DVD Round-up, 12 October 2010: The Human Centipede, The Evil Dead, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days

In the run-up to Halloween it seems the DVD companies are doing their best to try and scare the life out of the public, with classics, remakes and sequels now out to buy.

Let's start with the newbie first, The Human Centipede (Eureka), “the horror event of the year” (it says here) which pits three unsuspecting tourists to a living nightmare in rural Germany as they encounter a mad scientist intent on creating yer actual human centipede.

How does he do that without sewing the three people together so that their mouths are attached to the others, erm, rear end, I hear you ask?

Well, I won't go into detail in case you're eating, but it's safe to say this isn't a disc to pop in the DVD player after Antiques Roadshow, a gruesome gross-fest which sets out to make the audience feel ill rather than impress them with an allegorical plot or decent acting.

Also available in Blu-ray, it's fair to say the movie looks good, technically, though the enclosed setting of Dr Heiter's house and basement aren't that exciting. There is a vein of black humour in here that means you may guffaw once or twice, but there's little rewatch value. Extras include a making-of, interviews and deleted scenes.

One film that does deserve rewatching is the video nasty-turned horror classic, The Evil Dead (Sony Pictures), which receives yet another home video release but this time makes its debut on Blu-ray.

For those who haven't caught the 1981 low-budget gem, it stars Bruce Campbell as Ash, a college student who decides to head into the woods with friends for the weekend. When they arrive in a log cabin they uncover The Book of the Dead, an ancient text which unleashes evil spirits on the visitors.

Made on a paltry budget by a group of film fans/students, including director Sam Raimi and producer Rob Tapert, two names which would one day mean a lot more to cinemagoers (think the Spider Man movies and Drag Me To Hell), Evil Dead took a generation of viewers by surprise, not to mention the censors who tried to ban it in the early 1980s.

This new Blu-ray not only allows us to see the film as it was first shown, with the disc struck from the original negative, but its extras, including a brand new commentary from Campbell, Raimi and Tapert, offers even the most hardened of Dead heads something of note. Whether that's insight on how to make a film from nothing or views from other filmmakers, this is a compact package which will happily sit alongside all those other versions of the film you own.

And if it's your first time in the woods, come on in, we've been expecting you.

The final horror release this week is 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (Sony Pictures), a TV-movie sequel to 2007's vampire flick, 30 Days of Night.



This latest adventure for Alaskan survivor, Stella (Kiele Sanchez replacing the original's Melissa George), sees her venturing out of the decimated town of Barrow and into the bright lights of Los Angeles, where a new sect of bloodsuckers are hiding from humanity.

Lead by the sultry Lillith (Mia Kirshner), the vampires are determined to send Stella packing when they discover she's out to expose them following the death of her husband and friends. Stella joins with a group of renegades who are also keen to see the vampires vanquished, and the team are soon fighting for survival in the LA underworld.

On the plus side, it's fair to say that director Ben Ketai has produced a solid, expensive looking movie with aspirations seemingly beyond its TV origins. The film looks suitably steely in its blue hues, and the hi-def image on the Blu-ray ensures it has a sheen that others straight-to-DVD sequels would die for.

Beyond its look, the actors go through the motions well enough, Sanchez a likeable leading lady who doesn't have much to do except look upset/angry/determined (delete as applicable) and tread water until things come to their predictable conclusion.

The director and writer make it clear in the chatty commentary that they're much enamoured by the world created by Steve Niles for his graphic novel, but it's hard to see quite what it is they like so much. The story isn't particularly innovative and the idea of vampires being a bit nasty and wanting to rule humanity nothing new.

It's likely we'll see another of these sequels at some point, but quite why is anyone's guess.