THE EPITAPH VOL. 86 - ANOTHER SIX-PACK EDITION!

THE EPITAPH VOL. 86 - ANOTHER SIX-PACK EDITION!

ZYZZYX ROAD (2006) - TRAP (2024) - THE RED LIGHT BANDIT (1968) - TAG (2018) - VACATION (2015) 

I have been lagging of late on getting reviews out as timely as I would like, a peak behind the curtain when I am not blogging about flicks I work in a capacity for the county that has me involved in the early voting aspect of the elections process, and we are still deep into but towards the end of what we do. As such I have been working a ton of overtime with only a single day off this whole last month. I have simply been exhausted, but the election is over and the processing is winding down, and this general election such was, should be buttoned-up, and I will get to enjoy a bit more movie watching in! Anyway, this edition of The Epitaph features a notorious box office failure that reportedly only made $30 on it's brief theatrical run, M. Night's latest, a Brazilian slice of underground arthouse from the 60's, and a pair of contemporary comedies, both starring Ed Helms. 

ZYZZYX ROAD (2006) 

(2-Disc Collector's Edition) 

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Label: Dark Arts Entertainment

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 80 Minutes 44 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director:  John Penney

Cast: Leo Grillo, Tom Sizemore, Katherine Hiegl 

New label Dark Arts Entertainment arrived on the scene with what I thought was a pretty cool indie sci-fi mystery-thriller Terror Firma (2023), and for their sophomore release pull the gutsy move of not only a 4K UHD but a 4K of a film that notoriously only made $30 at the box-office during it's very brief theatrical engagement, which made for a sensational headline back in 2006. The main draw here is a pre Grey's Anatomy Katherine Heigle in a major role in an indie flick. In it married man Grant (Leo Grillo) is in Vegas and cheats on his wife with a  Marissa  (Katherine Heigl, Valentine) in a hotel room when her jealous boyfriend (Tom Sizemore, Dreamcatcher) breaks in and attacks them with a knife, but Grant kills him in an act of self defense. Afterward the illicit lovers put his body in the trunk of a car and drive out to the deserted Zyzzyx Road in the desert to bury the corpse, only when they start digging the hole they discover the body is nowhere to be found. From here things spin wildly out of control, nothing is what it seems and many pulpy psychological twist and turns come into play, making is question all that we've seen. The film is both not as awful as the infamous $30 box office would suggest and also not nearly good enough to be even a cult-classic, not worthy of a 4K upgrade either. It should be no surprise that director John Penney, writer of The Kindred and Return of the Living Dead III,  is co-owner of Dark Arts Entertainment, so that seems to be why this footnote of a film gets the deluxe treatment. The low-budget psycho-thriller doesn't look terrific on 4K, darker scenes are still plenty murky, but the outdoor scene during daylight look better, there's a bit of ugly color filtering happening here to get across two different POVs that come into play, but overall I didn;t think the UHD upgrade did much for it. There are plenty of extras though, including two commentaries and a nearly two0hour making of that explores pretty much anything you could ever want to know about the making of the film, including the real story behind the $30 box office bust. We also get a then vs now location featurette that I quite enjoyed. The 2-disc 4K UHD/BD gets a Reversible Wrap and a Slipcover with unique artwork, a new illustration that is much better than the wrap options, prominently featuring a ring-pop sucking Heigl. 

Special Features: 
Disc 1 (4U Ultra HD) 
- 4K Restoration of the film supervised by Director John Penney and presented in HDR 2160p in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
- New Introduction by Director John Penney and Actor Leo Grillo (1:07) 
- Audio Commentary Track with Actor / Producer Leo Grillo
- Audio Commentary Track with Writer / Director / Producer John Penney
- Optional English Subtitles

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) 
- 4K Restoration of the film supervised by Director John Penney and presented in 2K 1080p HD in its original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
- New Introduction by Director John Penney and Actor Leo Grillo (1:07)
- Audio Commentary Track with Actor / Producer Leo Grillo
 -Audio Commentary Track with Writer / Director / Producer John Penney
 -"The Legacy of Zyzzyx Road" featurette (93:18) 
- 11 Archival Behind the Scenes Featurettes
- Archival Interview with Director John Penney (26:27) 
- Shooting Location: Then & Now Featurette (5:35) 
- Storyboard to Scenes Featurette
- Storyboard Slideshow (12:07) 
- "The Mystery of Zyzzyx Road" Music Video (4:47) 
- Optional English Subtitles
- Trailer (1:34) 

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TRAP (2024)

4K Ultra HD + Digital 

Label: WBDHE

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: PG-13

Duration: 105 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD 

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shayamalan, Hayley Mills, Allison Pill. 

Oh my, Trap (2024) from director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) is a trip for sure. It;s heightened reality and black comedy styling made for a heck of a fun watch, even if the whole time I was gobsmacked at so many of the choices and decision, being made by both the characters, the actors and the director himself. What we have is a serial-killer hunt set at a pop concert, wherein seemingly solid father Cooper (Josh Hartnett, The Faculty) takes his teen daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue, Blueback) to attend a pop concert by her favorite performer Lady Raven (M. Night's daughter Saleka Night Shyamalan). During the concert it becomes evident there is a huge police presence at the venue, both outside and inside, and it seems like way more than there should be, even for a high-profile pop star. The authorities have learned that a serial killer known as "the Butcher" will be attending the concert and are screening the entire audience for the perp with only vague details about his identity. I won't spoil it, but I think the advertising for this one gives away who the suspect is, and it becomes quite clear early on. Oh my, the places this one goes had me in stitches, it's so heightened and bonkers, I loved it, which is not to say I thought it was anywhere near the director's best efforts, but it was highly entertaining. It was great to see Hartnett in the limelight again, I have not really followed his career for the last fifteen years or so, but I loved what he does here, he really pulled me into he flick with how weird he and it gets. The film looks terrific in 4K, it was shot on film and grain is nicely resolved, texture and detail are premium, and colors look great with solid black, but the Dolby Vision (HDR) color-grade looked pretty subtle and reigned in, the primaries still looked terrific, they just do not radiate or pop. This release includes a slipcover and a digital copy of the film. 

Special Features:

- Setting the Trap: A New M. Night Shayamalan Experience

- Saleka as Lady Raven

- Deleted Scenes: Cooper Gets Stopped by SWAT, Riley Shows Lady Raven Her Room, Cooper Takes a Hostage and Slips Away

- Extended Concert Scene: Where Did She Go

THE RED LIGHT BANDIT (1968) Blu-ray 

Label: Severin Films 

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 92 Minutes  11 Seconds 

Audio: Portuguese 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1) 

Director: Rogério Sganzerla

Cast: Paulo Villaça, Helena Ignez

This arty grindhouse flick is the centerpiece of the underground Cinema Marginal movement in Brazil that briefly took place in the '60s, directed by 21-year-old Rogério Sganzerla, the film is based on police reports of the real-life bandit who terrorized ‘60s São Paulo, a charismatic crook (Paulo Villaça) who robs the rich, becoming a folk hero of sorts as he taunts law enforcement and becomes a public hero in the process.  He's not really a hero per se though, when he's breaking into homes and stealing if he happens to come across a female occupant he is not above taking what he wants from them as well, so there's some rape-y roughie sleaze her as well. Along the way one of the women (Helena Ignez) ends up teaming-up with him, and soon enough the Brazilian Bonnie and Clyde are  amassing a small body count, being doggedly pursued by the local cops. If you're looking for a politically charged slice of arthouse with plenty of seedy elements this is a pretty fascinating watch. The Severin Blu-ray offers a 2K scan from the original camera negative, which have plenty of scratches and vertical lines, it;s imperfect, but quite watchable. More interesting that the film for me were the extras that explored the Cinema Marginal movement, in addition to a handful of short film, and an interview with actress Helena Ignez. This release includes an Severin webstore exclusive slipcover when you order direct from Severin here. 

Special Features:
- Cinema Marginal – Interview With Producer And Film Conservationist Paulo Sacramento (31:18) )
- The Anti-Muse – Interview With Actress Helena Ignez (24:35).

- Trailer (1:56).
- Short Films: Comics By Rogério Sganzerla (10:11)  Introduction To Horror Palace Hotel By Filmmaker Dennison Ramalho (5:32), Horror Palace Hotel By Jairo Ferreira (40:43)

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TAG (2018)

4K Ultra HD 

Label: WBDHE

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: R

Duration: 100 Minutes 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Dolby Vision (HDR) 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.39:1)  

Director: Jeff Tomsic

Cast: Jon Hamm, Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner

Tag (2018) about a group of friends who have been playing an annual game of tag for thirty years, it sounds too weird to be real but apparently this is based on at least some form of reality. This is what I like to call an 'Ed Helms Comedy', the man seems to be in about every ensemble comedy lately, and that's not a bad thing, I like him a bunch and this semi heart-warming comedy is good stuff. In the film this years tag event takes the group of fun-loving friend's to some crazy places when it is announced that one of the friends is getting married, and rumor has it might be his last game of tag with his long-time friends. It just so  happens that his guy, played by Jeremy Renner (Avengers) has never once been tagged in thirty years of playing the game, so Helms character along with his way too involved wife (Isal Fisher, Wedding Crashers), is out to finally tag his mate before it's too late. If you like ensemble comedies this one has loads of appeal and more than it's fare share of rib-tickling funny business, also starring Jon Hamm (TVs Mad Men), Jake Johnson (Neighbors), and comedian Hannibal Buress (Blockers). This Dolby Vision enhanced 4K Ultra HD release looks insanely good, plenty of detail and the colors pop throughout, easily surpassing the previous Blu-ray (which looks solid). No Atmos upgrade for the audio but the DTS surround is plenty active and robust, and archival extras come by way of deleted scenes, a gag reel and a featurette about the real life friends who inspired the movie. It's great to see WB still upgrading their catalog titles for we physical media lovers to enjoy, keep it up. please! 

Special Features: 

- Meet the Real Tag Brothers (5:03) 

- Deleted Scenes (6:21) 

- Gag Reel (8:50) 

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VACATION (2015)

Label: WBDHE

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: R

Duration: 99 Minutes 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Dolby Vision (HDR) 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.39:1) 

Director: John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein

Cast: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins

The fifth and as of yet final Vacation flick tells that tale of the next generation of Griswolds on yet another ill-fated adventure. Following in his father's footsteps, a grown-up Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms, Tag) surprises his wife, Debbie (Christina Applegate, Anchorman), and their sons James (Skyler Gisondo, Netflix's Santa Clarita Diet) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins) with a cross-country road trip back to America's "favorite family fun park," Walley World where his father took him as a kid. I saw thi sat the cinema and actually quite liked it, sure it borrows a lot from the first National Lampoon's Vacation, including a monstrosity vehicle, this time it's the "Albanian SUV", and the trip to Wally World, but I love the cast and they do enough different to not only set it apart, but I would have happily watched more Vacation flicks with his iteration of the Griswolds. The big-brother little-brother antagonism between the sibling is terrific, and I thought Helms and Applegate embodied that Griswold parent mold wonderfully. May favorite family detour is a stop at Debbie's alma-mater sorority where Rusty is surprised to discover his seemingly buttoned-down wife was a party-girl known as "Debbie Do Anything", and she tries to relive her past by participating in the sorority's "Chug Run" with vomitous results,. Another fun endeavor is a trip to a hot springs which turns out to be a sewage dump, and a stop of at Rusty's sister's house, Audrey, played by Leslie Mann (This is 40), whose super-handsome and well-endowed husband Stone (Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa: A Mad Max Story) seems to have the hots for his wife's sister-in-law. It's also cool to see Chevy Chase and the still-stunning Beverly D'Angelo returns as Rusty's parents, who run a terrible bed and breakfast. Eventually they end up at Wally World, and have to engage another family in fisticuffs to get a ride on the ultimate roller coaster the Velociraptor, and of course it all goes wrong. While it certainly feels like it's reheating a lot of elements from the original film it delivered the good for me, the cast is uniformly great the episodic family-fun adventure mostly hits all the right notes for me, offering a new generation of Griswold family-fun, a lot of familiar elements, a plenty of original absurdity, more than enough to merit a re-watch when I marathon the original vacation flicks. The is another WB catalog 4K that looks terrific, well advancing over the previous Blu-ray, and carrying over all the extras.  

Special Features: 

- Return to Wally World (9:54)

- The Griswold Odyssey (18:23) 

- Gag Reel (1:32) 

- Deleted Scenes (12:13) 

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INFINTE SANTA 8000 (2013) (Synapse Films Blu-ray Review)

INFINTE SANTA 8000 (2013) 

Special Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Synapse Films 

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 101 Minutes 52 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Michael Neel 

Cast: Duane Bruce, Tara Henry, Michael Neel

Synopsis: It is the year 8000. The old world is gone. Not much remains, except for the mutants, scum, and robo-people. Humanity has been wiped out and everyone must kill to survive... even Santa! When his beloved Martha is kidnapped by the evil Dr. Shackleton, Santa and his robotic reindeer head out into the post-apocalyptic wasteland to rescue her. Bloody carnage ensues as Santa fights his way through hordes of mutant creatures including bat-sharks, kill-bots and even a giant Easter bunny to save Martha and carry on the Christmas spirit. Originally conceived as a multi-part web series, INFINITE SANTA 8000 has been re-imagined here in an all-new feature length "Director's Cut" adding new scenes, re-animated and retouched shots, and recut to match the original script! See the film the way it was always intended. Featuring a blasting heavy metal score, tons of blood and guts and exciting sci-fi action! You've never seen a Christmas movie like this one!

Infinite Santa 8000 the movie is a creation of filmmakers Greg Ansin and Michael Neel, the same demented minds who brought us the indie horror anthology Drive-In Horror Show (2011), the project started as a 13 episode web-series on YouTube and it's developed quite a cult following over the years and here we have a director's cut of the series that expands on the original story and amps up the gruesome Santa-themed violence, adding new scenes, as well as re-animated and retouched shots, now recut to match the original script. 

In the reality of Infinite Santa 8000 Earth has been transformed into a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by robotic-mutants hybrids Hell bent on destroying Christmas. Our cyborg Santa wanders the wastelands with his robot companion Martha scavenging for scraps to meat and battling a series of grotesque mutants and violent kill-bots in an attempt to carry-on the Christmas spirit. 

At the start of the movie Santa is engaged in an epic death match with a robo-mutant from which he emerges victorious, utterly devastating his opponent. Returning to his sanctuary in the wastelands things quickly turn ugly when his arch-enemy, the evil Dr. Shackleton, kidnaps Martha for nefarious purposes. Our cybernetic Santa jumps into his slayer-sled drawn by his loyal robo-reindeer and must face off against the diabolical mad scientist and his hordes of mutant creatures and kill bots to save Martha. 

The carnage comes fast and ridiculous and with tasty holiday puns like "I'll color my eggs with your blood!", it's delightfully corny stuff.  Dr. Shackleton's horde of mutant creatures are pretty fantastic, we have crab-monkeys, bat-sharks, octo-blobs and a ferocious and fanged 100 ft. tall Easter Bunny that's just chews shit up, it's a brilliant assortment of mutant and cybernetic menaces for Infinite Santa to face-off against, it's a completely cartoony and awesome slice of x-mas carnage. 

The animation is somewhat lo-fi but wouldn't be out of place on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, it's fun stuff with a blazing heavy metal soundtrack that suits the onscreen carnage exquisitely. I usually describe this as The Road Warrior (1981) by way of the "Robot Santa" episodes of Futurama and if that sounds like a sweet slice of demented x-mas awesomeness I assure you that it is. 

If you're looking for a demented ultra-violent Christmas movie this year that's a bit off the beaten-path and just might traumatize the kids I say give the Infinite Santa 8000 movie a watch! Kudos to Synapse for the HD upgrade of this animated Christmas nightmare; judging by the two reviews on IMD, one of them my own, this is a truly underseen gem, and I appreciate them taking a chance on it. I hope this Blu-ray release gets plenty of new eyes on this one, it deserves to be part of your demented Christmas movie marathons starting this year, and well into the future. 

Audio/Video: Infinite Santa 8000 (2013) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Synapse Films in 1080p HD framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. I have had the Midnight Releasing DVD of this flick since 2013, and have watched it pretty much every Christmas season since, so the HD upgrade is appreciated. Colors look refreshed, animation lines look, it's quite an improvement over the DVD for sure. Audio comes by way of 

English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles, dialogue is nicely prioritized, and the the score elements of the more subtle score variety and the crunchy heavy metal tunes sound terrific, it's a very pleasing uncompressed audio upgrade. 

Extras include The Complete Original 13-Part Web Series - with Optional Audio Commentary that runs about 32-minutes, we also get Interviews with the creators Greg Ansin and Michael Neel; artists Dawn Scaltreto, Nick Flanagan and Jeff O'Brien, as well as voice actors Duane Bruce, who voices Santa, as well as Tara Henry, who voices both Martha and Dr. Shackleton. Also interviewed is Eric Welsh who did sound and post production. Additionally there's a 5-min 

Making the Score featurette with Greg Ansin in his studio creating music for the film, plus a pair of Music Videos, and a selection of Trailers for the film and the web-series. 

The single-disc Blu-ray release arrives in a black keepvcase with a single-sided wrap, plus a Slipcover with the same artwork. I am proud to sat that both the wrap and slip feature  pull-quote from my original DVD review, which is pretty cool. Tucked away inside there's a 2023 Synapse Films Catalog, which is just fun to look through and see all the cool stuff they've released. 

Special Features: 

- The Complete Original 13-Part Web Series - with Optional Audio Commentary (31:40)

- Interview with Greg Ansin and Michael Neel: Creators (10:11) 

- Interview with Dawn Scaltreto: Artist (4:15)

- Interview with Nick Flanagan: Artist (2:59) 

- Interview with Jeff O'Brien: Artist & Coloridt (3:06) 

- Interview with Duane Bruce: The Voice of Santa (5:18) 

- Interview with Tara Henry: The Voice off Martha and Dr. Shackleton (4:35)  

- Interview with Eric Welsh: Sound and Post Production (4:39) 

- Making the Score (5:15) 

- Music Video 1 (3:19) 

- Music Video 2 (2:24) 

- Trailer 1 (1:50) 

- Trailer 2 (1:00) 

- Trailer 3 (1:42) 

- Streaming Series Trailer (3:59) 

- Web Series Trailer  (1:40).

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DRAG ME TO HELL (2009) (Scream Factory 4K UHD Collector's Edition Review)

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009) 

3-Disc Collector's Edition

Label: Scream Factory 

Region Code: Region-Free (4K Ultra HD), A (Blu-ray) 

Rating: PG-13 (Theatrical), Unrated

Duration: 99 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, Surround 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: Dolny Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.40:1) 

Director: Sam Raimi

Cast: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, David Paymer, Adriana Barraza

Sam Raimi's long-awaited return to horror following three mega-budget Spider-Man movies, including a terrible third entry, was a welcomed trip to the cinema for me, opening with a pre-credit sequence set in the late-60's we have a Latino couple bringing their cursed son to the home of spiritual medium Shaun San Dena to cleanse him of an evil spirit, the young boy having been cursed by a gypsy following an act of petty larceny. The scene is a fantastic opener, it comes fast and furious with an up-front gut-punch and slams a screen-filling Drag Me To Hell title card up into your face, it certainly sets a tone. Moving ahead to current day we meet bank loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman, White Oleander) who is chomping at the bit for an assistant manager promotion, but her boss Jim Jacks (David Paymar, Night of the Creeps) has pitted her against office newcomer Stu (Reggie Lee, Tropic Thunder), a sycophant ass-kisser, he's a real conniving backstabber who is actively working against Christine to snag the promotion for himself. In an effort to prove she can make the tough choices required of management she turns down elderly gypsy woman Sylvia Ganush's (Lorna Raver, TV's The Young and the Restless) who requests a third extension on her mortgage, the woman pleads with Christine, on her knees begging  her, but she turns her away. Embarrassed after what she perceives as being shamed the gypsy makes quite a scene, attacking the loan officer before being escorted from the bank by security. At the end of the work day Christine walks to her car in a dark underground garage, where she finds the surprisingly spry and vicious elderly woman waiting for her, the gypsy attacks her in a flurry of old hag fury, cursing her with a demonic entity called the Lamia. The scene in the parking garage is pure vintage Raimi, with Christine defending herself with a stapler in close-quarters combat with he Hungarian woman, it's awesomely edited in a barrage of stylized action that delivers every time I watch it.

After surviving the attack Christine and her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long, Tusk) happen upon a fortune teller named Rham Jas (Dileep Rao, Inception) who becomes alarmingly frightened by what he sees in the poor girl's future, informing her that she has been cursed with the Lamia, a powerful evil spirit that will torment her for three days before dragging her to Hell. Nice guy Clay does his best to dismiss the warning, he's way to straight-laced to believe in any of this mystical curse bullshit, but nonetheless Christine begins to have nightmares and visions of the gypsy woman attacking her, also plagued by a taunting shadow spirit of the Lamia. She once again seeks the help of the fortune teller, and with his guidance offers up her beloved kitten as an animal sacrifice to rid herself of the curse, however, when her feline sacrifice fails to illicit the preferred outcome the fortune teller sends her to the medium from the start of the film. 

As the movie plays out Christine suffers from physical, visual and auditory torments by the evil spirit who is inching ever closer, which make a dinner date with Clay's disapproving mother (Molly Cheek, American Pie) all the more awkward, especially when an eye emerges from her home baked slice of cake at the dinner table, a nice throwback to Army of Darkness, causing the cursed Christine to flip her wig and make quite a scene. This might be a PG-13 rated movie but Raimi packs it with mouthfuls of gooey disgustingness, there's A LOT of spew being injected into poor Christine's mouth throughout, from green embalming fluid from a cadaver's mouth to grub-infested soil and eyeballs, it's gag-reflex inducing slice of horror-comedy that might upset a few stomachs along the way, but which had me howling with delight once more watching it this time. The special effects are a cornucopia of delightfully gross practical, puppets and digital, and while some of the digital effects to draw attention to themselves, for the most part this thing stands up fifteen years after the fact, not too shabby at all.

There are loads of nods to Raimi's Evil Dead films, the way he puts his starlet Lohman through the wringer definitely recalls his torturous treatments of Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn), she's put through Hell before possibly being dragged there! The gore is toned down for the PG-13 rating but Raimi manages to sneak a lot of gross stuff into this one just by toning down the colors of the fluids here I think, the unrated cut offering more blood-colored gore as opposed to brownish in the theatrical, watching the theatrical version I wasn't too aware of the PG-13 rating to be honest, there's even a great overwrought nosebleed gag that turns into a absolute blood-geyser with her bank manager covered in the red stuff. The unrated cut offers some extended scenes with slightly more viscera, my favorite being the cat-sacrifice, it's way bloodier in the unrated version. There's a lot of great set pieces here, including the séance at the home of medium Shaun San Dena (Adriana Barraza, Babel) that goes bat-shit insane with the Lamia possessing a goat and one of the guests, it's both hilarious and also nerve-rattling, a cacophonous blend of visuals, gooey loony toon gags, and a slashing string score.

Audio/Video: Drag Me To Hell (2009) arrives on 3-disc Collector's Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Scream Factory, showcasing both the theatrical and unrated cuts of the film - both running 99 minutes - with a new 4K scan from the original DI film negative approved by Director Sam Raimi And Editor Bob Murawski with a Dolby Vision HDR10 color-grade. It was shot on digital so it doesn't have traditional grain structures or inherent film flaws,  it has a pleasing clarity to it and looks great in motion, the 4K resolution offering tighter visuals and plenty of appreciable upgrades to the nuance of textures and details.  The Dolby Vision HDR color-grade certainly punches up the primaries the colors looks terrific. Black levels are also more nuanced with superior contrast and shadow detail, and deep inky black shadows.Onto the audio Scream Factory offer up a choice of DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 stereo track with optional English subtitles. The sound design for this movie is simply amazing, from Christopher Young's thrilling string laden score to the sound of flies buzzing around the room this thing packs a wallop on the surround system, I loved it.  

The sole new extras on this new Collector's Edition is the 114-min "Pardon My Curse: Making Drag Me To Hell" - an extensive behind-the-scenes documentary featuring a mix of new and archival interviews with Co-Writer/Producer Ivan Raimi, Actors Alison Lohman, Dileep Rao And Lorna Raver, Director Of Photography Peter Deming, Production Designer Steve Saklad, Artist Christian Cordella, Make-Up Effects Designer Greg Nicotero, Editor Bob Murawski, Composer Christopher Young, And More! It's a whopper of a doc with plenty of fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes stuff and  early VFX shots and is totally worth the upgrade if you're a bonus junk junkie.

Onto the archival extras we 35-minute Production Diary, which was the only extra on the Universal Blu-ray, adding some vintage EPK interviews and a trailer and TV spots. There's the 12-min “To Hell And Back” - Interview With Actress Alison Lohman who speaks about working with Sam Raimi and Lorna Raver, noting she was not into horror film and didn't know much about Raimi going in, having to trust his slapstick instinct since she had none, and not realizing how much Raimi had tortured Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell in the past, but feeling should could relate, as she suffered from stress disorder shingles following the shoot!  There's also the 16-min  “Curses” - Interview With Actress Lorna Raver who played the gypsy Sylvia Ganush, she also had no knowledge of Raimi's works prior to the shoot, describing a twinkle in Raimi's eye that usually indicated something mischievous was about to transpire. “Hitting All The Right Notes” - Interview With Composer Christopher Young is a 17-min chat about his score, beginning by recalling his first viewing of the Evil Dead and knowing right then that he and Raimi were kindred spirits and that he wanted to work with him at some point. He describes the score and various themes used in the movie, his process and Raimi's way of cuing him into what he needed from the score. The second disc is buttoned up with an image gallery

This 3-disc release comes housed in a black keepcase with a flipper tray, we get a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster. This release comes with a limited edition slipcase (O-Card) featuring the same theatrical artwork on the reversible sleeve. 

Special Features; 

Disc 1 (4K UHD) - Unrated And Theatrical Version

· NEW! 4K Scan From The Original DI Film Negative Approved By Director Sam Raimi And Editor Bob Murawski

· Presented In Dolby Vision

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) - Unrated Version

· NEW! 4K Scan From The Original DI Film Negative Approved By Director Sam Raimi And Editor Bob Murawski

· NEW! "Pardon My Curse: Making Drag Me To Hell" -- Extensive Behind-The-Scenes Documentary Featuring New And Archival Interviews With Co-Writer/Producer Ivan Raimi, Actors Alison Lohman, Dileep Rao And Lorna Raver, Director Of Photography Peter Deming, Production Designer Steve Saklad, Artist Christian Cordella, Make-Up Effects Designer Greg Nicotero, Editor Bob Murawski, Composer Christopher Young, And More! (114 min)

DISC THREE (Blu-ray) - Theatrical Version

· NEW! 4K Scan From The Original DI Film Negative Approved By Director Sam Raimi And Editor Bob Murawski

· “To Hell And Back” - Interview With Actress Alison Lohman (12 min) 

· “Curses” - Interview With Actress Lorna Raver (16 min) 

· “Hitting All The Right Notes” - Interview With Composer Christopher Young (17 min) 

· Production Diaries - with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with co- writer/director Sam Raimi, actors Allison Lohman, Justin Long, David Paymer, Dileep Rao, Lorna Raver, special effects guru Greg Nicotero, director of photography Peter Deming, and more… (35 min) 

· Vintage interviews with director Sam Raimi and actors Alison Lohman and Justin Long (23 min) 

· Theatrical Trailer

· TV Spot (1 min) 

· Image Gallery (2 min) 

I have loved Drag Me To Hell (2009) ever since it first arrived at the cinemas, and it has become one of my favorite Raimi films. It has legs and holds up to repeated viewings, it's just a total banger from start to finish and this new 4K UHD Collector's Edition from Scream Factory looks and sounds terrific, it's a wonderful upgrade, so it's very easy to recommend this one to 4K UHD collector's.

Buy it!

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New in November from Severin Films – VIXEN, SUPERVIXENS and BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS!

FIRST THREE RUSS MEYER TITLES NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER

Severin Films Reveals 9 Combined Hours Of New & Archival Special Features For Restored Russ Meyer VIXEN Trilogy

“THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL, AND THESE FILMS COULDN’T BE

IN BETTER HANDS.”

- Screen Anarchy

Severin Films today announced the full list of Special Features for their release of Russ Meyer’s VIXEN, SUPERVIXENS and BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTARAVIXENS. The nine hours of Severin-curated bonus materials shine a spotlight on each film’s historic critical and commercial success, nationwide censorship battles and notoriety as landmark American independent films. Hailed by The San Francisco Chronicle as “a pop visionary,” Meyer’s legendary trilogy – each making their Worldwide UHD/Blu-ray Premiere – is being released in collaboration with The Russ Meyer Charitable Trust from negatives restored by The Museum of Modern Art and Severin Films.

VIXEN includes an all-new audio commentary and on-camera interview with long-elusive star Erica Gavin, as well as a new featurette on the film’s historic Cincinnati court battles. SUPERVIXENS boasts a never-before-seen archival interview with actor Charles Napier of THE BLUES BROTHERS fame and the U.S. disc premiere of the 1988 Russ Meyer episode of Jonathan Ross’ The Incredibly Strange Film Show. BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS – co-written by Meyer and Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Ebert – includes an archival interview with star and latter-day Russ muse Kitten Natividad, plus Meyer’s infamous 1979 appearance on a Tucson talk show. All three films feature revealing archival audio commentaries by Russ himself, who passed away in 2004.

The trilogy will also be available as part of The Russ Meyer Super and Ultra Bundles, both of which feature archival treasures from the Estate – many discovered in Meyer’s home office – that include vintage promotional items, original RM Films International business cards, exclusive new ‘Bosomania’ t-shirts, VIXEN VHS sleeves signed by Erica Gavin, classic soundtrack LPs signed by Russ Meyer and much more.

“In addition to our unprecedented restorations, these Special Features and Limited Edition Bundles collectively comprise a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of Russ Meyer’s legacy,” says David Gregory, co-founder and CEO of Severin Films. “The entire Severin Team is enormously proud of our ongoing efforts to honor Russ Meyer the man, the First Amendment warrior and the American filmmaking legend.”

Russ Meyer's 

VIXEN.

Amid the cultural chaos of 1968 and armed with a budget of only $70,000, producer/director/cinematographer 

Russ Meyer transcended sexploitation by crafting this “bosomacious melodrama” (Time Magazine) about racism, communism, bush pilots, draft dodgers and a ferociously free-spirited wife named Vixen (the incredible Erica Gavin of BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and CAGED HEAT). Despite attempts at censorship that included one of the first-ever X ratings and 23 separate U.S. prosecutions for obscenity, it became one of the year’s top-grossing movies, forever transformed independent film and remains the creative template for Meyer’s unapologetic vision of American cinema. VIXEN is now scanned in 4K from the original negative restored by The Museum of Modern Art with over 3 hours of new and archival Special Features curated by Severin Films in conjunction with The Russ Meyer Trust.

VIXEN Special Features:
UHD:
- Archival Audio Commentary With Co-Writer / Producer / Cinematographer / Co-Editor / Director Russ Meyer
- Audio Commentary With Actress Erica Gavin
- Trailer

BLU:
- 1981 Censor Prologue (Theatrical Re-Release)
- Archival Audio Commentary With Co-Writer / Producer / Cinematographer / Co-Editor / Director Russ Meyer
- Audio Commentary With Actress Erica Gavin
- Woman... Or Animal? – Interviews With Actors Erica Gavin And Harrison Page
- David Del Valle's The Sinister Image With Guests Russ Meyer And Yvette Vickers
- Entertainment... Or Obscenity? – Marc Edward Heuck On The Film's Historic Cincinnati Censorship Battles
- Trailer

Feature Specs for VIXEN:

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English Mono
Closed Captions: English SDH
Region: Region Free

Russ Meyer's 

SUPERVIXENS

Following the ‘serious’ features THE SEVEN MINUTES and BLACK SNAKE, this 1975 return to form written, photographed, edited, produced and directed by Russ Meyer remains perhaps his most over-the-top and savagely entertaining epic of all: When a hot-blooded wife (Shari Eubank) and a psychotic cop (a startling performance by Charles Napier of THE BLUES BROTHERS fame) come together, it will ignite a cross-country odyssey of violence, vengeance and relentless coitus. John Lazar (BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS), Uschi Digard (BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA-VIXENS) and Haji (FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!) co-star in Russ’ “super-sexy live-action Road Runner cartoon” (Empire), now restored by Severin Films in conjunction with The Russ Meyer Trust and scanned in 4K from the original negative stored at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

SUPERVIXENS Special Features:
UHD:
- Archival Audio Commentary With Writer / Cinematographer / Editor / Producer / Director Russ Meyer
- Trailer
Blu-ray:
- Archival Audio Commentary With Writer / Cinematographer / Editor / Producer / Director Russ Meyer
- Russ Meyer Versus The Porn-Busters – Mike Carroll Interview With Russ Meyer
- The Return Of Harry Sledge – Interview With Actor Charles Napier
- The Incredibly Strange Film Show Season 1, Episode 5: Russ Meyer
- Trailer
- TV Spot

Feature Specs for SUPERVIXENS:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English Mono
Closed Captions: English SDH
Region: Region Free

Russ Meyer's 

BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS

The final feature produced, photographed, edited and directed by Russ Meyer is a wicked take on Our Town, co-written by Meyer and Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Ebert (BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS). Russ’ latter-day muse Francesca ‘Kitten’ Natividad stars – along with Uschi Digard, Ann Marie, June Mack, Candy Samples and Russ himself – in this unwashed look at Small Town, U.S.A., complete with faith healers, war criminals, bosom buddies and the loin-girding quest for sexual salvation. Because the original elements for BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS had been stored in less-than-optimal conditions, Severin Films devoted months to the painstaking restoration of its weather-damaged negative before scanning it in 4K and compiling over 2 hours of new and archival footage, all with the blessing and cooperation of The Russ Meyer Trust.

BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS Special Features:
UHD:
- Archival Audio Commentary With Co-Writer / Producer / Cinematographer / Editor / Director Russ Meyer
- Trailer
Blu-ray:
- Archival Audio Commentary With Co-Writer / Producer / Cinematographer / Editor / Director Russ Meyer
- The Latin Brünhilde – Interview With Actress Kitten Natividad
- Talk It Over – Ellen Adelstein Interviews Russ Meyer For Her Tucson Talk Show In 1979
- Still Talking It Over – New Interview With Ellen Adelstein
- Trailer

Feature Specs for BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English Mono
Closed Captions: English SDH
Region: Region Free

FRANKIE FREAKO (2024) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

FRANKIE FREAKO (2024)

Label: Shout Factory 

Region Code: A

Rating: Unrated:

Duration: 82 Minutes 43 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.90:1) 

Director: Steven Kostanski

Cast: Conor Sweeney, Kristy Wordsworth, Adam Brooks, Rob Schrab, Matthew Kennedy, Meredith Sweeney, Rich Evans, Mike Kostanski

After a decade absence from feature film making Astron-6 (The Editor) return with the tiny-terror horror-comedy Frankie Freako (2024) directed by Steven Kostanski (PG: Psycho Goreman) and starring Connor Sweenie (Father's Day) as an '80s lame-o yuppie named Conor, who despite being the ultimate square is married to the stunning 

Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth, The Spy Who Never Does), a sculptor, who craves more adventure in the sack and for her square hubby to be a bit more edgy and interesting as a person, because he is seriously a milquetoast sort of guy, only in a movie emulating an 80's horror comedy can even come close to explaining why these two are together in the first place. Conor is just sort of seriously sheltered and clueless, so much so that at work his boss Mr. Buechler (Adam Brooks, The Editor) is trying to rope the naive Conor into shredding some docs that might get him in some sort of legal trouble, and it's pretty obvious he;s trying to cover-up a crime and hoping to to pin the blame on Conor by making sure he is caught on camera doing it. While his wife is away he is left alone at the house, and while looking through the telephone book (you see kids, back in the day tio find a phone number....) looking for pizza delivery he comes across a listing for a late-night party hotline that promises out-of-this-world fun with a red-skinned demonic character named Frankie Freako. He dials the number and sort of 976-EVIL style the pint-sized Frankie Freako and his demonic party minions Dottie Dunko (Meredith Sweeney, Manborg) and Crunch (Mike Kostanski, PG: Psycho Goreman) are summoned to his house, causing all sort of havoc for the square dude, but eventually the experience is transformative for Conor, resulting in him discovering his inner-freak, with the pint-sized party-monsters explaining their alien origins to him, escaping from the Planet Freaklor and the tyrannical Rich Evans as Freaklors President Munch (Rich Evans) and his evil laser-eyed minions. Of course Much tracks Frankie Freako down and arrives on Earth, transforming into the Uber Munch, after which even more freakiness transpires. 

This slice of pint-sized comedy-horror is super-silly and fun, tapping into that post-Gremlin tiny-terror boom of the 80's, stuff that was pretty goofy like Munchies, Ghoulies, Hobgoblins and of course Puppet Master. The rubber-creations here look terrific, they are not super articulate in movement but I love the look of them, with Dottie Dunko having a definite Six-Shooter from Puppet Master vibes with her face partially obscured by a bandit-styled bandana. The blue-faced Crunch is a bit of a lunkhead, he has a  monosyllabic response to everything, "Shabadoo" with various intonations to express how he feels about things. The real talker of the trio is the party goblin Frankie Freako, the red-skinned freakoid who is the most demonic looking of the bunch. I was getting a bit of Garbage Pail Kids The Movie vibe about it as well, which is just dementedly wonderful. 

In true '80s fashion that are plot threads that are completely dropped, the special effects have a delightfully updated but retro look to them, and the jokes and puns are absurdly and wonderful. They really do capture that goody '80s vibe that is often elusive when trying to replicate this sort of stuff, which the Astron-6 production team seem  quite adept at capturing. If you're a fan of tiny-terrors, goofy 80's horror that are heavy with special effects, or just of the Astron-6 affiliated brand of cinema like PG: Psycho Gorman or Manborg this is a must-watch. 

Audio/Video: Frankie Freako (2024) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory looking terrific in 1080p HD framed in 1.90:1 widescreen. The digital shot film is free of blemish, colors sizzle, and the black levels are rock solid. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround with optional English subtitle. The tracks are clean and robust, the surround offering subtle and not so subtle atmospherics with aplomb, dialogue from the actors and voice cast is always intelligible and nuanced, and the score Blitz//Berlin (Extraterrestrial) sounds terrific in the mix. 

Extras include an Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Steven Kostanski, Actor Conor Sweeney and Cinematographer Pierce Derks; the 11-min Fasten Your Freakbelts - Behind The Scenes Of Frankie Freako which offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective of shooting the film, including plenty of puppeteering action; a fun 9-min  

Conor & Frankie: A Conversation Between Actors with Sweeney interviewing Frankie Freako; the full 47-second 

Frankie Freako’s Funtime Phone Commercial; the full 2-min Antique Connoisseurs Segments as seen in the film, and the 2-min Trailer. The single-disc Blu-ray release arrives in a standard keepcase with a 2-sided non-reversible wrap featuring the Graham Humphrey artwork, which is replicated on the first-pressing only Slipcover. 

Special Features: 

- Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Steven Kostanski, Actor Conor Sweeney and Cinematographer Pierce Derks

- “Fasten Your Freakbelts” – Behind The Scenes Of Frankie Freako (10:25)

- “Conor & Frankie: A Conversation Between Actors” (8:54) 

- Frankie Freako’s Funtime Phone Commercial (0:47) 

- Antique Connoisseurs Segments (2:24).

- Trailer (2:22) 

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THE WARRIOR (1981) (Mondo Macabro Blu-ray Review)

THE WARRIOR (1981)

Label: Mondo Macabro 

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 91 Minutes 36 Seconds 

Audio: English and Indonesian DTS-HD MA 2.0 with English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: Sisworo Gautama Putra

Cast: Barry Prima, Eva Arnaz, W.D. Mochtar, Dana Christina

The Warrior (1981) is an Indonesian fantasy-action/horror flick that stars Indonesian action hero Barry Prima (The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman), who portrays Jaka Sembung, a bad-ass Allah-loving freedom-fighter who is the leader of a rebellion against the oppressive Dutch colonialists, who are lead by the diabolical Capt. Van Shramm (Dicky Zulkarnaen, Virgins from Hell). When Jaka proves to be a continual thorn in the side of the Dutch occupiers they bring in some muscle by way of the gigantic Kobar (S. Parya, Satan's Slaves) who we see wrestle a bull with his bare hands, but who proves to be no match for the fleet-footed Jaka. The colonizer eventually resort to enlisting a voodoo priest (H.I.M. Damsyik, Escape from Hellhole) who resurrects Jako's dead nemesis, the evil-mystic Kieten (W.D. Mochtar), who is now imbued with the power to re-attach severed limbs, including his head! The evil Kieten ends up being more than a match for Jaka, our hero is later captured and tortured in a dungeon, his eyes are plucked out, and he  is left for dead. But he escapes and returns even more powerful than before, with the help of a local shaman (Syamsuddin Syafei) he is now imbued with new mystical powers. Now super-charged with mystical power he faces off against both Van Schramm and the Kieten in a fierce fight to the death.

The special effects in this one one are over-the-top, gory and action-packed, a fight scene with Kieten has Prima's Jaka severing arms. legs and his head, only for him to repeatedly reassemble himself, until our hero learns a secret about his ability and how to thwart it, leading to a gobsmacking finale that always brings the house down when I watch it with company. Prima is quite a stoic and somewhat charismatic figure, even earning the sympathies of Van Schramm's lovely daughter Dana Maria (Christina Maria, Revenge of the Ninja), but for me it's the gory and somewhat ropey special effects of Indonesian SFX maestro EL Badrun that win me over with this one, Prima's fine, a bit flat for my tastes, but those effects, oh man, they are bonkers. 

Audio/Video: The Warrior (1981) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, presented in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1), sourced from the the 35mm OCN. There's some damage to the source but it's pretty small potatoes, generally the source looks terrific with nice looking grain structures, good texture and detail, and colors look terrific. Audio comes by way of both Indonesian and English-dub DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with newly translated English subtitles. Both tracks sounds great, though I would give the edge to the English dub which sounded a bit fuller and more dynamic.

Mondo Macabro offer some new interviews for the film;s Blu-ray debut, among them is a 37-min Interview with film maker Joko Anwar (director of the Satan's Slave remake) who talks about the film's influence on him, his love of star Barry Prima and plenty of talk about the Indonesian film industry through the years; we also get a 23-min Interview with SFX maestro EL Badrun wherein he talks about is early love of film and his experiences doing effects on various Indonesian films for Rapi and how certain effects were achieved; 21-min Interview with writer/assistant director Imam Tantowi. Archival extras carried over from the previous Mondo Macabro DVD come by way of a 10-min Archival Interview with Imam Tantowi; and a 12-min Interview with producer Gope Samtani. We also get Trailers for The Warrior, The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman, and The Warrior and the Ninja. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, featuring an illustration by artists Jolyon Yates. Inside there's a 12-Page Booklet, which is limited to the first 1000 copies.

Special Features:

- Anamorphic transfer from film negative.

- New Interview with film maker Joko Anwar (37:03) 

- New Interview with SFX maestro EL Badrun (22:51) 

- New Interview with writer/assistant director Imam Tantowi (21:03) 

- Archive interview with Imam Tantowi (9:43)

- Interview with producer Gope Samtani (11:58) 

- Trailers for The Warrior (4:15), The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman  (2:53), The Warrior and the Ninja (3:21) 

- 12 -Page Booklet (First 1000 copies).

 Buy it!

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NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (1958) + ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959) (Film Masters Blu-ray Review)

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (1958) 

+ ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959) 

Special Edition 2-Dic Blu-ray 

A mutant stalks the Earth when the body of a dead astronaut is used as an alien incubator … Meanwhile, people are being attacked by giant leeches … It doesn’t get any more revolting (or entertaining) than that in this ‘50s creature double feature from producer Roger Corman and Emmy-nominated director Bernard Kowalski (Hot Car Girl).

Night of the Blood Beast (1958)—with an extensive restoration, a new 4K scan from original 35mm archival elements—and Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)—newly restored in HD.

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST (1958) 

Label: Film Masters

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 62 1 Second Minutes 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA and Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) + Fullscreen (1.33:1) 

Director: Bernard L. Kowalski

Cast: Michael Emmet, Angela Greene, John Baer, Ed Nelson

Here we have another sci-fi cheapie from the Roger Corman stable, produced by his brother Gene, and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski (Sssssss). In it Astronaut John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) dies upon returning to Earth following the first manned-mission to space mission, forced to make a hasty return to Earth after a collision with an unknown object, crashing in a remote part of the woods near the space agency HQ. He does not survive the crash. A team of technicians, Dave Randall (Ed Nelson, The Devil's Partner), Donna Bixby (Georgianna Carter, The Wild Ride) are joined by lead scientist Dr. Alex Wyman, technician Steve (John Baer, Bonnie's Kids) and physician Julie Benson (Angela Greene, Futureworld) to recover the body, Julie being  the astronaut's fiancé. The body is noted to have some oddities about it, there's no rigor mortis setting in, so they take it back to the lab for more tests, discovering that even though the body is lifeless it somehow is maintaining a blood pressure, and his blood has alien properties to it.  

It seems that the magnetized space ship has knocked out power and communications lines in the area and the scientists find themselves stranded, and under attack from a bear-sized creature, which turns out to be an alien creature that has impregnated the astronaut's body with it's embryos, looking to incubate it's offspring inside it's newfound human host. Later Corcoran is revived and comes around, telling his cohorts that he is telepathically connected to the alien creature, and senses that it is not an imminent threat, and should not be treated as hostile. 

His co-workers are less than convinced, and even less so when  it later breaks into the lab and kills Dr. Wyman, presumably eating his brain, which later allows it to absorb human language skills through "photosynthesis", so it can verbally make it's case for why they should not kill it with fire, only for the alien offspring infested astronaut to realize that it means to enslave that human race as human incubators, and sacrifice himself to kill the beaked alien monster. 

There's a lot to like about this low-budget slice of sci-fi terror, sure it borrows heavily from classics of the era like  The Thing From Another World and Quatermass II, but it's got some interesting ideas and elements that I thought were cool. I like the human as alien incubator which was better realized in Alien decades later, and I liked the eating-the-brain to absorb verbal skills, And while those elements are never fleshed out satisfactorily they ideas are solid, and we get to see the familiar locations of  Griffith Park and Bronson Caves, because of course we end up in cave at some point. The alien-creature is a recycle of the same monster-suit seen in the Roger Corman directed Teenage Caveman (1958) earlier that same year! The effects are pretty ropey, the creature suits is meh, the animated alien embryos are a hoot, there's some low-budget black and white gore that feels like it's pushing the edge for the era but is not all that impressive these days, and certainly nothing that lives up to the poster artwork! 

ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (1959)

Label: Film Masters

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 62 Minutes 42 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA and Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Bernard L. Kowalski

Cast: Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, Jan Shepard, Bruno VeSota

The B-side to this double-bill is the z-grade drive-in creature feature, again produced by Gene Corman and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski, this time it's not a fertile alien creature run amuck in the remote California desert, but giant leeches after the moonshiners and fornicators who frequent a remote swamp in the Florida everglades. It starts when a local fisherman goes missing the game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark, Arena) sets out to investigate the cause, which some locals blame on an aggressive alligator while others report seeing a slimy creature in swamp. The next to go missing are the local hussy Liz Walker (Yvette Vickers, Attack of the 50 ft. Woman) and Cal Moulton (Michael Emmet, Night of the Blood Beast) who are having an affair behind the back of her husband (Bruno VaSota, The Wasp Woman), who is a hot-head and gets the blame, and not wrongfully mind you, he did force them at gunpoint to get into the swamp water, though unaware what was lurking beneath the surface. Anyway, the poor guy feels bad about it commits suicide while in his jail cell. The strange thing is that there are no bodies to account for the missing swamp-dwellers, leading Benton to believe the bodies have been tossed into the swamp and are submerged, waiting to be found. He sets off to dynamite the swamp in hopes of sending an submerged corpses tot he surface, which it does, unaware that the deaths are actually being caused by giant leeches who take their victims to an underwater cavern where they slowly suck them dry!   

This is pretty z-grade stuff, the giant leeches are just poor  guys trapsing around the water in modified garbage bags, but the scenes of them sucking horrified victims dry down in the underwater cave is pretty creepy stuff. It's a hoot to see the very sexy Vickers here as the town hussy, and the underwater shots of Ken Clark in scuba gear with a speargun are fin, and some of the swamp people melodrama is decent, but this is certainly the lesser half of this double-bill, not unenjoyable by any means, just a notch below the top-billed Night of the Blood Beast. 

Audio/Video: Both films arrive on region-free Blu-ray from Film Masters, are presented with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, with Night of the Blood Beast also available with a TV aspect ratio of 1.37:1, each presented on a separate Blu-ray disc. Night of the Blood Beast is advertised as "newly restored 4K scan from 35mm archival elements" while Attack of the Giant Leeches is touted as "with a new HD print", both seem a bit nebulous and non-specific, but the images are certainly an improvement over the DVD editions I have watched in the past, but are not premium restorations and presentations. There's a bit of murkiness to both, a rough hewn though organic film-like appearance with plenty of film grain, but there are missing frames (mostly on Leeches) and some jutter to contend with, inherent softness is not uncommon, but this is easily the best I have seen either film look on home video just the same, with solid black levels. Likewise the audio is not the best, dialogue is intelligible and the scores fare well with uncompressed DTS-HD MA and Dolby Digital 2.0 dual-mono tracks, but there are age related hiss and distortions throughout on both, that I didn;t find overly distracting but were ever-present. 

Onto the extras, this is where the 2-disc release shines the brightest for me. We get Audio Commentaries by Tom Weaver and The Weaver Players for both flicks with commentary subtitles, both are terrific. I don't know if I have mentioned this previously in a review but the Film Masters Blu-ray offers Commentary Subtitles, so if you're so inclined you could watch the movie with the commentary via subtitles, or obviously, if you are hearing impaired I would think this would be a very cool extras that, to my knowledge, no one else does, these days. Also excellent is the Born From TV: Bernard Kowalski as a Director, a new documentary on director Bernard Kowalski by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures featuring C. Courtney Joyner that runs 27-min and explores the career of Kowalski. 

That in itself would be quite enough, but Film Masters as usual go above and beyond, we get a 4x3  Television Version of Night of the Blood Beast, plus a 7-min 8mm Silent Digest Version​ of the Film as well. There are also MST3K Episodes of Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Giant Leeches, plus Re-cut Trailers for both films using restored elements. The last of the on-disc bonus stuff is a 3-min Before/After Film Restoration Comparison of Night of the Blood Beast, a 2-min Yvette Vickers Still Gallery from the private collection of Tom Weaver with 27 images; and a 3-min Publicity Slideshow of both films, courtesy of Mike Barnum. Tucked away inside is a 24-Page Full-Color Illustrated Booklet with essays by Tom Weaver. 

  

Special Features: 

Disc 1:  Night of the Blood Beast +_Special Features 

- 4x3 presentation of Night of the Blood Beast (1.37:1)

- Audio Commentary by Tom Weaver and The Weaver Players with commentary subtitles. 

- Born From TV: Bernard Kowalski as a Director - New documentary on director Bernard Kowalski by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures featuring C. Courtney Joyner

(27:00) 

- 8mm Silent Digest version​ of Night of the Blood Beast (6:56)

- MST3K Episodes of Night of the Blood Beast (91:44)

- Re-cut trailer of Night of the Blood Beast using restored elements (1:33) 

- Before/After Film Restoration Comparison of Night of the Blood Beast (2:38)

Disc 2: Attack of the Giant leeches + Special Features 

- MST3K Episodes of Attack of the Giant Leeches (91:37) 

- Audio Commentary by Tom Weaver and The Weaver Players with commentary subtitles. 

- Yvette Vickers Still Gallery from the private collection of Tom Weaver - 27 Images (2:12) 

- Re-cut Trailer for Attack of the Giant Leeches using restored elements (1:37) 

- Publicity Slideshow of both films, courtesy of Mike Barnum (2:22).

- Full-Color Illustrated Booklet with essays by Weaver. 

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