Halloween Horror DVD & Blu-ray Round-Up
Halloween is nearly here and that means that a slew of new horror related releases will be hitting the shelves. I’ve reviewed a few for your reading pleasure – maybe you’ll take a punt and watch one. Featured in this bumper review section is Inbred, The Lost Episode, Monstro and The Human Centipede’s 1&2.
Inbred
This gorey British horror finds a group of delinquents and their teachers hounded by cannibalistic locals in a tiny country village. It riffs on the likes of Deliverance and The Wicker Man, but it doesn’t quite match up to those films. Tonally it’s all over the place, but it’s a diverting enough schlocker featuring half decent performances from its unknown cast. Gorehounds will be in seventh heaven. Or maybe that should be seventh hell.
Special Features
A good selection of extras including commentaries, making of documentaries and deleted scenes – the only let down is that the making of material lacks cohesion – a voice over or title cards would have been nice to give them focus.
The Lost Episode
Actor Michael Rooker makes his directorial debut with this horror effort which was originally titled Pennhurst. The film riffs on the ‘found footage’ sub-genre, and it borrows liberally from The House on Haunted Hill . It’s a terribly put together piece, that has a few good ideas, but Rooker drops the ball when he approaches anything which gets the interest radar tingling. The film plays with a dual narrative as it follows a group witless teens and an even more witless documentary film crew as they make their way around a vacant asylum. Terrible.
Special Features
Just a trailer – count your blessings.
Monstro
The Aussie horror begins well – it’s clearly inspired by the work of Russ Meyer and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. We follow a group of murderous females across the Australian outback to a retro tinged score, however, then they hit the coast they’re terrorized by a giant sea monster, the titular Monstro. Things then go all Sam Raimi, as they fight back in a wave of low-budget schlock and gore. It’s totally preposterous, but quite fun – even if the midsection loses focus.
Special Features
Commentaries, short films and interviews mean that you get a lot of bang for your buck when you purchase this low budget effort.
The Human Centipede [First Sequence] & The Human Centipede [Full Sequence] Steel Book Edition
If you’re reading this then you know about Tom Six’s The Human Centipede films. You also know if they’re the type of movie that you want to sit down and watch for 90 minutes. It’s not my bag, but if you want to see Dieter Laser’s Dr. Josef Heiter and Laurence R. Harvey’s Martin Lomax stitch people anus to mouth, then knock yourself out.
Special Features
The original comes with nothing but a trailer, while The Human Centipede 2 comes with a great selection of extras including a behind-the scenes, deleted scenes, interviews, trailers – the whole kit and caboodle. A great package.
