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My review of Acorn Media's upcoming DVD release of M.R. James's Casting of the Runes will be slightly awkward in that I'll be breaking (a bit, anyway) the standard template of a DVD Talk review. I'm recommending the disc, but I'm doing so more in consideration of its bonus content than its actual feature. For you see, in addition to the 1979 ITV production of the celebrated British ghost writer's popular story titled Casting of the Runes, the DVD contains a 1995 television documentary titled A Pleasant Terror: The Life & Ghosts of M.R. James, itself several minutes longer than the "feature," and another television adaptation of an M.R. James tale: Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance. Acorn could have highlighted all three programs and calle...Read the entire review

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Three years ago, after I reviewed Repo! The Genetic Opera, a short blurb appeared on DVD Talk's main page noting that three reviewers for this site (including myself) had each given that unusual film a "Highly Recommended" rating. The blurb then stated something along the lines of how unusual it was to have three reviewers agree upon anything. A few days later, Adam Tyner wrote a fourth review and broke the chain with a mere "Recommended" rating for Repo!. Perhaps he did that deliberately, the rebel.

I wasn't originally going to start this review with that ...Read the entire review

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Look, I wasn't expecting much from 7 Below going in. I've watched plenty of direct-to-video horror over my years - and reviewed quite a few titles in the genre here at DVD Talk and elsewhere. One pops the disc into the player, and if the movie makes sense or does anything remotely interesting or unique, then it gets chalked up as a win. Simple. 7 Below even had a few things in its favor, most notably a cast headlined by Ving Rhames and Val Kilmer with veteran character actor Luk...Read the entire review

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Image Entertainment's cover slip for their recently released DVD of Madison County is a great example of ludicrous home video art - replete with two garish "poster" images of the film's pig-masked and axe-wielding killer and the lame yet chuckle-worthy tagline "Kiss your axe goodbye" in blood red type. The package is reminiscent of grindhouse and drive-in promotional material of yesteryear. And like the great majority of those films, Madison County does not quite successfully deliver the b...Read the entire review

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The Cabin in the Woods, a horror movie still playing in theaters here in the United States, led to some curious reviews, as part of the film's central appeal are the surprises it contained. More than one commentator, for example, began with the disclaimer that the flick was best viewed by an audience who didn't know much about it going in.

While the same may not be true per se of Claustrofobia, a Dutch thriller recently released Stateside on home video by Seminal Films, it nonetheless presents a challenge for reviewers like me. I'm realizing that it's difficult to discuss the movie without revealing some of its twists - and see...Read the entire review

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Lionsgate's DVD cover art for their upcoming release of the British import Night Wolf is chuckle-worthy. The text "FROM A PRODUCER OF DOG SOLDIERS" is not only highlighted in red on the front, but it's also repeated front and center on the back. Seriously? That's this movie's calling card? Some producer from Neil Marshall's decade-old werewolf film helped see Night Wolf through - and that's the most noteworthy thing about it? That seems like a stretch, especially consider...Read the entire review

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Suspicion, as Horizon Movies' tagline for this newly minted home video release of a 1988 English production suggests, is a remake of a vintage Alfred Hitchcock thriller of the same name starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. While I've seen a number of Hitchcock's thrillers over the years, I have to confess that I didn't see this one, so I can't necessarily comment upon how the remake reflects the original. Matt Hinrichs, a fellow DVD Talk reviewer, has, however, and you can read his thoughts between the two in his review of Suspi...Read the entire review

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Film history wouldn't be complete without its share of classic spoofs, and genre fare has provided the inspiration for many funny parodies over the decades. The Universal monster movies, for instance, have been sent up by the likes of Abbott and Costello and Mel Brooks. Speaking of Brooks, perhaps the king of all parodies was the humorist's take on Star Wars back in the 1980s: Spaceballs. Films like these are successful, in part, because they show nostalgia for and an appreciation of their celluloid source material.

This is what a lot of lesser parodies ...Read the entire review

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Note: All eleven seasons of Frasier have been available on home video for several years. Various members of the DVD Talk community have posted individual season reviews of the show. If you'd like to read their thoughts, just do a basic review search on the site's search engine.

It was with enthusiasm that I approached this review of the recently released Fan Favorites edition of Frasier. Not only have I been a fan of the series since its inception (nearly 20 years ago), but I also participated in the Facebook poll that generated the resulting content on this disc. To be honest, I might quibble a bit with some of the epi...Read the entire review

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Richard Gabai's Insight (or IN/SIGHT as the opening credits sequence would have it) is one of those films that shamelessly dive into the cliché pool, soaking every possible drop of character stereotype and plot convention it can into a cable TV friendly 90-minute package. I don't mean that necessarily as a criticism; sometimes formula stories can be like comfort food - and this psychological (with hints of the supernatural) thriller certainly delivers a tasty snack: pleasant tasting though ultimately lacking in nutrition and substance. I kind of liked i...Read the entire review

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Not to be confused with the Roman Polanski film of the same title, The Tenant is a low budget horror film from a couple years back that has now been released on DVD by Indican Pictures. Ric La Monte, the writer and director of The Tenant, has squeezed together two different though linked stories here. The first is an old-styled Tales from the Crypt-ish shock story while the second is a borderline slasher film. Both are set largely at the gothic-looking Edgewood Asylum with 28 years separating the two narratives. The former tale ...Read the entire review

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Note: A year ago, I reviewed a single-disc collection of six episodes of The Garfield Show for DVD Talk entitled Odie-Oh. Vivendi Entertainment, since that time, has periodically released similar one-DVD packages of thematically-linked installments of this CG-animated take on the infamous fat cat from the newspaper comics section, with Dinosaurs & Other Animal Adventures being the latest in the line. Contextual portions of my last review are going to get carried ove...Read the entire review

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As part of its growing Asian Cult Cinema Collection line, Synapse Films has just released the tame (relative to its subgenre) 2005 J-Horror title Gurozuka directed by Yoichi Nishiyama. Anytime I review a foreign title without an English language dub (as Gurozuka's DVD is packaged), I feel obligated to start off by acknowledging that fact. Reading subtitles doesn't bother me, but I know many film enthusiasts who refuse to do so. If you fall into that camp, this first U.S. home video release of Gurozuka just is not f...Read the entire review

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A year or so ago, a friend e-mailed me a link to a funny YouTube video where a user stitched together a montage of cell phone scenes from horror movies. You know the type of scene, the obligatory explanation for why characters in a 21st Century horror movie can't just phone for help when they're in trouble or being menaced. I was reminded of this montage while watching the recent thriller / borderline "torture porn" Don't Let Him In. This English import, now available Statesid...Read the entire review

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When DVD Talk sent me Phase 4 Film's latest low budget horror DVD release, The Open Door, to review, I anticipated, based upon it description, another clever supernatural twist on the teen slasher formula along the lines of Forget Me Not released by the distributor earlier this year. It did seem a little odd that this film, apparently made in 2008 here in the United States, was only now - at the end of 2011 - getting a US home video release. But, eh, such things can happen.

The ...Read the entire review

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"The Gift of the Magi" is one of the best-known short stories from a famous writer named O. Henry. Popular during the holidays, it tells the story of a young newlywed couple with little money who each sacrifice one of their most prized possessions (a watch for the husband; long hair for the wife) to buy a gift for the other. The story, now more than a century old, is still taught in literature courses, and it regularly appears in contemporary anthologies ...Read the entire review

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Charlie Brown and his Peanuts gang have been a mainstay of not only the newspaper funny pages but also holiday entertainment for generations. The 1965 animated television special A Charlie Brown Christmas remains a perennial yuletide favorite to this day, as does It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. These and other signature Peanuts holiday specials have made their way onto home video in various incarnations for decades. The latest variant is this year's fantastic blu-ray combo pack reviewed for DVD Talk by Randy Miller III here. One of the most magical elements of these early cartoon ventures for Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Sally, and the other P...Read the entire review

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Before I begin this review, Palisades Tartan's DVD release of The Slit-Mouthed Woman should not be confused with an earlier (and apparently more graphic) title of the same name reviewed by Daniel Siwek for this site here - though both films are based upon the same Japanese urban legend. It has, however, been apparently released before under the monicker Carved - reviewed by Nick Lyons here. ...Read the entire review

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Over the last several years here at DVD Talk, I've started a number of reviews of Lionsgate titles by praising the distributor for releasing international horror films of note with respectable home video presentations. And it's good to see that they're still up to the challenge at the close of 2011. Out in stores nearly two weeks ago, the latest Pang Brothers horror opus in their "Eye" series was unveiled to American audiences - and while The Child's Eye is not one of the finer efforts by this Hong Kong duo, it's still worth a look for fans and the disc co...Read the entire review

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Miss Nobody, recently released on DVD by Inception Media Group, is one of those films that you leave wishing it were better than it actually was.

I've sat here for a few minutes wondering how to begin this review for DVD Talk - and that first sentence is the best I can come up with. Miss Nobody is a strange cinematic concoction: a light-hearted dark comedy about an insecure secretary (er, I mean, "administrative assistant") who discovers the path to her success up the corporate ladder - quite accidently on a real ladder at f...Read the entire review

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This week, RHI Entertainment, as it is wont to do, released another made-for-television movie on DVD. Titled Secrets in the Walls, the disc, upon first glance at its cover art, appears to be a recycled SyFy Channel movie (fare that RHI tends to release on home video with great regularity). However, this supernatural 90-minute thriller (clearly timed to allow for roughly 30 minutes of commercials in a 2-hour block of cable programming) falls more in line with the Hallmark or Lifetime Channel, given its emphas...Read the entire review

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Here's the deal. I'm going to begin this review of Cinema Epoch's recent DVD release of Paul Della Pelle's Lizard Boy by speaking to 99% of the people who may happen upon this entry in DVD Talk's database of reviews and saving you a little time. I realize I'm giving it a "Rent It" suggestion - but if you have mainstream tastes, if you enjoy Hollywood blockbusters and cable television productions and nothing else, then this movie is not for you. Lizard Boy is terrible. Just move on. There's nothing to see here. Thank you and good night...Read the entire review

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Back in July, EOne Entertainment released Maneater, a low budget creature feature that follows the template of SyFy Original Movie fare and could easily have been included as part of Vivendi Entertainment's Maneater Series line (although that line had an unrelated film involving a tiger titled Maneater). EOne's Maneater has a copyright date of 2009. The fact that, two years later, it is only now being given a home video release might suggest something about the quality of this film. It...Read the entire review

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Roadkill is the third entry in the Maneater Series to be released by Vivendi Entertainment this year, preceded by Behemoth and Ferocious Planet, both of which I've also reviewed for DVD Talk. Before each of the prior two reviews, I've provided an update on the line - in case anyone out there is a fan of the series. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending upo...Read the entire review

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For four years, distributor Lionsgate released the infamous After Dark Horrorfest "8 Movies To Die For" lineup of low budget and foreign fright flicks onto DVD. Traditionally, each octet of horror flicks was released simultaneously in both individual and box set formats. 2011, however, sees several changes made to this annual home video paradigm. First, After Dark's Horrorfest is now under the banner After Dark Originals, with each of the eight flicks coming from an original script and made in-house. In addition, the movies are coming out pie...Read the entire review

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Three months ago, I posted a review for Behemoth, the first entry in the long-running Maneater Series DVD line in over a year. The Maneater Series, for those unfamiliar with it, distributes repurposed SyFy Channel creature features on home video with cover art that bears a border and a series logo. Originally released through Genius Entertainment, the line was punted over to Vivendi Entertainment via RHI Entertainment. ...Read the entire review

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SyFy Presents.

Those two words comprise the opening credit statement to Witchville, the umpteenth made-for-cable movie to premiere on the SyFy Channel before getting a cursory home video release. Truth be told, I've reviewed so many SyFy movies in my tenure at DVD Talk that it is now difficult to come up with a novel way of beginning a review for a title like this. I did some slight research on Witchville before sitting down to write this review in order to jog my own thinking process. As I type this, the Internet Movie Database has links to four ...Read the entire review

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[Reviewer's Note: The following three paragraphs have evolved into my standard overview of Doctor Who from previous write-ups I've done for the original series' DVD releases here at DVD Talk. Doctor Who fans can feel free to scroll down to the next set of images for my thoughts on Time and the Rani itself.]

The BBC science fiction series Doctor Who is a powerhouse legend in television. It initially ran almost continuously from 1963 - 1989. That's 26 years! After a lengthy hiatus (filled by a plethora of novels and Big Finish full-cast audio productions), the series recently returned to production with great success...Read the entire review

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[Reviewer's Note: The following three paragraphs have evolved into my standard overview of Doctor Who from previous write-ups I've done for the original series' DVD releases here at DVD Talk. Doctor Who fans can feel free to scroll down to the next set of images for my thoughts on Frontios itself.]

The BBC science fiction series Doctor Who is a powerhouse legend in television. It initially ran almost continuously from 1963 - 1989. That's 26 years! After a lengthy hiatus (filled by a plethora of novels and Big Finish full-cast audio productions), the series recently returned to production with great success. David Te...Read the entire review

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It's so easy to become jaded if you watch a lot of low budget horror, either as a fan or as a critic (or both, in my case). There is just so much of it, with a week that doesn't go by without several micro-budget productions flung out onto DVD shelves, NetFlix queues, RedBox kiosks, and SyFy's weekend schedules. And a large percentage of it, let's be honest, is highly derivative and hardly memorable. There are, however, always those diamonds in the rough: films that either ...Read the entire review

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The BBC science fiction series Doctor Who is a powerhouse legend in television. It initially ran almost continuously from 1963 - 1989. That's 26 years! After a lengthy hiatus (filled by a plethora of novels and Big Finish full-cast audio productions), the series recently returned to production with great success. David Tennant was a splendid Doctor, and Matt Smith (currently in his second year as the Doctor) has effectively taken over the role following Tennant. It can be seen on BBC America here in the States, and, of course, on DVD and Blu-ray.

My first experience with Doctor Who came in the 1980s, when WVIZ, channel 25, a PBS s...Read the entire review

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The BBC science fiction series Doctor Who is a powerhouse legend in television. It initially ran almost continuously from 1963 - 1989. That's 26 years! After a lengthy hiatus (filled by a plethora of novels and Big Finish full-cast audio productions), the series recently returned to production with great success. David Tennant was a splendid Doctor, and Matt Smith (currently in his second year as the Doctor) has effectively taken over the role following Tennant. It can be seen on BBC America here in the States, and, of course, on DVD and Blu-ray.

My first experience with Doctor Who came in the 1980s, when WVIZ, channel 25, a PBS s...Read the entire review

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A year and a week ago, I posted a review for an offbeat genre mash-up called High Plains Invaders. At that time, it seemed that the long-running Maneater Series of repurposed SyFy Channel creature features had run its course. Originally released through Genius Entertainment, the line was punted over to Vivendi Entertainment via RHI Entertainment. In April 2010, no new titles were on th...Read the entire review

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The Absent's cover art is reminiscent of the poster for the infamous 1980's slasher film Sleepaway Camp without directly ripping it off. Sleepaway Camp's poster had a blood-splattered knife jammed into a tennis shoe with a handwritten letter to Mom and Dad on notebook paper in the background. The Absent's poster has a handwritten list of names on notebook paper with a blood-splattered knife scratching out a name. Between that similarity and the surprisingly detailed plot summary printed on the back cover, one could certainly be forgiven to think that The Absent would be another slasher film runaround.

It ...Read the entire review

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The ever-present zombie subgenre of horror films has seen quite a few variations over the decades. From the slavery motif of the Bela Lugosi classic White Zombie to the consumerism metaphor of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, not to mention modern day accounts like the truly horrific 28 Days Later and the truly comic Shaun of the Dead, one would have thought the undead have been done to death cinematically (apologies for the unwarranted bad pun - you didn't deserve that, faithfu...Read the entire review