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Review Universal Pictures UK / Psycho [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Gus Van Sant
  • Anne Haney
  • Vince Vaughn
  • Viggo Mortensen
  • James LeGros
  • Julianne Moore
Release date: 2002-05-31
Run time: 109 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.46

Review Psycho [1999] / Universal Pictures UK:

Numerous critics had already sharpened their knives even before Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot colour "re-creation" of the 1960 black-and-white Hitchcock classic was released, chiding the Good Will Hunting director for defiling hallowed ground. But this intriguing cinematic curiosity is hardly as sacrilegious as critics would lead you to believe. If anything, Van Sant doesn't take enough liberties with his almost slavish devotion to the material, now updated with modern references. At times, you wish Van Sant would cut loose with a little spontaneity, a little energy, a little something. Unfortunately, when he does venture outside Hitchcock's parameters-with inserted shots of storm clouds during the murder sequences, for example-it's to little effect. Granted, he liberally splashes colour throughout the film (especially in the case of the infamous shower scene), and this is a great-looking movie, but in his obsession with adding a new physical dimension to the film, there's little insight into these characters that Hitchcock hadn't already provided. Vince Vaughn, a robotic and giggly Norman, doesn't crawl under your skin the way boy-next-door Anthony Perkins did, and Anne Heche is admirable if not very sympathetic in the Janet Leigh role. Van Sant does score a minor coup, though, in his casting of the supporting roles: Julianne Moore provides a welcome shot of energy as Heche's irritable and curious sister, William H. Macy is a perfect small-time detective, Viggo Mortensen is studly enough to make you understand why Heche would want to run away with him, and James LeGros walks away with his one brief scene as a used car salesman. Danny Elfman's gorgeous rerecording of Bernard Herrmann's score is a potent supporting character unto itself. [+]
Students and fans of the original film will get a kick out of the modern revisions, but don't expect anything of Hitchcockian calibre; watch it for the sum of its intriguing parts, but not the whole. -Mark Englehart, Amazon. com.

Review Sony Pictures / Starship Troopers 3: Marauder [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Cokey Falkow
  • Boris Kodjoe
  • Jolene Blalock
  • Casper Van Dien
  • Marnette Patterson
  • Edward Neumeier
Release date: 2008-08-05
Run time: 105 min.
Price: £11.48

Review Starship Troopers 3: Marauder [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Sony Pictures:


Review Entertainment in Video / Jason X [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Mensah
  • Dov Tiefenbach
  • Lexa Doig
  • Kane Hodder
  • James Isaac
  • Robert A. Silverman
Release date: 2003-04-28
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.56

Review Jason X [2002] / Entertainment in Video:


Review Boulevard Entertaiment / Shark Attack 3
Actors & Directors
  • John Barrowman
  • Pavlin Kemilev
  • Ryan Cutrona
  • David Worth
  • George Stanchev
  • Jenny McShane
Release date: 2007-06-25
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £3.99
Price: £3.97

Review Shark Attack 3 / Boulevard Entertaiment:


Review MGM Entertainment / Piranha [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Joe Dante
  • Bradford Dillman
  • Dick Miller
  • Belinda Balaski
  • Heather Menzies
  • Barbara Steele
Release date: 2002-10-21
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.97

Review Piranha [1978] / MGM Entertainment:

As a producer, Roger Corman has always loved to make low-budget rip-offs of hit movies, and Piranha is his typically cheeky take on Jaws-and, as so often with Corman, in many ways it's funnier and more entertaining than the original. Directed with gusto by schlock-horror specialist Joe Dante and sharply scripted by John Sayles, it replaces one huge underwater toothy monster with dozens of little ones and ups the body count by a factor of 10 or so. Two hapless teenagers, hiking in a remote mountain region, stumble on a secret US military research lab. They don't last long, but their intrusion leads to the release into the local river system of a huge shoal of super-intelligent piranha, originally specially bred for use in Vietnam. Downstream from the virulent little munchers lie a kiddies' holiday camp and a tacky new waterfront theme park. Lunch time, fellas! Sayles, with his staunch left-wing credentials, slips in some mordant political satire at the expense of the military-industrial complex, and authority figures of any kind come off pretty badly, but the satire never gets in the way of the gleeful black humour. The two leads, Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies, are fairly pallid, but there are ripe cameos from such cult horror-movie icons as Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller and Barbara Steele. Pino Donaggio's score impudently borrows aspects of John Williams' famous Jaws theme while never quite infringing copyright. The movie was successful enough to spawn a much-inferior sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), which marked the inauspicious directing debut of one James Cameron. On the DVD: Piranha on disc comes with just the theatrical trailer as an extra. [+]
The transfer is a respectable job, reproducing the original's full-screen ratio. -Philip Kemp.

Review 20th Century Fox / Tales from the Crypt/Vault of Horror (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Dawn Addams
  • Tom Baker
  • Glynis Johns
  • Freddie Francis
  • Roy Ward Baker
  • Michael Craig
  • Denholm Elliott
Release date: 2007-09-11
Run time: 169 min.
Price: £5.00

Review Tales from the Crypt/Vault of Horror (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review First Independent Video / Wishmaster [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Tammy Lauren
  • Tony Todd
  • Robert Englund
  • Robert Kurtzman
  • Andrew Divoff
  • Ted Raimi
Release date: 2000-07-03
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.90

Review Wishmaster [1998] / First Independent Video:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Hannibal (2 Disc Special Edition) [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Ridley Scott
  • Ray Liotta
  • Frankie Faison
  • Julianne Moore
  • Gary Oldman
  • Anthony Hopkins
Release date: 2001-08-20
Run time: 126 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £3.35

Review Hannibal (2 Disc Special Edition) [2001] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Yes, he's back. and he's still hungry. Hannibal is set 10 years after The Silence of the Lambs, as Dr Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, reprising his Oscar-winning role) is living the good life in Italy, studying art and sipping espresso. FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore, replacing Jodie Foster), on the other hand, hasn't had it so good-an outsider from the start, she's now a quiet, moody loner who doesn't play bureaucratic games and suffers for it. A botched drug raid results in her demotion-and a request from Lecter's only living victim, Mason Verger (Gary Oldman, uncredited), for a little Q and A. Little does Clarice realise that the hideously deformed Verger-who, upon suggestion from Dr Lecter, peeled off his own face-is using her as bait to lure Dr Lecter out of hiding, quite certain he'll capture the good doctor. Taking the basic plot contraptions from Thomas Harris's baroque novel, Hannibal is so stylistically different from its predecessor that it forces you to take it on its own terms. Director Ridley Scott gives the film a sleek, almost European look that lets you know that, unlike the first film (which was about the quintessentially American Clarice), this movie is all Hannibal. [+]
Does it work? Yes-but only up to a point. Scott adeptly sets up an atmosphere of foreboding, but it's all a build-up to the anticlimax, as Verger's plot for abducting Hannibal (and feeding him to man-eating wild boars) doesn't really deliver the requisite visceral thrills, and the much-ballyhooed climatic dinner sequence between Clarice, Dr Lecter and a third, unlucky guest wobbles between parody and horror. Hopkins and Moore are both first-rate, but the film contrives to keep them as far apart as possible, when what made Silence of the Lambs so amazing was their interaction. When they do connect it's quite thrilling but it's unfortunately too little too late. -Mark Englehart, Amazon. com On the DVD: The good-looking widescreen (1. 85:1) anamorphic print is accompanied by a directorial commentary on the first disc. Ridley Scott is no stranger to DVD commentaries by now, and keeps up a pretty constant flow of enjoyable story exposition, although provides few specifics about the actual filmmaking process. He's obviously more than happy to talk about this movie, since on the second disc there are also "Ridleygram" interviews with Scott about the process of storyboarding and a huge chunk of deleted or alternate scenes (including the alternate ending) with optional directorial commentary. There's a wealth of other extras to dip into, including five "making-of" featurettes (73 minutes in all), plus two multi-angle "vignettes" of the film's opening sequences (the fish-market shoot-out and opening titles), and a marketing gallery of trailers, stills and artwork. Surround-sound enthusiasts can select either Dolby 5. 1 or DTS soundtracks for the main feature. -Mark Walker.

Review Entertainment in Video / The Astronaut's Wife [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Joe Morton
  • Johnny Depp
  • Clea DuVall
  • Rand Ravich
  • Charlize Theron
  • Donna Murphy
Release date: 2000-04-24
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £3.74

Review The Astronaut's Wife [1999] / Entertainment in Video:

An intriguingly creepy premise but failed execution marks The Astronaut's Wife, a stylish and ultimately bland thriller about a pretty, young woman whose pretty, young astronaut husband comes back from his most recent space mission a little. odd. Before that fated space trip, Spencer (Johnny Depp) and Jillian (Charlize Theron) were a sunny, happy couple with matching blonde hairdos and a predilection for romping in the sack from extremely clever camera angles. However, after a communications blackout brings Spencer and his partner back down to earth prematurely, things are a little. peculiar. Spencer's partner goes bonkers and has a heart attack; on top of that, the partner's wife takes a fatal shower with a plugged-in radio. [+]
Getting out of the space biz, Spencer accepts a job as a corporate exec in New York, and as a welcome to the Big Apple for his comely wife, he molests her at the company cocktail party. Soon enough, Jillian is pregnant, but as you might expect, this pregnancy (twins, don't you know) is a little. unusual. Writer-director Rand Ravich takes his sweet time getting from extremely obvious plot point A to even more obvious plot point B, stretching out the development particulars in mind-numbing, suspense-killing fashion. Even Joe Morton, as a sinisterly psychotic NASA official, can't liven things up-you know you're in bad thriller territory when the biggest scare comes from a light suddenly being switched off. Theron, sporting a Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby style haircut, sleepwalks beautifully through the movie, but she did this role much, much better in The Devil's Advocate. Depp, with a cornpone Southern accent, is about as realistic as his peroxided hair. Ravich does the viewer no favours with a hackneyed ending straight out of a B-grade paperback horror novel in which the most shocking moment is Theron's sudden emergence as a brunette. With Blair Brown as a jaded socialite who offers to help out Theron by providing do-it-yourself abortion pills, and a lovely Donna Murphy as the suicidal wife who figures it all out before everyone else. - Mark Englehart, Amazon. com.

Review Tartan Video / House Of 1000 Corpses [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Rob Zombie
  • Chris Hardwick
  • Sheri Moon
  • Karen Black
  • Sid Haig
  • Bill Moseley
Release date: 2004-03-29
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.25

Review House Of 1000 Corpses [2003] / Tartan Video:

It's sick! It's twisted! It's House of 1,000 Corpses, and it's more fun than a wholesome bowl of "Agatha Crispies"! Dropped by two studios (Universal and MGM) and doomed to obscurity until Lions Gate Films gave it a limited theatrical release, Rob Zombie's gonzo horror flick is a blood-spattered throwback to the gore-fests of the 70s, lending new meaning to the term "box-office gross". Most critics misunderstood this unbridled exercise in graphic style and violence, but for devoted horror buffs it's a refreshing rebuttal to the comparatively "polite" frights of the post-Scream era. While paying homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, Motel Hell and other gory classics, Zombie's ramshackle plot (two young couples are terrorized by an inbred family of homicidal maniacs) lacks a crucial sense of dread, but his pastiche of vivid colours, grainy fetish-films and photo-negative imagery is guaranteed to hold your attention. A bona-fide cult item, this House is definitely worth a visit. if you dare. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Universal Studios / Dawn of the Dead [HD DVD] [2004] [US Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Jake Weber
  • Sarah Polley
  • Matt Frewer
  • Ving Rhames
  • Jayne Eastwood
  • Zack Snyder
Release date: 2007-08-28
Run time: 110 min.
Creator: Tyler Bates
Price: £6.28

Review Dawn of the Dead [HD DVD] [2004] [US Import] / Universal Studios:

Are you ready to get down with the sickness? Movie logic dictates that you shouldn't remake a classic, but Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead defies that logic and comes up a winner. You could argue that George A. Romero's 1978 original was sacred ground for horror buffs, but it was a low-budget classic, and Snyder's action-packed upgrade benefits from the same manic pacing that energized Romero's continuing zombie saga. Romero's indictment of mega-mall commercialism is lost (it's arguably outmoded anyway), so Snyder and screenwriter James Gunn compensate with the same setting-in this case, a Milwaukee shopping mall under siege by cannibalistic zombies in the wake of a devastating viral outbreak-a well-chosen cast (led by Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer), some outrageously morbid humor, and a no-frills plot that keeps tension high and blood splattering by the bucketful. Horror buffs will catch plenty of tributes to Romero's film (including cameos by three of its cast members, including gore-makeup wizard Tom Savini), and shocking images are abundant enough to qualify this Dawn as an excellent zombie-flick double-feature with 28 Days Later, its de facto British counterpart. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Starz Home Entertainment / Army Of Darkness - Evil Dead 3 [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Ian Abercrombie
  • Marcus Gilbert
  • Bruce Campbell
  • Sam Raimi
  • Bridget Fonda
  • Embeth Davidtz
Release date: 2002-11-11
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £38.99

Review Army Of Darkness - Evil Dead 3 [1993] / Starz Home Entertainment:

It's hard not to feel there's something wrong when Army of Darkness, the third entry in Sam Raimi's lively Evil Dead series, opens with a 15 certificate. And indeed, this is not quite the non-stop rollercoaster of splat we're entitled to expect. Like Evil Dead II, it opens with a digest-cum-remake of the original movie, taking geeky Ash (Bruce Campbell) back out to that cabin in the woods where he is beset by demons who do away with his girlfriend (blink and you'll miss Bridget Fonda). Blasted back in time to 12th century England, Ash finds himself still battling the Deadites and his own ineptitude in a quest to save the day and get back home. Though it starts zippily, with Campbell's grimly funny clod of a hero commanding the screen, a sort of monotony sets in as magical events pile up. Ash is attacked by Lilliputian versions of himself, one of whom incubates in his stomach and grows out of his shoulder to be his evil twin. After being dismembered and buried, Evil Ash rises from the dead to command a zombie army and at least half the film is a big battle scene in which rotted warriors (nine mouldy extras in masks for every one Harryhausen-style impressive animated skeleton) besiege a cardboard castle. There are lots of action jokes, MAD Magazine-like marginal doodles and a few funny lines, but it lacks the authentic scares of The Evil Dead and the authentic sick comedy of Evil Dead II. On the DVD: Army of Darkness may be the least of the trilogy, but Anchor Bay's super two-disc set is worthy of shelving beside their outstanding editions of the earlier films. Disc 1 contains the 81-minute US theatrical version in widescreen or fullscreen, plus the original "Planet of the Apes" ending, the trailer and a making-of featurette. [+]
Disc 2 has the 96-minute director's cut, with extra slapstick and a lively, irreverent commentary track from Raimi, Campbell and co-writer Ivan Raimi, plus yet more deleted scenes and some storyboards. The fact that the film exists in so many versions suggests that none of them satisfied everybody, but fans will want every scrap of Army in this one package. -Kim Newman.

Review Dnc Entertainment / Breathing Room
Actors & Directors
  • John Suits
  • Gabriel Cowan
  • Ailsa Marshall
  • Michael McLafferty
Release date: 2008-08-25
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £9.48

Review Breathing Room / Dnc Entertainment:


Review TLA Releasing / Meatball Machine [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Taro Suwa
  • Kenichi Kawasaki
  • Ayano Yamamoto
  • Aoba Kawai
  • Issei Takahashi
Release date: 2007-06-05
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Tomohide Harada
Price: £7.43

Review Meatball Machine [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / TLA Releasing:


Review Bfi Video / A Warning To The Curious (BBC Ghost Story For Christmas) [1972]
Actors & Directors
  • John Kearney (IV)
  • David Cargill
  • Peter Vaughan
  • Julian Herrington
  • Lawrence Gordon Clark
  • Clive Swift
Release date: 2002-11-25
Run time: 50 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £7.46

Review A Warning To The Curious (BBC Ghost Story For Christmas) [1972] / Bfi Video:


Review First Independent Video / Wishmaster [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Kurtzman
  • Andrew Divoff
  • Tammy Lauren
  • Ted Raimi
  • Tony Todd
  • Robert Englund
Release date: 2000-07-03
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.90

Review Wishmaster [1998] / First Independent Video:


Review Anchor Bay Entertainment / Sleepaway Camp Trilogy [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Pamela Springsteen
  • Felissa Rose
  • Robert Hiltzik
  • Karen Fields
  • Brian Patrick Clarke
  • Michael A. Simpson
  • Jonathan Tiersten
Release date: 2004-05-31
Run time: 163 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £8.98

Review Sleepaway Camp Trilogy [1983] / Anchor Bay Entertainment:


Review Lions Gate Home Entertainment / Catacombs [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Shannyn Sossamon
  • Pink
  • Cabral Ibaka
  • Ashleigh Rains
  • Tomm Coker
  • David Elliot
  • Cain Manoli
Release date: 2008-03-03
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £5.39

Review Catacombs [2006] / Lions Gate Home Entertainment:


Review Weinstein Company / Pulse [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Jim Sonzero
  • Rick Gonzalez
  • Ian Somerhalder
  • Jonathan Tucker
  • Christina Milian
  • Kristen Bell
Release date: 2007-01-16
Run time: 88 min.
Price: £3.78

Review Pulse [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import] / Weinstein Company:


Review Warner Home Video / House Of Wax [HD DVD] [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Paris Hilton
  • Elisha Cuthbert
  • Jaume Collet-Serra
Release date: 2006-12-04
Run time: 113 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £3.98

Review House Of Wax [HD DVD] [2005] / Warner Home Video:

You know the one about the group of horny kids who get offed one by one? Yeah, so do director Jaume Collet-Serra and his screenwriters, who have updated an old Vincent Price flick and sandwiched it between hearty slices of The Blair Witch Project and various Friday the 13th films. Lots of Warner and Fox network hotties-including 24's Elisha Cuthbert, One Tree Hill's Chad Michael Murray, and, well, Paris Hilton-have car trouble and stumble onto a town populated by real killer personalities. The result is fairly gruesome and, though no one ever quite looks frightened enough, Collet-Serra knows his way around a jolting suspense sequence or two. Cuthbert and an unintentionally funny Murray (striking ludicrous poses as some kind of real toughie) act more like angry ex-lovers than the fraternal twins they're supposed to be; Hilton acts bored while her real-life video scandal is exploited for ironic kicks; and the film heads shamelessly over-the-top with each new twist. As an exercise in bloody mayhem, it has a few novel touches, but don't expect to be too petrified. -Steve Wiecking.

Browse Horror:

Models & Brands:
Psycho [1999], Starship Troopers 3: Marauder [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Jason X [2002], Shark Attack 3, Piranha [1978], Tales from the Crypt/Vault of Horror (REGION 1) (NTSC), Wishmaster [1998], Hannibal (2 Disc Special Edition) [2001], The Astronaut's Wife [1999], House Of 1000 Corpses [2003], Dawn of the Dead [HD DVD] [2004] [US Import], Army Of Darkness - Evil Dead 3 [1993], Breathing Room, Meatball Machine [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC), A Warning To The Curious (BBC Ghost Story For Christmas) [1972], Wishmaster [1998], Sleepaway Camp Trilogy [1983], Catacombs [2006], Pulse [HD DVD] [2006] [US Import], House Of Wax [HD DVD] [2005]

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