Room 237
Netflix | Amazon | Google Play | iTunes | SEN | Xbox | YouTube
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Rodney Ascher
Starring Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns, Stanley Kubrick, Stephen King, Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall
IFC Films
Originally Released: January 23, 2012

If you haven’t checked it out yet, my fellow G.O.D. standing for the horror fans, FamousMonster, put together an awesome 31 Days of Horror list to get you all ready for Halloween this year. While running through his list, I came across one film that grabbed my consideration immediately, for I had not seen it before: Room 237.

That’s because it’s a documentary, and not a horror flick. Not that I do not watch documentaries (I like a doco thing), but I’d just never seen it before. Room 237‘s mission is simple – get in touch with as many Stanley Kubrick enthusiasts as possible and ask them to deliver their differed and in-depth interpretations of the filmmaker’s adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Shining.

V/H/S
Netflix | Amazon | Google Play | iTunes | SEN | Vudu | YouTube
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg
Starring Calvin Reeder, Hannah Fierman, Joe Swanberg, Norma C. Quinones, Helen Rogers, Chad Villella
BloodyDisgusting.com / Magnet Releasing
Originally Released: January 22, 2012

Combining Creepshow with Paranormal Activity, V/H/S is an anthology horror film, comprised of 5 stories and the bumper frame narrative that ties everything together, telling the tales via "found footage" format. The conceptualization is to take a step back and explore the realm of VHS tape, the domain in which horror dominated during the 1980’s, but is more a mish-mash of an assortment of mediums.

Bridging each of the separate tales is an ongoing narrative that ties them together. A number of young men involved in varying criminal activities (some unbelievable) begin filming their escapades, and take on a high paying job to retrieve a VHS tape from a house. While there, they discover the corpse of an old man”¦ and hundreds of tapes. As they search and gather all of the tapes, some of the tapes get played, forming the anthological display of the stories.

End Of Watch
Netflix | Amazon | Hitbliss | iTunes | SEN | Vudu | Xbox
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by David Ayer
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Natalie Martinez
Open Road Films
Originally Released: September 8, 2012

Essentially a "brothers-in-arms" tale, End of Watch tells a mesmerizing story that examines a period in the life of two LAPD cops that holds no punches and brings forth a solid reflection of contemporary issues. Coupled with some unique filming combinations and crisp appearance, the movie is gritty and compelling and will become a benchmark for cop movies in years to come.

Two LAPD partners, beat cops in cruisers, work the streets of the urban landscape of Los Angeles. The story follows the policing and personal lives of Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña), as they begin documenting their own work through personal cameras while enforcing the law.

It’s been a busy year over at online streaming service Hulu. After deciding to call off the sale of the online streaming service this past July (for which bidders like Yahoo, Time Warner Cable, and DirecTV were prepared to pay $1 billion), the three owners (21st Century Fox, Disney, and the now silent partner NBCUniversal [Comcast]) decided to double down on the long term future of the streaming service by spending $750 million on streaming content and personnel, to keep up with the likes of rival Netflix.

The first fruits of that expenditure began to arrive this week with a deal with BBC Worldwide to bring a rotating selection of the huge BBC library to the streaming service, starting almost immediately.

Hostel Part III
Netflix | Amazon | Crackle | Google Play | iTunes | SEN | Vudu | YouTube
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Scott Spiegel
Starring Kip Pardue, Brian Hallisay, John Hensley, Thomas Kretschmann, Danny Jacobs
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Originally Released: December 27, 2011

The Hostel series created by Eli Roth continues with Hostel Part III, a slice that while lacking in certain departments and doesn’t have the punch of the first two chapters, has a few turns and gory scenes that will make it worth a glance for horror fans.

The third Hostel movie is set in the United States, specifically Las Vegas, where the Elite Hunting organization has either relocated or established a new “franchise.” Despite the fact that the motives remain the same, allowing the elite to murder, maim, and torture those that "would not be missed", and a new twist adds the Vegas gambling element – allowing members to place bets on expressions of the torture as it happens before a live audience.

Finding themselves mixed up in the turmoil are protagonist Scott (Brian Hallisay) and his buddies, who head to Vegas for his Bachelor Party, which turns into more than what they, and the Elite Hunting members, expect”¦