DVD Snapshot's 2009 Halloween Horror Viewer's Guide

Hannibal Lecter Anthology / Misery / Child's Play / Wrong Turn / Wrong Turn 2 / The Children / The Thaw / Seventh Moon / The Offspring / Trick R Treat / The Stepfather / Children Of The Corn / Fear Itself / Happy Birthday To Me

• Breaking The Silence – Your standard Picture-in-Picture making-of feature.
• Page to Screen (41 minutes) – The cast and crew discuss transforming the book into a movie.
• Scoring the Silence (15 minutes) - An interview with composer Howard Shore.
• Inside the Labyrinth: The Making of Silence of the Lambs (63 minutes) - An excellent hour-long documentary on the creation of the film, which includes interviews with Anthony Hopkins.
• Deleted Scenes (20 minutes) - 22 deleted scenes and excerpts.
• Outtakes (2 minutes) - A few brief goofs.
• Anthony Hopkins Phone Message - Have Hannibal Lecter leave your answering machine message.
• TV Spots & Trailers.
• Photo Galleries.

Misery makes its Blu-ray debut as well, and this is another odd disc. Released as a two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo, Fox has chosen to leave all the extras on the DVD disc rather than the Blu-ray disc. That's not a big deal for the featurettes, which likely would have remained in standard definition even on the Blu-ray disc, but it's pretty annoying when it comes to watching the commentary. They couldn't put that on the disc with the high def transfer? Come on, Fox, that's just cheap. Still, this is a great movie, and it's on Blu-ray, so it's a hard one to pass up because of the extra features.

Still, who can pass up Kathy Bates yelling, "He didn't get out of the cock-a-doodie car!!!"? Classic.

Extra features include:

• Audio Commentary by Director Rob Reiner
• Audio Commentary by Screenwriter William Goldman
• Misery Loves Company Featurette
• Marc Shaiman's Musical Misery Tour Featurette
• Diagnosing Annie Wilkes Featurette
• Advice for the Stalked Featurette
• Profile of a Stalker Featurette
• Celebrity Stalkers Featurette
• Anti-Stalking Laws Featurette

Fortunately, while Child's Play is also a Blu-ray/DVD combo, this time the extra features are available on both discs. I applaud Fox/MGM's efforts here but, really, what the hell? They can do that for Chucky, but not Misery? Weird. Still, it's fun to watch Chucky in high def before he devolved into a caricature of himself, and though I'll stop short of calling this one "scary," it's easily the best film in the franchise. Granted, I do have a soft spot for Child's Play 2, and I enjoy the comedic turn the franchise took later on, but this is the most "pure" horror film of the franchise.

And besides, it's Chucky? Who doesn't need at least one killer doll movie in high definition on their shelf?

Extras include:

• Audio Commentary with Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks and "Chucky" designer Kevin Yagher
• Audio Commentary with Producer David Kirschner and Screenwriter Don Mancini
• Select Scene Chucky Commentaries
• Evil Comes in Small Packages
• Chucky: Building a Nightmare
• A Monster Convention
• Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child's Play
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Still Photo Gallery

Wrong Turn is a fun little cannibal/inbreed/slasher film that stars Eliza Dushku and is way more enjoyable than it should be. There isn't an original bone in its body (except for maybe a sequence that takes place high in the trees), but it's a lot of fun. Plus it stars both Eliza Dushku and Emmanuelle Chriqui, so the eye candy factor is quite high. I can't quite figure out why I like this movie as much as I do (aside from the aforementioned eye candy), but I find it to be a lot of fun. This one is a single disc release, so all the extras are included on the Blu-ray.

Inbred cannibals and two extremely hot chicks; what more could you ask for on a Halloween evening?

Extras are:

• Commentary by Rob Schmidt, Desmond Harrington and Eliza Dushku
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurette:
• Making of Wrong Turn
• Eliza Dushku: Babe in the Woods
• Stan Winston, Fresh Meat: The Wounds Of Wrong Turn
• Original Theatrical Trailer

Finally, Wrong Turn 2 is as apt a title as I can think of, because the entire film is a wrong turn. Taking the core concept of the original film and then throwing in a stupid reality TV show plotline and bucketfuls of unnecessary gore (and a truly disgusting "romantic" subplot between two of the cannibals), the film is pretty much terrible. Even though it has Henry Rollins in it (and he's actually the only part of the film that doesn't totally suck), there's really no reason to sit through this one. You'll just end up with disturbingly gross images seared onto your brain.

The bottom line here is: watch the first film, but skip the second one. Trust me on this one, you'll thank me for it.

Extra features include:

• More Blood, More Guts: The Making of Wrong Turn 2
• Making Gore Look Good
• On Location with P-Nut
• Cast And Crew Audio Commentaries

Next up, also available on both Blu-ray and DVD, are Lionsgate's 2009 slate of Ghost House Underground films. After three waves of eight films each, Ghost House Underground (headed by Sam and Ted Raimi) have wised up a bit and cut it down to four films for this year's batch. The results are a stronger slate of films. While there are still some weaker entries in the bunch, none of the films are as outright terrible as some of the previous year's entries have been (well, maybe one), so I feel this was clearly a good move on their part.

I'll work from best to worst, because I'm so excited about The Children I have to kick off with it. What I expected to be a lame, toothless thriller instead turned out to be one of the best horror films I've seen all year. The Children is a small movie; it takes place in a country home with just about eight characters or so, two sets of parents and their young children. An unexplained virus turns the children homicidal, and the events that unravel from there are both chilling and terrifying. It's one of the first horror movies I can remember in a long time that caused me to have a knot in my stomach for almost the entire running time because I was so caught up in the film's intensity. When you add the layer of "How do I protect myself against my own children without hurting them" to a frightening film, the results are truly powerful and make for a horror movie experience unlike any I can remember in recent years. This one is definitely worth checking out.

Extras include:

• Deleted scenes
• "The Making of The Children" featurette
• "Shooting on Location" featurette
• "Paul Hyett Talks Prosthetics" featurette
• "Snow Set Design" featurette
• "Inside Tom Shankland's On Set Lair" featurette
• "Working with The Children" featurette

Next up is The Thaw. With Val Kilmer and Aaron Ashmore in it, this film boasts the most star power of these four films, and it's an effectively decent film. It focuses on an ancient organism being accidentally set loose in the arctic, and a group of students and scientists trying to survive a plague of insect-type parasites. It's actually not too bad and there are a few creepy moments, but there's really nothing special about it in any way at all, either. There's not a lot of suspense as it's pretty predictable fare, but the performances are pretty good for a horror flick, and there are worse ways to kill 90 minutes.

If you're on the fence, I will say there is one pretty cool scene with a polar bear and some prehistoric bugs that's kind of cool. Don't know if it's worth watching the whole movie for, but I thought it was kind of freaky.

There's just one extra feature on this one:

• Behind the scenes footage

Movie: B-
Extra Features: C-

Seventh Moon is the latest film from Eduardo Sanchez, co-director of The Blair Witch Project. Unfortunately, he's taken up the shaky/handheld camera style again, although this one isn't supposed to be shot by one of the characters, so it actually achieves two things: it gives the film an immediacy but also makes it kind of bland and frustrating to watch. It's no Cloverfield in terms of shaky-cam-ness, but it doesn't do anything to enhance the film, either. And during the action scenes, the shakiness does ratchet up to the "annoying" level. It also makes getting a good glimpse of what's chasing our main characters almost an impossibility, and I hate that in a horror movie. I'm not saying I need endless close-ups of blood and gore, but let me see what's happening, please. Again, I've seen worse, but I've also seen better. The main draw here is the presence of Amy Smart, who I know more than a few guys like quite a bit, even if I don't see why she's supposed to be so hot.

Extras include:

• Audio commentary with writer/director Eduardo Sanchez and actress Amy Smart
• "Ghosts of Hong Kong: The Making of Seventh Moon"
• "The Pale Figures" featurette
• "Mysteries of the Seventh Lunar Month" featurette

Movie: C+
Extra Features: B-


Finally, we have The Offspring, based on a novel by Jack Ketchum. I've never read any of Ketchum's books, but they seem like they would be a bit too dark for my tastes. After watching this film, I really have no desire to venture into the world of his imagination, either. You could say it's just a poor translation, but since he also wrote the screenplay, I don't see anyone else t blame but the author. Oh wait, that's not true; I can blame the film's director, too, for making this an over-the-top gorefest with a barely coherent plot that revels way too much in blood and cannibalism to ever be enjoyable. Ech.

Someday, people will realize that excessive fore does not a great movie make. Until then, we're stuck with films like this. Oh yeah, and the cannibal kids look kind of ridiculous, so you'll laugh and feel sick at the same time. Awesome.

Extras include:

• Audio commentary with writer Jack Ketchum, director/producer Andrew Van Den Houten and producer/cinematographer William M. Miller
• "Progeny: The Birth of Offspring" featurette
• Webisodes
• Photo gallery
• Printable script

Seemingly destined to be a cult classic rather than a bona fide hit, Trick R Treat was supposed to hit theaters about two years ago, and despite incredible online buzz, it ended up shelved until Warner Brothers finally released onto home video this month. So far, I've heard a lot of positive comments from people I know who have seen the film, but I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about. It's a serviceably entertaining, well shot horror film with some nice, recognizable faces in it. The problem is that it's not scary enough to be a real horror movie, but it's not particularly funny , either, so you can't enjoy it for the camp factor. It takes itself just a bit too seriously for me, which is too bad, because the film's director clearly has some talent, and it is neat to see how the film's vignette stories tie together, even if some of them are pretty obvious.

A word of warning, when you remove the slipcover from the DVD case, there is an unavoidable spoiler right there on the DVD case's cover art. If at all possible, try and remember to flip the DVD case over and open it from the back if you can. It's not necessarily a major plot point, but it definitely gives away something you'd probably rather seen revealed in the context of the film.

The disc doesn't come with much in the way of special features, just this:

• Trick 'R Treat: Season's Greetings - Animated Short with Optional Commentary

• Audio Commentary with Director Joseph Ruben
• The Stepfather Chronicles - All all-new retrospective featuring interviews with director Joseph Ruben, producer Jay Benson, actress Jill Schoelen, author Brian Garfield and others on the making of the film and its enduring legacy.

• New Directions: An Interview With Writer/Producer/Director Donald P. Borchers On Remaking A Cult Classic
• Cast Of The Corn: Interviews With Actors
• To Live And Die In Gatlin: Interviews With Andrew Hussey And Alan Tuskes
• Fly On The Wall: Behind The Scenes Footage

• Recipe For Fear: Directors' Interviews For Each Episode

Finally, wrapping up this year's Halloween Horror Viewer's Guide is Happy Birthday To Me. One look at that cover art should give you a pretty clear picture of what we're dealing with here. This film from the producers of the original My Bloody Valentine is part of the notorious wave of slasher flicks from the early 1980s. This one is both awesome and awful at the same time. On the one hand, it's got some pretty inventive and creative deaths, and even a few plot twists that you won't quite believe. On the other hand, they should really include some wine in the package to go with all the cheese. There's no real acting to speak of (more on that in a moment) and the gore effects are a little bit dated, although still occasionally effective.

What makes this film so interesting is the fact that it stars Hollywood legend Glenn Ford in a pivotal role and was directed by J. Lee Thompson, the man who helmed true classics such as Cape Fear and The Guns of Navarone. This is clearly at the end of both of their careers, but it's still quite an interesting Hollywood footnote to see them both working on this film. Also of note is the fact that this DVD release features the film's original theatrical score. Apparently, the 2005 DVD release, in addition to boasting some truly terrible cover art, had an alternate score from a different print of the film. I haven't seen that version, but what I'm hearing from fans is that this score is highly superior.

There are no extra features to speak of, but Happy Birthday To Me is both a fun slasher throwback and a curious Hollywood oddity.