DVD: Dry Your Tears, Guillermo Del Toro Fans

There's been a great deal of gnashing of teeth online this week over Universal deciding not to pony up $150 million for At the Mountains of Madness, a horror epic based on an H.P. Lovecraft book that was to star Ron Perlman and Tom Cruise with Guillermo Del Toro directing. The kvetching over this feature's demise was surpassed only by the kvelling over Del Toro dropping out as director of The Hobbit. But relax, people -- the always-busy Del Toro has already announced another directorial project (Pacific Rim, set for 2013), and the in the meantime you can take in a snappy horror flick he produced, Rage (Rabia), out this week from Strand Releasing Home Entertainment.

This creepy Spanish import, directed by Sebastián Cordero (Crónicas) plays like a cross between Dirty Pretty Things and the classic 1970s made-for-TV chiller Bad Ronald. José María (Gustavo Sánchez Parra) and Rosa (Martina García) are South American immigrants trying to make in in Spain -- he as a construction worker, she as a housekeeper.

When José María accidentally kills his foreman in an argument, he hides out in the mansion where Rosa works without telling anyone. Furtively hiding behind the walls, sneaking out at night to steal food, he observes the occasional abuse to which Maria is subjected by her usually considerate employers. And as José María's anger grows, things get even more tense.

While Cordero has shown himself to be a deft wielder of suspense and tension in the handful of films he's made so far, Rage also fits into Del Toro's Spain-set horror movies (Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone, which he directed, as well as The Orphanage, which he produced) about oppressed outsiders.

So even if you're bummed about Del Toro's Lovecraft movie not happening, Rage should sate your appetite for his particular brand of chills.