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New to Blu – Week of 3/8/2016
Each week here at Bloody Disgusting we like to highlight some of the new Blu-ray releases hitting shelves across the world. Please note that this isn’t every release for the week, just a few of the ones that jumped out at us.
Some solid releases this week, particularly from outside the US. Zavvi has a handful of new steelbooks in the UK and NSM has three awesome mediabooks with a variety of covers in Germany. Lots to choose from to spice up your collection.
US Releases
Howard the Duck (Universal, Region A)
Synopsis:
A sarcastic humanoid duck is pulled from his homeworld to Earth where he must stop an alien invader.
*batteries not included (Universal, Region A)
Synopsis:
Apartment block tenants seek the aid of alien mechanical life-forms to save their building from demolition.
The Vikings (Kino Lorber, Region A)
Synopsis:
Hollywood legends Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine and Janet Leigh dazzle in this epic chronicle of brutal rivalry and bloodthirsty ambition. Roaring through the 9th century with powerful performances and “brilliant visual drama” (Cue), THE VIKINGS is a riveting “spectacle of have-at-’em action” (Los Angeles Examiner)! Bitter hatred divides two brothers. Prince Einar (Douglas) is the son and heir of a savage Viking chieftain. Prince Eric (Curtis) is his unknowing half-brother, the bastard offspring of Einar’s father and an English queen. When the Vikings kidnap a princess (Leigh), her beauty inflames the desires of both men, forcing a bloody duel that decides their fate… and the future of the English throne.
Species II (Scream Factory, Region A)
Synopsis:
Mykelti Williamson and Justin Lazard are a pair of astronauts who make the first successful manned mission to Mars. Lazard’s character gets infected by an alien and slowly begins to mutate.
Species III / Species: The Awakening (Scream Factory, Region A)
Species III
Sara (Sunny Mabrey), the daughter of Eve (Natasha Henstridge), begins her mission to mate with humans, while a specialist military team hunt her down to kill her before its too late.
Species: The Awakening
When brilliant college professor Miranda Hollander suffers a mysterious blackout, and awakens amid the bloody aftermath of a mass slaughter, she turns to her uncle for answers. But when he reveals the shocking truth – that she’s only half human, a clone from a hybrid of human and alien DNA, they must flee to Mexico to locate the scientist who created her. Soon they find themselves locked in battle with a horde of rampaging, unstoppable hybrids… and time is running out before Miranda will inevitably surrender to the killer instinct that lurks inside her own body!
The Forbidden Room (Kino Lorber, Region A)
Synopsis:
A never-before-seen woodsman mysteriously appears aboard a submarine that’s been trapped deep under water for months with an unstable cargo. As the terrified crew make their way through the corridors of the doomed vessel, they find themselves on a voyage into the origins of their darkest fears.
Victoria (Kino Lorber, Region A)
Synopsis:
A movie shot in a single take about Victoria, a runaway party girl, who’s asked by three friendly men to join them as they hit the town. Their wild night of partying turns into a bank robbery.
When Eight Bells Toll (Kino Lorber, Region A)
Synopsis:
Anthony Hopkins is Philip Calvert, in this movie based on the novel by Alistair MacLean. Calvert is a naval secret-service agent who is assigned to find out why millions of pounds of gold bullion are being stolen under the noses of the British government. Calvert begins his investigations in the bleak Scottish Highlands. Posing as marine biologists, Calvert and his partner Hunslett find something fishy and hostile among the Scottish inhabitants. They also suspect that the rich and smooth Greek tycoon Sir Arthur Skouras who lays anchor off the coast in his luxury yacht, may be the culprit behind the pirating of the gold bullion.
Psycho-Pass 2 (FUNimation Entertainment, Region A)
Synopsis:
Having learned the true nature of the Sybil System, Akane Tsunemori chose to obey the system, believing in both humanity and the legal order. She’s part of a new police section and spends her everyday life facing down criminals. Unbeknownst to Akane, however, a monster who will shake the system to its core is about to appear before her.
UK Releases
Rambo (Zavvi Steelbook, Region B)
Synopsis:
When a group of missionary aid workers in Myanmar disappear into the vast green inferno, vigilante Vietnam War veteran John Rambo leaves his job as a Salween River boatman behind to accompany a group of mercenaries on a daring rescue mission. It’s been twenty years since Rambo helped mujahedeen rebels fend off Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, and these days the former soldier lives a simple life in northern Thailand. But it’s time now for Rambo to take up arms once more and mete out his own, unique, brand of justice.
Tucker & Dale vs Evil (Zavvi Steelbook, Region B)
Synopsis:
Tucker & Dale are on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin when they are attacked by a group of preppy college kids.
Doctor Who: The Complete Ninth Series (Amazon Exclusive Steelbook, Region B)
Synopsis:
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS. Along with a series of companions, he faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help people and right wrongs.
Black Widow (Signal One Entertainment, Region B)
Synopsis:
A federal investigator tracks down a gold digging woman who moves from husband to husband, kills them and collects the inheritance.
Ultraviolet (Zavvi Steelbook, Region B)
Synopsis:
Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil), Cameron Bright (X-Men 3), Nick Chinlund (The Legend of Zorro) and William Fichtner (The Longest Yard) star in this story of a woman caught in a futuristic civil war between the government and a subculture of disease modified humans in whom speed, strength and intelligence are magnified. In the film, she must fend off the human government to protect a young boy who has been marked for death.
The Last Witch Hunter (Zavvi Steelbook, Region B)
Synopsis:
The last remaining witch hunter battles against an uprising of witches in modern day New York.
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (Paramount, Region B)
Synopsis:
Three scouts who, on the eve of their last campout, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak.
Germany Releases
Hatchet for the Honeymoon (Wicked-Vision, Region B)
Synopsis:
A bridal design shop owner kills various young brides-to-be in an attempt to unlock a repressed childhood trauma that’s causing him to commit murder.
Monkey Shines (NSM, Region B)
Synopsis:
A recent quadriplegic loses all hope for living until he meets Ella, a monkey trained to fill all his needs.
Avenging Force (NSM, Region B)
Synopsis:
Retired military operative and martial arts expert Matt Hunter battles the Pentangle, a racist and deadly brotherhood with extreme right-wing political views and survivalist instincts. Unofficial prequel to 1985’s “Invasion U.S.A.” with Dudikoff taking over the lead role (previously played by Chuck Norris).
Death Warrant (NSM, Region B)
Synopsis:
The Canadian policeman Louis Burke is assigned in a jail to investigate in some murders of prisoners and jailors.
There’s something really insidious, in a great way, about setting a horror story in a movie theater. It’s something filmmakers have known for decades, going back to The Blob and beyond, but it never fails to strike a chord because, in a way, it hits us exactly where we feel safest. Seeing a horror movie on the big screen, surrounded by like-minded moviegoers, is a communal experience, one in which everyone screams and laughs together. We are together, and therefore we are much less vulnerable, so when someone punctures that bubble of safety, it’s all the more frightening.
Matinee (also released as Midnight Matinee in some territories) is a movie that understands this from the jump, setting up a stunning opening kill that predates a similar sequence in Scream 2 by almost a full decade. A smart, layered, very stylish Canadian slasher released at the tail end of the 1980s, it’s one of those films that’s spent a lot of time in the dark even among the horror faithful (I’m willing to admit that I hadn’t seen it until recently). Now, a new Kino Cult Blu-ray release is out to change that, and it reveals a slasher essential that, while not perfect, has charm and style to spare.
Two years ago, the Paramount Theater in the small town of Halston closed its doors when, during the theater’s annual horror festival, a young moviegoer was murdered in his seat, mid-movie. Leads in the murder quickly dried up, and the case is cold enough now that the town barely talks about it anymore. Fortunately for local horror fans, that means the Paramount can open again in time for its Halloween horror festival, and they’ve got a hotshot producer (William B. Davis) in town for just such an occasion.
As the festival draws closer, the film introduces us to a variety of characters, including rebellious teenager Sherri (Beatrice Boepple), her boyfriend Lawrence (Jeff Schultz), her overbearing mother Marilyn (Gillian Barber), and the theater’s kindly owner, Earle (Don S. Davis), who’s just hoping he can run a business without more bloodshed. But someone clearly remembers what happened two years ago, and their violent streak is on a collision course with opening night.
Matinee has quite a few things going for it, but what stands out right away, and maintains a consistent grip right up through a wonderful crescendo in the third act, is the film’s visual style. Writer/Director Richard Martin, cinematographer Cyrus Block, and special effects wizard Bob Comer make great use of the film’s limited locations, giving the movie a charming small-town feel reminiscent of Halloween or The Blob while building a self-contained little world inside the theater itself that’ll remind you of films like Popcorn and Demons.
The colors are striking, the framing is clever, and the film clearly has a ball making references to all kinds of other horror cinema moments ranging from The Phantom of the Opera to Friday the 13th. The kills, while relatively sparing with gore, are delivered with style and appropriate tension, creating that sense of unease right in the middle of a place where we as movie fans should be comfortable: The movie theater. Along the way, the Paramount itself becomes a character, and this release definitely dials up its retro splendor.
The Blu-ray upgrade preserves the film’s attention to detail and ambitious cinematography, helping the colors to pop while never letting go of the texture and feel of a relatively low-budget horror film made in Canada in the 1980s. There’s a certain gauziness to many exploitation films of this era, that haloed light you get when the scene is perhaps overexposed just a little too much. It makes the film dreamlike even when it reaches for realism, and Kino Cult’s upgrade preserves that feeling. Throw in a smart script and a whodunit plot that leans heavily into the psychological details of each character, and you’ve got a winner.
There are a couple of things that stick out as slight issues here, including the lack of special features beyond an excellent commentary from film historians and Kino regulars Jason Pichonsky and Paul Corupe. The disc is quite reasonably priced, so it’s not a letdown economically speaking, but I’d love a deeper dive into the film and the Canadian slasher boom in general, particularly for a movie like this that seems to have faded from so many memories, including mine. The sound mix also has some issues, probably left over from previous releases, that might have you playing with your volume settings a little more than you’d like over the course of a 90-minute film, particularly when lines of ADR dialogue crop up.
These are minor concerns, though, and they do nothing to diminish the impact of Matinee, or the joy that’ll come from watching this film for the first time if you’re a slasher devotee in search of something new, or even someone who saw this movie way back when hoping to relive its glories. This is one of those slashers I’ll be talking about with fellow horrorphiles for a long time, and it’s because of this disc.
Matinee is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Cult.
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