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A Morbid Curiosity You Won’t Soon Forget

Faces of Death (Blu-ray Collector’s Edition Steelcase)

Few titles in home video history have conjured up as much infamy as FACES OF DEATH. Released in 1978 and marketed as a shocking documentary that captures death in its rawest form, the film has earned notoriety less for its artistic merit and more for the myth surrounding it. Teenagers dared each other to watch it. Parents tried to ban it. And now, with a new Blu-ray Steelcase edition from Dark Sky Selects, the film returns for a generation raised on YouTube reaction videos and Reddit gore threads. Does it still hold power? That depends on your threshold—and your expectations.

A Disaster Movie With Just Enough Spark

Poseidon [Limited Edition]

The 2006 reimagining of both the film THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (and the novel by the same name) wastes no time getting to the chaos. Just ten minutes into this high-budget disaster film, a rogue wave upends the luxurious cruise liner, flipping it upside down and throwing its passengers into instant panic. From there, the film plunges into a nonstop scramble for survival—lean on setup, heavy on spectacle. I’m a sucker for disaster films, especially those from the golden era of the 1970s, and this remake leans into the chaos that made them work.

A Bit Too Buttoned-up for Its Own Good

My Mother's Wedding

At a glance, MY MOTHER’S WEDDING seems like a guaranteed success. With Kristin Scott Thomas behind the camera and a powerhouse trio of Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, and Emily Beecham in the lead roles, expectations run high for a rich, emotionally layered family drama. But while the film occasionally brushes up against those ambitions, it never fully tackles them. This is a film that often gestures toward depth without quite getting there—warm on the surface, yet oddly hollow in the aftermath.

Animation Honors the Roots of a Creative Giant

Hola Frida

HOLA FRIDA doesn’t aim to retell Frida Kahlo’s life in a deep biographical fashion. Instead, it narrows its focus to something more intimate: the artist’s childhood, long before she became the timeless icon. The result is a warm, artistic animated film that opens the door for a younger audience to connect with one of the 20th century’s most influential artists—not through her fame, but through her imagination.

A Heartfelt Tribute That Plays It Safe

An Open Door: Temple Grandin

There’s no denying that Temple Grandin’s life story is powerful. She’s changed the way we understand both animals and autism, using her neurodivergent perspective not as an obstacle, but as an extraordinary tool. With that kind of legacy, even the most basic documentary about her is bound to carry a certain level of inspiration. AN OPEN DOOR: TEMPLE GRANDIN is exactly that—an informative, well-meaning hour-long profile that offers a gentle walk through Grandin’s world without digging as deeply as it could have.

Some Houses Refuse to Let Go

We Are Still Here (Tenth Anniversary Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)

WE ARE STILL HERE leans into its sorrow like an elegy wrapped in blood and frost. Set in a wintry New England landscape, the film opens in the iciness of loss. A couple, grieving the death of their son, moves into a desolate farmhouse hoping for peace. What they find is far from silence. Ted Geoghegan’s directorial debut manages to create a haunting atmosphere that fuses horror with the raw ache of emotional trauma, and it doesn’t take long for the snow-covered calm to begin unraveling into something far more dangerous.

Ego, Grief, and the Fragility of Sound

The Musicians (Les musiciens)

THE MUSICIANS opens with a rare opportunity and a heavy burden. Astrid Carlson (Valérie Donzelli), daughter of a classical music lover, has managed to reunite four legendary Stradivarius instruments to perform a long-lost composition. However, her father’s dream quickly turns into a logistical nightmare for her. Despite gathering the perfect tools, she’s working with flawed human parts—four brilliant musicians with egos too big to fit in the same room, let alone the same measure.
Crafted Chaos With a Beating Heart

Boys Go to Jupiter

BOYS GO TO JUPITER plays like a backyard musical staged inside a 3D diorama—bright, elastic, and oddly tender. A day in suburban Florida is an inspired starting point: the calendar feels stalled, the air hangs heavy, and the future refuses to announce itself. That’s where Billy 5000 lives—between errands on a delivery app and a self-imposed deadline to scrape together five grand before New Year’s. Money is the plot device, but the movie’s real currency is attention: to textures, to small talk, to loneliness that looks like boredom until it doesn’t.

When the End Is Just the Beginning

Up/Down

There’s a moment early in UP / DOWN that encapsulates its entire thesis—John Karlston (Michael Cooke) finds himself in a fluorescent-filled waiting room that looks more like a medical clinic than the afterlife. The receptionist tells him to sit tight. What’s he waiting for? That’s the question the entire short film dances around with precision and just enough bite to leave an impression long after its 11-minute runtime ends.

Family Fractures Sharpened by Stillness and Secrets

The Sparrow in the Chimney (Der Spatz im Kamin)

There’s a kind of dread that doesn’t arrive with screams, but with silence. THE SPARROW IN THE CHIMNEY is soaked in that specific discomfort — an eerie stillness that hovers over every frame, each interaction brimming with withheld emotions and domestic disquiet. The final chapter in Ramon Zürcher’s loosely connected “animal trilogy” is his most blistering and refined yet — a psychological slow burn that turns a seemingly mundane family gathering into an experience as suffocating as it is hypnotic.

A Father Fights What He Can't Understand

Site

There’s a fine line between recovering the past and being consumed by it. SITE plants itself firmly at the intersection of memory, trauma, and metaphysical unease, unraveling a slow-burn psychological thriller that’s just as much about family and grief as it is about sci-fi horror. While the concept may evoke something familiar, the execution feels personal and ambitious, driven by a lead performance that elevates its darkest moments.

Five Women, One Plan, Zero Boundaries

The Quiet Ones

If there’s a modern horror equivalent to “never start a band with your friends,” it’s probably “never start a monetized content house with unstable influencers.” THE QUIET ONES takes that premise and runs with it—sprinting into a fever dream of egos, algorithms, and chaos disguised as camaraderie. Written and directed by Nicholas Winter, this indie LGBTQIA2S+ thriller is sharp, mean, sexy, and laced with a streak of irreverent pitch-black humor. It has more style and substance than you would ever expect, in the best way possible.

A Vision of the U.S. That Still Feels Urgent

Route One/USA

There’s no such thing as a simple road trip in Robert Kramer’s world. ROUTE ONE/USA isn’t about sightseeing or making the best time—it’s about the soul of a country through the lens of lives most people drive past without noticing. Originally released in 1989 and newly restored for a 2025 Blu-ray debut by Icarus Films and Vinegar Syndrome, this epic, four-hour-plus documentary stands as one of the most quietly radical explorations of America ever captured on camera.

Fierce, Focused, and Full of Soul

She Rides Shotgun

SHE RIDES SHOTGUN doesn't try to be revolutionary on the surface—it just quietly earns your attention. What starts as a classic on-the-run thriller grows into something far more layered and emotionally intense. This is a story about a father and daughter struggling to reconnect while the world hunts them down, and it’s executed with a level of grit and soul that sneaks up on you. What you don’t necessarily expect is two performances that outshine the experience itself. Even if the film isn’t perfect, the heart and acting at its core deliver.

A Nightmare That’s Difficult to Dismiss

Mondo Keyhole: The Psychotronica Collection #2

MONDO KEYHOLE: THE PSYCHOTRONICA COLLECTION #2 is a contradiction in motion—a grimy relic of 60s underground cinema that manages to be both brutally exploitative and strangely artistic. Part of VCI’s ongoing restoration series (although this is #2 in the series, it looks like #1, 3, and 4 will be coming in September), this 2K scan breathes new life into one of the earliest—and most uncomfortable—entries in the “roughie” genre. And while it’s not for everyone, it’s a revealing time capsule of America’s sleaziest cinematic corners.

This Town’s Not Going Quietly

The Omro Heist

Set against the tranquil calm of Omro, Wisconsin, THE OMRO HEIST brings high-stakes chaos to a town that probably hasn’t seen this much action in its entire history. Directed by Jamie Bailey and co-written by Simon Phillips, this low-budget crime thriller capitalizes on the simplicity of its premise, resulting in a film that may not reinvent the genre, but certainly delivers on its promise of tension and bloodshed.

Crime Scenes, Carnage, and a Very Curious Cleaner

Curdled (4KUHD)

There’s an eccentric charm to a movie that knows exactly what it is—bizarre, small-scale, and just the right amount of unhinged. CURDLED, the feature-length expansion of Reb Braddock’s 1991 short film, is one of those rare projects that doesn’t flinch in its identity as a gleefully macabre black comedy. With its 2025 4K re-release from Kino Lorber, a new opportunity arises to revisit this curious slice of ‘90s weirdness—now cleaned up, even if the story itself remains coated in grime and gore.

The Fandom That Rewrote the Rules of Pop Culture

BTS Army: Forever We Are Young

To be entirely clear and transparent, I’m not part of the worldwide phenomenon known as the BTS Army (Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth). I’ve honestly never listened to their music, and until screening this, I had no clue about the impact their fanbase has had. It would’ve been easy—too easy—for a documentary about BTS to fall into either shallow glorification or an overly analytical dissection of celebrity. What BTS ARMY: FOREVER WE ARE YOUNG manages instead is something that feels grounded and unique in the way it prioritizes the fans over fame. This is neither a concert film nor a tell-all industry exposé. Instead, it functions as a people-first mosaic that explores the lives, emotions, and growth of those who have wrapped their identities in purple light and found purpose in the community.

Strange, Stylish, and Far Ahead of Its Time

The Old Dark House

You could argue that THE OLD DARK HOUSE was too strange, and too early. Released in 1932, sandwiched between the earth-shaking shock of FRANKENSTEIN and THE INVISIBLE MAN, James Whale’s genre-blending haunted house film didn’t quite fit the mold of Universal’s monster-driven horror renaissance. It wasn’t a monster movie, and it wasn’t a straight gothic either—it was something else. Something campy and dry, macabre and absurd. And for years, it was nearly forgotten. Thanks to a meticulous 4K restoration and limited-edition release from Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series, that wrong gets spectacularly righted.

A Home Full of Heartache, Horror, and History

The Home

James DeMonaco’s THE HOME might come from the same mind that brought us THE PURGE, but this isn't a dystopian free-for-all. It’s something more contained, more psychological, and, ultimately, more personal. Anchored by an unexpectedly tame performance from Pete Davidson and bolstered by a stellar cast of stage and screen veterans, THE HOME reimagines the haunted house subgenre inside a decaying retirement facility where the dead don’t just haunt the halls—they might still be walking them.

School’s Back in Session for a Comedy Classic

Billy Madison (4KUHD)

BILLY MADISON shouldn’t work as well as it does. On paper, it’s a loud, abrasive film built around the antics of a man-child with too much money and too little maturity. But somehow, through a combination of perfect comedic timing, endearing absurdity, and an unforgettable supporting cast, it remains one of the most beloved comedies of the 90s—and arguably the film that made Adam Sandler a household name. He may have had a few memorable moments before this, but this was the film that put him front and center, allowing his unique blend of comedy to shine.

A Sci-Fi Romance That Warps More Than Time

Futra Days

FUTRA DAYS is one of those films that’s difficult to dismiss entirely, even if you’re checking your watch by the halfway point. Writer-director Ryan David builds an intriguing premise—a man given the chance to travel through time to preview the outcome of a potential relationship—and then slowly drains it of urgency by focusing less on the sci-fi elements and more on the glacial tension between its characters.