While this week’s DVD release list isn’t jammed-packed with horror goodies, there are quite a few films that stand out, including one MUST-SEE. Arriving in stores today from Sony Home Entertainment is the Spanish horror film REC, which was the inspiration behind Quarantine. Haven’t seen it yet? Get on it! Read on to see what else arrives at a retailer near you.
Horror In Your House
July 14, 2009

ASALTO VIOLENCE: Distrimax

Robert Smith is an outstanding doctor, devoted to teaching at a local university in Mexico City. During a trip to Vietnam he suffers a violent assault at the hands of a group of terrorists while he was being intimated with a local girl. After his arrival he discovers that he has contracted an incurable disease; traumatized by the attack and his illness, he will begin a downward spiral into madness; becoming a cold blooded serial killer convinced that each new victim represents another chance for redemption.

THE BLACK TORMENT: Redemption

This genuinely disturbing ’60s horror-mystery movie from director Robert Hartford-Davis is hailed as a British gothic masterpiece. The film follows Sir John Fordyce, a nobleman who returns after a long absence to his country estate with a new bride. However, his honeymoon is quickly cut short when he finds himself under suspicion from angry locals for the rape and brutal murder of a young village girl. Despite Sir John’s professed innocence, a growing hysteria unfolds as more strange events occur around him.

DOOR INTO SILENCE: Severin

He was called ‘The Godfather Of Gore’, ‘Italy’s Splatter King’ and ‘Il Maestro’. His still-controversial career included such horror classics as ZOMBIE, THE GATES OF HELL and THE PSYCHIC. And for his final film, writer/director Lucio Fulci returned to Louisiana – the location of his masterpiece THE BEYOND – for an eerie psychological tale of the supernatural. John Savage stars as a businessman who encounters a mysterious beauty, a relentless hearse and his own ultimate nightmare while driving the back roads of the desolate bayou

TEX SAYS: Round out your Fulci collection the Maestro’s final film! I know I will.

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT: Lionsgate

When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner’s clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to cross over. Now, unspeakable terror awaits when Jonah, the boy who communicated with the dead, returns to unleash a new kind of horror on the innocent and unsuspecting family.

TEX SAYS: A surprisingly enjoyable, if mildly derivative film with a bizarrely over the top climax. Still, probably on the better ghost stories of the past few years.

HORSEMEN: Lionsgate

At home, hardened police detective Aidan Breslin has grown increasingly distant from his two young sons, Alex and Sean, since the death of his wife. At work, he finds himself thrust into an investigation of perverse serial killings rooted in the Biblical prophecy of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The White Horseman, a master of deception and the unexpected leader hell-bent on conquest; The Red Horseman, a sharp-witted warrior intent on turning man against man, with an innocence that hides a burning rage within; The Black Horseman, a manipulative and dark tyrant, unbalanced but always one step ahead; and The Pale Horseman, an executioner with disarming strength, determined to spread death through surgical precision.

THE OBJECTIVE: IFC (Blockbuster Exclusive)

The next nightmare from Daniel Myrick, creator of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT: CIA Agent Benjamin Keynes, three days after 9/11 reconnaissance satellites picked up a radioactive heat signature in a remote, travels to a tribal region of Afghanistan. The Agency fears that Al-Qaida has finally gotten their hands on a nuclear weapon. However, it seems that this threat may be coming from something much more powerful, and definitely not human.

O.C. BABES AND THE SLASHER OF ZOMBIETOWN: Midnight Releasing

Different groups of OC stereotypes are trapped in a bar due to a recent zombie outbreak. Little do they know that the Orange County Slasher who has been killing people all week is trapped inside with them. OC Babes and the Slasher of Zombietown is a horror/comedy that starts off when Sean and Ed (if you caught that one this is right up your alley) go out to a bar for the first time for Sean’s 21st birthday. There, they meet Madison (the bitch), Savannah (the slut), Megan (the hot nerd), Lindsey (the hot edgy nerd), Ashley and Michelle (the porn stars) Mike and Bret (the bro jock guys) and a couple of old barfly skanks and some surfer chick. The night seems like any other for Sean and Ed; filled with rejection. That is until a half eaten woman runs into the bar and warns them about zombies outside. Once they lock the bar up they start dropping like flies.

PREY: Redemption

he lives of two lesbians, Jessica and Josephine , living in a deserted English farmhouse is thrown into turmoil upon the arrival of strange man called Anderson, who, unknown to them, is an alien scout on a mission to find food on Earth. Able to transform his appearance to that of a perfectly coifed human man, the alien brings tension to the the girls’ relationship as Jessica starts to find him attractive. Much morbid excitement follows as Anderson’s animalistic behavior leads to their downfall.

[REC]: Sony (TEX’S PICK OF THE WEEK)

A beautiful TV reporter and her cameraman are doing a routine interview at a local fire station when an emergency call comes in. Accompanying the firefighters to a nearby apartment, the news team begins recording the bloodcurdling screams coming from inside an elderly woman’s unit. After authorities seal off the building to contain the threat, the news crew, firefighters and residents are trapped to face a lethal terror inside. With the camera running, nothing may survive but the film itself.

TEX SAYS: All right Quarantine haters you can finally legitimately by a copy of [REC] here in the states. Of course if you’re like the rest of us, you already imported a copy from Europe or Canada! Way to go Sony!!! Wonder how much that’ll hurt your sales?