Lights Out (Blu-ray Review)
Lights Out is the directorial debut of Davd S. Sandberg, based off his short film. Produced by James Wan, its almost as if he’s giving back as his first film was based off of a short he made (Saw). Turning a horror short into a feature length film can be a tricky business. These ideas are killer in their short form and sometimes there’s nothing more to tell than what was in that quick time frame. James Wan managed to do it well with the first Saw film. One that didn’t work was When A Stranger Calls; a film with an epic and legendary opening fails to prove it has reason to exist beyond that. Fortunately for Sandberg, he found a way to make this work, and he thrilled audiences all the way to the bank with one of the summer’s most profitable films. And it looks like we’ll be keeps the switch off again in the near future with a sequel, too. Continue reading ‘Lights Out (Blu-ray Review)’
The continued pairing/relationship of IFC Midnight and Scream Factory of bringing some independent, lesser seen modern horror films continues with the film Carnage Park. This one stars horror genre vets Pat Healy (Starry Eyes, Cheap Thrills, The Innkeepers) and Ashley Bell (The Last Exorcism). Directing and also writing the film is up and coming genre player Mickey Keating. He’s been making his presence known lately with films like Pod and Darling. Carnage Park is the latest and its made its way through big time festivals like South By Southwest and that little one known as the Sundance Film Festival. The throwback film makes its way to the Blu-ray format on November 1st! 
Its hard to believe that its been sixteen years since director Ang Lee announced himself as a powerhouse director with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film burst onto the scene to great acclaim in the United States, even moreso than in its native land. Critical acclaim and audience enjoyment followed with an incredible amount of awards love for a foreign film. Lee’s film garnered ten Academy Award nominations that year, including Best Picture and Best Director. While it didn’t take the big prizes, it wouldn’t go home empty handed, winning for Best Foreign Film, Art Direction, Cinematography and Original Score. This also launched a bit of a craze for this sort of martial arts film in the United States with the likes of House of Flying Daggers and Hero following in its wake, as well as launching the career of Zhang Ziyi. 
From the macabre mind of Rob Zombie (
Olive Films is continuing its march toward newfound greatness with the release of another classic Western, The Night Of The Grizzly featuring Clint Walker. Its not the last western that they’ll be dropping in this signature series, a Raquel Welch classic is coming next month. That seems to be where their focus is right now with the Signature series. If you’re reading, Olive Films, I want to put my request in for The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers as soon as you can get to it. The original one, that you’ve already put a release out for. Yeah, you knew that. Shut up, Brandon and talk about The Night of the Grizzly? Oh okay okay. This new edition features a carry over interview and some neat archival videos. Alongside John Ford’s The Quiet Man, The Night of The Grizzly Olive Signature Edition will be available 10/25/2016. 
Following Sweeney Todd, I was very excited for Tim Burton to be taking on Alice In Wonderland. It looked like not only would it have the Burton stamp, but it would be sort of a follow up to the original tale. However, the film came out the same weekend in 2010 that I got married. The following week, my wife opened a business. The film just sort of got away from me. It was met with really poor reviews and disdain from peers that I trust, so I just never got around to seeing it. I avoided it for the last 6 years. Now, since this sequel was coming out, and I knew I’d be reviewing it, the time had finally come to see this 1 billion dollar box office success story. And, well, I have to say it was pretty bad, and easily one of Burton’s worst. However, while I didn’t want a sequel, it wouldn’t take much more to improve. And here we are. 
Nerve was a film I kinda wrote off last summer. The trailer played with a quite a few films I went to see, but it looked like one that gave away everything and it seemed to skew younger than I’d be interested in. Not that an aspect like that would keep me from seeing something, just in terms of my immediate need to catch it. It did slightly catch my eye. However, upon release, the film actually managed to garner some surprisingly positive reviews, even managing to score fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. A budget doesn’t seem to be available, but Nerve couldn’t have cost too much money and looks to have made some decent bank if it indeed had a really low budget. I didn’t quite get out of the house to see it in the theater, but here it is on Blu-ray and I’m more than willing to check it out. Lionsgate has this one dropping on October 25th. 
After Bud Abbott and Lou Costello had a run in with the famous Count himself (In a return to the role by the seminal Bela Lugosi), Dracula pretty much laid dormant in the cinema landscape. Vampires would still be around, but the main antagonist of them all took about a ten year break. Then in 1958, he made an interesting set of returns. History has been stamped with the Hammer film Horror Of Dracula (or just “Dracula” for most territories), but that film wasn’t alone in resurrecting the Count. As a matter of fact, the appropriately titled The Return of Dracula was the other. And its interesting how completely opposite the two films are. One inspired a legacy and countless sequels, also spawning other monsters. Return pretty much came and went and has been forgotten. But not today, we’ll be taking a look at this film as Olive Films will be giving it a Blu-ray debut on October 18th. 
Another wishlist item granted! I specifically wanted a US release of Nighthawks on Blu-ray. Previously, this was only available in German. Now its coming via the Shout Select Collector’s Edition line from Shout! Factory. They’ve only been around since August, but they’ve been pretty much killing it as expected so far. They are basically taking what they’ve done with their highly praised and heralded Scream Factory line and branching it off to other genres or just everything else that isn’t horror. Today’s title actually fell into the horror category when featured in 1981’s compilation film Terror In The Aisles. Only fitting that Shout! Factory snuck this one into the October release slate. This highly underrated and forgotten film in the Sylvester Stallone canon makes its way to Blu-ray in the states on October 18th. 
Vanity Fair called HBO’s limited series, The Night Of, “The best TV you’ll see this summer.” Who am I to argue with that claim? I learned about the show from all the buzz it was experiencing online before the series even premiered. Because of its early release online I made my girlfriend watch it with me on Apple TV. The rest is history. Like a meth addict, we were instantly hooked and waited with anticipation for the new episode each Sunday night. This is ironic too considering we were basically wishing our weekend away because the inevitable would ultimately see us back to the grind at work the very next morning. The drama in this show is just so damn gripping that much like my first experience with the film The Warrior (starring Tom Hardy) I never wanted it to end. Sad, but true things did come to a grueling end on the show here. However, it was a very realistic ending and I applaud it for that even though there’s no more of this to go around (even a second season would be executed much like HBO’s other anthology series True Detective). 
Larry Cohen is no stranger to B-movie cinema geeks like myself. He’s mostly known for all kinds of genre fare, like Q: The Winged Serpent, The Stuff, the It’s Alive movies and even a sequel to Salem’s Lot. But, the man really got his start in Blaxploitation cinema, crafting a couple of Fred “The Hammer” Williamson’s strongest efforts with Black Caesar and Hell Up In Harlem. Aside from his own stuff, he has written plenty of other films. He’s a New York filmmaker and has plenty of experience in “the biz”. After doing the monster film Q, in 1984 he opted to do two thrillers. One of those was a satirical look at Hollywood and filmmaking. It was a sort of different route for the director. That film is Special Effects. 
Last month saw the debut of Lionsgate’s Vestron Video Collector’s Series line. Finally digging into those vaults of not just Vestron Video, but Artisan and other studio catalogs that Lionsgate had acquired over the years. There are some major horror gems that have been getting sat on that people have been screaming for on Blu-ray. And now, they are making REAL good on that (You paying attention Warner Bros?). Vestron Video continues its resurgence with its third release, the Waxwork and Waxwork II: Lost In Time double feature. These are actually (Maybe moreso the first movie) some titles that people had been begging for that are now coming to fruition. This double feature also isn’t just one disc with two movies share, they’ve let them each have their own disc. Going even further, the cover art isn’t split, they’ve given each their own full presentation (You just have to pick a side you want on the outside display). 
Pete’s Dragon, a reimagining of Disney’s cherished family film centered on an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliot, who just so happens to be a dragon. Families will be captivated by this magical movie followed by never-before-seen bonus features, including a revealing look at director David Lowery’s personal diary kept during the filming of “Pete’s Dragon,” the design process behind the lovable dragon Elliot, deleted scenes, a tour of the film’s breathtaking production location of New Zealand, audio commentary by filmmakers and actors and hilarious bloopers. Today’s announcement also ushers in tomorrow’s World Dragon Day and the heartwarming adventure arrives on Digital HD, Blu-ray™, Disney Movies Anywhere, DVD and On-Demand on Nov. 29; just in time to entertain the entire family this holiday season. 
It’s insane to come to the realization that Frank Capra’s timeless classic, Mr Deeds Goes Town is celebrating its 80th year of existence. A couple of years ago, I reviewed the Blu-ray for another Capra legend, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. That film and this one share a lot in common with one another. They also have very similar Blu-ray releases. It seems around this time of year, Sony drops one Frank Capra film that’s locked away in their vault in a nice 4K remastered digipack set like this. Last year saw the release of You Can’t Take It With You, which means we’ve also had three years of releases of terrific Jean Arthur films as well. You’ll be able to find this one on October 4th, which actually means you can pick it up at any time. 
IFC Midnight and Scream Factory are teaming to bring the Danish zombie thriller What We Become to Blu-ray in the US for the first time. The Bo Mikkelson film didn’t have much life theatrically, playing in just four theaters to open, but managed to find life through streaming services in Denmark and gradually moving around the globe to find viewers and appreciators. Unlike other zombie/infected films, this one’s promise is to be much more character based with its build, only to have to watch the characters work together, butt heads and struggle to survive a deadly outbreak. The film will be available on a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack from Scream Factory on October 18th, with plenty of time to have it to add some Danish flare to your October Halloween horror movie marathons leading up to the big day. 
The Exorcist II: The Heretic proved that even the worst of sequels cannot effectively kill a franchise. One of the most reviled follow ups of all time, the John Boorman film hardly sees a unironic form of praise anywhere across the criticism community. But, it always finds its place in bizarre or worst sequel lists. While it took some years to follow, a third film in the Exorcist lore came at the hands of its creator. William Peter Blatty adapted his book Legion, which he originally intended as an Exorcist follow up, to become this third film. Said film ran into some head butting and famous reshoots, covering up a different original intention of the film that fans have been clamoring to see for years since its release. Now, Scream Factory has put together a composite version from VHS dailies mixed with scenes from the theatrical version in this souped up collector’s edition of the Exorcist sequel that many are fond of. 
Legendary pirates face off in the thrilling STARZ Original series Black Sails: The Complete Third Season arriving on Blu-ray + Digital HD with Ultraviolet and DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment on November 8, 2016. The notorious raider Blackbeard arrives on the scene in the third season of “Black Sails,” as Captain Flint, Charles Vane, John Silver, and Jack Rackham vie for control of Nassau. The three-disc set contains all 10 episodes and over 40 minutes of special features, including 10 minutes of new exclusive extras! Best of all! The best PR person in the galaxy just sent along this clip for me to share with y’all. Relish in it! 
