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DVD Releases: 01/17/2006
By John Marrone
Jan 17, 2006, 18:49

DVDs are a bloody gift from horror heaven - every title ever made, released in widescreen, fullscreen, color, b&w, new and improved, german, spanish, you name it...  With as many new releases this week as there are reissues of classics and seriously hard-to-find titles, its another heavy-release-traffic Tuesday - chock full of what attracts us all to these shiny round discs.  From the amateur independant filmmaker to the mega-dollar hollywood productions... Here are the new DVD releases for the week of January 17th, 2006

All Souls Day (1997)
89 minutes

Unrated
Starring Laz Alonso, Danielle Burgio, Jeffrey Combs
directed by Jeremy Kasten

Amazon.com description:  The dead shall have their day...  In 1892, Vargas Diaz, a murderous greedy villain, looted an Aztec tomb belonging to the goddess of death located in the town of Santa Bonita, Mexico. The many that died at Diaz’s hands cannot rest and continually demand human sacrifices. Today the town of Santa Bonita is a ghost town, and those who stumble upon the village never leave. A young couple, Joss and Alicia, are unfortunate enough to get stranded there and discover the town’s secret history. The only way to save themselves and let the dead rest lies with Diaz himself, but there’s no earthly way he could still be living today…   For the most part this is a campy b-horror film, but the zombies don't show up for about an hour into the film.  

DVD features commentary by the director Jeremey Kasten and producer Mark Altman, deleted and extended scenes, 3 featurettes (Raising the Undead: The Making of All Souls Day, Faces of Death: The Make-Up Effects of All Souls Day, and Jailhouse Rock: The Stunts of All Souls Day), a DVD-Rom screenplay for All Souls Day, and the trailer

Click here to get it from Amazon.com  

 
Gallery of Horrors (1967)
83 minutes

Unrated
Starring Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, Rochelle Hudson
Directed by David L. Hewitt

Amazon.com description:  Screen legend John Carradine is your evening's host for five tales of sheer, bloodcurdling horror! In "The Witches Clock," a young couple moving into a New England castle discovers a sinister haunted clock. Then Scotland Yard's finest try to unravel the mystery behind a string of murders committed by "King Vampire." In "Monster Raid," a scientist is murdered by his assistant with a toxic dose of an experimental immortality serum -- then comes back from the dead to seek revenge. Lon Chaney, Jr. stars as a college science teacher who recruits two of his students to resurrect a biology cadaver from the dead using "The Spark of Life." Finally, "Count Dracula" is back in the swinging sixties accompanied by sultry vampire vixens who seduce men to their grave!  

This film has the best tagline ever: "So shocking it will sliver your liver!"  It has also been released under the titles Alien Massacre, Gallery of Horrors, and Return from the Past.

Click here to get it from Amazon.com  

 
Ghost in the Machine (1993)
95 minutes

Rated R
Starring Karen Allen, Chris Mulkey, Ted Marcoux
Directed by Rachel Talalay

Amazon.com description:  They said the killer was better off dead. They were wrong.  Karl, a technician in a computer shop, is also the "Address Book Killer," who obtains the names of his victims from stolen address books. Terry and her son Josh come into the store to price software, and a salesman uses Terry's address book to demonstrate a hand-held scanner. Karl obtains the file, and while driving to Terry's house that night in a heavy rainstorm, his car runs off the road and lands upside down in a cemetery. While Karl is undergoing a CAT scan at the hospital, a surge of lightning courses through the building, and Karl's soul is transformed into electrical energy. Karl uses the electrical grid and computer networks to continue his killing spree.

Click here to get it from Amazon.com  

 
Puppet Master Vs. Demonic Toys (2004)
88 minutes

Rated TV-14
Starring Corey Feldman, Vanessa Angel, Nikolai Sotirov
Directed by Ted Nicolaou 

Amazon.com description:  It’s the night before Christmas Eve, and oddball inventor Robert Toulon (Corey Feldman of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, and Stand By Me) has discovered his great granduncle’s formula for reanimating the master’s lethal puppets: Six-Shooter, Jester, Blade and Pinhead. Meanwhile, diabolical industrialist Erica Sharpe (Vanessa Angel of Kingpin and Weird Science) is finalizing her satanic plan for unleashing her father’s foul-mouthed, blood-guzzling toys upon the world’s underprivileged children. But even if Toulon can give the puppets a deadly cyber makeover and stop the blood sacrifice of his daughter, can he still prevent the coming Christmas carnage? Playtime is over: Get ready for the final battle between the ultimate titans of toy terror!  You had to know it was coming to this.  Winner takes on Chucky.

Click here to get it from Amazon.com 

 
Space Amoeba (1970)
84 minutes

Rated G
Starring Akira Kubo, Atsuko Takahashi, Yukiko Kobayashi
Directed by Ishirô Honda

IMDB plot summary: A space probe is infiltrated by alien beings and then crashes on a remote Pacific atoll. A group planning to build a resort hotel land on the island and discover it to be inhabited by giant mutant monsters created by the aliens in an attempt to conquer the world.  This film was also released as Gezora, Ganime, Kameba: Kessen! Nankai no daikaijû.  These are great films for horror family children to grop up on until they're ready for PG's.

Click here to get it from Amazon.com  

Venom (2005)
85 minutes

Rated R for strong horror violence/gore, and language
Starring Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Laura Ramsey
Directed by Jim Gillespie

Amazon.com description:  He never hurt a soul until the day he died...  After the town freak Ray Sawyer is killed in an accident involving voodoo related material, local teens' bodies soon start piling up. A few of the teens decide to visit a friends house in the swamps of Louisiana to find out if she knows what's going on, but they soon realize that Ray is possessed by evil spirits of murderers and evil souls.  Even worse, Ray has found the teens and is armed with a crowbar. With only voodoo protecting them, the teens must survive his clutches or become his next victims.

Click here to get it from Amazon.com 

OTHER DVD RELEASES THIS WEEK:

Deep Jaws/The Dicktator (1974)  get it here
Half Light (2005)  get it here
Final Destination Scared 2 Death Pack (2000/2003)  get it here
Unleashed/Assault on Precinct 13 (Back-to-Back) (2005)  get it here
The Ring/The Ring Two (Back-To-Back) (2005)  get it here
Land of the Dead/Dawn of the Dead (Back-To-Back) (2005)  get it here
Dead Body Man (2004)  get it here
Massacre (1989)  get it here