In the early ’80s actress Cassandra Peterson invented the character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark after being hired by Los Angeles television station KHJ to host their revival of the weekend horror program Fright Night (which had been hosted by Larry Vincent as the character Sinister Seymour). The new show was called Movie Macabre and Elvira became one of the most iconic characters of the decade. In 2010 Peterson revived the Movie Macabre series and two double feature DVDs from the first season have been released (with plenty more planned in the near future).

The first volume features the films Night of the Living Dead and I Eat Your Skin. To be perfectly honest I wasn’t looking forward to watching Night of the Living Dead because part of Elvira’s role as host is to add a running commentary that often lampoons the various weaknesses of the film being shown. Night of the Living Dead is one of my favorite films and the last thing I wanted to do was hear is someone trying to lampoon it. Thankfully Peterson offers up her least intrusive commentary and spends most of her time redecorating her crypt (basement).

I Eat Your Skin (AKA Zombies, Zombie Bloodbath or Voodoo Bloodbath) is a particularly silly film from 1964 about a novelist that visits a remote island to research voodoo. What he finds is a mad scientist, a beautiful girl and an army bloodthirsty zombies (but no cannibals). There’s a reason why this film sat on a shelf for six years before being pared up with the much more violent I Drink Your Blood (thus the title change) for its theatrical release. It’s terrible, but it is certainly entertaining.

The second volume contains The Satanic Rites of Dracula and The Werewolf of Washington. Frankly neither film, with or without the Elvira commentary, is any good. The Satanic Rites of Dracula (AKA Dracula is Dead and Well Living in London or Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride) is the least appealing film from Hammer Horror despite the fact that it stars Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Christopher Lee as Dracula. I suppose I should point out that the film’s nudity has been blurred out.

The Werewolf of Washington stars Dean Stockwell as a press assistant to the president of the United States of America that happens to be a werewolf. If you like political satires you might find enjoyment in the film but as a horror comedy it lacks laughs or charm.

With Syfy’s series Haven set to kick off its second season on Friday I’ve been making my way through the show’s first season over the past few days. Based on Steven King’s novel The Colorado Kid the series chronicles the strange happenings in the town of Haven, Maine. The principle characters are Audrey Parker (Emily Rose), an FBI agent, Nathan Wuomos (Lucas Bryant), a police officer and Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour), the local bad boy with a heart of gold. Entertainment Weekly called it “Twin Peaks meets The X-Files” but that’s a bit misleading because the tone is completely different from David Lynch’s series and the relationship between Mulder and Scully is centered on a believer/skeptic dynamic that is completely absent in Haven. No, Haven is too goofy and too simplistic to be confused with Twin Peaks or The X-Files, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a bit of fun wrapped around a mystery.

To enjoy Haven you have to accept that the small town has an inexhaustible supply of supernatural occurrences that kills off the equally inexhaustible population of this seemingly normal seaside town. These deaths are often shrugged off as minor happenings even when they happen to people close to the principle cast. Most of the characters are also keeping secrets and sometimes when these secrets are told they don’t make a lot of sense. It’s almost as if the writers didn’t quite know what they wanted to do with the series until they were halfway through filming it. The series also has a habit of introducing supporting characters that are built up as important but disappear after one or two episodes.  If you can get beyond all of that you’ll probably find Haven among your guilty pleasures. I’m guessing that the second season will actually be stronger than the first but time will only tell. 

On June 9, 1970 a trio of children were born at the height of a solar eclipse simultaneously in the Meadowvale General Hospital. One decade later a teenage couple are viciously murdered in the town’s cemetery and the only evidence left by the killer is the handle from a child’s jump rope.

Before we dive into this rarely seen gem from 1981 I’d like to mention that this DVD arrived for me to review on June 9, which just happens to be my birthday. So, along with Johnny Depp, Michael J. Fox, Less Paul and Natalie Portman I share my birthday with a trio of fictional children that lack emotions and are prone to do very naughty things.  Great, that’s just great.

Bloody Birthday was written and directed by Ed Hunt whose previous films were a mix of softcore porn (Corrupted and Diary of a Sinner), sci-fi (Plague, Starship Invasions and Point of No Return), a speculative documentary (Flying Saucers Are Real!) and the “Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar” episode from the television series Greatest Heroes of the Bible. Bloody Birthday features a little bit of all of Hunt’s previous work and adds the killer kids element. It’s not a particularly scary film but it does have a certain amount of charm as checks off the traditional list of slasher clichés. Some might say the charm comes by way of MTV’s Julie Brown and her striptease but I actually prefer Lori Lethin’s (The Prey, Return to Horror High) performance as naïve protagonist Joyce Russel. The film also features K.C. Martel who would later appear in E.T. and the television series Growing Pains.

Bonus features include a brief, but entertaining, interview with Lethin, a rather long and dry audio interview with Hunt that offers an overview of his entire career and a 15-minute featurette called “A Brief History of Slasher Films” that offers a quick run through the bloody timeline of the horror sub-genre (the same program is also available on Severin’s DVD release of John Lamond’s Nightmares).

If you’re looking for an amusing slice of retro horror Bloody Birthday will do nicely.

Dinocroc and Supergator have escaped from the Hawaiian genetic research facility where they were created and are threatening to devour the entire tourist industry. Include an undercover investigator, an attractive Fish and Game officer, a hunter known as ‘The Cajun,’ producer Roger Corman, the director of Chopping Mall and David Carradine in one of his last roles and you’ve got the makings of a Syfy movie extravaganza.

I could go on to explain how silly and formulaic Dinocroc vs. Supergator is, but that would only be stating the obvious. You don’t sit down to watch a Roger Corman picture expecting Gone with the Wind. Sometimes you get Rock ‘n’ Roll High School or Death Race 2000 but more often than not you get films that are mildly entertaining but are quickly forgotten. Dinocroc vs. Supergator is more of the later as it combines cheap special effects with sub par acting and a mind numbing plot to create a cinematic experience that is equivalent to the nutritional value of a Pixy Stix. Of course, sometimes you need something utterly sweet to balance out the bitter. I can’t deny that I enjoyed Dinocroc vs. Supergator.

The Blu-ray release looks as good as can be expected from a film with a very limited budget. The picture is often crisp but the CGI effects are blurry and there is a fair amount of noise.

The bonus features are headlined by an audio commentary with Corman and director Jim Wynorski (AKA Jay Andrews). Corman explains his role as producer quite well and Wynorski reveals all as he explains how he made the film. It’s one of the better commentaries that I’ve ever heard as it offers up a wonderful guide on how to make a film on the cheap. They’ve also included the trailer.

Korean director Sang-soo Im shocked audiences with his 2005 film The President’s Last Bang. Censors even went as far as to demand four minutes of  “documentary” footage be cut because it suggested that this work of fiction was actually non-fiction. While that film was a dark comedy focused on the assassination of South Korea’s president Park Chung Hee, The Housemaid turns his gaze towards the hypocrisy of the upper class in his loose remake of Ki-young Kim’s 1960 film.

Do-yeon Jeon stars as Eun-yi, a young woman hired by Hae Ra (pregnant with twins) and Hoon to look after their daughter, Nami. It isn’t long before Eun-yi’s warmth, in direct contrast to Hae Ra’s cold beauty, wins over Nami and piques the interest of Hoon who begins to explore the possibility of having an affair with his new housemaid. Eun-yi is won over by Hoon’s wealth and the glamorous world that he inhabits. The affair quickly escalades but when another maid catches Hoon and Eun-yi having sex the fantasy spirals into a nightmare.

The Housemaid is essentially an art-house soap opera. The performances are quite good, particularly from Jeon, the cinematography has an appealing glossy look and the film’s ending is something that demands to be seen but the characters are rigid and are driven by cliché or whatever will bring about the most dramatic consequence. I believe this is exactly what Im intended as it suggests that the upper class is driven by emotional disconnection and are quite different from the working class Eun-yi. The problem with this choice is that it makes the events that drive the plot extremely predictable. Well, predictable up until Im offers up an ending that is both horrific and wildly over the top.

Bonus features are limited to a theatrical trailer and a short ‘making of’ featurette focuses primarily on Jeon.

Boy oh boy do I love the horror film [•REC]. My experience with it was a unique one. While working at the comic shop, David, one of the regulars brought in a DVD for me to watch. It didn’t include the case or any description of what the film was, just the DVD. I asked him what it was about. His response was, “Just watch it. I don’t want to spoil it.”

That evening I went home and popped the DVD in. It opens with Ángela Vidal and her cameraman, Pablo. They are covering a local fire station for a documentary. The fire station gets a call to an apartment building. In one of the apartments is a sickly old woman who isn’t responding to anyone. She eerily stands at the end of a dark hallway. After a moment, she bolts down the hallway and violently attacks a police officer. As the crew tries to rush out of the apartment building to get aid, the doors are slammed shut and locked. And a plastic tarp rolls down around the outside of the building.

Yah, pretty awesome way to start a movie. The entire movie was a really fun roller coaster ride. You can imagine how excited I was when they announced the sequel. [•REC] 2 picks up fifteen minutes where the previous movie left off. This time it’s Dr. Owen from the Ministry of Health and the GEO (basically a SWAT team). Very quickly you learn that Dr. Owen isn’t who he seems, and neither is the situation they are stuck in. The GEO team thinks its a simple quarantine due to an airborne disease.

That is really all I want to touch on, because I feel so much of the fun in these movies is the thrill ride. I highly recommend both of them. The “shaky cam” isn’t really all that shaky. The special effects are top notch. And as far as the DVD features, they are outstanding. Hours of wonderful behind the scenes features. Make sure you pick this up when it comes out tomorrow, July 12.

I’ve always said that I’d prefer to live in a world where superheroes existed, missing children really just disappeared through wardrobes and that aliens helped the Egyptians build the pyramids. I don’t necessarily believe in superheroes, magic wardrobes or aliens but I’m thrilled that there are people that do. That’s why I absolutely love watching HISTORY’s Ancient Aliens. Following the stand-alone episode and the subsequent first season of the series I wasn’t sure that there was much left to be explored but season two’s ten episodes are just as interesting and amusing as the first season. There does tend to be some overlap here and there, particularly because a lot of the “evidence” is found in the same places. Then again, maybe after watching 18 episodes of this stuff I’ve become a journeyman of ancient alien theories.

Season two features a variety of subjects that are often associated with HISTORY’s programming. This includes the unexplained phenomenon of the Bermuda Triangle, the martyrdom of Joan of Arc, Noah’s Great Flood and, of course, Hitler. The “Aliens and the Third Reich” episode isn’t the sort of program you’d find in a traditional World War II documentary but, as odd as it may seem, Hitler’s fascination with the unexplained is well documented.

It should be noted that these episodes only feature interviews with people that believe, at least in part, that aliens visited Earth and played a role in the development of modern civilization. Not that the talking heads agree on the nature of these aliens, if they were benevolent guides, slave masters or something in between.

All things considered the evidence is speculative, at best, but that doesn’t make them less entertaining, thought provoking or perhaps even true. You can be wrong 99% of the time and still be 1% true. Who am I to doubt the possibility?

Pick up a copy of Ancient Aliens: Season 2 and decide for yourself.

Universal Studios has spared no expense on the upcoming release of the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy.  On October 25, 2011, the prehistoric saga roars onto Blu-ray for the first time ever.

Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III earned nearly $2 billion combined worldwide, and the visual effects from special effects powerhouse Industrial Light and Magic changed movie-making forever.  All three films have been digitally restored and remastered, and the sound effects and John Williams’ stirring score can be heard in 7.1 surround sound.

In addition to hours of bonus features (including a six-part documentary), the set includes digital copies of all three films.  A limited edition set (pictured above) includes a custom T-rex dinosaur statue.

From the press release:

The Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy features an all-star cast including Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mozzello [sic], Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, William H. Macy and Tea Leoni.  In addition to the talented cast of actors, the Trilogy features stars of a different magnitude—from the huge Tyrannosaurus rex to the vicious Velociraptor, the Jurassic Park films showcase an extraordinary level of realism and technical innovation brought to life by a talented design team which include: Stan Winston, Live Action Dinosaurs; ILM’s Dennis Muren, Full Motion Dinosaurs; Phil Tippett, Dinosaur Supervisor; Michael Lantieri, Special Dinosaur Effects and Special Visual Effects by Industrial Light & Magic.

ALL-NEW BONUS FEATURES ON BLU-RAY™ & DVD

• “Return to Jurassic Park” – this six-part documentary features all-new interviews with the many of the cast members from all three films, the filmmakers and Steven Spielberg.

o   Dawn of a New Era
o   Making Pre-history
o   The Next Step in Evolution
o   Finding The Lost World
o   Something Survived
o   The Third Adventure

The following bonus features also appear on the both the Blu-ray™ and DVD:

• The Making of Jurassic Park
• The Making of The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• The Making of Jurassic Park III
• Steven Spielberg Directs Jurassic Park
• Early Pre-Production Meetings
• The World of Jurassic Park
• The Magic of Industrial Light & Magic
• Location Scouting
• Phil Tippett Animatics: Raptors In The Kitchen
• The Jurassic Park Phenomenon: A Discussion with Author Michael Crichton
• Industrial Light & Magic and Jurassic Park: Before and After The Visual Effects
• Industrial Light & Magic and The Lost World: Jurassic Park Before & After
• The Industrial Light & Magic Press Reel
• A Visit to Industrial Light & Magic
• Hurricane in Kauai Featurette
• Dinosaur Turntables
• The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park III
• Montana: Finding New Dinosaurs
• Animatics: T-Rex Attack
• The Special Effects of Jurassic Park III
• The Sounds of Jurassic Park III
• The Art of Jurassic Park III
• Tour of Stan Winston Studio
• Feature Commentary with Special Effects Team
• Production Archives: Storyboards, Models, Photographs, Design Sketches and Conceptual Drawings
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailers
• And MORE!

Just seeing this list of bonus features makes me feel a little like Dr. Grant when he first sees the dinosaurs at the beginning of the film and Hammond says “Welcome . . . to Jurassic Park.”  A tour of Stan Winston studio!  Industrial Light and Magic!  Phil Tippett Animatics!  Interviews with Steven Spielberg!  And even deleted scenes!

The original Jurassic Park has always been one of my favorite movies.  The dinosaurs looked amazing, and the story about greed and over-reliance on technology is a cautionary one.  It poses an interesting question:  just because science has allowed humans to do something, should they?

Furthermore, the movie is just visually stunning, from the lush landscapes of Kauai to the breathtaking realism of the dinosaurs.

Though the sequels failed to capture my attention to the same degree, each Jurassic Park film offers something unique.

The Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy is available for pre-purchase here.

In 1973 director Ted Post (Hang ‘Em High, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Magnum Force) teamed up with writer/producer Abe Polsky (The Gay Deceivers, Rebel Rousers) to release this oddball film about the Wadsworth family’s secret and the social worker that threatens to tear their world apart.

Mrs. Wadsworth (Ruth Roman) and her two beautiful daughters, Germaine (Marianna Hill) and Alba (Suzanne Zenor) have an idyllic life living off the government checks that they receive to care for Baby (David Manzy), a 21-year old man who behaves like a young infant. But their new social worker, Ann Gentry (Anjanette Corner), has taken a peculiar interest in Baby. Ann visits on a daily basis and is convinced that Baby is far more capable than the Wadsworths suggest.

In one of the bonus features director Ted Post suggests that he only made “The Baby” because he saw a chance to say something positive about a rather strange situation. I’m not exactly sure what that positive statement is. I don’t even know if the film’s ending is happy or seriously demented. It’s probably a little of both.

What makes The Baby effectively creepy is that it maintains a certain tone of seriousness that never gives completely into the film’s campy elements. Somehow Post and his cast have made a film that is substantially better than the script that Polsky gave them to work with. I wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all but was too captivated (not to mention a little horrified) to do so.

For this new DVD release Severin Films has created a new transfer from the original negative and the results are very pleasing. Bonus features are a bit slim with only the aforementioned interview with Post as well as an interview with Baby himself, David Mooney (AKA David Manzy), and a theatrical trailer. I might have preferred a commentary track but the two interviews actually cover most of what you’d want to know about the development and production of the film.

If you’re in the mood for something that is as good as it is different I highly recommend picking up The Baby.

Nicholas Cage (Drive Angry, National Treasure) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) star as Behman and Felson, disenchanted crusaders that break their vows and return to their homelands. There they find the Roman Empire crumbing under the weight of a devastating plague. Behman and Felson are recognized and arrested for being deserters and sentenced to death unless they agree to escort a young woman believed to be the witch that has brought the plague upon the Romans to a far off monetary where she will be tried by an elite group of monks. Preferring life to death the duo reluctantly agree.

When Season of the Witch hit theaters it did so without being screened by many critics. This is usually a sign that the film studio believes that reviews will either be overwhelmingly negative or have little to no impact on how well the film does. In the case of Season of the Witch it was a combination of the two. Clearly Relativity Media, who decided to release the film on their own when Lionsgate backed out, knew that they had a quirky film that was essentially an overblown B-movie identity issues. Still, being a sucker for campy genre films, I had to see it. It wasn’t nearly as bad as some claimed, but it also wasn’t remotely as good as it should have been.

Watching the film for a second time I’m sorry to report that my feelings remain unchanged. Season of the Witch simply doesn’t understand what kind of film it is. The dialogue suggests that the movie was written as an action comedy rather than a historical epic. The direction however suggests that director Dominic Sena (Whiteout, Swordfish) believes that he is making a serious sequel to Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven. The actors tend to stick to Sena’s chosen tone and the results are unintentionally silly. The only exceptions are Perlman, who clearly sees the script for exactly what it is, and Claire Foy as the purposely-schizophrenic young woman accused of being a witch. Cage for his part just comes across as being completely out of place. The actors aren’t completely without fault but the majority of the film’s problems rest on Sena’s shoulders.

The bonus features include 10 minutes of deleted scenes that are mostly moments that were trimmed rather than completely new scenarios and an alternate ending that doesn’t change anything thematically but strips back the special effects that were used in the theatrical release. There are also two 10-minute featurettes. One looks at Tippet Studio’s special effects and the other explains reworking of the film’s introduction by including a montage of fight scenes from the Crusades. Sena is noticeably absent. A commentary with Sena and screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Threshold) would have been much appreciated.