Horror In Your House Gets ‘Reanimated’
After a few lackluster weeks Horror In Your House is back with a vengeance. Tim Anderson reports in with a list of all of the DVD/Blu-ray releases arriving at a retailer near you, with quite a few definitely piquing my interest. Full Moon releases high-def Blu-rays of Puppet Master, along with the new sequel Axis of Evil, while Blue Underground unveils The Prowler on Blu-ray, with Wild Eye rounding out the week with Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated. Get the full list inside. What are you buying?
HORROR IN YOUR HOUSE
July 27, 2010
ATOM AGE VAMPIRE: Film Chest
When an attractive dancer becomes horribly disfigured in a car accident, a twisted scientist attempts to restore her original beauty through a process of tissue regeneration. The mad professor’s experiment yields remarkable results, restoring the young Jeanette’s gorgeous appearance. The only problem is, the process requires repeated application of a formula derived from the glands of a young female corpse. Having fallen hopelessly in love with his specimen, the professor must now take to murdering other women to maintain Jeanette’s perfect appearance. It’s not long before her ex-boyfriend returns from sea, and begins to grow suspicious!
ATOMIC BRAIN: Film Chest
A mad scientist’s experiments in atom-fueled brain transplantation go horribly wrong. A rich, elderly widow invests a hefty chunk of her fortune to fund the misguided research with the hope of being returned to a younger body and regaining her youth. She even lets the crazed doctor and his mutant assistant set up a lab in her basement. But when three attractive young women from Europe are lured to her mansion (via an ad for a housekeeper), they become subjected to a gory series of failed procedures in this creepy classic. One woman even ends up with the brain of a cat!
BEYOND THE DARKNESS (DVD/Blu-ray): Shriek Show/Media Blasters
On a luxurious estate in the Italian countryside, Francesco mourns his deceased lover. Soon pain and loss turn to madness and violence, as this troubled young man decides he cannot part with his love just yet. Excavating her corpse, he preserves her body with excruciating attention to detail. That, however, is only the beginning.
THE BURNT HOUSE (Blu-ray): Invincible
The Burnt House is a story of Megan and Joe, a couple who have recently experienced the death of their infant son to SIDS. The tragedy spawns a rift between the two and drives Megan into a secret affair. After Joe loses his mother to a heart attack, the couple moves out to Joe’s rural childhood home seeking a fresh start. Once in the isolated home, strange things begin to occur and long kept secrets dig their way out of the past.
CATHERINE’S PAIN: Grimoire
In 2005, Bill Zebub hired three actresses for an experimental film titled “Rape is a Circle.” The story begins with two girls who hitch a ride from a stranger, and that is the only thing that it has in common with other abduction, torture, and rape movies. It became a cult phenomenon. Five years later, director Bill Zebub re-edited the film under the new title “Catherine’s Pain” using as much alternate footage as possible, rewarding fans with not just a new edit, but also with never-before-seen performances.
THE DEAD MATTER: Midnight Syndicate
A guilt-ridden young woman desperate to contact her deceased brother discovers a powerful ancient relic that controls the dead. Her dark obsession drags her into the tangled world of two warring vampire lords each with his own sinister plans for the artifact and a vampire hunter who will stop at nothing to destroy it.
DEATH KAPPA (DVD/Blu-ray): Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters
The kappa, in Japanese folklore, are water goblins that are closely associated with a certain town in the country. Unfortunately, the area is also home to a militant splinter group of researchers dedicated to developing amphibious super soldiers based on the kappa of legends. When their experiments result in murders by some escapees, the appearance of an actual kappa, and the triggering of an atomic bomb, the consequences are of epic proportions. A monster arrives in the midst of the nuclear fallout, and Japan’s defenses are helpless against it. Mankind’s only savior is an irradiated water goblin that is on the rampage with death in its eyes.
DON’T LOOK UP (DVD/Blu-ray): E1
While filming in Transylvania, a crew unearths celluloid images of a woman’s murder and unleashes the wrath of evil spirits.
TEX SAYS: Former “Three Extreme-ist” Fruit Chan (Dumplings) directs this horror tale. Featuring some Eli Roth acting prowess for the fanboys and girls.
I BOUGHT A VAMPIRE MOTORCYCLE: Redemption USA
When a Satanist biker is killed by a gang of Hells Angels, an evil spirit he was summoning possesses his old Norton Commando motorcycle. So when unsuspecting local courier Nick “Noddy” Oddie becomes the bike’s new owner, little does he know that it runs on blood and has a habit for killing Hells Angels and anyone else who gets in the way!
LIGHTS CAMERA DEAD: SRS Cinema
So you want to make a movie. You tell yourself time and time again, “I can write, direct, produce, star in, and edit. All I need is 4 “B” actors, 20 gallons of red paint and a monkey to work the fog machine. But what if their lives get in the way: meaningless jobs, families and bitch girlfriends? What if the actors laugh take after take and waste valuable time discussing Star Wars? Could you edit something together? What if your writers’ main concerns are creating characters and dialogue that have depth? People aren’t going to be listening to what’s being said. They want to see a pair of tits tied to a tree. How can you make them understand the importance of completing your film? And what if everyone walks out on you? How far are you willing to go to finish your movie?
NEIGHBOR: Lionsgate
A mysterious new girl arrives in a posh suburban neighborhood and quickly sets out to terrorize the town. As she starts breaking into homes and torturing the occupants, they begin to realize that she isn’t just another girl next door.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: REANIMATED: Wild Eye (TEX’S PICK OF THE WEEK)
Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated is a mass collaborative artistic re-envisioning of George A. Romero’s 1968 cult classic, Night of the Living Dead. International artists and animators were invited to select scenes from the film and reinvent them through their artwork. Open to all styles, media and processes the results ran the gamut with scenes created in everything from Puppet Theater to CGI, hand drawn animation to flash, and oil paintings to tattoos. This cacophony of works was organized and curated across the original film’s time line in order to create a completely original video track made entirely out of art.
TEX SAYS: Straight up…I haven’t seen this, but just for the potential of badassness that exists here, I am making this my pick of the week.
PICKMAN’S MUSE: Audio Visual Action
Robert Pickman has become obsessed by visions of unworldly horror, revealed to him through an ancient artifact discovered in an abandoned church. His doctor and friend, Ambrose Dexter is soon drawn into the mysteries surrounding Pickman’s newfound obsession, and struggles to combat forces determined to drag Pickman down the inevitable road to madness.
THE PROWLER (Blu-ray): Blue Underground
Avalon Bay, 1945: On the night of her graduation dance, young Rosemary and her date are brutally murdered by a prowler thought to be a jilted soldier home from the war. The killer was never found. Thirty years later, the dance is held again for the first time since that horrific evening – but something else may have also returned… Tonight, the teens of this sleepy town will meet their grisly ends at the hands – and pitchfork, blade and more – of THE PROWLER!
TEX SAYS: If I had to go with a second must have this week, it’s be this–one of my favorite totally underrated slasher films of all time.
PUPPET MASTER (DVD/Blu-ray): Full Moon
In the 1930s, a puppeteer summoned magical powers from ancient Egypt to bring his dolls to life. He then subsequently committed suicide. In the present, another suicide at the same Bodega Bay Hotel brings a group of psychics together to find and destroy the newly reanimated and murderous puppets.
TEX SAYS: Oh snap….Puppet Master on Blu-ray….I’m gonna go broke this week.
PUPPET MASTER: AXIS OF EVIL (DVD/Blu-ray): Full Moon
In a stateside hotel during the height of World War II, young Danny Coogan dreams of joining the war effort. Following the murder of hotel guest Mr. Toulon by Nazi assassins, Danny finds the old man’s crate of mysterious puppets and is suddenly thrust into a battle all of his own.
REPO MEN (DVD/Blu-ray): Universal
Future men are tasked with repossessing organs from debtors.
TEX SAYS: …Still waiting for Lionsgate/Bousman/Zdunich to sue
THE UNINVITED: IFC/MPI
In the tradition of Rosemary s Baby, psychological horror film The Uninvited reveals a new wife who may become a mother whether she wants to or not. Lee has finally recovered from a rare illness akin to agoraphobia. Instead of fearing open spaces, Lee has been frightened by any too-great distance between herself and other objects. So the warm embrace of documentary filmmaker and husband Nick has proven the perfect cure. But their fresh start in a quiet, isolated home is shattered by intense visions from Lee s past, an unhinged former assistant of Nick s, Satanists and Lee s growing realization that the forces of evil she senses around her aren’t so uninvited after all.
