Blu-ray & DVD: The Digital Dread Report for July 7th!

Independence is ringing all across the land, which means that July is here! Along with freedom and fireworks, July has brought with it a solid crop of new BD & DVD Releases that are guaranteed to delight Horror Fans everywhere!

*Be sure to click the pics to order yourself some flicks, because let's face it, you deserve to spoil yourself.

A shocking, riveting mind trip into the dark and dangerous corridors of a serial killer's psyche; a psyche that holds the key to saving the killer's final, trapped victim who remains alive. Making this journey into the recesses of a killer's nightmarish fantasy world is Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez), a psychologist who has been experimenting with a radical new therapy. Through a new transcendental science, Catherine can experience what is happening in another person's unconscious mind.

The Cell is a decent is a solid little Sci-Fi/Serial Killer flick that boasts some crazy visuals, many of which were inspired by actual works of art; certain scenes in the movie are so dreamy and colorful, that they actually play like living-art, which always made this movie stand out to us.

Tarsem Singh is definitely a unique and visually-oriented director, and if any movie of his is bound to stun on Blu-ray, it's The Cell. We can't wait to check it out.

Branded as a "video nasty" in the UK, director Luigi Cozzi's Contamination takes the premise of Ridley Scott's classic Alien and peppers it with exploding guts galore and a dangerously infectious soundtrack from celebrated Italian prog-rockers Goblin (Deep Red, Suspiria). A cargo ship drifts up the Hudson River. Its crew: all dead, their bodies horribly mutilated, turned inside out by an unknown force. Its freight: boxes upon boxes of glowing, pulsating green eggs. It soon becomes clear that these eggs are not of this planet, and someone intends to cultivate them here on Earth. But who? And to what end? Starring Italian horror veteran Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters), Contamination is an ultra-violent sci-fi epic that really gets under the skin. In space, no one can hear you scream - but on Earth, the terror rings loud and clear!

This trashy, shameless Italian rip-off of Alien has long been one of our favorite Guilty Pleasures. With Arrow Films behind this new 1080p release, we have no choice but to add it to our collection.

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation.
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
• 2014 Q&A with Cozzi and star Ian McCulloch, recorded at Abertoir Film Festival.
• Luigi Cozzi on the Creation of Contamination - an archive documentary hosted by the director and including behind-the-scenes footage.
• Theatrical Trailer.
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin.
• Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film, illustrated with original archive stills and posters.

As the nation reels from a lethal virus that turns its victims into zombies, Wade's (Schwarzenegger) daughter Maggie (Breslin) has been infected. Now, as Maggie's condition worsens, Wade will stop at nothing to protect her from the authorities seeking to kill her to eradicate the virus.

Some will tell you that Maggie is an uneventful, quiet, slow, nearly zombie-less zombie flick, and they wouldn't be wrong. Thing is though that Maggie is also a fantastic character study, and a deeply emotional story about a Father's love for his Daughter, both of which are more important than anything else going on in the movie.

We loved the hell out of this one, and will be buying it on day one.

• "Making Maggie" Featurette.
• Deleted Scenes.
• Cast & Crew Interviews.
• Audio Commentary with Director Henry Hobson.

Read our review of Maggie HERE.

Picking up only a few weeks after the events in the new horror classic The Pact left off, this stunning sequel finds June Abbott (Camilla Luddington, Grey s Anatomy) plagued by nightmares of murder so awful that they disturb her waking life. Meanwhile, a copycat of the Judas Killer has been terrorizing her neighborhood, and when the FBI agent assigned to the case informs her of the danger, June is horrified to discover that the actions of this new killer mirror the bloody visions she s been having in her sleep. Determined to pursue her own investigation even while her grip on reality weakens, June sets off on a quest that may lead her to the horrifying truth of the Judas Killer s master plan.

Not quite as good as the first movie, we really liked The Pact 2 for what it was. Why it took so long to hit Blu-ray & DVD is beyond us, but at least it's available now for fans of the series to enjoy back to back with the first one. For our complete thoughts on the movie, check out the link to our review below.

• Making Of Featurettes.
• Trailer.

Read our review of The Pact 2 HERE.

65 years after a series of brutal slayings terrorized the small town of Texarkana, the “Moonlight Murders” suddenly begin again.

While on a trip to Lovers’ Lane, 17-year-old Jami (Addison Timlin) watches as her date is brutally slain by a masked serial killer. Barely escaping with her life, she becomes obsessed with finding the man referred to as ""The Phantom."" As the body count climbs and the carnage comes closer, Jami delves deeper into the mystery, following clues that point her toward the killer’s true identity. Starring Anthony Anderson, Gary Cole, Edward Herrman, Joshua Leonard, Denis O’Hare, Travis Tope and Veronica Cartwright, The Town That Dreaded Sundown puts Texarkana back on the map for all the wrong reasons.

Another movie that has taken a questionable amount of time to hit DVD, we could have sworn that The Town That Dreaded Sundown had already been released on both Blu-ray & DVD...which shows you how much we know sometimes.

For our complete thoughts on the movie check out the link to our review below, but in general, we really loved this remake of the 70's quasi-classic. We'll be waiting for this one to hit Blu-ray before picking up a copy, but for those of you who prefer DVD, this is a great movie to add to your collection.

Read our review of The Town That Dreaded Sundown HERE.

It's pretty full down here in the bottom half of this week's releases, and some of them are solid enough to consider buying.

• Alien Outpost and Dark Summer were alright, and most Horror Fans will probably find them worthy of at least a rental. 
• The Treatment looks to be an interesting Thriller that will continue Artsploitation Films' streak of solid releases of late. 
• Scream Factory's release of Robot Jox is an interesting one for us; I remember seeing this one at the show when it came out way back in 1989, and not caring for it all that much. It's since become a Cult Classic of sorts, and as cheesy as we remember it being, we also remember that seeing giant robots duking it out on the big screen was pretty cool. It's not Pacific Rim, but for lovers of all things Mech, it's a Must Own title. 
• Deranged s the story of Ed Gein brought to life in the form of a Video Nasty from the 70's, and Spasmo is one of the oddest Gialli that we've ever seen. Both are worth a look.

On the DVD front this week...

• Awaken actually looks pretty good.
• Flight of the Living Dead is an above-average zombie flick that is definitely worth a look.
• And finally we have Bitten; a mildly-popular Syfy show that its fans will surely want to own. 

Everything else, as always, is a crap-shoot. Good luck with that.