AFTER DARK HORROR FEST
Late last year, Lionsgate had a great idea: unleash 8 of their recent horror aquisitions theatrically in a one-weekend marathon, the After Dark Horrorfest, giving the features a chance to unspool on screens across America for a limited time. Not only was the novel approach a flashy event, but it was also a way to use paying customers as a test audience to guage crowd response. The winner? The Abandoned, which was gifted with nation wide theatrical just recently, and garnered some good reviews.
Now the other 7 films come to DVD, loaded with extra features unheard of films don’t usually merit. The movies themselves are a mixed bag, only a couple rising above straight-to-DVD standards, a few plunging way below. But perhaps that was the point, it was a clever way to market films that otherwise wouldn’t have caused much sensation otherwise, and encourage horror-starved fans to sample them all.
Which ones to see? Ju-On director Takashi Shimizu‘s Reincarnation is easily the best of the lot, while The Gravedancers and Unrest manage to get in a few genuine scares. Not a bad way to kill some time, at least until The Abandoned is released on DVD.
-
deepstructure
