Derek Cole’s REVENANT is a little film that hopefully won’t get lost in the shuffle. It’s nothing at all like the recent vampire/zombie/horror/comedy/thriller thingie THE REVENANT; it’s actually more akin to SINISTER, as a writer moves into a haunted house, scary stuff ensues and a mystery must be solved in order for the writer to survive. But REVENANT is its own beast, and deserves the chance to stand alone.

John Cusack (also in THE PAPERBOY, one of my favorite films of the year) and Jennifer Carpenter (ever the scene-stealer in Showtime’s DEXTER) star in THE FACTORY, a semi-horror movie made under producer Joel Silver’s Dark Castle banner. A SILENCE OF THE LAMBS-meets-HARDCORE-wannabe thriller tinged with blood, it follows an obsessed father on the hunt for his missing teenage daughter.

Sometimes, product drifts into Fangoland that are just plain weird… well, weirder than usual. Such is the label I’m sticking on Dame Darcy’s HANDBOOK FOR HOT WITCHES, a quasi-new age tome with tongue deep in cheek, collecting fake spells, witchy wisdom, recipes, zodiac readings, crafts, fashion tips and other such odds and sods packed into its pink hardcover shell.

Horror short anthology THE COLLECTIVE VOLUME IV (available now from JABB Pictures) was a bit of a motley mix of success, failure, ambition and some baffling choices in curating. We’ve previously looked at the collection as a whole, but the time has come to explore the individual films. It’s fitting then, that we start at the beginning and with one of two films in the package that come from JABB-meister Jason Hoover: FRANKIE.

Neither JACK & DIANE (pictured left) nor VAMPS is specifically a horror film, though they each offer takes on supernatural beings—a humanoid id monster in the former, bloodsuckers in the latter—that work within their own genres.

COMPOUND FRACTURE is the first feature from actor Tyler Mane’s new production imprint Mane Entertainment, and what a debut it is. Genre mainstays Leslie Easterbrook (THE DEVIL’S REJECTS) and Muse Watson are on hand for this dramatic genre bender, but it’s the promise of an on-screen monster mash between “Michael Myers” Mane, and Derek Mears (FRIDAY THE 13TH 2009) that is sure to have Fango readers salivating.

The name, Bedlam instantly calls images of a mentally disturbed individual shuffling around the antique halls of an outdated psychiatric institution, while rattling his chains around like a ghost. Though that particular Bedlam has been cast aside for a more updated hospital, the name still evokes chills down our spines. The comic BEDLAM (out now from Image) is no exception when it comes bringing the same amount of brutality as its namesake, virtually dripping the pages in violence and eye-popping surprises while evoking a long-forgotten fear of the demented. The story will follow you from page one, all the way to the next three books you read.