Scope Scoops

HORROR HORIZON: Fright-film frontrunner Lionsgate premieres a pair of recent theatrical pics on DVD, the torture sequel Saw V: Unrated Director's Cut and the shock-rock opera Repo! The Genetic Opera, featuring Bill Moseley and Paris Hilton. 20th Century Fox bows a brace of big-screen releases—24 star Kiefer Sutherland confronts the supernatural in Mirrors, costarring Paula Patton and Amy Smart, while John Cusack and Molly Shannon lend their vocal talents to the animated monster homage Igor. Sony Pictures presents a pair of fear-film follow-ups, the Ghost House creation Boogeyman 3 and Lance Henriksen in the belated Screamers sequel Screamers: The Hunting, loosely based on Philip K. Dick's The Second Variety. Elsewhere, Stephen (born-again bro of Alec, Daniel and Billy) Baldwin battles a Shark in Venice (First Look Pictures), while killer clowns run amok in Amusement (New Line), with Jessica (Cloverfield) Lucas.

KILLER THRILLERS: Al Pacino and Robert De Niro seek a serial killer in Righteous Kill, due via Anchor Bay Entertainment; the same label likewise unleashes the similar-themed Alphabet Killer. In other digital suspense developments, Amber Tamblyn stars in yet another serial-killer thriller, the oft-recycled title Black Out (Image Entertainment), hostile cop Samuel L. Jackson leans on his new neighbors at Lakeview Terrace (Sony Pictures), a venerable franchise resurfaces with Poison Ivy: The Secret Society (New Line), Gerard Butler kicks butt in Guy Ritchie's latest Brit gangster saga RocknRolla (Warner Home Video), and Hollywood intrigues take a deadly turn in the dark satire Shut Up and Shoot! (Koch Vision), with Gary Busey, Roddy Piper and Daniel (Brother of Stephen) Baldwin.

ACTION UPDATE: Lawmen Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen tame a rambunctious town and vie for Renee Zellwegger's affections in the excellent old-school western Appaloosa (Warner), while the unlikely trio of Roy Clark, Mel Tillis and Kinky Friedman ride the range in the direct-to-video oater Palo Pinto Gold (Monarch). Dolph Lundgren returns to action in RetroGrade, new from First Look Pictures; the same label also puts out Contract Killer and Way of War, with Cuba Gooding Jr. Nicolas Cage suffers yet another serious bad-hair day in the ill-fated remake Bangkok Dangerous (Lionsgate), Fox furnishes the sequel Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia, and Jason Statham takes the wheel in the Death Race 2000 redo Death Race (Universal).

SCI-FI FORECAST: Vin Diesel and Michelle Yeoh headline in the futuristic flop Babylon A.D. (20th Century Fox), Julianne Moore stars in the sci-fi fable Blindness (Miramax), following that flick's nearly invisible eye-blink theatrical run, and a two-gunned Bai Ling faces a perilous future in the comic book adaptation The Gene Generation (Lionsgate).

DVD DEBUTS!

ANIMATION
  • ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT Dead Space: Downfall ($26.97)
  • APPREHENSIVE FILMS Hardware Wars: 30th Anniversary Special Edition ($19.99)
  • GENIUS The Flight Before Christmas, The Nutty Professor ($19.97 each)
  • IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT Impy's Island, The Legend of Sasquatch ($19.98 each)
  • MANGA ENTERTAINMENT Strait Jacket ($19.98)
  • SCHOLASTIC/20TH CENTURY FOX Goosebumps: Monster Blood, A Night in Terror Tower, One Day at HorrorLand ($14.98 each)
  • SHOUT! FACTORY Liberty's Kids: The Complete Series (6-disc $59.95)
  • SONY PICTURES Storm Hawks: Showdown in the Skies (2-disc $29.95)
  • WARNER HOME VIDEO Scooby-Doo! DVD Game: Funland of Freaky Frights ($19.98)
TELE-VIDEO
  • A&E HOME VIDEO Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal (2-disc $29.95), The Real Tomb Hunters: Snakes, Curses and Booby Traps ($19.95)
  • ACORN MEDIA Fanny Hill ($24.99)
  • BCI Live from Abbey Road: Best of Season One (2-disc $19.98)
  • CBS DVD/PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT The Beverly Hillbillies: The Official Second Season (4-disc $49.99), CSI: Miami: The Sixth Season (6-disc $79.99), Dynasty: The Third Season Volume Two (3-disc $36.99), Girlfriends: The Fifth Season (3-disc $39.99), Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (4-disc $42.99), Holiday Treats ($12.99), The Mod Squad: Season 2 Volume 1 (4-disc $42.99), My Three Sons: The First Season Volume One (3-disc $49.99), Nash Bridges: The First Season (2-disc $42.99), The Odd Couple: The Final Season (3-disc $42.99), Rob & Big: The Complete 3rd Season Uncensored (3-disc $39.99), Seventh Heaven: The Seventh Season (5-disc $49.99), Sister Sister: The First Season (2-disc $39.99), Star Trek Alternate Realities Collection (5-disc $42.99), The Streets of San Francisco: Season 2 Volume 2 (3-disc $42.99)
  • GENIUS Arctic Explorer: The Complete Miniseries (2-disc $39.92)
  • HISTORY CHANNEL The Universe: The Complete Season Two (5-disc $44.95)
  • INFINITY ENTERTAINMENT Three Sheets: Season 3 (2-disc $24.98)
  • NBC/UNIVERSAL Howdy Doody (5-disc $29.98)
  • SHOUT! FACTORY Father Knows Best: Season Two, McHale's Navy: Season Four (5-disc $39.99 each)
  • SONY PICTURES Rules of Engagement: The Complete Second Season (2-disc $29.95)
  • 20TH CENTURY FOX Back to You: Season 1 (3-disc $39.98), Bones: Season Three Totally Decomposed Edition (5-disc $59.98), Boston Legal: Season Four (5-disc $59.98), How I Met Your Mother: Season 3 (3-disc $39.98), The Unit: Season 3 (3-disc $39.95)
  • VCI ENTERTAINMENT Burke's Law: Season One Volume Two (4-disc $29.99)
  • VSC The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show: The Complete Series (3-disc $29.95)
  • WGBH BOSTON VIDEO Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie (2-disc $34.98), WWII: They Also Served (4-disc $49.95), Zoom: Back to the 70s (2-disc $34.95)
VINTAGE VIDEO
  • ALPHA VIDEO Rebellious Daughters ($7.98)
  • ANCHOR BAY Flashbacks of a Fool ($26.97)
  • ANIMEIGO Shogun Assassin 5-Film Collector's Set: Shogun Assassin, Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death, Shogun Assassin 3: Slashing Blades of Carnage, Shogun Assassin 4: Five Fistfuls of Gold, Shogun Assassin 5: Cold Road to Hell (5-disc $79.95)
  • CINEMA EPOCH Deadly Game, Salt ($24.98 each)
  • CULT EPICS Gitane Demone: Life After Death (2-disc $34.95)
  • DEIMOS Exploitation Cinema: Cemetery Girls/Vampire Hookers, Satan's Slave/Terror ($12.98 each)
  • FILM MOVEMENT Days of Clouds, Fraulein, XXY ($19.98 each)
  • FIRST RUN FEATURES Goya ($29.95)
  • GRINDHOUSE RELEASING The Beyond ($24.95)
  • HALO 8 The Devil's Muse ($24.95), Gimme Skelter, Pink Eye ($19.95 each)
  • IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT Kidulthood, Night of the White Pants ($27.98 each)
  • IMPULSE PICTURES Schoolgirl Report Volume #3 & #4 ($24.95 each)
  • KINO VIDEO …And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him, Liberty Kid, The Quare Fellow ($24.95 each), The General (2-disc $29.95), My Father My Lord ($29.95), The Derek Jarman Collection: Derek, Sebastiane, The Tempest, War Requiem (4-disc $79.95)
  • KOCH ENTERTAINMENT Gamer, Whatever You Say, Would I Lie to You? 2 ($24.98 each)
  • LEGEND FILMS Colorized: Creature from the Haunted Sea, The Devil Bat, Phantom from Space, Phantom Planet ($9.95 each), Bride of the Monster, The Last Man on Earth ($14.95 each)
  • MAGNOLIA Mister Foe ($26.98)
  • NEW VIDEO The Gospel at Colonus (2-disc $26.98)
  • PARAMOUNT Reno 911!: Miami: Unrated Cut (2-disc $19.98)
  • REDEMPTION Black Magic Rites, The Nuns: New York Vampires, Satanic Sluts II, Sex Machine ($19.95 each)
  • RETROMEDIA The Edgar Wallace Collection Volume Two: Curse of the Yellow Snake/Phantom of Soho , Fascination, The Marquis de Sade's Justine ($19.98 each)
  • SHOCK-O-RAMA CINEMA Necroville, Psycho Horror Double Feature: Psycho Kickboxer/Canvas of Blood ($19.95 each)
  • SOMERVILLE HOUSE The Apprentice ($15.98), Cruel But Necessary ($24.98), We All Fall Down ($17.98)
  • SONY PICTURES The Note ($24.96)
  • SRS CINEMA Big Fish in Middlesex, Midnight 2: sex, death, and videotape ($29.95 each)
VIDEO VERITE
  • A&E HOME VIDEO The New York Yankees: Essential Games of Yankee Stadium (6-disc $59.95)
  • ANCHOR BAY Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone ($19.97)
  • CITY LIGHTS Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook ($24.95)
  • COMING HOME MEDIA Smashing Pumpkins: If All Goes Wrong (2-disc $21.98)
  • DISINFORMATION COMPANY Michael Moore: Slacker Uprising ($9.95)
  • ECHO BRIDGE ENTERTAINMENT A Very British Gangster ($14.99)
  • FIRST RUN FEATURES High Fidelity, In the Family, On the Rumba River , Sex & Justice, To the Limit ($24.95 each)
  • ICARUS FILMS Monte Grande: Francisco Varela ($29.98), Regular or Super, We Loved Each Other So Much ($24.98 each)
  • IMAGE Taxi to the Dark Side ($27.98)
  • KINO The World Within: C.G. Jung in His Own Words ($29.95)
  • KULTUR Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Tribute Show ($19.99)
  • MAGNOLIA Bigger Stronger Faster, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson ($26.98 each)
  • RHINO VIDEO Sex Pistols: Live from Brixton Academy ($19.99)
  • SRS CINEMA Plan 9 from Syracuse ($29.95)
  • STARZ ENTERTAINMENT Comic Books Unbound ($19.97)
  • WEINSTEIN Lou Reed: Berlin ($22.95)
BLU-RAY DISC
  • GENIUS Awake, Lucky # Slevin ($28.95 each)
  • IMAGE The Alps: Climb of Your Life, Mystery of the Nile ($24.98 each)
  • RHINO VIDEO Blue Man Group: How to Be a Megastar Live! ($19.98)
  • SOMERVILLE HOUSE Black Christmas: Special Edition, The Story of O ($29.95 each)
  • SONY PICTURES Corteo: Cirque Du Soleil, Mirrormask, Stranger Than Fiction ($28.95 each)
  • 20TH CENTURY FOX Day Watch, Deception, The Jewel of the Nile , Night Watch, Romancing the Stone ($39.98 each), Planet of the Apes ($34.99)