MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: THE SCREAMING (2000) Visual Vengeance Collector's Edition Blu-ray + CD Review + Screenshots

THE SCREAMING (2000)

Visual Vengeance Collector's Edition Blu-ray + CD

Label: Visual Vengeance

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 83 Minutes 33 Seconds

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080i HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)

Director: Jeff Leroy

Cast: Vinnie Bilancio, Wendi Winburn, John F. Goff, Curt Swobel.

SOV horror flick The Screaming (2000) is directed by Jeff Leroy (Rat Scratch Fever), a scrappy microbudget lampooning of Scientology, made for $3000 and a huge-pile of DIY chutzpa. In it chain-smoking and soul-patched graduate student Bob Martin (Vinnie Bilancio, Sorority House Massacre) moves into a new rental house, and immediately takes a liking to his attractive landlady, the sexy blonde health-nut Crystal (Wendi Winburn). She's a recruiter for the new-age cult Crystalnetics, and is always after him to give up smoking and drinking, and to improve his life. He's looking for change and she manages to convinces him to start working out with her daily, and trying to get him to join her new age cult, which is a pretty obvious send-up of Ron L. Hubbard's Dianetics, which was founded by R.R. Deepak. He doesn't mind getting in shape and starts to feel better in body and mind. At the start he is only interested in Crystalnetic in an academic sense, because he's writing his graduate paper on the cult, and he does not have a favorable opinion, but over the course of the film he starts to think that maybe there's something to it, after all, he's feeling much better about himself, but he's also suffering horrific nightmares of his blood being drained into mason jars, which is certainly weird. However, he is unaware that it's more than just a new-age cult, it's a blood-drinking sect dedicated to the teaching of it's founder R.R. Deepak, a winged alien-vampire, and his new health regime is really just a way to cleanse impurities before he is harvested and disposed of. Will he figure it out before it's too late?

The low-budget flick is pretty interesting, the send-up of Dianetics is fun stuff, even if the story isn't very intricate, but it's an interesting premise - they even have a handsome big-time actor spokesperson, an obvious nod to Tom Cruise, by way of Dusty Chase (Tim Gaannon). The flick has plenty of cool effects, we get a winged creature, achieved through puppetry and cheap stop-motion animation, some ghoulish make-ups, nooses made of intestines, it's not gonna blow you away by any means, it's lo-fi and cheaply made, but it's a spirited and imaginative production, and the cast is pretty decent, particularly Bilancio and Windburn. Other character include Prof. Steiner (John F. Goff, Drive-In Massacre), who tries to warn Bob the dangers of Crytalnetics, and Detective Ketchum (Curt Swobel), a cop investigating missing people associated wit the cult.

This won't be for all tastes, but if you love handmade horrors made with limited resources, but unlimited enthusiasm, there's more than enough here to enjoy for you bottom-of-the-barrel DIY cinema lovers.

Audio/Video: The Screaming (2000) gets a region-free Blu-ray from low-rent cinema connoisseurs Visual Vengeance, the disc offers the film in 1.33:1 fullscreen in 1080i HD. This represents a director supervised master from existing SD tape masters, and it looks pretty solid considering this is basically a VHS upscale, which if you're plundering the VV vault will be no big surprise. The image is surprisingly stable, colors look solid.

Audio comes by way of English Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles, the track is clean, it's certainly has it's low-budget limitations, it's not the height of high-fidelity but it does the job, the dialogue is discernible and a never a chore to decipher, and the gory sound effects and Joe Woeful score sounds just fine, cheesy b-movie movie synths for the win!

As usual VV do this release up right with some terrific extras, starting off with an Audio Commentary with Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine, who is always so well-researched and enthusiastic about these lo-fi SOV flicks, it actually made me appreciate the scrappy flick more than I already did, def worth a listen.

Next is a 9-min Screaming and Screaming Again: The Making of The Screaming with Joe Haggerty and Vincent Bilancio, a fun cat that includes location visits, meeting director Jeff Leroy and producer David Sterling, auditioning for the film Crack, noting the film's original title was Scream, Ahain, which was obviously meant to cash-in on the popularity of Wes Craven's Scream Again. They also talk about the cast members Linda Serbo, John Goff, and Wendi Windburn, and get a bit into the the stop-motion and CGI special effects, as well as Jay Woeful's score,

Woeful himself shows up in the 7-min Composing a Cult Classic: Music Composer Jay Woelfel. He talks about this being his first feature score, the tech he used, the themes found in his score, while also noting that he directed Asylum of Darkness, other some projects he's scored, as well as the different versions of the film.

Speaking of which, we also get the 82-min bonus feature: The Screaming: Reborn, this is the director remastered alternate version of film, which also includes an optional audio commentary with director Jeff Leroy, producer Dave Sterling and star Vinnie Bilancio with different digital effects and some score alterations as well.

Disc extras are finished up with a 2-min Image Gallery, the 2-min Original Trailer, a The Screaming: Reborn Trailer, and the 1-min Visual Vengeance Trailer for the film, in addition to a selection of upcoming Visual Vengeance Trailers, Rat Scratch Fever, Werewolf in a Women's Prison, The Witch's Sabbath, all of which were directed by Jeff LeRoy, so if you're a fan of this film you can look forward to more of his flicks getting Blu'd from Visual Vengeance!

This limited edition set arrives in a clear keepcase with a Reversible Wrap, featuring the original VHS artwork as well as a new illustration Tom Hodge aka The Dude Designs, plus a First-Pressing Only Slipcover with it's own unique illustrated artwork. Inside there is a Folded Mini-Poster featuring the same artwork as the slipcover, plus a ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS Sticker Set, which is also limited to the first-pressing. That's not all though, Visual Vengeance have also included the CD Soundtrack featuring the Joel Woeful score, which is pretty awesome, and something that I think VV have only done once before, with their release of Moonchild. It's a fun synth/electronic score, some nice b-movie drones, swirling atmosphere and eerie ethereal moments,

Special Features:

- Audio Commentary with Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine

- Screaming and Screaming Again: The Making of The Screaming (8:44) - w Joe Haggerty, Vincent Bilancio, location cmvisits, dir. Jeff Leroy, producer David Sterling, auditioning for Crack, original title Scream, Again, tge cast Linda Serbo, John Goff, Wendi Windburn, the stop-motion, CGI, Jay Woeful's score,

- Composing a Cult Classic: Music Composer Jay Woelfel (6:57) -

First feature score, the tech he used, themes, directing Asylum of Darkness, other projects he's scored,

The different versions,

- Bonus feature: The Screaming: Reborm - director remastered alternate version of film (82:16)

- The Screaming Reborn Audio Commentary with director Jeff Leroy, producer Dave Sterling and star Vinnie Bilancio

- Image Gallery (1:35)

- Original Trailer (2:08)

- The Screaming: Reborn Trailer

- Visual Vengeance Trailer (1:05)

- Visual Vengeance Trailers: Rat Scratch Fever (1:17), Werewolf in a Women's Prison (1:09), The Witch's Sabbath (1:10)

- Includes CD Soundtrack of the original score by Jay Woelfel (31 Tracks, 51 min)

- Folded Mini-Poster