Box Office Review and a Good Week for Horror on DVD

Wow, I am in no condition to be operating my computer, let alone be writing this post... I was out of town for a gong-show wedding where I drank like a sailor on his last weekend before heading out to sea, then flew back home late last night. Flight was delayed three times, finally got home at 4AM... alarm went off at 7:30. Brutal. Anyhow, I'm ridiculously tired and terribly hung-over, but I'm going to try to power my way through this.

The box office was, once again, dominated by "Toy Story 3", but that's no real surprise. "Grown Ups", the ensemble Adam Sandler flick, did as expected and came in second. Third was "Knight & Day" and the press is all saying that the Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz film was a bit of a let down. However, I heard it was tracking really badly. So, the fact that it pulled in over $20Million isn't that bad as far as I'm concerned... having said that, I don't know the budget off hand. Further, I was talking with a few people that saw it and they said it was actually a pretty good movie. Lastly, just to add insult to injury, "Jonah Hex" had the worst week to week decline, falling 70% to just over $1.5Million - poor "Jonah Hex". As for upcoming films, we all know that "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" has all the Twi-hards going crazy and it's going to dominate the next few weeks. However, I'm more interested to see how "The Last Airbender" does, as I really can't believe that studios still give M Night Shymalan money to make movies. Horror-wise, just around the corner, we've got "Predators" and "[Rec]2" coming out on July 9th. "Predators", the Robert Rodriguez reboot of the "Predator" franchise, is opening wide, "[Rec]2", not so much. Anyhow, on to the horror that's coming out on DVD. As usual, check out our Youtube Page to see the trailers and you can click on the titles to be taken to the films page on Amazon where you can read more and/or buy it.

Okay, (Ted's note), I've gotta whip through these because I'm fading fast and have way too much to do today, so I apologize for anything that appears cryptic or doesn't make sense...

The big release of the week is the remake of the Romero classic, "The Crazies". Quite frankly, I thought it did the original justice. Especially considering that most people don't consider the original to be a classic. They did change a few aspects from the original, but it was really just to update it a bit. It's worth checking out, for sure.

"The Eclipse" is a dramatic horror film from Conor McPherson, who's adapting a stage play that he did. It's dramatic, it's slow, but it is a horror. If you're used to more visceral horror, this may be a bit too slow for you.

"Versus" is actually about ten years old, but it's getting a rerelease on Blu-ray this week and it's kind of a kick ass Tokyo Shock film. Good versus evil, kung-fu, blood, guts... it's worth picking up if you haven't seen it.

If you like your vampire films mixed in with a little sexy-times, "Temptation" is for you. I haven't seen it, but it looks like you can expect it to be a bit heavy on the lesbians and nudity, light on the gore. Not that there's anything wrong with that... nothing at all.

"A Nocturne: Night of the Vampire" is an indie horror out of Australia, being distributed by Troma over here. I haven't seen it, but it comes from the Australian underground and it's a so-called 'goth original'. It's getting great reviews and, apparently, is shot really well and has a great look and feel for something that's shot on DV.

Lastly, I have to mention two awesome rereleases: "Teenage Hitchhikers" and "Uncle Sam" on Blu-ray. You know, I'm thinking that "Uncle Sam" may be ripe for a remake... I'd like to see a reboot of that. "Uncle Sam wants YOU... dead".

A Look at the Box Office and the Upcoming Week in Horror DVD's

Yeah, Scorcese and DiCaprio won the weekend again with "Shutter Island", but don't fret, horror fans... "The Crazies" didn't do too poorly. Not only did it not do poorly, it's a pretty good film and is getting decent reviews. The film is, of course, a remake of the 1973 George Romero cult classic and it revolves around a town whose water supply has been poisoned by an unknown toxin that drives people insane. What's funny is, the original didn't really do that well. In fact, outside of the hard-core horror fans, it's not really well known at all. The reason I find that funny is, why would they remake an obscure horror film that really only has a cult following? I guess they figured that the hard-core horror fans would go to it because they do know about the original and newer horror fans would go just because it's horror... either way, it's still a great title and a good premise. That and it's an existing script, God forbid a studio green lights an original horror script... In any case, this update is directed by Breck Eisner, the son of Michael Eisner - Ex Disney CEO and Hollywood uber super power. Breck got his start in commercials, then moved on to TV movies, starting with Si-Fi channel's "The Invisible Man". His first feature film was the direct to DVD crime drama, "Thoughtcrimes", which he followed up with "Sahara"... which is considered to be one of the biggest financial flops in Hollywood history. "The Crazies" was his next project, after a few things fell apart... Do realize that there was over 5 years between the two films. He won't have to wait that long for his next film, as next up for him is the remake of "Flash Gordon". Anyhow, let's look at the week in horror DVD's. As usual, you can go to our Youtube Page and check out the trailers by clicking HERE and you can click on the title to be taken to the films Amazon page, where you can read more about it and/or buy it.

It's never a good sign when the bonus feature on a DVD is another entire feature film and they still keep the total cost to under $10.... but that's what you get when you buy "Last of the Living". The bonus feature is "Play Dead", a film by Jason Wiles that stars Fred Durst, Chris Klein and Jake Busey. What blows my mind is that "Last of the Living" is an awesome indie zombedy out of Australia that came out a few years back. It was done on next to no budget and it's right up there in the same vein as "Shaun of the Dead" or "Zombieland", check out the trailer... you'll eat it up. "Play Dead" has a bunch of real names in it and just looks awful, why in God's name would you throw it out there with "Last of the Living"? Honestly, it devalues and takes away from both films. In this case, the sum of both projects is worth less than each project on their own and someone really screwed the pooch when it came to marketing and distributing these films in North America. Unbelievable... I have no clue why "Play Dead" was even made, nor do I know why it was added as a bonus feature here, but "Last of the Living" is from Logan McMillan and it's definitely worth watching. Buy the DVD for that and that alone.

I'm definitely intrigued by "ReGOREgitated Sacrifice", a film by Lucifer Valentine, starring Ameara La Vey. The description says it's about the diabolical depiction of the alternate-parallel dimension of the simultaneous suicide deaths of Kurt Cobain and bulimic porn star Angela Aberdeen, as seen through the mental activity of Angela's journey toward brain death as a result of her self-inflicted death by drowning. There's some clips online and we posted a trailer on our Youtube Page, but they're weird, in a good way... definitely intrigued and the creepy, shot on DV doc look really works... at least in the trailers.

"The Terror Factor" is a micro-budget horror being released by Brain Damage and staring John Sylvia. It won a couple of awards from indie festivals and is, what else? A slasher flick. Looks alright, should be worth checking out.

"Chasing Darkness" is another micro-budget horror, this one released by Midnight Releasing and directed by Jason Hull and starring Todd Humes, Larry Liggett, Renee Porada and Katie Russell. The film is about a hit man who wants to retire, but finds out that a rival gang is actually a bunch of vampires and they've turned his over-jealous girlfriend into one of the undead. For a no-budget film, they've got some good looking action scenes and great make-up. I'm definitely going to be checking this one out. Also, I love the title.

Otherwise, there's a pile of box sets coming out that I'm not going to mention, as they're just cash grabs on mostly shitty films. So, that's all I've got for the new DVD releases...