Horror
Rod Lott
Grudge guru Takashi Shimizu isn’t at a career apex. His 2009 film, The Shock Labyrinth, was a dud. His latest American effort, the airline ghost story 7500, was supposed to come out in theaters last summer, but got pushed to next month. So I hoped Tormented, a 2011 J-horror effort fresh to Blu-ray on these shores, might mark a return to form.

Horror
Rod Lott
The Frankenstein Theory is like no other Frankenstein film you've seen: rendered in found footage.

Wait, wait! Don’t run off! This one’s better than the average entry, even if it’s not so revolutionary to change the minds of those who despise the delivery system. The picture’s snowy setting is reason enough to justify a viewing on DVD (a woefully bare-bones one) if you missed it on the big screen — and you likely did, since it played in only about 15 theaters nationwide earlier this month.

Horror
Rod Lott
What began as an intended Saw prequel has spawned a franchise of its own, now that 2009’s The Collector has begat The Collection. I hope in my heart of hearts that The Collection begets a third chapter — The Collective, perhaps?

Horror
Rod Lott
Warner Home Video’s snazzy new A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection gives Blu-ray die-hards the seven “original” films of the horror franchise. Translation: No Freddy vs. Jason, no 2010 Elm Street remake. But the big news is that is does have two of the 44 episodes of the spin-off syndicated TV series, Freddy’s Nightmares — their official first American appearance for digital home video.

Horror
Rod Lott
Eduardo Rodriguez has put three pictures in the can (including the upcoming Fright Night 2) since completing his directorial debut, Curandero: Dawn of the Demon, in 2005. Why, then, has it taken roughly eight years for Curandero to hit DVD? You got me; it’s not as if a lack of quality has stopped any flick before.

Horror
Rod Lott
Hey, kids! Remember the hysteria surrounding Y2K? Ahhh, so quaint ...

Horror
Rod Lott
What’s an Academy Award-winning director like Barry Levinson doing in a found-footage horror movie like The Bay? Trying to revive a Rain Man career, I’d assume, following 15 years of flops like Envy, Bandits and Man of the Year. Here's another.

Horror
Rod Lott
Although horror movies rarely scare me, I love them. The most I can hope for is to be creeped out sufficiently, and Sinister satisfies that bill.

Horror
Rod Lott
Horror fanatics making horror movies is the worst thing about today’s horror movies — worse than remakes, The CW casts and the PG-13 rating. And I say that as a critic who loves the genre.

Horror
Rod Lott
Lake Placid: The Final Chapter has swam to video shores, losing the numeral “4” somewhere along the way. Haven't seen Lake Placid 2 or 3? Didn't know they existed? Ooh, you are going to be so lost!

Horror
Rod Lott
When I first heard of Mimesis, I thought it was a great idea: horror fans unwittingly participating in a live role-playing game that plops them into the classic film Night of the Living Dead. Now that I've seen it, however, I realize I was wrong. It's a terrible idea, and one executed poorly by Dark Fields director Douglas Schulze.

Horror
Rod Lott
Smiley is Candyman for the LOLcat generation.

Horror
Rod Lott
I swear, the luck o' the Irish: While moving from her condemned apartment building, a young, pretty and very pregnant woman (Amy Shiels, Veronica Guerin) is brutally attacked by three youths in hoodies while her husband, Tommy (Aneurin Barnard, Ironclad), watches helplessly from the elevator in which he's stuck.

Horror
Rod Lott
Brian Keene is a reliable horror author whose early-aughts novels The Rising and City of the Dead helped usher the current zombie resurgence across all media. As such, the man deserves a good adaptation of his work.

Horror
Rod Lott
One need not have seen 2006’s The Hamiltons before seeing its new sequel, The Thompsons. Heck, one need not even have heard of it, as I suspect many haven't.