A Wicked Week In New Horror DVD's

Well, well, well... it's a great week for new horror on DVD this week and I'm just going to get right to it. Check out all the trailers on our Youtube page, which you can find by clicking here... or you can click on the titles and be taken to their pages on Amazon, where you can read more about them and even buy 'em.

Without question, the biggest DVD release of the week is "Drag Me To Hell" and it's available both on DVD and Blu-ray. It's Sam Raimi's return to horror and he and brother Ivan actually wrote it before Sam went to work on the "Spiderman" films, so it's been sitting around for a while. Not only that, it's his first horror film since "Army of Darkness". I loved it and thought it was very 'Sam Raimi'... I'm not alone, either. It premiered at Cannes and was released to huge critical acclaim and was also considered a box office success, grossing over $80Million worldwide against a $30Million budget.

"The Haunted Airman" was actually a TV Movie that came out in 2006, but it's getting rereleased on DVD now, mainly because it stars "Twilight" star, Robert Pattinson. It's also got the "Warlock", Julian Sands, in it, who's one of the creepiest actors in Hollywood... it's about a Flight Lieutenant that's confined to a wheelchair after being wounded in action. He's suffering from terrible nightmares and visions, while he recuperates from his injuries in a mansion in Wales and is being treated by a psychiatrist, played by Julian Sands.

I'm not sure of the budget of "Infestation", but the production quality looks unreal. It's written and directed by Kyle Rankin, who also did "Hellholes", "Insex" and a few other films. It's being described as "28 Days Later" meets "Shaun of the Dead", but about giant alien insects. Trailer looks good... and if you're in to horror-comedies, it'll be a must-see.

"How To Be A Serial Killer" has been making the rounds at the horror fests, has been getting a lot of great reviews and I'm really excited to check it out. It's about a young serial killer who imparts his knowledge to an eager pupil and it looks f'ing awesome. It's written and directed by Luke Ricci and stars Dameon Clarke and "Criminal Minds" Matthew Gray Gubler.

"The Objective" is directed by "Blair Witch" vet Daniel Myrick and it stars Jonas Ball, Matthew R. Anderson and Michael C. Williams. It didn't have a huge budget and it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008 and had a limited theatrical release in February of 2009. It takes place in Afghanistan, where a special forces team is on a mission to find an Afghan cleric. As they head in to the mountains, they begin to have strange encounters with armed gunman that disappear and later with unseen forces... check out the trailer, looks good.

"iMurders" is written by Robbie Bryan and Ken Del Vecchio and is directed by Robbie Bryan. It stars Gabrielle Anwar, William Forsythe, Tony Todd and even has Billy Dee Williams in it. My God, the cast is awesome... Anyhow, it's about eight members of a Myspace / Facebook type chat room that are gruesomely being murdered in the privacy of their own homes...

"Gnaw" is another film that's being doing well on the horror film fest circuit. Out of the UK, it's a gnarly films about a group of six friends that encounter a group of slaughter-happy psychopaths with expert skills in butchery and a ravenous hunger for teen-meat pies. It's tongue-in-cheek humor plus carnage multiplied by graphic violence and that equals good times.

"Left Bank" is an acclaimed Dutch horror and it's the debut feature from writer/director Peter Van Hees. The only review I read says it has some similarities to "The Wickerman", in that it deals with pagan tradition and the supernatural. Also, it has a slow, creepy build towards a huge finale. Check out the trailer, looks really f'ing weird... it also looks to have a lot of graphic sex scenes.

Man alive, I feel like we're just overdoing the vampire thing here, people, but if they keep selling, who am I to judge? I'm still waiting for a big stinker to get released, which will kill the genre. Remember how "Captivity" killed torture porn? Well, I think there's a big-budget vampire flop coming soon and it'll kill this whole thing. Regardless, "Loved Ones" comes out on DVD this week and it takes place in Seattle and is about a struggling artist that gets bitten and finds himself on the fast track to leading a broken Vampire Coven.

"Oral Fixation" is directed by Jake Cashill and it's about a woman's obsession with her dentist that drives her to masochism, madness and murder. It ran at a bunch of festivals and... I don't know much more than that.

Is it just me or has Roger Scheck's "Nobody Loves Alice" already been released... a few times? Anyhow, we talked with Scheck about it a LONG time ago, over a year ago. You can see our interview and discussion on it by clicking here. In any case, it's a great indie film and he made it while he was in school, which makes it all that much more impressive. Definitely worth checking out.

Also, check out the rerelease of the f'ing classic, "Hardware", which comes out on both DVD and Blu-ray - I LOVED this film when it originally came out. You can also get a rerelease of "The Stepfather" - out because of the remake, which comes out soon and a rerelease of "Happy Birthday to Me" - because it's awesome.

Interwebs Stuffs, including: Bloody Cannes, Livestock and other stuff...

I have to take back something that I said earlier this week... I mentioned that "Drag Me To Hell" did alright at the box office on its opening weekend and that it was pretty good. Well, I'm not taking back that it was pretty good, but I'm going to have to take back the comment that it did alright at the box office. The actuals came in and it was substantially lower than the projections. Not only that, after tabulations, it slipped from third to fourth, as "Terminator Salvation" did slightly better in the actuals. Oh well, you can't take away the fact that it was actually pretty good and I still suggest you check it out. Do note that this isn't to say that the world wants less violent films, either. I've come across a few links that I want to share, but check out the first one... it may answer this very question.

The Cannes Film Festival, which was founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals. Although it actually IS a festival, where films compete for the Palme d'Or, the festival has become much, much more. They have screenings, non-competitive programs, workshops, networking events, dinners, Swedish massage parties, etc... Long and short, it's one of the biggest festivals of the year... if not THE biggest. Which is why I found the article, "Cannes' red carpet is blood-soaked" from THR.com pretty interesting. By definition, indie horror has always been violent. However, it seems that violence may be 'in' these days. If you think that the festivals are leading indicators as to what kinds of films we're going to be getting in the next few years, it could be safe to say, after seeing the lineup at Cannes, that things are going to get violent.... and things getting violent usually means good things for indie horror.

Now, when it comes to the actual production phase of filmmaking and choosing which camera to shoot on, most of our readers don't really get to 'choose', per se. It's more like, what can I afford? That one? Okay... Having said that, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be on top of what's going on in the industry. So, check out this article that I found on Indieflix.com called "The Tortoise and the Hare: Being a Filmmaker in an Ever Changing World". I don't know who wrote it, but they made a film called "April Showers", I think... and they start the article out talking about the decision to shoot in 4K, then they segue into blu-ray, DVD and online distribution. If you don't know what 4K is, it's the highest res format for shooting on digital. Not much displays 4K right now, but, to demonstrate the scale of resolution... HD TV programming broadcasts at 720P, gaming consoles and blu-ray is displayed in 1080P. Digital theaters project in 2K and, lastly, there's 4K, which you can shoot on, but no one is really projecting in or displaying currently...

Okay, now it's time to help out a friend... so, do you remember "Livestock" from Christopher DiNunzio? We interviewed him not too long ago, here's a link to the interview. In any case, his film's been accepted into the Independent Features online fest, which is pretty cool. So, click HERE to be taken to the Independent Features site. Next, click on VIEW FILMS. Then, go on the left there and click on HORROR. There, you'll find three films, "Blood River", "Blood Trail" and "Livestock". Click on "Livestock". Log in, watch it and rate it. You may have to go back to the beginning at this point, then actually register. It only takes a minute, though. Anyhow, I think if "Livestock" gets enough good ratings, he can get a screening. Something like that. It's a cool site, regardless, and you can check out a few indie films. So, go rummage around there.

We always talk about the future of distribution and how we, as indie filmmakers, can benefit from what's around the corner. Most of the problem exists in the fact that the people with money and power are making their money and power in the old system of distribution, so why would the mix it up? I mean, you or I would love to have a pile of disposable income that we could dump into a new distribution system, where we'd steal audiences from the rich and give them to the poor, right? Well, there actually are a few guys with money and power out there who believe in changing things up. Take Ted Leonsis, for example. He's a former AOL executive, who stepped down from day-to-day management and started SnagFilms, a company that aims to distribute documentary films via the internet in, what I think, is a very unique way. Check out the article on him, called "Every Blog Becomes a Cinema". I really like the idea, but I wish it wasn't just for documentaries. I think that format could work really well for indie horror, as well.