TV: Our Weekly Top 6

*Click these links to see all of our Release Date Pages: Blu-ray & DVD, Theatrical, VOD, and TV.

There's not a lot on TV in November & December. Oh, there are tons of shows on the Broadcast and Cable networks, it's just that most of them are crap, and are nothing that we'd spend our time watching. Elitist of us? Sure it is, and not only because we like our filmed entertainment to not suck, but because the truly great shows are just few and far between.

Fear not though, as there are some shows that are currently airing which are well-worth your time to watch, and right now, our Top 6 is about as strong as it gets.

• Ash vs. Evil Dead is fun as hell, and even though we wish that Starz would give us more than 30-minutes of its greatness every week, we're happy to be getting any new Evil Dead material starring Bruce Campbell at all, so we'll live. Saturdays at 9 P.M., Starz

• The Walking Dead takes a lot of shit from haters, but it's a huge show, and even with its flaws, we look forward to Sunday nights more than any other night of the week because of it. Is Glenn dead? No, we don't think that he is, but we do think that they'll leave us hanging for another week or two before we find out what his fate was. However it all shakes out though, TWD is compelling TV that we never miss. Sundays at 9 P.M., AMC

• The Returned has returned for its 2nd Season, and it's every bit as captivating and excellent as its 1st Season was. It's a French show, so there are subtitles involved, but please don't let that deter you from giving it a chance. It's an A+ drama. Saturdays at 10 P.M., Sundance.

• For two season's running, Fargo has been one of the best dramas on TV. We were skeptical that the show could come back and be as good as it was last year, but having now seen its first four episodes, we have to say it might be even better. Mondays at 10 P.M., FX

• Unless you have DirecTV, you probably have no clue that Kingdom even exists, and that's a genuine shame. This show about a family in the MMA business is far more about family than it is fighting, and that's exactly why it's so damned great. Excellent even. Wednesdays at 9 P.M., DirecTV

• And finally we have Homeland, a show that we've liked since the beginning, but has gotten better and better over the past three seasons. The best parts of the show for us always involve Saul or Quinn, because they're two of the best characters on TV, but it's just a great show overall.   Sundays at 9 P.M., Showtime

So if you're missing out on any of these great shows, especially the more obscure The Returned and Kingdom, you should really give them a chance.

Blu-ray Review: The Gift (2015)

(aka Creepy Old Friend.)
Release Date: August 7th.
Country: USA
Rating: R
Written by: Joel Edgerton.
Directed by: Joel Edgerton.
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Jason Bateman, and Rebecca Hall.

The first time we ever saw Joel Edgerton in anything was in the 2008 Australian gem, Acolytes, in which he played a creepy Serial Killer with ease, and left quite an impression on us. A few years later, he showed up in one of our favorite movies of the decade, Warrior. Both the movie and his performance blew us away, and as far as we were concerned, a star was born. The Thing, Zero Dark Thirty, The Rover (writing) and Black Mass later, it turns out that we were right; the guy's got skills.

As good of an actor as he is, it turns out that he's not bad at screenwriting and directing either. The Gift is his directorial debut, and really, it's almost too good to be anybody's first movie, especially when it's an actor turned director. 

Simon and Robyn are a successful yuppie couple who have just moved from Chicago to LA to become an even more successful yuppie couple. He's a businessman, she's a painter, and aside from not yet having a baby (they've been trying), everything seems to be going their way.

OMG, THEY ARE SO PERFECT!

While out shopping for whatever it is that yuppies shop for, they run into Gordo; an old High School classmate of Simon's who is apparently as weird now as he was back then. Gordo tries to push his way into their lives, as if he and Simon are old friends who need to catch up, and in an effort to be a nice guy (or because his wife tells him to), Simon goes along with it, and soon they're all having awkward, odd dinners together.

Gordo sends them random gifts, including Koi for the little pond outside of their home, and Robyn thinks that it's simply a sweet gesture from an odd and awkward guy... until he starts showing up at their house unannounced, staring at her through windows, and acting all kinds of creepy in general. When their dog goes missing, Simon blames Gordo, and then everything starts to really fall apart... especially once Robyn finds out that she's pregnant.

We won't say anything else about the plot here, lest we spoil things for you, but suffice it to say that Simon's kind of a dick, Robyn is kind of in danger, and Gordo is really not right in the head.

That is all. 

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I HOPE YOU PASS AWAY. LOVE, GORDO."

The Gift is a Psychological Thriller done right. After seeing The Rover (which Joel Edgerton wrote), it was pretty clear to us that the guy has a good grasp on dramatic tension, as well as creating sympathetic characters that make us care about them, despite their actions. With The Gift, he again displays his skill at both, but somehow manages to do it even better.

This movie starts out like many typical revenge Thrillers do; with an unassuming but creepy character conveniently entering the lives of two normal, successful people who are living the upper-middle class American dream. You just know that he's up to no good, and that by the time he's done playing whatever game he's playing, everyone involved is going to be bloody, ruined, and destroyed, if not dead.

EMOTIONALLY SCARRED TOO.

But as this movie goes along, you start to see that the good guy may not be so good, and that the creepy bad guy is far more sympathetic than you ever expected him to be. Edgerton could have gone the easy way with this movie, and just ramped-up the tension and violence, allowing it all to boil over in some sort of explosive and shocking ending, but he chose a different way; there was a point to this movie, and as creepy and intense as it was at times, it played with our emotions far more than it did scare us. Alright, maybe it was a bit more equal than that, but it definitely had an unexpected depth to it.

SIMON DOESN'T SEEM SO SIMPLE ANYMORE. ZING!

Joel Edgerton is one hell of an actor, and he plays creepy extremely well in this one. Equally compelling, though in completely different ways, were Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall. Of the three of them, Hall's Robyn was the only decent one that we liked all the way through; Gordo went from creepy, to sympathetic & empathetic, back to creepy again; and Simon went from likable, to detestable, to sympathetic. They're all three realistic, complex, flawed, and anything but cookie-cutter ordinary, and any movie that can make you feel empathy for the villain, has done its job well in our book.

We also loved the last shot of the movie. It was fairly simple, but it was one of those moments that made us say "no shit," and want to re-watch the whole thing just to see how differently it would play.

The Gift could have been a generic, overly-familiar Thriller if not for the fact that Joel Edgerton wrote and directed the hell out of it. It plays by its own rules, and ends up being something more in the process. We really didn't expect it to be as well-made and effective as it was, and even though it wasn't A+ perfect, it sure felt like it was in a lot of ways.

Rent it or grab the Blu-ray, but either way, it's definitely worth your time to check out. 

B+

The Gift is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD.

Each of these ladies is a gift unto themselves. And us.

ICYMI: Season 2 Of The Returned Is Airing Now On Sundance.

SATURDAYS AT 10 P.M. ON SUNDANCE.

With the massive hype and excitement surrounding last Saturday's premiere of Ash vs Evil Dead, there was another Halloween premiere that kind of got pushed off to the side: The Returned.

Season 1 of this excellent French Supernatural Drama premiered on U.S. shores waaaay back in 2013, and it blew us away. It was so good, that A&E had their own version of the show on air by 2014, which failed at being anywhere near as good as the original. Failed miserably.

So far, Season 2 has been just as good as Season 1 was, and in some ways, we like it even more. It got off to a bit of a slow start (due mainly to the fact that we forgot a lot of what happened in Season 1, and it took us a minute to get our bearings), but it doesn't take long for it to hit its stride, and when it does, it's captivating as hell.

We still don't know why the dead have returned, but it looks like we're getting closer to finding out, and the story is taking some interesting twists, especially with the introduction of the new characters. And of course, everything is presented to us in the creepy, quiet, foreboding way that has come to make The Returned stand apart from 99% of other TV Shows.

This show is about as good as it gets, on foreign shores or here in the U.S., and it should definitely be on your weekly Must Watch lists.

Check out the opening credits, which features the fantastic theme song from Mogwai, below. 


If you have yet to see this A+ show, Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix, or you can buy the Blu-ray HERE.

SET YOUR DVR'S.

What's New On VOD This Week? (11/3-11/6)

Some Aussie Backwoods Horror; some Irish Backwoods Body Horror; a b-grade Krampus movie; a Mexican Anthology; a colony of killer wasps; and a Home Invasion flick starring Effy Stonem.

This is the week in VOD!

Looks like this week it's Charlie's Farm, The Hallow, and Mexico Barbaro for us.

*Click the pics to check out the trailers or rent the movies.

• Charlie's Farm looks like it might be a solid Backwoods flick. At least it's one that's set in Australia, and not the American South for a change. RENT IT.
• The Hallow was a pretty solid Backwoods/Creature/Body Horror effort, and our review will be coming here shortly. Definitely worthy of a rental though. RENT IT
• This cheesy-ass looking Krampus movie is coincidentally being released a few weeks before Mike Doherty's Krampus movie (which actually looks great) hits theaters. There's also a sequel that came out this week called Krampus 2: The Krampusing or something, but it's only available on DVD, and not VOD. What a shame. SKIP IT.
• Mexico Barbaro is a Horror Anthology that contains 8 stories that are based off of real-life Mexican Legends. And it looks pretty damned good. Check out the Red Band Trailer HERE. RENT IT
• Stung looks like cheesy, b-movie fun, but if you have Netflix, then you can check it out there for free. If not, it looks like it might be worth a rental. RENT IT
• And finally we have Tiger House; a decent enough Home Invasion Thriller starring the hottest chick from Skins. That's a British TV Show, ICYMI. RENT IT

So click the links, check out the trailers, and watch what looks good to you... and happy streaming!

10 Movie Posters That Caught Our Eye!

Great posters trick us into watching awful Horror movies all the time, so let's take a look at 10 Posters for some upcoming Horror flicks that have us intrigued, and try to decide if they might end up being good, or if they're just trying to lure us in and trap us!

The captions are the first thing that came to mind when we saw the posters. 

*Be sure to click the pics to check out their IMDB pages.

THIS ISN'T EVEN SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE.

EEW...

THEY FORGOT THE 'N'.

THAT LITTLE CREEPER ISN'T REALLY SLEEPING!

A SPANISH LANGUAGE REMAKE OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE CLASSIC? AT LEAST IT WON'T BE HOLLYWOOD SCREWING IT UP THIS TIME.

BUT HOW DO WE KNOW IS SHE'S SMILING IF YOU'RE COVERING HER MOUTH LIKE THAT?

"ON HOME VIDEO FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER" YEAH, WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR THAT.

NOT SURE HOW THE SHOW WILL TURN OUT, BUT MENA SUVARI LOOKS CREEPY HOT IN THAT POSTER.

WHAT A GREAT FRIGGING POSTER.

SO, A WOMAN'S ULTIMATE REVENGE IS BEING A WHORE? DON'T LET TWITTER FIND OUT, OR YOU'LL BE DEALING WITH ANGRY SJW TWEETS FOR THE NEXT 3 YEARS.

DVD Review: Howl (2015)

Director Paul Hyett has had himself a pretty impressive career as a makeup/FX artist, working on such British Genre fare as The Descent, Doomsday, Eden Lake, The Children, The Red Riding Trilogy, and Heartless, all of which we loved.

In 2013, he stepped behind the camera to direct one of the most disturbing and gritty movies of the year with The Seasoning House (review HERE.) With a body of work like that behind him, we were pretty excited when we heard that he was directing a werewolf flick. If anyone could deliver a good, gritty creature feature, it would be him, right?

Well, mostly.

Joe is a train guard (that's British for conductor, I think) who hates his job. He just lost out on a promotion; it's clear that he's going to get no respect from his new boss; most of the passengers whom he serves seem to be arseholes; and he can't get a date with the hot trolley girl (that's British for stewardess, I think) no matter how hard he tries.

HE REALLY DOESN'T WANT TO WORK A DOUBLE.

To make things worse, he gets forced into working a double shift on the night train out of London, which is traveling into the deserted ass-crack of the British countryside. The fact that the hot trolley girl is working with him almost makes putting up with the asshole passengers worth it, although he's tired and not interested in being there at all. 

Also, there's a full moon out.

... AND YOU KNOW WHAT A FULL MOON MEANS.

When the train encounters something on the tracks and is forced to stop, it's not long before Joe realizes that he and everyone else on the train are in grave danger. You see, there's a hungry pack of werewolves (or werewolf-like creatures) out there in the forest that are interested in eating them. Or maybe they just want to kill them. Either way, they're in danger.

Trapped in the train, and forced to fight for their lives, survival, betrayal, and copious bloodletting ensues.

GOOD LUCK WITH THE SURVIVAL PART.

The best way to summarize Howl, is that it's a great B-movie, just like most werewolf movies tend to be. It's bloody enough, and it's intense enough to entertain, but it's also just dumb and frustrating enough to keep it from being a really great movie.

That's really the way it goes with any kind of "shape-changer" movie though; while the really good ones are few and far between, most of them tend to at least be entertaining, if not great. For diehard fans of that sub-genre though, Howl will probably be one that falls into that entertaining category.

YEAH, SHAMELESSLY ENTERTAINING.

The FX in this one were really sharp, although we found the practical FX to be far better than the CGI. We loved how they showed someone slowly turning into a werewolf, with those creepy eyes, and the way that they moved around in a Demonic sort of way (it reminded us of a Deadite for some reason) once the transformation was complete. We really wish that they had done more along this line with the other creatures.

Overall though, the creatures in this movie looked great, being a different sort of hybrid between man and wolf. They were teased perfectly, and revealed in a great way, and they made for a pretty terrifying menace. Those glowing eyes...

GOOD STUFF.

They could have played up the "werewolves on a train" aspect of things a bit more though, as they only seemed to lurk outside for most of the movie. I mean, when they finally decided that they wanted to get into the train, it took them no effort at all, so we're just wondering why they waited for so long. I guess the move would have been over too quick had they done so?

We're not sure how it is that the werewolves weren't gone when the moon disappeared either, but maybe that's just a mystery of the movie that we weren't meant to know about. Still, daylight is supposed to be a safe-zone of sorts when it comes to werewolves, and it felt odd.

The ending was also a bit of a bummer, but then again, it ended on the perfect note. I know that sounds confusing, but it was both, and we're conflicted. We also would have really liked to have seen ________ come back (having newly turned into a werewolf) and kill off _________.

That's just us though. We're picky.

"YOU WOT, MATE?"

Howl isn't going to change the Genre or anything, but overall it's a well-made and entertaining werewolf flick that boasts some good gore; some cool monster FX; and a solid cast, most of whom we rooted for. For fans of werewolf flicks, this is a fun and gory ride that is definitely worth taking.

B-

Howl is available in the UK ONLY on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD. *You'll need a Region-free player to watch the disc though, unless of course you live in the UK or Europe.

*It hits the U.S. in early January.

Holly Weston makes us howl.