HOBGOBLINS (1988) Coming to Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome!

HOBGOBLINS (1988) 

Vinegar Syndrome have announced that they will be releasing director Rick Sloane's Gremlin rip-off HOBGOBLINS (1988) on Blu-ray this October! The movie concerns a young security guard who must recover a group of pint-sized creatures who kill people even as they make their fantasies come true. Check out these sweet stills that were posted on the Vinegar Syndrome Facebook page:

SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA (1987) (Blu-ray Review)

SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA (1987) 

Label: Full Moon Features
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: R
Duration: 80 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: David DeCoteau
Cast:  Andras Jones, Linnea Quigley, Robin Stille, Hal Havins, John Stuart Wildman, Brinke Stevens, Michelle Bauer, Kathi O’Brecht, Carla Baron, George ‘Buck’ Flower, Michael Sonye

80s college dorks Calvin (Andras Jones, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4), Jimmie (Hal Havins, Night of the Demons) and Keith (John Stuart Wildman, Terror Night) are your typical 80s dweebs, they love drinking beer and watching horror movies in their dorm room, but when one of them hears that the Tri-Delta sorority house is holding a pledge initiation ceremony they drop everthing and head on over to the sorority house in hopes of glimpsing some sweet co-ed nudity. Peering through the windows like creepers they spy sorority sisters Babs (the late Robin Rochelle, The Slumber Party Massacre), Rhonda (Kathi O’Brecht, Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout) and Frankie (Carla Baron,Necromancer) initiating a pair of new pledges, namely Lisa (Brinke Stevens, Slumber Party Massacre) and Taffy (Michelle Bauer, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers), whom are taking a paddle on the behind and being sprayed with whipped cream, the stuff teenage dreams are made of. Afterward the pledges are sent to the showers to clean-up and the three goofs sneak into the house and make their way to the bathroom where they grab an eyeful of sweet 80s scream queen boobies. The dorks are caught in the act by super-bitch Babs who coerces them into helping the pledges break into a local bowling alley where they're meant to steal a bowling trophy. 

What the dorks and pledges do not know is that Babs' dad own the bowling alley and that she will be watching them from the closed circuit security cameras, watching and waiting in hopes of scaring the group off before they can get the trophy so she can subject the pledges to more paddle-punishment.  Arriving at the bowling alley the pledges and dorks bicker amongst themselves for a bit before coming upon a lady burglar named Spider prying open a cash register for some quick cash. Spider is played by scream queen Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead) in one of her best roles from the 80s, the only downside might be that she does not appear nude, but this movie has that covered already. The reluctant Spider helps the group break into the trophy room to acquire the coveted trophy, which they drop, unleashing a demonic-imp named Uncle Impie whom had been imprisoned inside it for the past thirty years. Seemingly thankful for being released Impie says he will grant each of them a wish for freeing him from his bowling trophy-prison. 

In true monkey's paw fashion the wishes granted turn out to be curses for the group and they either transform into demonic minions or begin dying off in a myriad of creative ways. The sorority sisters are not immune from the demonic imp, Frankie is transformed into the Bride of Frankenstein while Rhonda is turned into a sex-crazed fiend. This one is a lot of 80s fun, there is a nice role reversal of sorts as the women are the dominant force against the demonic Imp. B-movie legend Buck Flowers (They Live) shows up as a janitor who tells the teens the story of the evil imp, a demon summoned by bowler who suddenly turned pro and cleaned-up thanks to the black magic of the imp. His ascent to the top of the bowling game left a trail of dead bodies for which he is arrested some thirty years earlier, afterward the imp was imprisoned in the trophy. The well-informed janitor informs them how they can capture the demonic menace again, which turns out to be rather simple, the ending of the movie comes abruptly with a quick bit of silliness that might be the worst art of the movie.. 

I think the arguably lasting charm of  Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama has everything to do with 80s nostalgia and fans fondness for 80s scream queens Brink Stevens, Michelle Bauer and Linnea Quigley. Watching it now the movie did not exactly age like a fine wine, though it is certainly a fun and entertaining slice of 80s horror. The demonic character of Uncle Impie is also a lot of fun, voiced by Dukey Flyswatter of band Haunted Garage, the pint-sized demon delivers quite a few cheesy one-liners, the kind you could only get  away with in the 80s. Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama is a nice piece of 80s cheese stuffed with 80s scream queens and some sweet nudity, the kills are fun but not executed with any real gusto, but as a fun 80s slice of horror cheese this is just a fun watch. 

Audio/Video: Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama arrives on Blu-ray from Full Moon Features with a new 2K scan of the original 35mm camera negative. Colors are decently vibrant with some modest depth, the HD widescreen presentation is quite an improvement over previous fullframe versions of the movie from Full Moon which were derived from 1" video masters. Now framed in the proper widescreen aspect ratio the movie looks solid, benefiting from a nice crisp image with some good clarity. As per their usual Full Moon have chosen to go with lossy audio track with choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1, which does the job just fine but the time has come to go with some DTS-HD MA audio guys, c'mon.

Extras on the disc fairly extensive for a Full Moon disc beginning with an audio commentary from Director David DeCoteau, Actress Brinke Stevens and writer Sergei Hasenecz which is stuffed with info about the production, the death of actress Robin Stille who played bitch queen Babs, and loads of other goodies, DeCoteau usually gives a solid commentary for his movies and this is no different. 

There's an over two hour making of doc featuring vintage behind-the-scenes footage and new footage of DeCoteau speaking about making the movie, another good watch for fans of the movie. The making of doc also features an optional commentary track from director David DeCoteau.

There's a brief 2000 interview with star Brinke Stevens who speaks about the original title of the movie, The Imp, displaying the original artwork for the movie and briefly speaking about her career as a scream queen. We also get some footage of Dukey Flyswatter doing the voice for the Imp, plus a couple of trailers for the movie and a Full Moon trailer reel. 

Special Features: 
- Director Intro (2 Mins) 
- Audio Commentary by Director David DeCoteau, Actress Brinke Stevens and writer Sergei Hasenecz
- Tales From the Bowling Alley, Feature Length Making Of Documentary featuring extensive behind the scenes footage and optional commentary by David DeCoteau (136 Mins) 
- Brinke Stevens vs The Imp Featurette (3 Mins) 
- New 2016 HD Trailer (1 Mins) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (1 Mins) 
- Full Moon Trailer Reel

Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama is a trashy slice of 80s Full Moon fun starring three of the era's most loved scream queens. Sire, the damn thing is goofy and the special effects are a bit cheesy but the 80s horror-nostalgia is strong with this one and i loved watching it again. The new 2K scan of the movie looks great and the extras are top notch, this comes with a high recommend for Full Moon fans and lovers of 80s scream queens and cheesy b-movie cinema. 

DVD Review: HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN (1988)

HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN (1988)

Label: Arrow Video

Region: B/2
Rating: 15 Certificate
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English 2.0 Stereo PCM
Cast: Julius LeFlore, RCB, Roddy Piper, Rory Calhoun, Sandahl Bergman
Director: Donald G. Jackson, R.J. Kizer

In this post-apocalyptic b-movie slice of Reagan-era awesomeness nuclear war has nearly wiped out civilization - yup, they finally did it. Sixty-seven percent of the male population has perished during the war and the few remaining men have been rendered sterile from radiation exposure. Humanity survives in small pockets in a wasteland of irradiated water and a new breed of humanoid mutants knows as "froggies" have arisen from the decay and live on reservations that are hostile and best avoided. 

Now that women outnumber men the female populatioon control what little there is left of civilization. A group of feisty women warriors known as Medtech run the show, scouring the land in search of fertile men to repopulate the Earth. To that end they enlist an nomadic ex-con named Sam Hell (Roddy Piper, They Live) who just happens to be one of the last potent men on the Earth. Medtech straps a cock-shocker chastity belt on his junk and take him on a tour of hostile mutant territories where Hell is to deliver his precious baby-batter to the semen-starved women of the wastelands - sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me but I'm a bit of a slut at heart. 

Accompanying Hell on the semen-delivery express are nerdy science type Spangle (Sandahl Bergman, All That Jazz) and an sexy-armed hard body named Centinella (Cec Verrell) and together they drive off in a pink 1950 Chevy Panel van with an machine gun mounted to the roof. The original  plan is for Hell to impregnate a group of fertile women that Medtech have gathered at a desert retreat but when they discover that the amphibian warlord Commander Toty has kidnapped them and imprisoned them in the the Mos Eisley of the wasteland, a place called Frogtown, the plan switches to a rescue and inseminate mission. Hell must now enter Frogtown masquerading as a mercenary looking to sell a human sex-slave, read Spangle dressed-up in a fashion reminiscent of slave girl Princess Leia, nice.

Inside the city they meet an oddball uranium miner played by the very creepy Rory Calhoun from Motel Hell and discover that the mutants frogs are amassing weapons to overthrow Medtech, so it becomes something more than just a spern-donation apocalypse movie but not too much more, it's still very low-brow.

Who better to save the world than professional wrestler and 80's bad-ass Rowdy Roddy Piper? C'mon he would go onto save us once again in John Carpenter's They Live (1986). So yeah, this is a ridiculous sci-fi action movie and it's front-loaded with awesomely cheesy one-liners from Piper, but as 80's schlock goes this is cream of the crop in my opinion and I found it 100% entertaining. 

The sculpted creature designs from  effects artist Steve Wang are pretty great when you take into consideration just how low-budget the movie was, even for the time. The glistening frog heads are fun b-movie creations and match the tone of what is basically a spruced-up Mad Max rip-off. Some KY coated squid lips look a bit better than others, only Commander Toty had animatronic eyes and mouth and thus looks the best, but somehow Wang created a female mutant that comes off as creepily sexy which I am sure that says something disturbing about me as a person. 

Blu-ray: The anamorphic widescreen (1.78;1) from Arrow Video looks pretty nice, it's a low-budget 80's production on cheap film stock so it does not have the depth and integrity one could hope for but the colors are strong and the source material is in great shape. The English language Dolby Digital audio does the job, it's decently balanced with acceptable fidelity but there's not a lot of depth and no subtitles options. 

Unfortunately we do not get the audio commentary track from directors Donald G. Jackson and Randall Frakes from the now out-of-print R1 Anchor Bay DVD but we do get three new video interviews produced by High Rising Productions beginning with Grappling with Green Gargantuans (20:16) an interview with star Rowdy Roddy Piper and simply put this guy is just a nut! Very candid and self deprecating as he speaks about his acting style (or lack thereof), his co-stars Rory Calhoun and Sandahl Bergman, the cult-status of the movie and hiding certain aspects of the production from his wife. He also talks a bit about They Live (1986) and John Carpenter's wife not liking him very much at the time. He's so funny and I could listen to him go on for hours. Watching it I sort of thought he had a nice buzz during the interview and I found immensely entertaining.  

Up next is Creature Feature Creator (15:26) with effects man Steve Wang whom talks about creating the effects on a shoe-string budget, working with Roddy and the on-set politics once Roger Corman's New World Pictures bought into the film the production and replaced the director. 

Actor Brian Frank appears in the Amphibian Armageddon (14:10) featurette and discusses his role as Commander Toty in the film beginning with the audition process and being cast in his first feature film. As you might expect he talks about what it was like to wear the suit and creating the character's voice, a fun Cyndi Lauper set-visit anecdote and Roddy Piper's performance and working with starlet Sandahl Bergman. 

A very nice AV presentation from Arrow with a host of great supplemental material to complement your viewing. For the sake of review I was sent only a DVD screener minus the packaging extras but the retail version DVD/BD includes a sleeve of reversible artwork and a booklet with writing on the film. 

Special Features: 
- Grappling with Green Gargantuans (20:16)
- Amphibian Armageddon (14:10)
- Creature Feature Creator (15:26)
- Extended Scene (2:31) 
- Original Trailer (1:52) 

Verdict: Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988) is a schlocky blast cheese-tastic entertainment starring the impossible not to love Rowdy Roddy Piper and co-starring some knockout 80's babes battling mutant frogs in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. A nice slice of 80's awesomeness that would make a great Roddy Piper double-feature with They Live (1986). 3 Outta 5