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DVD Releases: 06/06/06
By John Marrone
Jun 6, 2006, 06:06

Underworld - Evolution (2006)
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trailer (windows media) -
106 minutes

Rated R for pervasive strong violence and gore, some sexuality/nudity and language
Starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Tony Curran
Directed by Len Wiseman

Video Universe Plot Description:  Bloodthirsty vengeance is measured out in buckets, not spoonfuls for this hard-hitting vampire movie sequel. The story picks up right where the first Underworld left off, in the midst of a war between Lycans (werewolves) and vampires, with the gorgeous death-dealer, Selene (Kate Beckinsale), on the run with her vamp-wolf hybrid lover, Michael (Scott Speedman). This go-'round, there are flashbacks to three centuries earlier and the separation of two ultra-bad brothers, one vampire and one Lycan. The Lycan gets locked in a hidden tomb/prison and the feud begins. In the present, the winged vamp brother Marcus (Tony Curran) is determined to find his Lycan sibling and free him, which would wreak unimaginable havoc on the world. Selene's got to stop it, and the result is mayhem, with great gun battles, bashings and hackings, mysterious artifacts, orgies, and sneaking around in the dripping wet crypts and catacombs. Beckinsale looks great with her jet-black hair, skintight leather bodysuit, red lips, and glowing blue eyes. Director Len Wiseman obviously has a great love for this alternate universe; he keeps the action humming, the blood running, and the cast well-stocked with seasoned British actors like Sir Derek Jacobi, Bill Nighy, and Steven Mackintosh. The sex and violence may still be a bit intense for youngsters, but for the vampire crowd, it's a moveable feast of generous, still-twitching proportions.
  
DVD Special Features include:  Available Subtitles: English, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Commentary by: director Len Wiseman, production designer Patrick Tatopoulos, second-unit director and stunt coordinator Brad Martin, and editor Nick De TothUnknown Format
The Hybrid Theory: visual effects
The War Rages On: stunts
Bloodlines: From Script to Screen: making-of
Making Monsters Roar: creatures
Building a Saga: production design
Music and Mayhem: music and sound design
Music video: "Her Portrait in Black" by Atreyu

Official Site
IMDB Page

Get it from Amazon.com - Full Screen/Widescreen/UMD

Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2004)
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trailer (quicktime) -
84 minutes

Rated R for bloody horror violence and gore, language and some nudity
Starring George Peroulas, Fountain Yount, Greg Fawcett
Directed by Barrett J. Leigh, Thom Maurer

All Movie Guide Plot Description:  The brutal murder of a Catskill Mountains family sets into motion a terrifying sequence of events as the horrors of H.P. Lovecraft come to the screen courtesy of directors Barrett J. Leigh and Thom Maurer. The year is 1908, and a mountain man named Joe Slaader has just committed the ultimate atrocity. Committed to the Ulster County Asylum after murdering his entire family, the man with the mysterious growth on his back is seen by the studied doctors of the facility as the harbinger of the dark days to come. When the inmates of the asylum decide to turn on their captors and wrestle away control of the remote asylum, the strange events that follow precede the ominous arrival of a dark force that the mind of man may not hold the power to comprehend.
  
DVD Special Features include:  Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen - (unspecified)
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Closed Captioned - English
Subtitles - English, Spanish - optional
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - Filmmakers
Featurette - Talking Heads
Original Theatrical Trailer
Trailers
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Text/Photo Galleries:
Storyboards

Official Site
IMDB Page

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com

Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966)
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trailer (flash) -
80 minutes

Not Rated
Starring John Agar, Francine York, Shirley McLine
Directed by Larry Buchanan

All Movie Guide Plot Description:  Texas-based cult director Larry Buchanan made this low-budget horror oddity starring John Agar as Rogers, a geologist who travels through the swamps to see a scientist named Simon (Jeff Alexander). What Rogers doesn't know is that Simon is quite mad and is experimenting on the local voodoo-practicing natives in order to create a mutant being, disposing of the corpses in a pit of alligators. Capturing Rogers' traveling companion, the treacherous Brenda (Shirley McLine), Simon turns her into a hideous monster before his horrible experiments are curtailed. As silly as most of Buchanan's films of the period, this forgettable trifle will be of interest to genre completists only.

Also known as Ernie's Bad Acid Trip and Mutant Muppet of Louisiana
  
DVD Special Features include:  Keep Case
Widescreen
Audio:
(unspecified) - English

IMDB Page

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com

Straight into Darkness (2003)
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trailer (quicktime) -
94 minutes

Rated R for violence, disturbing images, language and brief nudity
Starring Ryan Francis, Scott MacDonald, David Warner
Directed by Jeff Burr

Video Universe Plot Description:  Jeff Burr, known for his slasher sequels (Pumpkinhead 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3), ventures into new terrain with Striaght Into Darkness, a genre-bending and macabre tale set during WWII.  Two Allied soldiers, the philosophical Losey (Ryan Francis) and psychotic Deming (Scott McDonald), are en route to a court marshal for a heinous war crime when an exploding mine allows them to escape into the desolate no-man's-land.  Here they encounter a cannibal priest and eventually stumble on a bizarre fortress of amputees and freaks who have been trained to protect themselves from the outside world.  This surreal and twisted film, half art-house and half exploitation, shows glimpses of Terrance Malick's visual poetry and relies heavily on the mad genius of Tod Browning's Freaks.  After two decades of toiling in the horror-film factory, Jeff Burr has finally been able to express his dark and ingenious vision.
  
DVD Special Features include:  Available Subtitles: English
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Director's commentary
Behind the scenes

Official Site
IMDB Page

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com

666 Revealed: True Stories of Real Evil (2006)
60 minutes

Not Rated
Starring n/a
Directed by n/a   

All Movie Guide Plot Description:  According to the makers of this program, the situation presented in the infamous 1970s horror classic The Omen is not just the stuff of fiction, but horrifyingly real. The film brings evidence for the presence of Satan and his offspring on Earth, and shows that the monsters of history were united by a common thread: their clear relation to the devil.
  
DVD Special Features include:  Audio:
Digitally Mastered Stereo Sound
Interactive Features:
Scene Access

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com

Ants (1977)
88 minutes

Not Rated
Starring Lynda Day George, Suzanne Somers, Brian Dennehy
Directed by Robert Sheerer   

1st Video Plot Description:  After ingesting a powerful insecticide, a colony of ants is transformed into an army of tiny little psychopaths who launch on a nearby hotel loaded with celebrities.

At the height of the nature-strikes-back movies like Prophecy, Day of the Animals, Swarm, etc, comes Ants - a made for television soap opera type movie casted chock-full of 70's TV stars.  Loosely copying off Empire of the Ants, some poison makes the ants go nuts and soon theyre loose in the hotel, killing off your favorite rerun costars, including Lynda Day George, Suzanne Somers, Myrna Loy, Brian Dennehy, Bernie Casey, Robert Foxworth, and Stacy Keach.
  
DVD Special Features include:  Standard Screen; Soundtrack English 

IMDB Page

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com

Blood Bath 2 - 4 Movie Set (2006)
293 minutes

Rated R
Starring Jack Elam, Arthur Roberts, Donna Wilkes
Directed by various

Video Universe Plot Description:  This second Blood Bath compilation presents another round of gruesome, low-budget gorefests...

Jack the Ripper Goes West (1974)IMDB Plot Summary - A mutilating knife-killer haunts the small Southwest-desert town of Mescal. Though most victims have been prostitutes, the first was none other than Travis Mescal, the only son of the town's first family. When the Sheriff proves unable to solve the case, the town leaders invite Investigator Burns to unravel the mystery. Along the way, he confronts tension with the Sheriff, trouble with some citizens, and finally a killer whose motive we've heard before in Ripper-lore.

Legacy of Satan (1976)IMDB Plot Summary - This movie looks and sounds like a home movie, except longer and more tedious. The lighting is amazingly bad.  Characters' heads cast shadows on other characters' faces a lot.  Impressively bad all-synthesizer score.  The vampire wears a 1970s pink ruffled shirt and everybody has 1970s hair.  But the editing has got to be the worst of the lot.  There are long pauses between the lines of dialog. Characters pause and stare at each other or at their own feet for long periods, then hold perfectly still while they recite their lines.  Between that and the muffled sound track it's difficult to follow the story.  After an hour of utter tedium, there is a silly fight scene which begins when the hero shows up with a toy sword with a glowing blade.

The Bride (1973)IMDB Plot Summary - Also known as The House The Cried Murder, in which the neurotic and newlywed Barbara (Robin Strasser) finds her husband (Arthur Roberts) in bed with his old flame Eva (Iva Jean Saraceni). Robin doesn't get mad-she gets even. Using funds supplied by her wealthy daddy John Beal, the scorned bride turns Roberts and Saraceni's love nest into a dungeon of horror.

Blood Song (1982)IMDB Plot Summary - A psychopath escapes from a mental institution and starts a murder spree, which ends in the pursuing of a young handicapped girl, who once got a blood transfusion from him.  Frankie Avalon plays the ax murderer.
  
DVD Special Features include:  Keep Case
Audio:
(unspecified) - English 

IMDB Pages:  Jack the Ripper Goes West/Legacy of Satan/The Bride/Blood Song

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com

Blood Ranch (2006)
90 minutes

Not Rated
Starring James Fitzpatrick, Daniel O'Meara
Directed by Corbin Timbrook

Amazon.com Plot Description:  Getting out in one piece may just be wishful thinking: Four college students and an Iraq War vet, lost on a desert highway, encounter a terrified young woman with a black van on her trail. They survive the ensuing chase but their car doesn’t, forcing them to seek help at a nearby ranch. Only when it’s too late does the group learn that it’s crossed the threshold into Hell! Welcome to the Web, a bizarre cult of murderers, perverts and mental defectives, whose sacraments include mutilation, dismemberment, and slow, agonizing death for all who enter. None of their "guests" have ever made it out alive. Tonight may be different...  but don’t count on it.
  
DVD Special Features include:  Standard Screen; Soundtrack English

IMDB Page

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com


Eastern Horror: Magic of the Universe/Counter Destroyer (2006)
170 minutes

Not Rated
Starring Sorapong Chatree, Chien Sun
Directed by various

Video Universe Plot Description:  This volume of the Eastern Horror series presents a double feature of Asian flicks blending horror and martial arts...

Magic of the Universe (1988):  A circus magician journeys through a nightmarish netherworld in order to rescue his kidnapped daughter from the clutches of supernatural forces angry over his dabbling in the magical arts.

Counter Destroyer (1989):  A screenwriter working on a film script in an old haunted house unleashes an army of the undead, including a robot-vampire and a Freddy Kruger-like creature with deadly scissorhands.
  
DVD Special Features include:  Keep Case
Audio:
(unspecified) - English  

IMDB Pages:  Counter Destroyer

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com


Latin Horror 3 Pack (2001)
259 minutes

Not Rated
Starring Paul Naschy, Francisco Reyes, Zoe Berriatua
Directed by various

Video Universe Plot Descriptions

X (2002):  In the vein of other psychological Spanish thrillers like Open Your Eyes and Intacto, Equis explores what happens when a person can longer trust his own version of reality. Javier (a homicide detective) wakes up one morning in an unknown bed with no recollection of the previous evening. Brushing this off as the unfortunate outcome of a night filled with heavy drinking, he goes to work. But when the murder case he is assigned to leads him back to the same street and the same unfamiliar house, Javier knows something is very wrong. As he investigates a murder in which he is the only suspect, Javier develops a strange and intense relationship with the victim's family, as well as a woman who, while beautiful, cannot be trusted. In the end, it is up to Javier to unearth the truth before it buries him.

School Killer (2001):  This stylish Spanish horror film stars Paul Naschy, the legend of international horror who has played countless monsters and villains, garnering a reputation as the Spanish Lon Chaney. In the tradition of The Blair Witch Project, the story unfolds as a group of former students from the Monte Alto International High School return to pass a night in its now-shuttered confines; the proceedings are recorded by the tech-savvy Jordi (Zoe Berriatua), who wears a mini-cam in his hat. The school has been closed down since a brutal bloodbath perpetrated by an insane security guard years earlier. The group is a motley bunch, led by the confident and logical Ramon, whose motivations as the night progresses are cast in an ever more doubtful light. As the kids are picked off one by one, they encounter visions of the previous massacre, and the question presents itself: is the murderer human or not? Naschy's evil night watchman is played with characteristic aplomb, making this late-career performance a resounding testament to a lifetime spent perfecting villainy. The gut-wrenching suspense and well-executed gore make this chiller a truly terrifying experience.

El Nominado (2003):  A dystopic view of the world of reality television, El Nominado takes it to its logical extreme, speculating on just how far producers will go to garner ratings. TV exec Patricio (Francisco Reyes) is spearheading a new reality-TV show that is slated to air opposite a popular soccer match. A group 10 people of disparate backgrounds and dispositions are chosen and transported by helicopter to a remote bunker in the Andes Mountains, where their every action is monitored as they try to survive with little food and water, and only each other for entertainment. Home audiences choose one person each week to throw off the show, but when one contestant refuses to leave, all hell breaks loose--and ratings soar. As the contestant starts killing his opponents one by one, Patricio must decide between intervening in the violence, and satisfying the viewers' voyeuristic desire for it. Co-starring in this horrific satire are Christian de la Fuente (Basic, Hidden Hills), and Rene Lavan (Christmas With the Kranks, Aucar, Amarga).
  
DVD Special Features include:  3-Disc Set
Audio:
(unspecified) - Spanish
Subtitles - English  

IMDB Pages:  X, School Killer, El Nominado

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com 

Macabre Pair of Shorts (1996)
76 minutes

Not Rated
Starring Rick Benattar, David Boreanaz, Patrick Bradley
Directed by Scott Mabbutt

Video Universe Plot Description:  A funny, inventive way of spoofing the horror genre, Macabre Pair of Shorts contains plenty of blink-and-you'll-miss-it references to old and new horror films.  In the tradition of Creepshow, this horror/comedy spoofs everything from The Twilight Zone and Dr. Seuss to Die Hard and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  Cameo appearance by David Boreanaz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) before he was a star!
  
DVD Special Features include:  Keep Case
Full Frame -
1.33
Audio:
(unspecified) - English

Official Site
IMDB Page

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com

The Naked Monster (1996)
100 minutes

Not Rated
Starring Kenneth Tobey, Brinke Stevens, R.G. Wilson
Directed by Wayne Berwick, Ted Newsom

Amazon.com Plot Description:  Using soundtracks and extensive footage from many old movies, this spoof/homage of 1950's science-fiction films brings back many favorite actors from these classic movies, some reprising their former roles, to help destroy a giant stop-motion monster that is threatening to destroy Los Angeles.

Kids - no Googling "Naked Monster" - youre not allowed.
  
DVD Special Features include:  n/a

IMDB Page

CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com  

ALSO RELEASED THIS WEEK:

Constantine [HD DVD] (2005) -
Official Page/Trailer (quicktime)
Warner Home Video
121 minutes - Directed by Francis Lawrence  - Starring Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz
CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com

666:Child (2006)
82 minutes - Rated R
Little or no info available
CLICK HERE to get it from Amazon.com



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