DVD Reviews

Predators, directed by Nimród Antal, 2010

Is Predators a horror movie? I think so. Earlier this week, I called Nimród Antal's new flick one of most entertaining popcorn movies of the summer in a post for our sister site SciFi Squad. Now I want to mention the movie's darker elements, namely the scenes that made my wife cover her eyes and ask me "Is it over?" during a recent screening.

Don't worry folks, I'm not gonna spoil the movie for ya. But I will say that Predators offers just as many horror elements and scenes of blood spillage – human and Day-Glo green alien blood –as the original Ahnold movie and more. The update, produced by Robert Rodriguez, features a creepy surprise that, for some audience members, will up the film's scares and suspense when it's revealed. Of course, some franchise fans are bound to hate the new feature, but I think it adds an interesting twist to the Predator mythos without complicating things too much. Whattaya waiting for? Go watch it already.

It's Christmas Eve, and Jodie (Linzey Cocker) has come home for the holiday only to find her estranged mother, Beth (Neve McIntosh), in the throws of passion with a stranger. After Jodie takes off to a friend's house across the street, Beth is left feeling shame and anguish with a man she hardly knows -- but soon her world is turned completely upside down when military personnel storm the neighborhood and hold people inside their homes at gunpoint. It's unclear if this is a terrorist attack or worse, but when bodies start piling up, Beth and the remaining survivors are faced with a monstrosity that seems to overwhelm any hope of survival. Will Beth make it outside to save her daughter? Will either live through this ordeal?

Carriers, directed by Àlex and David Pastor, 2009

There's a reason why most people have probably never heard of Carriers. As our own Scott Weinberg previously reported, the film was the victim of a botched theatrical release (less than 100 screens nationwide!). It's a shame, because Carriers is a very engaging dramatic thriller with good performances and an intriguing relationship between the two central characters.

Chris Pine is clearly having a blast playing the lead role of Brian, an immature bad boy struggling to keep his brother and friends alive following a viral pandemic. The supporting cast members – Lou Taylor Pucci, Piper Perabu, Emily VanCamp, and Chris Meloni – are all solid, especially for a small, almost straight-to-DVD genre flick. There aren't many scary scenes, and the gore content is pretty low here. Instead, Carriers focuses on the devastating compromises the characters are forced to make to stay alive. It's not the most original thing – certain scenes and lines recall Zombieland, 28 Days Later and a million other similar movies – but it's a lean and entertaining end-of-the-world tale worth checking out. I'm looking forward to more films from Spanish directors Àlex and David Pastor.

Beyond the Darkness, Joe D'Amato, 1979

Joe D'Amato's Beyond the Darkness (Buio Omega) is one of the more notorious Italian horror offerings and after hearing about it for ages, I finally sat down and watched. It's the story of a young man, his harsh looking maid, and the corpse of his beloved. Yes, this is a necrophilia movie -- a tale of forbidden love between a man and his dead girlfriend. Like all D'Amato fare, it's gory and filled with disturbing sex (watching the main character suckle at the breast of the maid is cringeworthy) and will make you want to shower after watching it. It also features a fantastic score by Dario Argento's favorite soundtrack collaborators, Goblin. This is one of their better non-Argento film soundtracks -- moody, evocative and well worth a listen for anyone who loves a little proggy action with their sex-filled gore flicks.

Best of the New Releases: Wish I could say...

Sadly, I haven't seen ANY of these week's releases ... yet. Let me tell you, I'm planning on fixing that post-haste. Slamdance flick I Sell the Dead finally hits DVD and Blu-ray this week. Glenn McQuaid's horror comedy got some solid reviews during its festival run and, oddly, I'm excited to see Ron Perlman play a priest. Lee Demarbre's love letter to Herschell Gordon Lewis, Smash Cut, finds it's way to DVD this week in an Unrated cut. The Sasha Grey-starring film played several high-profile genre festivals including UK FrightFest, Fantasia, Sitges and Austin's own Fantastic Fest. I missed it when it played here, and while I haven't heard great things, my love for Lewis will probably result in a rental.

Hot rods, aliens, zombies and pin-up girls inhabit the world of D.A. Sebasstian in his first feature film, Hot Rod Girls Save the World. The campy, but stylish B-flick is dominated by a rip-roaring soundtrack, original score (recorded by the director's band KsK) and enough hot rods to make any gearhead happy. While the film is somewhat of an homage to the rockabilly lifestyle, there are some things for genre enthusiasts to sink their teeth into.

I was in a rented lodge in Park City, Utah, several years ago, and since the snow was really bad (or maybe the Sundance options were really meh), I opted to dig through some screeners from "the other festival," Slamdance. (That's not meant as a knock. I adore Slamdance.) I was in town to review some films, so when I came across one screener that indicated a running time of 47 minutes, I got skeptical.

A 47-minute film, you see, is not a short film, nor is it a feature. So while I'd normally be elated to review a film called The Call of Cthulhu, it just didn't seem like a practical choice for "work." But I watched it anyway. And then I wrote my review about 18 minutes later. Months after that I ordered a copy of the film, and it still holds a firm place in my horror collection. Also, it's probably the finest, coolest, and most "faithful" H.P. Lovecraft adaptation I've ever seen. No disrespect meant to Stuart Gordon, but his awesome Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Dagon are "loose" adaptations, at best, whereas Andrew Leman's The Call of Cthulhu feels like it fell right out of 1931.

So what's all this got to do with you? Well hey, if you happen to be a Netflix subscriber (and I don't feel like a shill for saying you oughtta be), then you can enjoy the 47-minute Lovecraft love letter all by yourself. I'll even include the link: There. Enjoy! And then you can hit the official site and see what sort of lunatic passion inspires folks to make a 47-minute film in a resoundingly "feature friendly" universe. Hats off to the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society for putting this fine film together.

[Written by HS staffer Luke Mullen, who isn't in our system but will be soon.]

Horror Squad's own Alison Nastasi alerted eager horror fans to the impending release of a Blu-ray edition of Suspiria first announced way back in November. The new disc was released about a month ago and is currently available in the UK courtesy of Cine-Excess, a new arm of Nouveaux Pictures. I ordered a copy the day it came out and have been looking forward to really digging into it to see what it has to offer. I should mention up front that this Blu-ray disc is region B locked, meaning that it will NOT play in a US PS3 or other standalone Blu-ray players. It will ONLY play in region B machines, which are used in Europe, and in region-free players.

I'm not going to summarize Suspiria, or really talk about the film itself much at all. If you're reading Horror Squad, I would hope you've heard of it even if you may not have seen it. If by some chance you've been living under a rock for the last 30 or so years, though, Suspiria is an Italian horror film set in Germany and filmed in English directed by Dario Argento, a member of the holy trinity of Italian horror masters alongside Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci. Suspiria is easily one of Argento's best, and if you haven't seen it, you really should take the time to check it out.

What follows is a fairly in-depth look at the Blu-ray, feel free to skip to the end for a more succinct summary with less technical jargon.