If nothing else, DYLAN DOG: DEAD OF NIGHT ought to serve as a corrective to the long-lived misperception that Michele Soavi’s CEMETERY MAN/DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE was derived from Tiziano Sclavi’s DYLAN DOG comics, when it was actually based on an unrelated novel by the author. And the Sclavi connection is the only context in which Soavi’s film and this one should be mentioned in the same breath.

To clear up one key issue right off the bat: SAINT (a.k.a. SINT), the new movie from veteran Dutch writer/director Dick Maas, may be a holiday horror film, but it’s not a Santa slasher flick. The villain is St. Nicholas of ancient European folklore, with an early line of dialogue distinguishing him from “Father Christmas” (a.k.a. the Americanized Santa Claus).

With Jim Mickle’s STAKELAND opening this Friday in a limited theatrical release, we thought it would be appropriate to look back at Logan DeSisto’s review of the writer/director’s first feature-length film, MULBERRY STREET.

Tomohiro Kubo directs TOMIE VS. TOMIE, available on-line via Japan Flix and one of several films loosely based on Junji Ito’s manga TOMIE. This film is validation of the power of women and is a perfect Japanese example of the perils of loving girls, even when they’re babies. The film opens with the most universally recognized torture device, a cruel hypodermic needle poised to puncture and loaded with viscous red fluid. The unlucky recipient of the wicked poke remains unrevealed for now, but an infant is howling and folded skin is everywhere across the screen.

After the countless indie genre movies wearing the influence of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD on their blood-smeared sleeves without carrying over the human interest, it’s nice to see one that’s more in the character-based vein of THE WALKING DEAD—though the production of THE COLLAPSED predates the airing of the AMC show. And while hardcore horror fans should be advised that Canadian writer/director Justin McConnell takes the tack of keeping the physical threat largely offscreen, he nonetheless builds a considerable amount of tension simply through the efforts of his protagonists to survive it.

There’s a visual gloss over SCREAM 4 for its entire running time, a severe case of soft focus that keeps the film from ever feeling real, or tangible. It serves as a reflection of the fact that while the first SCREAM, through its dialogue and narrative, had a way of conversing with its audience and then-current time period, SCREAM 4—in trying to capture 2011—doesn’t seem to realize that when every emotion or action is a witty, referential punchline, the consequences aren’t felt and the whole thing just seems fake and empty, rather than clever and irreverent.

CLAIMER: CASE 1 and CASE 2 are a pair of Japanese genre films available for on-line rental or purchase from Japan Flix. In CASE 1, Naoto, the head of the customer service branch of a food and beverage company, receives a call from a claimer (someone calling to make a claim or a complaint) about bugs in his mineral water. This creepy claimer, however, soon calls the home of Naoto, asking personal and inappropriate questions.