Weekly DVD Dissection
Today we get a really limp J-horror remake (wow, really?) called One Missed Call, which is precisely as forgettable as Pulse and The Eye and Shutter and any of the remakes that isn't called The Ring. (OK, and The Grudge. I'll give that one, but if you insist on The Ring 2 or The Grudge 2, we may have to brawl.) This one's about a cell phone voice-mail that predicts a slow and predictable doooooom. The studio can't even be bothered to slap some new gore and an "unrated" tag on the thing, so really, why bother?
By Scott Weinberg
I got that one out of the way first for a reason: Today you should purchase two DVDs. One is for a movie called Cloverfield and the other is called The Orphanage. I want you to buy these DVDs so that more movies like these can get made. The first one you've probably seen by now: It's that "Blair Witch meets Godzilla" flick that was mega-hyped before its release and, despite that, turned out to be a damn fine monster movie! Extras include a director's commentary, four featurettes, several deleted scenes, and a buncha hidden stuff! The second movie (aka El Orfonato) was my pick as the #1 flick of 2007. Not to overhype The Orphanage, but I think it's one of the most effective "haunted building" movies I've ever seen. Guillermo del Toro was producer (not director), but his stamp is all over the movie. Extras include three featurettes, trailers and galleries. (This would make for one strange but satisfying double feature, if you ask me. Watch Cloverfield second.)
Also today: Adrian Paul in a tale of haunted dorms in Seance, a crazy Thai import called Sick Nurses, a Korean haunted house effort called Black House, and a strange-looking and obscure nugget from 1980 called Scared to Death -- which now has a home in my Netflix queue.
Next week: Not much in the "A-list" department, but tons of genre schlock, both old and new.
