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One of my favorite under-the-radar films of last year was Glenn McQuaid’s I Sell the Dead. The film turned up on IFC’s VOD service, but most people missed it. I reported news earlier that it was slated to come to DVD at the end of March. Now, Dread Central has scored a look at the cover art and supplemental materials for the disc. Looks like it’s shaping up to be a nice release.

That’s the cover art above. Extras on the disc include:

Check out my review if you’re on the fence about this one. I Sell the Dead hits retail on March 30th.

UK fright fans got a chance to check out The Descent Part 2 in theaters last December. Unfortunately, American audiences will have to make do with a DVD release as opposed to catching it on the big screen.

DVD Active is reporting that Lionsgate will bring Jon Harris’ sequel to Neil Marshall’s cult chiller to American home video audiences on April 27th. I’m ambivalent about this–to be honest, there are films that I don’t really need to see in a theater, and The Descent Part 2 falls squarely in that category. I’m perfectly content to watch it from my couch.

Here’s the synopsis:

Dazed, bloodied and speechless with trauma, Sarah Carter emerges alone from the Appalachian cave system where the events of THE DESCENT took place. Local sheriff Redmond Vaines forces her back underground to help the rescue team which is desperately searching for her five missing girlfriends. As the team moves deeper into the caves, Sarah’s flashes of fractured memory intensify and she begins to realizes the full horror of the would-be rescue mission. Only Sarah knows the terror which lurks in the shadows of the caves. But they are about to encounter a new tribe of crawlers, inbred, deformed and even more viciously feral than those Sarah faced before.

No word yet on what extras might be included with the disc, but I’ll keep you posted as we get closer to April 27th.

I’m morbidly curious about Nic Cage’s Season of the Witch. I like the idea of a medieval supernatural film with knights and monsters, but at the same time, it’s a Nic Cage movie. Even worse, it’s a Nic Cage movie directed by Dominic Sena, who I like to think of as “the poor man’s Michael Bay” (yeah, think about that one for a second…how’re you feeling about this movie now?). On the positive side, it does feature Ron Perlman–and I think we all love him.

If you’re still undecided about whether this flick will be worth catching in a theater or waiting for DVD, I doubt there’s anything on the new fully launched official website that’s going to change your mind. That being said, you can still swing by and have a gander at the trailer, peruse still galleries, and explore some other material related to the movie. The site’s pretty cool looking–I’ll give them that.

Season of the Witch is due out on March 19th. Here’s an official plot description from back in October…

As the Black Plague rages across 14th century Europe, one brave knight Lavey, is tasked with transporting a girl suspected of being the witch who caused the pandemic to trial. Believing she is wrongly accused, Lavey and a group of wary followers fight through a mystical and treacherous landscape to a hallowed place where her innocence can be proved and Europe’s curse can be lifted. Unbeknownst to Lavey, even darker forces await them…

Adam Green’s latest film, Frozen, generated quite a bit of buzz when it played Sundance last week. The story of kids stuck on a ski lift in the middle of nowhere seems to really connect with audiences because it seems s0 plausible. If a horror film can make an audience put themselves into the character’s situation with minimal suspension of disbelief, it’s definitely doing something right.

The film is slated for a limited theatrical release next weekend, and to get everyone in the mood, here’s the latest TV teaser advertisement. There’s no chance in Hell that Frozen will play anywhere near me, but I hope some of you get the opportunity to see it on the big screen.

Just a quick note here. If you’ve been waiting to check out the French horror film Mutants, IFC has good news for you.

The film, directed by David Morlet, will make it’s IFC Direct On Demand debut on February 10th. I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’ve heard enough to have my curiosity piqued.

Here’s the plot blurb:

“In a world devastated by a pandemic virus that turns human beings into primitive and bloodthirsty creatures, Marco and Sonia set off to find a secret base to escape from the ‘mutants’. When the latter attack them, Marco is infected. Little by little, he undergoes the same changes. Sonia, who is expecting a baby, is then forced to fight her worst enemy, the man she loves.”

We’ve known for awhile now that Magnet Releasing would be releasing George Romero’s latest zombie epic, Survival of the Dead, here in the States. What we didn’t know, before today, was when and how the division of Magnolia Films would be rolling the film out to the masses.

Fangoria has shed some light on this conundrum. According to their sources, Survival of the Dead will make its Video On Demand debut on April 30th, then hit selected theaters on May 28th. If this seems like an odd release schedule, fear not–this is the same way Magnet released last year’s surprise hit House of the Devil–and that seems to have turned out pretty well.

Here’s the plot breakdown from one of the film’s festival dates last year:

When the idyllic retreat of Plum Island falls victim to the zombie plague, a new breed of clan war breaks out. On one side is the camp who want to exterminate all undead with a wickedly diverse array of brain-splattering headshots. On the other, devoted family members take the stance that “zombie-ism” is a disease, the undead have rights and they must be kept alive until a cure is found. Unable to simply “agree to disagree,” the two clans go to war and make their island microcosm a whole hell of a lot bloodier. An undead parallel to the tribal wars that are plaguing our own society today, SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD exposes the futility of such conflict and the need for tolerance of the beliefs of others. Plus it’s got zombie horses in it!

Early reviews have been mixed, but I’m always going to be in line to check out a new Romero zombie film…

Cool news this morning for fans of adventure games with horror overtones. JoWooD Entertainment and Dreamcatcher will bring Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper to American Xbox 360 owners this March (Europe has had the game since November of 2009…). The title will be released under the banner of The Adventure Company, a label that seems to be almost single-handedly keeping this genre alive.

Here’s what gamers can expect from the title:

London, 1888. A series of horrendous murders has left a trail of blood throughout the troubled London district of Whitechapel. Nobody, nothing seems to be able to stop this brutal killer, and the population is close to panicking. Step into Sherlock Holmes’ boots and solve the most sinister case in his career! Enter the twisting, gloomy, dirty back streets of 19th Century London in order to follow the trail of the gruesome criminal whose name alone suffices to spread fear and horror. His name is … Jack.
Jack the Ripper.

Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper? I’m all over that. Check out what my fellow horror game critic Marcus Simpson thought of the title by reading his review over at Screamstress.

You see these kinds of stories in sports all the time–two teams go at it in a big game for all the marbles, one wins, and then during the offseason the winning team snags a vital component of the loser’s squad in an attempt to make themselves even better. Then, all we hear about whenever they meet is this “storyline” about the guy going up against his former team and whatnot (for example, see Farve, Brett and Hossa, Marian). I’d never seen it happen in film–at least not before last night.

Paranormal Activity went head to head with Saw VI last October, and the upstart film kicked the ever-loving crap out of Jigsaw. Naturally, we all knew we were getting a Saw sequel for this October (because we get one pretty much every year now) and we knew a PA sequel was coming (because no studio is going to let a cash cow like that sit without first trying to run it into the ground), but I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that we were getting a rematch this October or that Saw VI director Kevin Greutert would be playing for the other team…

THR’s Heat Vision blog is reporting that Greutert will direct Paranormal Activity 2, a film scheduled for release this October 22nd. The film will once again be in direct competition with Liongsate’s newest Saw entry.

This is an odd story. I think Greutert got the shaft on Saw VI. He made the most watchable installment since the second sequel, yet for some reason the producers decide to hand the seventh film back to David Hackl (who gave us what is arguably the worst entry in the series). Now Greutert will get the chance to show his old bosses just how wrong they were. Of course, I couldn’t care less about seeing a Saw VII–and at this point, I’m not really counting down the days til we get a Paranormal Activity 2, either (the mere thought of it gives me chilling visions of Book of Shadows, the awful Blair Witch Project sequel…), but I’m sure this is going to be a big deal now if only because of the underlying storyline. I’ll be bringing you more news on both films as they move ahead in their production cycle.

Alex Aja’s Piranha 3D sure has been in the news a lot lately. First it was for the trailer debut (attached to prints of Avatar), then it was because it was delayed until August (for any number of reasons–it depends on who you asked and who you believe). Now there’s finally a watchable version of that trailer online (replacing the really awful and nearly unwatchable one that’s been making the rounds for the past week or so–thanks Trailer Spy!). I’ll say this: The movie looks more interesting when you can actually see what’s happening in the trailer.

Here’s the plot synopsis. I don’t really care what the movie’s about–it’s got Richard Dreyfuss playing a character modeled after his role as Hooper in Jaws. That’s all I needed to hear to get my ass in theater seat.

“A new type of terror is about to be cut loose on beautiful Lake Victoria. After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area’s new razor-toothed residents. But our heroine (Elisabeth Shue) is seriously outnumbered, and with only one chance to save the lake and her family from totally being devoured, she must risk everything to destroy the aquatic carnivores herself.“

Piranha 3D is now tentatively slated to hit theaters this August–unless the Weinsteins go broke between now and then.

I’m looking forward to Alexandre Aja’s Piranha remake, not because I expect it to be particularly good, but because it looks very gory (something I can always get behind) and I generally tend to like Aja’s films (Mirrors being the one exception). So, it’s with great disappointment that I bring news of the film’s release date shift.

The LA Times is reporting that The Weinstein Company has pulled the film from its April release window and will now release it in August at the earliest. The cynical amongst us are taking this as one more sign that the Weinstein company is in dire financial straits, but the LA Times article insists the move is really about avoiding direct competition with the comic book adaptation Kick-Ass. That makes sense on some levels–as does moving to August or later. May is the start of the summer blockbuster season and Piranha would certainly sink without a trace in those shark-infested waters (ooh, see what I did there?). August is where the dregs of the summer season go to die, and Aja’s film would certainly have a better chance of making some money in that release window than in May-July.

No official release date has been announced (which makes the fact that they put the teaser trailer on Avatar all the more hilarious to me), but once again the Weinsteins look nearly inept. Didn’t these guys rule the world at one point? What the hell happened?

Expect more on this as details come into focus. In the meantime, check out some gory new stills at Bloody-Disgusting.