DTV gems make a big splash early
It's March and to say that this years early horror releases have been disappointing would be an understatement. "White Noise", "Boogeyman", and "The Ring 2" all didn't live up to expectations. Of all 3, "The Ring 2" (IMO atleast) was a pretty decent/moderately good follow up to the original, while two films which were hyped up to no end in "White Noise" and "Boogeyman" totally did not live up to expectations. Other horror movie releases such as "Alone in the Dark" and "Cursed" really didn't have high expectations. "Cursed" for all the hell it went through during production, and "Alone in the Dark"...well...one sentence...*Directed by Uwe Boll*. But it seems that something is happening this year taht has not happened in previous years. The cream of the crop early on in the year are going direct to video and DVD. "Dead Birds" a very eerie and well done supernatural horror pic was released earlier this month. -
 A still from "Dead Birds" which was released to DVD on March 15th.
- "Satans Little Helper" which is getting good reviews, will be hitting DVD soon. While the number of good horror films heading to video/DVD doesn't largely outnumber the good horror films that have hit theaters, they still are keeping score really well,and have pulled in some instances. I was surprised by "Dead Birds", a film I wasn't expecting much from. I knew it would be atleast decent, but it was truly a great supernatural horror/period piece film. Horror period pieces don't work out to well as example of Shamaylans "The Village" and "Ginger Snaps:The Beginning" which wasn't awful but still disappointed me for the most part. As opposed to many of this years theatrical releases such as "White Noise" and "Boogeyman" which I expected the world of and was severly disappointed. We still have other direct-to-video releases to look forward to such as "Malevolence" later this year and depending on who you are, the next two "Hellraiser" sequels. However, this swing in the balance of power of the genre will be short lived. With "House of Wax" in May, "The Devils Rejects" in July, "Wolf Creek" in June, "Dark Water" and "The Skeleton Key" in August, and "Haute Tension" will also be hitting theaters later this year. So things will quickly shift back to normal, as theatrical releases will gain in quality and number while DTV films will drop off a bit. Still, it's nice to see that while the genre has had many misses on the big screen early in the year, the DTV side of things has held the fort down with some nice little gems, with more on the way. and Overall, it's nice to see DTV horror films as a whole improving in quality and filmmakers and writers alike putting more effort into them. While we will horror fans will always love and prefer our theatrical releases because of the moviegoing experience, lets hope things on the other end of the spectrum in DTV land continue to get better.
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