Recent Horror DVD Review Highlights
DVD Stalk is back to give you your
monthly does of all things horror DVD related.
Here's what's new, interesting, or just something we felt like writing about for
August.
One of the more unusual horror releases of
the last month or so is the two-disc special edition release of Philosophy Of
A Knife from Unearthed Films. Bill Gibron
delved into this one and found that it came up a winner. Bill's thoughts: "While
doing some research for the review, this critic ran across an interesting recent
article (June, 2008) about filmmaker Andrev Iskanov. Seems the Russian Federal
Security Service, or FSB, visited the director in association with the
information and images he offered in this film. They were looking to confiscate
any materials he had used in connection with its creation. After a warrantless
search and five days of detention (which he signed off on post-incident, under
duress), he was released. Some of his work was returned. Clearly, someone in
authority believes that the subject matter inherent in Philosophy of a Knife
will be damaging to their country's international image. While it may not work
as a standard entertainment, it does present a compelling, and often difficult
to watch, experience. Therefore, while it won't be for everyone, the film still
earns a Highly Recommended rating. There is something primal, almost
unconsciously unnerving about what Iskanov accomplishes here. We've seen these
kind of ersatz exploitation beats before. But this time, they seem to have the
aesthetic power to stick. This is a movie that will haunt you for days
afterward." This isn't your average horror film. There's a fascinating back
story to the atrocities on display here and Iskanov provides enough background
information and context to ensure that the sickening gore scenes really pack a
punch. This isn't an easy film to get through, but it's definitely an eye opener
in more ways than one.
It's always a treat when Criterion dip
their fingers into genre territory. Say what you will about their inflated MSRP,
they generally do a great job and tend to release very worthy films. John
Sinnott took a look at their excellent new release of Vampyr and had this
to say: "This is an
amazing film, though it's not for everyone. It's a movie that viewers have to
work at to understand, and screening this film isn't a passive event.
Ultimately Dreyer has crafted a magnificent work, one that is both haunting and
engaging. The Criterion version of this film, while not near the video quality
of The Passion of Joan of Arc is still vastly superior to any other
version on home video. Add to that a wonderful set of bonus features and you
have a release that is Highly Recommended."
Criterion have also recently released Brand Upon The Brain! on DVD for
the first time. Jamie S. Rich took a look and said "Highly Recommended!
Even if you've been
suspicious of Guy Maddin's bizarre point of view before, toss out any worry when
it comes to Brand Upon the Brain! - Criterion Collection. It's a
delicious malformation of an autobiography, playing with movie iconography and
childhood nostalgia in order to examine the seminal experiences that indelibly
changed the auteur's psyche. Shot like a silent movie, with multiple versions of
the score and narrators to choose from, this crazy hybrid of melodrama, sci-fi,
and horror excites more than it confounds, but even the confounding is exciting
in Maddin's delirious world. Complete with new short films and a decoder-ring
documentary, mark another in the win category for Criterion." Last but not
least, Jamie also got the chance to check out Criterion's release of The
Small Black Room. His take? The Small Back Room - Criterion Collection
is Highly Recommended. This rare retreat into less fantastical territory by
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger is also a rare treat. The psychological
profile of a bomb expert with a bum leg and a drinking problem trying to regain
his confidence in WWII-era Great Britain is a compelling behind-closed-doors
drama. Featuring a believable romantic subplot and a surprisingly detailed
climax involving its hero defusing a mysterious bomb, The Small Back Room
runs the gamut of emotions on its way out of its hero's extended lost weekend.
Less touted than the Archers' Technicolor flights of fancy, this black-and-white
character study should delight the filmmakers' fans like a long sought-after
secret that's finally been revealed." Those who don't mind a little art mixing
with their horror are advised to give this trio of interesting genre efforts a
look.
French horror auteur Jean Rollin has long
been a favorite of European horror enthusiasts. Probably best known for his
multitude of lesbian vampire films, Rollin's pictures generally mix up rich
gothic atmosphere, surrealist plotting and structure, strong symbolism and
healthy doses of nudity, sex and blood.
One of his best films
remains Lips Of Blood, a movie that was recently given a three-disc
special edition release in Europe that suffered from some unfortunate framing
issues. Redemption, through Ryko, have seen fit to correct that with this new
NTSC re-release of the film that carries over some of the supplements from that
disc and corrects the framing issues that irked those who were familiar with the
film. Ian Jane took a look and said "If you don't already have the Encore
release or don't want to shell out big bucks for that expensive limited edition
import, this is the way to go despite the interlaced transfer and the absence of
some key supplemental items. Redemption's release isn't perfect but it is
readily available at a good price and it offers a respectful presentation of one
of Jean Rollin's finest films. Recommended."
Another release of note, and one that was
reviewed on this site four different times, was the unrated version of Neil
Marshal's Doomsday. This is a film that met with mixed reviews in
theaters and DVD Talk's wide array of critics proved that the same holds true
for home video. Brian Orndorf wasn't all that impressed with the picture,
stating "Doomsday
is a mess of lousy filmmaking and unrelenting artistic bankruptcy, smashed
together to form an ear-splitting, overcooked, awfully irritating shell of an
experience. Whatever bloody-knuckle merriment Marshall was intending with this
tribute to the cinema speeds of the '80s has been lost in the headache-inducing
translation." Bill
Gibron was also far from blown away saying "If
you already own the movies mentioned in this review, if you groove on Kurt
Russell in his gnarly Snake Plissken persona and can only see Sigourney Weaver
and Milla Jovovich as hard as nails female ass kickers, then there's no reason
to revisit their lesser duplicates in Doomsday. Indeed, working up
anything other than a minor amount of morbid curiosity for this bomb belies the
film's many missteps. A score of Skip It would suffice, if only because
there's better Marshall out there. But some fans actually liked this
uninteresting free-for-all, so in order to be fair, a Rent It is required. Once
again, it provides a way for both sides of the situation - the lovers and the
haters - to have their say. From this critic's perspective, Doomsday is a
dud. The idea of Neil Marshall taking on the end of the world always had a
certain anticipatory flair. Unfortunately, there's a million miles of
disappointment between the prospect and its eventual realization."
On the flip side, Preston Jones enjoyed it and summed up his thoughts saying "Doomsday
is, at times, totally off the rails and completely surreal and the ending
strives for pathos it doesn't fully earn, but these are minor quibbles. When
writer/director Neil Marshall turns the volume all the way up to 11, lets his
freak flag fly and doles out the gut-churning violence like some kind of mad
chef, it's probably one of the weirdest, nastiest and most adrenaline-pumping
flicks you'll see this year. Recommended." Adam Tyner took a look at the Blu-ray
release and said "Doomsday is a blood-spattered love letter to that big
stack of post-apocalyptic flicks from the early '80s, as trashy, cacklingly
depraved, and ultraviolent as the best of 'em. Kinda goes without saying that
this isn't exactly for everyone, and I'm not gonna pretend that there's anything
particularly original about it, but Doomsday knows exactly what sort of
grindhouse sci-fi/action flick it wants to be and plows ahead unrelentingly,
guns blazing. As for this Blu-ray disc...? It's kinda light on extras, but the
1080p video and lossless audio are both first-rate. Highly Recommended."
Speaking of Blu-ray...
High Def Horror Highlights
A
film beloved not just by horror film buffs but by film lovers across all genres,
Alex Proyas' excellent neo-noir Dark City finds itself the recipient of
one of the best Blu-ray releases to hit the shelves over the last month. A true
special edition release, the Blu-ray contains both the original theatrical cut
of the film as well as Proyas' preferred director's cut.
Chris Nielson took a look at the disc and summed up his thoughts saying "Dark
City is a cut above the average sci-fi flick. Though not matching the
headiness of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey or Tarkovsky's Solaris
or Stalker, Dark City is a stylish middlebrow sci-fi film as
densely packed with cinematic references as any Tarantino flick, yet still
capable of entertaining a broad audience. With two cuts of the film, five
commentary tracks, and lots of other extras, this release has plenty of material
to explore. Though film aficionados will be disappointed with how New Line has
overworked the image with ugly edge enhancement and unnecessary digital noise
reduction that scrubs the image free of its original grain, more casual viewers
will only notice the significantly enhanced video and audio. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED!" With an interesting cast, a compelling and exciting storyline and
some truly gorgeous cinematography, Dark City is absolutely a film well
worth rediscovering and New Line's Blu-ray release is definitely the way to go
about doing exactly that.
Since
HD-DVD has more or less gone the way of the dinosaur around these here parts,
Universal has gone Blu-ray and Don Houston took a look at one of their inaugural
launch titles with his review of Steven Sommers' The Mummy. While this is
more of an adventure film than a straight out horror picture, it has enough of a
creep factor to it to warrant a look. Don's thoughts?
The Mummy was the
best version of the 1999 movie to date, the audio and video looking mighty good
and the extras serving to placate fans in this advertised Deluxe Edition. The
movie is a lot of fun, more fun on average than any of the sequels released to
date, and it shows that Universal is capable of surpassing many of their peers
in terms of offering high definition titles fans will definitely want to pick
up. The comparison to earlier versions for me was such that I wanted to analyze
the frames as stills in some cases, even my upconverting Oppo showing the
limitations of the older versions far too clearly for me to ever look back. The
spirit of the movie was well served by this Blu-Ray release and action fans
should appreciate this more than most titles released on the format to date."
Don also took a look at the sequel, The Mummy Returns, and had this to
say "The Mummy Returns had several standout moments for me, from the
ancient catfight between the two female leads (Weisz and Velasquez) looking hot
to Fraser fighting the assorted mummies to the pygmy scene to the ending fight.
The reliance on special effects was a bit over the top and a mistake but I can't
deny the appeal of the movie as a pop corn flick. The multiple layers of the
show allow for repeat views that have driven my own multiple dips into improved
versions of the release over the years, the technical enhancements not working
as well this time as they seemed to push the CGI and matted backgrounds further
than they were ready for without additional processing. Still, you can hardly go
wrong with the title on Blu-Ray since it was a fast paced and fun flick, well
worth your time and money as a sequel that does a moderate attempt of living up
to the previous version (not falling flat like most of them do but hardly
working as well either)."
Other Horror DVD's You Might Have
Missed
Heading
back to sexy-horror territory, Redemption also released Virgin Witch this month.
Ian Jane took a look at it
and found this to be an enjoyably trashy tale of the occult. "There is a bit
more to the movie than simply fine, shapely T&A, however. Not much more, but a
little bit at least. The scenes where the coven gathers outside for their
ritualistic ceremonies have some nice, eerie atmosphere and the cinematography
makes very good use of the English countryside and the ornate and stately manor
that much of the movie takes place in. The finale of the film is handled well,
with an appropriate if predictable twist thrown in for fun. This isn't a great
movie by any stretch but it's competently made, full of nice scenery, and it's
got some nice ambience - that makes it worth a look. A moderately amusing and
skin filled tale of the occult, Virgin Witch is far from a masterpiece
but is an entertaining, if predictable, little slice of British sleaze that
doesn't sound so hot but looks quite nice on this DVD. The film should certainly
appeal to those who like their horror a little on the sexy side or fans with an
affinity for the seedier side of UK horror. Recommended for the already
initiated, a solid rental for the curious."
Legend
Films quietly released Forbidden Zone this past month. Bill Gibron jumped at the
chance to check out this odd cult title and definitely liked what he saw.
"It seems shocking to actually be suggesting it, but decades after critics and
filmmakers alike condemned colorization as a travesty and counterproductive to
artistic intent, we have a wonderful example of the glorified gimmick fully
authenticating the purpose of a project - and the man who made the movie in the
first place. Just like everything else about its creation and concept, however,
leave it to Forbidden Zone to buck the trends and conventional thinking.
This wacked out wonder is easily one of the greatest underground films of all
time, and this latest incarnation is a winner as well. Earning an easy Highly
Recommended rating, the addition of the Fantoma extras would have mandated a
DVD Talk Collector Series score. Without them, what we are left with is
something equally valuable. Legend Films has done the near impossible with this
release. They have literally made audiences feel like they are watching
Forbidden Zone again for the first time. And as usual, it's still an
overwhelming experience."
And
to finish off this month's recent release round up, we take a look at the recent
release of Voice. Two different reviewers gave this one a shake - let's
start with Kurt Dahlke's take:
"Voice is a moody,
mildly disturbing horror thriller pretty much directed at an audience comprised
of the type of characters in the film: Korean high-school girls. Don't believe
the graphic hype of the DVD box - this doesn't seem like an unrated cut (at
least to my eyes it merits no more than a PG-13, so we'll chalk it up to
cultural differences). At any rate, shuffling, longhaired J-horror-style
phantoms are really a non-issue, and graphic horror is not the raison d'etre.
Voice does a great, languid job of making you feel like an alienated teenager in
a cruel culture of off-handedly disparaging kids, however, and the sadly vacant
stares and arresting performances of the lead actors mark this a cut above its
station. Asian horror fans looking for something off the well-beaten path could
do worse than to Rent It."
Thomas Spurlin also gave the disc a spin, and his thoughts were along the same
lines. His conclusion? "Voice
takes the waning ghostly formula and injects it with an artful shot of
adrenaline. It's still chained down a bit by the blueprint set by its
predecessors, but Il-hwak Cho's take on the idea does it with gusto that it's
worth Asian horror film fans -- as well as fans of mind-benders in general.
Genius Products' disc is attractive visually, but lacks in supplemental material
and aural properties. The disc is well worth a Rental just for the film alone,
possibly more if you're a hardcore aficionado of the genre."
Cineplex Scares: Current And Upcoming Theatrical
Horror
Other Horror DVDs Released in the Past
Two Months
Overlooked Horror
Discs From The Past - The Amicus Collection
With
the recent release of Philip Nutman's Scream And Scream Again: The Uncensored
History of Amicus Studios (available now) we figured this would be a good
time to revisit a trio of classics from the studio that dripped blood. So
without further ado, here's Jeffrey Kaufman's take on Dark Sky Films' The
Amicus Collection...
For
fans of the "modern" horror genre, the studio that usually springs instantly to
mind is Hammer, with their re-workings of venerable, public domain source
material like Frankenstein and Dracula. One might be forgiven for
thinking, when watching one of the three films in this set culled from the
Amicus Productions archive, that these are indeed Hammer productions, for they
feature some of the same cast (Peter Cushing) and crew (director Roy Ward
Baker), and a lot of the same ambience. Director Baker, in one of the extremely
informative and frequently funny commentaries included in this set, insists that
the Amicus films are, to quote Monty Python, completely different from Hammer,
but a more objective eye may catch more similarities than differences. The
Amicus films included in this set do, as Baker avers, take a more leisurely and
less gory approach than a lot of the Hammer films, but they share an overall
ambience that will appeal to any lovers of late 50s through early 70s British
horror.
The films included in this set are:
And Now The Screaming Starts, a perhaps trifle overlong feature that
plays like a very special Night Gallery episode, with new bride Stephanie
Beacham trying to figure out if her groom's family manse is haunted, or if she's
simply going bonkers. The film boasts impressive production values (as do all
the films in this set), and features excellent performances from Beacham, Ian
Ogilvy as her husband, Cushing as her therapist and especially Herbert Lom as a
really evil ancestor of Ogilvy's. Mixing elements from films as disparate as
The War Lord and Rosemary's Baby, And Now the Screaming Starts
plays well as a psychological thriller if not an outright shocking horror film.
The Beast Must Die is a fun, somewhat campy spin on the venerable
werewolf tale, albeit with a William Castle-esque gimmick--the film starts with
a disclaimer that one of the characters is in reality a werewolf and it is our
task as audience to figure out which one it is before the end of the film.
There's even a "werewolf break" to ponder the various clues before the
denouement is bared, along with the werewolf's fangs. This film was obviously
(and somewhat hilariously) made in the wake of Shaft, believe it or not,
and features a dashing African-American hero played with understated panache by
Calvin Lockhart. Cushing shows up here, too, as yet another Doctor, as does an
impossibly young Michael Gambon, who even at this early stage in his career has
the limpid, world-weary eyes that would define his better-known roles. While
lacking the directorial flair of the two other films (both directed by Baker),
The Beast Must Die is nonetheless a lot of fun if taken in the right
spirit--it's not as deathly and breathlessly serious as the Universal Wolfman
series, but that's actually for the best in these proceedings, which play almost
like an Agatha Christie whodunit (or at least whoisit), albeit with a hirsute
twist.
Asylum is in some ways the most satisfying of the three films, and the
most representative of what Amicus was known for--the compilation film. Based on
four short stories by famed author Robert Bloch (Psycho), who also wrote
the screenplay, Asylum cleverly clothes its portmanteau format in a
Beast-like gimmick. This time, a new to the institution doctor, played by
Robert Powell, must figure out which of the four patients he visits (and whose
creepy stories comprise the film) is in reality his predecessor at the asylum
who has since gone insane him (or her) self. Featuring great turns by a host of
excellent character actors (including Cushing yet again, as well as Lom, Barbara
Parkins and Britt Eklund), Asylum provides the most outright chills of
the set and moves between its four stories with ease.
All of the films boast at least one commentary track featuring the director,
while Screaming also features Beacham with Ward and another with Ogilvy
individually. There's also an illuminating (and at times scabrously funny)
feature on the history of Amicus films featuring co-founder Max Rosenberg, who
does not hesitate to dis many of his collaborators through the years.
Fans of the modern horror genre, and Hammer Films in particular, are going to
love this set. However, anyone with a fondness for well-made, occasionally
chilling psychological thrillers will find a lot to love in the three films
featured here. Amicus is sometimes referred to as "Hammer's little brother," but
this sibling packs its own unique punch.
Upcoming DVD Scares For Late
August/September 2008
DVD Stalk encourages you to check
us out over at our MySpace page. If you've got a MySpace account, make sure you stop
by and friend us. You keep reading and we'll keep writing. If there is anything that you, the
loyal reader, would love to see covered in this area, please feel free to send
us a note to [email protected].
We'd love to read your comments and feedback. Send us your thoughts on other
things you'd like to see in the space, or even random thoughts about the world
of horror. Drop us a line at
[email protected] or join us at
DVD Stalk on MySpace.
DVD Stalk Editor: Ian
Jane.
Contributors to DVD Stalk: Ian Jane, Bill Gibron,
Adam Tyner,
Kurt Dahlke,
John Sinnott,
Jeffrey Kauffman,
Don Houston,
Jamie S. Rich and
Brian Orndorf.
