Blu-Ray Horror Movies

The Evil Dead (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray]

The Evil Dead, director Sam Raimi’s (Darkman, Quick & The Dead, Army Of Darkness) first feature film, is a true cult classic in every sense of the word. Originally released in 1982, The Evil Dead tells the tale of a group of friends who go to a cabin in the woods, where they find an unspeakable evil lurking in the forest. They find the Necronomicon, the Book Of The Dead, and the taped translation of the text. Once the tape is played, the evil is released. One by one, the teens become deadly zombies. With only one remaining (Bruce Campbell), it is up to him to survive the night and battle The Evil Dead.

This is one of the best fun filled horror films made. Better than the follow-ups in my opinion. The original had a rawness to it that just was never captured later. This is almost a comfort film for me… I put it on and it’s like spending an hour or two with an old friend. Filmed on a shoestring budget and very effective. Acting just great and fits the movie to a tee. Banned in several countries and in the UK until recently (available on release then classified as a ‘video nasty’!!!). Pushed a few nerves in it’s time and got the censors in a tizzy.
Good clean fun really and not malicious or likely to corrupt.
If you have never seen it, you should immediately correct that.
If you have seen it, you either love it or hate it.
If you hate it, your not really a horror movie fan….you couldn’t be.
Definitely a family movie and a great date movie.
Can’t go wrong with this DVD….very good.

A newcomer’s opinion – Jerrod Lemaster – Redon, France
Being quite a big horror fan, it’s surprising that I had never seen the original Evil Dead :gasp: before now. This film has some great, cheeky fun with some thrills thrown in. The SFX leave something to be desired, but honestly, what 80′s films doesn’t? The packaging is the main reason I purchased this, and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s a great conversation piece, and everyone who’s come over and seen it sitting out has had a giggle or two. Pick it up… it’ll be great to watch back-to-back with Cabin Fever!

Evil Dead (Ws Thx) – Angela Grisolle-brown – Bronx, NY
This movie to me seems like a comedy and I can see why my hubby has asked me to order this movie for him cause it so funny. Even though it suppose to be a horror movie but its not even scary

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August 13th, 2010

Maniac (30th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]

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August 1st, 2010

Grindhouse (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]

Together for the first time the Rodriguez/Tarantino Double Feature GRINDHOUSE is back and better than ever! These rip-roaring and adrenaline-pumping films are now featured in the original theatrical exhibition format. Loaded with over 2 hours of bonus content, including the fan favorite “Rodriguez’s 10 Minute Cooking School”, this 2-disc Blu-Ray will deliver a new experience like never before!

I had the privilege of seeing Grindhouse with a packed house of movie eager movie watchers and it was an experience that was unlike any other!

I was very disappointed with the decision to split these releases and remove many of the great fake trailer that were included in the original theatrical release!

I am very excited that the decision has been made to finally release the original double feature, fake trailers and all!

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July 21st, 2010

The Exorcist (Extended Director’s Cut & Original Theatrical Edition) [Blu-ray]

Director William Friedkin was a hot ticket in Hollywood afterthe success of The French Connection, and he turned heads (in more ways than one) when he decided to make The Exorcist as his follow-up film. Adapted by William Peter Blatty from his controversial bestseller, this shocking 1973 thriller set an intense and often-copied milestone for screen terror with its unflinching depiction of a young girl (Linda Blair) who is possessed by an evil spirit. Jason Miller and Max von Sydow are perfectly cast as the priests who risk their sanity and their lives to administer the rites of demonic exorcism. Ellen Burstyn plays Blair’s mother, who can only stand by in horror as her daughter’s body is wracked by Satanic disfiguration. One of the most frightening films ever made, The Exorcist was mysteriously plagued by trouble during production, and the years since have not diminished its capacity to disturb even the most stoic viewers. –Jeff Shannon

There have been so many reviews written on this movie that I won’t give a detailed review. Read the other 800+ reviews for a more thorough analysis of this classic movie. However, I just want to make a few observations and give some personal opinions.

The Exorcist is referred to as “The Scariest Movie Of All Time” on the DVD cover. Well, perhaps it may well have been up to that time (1973), though that of course is debatable. Personally, I can think of 20 other horror movies that I feel are scarier than The Exorcist. To me, this movie is more bizarre and twisted than it is scary. A demonically possessed 12 year old girl who demonstrates increasingly bizarre, twisted behavior certainly is scary, but I find humor in a lot of her comments and scenes in general. Every time the scene comes on where she punches her mother in the face and spins her head around, I laugh. I find her filthy language humorous. To me, the viewer shouldn’t be laughing during a movie that’s supposed to be scary. I’m sure these scenes were meant to be scary, but they come off as funny sometimes, to me, anyway.

Another thing about this movie is that it has a lot of slow moving and boring scenes. Had a lot of these scenes been cut down or eliminated, the movie would retain a more consistent horror feel to it. Instead, the movie kind of meanders around at a slow pace, showing everything from boring conversation over a cup of coffee to a man jogging around a high school track.

The Exorcist theme song is one of the classic horror movie themes of all time, but it isn’t played enough in the movie in my opinion. Its absence for a lot of the movie lowers the scare level. Also, to me, one of the elements that a scary movie needs is a lot of darkness. A lot of nighttime footage, both indoors and outdoors. The use of shadows. The Exorcist lacks this. Most of the scenes are during daylight hours. Some of the daylight scenes are pretty creepy, though. I also value suspense and psychological horror, such as in The Innocents (1961) and The Haunting (1963). I know that The Exorcist is a different kind of horror movie, but it lacks these two important qualities that I feel qualify a movie to be considered very scary.

In 1973 there was another movie that was released that had to compete with The Exorcist, and that is The Legend Of Hell House. This movie is scarier than The Exorcist, in my opinion. But it got buried as a result of The Exorcist’s popularity. There have been many other movies since 1973 that have been scarier than The Exorcist, such as The Omen (1976), Burnt Offerings (1976), Halloween (1978), Salem’s Lot (1979), The Changeling (1980), The Shining (1980), etc. And many movies that came before The Exorcist are scarier, such as some of the Alfred Hitchcock movies, The Haunting (1963), etc.

I first saw The Exorcist back in 2000 and was expecting it to be the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t. It does have its moments, though. I rank it maybe the 23rd scariest movie I’ve ever seen.

Do I recommend this movie? Absolutely. It’s a horror classic with a memorable theme song. It should be in everyone’s collection. But I hardly nominate it as “The Scariest Movie Of All Time”.

My rating of the film. – S. Flores – Fort Worth, TX USA
Over all this version of the film is a special edition. It features make it what is. This anniversary edition is a must in your dvd collection.

headspinning hi definition – J. Rae – scotland
The blu ray will be available from 05.10.2010 in a digibook which includes 40 pages of info and photos. Both films remastered from the original negative.
Disc 1 – Extended Director’s Cut aka “the version you’ve never seen” from 2000 plus Special Features:
Commentary by William Friedkin
“Raising Hell”: Filming the Exorcist – set footage produced and photographed by Owen Roizman, camera and makeup tests, and interviews with director William Friedkin, actress Linda Blair, author William Peter Blatty and Owen Roizman (Blu-ray exclusive)
“The Exorcist Locations: Georgetown Then and Now” – a tour of the iconic locations where the film was shot (Blu-ray exclusive)
“Faces of Evil: The Different Versions of The Exorcist” – William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty discussing the different versions of the film and featuring outtakes from the film (Blu-ray exclusive)
Trailers, TV spots & radio spots from the film’s 2000 release
Disc 2 – The Theatrical Cut from 1973 plus an Introduction by William Friedkin
Commentaries:
William Friedkin
William Peter Blatty with Special Sound Effects Tests
The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist
Additional interviews with William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty:
“Stairway to Heaven”
“The Final Reckoning”
Original ending
Sketches & storyboards
Trailers & TV spots from the 1973 version

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July 4th, 2010

The Lovely Bones (Two-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray]

From Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson comes the extraordinary story about one girl’s life, and everything that came after. When 14-year-old Susie Salmon was murdered, she left her unfinished life behind. But now from her place in a strange but beautiful in-between world, she must help her father catch her killer and protect her family before she can finally move on. Filled with thrilling suspense, hope and the redeeming power of love, it’s “One of the best films of the year. Incredibly powerful.” – Harry Knowles, Ain’t it Cool News

_Lovely Bones_ (2010) is a fairly good movie about a horrible tragedy and the afterlife. The movie features very vivid and impressive scenes of the afterlife. The movie involves a young girl whose life is brutally taken by a serial killer and the attempt to right the wrong of this great evil. The girl becomes a ghost trapped in a purgatory between here and there until her soul and remains are laid to rest. The film shows the struggles of her family to come to terms with her brutal murder (although the reactions of some of the family members seem somewhat superficial, particularly the grandmother). The girl exists as a ghost in a beautiful and lush paradise along with the souls of those who were also killed by this evil man. Ultimately, after much ordeal the father comes to suspect the real killer and attempts to bring him to justice because the police no longer take the situation seriously. The sister of the girl sneaks into his house and discovers a lock of hair from her sister and thus attains the necessary “evidence” the family so strongly desires. However, before the police can arrive the killer manages to escape just before he tosses the remains of the girl into a sinkhole where she can be buried forever. I felt it was unfortunate however that in the end the killer will not have to face the justice of man but only falls prey to a sort of cosmic justice (and presumably justice in the afterlife). The movie features beautiful scenes and imagery and shows us a view of the afterlife that is perhaps different from what some have come to expect. I felt it was a good film but very brutal and depressing, though in the end the wrong appears to be righted (somehow).

Lovely Bones – P. M. Henderson – USA
It wasn’t at all what I expected. Loved the book, but if I would have seen the movie first would not have read the book. Movie, was just not at all what I thought it would be.

Corny and idiotic to the tenth degree. – Razgriz1 – USA
I found this movie to be an incredibly stupid incoherent mess of scenes and CGI. I didn’t get anything out of this movie except a couple laughs. My main problem is how unrealistic this movie is. In the first place you have Susie Salmon played by Saoirse Ronan who is a gullible girl in whom it’s obvious her parents didn’t teach her anything because she stupidly follows the neighborhood pedophile played by Stanley Tucci into some makeshift underground room/pedo-shrine where she gets raped and murdered by the psycho. Then it becomes even more disturbing when her soul gets transported to her very own cheesy CGI version of pergatory where she is able to go sledding on top of fake CG snowy mountains, dance like a hippy in front of a fake CG city (I cringed at that part) and she even has a friend who was a victim of the same pedophile on the other side to she can shoot the @#$# with. This movie has a disturbing undertone and sends the wrong message that she is better off being raped and killed just so long as when it’s all said and done she can be transported to her own little wonderland of fun.

The movie then wants you to think that she can help her parents solve her murder but it becomes a useless plot line and nothing really becomes of it. Jack Salmon who is the father of Susie Salmon (played by Mark Wahlberg) basically transforms into a paranoid wreck because of the murder to the point of wanting the police to randomly investigate hundreds of people/neighbors on suspicion of murder without one single shred of proof. As if this wasn’t laughable enough, Susie Salmon’s little sister Lindsey Salmon is walking her dog after the murder and when she stops in front of the pedophile’s house the dog begins to bark at it and this is apparently all the proof the Salmon family needs to know that the he’s the guy that is responsible for the murder (lol). At this point the movie becomes ridiculous when Jack Salmon tails the pedophile with a baseball bat into a corn field for some revenge only to stumble on to a pair of high school lovers which results in Jack Salmon getting his ass kicked by a jock with his own bat no less which earns him a trip to the hospital. I can go on and on but I’ll end this review by saying the movie reaches it’s conclusion with the murder being unsolved; the presumption that it’s okay to break into a person’s house to obtain evidence; Susie Salmon ridiculously manifesting herself into the body of another girl order to obtain a kiss from a five minute crush whom she met at the start of the movie; a random icicle brings ultimate justice when it falls on the head of the pedophile causing him to fall off a cliff (lol). Thank heaven this was only a rental. Since this movie is asinine to the tenth degree treat it like the plague and run, you’ll be doing you and your family a great favor.

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July 1st, 2010