With “The Walking Dead” being perhaps one of the biggest television hit in years, it was only obvious AMC television would rush out a box set of the entire first season of “The Walking Dead.” I can’t imagine it took them very long since the first season of the 2010 hit series is only six episodes, but that’s only the norm for AMC who practices a formula of six trial episodes leading in to a hopeful second and third season of thirteen episodes. It happened with “The Killing” and they also practiced the formula for “Breaking Bad,” two truly genius series.
With “The Walking Dead” rushed in to production on the home video front, fans were treated to a hastily created albeit much welcomed addition to their horror collection that brought together one of the biggest hits of 2010. For folks looking for a more complete edition, AMC and Anchor Bay have released a more thought out and well versed edition in a Three Disc hard cover treatment that should be a welcome collector’s piece for hardcore fans of “The Walking Dead.”
I didn’t enjoy “Laid to Rest” as much as other people did, for the simple fact that as a slasher it featured some of the most annoying and difficult to root for characters ever created, with a character named Chrome skull who had potential but was sorely wasted. “Laid to Rest” was a missed opportunity to conceive something of a unique slasher franchise and it failed big time. “Chromeskull” however is an even bigger waste of time, as it never knows what to do with the premise, nor can it completely connect the first film to the second film without it feeling like cheap fan service.
The Ford Brothers have obviously come from the school of Romero with “The Dead,” a film that touts itself as one of the first South African zombie movies ever released. It strives to bring audiences the genre that Romero built in its most traditional sense as a zombie movie where the living must fight to ward off the walking dead, all of whom lumber and groan at the sight of fresh meat. There’s not a runner to be found, which should please traditionalists looking for a dread filled good time and the Ford brothers seemed to have been fed on a strict diet of Romero’s films as their monstrous zombies actually walk in rigomortis stricken pale bodies that turn them in to rather omnipotent and menacing beings.
I don’t see “The Howling Reborn” so much as a reboot of “The Howling” as a dramatic twist on “Teen Wolf.” That’s basically the premise behind this re-launch of the infamous “The Howling” franchise. It basically takes it back to high school with a fresh young cast of Canadians, all of whom are embroiled in the tooth and snout of the full moon madness. Landon Liboiron who is becoming a very well versed Scream king is the Teen Wolf this picture sets down on who is merely your average friendly neighborhood geek who has a destiny he is not yet aware of. Considering we barely see any werewolves at all, “The Howling Reborn” really could have been so much worse.
If Red State had been the efforts of amateur filmmakers, I’d have chalked it up to being one hell of an try in the horror genre. But knowing Kevin Smith inside and out, I’m inclined to say that Smith seems almost disingenuous in his efforts to create an independent film that may or may not be independent when all is said and done. Smith knows his way around the camera and while I can’t fucking stand a single film from the man, “Red State” is a film that disappointed because the man does nothing with the genre that we haven’t already seen. And he’s working in my genre, the horror genre, so I expected big things from this considerable clunker. Rabid Christian fundamentalists, torture porn, commentary on religion, it’s all on the menu from a god fearing man like Kevin Smith who can never be sure if he’s putting religion to task for corrupting us, or merely just showing that religion has a bad side like it has a good side. “Dogma” was in fact an unbridled celebration of the mythos behind his religion, now “Red State” takes it to task and can never be quite certain what kind of message it’s trying to convey.