Weekend Wrap-up and What's New on DVD, including: Lesbian Vampire Killers...

Well, they talk about this whole recession thing and they say that piracy and home entertainment is cutting into the box office, but... last weekend was the highest grossing weekend at the box office... ever. All time. No shit. "Avatar" pulled back less than 3% from its opening weekend and "Sherlock Holmes" had the second biggest open ever for a film that didn't finish number 1... which was only bested by "The Day After Tomorrow", which opened the same weekend as "Shrek 2". Even "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The squeakuel" raked in over $50Million. I did my part, too. I finally went to check out "Avatar" at Imax. Say what you will about the story and plot, the film is an f'ing spectacle. I've NEVER seen anything like it before and I can't wait to see something like that again. Unreal. If you haven't seen it, I suggest seeing it at Imax. It's an unbelievable experience.

As for the week in DVD releases, we've finally got ourselves a stellar week. As usual, you can click on the title and be taken to the films page on Amazon, where you can read more about it and even buy it. You can also go to our Youtube page and check out all the trailers.

For the indie crowd, the big movie of the week is, without question, "Paranormal Activity". The best part about it, I don't think it'll lose a bit of its effectiveness when seen on the small screen. In fact, it may be better. Think about it, they way it's filmed, it could be even more effective... it'll certainly add to the intensity and suspense. Anyhow, if you're a reader of this site and you haven't seen it, you really ought to go pick it up and watch it. It's only the most successful micro-budget film to date, not to mention it's the most profitable film ever.

"Jennifer's Body" is the follow up film for "Juno" scribe, Diablo Cody, and the film was a disappointment on a few levels. First up, it just wasn't that great. Secondly, it got slaughtered at the box office. Some of the executives blamed the marketing efforts, others blamed timing... at the end of the day, it just wasn't that good. Having said that, if you're desperate to check out a horror film with some budget and Megan Fox, go right ahead...

I'm not really sure what happened with "Carriers", which was written and directed by Alex and David Pastor. The film was completed, and actually screened, way back in 2007... it even got a lot of good reviews. Then, Paramount Vantage was going to release it last September, but I don't really remember it coming out. It must've been one of those projects that fell to the wayside when the studio's started shuttering their indie arms. In any case, it's finally coming out on DVD this week. It's about four people that are fleeing a viral pandemic that's spread world-wide and it stars Chris Pine, AKA Captain Kirk from the new "Star Trek".

"Vampire Killers" was originally called "Lesbian Vampire Killers" during it's run in the UK, where it was made. It's a horror comedy written by Stewart Williams and Paul Hupfield, directed by Phil Claydon. The funniest thing about the film is that the writers, who were both working in the comedy development department at MTV in Europe at the time, were challenged to come up with the most commercial film project and title they could to pitch as a low-budget, straight to DVD feature... this is what they came up with. It toiled around for a while, but did, obviously, eventually get made. Can't say that the reviews are good, but... with a title like that, the bar is set low. Don't know about you, but I'll be checking it out.

Lastly, there's the low-budget "Evil Offspring", directed by Tommy Brunswick and released by R Squared. The trailer that I found is in German, but the film isn't... so, it looks like the film had an overseas release. I don't know much about the plot, but the film opens with the trees and wilderness ripping two guys apart, then raping a girl. The girl then goes on to spawn some evil offspring, which go out and wreak havoc... thus the title.

All The New Horror Out On DVD This Week and a look at "Jennifer's Body"

I guess I should lead off by mentioning the debacle that was "Jennifer's Body". If you didn't know, it's Diablo Cody's teen horror follow up to "Juno". It pulled in a meagre $6.8Million and the finger pointing is already rampant. Some blame the advertising, which pinned all its hopes on the lead, Megan Fox, and others blame the sub-genre itself, teen horror-comedy. Funny that no one's saying that it just, plain sucks ass and they're just saying where they went wrong in dealing with the film. I haven't see it... so, I can't judge, but I'm betting it sucks. If you did see it, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear some opinions on it.

There's a ton of horror coming out on DVD this week and I'm only going to go into detail on a few of them, as it's just too much and we don't need to bore everyone involved. You can always click on the title and go to the films Amazon page, where you can read more about it. Of course, you can also buy the films through there. As well, you can go to our Youtube page and check out some of the trailers.

Full disclosure... I'm a Rob Zombie fan. If you actually followed him back when he was just the frontman for White Zombie, you'd remember that he directed all the bands videos, he did all the artwork for the albums and even did a reoccurring spot on "Headbangers Ball", where he painted the set. In any case, you knew that he was into film, art and animation. So, it wasn't a huge stretch of the imagination to see him get into feature filmmaking when "House of 1,000 Corpses" was announced. It was also no surprise to hear about "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto", an animated film that's based on a comic book series that he created. It's about a washed-up Mexican wrestler and his sultry sidekick and sister, Suzi-X as they confront the evil Dr. Satan.

Well, we finally get the follow up to "Midnight Meat Train", which is "Clive Barker's Book of Blood" and, surprise, surprise, it ain't getting no theatrical release. (double negative aside, it's not hitting theaters) It's actually the seventh story to be adapted from Barker's collection, but, really, the second since he decided to go through all his works himself. It was adapted and directed by John Harrison and it was shot in Scotland. It premiered at Montreal's Fantasia Film Fest in July and I think it screened at a few other festivals, as well. But... alas, no theatrical release. Just DVD.

Jason Horton's "Edges of Darkness" is finally getting released on DVD and this is one for the Dead Harvey crowd. We saw it a while ago, way back in April, and we discussed the film with him. You can read our interview with Horton here. It looks like they've updated the cover art and it looks great. If you're going to check anything out this week, check this out. It's top-notch, well done indie horror.

So, also out are "Albino Farm", from Joe Anderson and Sean McEwen and starring Chris Jericho, the wrestler; "The Chosen One", a twisted fairytale from Theodore Collatos that's shot all in black and white; "Autopsy of the Dead", which looks to be some sort of unauthorized documentary on "Night of the Living Dead" (can't help but notice that Romero's not in it); and "Witchmaster General" from Jim Haggerty, starring Phil Lewis of LA Guns.

Also, it looks like there's a couple of new distributors that are dumping some titles into the mix.

First up, Psycho Junkie, and I can't find anything on them, but I'll look harder and report back. They're releasing a bunch of films this week, including: "Hillbilly Cannibal Bloodline", "Bedtime Ghost Tales", "Beware the Children", "Manson Kilmore: The Night Caller of Coal Miners Holler - Part 1 Deadly Secrets", "Mondo Psycho", "Run Run Bunny!" and "Ultra-Toxic"

The other new distributor is Screen Media / Gaiam, which is a little odd because all Gaiam distributes currently is Yoga videos and 'lifestyle' DVD's. Well, now they're adding a few horror films, including: "Vampires: Out For Blood" (with Johnny Drama himself, Kevin Dillon and Lance Henrikson) "Blood Gnome", "Demon Within", "Fear Of The Dark", "Spliced", "Satan's Little Helper", "Shallow Ground", "Gangs Of The Dead", "Severed: Forest of The Dead".

The Best Way To Head Into The Weekend? A Big, Big Day In Horror

Pour 2 oz of jack daniels into large glass filled with ice. Pour 10 oz of coca-cola into the glass. Stir lightly. This slightly complicated, yet delectable concoction will be top of mind come happy hour today. However, before I crawl into a bottle to look for my next 'big horror idea', there's a lot of cool stuff going on to take you into the weekend. It's a long post, but I promise that you'll find it all worth while. It's Friday, who does anything on a Friday? You've got time to kill, I know it.

First up, it's another horror filled weekend at the box office. It's not "The Final Destination" and "Halloween II", but it is "Sorority Row" and "Whiteout". "Sorority Row" is a remake of the 1983 film "House on Sorority Hell" and it comes from Summit Entertainment, which is quite flush these days due to their monster franchise, "Twilight". Not sure what to think about it, but it does promise sex, nudity and partying. On the other hand, "Whiteout" looks kinda forgettable. Really, I don't think I'll be waiting in line for either...

Big, big news on the indie front, though. Our buddies at Fewdio have THREE, count 'em, THREE of their short films in the Universal Halloween Horror Nights short film contest... and there was only ten accepted. This is a win/win for you, though. Because you get to check out all ten films when you head over to the site. I just watched all of them and there's some pretty damn good indie horror shorts there. Head on over to HalloweenHorrorNights.com/Chiller and you can watch all of them and vote for your favorite, which will, of course, be a Fewdio film. Here's the press release from Fewdio:

LOS ANGELES - Fewdio Horror has swept the Universal Halloween Horror Nights short film contest for 2009 by landing not one, but THREE of the top ten short horror films this year. The films, BEDFELLOWS, MOCKINGBIRD, and SHADOW PUPPET are part of Fewdio's widely popular NIGHTMARE HOUSE collection of horror shorts.

Launching onto the horror webishpere in 2008, award winning viral sensation Fewdio is a horror troupe/studio-alt collective of seven filmmakers dedicated to creating the most hellish nightmares possible in short form web content. Members include John Crye, Drew Daywalt, Paul Hungerford, David Schneider, Kirk B.R. Woller, Todd Sharp and Marshall Carr.

Shadow Puppet is written and directed by David Schneider and stars Adam Conn & Truckee the pug dog. Bedfellows is written & directed by Drew Daywalt and stars Peter Giliberti, Kerry Finlayson, and Edin Gali. Mockingbird is directed by Marichelle Daywalt & stars Donnie Jeffcoat & Stefanie Ford.

Lastly, as this is the week of the Toronto International Film Festival, the prestigious festival that kicks off the festival season... let's look at the horror that's playing at their Midnight Madness lineup. These tend to be some of the best horror films of the year...

"[REC]2" gets its premiere there, which is pretty cool... in fact, I didn't know they were making a sequel. "Quarantine" was the American remake of the original "[REC]". "[REC]" (as in 'record' on a camcorder, if you haven't figured it out) was shot entirely through the perspective of a reporters camera. "[REC]2" is filmed entirely through the perspective of the camera's that have been outfitted on the SWAT team that goes into the same building.

"Daybreakers" is from twin-brothers Michael and Peter Spierig, whose last (and debut) film was "Undead". This film takes place in the year 2019, after a plague has transformed the majority of the world's population into vampires... and they're not sexy "Twilight" or "Vampire Diaries" vampires, they're terrifying feral beasts that rule the earth's economy and social strata with an iron fist. It's got a decent cast, including Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe.

"George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead" sure came out fast! This one is about a band of military dropouts that are seeking refuge from the endless chaos, but end up in an age-old battle between two families: the O'Flynn's and the Muldoons. The O'Flynn's believe that the only good zombie is a dead zombie, while the Muldoons think it's wrong to dispatch afflicted loved ones and they attempt to look after them until a cure is found. Only problem is that the Muldoons leave their undead chained up inside their homes, pretending to live normal lives... and that has bloody consequences.

There's been a lot of talk about "Jennifer's Body", as it's the follow up to "Juno" for writer Diablo Cody. It's an R-rated teen horror about Jennifer, a scorching-hot, boy-crazy cheerleader that gains an insatiable hunger for the succulent flesh of her male admirers and her best friend, Needy, a shy nerd, who sets out to rescue the town from Jennifer and save the prom from becoming a bloody buffet. It's hotly anticipated and it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Early reviews are iffy...

Good God damned, Australia is turning into a hotbed of horror. "The Loved Ones" is an Aussie film about a guy who ends up accidentally killing his father, then escaping into a marijuana-fuelled world of loud metal metal music to block the pain and guilt. He has a chance to get back on track through his grounded, sweet girlfriend. However, after a series of disturbing events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer, he becomes the prom king at a macabre, sadistic event where he is the entertainment. WTF? Count me in.

Lastly, "Solomon Kane" is actually the invention of Robert E. Howard, the legendary creator of Conan the Barbarian. Directed by Michael J. Bassett and shot in a gritty style that embraces the mud, filth and blood, it's about Solomon Kane, a true rogue that blasts and slashes through a mission of pillage and plunder in war-torn North Africa in the late 1500's. Tying it all together? It's got Max von Sydow in it.

For more information on the TIFF midnight madness films (there's also comedies and some other fucked up films), you can click here.

Have a great weekend, see you next week!