THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (1964) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (1964) 

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 78 Minutes 
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono
Video: B/W 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Del Tenney
Cast: John Scott, Alice Lyon, Allan Laurel

Del Tenney's regional cult-classic The Horror of Party Beach (1964) was “The First Horror-Monster Musical”, a schlocky sixties stinker with one of the worst looking creatures creations to ever scar the silver screen, looking like a humanoid aquatic-chicken choking on a bag of dicks. It's real bad stuff from the first frame on through to the last, but it's also the sort of movie tailor made for a bad movie night group watch with way too much beer. If you love bad movies this is sure to be some of the tastiest/moldiest cinema fromage you've ever had, so dig into this bad movie fondu with two forks my vintage shit fest fans, The Horror of Party Beach is served!  

The movie is variation on that old 50's nugget - the toxic waste monster, it all begins with a very bad company dumping toxic waste off the Eastern Seaboard. The toxic sludge leaks from a barrelthat been dumped near an old shipwreck, coating the skeletons of a long-dead sailors, re-animating them as half-man/half-fish creatures that elicit more laughs from viewers than any sort of fear. The creatures make their way from the depths to land emerging to slaughter young people who have gathered near the beach for some sun, fun and sand, clawing their faces and leaving behind a string of bloody corpses that would have made the 'Godfather of Gore' Herschel Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast) proud, with loads of chocolate syrup blood dripping off of the shredded limbs of dead teenagers. 

We have a a pipe smoking scientist, a housekeeper who stumbles upon the way to kill the monsters (it's the same way you would kill a slug), there's a slumber party massacre, bad boy bikers, beach parties, surf-rock from The Del-Aires and a creepy underwater transformations that is actually sort of eerie. This spunky shocker's got a little bit of everything for fans of vintage schlock, none of it all that good but every last bit of it is entertaining in that special bad movie night sort of way that some of just cannot get enough of, it's not for everyone, but for some of us it's everything.  

Audio/Video: The Horror of Party Beach (1964) debuts on Blu-ray from Severin Films with a new 2K scan from the original camera negative, presented in 1080p HD and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. The black and white image of the Blu-ray advances over the previous Dark Sky Films DVD looking brighter and cleaner, grain is visible (for better or worse), blacks are deeper and the gray scale is much improved. Dare I say crisp? No, I wouldn't say that at all, but it is definitely a step in the right direction, but it's still soft and overly dark in places, there's some fading and print damage evident throughout, but this is absolutely the best the film has looked on home video. Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles, the audio is fairly solid and reproduces dialogue and the surf party tunes of The Del-Aires and the roars of the aquatic mutant menace. 

Severin are kind enough to give us some new extras to accompany the film, we get a 16-min Return to Party Beach: A Retrospective Documentary on The Horror of Party Beach which is narrated by Tom Weaver and has an interview with the late directors wife Margot Hartman who speaks about the various challenges and adventures while making the film, while the narration gives a nice overview of Tenney's career. We also get a 4-min interview with The Del-Aires band members Bobby Osborne and Ronnie Linares, these guys look like aged surfer hippies and still rock out, performing their  song “Zombie Stomp” right there in the living room, very cool dudes. Director Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs) shows up to discuss rock n' roll in movies beginning with I Was a Teenage Werewolf and on through the beach party film of the 50's and beyond. Severin also carry-over the 9-min interview with director Del Tenney who speaks about his life, career and making his movies, there's also a trailer for the film. 

Special Features: 
- Return to Party Beach: A Retrospective Documentary on The Horror of Party Beach (16 min) 
- It's the Living End: An Encounter with The Del-Aires - Interview with band members Bobby Osborne and Ronnie Linares (4 min) 
- Shock & Roll: Filmmaker Tim Sullivan on Rock & Roll Horror Movie (8 min) 
- Archival interview with Director Del Tenney (9 min) 
- Trailer (2 min) 

The Horror of Party Beach (1964) is a bad-film classic, full of good surf music, bad schlock, a few decent thrills, and aquatic chicken creatures that look like they're choking on a bag of dicks - what's not to love? If you're a bad movie enthusiast now's the time to get enthused, Severin have come through with another slice of vintage crud with some quality extras and a damn decent A/V presentation. 

Blu-ray Review: NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR (1985)

NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR (1985) 

Label: Vinegar Syndrome

Region Code: Region Free 

Duration: 93 Minutes 

MPAA Rating: Unrated 

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Jay Schlossberg-Cohen

Cast: John Phillip Law, Cameron Mitchell, Richard Moll, Marc Lawrence, Tony Giorgio, Ferdy Mane

What the fuck did I just watch? Oh sure you laugh now but when you watch you will ponder that very same question. Night Train to Terror (1985) is a horror anthology stitched together from the three separate unfinished films with a wrap-a-round framing device featuring God (Ferdy Mane) and Satan (Tony Giorgio) on a doomed train headed towards Las Vegas. En route to their final destination the two exchange stories of spiritual corruption and redemption, the fate of three people hang in the balance... and the most 80's new wave sounding band play the same song again and again, that song is a diabolically catchy tune. 

The strange vignettes begin with "The Case of Harry Billings" a man named Harry (John Phillip Law) causes an accident which kills his new wife, in the aftermath he ends up at an asylum where undergoes electro-shock therapy and is brainwashed by an evil doctor to go out into the world and seduce women, bringing them back to the asylum where they are raped and butchered by wierdo orderly (Richard Moll, Night Court) and sold to medical school as body parts. 

Next up is "The Case of Gretta Connors," wherein a young medical student Glenn (Rick Barnes)

watches a porno and falls in love with porn star Gretta (Meredith Haze), but her jealous ex-lover initiates them into a "death club" and are subjected to different near-death experiences including electrocution, deadly insects and an 2 ton swinging ball of death.

The third and final vignette is "The Case of Claire Hansen" featuring Holocaust survivor Olivier (Robert Bristol) whom tries desperately to convince a tough-nosed cop (Cameron Mitchell) that an ageless WWII Nazi ghoul is menacing the city, meanwhile a surgeon named Claire and her atheist husband James (Richard Moll again) are pulled into the shenanigans and gruesome hilarity ensues.

Watching Night Train to Terror unfold is like trying to remember a half forgotten nightmare or viewing of a poorly edited and dubbed Italian horror movie, it just doesn't make a lick of sense, you have a vague idea of what happened but you just cannot put the pieces together in a way that is coherent, and there's a good reason for that. Night Train To Terror (1985) was assembled from three separate movies and edited town to anthology length and stitched together with the God vs. the Devil wrap-around framing device with the new-wave performance thrown in.

The acting for the most part is utter shit, particularly Meredith Haze in the "Gretta' segment. Richard Moll who portrayed "Bull" in TV's 'Night Court in two of the tales, that was fun. His weirdo orderly in the first segment was super-sleazy, most of these tales have a some sweet sleazy moment, while the producers may have not crafted a decent film they new enough to throw in a lot of boobies and and some fun special effects. We get a fun array of cheapo gore, dismemberment and some awesome claymation stop-motion effects from the same guy who created the beast in Crater Lake Monster (1977) - the stop-motion wasp and gruesome meltdown are fantastic in 'Gretta' - a definite highlight if the movie. 

be prepared for some cheese and poor editing - the three films were hacked to pieces and from scene to scene do not expect continuity or logic to be part of the experience. 
Blu-ray: Night Train to Terror (1985) arrives on a dual format release from Vinegar Syndrome

with a brand new hi-definition transfer restored in 2K from 35mm element. Presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) for the first time on home video, the new transfer is quite an improvement over previous budget collection versions. There's some print damage and softness from time to time but this is a pretty solid presentation, colors are solid and the black levels are decent, not great. Vinegar Syndrome keep things pure with an image that doesn't suffer from grain scrubbing, there's plenty of film grain with some decent fine detail and the skin tones look natural. While there's some minor print damage throughout when you consider how previous versions  appeared this is pretty solid image from Vinegar Syndrome. 

The only audio options is an adequate English Language DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with no subtitle options. It's a pretty cheap film and the dubbed audio and canned effects will only ever sound decent at best, it sounds like the cheap production that it is. The bizarrely infectious new-wave tune "Dance with Me" sis damn hard to shake it once you've had a taste, you'll be singing it for days. 

The Blu-ray disc special features begin with an audio commentary track from The Hysteria Continues podcast crew and it's a fun one, they have a true appreciation of just how awful and awesome this movie can be and they drop a lot of trivia and production notes about the film and nuggets about the three films cut-up to make it. 

Another audio option is an interview with with Producer/Director Jay Schlossberg-Cohen moderated by Joe Rubin which runs for the duration of the film, it's pretty much a second commentary option without being scene specific - in fact it doesn't even get to Night Train to Terror until after the hour mark but Schlossberg-Cohen is character and quite a storyteller - it's all over the map but it makes for an interesting listen. 

The Blu-ray extras are finished-up with a theatrical trailer and for some less intrepid viewers this might be all they need ever see of this awful film, ha ha. The second disc is a DVD mirroring the exact same extras as the Blu-ray plus a few more.  Another neat bonus is the inclusion of the uncut version of the second entry "Gretta' sourced from a 1" master and it looks pretty good. Its an interesting watch to see the extended story play out, noticeably many of the effects shots and deaths are different and the insert claymation shots added to Night Train to Terror are missing. 

In addition to the inclusion of the film 'Gretta' there's a 30 minute audio interview with Assistant Editor Wayne Schmidt also moderated by Joe Rubin. Schmidt speaks in depth about his involvement on this film plus the movie 'Harry' which later became 'Scream Your Head Off' and eventually cut into one of the vignettes on this nutty anthology, it's a solid interview by Rubin who brings up a fabled black and white segment missing from the film. 

Special Features:
- Restored in 2K from 35mm elements
- Bonus feature film 'Gretta' (91 Minutes)
- Interview with Producer/Director Jay Schlossberg-Cohen
- Interview with Assistant Editor Wayne Schmidt (30 Minutes)
- Commentary track by The Hysteria Continues
- Theatrical trailer (2:40) 

Verdict: I love these obscure and often times junky movies that Vinegar Syndrome have been putting out on Blu-ray. Night Train to Terror (1985) is quite a nutter, a schlocky anthology crammed together from the corpses of three separate movies with a goofy wrap-around story. it's awful but it is certainly entertaining with a bizarre mix of nudity, claymation, awful acting, death clubs, Nazi vampires and God vs. the Devil on a train ride to oblivion, plus Vinegar Syndrome give this one some quality extras that help explain what lead to this disaster of a film. 2 Outta 5

DVD Review: DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS (1984)

DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS (1984) 

Label: Mondo Macabro

Region Code: Region-FREE

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 86 Minutes 
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.66:1)

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 

Director: Edmund Purdom

Cast: Edmund Purdon, Alan Lake, Belinda Mayne, Gerry Sundquist, Kelly Baker, Caroline Munro

Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) is a sleazy Santa-slasher with just enough of a threadbare plot to string along a series of grisly murders and nude scenes, and that's just fine by me honestly. This London-set slasher features a masked killer on a spree slashing anyone dressed-up as Santa leading to a fun array of deaths as various St. Nick are pistol-shot in the mouth, burned, razor-slashed, eye-traumatized, wiener-mutilated, speared through the skull, strangulated and machete whacked to death - the kills are pretty fantastic and varied with some fun set pieces including a sleazy strip joint, the London Dungeon, a carnival and even the infamous urinal slashing, and a strange musical cameo from scream queen Caroline Munro (Slaughter High). 

While the deaths are gruesome fun what constitutes the story line is pretty silly even for an 80's slasher. Scotland Yard, Chief Inspector Ian Harris (Edmund Purdom, Pieces) and Detective Sergeant Powell (Mark Jones) are called in to sleuth the gristly murder spree. They interview the daughter of the victim speared through the head at a holiday party, Kate (Belinda Mayne, Alien 2 on Earth) and her jerky boyfriend Cliff (Gerry Sundquist) who were present during the crime. Cliff is an insensitive type and when he's present at the murder of yet another victim (a porn model) he's the prime suspect but let me just say you will never have any doubt who the culprit is, the red-herrings here are a complete failure. It's a nice conceit, instead of a Santa-suited slasher on a murder spree we have a grinning masked killer murdering Santas, it's a nice twist on the surface, but the script just doesn't go anywhere with it. 

On the plus-side you can just shut off your brain on this one and enjoy it for the scuzzy Santa-slasher that it is, which is plenty entertaining even if not a very good movie, in fact it's pretty terrible! As awful as it might be this is mandatory viewing at my house during the Christmas season right after Black Christmas (1974) and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).

DVD: Mondo Macabro have revived this Santa-slasher from the dingy grey market releases that were apparently sourced from crusty VHS sources with a brand new anamorphic widescreen (1.66:1) transfer and it's quite an improvement if not exactly a stunner. Colors are pretty decent but the darker scenes suffer somewhat but overall this is a significant upgrade over previous versions. Audio is handled by pretty standard Dolby Digital mono track that's well balanced and free of distortion. 

They've done a great job with the special features including a massive 52 minute documentary about the making-of the film featuring producer extraordinaire Dick Randell with loads of behind-the-scenes footage, it's pretty fantastic. There's also an 33 minute featurette on the life and career of Dick Randell spotlighting his many films and colorful producing style, quite a character! Extras are finished-up with production notes, trailers a collection of Mondo Macabro trailers which are always a blast.

Special Features: 
- Brand New Anamorphic Transfer (1.66:1)
- 52 Minute Making Of
- Documentary About Producer Dick Randall (32:40)
- Trailers
- Extensive Production Notes
- Mondo Macabro Previews

Verdict: A trashy slice of 80's schlock cinema, if you can imagine Pieces (1982) as a Santa-slasher and that seems like a fun time this is definitely a film for you, Mondo Macabro DVD presentation is very nice and the extras are great, a high recommend for pretty shit film that I find immensely entertaining. 3 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: NINJA III: THE DOMINATION (1984)

NINJA III: THE DOMINATION (1984) 

2-Disc Blu-ray+DVD Combo

Label: Scream Factory / Shout Factory 

Release Date: June 11th 2013

Region Code: A/1

Rating: R

Duration: 92 Minutes

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 

Director: Sam Firstenberg

Cast: Sho Kosugi, Lucinda Dickey, Jordan Bennett

My goodness, what have Scream Factory brought us today? This time out it's not a John Carpenter or Stuart Gordon horror classic, nope, it's an 80's cheese-fest from Cannon Films! Even by Canon standards this is a weird entry. The third film in the Cannon's Ninja series mashes-up the martial arts action of a ninja film with the  supernatural weirdness of Poltergeist and the neon-infused nuttiness of the 80's -  sounds awesome, right?


Set just down the road a bit from me in sunny Phoenix, Arizona the film starts off with a ninja assassin slicing and dicing  group of men on a municipal golf course, these opening scenes are bursting at the seams with goofy 80's action like you just wouldn't believe! We get about every ninja trick in the book and a few new ones, too, the sly assassin is taking out motorcycle cops, police cruisers and even a helicopter with rope tricks, throwing stars and sword play as they give chase through the golf course, it's such a weird setting but the film let's you know right from the start you're about to watch a weird one, sure 'nuff. The action comes fast and hard and is hilarious and awesome, the body count is ridiculously high and the preposterous shenanigans are a fun watch, were just a few minutes in and I am completely on board for Ninja 3 and whatever weirdness will follow, and trust me, it gets even weirder!

Despite his masterful martial arts skills our evil ninja is mortally wounded when he stumbles across an 80's coiffed telephone repairman named Christie (Lucinda Dickey) who also moonlights as an aerobics instructor, it's the 80's, so why not. His dying act is to perform some kind of mind transference on the unsuspecting 80's hottie, possessing her with his evil ninja spirit.

Now possessed Lucinda sets about killing the cops responsible for the ninja's death, shes gained all of the assassin's skills and his insatiable thirst for revenge. Christie throws a wrench into the works when she falls for one of the officers involved, the super-cheesy Officer Billy Secord (Jordan Bennett), as you can imagine it's hard to nurture a new love when the evil ninja inside of you wants him dead.

There's some great possession scenes early on, they arrive like an early 80's music video with neon-colored lighting effects, wind and fog machines in full force, an eerie glowing samurai sword and laser-light show that would make Pink Floyd jealous, great stuff. It's hilarious when Christie attempts to thwart the possession by dancing! Of course, any film with a possession scene must by cinematic law have an exorcism, and this one is a whopper, performed by none other than James Hong from Big Trouble in Little China!

Not having watched this aerobicized ninja ass-kicker before I was at least aware of the infamous V8 seduction scene and it does not disappoint in anyway. In an attempt to seduce Billy, Christie pours a can of V8 down her neck and chest, slurp it up lover, slurp it up! Perhaps he weirdest  product placement you've ever seen and definitely the act of a woman possessed by an evil Japanese Ninja, those Asians are a kinky bunch!

The film looks quite nice in 1080p HD from Scream Factory, it's sourced from a very nice print, there's some minor depth to the image and even some fine detail in the close-ups.The lone audio option is an English language DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track that does the job quite well, there are no subtitles options. 

Special features are limited to a photo gallery and an audio commentary with director Sam Firstenberg and stunt coordinator Steve Lambert moderated by Rob G. of FEARnet.com, it's a great listen and the trio seem to love the film and recognize it's inherent oddness. This scream Factory edition also includes a standard def DVD of the film with the same features. Oddly, there are no trailers or chapter stops on the menu, it's a pretty bare-bones edition by Scream Factory standards but it's a nice AV presentation, maybe better than the film deserves.

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with director Sam Firstenberg and stunt coordinator Steve Lambert moderated by Rob G. of FEARnet.com
- Photo Gallery

Verdict: Call up a few friends, pop open a few brews (or V8) and let the bizarre 80's awesomeness unfold, this is a strange one, recommended for lovers of 80's schlock and martial arts action weirdness, hope Scream Factory continue to bring more high-caliber, ultra-entertaining Cannon Films schlock to Blu-ray in the future. 3 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: ZAAT (1971)

ZAAT (1971)

Blu-ray +DVD Combo

Label: Film Chest
Region Code: [Blu-ray] A [DVD] 0 NTSC
Rating:  Not Rated
Duration: 100 Minutes
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 with Spanish Subtitles
Director: Don Barton
Cast: Marshall Grauer, Sanna Ringhaver, Dave Dickerson, Gerald Cruse, Archie Valliere, Nancy Lien.
Tagline: Taking Cult to a Whole New Level … You Can’t Keep a Bad Monster Down!

HD Cinema Classics in conjunction with Film Chest and Cultra continue to bring fans of cult and schlock cinema "the best (and worst) of cult cinema, a cinematic cesspool of films that are surreal, eccentric, controversial, comical and scary but ultimately engaging and entertaining". They've proven true to their words with digital remastered Blu-ray/DVD combos of cult films like the Roger Corman b-movie classic THE TERROR (1963), the bizarre talking-chimp oddity CARNIVAL MAGIC (1981) and the demented sleazefest POOR PRETTY EDDIE (1975). These guys obviously love their cult cinema and they continue their streak by unearthing yet another drive-in cult classic from the dustbins of obscurity. This time it's the apparently much sought-after ’70s schlock-fest ZAAT (1971) which is also known by the alternate title of THE BLOOD WATERS OF DR. Z. Like POOR PRETTY EDDIE before it I cannot say I've ever heard whispers of this 70's drive-in relic before watching this Blu-ray but I can tell you now that I've seen it I will never forget it, some things just cannot be unwatched.

In this zany 70's b-movie creature feature an obsessed former Nazi scientist (naturally), Dr. Kurt Leopold (Marshall Grauer) is a man scorned by his scientific peers when he becomes obsessed with transforming humans into fish using a toxic compound he calls Zaat. Disavowed by the scientific community the Dr. isolates himself in a marine lab outside of Cypress Groves, Florida he proves the naysayers wrong by actually transforming himself into an amphibious creature (played by Wade Popwell) that is part man, part walking catfish. That's right, 1/2 man 1/2 catfish and 100% ridiculous right down to the green feather boa trim of the costume, the creature from the black lagoon this most certainly is not. Bent on revenge the creature concocts a corny scheme to turn the tables on humanity by polluting the rivers with the Zaat compound in an effort to mutate the aquatic wildlife into over sized human-flesh crazed fish - now that's a plan and a half right there and it makes for one Hell of a silly 70's drive-in schlockfest.

All that stands in the way between the diabolical doctor and the total destruction of Cypress Groves and possibly the world is a small town sheriff (Paul Galloway) and a young African-American biologist (Gerald Cruse) who the Sheriff refers to as "boy" more than one would like to hear but hey it's 70's exploitation cinema, whattya gonna do. They have a good rapport but the nickname definitely makes your skin crawl especially when coming from a Southern-fried good-old-boy like the rotund sheriff. The duo also receive assistance pursuing the catfish creature with help from a couple of pre-X-FILES styled agents of the paranormal (Sanna Ringhaver, Dave Dickerson) from the Inter-Nations Phenomenon Investigations Team (INPIT) who show up in a snazzy RV towing a trailer with a neat-o amphibious vehicle.

ZAAT is a schlocky sight to behold, inept as it is it's quite watchable and I have to give it a recommend to others who crave a few reels of bad 70's cinema, this is fun stuff. Corny revenge, some cool underwater shots, the largest hypedermic needle I've ever seen, the creature's attempt to transform a few beauties into mate, it's weird and wacky stuff, the type of shenanigans that goes great with a couch full of drunk friends and some frosty beers, watching it alone just seems like a bad idea you're gonna need back-up on this one.


Blu-ray: ZAAT is digitally remastered in 1080p HD and transferred from original 35mm elements. The 16:9 Widescreen presentation is actually quite attractive with some decent depth and clarity for a obscure 70's drive-in film previously thought lost. There's some nice detail throughout and some film grain left intact despite some Digital Noise Reduction. Colors look great, the restoration included a nice color correction and the green and reds particularly pop onscreen. Overall the film really exceeds my expectations visually, a nice restoration for this schlocky creature feature rarity.


On the audio front HD Cinema Classics again have chose not to go the losses audio route and have included only an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack which is quite the stellar example of fidelity but it relatively clean if unimpressive.

Special features include a fun commentary from director Don Barton, co-writer Ron Kivett, actor Paul Galloway which is moderated by film historian ED Tucker, it's a great chatty interview that's not so much scene specific as just a lively discussion about the film and it's participants, a thoroughly enjoyable commentary. We also get a theatrical trailer and TV spots, outtakes, a gallery, movie art postcard, restoration demo and a 2001 audio-only radio interview with Wade Popwell and Ed Tucker recorded during the film’s 30th anniversary.

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Don Barton, co-writer Ron Kivett, actor Paul Galloway and film historian Ed Tucker
- 35mm Theatrical Trailer (2:34) 16:9
- Television Spots (1:15) 4:3
- Outtakes (3:53) 4:3
- Radio Interview with Wade Popwell and Ed Tucker
- Before-and-After Restoration Demo (1:06) 16:9
- Original movie art postcard
- Photo Gallery (8:10)
- DVD of the film with Special Features

Verdict: Lovers of 70's drive-in schlock rejoice, as cheese-tastic man-in-suits creature features go this is pretty great, a real treat for the bad cinema enthusiasts and it would make a fantastic double feature with THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER (1977). Definitely a film that's just so bad it's good and in the best possible way, fun stuff. 2.5 outta 5

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