Not sure if anyone cares but me, but I’ll be covering more Blu-ray titles from here on out.  Also, dipping out of the spectrum of this site real quick, but 2008’s best documentary, DEAR ZACHARY: A LETTER TO A SON ABOUT HIS FATHER, comes out.  I highly, highly, highly recommend seeing it.  Netflix.  Amazon.

February 3rd:

In advanced honor cashing-in-on of the Platinum Dunes FRIDAY THE 13TH reboot, new additions of Parts 1-3 have hit on DVD.  Sadly the first part is the only one available on Blu-ray in the states, whereas all three are on BRD in the UK.  Shrug.  Part 3 is also in full 3-D for the first time on disc.

Continuing with the hockey mask is the documentary HIS NAME WAS JASON which chronicles the culture of Voorhees.  It’s not quite as good as HALLOWEEN 25 YEARS OF TERROR, but it’s worth a Netflix for completist fans.

Then of course there are the Straight-to-DVDs fo the week, BLACK SWARM and KILLER MOVIE.  I don’t know anything about either, though a lot can be inferred from their covers.

February 10th:

Stepping just outside the genre, but still in the realm of science fiction, we have BLINDNESS.  The rather tepid response it got from critics had me in no rush to see BLINDNESS at a theater, but CONSTANT GARDNER and CITY OF GOD director Fernando Meirelles has me interested in the story of a world struck with an outbreak of, well, look at the title.

MY NAME IS BRUCE also got a general consensus of ‘meh’ so I’ve yet to see.  Game on now, though.  Also available on Blu-ray.

Steven Segal + vampires = AGAINST THE DARK.

Kicking off the trifecta of red themed titles of the month is RED MIST, once known as FREAKDOG, from Paddy Breathnach.  I’m not a fan at all of the wasted potential that was Breathnach’s SHROOMS, but I’ll give RED MIST a shot.

Second up is RED VICTORIA which judging from its cover looks in the vamp fantasy vein, but IMDb lists a plot about a person, “forced to write a horror movie by an undead muse who motivates him by killing his friends and family.”  Could be passable.

FRIDAY THE 13TH THE SERIES VOLUME 2 is exactly what that mouthful explains.  THE LODGER is a remake of Hitchcock’s THE LODGER, though the filmmakers would rather you think of it as a retelling of the novel THE LODGER.  Either way it calls upon Alfred Molina, which gives it slightly more credibility.

Also, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE hits Blu-ray.  Not a horror title by any stretch, but it is David Cronenberg, this site’s favorite director.  Already have my pre-order in.

Edit: And to add TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE because apparently I’m the biggest asshole ever for forgetting it.

February 17th:

Ugh.  FEAST III: THE HAPPY FINISH.  FEAST II (review) was an awful, awful, awful movie and I have no reason whatsoever to think that things are going to turn around.  They couldn’t even get their lame sex-subtitle right.  Is it not a HAPPY ENDING, not a HAPPY FINISH?  Never going to see this.

Ah, THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (review).  If you haven’t caught this OnDemand yet, today it finally hits DVD and BRD.  I’m rather indifferent to the film.  By no stretch is it a bad movie, but I wasn’t all that blown away, either.  I’ll be giving it a second shot at some point.

QUARANTINE (review) doesn’t need much explanation.  If you’ve not seen [REC] and don’t feel like buying a Canadian copy, which is surprisingly not a euphemism for bootleg, I suppose QUARANTINE will do.  It’s whatevs.

Remember SCREAMERS?  Kind of?  Get ready for SCREAMERS: THE RISING.

Last up of the STD titles is ALIEN RAIDERS, which I’ve heard very good things about.  Expect a review later in the month.

February 24th:

In advanced honor cashing-in-on the remake of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is a new “unrated” copy of Wes Craven’s first film.  I’m no lover of the seasoned shocker so I won’t be replacing my older, never watched copy of the film.

If the DVD cover doesn’t give it away, CYCLOPS was a Sci-Fi channel premiere.  I caught bits and pieces of it and well, that cover delivers and then some.  Unlike most films on The Most Dangerous Night of Television, the eponymous beast actually doesn’t look a Sega Saturn rendering, more like a Playstation 2, and is actually shown quite a lot.

Expect a review of RED SANDS at some point, the newest flick from the guys behind DEAD BIRDS (review).  I’m really digging the cover which looks straight out of 1997.  I’m game.

I dodged THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY at theaters and will continue to do so on DVD.

EPITAPH is a Korean horror flick set in a hospital in the ’40s.  Like most films following the bust of Korea’s new wave of cinema, EPITAPH isn’t bad, but it’s nothing spectacular.

I’m hugely behind on Dario Argento.  Behind as in I’ve only seen two or three of the Italian maestro’s films.  Shrug.  February gives us FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET on DVD and THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE on Blu-Ray.

Also, AKIRA on Blu-ray.  Not horror, but the audience overlap makes it worth mentioning.

1. THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN
2. ALIEN RAIDERS
3. MY NAME IS BRUCE
4. AGAINST THE DARK
5. RED SANDS
6. RED MIST

July to September, always anemic pre-Halloween hump for horror to get over.  Two thousand and eight twas no different.

Part 1: January to March.
Part 2: April to June.
Part 3: July to September.
Part 4: October to December.
Part 5: Events.
Part 6: Awards. (coming)

Last Week in Horror we finally started to see some marketing material for studio backed films and I couldn’t be more saddened?  Why?  Well, of the four studio clips, three are for remakes and the other is a PG-13 teen shocker that I’m going to guess will most heavily be advertised on MTV and MySpace.

Oh well, some cool news.  FearNET will be showing MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN for free on its service all through October.  That said, it has yet to show up on my local FearNET OnDemand menu, but then again Comcast is a fucking abysmal corporation and my OnDemand (and internet) is rarely functioning.

Last Week in Horror was some kind of post-ComicCon orgy of news.  Either this was all left over from the con and took a week to rise to the top or PR folk knew their news wasn’t big enough to rock a convention and thus waited a week.  Whatever the case, I feel like this post took longer to gather than most.

Xingu Films announced AMERICAN REAPER, which is a sci-fi film whose concept I love.  John Carpenter got a non-horror directing gig, which is the best thing for him these days, if you ask me.  Which you did.  Some GHOSTBUSTERS rumors.  Two people who yet to impress me may muck up my beloved Alexandre Aja remake of PIRANHA.  Lionsgate is fielding all kinds of heat in the fallout of their guided MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN release debacle.

But most importantly.  THE THING!  Remade!  As a music video!

The PR folk at Lionsgate must be having a tough week.  First AICN makes it big that director Lexi Alexander has been booted off of PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, buried in an NDA and that the changes set in motion are less than ideal.  Then Scott Weinberg at Cinematical writes a plea to Lionsgate’s adressing their (mis)handling of DANCE OF THE DEAD.  And now Bloody-Disgusting has a war waged in its comments section regarding the news that MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN has not only been dumped in limited release, but is only being released in dollar theaters scattered with unicorn logic around the nation.

Now why are they doing all of this?  Lionsgate used to be the go to outfit for genre championship.  Now they’re dumping well received films with unprecedented disrespect.  What gives?  Shareholders give.

Lionsgate are, despite a few huge theatrical hits from time to time, apparently, not very good at business.  In 2007 LGF was like a drunk at a race track that picked all the winning horses (most of the time), but then blew all its earnings at the bar.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Lionsgate’s accountants are behind the eight ball with these recent decisions.  Their stock is up slightly for the year, but is still down nearly 13% from its high a year ago.  In FY08, LGF’s net income was -$70 million.  Not because their movies didn’t do well, but because the company made shitty investements along the way, operating at a -33% return on its equity.  Even I’m not that bad at the stock market.