From ‘Darkness’ to Lynch
DREAMSVILLE’S WEEK IN DVD This is quite a week for new Blu-ray releases and Blu-ray re-issues. First up is “Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cats: Two Adaptations by Sergio Martino & Lucio Fulci.” Edgar Allan Poe’s celebrated story “The Black Cat” has been the inspiration for numerous films over the years. But few adaptations are as […]
D for Dinosaurs, Z for Zachariah
DREAMSVILLE’S WEEK IN DVD Good filmmaking, like all good storytelling, revolves around a set of themes as old as time: Among them the loss of innocence, revenge, triumph over adversity, love conquers all, good wins out over evil and humans vs. nature. If you add to the latter entry “dinosaurs eating humans,” you’ve got the […]
‘The Brood,’ ‘The Saint’ and a Genie Too
DREAMSVILLE’S WEEK IN DVD Fans of gore, horror and David Cronenberg will appreciate The Criterion Collection’s release of the director’s “The Brood” (1979), starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle. As in most of Cronenberg’s early and middle films, his scenario revolves around body horror (bodily transformation and infection, generally created by the efforts […]
Lust and Gore to the Fore
DREAMSVILLE’S WEEK IN DVD “Bram Stoker’s Dracula Supreme Cinema Series” (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes, Billy Campbell, Sadie Fros, Tom Waits and Monica Bellucci, is the first release under the new Sony Supreme Cinema Series banner. According to the […]
‘Killers’ on the Loose’
DREAMSVILLE’S WEEK IN DVD Composer and first-time filmmaker Leonard Kastle was tapped by friend and roommate Warren Steibel to write and direct a low-budget film in 1969 about “The Lonely Hearts Killers,” Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, a pair of serial killers who murdered as many as 20 women between 1947 and 1949 … after […]