Momentum Pictures explores THE FACILITY (review)

From the makers of MONSTERS, comes the story of a drug trial gone wrong in THE FACILITY.  Seven Londoners head to an isolated clinic in the country for a two-week trial of a new pharmaceutical.  When bizarre and violent side effects start to overtake them one by one, the others must fight for their survival and their sanity.


REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

THE FACILITY DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Optional English subtitles
• Behind the Scenes
• Teaser
• Trailer 

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Found Footage Review Archive

Love 'em or hate 'em, "found footage" horror features are a popular sub-genre.  They offer new filmmakers an economical opportunity for a debut feature that might have a chance of being distributed either on physical media or streaming services (or both) and mor experienced filmmakers an opportunity to play with the "language" of film.  The results aren't always pretty (well, they're never pretty aesthetically), but there are a few diamonds in the rough.  The list of reviews below are not a select list of the good ones; rather, it is a list of review links to the "found footage" titles I've covered thus far.

APARTMENT 143
ATROCIOUS
THE BAY
EVIDENCE
EVIL THINGS
HOLLOW
THE INSIDE 
A NECESSARY DEATH
A NIGHT IN THE WOODS
PARANORMAL INCIDENT
THE TAPES 

Momentum Pictures visits THE BAY (review)

Award-winning director Barry Levinson gives an eco-horror disaster angle to the "found footage" genre in THE BAY.  A reporter covering the 4th of July festivities in a Maryland fishing town is eye witness to a massive, mysterious (and gory) outbreak that finds the uninfected desperately trying to get out of a quarantined town and the government trying to cover it all up.


REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)


THE BAY DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Optional English subtitles
• "Inside the Bay" featurette
• Trailer

More Momentum Pictures reviews at Update the Tags: Momentum Pictures.

Momentum Pictures investigates APARTMENT 143 (review)

When paranormal activity follows widower Alan White and his kids from their old home to a decrepit Los Angeles apartment building, he calls in parapsychologist Dr. Helzer and his team to investigate the increasingly violent hauntings.  The team does not have to wait long for proof of the paranormal, and soon no one may get out of APARTMENT 143 alive.  Produced by Rodrigo Cortes (BURIED) and directed by Carles Torrens.

REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD vs Magnolia Entertainment (USA) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

APARTMENT 143 DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English subtitles
• Making-of Featurette
• Trailer

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Also available in the US:
 

Momentum Pictures presents THE RAID (review)

Jakarta underworld crime boss Tama lives on the top floor of a decrepit apartment building that is a veritable fortress and a no-go zone for the police.  Tonight, however, a SWAT unit of twenty men is infiltrating the building and securing each floor (filled with machete-wielding criminals who receive protection from Tama in exchange for keeping out unwelcome visitors) on the way up to the top floor.  Their invasion has not gone unnoticed and pretty soon the officers are fighting off desperate criminals from above and below.  Featuring a music score by Mike Shinoda of LINKIN' PARK and Joe Trapanese (TRON: LEGACY).

REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

THE RAID DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• Indonesian/Bahasa and English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks
• Descriptive Audio for the Visually Impaired Track
• Optional English Subtitles
• UK exclusive commentary track with writer/director/editor Gareth Evans and actor Joe Taslim
• Behind the Music featurette
• THE RAID Fan Film
• Music Video
• Behind the Scenes Featurettes
• Theatrical Trailers
• Trailers for SLEEPING DOGS, WARFIGHTERS, SAFE, and RED TAILS

More Momentum Pictures reviews at Update the Tags: Momentum Pictures.

Vertigo Films spends A NIGHT IN THE WOODS (review)

When Brody (and his camera), his girlfriend Kerry, and her "cousin" Leo head out to Dartmoor's Wistman's Wood for a camping trip and fail to heed the warning about the legend of the huntsman.  It seems that he stalks and hangs sinners, and this groups dysfunctional brand of sexual shenanigans and mind games make them very tasty targets in this "found footage" horror pic from the makers of BRONSON and MONSTERS.  Scoot McNairy (MONSTERS), Anna Skellern (THE DESCENT 2), and Andrew Hawley star.

REVIEW LINK: Vertigo Films/Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 0 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

A NIGHT IN THE WOODS DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Making-of Featurette
• Trailer

More Momentum Pictures reviews at Update the Tags: Momentum Pictures.

Momentum Pictures tracks THE SQUAD (review)

A military unit encounters something more deadly than insurgent guerillas in the Argentinian horror film THE SQUAD.  When the base at the mountaintop Knife's Point ceases contact, a dysfunctional unit and its guides head into the fog shrouded forests to find the base empty and a lot of blood splattered on the walls.  The only survivor is a woman prisoner who the missing soldiers believed was a witch that was killing them off one by one.  The woman gets away and the men start to experience sickness, paranoia, and insanity.  A power struggle divides the team and they may destroy each other before whatever lurks in the fog can get to them.

REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

THE SQUAD DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Behind-the-Scenes
• Trailer

More Momentum Pictures reviews at Update the Tags: Momentum Pictures.

Fighting Nazi zombies in WAR OF THE DEAD (review)

Andrew Tiernan (300) leads a special unit of American and Finnish soldiers to destroy a Nazi bunker on the Russian border.  Soon the unit find themselves besieged by flesh-eating zombie soldiers, and they must collaborate with the enemy to keep from being swallowed up by the WAR OF THE DEAD.


REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)


WAR OF THE DEAD DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
• Optional English Subtitles
• Making-of featurette
• Trailer

More Momentum Pictures reviews at Update the Tags: Momentum Pictures.

Forthcoming from Momentum Pictures: THE RAID (announcement)

An elite SWAT team of twenty cops is in for thirty floors of hell when they infiltrate a fortress-like apartment building in the slums of Jakatara that is home to bloodthirsty killers, gangsters, and a dangerous crime lord.

• Winner: Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award (Toronto International Film Festival)
• Winner: Audience Award for Best Film and the Film Critics Award for Best Film (Dublin International Film Festival)

In UK theaters on May 18th and forthcoming on DVD from Momentum Pictures!

Momentum Pictures is INSIDIOUS! (review)

From the makers of SAW and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY comes INSIDIOUS starring Patrick Wilson (), Rose Byrne (), and Lin Shaye ().  Strange things start happening to a young family when they move into an old house.  When their oldest son falls into an unexplainable coma and the mother starts seeing things, they move houses, but the apparitions only get worse.  They call in a paranormal expert who informs them that what is happening is more "insidious" than your run-of-the-mill haunting.

REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

INSIDIOUS DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.40:1 widescreen transfer
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
• Horror 101: The Exclusive Seminar
• Insidious Entitites
• On-Set with INSIDIOUS
• Theatrical Trailer

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Hammer's WAKE WOOD Region 2 DVD from Momentum Pictures (reviewed)

I have reviewed the Momentum Pictures Region 2 PAL DVD of Hammer's second comeback film (after LET ME IN) for DVDBeaver.  Aidan Gillen (TV's THE WIRE) and Eva Barthistle (THE CHILDREN) play a couple who move to a remote Irish village after the death of their daughter.  They discover among the locals - lead by Timothy Spall (GOTHIC) - pagan rituals capable to bringing back the dead for three days to allow their loved ones closure.  They consent to the ritual and their daughter is returned to them, but the rules of Wake Wood have been violated, and something deadly has been woken.  Writer/producer Brendan McCarthy also produced the Irish horror films OUTCAST and ISOLATION.

MPI has also picked up WAKE WOOD for US DVD and BluRay release under the Dark Sky banner.

REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 DVD (DVDBeaver)

WAKE WOOD DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen transfer
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio
• Deleted Scenes (14 mins.)
• Cast/Crew Interviews
• Teaser
• Theatrical Trailer

RELATED LINK: Hammer's Very Own WICKER MAN: WAKE WOOD

RELATED LINK: OUTCAST on R2 DVD




"Momentum Pictures" releases at my Amazon UK aStore.

Hammer's very own Wicker Man: WAKE WOOD

On March 28, 2011, Momentum Pictures will release Hammer's new film WAKE WOOD on Region 2 PAL DVD.  Aidan Gillen (12 ROUNDS), Eva Birthistle (MIDDLETOWN), and Timothy Spall (GOTHIC) star.  After losing their daughter, Patrick and Louise move to the remote Irish village of Wake Wood, where they discover an ancient pagan rite that could bring their daughter back to life, but at a terrible price!

REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

WAKE WOOD DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic widescreen transfer
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Cast/Crew Interviews
• Deleted Scenes
• Trailer
• Teaser Trailer

Momentum Pictures is DAMNED BY DAWN (review/comparison)

On March 7, Momentum Pictures will release a Region 2 DVD of Brett Anstey's DAMNED BY DAWN.  Claire (Renee Willner) and her boyfriend Paul (Danny Alder) travel to her grandparents remote home to see her terminally ill grandmother.  That night, a wailing sound in the woods wakes up the house's inhabitants and a banshee appears to carry off her grandmother to the underworld.  When Claire interferes, the banshee calls upon evil spirits (and a few zombies).

REVIEW LINK: Momentum Pictures (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

DAMNED BY DAWN DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 transfer
• English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Optional English subtitles
• Audio Commentary by the Director and Crew
• Making-of
• Trailer

"Momentum Pictures" releases at my Amazon UK aStore.

US DVD:

OUTCAST on R2 DVD

On January 17th, 2011, Colm McCarthy's monster pic OUTCAST hits DVD in the UK from Momentum Pictures (Region 2). James Nesbitt (MATCH POINT) plays a monster hunter chasing down an Irish mother and son in Edinburgh where a grotesque monster has been mutilating victims. The press has likened the film to LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and called it the most important British horor pic since THE DESCENT.

You'll find my review of the film and the Momentum DVD HERE at DVDBeaver.