New on DVD: "X-Files", mean dogs, kinky Romans, gross-out humor

This week's new DVDs include everything from a TV fave's homophobic big-screen sequel to controversial cult classics to potty humor. Make your way through it all, after the jump!

The X-Files: I Want to Believe hits DVD today, and while one of the film's producers blamed the sequel's disappointing box-office returns on the Dark Knight juggernaut, perhaps its failure could be at least partially attributed to an icky and blatantly homophobic subplot about gender-confused, body-snatching gay serial killers and an altar boy–diddling priest with psychic visions. The fact that I Want to Believe hit theaters a full decade after The X-Files went off the air might have had something to do with it as well.

Far more queer-friendly is the documentary In the Gutter, from gay director Jeffrey Schwarz (Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon), which explores the history of gross-out humor in American movie comedies. Schwarz lined up an interesting array of talking heads, including John Waters, the gay filmmaker who pretty much single-handedly introduced poop humor to the cinema, as well as directors (Q. Allan Brocka, Phillip Bartell), critics (David Ansen and yours truly) and writers (Dennis Hensley). Also featured are cast members from such seminal naughty comedies as Animal House, American Pie and There's Something About Mary.

Looking for stocking stuffers for your seen-it-all friends? Criterion offers White Dog, the final film from legendary American director Sam Fuller. This controversial film was unavailable for years, but its critical reputation continues to grow. Kristy McNichol stars as a young woman who takes in a hound that has been trained to attack black people, but she believes it can be reprogrammed with the help of a trainer (played by gay actor Paul Winfield). The racial politics scared Paramount in 1982, but time has been kind to this hard-hitting movie, which has all the pulpy majesty of Fuller's best work (The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor, The Big Red One).

And speaking of barely-seen movies, the novel I, Claudius was supposed to be turned into a movie in 1937, but despite the best efforts of director Josef von Sternberg and star Charles Laughton, the film was never completed. A new DVD offers the 1965 documentary The Epic That Never Was, which features the footage from the lost film as well as interviews with many of the key players, alongside the extraordinary 1976 BBC miniseries I, Claudius, starring gay actor Sir Derek Jacobi as a witness to Caligula's extremely decadent regime.