This Week in Horror Dvd Releases

This Week, the week of September 9th, we got a few horror movies coming through the pipe. One thing I hate about horror film marketing is that NO one ever seems to promote these very well, so good luck finding an ad anywhere for these. Check out the notable horror releases for this week, it's not half bad.


House of The Dead Director's Cut Dvd - Some people might cringe at hearing that this is out, but I personally don't think it's that bad of a zombie movie. If you're a fan of the video games, you'll probably enjoy this one, although it's NOT a glowing example of great horror writing or film. It's worth a look or two, and for you horror fanatics, a must own.



Pet Semetary Special Collector's Edition Dvd - This dvd has come out before, but this week another edition came out which is being called a Special Collector's edition which features a few commentaries, mini docs, surround sound and a lot more. Not bad, for a re-release of sorts.



Pumpkinhead Collector's Edition Dvd - It's finally back in an all new collector's edition and most places have sold out of this one. If you're a fan of the classic movie that is Pumpkinhead, then this is a must own. It is one of the first movies that I saw as a new horror fan back in 1989, as a 6 year old! Yeah, this one brings a lot of memories for me.



Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! - Strippers VS Zombies dvd - The name says it all. B or C level horror is found here in what is a very deserving straight to dvd release. I'll see it, although I'm not sure that anyone else will. If it's any consolation, it has 5 stars on Amazon as of this post.


Species Box Set Dvd - The Science Fiction series Species lands into a full blown 5 disc box set for you guys to devour. I saw the first couple films while I was going through puberty, and wow...talk about an awakening. I know, that was gross, I'm sorry. The films range from mediocre to horrible, but it's a box set and you can have the whole series in one shot.


Fox Horror Classics Collection, Vol. 2 Dvd - A box set of horror films from way back. You get Dragonwyck, Chandu The Magician, and Dr. Renault's Secret, and it's all in one easy box set. The films aren't going to get rave reviews from everyone, but you horror buffs are going to eat this up, as am I.


Child's Play Special Edition dvd - this has come out a ton of times, but now on its 20th birthday comes out the special edition dvd. Why not? It's a must have if you don't already own the box set, like I do.

Feast 2 Dvd Cover Art

I'm not a big fan of the original porno-esque "Feast" dvd, but I do enjoy the project greenlight version of Feast, and here is the latest cover art for the straight to dvd project Feast 2! Looking good to me...I'll go nuts if Rollins shows up.

Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.

House of 1,000 Corpses Review

Rob Zombie’s directorial debut is like a journey into hell on dvd. I recall when this movie made it’s theatrical run, and Sid Haig was outside of my local theater passing out tickets to a horror convention that he was signing autographs at. It was hilarious, and I didn’t know who he was until I sat down and watched the movie.

The movie has a simple premise, a group of young adults are traveling the nation looking for weird and spooky tourist traps. They stumble upon Captain Spaulding’s museum of weird stuff and chicken, alongside The Murder Ride. In this ride they learn about Doctor Satan, and after some questions find out that the Doctor Satan house is just down the road, so of course, they must explore it.

Meanwhile, there are a group of cheerleaders missing, and locked up in a dingy garage somewhere. We don’t hear more about this until later, but it plays as a key turning point later on in the movie. The beginning of the film sets up for what kind of language and violence is to come, when a failed robbery turns into a hilarious introduction to Captain Spaulding. (My Favorite of All Clowns)



The movie starts to feel a little recycled, and then the horror starts. If you’re a fan of Gore, you’re going to be in love with how its presented here. Skin peeling, guts exploding, head shots, ax cuts, surgical procedures, zombies, and even occult rituals pour out of the crevices of this film to make quite a cesspool of interactive fun.

The ending is also a great tribute to the 1980’s scare secenes, but I won’t deliberate more information than that. You’ll love it, that’s all I will tell you about that.

Here is a trailer for House of 1,000 Corpses:



Alright, so you either hate this movie and hate Rob Zombie, or you love this movie and get all the references that long time horror movie fan Rob Zombie threw in there. If you’re a fan of horror you’ll catch all the references to movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, Friday the 13th, and dare I say…A Nightmare on Elm Street, oh and I’m reaching for this one, but Toxic Avenger is also summoned in spirit, if you really pay attention. The overall tone of this film is dark, and it’s rainy. There are a lot of cut scenes that you don’t really know how to explain, but you don’t have to, you just strap in and get ready for a journey into what the radio spots call “Hell”.



Rob Zombie may have got a lot of heat for Halloween, and when I reviewed the movie Halloween, I didn’t think it was as bad as people said it was. House of 1,000 Corpses is a great entry into the horror genre for both nostalgia’s sake and horror on its own. If you’re a long time horror fan, rejoice that this is not a Japanese remake of some kind, it is definitely NOT pg-13 and is definitely worth its weight. I admit, the first time I saw this movie I didn’t really like it, but it grows on you, like the fungus or disease in Cabin Fever (a favorite of mine). House of 1,000 Corpses is not the greatest, but it is heavy and hardcore enough to win this horror movie buff over, with enough blood, guts, and glory. Try it on for size, and enjoy the ride!

The Tattooist Review

The Tattooist is a slow moving, haunting film. The movie really is slow moving, and I usually don’t mind that if there is a lot of tension or story that it helps progress. This movie is just slow for the sake of being slow, and the actors aren’t exactly high caliber, forcing the viewer to sit through some odd set up, and weird character development that truly isn’t all there.

The movie surrounds a tattoo artist that claims he has healing powers with tattoo’s that he makes. The movie shows him putting a tattoo on a young child, his father promising him money for it, although hesitant, our main character gives a very young boy a tribal tattoo. Flash forward to a tattoo convention and our main character stumbles into a Samoan tattoo ritual after seeing a lovely lady smiling at him. He then leaves, but before he completely vanishes, he steals an ancient instrument of tattoo delivery. As he steps outside he runs into the boys father (refer to the beginning of this paragraph), who claims that his tattoo did nothing to help, and the story progresses from this point. But first the camera quickly pans to a minor injury, where our hero of sorts lands hand first onto the ancient tattoo needle….foreshadowing the rest of the film, and we’ll get to that.

For some odd reason the tattooist, who’s name is Jake, travels to New Zealand to hunt down this woman. He is not in a foreign place, which I initially thought, he finds his old pals and begins to set up shop there tattooing people. However, each person begins to die horrible tattoo related deaths, and he starts to worry. Eventually he tracks down the woman, and is connected into a web of strange cult-like hauntings only to realize that the art of “tatu” isn’t just fun and games.

Here is a trailer for the film The Tattooist:



I hope that synopsis made sense, because I found it hard to even come up with that much information about this movie. The set up seemed painstaking at times, and following along was really not fun. However, right when I was ready to throw in the towel on this vapid film, a sex scene occurred and I was back at it, paying lots of attention. I don’t think I would have cared as much about this random sex scene, but the woman involved looked like my eight grade crush, and I couldn’t help be remember all those times that I was nervous around her. As an adult, obviously these memories are just that, memories, but it’s rad to think how movies can help you bring back old memories. After this sex scene things start going really bad, as people are dying some awesome deaths. The deaths usually involve lots of ink being dripped slowly from the wounds of the tattoo’s done by Jake and they flow like fountains.

The third act in this film is where things start to fall apart for me. Thrown in for good measure there is a family feud, a well kept secret about the woman’s uncle killing a boy, and of course if that wasn’t enough a ghost. Yep, they threw in a ghost to make sure we were still scared, and you know what? No one is scared, and no one cares at this point, making me wonder why anyone would spend any amount of time trying to watch this piece of crap film.

Granted, this film is straight to dvd, and the woman (who is a relatively unknown actress) looks like my 8th grade crush, this movie isn’t going to spark a lot of fires within the horror community. The Tattooist has a great amount of graphic design revolving the packaging, and pointing towards a better market for straight to dvd horror films, but this movie just isn’t very well paced, well acted, or scary at all. I wouldn’t highly recommend this film at all, and more over, I would most likely only see this film if you’re a male and like nudity, although brief. This straight to dvd, or seemingly straight to dvd effort really is lacking in the scares, the gore, and the horror elements. Sure we get a haunting, sure the tattoo death effects are awesome, but the story is so choppy and the set up takes so long that if you’re still around for the closing moments of the film, you’re going to be upset.

The Tattooist is now available on dvd, and while it has some great effort, it doesn’t do the job of scaring up anything. Unless you count my 8th grade crush, spank bank material. Uh…I didn’t really just say that…you’re imagining things.

Don’t forget to join The Scary Movie Club for October 2nd, and check out our Grindhouse Store for some sweet deals on horror movies and more.

Movie Club: Ice Spiders

In our first ever Movie Club movie, we are featuring Ice Spiders. This is how it will work, you the reader...all 2 of you will get this movie by either buying it, renting it, borrowing it, stealing it or getting it on Netflix. (Or if you're lucky catch it on Sci-Fi Channel) You will write a review of it, then let me know, and I will post an update with My review of this film, and the link to your review! That's right, we will help each other out. Tell your friends, bloggers, family, and make it a movie night of horrible B-Horror movie madness! Let me know by September 30th 2008, because on October 2nd, the month of HORROR I'm going live with My review of ICE SPIDERS! And you're links to your review of ICE SPIDERS! Heck, you do this review and you can get 1,000 ENTRECARD CREDITS! That's right, easy credits. Here is the dvd cover, and a trailer! Oh and for you Entrecard Junkies, I'll throwdown 3000 Entrecard Credits if you PURCHASE this dvd from the links below and let me know...yeah...so you have time, and you have the incentive, so lets get this movie club thing working...if I get no entries, well at least you get to read my thoughts on what could be the most disastrous made for tv horror/science fiction film ever! Oh and last but not least, if you participate, send me a link, and i'll add you to my blogroll and link to my front page...share the love!





Here's your shot at 1,000 Entrecard credits, and if you're generous 3,000 entrecard credits!

September 30th is the deadline for your posts, my post will go live October 2nd with a link to your review, and of course if no one steps up, I'll keep my credits, and will at least post my review.

The first 3 people that buy the dvd will get 3,000 credits, and up to 15 people will get 1,000 entrecard credit prizes. I am not made of credits, but I have quite a few to dish it out.

Feast (1992) Review

"Feast (1992) Box Cover Art"

Everyone has probably heard of the horror movie Feast that came out in the last few years, but this movie isn’t anything like that one. This film called “Feast” is like an R rated porno film. The movie is suppose to be horror, but it stars a porn star named Sharon Mitchell and has a cameo from none other than Ron Jeremy! There are also cameo’s from other porno actors and/or directors of porno films, and there seems to be an underlining sexual current in this film.

Two friends are seducing women into auditioning for parts in a movie, only to get killed and eaten! That’s right, this is a cannibal movie! These two guys are polar opposites, except that they love eating young women. Meanwhile, one man is getting psychiatric help and the doctor begins to fall in love with her patient, and begins to want to experiment with him and his sick storytelling.

The movie is straight to vhs, it is shot in the same manner as any good straight to vhs film. However, the film quality is higher than anything I’ve seen straight to DVD recently, but then again, there are most likely a lot of people in the porn world with access to full fledged cameras, equipment, editing, and the likes. The make up effects are horrible, and the dead bodies look completely fake. The characters spew lines as if they are serious, and this movie really isn’t all that fun to watch at all.

As the story develops, a rogue cop starts to piece together a cannibalism trail and now the Psychiatrist is in the middle! This is about the most tense the movie got, but really this one is just bad. I’m not sure if there is an x-rated version of this film where hardcore sex is involved, or whether this was just an oversight by Netflix or if this seriously is an attempt at a horror film. It has horror elements, but overall, this movie is just weird. I swear this film looks and plays out like a big budget 70’s or 80’s porno film, just without the hardcore sex involved.

I do NOT under any circumstances recommend watching Feast, the 1992 edition, and you probably won’t even see this one in stores, since it’s one of those obscure horror films that just didn’t pan out. Had I been working at a video store again, I’d have been completely upset over this piece of trash film.

One saving grace though, the film quality is really good. I’m glad that at least the cinematography takes itself seriously.

Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.

The August Death Toll

Wow, we're in September already and another month passed by without much of a whimper. I'm sorry for the lack of posts this month, all 2 of you out there that still read my site are probably wondering what happened.

Well this month was haulted in large part to Netflix screwing me over, and my time being split into more little niche's than normal. I also took a small vacation the last 5 or so days and wasn't watching horror movies are even thinking horror. In fact, I spent most of my time playing Sonic The Hedgehog on my ds.

However, there are some hidden gems from August that you should check out, and see how the death toll (reviews) went down in the month of August:

Death Race Review
Lost Boys: The Tribe Review
Hard Candy Review
Mirrors Review
28 Days Later
Feast
28 Weeks Later

The Overall Deathtoll continues too:

Death Race Review
Lost Boys: The Tribe Review
Hard Candy Review
Mirrors Review
28 Days Later
Feast
28 Weeks Later
Night of the Demons Review
Midnight Skater Review
The Howling Review
Dee Snider's Strangeland Review
Vampires: Los Muertos Review
High Tension Review
Blood: The Last Vampire Review
The Relic Review
The Wizard of Gore Review
Wrong Turn 2
Hatchet
The Ruins
Blood Car
Videodrome
Masters of Horror: We All Scream For Ice Cream
Believers
Cabin Fever
Dolls
They Call Her One Eye
Inseminoid
The House on Sorority Row
Planet Terror
Rob Zombie's Halloween
Funny Games
Friday the 13th
Sleepaway Camp
Camp Slaughter
Feed
Wrestlemaniac
Population 436
The Faculty
The Omen IV: The Awakening
Otis
Ax' Em
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
The Curve
Lifeforce
P2
The Machine Girl

Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.