Horror fans, go get 'em! New DVD releases for today, January 24, 2012, include two horror flicks, Paranormal Activity 3 and The Woman.
Paranormal Activity 3, the third film in the series, with the tagline "Discover how the activity began," is a prequel to the first two movies. The theatrical release in October of 2011 set financial records and eventually earned over $200 million. Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman and starring Christopher Nicholas Smith, Lauren Bittner, Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown, the plot concerns the interactions of two young girls, Katie and Kristi, with a supernatural spirit named Toby.
According to the film's press release, the "Blu-ray/DVD combo pack includes both the theatrical version of the film and an unrated version with footage not seen in theaters, as well as Lost Tapes that reveal more footage not seen in the film."
Examiner.com's own Jacksonville Movie Examiner Russell Hainline, in his October 25, 2011, review, "Paranormal Activity 3: The ultimate haunted house series returns," gives props to the movie but also exerts a strong opinion that it is meant to be watched in the theater. Hainline says that although the characters are weak, he loves the film because "in a time when torture porn horror is increasingly popular, here is a film with minimal CGI and minimal blood, relying solely on old school haunted house scares and succeeding."
On the other hand, Kyle Smith (in his October 20, 2011, article "Not a ghost of a chance," published in the New York Post) pans the film saying, "The shtick movie Paranormal Activity 3 is the horror equivalent of vaudeville comedy; a little patter, a little pie in the face, repeat."
According to Wikipedia, 2011's The Woman, directed by Lucky McKee, centers on the attempts of a country lawyer named Chris Cleek, portrayed by Sean Bridgers, to "civilise ... the last remaining member of a violent clan that has roamed the north-east coast for decades," with unfortunate consequences for his family. The film also stars Pollyanna McIntosh as the Woman and Angela Bettis as Cleek's wife. McKee and Bettis previously teamed for 2002's psychological horror film May.
The Woman is a sequel to 2009's Offspring, and both films are based on horror writer Jack Ketchum novels. Although not a part of this series, Lucky co-directed another film adaptation of Ketchum's work, Red (2008).
The Woman picked up numerous 2011 foreign supernatural film festival nods including the Grand Prize and Audience Award at the Festival du Film Fantastique de Strasbourg (France), The Siren Award for best international release at the Lund International Fantastic Film Festival (Sweden), Best Screenplay at Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival (Spain), and the Audience Award at the Night Visions Film Festival in Helsinki (Finland). The film cleaned up at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival (Canada) winning Best Horror Film, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress, Best Musical Score (tie), Best Editing, Best Villain, and Most Disturbing Film.
Overall, critical reviews have been positive. Norm Schrager, in his October 13, 2011, review on filmcritic.com, writes that The Woman, "despite its reputation as a gratuitous shockfest, is tense, well-paced, and does have some social commentary to make. By way of screaming, of course." The DVD release includes a "making of" segment and deleted footage.
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