The latest episode of Midnight Horror Show, titled “Vhs 1987,” is out on YouTube. It’s subtitled, “A Birthday Worth Remembering…” and was directed by Rudy Gold.

Description: Be careful what you wish for after blowing out your birthday candles, you might get it…

Here it is in its entirety, since it runs less than a minute:

Starring:

• Araya Gallegos
• Azura Gallegos
• America Gallegos
• Aroura Gallegos
• Lupita Cabrera

Guest Starring Christian Guzman

Produced by Gold Standard, DIY Productions and J Martin Films
Executive Producer Rudy Gold

Edited by Rudy Gold
Visual Efx by Rudy Gold
Sound design by Christian Guzman
Original Score by Steven Moreno

Mimic 3 Film Set
Directors: Guillermo del Toro, Jean de Segonzac, J.T. Petty
Cast: Mira Sorvino, Alix Koromzay, Karl Greary
Review by Brian M. Sammons

Now if you’re a fan of director Guillermo del Toro or of the killer big bug movie from the ’90s, Mimic, then you might already have it on Blu-ray. That’s because an unrated director’s cut came out on Blu-ray just a few months back. So is this a case of the dreaded double dipping, a la the 30 + versions of all the various Evil Dead films? No, not really, as it also has two other movies in the package. But are the two (widely considered lesser) sequels just along for the ride? You know some padding to get you to buy Mimic all over again? Because really, who the hell would need or want those direct to sequels on Blu-ray? Well that can be debated, as I’m sure there are fans of those two movies out there somewhere. However, I just ain’t one of them. But if you are, or if you think you may be, keep on reading.

First and foremost there is del Toro’s original, Mimic. This is the exact same version of the movie that Lionsgate released on Blu-ray a few months back. That means it is the unrated director’s cut and has retained all the extras from the last release. That’s a very cool and good thing. So often when multi-packs like this come out, the extras are stripped out or just left behind. It’s nice to see that’s not the case here. As for the story that started it all, it’s the near future a deadly plague is killing the children of New York City in droves that’s being spread by cockroaches. Enter a brilliant, beautiful entomologist named Susan Tyler, played by Mira Sorvino, who genetically splices a bunch of bug DNA together to make a bug killing bug that mimics its prey while it’s murdering them. Five years later and … yeah can you guess where this is going? That’s right, giant mutant bugs that can kind of look like humans at a distance, thus the title of this film, who have taken to munching on people. Naturally. It’s up to Dr. Tyler and a handful of heroes to save the day. Or so you would think. Four years later, the direct-to-video sequel came out.

Mimic 2 picks up a few years after the first one. The big bad bugs have not only survived, but have continued to evolve, including coming up with a new gruesome trick: ripping the faces off of people and wearing them as masks. Nice. The star this time around is Alix Koromzay, who was actually in the first movie as Mira Sorvino’s coworker. That’s kind of nice. I mean, if none of the stars from the original wanted to come back for this, at least they established some link between the two movies, other than the bugs. Anyway, Alix plays a school teacher named Remi who has the bad luck to be teaching at a school where the bugs have a nest. Add a cop as a shoehorned love interest and some students and you got a new group of characters to battle the bugs. And really, that’s about it. This sequel is far more B-movie than the first, and it’s certainly not as good as the original, but it’s not horrible and can be kind of fun in a dopey sort of way. The same really can’t be said of the next Mimic movie.

The third big bug flick is basically Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window with giant, mutant bugs. No, really. Another Direct-to-video flick, subtitled Sentinel, actor Karl Greary does the James Stewart bit as a man named Marvin afflicted with the very sickness that the bugs were created to kill off in the first film. Locked inside a germ free room, he peeps on his neighbors to pass the time. Unfortunately, that time passed by agonizingly slow in this movie as it is a chore and a bore to sit through. Eventually Marvin starts seeing a strange looking man in a trench coat (hmm, wonder who or what that is) killing and abducting his neighbors. Eventually the man’s sister and sexy neighbor become his investigating accomplices and this all leads to a somewhat lackluster showdown with a couple of big bad bugs. And that’s about it for this one, which is easily the weakest film of the bunch. It’s not horrible, it’s just very ho-hum and does nothing new for the franchise.

As for the extras, all the ones from the previous releases of all three films have been transferred to this set. Naturally the first Mimic movie has the lion’s share of goodies for it, including a very good audio commentary with del Toro and a gaggle of featurettes of various lengths. Mimic 2 has no commentary track and just two very short featurettes. Mimic 3: Sentinel has a single short behind the scenes featurette, but it does have a commentary track. All the movies look good on Blu-ray, with part 3 oddly being the best looking, despite being the least of the three films in every other way. Weird.

So in the end, I can recommend the new Mimic 3 Film Set. The first movie is easily the best and worth the price of admission just by its self. The second film is not great, but flirts with being good. The third film, while far from good, is still worth a watch at least. So for three movies, all in HD, two on Blu-ray for the first time (and the only way to get Mimic 2 & 3 on Blu-ray at all), with a bunch of extras, consider this one a must have for fans of killer bug movies.

The trailer has been released for the upcoming (the movie appears to be scheduled for a late October release) gorefest, Bunnyman 2.

Description: Joe and Bunnyman’s adventure continue in a rural ghost town. Bunnyman’s blood lust knows no bounds, as he slaughters indiscriminately anything that crosses his path. Joe is all too happy to encourage his behavior, selling the dead victims as beef jerky in his local store.

A mutually beneficial relationship with cracks that start to emerge. As the bodies pile up, including a couple dozen kids in a school bus, Bunnyman’s body count is becoming more problematic. Joe is forced to dispose the bodies, by any means necessary. A problem he exasperates by occasionally joining in on the rampage.

In addition to Joe’s body disposal problem, the local sheriff becomes suspicious with the disappearance of a few of his deputies. His investigation crosses paths with two persistent sisters, that refuse to die at the hands of Joe and Bunnyman. Some will live, and some will die, but all will be damaged.

Here’s the trailer:

Director: Carl Lindbergh
Writer: Carl Lindbergh
Stars: David Scott, Julianne Dowler and Jennifer June Ross

The Innkeepers
Director: Ti West
Cast: Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis
Review by Brian M. Sammons

Ti West became known to most people with The House Of The Devil in 2009. That was his love letter to ’70s and ’80s horror movies and it was all kind of fun. If you’ve seen that movie, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, do yourself a favor and go see it. But do that some other time, right now I’m here to talk about Mr. West’s latest modern yet old school horror movie, The Innkeepers.

Now I’m not going to say that everything Ti does is golden. After all, he did make the dreadful Cabin Fever 2. But hey, I guess no one is above taking a schlock job if the money is right. While he made a great lil gem of a flick with House, he completely dropped the ball with Cabin. So with only a 50/50 record, would The Innkeepers be a return to the form that so won me over with THotD, or more forgettable direct to video droppings like CF2? Well there’s only one way to find out, so make sure you made your reservations, because we’re going to have a sleepover with The Innkeepers.

Set in the real world, and at the reportedly really haunted Yankee Peddler Inn, the movie revolves around the final two employees (the titular innkeepers) as they tend to the last few guests in the soon to be closed hotel. With a ton of time to kill, the young guy and girl spend the time doing the amateur ghost hunter thing, trying to capture a spook or two on video. With the help of a psychic ex-actress and a creepy old man demanding a specific room in the empty hotel to keep an eye on, the innkeepers soon start witnessing some all too real hauntings. And, well that’s it. No really, that’s pretty much the whole story here, which means it does not do a thing new. That said, what it does, it does very, very well.

The Innkeepers is a good old fashioned ghost story, with heavy emphases on ‘old fashioned.’ You know when people say ‘they don’t make them like that anymore?’ Yeah, they’re talking about this movie. A sad reflection of that is that pretty much whenever I heard anyone complaining about this movie, it was always the same thing: “oh it’s so slow, it takes too long to get to the good stuff.” Now I hate the ADD addled mouth breathers that say such things, I really do. They’re the reason Michael Bay makes nonstop explosion-fests that make a bazillion dollars, and movies that actually concern themselves with telling a good story with compelling characters constantly get passed on. So yeah, this movie takes its time fleshing out the characters and building suspense (oh how dare they) in a rather simple haunted house story. But while the story may be simple, writer/director Ti West is in top form and he once again proves that he knows what it takes to make a damn scary movie. It’s the kind of fright flick full of creepy dread and atmosphere and not just jump scare after jump scare accompanied by blaring music stings and crappy CGI ghosts. Hey, substance over style, what a novel concept!

This new Blu-ray from Dark Sky Films not only looks great, but it comes with a few nice extras worth crowing about. First and foremost are the two audio commentary tracks. Both have writer/editor/director Ti West on them. One of the tracks is a production commentary with both of the film’s producers and the 2nd unit director. The other is for the cast’s point of view and has Ti with actors Sara Paxton and Pat Healy. There is a sadly far too short behind the scenes featurette that’s just a hair over seven minutes. A trailer is the last special to be found on this disc. So yeah, this Blu-ray isn’t exactly overflowing with extras, but it does have two informative and fun commentaries. Oh, and the movie is freaking awesome, so I guess that’s the best ‘special feature’ of them all.

The Innkeepers is a great horror movie that is comfortable being, first and foremost, an honest to goodness horror movie. It’s not ‘hip’ nor is it ‘edgy’ and it doesn’t have an entire cast of way too pretty people straight from the CW channel in it. It is a Ti West movie, so it’s very much the kind of creepy, atmospheric horror film that sadly just doesn’t seem to be made anymore. I loved it from beginning to end, and if you’re a true horrorhead, then I know you will to. So go on, spend a night with The Innkeepers, and then try to sleep soundly afterwards.

Relativity Media and IMDb, the #1 movie website in the world, have announced that IMDb is hosting the official movie website for Intrepid Pictures’ The Raven, the stylish, gothic thriller starring John Cusack as infamous author Edgar Allan Poe, releasing nationwide by Relativity Media on April 27, 2012. The innovative, cross-platform campaign also includes integration on Amazon’s Kindle with Special Offers and a photo competition on the Amazon-owned Digital Photography Review website.

This is the first time a movie studio has collaborated with IMDb to create a highly contextual, customized campaign in which IMDb’s title page serves as the official movie website for a major theatrical release. The Raven’s title page on IMDb has already amassed more than 20,000 fans that have “Liked” the film via social plugins. The Raven is currently ranked #10 on IMDb’s MOVIEmeter chart. As part of this innovative campaign, Relativity Media has driven all of The Raven’s online and offsite campaign media, including the movie trailer, to the film’s official website on IMDb which is located at: The Raven.

“IMDb is the online destination for movie fans, so we were delighted to be the first to tap into their rich landscape of assets, including Amazon’s Kindle and Digital Photography Review, to execute this broad, multi-platform campaign,” said Terry Curtin, Relativity’s President, Theatrical Marketing. Curtin added, “We were able to naturally leverage IMDb’s SEO rankings, page views, authority and built-in fan base for our film and connect The Raven with its online audience.”

“We applaud Relativity for embracing innovation and being the first to collaborate with IMDb to create this new solution for the industry,” said Col Needham, founder and CEO of IMDb. “As the #1 movie website in the world, IMDb is the leader in movie search results and has quietly amassed unrivaled fan bases for every upcoming release – passionate, savvy fans who have opted in to receiving updates about the films they like. Rather than investing time and resources into building a dedicated movie website and then trying to drive fans there during the theatrical release window, we encourage studios to utilize IMDb’s film title pages as official movie websites and fan communication channels throughout the lifecycle of their films, including preproduction and theatrical, streaming, DVD and Blu-Ray release announcements.”

The Raven’s official site features exclusive content, trailers, television spots, cast interviews, photo galleries, cast and crew information, social plugins, related news, user generated lists, message boards, trivia and more.

Additional campaign elements include a Kindle with Special Offers integration the week of release and a recently completed The Raven photo challenge on Digital Photography Review. The Kindle with Special Offers execution launched yesterday, and links users to the array of Edgar Allen Poe books available for free download in the Kindle store. Members of dpreview.com entered The Raven photo competition by submitting their own photographs inspired by one of the four weekly themes – Midnight, Entombed, Gothic and The Raven.

Description: The macabre and lurid tales of Edgar Allan Poe are vividly brought to life – and death – in this stylish, gothic thriller starring John Cusack as the infamous author. When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Poe’s darkest works, a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) joins forces with Poe in a quest to get inside the killer’s mind in order to stop him from making every one of Poe’s brutal stories a blood chilling reality. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, which escalates when Poe’s love (Alice Eve, She’s Out of My League) becomes the next target. Intrepid Pictures’ The Raven also stars Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Faster). Directed by James McTeigue (V For Vendetta) from a screenplay by Hannah Shakespeare (Loverboy) & Ben Livingston (Bruce Almighty), The Raven was produced by Film Nation’s Aaron Ryder, Intrepid Pictures’ Marc D. Evans and Trevor Macy.

Midnight Horror show Presents a grindhouse edition, La Cama, is a spanish subtitled short film that stars Christian Guzman as lead. He is in a relaxing mood and is startled by a midnight phone call, from there it is all downhill.

The short film runs about five minutes. If you’ve got the time, here it is:

“La Cama” was directed by Rudy Gold and Christian Guzman.
Location: Eagle Rock, California
Original Score by Steven Moreno
Edited by Christian Guzman and Rudy Gold
Sound Design by Christian Guzman
Visual Vfx by Rudy Gold
Grips Erin and Shannon Powell
Producers Gold Standard and DIY Productions

This is the first episode.

Killer Nun
Director: Giulio Berruti
Cast: Anita Ekberg, Paola Morra, Alida Valli
Review by Brian M. Sammons

I must admit, I’ve never been a fan of nunsploitation flicks. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t raised Catholic and didn’t attend a Catholic school, so I didn’t have my budding sexual tastes as a child get mixed up with strange feelings towards women in power, who wear black, and spank your bottom if you’re naughty. I mean, that’s got to be the reason someone would think nuns are sexy, right? So yeah, nuns, be they traditional, nude, naughty, satanic, evil, or in this case killer, just never did anything for me. But if nuns, drugs, murder, lesbians, and torture are your kind of things, keep on reading. If they’re not, well I’ll guess I just see you next time.

Still here? Ok, good, let’s get on with it … you pervert.

This flick starts off by saying that it’s based on real life events. Yeah sure, Texas Chainsaw Massacre said the same thing. Anyway, here we get Sister Gertrude, the head nun at a hospital, who is addicted to morphine. Her bad little habit starts her down the road to crazyville. Poor Gertrude thinks drugs are a replacement for the God she no longer feels any link to, and in her quest for Holy Communion, she tortures and slaughters the patients in her care as she goes more and more insane. She’s also a bit man-hater, but she still enjoys sex. Unfortunately it’s fully clothed sex. Yeah while she may be killer, this nun obviously had a no nudity clause in her contract. She does have a smoking hot, young, lesbian roommate, although sadly, nothing comes of that, at least not on screen. What the hell, movie, talk about a tease.

The killer nun starts killing off old people, sort of as an angel of death kind of thing, but then quickly moves on to anyone she can. All the while the clueless staff at the hospital just sort of stand around being … well, clueless. There are shades of an Italian giallo in here, with pink rubber gloves standing in for the more usual black, although the mystery here is lukewarm at best and the ending can be guessed at far too quickly. And speaking of lukewarm, that sadly sums up this movie in a single word. Despite a sensational title and a naughty nun premise, this exploitation flick isn’t actually all that exploitative. Not compared to many similar movies made around the same time. There is some full frontal nudity, both male and female, but what little sex there is in this movie is rather tame. Unfortunately the same can be said for the murders and gore. There is one rather effective needles-in-the-face torture scene, but really that’s it. A lot of the violence is very tepid or happens off screen. Hell, one guy dies by getting lightly kicked in the face about three or four times. Oh, how brutal. And this is the uncut and uncensored version? Man, was the cut version aired after Saturday morning cartoons? Because I’m betting it could have been with what I seen here.

Now while I thought the movie was only so-so at best, Blue Underground does their usual good job with the Blu-ray release, at least as far as how it looks. For a seventies Italian exploitation flick, it looked really good here. No, not perfect, but a damn sight better than it ought to of had. As for the special features, there is 13 minute interview with co-writer and director Giulio Berruti. It’s in Italian but it is subtitled. Other than that, there’s the usual trailer and poster gallery and … well that’s it, that’s all the extras on this disc. Not bad for what is only a cult film, but it still felt somewhat lacking.

I’ve got to admit, I was a bit disappointed that this slice of Eurosleaze wasn’t all that sleazy. That doesn’t mean that the movie as a whole was bad. On the contrary, it was well made for the most part and the acting and story was competent, if somewhat boring at times. It’s just that I was expecting so much more from this movie, so it was a bit of a letdown. That said, if you are a fan of nunsploitation movies, well now you have a great looking Blu-ray to add to your library of sin.