Has the barren winter of false-warmth left you underdressed and shivering in the night?  The beaches are bare - the city streets are blurs of bundled strangers, whizzing past you to get inside their homes and apartments.  With friends few and far between, and the isolation of the winter months becoming evermore deafeningly silent, cabin fever will soon set in.  You may find yourself wandering aimlessly around your kitchen with a knife, stalking a scurrying mouse, hungry for blood - deprived even by your digital outlets.  Red Cross wont tell you, but there is a serious gore shortage this week.  Hopefully, you have something from the blood bank put aside in the freezer - or an unwrapped horror DVD left over from Xmas -  to help ween you through the next seven days.  From the amateur independant filmmaker to the mega-dollar hollywood productions... Here are the new (and few) DVD releases for the week of January 24th, 2006

The Fog (2005)
100 minutes

PG-13/Unrated for violence, disturbing images and brief sexuality
Starring Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair
Directed by Rupert Wainwright

John Carpenter's 1980 original by the same name has been criticized as being "not one of his best movies" - and some went so far as to call it boring.  The Fog (1980) is one of my favorite movies of all time - acted great, atmospheric, good story without unneccessary and cheesy "shocker" moments, violent...  Holbrook and Buck Flowers gave the movie character.  The soundtrack was a keeper. It was a classic.  When I saw the poster for the remake I was psyched.  Then Mr. Carpenter started scoffing at the remake.  The director is who, Rupert Wainwright - hasn't he been directing hip-hop videos for MC Hammer and NWA?  Then I saw Tom Welling, Clark Kent from Smallville.  Could this be another thoughtless, effortless remake repackaged and buffed up for the new generation of movie-goers?  Could all those people running from the theater be late for the same dinner?  Could it be that word-of-mouth is wrong this time, and all the horrible ratings by viewers on websites like Amazon and Yahoo - could it all just be a bad dream?  When you watch this, and see the young kid stare into the mist saying "The fog wants us...."   When you watch the lady kiss her dead, leper husband in the end, and they both fade away together as ghosts into the fog, happily ever after...  you'll know for sure.

DVD features include:  Seven deleted scenes with an optional commentary by director Rupert Wainwright, and three featurettes:  "Feeling the Effects of The Fog", "Seeing Through the Fog", and "Whiteout Conditions: The Remake of A Horror Classic".  Fullscreen, widescreen, PG-13 and Unrated versions are available.

Click here to get it from Amazon.com (widescreen/unrated) 

The Soul Guardians (1998)
97 minutes

Unrated
Starring Sung-kee Ahn, Hyeon-jun Shin, Sang Mi Chu
directed by Kwang-chun Park

IMDB Plot Summary:  The devil is about to be reborn - they're the only ones who can stop it.  When the police raid the compound of a religious cult, they discover that almost all of the members have committed suicide. The only survivor, laying on an altar in the middle of the room, is a very pregnant woman who goes into labor as the raid begins. The woman dies in the hospital, but her child survives. 20 years later, strange things are starting to happen around the child, now a grown woman. A group of religious warriors from a mix of faiths join together to try and protect her from whatever supernatural horrors are seeking her out.  This Korean horror film was also known as Toemarok upon its release.

DVD features include:  English and Chinese subtitles, English and Korean 5.1 Dolby audio, and an interview with director Kwang-chun Park

Click here to get it from Amazon.com 

Vital (2004)
86 minutes

Rated R for some aberrant sexual behavior, disturbing images and brief language
Starring Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto, Kiki
Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Amazon.com Description:  Hiroshi Takagi returns home to begin his new life after having his memory wiped away in an auto accident. Fascinated by a dusty dissection textbook, he enrolls in medical school where he catches the eye of Izumi, a beautiful fellow student who desires his attention. But its another beauty that becomes his obsession - the dead woman on the cadaver table. Starting with the tattoo on her arm, patterns of recognition begin to return to Hiroshi and soon he is having visions of a life with this woman. The deeper he cuts into her flesh, the closer he gets to unlocking the dark memories of his forgotten past.

DVD features include:  English subtitles, Japanese Dolby digital sound 5.1, commentary by author Tom Mes, a featurette "The Making  of Vital", a behind the scenes look at the Venice Film Festival World Premeire, an interview with director Shinya Tsukamoto, a special effects featurette, a music video, Q&A with Tsukamoto and the cast, the original theatrical trailer, and other Asia Extreme trailers as well.

Click here to get it from Amazon.com

OTHER DVD RELEASES THIS WEEK:

Lust for Frankenstein/Tender Flesh (1997)  get it here
Resident Demon (2005)  get it here