October 20th DVD Releases
by Britt Hayes
We’ve got a slew of releases this week, but don’t get too excited. Some of them are a bit lackluster, to say the least.
Blood: The Last Vampire
Marc assures me that this film sucks (get it? Shoot me), but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to see it. I watched the trailer again recently (before Drag Me To Hell, I believe), and something about the cinematography – which I’ll admit is a bit predictable in style – really caught my eye. Blood is based on the anime of the same name. Also, if you tell me a movie sucks, I’ll just want to watch it more. It’s morbid curiosity. Anyway, the film follows Saya, a 400 year old human-vampire half-breed who makes it her mission to hunt and kill vampires, even though she herself also must feed on blood to survive. Saya gets transferred to an American military base where she believes she can kill Onigen, the vampire patriarch. The trailer says “From a producer of Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Blood is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Wrong Turn 3: Left4 Dead
The first film was tepid. The sequel was insanely fun. What can you expect from the third entry? The film is directed by Declan O’ Brien, and written by first time writer Connor James Delaney. The story is the same as the first – a group of friends find themselves stranded in the same woods with the same cannibalistic inbreds. Do yourself a favor and rent this if you’re that curious.
The William Castle Film Collection: 13 Frightened Girls, 13 Ghosts, Homicidal, Strait-Jacket, The Tingler, The Old Dark House, Mr. Sardonicus, and Zotz!
This collection is absolutely awesome, but the $80.95 retail price is a bit much. At Amazon you can get a discount, setting the price to $59.99, but even that is steep. Here we have all eight of his Columbia horror pictures, with the added documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story. Castle was an exciting filmmaker, who, like Hitchcock, appeared in his own trailers and sometimes in his own films. The movies were scary, funny, and a total blast to watch. The DVD set is filled with special features, including various trailers. I’d say rent for now until the price drops, but it is a must-have for any horror fan.
Isle of the Snake People
This is a 1971 film starring Boris Karloff as Carl Van Molder/Damballah. The lengthy synopsis:
“The inhabitants of a small, remote island have been practicing voodoo rites and worshipping an evil priest named Damballah for years, but the local law officials generally turn a blind eye to this death cult’s bizarre activities. Captain Labesch arrives from the mainland, determined to crack down on the island’s lawlessness and clean up the ineffectual, hard-drinking police force. He appeals for assistance from wealthy plantation tycoon Carl Van Molder, who owns nearly half of the island and wields a great deal of influence over the population. Van Molder has made the study of parapsychology his life’s work and believes in the secret powers of the mind. He warns Labesch not to interfere with this forgotten island’s ancient ways. Also visiting is Van Molder’s niece, Annabella, a temperance crusader who wants her uncle to help fund the International Anti-Saloon League. She falls in love with handsome police lieutenant Andrew Wilhelm, despite his fondness for rum. Meanwhile, beautiful native girls are being transformed into zombies, and a sinister snake dancer named Kalea leads them to attack and devour any meddling policemen who get too close to their unholy rituals. When Annabella is kidnapped and prepared to be the cult’s latest human sacrifice, Labesch and Wilhelm have to infiltrate their ranks to save her, and they finally learn the secret identity of the all-powerful Damballah.”
I get the feeling the synopsis is longer than the film itself.
Last of the Living
The plot follows three slackers living on a post-zombie-outbreak earth, as they hop from house to house until they come upon a hot girl who may have the cure for the outbreak, and they finally decide to save mankind….because of a hot girl. Yeah. Color me not interested at all. For you die-hard zombie fans out there who don’t care how good or bad the movie is, go for it.
100 Feet
I’ll follow Famke Janssen into any film, no matter how terrible. 100 Feet is written and directed by Eric Red (writer of 1986′s The Hitcher, and tells the story of Marnie Watson, a woman who kills her domestically abusive husband in self-defense and is placed on house arrest. The only problem is that her husband’s angry spirit has possessed Marnie’s home, and won’t let her go without a fight. The synopsis almost sounds a bit mysoginistic – a woman is badly beaten, and when she fights back, she’s beaten even more – but I’m still interested. 100 Feet also stars Bobby Canavale (Snakes on a Plane) and Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl), and is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Also released this week: Blood+ Part 2, Blood Ties, Dirtbags: Evil Never Felt So Good, Moonchild, P, Ravage the Scream Queen, Satan’s School For Girls, Uninvited, and The Whistler.
And next week we’ll have a look at: Black Devil Doll, Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet, Dead Air, Fear(s) of the Dark, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (BD), Messiah of Evil: The Second Coming, Late Fee, Night of the Creeps, Orphan, Stan Helsing, Sauna, and X-Cross.
