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TIT

'Halloween' Horror Blu-rays!
(Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Donald Sutherland, Aimee-Lynn Chadwick, et al / Blu-ray+DVD / NR / 2010 / MGM)

Overview: 'Return of the Living Dead': Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cemetery, those brain-eating zombies are back and hungry for more tasty mortals. A fiendish mix of outrageous humor and heart-stopping terror, The Return of the Living Dead is a veritable smorgasbord of fun filled with skin-crawling jolts, eye-popping visuals and relentless surprise!

'The Amityville Horror': From Michael Bay, the producer of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, comes the true story of Amityville. In November 1974, a family of six was brutally murdered. Now, a year later, an unsuspecting young couple, George (Ryan Reynolds, Blade: Trinity, The In-Laws) and Kathy Lutz (Melissa George, TV's Alias), and their children move into the house that was the site of the horrific event and is now haunted by a murderous presence. What follows is 28 days of unimaginable terror.

'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' - When filmy spores fall from space and take root in San Francisco, the city is beautifully transformed by spectacular and exotic flowers. But these lovely extraterrestrial blossoms have gruesome plans for their earthly admirers: to slowly clone their bodies and then dispose of the originals!

Blu-ray+DVD Verdicts: 'Return of the Living Dead' - In 1968, George Romero and John Russo wrote a zombie film that would reinvent the Horror genre and fear itself. Nearly twenty years later, Russo would team up with Sci-Fi guru Dan O'Bannon, writer of the seminal ALIEN, to create RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, the first major zombie breakthrough in America outside of Romero's original trilogy, and still one of the most successful and hilarious Horror Comedies of all time.

The film proposes that the events in the DEAD films were real, and that the bodies of the undead corpses were shipped around the country in containers sealed by the government. When a group of punks unwittingly breach the seals on one of these containers, a horde of fiendish ghouls are unleashed in a nearby cemetery as the group struggles to survive!

As the re-animated corpses would tell you themselves, brains became the only cure for the pains of death, resulting in a series of brutal attacks and head-munching. By this time, Tom Savini had become synonymous with gore and zombie make-up FX, but here, Allan Apone brings O'Bannon's original conceptions to life with equally (if not more) memorable creations, the most impressive of which being the skeletal Tar Man.

The film's down-trodden ending is as much a comment on the expendability of 80s youth as it is a satirical look at Reagan-era politics, where nuclear holocaust was just a button away. [MW]

Audio Commentary featuring Director Dan O’Bannon and Production Designer William Stout
Audio Commentary featuring Cast, Crew and Undead guests
Decade of Darkness featurette
Return of the Living Dead- The Dead Have Risen Featurette
Zombie subtitles for the film
Designing the Dead Featurette
In Their Own Words-The Zombies Speak
Theatrical Trailer: Bloody Version
Theatrical Trailer: Even Bloodier Version

'The Amityville Horror' - In 1974, Ronald DeFeo brutally massacred his entire family via shotgun blasts while they were sleeping in their beds. One year later, the Lutz family moves into the same house. With 3 kids, it was too sweet a deal to pass up and was exactly what George and Kathy were looking for. And then just after a few days of moving in, strange things begin to occur. Most notably with George and also with their only daughter Amy. While George is beginning to go insane, Amy has made a new ghostly friend.

I think the remake did an OK job in the story, but went way overboard with all the typical scares. While the original had a sort of drawn out story, it had the subtle scares. The remake though has a bit of better story at first, but uses the typical Hollywood scares that most of us are used to by now. The best thing I liked about the movie was them showing George Lutz (Ryan Reynolds) going crazy. It was more indepth and Ryan played the part really well.

It was actually funny in a dark way listening to Ryan talk crap to the family sometimes, because to him it seemed like he was OK, while they were the ones being idiots or badly behaving. I really think Ryan gets a lot less credit than he deserves as an actor. Sure he gets put into comedy roles such as Van Wilder and Waiting, but I think he can act.

When he told one of the boys to hold the wood while he chopped and then grabbed his face and got all evil looking, I looked at my buddy and without saying a word, we both agreed that his look would be really scary to see as a 12-year old boy ... if not now too!

I also like how the story leaves out a lot of the priest parts that I didn't like from the original. I also thought the children's scenes were a lot better than the original and made me feel for them somewhat.[MK]

Blu Ray- Trailer
DVD-Commentary Track featuring Ryan Reynolds, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form
Photo Gallery
Deleted Scenes with Commentary
The Source of Evil
Supernatural Homicide
Multi Angle On Set Peaks

'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' - Let me say that I am usually against all remakes of classic movies, even if it is meant to update the subject and bring it forth to younger audiences. In my view, younger audiences should make a culture for themselves, by watching the classics as they were and then, eventually, move on, not the other way round.

It is just watching "Romeo + Juliet" (Leonardo DiCaprio's vehicle), and pretending to know Shakespeare. It is simply an insult to good taste and culture as such.

'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1978) is no Shakespeare and does not pretend to be an everlasting classic. It is not even a remake as such. It is a follow-up to the original 1956 counterpart of the same name, which still remains a chilling and effective movie to this day (a bit like Hitchcock movies).

It is serious and respects the parameters of the earlier movie, only adding some more scientific detail and auto-ironic undertones to the subject.

The cast could not have been better chosen. Donald Sutherland, who also later appeared in Robert Henlein's "Puppet Masters", Jeff Goldblum (The Fly, Jurassic Park), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock of Star Trek lore), Veronica Cartwright and Brooke Adams, are all very dedicated actors. The brief appearance of Kevin McCarthy adds to the ties with its original counterpart and reminds us that the threat is still among us,... and spreading.

I have watched it through the years, and must say that this is one hell of a movie. The only thing that may set it in its own age, are the clothes (the fashion) worn in the late seventies, but once you get dragged into the story, you might even forget that and be really "sucked" in it. From then on, it is a movie that really grips you and keeps you alert.

It is more than just a common Sci-Fi flick. Like the classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still", it is science fiction for the thinking man. [PS]

Audio Commentary with Director Philip Kaufman (on DVD)
Re-Visitors From Outer Space or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pod
The Man Behind The Scream: The Sound Effects Pod
The Invasion Will Be Televised: The Cinematography Pod
Original Theatrical Trailer

These are all Widescreen Presentations (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

mgm.com

Blu-ray + DVD Combo Priced at $24.99:

The Amityville Horror
The Return of the Living Dead
Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Blu-ray + DVD Combo Priced at $19.99:

Carrie
Misery
The Silence of the Lambs
Child’s Play

Blu-ray Priced at $24.99:

The Order
Mirrors
Shutter
Wrong Turn
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End
Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead
Mr. Brooks
Young Frankenstein
X-Files: I Want to Believe
Day Watch
Night Watch
The Happening
28 Weeks Later
Planet of the Apes
Sunshine

Blu-ray Priced at $16.99:

28 Days Later
X-Files: Fight the Future
The Hills Have Eyes 2
The Omen (2006)
The Omen (1976)
From Hell
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Battle for The Planet of The Apes
Conquest of The Planet of The Apes
Escape from The Planet of The Apes

DVD Priced at $14.98:

The Hills Have Eyes
Turistas
Don’t Say a Word
From Hell
Hide and Seek
The Happening
Stigmata
Igor
Hannibal
Swamp Thing
Pathology







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