NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990) (Umbrella Entertainment Blu-ray Review)

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990)

Label: Umbrella Entertainment 
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 88 Minutes
Rating: R
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen(1.77:1) 
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Director: Tom Savini
Cast: Tony Todd, Bill Moseley, Katie Finneran, Tom Towles, Patricia Tallman

Synopsis: Fleeing from the legion of limping undead, a small group of survivors comprised of Barbara (Patricia Tallman, Army of Darkness), Ben (horror legend Tony Todd, Candyman) and Harry (Tom Towles, Halloween), hole-up in a remote farmhouse and prepare for a bloody onslaught. As the marauding zombies surround the house, tensions between the survivors flare up, desperate to do anything to survive the hideous battle that is before them.

Directed with flair and gusto by leading horror exponent Tom Savini (who provided make-up effects for Romero’s original Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead), Night of the Living Dead cuts to the chase and sets the splatter count high – leaving behind a grisly trail of blood and guts, like any good zombie movie should.

Much like the original Romero film the Tom Savini remake opens with siblings Johnny (Bill Moseley, The Devil's Rejects) and Barbara (Patricia Tallman, Army of Darkness) visiting their mother's grave at a rural cemetery - it's as picturesque a location as could hope for in an eternal resting spot with it's rolling green hills overlooking a lake. Johnny is an acerbic and witty sibling who takes pleasure in tormenting his more reserved sister about zombies, intoning the iconic line "they're coming to get you Barbara" with a ghoulish Boris Karloff affectation, while also referencing how horny the dead can be. On cue a disheveled man with a bloody wound on his head stumbles into the scene, you're thinking , there it is, that's the zombie, but in a nice bit of misdirection the man is only dazed and injured, he mumbles an vague apology before wandering off, and while we're watching him from screen left a zombie shows up, Johnny struggles against the fiend for a bit while Barbara screams her head off. Johnny then falls onto a gravestone at a weird angle, his neck snaps, it's a brutal fall that always makes me cringe. The panic-stricken Barbara flees the scene and eventually ends up at a rural farmhouse, where the rest of the film plays out. 

It's at the farmhouse that Barbara meets Ben (Tony Todd, Candyman) who  also finds the house while fleeing the chaos of whatever it is that's happening in the area, a radio informs them that people are turning violent and cannibalistic.  The two set about clearing the house of a few zombies, fortifying the entrances and windows in an effort to prevent the massing zombie hordes from entering the home. They remove doors from entry ways inside the home and barricade the windows, in the process of looking for lumber they discover the house is not as empty as it once appeared, in the basement they find hard-ass Harry Cooper (Tom Towles, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), his wife put-upon Helen (McKee Anderson), plus their young daughter Sarah (Heather Mazur, TV's Pretty Little Liars), who it turns out was bitten by one of the flesh-hungry fiends. The young girl is deathly ill but no one realizes just yet how dire the situation really is for her and for them yet. Also taking refuge in the basement is a teenage couple Tom Bitner (William Butler, Ghoulies II) and his girlfriend Judy Rose Larson (Katie Finneran, TV's Wonderfalls).

Immediately Cooper rubs Ben the wrong way - both are strong headed men of action who have differing opinions on the best course of action in regard to holding off the zombies, which leads to a loads of hard-headed tension on both end with plenty of drama and physical altercations, with damning consequences. One of the most noticeable departures from the original is that Barbara as portrayed by short-coiffed ginger Patricia Tallman (Babylon 5) is quite the opposite of the nearly catatonic blond Barbara (Judith O'Dea) from the '68 original. Tallman is a red-haired fire-brand, she starts off a bit  on the prissy side but by the film's end she is a straight-up zombie-killing bad-ass, it's a great switch-up and makes for a better film. Tony Todd capably fills the shoes of Duane Jones as Ben - this just might be Todd's finest performance in my opinion, he's a likable guy with good intentions. Special mention goes out to Tom Towels (Stuart Gordon's The Pit and the Pendulum) as the abrasive Harry Cooper, a real bastard, super unpleasant and quite intense, there's a nice exchange of words between his character and Ben as they fight over control of the only TV in the house. I love it when Towles character heatedly calls people "lame brains" and "yo-yos", which he does a lot! 

The film has atmosphere to spare, the rural farmhouse proves to be an claustrophobic setting as hordes of zombies arrive at the farmhouse until they end up falling through the boarded up windows like a mass of swarming insects. The sound of incessant hammering  as windows are boarded up and patched throughout the siege is unnerving, the zombies are slow-moving shamblers, it's creepy stuff, it worked in the original and it work with this one. 

Sadly, this would be the only feature length film directed by splatter-master Tom Savini - though a remake of Nightmare City is in the works -  he's directed some shorts both before and after but this is far and away his finest moment behind the camera. The extras reveal that Savini had some really elaborate Argento-esque gore gags and ideas that were vetoed by Romero and the producers, who apparently meddled quite a bit on this one, keeping Savini from adding his own stylish flair and keeping more to the look and feel of the original film, I still love this one though, but I have to say I really wanted to see some of Savini's ideas executed on film! 

The films is shot in color but like the black and white original it is propelled by chilling atmosphere and dread, not just gore, though there are certainly some great gore provided by the capable special effects make-up team of John Vulich (Re-Animator, The Hidden) and Everett Burell (Dolls) whom created some great zombie make-ups for the film, the undead in this one look fantastic, this is all pre-digital and everything looks wonderfully gruesome, with loads of memorable zombies, including a cool-looking autopsy zombie with the y-incision on his chest. 

The film pretty much sticks to the blueprint of the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) save for a few fun twists, one being the wickedly great finale, there's a delicious irony in Ben taking final refuge in the basement after disputing it so vehemently with Cooper, because as we all know after watching the original, Cooper was actually right about holing up in the basement. I've always said in conversation with my son, if there was a zombie outbreak I'd climb on the roof and lay low for a bit, no one ever seems to do that in movies, but at least temporarily the rood seem like a damn good option, right? Anyway, there's  a fun final twists with Barbara and Cooper that always blows me away with this one, great stuff from the beginning to the end, this is one of the best remakes ever. 

Reversible Artwork

Audio/Video: Night of the Living Dead (1990) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Aussie distributor Umbrella Entertainment in 1080p HD widescreen 1.77:1., the framing is slightly cropped compared to the TT Blu-ray, but only just slightly. Notably this is sourced from a different HD master than the now out-of-print 2012 Twilight Time Blu-ray, which was infamous for having the daylight scenes tinted a heavy blue to simulate dusk, which angered a lot of fans. This Blu-ray corrects that error with the original warmer tones without the blue-tinting, which is excellent news. This looks to be sourced from a theatrical print with the some dirt and minor print damage throughout, mostly by way of white speckling and not much else. Grain looks solid, it's not DNR-scrubbed to death and there's some pleasing fine detail, but the condition of the source is not as well-graded as the Twilight Time version, though I don't think anyone will much mind the slight step down in source quality versus having the original color grading. 
  
Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 with optional English subtitles, there's some nice atmospheric touches in the surrounds but the majority of the action is front and center, dialogue is crisp and the atmospheric score from Paul McCullough and effects sound great in the mix, robust and immersive. 

Umbrella carry-over all the extras from the previous DVD version, this includes the theatrical trailer, making of featurette and the audio commentary with director Tom Savini, it's a relaxed and scene-specific commentary covering many facets of the film, it's quite an interesting listen as he discusses the numerous splatter scene excised from the film by the MPAA and an alternate death scene for the character of Helen. The TT Blu-ray was missing the making-of piece, but did have an isolated score highlighting the score by composer Paul McCollough (The Majorettes), which this release does not, the TT release also had a booklet with liner notes from Julie Kirgo.  

Umbrella also offer up some new extras produced by Severin films, with the help of Red Short Pictures' Michael Felsher, beginning with a 28 minute interview with director Tom Savini who goes into how he was chosen to direct, his preparation for the film by creating over six-hundred storyboards, and his general unhappiness  during the making of the film, partly because he was going through a divorce at the time.He also discusses how Romero and producers keept him from executing some if his ideas due to tone and budget, and you can tell it really bothered him. He goes into some great detail about deleted and unfilmed scenes, some with accompanying storyboards. He also discusses the cast, and who auditioned for the role of Ben that didn't land the role, including Laurence Fishburn (The Matrix) and Eriq La Salle (TV's ER).

There's also an interview with special make-up effects supervisors John Vulich and Everett Burrell who touch on a few excised scenes and visiting a morgue in Pittsburgh   to do research on corpses, going into detail how they strived for authenticity in the undead, not just a coll artists rendering of the undead, notably the yellow fleshtones. They also go into the ideas like a cool sound bullet POV shot that was dreamed-up by Savini that he was not allowed to film.

Next up is star Patricia Tallman who recounts auditioning for the role, being a Romero fan from way back, being drawn-in by the characters shift from meek in the original to a total bad-ass woman and her experiences on-set with Savini, Tom Towles and the rest of the cast. 

The single-disc release comes housed in an over-sized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, the a-side featuring the original movie poster illustration, the b-side a good-looking illustration from Umbrella's in house designer Simon Sherry. The disc itself featuring an excerpt of the a-side artwork. It's nice to finally have a NOTLD '90 release with some decent looking artwork, past releases have been not-so-great, including the TT release. 

Special Features:
- Audio commentary with Director Tom Savini
- The Dead Walk Featurette (25 min) 
- NEW! Tom Savini Interview (28 min) HD 
- NEW! Return to the Living Dead: Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Supervisors John Vulich and Everett Burrell (21 min) HD 
- NEW! Being Barbara: Interview with Lead Actress Patricia Tallman interview (17 min) HD 
- Behind the Scenes featurette (8 min) SD
- Trailer (1 min) HD 

Night of the Living Dead (1990) is a chilling and poignant take on George A. Romero's '68 original, with Romero himself penning the screenplay the film follows the sketch of the iconic black and white classic with precision with but a few nice surprises. I will offer up that when I take in Romero's trilogy of the Dead I actually throw this on instead of the '68 original oftentimes - which might be heresy - but I think it's that good. As remakes of classic horror films go this is right up there with The Blob (1988), The Thing (1982) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) in my opinion - definitely one of the better horror entries of the 90's. The Blu-ray from Umbrella looks and sounds great with the correct color grading and the extras are super-cool, highly recommended. 

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005) (Umbrella Entertainment Blu-ray Review)

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005) 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: MA 15+
Duration: 111 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 6.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (1.77:1) 
Director: Rob Zombie
Cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Ken Fore, Priscilla Barnes, Geoff Lewis, Leslie Easterbrook,  Danny Trejo, Diamond Dallas Page, William Forsythe,  

Synopsis: From the twisted mind of acclaimed musician and Director Rob Zombie, comes The Devil's Rejects - a nerve-shredding violent road trip through the weirdest parts of American and the darkest corners of your mind. This grisly tale of mayhem reunites the homicidal members of the Firefly Family as they go on a rampage of senseless slaughter, pursued by a pair of sadistic bounty hunters and an outlaw sheriff hell bent on revenge. When they finally meet, prepare yourself for one of the most depraved and terrifying showdowns you'll ever see. 

Following the events of House of a 1000 Corpses (2003) the sequel opens with Texas Sheriff John Quincey Wydell (William Forsythe, Raising Arizona) and a squad of heavily-armed officers descending on the ranch home of the Firefly family, he comes breathing fire and damnation, but the Firefly's are prepared, donning cast-iron armor and well-armed themselves. In the ensuing firefight Mother Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook, Police Academy)is captured and Otis (Bill Mosley, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) and Baby (Shari Moon Zombie, Lords of Salem) escape through sewers tunnels, flagging down a passing car and killing the driver (Mary Woronov, Hell Hole) then hiting the road, eventually meeting up with the nightmare clown Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig, Foxy Brown), who take up refuge in a dirt bag hotel, kidnapping and terrorizing a family of travelling country musicians, headed-up by Roy (Geoffrey Lewis, Salem's Lot) and his wife Gloria (Priscilla Barnes, the three-nipped gypsy from Mallrats!) whom they humiliate, denigrate and straight-up kill after putting them through the wringer, peeling the face off one of the band members, before wearing his face, in scene lifted from TCM2. 

The film is a weird one, it corrals you into rooting for the demented firefly clan in a weird way, the twisted killers on the run from he lawman who becomes just a deranged as the trio of killers, Forsythe as Sheriff is haunted by the death of his brother George (Tom Towles, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), when he snaps he murders Mother Firefly in her jail cell, and to see Easterbrook at Mother Firefly is demented, she capably the shoes of Karen Black (Burn Offerings) who portrayed the matriarch in the first film! Unhinged and out for revenge Wydell hires a pair of underworld bounty hunters named Rondo (Danny Trejo, From Dusk Till Dawn) and Snapper (Diamond Dallas Page) to track down the trio of killers, leading up to a fiery inferno at the Firefly ranch. 

Along the way we have a cast of side characters including Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) as a whore mongering lowlife, Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), 80's porn star Ginger Lynn (New Wave Hookers) and Elizabeth Daily (Better Off Dead) as whores, and both are lunatics, plus P.J. Soles (Carrie) as a woman victimized by Captain Spaulding, who also lays a head trip on her terrified son! 

As where House of a 1000 Corpses was a surreal, nightmare-fueled version of Tobe Hooper's TCM2, The Devil's Rejects is more gritty and realistic, visually more stripped down and akin to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) in tone, I really dig the seedy aesthetic of it. The Firefly trio are great, Haig is fantastic as Spaulding, lots of great lines, and both Baby and Otis are toned down a bit from the previous film, there's a certain evil-gleefulness to their awfulness, played as a dark comedy with plenty of nerve-shredding exploitation and violence. 

Audio/Video: The Devil's Rejects (2005) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment framed in 1080p HD widescreen (1.77:1). The visuals are going for that 70's washed-out patina, the whites burn bright, and the overall image is gritty and dirty,  everything appears authentic to the original presentation without digital artifacts or other compression issues. The only audio option on the disc is a healthy sounding English DTS-HD MA Surround 6.1 track and it sounds great, the dialogue and effects are crisp and clean, well-balanced, and the 70's Southern rock soundtrack notably opening with Allman Brothers Band "Midnight Rider" and closing with Lynard Skynyrd's "Free Bird", with tasty selections from James Gang, Joe Walsh, Three Dog Night and a memorable rendition of "Satan's Got to Get Along Without Me" by Buck Owens and His Buckaroos. All the music sounds great, including a score by Tyler Bates (Guardians of the Galaxy). Optional English subtitles are provided, though they are not indicated on the box. 

Onto the extras we get all the extras from the 2-disc Director's Cut DVD except for the two audio commentaries and the 144-minute making of doc, which is a shame, as far as extras go that 2-disc DVD is still the definite edition, with the Lionsgate Blu-ray only carrying over the commentaries and deleted scenes, but this Blu-ray from is solid, I just wish we had a 2-disc Blu-ray release with both the theatrical and director's cut versions, the director and cast commentaries and the making of doc. 

The single-disc Blu-ray release comes housed in the usual over-sized 15mm spine Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring new artwork by Umbrella staff artist/designer Simon Sherry, the reverse side features a variant of the same artwork minus the rating label, the disc featuring an excerpt from the artwork, that when seated in the Blu-ray cases lines up perfectly with the reverse artwork on the b-side.  Not the biggest fan of the new illustration, I sort of wish we had the original artwork on the flip, not that the illustration is bad but for me it  doesn't capture the essence of the movie, and I am a huge fan of the original DVD release artwork. 

Special Features: 
- Bloody Stand-up (02:17)
- Matthew McGrory Tribute (01:59)
- Buck Owens: Satan's Got to Get Along Without Me (01:52)
- "Mary the Monkey Girl" Commercial  (1 min) 
- Captain Spaulding's Xmas Commercial (1 min) 
- Otis' Home Movies (1 min)
- Deleted Scenes (13 min) 
- Blooper Reel (6 min)
- Make-up Test (13 min)
- The Morris Green Show (13 min)

The Devils Rejects (20015) is a blood-soaked road movie, transforming the demented Firefly clan from the heinous over-the-top sicko clan of House of a 1000 Corpses to not just heinous killers, but anti-heroes of a sort, it's grim, gritty and not unfunny, playing and looking very much like a slice of vintage 70's exploitation. This is still my favorite Rob Zombie film to date, and it only gets better with age.   

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986) 

Label: Scream Factory
Release Date: April 19th 2016 
Region Code: A
Duration: 101 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1, Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Bill Johnson, Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams, Dennis Hopper, Jim Siedow, Ken Evert, Lou Perryman, Chris Douridas

A decade after the original terror-classic hit the cinema director Tobe Hooper resurrected the Sawyer cannibal-clan with an offbeat sequel infused with pitch black humor and outrageous gore gags, and it didn't land well with audiences at the time. Catching up with the Sawyer clan some thirteen years after the events of the first movie we find the Texans have traded in the nightmare farmhouse for a spacious labyrinthine underground maze located beneath an abandoned amusement park. They've also gone from hacking up hippies to eviscerating '80s yuppies. Madman patriarch Drayton Sawyer is now touring Texas in a lunch truck winning chili competitions along the way. Drayton's secret to winning is simple, "don't skimp on the meat. I've got a real good eye for prime meat.".

The movie begins with a pair of douche-nozzle yuppies driving to Dallas for a wild weekend of debauchery when a pickup truck pulls out in front of them on a stretch of bridge, they're stunned when Leatherface wielding a chainsaw appears in the bed of the truck and attacks the car with his trusty chainsaw while also puppeteering a desiccated corpse, presumably that of the Hitchhiker from the first movie. We're only a few minutes in and the movie is off to a phenomenal start, setting the tone and pace with black humor and terrific gore gags with the driver losing half his head to the blade of the chainsaw. 

As it turns out the yuppies were live on-air with a local radio DJ named Stretch (Caroline Williams) during the entire scream filled encounter with the Sawyers and the horrifying incident was caught on audio tape. A former Texas Ranger named Lefty (Dennis Hopper, Mad Dog Morgan) arrives on scene to investigate the bizarre accident/deaths. You see, Lefty is the uncle of Sally and Franklin from the original movie and he won't stop until he has avenged their deaths, he's been on the trail of the Sawyers for a decade. When the audio recording comes to his attention he doesn't so much team-up with Stretch as use her as live bait to attract the attention of the sadistic cannibals, which he does by having her replay the broadcast live on air on a loop. Fearing the tape will lead to their discovery Leatherface and his 'Nam obsessed brother Chop Top (Bill Moseley, The Devil's Rejects) arrive at the radio station and terrorize the DJ who's clearly in over her head with this mess. 

Leatherface's dead-skin mask this time around is my favorite incarnation of the chainsaw wielding maniac, it looks great with the actors mouth salivating wildly beneath it, flicking his tongue along his crooked toothed mouth. Mosely as Chop Top is one of my favorite characters of any horror movie, a bizarre and skittish nut job who picks away at his mangled scalp with bent wire coat hanger, eating the tasty bits of flesh he can scratch away. He's one of the most quotable characters in any horror film, even his iconic portrayal of Otis from The Devil's Rejects is only a close second, this is definitely his signature performance in my book. Also, you cannot watch this movie and not appreciate the demented performance of Jim Siedow as Drayton Sawyer, the cantankerous and eccentric patriarch of the Sawyer family, his dialogue and delivery are creepily side-splitting, he perfectly embodies the tone and spirit of the demented production, he's the dark heart of the movie.

At the radio station Leatherface and Chop Top terrorize Stretch, this is the stuff of nightmares, the way the scene is eerily lit with deep shadows takes it to the next level. When her producer L.G. (Lou Perryman) returns to the station from a coffee-run he gets a hammer to the skull after he finds Chop Top raiding the vinyl archives of the station. Somehow Stretch is able to use her charm to coerce the seemingly love-struck Leatherface into letting her live, Chop Top believes she's dead and the gruesome duo leave with L.G.'s corpse in their pickup. Lefty arrives a short time later and he and Stretch follow them to their underground lair beneath a condemned amusement park, where they find a nightmare carnival of macabre weirdness buried in the tunnels below. 

Dennis Hopper was fresh off David Lynch's Blue Velvet when he came onto this one and his character is nearly as as unhinged as Frank, though it is possible that during this period of drugs and excess in the '80s that the coked-up Hopper was just a nut. He would next go on to appear in River's Edge, and these three movie are probably my favorite of his. Obsessed with revenging the death of his nephew Lefty enters the underground lair with an armament of chainsaws , so you had best prepare yourself for the glory of dueling chainsaws! Hats off to the production designers for the surreal atmosphere and lighting of the underground sets, it definitely creates a surreal and nightmarish tone which is appropriate for this demented sequel, a movie that only Tobe Hopper and Cannon Films could have made together. 

The film has received criticism for straying a bit  far from the original in terms of tone and pitch, but I have always loved this damned movie to death. It's straight-up demented from start to finish, my favorite sequence being the assault on the radio station, with Chop Top and Leatherface tormenting poor Stretch. You wanna see strange, how about Leatherface mock-fucking her with his chainsaw spraying a slurry of shaved ice and Big Red soda over her face, a surreal nightmare of sexual innuendo. Caroline Williams (Contracted) screams her head off throughout, in my opinion this is one of the most memorable scream queen performances of them all, hear piercing screams always shred my nerves. Another nice touch is the reenactment the infamous dinner scene from the first movie, a nightmare scenario that comes off even creepier than the original, that grotesque makeup f/x work on Grandpa Sawyer is a thing of disgusting beauty. 

While the original is a notoriously bloodless shocker the sequel is throws the gore right in your face, dripping with grue thanks to the talents of gore f/x genius Tom Savini (The Burning) and his crew, which included Bart Mixon (Killer Klowns from Outer Space), John Carl Buechler (From Beyond), Gabe Bartalos (The Thing), Gino Crognale (The Hidden) and John Vulich (TerrorVision). When L.G. is brought back to the Sawyer kitchen they flay the skin from his legs and chest with an electric carving knife before peeling off his face and placing the dead-skin mask onto the face of an increasingly hysterical Stretch. It's an over-the-top sequel that just layers on the excess and over-acting and I love it for it.

Audio/Video: Scream Factory have gone above and beyond for this gore-drizzled sequel with not one, but two HD presentations of the movie. We have the original HD master found on the MGM Blu-ray which was supervised by cinematographer Richard Kooris, plus a brand new 2K scan of the interpositive film elements. The new transfer is nothing short of superb, the candy colored colors are vibrant with excellent contrast and deep blacks with very nice shadow detail, which is improved over the original HD master. There's also a fine layer of film grain with some very nice clarity and depth to the image, this is a wonderful new HD transfer. 

Audio chores are handled by a very capable English DTS-HD MA 5.1 option, there's also a more authentic stereo track for the audio purists. The surround mix sounds great with some nice atmospheric use of the surrounds to great affect. Both audio tracks sports excellent fidelity with a clean, crisp presentation that has some nice depth to it, plus the sweet '80s soundtrack featuring The Cramps, Timbuk 3 and The Lords of the New Church, among others, comes through clean and strong. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

Onto the extras on disc one we have a great blend of new and old stuff, this release is packed to the hilt with goodies. Those familiar with the 'Gruesome Edition' from MGM will recognize the selection of deleted scenes, image galleries, trailers and TV spots ported over for the new edition, plus both of the audio commentaries from the MGM Blu-ray with actors Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams and special effects makeup creator Tom Savini moderated by Michael Felsher, and a second with director Tobe Hooper moderated by David Gregory of Severin Films. 

Now onto the tasty new stuff on disc one, we have a new audio commentary to go along with the new trasnfer from director of photography Richard Kooris, production designer Cary White, script supervisor Laura Kooris and property master Michael Sullivan. The track is a good listen, a bit technical and not on par with the original commentaries in my opinion, but these commentaries do provide a wealth of information about the making of the movie. There's also thirty-minutes of Extended Outtakes from the 'It Runs in the Family' doc featuring never before seen interview footage with the late screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson and actor Lou Perryman. The actual 'It Runs in the Family' disc can be found on disc two. There is also a 44-minute Behind-the-Scenes Footage Compilation from Tom Savini’s personal video archives, we get to see some candid footage of the special effects being performed for film.  

Onto disc two of the set we have more new stuff and an old favorite, the old comes by way of the aforementioned 'It Runs in the Family' doc produced by Michael felsher and red shirt Pictures, the six part feature-length documentary featuring interviews with screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson, actors Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams, Bill Johnson, Lou Perryman, and special makeup effects artist Tom Savini, which is still a great watch, this is the definitive making-of doc for the movie. The new stuff begins with the House of Pain doc, a 43-minute collection of interviews with make-up effects artists Bart Mixon, John Carl Buechler, Gabe Bartalos, Gino Crognale and John Vulich, and for horror fans these behind-the-scenes peeks at the making of gore classics are always a blast, tales of creating the iconic gore gags, who worked on what, behind-the-scenes tom foolery and problems bringing these effects to film, with clips from the movie, behind-the-scenes images and video footage. 

Yuppie Meat is an 18-minute interview with actors Chris Douridas and Barry Kinyon who played the yuppies from the bridge massacre scene at the start of the film, they speak about how they came to appear in the movie and life post TCM2. I didn't realize that Douridas who played Gunner, the yuppie with the novelty glasses, was the host of KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, a L.A. radio show I first heard back in '93 when Geffen records sent out a promotional cassette of Beck's performance on the show to promote the album 'Mellow Gold', which has nothing to do with the movie, but I thought that was neat. If you're a Beck fan you can stream that early performance which features a few choice rarities right here: http://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/morning-becomes-eclectic/beck-5

Up next is Cutting Moments, a 17-minute interview with editor Alain Jakubowicz who tells of how he sort of saved Tobe Hooper's Invaders from Mars in the editing room. The director worked on quite a few Canon Films during their '80s heyday, including work on Hooper's TCM2. 

Behind the Mask is an 14-minute interview with stunt man and Leatherface performer Bob Elmore who doubled for Leatherface actor Bill Johnson, appearing in many of the memorable scenes. He speaks about how Johnson couldn't lift the heavy chainsaw used in the movie and how he had to take on a larger role in the movie, admitting he is not an actor, and that Hooper yelled at him a lot to get the performances out of him.  

The last of the new extras is a new episode of Horror's Hallowed Ground with host Sean Clark, revisiting many of the locations used in the movie, most of which have been torn down and renovated beyond recognition. Honestly this was somewhat of a let down, but Clark is a witty guy and I love these location pilgrimages he does. Obviously Austin has gone through a lot of changes in the past thirty years, and it doesn't make for the best location visits but Clark and the crew do their do diligence, even heading out to Bastrop, Texas to the scene of the bridge scene and the long-gone site of the Texas Battle Land amusement park.

Separate from the disc extras we have a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the very cool illustration fro Joel Robinson and the original one-sheet movie poster which was a send up of The Breakfast Club. Robinson's new artwork is also featured on cardboard slipcover for the standard blu keep case. 

Disc 1: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part Two (Brand New HD Transfer)
- NEW 2016 2K HD scan of the inter-positive film element
- NEW Audio Commentary with director of photography Richard Kooris, production designer Cary White, script supervisor Laura Kooris and property master Michael Sullivan
- Audio Commentary with director Tobe Hooper moderated by David Gregory of Severin Films 
- Audio Commentary with actors Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams and special effects makeup creator Tom Savini moderated by Michael Felsher 
- NEW Extended Outtakes from It Runs in the Family featuring L.M. Kit Carson and Lou Perryman (30 Mins)
- NEW Behind-the-Scenes Footage Compilation from Tom Savini’s archives (44 Mins)
- Alternate Opening Credit Sequence (2 Mins) 
- Deleted Scenes (11 Mins) 
- Still Galleries – posters and lobby cards, behind-the-scenes photos, stills and collector’s gallery (60 Images) HD 
- Theatrical Trailers (2 Mins) HD 
- TV Spots (3 Mins) HD 

Disc 2: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part Two (Original HD Transfer)
- MGM’s original HD Master with color correction supervision by director of photography Richard Kooris
- NEW House of Pain – a interview with make-up effects artists Bart Mixon, John Carl Buechler, Gabe Bartalos, Gino Crognale and John Vulich (43 Mins) HD 
- NEW Yuppie Meat – a interview with actors Chris Douridas and Barry Kinyon (19 Mins) HD
- NEW Cutting Moments – a interview with editor Alain Jakubowicz (17 Mins) HD 
- NEW Behind the Mask – a interview with stunt man and Leatherface performer Bob Elmore (14 Mins) HD
- NEW HORROR’S HALLOWED GROUNDS – revisiting the locations of the film – hosted by Sean Clark plus a special guest (25 Mins) HD 
- It Runs in the Family – a six part feature-length documentary featuring interviews with screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson, actors Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams, Bill Johnson, Lou Perryman, special makeup effects artist Tom Savini and more (84 Mins) HD 

I love TCM2, it is a gruesome and black veined terror-comedy, a full-on demented slice of weirdness and my favorite entry in the entire TCM series. It's hard to deny the horror-genius of this movie which was once panned across the board, I am pleased to see that the public opinion on this one has turned towards the positive these past few years, this is a straight-up classic. The new Blu-ray from Scream Factory is one of my favorite releases of the year so far, this is a must-own edition with a sweet new 2K HD scan and loads of awesome extras, well worth the upgrade. 

Blu-ray Review: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986) 

Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: B/0
Rating: 18 Cert.
Duration: 101 mins
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: 2.0 Stereo PCM with Optional English SDH Subtitles

Cast: Dennis Hopper, Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams, Bill Johnson, Lou Perryman, Chris Douridas
Director: Tobe Hooper

A decade after the original film director Tobe Hooper resurrected the terror classic with an offbeat sequel infused with pitch black humor and outrageous gore gags. Now thirteen years after the events of that fateful night in 1973 the Sawyer clan have traded-in the rural farmhouse for a labyrinthine underground maze beneath a run down amusement park. They're traded in carving-up hippies for eviscerating yuppies and patriarch Drayton Sawyer tours Texas in a lunch truck winning chili competitions. The secret to his prize-winning chili is the prime meat, of course! 

As the adventure begins a pair of douche-nozzle yuppies are en route to Dallas for a weekend of debauchery when a pickup truck pulls up next to them, they're stunned when Leatherface wielding a chainsaw attacks the car while puppeteering a desiccated corpse. Were already off to a phenomenal start  with the opening scene setting the pace with black humor and terrific gore gags as the driver loses half his face to the saw. 

As it turns out the yuppies were live on-air with a local radio DJ named Stretch (Caroline Williams) during the encounter and the horrifying incident was caught on audio tape.  A former Texas Ranger named Lefty (Dennis Hopper, Mad Dog Morgan) arrives on scene to investigate the bizarre deaths. Lefty's the uncle of Sally and Franklin from the first movie and he's on a quest to avenge their deaths. The audio recording comes to his attention and the Ranger doesn't so much team-up with the DJ as use her as bait to attract the attention of the sadistic cannibals by having her replay the broadcast on air. Fearing the tape will lead to their discovery Leatherface and his 'Nam obsessed brother Chop Top (Bill Moseley) arrive at the radio station and terrorize the DJ who's clearly in over her head. 

Leatherface's dead-skin mask in this film may just be my favorite incarnation of the chainsaw wielding maniac. Chop Top is one of my favorite characters from any movie, a bizarre skittish nut who picks away at his scalp with bent coat hanger before eating the tasty bits of flesh. He's one of the most quotable characters in any horror film and after Otis from The Devil's Rejects is one of Moseley's most iconic creations onscreen, definitely a signature performance. You cannot watch this movie and not appreciate the demented performance Jim Siedow as the demented Drayton Sawyer, the cantankerous and eccentric patriarch of the flesh eating clan, his dialogue and delivery are creepily side-splitting and he perfectly embodies the tone and spirit of the production. 

At the station Leatherface and Chop Top terrorize Stretch and when her producer L.G. returns to the station he gets a hammer to the skull after discovering Chop Top raining the vinyl archives. Somehow Stretch is able to use her charm coerce the love-struck Leatherface into letting her live and soon the duo leave with L.G. corpse in their pickup.Lefty and Stretch follow them to their underground lair beneath a condemned amusement park and what they find is a nightmare carnival of macabre weirdness. 

Dennis Hopper was fresh off David Lynch's Blue Velvet and his character here is just as unhinged and strange as Frank, or maybe at this time Hopper was just a nut in every movie, this was the same year as Rivers Edge. Obsessed with revenging the death of his nephew Lefty enters the underground lair with no less than three chainsaw at his disposal - prepare yourself for the glory of dueling chainsaws! Hats off to the production designers for the surreal atmosphere and lighting of these underground sets, it definitely creates a tone. 

The film has received criticism for straying so far from the original in terms of tone and pitch but I love this damn thing to death. It's straight-up demented from start to finish with my favorite sequence being the assault on the radio station as they torment Stretch. You wanna see strange, how about Leatherface mock-fucking her with his chainsaw spraying a slurry of shaved ice and Big Red soda cover her, a surreal sexual nightmare. Caroline Williams (Contracted) screams her damn head off throughout this nutty film, one of the most memorable scream queen performances in my opinion. Hooper re enacts the infamous dinner scene from the first film here and it's a nightmare scenario that's more effective and creepy than the original in my opinion.

While the first original is a notoriously bloodless shocker the sequel  is dripping with grue thanks to the gore-master Tom Savini and his crew. When L.G. is brought back to the Sawyer kitchen they flay the skin from his legs and chest with an electric carving knife before peeling off his face and placing the dead-skin mask onto a hysterical Stretch. It's an over-the-top sequel that just layers on the excess and over-acting and I love it for it. My only objections with the movie are some pacing issues and a weak score but they make up for it with the inclusion of The Cramps classic "Goo Goo Muck". 

Blu-ray: Arrow's treatment of Tobe Hooper's satirical sequel to the original gets nothing less that the deluxe treatment using the same HD master supervised by cinematographer Richard Kooris with some additional restoration to remove additional dirt and debris giving this edition a very slight bump over the MGM Blu-ray. The colors are strong with some nice contrast levels and a nice layer of film grain which during some scenes is quite coarse to be honest but I love it. All the gory bits look fantastic with the hi-def bumbp. 

Audio chores are handled with an very capable English LPCM Stereo track with optional English SDH subtitles. There's some nice depth to the crisp stereo presentation - the uncompressed audio really punches it up a bit. 

Arrow's release carries over all the MGM extras with a host of  new supplements courtesy of Red Shirt Pictures, High Rising Productions and Nucleus Films. Carry overs begin with two audio commentaries, the first from director Tobe Hooper moderated by David Gregory and a second commentary with stars Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams and special-effects legend Tom Savini, moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures. Also ported from the previous Blu-ray is the definitive retrospective doc It Runs in the Family and the alternate opening sequence and deleted scenes - one featuring Joe Bob Briggs from MonsterVision and some of Tom Savini's excised gore effects! 

Exclusive to Arrow's edition are the Still Feelin’ the Buzz video interview with horror expert Stephen Thrower produced by Nucleus Films. The noted author who speaks for about a half-hour on the challenges Hooper faced in making a sequel to what he considers a near perfect film and pointing out the changes in tone and hyper-reality of the sequel. 

Another new extras Cutting Moment with Bob Elmore is a video interview with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 stuntman Bob Elmore who played Leatherface in the sequelas he recounts what appears to have been a grueling experience lugging around a seventy-five pound chainsaw in the Texas heat,  

A second disc features two early film the director, we have silent comedy The Heisters (1964) and his debut feature film Eggshells (1969), a weird hippie-centric slice of art house student film making. Eggshells benefits from an audio commentary from the director and Louis Black. I cannot say I loved either of these but they are available for the first-time on home video ever and I do appreciate the inclusion as they're both interesting glimpses into Hooper's pre-TCM career.  Additionally there's a 20 plus minute interview with Hooper conducted by High Rising Production's Calum Waddell with the director looking back on his career, plus a

24-minute trailer reel highlighting Hooper's body of work in horror. Arrow's disc is region-B so make sure you have a multi-region player before you snag this one, yet another reason you need to have a multi-region player. 

Special Features:

Disc 1
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation from a digital transfer supervised by Director of Photography Richard Kooris
- Original uncompressed Stereo 2.0 audio
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary with director and co-writer Tobe Hooper, moderated by David Gregory
- Audio commentary with stars Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams and special-effects legend Tom Savini, moderated by Michael Felsher
- It Runs in the Family – A documentary looking at the genesis, making-of and enduring appeal of Hooper’s film. With interviews including star Bill Johnson, co-writer L. M. Kit Carson, Richard Kooris, Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams, Tom Savini, Production Designer Cary White and more!
- Alternate Opening sequence with different musical score
- Deleted scenes
- Still Feelin’ the Buzz – Interview with horror expert Stephen Thrower, author of Nightmare USA
- Cutting Moment with Bob Elmore – Interview with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2′s stuntman
- Gallery featuring never-before-published behind-the-scenes images
- Original Trailer

Disc 2 

- Standard Definition (DVD) presentation of two of Tobe Hooper’s early works restored by Watchmaker Films with Tobe hooper, available on home video for the first time in the world
The Heisters (1964) Tobe Hooper’s early short film restored in HD from original elements [10 mins] and Eggshells (1969) Tobe Hooper’s debut feature restored in HD from original elements (90 mins)
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio Commentary on Eggshells by Tobe Hooper
- In Conversation with Tobe Hooper – The legendary horror director speaks about his career from Eggshells to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
- Trailer reel of all the major works by Tobe Hooper
- 100-PAGE BOOK – AMERICAN FREAK ILLUMINATIONS – LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE:

Verdict: A demented sequel that dares to stray from the formula and one of my favorite horror comedies of all-time.  Arrow's audio/video presentation and extensive extras make this the definitive edition of the gore-comedy classic - a must own for serious collectors. 

Blu-ray Review: DEAD SOULS (2012)

DEAD SOULS (2012)

Label: Scream Factory / Shout! Factory

Region Code: A 

TV Rating: MA

Duration: 92 Minutes

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1)

Director: Colins Theys

Cast: Jesse James, Bill Moseley, Magda Apanowicz, Jaiden Kaine, Noah Fleiss, Geraldine Hughes
Tagline: Don't Go Home.

Dead Souls (2012)  starts off on a just the right note with a priest doing some chores in the barn when he just up and snaps, he takes a shovel to the family dog and then continues his murderous spree inside the house where he drowns his suffering wife, slashes his daughter's throat and slaughters his son. Apparently the son David knew that his father was about to flip the switch and hid away the youngest member of the family, a baby brother Bryan, somewhere where dad would not find him. The priest drags the bodies into the barn where he crucifies the family and himself on rough-lumber crosses he's erected. The local sheriff arrives on scene just as he priest drives in the last nail into his own palms before dying...

Now 17 years later the surviving baby has been adopted and goes by the name of Johnny, it's on his 18th birthday that he receives word of an unexpected inheritance, it's the very same farm from the start of the film, now if this sounds pretty familiar it is, we saw this very same set-up with Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013). Arriving on the farm, against his adopted mother's wishes, Johnny discovers who he really is and begins piecing together just why the town folk don't care for his presence on the farm much at all. The opening massacre is pretty savage and I would imagine that the 7 minutes of additional not seen in the original Chiller TV broadcast that are advertised make up much of this, it's a great starter.

The issues I have arise about a 1/3 of the way through the film when we get to the convoluted mystery of why that priest snapped and what the consequences are for Johnny these many years later. Without getting to spoiler-y it's got something to do with weird pagan-christian rituals and spirits inhabiting other bodies, there's definitely some promise to the premise, but the film quickly collapses under it's own convoluted wight and cannot live up to the intensity of the first few minutes of the film, it just fails completely.

The acting from the principal cast is pretty good, definitely not a horribly acted film. Genre veteran Bill Mosely (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) makes an appearance as the former Sheriff who's been a bit nutty since he discovered the massacre at the start of the film, he's there to deliver some poorly written exposition and it's a pretty shit role. Mosely's not the worst offender, there are also some side characters who give rather shoddy performances, and by the end of the film the surprisingly fantastic beginning and the few promising elements just don't add up to much, this is a pretty generic formulaic watch.

Blu-ray: Dead Souls (2012) is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in widescreen (1.78:1) and while the digitally shot made-for-TV film is fairly sharp is rather bland looking, by design it's desaturated color scheme is cold and somewhat gray, it didn't work for me and drew attention to itself, just not a fan of the look of the film but the Blu-ray is probably indicative of what the filmmakers were going for, just not my cup o' tea, too drab. Also, it's a very feature with little to any depth to it. 

Surprisingly the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is pretty great, very strong audio presentation for this one, the 5.1 is quite immersive with some effective use of the surrounds, a few of the discreet channel effects caught me by surprise. The score didn't do much for me but it's a well balanced track with crisp dialogue.

Special features include an audio commentary with Director Colin Theys, and Screenwriter John Doolan, along with producer Andrew Gernhard and it's a pretty lively track even if I didn't quite appreciate the film. There's also a fun Blooper Reel, a tour of the set and a a few TV spots for the made-for-TV production. Surprisingly the disc includes a slipcase which puzzles me, so why does my scream Factory edition of Terror Train (1979( not have a slipcase but this mediocre Chiller production get one, that sort of bothers me more than it should. 

Verdict: Not an offensively terrible watch, just maybe something worse, middle of the road TV horror that's perhaps above average for Chiller production, and that's not very high praise. Shout! Factory have won me over with the schlocky Cannon title  Ninja III: The Domination (1984) but I'm not sure how I feel about 'em watering down their classic horror imprint with made-for-TV productions, it's not like this is a vintage TV horror like Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981).  Unfortunately, it puts me in the position of not recommending a Scream Factory Blu-ray for the first time, I say wait for a rerun on Chiller TV or till it's streaming on Netflix. 2 Outta 5