber party, who encounter a maniacal chef on a killing spree. It stars the always busy Debbie Rochon and a slew of young, well, bikini clad girls. I haven't seen it yet, but where could they possibly take the franchise from there? It would be like making a trilogy out of "Regarding Henry". It's written, directed and produced by Jon Gorman who, as far as I can tell, has nothing but the "Bikini Bloodbath" series to his credit.

"Hack!" is written and directed by Matt Flynn, who boasts on his 'mini biography' on IMDB to have written over a dozen scripts, most of which have been picked up. However, he only has "Hack!" and "The Light" to his credit and "The Light" is a short. I can't throw stones though, who hasn't lied on a resume? "Hack!" has a fairly healthy budget of around $2Mill for a low-budget, straight to DVD horror flick. So, you can expect a good, polished look, but I wouldn't expect much out of the story. Chock-filled with cliches, ripped-off dialogue and references to old horror movies, it probably won't excede your expectations. It'll land right where you think it should, alphabetically between "Gravedancers" and "I'll Always Know What you did Last Summer" on your 'only watched once' shelf. All things considered, that's not too bad...

"Undead or Alive" gets a big, fat, stinky WTF? However, it does have a great tagline - "Guns don't kill people. Zombies kill people." Feel free to use that, by the way... because no one's going to remember this film. It's written and directed by Glasgow Phillips, one of the writers of "South Park". "Undead or Alive" is a cowboy/zombie/comedy starring Saturday Night Live's Chris Kattan and "Desperate Housewives" James Denton. It's gotta be worth seeing, just to find out what the hell they were thinking. Seriously, how did this get a green light? Then again, he wrote for "South Park"... alright, I'll check it out, but... Chris Kattan? Wasn't C Thomas Howell or one of the Corey's available?

"Footsteps" is by first time director (and writer), Gareth Evans. The Welshman directed a short in 2003 when he was in film school and ended up helming his first major production a mere 3 years later. It premiered at the Swansea Bay Film Festival, where it won "Best Film". Unearthed picked up the rights to distribute it in the U.S. and.... here it is. It's about a loner who gets wrapped up in the world of snuff films and looks very serious. Don't expect any one-liners or levity here.

I'm very excited to report that "Blood Descendants" is, officially, the first ever slasher flick with an Amish killer. "Fulfilling a deadly curse, Jacob Bradford rises from his grave after more than a hundred years and exacts bloody revenge against the descendants of the men who murdered him." Simple plot, inventive slasher - expect violence, language and sex... and hopefully you can get over the fact that the killer sorta looks like Randy Quaid from "Kingpin".

Lastly, I wanted to mention both the rerelease of the original "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and "Tales of Terror Collection: From Tokyo And All Over Japan". "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is an all time classic, far better than the remake and is out in perfect time for the Christmas holidays. Remember, a family that slays together, stays together. "Tales of Terror Collection: From Tokyo And All Over Japan" is brought to you by Japan's up-and-coming masters of horror and is based on "Tales of Terror" told to the writers from different sources all over Japan. Japanese filmmakers brought us the J-horror wave, so I can only assume that checking out what the up-and-comers are doing would be worthwhile...

New on DVD - December 11, 2007:

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