Interesting weekend at the box office... and, by that, I mean that it was interestingly terrible. "Shrek" won it again, but only by default. "Sex and the City 2" and "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" both underperformed. "Sex and the City 2" was closer to expected, I guess... it just attracted NO males, unlike the first one... and I'm serious. Warner Bros. did an exit poll and they estimated that 90% of the audience was female. I'm assuming that, over time, "Sex and the City 2" will be a moderate success and possibly lead to another one. However, "Prince of Persia" really missed the mark. Disney sort of just called this one in, assuming it would be a hit. The parts were there; Brukheimer, decent title, swashbuckling, fantasy and a big marketing budget, but it didn't cut it. The marketing was a bit poor, to be honest, it wasn't really intriguing and Gyllenhaal may have been a bit miscast here. Who knows. Did anyone see it? If so, how was it? Speaking of missing the mark, "MacGruber" tumbled 63% and that's tough to do, considering how little it made last weekend... it's well on its way to becoming SNL's lowest-grossing film of all time. So, not much to talk about there. Anyhow, on to the home entertainment market. Let's take a look at the horror that's coming out on DVD this week. As usual, you can check out our Youtube Page and see the trailers OR you can click on the titles to go to their Amazon Page, where you can read more and/or buy the film.We've all known about "The Wolfman
" for a while now and, for me, it was one of the bigger disappointments of the year. Not that the film was that bad, it's just that you wait so long for something, you get so excited and then the film is just... average. As for how long we all waited for this... it was originally announced in March, 2006 with a release date of November 12, 2008. Then, it was pushed back to February 12, 2009... then April 3, 2009... then November 6, 2009... then, finally, it came out on February 12, 2010. Now, here it is on DVD.Go figure... I had NO clue that Steve Guttenberg was still working. Now, here he pops up in the horror/comedy, "Cornered
". Now, a lot of you are going to have problems with this film. Why? Because it's a horror/COMEDY and the cover art is a little misleading. Actually, the trailer is a bit misleading, too. There's far more comedy in the film than they lead on and I think they should show that. Like, your film IS what your film IS, advertise and market it appropriately. Anyhow, it did win a few awards and is getting some good reviews. So, check it out. This is actually a rerelease of Chad Ferrin's "Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!
", but it's worth talking about. His latest film, "Someone's Knocking at the Door", just came out last week, so I'm assuming that's why this is coming out this week. It's a low-budget slasher that's coming from a Troma-vet, so you know what you're in for. A good, twisted romp about a bunny-masked killer.Then, there's a couple of mock-buster disaster films, "Disaster Zone: Volcano in New York
" and "Absolute Zero
". You can get them separately OR as double-pack
. Not only that, they're at a great price. $6.99 for the individual films or $9.99 for both. "Disaster Zone" has Michael Ironside in it and it's about, well... a volcano under New York. Turns out that some geo-thermal experiments triggered volcanic activity and now, lava, ash and earthquakes in New York. "Absolute Zero" is about an equally unlikely natural disaster, the Ice Age hitting Miami. The temperature is plummeting to absolute zero... or -459.67 degrees and Jeff Fahey and Erika Eleniak and a few other hopeful survivors head to a special chamber in Jeff Fahey's lab.There's a whole bunch of new Blu-ray versions of old films coming out, including the classic Troma film, "Class of Nuke 'Em High
", as well as "Dark Nature
", "I Know What You Did Last Summer / I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
", "Bram Stoker's Dracula / Grudge
" and "Focus/Refocus
"There's also a mountain of rereleases a double-packs coming out, including "Village of the Damned
", "The Hitcher II - I've Been Waiting
", "Identity / Secret Window
", "Long Time Dead
", "Darkman 2 - The Return of Durant
" and "Darkman III - Die Darkman Die
". I shouldn't have to explain any of those films, you should know them... if not, click on them and go to their Amazon Page.
" is an indie film, from Patrick Johnson, that screened at The ShockerFest International Film Festival and The Spooky Movie Film Festival. It's a "Fatal Attraction" type film, where Tara, Ray's one night stand, decides that she wants to keep Ray... and she's an f'ing psychopath. Done well, there's always a market for these films. Why? Because the characters and predicaments are very real... and horror that revolves around real and possible scenarios really are that much scarier. Trailer looks great, I can't wait to check this one out. 
" revolves around college freshman Jenny Traylor, as she joins her Welcome Week scavenger hunt at her new college in New York. However, as she and her friends decipher the cryptic text message clues on their cell phones, it becomes terrifyingly clear that the stakes in this game are life and death. I haven't seen this, but let's just say the premise isn't blowing up my skirt. I think an easy change, like... her and her broke friends sign up to get paid to do an experiment at their college and it turns ugly... may have been better. Have you seen "The Killing Room"? There's a lot that can be done with that whole concept - definitely not exhausted. Anyhow, I won't pass judgement here, as I haven't seen it.
" was originally called "For Sale by Owner"... however, there's ANOTHER horror film with that same name, one that stars Kris Kristofferson and Tom Skerrit. This is about a serial killer, who carves the number 13 into his victim's chests and is approaching the town of Emeryville. This, obviously, has the locals a little nervous. Sarah, one of those locals, MAY have just put herself into harms way after she may have let the killer into her house. The story here for filmmakers is to really, really, really think about your title. It's so much more important than you think. I couldn't find SHIT on this movie. "13Teen" doesn't search easy and there's a bigger budget film with the same name as "For Sale by Owner". You gotta be unique. 
" is a micro-budget horror from Andrew Copp and it's about an vet from the war in Iraq who just can't stop killing. He's trained in the torture and killing of prisoners and even though he's back on US soil, he just can't stop doing his job. It's a tough subject to tackle on a micro-budget, but the trailer looks pretty damned good. Much like "She's Crushed", the premise is plausible, which can make it very effective, if done right.
". It's about a guy named Justin and how his life changes forever when April, a bizarre and curiously naive woman, is mysteriously 
" is another festival film. It won at "Fright Night" and the "HP Lovecraft Film Festival" and it was an official selection at various others. It's about an amorous intruder, a witch, that's hellbent on becoming a young twelve year 
", which could be a bad omen... Once again, Taylor was a co-director here, so I guess they're just extending the Flavor 
" and checking out the premise, I thought to myself, "well, this is a bit tired, come on guys..." Typical slasher title and a typical slasher plot - a group of teens charter a boat to an isolated island where there's a convicted serial killer on the loose. HOWEVER, I watched the trailer and completely changed my mind and now I'm going to have to check this out. It looks really well done and quite gruesome. I just wish they reconsidered the title... maybe there's some plot twists in there, too. I'll report back on this one, as well. 
", which is a 3 disc collection that includes over 7 hours of 
", but it's supposedly a poignant love story of reincarnation, revenge, and redemption set against today's 
" comes out on Blu-ray and DVD this week and, I'll just say it... I liked it. I'm not the only one, either - it won awards. It won the critics choice for best comedy at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards and the audience award at Sitges. It's horror/comedy at it's best and Woody is classic. From a filmmaking perspective, it's funny to note that the project was originally pitched as a TV series and the film is actually just the first three episodes, reworked. The brains behind "Zombieland" are Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and they broke into Hollywood by coming up with the idea for, and creating, "The Joe Schmo Show". "Zombieland" is their first feature and now they're tapped to do "Earth vs. Moon", "Zombieland 2" and the untitled G.I. Joe Sequel. Great success story...
", but you can now get the whole series on DVD. It was distributed in first-run syndication in the US from October 1990 to April of 1991. The first 14 episodes were filmed in England and the second season, which was filmed in L.A., only lasted 6 episodes. Never seen it, don't know anything about it.
", which is a classic... with Lon Chaney Jr, Bela Lugosi and the whole crew. It's one of those films that you should just see for the sake of seeing. The big thing of note is that this is the film that introduced the idea of werewolves being vulnerable to silver. Who knew, huh?
" is finally coming out. Hey, that's not to take away from Debbie, we love her. She's a great actress, has done a lot to push indie horror forward and she's one of the top scream queens in the biz. Always, always, always support Debbie Rochon. Bless her heart...
", directed by Ryan Todd and written by Kevin Haskin. It's about a children's book illustrator who inhabits a twilight world of shifting reality and illusion, where cruelty and rampant evil do battle with his better instincts and sanity is a question of perception. Nice rhyme... question of perception. I like that. Best part about this film? That evil children's book illustrator is played by Robert Picardo, the guy who played Richard Woolsey in "Stargate" and, of course, The Doctor in "Star Trek: Voyager".