Blood Money, Vol. 3
By 9:15AM on Jan 25, 2012
Starting on January 19, the 2012 Sundance Film Festival went into full swing in Park City, Utah, distracting much of the industry with a deluge of new movies that may or may not make their way to theaters near you any time soon. (Look for our recap of the fest’s genre entries later this week.) But even our no-sleep gauntlet of screenings, reviews, interviews and yes, occasionally, a cocktail or two doesn’t mean we can be derelict in our duties of updating you good folks about the media that’s coming you way this week. As such, welcome to this week’s installment of Blood Money.
Theatrically, there are two offerings, starting with Severin Films’ horror anthology The Theatre Bizarre. Featuring the directorial talents of folks like Tom Savini (make-up guru and director of the 1990 Night of the Living Dead remake), Karim Hussain (Hobo With a Shotgun), and Richard Stanley (Hardware), it promises to be eclectic and intense, especially since its stories are supposedly based upon Paris’ Grand Guignol theatre. And in addition to horror royalty like Savini behind the camera, there is plenty on screen as well, as Catriona MacColl of The Beyond fame and stalwart oddball Udo Kier appear in segments. Given distributor Severin Films’ aptitude for finding obscure, unsettling films and releasing them via their DVD imprint, The Theatre Bizarre should have plenty of appeal, even if its theatrical run is a brief stop en route to home video.
The second film of the week is The Wicker Tree, a film directed by Robin Hardy from his novel Cowboys For Christ. Although Hardy infamously directed the horror classic The Wicker Man (the original, not the Nicolas Cage version from a few years ago), this film is neither a sequel nor a remake of its predecessor, but a tale of two American evangelical Christians who encounter a community of pagans after visiting Scotland to preach the Good Word. Like The Theatre Bizarre, The Wicker Tree is being released in a limited number of theaters, but as always, nothing beats the big-screen experience so get out there and see it now if you can.
On home video, meanwhile, the biggest title of the week is undoubtedly Paranormal Activity 3, which made an impressive showing at the box office and is now available in theatrical and unrated versions. Given how few of the gags used in the television advertisements made it into the final film, one might expect that the DVD/ Blu-ray would be stuffed to the gills with alternate takes and deleted footage; unfortunately, other than the seven minutes of new footage in the film itself, the other extras are mostly superfluous stuff such as a commercial for one of the character’s businesses. That said, if you weren’t creeped out enough while watching it in theaters, pick up a copy of this, put it on your big-screen TV, and see how well you sleep afterwards.
Other than that, there’s actually a whole lot of horror titles, most of them obscure but worthwhile, arriving on home video this week. Notwithstanding the derivative fare of Cold Creepy Feeling: Paranormal Exorcism (a title that was engineered for search engine optimization if ever I heard one), Night of the Dead (not living, though) and The Summer of Massacre (which feels like is missing a word or two), several films by Jean Rollin were released, including Lips of Blood, The Nude Vampire and The Shiver of the Vampires. Despite their focus (at least title-wise) on blood and bloodsucking, Rollin’s film are often more dreamlike and abstract than conventionally scary, so these are more of a must-have for folks looking to watch something a little bit left of center.
Finally, there’s Porn Star Zombies and The Woman, two films of markedly different ambitions: in the former, the crew of a low-budget porn shoot gets overrun by zombies, and in the latter, a country lawyer captures a feral woman and attempts to civilize her in increasingly dangerous ways. Truth be told, the movies aren’t the same at all, and The Woman is really the one to see; after dividing audiences at least year’s Sundance Film festival, where attendees attacked director Lucky McKee with charges of misogyny, it’s especially provocative, but the fact that it has any thought or concept behind its devastating story sets it apart from the majority of all new horror movies, even the ones that combine zombies and porn stars.
