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It’s a safe bet that the upcoming Godzilla will bear little resemblance the 28 Toho films that came before it (yes, we’re discounting the 1998 American version entirely…although it’s not without its charms). With that many onscreen appearances, the only truly consistent element of the franchise is its miniaturized special effects and man-in-suit creations, which are laughably out-of-date for most modern audiences. “Most” meaning those who would have absolutely zero interest in the eight remastered blu-rays just released by Sony covering the big G’s adventures from 1991 to 2004. Beginning with the return of Godzilla’s most famous nemesis in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and ending with the all-out kung-fu insanity that is Godzilla: Final Wars , each film is given a significant bump in quality along with the correct aspect ratio and original Japanese language tracks. Collectors will simply buy them all in bulk, but if you’re a bit more choosy, here’s the lowdown on which double featur...

An amateurish mix of Halloween and Animal House produced at the height of the slasher craze, Final Exam (1981) is nevertheless an appealing sort of horror film comfort food. With minimal flashes of nudity, barely any blood and a killer who couldn’t even afford a hockey mask, the film won’t earn many thrills or chills. But its nostalgic appeal is inherent in the cast of stereotypical jocks, nerds, sluts and virgins who make up the slasher mythology. In fact, the opening sequence – with two co-eds getting busy in the backseat of a car – plays almost like the genre spoof Student Bodies which came out the same year. But Final Exam is more earnest in its attempts to craft a compelling story. That it fails to do so at almost every turn is what makes it so entertaining. After a fraternity stages a phony terrorist attack during pledge week, the local sheriff isn’t taking calls about serial killers very seriously. Which is too bad, because a psycho actually is stalking the campus, p...

Although Jaws (1975) is credited as the first modern blockbuster, director William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) actually got there first and created the some sort of theatrical phenomena. While Spielberg was able to use his film a springboard to further his career, Friedkin just treaded water. By the time Sorcerer (1977) was released four years later, the industry had changed. Audiences wanted escapism, and Friedkin’s sprawling remake of Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953) was simply not marquee material. But as is the case with so many films that fail to find an audience in their own era, Sorcerer has earned back a large degree critical respect. In fact, it’s aged better than the film it was based on, crafted with a rough documentary-style approach and a series of arrhythmia-inducing suspense sequences that hold up as some of the best work of the 1970s…by any director! Featuring an international cast and an impressive amount of foreign locations, Sorcerer stars Roy Schneide...

Even die-hard Godzilla fans will admit that the idea of a 60-meter tall turtle stomping across Japan is patently ridiculous. Not to mention that he breathes fire and travels through the air like a jet-powered Frisbee. And yet that’s part of the charm of the Gamera series, the only legitimate contender to Toho’s “King of the Monsters” crown. Popping up for years on TV creature features across the country (and appearing in a slew of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes), the Gamera films seemed to know they were second-best when it came to giant monster movies…but damn if they weren’t going to have a good time! In 2010, Shout Factory came to the digital rescue by scooping up the rights to all of Gamera’s screen appearances and releasing them on a series of stand-alone and double-feature DVDs with extras like audio commentaries and a half-hour retrospective. Fast-forward four years later and Mill Creek Entertainment is releasing the same eight movies across two blu-ray collection...

Although he’s now a two-time Oscar winner, Quentin Tarantino is still an arrogant video clerk at heart. Which explains why he’s so eager to pass along rental recommendations like Big Bad Wolves (2013), an Israeli thriller that would likely have gathered dust in the foreign section of most mom-and-pop video stores. Tarantino’s tastes are so well known, his name becomes a bona fide seal of approval. So when his quote on the front of the box proclaims this the “Best Film of the Year,” it’s like a winning a golden statuette without all the pomp and circumstance. And in this case, QT is actually onto something. Big Bad Wolves is compulsively watchable despite showcasing the most horrendous aspects of human behavior. It uses pedophilia as a major plot device, debates the most effective means of torture, and ends with a depressing flourish that ranks right up there with Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box. Yet filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado are courageous enough, daring...

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Indie horror films haven’t changed much in the past few decades. They’re still the most profitable cost vs. risk genre out there for aspiring producers and directors to make a quick buck. Look no further than the French / German co-production Dead Shadows , which made it into a few film festivals and now premieres on hi-def courtesy of Scream Factory. Director David Cholewa wears his influences on his sleeves – or in this case the posters plastered to his main character’s walls. Lifting an almost random collection of elements from John Carpenter’s The Thing and 1980’s Night of the Comet , the film introduces a few interesting characters, sets up a mysterious back-story, then proceeds to ditch all of it in favor of showcasing its shot-on-budget visual effects…which are admittedly impressive. But that doesn’t excuse Dead Shadows rather obvious agenda as a calling card film rather than delivering a cohesive story from beginning to end. Chris (Fabian Wolfram, who looks like a James...