ABCs of Death 2 (2014) review // Second Verse, Same as the First?

When I first heard about the ABCs of Death in 2012, I was extremely excited by the idea.  Twenty-six directors each given a letter of the alphabet, a small budget (something like $5K, I've heard), and complete freedom to choose a word and create a short film to match it.  The only stipulation being that the short had to showcase death in some way, shape, or form.  When I saw the film, however, it was painfully obvious that "complete creative freedom" wasn't such a great idea for the vast majority of the short films contained within.  While the film had a few bright spots, it was by and large a bunch of crap.  So why get excited about the prospect of another anthology of twenty-six sub-par short films?

Sweet Home (1989) review // The Haunting in Japan

When talking about the greatest haunted house films of all time, people will probably throw out titles like The Haunting (Robert Wise's original, not the shitty Liam Neeson-starring remake), House on Haunted Hill (I'll admit I actually enjoyed this one's remake), Poltergeist (an apt connection that you'll read about below), Nobuhiko Obayashi's Hausu (if you know what's good for you), or one of my personal favorites, Steve Miner's House (story by Fred Dekker!).  A title they probably won't mention is Sweet Home, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 1989 feature that has languished in obscurity due to only being available on VHS and laser disc.  It is a crime against humanity that a proper DVD or Bluray of this film has not yet seen the light of day.  Criterion put out gorgeous digital editions of Hausu five years ago, and they have at least one Kurosawa film (his excellent 1997 chiller Cure is available to stream on Hulu) in their possession, so what gives?