Below you’ll find this week’s edition of Horror In Your House where Tex Massacre goes over all of the DVD and Blu-ray releases arriving at a retailer near you tomorrow, Tuesday, August 25th. While there are a few indie films well worth checking out, the one I beg you to pick up is Anchor Bay’s stunning Blu-ray release of Children of the Corn, which features one hell of a beautiful transfer.
Horror in Your House
August 25, 2009

ABDUCTION: R2 Films

The town of process is located somewhere in rural New Jersey, although it doesn’t show up on any modern map. It’s a nice place to visit unless you are a young, healthy, and beautiful woman. The town has a very lucrative underground and internet business specializing in selling organs for transplant, selling babies to loving couples who are barren, and young women into sex slavery. The town’s patriarch, Jacob, is in control of everything. That is, until they kidnap the wrong girl, a popular Brazilian Hip Hop star.

Complications arise when her friend and bodyguard, Donny, turns up in Process looking for her. GPS units, cell phones and other modern gadgets threaten the existence of the town itself. What will Jacob and his followers do? Who will survive?

BEHIND THE WALL: Monarch

At the tender age of eight, Katelyn found her mother brutally murdered in their lighthouse home. Her father, Christopher, was arrested and convicted for the killing. The murder drove Christopher into madness and Katelyn out of town. Now 20 years later, when the abandoned lighthouse is bought by developers, Katelyn is forced to confront the evil that lurks within the lighthouse when some of the developers slowly begin to disappear. What she discovers is a family secret long buried by her Grandfather. She must now unearth the truth and find a way to stop the nightmare which surrounds the lighthouse.

THE BRASS RING: Fat Cat/Tempe

In the summer of 2002, a group of friends in rural Ohio set out to create their own Super-8mm zombie epic, inspired by a generation of regional filmmakers before them. Lead by William Schotten, a salesman and horror fan with no prior filmmaking experience, and J.J. Zetts, an I.T. consultant, the group is sure that success is at hand. Or is it…?

CHILDREN OF THE CORN (Blu-ray): Anchor Bay

The Children of the Corn Blu-ray offers over 40 min of bonus features filmed just for Blu-ray including 4 “Making-of Documentaries”, Audio Commentary, Stills, Poster Art, Trailers, Storyboards and more…

DREAMS OF THE DEAD: R2 Films

For 15 years the large estate of Samuel Arnold has stood silent and empty. From its darkened windows, dark and foreboding eyes stare out from behind the glass. But like a midwinter’s breeze in the lonely hours of the night, something stirs in both dreams and reality, unable to find any peace. What is the mystery of Danbury House? Aubrey, last of the family line and leader of an all-girl band, believes the old family home will be an ideal place for writing and rehearsing their new CD. Ignoring her father’s warnings, she and her band move in with dreams of making it big in the rock and roll world. Only then does the lurking horror of her family’s true legacy reveal itself, as she fights desperately to find the truth, and reject her dark inheritance.

FRAYED: Lionsgate

On September 12, 1994, in the rural town of Smith Haven, Washington, a call was placed to 911. When police arrived at the scene of the crime, what they discovered was in fact the most horrific and disturbing crime they had ever encountered. The town sheriff’s son had brutally beaten his mother to death…it was all captured on home video. Now, thirteen years later, we invite you to bear witness to this deranged young man with a dark secret as he is transferred from the Yellow Glen Rehabilitation Center to a maximum-security facility.

GHOST IMAGE: MTI

When a young video editor loses her boyfriend in a car crash, she finds solace in watching video of him taken the night before he died. When he starts to communicate with her through that video, she must decide if he has broken through the barrier between this world and the next, or has she slipped off into madness.

GRADIVA: Mondo Macabro

An English historian living in Morocco is searching for some mythical lost paintings. His quest leads him into the ancient Arabic quarter of the city. There he sees a beautiful blonde woman in a white veil. He becomes obsessed with finding her, but discovers that she may already be dead. His Moroccan mistress, Belkis, appears to be encouraging his obsessions, but it soon transpires that she may be trapping him in a dark and dangerous labyrinth of desire, from which death may be the only escape.

HAUNTED HISTORIES COLLECTION – Volume 4: A&E

Tour some of America s most haunted destinations, from the remote, beautiful, and enchanting hot spot of Hawaii to the windy city of Chicago, Illinois, where ghosts are said to prowl the shores of Lake Michigan, in this frightening 5-DVD set. Featuring in-depth profiles of the world s scariest stories, the collection also travels to Savannah, Georgia, an elegant Southern city where spirits have been known to lurk in the bucolic façade; the sun-baked desert of Tombstone, Arizona; and the famous landmarks of Washington, D.C. Hear from people who claim to have been attacked by the warrior spirits of long-departed Hawaiians. Learn how the spirit of Abraham Lincoln; the presence of Ulysses S. Grant; and the ghosts of first ladies, military heroes, and famous politicians are still seen and felt in our nation s capital, once called the greatest town for ghosts in the country. And take a memorable tour of one of the Old West s most infamous towns, where history is soaked in blood, and the past lingers on in paranormal ways.

THE LAST GATEWAY: Alebrije

This title is an English-language horror film tied to demons. The story unfolds when Michael and Marianne, recently married and having moved into their new home, come to discover that their peaceful lives are about to be turned upside down when Michael starts suffering from severe stomach pains. They will soon discover that the pain comes from a miscalculation made by Victor, a demonologist who has just opened a portal to hell, in Michael’s stomach. Now both Michael and Marianne have to run from dangerous people who are after this gate, while facing horrific creatures that are escaping from the portal that Michael carries in his body. They will soon arrive to a deserted town which will be plagued with monsters and death. Will Michael find a way out before it’s too late?

MY SWEET KILLER: Vanguard

MY SWEET KILLER is a chilling look into the horrifying world of Charlie Cavenaugh, an introverted ex-mental patient with a dark violent secret. Charlie has recently been released from a mental hospital and is desperately holding his life and sanity together. Just when things seem to be looking up, he begins to dream about the spirit of a beautiful young woman who killed herself – in his apartment. As the dreams become more obsessive and increasingly real, his fantasies about the woman get worse and worse until Charlie’s worlds of reality and imagination begin to blur, cleverly luring the audience into Charlie’s dark world of uncertainty.

ONECHANBARA: Tokyo Shock (TEX’S PICK OF THE WEEK)

The movie adaptation of the hit Onechanbara video game series! In the year 20XX, scientifically created zombies roam the world in record numbers. Despite this, Aya is determined to track down her father’s killer, a person who was once close to her. With sword in hand and wearing nothing but her trademark bikini and cowboy hat, she sets off to settle the score. Aya is joined on her path to vengeance by the chubby Katsuji and the gun-toting Reika. Together, they hack, slash, and shoot their way through a sea of the undead to reach the final showdown with a mad scientist and the destined duel with Aya’s own sister.

TEX SAYS: I covered this audacious Japanese import last year for the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF). It’s all the sexy bikini-clad zombie killing you could ever dream of…and more!!!

PROMISE: R2 Films

Two young lovers seeking a weekend getaway stumble into a deadly ambush and must fight for their lives against a sinister cult in this exciting thriller from writer-director David M. Quiroz, Jr. After surviving a harrowing ambush in which his girlfriend, Selene, was abducted, college senior Jesse decides to try to rescue her rather than wait for help to arrive, leading to a series of increasingly brutal encounters with a team of enforces for a cult dwelling in the mountains of northern Arizona. Selene waits for him in the confines of the cult’s lascivious leader, desperately clinging to the promises that Jesse has made to her, and to the belief that he would never abandon her. As Jesse is forced to employ increasingly vicious methods to be reunited with her, he loses himself in his memories of their relationship, remembering why she is so important to him, and why he’s willing to do whatever it takes to be reunited with him. . . no matter what the cost.

SICK GIRL: Synapse

There s nothing wrong with hurting things smaller than you, provided you also take on things bigger than you . . . Young Izzy (Leslie Andrews) is a girl with issues. Her parents may be dead. Her older brother is fighting in Iraq and she s raising her younger brother, Kevin, all by herself. Things are tough but, with the help of her motorcycle-riding friend Barney, she deals with her situation the best she can. Unfortunately, Izzy isn t exactly stable… and her way of dealing with life s problems includes finding people to torture and kill in the barn near the family home! When a trio of bullies picks on her brother Kevin at school, all hell breaks loose. The two that die are the lucky ones…