Suburban DVD house delivers for cult, horror fans

This week we take a look at recent releases from a DVD and film production company located not in New York or Hollywood, but in good ol' suburban Chicago.

Dark Sky Films, based in Orland Park, specializes in creating special DVD editions of obscure and/or foreign genre films (usually horror titles). Think of it as the Criterion Collection for grindhouse afficionados.

The company's most recent releases offer a nice snapshot of what you can expect to find in its catalog (available at darkskyfilms.com). Let's dig in.

"The She-Beast" Also known by the wonderfully campy name "Revenge of the Blood Beast," this 1966 British effort is notable for being the debut film of the late Michael Reeves, director of the 1968 cult hit "Witchfinder General." Here, Reeves introduces us to a murderous witch-demon who is killed by residents of a small Eastern European village in the 18th century, only to return 200 years later by possessing a young English woman (British horror icon Barbara Steele) traveling through the area on her honeymoon. "She-Beast" suffers from an awkward mix of tones - it careens wildly from horror to comedy, then back again - and a plot that never rises above the ridiculous. But Reeves shows an innate skill with mood and image; his work, plus a dynamic score by Ralph Ferraro, make this an entertaining campfest. The low-budget, 43-year-old film looks fantastic on this DVD, which includes a single blockbuster extra: a delightful commentary with producer Paul Maslansky, Steele and her co-star Ian Ogilvy. All three deliver a slew of interesting and funny anecdotes about this movie and the world of 1960s European low-budget cinema in general. Horror devotees should not miss it. (NR; $14.98)

"The Centerfold Girls" Our next release takes us back to the scuzzy drive-ins of the 1970s. "The Centerfold Girls" is pure grindhouse fare - a 1974 slasher flick about a psycho who targets women who posed as centerfolds in a girlie magazine. Gratuitous nudity abounds, but the violence is actually much tamer than I expected. What makes the film interesting is that the story unfolds via three separate vignettes about the centerfolds. Each woman stars in her own short story, the only linkage being the killer who's stalking all of them. It's an interesting structure, and it allows the filmmakers to deliver some subtle commentary about the obstacles that faced women of that day (not that this is a "message" movie, by any means). The kills, unfortunately, are delivered with zero suspense or panache. The DVD delivers another solid presentation of an older film along with vintage trailers, TV spots and a nice retrospective featurette with new interviews with cast members, including B-movie star Andrew Prine, who plays the killer. (R; $14.98)

"Plague Town" Finally, we have "Plague Town," an original Dark Sky production that got a brief theatrical release late last year before hitting DVD this month. The movie takes another swing at the "evil children who've taken over a town" genre, and I'd say it hits a solid triple. Director David Gregory creates some unique, creepy sights and sounds here. The script, though, is undercooked, and Gregory still has a thing to learn about staging scenes of action. Still, "Plague Town" is a strange and effective fright flick. The DVD includes a commentary with Gregory, along with a couple of making-of featurettes. (NR; $24.98 or $29.98 for Blu-ray)