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Arrow Video’s ‘Kolobos’ Blu-Ray Dives Deep into this 90s Soapish Slasher

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Kolobos

If you told me that Kolobos translated to “pure 90s,” I would believe it one thousand percent. Because, boy does this film perfectly embody the 90s in pitch and straight to video tone. What Kolobos lacks due to some over the top acting choices and overly digitally polished video aesthetic, it makes up for by way of gruesome gags and ultimately being at the forefront of a formula that would later lead to the Saw franchise and My Little Eye.

Kolobos centers around a group of young folks who take part in an anthropological study that places the group in a monitored house for three months. Each with their very 90s personality quirks, they prepare for the undertaking that is on par with the surge of reality shows that were released around that time.

Everything is pretty hunky-dory, until one of them is brutally disemboweled by a very big surprise of a booby-trap. This leaves the rest of the group trapped and scrambling to find out who is responsible, an exit and ways to sidestep the plethora of booby-traps that have been laid out to stop their escape.

It boils down to a psychological, hyperstylized slasher, whodunit that manages to pull of a few surprises along the way all deeply inspired by Argento and Bava.

This obviously had some direct influence on the nature of the Saw franchise and does a few things stylistically that were ahead of their time. For example, there are chunks of the film that play out through surveillance cameras. There are also some great gore gags along the way, one of them sees someone’s teeth meeting a porcelain sink in a very Giallo-inspired and wince worthy kill.

Despite the large amount of respect, I have for this 90s straight to video era title. I do have qualms with the actor’s approaches to the material here. Giant choices are made and while it does work initially on their “audition videos,” it doesn’t work once they are in the house, where there should have been more of a natural vibe. One character in particular is the “horror expert” who spouts off some “facts” that were just plain wrong.

All that said, Arrow put out a great 2K restoration from the original material and added a bunch of great features that explore this strange, and entirely overlooked little film.

Complete list of features includes:

  • Brand new 2K restoration from the original negative
  • Original Stereo and 5.1 audio options
  • Audio commentary with co-writers and co-directors Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk
  • Real World Massacre: The Making of Kolobos – brand new featurette on the making-of Kolobos including interviews with Daniel Liatowitsch, David Todd Ocvirk and co-writer/producer Nne Ebong
  • Face to Faceless – a brand new Interview with “Faceless” actor Ilia Volok
  • Slice & Dice: The Music of Kolobos – a brand new interview with composer William Kidd
  • Behind-the-Scenes Image Gallery
  • Super 8 short film by Daniel Liatowitsch with commentary
Head over here to snag yourself a copy of Kolobos.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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