Scream Factory changes

 

It appears that Scream Factory, a sub-division of Shout Factory, has made a couple of changes recently to their collector's editions.

 

One change is that if you order from them directly, many times on their collector editions, they will give you a free poster.  If my memory is correct, they used to send the posters out rolled in a tube.  Now, they are sending them out folded in a magazine-sized cardboard sleeve.  I guess it saves them money, but it sort of ruins the poster.  See the picture below of two of their recent releases.

 

The other change is that they now shrink wrap the cardboard slipcase on their collector edition titles.  They are doing this to protect the slipcases, because the slipcases themselves are now "collector items", because they are only going to be included on the first pressing of the combo packs.  You can see the shine of the shrink wrap on the recent releases below.  It is funny because the original reason slipcases were put on dvds and blu-rays, was to eliminate the glare of the shrink wrap and to make them stand out on the shelves.  Now they are going to have to put a slipcase over the shrink wrap on the first slipcase.  It's a never-ending cycle.

 

Mischa Barton and Walmart

In this age where retail stores are now rarely stocking independent horror dvds and blu-rays, we horror fans have an unlikely ally, Walmart.  Walmart is one of the last brick and mortar stores that still stocks independent horror movies and at a bargain to boot!  Many of the dvds that Amazon list at over $20, Walmart sells for $10 to $15.  They typically get around 3 new titles a week.

  I have been a fan of Mischa Barton since the great movie, Lawn Dogs.  I guess she was eleven years old when she did that film.  Lately, she has been doing a lot of independent horror/thrillers that have gone straight to DVD.  She has done Cyberstalker, A Ressurection, Apartment 1303, and the recently released, I Will Follow You Into The Dark.  Of these, I have only watched Apartment 1303.  That movie had its moments, but was overall disappointing.

What does Mischa Barton have to do with Walmart?  Every single one of her recent DVD movies has been released at Walmart for $9.99.  As far as I can tell, all these DVDs are from different companies/distributors.  That is quite a coincidence since, even though Walmart stocks about three new horror titles a week, most new horror DVDs never see the light of day on a Walmart shelf.  Does the person who decides what DVDs to stock at Walmart have a crush on Mischa?  Does Mischa have a side job at Walmart in the DVD purchasing department?  A mystery is afoot!

Sanitarium - Mini Review

 This film is a horror anthology with tales based around some type of madness.  Malcolm McDowell plays a doctor at a sanitarium.  The movie involves him relating the stories of three of the residing patients.

  The acting is good.  There are many well-known actors in the cast.  The premise of all three tales are very promising, but how they all play out is disappointing.  The stories lose focus and tend to drag, especially the final one.

  The three stories involve:

•  An eccentric artist who creates these evil-looking clay figures straight out of a Tim Burton film.  He might be bringing these creations to life in more ways than one.   
•  A boy who suffers abuse at the hands of his father is suddenly stalked by a figure that may be even more savage than his old man.
•  A man who believes in the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012, builds a fallout shelter to survive it.

If only the film realized the potential of the three stories.  I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

You're Next - Mini Review

   I originally saw this film at its showing during last year's San Diego Comic Con.  After the film, there was a Q & A with actresses Barbara Crampton and Sharni Vinson, and the writer (Simon Barrett) and the director (Adam Wingard).  The pictures of the event are at the bottom of this review, including one in 3D.

  This movie takes place during a family reunion between a couple and their four adult children, who each bring their significant other.  The whole film takes place at a country house.  It is not long before they are attacked by men wearing pagan animal masks.

  The film is very good.  The story is not that great or very original.  What really makes the movie, is the acting, the dark humor in the interactions between the characters, and the execution of the action scenes.  They are all top notch.

  The only downsides to the film are one irritating shakey cam scene, which was done that way because the filmmakers were out of time to do it properly, and characters some times doing things they would never do in real life, to set up the story the way the writer wanted to, a la "The Purge".

  The Blu-ray is slim on extras: two commentary tracks and an eleven minute "making of" feature.

 I give the film 4.5 stars out of 5.

Barbara Crampton, Sharni Vinson, the writer (Simon Barrett) and the director (Adam Wingard)

The Picture on the right is an anaglyph 3D image.  You need the standard red/cyan glasses to see it in 3D.

Carrie 2013 - Mini Review

 I was looking forward to this movie, because I really like Chloe Grace Moretz as an actress.  I did have some trepidation about this remake, as Chloe was going against Sissy Spacek, who really nailed the character of Carrie as a sheltered outsider in the original.  It turns out my fears were realized as this turned out to be another soulless remake of a classic.

Despite the fact that the new Carrie is very similar to the original, with some aspects of the story being emphasized / de-emphasized, they just got it all wrong.  It's funny, because in the behind the scenes features on the disk, many times it is mentioned that the remake is going to be more realistic than the original.  This couldn't be farther from the truth. 

To start out with, Chloe is mis-cast as Carrie. Not just because she is pretty, like every critic of this movie has pointed out, she just doesn't have the emotion of a scarred individual that is oppressed by her mother, as Spacek had in the original.  Just observe how the line "You should have told me, Mama!" is delivered in both versions.  Sissy really made you feel the pain in her life with her performance and you felt for her.  The original was about a shattered girl trying to shake the mis-guided will of her mother and fit in with the rest of the world with tragic results.  In Carrie 2013, the title character is quite a bit less syphathetic.  This remake, in the words of the director in one of the featurettes on the blu-ray, "Is a superhero origin story".  Bleck! 

   I think Chloe has a great future as an actress, but I think doing this movie was a mistake for her.  I would have to give the movie 1 out of 5 stars.

Big Ass Spider! - Mini-Review

 This movie has a lot of buzz going on about it.  They did a pretty good job of promoting it.  Troma helped promote the movie at one of their panels at the last Comikazee convention in LA.  They passed out game cards from the movie.  Mine is pictured below, I didn't win anything.

  This is a fun, campy movie with some scares.  It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it is not too over the top where you don't care about what happens.  It fuses a 50's style giant insect movie with a modern day comedy. 

  The main star of the movie is the CGI spider and the CGI destruction it commits.  The CGI is fairly good for a low budget feature, and there is a lot of it.  The effects are not as believable as a big budget science fiction film, but for a film like this, they are adequate.

  My only critisism of the Blu-ray version of the film, is that the extras are lacking.  There are only some trailers and about 6 minutes of SXSW premiere footage / cast interviews.

  It was a fun, film, I would recommend it.  I don't think it quite lives up to its hype.  You can tell the filmmakers put a ton of effort into this production.  I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Empire of the B's book

I recently bought a cool book from Full Moon Features.  It is about the studio that Charles Band had before Full Moon, Empire.  Empire released Re-animator and a bunch of other cool flicks.  The author is based in the UK.  This is the UK edition, it does not have a US publisher yet.  Full Moon received 100 of the books early and sold them on their website.  They were numbered 1 to 100 and signed by Charles Band.  I got two copies, numbers 20 and 21.  They sold out in just a couple of days.  Full Moon might get more in later in the year.  It is softcover, with about 375 pages.  It has many pictures throughout the book in black and white.  The price was $50 each.  

Box of Dread - January

Today, I received my first Box of Dread.  This is a monthly mystery box that is similar to Loot Crate, except there are only horror-related items in the box.  It is about $20 a month.  The link to the website is below.  This month contained a ReAction Alien figure, a "vintage pack" of Terminator cards from the year 2000, an Insidious 2 water bottle, and an Insidious 2 led lamp with compass.

http://www.boxofdread.com/

Killer Klowns from Outer Space panel

Pictures I took of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space panel from Son of Monsterpalooza.

 

Nailbiter - Mini-Review

Nailbiter - Mini-Review

I watched this last night. I was orginally going to see this film at Shriekfest last year, but I didn’t go.

The film is about a woman on a car trip to pick up her husband from the airport. Accompanying her, are her three daughters. Along the way, they encounter a tornado and have to seek refuge in the cellar of a seemingly abandoned house. It turns out that the tornado is the least of their worries.

I had mixed feelings about the film. I like the premise and I thought the story was fairly good. It had some original aspects, I particularly like the old woman character. The creature effects and the way they were shot were impressive. On the negative side, some of the acting was sub-par. I also didn’t like the editing, many of the scene transitions were not smooth. It took me out of the movie and it made the story a little hard to follow.

Not a perfect film, but I enjoyed it. I would give it 3 stars out of 5.