GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977)

GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977) 

Label: Intervision Picture Corp
Region Code: 0 NTSC
Duration: 96 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono
Director: Cesare Canevari
Cast: Marc Loud, Daniela Poggi, Maristella Greco

GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977) directed by Cesare Canevari is alternately titled LAST

ORGY OF THE THIRD REICH  and  CALIGULA REINCARNATED AS HITLER  - it starts off a few years after WWII with Third Reich Commandant Conrad von Starke (Adriano Micantoni) visiting the death camp he ran during the war. There he meets up with Lise Cohen (Daniela Poggi) a former Jewish prisoner at the death camp turned lover of the German commandant - which is already quite strange. Through flashback we are told their story, of her imprisonment and torture and the depraved events at the death camp and how she came to be the lover of the hateful Nazi commander.

This is a film with certain amount of arthouse pretension - you can detect the makings of a film with a certain amount of style though just barely. It does manage to rise above most of the nasty Nazisploitation films coming out of Italy at the time. A lot of repellent stuff going on here fetishisizing the idea of a Nazi camp slash brothel full of Jewish women being degraded. We have the Commandant's SS lover Alma (Maristella Greco) riffing on a character straight out of the ILSA films with the pre requisite amount of sexiness and awfulness - a sadistic character with lesbian tendencies when she's not punishing the Commandant for his premature ejaculation by shoving the thick end of a whip right up his arse - which he thoroughly enjoys, of course.

Separate from the sexual depravity which include forced incest, scatology and an extended orgy/rape scene we have various scenes of torture and humiliation which are sometimes hard to stomach including a harrowing scene of women burning alive in a furnace. There's also a menstruating woman eaten alive by ravenous dobermans. It's sick stuff, some of which past the shock of it are darkly humorous . A prime example being a woman dipped in into a pool of corrosive quicklime or when Lise is is hung by her feet and lowered face first into a box of ravenous... gerbils

One of the films more grotesque threads of the movie is that of cannibalism and the consumption of Hebrew flesh by the higher ranking Nazi officials at a dinner party where the main entree is the stewed flesh of babies - this movie has a little bit of everything going on. 

When the content of the meal is revealed a Jewish woman forced to labor as a server passes out. Not missing a beat  she is placed on a large serving tray, doused in the best Nazi cognac and flambeed to the salacious delight of the Nazi's who look on with hungry eyes.  

There's not a lot of social commentary going on here - just scene after scene of shock peppered with a few scenes exploring the Lise's transition from tortured death-craving victim to mistress of the cruel Commandment  - which is never fully explored. Played for seriousness the camp level is pretty low here which might hinder the joy one could derive from this Video Nasty but if you're looking for some unredeeming nazisploitation this trashy slice of Italian cinema sure to please.

The DVD comes with the now classic white Amaray case we've come to expect from Intervision. The transfer is sourced from a decent element with some minor white speckling and scratches throughout but is never hard to watch. Not having watched this since the glory days of VHS this is by far the best I've seen it. There are other DVD versions but I've not seen them. The movie is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio which is a plus but the image is a bit soft with very little depth and sharpness - it's a very flat presentation with instances of camera shakiness - while some of the framing looks nice the cinematography can be a it amateurish at times.

The English dubbed audio is represented by a mono Dolby Digital track that includes a generous helping of audio hiss and the occasional snap, crackle and pop - at times it feels like were listening to a thrift store LP while eating a bowl of cereal but that's just fine, just adds to the experience. Of note is a quite nice score that transcends  the merits of the actual film. There are no subtitle options.

Extras on the disc include a great Theatrical Trailer (3:39) for the film and A Brief History of

Sadiconazista- Interview with Film Historian Marcus Stiglegger (36:30) with the film historian giving a brief history of the nazisploitation sub-genre beginning with war time propaganda on through to the "roughie" SS LOVE CAMP and the artier entries such as THE NIGHT PORTER ending with the Italian cycle of sleaze such as what were watching here.

GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977) is a slightly arty piece of Nazi exploitation that is crammed with shocking scenes of perversion and the humiliation of women at the hands of Nazi captors. Definitely par for the course with this cycle of exploitation but this one has a few striking moments that will stick with you for awhile. 

HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN (1975) (Redemption Blu-ray Review)

HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN (1975)

Label: Redemption Films

Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated

Duration: 104 Minutes

Audio: English LPCM Mono 2.0 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.66:1) 

Director: Pete Walker

Cast: Anthony Sharp, Norman Eshley, Sheila Keith

Pete Walker's HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN (1974) is definitely a poke in the eye of the Catholic Church, about a demented priest driven to murder his sinful; parishioners in the name of the Lord. Father Xavier (Anthony Sharp) is played with sinister delight by Sharp -  his appearance, mannerisms and holier-than-thou pomposity is spot on, a very creepy and intense character. He lives with his decrepit mothers and a strange one-eyed housekeeper Ms. Brabazon (Sheila Keith, HOUSE OF WHIPCORD) whom is every bit as corrupt as the priest. 

Enter a young the pretty young woman Jenny Lynch (Susan Penhaligon) whom catches the eye of the priest  during a confessional in which she reveals she's living in sin, her boyfriend is a cheat and that she's had an abortion! You can just imagine the righteous priest stewing in his juices upon this confession and it's not long before those surrounding young Jenny end up dead through burning, poisoning and other violent methods of murder.  

I consider myself a fan of Walker's string of horror-shockers from the 1970s but must confess I do find his films a bit dry and long in the tooth and HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN is no exception at 104 minutes. The saving grace are some nice violent punctuation - the deaths may not be overly elaborate but they are violent and gruesome in a ripping red-paint sort of way.

The film, also know under the title of THE CONFESSIONAL, is a bitter indictment of the Catholic Church - the old priest is a vile man but Walker does paint the younger Father Bernard (Norman Eshley) as a kinder more benevolent character. The young priest is struggling with his own faith as he considers turning away from the church for the love of a woman - a decision that does not sit well with Father Xavier as you can imagine. 

Jenny suspects the obsessed priest might be the culprit but her accusations fall on deaf ears - after all who would suspect a priest of such heinous crimes? I quite enjoyed the priests relationship with the one-eyed housekeeper, the hard-faced woman adds an additional element of menace to the proceedings. The finale in typical Pete Walker fashion is a shocker - it's bitterly dark and jaded. At points the films does drag a bit and Walker was never as stylish as Argento but this lurid shocker is quite a feast. 

The Blu-ray from Redemption Films presents the film in it's original aspect ratio (1.66:1) and the transfer is sourced from the original 35mm negatives and it looks quite nice with only very minor white speckling now and again. Not a lot of depth but the HD presentation does offer some modest fine detail and strong color reproduction. The English language LPCM 2.0 Mono audio fares well if not remarkable with what modest depth the mono track can muster. The Stanley Meyers score, dialogue and effects are clean and balanced - a very nice hi-def presentation. . 

Onto the extras an audio commentary with Walker moderated by Jonathan Rigby, author of English Gothic. If you enjoy Walker's films and this one particularly you're in for a treat as the director discusses the production which was designed to infuriate the Catholic Church plus some fn anecdotes about the cast and the cast he had hoped for. There's also an 11-minute featurette with Walker discussing a lot of the same information and a Pete walker Trailer Reel. 

Pete Walker's time at Catholic School as a young boy was apparently quite traumatic and HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN is a definite one-fingered salute to the hypocrisy of the church from the director - it's still pretty shocking to this day. This is a top-notch Blu-ray from Kino Lorber/Redemption and a first-class Walker entry, a high recommend to exploitation fans and Pete Walker aficionados that's worth the upgrade from the previous standard-def editions.

BLOODY MOON (1981)

BLOODY MOON (1981) 

Label: Severin Films
Release Date: July 8th 2014
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 81 Minutes
Audio: English LPCM Mono 2.0
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Olivia Pascal, Christoph Moosbrugger, Nadja Gerganoff, Alexander Waechter, María Rubio

Euro-trash pioneer Jess Franco's Video Nasty enrtry BLOODY MOON (1981) is stuffed with all the depravity you've come to expect with from the director and a bunch of gore you might not associate with the trashy auteur. We start off at a disco-pool party where the facially scarred Miguel (Alexander Waechter) puts on a Mickey Mouse mask and pursues a young woman who quickly invites him back to her place for some fun and fornication. Things heat-up but when it's revealed that Miguel is not who she thought he was she freaks put and the encounter ends with her being scissored repeatedly in the stomach. 

Five year later Miguel has served his time at the asylum for the criminally insane following the murder of the young woman and is released into the custody of his sister Manuela (Nadja Gerganoff). The siblings return to the language school run by their Aunt Countess Maria where almost immediately a string of grisly murders start-up. The first victim is the aunt who is burned to death with a torch - it's not the greatest kill in cinema history but it does spark quite a run of murders for the remainder of the film, each a bit more grisly than the last. 

Franco does manage to stir-up some decent suspense in what amounts to an absurd slasher whodunit. Could it be the creepy Miguel up to his old ways or perhaps one of the numerous red-herrings dangled before us, you just can't be sure until the dizzying wrap-up.

BLOODY MOON is stocked with a decent amount of (annoying) fun characters, beginning with siblings Miguel and Manuela who have a bit of an incestuous dynamic about them... it is after all a Jess Franco film. Our main protagonist is Angela (Olivia Pascal, Vanessa) as one of the students and her small group of often topless friends. Angela's friends are dying off one by one but when the corpses conveniently disappear no one believes her. The English-dubbing of the students is an unintentionally hilarious succession of priceless dialogue about sex and phony Spanish lovers, that alongside the oftentimes dubious special effects definitely give this slasher a corny charm not unlike the classic blood-fest PIECES(1982) -- which I just love it to death. 

Franco manages to fill the screen with a few memorable deaths with a few perverse twists. One of Angela's friends is stabbed from behind with the blade exiting her nipple but the Euro-cult slasher is most infamous for a delightful stone mill power saw decapitation observed by a young boy who attempts to come to the rescue of the victim only to be rundown in a car for his troubles - the death of young children is always startling - even if the effect itself is sub par. One quibble with the film is the all-too-real death of a snake with hedge-clippers. The scene serves absolutely no purpose and could have been achieved without the unnecessary death of a creature - even if it is just a snake. It's one of several jump-scares throughout the film along with a flung-cat and a paper-mache boulder - none of which serve a purpose other than some cheap scares. The plot is certainly paper-thin but as a body count whodunit with a decent shocker ending this is a pretty damn fine film. 

The HD transfer is sourced from a German print under the title DIE SAGE DES TODES. There's a minor bit of print damage and the gore shots sourced from inferior elements are obvious but overall this is a solid presentation with strong colors and black levels with a fine layer of film grain and some modest depth. The priceless English-dubbed dialogue, effects and score are handled nicely by the LPCM 2.0 Mono audio. 

Extras on the disc include a theatrical trailer and a fun interview with the aged chain-smoking director who speaks about the empty promises of producers who spoke of a Pink Floyd score, a notable special effects guy and cinematographer all of which were lies. He bashes the score but I sort of liked it - there's a recurring guitar part that does sort of sound like a lifted Pink Floyd lick but it's on repeat for the duration of the film and is hammered into the ground. 

A fun slasher entry from Eurosleaze provocateur Jess Franco who did not often stray into gore effects driven slashers. What we end up with is a trashy piece of slasher cinema stuffed with nudity, skewered women and corny dubbed dialogue which adds up to pure slasher perfection - this is a wildly entertaining watch. BLOODY MOON (1981) is a definite recommend for lovers of slasher cinema and Jess Franco completists.  4 Outta 5 

THE BABY (1973)

THE BABY  (1973)

Label: Severin Films
Release Date: July 8th 2014
Region: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 84 Minutes
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.66:1)
Audio: English LPCM Mono 2.0
Director: Ted Post
Cast: Anjanette Comer, Ruth Rothman, Marianne Hill, Suzanne Zenor, Rod Andrews, Michael Pataki, Beatrice Blau, David Manzy

The 1970's unleashed very some strange cinema and THE BABY (1973) is definitely one of the WEIRDEST -  it's one of those strange brews you won't soon forget. Coming to us from Ted Post, the director of BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES (1970) and MAGNUM FORCE (1973). The plot concerns a social worker named Ann (Anjanette Comer) who's been assigned to the  bizarre case of the Wadsworth family. The head of the clan is the intensely creepy Mrs.Wadsworth (Ruth Roman, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN), who along with her two knockout but equally nutty daughters Germaine (Marianna Hill, MESSIAH OF EVIL) and Alba (Susanne Zenor), care for a strange child named only Baby. 

No ordinary infant Baby is in fact a 21 year old man with severe mental retardation. He wears adult sized diapers, has a crib and a playpen, bottle feeds, and soils himself. Social worker Anne is concerned by the man-child's lack of development and suspects that years of cruelty and negative reinforcement at the hands of the family have stunted his natural development. Anne tries to teach Baby rudimentary words and to stand and walk on his own but the family wants nothing to do with furthering his development which leads to a bitter war of words. Eventually Anne becomes more and more obsessed with the child for her own demented reasons and takes Baby from the home which sparks a vicious battle for the infant-minded man.

Not surprisingly there are indeed some odd things happening at the household and it's not just relegated to the women of the house either. The teen babysitter even gets in on the freaky action in a weird encounter that ends with Baby suckling her breast! Quite a sexually confusing scenario, that babysitter is gonna be fucked-up for life just like everyone else in the film. Ruth Roman's mother character is a mix of MOMMY DEAREST intensity and John Waters' SERIAL MOM insanity. The sisters are an odd pair, Germaine is a creepy beauty with quite the hair-do whom lends some implied incestuous overtones to the proceedings by shedding her nightgown and crawling into Baby's crib while Alba is a cruel blond vixen who enjoys punishing Baby with an electric cattle prod while screaming "Baby doesn't talk! Baby doesn't walk!". The film is offbeat from the get-go but only gets weirder as it goes along including a psychedelic birthday party for baby right up to a bizarre crescendo that defies expectations with a series of unexpected ax murders that had me screaming what-the-fuck with demented glee.

Blu-ray: Severin give THE BABY a decent 1080p upgrade with improved clarity and some very minor depth with a pleasing layer of fine film grain and along with it a bit of digital noise. The same critique of the previous standard-def presentation apply with black levels that appear more grey than deep black and the colors that seem a bit muted and soft. The English language LPCM Mono audio sounds fine with both the dialogue and the Gerald Fried (PATHS OF GLORY) score coming through with clarity if not a lot of dynamic power.

Extras carried over from the DVD include two audio interviews director Ted Post and star David Mooney performed over the telephone by the sound of it. Ted Post was 93 years old at the time of the interview and was still quite lucid in respect to the development of and the odd nature of the subject matter. 

Star David Mooney who portrayed the titular character is currently a high school teacher in San Antonio, Texas and fondly recalls his audition experience and working with the women on the film. Lastly we get the original theatrical trailer for this odd little film. 

Not the most spectacular Blu-ray upgrade I've seen but I do love the movie quite a bit and if you don't already own the DVD from Severin this is an easy recommend, the upgrade is a bit harder to justify.

Special Features:
- Tales from the Crib: Audio interview with Director Ted Post (20:00)
- Baby Talk: Audio Interview with star David Mooney (11:47)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:46)


Verdict: This is one  strange slice of 70's exploitation that will leave you dumbfounded as you wonder just how the Hell did this demented film get a PG rating with all that twisted sexual tension and odd predatory tendencies?  You may think you seen it all but you haven't seen it ALL unless you've seen THE BABY. 3.5 outta 5

Blu-ray Review: BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981)

BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981) 

Label: Severin Films
Release Date: July 8th 2014
Region Code: A

Rating: R
Duration: 85 mins
Video: 1.66:1 Widescreen 16x9
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Director: Ed Hunt
Cast: Lori lethin, Melinda Cordell, Julie Brown, Susan Strasberg, Jose Ferrer

In a Midwest suburban neighborhood three children are born during a spectacular total eclipse of the moon. During the eclipse the sun and the moon are blocking the planet Saturn which according to the movie and one of its characters controls the development of human emotions. The three children are born with an apparent lack of remorse and compassion, a deficiency which manifests itself shortly before the children's 10th birthday.  The trio of pint-sized terrors are Debbie (Elizabeth Hoy, HOSPITAL MASSACRE), Curtis (Billy Jacoby, BEASTMASTER), and Steven (Andy Freeman, BEYOND WITCH MOUNTAIN) who unleash a string of strange murders upon their suburban neighborhood underneath the noses of adults incapable of imagining that children could be the culprits. 

These creepy little shits are quite the menace right from the start by taking out a pair of lusty teens the catch making out in a freshly dug grave at the cemetery! The dude takes a shovel to the skull and the young woman is lynched with a jump rope. While the authorities assume the murders to be the work of a madman only neighborhood teen Joyce (Lori Lethan, THE PREY) and her younger brother Timmy (K.C. Martel, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR) suspect the adolescent trio are the culprits. 

We have good performances all around here particularly from the blond femme fatale Debbie and the freckled-faced Curtis who are just so damn diabolical - the entire film I was screaming KILL THOSE FUCKING KIDS... which really alarmed my kids.  The brother and sister duo of Joyce (Lori Lethan) and Timmy (K.C. Martel) are also standouts and east to root for. Of course I cannot forget to mention the appearance of MTV star Julie Brown as Debbie's sister Beverly who goes topless in one of the most memorable scenes in the film.

I found this one to be quite a unique take on the killer kiddie flicks, the vicious murder spree has astrological origins which is both ludicrous and awesome at the same time. There's something so fun about this trio of adolescent killers wreaking havoc upon a suburban neighborhood. The kids are just so damn vicious, Debbie murders her own father by luring him into the backyard where they bash in his brains with a bat!. The little brat also  pimps out her sister (Julie Brown) through a peephole in her closet but when sis threatens to ruin things for her she is taken out with an arrow through the eye, it's awesome. The image of Curtis prowling the streets at night with a revolver just itching to kill someone as he stalks the neighborhood for some reasion made me think of an adolescent Burgess Meredith, very creepy and a bit corny. There's a fantastic car chase through the junkyard as one kids steers and another operates the brakes and gas while trying to run down Joyce, it seems like it would read humorously but it's played straight and menacing though some inherent camp value creeps through. The body count is pretty low and the the gore is non-existent but Bloody Birthday is a damn twisted watch and loaded with plenty of gratuitous nudity - there's more than enough thrills here for any slasher fan. 

Blu-ray: Severin Films present Bloody Birthday in it's original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio with an all-new HD transfer from restored from an original vault element and lthe results are quite nice. The grain structure is intact with more natural skin tones and a modicum of depth and improved clarity. The English LPCM 2.0 audio sounds quite nice with only a few minor distortions. Dialogue, Arlon Ober's Manfredini-esque score and effects sounds quite nice. 

Extras carried over from the previous Severin DVD include an audio interview with director Ed Hunt  plus Don't Eat the Cake - An Interview with Star Lori Lethin  who recalls her experiences working with the cast and the director.  The 15 minute feaurette A Brief History of Slasher Film features 'Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher' with author Adam Rockoff.

Special Features:
- Audio Interview with Director Ed Hunt (51:10)
- Don't Eat the Cake - An Interview with Star Lori Lethin 16x9 (9:50)
- A Brief History of Slasher Films (15:11)
- Trailers: BLOODY MOON (1:39), HORROR EXPRESS (2:54), NIGHTMARES (3:18), THE BABY (2:46)
- Hidden Easter Egg (1:10)

Verdict: Ed Hunt's BLOODY BIRTHDAY is sleazy bit of trashy fun. There's something so fun about a trio of 10 year old fuckers prowling the streets and knocking off sex crazed teens, nosy adult and the kids next door, a creepy suburban nightmare of a slasher that looks quite nice in HD. This one gets better with every watch - a high recommend. 4 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: DOLLMAN (1991)

DOLLMAN (1991) 

Label: Full Moon Features

Region Code: A

Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 80 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 amd 2.0 Stereo
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Albert Pyun

Cast: Tim Thomerson, Jackie earl Haley, Kamala Lopez, HumbertiOrtiz, Nicholas Guest, Michael Halsey, Eugene Glazer

Brick Bardo (Tim Thomerson, Trancers) is a cop from the planet Arturos on the other side of the galaxy, in pursuit of the evil doer Spurg (Jackie Earle Haley, Bad New Bears) he follows him to the planet Earth. It's a nice touch when we realize that while Bardo is a normal sized guy on his home planet he's only 13" tall on planet Earth and his ship is model-sized - apparently we're the space giants of the galaxy here on Earth. Thomerson is very much his Jack Death Trancers-mode as the Dirty Harry styled cop who wears his shades evem at night - that's just how cool he is. His nemesis is the criminal mastermind Spurg (Frank Collison, The Village) who is a just a disembodied head attached to rotor-blades, stemming from injuries sustained after previously falling victim to Bardo's dreaded proto-blaster gun, Collison makes the most of the disembodied head giving him some real malice.

On Earth Bardo aligns himself with a neighborhood watch organizer named Debbie (Kamala Lopez, Total Recall) who wants to clean-up her drug-riddled South Bronx neighborhood. Evil doer Spurg hooks up with vicious gang leader named Braxton played by Oscar winner Jackie Earle Hayley who's performance has a nasty edge to it.

The film is surprisingly short with an extended intro and end credit sequence, it's padded out but the meat of the film is pretty tight and well-paced with little waste which keeps things flowing at a decent pace. Director Albert Pyun (Radioactive Dreams) doesn't leave a moment for boredom or nitpicking to creep in, just plugging away from one scene to the next.

It surprises me just how much the cheapie effects and forced perspective effects still work, though keep in mind I have a lot of love for these early Full Moon features and for Tim Thomerson cheesy  Dirty Harry macho-shtick.
Jackie Earle Haley's turn as a drug-dealing gang banger is a nasty bit of business. I do wish we had more scenes with Spurg whose design and delivery are a lot of fun.

Blu-ray: The transfer features solid color reproduction, decent black levels and a nice layer of film grain left intact. The print used for the remastering looks pretty great with very few instances of print damage though there's some digital noise evident throughout. 

Audio option include both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and the original 2.0 stereo track, not a lot of depth to the soundfield here but the dialogue, effects and Tony Riparetti score sound pleasing. There are no subtitle options. 

Extras on the disc include a vintage Dollman Videozone episode with interview from director Albert Pyun and stars Tim Thomerson, Jackie Earle Hayley and Kamala Lopez. There's a 2013 interview with Charles Band and Tim Thomerson which is really a shameless advert for Ooga Booga merchandise and over a half hour of Full Moon trailers. Pretty slim on features but this cheapie while enjoyable probably doesn't deserve a whole lot of introspection. 

Special Features:
- Tim Thomerson and Charles Band Video July 2013 (5:44) 
- Lost Pulse Pounders 1988 Promo Reel (1:20) 
- Original Dollman Videozone (7:41) 
- Full Moon Trailers: Unlucky Charms (1:25), Ooga Booga (1:28), Reel Evil (1:40), Puppet Master X (1;37), Castle Freak (2:14), Subspecies (1:17), Puppet Master 3 (2:16), Grindhouse Promo (1:13) 

Verdict: This is straight-to-video sci-fi fun from the early nineties from Full Moon. Tim Thomerson does the Eastwood-styled cop routine effectively and Jackie Earle Hayley turns in a decent performance as a vicious gang-banger. It's not too silly but there are plenty of corny one liners and what little gore we do get is nicely done. Dollman (1991) fun piece of b-movie popcorn that doesn't take itself too seriously and makes for an entertaining watch. 
3 Outta 5  

Blu-ray Review: DEATH BED - THE BED THAT EATS (1977)

DEATH BED - THE BED THAT EATS (1977)

Label: Cult Epics
Region Code: 
Duration: 80 Minutes 
Rating: Unrated
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo
Video: Fullscreen 1.33:1
Director: George Barry

At the edge of a grand estate, near a crumbling old mansion lies a strange stone building with just a single room. In the room there lies a bed. Born of demonic power, the bed seeks the flesh, blood and life essence of unwary travelers... Three pretty girls on vacation,

searching for a place to spend the night. Instead, they tumble into nightmares and the cruel insatiable hunger of the Bed! Death Bed is one-of-a kind experience: comic, horrific and dreamlike, that truly has to be seen to be believed. Discover this neglected marvel of American horror for yourself! 

Death Bed - The Bed That Eats. That right there is about as truthful as any movie title ever to grace a film. A demon-possessed bed munches away on unsuspecting victims all the while accompanied by a Victorian ghost trapped inside a painting of the bed. Yup, this one's a weird slice of arthouse house horror that could only have happened in the early nineteen-seventies. 

As the title so eloquently describes the film is about a Victorian bed that eats the flesh of humans as well as the occasional apple, bucket of chicken wings, a little red wine and Pepto Bismol. The special effects are damn awful - even by standards of the time. The scenes of the bed digesting it's prey are silly and accompanied by the sounds of munching - the damn movie opens to the sounds of the bed munching away for what feels like five minutes... amd the bed snores!

To say the film has a deliberate pace would be too kind. It crawls along for the longest eighty-minutes you've ever sat through. This is not to say that the film is without it's schlocky charm from time to time. When a young woman temporarily escapes being digested by the bed her pants are clearly slathered in red paint. When a young man's hands are dissolved (with very little apparent discomfort) to the bones by the acid-secreting bed it is impossible not to laugh at. If you come into this with a few brews and a couch full of friends there's fun to be had but dropping $20 on this one should only be recommended to the more adventurous types. A few years ago stand-up comic Patton Oswallt did a tremendous bit about this film and his own struggles to pen a script - I would have loved a commentary from Oswalt on this release, anything to make it just a little more interesting.  

The Blu-ray from Cult Epics presents the film in it's original full frame 16mm  presentation and it looks like an obscure cheapie for sure with lots of grain and imperfection but I would assume this is the best it has ever appeared. Surprisingly there's a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack option, unsurprisingly it's hard to differentiate between it and the 2.0 stereo track. 

We have a load of extras for this release including two intros, an audio commentary with  director George Barry and author Stephen Thrower which is actually quite a good listen. We also get two featurettes with the director giving Thrower a guided tour of some of the locations used in the film and a conversation with the author and director which was pretty forgettable. Additionally there's an alternate music track for the end credits. 

Special Features:
- New HD Transfer
- Introduction By Stephen Thrower, Author Of Nightmare USA (2013)
- Introduction By George Barry (2003)
- Audio Commentary By George Barry And Stephen Thrower
- Nightmare USA - A Conversation Between Stephen Thrower And George Barry On Horror Films Of - The 1970 s And 1980s
- Behind-The-Scenes Of Death Bed In Detroit (2013)
- Original Death Bed Credit Music Track (1977)

Death Bed - The Bed That Eats (1977) is an awful and inept slice of seventies cinema but it definitely has a bizarre charm about it that's best enjoyed by groups of  friends in various states of inebriation - do not attempt to watch this alone - it will ruin what is already a damn awful movie. While watching this I couldn't help but think about the many films that have yet to see the light of day in 1080p and laugh, I love that we have specialty  labels such as Cult Epics preserving the trashiest of movies for future generations to enjoy and scorn. Keep in mind that Death Bed is a film so awful the director claims to have forgotten he made it at all. Not a must-see movie but if you simply must see it this one the Cult Epics Blu-ray is the one to watch. 
2 Outta 5