Horror DVD/Blu-ray/Netflix Instant Releases – Week of December 14th, 2010

(descriptions from BestBuy.com and Amazon.com)

Resonnances (2006)
A group of friends embark on a bizarre and frightening journey into the French countryside in this inventive low-budget shocker from first-time feature filmmaker Philippe Robert. Thomas, Yan, and Vincent are on their way to a cookout with Karine, Elodie, and Tina when their cars get separated in the mountains, and the boys run out of gas in an area said to be haunted by a female apparition known as the White Lady.

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus / Mega Piranha (2009/2010)
When two enormous prehistoric creatures contend for supremacy of the sea, the California coast becomes the setting for a showdown that’s been centuries in the making. Lorenzo Lamas and Deborah Gibson star. / A gigantic school of mutant piranha makes their way up to Florida from South America while devouring anyone – and anything – that gets in their way. Tiffany, Paul Logan, and Barry Williams star.

Killjoy 3 (2010)
Anyone who suffered through the first two KILLJOY movies and lived to tell about it will be pleasantly surprised with this third entry, which is the only tolerable film in the series. Killjoy the demonic killer clown is back, but this time he has brought along his own insane clown posse to terrorize a house filled with college kids on Spring Break! After writing the controversial hit DEADGIRL and starring in countless B-movie schlockers, Trent Haaga returns to the role of Killjoy with a darker and more comical performance than before.

Slave (2009)
A modern day slave trader abducts an American girl in Spain, prompting her devoted boyfriend to drudge up some dark family secrets as he races to save her from a fate worse than death.

Dear Mr. Gacy (2010)
William Forsythe stars as John Wayne Gacy in this shocking drama detailing the bizarre relationship between the notorious serial killer and the clever college student who put his own sanity on the line in a bid to get the information the police couldn’t. Inspired by author Jason Moss’ autobiographical book The Last Victim, Dear Mr. Gacy follows overachieving student Moss (Jesse Moss) as he establishes contact with the killer in prison for a classroom assignment. Determined to gain Gacy’s trust, Moss assumes the role of a sheepish teen enamored with the prolific psychopath. Following a series of intensely personal phone calls in which both the writer and his subject laid bare their most intimate secrets, Moss ventures behind prison walls for a private meeting with Gacy. Little did Moss realize he was playing with fire; in his bid to manipulate Gacy into divulging untold details about his notorious murder spree, the probing student granted his twisted subject unprecedented access to his own fragile psyche – a fateful misstep that eventually cost the author his life when he committed suicide in June of 2006.

Vampire Circus (1972)
A little girl is brutally slain by a vampire in a tiny 19th century Austrian village. Seeking revenge, the townspeople invade the foreboding castle of Count Mitterhaus and kill him for the crime. As the Count dies, he curses the villagers and vows that their children will all die so that he may someday return to life. Fifteen years later, as the village is ravaged by the plague, a traveling circus comes to town and distracts the villagers from their current hardships. Little do they know that their troubles are only beginning! The circus is actually a troupe of shape-shifting vampires and, as the local children start disappearing, they realize the prophecy of the long dead Count is coming true.

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Crap That Won’t Fit On My Shelf

like most other film buffs, i sort of fetishize the collection of film, not just by organizing and cataloging my collection, but by obsessing over having the most complete and highest quality releases of my favorite movies. i believe i’ve actually owned close to ten different versions of HALLOWEEN, if you count vhs, dvd, blu-ray and various editions of each, and i’m sure i’ll own many more before my days are through. with all the special editions, collector’s editions, director’s cuts, enhanced and/or extended versions of the same film being released, occasionally film studios extend their “let’s add more!” mentality from the film and it’s special features to the actual packaging. after all, if we’re willing to pay extra for yet another version of ALIEN… certainly we’ll pay even more if it’s another version of ALIEN that comes in a big plastic egg, right?

for the most part, i avoid these types of things — but not always. sometimes i see a new special edition of something with some sort of novel packaging and think, “hey, i really need that.” every time i end up regretting this decision because for some reason, in the heat of the spending frenzy, i can never seem to remember what i’m instantly reminded of when i get home with the item — that none of this crap will fit on my effing shelf. with that in mind, i present to you six such items and a peak into my poor purchasing choices of the past.



THE DARK NIGHT (ridiculous bat mask edition)
i think i got this thing at target, because it was $5 cheaper than the normal packaging. every time i see this oddly shaped, difficult to open and horribly inefficient design on my shelf, i think that that would have been a well spent five dollars.




HELLRAISER (silly tin box edition)
this one looks pretty cool, but does it really need to be so damn tall? there’s nothing inside it that would require such a size — the dvds are simply sitting inside the tin in a normal 2-disc cd case.




TOTAL RECALL (ludicrous mars tin edition)
this is really the only dvd i own that has a tendency to roll off the damn shelf. when browsing my collection, people often ask what this is, assuming i’ve just placed an old tin of really crappy looking candy on my shelf in the sci-fi section. if any other films had ever copied this idea, our collections would become unbrowsable since not only is there no way to identify this film from the side — the title of the film appears nowhere on the case, meaning you have to open it to know it’s TOTAL RECALL.




LOST (frickin’ huge edition)
one of the good things about dvd/blu-ray packaging is that, over time, the size of the packaging has been decreasing. remember those huge dvd sets of television season (i’m looking at you X-FILES and BUFFY)… well, now they’ve all been re-released in slim dvd packs or, if the show is on blu-ray, even slimmer blu-ray sets. LOST said “fuck you” to all that and released the single largest television box set i’ve seen. this one won’t even fit on the shelf awkwardly — this one i had to put on top of the shelf (next to tom servo and crow).




LEGO HARRY POTTER (crazily tall edition)
this isn’t a movie, but it follows the same logic. i bought this game for my wife because the way i am about horror — she’s that way about harry potter. i got the special edition because i knew she’d want all the making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as the hogwarts house fridge magnets. i suppose they had to put those things somewhere, but couldn’t it have been thicker instead of taller? as it is, i have to lay it on its side to store it on our shelves or in my special “games we’re playing a lot of go in this drawer” drawer next to the tv.




EVIL DEAD II (stupid tin box edition)
almost identical to the HELLRAISER tin box, this suffers from the same issues. this is another one of those films i’ve owned more than half a dozen different versions of over the years… including the little rubber “book of the dead” edition that screams when you touch it. i would have included that in this list as well, but it does actually fit on my shelf as it’s same the height of a dvd case, so i’ll leave it alone. apart from the occasional shock when my shelf screams at me for touching it, that edition is actually both practically sized and cool.



Horror DVD/Blu-ray/Netflix Instant Releases – Week of December 7th, 2010

(descriptions from BestBuy.com and Amazon.com)

Cronos: Criterion Edition (1993)
This surreal variant on the classic vampire tale is the directorial debut of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who garnered international acclaim and several awards. The film tells the story of elderly antique dealer Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi, in a role originally written for Max Von Sydow) who, with his eight-year-old granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath), discovers an ancient artifact secreted within a statue obtained from the estate of a 16th-century alchemist. Unbeknownst to Gris, the device — which resembles an ornate, gilded mechanical beetle — houses an immortal parasite which will grant eternal life to its host.

Harpoon: Whale Watching Massacre (2009)
A whale watching trip goes horribly awry for a group of unsuspecting tourists in this darkly comic Icelandic shocker starring Gunnar Hansen (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). After the captain of the whale watching ship is badly injured and his first mate attempts to sexually assault a passenger, the terrified sight-seers flag down a decommissioned whaling vessel, and climb aboard. Little do the fleeing passengers realize that their presumed saviors are the worst kind of psychos imaginable. Now the longer the tourists spend on the high seas, the slimmer their chances become of ever making it back to shore alive.

Shiver of the Vampires (1970)
French cult director Jean Rollin had his roots in the avant-garde film movement, so it’s no surprise that many of his early films are nearly unwatchable. This vexing piece of psychedelic nonsense concerns newlyweds Antonio and Ise, who visit an old castle owned by the bride’s dead cousins. When Ise is too grief-stricken to consummate her marriage, a vampire named Isolde pops out of a grandfather clock and plays with Ise’s breasts then takes her to the cemetery and bites her neck. Isolde is joined by two lesbian servants and Ise’s undead cousins — a pair of bourgeois male vampires who wear hippie clothes and spout incomprehensible philosophy.

The Living Dead Girl (1982)
Gloomy and atmospheric, this is Rollin at his best and one of Redemption’s bestsellers. Available uncut for the first time, with over 4 minutes restored from the original. Will appeal to hardcore fans and mainstream gore-fiends alike. A toxic spill revives a beautiful, dead heiress (Francoise Blanchard as a zombified Paris Hilton lookalike) who, with the help of her childhood friend, must quench her overpowering bloodlust. An unholy mix of sex, zombies & vampires with a stunning & extremely gory finale.

Fistful of Brains (2010)
The town of Shadowhawk is overrun by zombies when it gets caught in a war between two mysterious brothers. One of the brothers has sold the townsfolk his magical elixir promising them immortality. What he doesn t tell them is that he s recruiting them for his zombie army, and they will develop an unquenchable hunger for human flesh! The Sheriff s daughter Lily and her so-called half brother Jack are helplessly entwined in the battle and have to decide if it s better to fight them or join them and embrace immortality.

The Wasp Woman (1959)
This DVDTee includes both a DVD of the 1960, Wasp Woman, and a tee shirt featuring the poster art. In this sci-fi/horror classic, a fluid from queen bees is extracted and used in a potion as a Youth Serum promises to be the new product for a sagging cosmetic company. The founder of the company wants to be the one to test it. She uses too much and becomes… the wasp woman!

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Horror Community Highlights – December 3, 2010



email suggestions for next week’s community highlights to jon@evilontwolegs.com

Hatchet 2 On-Demand

i’ve always had mixed feelings about the original HATCHET, but as time has gone on and especially after hearing adam green’s new commentary on the blu-ray release (where he details his fight with the mpaa and the emotional toll it took on him), i’ve developed quite an appreciation and fondness for it’s over-the-top, largely comedic take on the slasher formula. i was quite excited when i heard it’s sequel would be released unrated theatrically (a bold move for a horror film these days), and was equally disappointed when it was pulled from theaters for still unknown reasons a day or two into its limited theatrical release.

however, there is now some good news on the HATCHET 2 front. the film will be showing up on comcast and time warner’s on-demand streaming services soon, unrated. originally slated for release on the first of december, there has apparently been some delay. but according to the director’s twitter account, the delay is only temporary, and might come with a silver lining.

“Hearing On-Demand pushed Hatchet 2 back just two days (Friday the 3rd) but that there might be wicked good news and reason why! More soon.” ~ @adam_fn_green

Horror Film Ink: Six Bad-Ass Tattoos (and the Bad-Asses Who Wear Them)

One of my favorite episodes of the X-Files has always been “Never Again,” partly because it gave Dana Scully her own Mulder-free story, but also because it featured some interesting tattoos. I don’t have any myself, but I find them intriguing because they often signify something private or mysterious beneath the surface of those who wear them. In the world of film, horror films included, a tattoo often signifies that the person wearing it is a genu-ine bad-ass.

1. Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
I never read Stieg Larsson’s novel, but the Swedish film adaptation of it is stylish and intriguing, largely because of Noomi Rapace’s portrayal of Lisbeth. She’s sexy, street-savvy, brilliant, tough, and all of this is symbolized by the full-length dragon tattoo on her back. But that’s not the only bad-ass tattoo in the film. When Lisbeth is victimized by her probation officer, she has her revenge by videotaping his attack, and then tattooing the words “I am a rapist and a sadistic pig” on his stomach.

2. Seth Gecko in From Dusk ‘Til Dawn
A picture of Seth Gecko should be printed in the dictionary under the word “cool.” Sure, he’s a cold-blooded psychopath, but he’s also confident, bold, focused, and absolutely stylish. Everything from his car, to his clothes, and his tattoo screams that he’s cooler than you’ll ever be. And I love the way we never see the full extent of his tattoo until the end of the film. In a way, this mirrors one of the film’s themes. Just when you think a bad-ass biker bar couldn’t be more dangerous, it gets more dangerous. And just when you think Seth Gecko couldn’t get any cooler, he takes off his coat and does just that.

3. Viper in Doomsday
The reviews of this film were decidedly mixed, but I thought it was a fun and stylish mash-up of conventional post-apocalyptic scenarios. Plus, it’s got Viper in it. She’s the ultimate “bad girl” in that she’s wild, dangerous, and seductive, as evident by her tribal facial tattoos. I know that Sinclair is the film’s protagonist, and I like the fact that she’s basically the female version of Snake Plissken, but I couldn’t help but wish that she wouldn’t have killed Viper. Still, it was far more entertaining to watch those two go at it than watching Snake fight that sweaty fat man with a spiked baseball bat in Escape From New York.

4. Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon
The “Tooth-Fairy” is a lousy nickname for Dolarhyde. Sure, he bites his victims and all that, but it’s just too silly an appellation for this far-out, cosmic-minded killer with his Blakean delusions. And the placement of this particular tattoo is rather ingenious in that he can keep it so well hidden during his workaday life. It’s a much safer route than, say, having dragon horns or something implanted in his skull, but still creepy enough to satisfy his dark, freaky urges and scare the bejeesus out of his victims.

5. Beth in Hostel Part 2
As much as I liked Paxton in the first Hostel, he’s not nearly the bad-ass that Beth turns out to be in Hostel Part 2. In a typical horror film, a girl like Beth would stumble into something she wasn’t prepared to handle, and then fight her way out. Beth goes one or two steps further and proves that she’s much more than a scared, spoiled rich girl. In one of the greatest, turn-the-tables scenes in horror cinema, Beth demonstrates that she’s the much more qualified to join Elite Hunting than Stuart, her would-be killer. And by the end of the film, she’s got an Elite Hunting tattoo, as well as Stuart’s severed genitals, to prove it.

6. Reverend Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter
Robert Mitchum had already established himself as 1940’s film-noir staple, but his role as Reverend Harry Powell, the bible-thumping, throat-slitting con-artist with the words “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on his knuckles, made him the ultimate bad-ass. He’s got a little story to explain the tattoos, saying that helps him illustrate the inner struggle between good and evil that all men face. But with Powell, there is no inner struggle, as he’s perfectly fine with marrying his dead prison-mate’s widow before murdering her, then bullying her brother and stalking her children.

Horror DVD/Netflix Instant Releases – Week of November 30th, 2010

petty slim pickings this week, with only one real horror release on dvd (SHADOWLAND) and nothing on netflix watch instantly. that’s to be expected, as any real horror release would have rushed to be released in october. hopefully things will pick up in a few weeks, but until then… well, i guess we’ll just have to be happy with there being another TWILIGHT film to make fun of (and it’s inevitable rifftrax to purchase).

(descriptions from BestBuy.com)

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
The third film in the Twilight series explores a love triangle between Bella (Kristen Stewart), Edward (Robert Pattinson), and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) as the werewolf pack and the Cullen clan join together to fight a new breed of vampires. Melissa Rosenberg provides the screenplay for the Summit Entertainment adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling novel, with director David Slade calling the shots behind the camera. Bryce Dallas Howard joins the cast as Victoria, the role originally played by Rachelle Lefevre in the first film.

Vampires Suck (2010)
The comedy masterminds behind Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, and Meet the Spartans drive a squeaky rubber stake through the heart of the Twilight series with this irreverent satire about a teenage girl who’s torn between two supernatural suitors. As Becca struggles to contend with her overbearing father, two fierce rivals compete to win her heart. But Becca isn’t the only high-school student having a hard time with boys; her friends are all desperate to find a date for the prom, and as the big night draws near, the rampant tension draws out the animals in everyone.

Shadowland (2009)
When a mysterious woman emerges from the earth during a church renovation, an employ of the church sets out to track her down and reveal her for what she truly is – a bloodthirsty vampire. Under a starlit sky, a woman named Laura crawls up from the mud. She’s been badly beaten; her throat has been cut, and she cannot speak. With no memory of the past to guide her, she ventures out into the city in search of food and clothes. Doing her best to blend in along the way, Laura begins to see small things that jog her memory — a historical marker here, a map there. Has she been reincarnated, or is she something beyond human?

Horror DVD/Netflix Instant Releases – Week of November 23rd, 2010

(descriptions from BestBuy)

Grotesque (2009)
A maniacal doctor abducts a young couple, forcing them to endure unspeakable torments while methodically breaking their spirits until they have no possible hope for survival. Banned in the UK.

Hide And Go Kill (2008)
An enigmatic blog becomes a viral sensation, and serves as the catalyst for a treacherous online game in which participants must stab a teddy bear stuffed with nails and rice, and submerged in a bathtub in a darkened restroom. When the participants begin to display signs of possession, a once playful game takes on decidedly ominous undertones.

Hide And Go Kill 2 (2009)
A young student makes a horrifying discovery about a popular online game when her friend, a regular player, vanishes without a trace. Just before Ritsuko disappeared, she had become obsessed with a wildly popular game of hide and seek played over the internet. As Ryoko searches desperately for her missing friend, she discovers that the game has some unsettling connection to the world of the occult, and attempts to conquer her fear of the unknown in order to solve the puzzle and save Ritsuko.

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Biggest WTF? Sequels in Slasher Film History

a common criticism of the slasher is that it is formulaic. take a group of kids and have them hunted and killed by a psycho. at the end, the least slutty of the kids fights back, then escapes and/or kills the monster. fade to black. yes, it’s a simple formula — but it’s also a formula that works. when dealing with a slasher film franchise, every sequel brings a little something new to the table by tweaking the formula slightly (e.g., picking a new location like new york or outer space, throwing in a psychic, etc.), but overall the idea stays the same. usually.

every once in a while a director or producer gets control of a franchise and decides to shake things up by trying something drastically original. this rarely ends well. below are my personal picks for the biggest “wtf?” slasher sequels that left fans scratching their heads and bewildered when walking to their cars from the theater. normally when i make these lists, the order is irrelevant — but here i’ve actually ranked them from the smallest wtf? to the biggest wtf?, based on how loud i yelled the phrase once the credits rolled.

#5 – WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE

this actually isn’t that bad of an entry in the NIGHTMARE series, but boy is it odd. more meta than meta, this film turns the camera around, blurring the line between fiction and reality by taking place in world where a guy named wes craven wrote and directed the original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. the film follows the original cast/crew of the first film, as the world’s knowledge and fear of freddy krueger is actually bringing his fictional character into our world, and he’s targeting his creators. for the most part, the idea of a demon stalking people in their dreams remains intact, so this film elicited a rather meager “wtf?” from me at its conclusion, but those who went in without much knowledge of ELM STREET‘s imdb page and were expecting a more traditional freddy krueger film were probably far more perplexed.

#4 – THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2

the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE has its moments of dark comedy, but most audiences missed them due to being in shock from the overwhelming terror they had experienced from the film’s other 82.5 minutes. it also featured a surprising restraint in the gore department, showing very little on-screen violence and almost no blood — which didn’t lessen the impact of the film in the slightest (and may have actually heightened it). its sequel, released 12 years later, confused audiences by pretty much reversing everything i just said about the original. while the basic idea of a family killing and eating people remains intact, very little of the horror does. TEXAS CHAINSAW 2 is, in many ways, more of an action/adventure film than horror, with copious amounts of dark humor and political allegory thrown in for good measure. it also features some of the most over-the-top gore ever recorded on film, thanks to the work of tom savini. like most, i now love TEXAS CHAINSAW 2 as much as the original, but it took many years for that appreciation to grow because of the huge divide in tone and intent of the two films.

#3 – JASON GOES TO HELL

regardless of what you call it (JASON GOES TO HELL, FRIDAY THE 13th PART 9, THE FINAL FRIDAY, etc.), this film kinda sucks. it has its moments (e.g., creighton duke describing what he thinks of when he hears the name “jason voorhees” and the tent kill), but largely this is just a big ‘ol turd. the primary reason for this is that when you go to see a FRIDAY THE 13th film, you’re expecting to see jason. particularly when the effing title of the film starts with his name. instead, what we received was a jason-as-the-bread sandwich, with 3 minutes of jason at the beginning, another 3 minutes at the end, filled in the middle with 85 minutes of a body-hopping demon slug. i understand cunningham wanted to take the series in a new direction, but he really needed to choose a different one. because there is nothing down the road in that particular direction other than tears, pain and disappointment.

#2 – FRIDAY THE 13th PART 5: A NEW BEGINNING

perhaps the impact of the ninth FRIDAY THE 13th sequel was lessened because the series had already faced an even bigger “wtf?” moment years earlier with part five. to be fair, the subtitle does tell you right there, straight up, we’re beginning something kinda new here. what it doesn’t mention is that “something kinda new” equates to “something kinda shitty.” just look at the poster. it’s just words, and the biggest word of all on it is “JASON.” a reasonable person might think that implies that jason is featured prominently in the film… well, that reasonable person isn’t really as reasonable as you thought because they would be wrong. instead of the big triumphant return of jason voorhees, the big climax is the reveal that the killer is some guy named roy. roy, an extra who appeared in the film 80 minutes ago, who you probably don’t even remember and whose motivation doesn’t really make much sense. yeah, it was stupid in 1985 and it’s stupid now and, in all likelihood, it will be stupid for an indefinite time into the future. the producers got it right with the next sequel, by informing audiences right away in the title that “jason lives.” because i doubt they would have lined up around the block for FRIDAY THE 13th PART 6: ROY RETURNS.

#1 – HALLOWEEN 3: SEASON OF THE WITCH

now we’re to the big kahuna, the largest “wtf?” slasher film of them all. this one really bucks tradition because while the other four can at least be categorized roughly as “slasher films,” HALLOWEEN 3 cannot. it has something to do with robots and stonehenge and tom atkins screaming a lot (which is always fun to watch), but it has absolutely nothing to do with a guy in a white mask stabbing people. which, as i recall, was a pretty big part of HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN 2. this film has a cult following and actually isn’t that bad — but it should have been titled STONEHENGE DEATH BOTS or something, NOT HALLOWEEN 3. likely due to its financial performance, the studio learned its lesson and eventually released HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS, which is roughly the same thing as titling it HALLOWEEN 4: SORRY ABOUT THAT LAST CRAP-FEST, HERE’S WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR. if you couldn’t read or were so traumatized by part three that you’d forgotten his name, they also put michael’s head on the poster so there’d be no ambiguity. it filled about 120% of the frame.

Horror DVD Releases – Week of November 16th, 2010

(descriptions from BestBuy & Amazon)

Best Worst Movie (2009)
Troll 2 star Michael Stephenson steps behind the camera to explore the phenomenon behind the low-budget Italian-produced horror sequel that young movie fanatics have christened “the Rocky Horror of our generation” in this documentary which proves that just because a movie is awful doesn’t mean it won’t find an audience. Twenty years ago, a group of inexperienced Utah actors teamed with an Italian-speaking production crew to shoot Troll 2. At the time it seemed like the production was a complete fiasco; little did they realize that they were making cinematic history. Flash forward two decades, when Troll 2 is playing to packed theaters across America, and fans of the film get the unique opportunity to find out just how this messterpiece came to be.

The Possession of David O’Reilly (2010)
Newly single and looking for a place to nurse his emotional wounds, dejected Londoner David O’Reilly (Giles Alderson) realizes that dark forces are following his every move while temporarily living in the apartment of an old friend. And though David refuses to talk about the strange visions and foreboding feelings that he’s been experiencing in the last few days, his friends will soon find out that he has every right to be afraid.

Exam (2008)
A roomful of strangers discovers their dreams of a new career may be more difficult and dangerous than they imagined in this psychological thriller. Eight bright and ambitious people are in the running for a position as a top executive with a major bio-engineering firm, and they’ve been invited to corporate headquarters to take a test that will determine who gets the job. The assembled applicants are met by a man calling himself the Invigilator (Colin Salmon) who explains the testing process — they’ll each be given a sheet of paper with a single question, and they have eighty minutes to answer it. If they leave the room, attempt to ask him questions, talk to the security guards or mark the question sheet, they will be immediately disqualified. The eight applicants learn this isn’t an ordinary test when they discover their question sheets are all blank, and the applicants are forced to turn to one to unravel the puzzle behind the cryptic question.

The Night of the Hunter: Criterion Collection Blu-Ray (1955)
The Night of the Hunter—incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed—is truly a standalone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum (Cape Fear, The Friends of Eddie Coyle) as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters (A Place in the Sun, The Diary of Anne Frank) are uncovered by her terrified young children.

Exhibit A (2010)
Exhibit A tells the timely story of a normal family disintegrating under financial pressure, eventually driven to the unimaginable. All is not as it seems as the King family go about their day-to-day lives oblivious of the horror to come. Dad Andy (Bradley Cole) is nursing a secret that ultimately leads to terrifying consequences for them all. We witness these chilling events unfold through daughter Julia’s (Brittany Ashworth) video camera, which subsequently becomes Exhibit A. Exhibit A is inspired by the many men in real life who are known to their neighbors as devoted husbands and fathers, but for unknowable reasons suddenly decide to take drastic action to protect their loved ones.

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