THE EPITAPH VOL. 18
ASSASSINAUT (2019) - THEY'RE INSIDE (2019) - LONESOME DOVE (1989) - CHARLIE SAYS (2018) - ANN RULE PRESENTS: THE STRANGER BESIDE ME (2003) - CLIMAX (2018)
Coming from the Epic Pictures Dread imprint comes the indie sci-fi thriller Assassinaut, set in the near future when aliens have invaded Earth. To rid the Earth of the alien threat the American president orders a nuclear strike on several U.S. cities, which seems a bit n the extreme. The film then moves ahead ten years, and for reasons not quite clear to me, four teenagers are enlisted as astronauts, who are travel into space to join Earth's President on a presidential space station of some sort, only to bare witness to an attempted assassination of the president by an alien-sympathizer. In the aftermath the kid-astronauts end up stranded on an uncharted alien planet where they are now hunted by a former mentor, now infected with a parasite. This indie film wants to so so much with very little, sci-fi is a hard genre tackle with no-budget, and while I think this misses the mark it has some interesting ideas, and some good low-budget practical gore and FX. However, the space-bound low-budget film is firmly trapped in orbit around Earth with an alien planet that looks suspiciously like the Adirondacks in Upstate New York during the off season. There's a lot of lofty ideas floating around as well as some decent acting but the script, editing and overall assembly of this film don't allow any of them to breathe or blossom, which makes this a not-recommend. The film arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Dread with a pair of audio commentaries, cast and crew interviews, deleted scenes, trailers and a very short film.
THEY'RE INSIDE (2019)
They're Inside (2019) is another Dread distributed film, an indie that sets out to subvert the usual home invasion tropes with a found-footage slant, an indie that manages to do something new while also basking in the familiarity of the genres it's mashing-up. We have a indie crew making a indie drama film at a cabin-in-the-woods, there's a lot of bickering and turmoil happening among the cast and crew, in addition to strange things happening that hamper the production, until eventually masked killers arrive on the scene and the cast and crew end up on the chopping block. If you're a fan of home invasion and found footage films I think you will enjoy this fresh take that spins both in new directions, plus we get some potent gore and a decent cast who sell the drama and fer of the film. I didn't love it but I liked it enough to give it a recommend for fans of indie horror. The film arrives on Blu-ray from Dread with a pair of audio commentaries, some behind-the-scenes video, teasers and trailers, and a pair of short films from the director.
The beloved 80's Western mini-series Lonesome Dove arrives on 2-disc Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment, starring Robert Duvall, Tommy lee Jones, Danny Glover, Diane lane and Robert Urich among many others notable faces of the era. The six-hour mini-series is a sprawling Grapes of Wrath styled story of life on the American frontier, centered around a pair of former Texas Rangers, Gus McCrae (Robert Duvall) and Captain Woodrow Call (Tommy Lee Jones), chasing their dreams of moving a herd of cattle to the unsettled lands of Montana. It's an epic story fraught with the danger, drama and gorgeous frontier scenery, with a cast of characters including an African american cow hand (Danny Glover), a kind-hearted whore (Diane Lane), and hardened pioneer men and their bastard kids (Ricky Schroeder). The 2-disc set arrives in an attractive Steelbook with a transparent plastic slipcover that looks great on the shelf. This looks to be the same transfer and set of extras as the previous Blu-ray release so no need to upgrade unless you have a craving that Steelbook packaging, which looks great, this release also comes with a digital code for the movieSPREE streaming app.
fROM DIRECTOR Mary Harron (American Psycho) comes Charlie Says (2018), a film that tells a different side of the Charles Manson story, that of the young women that the cult-leader had such sway over, attempting to answer the questions of why did these women do what they did? Manson is played by the charismatic Matt Smith (Lost River) who lends credence to why impressionable youth might fall into line for a homicidal nut obsessed with a coming race war. The three main women in the film are his followers Leslie (Hannah Murray), Patricia (Sosie Bacon) and Susan (Marianne Rendón), with the film following two timelines, bth before and leading up to the horrific Sharon Tate murder and afterward during their time in prison, with prison educator Karlene (Merritt Wever) attempting to get through to them, to return them to the women they were before Manson got his cult-programming hooks into them. It's a gripping story told from feminine perspective that gets to an aspect of the story not usually told. The film arrives on Blu-ray from IFC Midnight/Scream Factory with a reversible sleeve of artwork, a trailer, cast and crew interviews plus a slipcover.
ANN RULE PRESENTS: THE STRANGER BESIDE ME - THE TED BUNDY STORY (2003)
This true-crime, made-for-TV film tells the story of ex-cop turned crime novelist Ann Rule (Barbara Hershey, The Entity) who is writing a book about her experience in aiding the Seattle Police department to apprehend an on-going lady-killer. One day she notices that her friend Ted Bundy (Billy Campbell, The Rocketeer) bares an uncanny resemblance to sketches drawn of the perpetrator based on eyewitness descriptions. Bundy as played by Billy Campbell is a charmer for sure, steely-eyed and charismatic, luring women to their doom with his disarming ways. Campbell gives the sadistic killer a humanity, but is also able to turn on the horror when necassary. A solid made-for-TV film that while not accurate to a large degree nails down the major facts of the case and offers a suspenseful and dramatic telling of the story. The film arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment in 1080p HD widescreen with uncompressed audio but no extras. It looks solid in HD and this release includes a digital copy of the film through Mill Creek Entertainment's movieSPREE app.
Gaspar Noé’s Climax is a nightmarish descent into a 9th circle of Hell, where it turns out that there's a raging dance party! The set-up is that a dance troupe is having a private post-performance celebration, the booze is poured freely and the confessional gossip and chit chat flows freely throughout the night. As the evening wears on it becomes apparent that someone has spiked the punch bowl with an LSD-type drug, and things begin spiraling out of control. As this is a film from Gaspar Noé that things get way-weird should surprise absolutely no one. The film is shot with an unnatural and dizzying lensing that is dark, vibrant and foreboding, with a pulsing electronic score that keeps tensions high. Climax is a weird ride for sure, and if you're into strange arthouse nightmares this certainly fits the bill.
