Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Review: Wrath of the Titans / Cert:12 / Director: Jonathan Leibesman / Screenplay: Dan Mazeu, David Leslie Johnson / Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Rosamund Pike, Bill Nighy, Toby Keppell, Danny Huston / Release Date: Out Now

Wrath of the Titans is better than 2010’s Clash of the Titans remake. This, however, is damning a film with faint praise because, by all other reasonable standards, this is a weak and fairly lifeless movie despite its surfeit of CGI monsters, fights and battles and any number of embarrassed-to-be-here Thesps acting their socks off or putting on peculiar accents (Bill Nighy’s blacksmith Hephaestus is clearly ancient Greece-via-Barnsley). Wrath of the Titans is a pretty fine example of a film showered with funds to make it look awesome and spectacular but with little time or effort expended on a script pepped with deathless dialogue – Hades uses his Godly powers to revive Neeson’s aged Zeus and tell him “You look ten thousand years younger!” to which Zeus replies “I feel it.” Give us a break. Confronted by a family of rampaging Cyclops (Cyclii??) Perseus (Worthington, in best Bondi beach surfer dude mode and making no attempt to hide it) gasps “You gotta be kidding me!”

Ten years after the events of Clash of the Titans Perseus is enjoying a career-break as a fisherman with his ten year-old son at his salty side. His Dad Zeus (he’s a God) pays him a call one night and tells him that the powers of the Gods are fading due to a lack of faith shown by human less-than-devotees and that the ancient Fire God Kronos is about to break free from the walls of his underground prison Tartarus. When Zeus is later held captive and his power used to revive Kronos, Perseus joins forces with warrior princess Andromeda (Pike) and cousin Agenor (Keppell) to find a way into Tartarus to stop the fire-belching Kronos ravaging the land. Ooh!!

There seems to be a vague attempt here to emulate the style and tone of films like Jason and the Argonauts and Seventh Voyage of Sinbad but the script is too self-conscious and knowing to carry it off and the CGI effects are just far too slick and can’t help but make older viewers yearn for the juddery, atmospheric stop-motion animation of the Harryhausen classics. There’s an uncomfortable sense of going-through-the-motions about the film, as if the whole enterprise only exists because the first one did better than anyone expected and, as usual, Hollywood just can’t resist the chance to make another cheap buck off the back of even the shoddiest of potential franchises. And despite its lavish effects and ambitious location filming, Wrath of the Titans just seems cynical and tired, a film which exists without actually needing to, clearly thrown together without much regard to the need for a decent script or interesting characters. It’s bland and pointless but even so there’s enough fire and spectacle on display to make it a diverting, if instantly forgettable, bit of trashy entertainment. Hopefully Wrath of the Titans will turn out to be the last of the Titans.

Extras: Maximum Movie mode allows viewers to bone up on Greek myths or watch behind-the-scenes stuff and there are a few deleted scenes which are as inessential as the movie itself.

Review: Puppet Master II / Cert: 18 / Director: Dave Allen / Screenplay: David Phabian / Starring: Elizabeth Maclellan, Collin Bernsen, Steve Welles, Greg Webb / Release Date: October 22nd

When people make lists of sequels that are even better than the original movie, for some reason they tend to overlook Puppet Master II, but they really shouldn’t. Why? Because, as well as being a great little horror flick in its own right, it proved that Full Moon Features had hit on a franchise with legs (stubby ones without knee-joints, but who’s complaining?)

For those who don’t know, the series concerns a group of wooden puppets brought to life with an ancient Egyptian formula. The first film saw the critters running amok in an abandoned hotel on Bodega Bay, to the consternation of some visiting psychics. In this one, they revive from the dead the man who created them, master puppeteer Andre Toulon (Welles), who sets them to harvesting brains, a vital ingredient of the aforementioned formula. The most obvious source of grey matter is a team of parapsychologists who are encamped at the hotel, intrigued by rumours of strange goings-on. However, complications arise because the leader of the team, Carolyn (Maclennan), is the spitting image of Toulon’s long-dead wife, Elsa.

In the first film, Toulon was a force for good. (Although if he’s such a nice guy, why does he craft such creepy-looking puppets? Hmmm.) But there’s nothing like being dead for fifty years to make you go all bitter and twisted, and this time round he takes the role of villain. He looks the part too – a tall, cadaverous figure in grubby mummy wrappings, aviator goggles and a black cape. As played by Steve Welles, he makes for a deliciously old school baddie. There’s also a fun new addition to the roster of puppets – a pint-sized stormtrooper called Torch, with bullets for teeth and a flame-thrower for an arm.

Dave Allen, who masterminded the creature design on the first movie, steps into the director’s chair, and makes a fine job of it. Moments that might, with other helmsmen, have fallen into broad comedy – such as an autopsy upon one of the puppets – are pulled off with a commendably straight face. Like the other films in this series of releases, Puppet Master II has been remastered from the original 35 mm negative, and in this case the transformation is little short of jaw-dropping. The DVD version we saw was almost Powell and Pressburger-esque in its layering of vibrant amber, red and purple washes, and the Blu-ray is bound to be even better. The film sounds great too, thanks to Richard Band’s delightfully teasing score, which reworks his lilting theme music from the first movie. An unmissable release for Full Moon fans and lovers of ‘80s horror.

Extras: Special intro and audio commentary by Charles Band, Original full length Videozone, Killer puppet master montage, Rare 1997 Puppet Master action figure commercial, HD trailer, Full Moon trailer park, Collectors booklet, Reversible sleeve incorporating original artwork & Graham Humphreys artwork

Review: The Night Child / Cert: 18 / Director: Massimo Dallamano / Screenplay: Massimo Dallamano / Starring: Richard Johnson, Joanna Cassidy, Ida Galli, Nicoletta Elmi / Release Date: October 29th

In the ’70s, the phenomenal success of The Exorcist spawned a legion of imitations, many of them cranked out by the Italian exploitation industry, which in those days was still in overdrive. Among these pasta-possession flicks was The Night Child. Directed by Massimo Dallamano – best-known for his spicy S&M movie Venus in Furs – it mixes an Omen-style demon kid with an ancient curse, and plays the whole thing out against some gorgeously crumbly scenery. It’s not The Exorcist, but it’s still pretty buono.

The bambina in question is Emily (Italo-horror child star Nicoletta Elmi, and very scary she is too). Daughter of TV art historian Michael Williams (Johnson), Emily is deeply troubled following her mother’s accidental (yeah, right) death in a fire. Concerned, Michael decides to take her with him to Italy, where he’s making a documentary. There, he becomes fascinated by a mysterious painting whose imagery seems to echo what happened to his wife. Not so fascinated, though, that he doesn’t find time to hop into bed with his very comely producer, Joanna (Cassidy). Emily resents Joanna, and before you know it weighty objects are toppling off shelves and at least one person goes hurtling off a cliff.

To be frank, the movie could do with a meatier pay-off and better-developed set-pieces, and for this reason gorehounds might well find it a disappointment. But it still has a lot going for it. Dallamano stirs some tasty ingredients into the pot – Freudian subtexts, reincarnation, an evil amulet, and a splendidly gloomy Contessa (Kedrova) who’s good for tarot readings, murky exposition and dire warnings. The adult leads (one of those only-in-B-movies pairings) add to the charm with a surprisingly bubbly chemistry, with Cassidy (at this stage of her career somewhat like a slightly butch Sharon Stone) looking a treat in form-fitting pant suits and knee-high boots.

But then everything looks a treat. Dallamano started off as a cinematographer, and the film has some very distinctive visuals which show up nicely on this DVD release. An autumnal melancholy infuses all of the exterior scenes, shot on location in Umbria, and the interiors are just as good, especially the derelict castello which houses the satanic artwork – a place of weird, monumental furnishings half-hidden under rotting dust sheets. And for once in a horror film, the painting that all the fuss is about manages to appear reasonably authentic, too, a cut above the usual props department daub.

If you’re after masses of sex and violence you’ve come to the wrong villa, but if you fancy checking out the work of one of the period’s more thoughtful and technically adept Italian directors, then The Night Child should provide a decent evening’s entertainment.

Extras: Exorcism Italian-Style, Original Italian trailer, Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by author and critic Calum Waddell, Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys

Review: Men In Black 3 / Cert: PG / Director: Barry Sonnenfeld / Screenplay: Etan Cohen, Lowell Cunningham / Starring: Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement, Tommy Lee Jones, Emma Thompson / Release Date: November 5th

In 1997, Barry Sonnenfeld directed the original MIB, a fun sci-fi romp that teamed streetwise NYPD cop J (Smith) with grizzled defender of the earth K (Jones). It was a fantastical creation, giving us a tongue in cheek insight to a shady government agency that has been on the lips of conspiracy theorists since the Roswell incident of 1947. The 2002 sequel was a bit of a mis-step, failing to capture the essence of the original but hopes were high that this entry into the series would recreate the entertainment value of the series debut.

When a time travelling alien, Boris the Animal (Clement) goes back to the ‘60s to kill K and resultantly stop the MIB creating a global defence system, therefore enabling his race to mount a full scale invasion in present day, J pops back to the decade of flower power to try and save the day. Teaming up with a younger version of K (Brolin), they must thwart Boris’ plan and ensure the survival of the human race.

Whilst MIB3 is nowhere near as irritating as its predecessor, there are a number of issues. Boris makes an interesting and potentially nasty adversary, but in order to keep the PG rating, his evil abilities are mostly left unfulfilled – there is a real body horror element that would have David Cronenberg dancing on the ceiling. The time travel element has its flaws in logic and storytelling, as it always does. Jones and Thompson (playing Agent O) are given minimal screen time due to the fact that the majority of the running length is set in the past, although to be fair it is starting to look like Jones really should consider a second MIB retirement.

The good news is that Brolin channels an almost flawless impression of a younger K, before he became so cynical. Smith is his usual affable self, still playing for laughs and mugging for the camera. The aliens, especially the ‘60s versions, are brilliantly visualised, enabled as always by the work of Rick Baker.

But there’s something missing. Maybe the camaraderie of Smith and Jones from the first film was the proverbial lightening in a bottle and the writer and director just can’t seem to put their finger on that special mixture. In these fiscally frugal times, perhaps it is time to cut the governmental budget of the MIB and close them down for good.

Extras: Gag Reel, Partners in Time – The Making of MIB3, ‘Back in Time’ Music Video by Pitbull

Review: Die Nibelungen / Cert: PG / Director: Fritz Lang / Screenplay: Fritz Lang, Thea Von Harbou / Starring: Paul Richter, Margarete Schon, Theodor Loos / Release Date: October 29th

Metropolis (1927) is still widely regarded as one of the seminal s-f movies. But that film’s director, Fritz Lang, was a crack hand at sword and sorcery too: witness Die Nibelungen (1924). Based on an ancient Germanic poem and consisting of two parts, Siegfried and Kriemhild’s Revenge, this mammoth five hour saga laid the groundwork for fantasy flicks as we know them today. If you haven’t seen it already, the release of this stunning 2-disc set is the perfect opportunity to catch up with one of cinema’s neglected gems.

The early part of Siegfried deals with the eponymous hero’s rise to fame and fortune. After slaying a dragon and uncovering a hoard of treasure, he falls in love with Kriemhild, sister to the King of Burgundy. The future looks bright, until Siegfried becomes embroiled in the wimpish King Gunter’s domestic squabbles with the ultra-butch Queen Brunhild. Kriemhild’s Revenge follows directly on and chronicles Kriemhild’s attempts to avenge the wrongs done to her, to which end she marries the barbaric King Attila, who has an army of warlike huns at his command.

Both films give rise to some classic set-pieces. An early standout is Siegfried’s battle with the dragon – a 60-foot-long, fire-breathing articulated puppet that makes Ray Harryhausen look like he wasn’t even trying. But even better is his subterranean descent with Alberich, King of Dwarves – a creepy, shadowy scene that clearly provided visual cues for the Mines of Moria sequence in Peter Jackson’s Rings trilogy. And the whole thing ends in a siege of such fiery intensity that you can almost smell the smoke and heaps of bodies.

As Siegfried, Richter, with his Michael Heseltine-ish mane of blond hair and his athletic physique, is nice eye candy for the girls (especially when he bathes naked in the dragon’s blood to render himself invincible). And Schon really comes into her own in the second film, playing a woman strangely ennobled by the purity of her hate. But the most remarkable performance is Rudolf Klein-Hogge’s as King Attila. With staring eyes and a heap of crowns balanced on his misshapen pate, he’s one of the silent era’s finest monsters (not to mention an obvious inspiration for Jackson’s gaunt-faced trolls).

The real surprise, though, is how well Lang builds to the climactic moments (especially in the superb second film), showing the characters entangling themselves in webs of dark passion until they’re incapable of getting free. It’s thanks to these raw, adult themes (more akin to Game of Thrones than The Lord of the Rings) that Die Nibelungen can still compete for attention in an age of CGI blockbusters. For a movie that’s nearly 90 years old, it shows a ferocious vitality.

Extras: An hour-long documentary: The Heritage of Die Nibelungen, Illustrated booklet featuring the words of Lang, rare archival imagery, Newly translated optional English subtitles for the original German intertitles, Original Film Frame Rate and Aspect Ratio, expert HD restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung

Review: Alcatraz / Cert: 15 / Director: Jack Bender, Paul Edwards / Screenplay: Steven Lilien, Elizabeth Sarnoff, Bryan Wynbrandt / Starring: Sarah Jones, Jorge Garcia, Jonny Coyne, Parminder Nagra, Sam Neill, Leon Rippy, Jason Butler Harner / Release Date: Out Now

Executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Alcatraz looked set to be a monster hit when it debuted on our TV screens. But dwindling ratings led Fox to cancel the show after only one season, a fact which lends an air of melancholy to this boxset. Such a shame, because while it lasted it was a very decent exercise in Twilight Zone-style spookiness.

Back in 1963, the Rock’s 302 inmates and guards mysteriously vanish without a trace, only to start popping up in San Francisco in the present day. Tasked with tracking them down is a small team comprised of enigmatic black suiter Emerson Hauser (Neill), SFPD cop Rebecca Madsen (Jones) and Alcatraz expert Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge).

Each episode consists of the team’s pursuit of one or other of these inmates (known as 63s), each more deadly and cunning than the last. As a setup, it’s way random (although not so random that it doesn’t bear a striking resemblance to CBS’ beam-of-white-light show The 4400). But the creative talent handle it with considerable skill. Crucially, the baddies are, for the most part, impressively scary – a child murderer, a sniper, a poisoner. Regular flashbacks to 1960 provide humanizing backstories, but these only serve to make them seem even more chillingly hard-wired for mayhem.

Looming over everything, exuding Gothic gloom, is Alcatraz itself. The team operate (somewhat unbelievably, but it makes for good TV) out of a nifty high-tech HQ under the prison (cuing a nail-biting episode wherein two particularly thuggish 63s suddenly materialize in their midst). Meanwhile, in 1960, the well-spoken but deeply sinister Warden (Coyne) is using the prisoners as guinea-pigs in secretive experiments.

Weird science, brainwashing, locked chambers, hidden treasure… You just know that, had the show continued, these story arcs would have eventually gotten out of hand. But here, in the first season, their B-movie vibe is the perfect complement to the part-period setting. Adding weight are some intriguing themes and subtexts. The 63s, with their smart haircuts and deep neuroses, read like unwelcome visitations from a repressive period of American history. This chimes in with a peculiar dynamic among the leads. Soto is an awkward man-child, Madsen a glib, heartless tomboy – both seem to be suffering from a kind of traumatic arrested development. And reining them in like a tetchy headmaster is Hauser, a one-time romantic dried up by his long acquaintance with Alcatraz.

What exactly did happen to the 63s? What was the Warden up to in his secret cellar? And how can Madsen be such a crack marksman with her fringe constantly flopping over one eye? Chances are, these and other questions will never be answered. But let’s be grateful for the series that raised them.

Extras: None

Review: Apartment 143 / Cert: 15 / Director: Carles Torrens / Screenplay: Rodrigo Cortes / Starring: Rick Gonzalez, Kai Lennox, Fiona Glascott / Release Date: Out Now

A bunch of paranormal investigators are invited to the home of a family – Dad, moody teen girl, four year-old boy – who are being plagued by nightmarish beyond-the-grave style spookiness. Mom has recently died and there’s an unavoidable tension within the family dynamic; the investigators are on the scene with all their fancy gizmos to record any and all examples of supernatural shenanigans in an attempt to find out if the family really are being troubled from beyond the grave or whether their problems are of the more domestic variety…

Your enjoyment of Apartment 143 very much depends on how much the Paranormal Activity franchise floats your fear boat. At first blush Apartment 143 seems almost scandalously derivative of the long running series; found footage format, camera equipment recording goings-on, things moving about in the night of their own accord. But Apartment 143, clearly inspired by the Paranormal Activity series, soon heads off in a radically-different direction. Where the PA films are slower, more atmospheric affairs, teasing out their shocks and scares and leaving the audience breathless with anticipation, Apartment 143 just cracks on and starts throwing all its supernatural toys at the screen in the first ten minutes. The apartment is quickly rocked by supernatural seismic shock, things start to bang and rattle, and shadowy figures appear on photographic images. By the time the film fizzles out we’ve gone the whole hog with levitation, possession and – the film’s best shock moment – a flash photography sequence which sees something faintly hair-rising suddenly standing in the middle of the room.

Tempting as it is to write Apartment 143 off as just a cheap and timely rip-off (Paranormal Activity 4 is out this month and, of course, Halloween is just around the corner) the film’s actually got a decent pedigree (writer Cortes directed Buried a couple of years back) and the script has a couple of nice touches which make it clear that Paranormal Activity is more of a launching-point than a rigid template, recognising the self-imposed limitations of the PA series which can never be quite this visually-explicit and travelling down a different, less ambiguous road. Interesting, if inessential but, at just seventy-five minutes, worth a look if you fancy a few reliable ghostly thrills.

Extras: Trailer, making of featurette.

Review: The Maze / Cert: 18 / Director: Steve Shimek / Screenplay: Katy Baldwin, Timothy Gutierrez / Starring: Shalaina Castle, Brandon Sean Pearson, Kyle Paul, Tye Nelson / Release Date: Out Now

Post-Cabin in the Woods it’s a bit difficult to take seriously any movie about a gang of teens who wander off into some remote middle-of-nowhere wilderness (where they can’t get a mobile phone signal) because Joss Whedon’s witty and wonderful movie deconstructed and laid bare all those clichés and, in theory, made teens-in-peril slashers off-limits – at least for the foreseeable. Someone should have told the makers of The Maze what Whedon was up to because, if nothing else, we’d have been spared this deeply-dreary, unimaginative offering which we’re a-mazed (yes!!) ever got off whichever sorry drawing board it was conceived upon.

So here we go again. A group of college friends (get out, this lot won’t see twenty-five again) decide to break into a closed corn maze in the middle of the night (as you do) for a game of tag. But wait! There’s some bloke with a knife wearing a red hoodie (how low was the budget again?) in the cornfield with them and before long he’s… well, he’s just stabbing them, one by one.

The word ‘derivative’ barely does this one justice so we’ll try ‘boring’ and ‘pointless’ too and see where they all get us. As murderous mysterious rampaging psychopath movies go, The Maze just doesn’t get off the starting blocks. The script is lifeless, the acting is listless and the killer is just this guy in a coat who doesn’t even come up with gross or inventive ways of killing his victims. The Maze is so bereft of ideas it actually runs out of maze-based steam halfway through and the rest of the film shifts into an only slightly more suspenseful gear as the survivor of the group becomes embroiled in a cat-and-mouse battle of wits with the killer who’s determined to finish the job – whatever it was. I certainly had no idea what his motivation was but with murder methods as dull and unimaginative as these I’d have been minded to advise him to give it up as a bad job and take up something only marginally less tedious – accountancy perhaps.

The Maze is just one big bore. There are no characters to invest in, no sense of excitement, no thrill of the last-minute will-they/won’t-they escape. The corn maze itself is a visually dreary setting and the half-time switch to a cramped Police station just barely saves The Maze from the box marked ‘instantly forgettable’. Lame.

Extras: None

Review: Arachnoquake / Cert: 15 / Director: G.E. Furst / Screenplay: Paul A. Birkett / Starring: Tracey Gold, Edward Furlong, Bug Hall, Ethan Phillips / Release Date: Out Now

In Arachnoquake a freak earth tremor in the New Orleans area releases a race of vicious, albino giant spiders which have been evolving at the centre of the earth for millions of years. They also spit fire and walk on water. Really. We’re not making this up.

You’ll not be too surprised (we hope) to learn that this is another Sy Fy ‘monster of the week’ TV movie and, despite its general idiocy and ineptness, it’s actually not that bad. Giant spider movies are always fun – who hasn’t enjoyed a quick shriek at the likes of Tarantula, Kingdom of the Spiders and even Eight-Legged Freaks? – and Arachnoquake, whilst hardly in the same league, has a few worthwhile gross-out thrills and a nice sense of self-awareness with its tongue planted very firmly in its cheek. The low budget fun begins when an unconvincing CGI spider scuttles out of a crevice in the ground following an unexpected earthquake in Louisiana. Before long – Arachnoquake doesn’t hang about – hordes of giant arachnids of various sizes are racing across the city (which looks oddly under-populated) and terrorising a bus load of tourists and their slacker tour guide Paul (played by the brilliantly-named Bug Hall), a swamp tour boat piloted by Paul’s sister Annabel (Megan Adelle) and a busload of cheerleaders driven by Charlie (Terminator 2 star Furlong).

Determinedly cheap and cheerful stuff, Arachnoquake happily barrels along in a rush of decent action set pieces which do the job if you can turn a blind eye to the low-grade special effects and hammy, over-earnest acting. The spiders belch flame, attack victims with some sort of stinger and, in an amusingly-overambitious sequence, rush across the water with their little legs spinning like paddles. Inevitably the giant queen spider is drawn from her underground lair and sets off on a King Kong-style assault on New Orleans, spinning her web between two skyscrapers as a handful of military types run around shouting and firing guns at her.

Arachnoquake is too hilarious and good-natured to be offensive and, for Sy Fy, it’s a quantum leap in quality from last year’s dire Camel Spiders and is cautiously recommended for lovers of unpretentious throwaway big insect movies.

Extras: None

Review: Puppet Master III – Toulon’s Revenge / Cert: 18 / Director: David DeCoteau / Screenplay: C. Courtney Joyner / Starring: Guy Rolfe, Richard Lynch, Ian Abercrombie, Kristopher Logan / Released: October 22nd

The third instalment of the Puppet Master series is a prequel, giving us the long-awaited backstory of Andre Toulon (Rolfe), a puppeteer with the power of bringing his creations to life. It’s World War II, Berlin, and Toulon is doing his bit against the Axis by sneaking anti-Nazi propaganda into his puppet shows. This draws the attention of a Gestapo officer, who notices that Toulon’s puppets seems to be moving around without strings, as if by magic – news which greatly excites Nazi boffin Dr Hess (Abercrombie), who has been trying and failing to come up with a formula to reanimate corpses for service on the Eastern Front. The ensuing raid on Toulon’s flat results in the death of his beloved wife, Elsa (Douglas). The puppet master escapes, vowing revenge. Cue the patter of tiny feet and the flashing of knives.

Going back in time fifty years was a risky move, but it works very well. Shot on the Universal Studios backlot, the film has a sleek, Indiana Jones-ish period feel, with sinister black cars prowling the streets and anything that doesn’t move draped in massive swastikas. It also boasts a superior array of baddies. As well as the bumptious Dr Hess, there’s vicious Gestapo heavy Major Krauss (a typically fine turn from the late Richard Lynch) and his boss, the urbane, brothel-creeping General Mueller (played by Walter Gotell, better known as General Gogol from the James Bond movies).

Rounding out a strong cast is Guy Rolfe, taking on the role of Toulon. A tall, distinguished actor in the Christopher Lee/Basil Rathbone mould, his dignified but steely performance at last makes sense of a character who until that point had been a bit of a muddle – a suicidal Geppetto in the first film, a brain-eating ghoul in the second. Rolfe paints him as a decent man in the grip of moral outrage, determined to exact poetic vengeance.

Prolific director David DeCoteau (98 directing credits on IMDb!) moves things along briskly, and the SFX (a combination of stop-motion animation, cable controls and hand puppetry) are the slickest of the series yet. There’s a colourful new addition, a six-armed cowboy called Six Shooter, who delivers one of the film’s standout moments when he goes clambering up the wall of General Mueller’s favourite brothel. And two old favourites, Blade and Leach Woman, are endowed with surprising origin stories.

In fact, the whole film benefits from the sense of being part of an ongoing saga, deepening our understanding of what has gone before and shedding new light on characters we thought we knew. Like its predecessors, it looks stunning in this new transfer. That’s three excellent discs released so far. Anyone fancy popping round for a Puppet Master marathon?

Extras: Commentary by David DeCoteau and C. Courtney Joyner, original Videozone making of featurette, introduction by Charles Band, trailer, two rare toy commercials, Full Moon trailer park, reversible sleeve incorporating original art.