Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

1940's "Chamber of Horrors" is saddled with fairly misleading title. Sure, some chambers are present, but horrors are few and far between in this murder mystery (which was titled "The Door with the Seven Locks" internationally), which is more dialogue-driven endeavor than a chilling one, almost coming across as a filmed play instead of a suspenseful genre offering. Director Norman Lee keeps to the basics in whodunit cinema here, arranging a full "Clue" game of suspects and motivations, and every now and then, something macabre will sneak into the frame to keep the effort rolling along to an energetic finale. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The 1970s were a fertile time for dystopian adventures. Reflecting an increasingly hostile and hopeless world rife with political upheavals, terrorism, and pollution concerns, world cinema took notice, producing a great number of films throughout the decade that attempted to turn societal ills into mass entertainment, often granted a license to be as depressing as possible, to best brand audiences looking to grab a peek at the dark side of life. Think "Soylent Green," "Logan's Run," and even "Planet of the Apes." Offered early in this revolution is 1972's "Z.P.G." ("Zero Population Growth"), which examines life in an overpopulated futureworld where the air is choked with smog and babies are outlawed to preserve global control, pitting the few against the many as free will fights to survive. Directed by Michael Campus ("The Mack"), "Z.P.G." has all the ingredients for a vivid examination of oncoming misery, delivering impressive production achievements that sell the sterility of a society built on complacency. While not precisely satiric in nature, the feature has some fun with era-specific concerns between bouts of depression as the end of the world is recreated for the screen. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After achieving a cult hit in 1986's "Witchboard," director Kevin Tenney returns to the dark side with 1989's "Witchtrap" (titled "The Presence" on the Blu-ray), which isn't a sequel, but displays a similar fascination with dangerous supernatural terrain. Although it's a low-budget feature shot on the quick, Tenney's work here is surprisingly effective, putting in noticeable effort to jolt a tale of a rather specific haunting, using inventive special effects and lively performances to secure entertainment value. "Witch Trap" has its limitations, but its genre adulation remains endearing throughout, gifting viewers a scrappy, snarky, low-wattage take on a demonic uprising, offering enough carnage and panic to cover a few dramatic and technical potholes found during the journey. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Perhaps trying to reignite the flames of teenage lust, co-writer/director Howard Avedis returns diminutive actor Eric Brown to the screen in 1984's "They're Playing with Fire," which follows his success in 1981's "Private Lessons." Once again casting Brown as boy experiencing a sexual awakening at the hands of an older woman, Avedis makes a wise choice in casting. Not with Brown, but co-star Sybil Danning, who possesses a pronounced aura of sexuality that turns certain sections of the film into 3-D, making an appealing focal point for the picture, which often needs all the distractions it can find. A curious combination of Hitchcock and "Friday the 13th," "They're Playing with Fire" arranges vivid excursions into sex and violence, playing up its soft-core attitude with gore zone visits and a screenplay (co-written by Avedis's spouse, Marlene Schmidt) that goes from appealingly straightforward to bewildering as the story unfolds, requiring Danning to disrobe just to maintain cabin pressure in this weirdo thriller tailor-made for late night cable showings. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Adult cinema visits the superspy genre in 1974's "China Girl," which delivers a 007-ish take on global threat, evil organizations, and erotic enticements, executed with a certain cinematic flair not always found in such saucy endeavors. Director Paul Aratow is tasked with completing the basics in coupling and naughty interactions, but he also takes time with performances, helping to bridle the potential outrageousness of the "China Girl" world of spying with some unexpectedly effective turns, including a primary villain played by James Hong, from "Big Trouble in Little China" fame (credited here as "James Young"). Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2011's "Karate Girl" was marketed as a celebration of true fighting prowess, even repeatedly declaring in its trailer that the picture was made without the use of CGI. Bravo to the producers for attempting to restore some organic aggression into their action endeavor, but did the package as a whole have to be so dull? Spending time on martial arts choreography but not on sets, locations, and actors, "Karate Girl" is a fairly banal feature, doing shockingly little with its revenge scenario and magical treasures. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Adapted from a novel by Dan Wells, "I Am Not a Serial Killer" is one of the better chillers I've seen in recent memory, using an enticing sense of mystery to act as glue for macabre events occurring in a tiny Minnesota town. It's the new film from burgeoning genre moviemaker Billy O'Brien, and he gives his latest work some serious thought, trying to balance the needs of unsettling characterization with slightly damaged people and a grander arc of horror that takes more than a few unusual directions. "I Am Not a Serial Killer" works best without a full understanding of what lies ahead, so the spoiler-sensitive (and you know who you are) should walk away from this review now, preferably straight to a Blu-ray of the picture, ready to appreciate the dramatic subtleties and indie production achievements of the feature, which offers much more than predictable shock value. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While the 1966 University of Texas Tower Shooting certainly isn't the first act of gun violence in America, it's largely recognized as a preamble to the world we live in today, where aggression and displays of armament feel like a weekly event. While it was far from an innocent time, occurring during the Vietnam War, the event, where Charles Whitman situated himself on the top floor of the University of Texas Tower and began shooting at students and staff with a small arsenal, joined various motivated murders to erode America's innocence, commencing a new dawn in anytown-style catastrophe. "Tower" is a bold examination of the day's events, but instead of strictly employing talking heads to understand increasing anxiety as Whitman commanded the area for 96 minutes, director Keith Maitland uses rotoscoped animation to replicate intensity and explore the scene, putting focus on those on the ground trying to survive a nightmarish and seemingly never-ending experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Leos Carax doesn't make many movies, but when he does, he tends to go all-out with his endeavors, searching for ways to wake up cinema as his explores universal themes of love and time. 1991's "The Lovers on the Bridge" is largely considered the ultimate Carax experience, combining his interest in the theatrical and his obsession with heartache, cooking up a wild viewing experience that bends reality and celebrates oddity, but remains achingly human at its core, showcasing an impressive balance of tone while highlighting all types of impulsive, self-destructive behavior. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Keeping their standing as titans of the horror genre, stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee move from Hammer Films to Amicus Productions for 1965's "The Skull," which keeps the actors busy with a different type of threat emerging from the haunted skull of the Marquis de Sade. Adapted from a short story by "Psycho" author Robert Bloch and directed by Freddie Francis, "The Skull" has the benefit of being just weird enough to work, exploring the limits of sanity and the perils of antique dealing, experiencing evil through a strange vessel of paranormal influence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Fire at Sea" takes a look at the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean Sea, but approaches the topic with a sense of distance at first, holding back on horrors as the documentary acclimates to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the setting for this story. It's the latest work from director Gianfranco Rosi and an often powerful presentation of extremes, contrasting the daily activities of locals and the waking nightmare occurring out on the waters, where migrants from Africa and the Middle East approach on ramshackle boats often filled with a sick and the dead. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The theatrical trailer for 1985's "Certain Fury" is quick to remind viewers that the film stars two Academy Award winners, clawing for any morsel of dignity it can find to build the feature up as something more respectable than it actually is. It's true, Irene Cara (who collected an Oscar in 1984 for Best Original Song) and Tatum O'Neal (who brought home a little gold man in 1974 at the age of ten for her supporting turn in "Paper Moon") have reached the pinnacle of peer reward in Hollywood, but they're not exactly two forces of thespian power. "Certain Fury" is an exercise in B-moviemaking from director Stephen Gyllenhaal (father to Jake and Maggie), who makes his helming debut here, tasked with butching up Cara and O'Neal for a chase picture that resembles "The Defiant Ones," but mostly plays out like a television show from the mid-1980s, likely airing after "The A-Team." Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Weird science is discussed at length in 1959's "The Man Who Could Cheat Death," which adapts a stage play for the screen, hoping a little oddity with a "The Picture of Dorian Gray"-style premise might be enough to satisfy horror fans. Frights aren't important to director Terence Fisher, and while he tries to summon a spooky mood of strange events and medical urgency, he can't avoid the reality that this is one talky endeavor. "The Man Who Could Cheat Death" isn't a whiff for Hammer Films, but it's far from their most suspenseful effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While there’s an extensive history of teen-centric tearjerkers conquering the box office, the raging success of 2014’s “The Fault in Our Stars” has revived the art of tender manipulation, paving the way for “Everything, Everything,” which plays a similar game of grave illness and romantic liberation shared by young characters. An adaptation of a 2015 novel by Nicola Yoon, the picture doesn’t have the severity of “The Fault in Our Stars,” electing more of a grounded, tech-minded understanding of modern love, keeping its dramatic aspirations in check, investing in character as it explores an impossible connection between two lonely people. While pieces seem to be missing from the narrative, director Stella Meghie knows what she’s doing with “Everything, Everything,” creating a visual language for the feature that merges fantasy and reality without bumpy points of entry. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1959's "Compulsion" goes out of its way to avoid naming Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb as its inspiration for a tale of murder and intellectualism, but this adaptation of Meyer Levin book dramatizes most details from the heinous crime committed by the frightfully rational duo. It's a story that was already worked over in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope," but "Compulsion" has a more direct link to the Leopold and Loeb case, with director Richard Fleischer going the "Law and Order" route as the details of a crime are examined in full before the tale turns into a courtroom showdown where punishment is debated, not innocence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1956's "23 Paces to Baker Street" has often been compared to Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," and the similarities are there, studying the increasing agitation of a murder witness who can't convince the world of his valid observations, soon embarking on his own investigation to help avoid a future disaster. Director Henry Hathaway does a passable job with mild escalation and characterization, but he's no Hitchcock, and "23 Paces to Baker Street" often struggles to sustain a rhythm of suspense that takes it from discovery to payoff with engaging speed. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The "Teen Witch" that exists today is a major cult film, beloved by a certain audience raised on the movie through cable and VHS repetition, bending to the effort's strange magic through extensive study of its earnest details. The picture wasn't always appreciated like that, with its 1989 theatrical release disastrous, offered to audiences unwilling to accept the endeavor's eye-crossing mixture of musical numbers, teen anxiety, and dark arts, making it more of a fit for sleepover party analysis and lazy afternoon viewings. It's difficult to peel the reputation of "Teen Witch" away from its actual creative accomplishments, but director Dorian Walker provides something familiar that's appealing to those hungering for a surprisingly pure shot of sincerity, keeping the picture cheeky and bizarre, but also universal with its themes of social acceptance and displays of fantasy power. It's not impossible to comprehend why the feature is so popular these days, it's just more difficult to digest some of effort's broader scenes of personal expression and romantic intent. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Love and desire hit normal adolescent roadblocks in "Being 17," the latest from co-writer/director Andre Techine ("Thieves," "Wild Reeds"). The 73-year-old helmer is an unlikely source for adolescent woes, but Techine taps into something very personal and primal with the picture, which attacks displays of universal dysfunction with raw passion, gifting the feature real spirit as it inspects teenagers and their personal battles. "Being 17" isn't the sharpest work from Techine — it actually doesn't even have an ending. What the director gets absolutely right here are those abyssal feelings and paralyzing concerns that touch everyone's life, treating arcs of attraction and friendship with the concentration and realism they deserve. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Granted, no one expects spectacular, meaningful things from a movie titled "Schoolgirls in Chains," but what's wrong with a little pace? The 1973 effort from writer/director Don Jones isn't short on salacious material, but basic screen energy is sorely lacking from this tepid sexploitation endeavor. Merging gratuitous nudity with profound mental illness, "Schoolgirls in Chains" is slow to boil, taking pleasure in exposing kinky business and violence, while its overall thrust as a chiller of sorts is underwhelming as Jones tries to make shock value meaningful with a psychological study that's poorly conceived. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Before 1979's "Saint Jack" was put into production, director Peter Bogdanovich was in a difficult position career-wise. After breaking through with "The Last Picture Show" and "Paper Moon," the helmer harpooned his popularity with the flops "Nickelodeon" and "At Long Last Love." Requiring a centering of his moviemaking chakras, Bogdanovich ran away to Singapore for "Saint Jack," which erases any hope for Old Hollywood glamour and Americana to deliver a complex tale of a pimp inching closer to trouble, keeping star Ben Gazzara on the move as the locations are explored in tremendous detail. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com