Weekly DVD Dissection
Today we get one of the best vampire flicks in quite some time, a few video selections, and a handful of freaky imports. All in all, a pretty good week for the gorehounds.
By Scott Weinberg
The big title of the week (perhaps the month) is probably David Slade's impressively nasty 30 Days of Night, which is translated (quite well) from the graphic novel of the same name. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George star as a pair of humans who try to stay alive during a month-long vampire onslaught. It doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it's cool when a new movie brings a little something different to the vampire concept. Extras include a cast & crew commentary and a bloody fistful of featurettes. Expect a full DVD review soon!
Another solid offering comes from Dark Sky Films in the form of a brief French import called Them. Known as Ils in French-speaking cities, it tells the tale of one couple, one isolated house, and one serious night of horror. (Another import -- this one from the UK -- called Nature Morte arrives on DVD today. I've only seen a few minutes of it, so I cannot comment on its quality.)
One title that's been earning a surprising amount of positive word is The Rage (starring Misty 'Erin Brown' Mundae), which comes from veteran gore-slinger and director Robert Kurtzman. It's about some genetic experiments that go horribly wrong and the result is murder, mayhem, and mutants. And hopefully some fun. Expect a full review soon.
That's about it for stuff I've seen and/or know about; I guess the other horror merchants are (wisely) staying away from 30 Days of Night. But for those who enjoy picking through the low-budget, the foreign, the obscure, and the just plain weird ... check out some of these new titles:
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue -- Also known as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, so don't go buying a movie you already own.
The Sick and Twisted Horror of Joanna Angel -- OK, even the DVD cover scares me.
Devil's Offspring -- J-horror. I think.
The Bloodstained Shadow, The Case of the Bloody Iris, and The Short Night of Glass Dolls -- Three Italian shockers from the '70s, courtesy of Blue Underground (Previously available from Anchor Bay).
A Bloody Aria -- Korean import about a woman being chased by a psycho.
Next week: March kicks off with the starring debut of John "The Arrow" Fallon in Deaden, plus we also get titles like Suburban Sasquatch, Army of the Dead, Savage Planet, Megasnake, Dead Moon Rising, and Automaton Transfusion. And that's just in week one!
