Weekly DVD Dissection
Bad news, horror freaks. Not only is this month distressingly light on horror movies in the cinemas -- but we're also looking at one sorry-ass month of DVD releases! I guess the logic is that ... people don't want horror during the lovely summer months? All I know is that summer usually stinks for the scare junkies. But, as always, there are a few pieces of buried treasure out there...
By Scott Weinberg
My pick of the week is an absolute no-brainer -- in more ways than one: It's the infamous slasher spoof Student Bodies, which finally hits DVD courtesy of Legend Films. If you think Scary Movie was the first flick to get silly on the slashers, be prepared to think again. Student Bodies is a terribly sloppy and undeniably bizarre little obscurity, but anyone who enjoys the early works of Michael Meyers and/or Jason Voorhees will definitely get a few chuckles from this one. (Paramount is so proud of the movie that they sold it to another distributor!) Another slightly horror-themed comedy arriving today: The also-very-silly Jekyll and Hyde: Together Again.
Also part of the "Paramount dusty shelf / Legend Films acquisition" category: Shirley MacLaine and Perry King in 1972's The Possession of Joel Delaney and Peter Cushing in the 1965 Amicus chiller The Skull -- neither of which I've seen and both of which are currently in my Netflix queue.
The big seller this week will undoubtedly be the Jessica Alba J-horror remake The Eye, which wasn't as worthless as I expected ... but it sure isn't great. Just like the original, it's about a young blind woman who receives a pair of haunted eyeballs and starts seeing all sorts of allegedly horrifying visions. Eek. The 2-disc edition comes with four featurettes and some other random stuff including an iPod ready version of the flick -- but if you guys were hoping for an "unrated" version, prepare for a disappointment.
Shark Swarm! That's an actual movie title! As in "Argh, swim! There's a Shark Swarm right behind you!" (According to my encyclopedia, a group of sharks is actually called a "shiver," but you probably wouldn't get as many DVD rentals on Shark Shiver.) Part of RHI's "Maneater Series" (which also includes titles like Blood Monkey, Grizzly Rage, and Croc), Shark Swarm (woohoo!) stars Armand Assante, F. Murray Abraham, and apparently a whole bunch of sharks.
Also today: A throwback slasher flick called Stump the Band, a "La Llorona" tale called The Cry, and a low-budget Lionsgater called The Evil Woods -- which I'll also rent.
Coming next week: A very familiar remake, a creepy new Signal, and a new horror-comedy from Raw Feed.
