The UK’s number one specialist horror genre magazine The Dark Side has just turned 21 years old and to celebrate this momentous anniversary in style, along with the help and support of sponsors Network DVD, The Dark Side is offering all its readers, both old and new, the chance to enjoy the magazine’s first four rare collectors’ editions totally free of charge at www.thedarksidemagazine.com. No longer available to buy as back issues, these archive volumes have been recreated as brand new digital editions allowing readers to take a chilling journey down the dark alleyways of horror history.

If you want to catch up with The Dark Side now then do visit their website for print and digital subscriptions but we’re offering one lucky reader a chance to win a digital subscription for a whole year! That’s 12 months worth of the best horror mag around, all for free.

If you’d like the chance to win the digital subscription we’ve got to give away, just sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on December 7th, so get answering and good luck!

The lights are up in the shopping centres! The ads are on the telly! The Christmas gift guides are out! And it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…

But if you’re looking for an alternative to the traditional Christmas films then take a look at the wonderfully off-beat Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (out now on DVD and Blu-ray), the REAL story of Santa Claus that will have everyone believing again…. whether you’ve been naughty or nice!

On the eve of Christmas a young boy sets out to discover the truth behind several strange goings on in his small isolated village. Why have all the reindeer been slaughtered? Who took all the hairdryers and radiators? And where have all the children gone? Seal the chimney, lock the doors, hide your children because the real Santa is coming to town.

So forget about the Christmas shopping and have a go at winning a copy of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale on DVD along with some chocolate treats to enjoy while you watch, courtesy of Icon Home Entertainment. We have a DVD with chocolate treats to give away to one lucky winner, and if you’d like the chance to try and win it, just sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on December 7th, so get answering and good luck!.

Despite the fact he’s probably as well known now for being a director as an actor, Robert Redford has only actually directed eight movies, so it’s always a bit of a treat when one comes along. His latest is The Conspirator, which has just been released on DVD and Blu-ray, and we’ve got three copies to give away in this great comp.

The film, starring James McAvoy and Robin Wright, is based on the true story and dramatic real life trial of those accused of the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln. McAvoy stars as Fred Aiken, an eager, newly qualified Yankee lawyer. He is convinced by his mentor Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to act as defense lawyer for Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), the only female accused of being involved in Lincoln’s assassination, and the focus of a tense struggle between justice and duty.

If you’d like the chance to win one of the three copies of The Conspirator we’ve got to give away on DVD just sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on November 7th, so get answering and good luck!

Coinciding with its 40th anniversary and with the forthcoming remake, director Sam Peckinpah’s notorious thriller Straw Dogs has been carefully restored and remastered for release on two-disc DVD and for the first time ever as a features-packed Special Edition Blu-ray on 24th October 2011.

You can discover more about the original in a series of articles running on http://www.totalfanhub.com/straw-dogs/ which will include reactions to the remake, plus details of the screening of the original at The Barbican in London on 9th Nov.

And for your shelf we have copies of the Blu-ray to give away for two lucky winners!

Quiet American mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) and his British-born wife Amy (Susan George) relocate to Amy’s rural English hometown in an attempt to flee the violent social unrest brewing in the US. When David hires some locals, including a former boyfriend of Amy’s, to repair his barn, the couple find themselves being subtly harassed and bullied by the workmen. The more the pacifist David ignores the problem, the more the harassment intensifies, leading to terrifying consequences as he ultimately finds himself forced to defend his home and his life, discovering a frighteningly vicious side to himself as events escalate towards a bloody climax.

Refused a certificate for a video release in the UK until 2002, it’s still a powerful statement on violence. If you’d like the chance to win one of the two copies of Straw Dogs on Blu-ray we’ve got to give away, just sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on November 3rd, so get answering and good luck!

To celebrate the 24th October UK DVD and Blu-ray release of Mother’s Day (Studiocanal), we are offering a fantastic original cinema poster and a copy of the film on Blu-ray.

Rebecca De Mornay (Wedding Crashers; Lords of Dogtown) heads a killer cast in Mother’s Day, in a role the makes her psychotic character from ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle’ look like Mother Theresa! Loosely based on Charles Kaufman’s 1980 Troma classic, Mother’s Day is a nail-biting thriller that has been described as ‘intense’ (Dread Central) and ‘ a gruesome pleasure” (The Sun).

In the film three brothers on the run from the law head for home, only to discover that their mother lost the house in a foreclosure. Mother ingeniously orchestrates her sons’ escape, teaching the house’s new owners and their guests a few lessons along the way.

Mother’s Day Trailer

The Caller arrives on Blu-ray and DVD from 24th October 2011. However, if you’d like to win one of the copies we’ve got to give away on DVD just sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on November 2nd, so get answering and good luck!

From British director Matthew Parkhill comes this disturbing tale starring Twilight’s illuminating Rachelle Lefevre and True Blood’s Stephen Moyer. Lefevre is divorcee Mary Kee who is being harassed by both her ex-husband Steven (Ed Quinn – True Blood), and a mysterious female caller, who has the alarming claim that she is ringing from Mary’s own past. This atmospheric, eerie chiller will leave audiences jumping each time their phone rings – when it arrives on Blu-ray & DVD in time for Halloween 2011. And we’ve got three copies of The Caller to give away on DVD!

Following her divorce, Mary moves into a new apartment and is keen to get on with the rest of her life including building a budding new relationship with the charismatic John Guidi (Stephen Moyer). When she begins to receive phone calls from a mysterious woman she at first dismisses them for a confused caller, but as the calls continue the lonely Mary eventually begins to strike up an unlikely friendship with the woman, whom she discovers is called Rose. However as the calls become more regular, Mary becomes disturbed by Rose’s claims that she is calling from Mary’s own past. As her sense of being haunted escalates, an alarmed Mary tries to cut off all contact but Rose makes it frighteningly clear that she does not like to be ignored.

Fans of Twilight and True Blood will enjoy the opportunity to see Lefevre, Moyer and Quinn playing The Caller’s tormented lead characters, whilst the director Matthew Parkhill plays on the dark and atmospheric Puerto Rican locations to create a claustrophobic situation for both Mary and the audience. Once the credits role, if you can take any more terror, the Blu-ray and DVD also include an alternative ending, ‘Making of’ feature, deleted scenes and a director’s commentary to give an insight into the making of the psychodrama.

With the ominous danger of Rose’s disembodied voice designed to truly terrify, The Caller is the perfect film to watch hidden behind the sofa this Halloween – just don’t forget to disconnect the phone first!

The Caller arrives on Blu-ray and DVD from 24th October 2011. However, if you’d like to win one of the copies we’ve got to give away on DVD just sign in to the site below (or click here to register) and answer the multiple choice question (see below for more details on how to enter). The competition closes on October 31st, so get answering and good luck!