On behalf of Salient Media I am introducing you to the horror-thriller Atrocious – will hit theatres on August 17th for a special engagement! Atrocious will join the “Night Terrors” film series where The Collective, AMC Theatres and Bloody-Disgusting.com have teamed up to distribute the best new horror and thriller titles from the festival and international markets to AMC theatres across America.

These showings are totally for horror fans.

Atrocious is a gruesome, mind-bending thriller shot in a style reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project. The horror film excerpts found footage from a film reel recovered by Spanish police, documenting a family of five discovering the truth behind a dangerous urban legend. The 37 hours of found footage follow Cristian and July Quintanilla passing time at their summer home by investigating a terrifying and mysterious urban legend. As their investigation intensifies, strange occurrences in and around the house escalate rapidly, culminating finally in unspeakable atrocities.

Happy news, folks, happy news–the folks out at Lions Gate sent out another part of their After Dark Originals series. With the dog of the series likely put to rest thanks to Seconds Apart, we can now proceed on in to Scream of the Banshee, a copy of which they sent out for review.

Scream of the Banshee takes us out to Santa Mira University, a college that’s harboring an unusual secret the depths of which it doesn’t even really know about. A professor at the college and her students discover an ornately-worked box in the basement of one of the school’s buildings. When they open it, a bloodcurdling scream pours out of it, and then not long after, the students start to die. Now, the surviving students and faculty will have to figure out just what was in that box before they all die.

I have to hand it to them; though much of the movie is spent in building tension, they will do it nice and incrementally, with plenty of good release points throughout the process, making this a nicely scary movie.

Even better, a couple of great names are going to make themselves known in this one: Lauren Holly, for one, not to mention Todd Haberkorn of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood fame,  and one of my personal top five favorite actors, Lance Henriksen. Granted, Henriksen was woefully underused on this one, but still, better than nothing.

This was actually released first on SyFy, and frankly, if the actual lineup of SyFy movies could be as good as this one was–as good as Husk was–you’d have a whole lot more people watching SyFy, I’m sure of that much.

But that’s not to say this is all sunshine and lollipops here; Scream of the Banshee suffers from a lack of focus. The monster in question here–clearly the banshee–uses a variety of different methods here, and there’s not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to them. The whole sound mechanic has been used before (seriously, watch this, then put in a copy of Dead Silence and see where you get), but it’s been used so seldom that it’s hardly familiar. Horror aficionados may be put off, but more casual horror fans should do just fine.

And there are even a couple of those great After Dark standard twists in here that make a truly good After Dark experience.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Scream of the Banshee an eight out of ten–it’s a rousing little romp with a few problems

Before I begin today’s piece, yes, I assure you that “Dinocroc Vs. Supergator” is an actual movie. How do I know? The folks out at Anchor Bay sent over a copy for me to review for you guys. It’s part of the vein of modern-day monster movies from Roger Corman that keep landing on SyFy of late, and much like the other launches, it’s not exactly Oscar material, but it’s reasonably entertaining monster movie mayhem that will prove to be fun.

Dinocroc Vs. Supergator takes us out to an island in the middle of nowhere, where a biotech firm is putting together the finishing touches on its newest creations, the titular Dinocroc and Supergator. And when Dinocroc escapes the lab, heading for populated areas, the firm figures the only way it’s going to stop the inbound menace that’s about to subject them to a whole load of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits is to release Supergator to hunt and kill the menace down. Nothing like making a bad situation worse, huh? Now it’s down to a handful of folks–a Cajun hunter, a Fish and Game representative, and an undercover investigator to try and halt both of the massive monsters before it’s too late.

Interestingly, much of the SyFy monster movie lineup in previous releases has not proven to be as godawful as its titling and special effects would suggest. And it’s certainly helped that this is one of the last movies to feature David Carradine–that sweet shout-out to the great classics certainly can’t hurt.

Sure, this is another low budget monster movie romp, heavy on the CG monstrosities, but it’s still worth watching, especially if you’re big on the monster movie subgenre. There isn’t much here that’s straining the disbelief too hard–one big crocodile, one big alligator, getting briefly out of control and lunching up some folks before a brawl–and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. It’s really pretty worthwhile stuff, and great for a friendly get together as long as you don’t mind chucking a little popcorn at the screen or engaging in mockery in the grandest Mystery Science Theater style.

And no, I’m not going to spoiler for you, but let’s just say that there will be an actual, clear winner in the titular fight. Dinocroc or Supergator WILL have a clear winner…if not necessarily for very long. I know, that’s a downright tease, but the end result will be surprisingly satisfying.

It may be low budget, it may be less than perfect, but with results like these, it’s still decent stuff. And the Screenhead Ten Scale offers up the normal score for decent fare, a seven out of ten, making it well worth watching if you like this sort of thing.

Once again, the folks at the IFC have sent out an advance look at a chunk of movie goodness in the form of The Shrine. And while The Shrine will be short on sense, it will be incredibly long on horror action.

The Shrine follows, indirectly, a backpacker who goes missing in Europe, and directly, the film crew who goes in search of his whereabouts and eventual fate. Of course, you can pretty much guess that what happened to the backpacker wasn’t anything good, but when you get a look at just what happened to him–and what will likely happen to the pursuing film crew–is going to be a whole lot deeper and nastier than anyone (least of all the aforementioned pursuing film crew) would ever expect.

I’m always fond of anything coming out of the IFC, and while they’ve had their missteps in the past, they’ve also put out a whole lot of prime content. So when The Shrine got started a little on the slow side, I was eager to forgive. After all, this was IFC we were talking about, and these guys knew their stuff.

My patience was rewarded with a delightfully creepy scene about twelve minutes in. Suddenly, this took on a whole new life of gleeful fury.

Sinister, sinister, sinister. That’s the order of the day right here, it’s a constant string of non-stop sinister. Between the sheer amount of time they’ll spend in Eastern European bizarrity, and the nature of what’s going on (that naturally I can’t tell you very much about), there will be a lot of time here in which you feel that something is gravely wrong beneath the surface. And toward the end, that whole “beneath the surface” is going to burst out into a whole and breathing and thoroughly terrible life. Seriously, if you’re watching this thing, and you ever think it’s slow and boring and deeply unpleasant, I’m telling you, stick with it. The last half hour of The Shrine is going to be a hallucinatory hell ride the likes of which have not recently been seen in film. Seriously, it’s going to be the action movie equivalent of The Exorcist.

And that’s what really makes this interesting; this is going to go from slow and sludgy start to a horrendous, action-packed, terror-fraught ending that isn’t going to make a lot of sense, but will be all the more terrifying for the note of confusion it inspires. The final explanation doesn’t do a lot to help, sadly, but even then it’s sufficiently sinister to make it a huge extra blow.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, in response, peels itself off the wall and gives the often confusing yet deeply horrifying The Shrine an eight out of ten. It may be slow, it may not do a great job of explaining everything, but man, will that last half hour ever blow your mind.

Vampire movies have always been kind of a strange batch. We’ve had some truly great ones–Salem’s Lot (either one, really, including the sequel), John Carpenter’s Vampires, 30 Days of Night–and of course, a legion of truly lesser pieces. And sometimes, we’ve had some vampire movies that have just been indescribable. One of those titles comes to us via the IFC, who sent out a copy of Vampires.

Basically, three years before the film was released, a company was contracted to shoot a documentary about the vampire community in Belgium. Sounds bizarre on the surface, but they took the deal and dispatched a film crew. Their sound man was promptly devoured. Subsequent attempts actually went worse, if you can believe that, until they sent out just one last crew under what were called “perfectly safe conditions”. Considering that the film is actually dedicated to the film crew–as well as one crewman’s arm–the end result is going to be only marginally better than previous ventures.

Vampires is chilling for many reasons, but the biggest one is that these vampires believe that they’re performing a valuable service to the community. They genuinely believe they’re helping society by kidnapping people and draining them of their blood. Frankly, it’s enough to make you think that  vampire hunters are our greatest natural resource, if these egomaniacal amoral psychotics are actually out there.

And yet, at the same time, Vampires is a real sight to see. This is a documentary devoted to an entirely fictional community, and yet, at every length, it’s believable. This is what you’d expect a movie about vampires to look like, and that’s strange enough in its own right. I mean, seriously–when’s the last time you saw a viable documentary about vampires? And even better, a fictionalized documentary? That’s just what the IFC will put on, and that makes Vampires a really rare and unique find that’s as chilling as it is compelling. It’s even got some funny bits in it that can’t be denied.

It’s hard to believe that a believable documentary about vampires can actually exist, especially given that vampires themselves don’t actually exist. You get an incredible look at their culture, their ceremony, their rules and guidelines, everything. They even do a great follow-up piece keeping up with a vampire clan that was forced to move.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Vampires a full ten out of ten by virtue of its sheer uniqueness. There is very little, if anything, out there that’s like this. This is a beautiful little movie, and vampire fans are going to love this.

So far, I’ve been loving the lineup from the Bloody Disgusting Selects line of movies. They’ve put out some good stuff, as you’ll remember from our reviews of Rammbock: Berlin Undead and Yellowbrickroad. So I was definitely excited to see a copy of Phase 7 hit my mailbox, as they sent one out.And Phase 7 will not disappoint.

Phase 7 follows Coco and Pipi, a couple with a new baby on the way who just moved into a new apartment building, when something bizarre and horrible happens. A virus begins sweeping through North and South America, as well as parts of Europe. And the apartment building finds itself placed under a quarantine. But as the quarantine drags on, and supplies begin to dwindle, not only does the outside world start looking steadily worse, but the inside world doesn’t look much better. Conflicts within and without threaten the lives of everybody in the building. Who will survive the horror?

The really interesting thing about Phase 7 is that it’s an Argentinian horror film. If you can look at your own movie watching career and honestly answer that you’ve seen an Argentinian movie in the last six months–let alone an Argentinian horror movie–and you’re not actually in Argentina, then you get out more than I do.

First off, I want to lodge a complaint against whatever chimp put the subtitles in place. They used white lettering, and in the frame itself. That means that more than once, you won’t be able to actually see the subtitles. And unless you speak Spanish (or possibly Portuguese or the like, I don’t speak either), you’re going to be lost.

But that issue of engineering aside, the resulting movie itself is actually quite good. You remember those opening minutes of Shaun of the Dead, where Shaun’s going round to the shops for a Coke and a Cornetto, and he walks by zombie devastation and doesn’t even notice? That’s a lot like how Phase 7 kicks off, except this time it’s not edged with humor (at least, not so much as Shaun of the Dead was), and that actually makes it a lot creepier. It’ll then seque into something like Quarantine, which was scary enough in its own right, before turning into something much, much different.

And really, much, much scarier to boot. All this is going to take place inside the apartment complex, so it’s going to be both claustrophobic and intensely scary all at the same time, because there are precious few places to hide in a building like this, and putting all those people together in the face of disaster is going to make a whole lot of people turn against each other in rapid fashion.

The end result is spectacularly creepy, with plenty of action and a few good laughs besides, making it actually the best addition yet to the Bloody Disgusting Selects lineup. And the Screenhead Ten Scale responds accordingly by forking over a ten out of ten for this fantastic little import. It’s no Shaun of the Dead, but it’s still a terrific piece. Argentinians, you’ve got reason to be happy about this. And so do the rest of us.

Information has been very scant regarding the plot of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, due out in cinemas next summer. The best nugget we’ve heard since its announcement is that the story will exist in the same world as the Alien series, which Scott created with the chilling 1979 original. While the majority of Alien sequels and spin-offs were dire, it’s great to see Scott take the reins again. And now we have been told of the plot.

Well, not quite. IO9 were sent a synopsis of a plot, which does give a significant amount of detail about the Alien world. Fans of the original will remember the main characters first encountering the aliens (in the form of face huggers) in a giant crashed spaceship, with the corpse of a huge creature present in the ship. Dubbed the “space jockey”, this creature was never explained in the franchise, the rest of the characters continuing to be tormented by the “xenomorph” we all now recognise.

According to the leaked plot (NO SPOILERS, as you’ll see below), the space jockey is part of an engineer alien species, who actually are responsible for creating humans and the earth. Now that human have finally advanced enough to make contact, our Alien Gods welcome us and display their techniques and power. However, when one human attempts to steal the source of the Alien Gods power, they respond by sending their most lethal weapon to Earth…. presumaly, that creature we’ve known 32 years.

So there you have it, the Space Jockey explained. He’s an Alien God that tried to destroy earth but somehow failed in its mission, and I guess the prequel will deal with that. HOWEVER, Fox have claimed this is not accurate. It’s possibly a summary of an early draft, before the arrival of Lost writer Damon Lindelof who revised the story. That said, Scott and actor Michael Fassbinder have been abstractly suggesting that what we see may involve the “space jockey”, but for now take the above outline with a pitch of salt.

I don’t know who let Roger Corman back into making movies, but this resurgence has brought with it a lot of the old fashioned monster movie. We’ve seen bizarre stuff: Mega Python Vs. Gatoroid, Sharktopus, a dozen other such strangenesses, and all thanks to Corman and his newfound partners in cinematic crime: the SyFy Channel. And today, thanks to the crew at Anchor Bay who sent a copy out for us to review, we’ve got one more: Dinoshark.

Dinoshark follows the titular creature as it’s just emerged from its hundred and fifty million year slumber in the heart of a patch of glacial ice. And after all that time, it’s feeling a bit peckish, so it heads in search of sun, surf, sand, and human beings: Mexico. And armed with huge jaws, enormous teeth, a hide more than bulletproof, and a downright prehistoric appetite for people meat, it’s going to lunch up a lot of humans before it meets its end. That is, of course, if it meets its end.

One thing that’s really dismaying about Dinoshark is that it takes about the first twenty minutes to see the monster really get going. Considering that this is a ninety minute movie, they really don’t have this kind of time to spare, to be frank. They need to get started right in with the dinoshark and the mayhem, not spend a lot of time on the beach checking out the attractive women in the skimpy swimwear. Not that they’re not awesome, of course, but they need to be better interspersed throughout the movie.

But for the most part, this is your op-standard, basic chunk of monster movie joy, the kind of which you normally find on the SyFy Channel’s lineup, or formerly, in Saturday afternoon matinees in the 1950s.

It’s got its charm–a very low-budget charm but a charm nonetheless–especially if you’re into monster movies and just love it when barely intelligent things the size of city buses or bigger decide to lunch up whatever–or whoever–happens to be in munching range.

Dinocroc is a surprising dose of low-budget fun, and if you’re looking for a monster movie to perk up a friendly get together, then you’ll likely do pretty well with this.

The Screenhead Ten Scale is very surprised to hand over a seven out of ten to Dinocroc, a surprisingly fun little movie that will do a good job of keeping your interest throughout. It’s not the best movie you’ll see this year, but it’s better than you might think.

Red Riding Hood, from the director of Twilight, was released last week on Demand, for Download, and Blu-ray combo pack.

I hosted a giveaway in conjunction with the release of the movie.  The giveaway consisted of two (2) prize packs for our winners.

The winners are Kelvin and Ron Grande!  Congratulations!  Kelvin says, “I would like to win this contest.”  And, you did Kelvin. That’s fantastic.  Ron says, “[I] can’t wait to have this. My new laptop has Blu-ray for this sweet looking scenery in the movie.”

This is what Kelvin and Ron won:

•         Cable Cash (which is $5 off the winner’s cable or satellite bill)
•         Canvas Roll-up Bag
•         Tribal Wolf t-shirt

Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) directs a fantasy thriller that puts a haunting twist on the classic fairy tale. For years the villagers of Daggerhorn have maintained an uneasy truce with a werewolf – but the beast changes the stakes by killing the older sister of beautiful young Valerie (Amanda Seyfried). Promised in marriage to one man but in love with another, Valerie has her life dramatically affected yet again by the creature’s bloody actions. When a werewolf hunter warns that the beast takes human form by day and walks among them, panic sets in as the death toll rises. And Valerie learns she has a unique connection to the wolf that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect…and bait. Gary Oldman, Billie Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas and Julie Christie also star.

Remember: Watch it your way, On Demand, For Download and on Blu-ray combo pack.

Anyone else see It? You know, that Stephen King opus that spanned two DVDs, and featured several monster movie sequences? That’s about what we’re going to get here. See, Mega Python Vs. Gatoroid–and this is an actual title that I assure you exists because the folks at Image Entertainment sent one out for me to review–is one of those big, cheesy monster movies that have gotten something of a resurgence of late. And this will be fun, in certain conditions.

Featuring 80′s pop diva Tiffany, and 80′s pop diva Debbie Gibson, Mega Python Vs. Gatoroid will send the two titular impossibilities out to a swamp, where several instances of each will be taking each other on in a battle for bizarre monster supremacy. Oh, and by the way…right in the middle of said big monster battle is a well attended charity ball filled with humans that will be the perfect between-round snack for the monsters in question.

See what I mean? Replace “Mega Python” with “Godzilla” and “Gatoroid” with “Gamera” or “King Ghidorah” or anything else to come out of the Toho stable of BRMs (industry jargon for Big Rubbery Monster), and you’ve got a reasonable idea of just what we’re dealing with.

There will be some interesting industry issues here, too, like how Pet Sematary director Mary Lambert got involved in this, or how Image Entertainment got to distributing a David Michael Latt production (Latt seemed to be almost exclusively a The Asylum sort, since it is his company and all. But then the SyFy component likely had a bit to do with that.

But anyway, weird politics aside, you’re going to get a full-on monster movie in the grandest sense. This is the kind of movie that, when you were a kid, would have had you chucking popcorn at the screen. And when you’re an adult, the perfect kind of movie to get quite thoroughly soused to while watching.

The effects are godawful, the plot is a joke, and in all honesty, this thing is lousy from every technical measure. But it’s surprisingly fun, in a low-budget kind of way. It’s a great movie to get your friends together to laugh at; don’t come here looking for a great movie–don’t come here looking for a good movie–but come here looking for some great unintentional laughs, and you’ll be in good company. And some clearly intentional ones, like the Tiffany / Debbie Gibson catfight, for starters.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives this dose of good old fashioned monster movie fun a seven out of ten for being nothing particularly special, but very worthwhile in terms a fun time. Frankly, it’s a bad movie, but it’s the right kind of bad movie, and will provide a shocking amount of low-budget fun and laughs.