April's Blu-ray of the Month: Krampus (2015)

"When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family's home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive."

The feel bad movie of last Christmas is finally coming to Blu-ray on April 26th!

Read the press release below for full release details, or our review for the best opinion on the entire Internet. *That's no exaggeration at all.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., Feb. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- An ancient demonic avenger lays siege to an unsuspecting family in Krampus, a truly terrifying, darkly comedic tale coming to Digital HD on April 12, 2016, and Blu-ray^™ Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand on April 26, 2016, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. From Michael Dougherty (writer and director of cult horror favorite Trick 'r Treat, writer of X-Men: Apocalypse), Krampus  is "a must see film" (We Got This Covered) that delivers inventively nasty laughs as it plunges viewers into a nightmarish world ruled by a legendary monster bent on total destruction, punishing those who have lost faith. Krampus on Blu-ray^™, DVD, and Digital HD also comes with exclusive bonus features including an alternate ending, deleted scenes, gag reel and extended scenes.

When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family's home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.

Adam Scott ("Parks and Recreation," Black Mass), Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine, The Sixth Sense), David Koechner (Anchorman Series) and Allison Tolman (TV's "Fargo") star in this gleefully gory horror thriller that delivers the kind of deep, dark laughs and hair-raising scares that make for a delightfully twisted holiday classic.

BLU-RAY and DVD BONUS FEATURES:

• Alternate Ending
• Deleted Scenes
• Extended Scenes
• Gag Reel
• The Naughty Ones: Meet The Cast – At the center of this crazed story, filled with horrifying creatures and massive set pieces, are some of the funniest and most talented actors working today.  This piece shines a light on the cast of Krampus as they share their experiences making this movie.
• Galleries – Still Images from the set
• Feature Commentary With Director/Co-Writer Michael Dougherty and Co-Writers Todd Casey & Zach Shields 

BONUS FEATURES Exclusively on BLU-RAY:

• Krampus and His Minions – In this exclusive feature see how Krampus and his twisted underlings gave the visual-effects superstars at Peter Jackson's New Zealand-based Weta Workshop some creative and technical challenges. Viewers will have an insider look at how Krampus and his evil minions were created and executed.
• Practical Danger – Stunt Coordinator Rodney Cook walks viewers through how the film's thrilling stunts were done live on set while facing challenges with the creatures, children and set design.
• Inside the Snowglobe: Production Design – Filming almost entirely on sound stages in the middle of summer in New Zealand, the art department and special effects team had to pull out all of their tricks to create sets that were realistic, ready for stunts and practical effects, all while creating the look of a winter wonderland.
• Behind the Scenes at Weta Workshop: Krampus – Go behind-the-scenes at the world famous Weta Workshop to see how they brought the amazing Krampus creatures to life.
• Dougherty's Vision – In this featurette Director Michael Dougherty, along with the film's cast and crew, reveal how his approach informed the tone, pacing, humor and performances of Krampus.

ICYMI: Our March Reviews!

We reviewed 10 movies in March, most of which were enjoyable and fun. April looks like it's going to be a much better month for movies overall, but March wasn't so bad.

On the New Movie front...

• The Wave was the best movie we watched all month, and it's the one we'd recommend to anyone who will listen. 
• Road Games was a solid road Thriller.
• Ava's Possessions, Emelie, and Ratter were all middling efforts that had their good points. 
• Pride+Prejudice+Zombies was the only movie that we saw in March that we really didn't like that much. It just didn't work.
  
• I started to review Batman v Superman, but the more I wrote, the more it looked like I was just tearing the movie apart, so I scrapped it. It was decent enough, but man did it have issues.  

On the Old Movie front...

• Cherry Falls is one of our favorite underrated gems of the new millennium.
• Rock 'n Roll Nightmare is Bad Movie bliss. 
• Pieces, as bad of a film as it is, is one hell of a bloody, exploitational good time. 
• The Toolbox Murders is awesome for the first half, then it changes pace and becomes almost a completely different movie in its back half. Good stuff, but uneven.

So here they are listed in graded order, from “best” to “worst.” If you haven't read through them yet, feel free to do so now, and enjoy!

Random Picture Round-Up: March Week 5

We spend a lot of time here at THC searching for great Screencaps to use in our reviews, for our banners, and for whatever else strikes our fancy. It's not always easy finding the perfect screenshot, but when we do find pictures that make us laugh, say "What the hell?," or are just plain awesome, we save them.

Unfortunately, we never use them all, and so they just sit there in our picture folder, waiting... which is why we decided to start posting them in random groups on a weekly basis!

Every week, we'll take a handful of the coolest, funniest, and maybe even sexiest pics that we come across, gather them into one post, and share them with you. Film is a visual medium, after all, and can you ever really see enough pictures?

• You can click each pic to find out what movie they're from, if you don't recognize them. the links got to either Amazon, or IMDB, depending. 
• The movie's titles are also in the file name of the pictures, if you decide to save them to your computer.
• Enjoy!

Review Archive: 2000-2007

Every other decade and year has its own individual Review Archive (organized for your browsing pleasure), but somehow we never got around to gathering the reviews from the early 00's together. Until now, these reviews were basically orphaned. Shame on us.

There are only about 60 of them, and since we tend to focus more on more current reviews, there are still plenty of great movies of the 00's missing from this list, but this is at least a good start for now.

Enjoy!