direct to video sequels Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you simply adore movies like House on Haunted Hill, Thirteen Ghosts, Ghost Ship, Gothika, House of Wax and The Reaping, then you'll be thrilled to know that Joel Silver's Dark Castle Entertainment has just signed a fresh deal with Warner Bros. home video department. (And also you might be insane.) Yes, home video. Apparently spurred on by the "navigational cinema" gimmick that turns perfectly disposable horror sequels into "choose your own adventure" experiences, WB and Dark Castle have decided to sit down and churn out some more direct-to-video material. Some sequels, some prequels and some "original" content. Heh.

The first production out of the gate will be the the aforementioned Return to House on Haunted Hill, which stars Jeffrey Combs and Cerina Vincent, and will allow you to pick through over 90 different story-line possibilities. Sounds like something that'd be really cool to sift through for an hour or two -- before living a dust-covered life on my DVD shelf. Upcoming Dark Castle / WB releases include Widow Whisps, Odds, Cheerleaders in Trouble, RocknRolla and Whiteout. Mr. Silver also aims to branch out just a little bit and produce a few action flicks under the Dark Castle banner. Which makes perfect sense, seeing as it was created as a horror shingle.

In related news, Sam Raimi's Ghost House outlet is presently working on Boogeyman 2 and I'm just sure Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes gang is cooking up another three remakes that nobody asked for.

If you're a huge fan of direct-to-video sequels like The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, Bring It On Again and Walking Tall: The Payback, DavisDVD.com has a DTV update that'll have you salivating all over your remote control. Get a load at what the various studios have in store for the video store market:

Universal has Curious George: Monkey on the Run and Bring It On: In It to Win It (which may very well be the stupidest movie title I've ever seen) in production, which is a good thing because I was just dying to know what happens after Bring It On: All or Nothing!

From Fox we're getting Wrong Turn 2 in October, and early next year it's Bachelor Party 2, Garfield Gets Real and Lake Placid 2, which already played on the Sci-Fi Channel so I have no idea why they'd hold it until next year. Plus it stinks either way.

Warner Bros. still has that Return to House on Haunted Hill flick on the way, plus they're currently working on A Dennis the Menace Christmas (ugh), The Lost Boys 2 and something called Get Smarter: Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control, which will be a spin-off semi-sequel to the studio's Get Smart adaptation that stars Steve Carell. (Got all that?)

And get New Line: Apparently they think the world is clamoring for low-budget pseudo-sequels to 8 Seconds, Undisputed (a third one??), The Players Club, Friday, Cellular and Havoc. Really? Havoc? Wow, that's ... people only rented it for the Anne Hathaway nudity, y'know.

Apparently Paramount's not playing along with the DTV sequel game. Good for them. And the company that started it all (Disney, of course) has Tinkerbell scheduled for next fall.)