A Haunting in Venice

Obscura: The Shadow Blade is an intense 3D action adventure game set in dark and gothic 16th century Venice. The player takes on the role of Zephira, a supernatural being who was once a teenage girl, on a quest to retrieve the Eye of Death from the hands of Andreas Strozzi, a vampire. Only by exploring the eeriest locales of old Venice and by fighting wave after wave of supernatural creatures such as Reapers, Golems, and Mummies will she be able to retrieve the precious ancient artifact. Obscura: The Shadow Blade features intuitive mouse-driven combat and magic skills and a creepy atmosphere enhanced by a haunting soundtrack.

At long last! World premiere release of oft-requested James Newton Howard score to Joel Schumacher's Falling Down. Dark, violent urban thriller stars Michael Douglas as tragic protagonist on rampage, heading inexorably towards final showdown with retiring cop Robert DuVall. As confrontations grow in intensity, Douglas becomes increasingly unhinged. Howard follows in tow, with initially sparse score growing increasingly dense, clustered as film progresses. Dark ideas, intense action all have their say. Highlights are many, including riveting chase cues, pulsating conflict music, but one standout motif deserves spotlight: Howard writes moving minor-key trumpet solo that plays just once during "not economically viable" scene ("Miracle Mile"), then disappears completely until conclusion ("Falling Down"), where composer now brings film and score together in brilliant, powerful fashion. Sensational writing! Also worthy of attention: haunting series of string chords shifting between minor, major, playing for estranged relationship between everyman Douglas and wife Barbara Hershey. Howard even quotes nursery rhyme "London Bridge", which subtly relates to cop Duvall's own wife Tuesday Weld, who needs the tune to help calm her troubled nerves. It is difficult to overstate dramatic complexities and thematic subtleties of this important music.

Is there no explanation of the mystery of The Haunted Hotel? Is The Haunted Hotel the tale of a haunting – or the tale of a crime? The ghost of Lord Montberry haunts the Palace Hotel in Venice –- or does it? Montberry's beautiful-yet-terrifying wife, the Countess Narona, and her erstwhile brother are the center of the terror that fills the Palace Hotel. Are their malefactions at the root of the haunting – or is there something darker, something much more unknowable at work?

An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close of World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, thought to be dead, disguises himself as a Buddhist monk and stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment. Magnificently shot in hushed black and white, Kon Ichikawa’s The Burmese Harp is an eloquent meditation on beauty coexisting with death and remains one of Japanese cinema’s most overwhelming antiwar statements, both tender and brutal in its grappling with Japan’s wartime legacy.