MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: WITCHTRAP (1989) (MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray Review)

WITCHTRAP (1989)

Label: MVD Rewind Collection:

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated, (VHS Cut) R

Duration: 92 Minutes

Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Kevin Tenney

Cast: Linnea Quigley, James Quinn, Kathleen Bailey, Judy Tatum, Hal Havins, Rob Zapple, J.P. Luebsen, Jack W. Thompson, Clyde Tally II

Director Kevin S. Tenney’s (Night of the Demons) Witchtrap (1989) starts off at the Lauterhouse, a Gothic mansion where magician Amazing Asimov is seen fleeing from something in the house, something so terrifying that he throws him through a second story window and onto the concrete below to his death, cracking open his skull and bleeding out. Flash to Devon Lauder (director Kevin Tenney)

summoning a woman Agnes (Judy Tatum, Witchboard), her spiritual medium husband Felix (Rob Zapple, Peacekeeper), physical medium named Whitney (Kathleen Bailey, Night Visitor) and a video technician named Ginger (scream queen Linnea Quigley, Return of the Living Dead). He tells them that he has recently inherited Lauter House and wants to tutn it into a bed and breakfast, but the place is inhabited by the spirit of his evil uncle Avery Lauder (J.P. Luebsen, Witchboard) who was a powerful warlock attempting to achieve immortality when he was killed, his heart cut out and never recovered during a satanic ritual. Also onboard is a security detail comprised of Murphy (Jack W. Thompson), Levi (Clyde Tally II, Peacemaker) and Vincente (James W. Quinn, Witchboard) who formerly a hotshot cop. The latter of the pair are pretty skeptical about ghosts and hauntings, but it's a check.

Arriving at the mansion they set-up video cameras and get down to business, Felix the medium summoning the spirt of Avery Laufer who makes it pretty clear he doesn't want them there and that he means them harm. Also adding a more physical threat is a creepy caretaker named Elwin (Hal Havins) who's creeping around and proves to me a menace.

Sure enough the carnage starts up not long after with with a possessed shower nozzle stabbing Ginger in the throat, a driverless car runs over Levi's, Felix's head explodes in a splattery mess, and Murphy is shot to the head with a bullet cartridge, plus we get a cool van explosion, a hatchet to the head, and as fun face-melting finale that is quite a sight. This low-budget haunted house shocker is ripe with old school gore effects that should please 80's horror fans, especially since this is the uncut version with all the gore and nudity intact, and of course we get a few patented Linnea Quigley nude shots before she's out of the picture.

If I am being critical about it, the acting doesn't come across the best, and there's a reason for that. After the production wrapped and they went to edit the film they found that all the sync-sound was unusable, so all the dialogue (and pretty much every sound you hear in the film) had to be dubbed in post, which gives the film that peculiar 70's Italian film disconnect, which I sort of love about it. That said, there's some fun comic tinged dialogue here that I absolutely love, most of it coming from James W. Quinn's hardboiled Vicente character, he gets the best lines in the film, adding a fun hardboiled noir presence to the proceedings, which kind of comes full circle by the end of the film.

The set-up itself is not all that original, a team of paranormal investigators brought in to expunge a evil spirit from an old house - it's been done many time over in stuff like The Haunting, The Legend of Hell House, Poltergeist and many more, plus there's a Ghostbusters element courtesy of a spirit-vacuum device, but a much lower rent version of that. What it lacks in originality it makes up for with low-budget charm, gratuitous nudity, bloody gore, and some solid production value. The flick is a bit overshadowed by Tenney's Witchboard and Night of the Demons but this scrappy supernatural horror deserves some love, it's a fun late-80's spook-show chockfull of acerbic wit and delightful gore, what's not to love?

Audio/Video: Witchtrap (1989) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from the MVD Rewind Collection in 1080p HD in the original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio, scanned and restored in 2K in 2016 from the 35mm Interpositive, with the alternate 'The Presence' title card at the top. Grain looks natural throughout, colors are plenty vivid and black levels are solid. This looks to be the same scan used by Vinegar Syndrome for their release a few years back, with some solid depth and clarity. Audio comes by way of English LPCM 2.0 dual mono with optional English subtitles. Dialogue, sound effects and score are well-balanced, though the dialogue does sound odd as it was re-recorded after the original audio was found to be unusable during post-production, so it has that Italian-style dub sound to it. Some of the line readings comes across a bit flat but in translation but it's not a big deal, and the cheesy-but-decently-atmospheric synth-score by Dennis Michael Tenney (Witchboard) sounds quite nice in the mix as well.

MVD carry-over most but not all of the extras from the VS release. We get the Group Audio Commentary track with Director Kevin Tenney, Producer Dan Duncan, Cinematographer Tom Jewett and Actor Hal Havins, plus Interviews with Director Kevin Tenney (23:36, HD), Actress Linnea Quigley (13:40, HD), Cinematographer Tom Jewett (15:09, HD) and Special Effects Supervisor Tassilo Baur (17:11, HD). We also get Photo Gallery and the Original Trailer (2:55, SD). The archival extras are great, they get into pre-production for the film, scouting locations and securing the house, how great (and cost effective) it was to shoot outside of L.A., a prank pulled on the director by Quigley, the inventive and collaborative nature of the shoot, the issues with the sync-audio, it's all very well-rounded and insightful stuff.

Not carried over from the VS release release are Audio Interviews with SFX Makeup Artist Judy Yonemoto (8 min) and Composer Dennis Michael Tenney (13 min), plus the25-min Book Of Joe short film directed by Kevin Tenney (and it's alternate ending), so hang onto that if you're double-dipping on this one. I think it's great that MVD add their own stamp to it with the inclusion of a new extras not on the VS release, that's the “Witchtrap” Magnum Entertainment R-Rated VHS Version (92 mins, 1.33:1, SD) of the flick. If you're a kid from the VHS era is just a fun nostalgic way to watch the R-rated version of the film, which is how a lot of us first saw this one, with a fun graphic at the start that tells viewers this is not a sequel to Witchboard.

The single-disc release arrives in a quality clear keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring both the original Magnum Entertainment VHS artwork as well as a cool VHS variant with a Fright Night knock-off illustration. Inside there's a Collectible Mini Fold-Out Poster with the Magnum Entertainment artwork, plus the first pressing comes with a Limited Edition Slipcover featuring the Magnum artwork with faux shelf wear and VHS rental stickers on it. This one even features The "Eric's Video Club" spine variant like we saw with the MVD release for Action U.S.A.

Special Features:

- High Definition (1080p) presentation of the main feature in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, scanned and restored in 2K in 2016 from the 35mm Interpositive

- Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono

- Optional English SDH Subtitles

- Group commentary track with: Director Kevin Tenney, Producer Dan Duncan, Cinematographer Tom Jewett and Actor Hal Havins

- Interview with Director Kevin Tenney (23:36, HD)

- Interview with actress Linnea Quigley (13:40, HD)

- Interview with Cinematographer Tom Jewett (15:09, HD)

- Interview with Special Effects Supervisor Tassilo Baur (17:11, HD)

- NEW! “Witchtrap” Magnum Entertainment R-Rated VHS Version (92 mins, 1.33:1, SD)

- Photo Gallery

- Original Trailer (2:55, SD)

- Reversible Sleeve of Artwork

- Collectible Mini Fold-Out Poster