ItsAlive

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.

Here's a horror flick that Erik Davis might want to avoid for a little while. Horror freaks are no doubt aware that the prolific filmmaker Larry Cohen once gave us an entire trilogy full of killer infants ... but the remake has had a pretty tough time finding itself a home. Directed my Josef Rusnak (The Thirteenth Floor), the new version of It's Alive stars Bijou Phillips as a lovely young mother who slowly discovers that her newborn is ... a monster. And we're not talking about strong lungs and stinky poop here.

Shock informs us that First Look will release the DVD on October 6. According to sources (and, ok, the DVD cover) this will be an "unrated" release. I've actually seen the remake already, and (one guy's opinion) it's ... meh. Not terrible, certainly not great. And after seeing a flick like Grace, it feels just a little bit sillier.