On DVD and Blu-ray Disc

“Diary of the Dead” Blu-ray
From George A. Romero, the movie follows Jason Creed (Joshua Close), who is shooting a low-budget horror movie with his girlfriend, Debra (Michelle Morgan), a handful of their classmates and their drunk professor (Scott Wentworth) when the dead suddenly appear and start to attack. It’s into their Winnebago the humans go, where they keep tabs via television and the Internet on how quickly the world’s inhabitants are falling prey to, well, the world’s inhabitants. Naturally, a virus is to be blamed, one that has brought about “the death of death.” The rest of the movie is just what you expect--Jason and his posse on the run, some of whom get devoured while others kill the undead with a well-paced bullet to the head. If you know Romero, you know how these movies go down, but what’s nice to see is that the director hasn’t lost his nimble touch with the unexpectedly funny throwaway line, of which there are several in “Diary.” Rated R. Grade: B

“The Strangers” DVD, Blu-ray
It stumbles in its rushed ending, but what’s admirable about this horror movie is how it remains committed to delivering mounting tension throughout. Writer-director Bryan Bertono uses time-worn horror movie cliches to fuel the action and he uses them successfully, achieving a heightened sense of dread. The film follows James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler), an attractive couple at a remote location whose relationship is on the outs and then suddenly thrown into turmoil by a knock on the door. The knock comes at 4 a.m., it turns out to be a young woman whose face is in shadow, and she’s looking for somebody named Tamara. When James and Kristen inform her that nobody is there by that name, let’s just say that all hell breaks loose once the door is shut in her face. What unfolds is lean, tight and disturbing, a film that intentionally recalls the style of horror moviemaking in the 1970s, but which also will remind plenty of last year’s “Vacancy.” It’s all about atmosphere and stripping away the clutter to get down to business with low-budget chills. And it comes through. Rated R. Grade: B