...Also in stores this week

"Not Quite Hollywood" (R, 2008, Magnolia): The first and most lasting lesson learned while watching "Not Quite Hollywood"? History lessons are a whole lot more fun to learn when the presenters are having this much fun. "Hollywood" delves deep into the auspicious beginnings of the Ozploitation movement, which propelled Australian cinema to push the filmmaking envelope and arguably humiliate Hollywood at its own game. But while "Hollywood" makes a point of being thorough and studious, it does so with considerable glee, opting to unabashedly celebrate its subject matter rather than simply observe and discuss. There's a comprehensive history here - not only of the movement's roots, but the direction the phenomenon took and where the genre went once Hollywood's influence arrived at the party.

Extras: Director/Ozploitation Auteurs commentary, deleted/extended scenes, interviews, funding pitches with Quentin Tarantino and John D. Lamond, photo gallery.

"The Children" (R, 2009, Ghost House Underground/Lions Gate): There's an unwritten but highly recognized rule about killing children in horror movies, and it goes a little something like this: Unless the kid in question is a doll named Chucky, don't do it. But what happens, in the case of "The Children," when a group of sweet-faced kids catch a virus that turns them against their parents during (what else?) a familial Christmas retreat in the middle of nowhere?"The Children" observes as many genre rules as it bends and breaks. This one isn't for the squeamish - and not because it's just another soulless bucket of blood and guts. Hannah Tointon, Eva Birthistle, Stephen Campbell Moore, Jeremy Sheffield and Rachel Shelley star.

Extras: Deleted scenes, six behind-the-scenes features.

"The Gate: Monstrous Special Edition" (PG-13, 1987, Lions Gate): With this DVD release and with a 2010 big-screen remake following close behind, whatever age of innocence still remained for "The Gate" - a cult horror classic that until now had received a puzzlingly low-profile DVD treatment - is nearing its end. It'll be interesting to see where that remake goes, too, because it's been a pretty long time since anyone made a high-profile PG-13 movie starring children (Christa Denton, Louis Tripp and Stephen Dorff as Glen) that looked quite like this. "The Gate's" plot is pretty threadbare - the chopped-down remnants of an old tree give way to a hell dimension, which conveniently opens and unleashes tiny demons everywhere right as Glen's parents leave town for the weekend. But it doesn't greatly matter, because the story's never the thing anyway. Rather, it's the film's surprisingly unflinching willingness to expose a young cast to the kind of visual horrors filmmakers typically reserve for teens and adults.

Extras: Filmmakers commentary, new cast/crew interviews.

- McClatchy-Tribune Wire Service