Roger Corman movies lead the way in this week’s Horror in Your House. Mr. Corman’s latest SyFy monster flick, Dinoshark hits the shelves in glorious Blu-ray. And, if that wasn’t enough from the master of schlock, HD Cinema Classics is releasing, for the first time, several classic Corman films in Blu-ray DVD combo packs. Looking for something with a little less cheese? Well, this isn’t your week. Blu-ray versions of the comedic Korean pig monster flick Chawz and the insane Japanese flick Machine Girl are now available as well. Yep, it’s a supremely cheesy week. Enjoy.
Horror In Your House
April 26th, 2011

CHAWZ (Blu-ray / DVD) – Magnolia Home Entertainment

A young police officer is transferred from Seoul to a small village in the countryside for duty when he jokingly checked the box to be deployed “anywhere.” Arriving at the village, he encounters a bumbling police force who is working with a special detective to resolve some recent murders. As the bodies add up, it becomes clear that the gruesome deaths are attributed to a beast of an animal with a voracious appetite for human flesh. A famous hunter and his team are called in to track and destroy the man-eater. During their tracking expedition, they are confronted by a boar of massive size and strength, which they discover may be a result of experimentation during wartimes. Unprepared and unarmed for taking down the mutant creature, the group must disband as the hunters become the hunted.

MICAH SAYS: Oh, I get it. It’s like “Jaws” but bout a pig named “Chawz.” Actually, the trailer makes this looks like a fun ride in the vein of Korea’s other big monster movie, “The Host.” This is the film I most want to see from this week’s release group.

DEMENTIA 13 (Blu-ray + DVD Combo) – HD Cinema Classics

Future film-making legend Francis Ford Coppola makes his big-screen directorial debut with this cult horror classic, available for the first time in spectacular High-Definition Blu-Ray. Following the abrupt death of her husband from a heart attack, the scheming Louise Haloran (Luanda Anders) travels to her in-laws estate in Ireland, only to find herself trapped in a creepy, decrepit castle with her ex-husband s demented family. Upon arrival, she is introduced to a pair of maladjusted brothers (William Campbell, Bart Patton) and a distraught mother-in-law (Eithne Dunn), still grieving for the daughter she lost in a drowning accident many years earlier. When a mysterious axe-wielding psychopath enters the fray, leaving blood-spattered corpses in his wake, the family s doctor (Patrick Magee) takes it upon himself to try to get to the bottom of things–before it s too late! The making of Dementia 13, meanwhile, is a tale unto itself. An aspiring film-maker fresh out of UCLA, Coppola found work under the tutelage of B-movie legend Roger Corman, doing sound, editing and various other tasks. After finishing a film called The Young Racers under budget, Corman opted to use the leftover funds to finance a low-budget thriller to cash in on the success of Alfred Hitchcock s Psycho. Coppola quickly delivered a script to Corman’s liking, promising plenty of nudity and gore. Corman gave him the green light. Despite the meager budget, Coppola made the most of his resources, re-purposing both sets and actors from The Young Racers, while employing the sort of creative lighting, camera angles, and storytelling that reveals an early glimpse at the great filmmaking that would follow with such titles as Apocalypse Now and The Godfather trilogy.

DINOSHARK (Blu-ray / DVD) – Anchor Bay Entertainment

It was frozen in glacial ice over 150 million years ago. Global warming has just hatched it in the Arctic. And now, it has traveled to Puerto Vallarta for a massive Mexican buffet of sailors, swimmers, lifeguards, jet skiers, horny tourists, bikini babes and more. It thrives in warm water. Bullets will not pierce its prehistoric armor. And it can leap out of the ocean to devour helicopters and parasailers. Can a rogue fishing boat captain and a sexy science teacher stop this ravenous pliosaur before it takes a monster bite out of the local fiesta and all-girl water polo tournament? Eric Balfour (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 24) and Iva Hasperger star – along with award-winning B-movie producer Roger Corman himself – in the top-rated Syfy sensation about the blood-crazed primeval mutation called Dinoshark!

MICAH SAYS: It’s absolutely as cheesetastic as you would expect a SyFy channel monster movie produced by Roger Corman to be. I can’t see myself buying something that I can catch on repeats on cable though. These should have unrated scenes, boobs, and more blood for the disc crowd.

THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (Blu-ray + DVD Combo) – Synapse Films

On the eve of Christmas vacation, a college dormitory stands condemned… the dark halls now vacant and unsafe. Student Joanne Murray and her close friends volunteer to help close down the building, unaware a psychopathic lunatic is hiding in the shadows. As the students disappear one by one, Joanne discovers the horrifying reality that if she is to survive, she alone will have to find a way to slay the brutal murderer. If you think you ve seen this film totally uncut… think again! Synapse Films is proud to present THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD in a never-before-seen alternate version containing additional scenes, extended gore sequences, and a different sound mix. This transfer was created from the only existing 35mm answer print of the original Directors’ Cut entitled DEATH DORM, a version of the film thought to have been lost for over thirty years. Bonus Features include Audio Commentary Featuring Directors Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter; Interviews with Composer Christopher Young and Make-Up FX Creator Matthew Mungle; Original Theatrical Trailers.

MACHINE GIRL (Blu-ray) – Tokyo Shock

Ami (Minase Yashiro, in her film debut) is a tough but otherwise average high school girl, trying to lead a normal life. Her world comes crashing down when her brother and his friend are killed by ruthless bullies. As Ami tracks down the ringleader, she is surprised to discover the bullies’ association with a sinister ninja yakuza family. When she goes after her revenge, she soon finds herself in over her head and minus her left arm. Barely surviving, Ami escapes and seeks out shelter from two kindly garage mechanics. They take pity on her, fitting her with a high-powered machine gun where her arm used to be. She then teams up with the chainsaw-wielding mother (Asami) of her brother’s slain friend and together they unleash an unholy, non-stop, over-the-top kill fest against the equally creative machinery (drill bra, flying guillotine) of their relentless ninja enemies.

MICAH SAYS: Another one in which watching YouTube clips, if you haven’ already somehow seen, will instantly sell you. There are far too many to pick, but I highly recommend watching the clips titled “Machine Girl Soup” and “Machine Girl Conditioner” to get your day going in the right direction.

MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM – Lions Gate

When an American oil company sets up an experimental drilling plant out in the vast deserts of Mongolia, they are completely oblivious to what actually lies beneath them. Pumping hot water deep into the ground, the company is hoping to expose untapped oil, but what they end up uncovering is something no one ever expected. As the superheated water plummets its way into the earth, it strikes a nest of deadly creatures that have been dormant for centuries. Thought to be purely mythological, these monsters are in fact real…and now they have been awakened! They are angry and they are bloodthirsty. They are known as the Mongolian Death Worms.

POOR PRETTY EDDIE (Blu-ray + DVD Combo) – Cultra / HD Cinema Classics

Brace yourself for one of the 1970s greatest, creepiest, cult classics now available for the first time ever on High Definition Blu-Ray. It s a surreal psycho-thriller that broke all the rules of political correctness and lowbrow film-making as it spun the sordid tale of a black singer from the big city, Liz Wetherly (Leslie Uggams), who finds herself stranded in a backwoods redneck nightmare that makes Deliverance look like a day at Disneyland in comparison.

THE TERROR (Blu-ray + DVD Combo) – HD Cinema Classics

A cult classic from the master of the B-movie himself, director Roger Corman, available for the first time in thrilling High Definition Blu-Ray! In one of his first-ever roles, a young Jack Nicholson stars as Lt. Andre Duvalier, a soldier in Napoleon s army in 19th century France, separated from his regiment. He awakens on a beach to the sight of a strange woman who leads him to the gothic, towering castle that serves as home to eerie Baron Von Leppe (Boris Karloff). But, as Duvalier soon discovers, nothing is what it seems in this ghastly, haunted mansion of death!