THE EPITAPH VOL. 43 - DVD ONLY TRIPLE-FEATURE EDITION
NIGHT DRIVE (2021) - BLOOD CONSCIOUS (2021) - THE RAPE OF VIRGIN GIRLS (1983)
Label: Dark Sky Films
Region Code: 1
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 80 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic (2.39:1) Widescreen
Director: Bradford Baruh & Meghan Leon
Cast: AJ Bowen, Sophie Dalah
Russell (AJ Bowen, The Sacrament) is a down on his luck Uber driver in Los Angeles who picks up wild-card passenger Charlotte (Sophie Dalah, Dead Night) who slips him some extra cash to drive her to her ex-boyfriends how tp ick-up some stuff. Minutes later he hears the sounds of gunshots and she comes running out of the telling him to drive off fast. This one fare catapults Russell into a wild night that will entail him hitting a pedestrian, murder, and corpse disposal, plus a little bit of genre-bending sci-fi fun. Think if this as the it-happened-one-night fun of Collateral with some Time Crimes sci-fi fun, not as good as either 'natch, but Bowen and Dalah are fantastic in as they team-up, excoriate and one-up each other throughout the night, with a nice twist at the end that I liked quite a bit. The DVD-only release from Dark Sky Films looks great within the confines of standard-def, but that we get no extras is a real bummer.
BLOOD CONSCIOUS (2021)
Label: Dark Sky Films
In this demonic body-snatcher thriller Kevin (Oghenero Gbaje), his older sister Brittney (DeShawn White, Motherless Brooklyn), and her fiancé, Tony (Lenny Thomas) drive to his parent's lakeside cottage for a weekend getaway, but when they arrive they find their parents and neighbored massacred by a shotgun-wielding nut (Nick Damici, Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf) who says he had to it because they were not who they were, they're demons disguised in human skins. As the night wears on they get the better of the stranger and lock him away in the cellar where he screams that he is not alone. The jury s out about his sanity; is he a paranoid murderous nuts or is he onto something here with the demons? It doesn't help that the trio's allegiances are strained as well, and it gets even more fractured when a neighbor named Maggie (Lori Hammel, Burn After Reading) arrives in the dark of night looking for help. The flick starts off strong and there are some solid performances that sell the paranoia, fear and disorientation, but the film struggled to keep me pulled into it, which I think is a problem with the script and a wrap-up that petered out for me. This is a DVD-only release from Dark Sky Films, no extras and in full-frame for some treason. It never felt cropped or cramped so I can only assume this is the original aspect ratio why, but why that is I have no idea. It looks and sounds great, but that framing is curious.
Region Code: 1
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 81 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Timothy Covell
Cast: Nick Damici, DeShawn White, Lenny Thomas, Oghenero Gbaje
AKA OS VIOLENTADORES DE MENINAS VIRGENS
Label: One 7 Movies
Region Code: 1
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 118 Minutes
Audio: Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Francisco Cavalcanti
Cast: Francisco Cavalcanti, Gran-Dinne, Ruy Leal, Henrique Guedes, Marthus Mathias, Salvador do Amaral, Suely Conti
Francisco Cavalcanti's The Rape of Virgin Girls (1983) is also known as the slightly more subtle Virgin Girl Violators - it's a Brazillian sexploitation flick, or "pornochanchadas", set in São Paulo where a vicious gang are busy abducting young virgin girl whom they sell to a trio of wealthy old men headquartered out of yacht who are willing to pay a small fortune to rape virgins. The cops are on the case but not really getting anywhere, with sixteen young women missing and no leads, except for the few that end up raped, drowned and/or and strangled to death and then tossed in the trash. The henchmen sometimes ruin the merchandise so to speak, which leaves them in a mad shamble to full their order before the deadline. This one is a bit goody but fun in a roughie sort of way, lots of sleaze, plenty of nude women, and lots of over exaggerated acting that suits the cheese-ball sleaze-fest quite nicely; plus we get a shocker finale that is is something quite special. This DVD-only release from One 7 Films is region-free and full frame transfer, looking like it was sourced from a 2" video master and Portuguese audio with plenty of hiss, so not great, but it's great to have this rarity on disc regardless. Gratuitous, goody and greasy as hell, this nugget comes highly recommended to the roughie exploitations fans.
