Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Blu-ray Review: Halloween 5 – The Revenge of Michael Myers / Cert: 18 / Director: Dominique Othenin-Girard / Screenplay: Dominique Othenin-Girard, Michael Jacobs, Shem Bitterman / Starring: Donald Pleasance, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, Beau Starr / Release Date: Out Now

Hot on the heels of its financially lucrative predecessor, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is a mixed bag of squandered opportunities, excellent set pieces and a string of teenage characters that beg to be knifed, gouged, and mutilated in every conceivable manner.

Eager to jump on the bandwagon, director Dominique Othenin-Girard (After Darkness, Omen IV: The Awakening) rushed production and released this turkey in under a year to immediate worldwide scorn. Despite doubling its money on the opening weekend, Halloween 5 slipped from the charts and made a poor return on video sales. And it’s easy to see why. The original screenplay was significantly altered to create an odd, jumbled event which can’t begin to reach the greatness of Carpenter’s first two instalments.

We begin with stock footage of the end of Halloween 4. Michael is shot, dumped in a grave by the local police, then blown up for good measure. This – and it shouldn’t come as any surprise – doesn’t kill him and he escapes via a river, only to be found by a local hermit, credited as Mountain Man and played by the late Harper Roisman. Mountain Man inexplicably cares for Michael over the course of the next year, Michael having fallen into a coma for this entire time. No attempt to explain Mountain Man is ever made and after Michael wakes up and kills him (just before Halloween) it ceases to matter.

So far, so uninspired.

At the end of Halloween 4 we also saw little Jamie (Danielle Harris) taking up Michael’s mantle and killing her mother with a carving knife in the bathtub. The expectation being that little Jamie would then become the killer for Halloween 5, or at the very least a sidekick/apprentice. However, this wasn’t to be. The idea was at least briefly entertained before producers decided to play it safe and keep Michael as the big bad. Consequently, it’s revealed that little Jamie didn’t kill her mother. It was all just a bad dream – although she does hold a psychic connection with Michael.

Michael predictably bumps off the final girl of the last film, Rachel Carruthers (Ellie Cornell) a standard trope for Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13^th fame. He’s obviously been taking notes. He goes on to slaughter the sullen boyfriend and hunts down Rachel’s best friend, Wendy Kaplan (Wendy Foxworth). All part of Michael’s plan to lure little Jamie out of the children’s hospital, apparently.

Amidst the ensuing carnage we have plenty of unintentional laughs. Halloween 5 is very much of its time. Fashion and hair is in full ‘80s mode and a welcome blast from the past. This reviewer particularly liked the sullen boyfriend character with a single ear piecing to indicate his gritty on the edge rebel persona. Quaint by today’s standards.

The bumbling authority figures, Loomis aside, are played strictly for humour, and the teenage party scene was clearly written by somebody who has never been to one.

There are so many things wrong with Halloween 5 that it becomes fun in a really bad, guilty pleasure, kind of way. The plot meanders along with plenty of padding and subplots to bore even the most ardent of fans, but just when your hand hovers over the fast forward button, a gruesome death scene is thrown in and it’s business as usual.

Halloween 5 was originally released in 1989 around the end of the slasher craze where we were treated to the likes of Friday the 13^th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Nightmare on Elm Street. All three franchises having signed their death warrant the same year with the uninspired likes of Jason takes Manhattan, The Dreamchild and Leatherface.  Halloween 5 fails somewhat spectacularly to offer anything new to the genre, instead falling back upon tried and tested formulas every step of the way. Small wonder then, it took six years before the next Halloween instalment reared its ugly head.

Still, it’s not all bad. No, really, it’s not. Donald Pleasance delivers a convincing performance as the increasingly harassed and seemingly indestructible Doctor Loomis. Danielle Harris can actually act: a rare treat for the franchise. Towards the end, Halloween 5 manages to deliver its one scary scene (hats off to Dominique Othenin-Girard for at least getting that right) with little Jamie hiding from Michael – the Shape – Myers in a laundry shoot while he tries various different ways of prising her out.

Almost from the start of Halloween 5 we are introduced to fairly repugnant characters, so it should come as no surprise that we want Michael to kill these annoying one-dimensional teenagers, in scenes that are as bloody as they are ridiculous. Demand it we say. After a while, it’s possible to sympathise with Michael’s need to kill bimbo after bimbo. We mean, who wouldn’t want to kill a self-obsessed, fashion conscious, neo-adolescent. Are we right, or are we right…

Well, perhaps not. If you’re a fan of the series, then the Blu-ray will complete your collection. Just don’t tell your mates. If you fancy a walk down memory lane to a simpler time when monsters were monsters and teenagers were killed in predictable but sufficiently gory ways, then this also is the film for you.

If not, then you probably want to pick up Rob Zombie’s reboot and forget this ever happened.

Extras: None

Review: Doctor Who – The Claws of Axos (Special Edition) / Cert: PG / Director: Michael Ferguson / Writer: Bob Baker and Dave Martin / Starring: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney, Roger Delgado, Richard Franklin, John Levene / Release Date: Out Now

‘Classic’ Doctor Who often gets it in the neck for its so-called low production values; dodgy special effects and wobbly sets are the sticks most often used to beat the show with by sniffy smart-mouthed 21st century critics of the old episodes. But they did have a point from time to time and it’s not impossible that 1971’s ‘The Claws of Axos’ is where much of the criticism started. Everything wobbles in ‘The Claws of Axos’; walls wobble, floors wobble, doors wobble… even Jon Pertwee’s bouffant has a bit of a quiver every now and again. But this lively colourful serial is also a fine example of what Doctor Who has always done – it fearlessly and cheerfully tells a story which is really way out of the reach of its budget and it has a damned good time just getting on with it and making the best of it.

In 1970 Doctor Who sailed confidently through its earliest cancellation crisis. The show had been struggling at the end of the 1960s and only survived the transition into colour production and with a third actor playing the Doctor because the BBC couldn’t come up with anything in a similar genre to replace it (beyond a half-hearted idea about rebooting the old Quatermass franchise). Season seven had seen Doctor Who reborn but for the eighth season producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks set about redefining the Doctor-exiled-to-Earth format they’d reluctantly inherited from their production predecessors, moving the show away from the edgier, grittier and defiantly more adult tone of the four serials which had made up Pertwee’s first year. So out went the Doctor’s brainy Cambridge scientist assistant Liz Shaw (the late Caroline John) and in came ditzy mini-skirted trainee spy/UNIT agent Jo Grant (Katy Manning), a much better fit for Pertwee’s cloaked and rather patrician Doctor. Out too went the long seven-part narratives of the previous series (at least two of which, ironically, remain amongst the most absorbing and mature stories in the show’s entire fifty-year canon) and, to move the show a bit nearer its roots as a children’s/family show, in came boo-hiss Time Lord super-villain bad guy The Master (Roger Delgado). Coupled with more garishly colourful production and storylines to match, arch and much less realistic performances along with a generally lighter tone, the show was well on its way to becoming a TV comic strip.

‘The Claws of Axos’, the third serial in the 1971 series is big, brash, unsubtle stuff, its headlong storyline lights years away from slower-paced and more thoughtful (and believable) serials such as ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ and ‘Inferno’ from the year before. UNIT’s five-man army spring into action when a long, cylindrical UFO crashlands on a shale beach in the South of England in the shadow of a Nuclear power station which apparently provides most of the country’s power. Once aboard the ship (most of which has, conveniently for the props guys, buried itself underground leaving just a saucy-looking gaping opening up on the surface) the Doctor, the trusty Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Courtney) and an assortment of turtle-necked boffins and stiff-necked politicians find themselves in the company of the body-stockinged, golden Axons. These apparently benevolent aliens have arrived on Earth just to power up their organic spaceship and offer humanity a wonderful gift – a supply of axonite which will enable the human race to end the problems of world hunger at a stroke by increasing the size of food resources so everyone gets a decent helping. But the Axons aren’t quite as benign as they appear; they’re secretly a bunch of shrieking, bright orange tentacled monsters and they’ve come to earth to drain it of its resources. “The claws of Axos are imbedded deeply into the Earth’s carcass!” exclaims the Doctor in one spectacularly memorable display of deathless dialogue.

‘The Claws of Axos’ actually takes the template of the seventh season – scientific establishment, technical mumbo-jumbo, starchy scientists, aliens of dubious intent – and makes it a little less stodgy and a bit more palatable than the slightly long-winded stories of the previous year. These are four rattling, fast-paced episodes, low on credibility (UNIT guards this downed space vessel – which attracts remarkably little attention from anyone else – with just handful of soldiers who allow various characters to come and go as they please with nary a ‘who goes there?’) but high on (melo)drama, peppered with typically 1970s set pieces (the stunt men of HAVOC are rolling all over the place in their cumbersome Axon costumes in various action scenes). The mix is shaken up a little with the addition of tough, gruff CIA agent Bill Filer (Grist) who, in a modern version of the story would probably have a bit of a thing for Jo, and Peter Bathurst’s stereotypical civil servant Mr Chinn whose pomposity is regularly pricked by Pertwee’s barbed Doctor. The Master’s back too – unsuspecting 1971 viewers had no idea the newly-introduced character would feature in each of the year’s serials – and here he’s initially a prisoner of the Axons before escaping and hatching his own plan to escape Earth in the Doctor’s TARDIS which itself makes a long-overdue reintroduction (Letts and Dicks reminding the audience of the show’s original ‘adventure in Space and Time’ remit) and perhaps the best twist in the plot occurs where it appears that the Doctor is about to team up with the Master to finally escape his Earth exile, allowing the planet to face its own fate from the rapidly-expanding Axos threat.

Originally released on DVD in 2005, ‘The Claws of Axos’ is presented in this new two-disc ‘special edition’ mainly because of technological advances which have allowed previously poor quality colour episodes to be replaced by much shaper and more vivid restorations which are still clearly not derived from the original UK broadcast tapes but certainly of considerably better quality than we’ve seen before and probably as good as this story is ever going to look. Time has actually been surprisingly good to ‘Claws of Axos’ as a story; as always it’s very much ‘of its time’ and its production short-comings (even Dudley Simpson’s woefully-misjudged whining incidental score and the eye-raisingly childish unfortunate Axon victim Pigbin Josh with his constant cries of ‘Ooh-arr’) serve only to accentuate the constant scale of ambition and imagination of the show set against the cash available to make it look good on the screen. Unlike much modern Doctor Who though, ‘Claws of Axos’ just sets out to tell an exciting and dynamic adventure story without smugness or self-satisfaction or any sense of ‘look how clever we are’. ‘Claws of Axos’ isn’t perfect Doctor Who but it’s a far better of example of what the show can and should be than any number of dinosaurs on any number of spaceships…

Extras: Apart from the improved picture quality the new extras include ‘Axon Stations!’, an enjoyable if fairly standard ‘making of’ which features, amongst others, an especially frisky Katy Manning and ‘Living with Levene’ a brilliant and fascinating documentary, one of the finest in the DVD range to date, where comedian/superfan Toby Hadoke spends a weekend in Salisbury with the eccentric John Levene, the actor who played UNIT’s reliable Sergeant Benton in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the other extras, including the commentary with Manning, Richard Franklin and producer Barry Letts are ported over from the original release.

Review: Cockneys Vs Zombies / Cert: 15 / Director: Matthias Hoene / Screenplay: James Moran, Lucas Roche / Starring: Georgia King, Lee Asquith-Coe, Michelle Ryan, Alan Ford, Honor Blackman / Release Date: October 22nd

Like the shambling, bloody corpses we see on screen, the zombie genre keeps on coming seemingly without end. The latest film in the sub-genre to impress is Cockneys Vs Zombies which has a love of the zombie film as well as a love for a sub community of our nation’s capital that seems to be sadly disappearing in our modern age.

Starting with the opening of a tomb beneath a new housing development which leads to the unleashing of an old virus of some sort we then go into a brilliant comic book inspired credit sequence and this sense of comic book fun continues throughout the remainder of the film. Two brothers (Rasmus Hardiker and Harry Treadaway) decide to stage a bank robbery with their cousin Katie, dim witted Davey and mental case Mickey, to save their Granddad’s (Alan Ford) old people’s home from being demolished to create another new housing development. During the bank robbery and with hostages taken, the zombie apocalypse begins with the virus unleashed in the prologue. The gang have to make it across to the East End to rescue dear old granddad and the other inhabitants of the home as the world goes chicken (Chicken Oriental = mental).

Far from a mickey take, the film has a fondness for the residents that make up the characters of the film and their language and beliefs. There are funny moments involving cockney rhyming slang and all of its peculiar offshoots that are really great to listen to; the film has a very working class ethic and affection for the disappearing importance of the family and the sing song around the piano that make you yearn for a simpler time. With the housing development plot line as well as the zombie apocalypse, the sub-text is there although it’s not immediately obvious on first viewing.

Substance is one thing but films like this live and die by their action and gore content and Cockneys Vs Zombies has this in spades. Heads explode, faces are ripped off and all manner of graphic disembowelling’s happen. For what was a low budget British affair, the film portrays an epic apocalypse in the capital very well with lots of zombies and shots of smoking ruins off in the distance. The characters are all very likeable in their down to earth no nonsense dialogue delivered with tongue placed firmly in cheek and you actually care for them the way that you don’t necessarily with the exaggerated cartoon characters that populate Guy Ritchie’s London set thrillers.

Cockneys Vs Zombies sounds like a disaster on paper but turns out to be one of the most entertaining, thrilling and touching zombie films of 2012.

Extras: Behind the Scenes, Zombie School, and Trailer

DVD Review: Don’t Let Him In / Cert 18 / Director: Kelly Smith / Screenplay: Chris Andrews, Kelly Smith / Starring: Sophie Linfield, Sam Hazeldine, Gordon Alexander, Gemma Harvey / Release Date: October 29th

What if you invited a serial killer on holiday? That is the intriguing question asked by Don’t Let Him In, a low budget British horror film from first time director Kelly Smith.

Paige (Linfield) and Calvin (Rhys Meredith) are setting off for a weekend away, with his sister Mandy (Harvey) in tow. Unexpectedly, Mandy asks if her latest conquest Tristan (Alexander), an obnoxious city trader, can tag along. Tristan isn’t too keen on the idea but a text message telling him to lay low changes his mind.

A warning from the local bobby (Jason Carter) to be aware that a serial killer, dubbed the Tree Surgeon due to his penchant for cutting up his victims and tying them to trees, has been active in the area puts the group on edge, but they decide to stay and make the most of their break. When Tristan fails to return from picking up some supplies, Calvin and Mandy head out to look for him, and a badly injured hitch hiker, Shawn (Hazeldine) turns up at the cottage. Tristan is not happy about helping him, but it soon becomes apparent that he is hiding more than just a bad attitude and appalling manners.

Despite its brisk 75min running time, Don’t Let Him In manages to pack a lot in. There’s plenty of gore, and some well-handled scares. There’s a slight problem with the mystery of who the killer is, but that is really down to the aforementioned tag line, which gives the viewer the tip off, but even then writer/director Smith manages to pull a few rugs. It is clear he is a talent to watch with a passion for this style of film, and it will be interesting to see what he can come up with when he is given a bigger budget. His experience in editing comes to the fore, and the use of celluloid rather than shooting straight to digital adds to the grindhouse feel, plus the obvious care and attention paid to the sound design pays off and makes the film look like a much bigger budget affair.

However, there are some points where it resorts to cliché; mobile phone reception is conveniently lost just when it would be needed, and the final girl running for her life in her undies, which is also seen in the opening sequence before we get to a ‘two days earlier’ scenario. The final cast listing in the ‘you have been watching’ style of the UK sitcom takes a little away from the devastating climax, but on the whole it is an assured, and entertaining début for Smith.

Extras: commentary, behind the scenes/visual FX featurettes, trailer.

Blu-ray Review: Universal Classic Monsters Collection / Cert: 15 / Director: Various / Screenplay: Various / Starring: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi / Release Date: Out Now

As part of Universal Pictures’ 100^th Anniversary, they have been restoring and releasing many of their famous back catalogue. This set covers the formative years of their monster output (as well as one from the ‘50s).

For the most part, this new Blu-ray collection features the special features and excellent documentaries that were included in the brilliant Legacy Collection, as well the Region one single disc releases. But let’s look closer and see how a group of films that are up to 80 years old bare up to the HD treatment.
Fears that there may not be much of an upgrade from the DVD counterparts are completely unfounded. The majority of the films have undergone extensive HD restoration and arguably look better than they did on their cinema release. For many of us, these films were our first taste of horror cinema, and as such they hold a special place in the heart, so to see them in such detail and quality now is simply breathtaking. The films included in the collection are: Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Invisible Man (1933), The Wolf Man (1941), The Phantom of the Opera (1943) and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

Like the DVDs, Dracula also includes the alternate Spanish version; filmed on the same sets with a different cast and often cited as being better than the US version, while this writer doesn’t agree with that, there are some moments that work better, and it contains a few extra scenes which make the story flow a little smoother. This has also been restored to a fantastic degree, with only a 10min section (reel 3) which comes from a different print and is noticeably lesser quality. This in itself shows how good the transfer of the other print is. The Mummy shows the most sign of wear and tear, but still looks stunning and can be heard properly for the first time in years, as opposed to previous releases. The only colour picture in the set (and indeed, in the Universal Monsters catalogue) The Phantom of the Opera looks simply gorgeous, the Technicolour photography makes the film really pop, even though most fans struggle with the film because it dwells too often on the opera itself rather than the Phantom (Claude Rains), it is a brilliant and worthy addition to any collection.

Finally, it is marvellous to finally get to see The Creature from the Black Lagoon in its original format: 3D (it is also playable in 2D). If you have the equipment, or know a friend who does, make sure you check this out as it is the best use of the format yet released. Yes, it’s all gimmicky, but when you see the claws reaching out of the screen at you or duck from harpoons, you see the format for what it was meant to be; FUN!

As well as the aforementioned documentaries and commentaries that have appeared on other releases (they are presented here in standard definition), there are a short series of new featurettes focusing on the restoration process, the Universal lot, and the characters. A small but informative and well laid out book and a set of art cards round off the packaging. A limited edition version in a coffin shaped box is nice, but is one of those items that would look odd on the shelf.

In conclusion, this set does the classic films proud, and presents them in a format and quality that they deserve. It is a shame that the numerous sequels and team ups couldn’t have been included, but that would have made the collection higher than most fans’ budgets. Hopefully, a second set will be forthcoming. Until then, this set is highly recommended.

Extras: 44 page booklet, 8 exclusive art cards with original theatrical posters, Trailer Gallery for all movies, Dracula: The Restoration,Monster Tracks: Interactive Pop-Up Facts About the Making of Dracula, Dracula Archive, Score by Philip Glass performed by the Kronos Quartet, Feature Commentary by Film Historian David J. Skal, Screenwriter of Dracula: Dead and Loving It, The Frankenstein Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster, Karloff: The Gentle Monster, Monster Tracks: Interactive Pop-Up Facts About The Making of Frankenstein, Universal Horror, Frankenstein Archives, Boo!: A Short Film, Feature Commentary with Film Historian Rudy Behlmer, Feature Commentary with Historian Sir Christopher Frayling, 100 Years Of Universal: Restoring the Classics, Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed, He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art Of Jack Pierce, Unraveling the Legacy of The Mummy, The Mummy Archives, Feature Commentary by Rick Baker, Scott Essman, Steve Haberman, Bob Burns and Brent Armstrong, Feature Commentary by Film Historian Paul M. Jensen, 100 Years Of Universal: The Carl Laemmle Era, Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed, Production Photographs, Feature Commentary with Film Historian Rudy Behlmer, 100 Years of Universal: Unforgettable Characters, Monster by Moonlight, The Wolf Man: From Ancient Curse to Modern Myth, Pure in Heart: The Life and Legacy of Lon Chaney Jr.,He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce, The Wolf Man Archives, Feature Commentary with Film Historian Tom Weaver, The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked, Production Photographs, Feature Commentary with Film Historian Scott MacQueen, 100 Years of Universal: The Lot, The Creature From The Black Lagoon in Blu-ray 3D, Back to The Black Lagoon, Production Photographs, Feature Commentary with Film Historian Tom Weaver.

Review: Tales From the Darkside – Season Four / Director: Various / Screenplay: Various / Starring: Various / Release Date: Out Now

It’s a sad fact of life that some things don’t age too well. For every Star Trek or Batman: The Animated Series, there’s a Star Trek: The Next Generation (season 1) or Tales From the Darkside. While they both have their kitsch charms, neither holds up particularly well in this High Definition day and age.

Admittedly, there is some fun in seeing actors such as Debbie Harry (Blondie!) camp it up in silly stories about witches, mummies and devil dwarves. In the episode Moth, Harry plays a malicious dying witch who attempts to resurrect herself using only a book of spells and a moth. As her own mother battles to stop her evil daughter’s return to life, a particularly daft battle of wills commences. It’s made all the better thanks to Harry’s bizarre turn as witch Sybil. It says a lot for the quality of the series that Moth is one of the best episodes of season four.

With the legendary George Romero producing, and big names such as Clive Barker and Stephen King lending their work for adaptation, Tales From the Darkside sounds like a guaranteed horror hit. But as anyone who has seen a season two episode of Masters of Horror will attest, even the mighty can fall. Barker’s The Yattering and Jack is a solid idea (it worked fine as part of his Books of Blood, and the comic book adaptation is cool too) but its execution leaves a lot to be desired. Phil Fondacaro looks utterly ridiculous as the Yattering and the episode is all but lost by the time a turkey starts dancing atop Jack’s Christmas tree. Stephen King’s Sorry, Right Number fares much better, being the best episode of the lot.

Far too much of the series relies upon really bad comedy. Despite a genuinely impressive looking Mummy, The Grave Robber is tremendously bad, depicting a game of strip poker between a pair of tomb raiders and a lonely mummy. The ending is predictable, the jokes atrocious. But this pales into insignificance next to Seymourlama, which is easily the worst thing in the collection. The ending did bring us some joy though, with teenage Semour’s parents converging upon their son, about to hospitalise the poor brat.

Tales From the Darkside: Season Four is a very mixed bag. For every Sorry, Right Number there’s at least four or five forced and unfunny episodes. It’s much less scary than it should be, even lacking in decent twists or memorable shocks. There are highlights, and it’s definitely amusing on an ironic level, but these tales could surely have been a little more on the dark side.

Review: Resident Evil – Damnation / Cert: 15 / Director: Makoto Kamiya / Screenplay: Shotaro Suga / Starring: (voices) Matthew Mercer, Courtenay Taylor, Val Tasso, Robin Sachs, Salli Saffioti, Dave Wettenberg, Wendee Lee, / Release Date: Out Now

Unlike its shambling zombies, the Resident Evil franchise shows no sign of slowing down. It’s a busy year to be a fan – with the fifth live-action instalment in cinemas now and the sixth videogame also out on consoles everywhere, this animated movie whets the palate for the latter in inimitable Resident Evil style. Those who prefer the former may feel a little lost.

With Paul WS Anderson’s loose adaptation of the games very much blazing its own trail (for better or worse) the animated movie offers a more canonical experience. Fan favourites Leon S. Kennedy and Ada Wong take centre stage for Damnation, and are far more recognisable here than they are in Anderson’s latest feature. The characters of the live-action Resident Evil series are effectively interchangeable, related to their videogame counterparts in name only (although Retribution gets Leon’s ridiculous fringe right, at least) so it’s good that we have these animated films to show what the characters are really like, when they’re not being controlled by your thumbs (this reviewer spent most of Resident Evil 5 running away from things and dying, painfully).

In Damnation, special agent Leon S. Kennedy investigates rumours of biological warfare in a war-torn Eastern European country. As is wont to happen any time anyone investigates anything in a Resident Evil story, he is immediately attacked by sinister forces both human and not. Joined by tough mercenary Ada Wong, he attempts to defuse the threat and stay alive, beset by Lickers and angry locals alike. No zombies though, which is a disappointment.

Like its predecessor, Degeneration, the film caters more to fans of the videogames rather than casual viewers. There’s no introduction to the characters, nor much effort made to explain who anyone is. It gets downright convoluted fast, with lots of plot going on. Well, it wouldn’t be Resident Evil if everything made sense all the time.

An advantage of using CGI animation over live action means that it always feels as though it’s part of the Resident Evil universe; particularly the faster, more cinematic games of the past few years. Sometimes, this is to the film’s detriment – looking and feeling like a cut-scene from one of the games means that we were left with a constant sense of itchy thumbs, waiting for it all to be over with so as we could have a go ourselves. The animation looks great, particularly during the gorier, more horror inspired scenes, and those involving Kennedy’s biggest threat – the Lickers. The humans don’t fare quite so well though, always looking expressionless and dead-eyed, like a shop dummy or something out of The Polar Express. That’s fine in a videogame cut-scene, but it makes it very difficult to care about a film’s protagonist when they spend most of the time staring into space like one of the zombies they’re supposed to be fighting.

Resident Evil: Degeneration will appeal to die-hard fans of Resident Evil more than casual observers. It’s action packed, gruesome and tense. Best of all, it’s entirely canonical.

Review: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) / Cert: U / Director: Steven Spielberg / Screenplay: Melissa Mathison / Starring: Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore / Release Date:  October 22nd

With E.T. celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and Universal celebrating its centenary, it is the perfect time for a beloved classic to be released for the first time on Blu-ray. Perhaps one of the most treasured movies in sci-fi history, and one of the most successful if inflation is taken into consideration, the timeless film is ready to enthral and entrance a whole new generation.

A quick rehash of the plot: a meek little boy, Elliott (Thomas) befriends a benevolent alien who has been accidentally stranded on Earth. With the help of his older brother and little sister, Elliott discovers that E.T. merely wants to return home. The alien fashions a satellite from some household items and a Speak-and-Spell and awaits rescue. However, it becomes clear that unless he can get home soon, the alien will die. With the authorities aware of E.T.’s presence and determined to capture him, it becomes a race against time to get E.T. home before it’s too late.

Three decades after its original release, E.T. has lost none of its charm. Whereas most contemporary films that have a runtime bordering on two hours seem to drag, this flies by. Perhaps that is because it was made in a more innocent time, when directors like Spielberg knew how to make entertaining cinema rather than cynical fodder for the corporations who worry about advertising and tie-ins. It has everything; an alien, a naive childhood friendship, a shady government agency and a happy ending bordering on pure schmaltz. Interestingly, as you watch, it’s amazing to see how many subtle horror tropes are used for such a harmless movie – it could have so easily been taken in a different direction. Remember that this was made in a time when blockbusters were still a relatively new fad and you can really appreciate what Spielberg crafted here.

The child leads are endearing, rather than grating (yes, Dakota Fanning in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds – we’re looking at you) and even the roles populated by the adults (Wallace, Coyote) are nicely played without appearing to be overbearing or an afterthought to the plot. For the purists, you’ll be pleased to know that ‘gun-gate’ has been rectified back to the original print.

Including a brand new interview with the director and The E.T. Journals – brand new, behind the scenes footage from the set – this is the perfect time to introduce the film to the next generation.

Extras – The E.T. Journals / Steven Spielberg & E.T. / Deleted Scenes / A Look Back / The E.T. Reunion / The Evolution & Creation of E.T. / The Music of E.T.: A Discussion with John Williams / The 20th Anniversary Premiere / Original Theatrical Trailer

Review: Rosewood Lane / Cert: 15 / Director: Victor Salva / Screenplay: Victor Salva / Starring: Rose McGowan, Daniel Ross Owens, Ray Wise / Release Date: Out Now

The armoured grav carriers of Earth’s 1085th Inter-Dimensional Shock Army materialised in the turquoise sky above the living planetoid of Keanu-3; it’s scarred mass still holding open the tear in reality that had caused Event 405. Brigadier Witch-General ‘Bear’ Munroe eyed the surface through his ancient cybertronic lens and focussed on the fast-moving swarm of shoggoths. He knew that this cycle would be long and deadly; there could be no winners here…

Sadly, this is not how Rosewood Lane starts. You see, there are two schools of thought on how to open a movie. There’s the one that says you start with a bang, a hook or just anything to grab the attention. And then there’s the one director Victor Salva has chosen to follow here. So instead, it starts like a filler episode of CSI: Sleepy Town directed by the caterer’s mother who doesn’t like too much excitement in her time of life, thank you very much. Attempting to bore the audience into submission in your opening ten to twenty minutes is, at least, an unusual approach to a horror film but unfortunately it’s not a runaway success here. Full marks for pushing the envelope, but a more conventional approach is probably the way to go on these sorts of things.

Get past this and you’ll learn that the plot involves Sonny (McGowan), a popular radio somethingoranother, moving into her old family home following the (not particularly) suspicious death of her alcoholic father. There she learns from the elderly neighbour that the local paperboy (Owens) is a wrong’un who terrorizes the neighbourhood through means that are never quite explained. And there, right on cue (assuming you’re still awake) is our paperboy sitting on his bike with a menacing stare and looking… er… about thirty. In fact, Daniel Ross Owens is, indeed, nearly thirty so quite how he managed to get quite so miscast is something of a mystery. You start to wonder if this paperboy is just a massive underachiever but when the police are later involved they tell us several times that their ‘hands are tied’ as he’s a minor. Repeatedly drawing attention to the fact that entirely the wrong actor has been cast in the most important role does not really do the film any favours. Just saying.

As the film unfolds our protagonists just seem to show increasing levels of irritation with Derek the paperboy. To be fair, that would seem to be the appropriate response as Derek’s reign of terror does rather seem to mainly consist of knocking on doors, moving things round their homes and making prank calls. ‘Reign of annoyance’ would seem slightly more appropriate. But then he starts popping out of shadows behind people at entirely predictable moments that might very well get on their nerves (and the audience’s) but are so expertly telegraphed that you’ll find yourself calmly thinking ‘get ready to jump… now’. As you’re unlikely to be doing any jumping this can at least be recommended viewing for people of a nervous disposition. In fact, you might even enjoy trying to work out why it is that Derek’s face is purposely obscured in shadow in at least half of these semi-sudden appearances when we know full well what he looks like. He looks like a thirty year old man, for heaven’s sake; we’re not likely to have forgotten. Eventually Derek’s antics get a bit more menacing (or at least as menacing as a thirty year old supermarket manager can be) and the film can lose itself in clumsy attempts to suggest that Derek may or may not be a supernatural presence, purposeless characters and lost plot threads. The purposeless characters include Lesley-Anne Down as Cloey who acts like she’s there for reason but we’re damned if we can tell you what it is other than for middle-aged men to confirm that she is, indeed, still hot. One suspects her agent got the gig and they were so keen to have her that they just made up a character for her. The lost plot thread is quite interesting as (without giving anything away) there is a possibility that this was deliberate. Hard to tell in a film like this but it would fit in with the fact that it isn’t completely beyond redemption. There’s rather a good bit where Sonny tries to confront Derek’s parents (who surprisingly aren’t in a nursing home) and a whole dark world of suburbia is hinted at. But it lasts about five minutes so it’s not going to save the movie, we’re afraid.

This is the kind of film where a character plays with a crossbow at the garden barbecue and it doesn’t expect you to realise that the crossbow might get used for more nefarious purposes later in the film. So when it lines up a twist ending you just know it’s going to be a lame one. Actually, we didn’t spot what it was going to be but it was underwhelming nevertheless. It’d have been far more convincing if it turned out the Derek the Paperboy was just suffering from a midlife crisis and a stomach ulcer.

Extras: Making of documentary and trailer

* including bonus Lesley-Anne Down point

Review: The Curse of Frankenstein / Cert: 15 / Director: Terence Fisher / Screenplay: Jimmy Sangster / Starring: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Hazel Court, Robert Urquhart / Release Date: Out Now

Hammer’s scrubbed-up Blu-ray releases from their classic archive go right back to the beginning with The Curse of Frankenstein, the film that kick-started Hammer Studios and which, even an astonishing 56 years later, symbolises a new style of visceral, brooding horror movie which harkened back to the Universal classics of the ‘30s but added a daring new strain of genuinely Gothic horror and understated (but often quite explicit) sexuality.

Critics and audiences alike were aghast at the Curse of Frankenstein because they’d never seen anything quite like it before. Time – and years of far more gratuitous slasher movies – have obviously diluted the film’s impact but what’s most surprising about the film in the 21st century is how well it still stands up and how easy it is to imagine the furore it caused amongst a British cinema audience still shell-shocked by the Second World War which had finished just over a decade earlier. Terence Fisher’s film follows the narrative of Mary Shelley’s classic fairly faithfully – and if you don’t know the story of Frankenstein you’ve come to the wrong place – as Peter Cushing’s charming, urbane and yet quietly sinister Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with the desire to create life out of death. Cushing is astonishing, his portrayal of Frankenstein deliciously hypnotic even when he’s seducing the maid, betraying his wife-to-be and falling out with his best friend Paul Krempe (Urquhart). He’s an odd and disquieting leading man, thoroughly ruthless and driven, willing to sacrifice his family and his friends in pursuit of his great scientific achievement and yet such is the power of Cushing’s performance that we still feel an element of sympathy for him at his ultimate fate just before the credits role. A breakthrough performance from Christopher Lee, too, as the ‘monster’, a genuinely sympathetic turn as a pathetic, instinctive creature which clearly can’t understand what it is and why it’s alive.

The Curse of Frankenstein is undeniably melodramatic and slightly mannered but it’s still a powerful and affecting film. It’s also slightly morbid with its themes of dismemberment and revivication, a lingering sequence where Frankenstein disposes of a head dropped into a vat of acid (albeit off-screen) and, in this restored cut, a grisly close-up of an excavated eyeball. Hammer films inarguably became more sophisticated – and lurid – as the years rolled by and the conveyor belt kicked in, but The Curse of Frankenstein remains a strong and confident mission statement for the studio that changed the face of cinema horror forever.

Extras: Starburst’s review Blu-ray seemed a bit ropey with a washed-out picture which looks a bit water-damaged in places; we can only assume the best quality stuff is being kept for the paying punters. Elsewhere there’s some good value stuff in this lavish package including a ‘making of’ feature, charming recollections of the late Peter Cushing from his secretary, a Frankenstein TV pilot, an early Hammer feature film and a ‘90s TV clip show.