Weekly DVD Dissection
By Scott Weinberg
You'd think the day before Halloween would be THE big DVD day of the year, but the distributors seemed intent on peppering their big releases across the whole month. Which means that while October 30th does deliver a few solid titles, it's just not the blood-bath you've been hoping for. But feel free to scan back over the past four weeks to make up a shopping list. There's been no shortage of awesome releases. This week I'll make the big title...
Basket Case 2 -- Just because it's crazy-weird AND it's just now making its debut on DVD. Congrats, Belial fans. Your collection is now complete. We can think Synapse for bringing the long-awaited sequel to DVD, and yes there will be goodies. (If you're a young horror fan and you haven't checked out the Basket Case trilogy yet, well, you should.)
Captivity -- Er, let's just say it's not one of the best horror movies of the year. And that's being nice. Still, the gorehounds will want to decide for themselves, so rent away.
Day Watch -- Remember that nearly indecipherable Russian genre flick called Night Watch? Well this is the sequel. I hear it's actually quite a bit better than the first movie, which it'd have to be to earn more than 25 minutes of my time. Fox releases it in an 'unrated' cut, which will mean something only to the 64 people who saw Day Watch in theaters.
Twin Peaks -- This 10-disc "definitive gold box edition" contains all 29 episodes of David Lynch's cult classic TV series -- plus the original pilot and a whole bunch of extra features. Dang, now I have no excuse. I'll simply have to rent the discs and catch up on the whole damn series. Oddly, the Fire Walk With Me movie is not included, probably because Paramount doesn't own it like they do the TV series.
Also this week: A bunch of Blue Underground re-issues like Manhattan Baby, The Church, Hell of the Living Dead, Stagefright, and Rats: Night of Terror, in addition to an old-school Amicus Collection, a Fulci flick called The Psychic, and Dan Curtis' 1973 rendition of Frankenstein. And happy Halloween!
Next week: The horror starts to dry up a little, but we'll still have a Killing Spree, a Slaughter, a Feast of Flesh, and a visit from the Blood Monkey.
October's Weekly DVD Dissections:
