Shocker allows Wes Craven to hang onto his title as the master of the horror genre--but only just. Centring once more on a charismatic lead character (Horace Pinker) Shocker continues Craven's penchant for combining fantasy and horror. Pinker (played with zeal by Mitch Pileggi of X-Files fame) is a serial killer--the "family slasher"--terrorising the inhabitants of the city of. Having murdered the foster family and girlfriend of all-American boy Jonathon Parker (Peter Berg), the latter finds he can foresee Pinker's actions in his dreams. The resulting supernatural developments (including ghosts, magic charms and possessed bodies) are more than a little muddled but underpinned by the continuous gruesome hack and slash action. A film with its brain most definitely disengaged, Shocker is still undemanding, wince-inducing fun.

On the DVD: Not much to offer from this format. The splendidly dated 1980's American heavy metal soundtrack (including Kiss and Megadeth) comes through loud and clear and the sound effects are certainly horribly audible. Picture quality is fine but not spectacular. Extras are limited to scene selection, the trailer and a selection of storyboards and their cinematic equivalents. --Phil Udell

From the golden age of the miniseries comes Shogun, the 10-hour, Golden Globe-winning saga based on James Clavell's bestselling epic novel. In his award-winning performance, Richard Chamberlain stars as John Blackthorne, the 17th-century English navigator on a Dutch trading ship. A storm runs the ship aground off the coast of Japan, a "torn and cruelly divided country" locked in a power struggle between Toranaga (the venerable Toshiro Mifune) and Ishido, two warlords who would be Shogun. Blackthorne gets over his initial culture shock ("I piss on you and your country", he defiantly proclaims to his samurai captors, which to his humiliation turns out to be an unfortunate choice of words) to become a trusted ally of Toranaga and the lover of the beautiful interpreter Lady Mariko (Yoko Shimada). Their forbidden, ill-fated romance--and Blackthorne's total assimilation into Japanese culture--is set against political intrigue as Toranaga prepares for the inevitable showdown with Ishido, and Blackthorne's growing influence threatens the local Jesuits who had built up a lucrative trade monopoly. Shogun was a production blessed with good karma, and it remains an awesome achievement from a bygone era when the miniseries was king. --Donald Liebenson