The Girl Who Played With Fire (15)

124 mins, Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99)

CRUSADNG journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) has not heard from computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) for a year.

He ploughs all of his energy into an explosive story about a sex trafficking ring with ties to the upper echelons of power.

Days before publication, young writer Dag Svensson (Hans-Christian Thulin) is slain and the murder weapon is tracked back to corrupt lawyer, Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson), who is Lisbeth's guardian. Daniel Alfredson's film is every bit as dark, brooding and unsettling as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, with scenes of gruesome and graphic violence that are never gratuitous. The director doesn't waste a single frame, concealing the twists in the novel until the last minute for maximum impact. The tightly wound narrative ensures the 124-minute running time passes all too quickly, powered by an electrifying performance from Rapace as the avenging angel.

Resident Evil: Afterlife (15)

96 mins, Sony, DVD £19.99/DVD Box Set £29.99/Blu-ray £24.99/3D Blu-ray £29.99)

FOUR years after the T-virus transformed the infected into the ravenous undead, Alice (Milla Jovovich) heads to Alaska in search of survivors.

She discovers old friend Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), who is suffering amnesia, and together they stumble upon others holed up in a prison. Claire's long lost brother, Chris (Wentworth Miller) leads the motley crew against a ferocious new evolution of the undead with mandibles which can burrow through walls.

Unfolding in 3D on Blu-ray, the fourth instalment of the Resident Evil series welcomes back Newcaslte film-maker Paul WS Anderson to the helm for all the usual flesh-hungry zombies and blood-spattered action sequences. The writer-director has evidently been re-watching The Matrix trilogy because almost all of the set pieces rely heavily on slow motion and bullet-time special effects.

Gainsbourg (15)

117 mins, Optimum Home Entertainment, DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £22.99)

JOANN Sfar's imaginative biopic charts the tumultuous life of singer Serge Gainsbourg.