Halloween DVD Review Round-Up

It's bewitching time again! Get the gang together soon for a horror movie marathon! We're checking out four new DVDs that might fit into your playlist for private spookshows or shared shivers.

From 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

The Omen

A new baby is born to diplomat Robert Thorn (Liev Schrieber) and his wife Kathy (Julia Stiles) but he is stillborn and a doctor offers to give Robert a newborn whose mom has just died. Knowing how much Kathy wanted a child, Robert agrees and keeps the secret from his wife and everyone. There's something a little strange about young Damian (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick). When he is six, people around him start turning up dead. A new nanny Mrs. Blaylock (Mia Farrow) steps into the Thorne home and starts taking over.

Meanwhile, Father Brennen (Pete Postlethwaite) tells Robert that his son is the anti-christ! Gradually, the Thorns' life is wrecked and Robert begins to believe that Brennen is right. Drastic steps must be taken.

Video: The 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is okay but some of the background detail seems a bit mushy and there is a little pixelization in some scenes. Color is good with several scenes shot intentionally flat and dark for effect. Skin tones are fine and normal. Decent but not excellent transfer.

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track mix is good if a little more gathered to the front speakers in some scenes. Dialogue is clear, no distortion or hissing and bass sounds come out spooky and ominous as so the sounds of the creepy dog and things going bump in the night. Overall this sounds very good.

Special Features: Audio commentary track with director John Moore, editor, Dan Zimmerman and the film's producer, Glenn Williamson. The trio spends some time comparing this film to the original version of The Omen. The guys cover casting choices, camerawork and location shooting. You get trivia and some effects explanations. Not amazing but interesting.

"Omenisms" (37 minutes) is a making-of doc that puts in a load of behind-the-scenes on location footage and we hear from actors, the director to the effects and make up crowd. We get the idea that everybody was pressured to make the 6/6/06 release date. I got a kick out of how ticked off and upset the director seems to be. It's just funny. Liev Schreiber gets mad when a dog is chewing on his arm and nobody will call it off, etc. All darkly funny with a very 'you are there' feeling.

"Revelation 666" is a real "filler" that has very little to do with the film. It's all about devil worship with a crew of theologians and weird hosts talking about the significance of evil numbers and that the devil is in our midst. Looks like it was made for bad cable TV. Not much at all about the film. Kinda weird.

"The Abbey Road Sessions" (10 minutes) takes a look at the Marco Beltrami film score.. interesting footage and a good look at why a composer makes certain choices.

Two extended scenes: 'Impaling' and 'Beheading' are just slightly bloodier versions of two of the death scenes from the movie. An alternate ending doesn't really differ that much from the version used in the film. There are two trailers and one for a re-release of the 1976 Richard Donner version of the film. Rounding out the extra features are two theatrical trailers for the movie, a teaser spot, and a newly made trailer for the re-release of the original movie on DVD.

Wrapping Up: This is one remake that might stick too close to the original. It's almost scene-for-scene. Both films are scary. It might be fun to rent both this one and the 1976 version (which starred Gregory Peck) and compare. This new version has more gory kills and creepy make-up effects.

The Addams Family (TV Series) Volume One

Long before the feature film was made in 1991, this wacky, spooky family of vampires, undead and just plain strangies, was big on TV. They talked about evil stuff like torture, murder, bombs but we never saw them actually do any of these things. The kids were kept in the dark (literally) and were well, happy. This family was very rich, rarely left home and considered themselves "normal". Of course weekly visitors found them really odd and this culture clash was the source of the comedy. Morticia, Gomez and their daughter Wednesday, pudgy son Pugsley, Uncle Fester and "Thing", a chopped off live hand in a box, were a creepy laugh riot.

Video: These black and white TV episodes are not time-compressed so they look great.

Audio: There is a laugh track on the episodes and some find this annoying, others feel like it's a comforting "you are there in the audience" kind of thing. I don't think the jokes need a track at all but, at least you can hear dialogue on the episodes fine.

Special Features: New interviews with Gomez (John Astin, Lisa Loring (Wednesday), Ken Weatherwax (Pugsley) and Felix Silla who was funny as hairy cousin "It". There is a fun interactive karaoke sing along to the Theme Song. You get audio commentary by cast members on four episodes and some fun drawings and photos. The featurettes cover the life of Charles Addams (the cartoonist who created the original family). You learn about how the show made it to TV and all about composing the unique music score. All are fun and worth a listen/watch.

Wrapping Up: If this show was on or in re-runs when you were a kid, you'll love seeing these episodes again. If you are just discovering the series, it's delightful fun and a creepy but funny break from heavy horror movie watching. If you were a fan... worth a buy. If you want to just discover the show, certainly rent.

From Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Saw II

The Jigsaw killer is at it again; teaching worthy lessons with his own bizarre and twisted flair in this thinking man's series of horror films. In number 2 police Detectives Mason (Donnie Wahlberg) and Kerry (Dina Meyer) are looking for Jigsaw. He lets them know that he has eight people trapped in a house filled with poison and the usual creative, awful torture traps and they can watch it on live video. Mason sees that his teen son is one of the captives. It's Mason versus Jigsaw in a race against time as, one by one, the captives succumb to their special custom made deathtraps. Oh, and we learn that one of the victims is really Jigsaw's accomplice and heir.

Video: Presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format. Really good transfer. It's remastered and even though dark and weirdly lit, you can see all the grungy production design and not miss one gory "trick". Good job.

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX or 6.1 DTS. Either one works the speakers well. Ambient sound comes through as do voices.. screams, you get the drift.

Special Features: What is new here is a little more director's cut gore on the killings and a slight bit more talk between Jigsaw and the cops. It all looks good.

On disc 1: Since the last release on DVD, this one offers two new audio commentaries with Director/Co-Writer Darren Bousman, Production Designer David Hackl and editor Kevin Greutert. The other one has producer James Wan and Producer/co-writer Leigh Whannell. The first commentary gives you more about the onscreen doings on inside info, locations, effects. The second one is funny and silly. Both are good fun if you love this series of films. You also get trailers for Saw II and Saw III and a few others.

On disc 2: You get a very different approach to discovering the featurettes. You can wander through Jigsaws weird lab and click on all the torture stuff or click on a lightbulb that will take you directly to the menu screen.

These extras are: The Scott Tibbs documentary: 16 minutes, a weird and kind of silly feature where this rocker tries to figure out what Jigsaw is up to. Supposed to be funny but I didn't laugh much.

Behind the Scenes: you have seven featurettes: The Saw Phenomenon (2:12), Conceiving a Sequel (4:56), The Players (14:26), The Sets (13:44), Cinematography (5:19), Sound Design (5:01), and Fun on the Set (3:57). I found all the how it was done stuff interesting and fun. Interviewed are several producers, the director, Donnie Wahlberg, Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Glenn Plummer, Beverley Mitchell and Erik Knudsen.

The Story Behind the Story (3:42) addresses real-life events which might have inspired the original film; a real life crazy killer is blamed. Interesting.

Gregg Hoffman: In Memorium (6:34) is a sad but well-done tribute to the Saw producer who died in 2005 suddenly. Friends and co-workers talk about Gregg's inspiration etc.

Zombie (2:15) is director Bousman's fun short film which you can play with or without the director commentary.

Finally, you get a cute and kinda fun DVD game called Play Me. It's an escape from Jigsaw thing in which you get the worthy life lessons that Jigsaw chooses to teach in a bizarre manner.

Wrapping Up: Saw II was more traditional horror in that it locked a bunch of young people into a spooky environment etc. but it did forward the story of Jigsaw and this new DVD has enough new stuff to please horror fans. If you didn't see the film in theaters, this version is the one to watch. If you are a fan, you'll buy it. If you just want a Halloween creep out with an intelligent twist.. rent for sure.

From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Monster House

In this motion-capture, animated film, 12-year-old D.J. Walters is a little guy with a big imagination. He's sure that the creepy Nebbercracker house across the street is haunted or possessed or... something. He thinks old Mr. Nebbercracker probably had his wife "disappeared". Seems that any toy or gadget that touches even the edge of the property is just swallowed up by the house which begins to take on evil human characteristics! Not even D.J.'s best bud Chowder believes him.. at first. The object of both boys' affection, Jenny, thinks this is nutz until the babysitter's boyfriend disappears and it starts to become obvious that it's all true. Only the kids can save the neighborhood!

Video: We are reviewing the theatrical 2.40:1 Widescreen version. The animation is razor clean and clear and very colorful. Spooky, dark scenes come out great. Very good transfer of a recent film.

Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track sounds really good. The rear speakers get lots of use, especially for the sound effects in the creepy interior of the "Human" house. Dialogue is clean and clear as well.

Special Features: First, the "look" of this DVD is very cute. The outer package slipcase has one of those little paper wheels that you turn to see different incarnations of the house. Really cute idea.

You get an "Audio Commentary" but I'm not sure who by.. it says "filmmaker commentary". These folks aren't in the same room cuz they don't interact but you do get some good info on the development of the project, shooting the film, the young actors, characters so worth at least one listen.

The set includes seven little featurettes which are: "Imaginary Heroes: Character Design" (3.5 minutes). You see early drawings of the characters and see how they turned into 3D models for animation etc. "Beginner's Luck: Casting"(2.5 minutes) We learn how some relatively unknown voice actors got picked for the parts and you do get to see the actors in the motion capture suits with the little dots on them in some scenes. Really neat if you aren't that familiar with how motion capture animation works. "The Best of Friends: DJ, Chowder & Jenny" (2.5 minutes). This is more behind-the-scenes footage with the three lead kid actors, a lot on the two young guys and how they bonded on the set and are still friends. "Lots of Dots: Performance Capture" (2.5 minutes) This is really short and just shows how someone gets the motion capture dots placed on them. I could have used more on the process.

"Black Box Theater: Motion Capture" (4.5 minutes). Okay, now this featurette gives you more details on how the live action gets shot. The next step is shown in "Making it Real: Inside the Animation Process" (6 minutes). This continues where the last one left off by showing how the "captured" live action movements of the actors are made into animation. Now this is very interesting but I could have used even more. "Did You Hear That?: Sound Design" (3 minutes)This is about mixing the sounds on set, dialogue and foley work together. Interesting.

In "Evolution of a Scene: Eliza Vs. Nebbercracker" (6 minutes) You see more of how the movie went from storyboards to the final film. There is a neat little use of the angle button on your remote which can whip you through five different phases of animation production.. or watch it on a split screen. This is maybe the coolest animation teaching guide. Good feature.

"The Art of Monster House" is divided into three areas; "Conceptual Art," "People" and "Places and Things." You see a nice gallery of tons of photos and drawings and a little about a few deleted scenes. A nice looksee feature on the art of the film.

DVD-ROM: has games and activities and downloads.. more for the younger set but fun.

Wrapping Up: We all have or had that one house in our town or neighborhood that was creepy and supposed to be haunted. This cute and fun and actually pretty scary film brings that childhood fear to life very well. If you missed this in theaters, it's a great, well-made DVD with some short but nifty How-To special features that will help you learn how the motion-capture process works etc. Good to add to your collection and certainly to rent for Halloween fun for the whole family.. all ages!

***

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.