Director Kevin “Witchboard” Tenney’s 1988 demonic horror outing “Night of the Demons” isn’t a movie I’m particularly fond of, so the idea of a contemporary remake didn’t ruffle my cinematic feathers whatsoever. The original isn’t a masterpiece by anyone’s definition of the term, though it’s hardly the worst genre effort produced during this decidedly prolific era in horror’s stories history. In fact, I consider the film’s 1994 direct-to-video sequel to be a superior film in every conceivable way. What can I say – I have horrible taste in movies. Feel free to throw rotten vegetables in my general direction.

At first glance, CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE looks like a cheap, poorly conceived straight to video thriller full of drugs, gangs, corrupt cops and bad acting. Not surprisingly, that is exactly what this is. I don’t have a “but” or “however” to add to my original pre-conceived assessment. No disguising it, this Blu-ray fits the cover.

The differences between the original version of "Fame" and the splashy new production reveal a great deal about the changes in the movie business over the last three decades. Alan Parker's "Fame," released in 1980, retained some of the hallmarks of edgy movies of the '70s. Tackling subjects like racial conflict and homosexuality, it had a gritty urban flavor melded to high-powered musical numbers. The retooled version, directed by young music video wiz Kevin Tancharoen, apes "High School Musical" rather than "Mean Streets." Rated PG, it's almost laughably bland and watered-down in its desire to appeal to the widest possible audience. It won't succeed in that goal, but it has enough pizzazz to captivate undemanding tweeners.

Director J. Stephen Maunder’s action epic “Shadows in Paradise” — which has been available in France for about a year — is kind of like “The Expendables” for the direct-to-video market. The film is stuffed to overflowing with an abundance of DTV actors, including Tom Sizemore, Armand Assante, and my personal favorite, “Iron Chef America” badass Mark Dacascos.

If there was a B-movie university, and there should be, “The Slaughter” would be a prime learning tool. It is a textbook example of a horror flick for B-movie 101 class. Keep your cast in one setting to drive down costs? Check. Have a cheap monster pick off the cast one by one? Check. Throw some blood and breasts at the screen to see if something interesting happens? Check. “The Slaughter” has rolled off the B-movie assembly line to fill that gaping hole on the video store shelf. Because if it’s one thing the world needs, it’s more straight to video horror movies.

Relax, it’s not a rip-off sequel to the rip-off remake (or sequel) of The Hills Have Eyes. Nor is it any relation to the spaghetti western of the same name. And, surprisingly enough, Dave Parker’s The Hills Run Red isn’t just your average brain-dead direct-to-video splatterfest aimed at the teens — it actually has some meat on its bones.

The tongue-in-cheek story tells of a young film buff’s obsession with a lost 1982 horror film, The Hills Run Red. On the outside, it looked like just another dumb slice-n-dice drive-in flick, only this time, the masked killer was named Babyface. The movie was soon banned however, due to its unsettlingly gruesome nature (think Gigli, but only bloodier), the controversial slasher film was quickly withdrawn from moviehouses and all prints were ordered destroyed.

Have you heard of the upcoming Green Lantern movie? Well, Green Lantern is a new superhero film based on the comic book character appearing in the very popular DC comics. This film is led by actor Ryan Reynolds who will play the role of Hal Jordan. Apparently, Hal Jordan is the first human ever selected to be a part of the Green Lantern Corps, a brotherhood of warriors whose mission is keep intergalactic orders and protect peace and justice in the universe. This film will be directed by Martin Campbell and scheduled for release on June 17, 2011.

The first Paranormal Activity was a seemingly simple little movie made for $11,000, and then by some miracle spared a big budget remake and released a year ago as made (with a slight change to the original ending). It was one of those movies that people either “got” and loved, or didn’t, and hated.

It went on to make almost $200 million worldwide.

Hello again, friends. Times are tight for most as of late. The papers and the government pontificate about the economy stabilizing, and in some cases improving. Well, possibly, but most people that I know are changing their movie watching habits and straying away from the Cineplexes. They’re getting comfy on their couches after plundering the vast recesses of online video stores like Netflix and automated services such as Redbox, located outside of their local convenience stores.

This being the case, I am starting to write more often about movies that you can find at these outlets. Movies, in most cases, that were released a while ago straight to the DVD market, the hidden gems of independent cinema.

The premise of The King of Fighters shows a secret tournament that is held in some alternate dimension in which fighters from around the world “log in” to via special earpieces. Based off the hit video game, I am sure fans of the video game will be let down by the fact that this film is a total chore to sit through. Sean Faris who is the lead, is a terrible actor. How laughable is it that his character’s name is Kyo Kusanagi and he is a white boy? The story follows him and tells the tale of the tournament. The characters for this series are not only unrealistic but entirely wrong, for example anyone who’s ever seen any of the Fatal Fury series knows that Terry Bogard is not portrayed in the game like he is in this movie.

Not to long ago I did an Editorial on what I thought to be the top 20 horror films of the decade. One of the films I included in the Editorial was The Descent. So it goes without saying that I absolutely loved it. It was original, had a great atmosphere and it was super bloody. Being a huge fan of the original, I had mixed feeling when I first heard about the sequel. I was excited about seeing it but at the same time I was kind of dreading it since most sequels aren’t as good as the original, and this is the case with Descent Part 2.

When a crow smashes into their car windscreen a group of young friends find themselves stranded near a desolate cornfield and take shelter in a crumbling farmhouse, which they soon discover to be the centre of a terrifying supernatural ritual.


Formed in 2006 by filmmaker Courtney Solomon to produce and distribute his second feature An American Haunting, independent studio After Dark Films have since been making steady inroads into the horror market. After four years of promoting After Dark: Horrorfest in the U.S., the company are looking to move on from acquiring and distributing titles by partnering up with Lionsgate and Syfy to produce a new series of low-budget horrors. Now if you’re already familiar with other Syfy original films – a catalogue of ‘movies’ that includes trash such as Lake Placid 3, Man-Thing, Mega Piranha and the fantastically-titled Firestarter 2: Rekindled – it’s likely that alarm bells will be ringing. However, the first batch of films are now arriving and if writer-director Brett Simmons’ Husk is anything to go by, the series could be a welcome new addition for horror fans.

I hadn't seen the 1978 "video nasty" of which 2010's I Spit On Your Grave is a remake prior to viewing this year's version. I considered seeing the original first, but it was my understanding that it is a film more infamous than beloved, and I presumed both versions would follow a similar recipe: rape and revenge and little else.

Young writer Jennifer Mills (Sarah Butler) retires to a mountain cabin to relax and work on her second novel. Mountain cabins are great places to spook yourself out, with any little noise as easily explained as being a critter as a boogeyman. But boogeymen is what Jennifer gets, in the form of four local men, one of whom Jennifer unknowingly emasculated at the gas station on her way into town. And thus begins the stalking, raping and revenge, in that order; more detail would be either a spoiler or redundant, depending on your reasons for watching.

First time I saw Capoeira when was watching the Only The Strong movie with Mark Dacascos. Couldn’t imagine that 17 years later I will see it again but as an original Brazilian film. Probably filmmakers from all over the world in searching for new ideas of martial arts movies sometime can reveal a really good original script and fighting art, show us something new like Indonesian movie Merantau made in perfect action style as good as Ong Bak 3 The Movie, and now Besouro.

Not long after the certifiably insane Smokin' Aces came and went and then sold a LOT of dvds, we started hearing all sorts of little stories about sequels, prequels, or any sort of follow-up. Clearly someone at Universal (besides Aces director/co-writer Joe Carnahan, I mean) saw the potential in keeping this franchise afloat, even if that meant remanding the subsequent sequels to the "lesser" direct-to-video market. And even those who adored Smokin' Aces would have to see the logic there: Pretty much all the characters from the first flick were dead, and even those who survived ... aren't exactly huge stars.