ABC’s Of Death 2 (Blu-ray Review)
26 horror shorts all in one package? Sounds neat! That said, horror anthology films tend to be a mixed bag for me. Sometimes I find them very enjoyable. Other times they tend to go on for too long, exhausting me in the process, and leaving me with only so much to praise, despite the strong effort coming from the filmmaker(s) involved. Truth be told, I never got around to seeing ABC’s of Death, as I had heard things that led me to believe I would not really appreciate it. For ABC’s of Death 2, however, I had heard the short films presented were mostly much more effective this time around. Given that there is no continuity in a film like this, I went for it and got what I expected in terms of overall reaction. Now the film is on Blu-ray, with 26 different shorts for viewers to wrap their minds around.
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The past three years, consistently in the horror world, we’ve been anticipating a film in the V/H/S series. Done in the classic horror anthology mode, but using the modern “found footage” aesthetic, the first film was a neat experiment that went pretty hit or miss. Last years’ followup was seen as a consensus improvement. It also contained a segment that had one of the most horrifying and disturbing horror stories I had seen in a long time. I was eager to see what they are considering the finale. Which, it surprises me that they are showing restraint and cutting the series off at this point, as I could see it going on much longer with more original stories or similar ones from different perspectives. Plus, these don’t cost much and also don’t seem to have lengthy productions by their nature. 
A mesmerizing look at small town life, the four-part HBO® Miniseries drama Olive Kitteridge, 
Sometime in the later 1980s, the famous books and story of The Phantom Of The Opera fell into public domain; meaning anybody could make their own cinematic, televised or stage rendition of it without having to jump through hoops to get the rights. Coming of the success of Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers, director Dwight H Little wanted to get the first one done before countless others threw their cards in the hat. He snagged up fright icon Robert Englund at the peak of his pop culture popularity as well as one of the “it girls” of the moment Jill Schoelen to do his own take on the story. Largely forgotten, this was a pretty hyped and anticipated film back in 1989. Not just in the horror community either. The film wound up being a crushing disappointment both from a critical and box office perspective. However, through the annals of home video, the film first began finding itself an audience of appreciators on VHS and even more when it was released on DVD. Here it comes to the next format, where it hopes to find even more new fans. This makes it the perfect candidate for a Scream Factory release. 
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Now Alexander throughout the rest of this review) was a popular book published back in 1972 by Judith Viorst. I remember that book being a popular book to read even during my youthful years. Even though, I’m not sure whether I read it or not. I at least remember that title pretty well. Once a project over at 20th Century Fox, the film moved to Disney and was released this past October. In a market hungry for a live action family comedy film, the film prospered to the tune of a great opening weekend and overall awesome box office performance. This genre seemed somewhat of a thing of the past, not so much popping up with any frequency anymore (Maybe it hasn’t gone away, but I don’t feel I’ve seen anything with prominence, success or marketing like this one). With the majority positive reviews and a successful box office take, this might mean we see a small resurgence in this kind of film as an option at the multiplex. 
Scream Factory’s newest original film is a modern dangerous woods creature feature. Its another film that comes from Chiller TV (As they’ve had plenty of their original films go to Scream Factory for physical media release). This however first debuted on VOD before making its way to Chiller TV. The name that first caught my eye when I learned of it was Joey Lauren Adams being in the film and being over the title. While she’s not just some glorified cameo in the movie, she is kinda wasted. When I watched the film, another name I recognized was that of Drew Barrymore. No, she’s not in it, but she was the producer for it. If you missed the film when it ran on Chiller TV or Video OnDemand, Scream Factory is giving you a chance to just straight up own it with this Blu-ray edition of Animal. 
Game of Thrones Blu-ray reviews are very intimidating to write about. Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of ground to cover here. Do you take the high road and skim over everything without spoilers in fear or ruining it for anyone reading that has not seen the fourth season yet, or do you grow a pair with the assumption that your parents are the only ones on planet Earth who have yet to experience the epic awesomeness of Game of Thrones and everyone else just wants to find out all they can about this February 17th HBO Blu-ray release? I’m going to err for the latter as I boldly set out to accomplish two things here within this Blu-ray review, recapping what Season 4 is all about and more importantly, candidly capturing everything about this MUST-OWN Blu-ray set.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Scream Factory is stocking up on the most romantic of classic movie monsters, the vampire. They’re releasing three of them that week. We’ve already talked about Vampire’s Kiss, but the other two are comedies as well. This Double Feature includes the George Hamilton 1979 romp Love At First Bite and the early Jim Carrey teen sex comedy Once Bitten. That’s an easy common thread to find them as a double feature in a pack. But I also find it funny that they both have a play on the number one and the word “bite” in their titles as well. Intentional? I’m hoping that’s the case. Pretty clever. These are two comedies that cover both classic era vampires (Dracula) and ones in the modern world more akin to that of a Fright Night type (Once Bitten actually released the same year as Fright Night). Both feature some bloody good laughs. 
One of Walt Disney’s most popular animated films of all time, 101 Dalmatians is finally making its way to Blu-ray. The film is one that saved the animation studio, changed the way they did things and gave them a future. It also gave them one of their most classic villains of all time, the haunting, skreechy, evil Cruella De Ville. She also has her own theme song that’ll creep up into your conscious too. The film took in some huge box off and was a massive success. The film has seen itself reissued four times (1969, 1979, 1985, 1991). It also spawned a broadway musical and a feature film that many remember had Glenn Close playing Cruella De Ville. Disney is bringing the original film to us once again, in this VERY loaded Diamond Edition Blu-ray . 
Last August, longtime New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley penned a feature entitled
Poker Night, a movie that doesn’t really have much to do with the game of poker itself. So, if for some reason the box art isn’t telling you already of that fact, then let this be that sort of disclaimer for you. The film is a crime thriller from Greg Francis, a man who looks to have an extensive background in those crime and FBI and shows you see on cable channels all time time (Francis had nothing to do with this show, but I personally find myself getting glued to Forensic Files on HLN before bedtime). Poker Night debuted on Video On Demand back in early December and enjoyed a short limited theatrical release just before Christmas. It comes to Blu-ray courtesy of XLrator Media under their Macabre label. These are the same folks who brought us Jersey Shore Massacre, but to anyone hesitant to pick up another one of their titles because of that film, this is a much improved pick up both in terms of film competency and Blu-ray authoring and technical aspects. 
Before the new year hit, Scream Factory said that 2015 was going to see an increase in the Double Feature titles compared to years prior. As a fan of their Double Feature titles (And a lot of Shout! Factory’s 4-Movie Marathon series), I got pretty excited. And they really weren’t stretching the truth, as they’ve so far announced eight Double Feature Blu-ray releases for 2015 (Including the Blacula movies and the first two Ghoulies films). They’ll be kicking off this run on February 10 with two of them, majority Vampire-comedy centric. Today, we’re looking at one of those that includes Nicholas Cage’s debut on Scream Factory title (Vampire’s Kiss) as well as another acting legend Peter O’Toole (High Spirits). So sit back, and lets take a look, shall we? 
