DarkCountry

Best of the New Releases: Trick 'r Treat, The Children, The Thaw, Not Quite Hollywood
Okay, okay, you've had Trick 'r Treat bludgeoned into your conscious to no end lately. Well now is your chance to finally see Michael Dougherty's fabled film. I can't speak for what's on the DVD or Blu-ray, but the film itself is a wonderful tribute to all things Halloween. I saw it for the first time a week ago (review) and I'm already planning on popping in the Blu tonight.

This October's haul from Ghost House Underground isn't quite as large as the eight or so films they put out last year, but what they've lost in quantity they've made up for in quality (plus all four titles are available on Blu-ray). For starters we have The Children, a film I think can't be improved upon (review). Next up is The Thaw, a nice bit of eco-terror starring Val Kilmer and Aaron Ashmore about the discovery of a mammoth and the deadly parasites frozen inside it. Mark A. Lewis' film is basically a proposition of how to remake The Thing without remaking The Thing, but that's not entirely a bad thing considering how excellent the formula of frost-bound bio-horror is. I wouldn't call The Thaw a blind buy, but it's worth a look down the line.

I have a man-crush on Thomas Jane. He's always been charming on screen (even when doing "Arrested Development" cameos as himself), but The Mist wrapped a tentacle around my heart that I'm still recovering from. Around the time he starred in Frank Darabont's love letter to all things that go bump in a fog bank, Jane announced that he was going to take the director's chair on a project called The Dark Country for Stage 6 films, producer/distributor of genre titles like Zombie Strippers and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, and that his first go calling the shots was going to be in 3-D to boot.

That was two years ago, well before the 'Let's do everything in 3-D!' bandwagon of production announcements. Fast forward to now and the only major news to come out about Dark Country, which stars Ron Perlman and Lauren German in addition to Jane, is today's DVD details and trailer found at Dread Central and embedded below. Considering the quality of the goods on display and that Dread's news on the DVD makes no mention of the third dimension side of things, it may be a safe assumption that the majority of us will never have the chance to see Thomas Jane's directorial debut the way he intended it to be seen.

That's a shame, really. I'm not saying Dark Country looks like a masterpiece, but the man did save the world from genetically engineered sharks, after all. Doesn't mankind owe him so little a debt as a limited theatrical run in 3-D?