Blu-ray

The fifth outing in this popular horror series gets the franchise back on track after the disappointing fourth flick. The setup is still the same as ever, but the ensuing scenes of stereoscopic slaughter are more mischievous and distressing than ever (Eye surgery! Acupuncture!). It also finds time to add a new wrinkle to the series’ mythology. Great fun.

Resident Evil: Afterlife finds writer/director Paul WS Anderson getting back behind the camera to continue the adventures of Alice (Milla Jovovich) as she fights against the undead in her mission to destroy the nefarious Umbrella Corporation and find a safe home for the human survivors following at her heels. In other words its business as usual then – fast-action, countless nods to the original video games (whether they make sense in the film world or not) and idiotic plotting – but this time it’s in 3D!

How do you follow up an existential viking movie? If you’re Valhalla Rising director Nicolas Winding Refn you do it by heading over to Hollywood and making the best Michael Mann movie Michael Mann never made.

Deep Red is arguably Dario Argento’s most important and accomplished film. Having made a name for himself with his ‘animal trilogy’ of thrillers, 1975’s Deep Red saw Argento pushing the genre into new areas, stretching himself as both a storyteller and a visual stylist. What resulted is every bit as gorgeous as it is gruesome, a film of spellbinding beauty and staggering cruelty that satisfies just as much as a murder mystery as it does as an all-out horror.

Maybe it was the horrible aftertaste of what Tim Burton’s remake did to the franchise, but for some reason nobody really expected too much from this contemporary prequel to the beloved 1968 sci-fi classic. But, thanks to its smart storytelling, winning performances and groundbreaking visual effects (a vital issue here, as the main character is a combination of CG effects and Andy Serkis’ motion-captured performance) Rise of the Planet of the Apes is one of the year’s best and most satisfying blockbusters.

At first glance, JJ Abrams’ new sci-fi flick stands out from the rest of this year’s blockbusters by virtue of not being a remake or based on an existing property. But looks can be deceiving. While Super 8 is essentially an original story, it’s so heavily indebted to the early films of Steven Spielberg (right down to the pre-credits use of the original Amblin Entertainment logo) that it actually feels like a remake.

While it never quite matches up to the brilliance of the original, this second animated outing for Po and the Furious Five is a worthy sequel that stands up there with the best of DreamWorks’ animated output.