This Critters Collection is another nicely done work from Shout through their Scream Factory line featuring two solid movies and two… not so good ones. The transfers are all relatively well done and the features packaged together were fantastic.
I suppose there are worse ways to spend 90-minutes than sitting through Critters 4, even if the titular creatures don’t seem to have as much screen time with only two on-screen kills. Of note, though, the inclusions of Angela Bassett and Brad Dourif did make it more interesting.
Urban Legend is one of many slasher movies to come out of the late 1990s/early 2000s thanks to the massive success of Scream. I never was a big fan of the movie mainly because I never found it all that scary.
Wildling is a sweet yet also haunting movie featuring a wonderful performance from the young and on-the-rise talent of Bel Powley while her more experienced co-stars with Brad Dourif and Liv Tyler both had some great scenes.
This Shadow Stalkers set is filled with mostly suspense/thriller-horror movies, much not very well known (at least to me) and a couple (Don’t Answer the Phone and Silent Night, Bloody Night) were previously released in another set (“Faces of Horror”) in my own collection.
Cult of Chucky is an entertaining little entry into the franchise and although I don’t think it’s some brilliant horror flick or anything, the blending of it with dark humor worked and so I did find myself engaged.
The Exorcist III isn’t a great movie and can’t touch the original, yet it’s a big step up from the awful sequel and the performance from Brad Dourif and to some extent George C. Scott, is well worth the price of admission along with some genuinely creepy/scary scenes.
Shout’s Collector’s Edition of Child’s Play might not be a homerun compared with their other CE’s, but it’s still a nice release with an improved video transfer, solid lossless audio and a nice selection of bonus features including a new commentary with Tom Holland and a couple nice featurettes.
Amos & Andrew is kind of a lost comedy from the 1990s (akin to Quick Change and Another Stakeout) and although it’s not hilarious, it is a lot of fun to watch two normally over-the-top actors playing against one another in Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson and add in Dabney Coleman and it’s rather entertaining.
Mississippi Burning is a very well made movie with top notch performances by Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe to go along with a story that, in some instances, resonates with the news of the day. The Blu-ray released by Twilight Time has good audio/video transfers but is on the disappointing side features-wise.
Curse of Chucky isn’t a great horror film but it’s satisfying and a big step up from Bride and Seed and takes the character back to his roots and away from the stand-up comedy routine from the later outings. Fiona Dourif is a delight in the lead role and Maitland McConnell is hopefully on her way to bigger things after this. While I wasn’t overly thrilled with the film, I’m certain fans of the franchise will love it.
Catch .44 is a mess of a film that would’ve been gone and forgotten on shelves if not for the name cast the filmmakers managed to gather. The writing isn’t the best and the acting, despite having some good talent, doesn’t make it any better. The Blu-ray at least has serviceable video and audio transfers but the features don’t measure up.
“Life is a dark chain of events.” That’s how this movie opened and I suspect this quote struck home to the filmmakers as they wonder where their own lives are going. After watching Chain Letter, I would wonder that myself as nothing about it worked. There’s no suspense, the editing is manic, the characters are cardboard cutouts of every B/C-horror movie ever made and the story makes little sense even when the director tries to make a big Usual Suspects-like deal, out of the twist.
“Life is a dark chain of events.” That’s how this movie opened and I suspect this quote struck home to the filmmakers as they wonder where their own lives are going. After watching Chain Letter, I would wonder that myself as nothing about it worked. There’s no suspense, the editing is manic, the characters are cardboard cutouts of every B/C-horror movie ever made and the story makes little sense even when the director tries to make a big Usual Suspects-like deal, out of the twist.
