Ex-Faith No More frontman Mike Patton may be reuniting with his old bandmates, but that doesn't mean he's not still on the cusp of all that's weird, noisy and wonderful with his label Ipecac. And occasionally, he'll even write something that borders on the mainstream.

On April 7, 32 new Patton compositions appeared on the soundtrack for the film "Crank 2: High Voltage," which hits theaters April 17. The movie again features Jason Statham as Chev Chelios, an unfortunate British thug suffering from heart problems. In this case, his character wakes to find his heart has been removed and replaced with the equivalent of an analog alarm clock, which requires regular jolts of electricity and high-energy excitement to keep from shutting down.

The action that follows as Chelios searches for the Chinese mobsters who stole his real heart, is fast-paced and unrelenting. Playing cameos in the film are Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan, Nine Inch Nails guitarist Danny Lohner, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and country musician Dwight Yoakam. click "more" to see an exclusive snippet from the movie.

The latest film by British director Sean Ellis, "The Broken" is a psychological thriller about a troubled woman suffering a serious identity crisis. The movie comes out on DVD on March 31 on Lionsgate as one of this year's "8 Films to Die For" series from the third annual After Dark Horrorfest. Click "more" to watch an exclusive scene from "The Broken."

After spotting a woman who could be her identical twin driving the same kind of car she has, Gina McVay (Lena Headey) follows her double and breaks into her apartment, where she finds a photo of herself and her father. Flustered, she gets back into her vehicle and speeds off, but in her haste she crashes the car and is rushed to the hospital. When she awakes, nothing and no one seems the same, and she starts suffering from terrifying nightmares that blur into her fragile reality. "The Broken" isn't graphically violent, but it is definitely unsettling and features some surreal and horrifying imagery that keep the adrenaline flowing.

Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th Part II, Friday the 13th 3D (Paramount), His Name was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th (Anchor Bay).
Instead of lining up at the box office to catch another schlocky revised remake that's nowhere near as good as the original, we suggest investing in DVDs of the first three "Friday the 13th" films, which provide all you need to know about the hulking, invulnerable killer in the hockey mask who pretty much gave birth to just about every hack-n-slash film from the '80s. And if you're craving more from Jason and his sharpened machete, ignore Friday "IV" - "X" ("XI: Jason Vs. Freddy" was actually pretty good) and take a stab at "His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th." The double-disc set, narrated by special effects guru Tom Savini, features interviews with the directors, producers, actors, actresses and effects folks who helped turned Jason into a mythic antihero, and includes plot summaries and scenes from each of the movies in the series.

The original "Friday the 13th" came out in 1980, seriously upping the ante on John Carpenter's "Halloween," which came two years earlier, but featured very little graphic bloodshed. By contrast, the early "Friday the 13th" films took pride in showing machetes tearing flesh, spears piercing bodies and eyeballs popping from skull-crushed victims. Interestingly, Jason Vorhees didn't have much of a role in the original film by Sean S. Cunningham, and didn't kill anyone at all. The murderer was actually Jason's mom, wonderfully portrayed by Betsy Palmer. Her motive? What else, revenge.

See, her deformed son, Jason, drowned in Crystal Lake a year or so ago while the counselors on duty were too busy gettin' it on to pay attention to her flailing kid. So, when a new crop of young, horny pubescents arrive, Mrs. Vorhees picks them off one by one until the lone survivor, the most virtuous and clean-living of the batch takes her out. The message delivered in the movie is clear, and has been pilfered and spoofed by countless horror films that followed: premarital sex, drug use and drinking are punishable by death.

"Friday the 13 Part II" takes place five years after the original and features a new batch of debauched counselors who were never taught the lesson: you party, you die. This time, the killer is Jason, returned from the grave. But the poor dude is kind of a novice and hasn't even discovered his trademark hockey mask, instead, wearing a burlap sack with holes cut out so he can see. Fortunately, he sems to have gotten the right genes for serial killing, and he effectively disposes teenager after hapless teenager. Since the identity of the killer here is clearly established, director Steve Miner relies on a combination of atmpshere, suspense and Jason's ghastly deeds to keep the audience's attention. And even though the scene of a couple impaled while having sex was stolen straight from the 1971 Mario Bava film "Bay of Blood," the movie is captivating, brutal and backwards, leaving the audience almost rooting for Jason and hungering for the body count to rise victim by victim.

"Friday the 13th Part 3D" was also directed by Miner and adds a new novelty to the terror -- 3D glasses. But even without the gimmick, the film holds its own as one of the best of the series. In the beginning of the movie, Jason survives his ordeal from "Part II" and begins his killing spree, and along the way he discovers that special hockey mask. Mostly, the movie is a mindless exercise in camp counselor carnage, but if you're okay with that, the creative kill techniques are enough to keep you cheering between cringes.

The new theatrical version of "Friday the 13th" basically takes the first four "Friday the 13th" films and boils them down into one violent escapade. For the sake of expediency, it works like the Monarch Notes version of "Moby Dick." But when you're dealing with a horror franchise, what's the point? We'd much rather savor the slaughters, drop by bloody drop.

Quarantine (Sony)
Based on the 2007 Spanish film "REC," "Quarantine" is a reality TV-style film that documents the outbreak of a deadly virus which contaminates Los Angeles. In the film, reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her crew are assigned to cover the night shift of the local fire department. After fielding a 911 call that takes them to a small apartment building, they discover that a woman inside has been infected by an unknown disease. When the CDC realize what they're dealing with, they quarantine everyone inside, including the firemen and the news team. But the can't stop the cameras from rolling and Vidal and her crew are able to capture the terror and violence caused by the unknown contagion. Gritty, ominous and sometimes shocking, "Quarantine" succeeds alongside similarly themed point-of-view movies like "Diary of the Dead" and "Cloverfield."

Feast III: The Happy Finish (Dimension Extreme)
We completely missed "Feast II," but that hasn't seemed to impair our understanding of or appreciation for "Feast III: The Happy Finish." In the movie, a group of stereotype individuals are trapped by a horde of man eating beasts. We can't imagine that's much of a deviation from the second film since it was the basic premise of the first, but it doesn't detract from the violent, maniacal fun. The team is joined by a prophet and a martial arts master, both of whom contribute to the humor value. There isn't a whole lot of depth here and while the settings change -- rooftop, sheriff's office, drainage pipe -- the results remain the same: abundant gore plus black humor equals 90 minutes of guilt-free kicks.

Seeing that it's Friday the 13th, we're especially thrilled to offer an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse into the harrowing horror film "The Midnight Meat Train," which comes out on DVD February 17. Click "more" to watch.

"The Midnight Meat Train," directed by Ryuhei Kitamura ("Versus") is based on horror writer Clive Barker’s short story from the first volume of "Books of Blood" and stars Bradley Cooper as Leon Kaufman, a risk-taking photographer obsessed with furthering his career by taking gritty, provocative, nighttime photos of urban crime. When a prominent art gallery owner Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields) persuades him to dig even deeper into the underbelly of the city, he tempts fate and discovers Mahogany, a subway serial killer who stalks and butchers late night commuters. Unable to turn away, Kaufman pursues the murderer into the bowels of the subway and into an abyss of pure evil.

When the goal is building perfect and deadliest mousetrap, time and money are of no concern. Neither, apparently, is a fatal illness and a willing suspension of disbelief. And if you need a dirty cop to help you out in the execution of your plan, that, too, is easier done than said. It's all part of the very unreal, but nonetheless thrilling world of the "Saw" movies, and even though the producers are crankin' out at least one a year and are already up to "Saw V" (Lionsgate), there seems to be no shortage of ideas for slicing, crushing, beheading and incinerating hapless victims.

The film, which takes place some time before Jigsaw dies in "Saw 3" is a thrill ride of plot twists and splattery deaths. There's hardly any suspense since we all know who the killer is and pretty much who his accomplices are, but it barely matters. It's all about what crazy contraptions Jigsaw and his acolytes can devise to off their prey. One of the highlights is a razor-sharp pendulum that lowers towards a murderer tied to a table, leaving him to option of being cut in half or placing his hands in two compartments that will crush his bones to chalk.

Later in the film, five selfish folks involved in a deadly real estate scam are taught an ugly lesson that involves beheadings, electrocution, exploding nail bombs, stabbings, and a machine that drains blood drop by precious drop. When the surprise ending comes, sure it's a surprise, but it hardly matters. All that's important is that the stage is set for "Saw VI"

Repo! The Genetic Opera (Lionsgate) -- Who says there's no room for originality left in mainstream Hollywood? Director Darren Lynn Bousman, who masterminded Saw "II," "3" and "IV," but passed on "V" to direct "Repo! The Genetic Opera" seems to have made a sound decision. The movie is visually stunning, surprisingly creative and undeniably entertaining. Crossing elements of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "Blade Runner" and Takashi Miike's "Ichi the Killer," "Repo!" is about a future ravaged by disease and vanity, in which a corporation called Geneco funds transplants and operations the way banks used to give out mortgages. But if a client misses a payment, Geneco sends out the Repo Man to "repossess" the organ, usually at the cost of the the person's life. Throw in a love triangle between the Founder of Geneco (Paul Sorvino), a doctor who becomes head Repo Man (Anthony Head) and the dying wife he's unable to save (Sarah Power), add the daughter of said Repo Man (Alexa Vega), who thinks she's dying of a blood disease and turns to Geneco for salvation and three spatting sibblings played by Paris Hilton, Skinny Puppy's Ogre and Bill Mosely, and you've got an Italian opera bulldozed by gore and nihilism and tickled silly by black humor.

Visits: Hungry Ghost Anthology (Bonehouse Asia) -- Japan and Korea aren't the only go to nations for Asian Horror. Here, four of Malaysia's most cutting edge directors join forces for a creepy anthology set during the Chinese Hungry Ghosts Festival in cosmopolitan Kuala Lumpur. "1413" is about a teenage suicide pact that goes wrong. "Waiting For Them" depicts friends who let a ghost come between them. "Nodding Scoop" comes to life with a ritual that conjures a prophetic spirit and "Anybody Home" details a morbid obsession that turns deadly. This stuff will haunt your dreams for days.

Cold Prey (Anchor Bay) -- From Malaysia, we move to Norway, which has long been a welcome location for metal, but not such a common site for horror films (until recently). "Fritt Vilt" as it was originally called, is a slasher flick about four friends on a snowboarding trip who get stranded in an abandoned hotel after one of them breaks his leg and cannot move. Of course, they soon discover the hotel was closed in the '70s after the manager's son disappeared, and that someone is still lurking around the place and he's hungry for blood. The plot my be a cliche, but the execution is as enjoyable as the executions in the story. Other recent Norwegian horror movies worth checking out: "Naboer," "Rovdyr" and "Villmark."

Mirrors (20th Century Fox) -- Alexandre Aja, the French director of the remake of "The Hills Have Eyes" and the excellent "High Tension," turns what could have been a humdrum tale of the supernatural into a nailbiting rollercoaster of terror. The story follows the misfortunes of a former policeman (Keifer Sutherland), who takes what he thinks is a cush job as the night watchman of a department store. But while he's working, an evil spirit stalks him through a mirror and bounces from one location to another until it's inside his home threatening his and his family's lives. Paula Patton, Cameron Boyce, Erica Gluck and Amy Smart support.

In 1998, Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider injected "Captain Howdy," a character from their 1984 three-part song "Horror-Teria," into a horror movie called "Strangeland," which received mixed reviews, but has since turned into a bit of a cult item. Snider starred in and wrote the movie, which is about a pierced, sadistic, Internet chat room predator who lures teenagers into his house and tortures them with unusual body piercings.

At the time, Internet-based horror stories weren't so ubiquitous, so the plot was pretty compelling, even if the execution was far from perfect. “I came up with the idea of Internet crime before anybody had ever committed Internet crime,” Snider gloats. “And if I am the father of torture films, I’ve got to come back like a sledgehammer to reclaim my crown!”

To that effect, Snider has decided to resurrect Captain Howdy in "Strangeland: Disciple," which goes into production later this year. And while the movie may, indeed, revolutionalize the genre, it'll take a lot of creativity and originality. Today, with the coming and going of flix like "Pulse," "the Card Player," "Untraceable," "fear dot com," ".com For Murder" and "Stay Alive," Internet stalker movies are as common porn Web sites.

Returning for revenge in the sequel will be Robert Englund (Freddie Krueger in "Nightmare On Elm Street"), who called "Strangeland" a “bona-fide cult hit.” In the original, he played Jackson Roth, one of Captain Howdy’s victims.

A long time horror film fan, Snider says he was looking to put a new spin on the genre when he wrote "Strangeland." "At the time, I really wanted to re-invent the wheel. Horror, traditionally, plays on people’s fears of being chased and dying. That’s totally played out. When you’re being chased, there’s the chance of escape. When you die, there’s peace. What’s much worse than being chased and dying is being helpless and suffering.”

For the "Strangeland" soundtrack, Snider handpicked a variety of metal bands, including Twisted Sister, System Of A Down, Sevendust, Soulfly, Slipknot, Coal Chamber, Megadeth, Marilyn Manson and Pantera. The success of the soundtrack led to a "Strangeland" tour, which Snider hopes to resurrect once again for "Strangeland: Disciple." “Music was intrinsic to me in the first one," he says. "We really tried to create the ultimate heavy soundtrack. Music will be important to me again for the sequel."

While it's not nearly as heavy as the Brother's excellent, but disturbing "No Country For Old Men," "Burn After Reading" (based on a novel by Stansfield Turner) it's still dark, pessimistic and cynical, revolving around the selfish and shallow exploits of a cast of self-obsessed anti-heroes and near-villains.

Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is a mean, bitter ex-CIA operative who seeks solace through booze and hopes to reinvent himself by writing his memoirs. Linda Litske (Frances McDormand) works at a fitness club and decides the only way to realize her full potential is by undergoing expensive plastic surgery her insurance plan doesn't cover. When Cox accidentally leaves a disc containing notes the book at the club, Litske mistakes the data within as valuable government secrets. Perceiving this as an opportunity to finance her operations, she and club trainer Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) decide to blackmail Cox. When that doesn't work, they attempt to sell the disc to the Russians in a serious of often hilarious, sometimes brutal scenes.

A secondary plot involves Harry Pfarrar (George Clooney), an eccentric, womanizing security guard who's getting it on with both Litske and Cox's cold, emasculating wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton). To add to the drama, Katie is about to hit Cox with a devastating divorce suit and Pfarrar's wife Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel) discovers what her husband is up to and seeks action of her own.

All the infidelities add to the plot twists and the humor value, but the action really kicks into gear when Feldheimer mysteriously disappears and Litske starts to fall apart. Hysterical, she recruits their boss, Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins) -- who's secretly in love with Litske -- to help investigate and the plot quickly turns ugly and violent.

"Burn After Reading" isn't laugh-out-loud funny, but it's witty, quasi-comical, intense and unpredictable. Also, the flick is thought-provoking, has more jack-in-the-box moments than most thrillers and easily captivates for 90 minutes regardless of how convoluted the plot becomes.

Traitor (Anchor Bay) -- Roy Clayton, a by-the-book FBI agent (Guy Pearce) and former U.S. Special Operations officer Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) are the main characters of this political thriller, which is filled with action, intrigue and suspense. When an international conspiracy results in a prison break in Yemen, a bombing in Nice and a raid in London, Clayton begins an investigation and Horn enters his crosshairs. But the more Clayton examines the evidence, the less sure he becomes about his suspect's motivation and involvement in the attacks. Clayton is convincing, but, as usual, Cheadle steals the show -- just don't expect a "Rambo"-style action pic.

Baghead (Sony) -- A slasher spoof that's right up there with "Behind the Mask," Baghead is about a group of aspiring filmmakers who -- lacking any substantial story ideas -- decide to make a horror movie based on a dream one of them has about a mysterious man with a paper bag on his head. The movie starts out as a satisfying genre satire, then, while the auteurs are writing the script, an actual "Baghead" shows up and starts to enact the story's atrocities. In the end, "Baghead," is a horror/comedy hybrid that's clever and funny enough to overpower its abundant cliches.

Pulse 3 (Dimension Extreme) -- For anyone who wasn't completely turned off by the American sequel of the remake of the Japanese film "Kairo," "Pulse 3" should be proof positive that the Americanization of J-Horror has reached its appalling nadir. "Pulse 3" isn't just bad, it's horrific. The special effects are laughable, the plot's largely nonexistent and the direction is amateurish at best. In the movie, Justine, a 17-year-old girl raised in a technology-free survivor camp discovers a laptop that links her to a mysterious caller. Too bad the connection wasn't down. Determined to return to the world she left behind, Justine risks her life and wastes our time in this super low-budget sequel without a cause. Let's hope this is the last of the batch.

Okay, let's veer away from the pulverizing world of metal for a few minutes and address something way more damaging. Anyone who reads Otep Shamaya's semi-regular posts on this site, or who doesn't live with a blaring iPod on 24-7, knows that the U.S. is speeding towards a critical juncture, and that the 2008 November presidential election may be the most important political contest this country has faced since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, there's no denying that the U.S. is in a state of crisis. We're ensnared in a war that's taking the lives of thousands of Americans and there seems to be no end in sight; we're facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression; we've become the most despised superpower in the world and we're destroying the environment at such a rapid rate we could face the threat of extinction if we can't undo the damage we've done.

Clearly, the country has taken some major f--kin' hits over the last eight years financially, politically and socially. Unemployment is skyrocketing, our banks are collapsing and more and more U.S. interests are being gobbled up by international corporations. Who would have thought six months ago that U.S. institutions like Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG would be either gone or in a state of governmental bailout just two months before the 2008? And things aren't getting better, they're getting worse. Would Barack Obama be able to improve the country? Who the hell knows. But one thing's certain. A vote for John McCain is pretty much a thumbs up to stay the course, and right now we're on a devastating collision course.

The most important thing HeadbangersBlog.com readers can do is get to the polls and vote in November. Okay, enough ranting from us. Click "more" to hear some way more intelligent and entertaining ranting from documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who has just posted his entire new film "Slacker Uprising" for free to anyone who signs up for a copy. We've included the link to stream or download the flick, which was shot after Moore's sobering 2004 film "Fahrenheit 911" during the run-up to the 2004 election.

For the film, Moore and his crew traveled across America for 42 days, shooting people in 62 cities in an effort to galvanize the youth to vote for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Says Moore, even though George W. Bush won the election, young adults voted in greater numbers than in any election since 18 year olds were given the right to vote, and the youth vote was the only age group that Kerry won.

Now, here's a clip of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder from the film as well as a preview of the movie, followed by more from Moore:

STATEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE:
[This] is the first time ever that a major feature-length film is debuting as a free download on the internet -- legally. I am doing this for two reasons:

1. Next year it will be 20 years since my first film, "Roger & Me," so I'd like to give those of you who've supported my work over the years a thank you gift in the form of a brand new movie; and

2. I hope the release and wide distribution of this new movie will help to bring out millions of young and new voters on November 4th.

What I encountered during the tour and the filming was both inspiring and frightening, so I thought, hey, this might make for a funny and enlightening movie! Each night, thousands would show up to volunteer in the Slacker Army against Bush. This drove local Republicans nuts. In one state they tried to have me arrested. At two colleges, rich donors offered to donate more money to the college if they would ban me from campus. Nearly a half-dozen universities kept the Slacker Uprising tour off their campuses. But there was no stopping this movement. By the time we got to Florida, 16,000 people a night were showing up.

It was clear that young people were the ones who were going to save the day -- just as they are in this year's election.

You can now sign up to stream, download, or burn a DVD of "Slacker Uprising," free of charge. The distribution is being organized by Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films (they're the great people behind "OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" and "WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price").

You have my blanket permission to share the movie with your friends, to set up screenings in your communities or theaters, to show it on your campuses -- all at no charge. I encourage you to rally voters with it, to raise funds for your favorite candidates, to air it on your local cable access channels or web broadcasts. You can also click here to request a free DVD of "Slacker Uprising" for your school or university library.

Thanks again for coming to my movies all these years. It's meant a lot to me. I feel very privileged and blessed, and I am honored to be in this "virtual" community with you as we try to reclaim our beloved country.

As always, Romero uses the nightmarish scenarios to address social and political issues, including racism, governmental corruption and the cruelty of mankind. Of course, all the psychological crap would be wasted if the film didn't also deliver geysers of gore. Fortunately, "Diary of the Dead" doesn't disappoint in that department. Heads explode, necks get chewed apart, intestines tumble from corpses on an autopsy table. Splatter fiends will feel satisfied and everyone else will feel sickened.

And fortunately, "Diary of the Dead" is visually far from "The Blair Witch Project" with zombies and blood. Romero separates it from other point-of-view horror movies by presenting it as complete, edited film (completed in the aftermath by the shooter's girlfriend) rather than a sequence of raw footage. The action comes only from what's in front of the camera, but it's accompanied by narration, music and B-roll, which adds cohesion to the already disjointed plot. By taking a cinema verite approach to conventional terror and injecting some prescient points, the director capably turns an overblown film genre upside-down and delivers equal doses of salient commentary, stomach-churning viscera and spine-tingling scares.

Cloverfield (Paramount) Like "Diary of the Dead," Matt Reeves' "Cloverfield" is a point-of-view film shot on video camera, but this one sticks more closely to the rules of first-person shooters, revealing everything that's being filmed during a horrific encounter with a giant monster that's equal parts Godzilla and Alien. The movie starts with a cast of New York friends gathered at a farewell party for a co-worker who's about to head to Japan for a new job. Of course, one of the guests has a video camera to capture testimonials. Fortunately, after about 10 minutes of dramatic footage suitable only for the Lifetime Network, the alien attacks the city and we're off. The monster smashes through Manhattan, decimating buildings and squashing bystanders, and the survivors from the party scatter, some heading directly for city center -- where the monster is wreaking havoc -- to rescue the main character's ex-girlfriend. Touching stuff for sure, but there's enough destruction and violent death to make the sentimentality inconsequential. And the CGI effects are pretty incredible considering the relatively meager budget of the movie.

Storm (TLA/Danger After Dark) -- Nightmare and dreamscape intermingles in this Swedish film, which comes across as a blend of "The Matrix" "Vanilla Sky" and some superhero video game. Confused? You're supposed to be. The surreal plot swirls around DD, a carefree bachelor in Stockholm, who is presented with a box, which allegedly contains the fate of the world. Only, he can't open it without unlocking some repressed traumas from his past. Further complicating his life are a seeming heroine who urges him to dig into his psyche to open the box and an apparent villain, who wants him to discard the thing and continue his carefree life. The more DD explores his past, the more pain he experiences, leaving him unsure which adviser to follow. And the more we find out about early years, the less likable he becomes. "Storm" is a dizzying, dazzling exploration of past regrets and promising possibilities -- the kind of flick that elicits more questions than answers, but leaves you thinking regardless of the somewhat anticlimactic conclusion.

Frontier(s) (Lionsgate) -- When it comes to gripping horror, those Frenchies seem to be on to something. Over the year's the country has coughed out "Baby Blood," "Haute Tension," "Them" and now "Frontier(s)." On the surface, the flick seems to be yet another torture-porn hybrid of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Hostel," but underneath, there's something genuinely offbeat and askew. The movie takes place during a period of civil unrest in France. While everyone around them are distracted by rioting, a group of criminals plans to rob a bank, but when the heist goes awry and one of the gang is shot, the crooks split up, hit the highway and eventually agree to rendezvous at a hotel run by backwoods hicks. What they fail to realize is that the hicks are also cannibals, and their leader is an escaped Nazi determined to restore Aryan rule to his degenerate, inbred community. Doing so, of course, requires point-blank gunshots to the skull, agonizing Achilles tendon snipping, head severing and various forms of abuse. A latecomer to Lionsgate's "After Dark" series and, perhaps, its finest offering.

The Eye (Lionsgate) -- In "The Eye," Jessica Alba plays a blind violinist, which is, perhaps, appropriate since the movie itself also lacks sight. It's actually a remake of the Hong Kong classic "Jian Gui" by the Pang Brothers, which is about a woman who receives a cornea transplant that allows her to see more than she paid for. In addition to having 20/20 vision, she sees visions of death. While the Alba version sticks pretty closely to the plot of the original, many details, editing techniques and effects have been altered to conform to the Hollywood standard. "The Eye" remains interesting and features some nice jump-from-your-seat moments, but the essence of the original is diluted and the ending is altered, which has left Asian horror purists wanting to pluck directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud's eyes out of their skulls.

The Visions of Hell: The Films of Jim VanBebber (Dark Sky) -- Long praised by Down frontman Phil Anselmo, director Jim VanBebber (who is reportedly going to eventually do a Down documentary) is a maverick filmmaker who pulls no punches in his depiction of the world as a sordid, unjust and brutal place. The four disc box set "The Visions of Hell: The Films of Jim VanBebber" features the director's raison detre, "The Manson Family" (2003), an ultra-violent and largely conjectural account of the lives of the murderers in Charlie Manson's cult. The movie abounds with sex, drugs, music, flower power and death and stands as a potent account of a golden era gone bad. "The Visions of hell" also includes VanBebber's other highly acclaimed movie, "Deadbeat at Dawn" (1988), a tale about a gang member who is convinced by his girlfriend to quit his life of crime, but returns to his effectively violent ways after the gang and its former rivals kill his babe. Ruthless and savage, the character exhibits no mercy in his quest for revenge. In addition, the package contains the grisly short films "My Sweet Satan, "Roadkill: The Last Days Of John Martin," "Doper" and "Kata" as well as the documentaries "The VanBebber Family," "In the Belly of the Beast" and an actual interview with Charles Manson.

Clean (Brain Damage) -- Written and directed by Alexandre Michaud ("Urban Flesh"), "Clean" is about a serial killer named Crane, who decides to clean up the streets, while still satisfying his lust for blood (kinda like a more extreme Dexter). So, when he's invited to the annual snuff party of a group of killers he's chatted with over the internet, he concocts a violent plan. Initially, Crane willingly participates in the ritualistic torture and dismemberment of a stripper, but after the rite he abandons his allies and directs his misanthropic impulses at his fellow degenerates. The manhunt that follows is filled with tension and graphic violence and by the end, Michaud has delivered a political message along with buckets of blood. The soundtrack for the movie includes songs by Entombed and The Project Hate.

Synchronicity (SRS) -- Looking for a weird-ass head-trip? "Synchronicity" is a demented black comedy about a guy who wakes up one morning covered in blood and writhing in agony, with a note crammed in his ear. After he reads the letter, he determines that his brain has escaped from his skull, climbed out an open window and driven off with his car. Strangely, our hero continues to function, but without his brain, he experiences a series of bizarre hallucinations. Soon, he's unable to tell dream from reality, and violent murder, cannibalistic bears, copulating bunnies and demons become no more dramatic in his life than a casual coffee appointment. Desperate to get his brain back, he calls a friend, who tried to convince him his visions are imaginary and that he should resume his normal life. But the more he tries, the more it eludes him until the only recourse is to track down his escaped gray matter and force it to re-enter his body. Utterly absurd, yet strangely compelling.

The DVD, which was released on Monday, was praised by everyone from The New York Times to Newsweek. "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" was directed by Eddy Morretti, head of VBS.TV & Vice Films and Suroosh Alvi, founder of Vice Magazine. Today, we conclude our coverage of the flick with interview clips from Neurosis guitarists and vocalists Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till discussing the risks of following your dreams, the ways different cultures interpret western music and the hardships the band has encountered over the years. Click "more" to watch the exclusive interview footage:

Also check out part one and part two of our coverage.