BABYSITTER WANTED and more horror DVD news

By Michael Gingold

• Fango has learned that Jonas Barnes and Michael Manasseri’s BABYSITTER WANTED will be released on DVD by its production entity Big Screen Entertainment Group. Sarah Thompson (pictured after the jump) stars as a college student who takes a job looking after a young boy at a remote farmhouse one night, and becomes subjected to frightening phone calls and worse.

Matt Dallas, Bruce Thomas, Kristen Dalton and genre fave Bill Moseley co-star in the film; retail price for the disc will be $19.95, and full details and cover art are coming soon. Check out the movie’s official website here.

• Immanuel Martin, writer/director of the independent horror feature MIYUKI, sent along word that the movie has been acquired for worldwide distribution by R-Squared Films. The title character is a Japanese exchange student (Yuri Nanami) who comes to live with an American family, and brings some seriously damaged psychological baggage with her. The movie has “a tentative release date of May 2010” for DVD, Martin reports, adding, “R-Squared will be promoting the film for retail as well as TV/cable/satellite/IP broadcast/VOD/PPV opportunities in the U.S.” We’ll bring you specifics as we find ’em out. MIYUKI’s trailer can be seen below, and its official website can be found here.

• Image Entertainment has a pair of fright features set for DVD release this spring. Coming April 13 is THE DAISY CHAIN, an Irish/British co-production directed by Aisling Walsh from a Lauren Mackenzie screenplay. MINORITY REPORT’s Samantha Morton and Steven Mackintosh from the UNDERWORLD sequels star as a couple who move to a rural town to recover from their baby daughter’s death. They meet an orphaned autistic girl and decide to take her into their home, and a series of scary events ensues that the village’s residents insist are connected to little Daisy. The movie will be presented in 1.78:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, accompanied by the trailer.

Out May 25 is FINALE from writer/director John Michael Elfers. This giallo-styled chiller focuses on a woman whose son has apparently committed suicide, but who believes that his death was actually the result of dark forces and sets out to uncover the truth. A winner of several independent-film-festival awards, FINALE stars Carolyn Von Hauck, Suthi Picotte, Brad Barnes, Elizabeth Holmes and Steven Nieport, with makeup FX by Chris Payne. This one will also have a 1.78:1 transfer with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound; no special features have been specified as of now. See FINALE’s official website here; retail price on these two titles is $27.98 each.

• Well Go USA is issuing an updated version of Sean Tretta’s THE GREAT AMERICAN SNUFF FILM, titled, naturally, THE GREATEST AMERICAN SNUFF FILM and set for release April 13. This is a new director’s cut of the movie, which dramatizes the kidnapping, torture and on-camera murder of two young women by a couple of perverted maniacs, with newly shot and previously unseen footage. Also included are the following extras:

• Audio commentary by writer/director Tretta

• “Making SNUFF Films” featurette

• Extra “SNUFF”

-Fake Snuff #1

-Fake Snuff #2

-Fake Snuff #3

• “Flesh” music video

• Trailer

Well Go also has the Japanese film NEGATIVE HAPPY CHAINSAW EDGE coming March 30. Directed by Takuki Kitamura and scripted by Hirotoshi Kobayashi from Tatsuhiko Takimoto’s manga, it’s a genre-blender combining horror, romance and comedy as a young slacker becomes enamored of a mysterious young girl—who must battle a violent, heavily armed giant by night on a regular basis. The disc includes a behind-the-scenes segment and the trailer; retail price for both Well Go titles is $19.98 each.