DVD Review: V/H/S/2 (2013)

V/H/S/2 (2013)

Label: Magnet Releasing
Release Date: September 24th 2013 

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Duration: 96 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional Spanish and English SDH Subtitles

Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.78:1) 

DirectorS: Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Edúardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale,
Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Huw Evans, Jason Eisener

Here we have another entry in the found-footage anthology series, a sequel to V/H/S (2012) with a new set of directors taking a stab at things, I wasn't completely enamored with the last entry and was down right disappointed with a few of the vignettes (lloking at you Ti west) so lets see what we have this time out. 

We begin with 'Tape 49', a very familiar framing device as two private investigators on the trail of a missing teen unlawfully enter a house and come upon a bank of TV monitors and stacks of VHS cassettes. The female investigator is tasked with pouring through the videos while the man searches through the seemingly empty house for clues to the missing teens whereabouts, this is our introduction to the shorts, much like we saw in V/H/S and it's just as weak here as it was then. The warp-around is directed by frequent Adam Wingard collaborator Simon Barrett whose written some good material previously with the creepy Civil War-era chiller Dead Birds (2006) and the recent You're Next (2011) but this just didn't do much for me unfortunately, it's a shame this is your first and last impression of the film. 

Up next is Adam Wingard's 'Phase 1: Clinical Trials' with Wingard in he staring role as a video game designer who has lost an eye in a car accident, we catch up with him just as an experimental camera-eye has been installed in his eye socket and he's returning home post-surgery. As night settles in begins to see strange things happening around his house, it's pretty much a variation on what we've seen previously in the j horror film The Eye (2002) or the underrated Body Parts (1991) with Jeff Fahey, this is a pretty effective entry and infinitely more fun than any of the Paranormal Activity (2007) entries in my opinion, plus we get a bit of nudity, too. 

The Godfather of Found Footage Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project) offers up 'A Ride in the Park' a novel take on the zombie genre, featuring a mountain-biker with a Go Pro cam mounted-to his helmet as he hits the dirt trails for some extreme off road action until he happens upon a woman is distress, she's bloodied and vomiting. Dismounting his mountain bike  he attempts to offer aid when she attacks him, tearing out  a chunk out of his throat, he stumbles though the woods a short distance and bleeds out. A few moments later a coupe happen upon his corpse when he is suddenly reanimated as a flesh-chomping zombie, the remainder of the short plays out following his zombie exploits captured on the Go Pro camera set-up, it's definitely a novel idea with an interesting POV. I enjoyed the gore and some interesting POV shots - like when he's run over by an SUV, it made for a fun entry. 

Up next is what I think is one of the stronger entries co-directed by Timo Tjahanto (The ABCs of Death) and Gareth Huw Evans (The Raid) which features three documentary filmmakers gaining access to an Indonesian doomsday cult compound, while interviewing the cult leader he suddenly announces to his followers that the end is here, that the glorious event they've been waiting for is upon them... and it's pretty great vignette. We get a bit more character development than what we've seen up to this point including a love-triangle, but nothing too distracting as to take us away from the apocalyptic matters at hand, one of the documentarian's unplanned pregnancy actually plays into the proceedings, in fact it may have spurred the apocalypse. A blood-soaked and frantic affair, the chaos that ensues is fantastic and it went places I was not expecting we have Jonestown-style mass suicides, zombie ghouls and a horned demon unleashed up the world, I loved this entry and felt like it could have easily been expanded upon into a feature length film, I wanted more but what we get is just enough, this one really opened up the scope of the found-footage entries on the disc, it felt like a new take on the sub-genre an is handled quite deftly, these guys had a vision and it's a brutal bloodbath of fun. 

The segment I was most anticipating is from director Jason Eisener who directed the fantastically entertaining a violent retro-grindhouse romp Hobo with a Shotgun (2009) and the creepy 'Youngbuck' from The ABC's of Death (2013) anthology and it didn't disappoint me. Entitled 'Slumber Party Alien Abduction' it features a brother and sister left alone at their lakeside home for a weekend, the older sister's horny boyfriend arrives and the young brother invites a few of his naughty friends over, pretty soon it's a party. The young boys love to prank the horny older teens and capture their shenanigans on video, including, at night the boys bust into the girls room at catch her topless while straddling her boyfriend, enraged she chases the boys outside and it's then that the kids notice some strange lights hovering over the lake, bit don't pay much notice. As things settle down the vengeful sister notices that the boys are watching porn in the front room and turns the camera on them, catching one of 'em wanking it to the dirty movie, and that's when the shit starts to happen, an alien abduction scenario is underway as the teens are bombarded with noise and piercing bright light, slender armed alien greys are out to get 'em! I thought this was a really effective entry, it's fun and ratchets up the suspense right up to the end, this is great stuff and the ending was startling sad.

The film finishes up with the end of the wrap-around story which as I said up front was quite a let down, but overall V/H/S/2 is a step-up in pretty much every way from the first entry, the stories are better, more consistent, they're creative and have a broader scope plus it's executed deftly. 

DVD: The single-disc DVD from Magnet Releasing presents the film in 16:9 widescreen (1.78:1) with English Dolby Digital 5.1 with choice of Spanish or English subtitles. The DVD features both the unrated theatrical cut and the R rated version, not sure what the differences are, I watched the Unrated cut and it's the exact same length as the rated. There;s a nice compliment of extras including behind-the-scenes featurettes, trailers, galleries and a running audio commentary from the filmmakers, it's a very nice package from Magnet. The movie is also available on Blu-ray and as a DVD/Blu-ray/VHS combo, very cool. 

Special Features:

- Tape 49 Rewind (1:39) 

- Dissecting Phase I Clinical Trials (2:28) 

- Inside Safe Haven (3:34) 

- Slumber Party Alien Abduction: Behind the Lights (5:56) 

- A Ride in the Park: I Dare You (3:06) 

- AXS TV: A Look at V/H/S/2 (2:58) 

- Behind the Scenes Photo Galleries

- Filmmaker Commentary

- 2 Theatrical Trailers (3:56) 

- Magnet Trailers: Hammer of the Gods, Europa Report, Prince Avalanche, Syruo  (8:39) 

Verdict: A fun found footage anthology that improves upon the first film in nearly every way.  I went in with tempered expectation having been a bit bummed by it's predecessor but I walked away having had quite a bit of fun, a definite recommend and a fun watch with a few good scares and some interesting ideas that are executed quite well. 4 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: DARK SKIES (2013)

DARK SKIES (2013) 

2-Disc DVD + Blu-ray + Ultraviolet 

Label: Starz/Anchor Bay Entertainment

Release Date: May 28th 2013 

Region Code: 1/A NTSC

Rating: PG-13

Duration: 97 Minutes 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.40:1) 

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio with Optional English Subtitles

Cast: Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett, J.K. Simmons 
Director: Scott Stewart


The Barret family is your typical suburban family, a caring father Daniel (Josh Hamilton), attentive Mom Lacy (Kerri Russell), teenage son Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and his adolescent sibling Sammy (Kadan Rockett). Daniel is unemployed and his wife is a struggling real estate agent, things at home are tense and worsening as overdue  mortgage notices pour in. Teenager Jesse's hormones are emerging as he dabbles with weed, porn and sexuality, he's a pretty typical teen struggling with issues of young love and self identity. The youngest son Sammy begins having strange late night encounters with his imaginary friend the Sandman who tells him to do things, he walks in his sleep, too. 

Things start to get a bit strange when mom wakes up from her slumber one night and ventures downstairs after hearing noises, she finds the fridge wide open with it's contents strewn across the floor, a trail of food leads out the backdoor. Daniel chalks it up to a stray animal entering the house through an open door but Lacy is not so convinced, the experience leaves her a bit frazzled and paranoid with worry for her family's safety  The following night she again wakes up with the feeling that something is off,  this time discovering canned food items stacked in a weird geometric pattern which projects a peculiar light pattern onto the ceiling. The suburban setting, weird encounters and stacked items, hmm, this sort of sounds familiar, definitely starting to detect the Spielbergian influence of Poltergeist and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and I'm rather enjoying it.

The strange events continue to grow in frequency and severity, the authorities are called in but attribute the occurrences to pranks that are being perpetrated by the family's children, perhaps spurred on by the growing uneasiness in the household. Thing worsen as the home security system repeatedly malfunction, Sammy sleepwalking continues and various family members experience episodes of missing time they cannot account for and fits of catatonia, nosebleeds, and epileptic seizures. One night Lacey walks into Sammy's room after hearing him speaking to someone, opening the door she is unnerved by a weird shadowy figure, Sammy's Sandman, hovering over his bed she understandably freaks out, a parent can only take so much strain, it's an effective little startle when both the figure and Sammy disappear from the room.   

At their wit's end the father sets-up video surveillance throughout the home in an attempt to sleuth just what is happening to his family before they all completely unravel. At this point I feared the worst sort of turn, anticipating a detour straight into found footage purgatory but thankfully it doesn't quite go there, just dipping it's toe in t test the waters.  

The film excels at creating tension steadily from the first few scene, it's creepy stuff and the filmmaker does a decent job blurring the lines between fiction and reality, there's a lot of psychological weirdness going punctuated by surreal nightmare visions. The performances are quite strong, particularly mom and dad who do a great job of falling apart onscreen, unable to cope with the fantastical and unexplainable events happening to their family they unravel. There's a nice cameo from J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man) as a alien visitation specialist, it's underplayed and effective, you can feel his character's weariness and resignation, a picture of things to come for the family. 

There are moments when the film starts to drag, the character actions are questionable and the amped-up and weird ending doesn't quite live up to the promise of the film's set-up, but it's not awful either, there's nothing egregious here. Dark Skies is an effective suburban alien abduction nightmare, nicely executed with some decent atmosphere and surreal moments of unreality, a recommend for fans of Super 8, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Poltergeist and Insidious.

Blu-ray: Somehow I missed this one in theaters, the shitty ad campaign which made the film out to be Paranormal Activity with aliens didn't help, so it was a treat to catch up to it on Blu-ray from Anchor Bay. The 1080p widescreen (2.40:1) image looks quite nice on Blu-ray, it's a new film and the image is finely detailed and crisp in high definition. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio supports the film well with some effective use of the surrounds and the nerve-tingling score is creepy, very nice sound design, the film gets a nice AV presentation from Anchor Bay.

Special features on the set include an audio commentary with Writer/Director Scott Stewart, Producer Jason Blum, Executive Producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Editor Peter Gvozdas plus a selection of Alternate and Deleted Scenes (14:22), none of which are particular notable aside from an inferior alternate ending we can be thankful they didn't go with. The 2-disc set includes a Blu-ray and standard def DVD with the same features plus an Ultraviolet digital copy to stream or download on your PC or mobile device. 

Special Features: 

- Alternate and Deleted Scenes (14:22) 

- Commentary With Writer/Director Scott Stewart, Producer Jason Blum, Executive Producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Editor Peter Gvozdas

Verdict: I think your level of enjoyment here will be largely based on your expectations, just know going in that there's not a lot of actual scares here, it's genuinely creepy and atmospheric but there's no gore; for a PG-13 thriller Dark Skies is an effective sci-fi chiller, a bit shy of essential viewing but definitely worth a watch. 3.5 Outta 5 

THEATRICAL REVIEW: Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

BATTLE: LOS ANGELES ( 2011)

STUDIO: Sony Pictures
DURATION: 116 mins

RATING: PG-13
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Liebesman
CAST: Arrron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Will Rothhaar, Bridget Moynahan, Nzinga Blake,

On Thursday night my 10 year-old son Zachary and I attended an early screening of BATTLE: LOS ANGELES.  Zachary was very anxious to see it, the TV spots had definitely peaked his curiosity and mine as well. My initial thoughts on the trailer were ID4 meets BLACK HAWK DOWN. Zachary's first impression was RESISTANCE: THE FALL OF MAN video game he plays on his dearly beloved PS3 gaming system.

The film  throws you into the action pretty quickly following some news reports of meteorite clusters entering the Earth's atmosphere rather unexpectedly catching the scientific world with their pants down. The media of course is all over this and we see news reports from around the world indicating that meteors are landing just off the coast of pretty much every country in the world.  It's a great visual as the meteors rain from the sky and plummet into the ocean sending up plumes of water and smoke hundreds of feet in the air, it's a good apocalyptic visual on par with anything in ID4 or 2012. A news crew covering the situation amidst the commotion on the coast catches video of a meteor striking and destroying a Coast Guard cutter off the coast in Santa Monica and then suddenly creatures begin emerging from water.  In an even worse turn of events they turn out to be heavily armed aliens and they immediately begin blazing a trail of  death and despair from coastline working their way inland. Enter Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart), the guy just signed his retirement papers but when the shit hits the fan he's assigned a young platoon of fresh faced Marines. The platoon is briefed rather quickly that the world is indeed under attack by an unknown alien threat. Their mission is to recover and evacuate civilians to a safe zone before the military forces starts a massive bombing campaign that will hopefully stop the alien menace in the L.A. area. Once on the streets they are pretty much ambushed right away and the non-stop action begins and nearly never ends throughout the entire run time of the film. There's not much in the way of back story or character development  aside from Eckhart's hero-character Sgt. Nantz. Everyone else are one dimensional and pretty thinly developed caricatures of soldier-types.  I must say that the action is quite well rendered but it's a case of too much too fast. The film is shot handheld and shaky as shit, it's hard to latch onto what's going on and the alien menace is never fully appreciated as they are caught in brief snatches of shaky cam and even when one is taken alive and dissected in an effort to determine it's weakness the creature remains mighty ambiguous. Call me simple, but I wanted to see 'em up close and see the nitty gritty underneath their armaments, didn't happen.

Battle: Los Angeles is a chaotic, action-packed ground war view of a massive alien invasion. It's thrilling at times, it's played for realism and the action is gritty but the beats are very familiar, particularly ID4. While the shaky-cam aesthetic is not a make or break for me it was a bit much as every scene is an amped up mess of frantic editing and dizzying third-person perspective. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the film were the large-scale scenes of mass destruction as L.A. is laid waste to, great visual effects throughout the film. Leaving the theatre I didn't dislike the film but I wasn't satisfied either. Perhaps I was expecting some DISTRICT 9 level genius but whatever the reason I walked away from the film with a sense detachment and no emotional investment. There's no emotional center to the film. On the other hand my son Zachary was quite enamored with the film and kept saying "wow, that was a LOT of action" and for some I'm sure that will be more than enough, it's a popcorn flick at it's heart. It's got great visual effects, tons of carnage but no gore - it's PG-13 afterall - and while it never commits the ultimate sin of being a bore the characters just didn't strike a chord with me enough to care. That said, my son has already informed that we'll need to buy the Blu-ray as soon as it streets, he loved it. 2.5 outta 5

DVD REVIEW: Brain Dead (2007)

BRAIN DEAD (2007)

DISTRIBUTOR: Vicious Cirlcle Films
REGION: 1
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 95 Min.
GENRE: Sci-Fo Horror
DIRECTOR: Kevin S. Tenney
CAST: Joshua Benton, Sarah Grant Brendecke, SDavid Crane, Andy Forrest
RELEASE DATE: Available Now!
TAGLINE: A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste.

PLOT: After an extraterrestrial parasite crash-lands in a backwoods American town – landing squarely on the head of a local fisherman – it sparks a fast spreading zombie infestation. As the brain hungry monsters multiply, three pairs of unlucky misfits convene on a fishing lodge for shelter. With zombies pounding at the door, the stranded, mismatched travelers must band together to stop the invasion – or serve themselves up as a main course. The problem is, they may lose their minds to each other before losing their brains to the zombies.

THE STUFF: BRAIN DEAD comes to us from director Kevin S. Tenney whose film NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988) is an enduring Halloween themed 80's horror-comedy that was recently claimed by the Hollywood remake machine. BRAIN DEAD is a return to his 80's horror roots with a nice gory helping of sci-fi splatter.

The film has a great opening as a asteroid hurls through the cold of space on a collision course with Earth. Upon entry into the planet's atmosphere the asteroid burns to a golf ball sized cinder and strikes a fisherman right on the noggin with a nice loud PLUNK! Nearly  instantaneously the the man turns into a zombified flesh-eating mutant. When his fishing buddy leans in to offer assistance he's grabbed by the the eye sockets and his head is ripped into two - great practical effects, gore hounds will be enthralled. Great start to a fun if redundant horror/comedy.

Alright, our zombie-creature is in place and infecting others via some black vomit. Now how about a ragtag group of victims whom through various improbable means and circumstance end up at the cabin in the woods which escalates into a siege situation as the group attempt to fend off the flesh crazed creatures? A lecherous priest, the young woman he lusts after, two escaped convicts, a park ranger, a police officer and two college co-eds. To be honest the names of these characters just aren't all that important. BRAIN DEAD is not only an apt title but more or less an ideal state of mind when viewing this film, it's a real no-brainer which is not to say it is without it's goofy and gory charm. 

What BRAIN DEAD has going for it is some very good practical effects work though they are leveraged by some equally terrible Syfy level CGI and a familiar but fun premise, definite tones of NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986) here. What doesn't work are the rampant attempts at comedy throughout the film. I couldn't quite tell if the film was going for a 80's comedy/horror flavor or if the comedy was just stale and came across 80's style. I guess it doesn't matter if the effect is the same, right?

DVD: BRAIN DEAD comes to us by way of the always entertaining Vicious Circle Films and is presented in anamorphic widescreen with 2.0 surround sound. Not an astounding looking film nor particularly bombastic in the sound department either but adequate. A good amount of bonus content here none of which I can comment on as the screener was bare-bones.

Special Features
- Commentary by Director Kevin S. Tenney, Producer Greg McKay and members of the cast
- Behind the Screams - The Making of BRAIN DEAD Documentary
- Blooper Reel and Deleted Scenes with optional Commentary
- Theatrical Trails

VERDICT: A low-budget splatter-fest that's worth a watch. I'd place this along the lines of the Spierig Bros. UNDEAD (2003) or Jake West's DOGHOUSE (2009) which mine similiar territory. A decent indie horror interupted by some poor attempts at comedy. A medium recommend from me on this one.  **1/2 (2.5 out of 5 stars)



- McBASTARD