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Review Momentum Pictures / Manhunter [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Dennis Farina
  • Michael Mann
  • Brian Cox
  • William Petersen
  • Joan Allen
  • Kim Greist
Release date: 2001-10-01
Run time: 115 min.
Creator: Thomas Harris
RRP: £17.99
Price: £9.00

Review Manhunter [1989] / Momentum Pictures:

Released to box-office indifference in 1986, Manhunter introduced Hannibal Lecter and established the rules of the modern race to find serial killer thriller five years before The Silence of the Lambs packed cinemas everywhere. This was Michael Mann's third feature, reuniting William L Petersen and Dennis Farina from his debut Thief (1981) as FBI agents hunting the killer dubbed "The Tooth Fairy". Petersen's Will Graham is the man who put Lecktor (as it is spelt here) behind bars, and as in Lambs consults with the Doctor, played with understated malevolence by Brian Cox. Manhunter is an exceptionally well-photographed film: Mann's regular cinematographer Dante Spinotti created sparse, elegantly framed, often mono-chromatically lit compositions which are essential to the shifting psychological moods. The performances are very good, and the typically 1980s, Vangelis-esque electronic score effectively sustains tension. Once the killer is introduced the scenes with Joan Allen have a genuinely unsettling, almost surreal quality. There is at least one serious plot flaw-how does "The Red Dragon" get his letter to Lecktor? Manhunter never packs the sheer excitement of Lambs, nevertheless, it is a powerful and compelling thriller which remains far superior to the third instalment in the series, Hannibal (2001). On the DVD: In addition to the trailer there is a revealing 10-minute conversation with Dante Spinotti in which he explains how he created the very distinctive look of Manhunter. Also included is a more general 17-minute retrospective "making-of" documentary. This is good but too short, the extras failing to live up to the wealth of material on the Lambs and Hannibal DVDs. [+]
The anamorphically enhanced 2. 35:1 image is generally very good, being just a little soft in one or two early scenes. The sound is listed as Dolby Digital 5. 1, but appears to replicate the main stereo signal in the rear channels. Audio is none the less powerful and clear, though lacks the sheer edge and atmospherics of some more recent thrillers. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Vampire In Brooklyn [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Kadeem Hardison
  • Eddie Murphy
  • John Witherspoon
  • Wes Craven
  • Allen Payne
  • Angela Bassett
Release date: 2002-07-01
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Vernon Lynch
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.09

Review Vampire In Brooklyn [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Aliens (Two Disc Special Edition) [1986]
Actors & Directors
  • Carrie Henn
  • Paul Reiser
  • Lance Henriksen
  • Sigourney Weaver
  • Michael Biehn
  • James Cameron
Release date: 2004-04-12
Run time: 148 min.
Creator: Walter Hill
RRP: £22.99
Price: £2.95

Review Aliens (Two Disc Special Edition) [1986] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

James Cameron's Aliens digests all the virtues of Alien and regurgitates them bigger, louder and brasher than before. By the simple expedient of turning the singular beast of the original into a plural, Cameron transforms the franchise's focus from horror to all-out action. Sigourney Weaver's Ripley-one of the strongest roles for a female lead in mainstream cinema-is centre-stage throughout, more than able to hold her own either among the butch Marines and insectoid aliens. Although the director later revealed that there were only ever six alien costumes in any one shot, rapid-fire editing makes it seem like hundreds. Aliens is one of the most dynamic, viscerally exciting movies of the decade and, as a bug-fest, remained unsurpassed until the glorious Starship Troopers in 1997. On the DVD: The Director's Cut reinstates 17 crucial minutes of footage deleted from the theatrical release. It reveals how the colony on LV-426 encountered the aliens, and more importantly why Ripley's maternal bond with Newt is so strong, which adds an extra dimension to the film's climax. Also included is a short, fairly bland interview with James Cameron, recorded at the time of the cinema release, as well as some background explanation on how specific special effects were created. Unlike the Alien disc, there is no directorial commentary. -Mark Walker Aliens is one of the few cases of a sequel that far surpassed the original. [+]
Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley, who awakens on Earth only to discover that she has been hibernating in space so long that everyone she knows is dead. Then she is talked into travelling (along with a squad of Marines) to a planet under assault by the same aliens that nearly killed her. Once she gets there, she finds a lost little girl who triggers her maternal instincts-and she discovers that the company has once again double-crossed her, in hopes of capturing one of the aliens to study as a military weapon. Directed and written by James Cameron, this is one of the most intensely exciting (not to mention intensely frightening) action films ever, with a large ensemble cast that includes Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, and Michael Biehn. Weaver defined the action woman in this film and walked away with an Oscar nomination for her trouble. -Marshall Fine.

Review Warner Home Video / The Cat People/The Curse of the Cat People (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Holt
  • Kent Smith
  • Jane Randolph
  • Tom Conway
  • Simone Simon
  • Gunther von Fritsch
  • Jacques Tourneur
  • Robert Wise
Release date: 2005-10-04
Run time: 143 min.
Creator: DeWitt Bodeen
Price: £6.73

Review The Cat People/The Curse of the Cat People (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Rise - The Blood Hunter [Blu-ray] [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Forster
  • Lucy Liu
  • Allan Rich
  • Sebastian Gutierrez
  • Cameron Richardson
Release date: 2008-12-01
Run time: 117 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £13.98

Review Rise - The Blood Hunter [Blu-ray] [2007] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review MGM / The Lady in White [1989] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Frank LaLoggia
  • Len Cariou
  • Alex Rocco
  • Lukas Haas
  • Jason Presson
  • Katherine Helmond
Release date: 2005-09-20
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Peter Kolokouris
Price: £5.93

Review The Lady in White [1989] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Jaws (Anniversary Edition) [1976]
Actors & Directors
  • Roy Scheider
  • Robert Shaw
  • Richard Dreyfuss
  • Murray Hamilton
  • Steven Spielberg
  • Lorraine Gary
Release date: 2000-07-24
Run time: 119 min.
Creator: Peter Benchley
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.89

Review Jaws (Anniversary Edition) [1976] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

In the vastly overrated 1998 book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, author Peter Biskind puts the blame for Hollywood's blockbuster mentality at least partially on Steven Spielberg's box-office success with this adaptation of Peter Benchley's bestselling novel. But you can't blame Spielberg for making a terrific film, which Jaws definitely is. The story of a Long Island town whose summer tourist business is suddenly threatened by great white shark attacks on humans bypasses the potboiler trappings of Benchley's book and goes straight for the jugular with beautifully crafted, crowd-pleasing sequences of action and suspense. This is supported by a trio of terrific performances by Roy Scheider (as the local sheriff), Richard Dreyfuss (as a shark specialist), and particularly Robert Shaw (as the old fisherman who offers to hunt the shark down). The sequences on Shaw's boat-as the three of them realise that in fact the shark is hunting them-are what entertaining moviemaking is all about. -Marshall Fine -This text refers to another version of this video. Jaws revolutionised Hollywood, single-handedly invented the summer blockbuster, spawned three increasingly poor sequels, and became the first film to gross more than 100 million dollars. Unlike many recent blockbusters, however, in Jaws the audience really cares about the fate of the men engaged in their duel with the monster. Granted the shark looks fake, but we willingly suspend our disbelief as storytelling and character development count for far more than mere special effects, adding enormously to the movie's suspense, excitement and sheer terror. The cast and screenplay are exemplary, but it was Steven Spielberg who emerged as the film's true star, while John Williams' unforgettable Oscar-winning score made him almost as much of as household name as the young director. [+]
On the DVD: For a Steven Spielberg movie and an all-time classic, this 25th Anniversary Edition release is impressive, but not all it could be. The anamorphically enhanced 2. 35:1 ratio picture is superb, as is the re-mixed Dolby Digital 5. 1 sound (the film was originally released in mono). It is a joy to see the film's picture and sound quality rescued from years of television and VHS screenings, offering a reminder of what all the fuss was about in the first place. The deleted scenes are quite interesting, offering more background on Brody, Hooper and Quint, including the latter's bizarre vocal duel with a boy playing the recorder! The four photo galleries are good, but some captions would have helped enormously. Disappointingly, there's no director's commentary, the best extra being a 50-minute documentary, "The Making of Jaws". This is excellent, and quite different from the BBC television production, "In the Teeth of Jaws". Even if you've seen that, there's much more to learn here. -Gary S. Dalkin.

Review Redemption Films / Black Magic Rites [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Raoul Traucher
  • Rita Calderoni
  • Micky Hargitay
  • Christa Barrymore
  • Renato Polselli
  • Moschera Consolata
Release date: 2004-03-29
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.97

Review Black Magic Rites [1973] / Redemption Films:


Review Warner Home Video / Supernatural - Season 1 Part 1 [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Jared Padalecki
  • Jensen Ackles
Release date: 2006-05-22
Run time: 451 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £4.00

Review Supernatural - Season 1 Part 1 [2005] / Warner Home Video:


Review Lighthouse DVD Distribution / Stranger - A Soul Mate Of Chucky
Actors & Directors
  • Rebekah Isaacs
Release date: 2006-03-06
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.99

Review Stranger - A Soul Mate Of Chucky / Lighthouse DVD Distribution:


Review HBO Home Video / The Changeling [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • George C. Scott
  • Trish Van Devere
  • Jean Marsh
  • Peter Medak
  • John Colicos
  • Melvyn Douglas
Release date: 2000-09-12
Run time: 115 min.
Price: £3.09

Review The Changeling [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / HBO Home Video:


Review Ichi the Killer / Ichi The Killer [2003]
Release date: 2005-10-17
Run time: 46 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.96

Review Ichi The Killer [2003] / Ichi the Killer:


Review Tartan Video / Trouble Every Day [2002]
Actors & Directors
  • Florence Loiret-Caille
  • Tricia Vessey
  • Vincent Gallo
  • Claire Denis
  • Beatrice Dalle
  • Alex Descas
Release date: 2003-04-28
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.00

Review Trouble Every Day [2002] / Tartan Video:

A classic example of obscure art house European cinema, Trouble Every Day is a sordid, shocking and often indecipherable examination of sexual depravity and violence. This is a deliberately difficult film-it is a full 15 minutes before anyone utters a line of dialogue-and director Claire Denis has created a world that offers the viewer little in the way of respite throughout the 90-minute duration. Both Vincent Gallo and Beatrice Dalle turn in their standard cult movie performances (long silences, staring into the distance) but in truth there are few actors so well suited to a piece of work such as this. Trouble Every Day is not for the casual viewer, suited more to real aficionados of the genre who are prepared to be challenged, shaken and more than a little appalled by every twist in the gruesome plot. -Phil Udell.

Review Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Scary Movie 4 [Blu-ray] [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Anthony Anderson
  • Regina Hall
  • Anna Faris
  • Craig Bierko
  • Carmen Electra
  • David Zucker
Release date: 2007-03-19
Run time: 83 min.
RRP: £26.99
Price: £14.70

Review Scary Movie 4 [Blu-ray] [2006] / Buena Vista Home Entertainment:

The fourth instalment of the spoof horror franchise follows pretty much the template that the second and third films in the series adopted. So there's a smattering of funny jokes to stick in the trailer, recreations of big scenes from other popular movies, and Anna Faris boldly trying to hold the whole enterprise together. Scary Movie 4 is thus a spectacularly easy movie to assess. Forget the inspired and downright hilarious original, and instead look to its sequels. Did you find them laugh-fests? Did you think they were entertaining? And did you actually like them? If so, Scary Movie 4 isn't going to disappoint either. But it will let down pretty much everyone else. It's not that it is terrible-it is a passable way to spend a brain-dead hour and a half. It's just such a waste. There are some great gags to be made at the expense of Saw, War Of The Worlds, Brokeback Mountain and Million Dollar Baby (the film's main targets), but Scary Movie 4 just doesn't make them. Instead, it too often relies on a stilted pratfall, someone smacking their head, or some other bumbling sequence that doesn't work as well as it should. [+]
Granted, there are laughs, but nowhere near the number that the original film delivered. Which, as mentioned earlier, makes this an easy film to judge. There's a strong chance you already know whether Scary Movie 4 is your bag or not, and thus the only recommendation here is to go with your gut feeling. You're unlikely to go wrong. -Simon Brew.

Review Tartan Video / House Of 1000 Corpses [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Sheri Moon Zombie
  • Chris Hardwick
  • Sid Haig
  • Karen Black
  • Bill Moseley
  • Rob Zombie
Release date: 2004-03-29
Run time: 85 min.
Creator: Robert K. Lambert
RRP: £19.99
Price: £17.65

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 Warner Home Video / The Mummy [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Cushing
  • Eddie Byrne
  • Christopher Lee
  • Yvonne Furneaux
  • Terence Fisher
  • Felix Aylmer
Release date: 2001-10-09
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Jimmy Sangster
Price: £3.01

Review The Mummy [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:

Hammer's remake of the horror classic has been accused of falling between the simple integrity of the Karloff original and the swashbuckling, SFX romanticism of the 1998 version, but it has real strengths of its own. Principal among these is Christopher Lee, haughty and brutal as the High Priest and sorrowful, pathetic and menacing as the living mummy he has become for his crimes; his eyes convey a depth of dumb suffering and passion. Peter Cushing has rarely been so charismatic and elegant as he is in his role as the lame Egyptologist Banning, and veteran Felix Aylmer is touching as his doomed father. In the underwritten role of Banning's wife, with her strange resemblance to the dead Egyptian princess whose unearthing the Mummy is avenging, Yvonne Furneaux has at once charm and authority-she is plausibly a woman who might stop the avenging Mummy in its tracks. Terence Fisher directs with his usual efficiency and Gerard Schurmann contributes an atmospheric score, as effective in its high Egyptian pomp as in its sense of the English countryside. -Roz Kaveney.

Review Prism Leisure / Dead Zone / Firestarter
Actors & Directors
  • Drew Barrymore
  • Christopher Walken
  • Martin Sheen
  • George C. Scott
Release date: 2004-10-25
Run time: 219 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.99

Review Dead Zone / Firestarter / Prism Leisure:


Review Puppet Master / Puppet Master
Release date: 2005-11-21
RRP: £11.99
Price: £9.98

Review Puppet Master / Puppet Master:


Review Revelation Films / Three Sovereigns For Sarah [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Kim Hunter
  • Les Barden
  • Buffy Baldauf
  • Philip Leacock
  • Will Lyman
  • Vanessa Redgrave
Release date: 2003-09-22
Run time: 158 min.
Creator: Victor Pisano
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.80

Review Three Sovereigns For Sarah [1985] / Revelation Films:


Review MGM / The Burning [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Brian Backer
  • Jason Alexander
  • Tony Maylam
  • Brian Matthews
  • Larry Joshua
  • Leah Ayres
Release date: 2007-09-11
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Peter Lawrence
Price: £5.91

Review The Burning [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Browse Horror:

Models & Brands:
Manhunter [1989], Vampire In Brooklyn [1996], Aliens (Two Disc Special Edition) [1986], The Cat People/The Curse of the Cat People (REGION 1) (NTSC), Rise - The Blood Hunter [Blu-ray] [2007], The Lady in White [1989] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Jaws (Anniversary Edition) [1976], Black Magic Rites [1973], Supernatural - Season 1 Part 1 [2005], Stranger - A Soul Mate Of Chucky, The Changeling [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Ichi The Killer [2003], Trouble Every Day [2002], Scary Movie 4 [Blu-ray] [2006], House Of 1000 Corpses [2003], The Mummy [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Dead Zone / Firestarter, Puppet Master, Three Sovereigns For Sarah [1985], The Burning [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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