This week in dvds is a poor one; perhaps Potter has scared even the dvds away. The biggest movie coming out on dvd this week is Haunting in Connecticut and it’s only real release competition is Van Wilder: Freshman Year.
A Haunting in Connecticut
Now, this movie disproves two myths about horrors that every horror movie seems to fall prey to. Putting ‘based on a true story’ in front of a horror movie doesn’t scare anyone because unless every ghost in Connecticut has been hanging out at the movies the past twenty years, I’m not buying. Even if they were, you’d think they’d come up with something a little unique. The other myth is that if it scared people in the past it will scare them again now. This only works with amnesia patients and people with really short attention spans. That being said, don’t go for this movie if you’re looking for a scare; go for it if you’re looking to be reminded of the techniques and scares used in horror movies past. Plots/Scares stolen from: The Others, The Shining, Poltergeist, The Exorcist and Amityville Horror.
The Haunting in Connecticut (Unrated Special Edition)
In A Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting
Van Wilder: Freshman Year
Direct to dvd movies usually have one major thing in common: They’re terrible. After all if they were any good, the studio would try to rack in some theater money. Sadly that’s not this movie’s biggest problem. Call me sentimental, but when a movie is a sequel (or a prequel) and doesn’t have the same actors as the original it really loses something. Ryan Reynolds was really what made Van Wilder the decent comedy that it was. Replacing him is Jonathan Bennett, who you probably only recognize because someone roped you into watching Mean Girls. If after that you really want to believe this movie is worth the watch, here’s a fun fact for you: National Lampoon wouldn’t even touch this thing. If you’re still curious about the actual plot line of the movie, Van Wilder has just begun college. He has a run in with the ROTC and falls for a hot chick, which you could have probably figured out from looking at the box.