DVD Releases: Rage for the Night
Below are the tasty treats coming to DVD this Tuesday, February 26th, 2008…
30 Days of Night (2007)
Directed by David Slade
The adaptation of the Steve Niles comic was probably one of the most faithful comic books ever put to screen. The casting, which I have to admit we were all dubious about, was great across the board; there was more than enough blood to keep the gorehounds happy; and it even had some genuinely scary villains. All in all a great way to spend 90 minutes of your life. Check out our 30 Days of Night DVD review for more! Buy it here!
Beowulf (2008)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
I never got the phenomenon that was this movie, especially once it came out and no one cared. I mean, what’s the point of making all-CG characters if they’re going to look just like their human counterparts? Why not just leave them real? Apparently this is the least of the movie’s worries, if our “>Beowulf DVD review is any indication. And seriously, what the fuck is with that cover? The huge red bands on the top and bottom? Could they have made it any uglier if they tried? Buy it here!
The Bloodstained Shadow (1978)
Directed by Antonio Bido
If nothing else, this film is significant because it features one of the last scores by legendary giallo band Goblin, who were at the forefront of experimental music in their heyday. The story follows a man who returns home to see his Catholic priest brother but ends up looking into a series of bizarre murders that start up shortly after his arrival. It doesn’t help that the brothers themselves are tortured by the memory of an unspeakable childhood trauma. Buy it here!
A Bloody Aria (2006)
Directed by Won Shin-Yun
A very strange film, this; I wouldn’t call it horror, per se, but I guess it is in the same way some consider Oldboy to be horror. The story is about an aspiring opera singer who escapes the advances of her lecherous professor. She finds a ride and thinks she’s saved, until the man insists he has to meet his friends: a group of good-for-nothing thugs with serious emotional issues. Soon both she and her teacher are being held captive by the gang and subjected to their strange mind games. The film will be showing at
Broceliande (2002)
Directed by Doug Headline
Chloe is an archaeology student specializing in Celtic history. As soon as she gets to school, however, a series of strange murders start to go down that end up distracting her from her studying, as strange murders are wont to do. She follows the clues of the murders to the titular mystical forest, a forest full of Celtic legends, where something that’s been buried for a long, long time has been let loose upon the earth again. Buy it here!
The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)
Directed by Guiliano Carmineo
A beautiful young model moves into the now-empty apartment of a girl who was mysteriously killed by an unknown assailant. Soon she realizes that whoever killed the girl living there before her now wants her dead, and the hunt is on with a series of red herrings marching across the screen like a freakin’ fish parade. Will she be able to find the real killer before the killer finds her? Buy it here!
Dark Chamber (2007)
Directed by Dave Campfield
Inspired by the true story of the Say You Love Satan Killer, this supposedly Hitchockian whodunit follows a criminal law student who puts a local group of Satanists, The Black Circle, under 24-hour surveillance in order to find out if they’re responsible for a recent murder. As he learns more and more about the group, though, he comes closer and closer to realizing what kind of trouble he’s really gotten himself into. The cast and cover art do nothing for me, so hopefully all these reviews calling it something interesting aren’t just blowing smoke. Buy it here!
Dark Shadows: The Beginning Collection 3
Directed by Various
I really have lost track of what’s going on in this series; we’ve been putting up DVD lists with “Dark Shadows” collections in them for as long as I can remember. This is the third entry in the pre-Barnabas era of “Dark Shadows”, before the show really knew what it was doing in terms of scaring its audience in the middle of the day. Ghosts, murderers and mysteries abound in this series, and of course this collection is no different. Buy it here!
Devil’s Offspring (2007)
Directed by Kenneth Hau Wai Lau
All right, I’m seeing a pattern here. This is the third movie coming out this week about a person moving into a new place and murders start occurring shortly after. Weird, eh? Anyway, this one’s about a new girl who moves into a dormitory and the deaths that follow her appearance. The girls that remain at the school realize they’re next on the killer’s list and have to try and figure out who it is (my money’s on the new girl) before they’re all taken out. Lame! Buy it here!
Door Into Darkness
Directed by Various
Way back before he was an Italian filmmaking sensation, Dario Argento produced this television show, which features four short features: “The Neighbor”, “Eyewitness”, “The Doll” and “The Tram”. This two-disc set is the return of Noshame Films, which was doing really well getting nice editions of obscure Italian classics out there for a while before disappearing. Oddly enough, though, there’s no mention of this release on their official site. Weird, eh? Buy it here!
Inside (2006)
Directed by Jeff Mahler
No, this is not the Inside that horror fans have been freaking out about for the past year or so. That one comes out on DVD April 15th, so be patient. No, this Inside is about a guy who has a strange habit of following people he doesn’t know, which eventually leads him to get caught by a couple who, instead of calling the police, allow him to stick around because he so closely resembles their dead son. Soon he’s sucked into a world of desperation and insanity. Buy it here!
The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974)
Directed by Jorge Grau
Originally released years ago on DVD as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, Blue Underground has finally gotten around to getting the movie out under its correct title and filling a two-disc set with goodies! One of the best, most underrated zombie movies I’ve ever seen, Living Dead… follows a man who get wrapped up in stopping the dead from returning to life when an experimental pesticide has some strange side effects. Check out our “>Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue DVD review for more! Buy it here!
Nature Morte (2006)
Directed by Paul Burrows
A cover like that’s going to do one of two things: draw you in to learn more or repel you instantly. Personally I’m more in the second category than the first, but for those who are opposite, here’s what it’s about: An art expert begins to investigate a series of murders whose victims correspond directly to the girls depicted in paintings by an artist who just killed himself. Buy it here!
New York City Horror Film Festival
Directed by Various
From the first few years of the titular film festival, Vanguard Cinema put together this collection of some of the best short horror the fest had to offer. Included are “Plasticity”, “Cup-O-Abominations”, “Entrapped”, “Slasher Flick”, “Tomorrow’s Bacon”, “Subway” and “Scream for Me”. There’re also intros by festival director Michael Hein and more extras. A good choice if you’re interested in seeing where the next wave of horror will be coming from! Buy it here!
The Rage (2007)
Directed by Robert Kurtzman
Now this is a goddamn fun flick, friends and neighbors. Don’t go into The Rage looking for groundbreaking special effects or high-quality acting; instead, this is the kind of movie you have on when you and your friends decide you just want to get wasted and have a shitload of fun. It’s a gore-soaked classic from top to bottom with a standout performance by Andrew Divoff as the twisted Dr. V. Check out our “>DVD review of The Rage for more! Buy it here!
Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971)
Directed by Aldo Lado
Man, if nothing else, you have to give the Italians credit for coming up with some of the strangest titles in movie history for their films, you know? The story follows a reporter who is found dead and brought to the local morgue. Problem is, he’s not dead but shows all external signs of being so. Desperately he tries to figure out what happened to his girlfriend before he comes back to consciousness and how to stop the person bent on making his life hell. Buy it here!
The Sick & Twisted Horror of Joanna Angel (2008)
Directed by Doug Sakmann
Two disgustingly twisted horror/porns from director Doug Sakmann and porn startlet Joanna Angel: the new classic Re-Penetrator, about a dead stripper who’s resurrected by a perverted scientist as a nymphomaniac sex zombie. What more could you want from your horror? The other is The Xxxorcist with Angel playing the possessed Regan. A priest, failing the traditional methods of exorcism, decides to try and literally fuck the hell out of her. Fun for the whole family, especially considering both of these are the censored versions of the films! What’s the point? Buy it here!
Who Saw Her Die? (1972)
Directed by Aldo Lado
A Venice sculptor understands finally how to suffer for his art when his young daughter is killed. The police, of course, are unable to find anything that will solve the case so he takes the investigation into his own hands, uncovering a twisted conspiracy of sexual perversion and violence. The last of Blue Underground’s giallo re-releases this week, and likely for a while, too. Would be nice to see them get some new stuff out there now since all they’ve been doing of late is re-releasing everything, it seems. Buy it here!
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