Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

As 2019 becomes the year of Charles Manson and the revival of interest in all the chaos he created, "Charlie Says" (the second of three movies about the man this year) makes an effort to move away from some of the famous imagery and characterization that usually inhabits tales about the cult leader. The focus here is on the women in his life, with special attention on the ways of Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins. Reteaming after their collaborations on "American Psycho" and "The Notorious Bettie Page," director Mary Harron and screenwriter Guinevere Turner endeavor to humanize those involved in barbaric crimes, striving to understand the brainwashed drive of three women who were caught up in something they didn't completely understand, chasing emotional needs to macabre extremes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2003's "Thirteen" was an American production that tried to convey the feral experience of being new to the teenage world of temptation and surging emotions. It made adolescence looks scary. "Tiger Milk" is a German production that basically explores the same obstacle course of juvenile mayhem, but it plays a lot lighter while delving into darker areas of experimentation. It's an adaptation of author Stefanie Muhlhan's novel, with writer/director Ute Wieland trying desperately to find focus and momentum with a sprawling saga of maturation, deportation, and murder. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For this third picture, writer/director Philip Kaufman takes a trip into American legend with 1972's "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid," examining the thin line between fact and fiction concerning the exploits of Jesse James and Cole Younger. The feature surveys the winding ways of the James- Younger Gang as they cross the country on a mission to collect a fortune from a small town bank, but Kaufman isn't making a matinee distraction. Instead, he works his way into troubling personalities and tempers, highlighting the power of reputation and the reality of poisoned behaviors, making a bank robbery movie that's more about psychological disease than straightforward horse-riding, guns blazing theatrics. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"Play Dead" is part of the killer dog subgenre, but it isn't a tale of a frenzied beast prowling the streets on the hunt for human prey. It's more of a slasher picture in design, with the central pooch executing complex schemes to terminate targets, with a demonic force helping to motivate the canine into acts of murder. It's all fantastically ridiculous, but director Peter Wittman doesn't push for any sort of reality, creating a campy romp with a four-legged star who's very skilled at making life miserable for the lead character. "Play Dead" has a lot of laughs, most unintentional, but the entertainment value of the feature is high, with Wittman not terribly concerned with throttling foolishness, sticking closely to Lothrop W. Jordan's script as they merge the mystery of Satanism with the craziness of a Rottweiler who's capable of covering up her own murder scenes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

What a time to be alive. Last November, Shout Factory released "The Critters Collection" on Blu-ray, bringing the original four-part Krite saga from the 1980s and '90s to fans clamoring for an HD franchise festival, stuffing the set with terrific supplements. Last spring saw the release of "Critters: A New Binge," a streaming series consisting of eight short chapters that played like a single film, returning the Krites to screens after being away for 17 years. And now, mere months later, there's "Critters Attack," which also seeks to return the brand name to pop culture awareness, even hiring Dee Wallace to return to the series after appearing in the first movie. It's been a "Critters" bonanza this past year, and while such interest is welcome, "Critters Attack" suffers from a serious lack of energy and creature feature imagination. It's not as cringe-worthy as "A New Binge," which was always chasing terrible jokes, but director Bobby Miller has a real opportunity to create something bonkers with the DTV endeavor, and he goes flat with it, unable to generate the type of gnarly nonsense the fanbase deserves. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1992's "Hellmaster" (titled "Them" on the Blu-ray) has a very ambitious story to sell, but not a lot of production time is devoted to really emphasize just what exactly is happening during most scenes. It's a convoluted picture from director Douglas Schulze, but he has a visual plan for the effort, working with cinematographer Michael Goi to make the endeavor as striking as a low-budget movie can possibly be. "Hellmaster" has a lot of problems, but it's engaging as horror eye candy, giving fans plenty of blood and strange sights to hold their attention as Schulze fights to explore a lukewarm plot. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"The Pink Ladies" is a film about fantasies. It's lighthearted work from director Roger Watkins, who's not normally associated with upbeat cinema (previously helming the bleak "Her Name Was Lisa"), making something of a farce with the feature, working through episodes of characters plunging deep into their own minds to find sexual satisfaction. It's a weird picture, but that's part of its charm, as Watkins has no real plot to work with, turning the effort into something more episodic, with a few scenes slipping into the surreal. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1983's "Mascara" attempts to address the wilds of fantasy, emerging as something of a female empowerment picture that's only slightly attentive to the inner fires of the lead character. Co-directors Henri Pachard and Roberta Findlay show more interest in kink, with the feature surveying the specialty of human sexuality as it dips into private areas of submission and control. "Mascara" isn't quite the French art film the production wants to be, but it does have a little more on its mind than other adult titles, emerging as an odyssey into the thick of wants and needs during the hustle and bustle of New York City in the 1980s. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1942's "The Mad Doctor of Market Street" doesn't remain at the titular location for very long. In fact, it doesn't really remain anywhere for an extended amount of time, with the first act making promises for horror and suspense the rest of the movie doesn't keep. Screenwriter Al Martin has a fine idea for encouraging chills with a tale of a deranged doctor (Lionel Atwill) who pushes his research on suspended animation into death, only to turn the feature into a chase that reaches a luxury ship bound for New Zealand. And then, even with a large setting to work with, the film eventually makes its way to a South Seas island. "The Mad Doctor of Market Street" is a restless picture, always in a hurry to trade decent ideas for bad ones. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While "The Strange Case of Doctor Rx" is included in the "Universal Horror Collection: Volume 2" set, there's very little to be frightened of while watching the picture. Perhaps the casting of Shemp Howard is enough to expose what the production is up to, but there's habitual lightness to the endeavor, which is always more interested in a laugh than a scream. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

And you thought college tuition was murder? 1943's "The Mad Ghoul" brings terror to a campus setting, examining the evil ways of a professor (George Zucco) who's harnessed the power of ancient gas, using the lethal substance to control one of his adoring students (David Bruce), forcing the zombified young man to kill to remain alive. "The Mad Ghoul" is something of a monster movie, playing with what are now common undead cliches, with director James Hogan working to locate the noir-ish angles of the material, adding style to a periodically lumbering chiller. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1933's "Murders in the Zoo" certainly wins points for its opening offering of horror, watching as the villain (played by Lionel Atwill) elects to deal with a man making a move on his young wife by binding his hands and sewing his mouth shut. In the pre-code industry, this is a fairly graphic introduction to the fear factor of "Murders in the Zoo," and while subsequent malevolence doesn't top such a sight, it's comforting to know director A. Edward Sutherland isn't messing around with the material, happy to deliver a few shocks to keep viewers on edge. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Returning to the mystery and cinematic allure of big cats, producer Val Lewton takes command of 1943's "The Leopard Man," which involves a sleek, black predator and his reign of terror on a New Mexico community. However, the feature isn't an animal attack endeavor, with the screenplay using the central threat as a way to examine the burden of guilt and the coldness of community, using a serial killer story to hook audiences in before offering them unusual characterizations in a semi-motivated tale of investigation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As the marketplace gradually fills with home invasion thrillers, "They're Inside" initially seems like another installment of the masked maniacs subgenre, pitting hapless twentysomethings against the unnervingly composed might of creeps who've recently shopped at Dollar General to avoid being identified. Co-writer/director John-Paul Panelli isn't aiming for complete originality with the picture (especially on a visual level), but he's ultimately going for something Haneke-esque instead of rehashing "The Strangers." It's not a huge diversion from the norm, but it's something to disrupt expectations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1978's "The Mafu Cage" began life as a play from writer Eric Westphal, offering tight characterization and a slow descent into madness that fits perfectly with the distance of theater, permitting audiences time and space to process the unfolding psychological mayhem. Director Karen Arthur's screen version of the work removes all dramatic buffers, pulling viewers into a world of mental illness and bodily harm, dealing with a story of imprisonment by turning the entire feature into a tight grip of claustrophobic events. "The Mafu Cage" is certainly different, with Arthur striving to create an avant-garde experience that's not easily defined or, at times, bearable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Maturing as a filmmaker after spending time with the "Pink Panther" series, Blake Edwards tries his luck with a spy genre with 1974's "The Tamarind Seed," which opens with a James Bond-style credit sequence from Maurice Binder and features a John Barry score, but doesn't do much more when it comes to digging into cinematic influences. Instead, Edwards puts his faith into stars Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif, who supply just enough star power to get this unexpectedly dry thriller out of neutral on multiple occasions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The cinematic saga of Professor Quatermass and his innate ability to discover trouble from another planet comes to a close with 1967's "Quatermass and the Pit." While the initial two efforts were B&W productions with an American lead, Hammer Films goes full color and British with the second sequel, bringing in Andrew Keir as the professor, with Quatermass newly tasked to decode evidence of a Martian invasion that's been restarted during a mass transit excavation project. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A sequel to 1955's "The Quatermass Xperiment," 1957's "Quatermass 2" returns actor Brian Donlevy to the titular role, this time sending the good professor out to investigate the appearance of strange meteorites and inspect the inner workings of a mysterious refinery. Val Guest returns to directorial duty, coming up with another reason to remain with the older detective and his particular sense of defiance when it comes to government orders and alien invasions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Directorial careers can be a strange thing, and Joe Chappelle has experienced a wild one. He made his first real mainstream impression with 1995's "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers," and segued into 1998's "Phantoms." The genre launch pad didn't ignite a hunger for his services, ending up helming "The Skulls II" before retreating from features all together, slipping into television to pay the bills. However, Chappelle managed to join shows such as "Fringe" and "The Wire," sharpening his talents with quality programs, and now he's back in theaters with "An Acceptable Loss," working from his own screenplay. Newly empowered to make a timely tale of political deception, Chappelle puts in a noticeable effort with the movie, which makes it halfway to thematic clarity before formula kicks in. Still, some elements do connect as intended in "An Acceptable Loss," displaying storytelling clarity where there wasn't much before. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Kuba Czekaj has a fascination with human development. He explored the trials of childhood in "Baby Bump," contorting a ride of innocence as it encounters the frightening abyss of puberty, coming up with an extremely underground cinema approach to the rituals of maturation. He returns to the subject with "The Erlprince," this time graduating to the teen years, which present him with even more emotional open range to explore with his experimental instincts, this time doing away with comedy to create a more sobering understanding of domestic control and juvenile psychology, using waves of science and fantasy to generate required abstraction while remaining interested in the lead character's unusual coping mechanisms. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com