Blu-ray & DVD: The Digital Dread Report for August 12th

A few to buy, a few to rent, and a few to skip; that pretty much sums up this week in New Releases.

*On a sad side note, Robin Williams was found dead yesterday, so we will most likely spend our day today revisiting some of his movies which have made huge impacts on us; Dead Poet's Society, Good Will Hunting, Insomnia, World's Greatest Dad... As prolifically funny as he was, it was always his more serious roles that taught us something, touched us, or helped us grow as people.

Now excuse us while we go have an emotional moment or two.

They have a bunch of his movies streaming on Netflix right now, so if you're in the mood to look back on some of the great work like we are, head on over there and stream some.

Proxy (our review HERE) is one of those movies that will be too much to handle for some people, whereas most Horror fans will love its slow burning dysfunction and psycho-sexual strife. More psychological than visceral, Proxy both entertained and disturbed us, and left us thinking about it long after it was over. This one is worth at least a rental, and it's a buy for the Horror collectors amongst us.

We've never been the biggest fans of Motel Hell, but as usual, Scream Factory has us curious to check out just what they've done to the audio and video quality of this 1980 Cult Classic. It's been a long time since we've seen this cannibalism-fueled semi-parody of the 70's Horror movies, so maybe we just need to give it another go. After all, with lines like "It takes all kinds of critters... to make Farmer Vincent's fritters!" this movie just begs to be seen on our TV's again.

Bloodsucking Freaks and The Toxic Avenger are not to my personal tastes (as I prefer less kitsch in my Horror movies), but both films have large and longtime fanbases, so maybe the joke is on us. It would be kinda cool to see Toxie in full HD glory though, so maybe...

A Haunted House 2 can suck it. 

Finally, we include the movie Filth here not because it's any sort of Horror or Genre effort, but because it's so fantastically twisted. Watching James McAvoy's turn as a dirty Cop is one of the moviegoing highlights of 2014 for us, and if you like your humor dark and twisted, then this movie should please you greatly.

Bitten we can do without, as we're not a part of that show's demographic, but The Blacklist is another story altogether. Yes, NBC's The Blacklist is a sometimes cheesy, often times formulaic "case of the week" type of procedural (albeit in a totally different way than most others), but the show is a gripping weekly Must Watch for us because of James Spader's portrayal of Red Reddington; the guy chews scenery week in and week out, and is one of the best characters on any TV Show on any channel, period.

Whether now, or in a month or two, we will have to bite on The Blacklist. It's just to much damned fun to pass up.

All of this week's DVD releases look to be a crapshoot for the most part.

We didn't like the first Bunnyman at all (our review HERE), and after seeing the trailer for the sequel -in which Bunnyman attacks a School bus full of kids- we're not holding out too much hope for its level of quality either.

The trailer for The Butterfly Room looks alright, and the movie boasts a cast filled with Genre Legends such as Barbara Steele, Heather Langenkamp, P.J. Soles, Adrienne King, and James Karen... Based off of those names alone, we'll give this one a spin in our players.

The Midnight Game looks like it could either be a decent little low-budget effort, or a total disaster; The Other Side looks like it might be alright; not sure what to make of Dark Space from the trailer; and Hell's Caretaker just looks bad... So as always with crapshoot titles like this, rent/buy with caution.