A re-imagining of familiar characters and a scary tale from Ireland are in this week’s film review column.

On Blu-Ray and streaming: From the Dark

This horror film from Ireland starts out in a formulaic way. A farmer harvesting peat hit something hard with his shovel. It’s a wooden stake and he draws it out of the ground.

Horror film rule number one: don’t disturb wooden stakes.

He unleashes a long dormant creature who lives on blood and who encounters a young couple out on a holiday, but lost in the country.

What director Conor McMahon does with his standard sort of story, though, is great. He understands how to build suspense, creates a new kind of monster and presents a resourceful heroine played with intelligence by Niamh Algar.

What I thought would be a story by the numbers, turned out to be a top-notch fright film.

The film basically has four characters and one principal location, but McMahon uses these limited story resources to their greatest advantage. It’s a great example of low budget filmmaking that doesn’t look or act like it.

Horror film fans should check it out.

On DVD on July 28: Justice League Gods and Monsters

As a 61-year-old fanboy I’ve seen the fascinating evolution of comic books being the subject of derision as throw away popular culture to now a mine for stories and characters for movie and television projects reaching audiences far beyond the core demographic.

I’ve also seen how comic book companies, seeking to keep their characters fresh, have allowed for various artists, writers, movie producers, etc., to re-design, re-write and alter these heroes and villains for new projects.

Sometimes the re-working is successful, such as “The Flash” television series. Sometimes it’s not – as the disastrous feature film based on “The Spirit” proved.

It is not enough to try to write new stories for characters people have grown to know and love. For many writers or directors, they want to put their stamp on a character with whom they might have grown up.

This new animated direct-to-video feature film is a complete re-working of several DC characters and it took me a while to warm up to it. The story takes place in an alternative Earth in which Superman was raised by migrant farmworkers and has a jaded view of the world. His father, by the way, is not the scientist Jar-El, but is the violent General Zed.

Batman isn’t Bruce Wayne, but instead of scientist who has been turned into a vampire by a rival researcher. Wonder Woman isn’t Diana Prince and an Amazon warrior. She is Becca, a resident of another alternative world.

The three form the Justice League and work for the federal government. They are not admired by people, but feared, as they are ruthless killers.

When scientists who have worked on a project that would come up with ways to kill the members of the Justice League turn up dead, the three “heroes” are the suspects.

If the bulk of adaptations of comic book characters and themes are designed for general audiences, this film is pretty much for comic book fans who will get all of the references, which otherwise will fly over the heads of the average person.

After all, I doubt most people will recognize The Metal Men – robotic heroes of comics from the 1960s and ‘70s – who play a key role in this production.

The animation is at the level maintained by other Warner Brothers direct to video productions – servable but not necessarily memorable. The voice work is provided by some well known performers including Benjamin Bratt and Michael C. Hall.

Comic book fans may like this new look at old favorites, but I doubt other audiences will.