New Horror Out on DVD this Week

Okay, finally... let's get to the new horror that came out on DVD this week. It may not seem like a good week because there's only 9 releases, but there is some good shit coming out. I'll quickly mention the rereleases, as there's only 3 of them... there's the Criterion edition of the classic "The Night of the Hunter", "The Twilight Zone: Season 2" comes out on Blu-ray, as does "Children of the Corn". All are classics... just not sure I'd pay $70 to see season 2 of "The Twilight Zone" on Blu-ray. Anyhow, let's get to the new releases. As usual, you can click on their titles to be taken to their Amazon page, where you can read more and/or buy them, plus you can go to our Youtube Page and watch all the trailers.

Let's start with "Don't Look Back", which is your typical non-new wave French horror. Meaning, it's overly dramatic and brooding. Don't expect "Martyrs" or "Inside" with this one. It's from Marina de Van and it's about an author that seems to descend into madness, questioning everything. Think Lynch or Cronenberg with more moody music, slow moving scenes and French people.

I couldn't find the trailer for "A Lure: Teen Fight Club", but I really wish I could have. This is the craziest mash-up of pop horror films that I've ever heard of. An undercover female detective enters high school, where she tries to blend in, because she's looking in to why a group of high school co-eds have gone missing. It turns out that they've all be lured and imprisoned in a horrifying hideout... where, obviously, they're being forced to fight each other to the death. There's a bit of "Fight Club" in there, some "21 Jumpstreet", a bit of "Hostel", a touch of "My Sweet Psycho 16"... I love it.

Horror legends Sig Haig and Michael Berryman star, or, should I say, are featured, in "Haunted Casino", which also has something to do with Charles Band. Amazon says it's from Wizard Entertainment, but I think the trailer said it was from Full Moon... which would explain the Charles Band connection. Anyhow, the film has Charles Band all over it, with creepy muppets and goofy, gore-filled characters.

I wish I could find out more about "The Box of the Dead", too... which looks to be good-old micro-cinema at its best. Writer/director William E Cheney is quite bold, as he calls it "the most disturbing film of 2010"... and he may be right, I haven't seen it. I do like the tag line, though - "The story of two losers and their horrific deaths". Alright, I'll bite. I want to know more...

"Texas Frightmare Massacre" is another low-budget film that looks awesome. Writer, director and producer Joe Francis actually shot it live during the Texas Frightmare weekend. It's about Max, who goes to a horror convention with his step sister and her jerk boyfriend, who end up colliding with a couple of security guards... dirty jokes, sex and violence ensue. The trailer has piles of sex, so I can only imagine what the feature is like.

Last up is "Exhibit A", which uses everyones favorite shooting style - first person found footage. The film is out of the UK and it was actually quite successful, from what I understand. It's always good to check these out, as first person shooting is so much easier and cost effective that setting up cameras traditionally. You know what they say, watch how people use the style successfully... and then copy it.

The Weekend Box Office and a Good Week for Horror on DVD

To be honest, I'm not terribly intrigued by anything that went on at the box office over the weekend. Not only was there nothing related to horror out, there were no real stories emerging. I think we all knew that "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" would win the weekend... the original is a classic and the return of Gordon Gekko couldn't be more timely. The financial crisis was basically a long marketing campaign for the original, as I can't count how many times I heard the line, "Greed is Good" over the last 2 years. That and I really like the idea of reviving the character, after he gets out of jail, to alert the financial community of a global economic disaster. Not sure how I feel about Shia LaBeouf, but it's not this film... it's LaBeouf in general. Other than that, "Legend of the Guardians" was a bit of a let down and "The Virginity Hit" had one of the worst opening of all time... fourth lowest grossing for a nationwide release on record. As for the week in horror on DVD, it's pretty good. As usual, you can check out the trailers on our Youtube Page and you can click on the title to be taken to their Amazon Page, where you can read more and/or buy them.

I guess the biggest thing(s) coming out this week are the Fangoria FrightFest films. Fangoria FrightFest is where Fangoria partnered with Blockbuster and Lightning Entertainment to begin a "unique, multi-tiered summer film distribution program". It consists of eight new films; "Pig Hunt", "Fragile", "Grimm Love", "Dark House", "Hunger", "Road Kill", "The Haunting" and "The Tomb". Now, I'm not sure what they mean by multi-tiered and they really couldn't have picked a worse partner than Blockbuster, but... here they are, in any case. Available on Amazon. I never saw these promoted much before this, they weren't in the theaters and I don't recall them having any online presence, so... what the hell are they talking about when they say multi-tiered film distribution? Maybe it was limited releases and, possibly, they were premiered on cable somewhere, I don't know. Really, I have no idea if any of these are any good. For more info, click on each individual title.

When I first heard of the idea behind "Frozen", I wasn't sure it would work. Three skiers get stranded on a chair lift? Could that really hold a whole movie? It's definitely out of the box for Adam Green, who did "Hatchet", "Spiral" and "Hatchet II". Then again, I remember an interview he did after "Hatchet", where he said he wanted to stick with horror, but didn't want to get pigeon-holed as a slasher director. In any case, this isn't a slasher film and this sub-genre seems to be in right now. What would you call it? Isolation horror? "Buried" has a lot of hype and this seems to be in the same vein. What I like about it is that it's tailor made for indie horror filmmakers. Very few actors, very few locations... easy to do.

I'm very intrigued by "Suck"... it's a rock-horror about a loser band that turns into vampires and then takes the world by storm. It's got a decent budget, looks great and has a wicked cast, including Dave Foley, Iggy Pop, Moby, Alice Cooper and Malcolm McDowell. Chances are it's not going to have a lot of gore or anything, but it could have great camp/cult qualities.

Now, "Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film" could be a pretty cool documentary. I love horror docs and I don't think I've seen one that concentrates just on American horror. Lance Henriksen hosts and takes you through a history of American horror, from the earliest monster movies to modern-day slashers.

On paper, "Death Kappa" should be everything I'm looking for. It's from the producers of "Machine Girl" and "Tokyo Gore Police", two of my favorite recent Asian horror flicks, and, if you're a regular reader, you should know that I think monster movies are coming back and this is, without question, a monster movie. Having said that, it's a campy, "dudes in rubber monster suits" monster movie, but there's nothing wrong with that. There was actually a bunch of coverage on it in the latest Fangoria, I think. In any case, I'm going to be checking it out.

I can't find much about "Wake the Witch" because, believe it or not, there's various films called the same thing... or something similar. Anyhow, it's apparently inspired by J-horror and is a psychological horror/suspense. Cover art is awesome, wish I knew more about it.

"Late Fee" came out last year, but it's getting a DVD/Blu-ray release this week. It's sort of a low-budget "Tales From The Crypt", as it's an anthology of sorts... only two films, though, with a third story holding the other two together. The main story revolves around how the couple has to return the two films by midnight, as they don't want to know what the late fee's are... I like the idea and I'm always a fan anthologies.

More Surprises At The Box Office, The Emmy's and the week in Horror on DVD

It was a big weekend, to say the least - not only did horror unexpectedly win the weekend at the box office, we had the Emmy's. First off, I don't think anyone expected "The Last Exorcism" to win the weekend... and it did, but in a photo finish with "Takers". In fact, when final numbers come in, they may switch. Anyhow, "The Last Exorcism" was produced by Eli Roth and it's shot like a documentary, so it's sort of a mockumentary horror. It was directed and edited by Daniel Stamm and the story is told from the perspective of a disillusioned evangelical minister that decides to participate in a documentary chronicling his last exorcism, which he thinks will expose the fraud of his ministry... and, let's just say, the 'found footage' may tell a story that the good minister didn't expect. There's a couple of other interesting things here, as well. One, which I really liked, was the viral campaign that they did for the film using Chatroulette - you can see what I'm talking about here. The other thing that I find interesting is that supernatural horror films just seem to always deliver... and especially when there's no big star or name attached. Lately, "The Unborn", The Exorcism of Emily Rose" and "The Haunting in Connecticut" all did surprisingly well. That goes without mentioning "Exorcist: The Beginning", "The Amityville Horror" and "Stigmata", all of which came out in the last 5 years or so and also did alright. I guess it's a good sub-genre to play in. I also quickly wanted to mention the Emmy's, where a few dark and horror-themed shows got nods, including: "Dexter", "Breaking Bad" and "True Blood". It's interesting to note that HBO, far and away, is the leader when it comes to award winning shows and they do it by pushing the envelope... however, on the flip side, pushing the envelope may get you awards, but it doesn't always get you advertising revenue. So, take all that for what it's worth. Anyhow, let's check out the week in horror on DVD. As usual, you can go to our Youtube Page to check out all the trailers and you can click on the titles to be taken to the films Amazon page where you can read more and/or buy the film.

Speaking of horror on TV, "The Vampire Diaries: The Complete First Season" comes out on both DVD and Blu-ray this week. It premiered on The CW Network on September 10, 2009... and I watched the first few episodes, but quickly lost interest. It's really more for the "Twilight" crowd. No surprise, it's based on a book series of the same name by L.J. Smith. The first season won a People's Choice Award and seven Teen Choice Awards... the second season starts on September 9th.

I've never heard of the "Red Riding Trilogy", which is available on DVD and Blu-Ray this week, but I'll be getting my hands on it soon. The trailer is enough to hook you... good God. It's a British deal and it's a TV adaptation of English author David Peace's "Red Riding Quartet". It's set against the backdrop of serial murders and they deal with multi-layered corruption and feature several recurring characters across each film. They did get a theatrical release here, but no one seemed to notice.

"The Spell" is apparently based on true events... it's about a young girl that gets wrapped up in the occult after she meets a handsome stranger. She then stumbles down a path of haunted dreams and demonic possession and, subsequently, seeks help from friends, doctors, psychiatrists and religious leaders... but they don't believe her. The film looks like it has some budget behind it and looks good. It could definitely be worth checking out.

Troma is releasing a couple films this week, "Dead Eyes Open" and "Heavy Mental". "Heavy Mental" is your typical, shot on DV, nudity and gore filled romp and it even features Llyod Kaufman himself. If you're a Troma fan, you know what you're getting here and you're going to pick it up. "Dead Eyes Open" looks crazy, but mostly because it's a full feature shot on Super 8. First off, I love the look of Super 8 and it's extremely ambitious to have shot an entire feature on it... especially as it's usually tough to do sync sound. Not a problem here, though, as it has subtitles.

Last... and definitely not least, is "Brainjacked", which looks awesome. The look and feel scream late 80's, early 90's excess - tons of sick gore. The trailer sort of reminded me of Richard Stanley's "Hardware" meets Abel Ferrara's "Driller Killer", with a zombie spin. It's written and directed by Andrew Allan and it's about a teen runaway that discovers a sinister mind control plot... that involves drilling into people's heads. Check out the trailer, you won't be disappointed.

"Run Bitch Run" and other new horror out on DVD this week...

I guess everyone that wanted to see "New Moon" already saw "New Moon", as "The Blind Side" overtook it at the box office this weekend, but really only because it slipped the least. Also, the new releases didn't exactly catch on fire... "Brothers" fared best, coming in third and grossing close to $10Million. "Armored" came in sixth with just over $6Million and "Everybody's Fine" came in tenth with just over $4Million. Having said that, those three films were all relatively low-budget for Hollywood, costing somewhere around $20 to $25 Million each. Things heat up a bit next week, as "Invictus" comes out... then, the following week, comes the 800 lbs gorilla, "Avatar". As for the week in horror DVD's, it's a bit slow, I've gotta say... although there are a couple of great looking indie films in here. As usual, you can click on the titles and go to their Amazon page, where you can read more and/or buy them... and you can head over to our Youtube page by clicking here and check out all the trailers.

So, "Run Bitch Run" is my pick of the week and it's written and directed by Joseph Guzman and it's his feature debut, although he's been involved in many other projects in various roles. It's a straight throwback to "I Spit on Your Grave" and like-minded 70's grindhouse fare, but it really amps up the exploitation to eleven... as well as the nudity... and the rape. The trailer is just downright awesome and you have to check it out.

Hey, if you've got Joe Estevez on board, we're on board... and John Sjogren got him for his film, "The Lights", and that means we're going to check it out. It's about four friends who set out on a road trip to catch a better view of a once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower, but end up in a cat and mouse game in backwater Texas.

"InAlienable" involves a complete who's who of ex sci-fi D-listers and has-beens and I can't wait to watch it. Written by, and starring, Walter Koenig (Star Trek's Chekov), it stars his own son Andrew Koenig - Growing Pains' Boner (I never made the connection), Alan Ruck - Ferris Bueller's Day Off's Cameron and a long, long list of people that were involved in Star Trek in various capacities. It's about a MAN who gives birth to an alien baby and, I think, raises it as his son... I swear, you need to watch the trailer. Wow... could be a gem.

Also out are the Spanish semi-horror's "Screams in the Night (Gritos En La Noche)" and "Cuidado Con El Angel". I can not, with a good conscience, recommend these films... but the trailer's were just unreal. If you want to see how NOT to make a trailer, go check out the one for "Cuidado Con El Angel"... it's six minutes long, has spelling mistakes in the subtitles, shows lots of useless, boring shots and the voice over is as bad as you can get.

There's a two disc collector's edition of "Gozu " coming out, so if you're into Takashi Miike or just dig messed up Asian flicks, you'll want to pick this up. I don't think it's Miike's best, but it is good and I'm a big Miike fan.

Lastly, there's a pile of Blu-ray rereleases coming out, including: The Kim Basinger vehicle, "While She Was Out"; the awesome "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer"; the underrated "The Alphabet Killer"; indie favorite "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon"; as well as "Walled In", "Cyclops", "Red Mist" and "Sands of Oblivion"

New Horror Out On DVD This Week: A Weak Week, But There Are Puppets

I'll tell you what... when you don't want to pay for information, it can be a little harder to get your hands on specific stats. It's a no-brainer that the summer is a huge season for theatrical releases. However, that's because school's out. That age group, call it... 10 years old to, I don't know, 20? Generally speaking, they don't work, they don't MAKE money, but they sure do know how to spend it and they've got a lot of free time on their hands. They're the ones that love going to the movies in the summer and the studios give them what they want. Big tent-pole films that cater directly to them. Now, the stats that I want to know revolve around what this means for the other end of the spectrum. I guess there's actually a variety of different spectrum's here, but what does it mean for niche, indie horror that's NOT getting a theatrical release? Well, my thought is, it can't be good. The summer is not the time to be releasing your indie horror on DVD. Now, I can't find ANY stats to support this because I don't want to spend the money on getting a report. Having said that, this is the internet and my Google skills are top-notch. So, I'm confident that I'll find something to support this and, when I do, I'll write up a post on it. In any case, it's another fairly weak week in horror releases, but I think that's because the distributors have the stats that I'm looking for. In any case, you can click on the title and be taken to its page on Amazon, where you can buy it (if you'd like) and you can also go over to our Youtube page and check out all the trailers.

"The Kiss", written and directed by Scott Madden, actually looks pretty darned good. Apparently it's got a little something for everyone as they seem to think it spans three genres... they call it a romantic horror comedy. However, it has a hot, ravenous vampire in it. So, I'm calling it a horror. Sorry. So, it's about said vampire and the 18 year old boy that raises her from the near dead. The vampire, played by Lourdes Colon, is, like I said, quite hot and it looks like you get to see a fair bit of her. Not only that, the gore and effects look good. Blood, vampires, nudity, gore. Sold.

"Ghosts of Goldfield" is the directorial debut from Ed Winfield and it's definitely got some budget behind it, plus a few notable actors, including: Marnette Patterson ("Starship Troopers 3", "C.S.I." and "Charmed"), Kellan Lutz (upcoming "Nightmare on Elm Street" remake, "Twilight" and the new "90210") and none other than Rowdy Roddy Piper... who needs NO introduction. Apparently based on true events, it's about a group of five who set up film equipment to capture footage of the ghost of Elisabeth Walker, a maid that was tortured and killed in the derelict town of Goldfield. I can't say much about the film, as I haven't seen it, but it was made in 2007, with what looks like a decent budget, and it JUST got released, straight to DVD. So, come to your own conclusions on the quality.

"Caramelo" is a Spanish film, written and produced by Benjamin Lopez, directed by Jorge Luis Urbina. This is a 'disturbing psychological action thriller' (again with the multiple genres) about the relationship that forms between a young student and the schools janitor... who the student figures out is a murderer. If you're into Spanish psychological action thrillers, could be for you. Doesn't look to bad.

Lastly, as it's a slow week, I'm going to give props to Charles Band, Full Moon and the Puppet Master Series, as the "Puppet Master Box Set" is coming out this week. Charles Band is the brains behind Full Moon and he's produced hundreds of classics and, because of that, he ate up a large portion of my time while I went through film school... He's a director, a writer, a producer and all around good guy. However, as far as I'm concerned, if he should be remembered by ONE series of films, it's The Puppet Master Series. If you've never seen them, check them out... the films revolve around a group of puppets that were animated by an Egyptian spell. They're each equipped with their own unique and dangerous device. Each film has piles of puppets, but there are a few guys that appear more than others, such as: Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Six Shooter and Tunneler. Rumor around the campfire says that they're thinking of reviving the series, which could explain this box set release, as well as reviving various other Full Moon titles. Bring it, Charles... bring it. I'm ready to donate more of my time to puppets.