This week, folks, is something of a big one. The folks out at Lions Gate sent out all three Scream titles on Blu-ray in advance of the big release of Scream 4 this Friday, the first such release in over a decade. So today, we start it off with the original Scream, perhaps the one truly good thing Wes “Nerve Gas” Craven ever did.

Scream takes us to the town of Woodsboro, where things seem relatively normal. The town has two real claims to fame, though: one, the recent rape and murder of resident Maureen Prescott, and two, the serial killer that’s been stalking the townsfolk of late. And the farther in we go, the more we discover that the killer is working according to a set of commonly accepted rules, the “rules” of horror film. And now, the local police are desperate to find out just who’s responsible for all this, and their connection to Maureen’s daughter Sidney, hopefully before the killer can strike again.

While Scream itself is a solid horror title, with plenty of scares throughout, it’s what it represents that really makes it something to see. See, when this came out, back in the depths of the nineties, 1996 to be more specific, the horror genre had seen better days. The slasher movie had lost a lot of its spark, the direct to video boom was still a good six to eight years out, and many thought that the genre had bit the big one. But then Wes Craven, the guy everybody remembered from the Nightmare on Elm Street series (which had completely wrapped with New Nightmare only two years prior), brought out something new, an experience that took the conventions of horror movies, and installed them in the movie itself. Things like “anyone who says ‘I’ll be right back’ never actually comes back” and “the virgin never dies” went from cliches to actual literal truth. And this incredibly meta performance was unlike anything that anyone had seen before. Imagine, a shot of pure originality in a genre that everyone thought was past its prime! To this day, I credit Scream with the resurgence of horror film in general; it was there at the right place at just the right time.

But aside from that, Scream is still a solidly made piece of horror, an excellent piece of meta-fiction that delivers scares, laughs, and full-on horror, the kind of which we don’t see every day, even to this day.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Scream a full ten out of ten, not only for what it is but for what it did. This may well have changed the landscape as we know it, and not only that, but it provided us with a well put together piece of filmmaking joy in the process.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a hooker, and thought that Pretty Woman was a ridiculous farce, you’ll do quite a bit better with X. The folks out at IFC sent over a copy of X for us to review, and though, in the beginning, it’ll start a little weird and rocky, the main plot will get going soon enough.

X follows a couple of hookers–one a cynical veteran and the other a relative newcomer–who find themselves working a profitable threesome together one night when their john is abruptly shot in a business deal gone wrong. The rest of the night will be a downright disaster for these two women, and you’ll be there right along side them.

First off, folks, keep the kids way, way far away from this one unless you like the thought of having a whole lot of explaining to do. The first five minutes will be largely comprised of a bizarre sex performance to an audience of a roomful of well-heeled middle aged ladies. The poster alone shows you what’s going on here.

X isn’t the normal kind of thing we’ve seen from the IFC of late–this is no horror flick, in no uncertain terms–it’s a thriller with a few good elements of crime drama mixed in there. Though the content is deeply adult in nature, it’s still well worth the watch if for no other reason than it’s very deep and well put together. Gritty is this film’s second nature, and it’s going to put on the best gritty show it can. A movie so hard boiled it makes Easter eggs look like omelettes by comparison, X brings drama and thrills to the proceedings in a thoroughly believable–and thoroughly authentic–fashion. It’s believable, and that’s the best part about the whole thing. Can I say it’s absolutely authentic? No, I’ve never been a hooker. But I can believe this is what it would look like. I can believe this because X is a stark, but sharp, little thriller that will do a nice job of keeping your attention quite thoroughly riveted, and that’s quite good enough by me. It should be good enough for you too.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives this gritty package of authentic thriller with just a pinch of crime drama thrown in an eight out of ten–this one is going to be terrific for anyone who likes your standard British crime drama, as well as most anyone else with a taste for action and thriller.

Take one part Rambo, one part Deliverance, and one part Hostel, and what do you get? Wait–don’t answer. Because I haven’t told you the weirdest part: the mixing bowl in which we blend our disparate ingredients is no less than the IFC, who sent out this baffling amalgam they’re calling Shadow for me to review.

Shadow follows David, a young Iraq War veteran who’s out biking in Europe following his successful return from duty. He’s having a nice time of it, cruising the trails, meeting attractive French girls, and so on. At least until a run-in at a bar with a couple of hunters makes him a couple of bad enemies. They tail David in a bid to get some revenge, and in the process, find themselves squarely in the clutches of an emaciated lunatic who embarks on a series of bizarre, clinical tortures on his newfound victims. Will David get out alive, with or without the hunters in tow?

There’s an old saying, and The Incredibles did it first–”when everybody’s super, no one is”–and that, oddly, actually applies here. We’ve got a combat veteran going up against a pair of gun-toting wackadoos who all find themselves in the clutches of a pure-on nightmare. This should all be quite awesome, but it ends up playing against itself, almost, and yielding a good first half, but a significantly slower second half that has a tendency to devolve into torture porn, complete with occasional toad licking sessions.

I never thought I’d be accusing the IFC, of all places, of putting out torture porn, but that’s a fair assessment of what we’re looking at here. I will, however, give them plenty of due credit for using that weak space as a great setup for a last half hour full of twists, betrayals and surprises, and call it a vast improvement.

There will even be a reasonably satisfying twist ending here, in the general hallmark of the IFC.  So yes, Shadow has its rough patches, but it will still do a very solid job in the end. If it weren’t for about the ten minutes or so in the middle of all this, it might have been even better.

Still though, I can allow for a misstep or two from otherwise top-notch IFC, and it just serves to remind us that no one wins them all, not even great companies like this.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Shadow a six out of ten. It’s a good idea, and it’s executed mostly well, but not without a few problems that get in the way of enjoying it. Still, it’s mostly a good time, and should make a worthwhile rental, if nothing else.

Hammer Films is coming back on us with a vengeance tonight, folks–seems that they’ve started their comeback tour, and we’re getting a look at the results with Resident. It literally just came out, folks, and it’s going to be impressive.

Resident follows a doctor who just got separated from her husband. And she thinks she’s found the perfect apartment in which to get separated. It’s a beauty, with big, airy rooms and a terrific view…but as our doctor–Juliet, by name–will discover, a killer apartment can sometimes wind up even more of a killer than you might expect. Especially once she finds out just how the apartment became available in the first place….

I’ll give Hammer due credit on this one–their opening title crawl is actually pretty creepy in its own right. It does a terrific job of setting up the rest of the nasty that we’re going to be seeing here, and thankfully, it doesn’t shoot its metaphorical bolt in the title crawl. Really, Resident is a good old fashioned thriller of the kind we only used to see way back in the deep dark days of, say, Fatal Attraction or Basic Instinct. This will have urbanites and apartment dwellers alike checking under their beds for days, possibly even weeks afterward, and that is no small feat these days.

But be careful–this is also going to be quite a bit more than you might normally get out of a thriller these days. It’s a very high-tension piece; this one–they do a great job of building suspense, and most of the last half hour is going to be an utter onslaught of freaky moments and vicious combat. Where the hour preceding it was careful, deliberate, and took its time regarding pacing, the last half hour will run wildly amok and do downright terrifying things.  The contrast between the earlier two thirds and the ending third really makes this movie something special.

Basically, folks, if you’re dying for a shocker with a whole lot of punch to it–and, parenthetically, a pretty sweet date movie, fellas–you’ll definitely have to have a go-round with Hammer‘s newest.

Frankly, if this is indicative of the kind of quality they’ll put into all their work then I’m absolutely dying to see Wake Wood.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Resident a full ten out of ten for not only putting on a great show, but also being every inch worthy of the old Hammer name. This is fine stuff for anyone who likes their movies scary, and well worth a watch.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s just released both the Blu-ray and DVD of The Tourist. Screenhead is hosting an online DVD giveaway. We have a copy of the DVD to give away to one of our visitors.

The movie is about a mysterious woman (Angelina Jolie) and a mild-mannered American (Johnny Depp) become involved in web of intrigue, romance and danger in this international action thriller set in the spectacular city of Venice, Italy.

The Tourist is available wherever DVDs are rented or sold. This is an awesome opportunity for you to own your own DVD with  two international stars.

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner April 10, 2011.

You know when you wake up in the middle of a wrecked car in the woods that something significant has happened. Did you cause the wreck in question? Were you here all along? And as you start to piece together the circumstances that led up to that significant something that got you in a wrecked care in the woods in the first place, possibilities, some more horrifying than others come to mind. And that’s what we’re dealing with with Wrecked, a copy of which the folks out at the IFC sent over for me to review for you guys today.

Wrecked follows a man who’s ended up in the situation I described above. The only problem is, he doesn’t remember how he got in that wrecked car in the first place. He’s also trapped inside it. Oh, and there’s a corpse in the back seat. Named George. And our boy’s got worse problems than that afoot–even assuming he manages to get out of that wrecked car without freezing to death or starving to death or dying from his injuries, he’s got to get his memory back to boot. And he may not like what he finds on the other side when he does.

It’s hard to believe that a movie–any kind of decent movie–can be constructed with a setting that is about one third comprised of “wrecked car: interior”, and yet, here we are. And by the time our boy sets off on his journey of self-discovery (and the discovery that he’s not exactly the kind of guy you’d want to have a beer with), it’s not hard to start wondering just where exactly Wrecked is going with all this.

But at the same time, it’s that sense of mystery, that strange feeling that you’re so lost, that actually, oddly, adds something to the horror this time around. I know it’s bizarre, but it actually scares me more, having no idea what’s going on, that vague feeling that I’m going around in circles with this plot…thinking about it leaves me very ill at ease.

And thankfully, they’ve got a proper actor handling this–what amounts to, anyway–one man show. Adrien Brody is going to do a great job here, and you should be duly impressed once you see just what it is he does.

Unsettling, folks, that is the word of the day. As a horror movie, this one doesn’t have the punch you’d expect, and as a thriller it doesn’t quite have the thrills you’d expect either. But for sheer unease, well, you’re not going to get much better than this. This is dark stuff. It’s chilling. It’s downright creepy in patches, but man, one thing it’s not, is dull. It kept me right until the end, even when I was lost and didn’t quite get it, I was still interested in keeping up.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Wrecked an eight out of ten–though it may be thoroughly baffling in some parts, IFC will still manage to bring in a sublimely creepy event that can’t help but keep you watching. Special note: just got word from IFC that says it’ll be available out at IFC Center this Friday, and streaming now.

I have been following Hanna and I am pretty sure that there is a secret twist to the movie that will unfold during the movie. Watch this behind-the-scenes featurette and let me know whether you agree or not.

Hanna features an original score from The Chemical Brothers. In addition to some behind-the-scenes footage from filming, the featurette includes interviews with director Joe Wright and stars Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett.

Award-winning director Joe Wright creates suspense thriller with about a young girl who is raised by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna’s upbringing and training have been all geared to making her the perfect assassin.

The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one. She is sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

The movie opens April 8, 2011.

First of all, I like this poster of Adrien Brody looking mighty beat and for forsaken. There is still a handsome quality about him, though. Directed by Michael Greenspan, Brody plays a man who awakens in a mangled car-wreck at the bottom of a steep cliff. Injured and trapped inside, with no memory of how he got there or who he is, he must rely on his most primal instincts to survive. But as he attempts to free himself from the carnage and escape an impossible situation, a darker side is revealed. Even if he manages to survive, the man may have to face the horrible consequences of an earlier, forgotten life.

The movie is being billed as horror-thriller, which also includes Caroline Dhavenas as the co-star. The film opens on April 1, 2011 in New York and April 8, 2011 in Los Angeles. The film is currently available on-demand.

Screenhead has five copies of Dying God to giveaway!

The search for a brutal serial killer becomes other-worldly in the suspenseful horror film Dying God, available wherever DVDs are sold from Green Apple Entertainment.

The science fiction-thriller follows a series of bizarre and violent killings that haunt a dark and decadent city. Along comes a corrupt cop, Sean Fallon (James Horan, Flags of Our Fathers), who must face his own demons to put an end to the brutal string of rape-murders.

With the help of an unsavory band of pimps, headed by Chance (Lance Henrickson, The Terminator) – his only allies – Fallon tracks the mysterious assailant … who just may not be human!

Directed by French director Fabrice Lambot (Le Sang du Chatiment, Insanity), Dying God is presented in widescreen with an aspect ratio of 16 x 9 (1.2.1) and stereo. Bonus material includes trailer.

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winners March 31, 2011.

I was definitely looking forward to this one, because the crew out at IFC have put out a great many choice horror flicks, and this one looked to be something different even for them. They sent out a copy of Beneath the Dark, ahead of its release March 29th, and for those of you looking for something decidedly original, prepare to have your mind blown.

Beneath the Dark takes a man driving with his girlfriend on a dark road when he starts to get sleepy. He finds a roadside motel, luckily enough, and pulls off to spend the night. And this in turn kicks off a series of events by which our sleepy driver confronts his past in all its nightmare glory, as the driver and his cohort find themselves forced to interact with the night clerk at the hotel and his wife.

Those of you expecting a Vacancy or Identity will likely be disappointed, and this is a shame as I was quite fond of both Vacancy and Identity, and those too took place in cheesy little roadside motels. But still, there are some really nice twisty bits here, and a couple of fairly interesting plotlines going on side by side that will throw in a few good chills of their own.

Beneath the Dark isn’t so much a horror movie as it is a fairly mild psychological thriller, and it will do a good job of being chilling, if not so much thrilling. It’s very deliberate, a little slow to build but it will eventually turn into something very substantial, so if you’re willing to put in the time to let it grow properly, you’ll get a very nice payoff here. Patience counts in this one, and it’s pretty impressive all the same. IFC’s little chill factory is not perfect–for a thriller it’s decidedly short on thrills–but it does have some, and the abundance of chills will certainly help.

And of course, you’ll get some pretty nice surprises out of this. They’ll really do a nice job by the end of it all, and it’s very much worth your time to watch.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives IFC‘s Beneath the Dark a nine out of ten–about the only thing separating this from being a really bang-up thriller is the decided lack of thrills and scares. It’ll handle chills very well, and there will be a few thrills here, just not really enough to make this a proper thriller. It’s very close, though, and decidedly worth your time to check this one out.