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Susannah (2017)

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Carlisle Floyd’s 1955 opera has long been a staple of regional opera companies, but it has only rarely been staged by the major urban companies – and, incredibly, this release marks the first time that has ever been presented on DVD. In this new release from the Naxos label, a 2014 version by Florida’s St. Petersburg Opera offers an intelligent interpretation that captures the raw emotional power of Floyd’s imaginative updating of the apocryphal Biblical tale of Susannah and the Elders into an early 20th century Appalachian setting.

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Night of the Living Dead (1968): 50th Anniversary [Blu-ray/Digital]

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With the unfortunate death of George A. Romero this year, now is the best time to re-visit “Night of the Living Dead.” It’s hard to believe what one small mistake could have done to alter history, as Romero’s accidental omission of the copyright sign for “Night of the Living Dead” allowed his horror masterpiece to become public domain, and for his idea of the zombie to become open game for anyone and everyone with an imagination. Just imagine if Romero had copyrighted the concept of the flesh eating zombie and we probably wouldn’t have about eighty percent of the zombie movies we have today.

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Ruin Me (2017) [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]

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A non-fan joins a group going to Slasher Sleepout, a camp experienced based on slasher films, when a friend could not attend. As things take a turn for the worse and fake death becomes real, she must fight for her life and participate in this activity she definitely does not care for.

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A Father’s Day (2016) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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A man meets a young girl as they both are zombies and shuffling through life. As they make new memories and make the day special, their father-daughter bond strengthens.

Written and directed by Mat Johns, A Father’s Day creates a relationship that shows how strong the bonds between a father and daughter can be in a gut-punch of a short film. He uses the zombie apocalypse as a backdrop to show family bonds and how people can relate to each other. It’s a simple set up, yet it contains so many layers and so much in terms of emotional baggage. The film shows different levels of zombies and different levels of human interactions and bonds.

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Marion Davies: A Second Look

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In this very special episode of “The Online Movie Show,” we offer a new appreciation of the much-maligned actress Marion Davies, who is now receiving a long overdue reconsideration thanks to the re-release of three of her long-unseen silent features on DVD and Blu-ray. Film historian and composer Ben Model joins us to celebrate the beauty and talent that Marion Davies brought to the silver screen.

The episode can be heard here.

“The Online Movie Show” is produced at the Platinum Wolfe Studios.

Cult of Chucky (2017)

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I guess now that Don Mancini is taking the wheel back for the “Child’s Play” series, he can basically do whatever he wants with it. It’s just too bad that he follows up the great “Curse of Chucky” with an utterly inferior sequel that dodges any potential at bringing the premise of Chucky to a new level. “Cult of Chucky” looks shockingly cheaper than the previous film with a lot of green screen and obviously computer animated scenes, all with a back drop of a pretty clumsy riff on “Dream Warriors.” Mancini literally breaks all of the pre-established continuity (who knew ghosts could age?) and mythology in order to bend the premise to his will, failing to provide much of an explanation that’s worth buying in to.

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