Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Slasher > After Dark Horrorfest 4 (Lake Mungo/Zombies of Mass Destruction/The Graves/The Final/Hidden/Dread/Kill Theory/The Reeds/Lionsgate/2010)

After Dark Horrorfest 4 (Lake Mungo/Zombies of Mass Destruction/The Graves/The Final/Hidden/Dread/Kill Theory/The Reeds/Lionsgate/2010)

 

Average Picture: C+     Average Audio: C-     Average Extras: C-     Features:

 

Lake Mungo: D

Zombies of Mass Destruction: C+

The Graves: D

The Final: C+

Hidden: C+

Dread: C+

Kill Theory: C-

The Reeds: C

 

 

Now in its fourth year, the annual After Dark Horrorfest has released this year’s eight films on DVD.  The idea of the Horrorfest is to release small, independently produced horror films that otherwise would never have made their way into a theater, or received much attention on DVD.  Unfortunately it seems that most horror flicks of any worth have already been snatched up.  Still, this year’s roundup is better than last, when indie filmmakers were still working through the tail end of the “torture porn” phase.  Horrorfest 4 introduces a bit more variety as we have slashers, a zombie flick, faux-documentary style, an introspective Norwegian film, and an almost Argento-esque look at fear itself.

 

Lake Mungo is an Australian film about a family dealing with the loss of their daughter, Alice Palmer.  This pseudo-documentary purports to investigate Alice’s story, both looking back to before her death and why she’s been seen in the house months after her death.  A trailer is the only special feature.

 

Zombies of Mass Destruction, calling itself a “political zomedy,” takes a satirical look at small town America in the grip of a zombie apocalypse.  As fear runs high in the community, suspicions and prejudices boil to the surface.  Iranian student Frida and businessman Tom, who’s brought his boyfriend home to meet his mother, find they have more to fear than zombies.  The disc includes a “Making of Zombies of Mass Destruction” featurette.

 

Sisters Megan and Abby Graves lend their name to the title of this next film.  Before Megan moves to New York City for work, the sisters take one last road trip together.  When they stop to check out the Skull City Mine they discover that the community’s been hiding a secret about their town.  The Graves features genre favorites Tony Todd and Bill Moseley.  Special features include two commentary tracks, several “behind the scenes” featurettes, a music video, the original script, and a trailer.

 

The Final is a story of abuse and revenge as a group of high school rejects fight back after years of bullying and harassment.  Led by the suicidal Dale, the group gives a horrific lesson to their more popular tormentors who only get one chance to pass The Final.  Extras include a commentary track, “Behind the Scenes,” a trailer, and deleted scenes.

 

From Norway comes Hidden.  After the death of his mother, KK is forced to return to his childhood home, a place he hoped he had left behind him forever.  As soon as he shows up at the house, people start dying and the answer lies in KK’s shrouded and horrifying past.  Hidden, unfortunately does not come with any special features.

 

Adapted from a Clive Barker novel, Dread is about three students making a film investigating the nature of fear.  As Quaid delves deeper and deeper into the subject matter, he performs terrifying psychological and physical experiments on his subjects hoping to overcome his own fear.  By the time his partners find out what he’s doing, they’re next in line.  Extras include a behind the scenes featurette, “A Conversation with Clive Barker and Writer/Director Anthony DiBlasi,” and deleted scenes.

 

Blending elements of Saw and Battle Royale with the characters and setting of the Friday the 13th remake, Kill Theory is an ambitious, if derivative, slasher.  A psychiatric patient traps a group of twenty-somethings in a deadly experiment as he tries to prove that deep down, we’re all killers.  The disc also contains alternate openings, deleted scenes, and a behind the scenes featurette.

 

The Reeds is a British horror film that takes place in a vast wetland.  When six friends rent a boat for the weekend, they soon find themselves lost in the sea of reeds.  The only places to turn for help are the group of mysterious teens and the deadly parka-clad old man.  Neither are what they seem though, and the friends are caught in a desperate struggle for survival.

 

With the exception of Lake Mungo, which is largely made up of supposed “found footage,” the picture and audio quality are fairly consistent across each of the films.  Each of these films were clearly produced with a fair budget.  It’s never hard to find distribution for a horror film, no matter how bad it is.  The picture quality is generally not tremendous, but about what you’d expect from a professionally produced DVD.  If you really look you can find some extra video noise here and there, but it’s never terribly noticeable.  Each of the films is presented in a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. Likewise the audio is generally pretty good in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.  Occasionally you’ll find a scene with some irritating echo, especially in Lake Mungo and Zombies of Mass Destruction, meaning someone messed up the soundfield or messed up location audio.

 

Overall, this year’s roundup of fright flicks isn’t bad.  Granted, none of them are particularly good either.  The Final is certainly among this year’s standouts, which takes the time to really make us sympathize with the film’s main characters, who straddle the line between antagonists and protagonists.  Zombies of Mass Destruction is also notable in its shift of tone.  Horror comedies are new to the After Dark Horrorfest, but it’s a welcome addition.  Dread is both the most intelligent film of the eight and the most disappointing.  The film starts off in a great self-analyzing direction, almost like Dario Argento’s Opera.  But as the plot progresses it gets lost in the gore and psychosis, and misses the potential it started with.  Regardless though, Dread is by far the most affecting film out of the group.

 

As always, the After Dark Horrorfest has fallen short of its original goal of bringing us the most terrifying film out there, the ones they can’t show in theaters.  But that’s expected by now.  Rather than being some rogue source of horrific monstrosities of cinema (look to Severin for that), After Dark films has become a reliable place to find well-funded B movies.  These are movies made specifically for horror fans who will never tire of a slasher flick or monster movie.  If that’s you, enjoy!

 

 

-   Matthew Carrick


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com