This week sees the premiere of this year’s secret guilty pleasure (horror edition), Unfriended. Taking place completely on the screen of a computer, Unfriended is one of the most entertaining character stories as long as you don’t expect much of it at all. Following the journey of a bunch of friends as they’re tormented by somebody who is pretending to be their dead friend who killed herself a year earlier. It’s weird, funny, brash, and messy as all get out. But, it’s so damned watchable. Unfortunately, NerdintheBasement had a different opinion. (Note: The Den also had a similar gimmick and is a much more frightening horror movie, but without the hangout vibe of Unfriended)
Given its reviews, few people are going to be chasing after Hot Pursuit, except to watch a trainwreck. Though it stars Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, Hot Pursuit is supposed to be a shrill, vile piece of retrograde garbage that isn’t even funny. It also involves a lot of yelling.
This week, I’m going to call your attention to another great horror movie getting a collector’s edition blu: The People Under the Stairs. Wes Craven’s liberal screed against racial oppression by rich white people would be considered shrill if everybody in it weren’t having so much fun. A young boy with a sick mother teams up with Ving Rhames to rob the house of the white slumlords. Once inside, they find themselves trapped by the mechanics of the house and the weird characters trapped inside. It’s not really a horror movie in the traditional sense, but it certainly defies genre. It’s a hoot that I recommend checking out.
Blu-Ray and DVD
- Basilisk: The Complete Series
- Dig: Season One
- The Dovekeepers
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman
- Greg Allman Live: Back to Macon, GA
- Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fourth Season
- Hot Pursuit
- I Am Chris Farley
- Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell
- The Knick: The Complete First Season
- The Milky Way: Every Mother Has a Story
- Northmen: A Viking Saga
- Person of Interest: The Complete Fourth Season
- Police Story: Lockdown
- Unfriended
- War Gods of the Deep
- WWE: The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro Vol. 3
Blu-Ray Only
- Dead Silence
- Hellfighters
- The Monster that Challenged the World
- The People Under the Stairs
- Spring
- Still of the Night
DVD Only
- 2 Broke Girls: The Complete Fourth Season
- 72 Hours
- The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box / Day of the Falcon / The Way Back
- Alien Skies: Mass UFO Sightings
- Alto
- Blaze and the Monster Machines: High Speed Adventures
- Bloody Homecoming / Varsity Blood
- The Changing of Ben Moore
- Dance Macabre
- Denver the Last Dinosaur Vol. 1
- Denver the Last Dinosaur Vol. 2
- Deranged Killers: Stories of Psychos, Sex and Slaughter
- Division III: Football’s Finest / Wild Cherry
- Eclipse Series 43: Agnes Varda in California
- Every Breath
- Find a Way
- Foundations of Freedom with David Barton
- Frat Brothers / Note to Self
- Frontline: Secrets, Politics & Torture
- Garfield Holiday Collection
- Goodnight for Justice Collection
- Hey Babu Riba
- Homicycle
- Horror House on Highway Six
- Hunting Elephants
- i-Lived
- The Jeffersons: Season 8
- Kendra on Top: The Explosive Third Season
- Lalaloopsy: Band Together
- Last Days of the Nazis
- Law & Order SVU: Year 16
- Match
- Maude: The Complete Second Season
- Max Steel: Go, Turbo!
- May Allah Bless France
- Miles Away From Tomorrowland: Let’s ROcket
- Mythbusters: Collection 13
- National Geographic: Awesome Animals Collection
- Octonauts: Search and Rescue
- Operation Wild
- Patch Town
- Poltergeist Activity
- Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: The Complete Series
- Power Rangers Super Megaforce: The Legendary Battle
- Psychotronica: Volume 4
- The Rain Killer
- Robot Overlords
- Scandal: The Complete Fourth Season
- Shark Week: Dominating the Deep
- Strawberry Shortcake (a lot of double features)
- Super Why: Cinderella & Other Fairytale Adventures
- Thorns
- The Very Fairy Princess & More Imaginative Tales
- Welcome to Kutsher’s: The Catskills Resort
- Zack & Quack: Quack to School
- Zombie Resurrection