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A Horror In Your House Not to Miss!
I hope you saved your gift cards from the holidays because this week you’re going to be burning through your wallet, unless of course you have Netflix. This week’s Horror In Your house is a massive one, filled with more than a handful of must-see films ranging from Anchor Bay’s COLD PREY to the long-delayed AMUSEMENT from Warner Home Video (even on Blu-ray). Read on for the full list.
Horror in Your House
January 20, 2009
By: Tex Massacre
AMUSEMENT: New Line
Tabitha. Shelby. Lisa. They’re longtime friends on separate life paths. But they share a horrific destination when a seemingly innocent incident from their school days comes back to terrify them. Something – someone – wants payback: warped vengeance… mind-games vengeance…taunting, shredding, slashing vengeance. Inside a stone-walled chamber of prison cells and mechanisms of doom, the three women and other victims face a fierce fight to survive. Who lives? Who dies? It’s all for someone’s Amusement.
BOOGEYMAN 3: Sony Pictures
When college sophomore Sarah Morris witnesses the alleged suicide of her best friend, it sets into motion a series of horrific events that cause Sarah to fear the supernatural entity known as the Boogeyman. As she tries to convince the rest of her dorm that the Boogeyman does exist, the evil force grows stronger and her friends begin to pay the price. Now Sarah must stop this ultimate evil before the entire campus falls prey because the question isn’t whether or not the Boogeyman is going to get them…it’s HOW and WHEN!
TEX SAYS: Yet another sequel in the unnecessary and unwanted sequels department (See VACANCY 2). Will we never learn?
COLD PREY: Anchor Bay
Five teenage snowboarders are forced to spend the night in a mysteriously abandoned ski lodge. Except somebody–or something–already lives there. It is huge, savage and unstoppable…and now it’s pissed off. But if you think this is going to be the usual `trapped teens stalked by a maniac’ movie, you’re dead wrong.
TEX SAYS: If you think Norwegian genre cinema only let’s the right ones in, then you’d be correct so far. Check out a very “cool” slasher film that definitely knows how to work the conventions and turn out a satisfying bloodbath!
‘COLD PREY’ DVD review HERE
IGOR: MGM/Fox
Determined to prove he can create his own diabolical invention, a mad scientist’s -guy assistant Igor creates a female Franken-monster. But his creation, Eva is sweet and sings show tunes! That is, until she falls into the clutches of Dr. Schadenfreude and his shape-shifting girlfriend. Now it’s up to Igor and his sidekicks to save Eva– and their country–from real evildoers, including sneaky Prince Malpert!
TEX SAYS: More animated kiddie horrors with a cast to die for!
KING OF THE HILL: Weinstein Co./Genius
After a man traveling alone has a steamy encounter with a beautiful stranger, the pair join up and take a detour through the hills. But they are suddenly forced to abandon their cars when an unseen sniper puts them in his crossfire. Without understanding why they are being targeted, the strangers must survive their ruthless pursuers and their harsh surroundings.
MOONLIGHT: The Complete Series: Warner
Any private eye knows a lot about other people’s secrets. L.A. private eye Mick St. John has a secret of his own. He’s a vampire, dwelling in a covert netherworld complicated by friendship with an undead finance honcho, memories of the alluring ex- wife who turned him into a vampire, and a relationship with a human he feels drawn to protect – and maybe to love. But no matter how tempting, Mick knows a vampire-human romance is eternally dangerous.
OLD HAG: SRS Cinema
A small group of workers on the nightshift in a large warehouse… A new crate containing the body of a famous serial killer arrives… Strange things start to happen which eventually threaten the well-being of the night crew. Is it the supernatural? Has the killer’s ghost returned? Or is it something else preying on the crew one by one? Based on a phenomenon called sleep paralysis, or “Old Hag”, the movie follows the warehouse staff to a disturbing conclusion.
REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA: Lionsgate (TEX PICK OF THE WEEK)
In the not-so-distant future, a worldwide epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Out of the tragedy, a savior emerges: GeneCo, a biotech company that offers organ transplants…for a price. Those who miss their payments are scheduled for repossession and hunted by the villainous Repo Men. In a world where surgery addicts are hooked on painkilling drugs and murder is sanctioned by law, a sheltered young girl searches for the cure to her own rare disease as well as information about her family’s mysterious history. After being sucked into the haunting world of GeneCo, she is unable to turn back, as all of her questions will be answered at the wildly anticipated spectacular event: The Genetic Opera.
TEX SAYS: It goes without saying that you need to see this film. I highly recommend getting the Blu-ray on this bad boy. In 20-years THIS is the film they will still be talking about!
SAW V: Lionsgate
In the fifth installment, Detective Hoffman is seemingly the last person alive to carry on the Jigsaw legacy. However, when his secret is threatened, Hoffman must go on the hunt to eliminate all loose ends.
TEX SAYS: SAW V better all be set up for SAW VI or somebody is has got some serious explaining to do. “You won’t believe how it ends” Damn straight…I couldn’t believe how stupid it was either.
VACANCY 2: THE FIRST CUT: Sony Pictures
Suspecting only a night of hard beds and tacky décor, Caleb, his sexy new fiancée Jessica and his sarcastic best friend Tanner, check into the Meadow View Inn. They have no idea that it is not just another lonely motel, but a horrific trap where guests are brutally tortured and murdered while the sadistic maniac Mr. Smith and his greedy accomplices film the grisly slayings for profit. Caught in a deadly game or cat and mouse, the three young friends now must fight to survive.
TEX SAYS: Wow…just…Wow…Everything that the original film did right is totally unraveled in this painful prequel, which only leaves us with one question. How can three people as inept as these actually amass the body count that is unveiled in the original film?
Scream Factory brought Frank LaLoggia’s 1988 Halloween movie Lady in White to Blu-ray several years back, and now Vinegar Syndrome gives the film a 4K Ultra HD upgrade.
Vinegar Syndrome’s Lady in White 4K release is available now and shipping now!
Watch the trailer below and grab your copy from Vinegar Syndrome today.
This limited edition 4-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray x 3 set comes with a spot gloss hard slipcase + slipcover combo (designed by Dylan Haley), includes a 40-page perfect bound book and is limited to 8,000 units. It is only available on their website and at select indie retailers.
The full Special Features package includes…
- 4-disc Set: 1x 4K Ultra HD (High Bitrate BD100) / 3x Region A Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Presented in three versions: 126-min Pre-Release Director’s Cut (UHD+BD), the 118-min Extended Home Video Cut (BD), and the 113-min Theatrical Cut (BD)
- New group commentary track with writer/director Frank LaLoggia, alongside actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut
- New commentary track with Frank LaLoggia, moderated by Scott Neumyer for the Extended Home Video Cut
- New commentary track with authors Emma Westwood and Stephen A. Russell for the Extended Home Video Cut
- Archival commentary track with Frank LaLoggia for the Extended Home Video Cut
- “Learning How to Fly” (10 min) – an interview with actress Karen Powell
- “A Snapshot in Time” (9 min) – an interview with actress Lisa Taylor
- “Human Touches” (6 min) – an interview with actress Lucy Lee Flippin
- “Still Relevant” (16 min) – an interview with actress Rose Weaver
- “75% Listening, 25% Editing” (9 min) – an interview with editor Steve Mann
- “Welcome to Willowpoint Falls” (6 min) – a location featurette hosted by Benjamin Scrivens, founder of Fright-Rags
- “Dream Talking: Looking Back” – a visual group commentary for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut with Frank LaLoggia, and actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou (103 min)
- Deleted Scenes with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (36 min)
- Behind-the-scenes footage with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (16 min)
- Extended behind-the-scenes footage (73 min)
- Introduction from the 20th anniversary dvd release
- Promotional ‘industry sales’ trailer (7 min)
- 40-page perfect bound book with essays by film historians Molly Henery, Mark H. Harris, and Heidi Honeycutt (limited edition only)
- Multiple radio spots
- Theatrical trailer
- Multiple TV spots
- Workprint trailers (7 min)
- Still gallery
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- English SDH subtitles
1962. Nine-year-old Frankie Scarlatti enjoys a homespun childhood in a rustic Western New York town. The entire community gets into the spirit of Halloween, but then two bullies prank Frankie by locking him in his school cloakroom, leaving him trapped for the night. Alone and afraid, his slumber is interrupted when the ghost of a little girl appears, and Frankie witnesses the specter of her murder by an unseen assailant. Later, while recovering at home, the girl’s ghost appears to him again. With help from his older brother, Frankie begins investigating the circumstances of her death. He soon discovers that her murder was one of several unsolved crimes connected to a local child-killer. As the town’s bucolic veneer fades and long-buried secrets and tensions bubble to the surface, all of the clues to the mystery seem to point towards a huge mansion inhabited by a reclusive woman known as “The Lady in White.”
A nostalgia-driven ghost story wrapped within an intricate murder mystery and coming-of-age drama, writer-director-composer Frank LaLoggia’s passion project Lady in White remains one of the most beautiful and original American horror films of the 1980s. Featuring acclaimed actors Alex Rocco (The Godfather), Len Cariou (Executive Decision), and Sydney Lassick (Carrie, The Unseen), it boasts the first starring role by Lukas Haas (Mars Attacks, Inception) as well as breathtaking photography by Academy Award® winner Russell Carpenter (True Lies, The Lawnmower Man). Vinegar Syndrome is honored to bring this genre masterpiece to 4K UHD, newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative and presented in three versions: its pre-release director’s cut, its extended home-video version, and its original theatrical version, along with an abundance of both new and archival extras.
Paul Lê wrote here on Bloody Disgusting back in 2023, “Over the years, fans have described this film as gateway horror, but they liken it more to The Watcher in the Woods than, say, Hocus Pocus or Casper. There are chilling moments that warrant its PG-13 rating.”
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