Weekly DVD Dissection
By Scott Weinberg
Let's just forget last week ever happened and get right into the goods. Also, I'm getting rid of the "bullet point" system in favor of a looser "blog-style" approach. I hope you like it more, because I sure will.
When I call Adam Green and Joel Moore's Spiral a "psychological thriller," please don't think that means "some sort of yawny TV movie thriller thing," because it's actually quite the solid little movie. It's about a skittish guy who meets a lonely girl at work ... but obviously something bad has to happen, right? Right. If you want Hatchet 2, don't bother. Otherwise, highly recommended.
Another smaller flick that I quite enjoyed is an Aussie import called Black Water. Yes, another alligator / croc flick, but this one's easily better than Croc, Primeval, or (dear lord) Lake Placid 2. It's actually done quite a bit like Open Water, and I mean that as a compliment.
You may have caught Twisted Pictures' Catacombs when it premiered on FEARnet a few months back, but here's your chance to get the uncut, unrated version on DVD. I'd heard the flick was nigh unwatchable, and it certainly isn't great, but if pretty girls being chased through underground mazes is your thing, it's definitely worth a rental. (OK, maybe not definitely, but Shannyn Sossamon is just so damn cute.)
The latest in the Dimension Extreme catalog is a Japanese import called Nightmare Detective, which is more of an Asian episode of CSI with a liberal dose of spooky stuff than it is an out-and-out horror flick. But it's not bad. Expect a full review very soon!
I remember seeing a trailer for the Aussie occult / action flick Gabriel well over a year ago ... and now it arrives on DVD, courtesy of Sony. It looks to be one of those "angel vs. evil / dark vs. light" concoctions, and certainly worthy of a weekend peek.
If you're dying to see a movie in which Sam Jones, Billy Drago, Carel Struycken, Martin Kove, Fred Williamson, Tane McClure, and Mickey Jones appear, here's your chance: Revamped.
Also today: The very weird Frankenstein's Bloody Nightmare and two I know very little about: Tempe's Forest Primeval and Michael Madsen as a serial killer in Eyes Front.
Next week: 30 Days of Night, The Rage and that Them (aka Ils) flick that you've been hearing about from the festival circuit.
