Filmmakers to get early Halloween treats
By Lou Gaul Halloween is more than a week away, but producer Steven Spielberg and director Michael Bay will be getting their October treats early.
They are behind the “Transformers” franchise, and piles of cash will be coming their way due to the release of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (Paramount; $29.99, DVD; $34.99, two-disc DVD; $39.99, Blu-ray Disc; Oct. 20).
How popular is the series based on the Hasbro toy line?
“Transformers” (2007) and “Fallen” together grossed more than $1.5 billion globally. The PG-13 sequel promises to return another fortune with the home-viewing version.
With a whopping $225 million budget, Bay created “Fallen,” which features Shia LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky character finding his life in jeopardy after he learns some secrets about the origin of the Transformers.
Soon after, the righteous Autobots are fighting the evil Decepticons over Witwicky.
Of course, plot means next to nothing in the “Transformers” series, which places style way before substance. The shape-changing chrome and steel characters are the ones that really matter.
Bay delivers an army of them in a 150-minute sequel that abounds with ear-shattering sounds, eye-popping visuals and, of course, enough story threads to guarantee that more cinematic Transformers will be delivering Halloween treats for many, many years.
“William Castle Film Collection” (Sony; $80.95, DVD; Oct. 20) with the creative showman/producer who became famous for old-school promotion tactics such as putting mild electrical charges in seats (“The Tingler”) to shock viewers during scary scenes.
The five-disc box set features “The Tingler” (1959) with Vincent Price, “13 Ghosts” (1960) with Margaret Hamilton, “Homicidal” (1961) with Glenn Corbett, “Mr. Sardonicus” (1961) with Oscar Homolka, “Zotz!” (1962) with Tom Poston, “13 Frightened Girls!” (1963) with Murray Hamilton and “The Old Dark House” (1963) with Robert Morley.
and “Straight Jacket” (1964) with Joan Crawford. (“Girls,” “House” and “Zotz!” are making their DVD debuts.)
Also included is “Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story,” which won the Audience Award for best documentary at the 2007 AFI Film Festival. Those interviewed about Castle and his films include directors John Landis (“An American Werewolf in London”), John Waters (“Pink Flamingos”) and Roger Corman (“The Little Shop of Horrors”).
The colorful Castle, who died in 1977, strikes some as a poor man’s Alfred Hitchcock, but he certainly provided plenty of fun for fright-film fans during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The extras in the digitally remastered collection include alternate sequences, vintage footage, original theatrical trailers and two episodes of “Ghost Story,” a television series produced by Castle.
Halloween titles hit shelves
Here’s a good way to tell when Halloween is just around the corner.
All sorts of chillers have landed on the shelves of your favorite video outlet.
Some recent trick-or-treat offerings include:
“Audition: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition” (Shout! Factory; $24.99, DVD; $29.99, Blu-ray Disc) with Ryo Ishibashi (“The Grudge”) in a high-def remastered version of director Takashi Miike’s unrated and unsettling horror tale about a widower who pays a painful price for manipulating a young woman with a dark past into a compromising position. The extras include 75 minutes of bonus content, an introduction and commentary by Miike, and international trailers.
“Children of the Corn” (Anchor Bay; $26.99, DVD) with Kandyse McClure (TV’s “Battlestar Galactica”) in an unrated remake (2009) of the 1984 fright film based on Stephen King’s story about some children in a farm area terrorizing an unhappily married couple stranded in a cornfield. The extras include a making-of featurette and interviews with cast and crew members.
“Drag Me to Hell: Unrated Director’s Cut” (Universal; $29.99, DVD; $39.99, Blu-ray Disc) with Alison Lohman in director Sam Raimi’s chiller about an ambitious bank clerk whose greed causes her to be terrorized by a deadly supernatural curse.
“Gnaw” (Dark Sky; $24.99, DVD) with Hiram Bleetman (“The Zombie Diaries”) in an unrated British import about six friends who travel to an idyllic farmhouse to relax and then discover the people there plan to use them as the main course in a meal.
“Happy Birthday to Me” (Anchor Bay; $14.99, DVD) with Melissa Sue Anderson (TV’s “Little House on the Prairie”) in an R-rated slasher movie as a new student who becomes part of the school’s most popular clique and then must run from a killer stalking the group’s members.
“Hardware: 2-Disc Special Edition” (Severin; $29.99, DVD; $34.99, Blu-ray Disc) with Dylan McDermott (“In the Line of Fire”) in an uncut and uncensored version of director Richard Stanley’s unrated post-apocalyptic tale (1990) about a desert scavenger battling a deadly robot. The extras include a making-of documentary, an early Super 8 version of the film, deleted and extended scenes, and the theatrical trailer.
“The Hills Run Red” (Warner; $19.99, DVD) with William Sandler (“The Green Mile”) in an R-rated chiller about some young horror fans who accidentally come into possession of a snuff film. The title comes from Dark Castle Entertainment, a production company devoted to extreme horror films.
“Natural Born Killers: Unrated Director’s Cut” (Warner; $28.99, Blu-ray Disc) with Woody Harrelson (“Zombieland”) and Juliette Lewis (“Whip It”) in a high-definition version of director Oliver Stone’s still controversial tale that follows husband-and-wife serial killers and attacks the American media for its tabloid approach to news.
For the 1994 theatrical version, Stone was required to make more than 150 cuts and remove four minutes of footage to get an R rating.
The extras include a new introduction by Stone and a high-def featurette (“NBK Evolution: How Would It All Go Down Now?”) on how current communication technology would affect the film if it were made today. (Note: There is also an older high-def pressing of the R-rated version of “Natural Born Killers.”)
“The Objective” (IFC Films; $19.99, DVD) with Jonas Ball (“The Killing of John Lennon”) in an unrated supernatural tale about a CIA operative fighting an ancient evil force during a secret mission to hostile Taliban territory. Daniel Myrick, who co-directed “The Blair Witch Project,” directed.
“The Shortcut” (Anchor Bay; $26.99, DVD) with Drew Seeley (“High School Musical: The Concert”) in a PG-13 fright film about some teens who want to find out the truth about a scary old man who refuses to allow them to cut through his property in order to save time going to school. The title is produced by Scary Madison Productions, which specializes in mild horror films for young teens.
Now Playing!
The following DVD titles recently landed at a video store near you.
If your local outlet doesn’t stock them, the DVD offerings can be mail-ordered by calling 800-523-0823 or going to the Web site moviesunlimited.com or amazon.com, unless otherwise noted.
Movies
“Aussie & Ted’s Great Adventure” (Screen Media Films; $24.99, DVD; now available) with Dean Cain (“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”) and Beverly D’Angelo (“National Lampoon’s Vacation”) in a G-rated family comedy about a dog in Australia that goes on a quest to find his young owner’s missing teddy bear.
“Cheri” (Miramax; $29.99, DVD; Oct. 20) with Michelle Pfeiffer (“Hairspray”), Kathy Bates (“Misery”) and Rupert Friend (“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”) in an R-rated romantic drama about a legendary Parisian courtesan who agrees to undertake the education of the 19-year-old son of a former rival. She then finds herself deeply in love with the teen, who is three decades younger. The extras include a making-of featurette and deleted scenes.
“Imagine That” (Sony; $27.99, DVD; $39.99, Blu-ray Disc; Oct. 20) with Eddie Murphy (“Dreamgirls”) in a PG-rated family comedy about a financial whiz who gets investment advice from an imaginary world created by his young daughter.
“The Killing Room” (Genius; $19.99, DVD; now available) with Nick Cannon (“Drumline”), Timothy Hutton (“Ordinary People”) and Chloe Sevigny (HBO’s “Big Love”) in an R-rated thriller about four individuals who agree to participate in a psychological study and discover they are subjects of a brutal government program.
“Love N’ Dancing” (Screen Media; $24.99, DVD; $29.99, Blu-ray Disc; Oct. 20) with Amy Smart (“Crank”) and Billy Zane (“Titanic”) in a PG-13 picture about an engaged woman whose life changes after she meets a champion swing dancer.
“Mandie and the Secret Tunnel” (Bridgestone; $19.99, DVD; now available) with Lexi Johnson (“The Sugar Creek Gang”) and Dean Jones (“The Love Bug”) in a tale that is set in the late 1800s and follows a young girl who decides to leave her North Carolina home after the death of her father. The unrated film is based on the “Mandie” book series by Lois Gladys Leppard.
Television
“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show: The Complete Series” (Shout! Factory; $159.99, DVD; Oct. 20) with Shandling in a 16-disc set with all 72 episodes of four seasons of the series featuring a surreal look at the daily life of a single man who’s a comedian.
“Jackass: The Lost Tapes” (Paramount; $22.99, DVD; now available) with Johnny Knoxville and his stunt-obsessed crew members in more than two hours of new-to-DVD pranks, including 30 minutes of unaired footage.
Children/family
“Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas” (Universal; $19.99, DVD; now available) with George and the Man in the Yellow Hat trying to decide what to get each other as a holiday gift.
“My Little Pony: Twinkle Wish Adventure” (Shout! Factory; $14.99, DVD; now available) with the pony characters on an adventure that helps them discover the importance of friendship.
“The Transformers: 25th Anniversary ‘Matrix of Leadership’ Edition Collector’s Set” (Shout! Factory; $169.99, DVD; Oct. 20) with 16 DVDs containing more than 38 hours of content, including the original “Transformers” animated series and numerous bonus features.