// Category Archive for: DVD/Blu-Ray Reviews

DVD Review: Contracted

By Brad Henderson

Dirty, gross, and brilliant are a few words that come to mind while trying to describe Contracted, a new film distributed by IFC Midnight (not on Blu. . . sigh) that’s been somewhat of a hit on the festival circuit. I’ve known about Contracted for a little while but just haven’t gotten around to watching it until tonight. Now I’m sorry I waited so long to view this masterpiece. Yes, it’s a masterpiece.

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Blu-Ray Review: Ms. 45

By Brad Henderson

Drafthouse Films kills it yet again with another fantastic release. A few years after Abel Ferrara made Driller Killer, he hit us in the face with a smaller flick called Ms. 45. This was a rape and revenge film that pushed the limits back in 1981 and received an X rating during its release.

Abel Ferrara is known for his rawness and brutality but goes a little above and beyond in Ms. 45. A young girl who is mute gets assaulted twice in one evening and then decides to go on a rampage, killing any man that gets in her way. She uses her looks and a .45 to go hunting at night, looking for males on the streets of New York.

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DVD Review: In Fear

By Less Lee Moore

Maybe I’ve watched too many horror movies or I’m just exceptionally paranoid, but I can absolutely relate to the slowly creeping terror experienced by the protagonists at the beginning of In Fear. Tom (Iain De Caestecker) and Lucy (Alice Englert) are a young couple on their way to a music festival who decide to stop at what they think is a quaint hotel on the way. And of course, with a title like In Fear, you can probably figure out pretty quickly that their plans go terribly awry.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Outsider

By Brad Henderson

There are plenty of films in comedy and horror that mix in nostalgic or so-called throwback qualities and make us feel like we are watching something from the ’80s. These types of films are scarce when it comes to the action genre and I wish there were more of them because of how fun they are. Of course, we have the Expendables series, which is fun and satisfies a large audience, and there was also last year’s Homefront, which felt like it belonged in the ’80s.

Recently a film called The Outsider was released starring Craig Fairbrass (yes, he is the lead), Jason Patric, Shannon Elizabeth, and James Caan. Patric and Caan are both solid actors but it seems that they tend to portray the same characters in every single film, even though it usually does work. Kind of like how John Cusack is always John Cusack, but we still love him.

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DVD Review: Children Of A Darker Dawn

By Brad Henderson

Every once in a while we see a film with a killer idea that doesn’t realize its full potential. The plot for Children Of A Darker Dawn (originally titled Railway Children) is better than the film itself. I feel it didn’t go the lengths it should have. I’m saying this with the utmost respect towards the filmmakers themselves. I’m not saying what they did was wrong, but they did have something special and went in a different direction than I thought they were going to.

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DVD Review: Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales

By Brad Henderson

This is devastating.

Tom Holland has made two of my most beloved horror films: Fright Night and Child’s Play. Child’s Play is still one of my favorite horror films of all time and one of the only films that frightened me as a kid. I still get extremely nervous when Andy’s mother discovers that there are no batteries inside of Chucky. That film and that certain scene are perfection to me and both are a huge inspiration for all sorts of projects and things I do.

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Blu-Ray Review: Night Train To Terror

By Brad Henderson

There are quite a few bat shit crazy horror films that exist in this world. I’m not talking about just the bizarre films, I’m talking about the shit that makes you wonder what the hell you just watched and what the hell was going on during filming. Night Train To Terror is one of those films that make you say “WTF” in the beginning, middle, and end. After it is all over you still don’t know if what you saw was real.

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DVD Review: Armynel

By Brad Henderson

Indie films hardly stand a chance against mainstream films and even more so in the horror genre. Indie horror films are getting more popular these days, but big studio films still overrun them. It’s even worse when indie horror is released through a smaller distribution label and is only available to purchase online and not on Netflix or Amazon. Midnight Releasing is one of those companies who seems to have difficulty getting their name out there, but that is why we are here.

Films like Armynel and many others need to be discussed because they never get a good start when you can’t find them in Wal-Mart or other stores or unless you happen upon a used copy. Even the chances of that are slim because hardly anyone buys these films in the first place. That doesn’t mean these movies are bad or anything, it’s just that they don’t have near the amount of coverage as most mainstream horror.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Visitor

By Brad Henderson

Bat shit crazy. Those are the three words that sum up The Visitor most easily.

Drafthouse Films has brought us some fantastic films over the course of the last couple of years: Bullhead, Klown, The Act Of Killing, I Declare War, and many others. They also are dipping into older films that are “lost” or just need a better release such as Miami Connection, Wake In Fright, Ms. 45, and most recently, The Visitor.

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DVD Review: Dead Of The Nite

By Brad Henderson

A lot of filmmakers think that they can get away with putting an older horror film actor in their movie for five minutes and then slap them on the front cover as if they are the lead in the film. Trust me, we all know this trick by now and we don’t fall for it. This happens every Tuesday when new films come out and sadly, we quickly dismiss films like this. It seems they rely solely on getting an older horror actor in order to sell the movie because without a name attached to it, it won’t go anywhere.

Dead Of The Nite isn’t a bad film but it is quite uneventful to say the least. Tony Todd is, of course, on the cover but is only in the film for a brief time. He is actually the best part of the movie.

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