One of the most widely publicized and infamous hauntings in American history that ended up being one of the most widely publicized hoaxes of all time resulted in an acclaimed novel, and a cinematic adaptation. Said film ended up garnering nine sequels, and one remake, all of which are infamous for being either very bad, or immensely silly horror entries. However, there is a charm there for horror fans that love supernatural cinema, and for those that love the “Amityville” series, Scream Factory allows fans to pick up the first trilogy in a Blu-ray box set just in time for Halloween. Some horror fans prefer to think of the first three films as the true Amityville Horror arc, and it’s available with the original cover art for the films in tact.
Director E.E. Charlton-Trujillo and Josh Flowers’s “A Handful of Pennies” is a very entertaining and morbid crime short that demonstrates the classic concept behind the gangster picture. Someone did something wrong, they’ve been caught, and they’re paying for their crimes. In this instance, gangster Lyle has his prey in his hands and is not going to be satisfied until he garners information from the poor bastard named Arnold, who is strapped to a chair.
The Asylum’s answer to Guillermo Del Toro’s upcoming “Pacific Rim” is goofy, and often times inadvertently funny. But in the realm of science fiction from The Asylum, I’ve seen so much worse. The Asylum has been pretty good about their science fiction inputs, offering another solid robot movie “Transmorphers,” so I was much more open minded with this endeavor. I would take writer Jared Cohn to task for offering no build up to the action, but if he went the opposite route, I’d be complaining he took too long. So in that respect, “Atlantic Rim” gets a pass for knowing exactly what kind of film it is.