Fall Preview: Anywhere But a Movie Theater

A look at which indie films are bypassing theaters to premiere on VOD, DVD and online.

October 6

“Dark Country” – Thomas Jane steps behind the camera and recruits his “Mutant Chronicles” co-star Ron Perlman to start alongside him in a thriller about newlyweds en route to Las Vegas who pick up the victim of a accident who appears to be dead, but when he wakes up, the couple discovers they’re in for a whole lot of trouble. Lauren German co-stars.

“The Besieged Fortress” – The Weinstein Company will release this 2006 nature documentary from Philippe Calderon that premiered in Toronto about a termite community destroyed by the rain and invaded by an ant colony.

“The Children” – For fans of “Orphan,” why settle for one creepy kid when you can have five in this acclaimed British horror film? Tom Shankland directs this Christmas party gone awry where each of the children fall victim to a mystery virus and begin to attack their parents and each other.

“Chinese Odyssey 2002″ – Produced by Wong Kar-Wai, this historical romantic comedy stars Tony Leung and Vicki Zhao as a brother and sister who seem romantically disinclined when they unexpectedly fall for another set of siblings.

“Cutting for Stone” – Writer/director David Dawson helms this drama about a teen who seemingly has it all during his senior year in high school, but suddenly things change and his parents unexpectedly place him in a mental institution where he struggles to understand what has happened to him.

“It’s Alive” – Bijou Phillips stars in this remake of Larry Cohen’s 1974 horror film about a couple who give birth to a baby with a murderous streak.

“Mirageman” – A selection of the 2007 Fantastic Fest, writer/director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza takes a crack at making the rare superhero film from Chile starring martial artist Marko Zaror as an orphan who tires of being picked on and becomes a self-made superhero.

“Offspring” – Based on Jack Ketchum’s novel, Andrew van den Houten directs this horror thriller about a pair of women who are abducted by cannibals and plot their escape so they can retrieve their kids.

“The Seamstress” – Lance Henriksen stars in this creepy horror film about a mutilated woman who returns to the scene of the crime after her death to pester a group of friends with ties to the murder.

“Seventh Moon” – Though it wasn’t well-received by some when it played Fantastic Fest last year, “Blair Witch Project” co-director Eduardo Sánchez’s return puts Amy Smart in peril as one half of a honeymooning couple who are led astray by a tour guide and are preyed upon by mysterious creatures.

“The Thaw” – Val Kilmer makes his second DTV title in as many months with a thriller that has the “Real Genius” star facing off against a prehistoric parasite that is unleashed when he leads four ecology students into the Arctic tundra.

Other indies that played theaters, but you might’ve missed: “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” Lee Isaac Chung’s
acclaimed coming-of-age Rwandan drama “Munyarangabo,” the Ozploitation doc “Not Quite Hollywood,” the Ice Cube comedy “Janky Promoters”

Oldies but goodies resurfacing or appearing for the first time on DVD: A new Warner Brothers set of “Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics” (including 1936’s “The Walking Dead,” 1940’s “You’ll Find Out,” 1945’s “Zombies on Broadway,” 1958’s “Frankenstein 1970”), “TCM Spotlight: Esther Williams Vol. 2,” Maximilian Schell’s 1984 Oscar-nominated portrait of Marlene Dietrich “Marlene”

New to Blu-ray: Takashi Miike’s “Audition,” Robert Zemeckis’ spin on Carl Sagan’s “Contact,” A.J. Schnack’s poetic doc “Kurt Cobain: About a Son,” both versions of “Miracle on 34th Street,” “The Number 23,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Year One”

October 13

“The Killing Room” – “Darkness Falls” director Jonathan Liebesman helms this not-so-intellectual thriller that played Sundance in January that stars Nick Cannon, Timothy Hutton and Clea DuVall as a trio of lab rats for an experiment in terror conducted by psychologists Chloë Sevigny and Peter Stormare.

“Blood Moon Rising” – Ron Jeremy, among others, stars in Brian Skiba’s horror flick about a cursed werewolf and vampire who must wait until a lunar eclipse to break their spell, but their plan is ruined by the vampire’s old lady, who happens to be a direct descendant of the Devil.

“Gnaw” – Don’t you hate it when your weekend retreat in the woods is ruined by an invasion of cannibals? So do the teens in Greg Mandry’s directorial debut.

“Gretchen” – Writer/director Steve Collins’ comedy won an award for best dramatic feature at the 2006 L.A. Film Festival about a high school student with bad taste in guys whose most recent breakup leads her mother to send her to an emotional rehab facility.

“The Haunted Airman” – It’s less than a month out from “Twilight: New Moon,” so that must mean it’s time to dust off this Robert Pattinson drama from 2006 that starred the future Edward Cullen as a wheelchair-bound pilot who begins to lose his bearings during his stay at a hospital. Having the creepy Julian Sands as his doctor probably doesn’t help matters.

“The Hiding” – A family’s dark secret comes back to haunt them in actor/director Ramon Hamilton’s feature debut.

“Intangible Asset #82″ – A veteran of HotDocs, SilverDocs and SXSW, Emma Franz’s documentary about an Australian drummer who journeys to Korea after hearing the recording of Korean shaman Kim Seok-Chul, now in his 80s, to learn from the master.

“Left Bank” – Belgian helmer Pieter Van Hees’s horror film starts out as love story between a track star and an archer, but turns ugly when the track star moves into the archer’s apartment and finds her health starts to fail after learning that the archer’s last roomie disappeared.

“Love of Siam” – Writer/director Chukiat Sakveerakul tells the story of two young best friends who are separated following the disappearance of one’s sister, only to be reunited years later when one is in a boy band with an assistant who looks a lot like the other’s long lost sister.

“The Objective” – Co-written by four-star general Wesley Clark’s son (Wesley Jr.), there’s authenticity to this Sundance 2008 selection directed by “Blair Witch” co-director Daniel Myrick about a covert special ops squad that is plagued by mysterious forces while stationed in Afghanistan.

“Oral Fixation” – If Charlize Theron’s dentist-obsessed character in “That Thing You Do” took her attraction to the next level, “Oral Fixation” might be the result as writer/director Jake Cashill follows a young woman whose attraction to her dentist could become fatal.

Other indies that played theaters, but you might’ve missed: Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration,” “American Violet,” the 2005 Michigan basketball doc “Flintown Kids,” the 2008 faith-based drama “Jada”

Oldies but goodies resurfacing or appearing for the first time on DVD: Mira Nair’s “Monsoon Wedding” (Criterion, also in Blu-ray), Eclipse Series 18: “Dušan Makavejev Free Radical” (Criterion), Michael Cimino’s last film (so far) “Sunchaser,” and just in time for the remake — 1987’s “The Stepfather”

New to Blu-ray: “The Craft,” “Natural Born Killers: The Director’s Cut,” “Wolf,” “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads doc “Stop Making Sense,” “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut”

October 20

“100 Feet” – “The Hitcher” writer Eric Red directs Famke Janssen in a horror thriller about a woman who kills her husband (Michael Paré) in self-defense and placed under house arrest as her husband’s spirit returns to avenge his death. Bobby Cannavale and Ed Westwick co-star.

“Basement Jack” – A murderer of 15 people by the age of 17, Jack Riley (Eric Peter-Kaiser) was locked up in a mental asylum for 11 years as a woman whose family was killed by his hand awaits his release to exact her revenge in this horror film.

“Blood Ties” – Longtime stuntman and fight choreographer Kely McClung makes his directorial debut on this action film about a former federal agent whose brother is kidnapped, leading him on a mission to Thailand to rescue him.

“The Crew” – Adrian Vitoria directs this drama about two brothers who attempt one last score amidst a gang war in England.

“Fear of Fiction” – “Homicide: Life on the Streets” co-stars Melissa Leo and Clark Johnson reunited for writer/director Charlie Ahearn’s 2000 drama about an older author (Leo) who attempts to break her writer’s block by going on a road trip with a younger stranger (Sam Trammell).

“The Last Homecoming” – A natural pick for the 2008 Thessaloniki International Film Festival, writer/director Korinna Avraamidou’s 1974-set Greek romantic drama revolves around two brothers in love with the same woman as a small seaside town stages Euripides’ “Trojan Women.”

“The Listening Project” – Winner of best documentary prizes at the Oxford, Omaha and Durango Film Festivals, this 2008 doc travels the globe to learn what people in other countries think of America.

“The Local” – An “existential action-thriller” from writer/director Dan Eberle, “The Local” also stars Eberle as a man haunted by his past who finds potential redemption when he is recruited by a wealthy man to help him with the return of his daughter who doesn’t speak to him.

“Teenage Dirtbag” – Said to be inspired by true events, two high school students from opposite sides of the tracks — a cheerleader and a delinquent — find a common bond when they share a creative writing class.

“The Torturer” – Graham Green’s drama might grab horror fans with its title, but actually deals with the real-life horrors of a military interrogator who returns from the war with post-traumatic stress disorder. “Star Trek”’s Nichelle Nichols co-stars.

“The Tournament” – Scott Mann’s action flick stars Ving Rhames, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Hu and Ian Somerhalder as just a few of the participants in a tournament where 30 of the world’s deadliest assassins show up to prove their mettle with only one winner leaving the premises.

Other indies that played theaters, but you might’ve missed: “Blood: The Last Vampire,” “The Elephant King,” Carlos Saura’s “Fados,” the Amy Smart romance “Love ‘N’ Dancing,” the Christmas comedy “Nothing Like the Holidays,” the 2003 serial killer drama “An Ordinary Killer”

Oldies but goodies resurfacing or appearing for the first time on DVD: Fred Dekker’s cult classic “Night of the Creeps: Director’s Cut,” Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire” (Criterion, also in Blu-ray), Jack Nicholson and Henry Jaglom’s directorial debuts — “Drive, He Said” and “A Safe Place” — as part of the eight-disc “American Mavericks: New Hollywood Cinema 1968-1972″ set from Sony

New to Blu-ray: “Howard’s End” (Criterion), “Snatch,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” Shohei Inamura’s 1989 drama “Black Rain”

October 27

“Afterwards” – Romain Duris, John Malkovich and “Lost”’s Evangelline Lilly (in her first major film role) star in Gilles Bourdos’ supernatural drama about a workaholic attorney (Duris) who seeks to change his lifestyle after he meets a doctor (Malkovich) who claims to see ghosts. The Weinsteins picked it up likely admiring the star power involved, but the film didn’t turn heads when it premiered at Toronto last year.

“Criminal Ways” – Retitled from its given Australian name “The Wannabes,” Isla Fisher co-stars in this 2003 comedy from Nick Giannopoulos about an actor and a petty criminal who team up to play musicians for a children’s birthday party in order to steal a $3 million diamond from the kid’s parents.

”Double” – A 2006 Polish comedy from co-directors Marcin Ziebinski & Denis Delic about two wedding guests who unwittingly are taken into the mob.

“Election Day” – A SXSW and Hot Docs vet of 2007, Katy Chevigny’s doc canvasses the Midwest during the 2004 presidential election, profiling voters, poll-watchers and activists as they goes to the polls.

“For Sale By Owner” – Scott Cooper’s directorial debut “Crazy Heart,” starring Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell, recently got picked up by Fox Searchlight, but here’s your opportunity to see to see his writing debut, a horror film starring Skeet Ulrich as a man who sells his soul to the devil. Kris Kristofferson and Rachel Nichols co-star.

“Into Temptation” – When a call girl (Kristen Chenoweth) makes a confession that she will commit suicide on her birthday and disappears without a trace, it is up to Jeremy Sisto’s Father John Buerlin to find her, complicating his priesthood and descending into a world of pornography in Patrick Coyle’s sophomore feature.

“Jin Won Kim’s The Butcher” – A veteran of the 2008 genre festival circuit with stops at Fantasia Fest and the New York Asian Film Festival, this gritty Korean film centers on a group of filmmakers who round up a group of prisoners and force them to make a snuff film. For a film industry short on independently produced films, this one was off the grid.

“Lioness” – A Tribeca 2008 selection, Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers’ doc concerns the first female support squad to go into direct ground combat during the Iraq war.

“Soldiers of Conscience” – Voted best documentary at 2008’s Salem, Rhode Island and Bend Film Festivals, Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg’s doc follows eight soldiers — four who fired weapons to kill in Iraq and four who didn’t — and explores the moral implications of being a soldier.

Other indies that played theaters, but you might’ve missed: The Vietnam War what-if doc “Virtual JFK,” the Kino horror double bill of “I Can See You”/”The Viewer,” the drama “Perestroika”

Oldies but goodies resurfacing or appearing for the first time on DVD: The 1980 Indiana workers’ strike doc “Taylor Chain,” “Z” (Criterion Collection)

New to Blu-ray: The 1974 zombie flick “The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue”

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