DVD and Blu-ray Releases: January 12, 2016
Sean Brickley
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Greetings and salutations, my fellow fiends and horror nerds. While not as long of a list as last week, this week still has some very promising titles.
I have to admit that I am a bit partial to Contracted: Phase II. A good friend of mine since the age of about 5 or 6 wrote this movie, so it’s pretty awesome to have watched the project as it came to fruition for him. Way to go, Craig!
When Black Birds Fly is actually not due to drop until January 15th so you’ll have to wait until Friday to pick that one up.
Our one classic title for the week is 1971’s Hands of the Ripper. Fans of Hammer horror, take notice.
You can also pick up Sinister 2 as well as the latest installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise, The Ghost Dimension.
Lastly, both of the collections we have to offer span the past 20 years or so. There will most likely be something enjoyable in there for some of you.
As it is currently, I still have roughly 100 titles to add to the upcoming weeks’ lists all the way through the beginning of April. This is honestly a tremendous step up from where I was last year at this time. Keep checking back each week for the most up-to-date listings of new releases.
As always, pleasant viewing.
MOVIES
Contracted: Phase II (2015)
Starring:
Matt Mercer, Marianna Palka
Synopsis:
A sexually transmitted virus is ravaging LA and turning lovers into flesh-eating zombies and one man is in a race against time to stop it.
Purchase:
Countess Dracula (2015)
Starring:
Nigel Green, Sandor Eles
Synopsis:
A mad Hungarian countess follows a medieval beauty regimen that depletes the local supply of maidens.
Purchase:
Hands of the Ripper (1971)
Starring:
Keith Bell, Eric Porter, Derek Godfrey
Synopsis:
A Freudian psychiatrist covers up for his patient, Jack the Ripper’s homicidal daughter.
Purchase:
Howl (2015)
Starring:
Ed Speelers, Sean Pertwee, Shauna McDonald, Elliot Cowan
Synopsis:
On a dark and stormy night the last train out of London comes to a sudden halt deep in the middle of a forest. After the driver ventures out to investigate and never returns, the passengers are in a state of panic – particularly after seeing the driver’s mutilated body outside the carriage. Realizing there’s something dangerous lurking in the forest, a ticket-collector, Joe (Ed Speelers), tells the passengers to make barricades to secure themselves in the carriage, but soon the deadly creature is stalking the besieged train and smashing through their defenses, picking them off one-by-one. Joe rallies his pack of passengers to fight back. During a vicious battle they manage to kill the creature, revealing it to be a hideous mutated fusion of human and wild animal – a werewolf. However, celebrations are cut short when they hear more howls coming from the forest…
Purchase:
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)
Starring:
Chris J. Murray, Brit Shaw, Ivy George, Dan Gill, Chloe Csengery
Synopsis:
Strange events plague a family in their new home after they discover a video camera in the garage.
Purchase:
Silent Retreat (2015)
Starring:
Donny Boaz, Rebecca Summers, Danilo Di Julio, Landon Ashworth, Devon Ogden
Synopsis:
Six members of a media company go on a weekend business retreat at an isolated lodge in the woods. When one of the members goes missing, they discover that the lodge was formerly a private mental institution that had been shut down after allegations of unethical behavior. One by one, they fall victim to the dark secrets buried at the lodge. This is no vacation… this is a Silent Retreat!
Purchase:
Sinister 2 (2015)
Starring:
Shannyn Sossamon, James Ransone, Robert Sloan, Dartanian Sloan, Nicholas King
Synopsis:
The sequel to the 2012 sleeper hit horror movie. In the aftermath of the shocking events in Sinister, a protective mother (Shannyn Sossamon of “Wayward Pines”) and her 9-year-old twin sons (real-life brothers Robert and Dartanian Sloan) find themselves in a rural house marked for death as the evil spirit of Bughuul continues to spread with frightening intensity.
Purchase:
Suburbanite (2013)
Starring:
Joe Nemmers, Jodie Moore, Frank Mosley, Susanna Gibb
Synopsis:
John, a white-collar family man, finds his life turned upside down when he hits a man on his way home from work. He takes the body home to his garage, convinced that he can cover up the accident. But before he has a chance to bury the body, the man wakes up. Mack, the victim, forms and unlikely bond with John but this bond is short lived. John is on the verge of taking Mack to the hospital when Mack reveals he was hiding his own secret. He purposefully stepped in front of the car in an effort to escape a debt owed to a dangerous man named Rick, a dirty cop that moonlights as a hit-man. John goes back on his word, and chooses to let Mack die. Before he makes that a reality his family is taken hostage by Rick, the dirty cop, who has decided that John is a much better mark to blackmail. John has to team up with the still injured Mack to kill Rick and his partner in an effort to protect his family.
Purchase:
When Black Birds Fly (2016)
Starring:
Brandon Slagle, David Firth, J.D. Brown, Victor Bonacore, Devanny Pinn
Synopsis:
Welcome to the dark and troubling world of When Black Birds Fly, a dystopian animated mind-warping propaganda film set in another dimension! Set in the mysterious black and white town of ‘Heaven’ that is under the rule of a charismatic leader named ‘Caine’ who commands his citizens to unconditionally love and obey him, and to NEVER venture onto the other side of the wall where his arch nemesis steals and corrupts lost souls. Two disillusioned children decide to ignore Caine’s warnings when they become obsessed with the huge number of black birds that populate the town. After chasing one they discover a talking kitten with a broken leg, who begs them to crawl through a hole in the wall to help her. In return she introduces them to a brightly colored mind altering fruit and brings them to meet the Evil One, who attempts to teach them the forbidden knowledge that Caine is hiding from them all. When Black Birds Fly is both a unique and terrifying experience that features graphic scenes of animated violence, freaky sex, mind bending nightmare imagery, an ultra-creepy soundtrack, and many other dark depravities you can’t even imagine! It is truly a one of a kind experience and is recommended for ADULTS ONLY!!
Purchase:
COLLECTIONS
The Alien Files
Starring:
James Spader, Ice Cube, Nastassja Kinski, Jason Connery, Randy Quaid
Movies:
Night Skies
Demons at the Door director Roy Knyrim draws inspiration from one of the most high-profile UFO sightings ever recorded for this fact-based sci-fi thriller that recreates the infamous Phoenix Lights case. On March 13, 1997, community leaders, law enforcement officials, and countless everyday citizens in the southwestern United States witness a phenomenon that simply couldn’t be dismissed by even the most hardened of skeptics. Jason Connery, Ashley Peldon, A.J. Cook, and Gwendoline Yeo star in a film that draws on transcripts taken during hypnotherapy sessions to explore precisely what happened to six strangers stranded on a forgotten road during that fateful close encounter.
Alien Hunter
For the NASA-funded research team stationed at the most desolate reaches of Antarctica, it’s another routine day – until the communications satellite picks up a mysterious signal coming from a strange object lodged several meters beneath the ice. Suspecting it may not be from earth, the lead scientist immediately places a call to Julian Rome (James Spader), an old friend formerly employed as a cryptologist for the U.S. Government’s SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program.
Catching the next flight to the South Pole, this former Alien Hunter is soon led to the unidentified object which is still encased in a large block of ice. After constructing a makeshift decoder, Rome quickly cracks the complex mathematical code, only to discover the message is an alien warning. Now it’s a terrifying race against time to prevent the total annihilation of the planet in this pulse-pounding sci-fi thriller.
John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars
Natasha Henstridge (Species) is Melanie Ballard, a headstrong police lieutenant on Mars in the year 2025. Humans have been colonizing and mining on the red planet for some time, but when Ballard and her squad are sent to a remote region to apprehend the dangerous criminal James Desolation Williams, played by Ice Cube (Friday), they discover that he’s the least of their worries. The mining operations have unleashed a deadly army of Martian spirits who take over the bodies of humans and won’t stop until they destroy all invaders of their planet.
The Day The World Ended
A woman trying to help a disturbed child discovers his nightmarish fears are all too real in this sci-fi horror opus. Dr. Jennifer Stillman (Nastassja Kinski) is a child psychologist from New York City who takes a job working at an elementary school in a small Nevada community. Jennifer is seen as an unwelcome outsider by most of her neighbors and colleagues, but she does strike up a rapport with Ben (Bobby Edner), a troubled young student. Ben is haunted by fears he has a hard time talking about, and she learns that his mother died under unexplained circumstances — a matter his father (Randy Quaid) is equally reticent to discuss. As Jennifer struggles to get to the bottom of Ben’s traumas, she learns that a monster from another world and a terrible secret the town has been trying to hide are both parts of the puzzle. The Day the World Ended was loosely adapted from Roger Corman’s 1956 film of the same name, which was the first monster movie the B-movie icon made for American-International Pictures; this version was created as part of the made-for-cable Creature Features series.
Purchase:
Queens of Scream
Starring:
Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Love Hewett, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Katie Cassidy, Camilla Belle
Movies:
Vacancy
When David (Luke Wilson) and Amy Fox’s (Kate Beckinsale) car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to spend the night at the only motel around, with only the TV to entertain them – until they discover that the low-budget slasher videos they find in their room were all filmed in the very room in which they’re sitting. With hidden cameras now aimed at them – trapping them in rooms, crawlspaces, underground tunnels – and filming their every move, David and Amy must struggle to get out alive before they end up the next victims on tape.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar star with Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Johnny Galecki in this terrifying tale of a body that just won’t stay dead. After an accident on a winding road, four teens make the fatal mistake of dumping their victim’s body into the sea. Exactly one year later, the dead man returns from his watery grave and he wants more than an apology.
When A Stranger Calls
Have you checked the children?
To Jill Johnson, it was the perfect babysitting job. The parents were away. The fridge was stocked. The children were tucked into bed. But then the phone rings and an ominous voice asks, Have you checked the children? Locked in with the lights out and the curtains drawn, a panicky Jill phones the police, who trace the calls – only to inform her they’re coming from inside the house.
The Cave
Deep in the Romanian forest, a team of scientists stumbles upon the ruins of a 13th-century abbey. On further inspection, they make a startling discovery – the abbey is built over the entrance to a giant underground cave system. Local biologists believe the cave could be home to an undiscovered ecosystem, so they hire a group of American cave explorers to help them investigate its depths.
Purchase:
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