ANGST a.k.a. PENETRATION ANGST

Advance warning--the first ten minutes of ANGST are going to feature one of the most bizarre scenes I've seen from a movie that wasn't Japanese  Because unless I've completely misunderstood what happened--and it's very possible, believe me--I just watched some guy rape our main character, Helen, and then vanish into her vagina.  And all that was left of him was his clothing.  And no...before too much longer there will be confirmation of exactly that.  The guy got sucked up into her vagina.  And he is only the first. Because Helen's cooch will be constantly screaming for meat, which means a whole bunch of guys will be vanishing like some kind of weird Copperfield act.  Helen will therefore--in a move that should surprise absolutely no one--become a prostitute.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

Join me in a collective gasp of shock as The Asylum puts out a movie that's NOT based heavily on previously released work!  That's right, no cheesy knockoff this time around, just a really-loosely-based-on-a-true-story romp called HALLOWEEN NIGHT!  Nope...no cheesy knockoffs here--this is all original cheese.  Well...sort of.  And the flaming bag on our video store doorstep this week is the positively cheese-laden story of an asylum inmate who kills a couple guards, breaks out of prison wearing a mask, heads back to the house of his birth and goes on a murder spree back in 1982.  I'm really, really hoping that there was no pun intended back there, because if there was, I'm going to be fantastically disturbed.

THE NORLISS TAPES

Another movie Anchor Bay dug up out of the "Long Forgotten" section of the archives, THE NORLISS TAPES is an interesting mix of events that lead up to a surprisingly satisifying conclusion, though not without its clear and present faults.  So what we have here plotwise is a paranormal investigator, David Norliss, out investigating psychic phenomena and other assorted supernatural hoaxes.  Sort of a modern day "In Search Of...", or even "Fact or Fiction" for my longtime readers, Norliss has amassed hours upon hours of cassette tapes detailing his findings.  And when David Norliss mysteriously vanishes one day, all that remains behind are his tapes.  What Norliss' tapes reveal are an altogether alarming story of a woman attacked by her husband's corpse, and the events surrounding this particular attack.

ZOMBIE NATION

Ulli Lommel makes a zombie film this time around, and manages to do more damage to the genre than anyone before him.  And what Ulli's dug up this time involves a serial killing cop who's got a thing for the young ladies.  It's especially useful that his old army buddies down at the precinct are always so willing to cover for him!  Just as our killer cop thinks he's in serial killer heaven, he lands what will prove to be his last victim.

A DEAD CALLING

It's always nice when you can get a couple different subgenres running together with some kind of accuracy, and A DEAD CALLING will show very nicely how the ghost story and the murder mystery can work together.  As for this whodunit, Elizabeth, our intrepid reporter heroine, has just left New York following the death of her fiance.  Getting back on the horse, she takes a job with her hometown television station and begins doing a piece on the architecture of the great houses in the area.  One of these great houses has a history to it that revolves very intimately around Rachel and, as we'll find out, will take a lot of blood and corpses to make sense out of it.

NIGHT OF THE DEAD: LEBEN TOD

Somewhere, in the massive landscape of horror movies, the original and best reanimator, Dr. Herbert West, is smirking at Eric Forsberg.  That cool, implacable, unflappable badass of science has seen this before, and knows how it ends.  And while West chuckles, NIGHT OF THE DEAD marches on -- RE-ANIMATOR on a low budget and a couple of odd twists, but without the sheer joy of Jeffrey Combs. A pregnant woman is being held essentially prisoner at the Dr. Gabriel Schreklich Institute For Life Extension, where her husband is serving a medical internship with his uncle Gabriel (same guy).  The Institute has developed a serum that allows reanimation of the dead, and of course, it's not going to end well.  Not for the horrendously named Dr. Schreklich, not for his puppy-eager nephew, and not for his pregnant young niece-in-law, who'll be largely dependent on reanimated ghouls to help her escape.  In a bit of an interesting twist, Schreklich's serum is almost meant as a death vaccine, designed to be taken before or at the moment of death.  West's was designed to be a full reanimation after death, so there are at least some differences here.