The Digital Dread Report for the week of March 26th

This week is so jam-packed with must have releases, that It feels like Hollywood has declared a Jihad against my wallet.


Good Lord I'm going broke this week.

The When a Stranger Calls/Happy Birthday to Me and Hollow Man 1 &2 2-packs are good buys on the cheap, especially the former. They aren't breaking anybody's bank (they're only $5-$10 depending on where you get them), but it's the rest of the must-have's of the week that are going to hurt.

The Collection is the cool little follow up to The Collector, and we're glad to finally have then both on Blu-ray.

Shout Factory's releases of 80's classics From Beyond and Phantasm 2 are our most coveted releases this week, not just because both are awesome flicks, but because they are seeing release on Blu-ray for the first time ever. Hell, Phantasm 2 didn't even see a DVD release until a few years ago (and it was a lackluster offering), so this is a pretty big one. We need both of these in our creepy little hands asap.

For $40 or so dollars, The Terminator Anthology is a must have. All of the Terminator flicks are great (to their own degree), and it will be nice to finally have them all in one package, not to mention in glorious HD.

Last, but absolutely not least, is the DVD release of the complete Johnny Sokko and His Giant Robot series. Between Giant Robot and Ultraman, I watched little else when I was a wee lad. To be fair, I was a wee lad in the late 70's/early 80's, and there were only like 10 channels on TV back then, but whatever.

Giant Robot is pure cheesy bliss, and if you've never seen it, you're missing out. This may not be the best release of the week (technically or quality wise), but it is certainly the one with that inspires the most affection from me.

People tend to throw around the "... like a kid on Christmas!" phrase way too much, but I promise you that this Giant Robot DVD release will make me feel exactly like a kid on Christmas. Or in a candy store. Perhaps even at the Neverland Ranch. Whichever way you cut it, I'll be screaming.


The week's non-horror releases are all pretty solid.

Continuum is a fun little Canadian Sci-Fi show, and though I don't feel the need to own it, it's definitely worth a watch. It helps a ton that Rachel Nichols is in it, because she's one of our faves (and original Horror Hotties to boot.)

Star Trek is not my thing, never has been, but I'm sure there's lots of peeps out there who love it and will covet the release of Enterprise S1. Knock yourselves out.

Futureworld is the sequel to the classic Westworld, and a classic in its own right, and worth a look for fans of 70's craziness.

Killing Me Softly is one we'll probably end up buying when it hits a smaller price point, because Brad Pitt playing an ice-cold Irish Hitman is something you just have to love. This movie was much maligned when it hit theaters last year, but it was a fun watch, and didn't deserve most of the dislike that was heaped upon it.

The Jurassic Park flicks hitting Blu-ray is a good thing, although I'm not sure I love them enough to upgrade from DVD just yet. No doubt they'll look and sound great in HD, but they're gonna have to wait to join my collection. When they hit the $10 or less price point, I will make my move!

Finally, the 20th Anniversary edition of The Sandlot is a beautiful thing to see for anyone who grew up watching it endlessly on VHS. It's a great flick, and it features a smoking hot 19-year-old Marley Shelton, who inspired a generation of young boys to fall in love with not only her, but hot lifeguards as well. We don't cover comedy titles here often (which makes perfect sense, since we're not a comedy website), but this one is definitely a non-genre must have.


The week's Rent-its are a mostly-solid little bunch, especially The Frankenstein Theory and Easy Money. We'll catch up with most of these at some point.

Maybe we'll skip the one with Jude Law as a sexy vampire, because, meh.


The ones we're skipping this week are all cheesy-looking cheapo's. You know the kind; cool posters, shitty movies.

We can't truly say that any of these flicks are shitty (because we've seen exactly none of them), only that we're anticipating their shitty-ness.

We can say with first hand experience however, that Bangkok Revenge pretty much sucked. We expected a good time from that one, and it was not very good at all. The Raid: Redemption has truly spoiled us.... so go rent that instead.