Cinefantastique Online

By day, Drew Fitzpatrick toils at publishing in the black heart of Manhattan. But by night, he dons a pair of fetishistic black leather gloves and grinds out the "Internet’s only horror-themed Blog": The Blood-Spattered Scribe.

MONSTERS, INC. is the 6th Pixar film to be released on Blu-Ray, and from the disc we were sent, the wait has been worth it. Following the example of UP, the film comes in a four-disc set, including the feature and the extras from the previous DVD special edition housed on 2 BD discs, a third standard-def DVD of the film, and a fourth disc housing the digital copy.

Continuing the unassailable winning streak for animation studio Pixar, last summer’s UP (2009) arrives on Blu-Ray this week in a package that makes an adjective like ‘comprehensive’ seem inadequate. Those fortunate to have BD capability will be laid out flat by the image quality of this release.

Lionsgate’s second run at a Blu-Ray release for STARGATE is a mixed-to-good affair, but it does represent an upgrade from their first, embarrassingly shoddy, barebones release.

If nothing else, Wrong Turn 3 neatly reflects the realities of low-budget filmmaking in the 21st century, with Bulgarian locations doubling for the West Virginia wilderness and a Euro-pudding cast that expends a tiring amount of energy keeping their native accents in check. Unfortunately, this film looses much of the humor that made the previous sequel so surprisingly appealing, and while there’s no law that horror films have to be funny, they do have to be frightening, another column in which Wrong Turn 3 also fails.

A film that fulfills both the positive and pejorative definitions of “sleaze,” Lucio Fulci’s THE NEW YORK RIPPER arrived – believe it or not – on Blu-Ray last week courtesy of the 21st century keepers of the exploitation flame, Blue Underground. The disc easily outstrips all previous foreign and domestic editions of the disc, and [...]

Though controversial among fans, Season Three once again demonstrates the writers’ tight control of the subject matter.
WARNING: The following contains Season 2 spoilers.
When last we left Dexter Morgan, not only had he narrowly escaped being exposed as the Bay Harbor Butcher (after his long-time dump site was discovered by divers), but he managed to set up [...]

Who watches the WATCHMEN? Not nearly enough, if you ask Warner Bros or production partner Paramount. With just over $100 million in domestic grosses (a number that stopped being impressive ever since THE GOLDEN CHILD), the studio bean counters had to pour over the less than impressive foreign grosses and home video before they could [...]

We were as surprised as anyone to see Joss Whedon back at Fox with a new series after the FIREFLY debacle of a few years back. And for a while last season, it looked like DOLLHOUSE might suffer the same fate; iffy ratings and a difficult-to-quickly-impart concept has spelled doom for more series than we [...]

1986 saw director John Carpenter at the height of his career; a string of staggering successes charting back to HALLOWEEN and including THE FOG, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING and CHRISTINE represent a creative peak that any director would be jealous of. 1984’s STARMAN not only buoyed the streak; it gave Carpenter the critical raves [...]

Looking back on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s World of Wrestling Entertainment career is to marvel at one of the more successful vocational makeovers in modern film. While attempting to foist the remarkably charisma-free John Cena on a trusting world, the wrestling overlords would do well to realize that Johnson actually possesses something special, and that [...]

An unusual suspense thriller that rides the line of outright horror without going over, HOMECOMING has a surprisingly tight structure and some effective performances that elevate it above the usual. It gives former O.C. starlet Mischa Barton a little more to chew on dramatically and she delivers even when the script places some genuine howlers [...]

It’s a testament to the outrageous lengths that New Line Pictures had taken the FRIDAY THE 13TH series after acquiring the rights to the Jason character from Paramount, that there was nowhere to go but back to the beginning. JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY transformed the summer camp-lurking mass murderer into a non-corporeal [...]

Smarting by the anemic box office and angrily negative fan reaction to FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING, Paramount brought in writer-director Tom McLoughlin (whose only previous directorial experience was the well regarded ONE DARK NIGHT back in 1983) to revive the franchise. McLoughlin – under studio directive to bring Jason back to [...]