The first full week of October is here and distributors are kicking it into gear. This week features Dead Alive, Scream 4, and “The Walking Dead” Special Edition on Blu-ray. Friday the 13th The Ultimate Collection is available on DVD along with the Bloody Disgusting Select, Phase 7. Check out the horror anthology Chillerama and the crazy disturbing found footage film Undocumented on VOD as well. It’s definitely a good week in my book. Enjoy and let me know what you’re planning on picking up.
Horror In Your House
October 4th, 2011

AMER (DVD/Blu-ray) – Olive Films

An eroticized homage to 1970s Italian giallo horror films… Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s pastiche tour-de-force plays out a delirious, enigmatic, almost wordless death-dance of fear and desire. Its three movements, each in a different style, correspond to the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of its female protagonist. Drawing its stylized, hyperbolic gestures from the playbooks of Bava, Leone, Argento and De Palma and taking them into a realm of near-abstraction. Amer has genre in the blood. Its bold widescreen composition, super-focused sound and emphatic music (lifted from original giallo soundtracks), and razor-sharp cuts make for an outrageous and intoxicating cinematic head-trip. Featuring music from composers Stelvio Cipriani, Bruno Nicolai and the legendary Ennio Morricone.

CEASER AND AUTO’S SUMMER CAMP MASSACRE – Brain Damage Films

After unintentionally punching out the Chief of Police s mentally challenged brother, a flamboyant tough guy, Caesar, is on the run. Together with his slovenly half brother, Otto, the two take on false identities and get jobs as counselors at the strangely vacant Camp Sunsmile. The would-be summer camp has attracted a motley crew of Hollywood outcasts, all of whom seem to be hiding something. But when the mysterious Carrie (Felissa Rose) shows up, the counselors begin disappearing one by one. Soon, Caesar and Otto find themselves at the edge of a summer camp killer s blade as they run, duck, and swoosh for their lives!

THE CALLER – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

When troubled divorcee, Mary Kee, sets up home in her new apartment, she stumbles across an old telephone which she quickly falls in love with. Struck by its antique charm, she gives it pride of place in her home. Before long, Mary begins to receive strange phone calls from a mysterious, unknown caller. Over time, she discovers that the caller is a woman called Rose and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. However, when Rose claims to be calling from the past, Mary begins to question her new friend’s motives. As Rose’s phone calls become ever more disturbing, Mary’s sense of terror escalates. Feeling haunted in her own home, she cuts all contact with Rose. Enraged by Mary’s betrayal, Rose threatens to exact her terrible revenge. Not on Mary in the present but on Mary as a child in the past. Mary finally realizes that she will have to kill Rose in order to save herself. But how can she kill someone living in the past and what will happen if she fails?

DEAD ALIVE (Blu-ray) – Lionsgate

On a quiet street, in a small town, pure evil has come to stay. Lionel, an innocent young man, is forced to care for domineering mother and finds the task a whole lot more demanding after she’s bitten by the cursed Sumatran rat monkey. Passing the point of death, Lionel’s mother sucks friends and family into her gruesome existence among the living dead and Lionel is sent spiraling into a ghoulish nightmare.

MICAH SAYS: Pick of the week. It doesn’t get much better than Peter Jackson’s gorefest. I’ll be showing this during my Halloween marathon for all to enjoy.

DRACULA: THE VAMPIRE AND THE VOIVODE – Virgil Films Entertainment

Shot in Transylvania, Whitby, London and Dublin this documentary tells the true story of Bram Stoker and his gothic novel Dracula. The film is produced in association with the Transylvanian Society of Dracula and features interviews with leading international Dracula experts. Over the years there has been much confusion between Vlad Tepes (The Voivode) and Count Dracula (The Vampire). This film separates fact from fiction and looks at both characters in depth.

MICAH SAYS: This documentary sounds pretty rad and the reviews I scrounged up on the web seem to agree. I think a viewing is in order.

ELVIRA’S HAUNTED HILLS – Entertainment One Distribution

En route to Paris, Elvira’s dreams of stardom are put on hold when she accidently winds up in a mysterious Carpathian castle inhabited by Lord Hellsubus (Richard O’Brien), a bizarre and sinister man whose late wife is a “dead” ringer for Elvira.

FRIDAY THE 13th: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION – Paramount Home Entertainment

Limited/Numbered to only 50,000 units. This limited edition box set will include a replica Jason hockey mask and an 8-page booklet. There’s also a ton of special features.

MICAHS SAYS: To all the folks who complain nothing good comes out on DVD, here you go.

FUGUE – Hive Mind

A young woman (newcomer Abigail Mittel) moves in with her boyfriend (Richard Gunn, “Dexter”), and becomes convinced her new home is haunted. But when she discovers the last eight months have been erased from her memory, she must uncover what caused the condition…before the past destroys her present.

A HAUNTING IN SALEM – Asylum Home Entertainment

When the new sheriff of Salem, Massachusetts discovers that he is the victim of a centuries-old curse, he must protect his family from the vengeful ghosts that torment his home.
ISOLATION– Entertainment One Distribution Disoriented and weak, first-year medical student Amy Moore (Eva Amurri) wakes up quarantined in a stark hospital room with no memory of how she got there. Amy soon realizes that she’s not alone and the doctor who’s keeping her confined may have sinister and sadistic motives.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2/3– (Blu-ray Combo) – New Line Home Video

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge: Five years later, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is back in the dreams of a Springwood teen (Mark Patton) as he uses the youth to bring him more souls. This sequel adds a psychological dimension to the Nighmare series. A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors: Often described as the best of the Elm Street sequels, Patricia Arquette (Stigmata) is placed in a hospital psychiatric ward with six other troubled teens, who all dream about the same horrible Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) trying to kill them.

MICAH SAYS: Came out last week, but I spaced it. I’m picking it up just for part 3. Those Dream Warriors are awesome and the puppet walk scene scared the crap out me.

THE PRESENCE – LionsGate

In this darkly romantic ghost story, a woman travels to an isolated cabin where she is stalked by an apparition who inhabits her space as his own. With the unexpected arrival of the woman’s boyfriend, the dark spirit’s haunting grows obsessive. Soon the woman begins to exhibit weirdly irrational behavior as the thin line between sanity and possession begins to unravel. Is she battling her inner demons, or is a much darker presence threatening them all?

SCREAM 4(DVD / Blu-ray) – Anchor Bay Entertainment / The Weinstein Company

Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale (Courteney Cox), who are now married, as well as her cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) and her Aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell). Unfortunately, Sidney’s appearance also brings about the return of Ghostface, putting Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, along with Jill, her friends, and the whole town of Woodsboro in danger.

MICAH SAYS: I know a lot of people liked this, but I am not in that camp. I was hoping for a flick, like the original, that flipped recent horror tropes on their heads, but instead got something closer to the awful Scream 3. Passing.

SILENT NIGHT, ZOMBIE NIGHT (DVD/Blu-ray) – Pacific Entertainment

A week before Christmas a viral outbreak turns the citizens of Los Angeles into the feral undead. On the brink of breaking up with both his wife and partner, L.A.P.D. officer Frank Talbot finds himself trapped in a apartment with them. As death closes in they try not only to survive, but work around the fact both men love the same woman.

THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON(DVD/Blu-ray/ Best Buy Exclusive Collector Edition) – Anchor Bay Entertainment

After waking from a coma in an abandoned hospital, police officer Rick Grimes finds the world he knew gone – ravaged by a zombie epidemic of apocalyptic proportions. Nearby, on the outskirts of Atlanta, a small encampment struggles to survive as ‘the dead’ stalk them at every turn. Can Rick and the others hold onto their humanity as they fight to live in this terrifying new world? And, amidst dire conditions and personal rivalries, will they ultimately survive one another?

MICAH SAYS: 3 Blu-ray discs. And as a note, the BB exclusive edition contains a zombie mask. Maybe get it and consider your Halloween costume shopping also done?