A few years ago, writer/director Nicolas Pesce made his filmmaking debut with "The Eyes of My Mother," which displayed the helmer's command of style and mood, along with his fascination with prolonged violent encounters. Instead of trying something different for his follow-up, Pesce returns to the land of grime and bloody with "Piercing," attempting to adapt a 2008 novel by Ryu Murakami. Once again, Pesce doesn't take it easy on his audience, delivering a picture that savors suffering and observes madness as its leaks out of the characters, often at the worst possible moments. "Piercing" boasts fine technical credits, but the feature's quest for atmosphere is often more interesting than the actual story unfolding in slow- motion, finding Pesce too wrapped up in the particulars of Murakami's world, keeping the viewing experience more about shiny surfaces and gaping wounds than macabre drama. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Asghar Farhadi is primarily known for his Iranian dramas, scoring major critical successes with efforts such as "The Salesman," "A Separation," and "About Elly." Ready for more global awareness, the helmer takes baby steps toward the mainstream with "Everybody Knows," which utilizes a sampling of star power to nab attention, finding Farhadi teaming with actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem to help carry a kidnapping mystery. However, "Everybody Knows" is not a nail-biter with chases and whiplash turns of fate. It remains in line with Farhadi's previous work, with primary attention placed on the internal churn of decision-making and the troubles that come with longtime relationships and secretive connections. Those expecting something more explosive from the filmmaker this time out might be disappointed, but slow-burn tension is there, realized through accomplished performances from the entire ensemble. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While finding his greatest career success in horror, helming 1980's "Friday the 13th," director Sean S. Cunningham wanted a break from the genre, returning to his comedy roots with 1983's "Spring Break," delivering a beach party raunchfest without actually providing any raunchy business. While the feature was another hit for Cunningham, the lure of fright films proved to be powerful, returning to suspense and violence with 1985's "The New Kids." This isn't a slasher picture with careful attention to the destruction of bodies, but a juvenile delinquent tale from the 1950s juiced up with era- specific aggression. Cunningham isn't big on style and doesn't really know how to measure performance, but the man knows his exploitation, clearly defining good vs. bad while utilizing an interesting setting for this gradual escalation of high school bullying. "The New Kids" is often ridiculous, but it's entertaining, with Cunningham keeping up pace and intensity as he tries to skate past absurdity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For his latest long-form documentary, director Ken Burns tackles the world of country music, which is not a subject I'm sure many expected him to give his traditional in-depth treatment. After recently exploring the life and times of The Roosevelts, Jackie Robinson, and filing through the history of The Mayo Clinic, Burns delivers a surprise with "Country Music," which gifts itself 16 hours of screen time to detail the history of American folk music and the scores of artists who helped to put it all together over the course of 60 years. "Country Music" is a traditional Burns behemoth (scripted by Dayton Duncan and narrated by Peter Coyote), and it deals with its fair share of tragedy and psychological darkness, but there a brighter sense of exploration as Team Burns works through musical history, spotlighting all the fantastic artists and extreme personalities found in the genre, which has welcomed some extraordinary talents. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"The Prodigy" is yet another attempt to master the Killer Kid subgenre of horror, trying to generate a fright film with a basic push to depict the corruption of innocence, making nastiness emerging from a wee one all the more disturbing. Typically, these endeavors swan dive into bad taste, aiming more for shock value than genuine scares, getting off on the concept of a child committing murder, with very little effort put into the rest of the production. Thankfully, "The Prodigy" isn't ugly, going the supernatural route when detailing the rampage of an 8-year-old monster, whose body is being commanded by a fortysomething serial killer. Screenwriter Jeff Buhler (the "Pet Sematary" remake, the "Jacob's Ladder" remake, and the upcoming "Grudge" remake) deserves some credit for keeping the movie less icky than its competition, but that doesn't mean there's a story to tell here. While it manages some faint level of restraint, the feature remains a fairly brain-dead viewing experience, while director Nicholas McCarthy ("The Pact," "At the Devil's Door") doesn't sharpen the potential for terror, keeping matters largely routine when it comes to jumps and jolts, which eventually take command of the snoozy picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

What writer/director Frank LaLoggia is reaching for with 1981's "Fear No Evil" is an epic showdown between demonic threats and heavenly forces. It's an antichrist tale, exploring the arrival of evil in the form of a teenage boy, tapping into industry Satanic Panic trends of the 1970s as LaLoggia figures out a way to bring a complex religious story to the screen on a tiny budget. To help entice potential ticket-buyers, LaLoggia elects to pair biblical fury with a high school saga about a bullied kid. The merging of genres isn't ideal, and "Fear No Evil" often struggles to balance both sides of the screenplay, which always plays like a first draft that lucked its ways into production. The helmer has some intriguing ideas to share on the state of Godly might, and a few B-movie ideas are appealing, but this isn't cohesive effort, often playing like two separate features competing for screen time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the early 1980s, actress Jamie Lee Curtis found herself in a difficult career position. She broke through with 1978's "Halloween," and continued to collect work in horror, starring in "Prom Night," "Terror Train," "The Fog," and "Halloween II," becoming a "scream queen" to many, developing her screen presence in a typically permissive genre. For 1983's "Love Letters," Curtis elects to step away from maniacal pursuit, testing her dramatic chops with a dark tale of romantic obsession, written and directed by Amy Holden Jones, who was also dealing with reputation issues, having previously helmed "The Slumber Party Massacre." Curtis visibly works on her dramatic potential in the picture, doing well with Jones's writing, which imagines a crisis of the heart when a woman in need of magical love finds a partner who denies her everything except pleasures of the flesh. Stalker cinema eventually receives a workout in the third act, but "Love Letters" is a surprisingly effective take on desperation, with Curtis offering a welcomingly reserved take on a nervous breakdown. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2015's "The Case of Hana & Alice" is actually a prequel to 2004's "Hana and Alice," which tracked the developing friendship between the titular characters as they experience love, obsession, deception, and ballet. Aiming to revisit the pair from a slightly earlier time in their lives, director Shunji Iwai elects to combat the ravages of time by turning to animation, more specifically rotoscoping, which works as a time machine of sorts, permitting stars Anne Suzuki and Yu Aoi a chance to return to their youthful roles without revealing how many years have passed between installments. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The history behind the young detective Nancy Drew is vast, dating back to her literary debut in 1930. Every now and then, Hollywood endeavors to revive the franchise, with many television and film adaptations striving to update the character for modern audiences, giving old-fashioned sleuthing a trendy twist. "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase" is no different. The production works to keep things current to best engage an easily distracted audience, and they have a special star in Sophie Lillis, who contributed greatly to the monster success of 2017's "It." Lillis picks up the flashlight and unstoppable curiosity for this fresh round of clue gathering, and she's the brightest thing in the feature, which is best appreciated with lowered expectations, offering mildness for the target demographic, while Lillis comes ready to play. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com