Weekly DVD Dissection
Holy moley, get this: We just got word that Universal is releasing a 3-hour UNRATED cut of Steven Spielberg's JAWS! Can you believe it? I can't ... because it's April Foooooooools Day. (Zing!) OK, sorry for the lame gag, but I do have some good news that's actually true: Today is one heckuva holiday for the digital gorehounds of the world. From morbid musicals to CGI super-squid, April One has a little something for everyone.
By Scott Weinberg
Today's heavy horror hitter has to be Tim Burton's wonderfully macabre adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Available in a single-disc or swanky dual-platter options ... and I know which one I'll be picking up. (Expect a full review soon!) Sweeney didn't exactly blow down the box-office, but I can't remember the last time I saw a blend of music and mortality that was this strangely entertaining. (Only Burton and Depp could pull this sort of thing off...)
But let's say your tastes run in more of an '80s direction -- and you also love sequels. Well cool. Today you can get your fingers on MGM's Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2, and yes, the title is the cleverest thing about the flick. Or you can grab a copy of the cheeseball classic Return of Swamp Thing (if only to keep your Marvel Movies DVD collection intact). Also arriving today is a 1983 obscurity called Sole Survivor, which I (vaguely) remember as being pretty good. It was the debut of Thom Eberhardt (Night of the Comet, Without a Clue), which means it's definitely worthy of a revisit. In the market for something a bit more recent? Anchor Bay has a slasher flick called The Cook, which looks half-interesting, but we all know that DVD covers can be very deceiving.
Oh, and to the nine people on Earth who've been dying to see James Van Der Beek do battle with a giant squid, we have a new addition to the "Maneater Series." It's called Eye of the Beast, and it doesn't really show much of the monster until the end. Shocker there.
Also today: Three releases that'd probably work well for construction workers and / or building engineers: Fear House, Mayhem Motel, and Hell's Threshold. (Coming Soon: Freaky Foyer, Satanic Stairwell, and HELLWAY!)
Special Legend Films Report: Starting today the following DVDs are available exclusively at the Legend Films website: the now-legendary slasher spoof Student Bodies (1981), the hilariously bad (but sometimes funny) Jekyll & Hyde ... Together Again (1982), tons of antagonistic apoidea in The Deadly Bees (1967), Hammer classic The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), the killer-ant insanity of Phase IV (1974), Shirley MacLaine and Perry King in The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972), the homicidal telepathy of The Sender (1982), Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in The Skull (1965), and something called Zero Population Growth (1972) that I definitely want to see. Check out LegendFilms.com! Yes, Student Bodies, FINALLY!!
Next week: A lame theatrical release, a lame pseudo-remake, and that's about it!
