What I wanted to believe was that, despite conventional wisdom, one could go home again. What I wanted to believe was that a creative team, given six years to look back and rediscover the passion they once had for a project, would be able to channel that passion into something that would remind us of the best those people have to offer. What I wanted to believe was that the thrill was still there, and the fun. (more…)

The story begins with a pharmacist being murdered. A nightclub dancer named Mara (Paola Tedesco) tries to enter the pharmacy, but a voice inside tells her the store is closed. When she later realizes that the voice belongs to the murderer, she enlists the aid of her boyfriend Lukas (Corrado Pani) instead of relying on the police. Coincidentally, an acquaintance of theirs is receiving threatening phone calls from the same unidentified voice. As the bodies pile up, suspicion initially turns upon a recently released convict - the victims sat on his jury - but later evidence points the amateur investigation in another direction, having to do with a grim secret related to the past. (more…)

Read a complete schedule of events below the fold. (more…)

This week, everything old is new again, thanks to the magic of home video - in particular, the Blu-ray format. THE MUMMY and THE MUMMY RETURNS were released in two-disc DVD editions only two weeks ago; now they are back again on Blu-ray disc, along with the spin-off title THE SCORPION KING. Also out on Blu-ray are two flicks that helped define formulaic Hollywood horror in the ’90s: I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and URBAN LEGEND. Not on Blu-ray - but still a familiar title revived in a new home video incarnation - is Carl Dryer’s artsy VAMPYR: long considered one of the great achievements in horror cinema, it is now available as a high-class Criterion Collection DVD. There is also a box set compiling Season Two of Showtime’s MASTERS OF HORROR television series. Just about the only new title this week is BRUTAL MASSACRE: A COMEDY, in which David Naughton (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON) stars as a down-on-his-luck director trying to jump start his career with a new horror film; hilarity, as they say, ensues.

All of these titles and more are available below the fold. (more…)

By the late 1980s, the slasher genre had run out of blood. It had its roots in Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO (1960) and really got going with the release of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978) and FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980). But endless sequels and rip-offs (PROM NIGHT, APRIL FOOL’S DAY, etc) churned out all-too-familiar stories, offering nothing fresh or innovative. By the 1990s, the sub-genre had all but died and was regulated to direct-to-video trash. In 1996, director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson took a smart, tongue-in-cheek look at the form with SCREAM, which changed all that and gave the genre its first $100 million hit. Following on the heels of that crossover success, Williamson has teamed with director Jim Gillespie and mined a Lois Duncan novel to create I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. (more…)