DVD Releases: Weeks of Wrong Turns
Another boatload of new horror on DVD come Tuesday, October 9th! Here’s what you’re getting…
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Now this is a great way to start your DVD buying week! The sequel to 28 Days Later is not so much better than the first, but actually just a damn good follow-up. If you can ignore some of the glaring plot holes, the overall story and the way the infection is re-introduced is pretty damn cool! Don’t forget, look for me, Johnny Butane, in the opening minutes, right as the infected break through the window into the cabin. I’m only there for a split second but I am there, damnit! Check out the DVD review of 28 Weeks Later for more! Buy it here!
American Silent Horror Collection
Directed by Various
As the title implies, this is a great collection of some of the best horror films that were made before the age of “talkies” made them all but obsolete. This set includes classics like The Man Who Laughs, The Penalty, The Cat and the Canary, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kingdom of Shadows. The last is a documentary narrated by Rod Serling from 1998, following the path of horror movies from the turn of the century to the end of the silent ear. Great stuff! Buy it here!
Black Sheep (2006)
Directed by Jonathan King
I really hate this cover. A lot. I mean, there were at least three or four very cool posters that were used to promote Black Sheep during it’s theatrical run, and this was the best the could come up with? Ugh. No matter, though, cause the film is great; an experimental drug in New Zealand turns all 40 million sheep in the country into homicidal monstrosities! Hilarity of the Peter Jackson/Sam Raimi variety ensues! Read our Black Sheep DVD review for more on the disc, and check out our on-camera interview with director King from Tribeca here to learn about the movie! Buy it here!
Blood Sisters/Bloody Tease (2003/2004)
Directed by Joe Castro/Brad Sykes
Seriously, everyone out there; stop with the “Grindhouse” bullshit on all your goddamn DVD releases! It’s only the smaller companies that are doing it, too. Acquire good movies and sell them by word of mouth, not cheap shot-on-DV vampire movies with blood and boobs. Aren’t people sick of that yet? End rant. And from what I could find, yes, both movies are about vampires. Though one has a strip club, can you guess which one? Buy it here!
Deadwood Park (2006)
Directed by Eric Stanze
As a child, Jake was in town just long enough to see the place become a center of tourism thanks the titular park out by the edge of town, a prosperity that came to a screeching halt when the child murders started. Shortly after that, Jake and his parents got out of the small town. Now he’s back as an adult, of course, where his own brother was taken from him, and is determined to discover what happened all those years ago and if the person responsible is still alive. Buy it here!
Dracula’s Dirty Daughter (1999)
Directed by Michelle Pacitto
I don’t know, do you think that fact that this was directed by a woman will help or hinder it in the long run? I guess “the long run” isn’t very accurate since it’s already been out for almost a decade, but you know what I mean. Man oh man, but what a bad title, eh? It would work perfectly if this were a porn but something tells me its anything but. It is about a lesbian vampire, though, which has to lead to at least one or two good scenes, right? Buy it here!
Evil in the Bayou/Bagman (2003/2002)
Directed by Stephanie Beaton/Rae Fitzpatrick
All right, another double dose of movies you’ve never heard of! Just what you wanted for Halloween, right? Sorry, it just seems like everyone out there is putting out these low budgeters and its becoming harder and harder to find the gems in them. But I digress. Here we have the riveting story of voodoo worshipers trying to bring Satan to Earth in Evil in the Bayou and Bagman is about a disfigured boy who is murdered by his classmates and comes back to life when a girl who lived through it goes back to the town. Buy it here!
Evil Unleashed/Zombie Chronicles (2003/2001)
Directed by Joe Castro/Brad Sykes
But wait, they’re not done yet! This time we have evil being unleashed in Evil Unleashed, which deals with a mummy waking up and taking his revenge on those who disturbed his slumber. And, if the listing on Amazon is right, this will be the third time that Evil Unleashed has been unleashed! Zombie Chroniciles is about … well, I couldn’t find much (didn’t look to hard, either), so lets just say it’s a movie about zombies! Eating people! Buy it here
Eyes of the Werewolf/V-World: The Matrix (1999)
Directed by Jeff Leroy/Ron Ford
Now that is some bad Photoshop work, my friends. On both covers, actually, but Eyes of the Werewolf is much worse. Ugh. In that movie, a shifty doctor performs an accidental eye transplant. I’m sure that happens a lot. Problem is that the eyes come from; you guessed it, a werewolf. V-World: The Matrix sounds like a softcore version of The Matrix, in which some gamers enter a virtual world where any sick and deprived fantasies can be acted out without real world consequences. Soon it turns into a battle for their lives, however. Buy it here!
Fox Horror Collection
Directed by John Brahm
What we have here is a collection of John Brahm-helmed horror films from Fox, re-packaged with a cool piece o’ box art but not much else. In here you will find what I believe is the 1944 version of Hitchcock’s The Lodger, The Undying Monster, about a werewolf who prowls the night but only targets members of a specific family, and Hangover Square, about a man who suffers from blackouts and always finds about new murders that took place while he was out. Buy it here!
Hallowed Ground (2007)
Directed by David Benullo
Rest Stop hottie Jamie Alexander stars in this tale of a young woman (her) who becomes stranded in a small town. No AAA, I guess. Anyway, after a series of chance encounters she discovers that her arrival there was foretold a century ago by an evil preacher. Now he’s looking to make his way back to life and he’s going to use her as a conduit. Or something along those lines. All I know is that there’s an evil scarecrow in it so it can’t be that bad, right? Buy it here!
Heartland Horrors, Volume One (2007)
Directed by Patrick Rea and Kendal Sinn
An anthology of Kansas produced short films. Tales found on the disc include “The Thing About Bannon’s Lookout,” in which two police officers uncover a chilling secret on a deserted road; a mime and a clown engage in a deadly game of one-upmanship in “The Last Laugh”; a copier delivers a warning from the beyond in “Copy”; and a hunter gets some gory comeuppance in “Shed Out of Luck.”Buy it here!
Holla (2007)
Directed by H.M. Coakley
Let’s examine the box art for Holla, shall we? First off, there’s a quote at the top that this movie “single handedly raises the bar for urban horror”. All right, that’s not really much of an accomplishment when you get down to it if you realize just how low said bar was to begin with. Then there’s the immortal tagline: “Don’t Run… Haul Ass!” Tell me that doesn’t make you chuckle just a bit. So really, who cares what the movie is about, anyway, it’s the box art that sells it in the end. Buy it here!
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
Directed by Wallace Worsley
The first filmed version of Victor Hugo’s classic book, the 1923 version of Hunchback features the immortal Lon Chaney, Sr. in one of his classic roles, as the deformed Quasimodo, who falls in love with the beautiful Esmerelda and the drama that ensues. The “Ultimate Edition” of this features a high-def transfer from the original print, a new orchestral score, essays, 3-D still gallery, and behind the scenes footage of Lon Chaney out of makeup on the set of the film. Buy it here!
Night of the Living Dead 3D (2007)
Directed by Jeff Broadstreet
Oh, God, why? Did this really need to be done again and in 3D? I guess if the filmmakers could’ve kept the tone serious and the mood of impending, global doom in place, and managed to actually utilize the 3D technology correctly, it could’ve been cool. According to the review of Night of the Living Dead 3D we have in our database, none of that actually happened and instead it’s an almost in-name-only redux of Romero’s classic films. So I ask again, why? Buy it here!
Poltergeist: 25th Anniversary Edition (1982)
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Now this is something we all needed, for sure. A nice, cleaned up re-release of one of the coolest ghost movies ever made, I don’t care what some have to say. I went to the theater to see it when it played on Thursday and am happy to say that those in the audience who hadn’t experienced it before were just as freaked out today as they were 25 years ago. This new DVD edition has lots of goodies, plus it comes in a real plastic case instead of the shitty cardboard one it was originally released in which, features be damned, is reason enough for me to get it again; I hate those things. Check out our DVD review of Poltergeist: 25th Anniversary Edition for more! Buy it here!
Raiders of the Damned (2005)
Directed by Miiko Davis
It’s the end of World War III. A biochemical weapon is unleashed that allow the dead to come back to life, hungry as always for the flesh of the living. Of course, the only thing we can do to counteract this outbreak is to send in the one and only Richard Greico, which we do post-haste cause that is how we roll. And he’s the last hope for the survival of the entire human race, which I’m sure isn’t the first time he’s shouldered such responsibilities; he did carry “21 Jump Street” for years, you know. Check out our review of Raiders of the Damned for more! Buy it here!
The Redsin Tower (2007)
Directed by Fred Vogel
The first seriously narrative feature from Toe Tag Pictures, Redsin Tower was a helluva lot better than I expected, as you can tell from my review of it here. The story follows a group of friends who head out the titular structure to party and find out if its really haunted, while one girl among them is unknowingly being stalked by the dork she just dumped; a dork who won’t let anyone be with her if he can’t be. Toe Tag’s releasing this one on their own but don’t worry, there’s still lots of good stuff on the DVD. Buy it here!
Rise: Blood Hunter (2007)
Directed by Sebastian Guttierez
Even though Sony treated this one like shit, only playing Tribeca and spattering of other film fests before a direct-to-DVD release, it’s still a pretty fun movie. Lucy Liu spends a lot of time unclothed or partially unclothed, so there’s that, but there’s also a good amount of blood and fighting going on. Liu plays a reporter who’s turned into a vamp against her will and seeks out revenge on the fuckers that made her that way. Buy it here!
See Jane Run (2007)
Directed by Ryan Webb
Wow, another teenagers in distress movie. Seems to be a pattern this week. Or this month. Or just in horror in general. All right, this one finds four of ‘em in a car who pick up a hitchhiker, and somehow the advice of a local mechanic turns deadly. How can advice kill you? You’ll have to watch it to find out. The teens find themselves trapped in a warped version of the American dream, whatever the hell that means, and only a disturbed mind can escape it. Yeah, I’m lost. Buy it here!
Splatter Beach (2006)
Directed by John Polonia
Erin Brown, the former Misty Mundae, stars in this movie about three out-of-towners joining up with a group of young people for fun and sun on the local beach. Humanoid creatures show up and start eating people, seriously, but partygoers stay oblivious to the slaughter for as long as possible. Sounds like an updated version of The Horror of Party Beach to me, but you be the judge. Buy it here!
Tales From the Grave/Tales From the Grave 2 (2003/2005)
Directed by Stephanie Beaton
Oh goodie, an anthology of cheapy movies! Each on is introduced by a creepy old with who lives in a graveyard, standard practice for witches in case you weren’t familiar, who tells a creepy story about creepy stuff she sees in her creepy crystal ball. You know, the kind of quality horror stories that only Joe Estevez would attach his name to! And you’ll never guess what Tales From the Grave 2 is about! That’s right! More tales from the aforementioned creepy witch. Dear, God, let it end. Buy it here!
The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Directed by Various
Now this is what I’m talking about! Finally Warner Bros. finally got around to releasing this classic on DVD, and not a second too late! A bigger-budgeted version of some classic “Twilight Zone” episodes make up the film, which starts and ends with two men in a car, a scene which freaked the shit out of me when I was a kid, as did the girl with no mouth. Ah, such a good freaking movie. Buy it here!
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)
Directed by Joe Lynch
Finally, we can justify why we love Joe Lynch and all his Lynchian ways here at Dread Central! This sequel finds some stupid reality show contestants dropped in the woods for a survivor show (hosted by Henry Fucking Rollins), which just happens to be the same woods, not forest, that contains the mutant family from the first movie, which is a lot bigger than we first suspected. Keep an eye out for our exclusive downloadable commentary by Joe Lynch, “accidentally” deleted from the final DVD pressing, and check out our Wrong Turn 2: Dead End review for more! Buy it here!
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