Well, if you're the sort of horror fan who loves the scour the new release shelf every week, even when you KNOW there's not much there in the way of "buried treasure," then congrats: You're a horror fan just like me. Feel free to use the following article as a brief navigational map as you wander through the horrors of the first week of May.
A B+ week in store(s) for us this time, but it's always cause for celebration when a freaky new French flick hits the scene. Plus there's a PG-13 offering you probably skipped, a strange-looking monster movie / sex comedy, and something starring ... Kim Basinger? Hmmm.
Today we get a solid pair of horror flicks, one from Lionsgate and one from Anchor Bay, each from a filmmaker who's an old friend to FEARnet. Luckily for all involved, both flicks are actually pretty good, which saves us from a lot of embarrassment all around.
The first one is JT Petty's The Burrowers, which we reviewed last September and re-covered (in live video-chat form!) just last week. It's a straight-faced and quietly engaging genre mixture: 65% western, 30% horror, and 5% weird random coolness. It's about a bunch of frontier men who set out to rescue a kidnapped family from what they're sure is an indigenous threat -- but our heroes were thinking indigenous PEOPLE, and not, well ... monsters Extras include a director's commentary and a handful of featurettes.
Time for my regular "Kind of a Skimpy Week" speech, but fortunately we do have a few amusing titles and one really solid option. Let's start out with...
Splinter -- One of those old-fashioned monster movies, but thankfully one that's more interested in scares and chills than in winking at the audience or making silly jokes. No, Splinter is actually a three-character biological horror tale that's quite a bit better than many of its ilk. And I won't spoil anything, but the creature is really nifty. The DVD arrives after a slight delay, but it sure looks to be worth the wait. The standard and Blu-Ray editions are riddled with audio commentaries and a whole bunch of featurettes. For the record, we already reviewed Splinter here, and we recently did a Splat Chat with director Toby Wilkins right here.
A whole bunch of rather different horror flicks will grace the DVD stacks this week, so let's just start out with the stuff know is worth checking out...
Donkey Punch -- This UK thriller is sort of like a mixture between Dead Calm, Very Bad Things, and Shallow Grave: A bunch of gorgeous young people head out to party on a stunning yacht ... only one of the girls end up "damaged" after some rough sex, and things get exponentially nastier after that. Extras on the Magnolia platter include a director's commentary, a making-of featurette, cast and crew interviews, and some deleted scenes.
If sheer volume of new horror flicks is what you're after, then I'm pleased to note that this is the third official After Dark Tuesday. Feel free to sift through all eight of the films, but I'm only giving the FEARnet seal of approval to three of the titles this time out. Those flicks are The Broken (full review here ), Dying Breed (full review here ), and Autopsy (full review here ).
Holy moley, there are dead DVD weeks and there are DEAD DVD weeks. This one counts as both! I scanned across a few random C-grade titles like Green River and Locusts: The 8th Plague ... but c'mon, we all deserve better than that.
So as a shocking surprise, I'm going to skip back through the years and offer some suggestions. All of these come FEARnet-approved, and by that I actually mean "Weinberg-approved, with Weinberg being the FEARnet film critic." Which is certainly close enough, right? Forgive me if you've seen any or all of these, but I don't feel the need to go ULTRA-obscure, plus I think these flicks are always worth mentioning again:
Hello from SXSW! I'm up here getting you guys reviews of Drag Me to Hell, The Haunting in Connecticut, The Horseman, and more (!), but fortune has smiled upon me in one ironic way: I don't have much time to write this week, but we don't have many DVDs to cover. Hooray!
Last week was one of those in which I griped and moaned about a lack of new horror options -- and were it not for one very special release, I might be singing the same tune this week. To be fair, there are a few intriguing little indies, but the pick of the week (no contest) goes to...
Wow, what a skimpy week. Makes no sense to me. Distributors should red-tag these "dead" days and wedge something half-decent into the pipeline, because if there's one thing the horror freaks hate, it's a New Releases shelf with nothing from the genre department.
But it looks like the Weinsteins took notice, and are releasing their latest Dimension Extreme title today. It's an Austrian import called In 3 Tagen Bist Du Tot, but you should probably search for it under the title Dead in 3 Days. Looks to be about a bunch of young folks who receive a threatening text message, only to be bumped off later on. Expect a full review real soon!
The Last House on the Left (SE) -- You know the drill by now: Just before the remake comes out, we get a re-issue of the original flick. Lionsgate did it for My Bloody Valentine, Paramount did it for Friday the 13th, and now, just in time for Rogue's remake, MGM delivers a Special Edition of this infamous little terror flick. It's stamped with an UNRATED label on the DVD case, although the flick's been UNRATED since 1972, so I don't see what the excitement is all about. But yes, this early collaboration between Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham (both of whom would go on to dabble, just a bit, in the horror field) is quite the memorable shocker. It's a basic "rape and revenge" tale but it still packs a punch today. Obviously the jury is still out on the remake. Extras include a cast commentary, three new featurettes, one deleted scene, some previously unseen footage (!), and an unfinished short film from Mr. Craven. Looks like it's about time to add this one to my collection...
Today's one of those days when it pays to have saved your pennies. Instead of buying your fourth edition of Friday the 13th, you could be spending today knee-deep in new movies. Or you can always go the rental route. But there are definitely a few keepers among today's releases:
