The Cell (2000/New Line/Warner Blu-ray)/The Giant Spider Invasion (1975/VCI Limited Edition Blu-ray w/bonus DVD + DVD)/It Follows (2015/Radius-TWC/Anchor Bay Blu-ray)/The Pact 2 (2013/MPI/IFC Midnight Blu-ray)/Reckless (2013/Artsploitation DVD)

Picture: B/B- & C/B/B-/C+ Sound: B/B- & C+/B/B/C+ Extras: B-/B & C+/C+/C-/C- Films: B/B-/C-/B-/C-

Here's a new group of horror thrillers you should know about, including a few gems and a few duds...

Tarsem Singh's The Cell (2000) remains the Music Video director's best feature film (and that is not without ambitious follow-ups like The Fall) and one of the best of serial killer films in the cycle that followed Demme's Silence Of The Lambs. A serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio) is grabbing women and putting them into a plexiglass observation chamber (of the title) where he can torture them (they all have water systems), watch them and do whatever sick things he likes. When he is captured when he goes into a coma, there is a woman is missing, so authorities decide to use a new science method of reaching his mind by using drug and computer to get inside his mind.

Jennifer Lopez plays one of the women at the facility who takes on the mission, but it turns out to be harder and more complicated than anyone expects, including herself who knows she could die in real life should she die in this semi-dream state. Vince Vaughn (before going into a career of only silly comedies) is an FBI officer trying to stop the next death, the film is bold in its graphicness (dream state and brutal images of the body human) in intelligent ways we don't see much today and the film remains suspenseful and as interesting as it was when first released 15 years ago.

This was made by the New Line Pictures that was smart and independent before Warner Bros. sadly to our detriment folded it into their studio. The supporting cast including Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Dylan Baker and Jake Weber are also great here as everyone involved is working in exceptionally good form. The film was a hit despite being promoted on one of its more abstract visual effects moments, yet people found the film and it is great it finally has arrived on Blu-ray and in a really good transfer. If you've never seen it, it is a must-see to catch up with and if you have, you're in for a real surprise if you revisit it. It holds up very, very well.

Extras include Visual Effects Vignettes, Deleted Scenes, two feature length audio commentary tracks (one with Tarsem, the other with the Crew) and featurette Style As Substance: Reflections On Tarsem.

Bill Rebane's The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) may sound like a bad movie from its title, but it is actually one of the first and best 'creature killer' movies to be made in the wake of the massive hit success of Spielberg's Jaws (from the same year) with Steve Brodie, Barbara Hale, Alan Hale Jr., Robert Easton, Leslie Parrish and Kevin Brodie leading off a cast that is able to get into the spirit of the story. At first, a few people see something coming out of the sky one night and think that maybe it is a comet, small meteor or falling star, but the explosion that lights up some fields in weird ways perplexes everyone.

Suddenly, little round objects the size of small cantaloupes turn up, but when they crack open, large spiders crawl out. No one sees that part, but do find the insides of the objects, which seem to be lined with industrial-like diamonds. The first couple to realize this see money before using their common sense. The local authorities are puzzled too, though they (including Alan Hale, Jr., who is a hoot here), do not totally know what is going on. We also have a superfluous preacher who turns up throughout, but it really not a part of things, even when spiders the size of Sonic franchises start attacking.

VCI has become the company to finally issue this one on Blu-ray and uncut, which it was not on TV at the time because of the blood and some violence despite the limits of the visual effects. They also issued a DVD, but it is not as loaded with extras or plays back as well, yet the film is also known later for being spoofed on the MST3K series (see the extras). However, no matter how campy or silly or dated, the film holds its own when taken in the spirit in which it was made and deserves a place on the shelf with Grizzly, Piranha, Tentacles, Barracuda and other better films capitalizing on Jaws at the time. These new separate editions, especially the Blu-ray, should help that cause. Definitely see it on its own to really appreciate it.

Extras on both editions include in the final Original Theatrical Trailer, a Behind The Scenes Photo Gallery, the Super 8mm consumer reduced U.S. version on the film at 37 minutes, Rebane on the set of his film Rama, archival interviews with Rebane, cast & crew, 4 tracks from the musical version of the film and Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Kevin Murphy introducing Rebane at a retrospective of his films. The Blu-ray goes further by adding more trailers, a CD of music from the entire musical (10 more songs, bringing us to 14), an archival newsreel and new documentary Size Does Matter!: Making The Giant Spider Invasion by David Griffith. Needless to say the Blu-ray is the version serious fans should get.

David Robert Mitchell's It Follows (2015) is being touted as some kind of horror genre masterpiece, which it is not, but the reaction shows you that even a film done half-well in the genre is going to get fans these days as zombies and found footage is so beyond played out at this point. Mitchell made the horrifically bad Myth Of The American Sleepover (which put me to sleep a few times, reviewed elsewhere on this site) and remains one of the worst mumblecore films ever made. Some of that tendency is in many early scenes here (especially in some really bad dialogue), but it is when it leaves behind pretension and bad talk that it works, even if some of that is by default or accident.

The opening scene has a young woman frightened and running way from something no one can see in her suburban neighborhood, puzzling the few who see her erratic behavior, but she is going to get out of there. Then the story goes back to a date where a guy who seems good is determined to have sex with gal date, only to tell her later about the evil force that has been following him will now follow her. By having sex, you pass on the living curse of being tracked and possibly killed. This is a play on 1980s slasher films where the couple is killed if they have sex. Here, the ordeal is prolonged and maybe worse.

However, the script starts several things it never finishes, even if over-explaining would make this science fiction and not horror. It owes something to Carpenter's Halloween, the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Kubrick by way of Donnie Darko, which is not bad. However, that also means it is more interesting when you are watching it than when it is over, unless of course you are new to watching horror films. I admit I did like some of the scenes and it is able to be intense when it needs to be, but it is far from the classic some have said it is. Still, the makers where serious about making something intense and different enough to get noticed and they succeeded enough that fans should definitely give it a good look. I was not totally convinced by it, but it is miles ahead of fluffy nonsense like Blair Witch Project, so that's a good thing.

Extras include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds a feature length audio commentary hosted by Scott Weinberg with Mitchell eventually joining in (et al) doing this project more harm than good (saying the film being derivative is not a problem is not good, but saying it is about the fear of adulthood essentially says this 100 minutes should have been cut to a 25 minutes long Night Gallery episode, so they are not helping themselves in any way), Poster Art Gallery, Conversation with the composer known as Disasterpiece and an Original Theatrical Trailer.

Dallas Hallam & Patrick Horvath co-directed The Pact 2 (2013) so badly, that I was glad I missed the first one, though I don't remember it even being released. Camillia Luddington plays a woman haunted by murder in her dreams of a serial killer who might just be back, apparently with the same plot. From there, we get boring/gruesome murders and more formula than a nursery as we have to figure out the killer's secret motivation before we fall asleep... I mean he kills again!

You're in trouble when the case declares the first film a classic and no one has heard of it, but that is the pack-age deal we get and for being 96 minutes, it seems to go on much longer. Let's make a pact that they make no more sequels.

Extras include a Making of featurette and trailer.

Lastly we have Joram Lursen's Reckless (2013), a Dutch remake of the disappointing kidnapping thriller The Disappearance Of Alice Creed (2009) with the very likable Gemma Arteron we reviewed a few years ago at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10592/Alarm+(2008/IFC/MPI+DVD)+++The+Disappearan

These actors are not bad, but this film is, managing to be more pointless than its predecessor, as unconvincing and having it sown idiot plot throughout. If you are going to do a remake, try to improve on things or forget it, but as Hollywood studios have been doing the same thing with thrillers and especially horror films, no surprise. Weak and the only extra is a trailer.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on The Cell is a combination of Super 35mm and real anamorphic 35mm Kodak negative film with some older HD (then the most advanced around) for some of the stylized otherworld sequences. Those shots look a little softer and the film has interesting style choices, but the playback for the most part is the best I have seen it since I saw it in 35mm and I can't image it looking any better on Blu-ray. This is enough for it to tie with the digitally-shot 2.35 X 1 image on It Follows, which does a decent job of emulating the scope look of John Carpenter's early films, especially Halloween. Some flaws and weakness hold it back here and there, but it is just about consistent enough.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on the Spider Blu-ray ties for second place with the digitally shot (and not so great looking) 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Pact 2, which is just too color drained and detail-challenged for its own good resulting in a cliched look. Spider can show the age of the materials used, but VCI has gone out of its way to make it look as good as it can and the result are some remarkably good shots that hold up well for an independent film shot under the circumstances this one was and looks better than most horror monster films we see today. It is a little surprising then that the anamorphically enhanced DVD sold separately is softer than I expected it to be.

That leaves the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Reckless on the soft side as well, but with some more detail and slightly more depth, yet color that is not as good as the film 40 years older.

As for sound, Cell, Follows and Pact 2 all offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes that are pretty state of the art, though Cell an show its age, yet tends to hold up remarkably well and it a very smart mix. Pact 2 has a consistent soundfield, but it is nothing memorable, while Follows has a better mix with the very well recorded music score and some sound effects the highlight that barely manages not to overdo things.

The Spider Blu-ray surprises with a more decent and clear than expected PCM 2.0 Mono track that makes watching the improved image more fun, while its DVD counterpart offers a passable, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono that is fairly good, but you miss some good details they managed to capture with their limited budget. That leaves the Reckless DVD with a lossy Dutch Dolby Digital 5.1 that is a mixed bag of good and weak sounds, making me think the soundmaster was better and just not as well transferred as it could have been.

- Nicholas Sheffo