TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS: DEMON KNIGHT (1995) (Blu-ray Review)

TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS: DEMON KNIGHT (1995) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Duration: 93 Minutes
Rating: R
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, 2.0 DTS-HD MA Stereo with Optional Englisg Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Ernest Dickerson
Cast: Billy Zane, Brenda Bakke, CCH Pounder, Jada Pinkett, John Kassir, Thomas Haden Church, William Sadler

Synopsis: A mysterious drifter known as Brayker (William Sadler, Iron Man 3) possesses the last of seven ancient keys that hold the power to stop the forces of darkness and protect all humanity from ultimate evil. But the human race is safe only so long as Brayker can evade the demonic Collector (Billy Zane, Titanic) who has gathered the other six keys. In his obsessive quest for the key, the Collector rallies an army of ghastly cadavers against Brayker and the inhabitants of a run-down hotel. Armed with automatic weapons, sacred blood and sadistic humor, Brayker and the strong-willed Jeryline (Jada Pinkett-Smith, Gotham) must lead the other guests in a gruesome battle against the Collector and his evil horde of ghouls.

Too often I find myself having conversations with horror fans who have nothing kind to say of nineties horror, I count myself among them. There's always a few noteworthy nods to Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, The Blair Witch Project, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness and so on, but  very rarely does anyone mention Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight as one of the highlights of nineties horrors, and that's a low down dirty shame in my opinion.

Demon Knight is a ton of horror fun, starring William Sadler 

(The Shawshank Redemption) as Brayker, a man on the run and a force of good. He has in his possession an ancient key filled with the blood of Christ that the demonic forces of evil want for themselves. It seems they need it to unleash their Evil across the Earth. Evil incarnate here is faced by Billy Zane (Dead Calm) as The Collector - not to be confused with the Marvel character. Zane offers a deliciously manic performance which was pure joy from beginning to end, he is unhinged in the best possible sense of the word. Both men arrive at a decommissioned church which now serves as a hotel, in Wormwood, New Mexico, which is where the battle between good and evil will unfold, now the inhabitants of the hotel becoming unwilling combatants, forced to fight for the forces of good or give into the seductive power of evil. Billy Zane is the sort of charismatic guy that everyone is drawn to, he knows your inner-most secrets and desires. When things don't go his way and the key seems to be slipping from his grasp he goes off the deep end, first he punches a hole through the sheriff's head, which is a fun moment of gore, and then he slices open his own hand, spilling a fluorescent green demon-blood which he splashes on the ground. From those glowing-green pools arise glowing green-eyed demons who lay siege upon the hotel, while The Collector tries to turn and seduce various inhabitants of the hotel towards evil.

The ensemble cast is damn good, we have CCH Pounder (Bagdad Cafe) as the stubborn hotel proprietor, Jada Pinkett Smith (Gotham) as an ex-con hired on as help, the venerable Dick Miller (Gremlins) as a local drunk and Thomas Hatden Church (Sideways) as the local misogynist jerk. Brenda Bakke (L.A. Confidential) appears as the hooker with a heart of gold, and Charles Fleischer (the voice of Bugs Bunny) pops up as an irate postal worker. A great cast all around and they're all turning in strong performances, no one is phoning it in, but none more so than Billy Zane as the charismatic, sarcastic and straight up seductive face of evil. 

The special effects are top notch, this one is loaded with way more gore than I had remembered from previous viewings, and it looks splendid in HD! Arms are ripped off, faces are destroyed, and there are loads of green goo and awesome demonic creature designs, the look of the creatures are very cool, and when one of  kid is transformed into a demon it looks like something straight out of John Carpenter's The Thing.  Demon Knight is a sorely underrated horror entry, loaded with some good gore, wry humor and an action packed demon-siege movie, all of which makes this one Hell of a good time.

Audio/Video: Demon Knight arrives on Blu-ray for the first time in North America from Scream Factory with a very pleasing AVC encoded transfer that is quite a step up over previous standard definition incarnations. There's a nice clarity and crispness to the image with nicely managed grain and some shining moments of fine detail. Onto the audio we have the choice of DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo or 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles. The original stereo track sounds great, well balanced and with some power behind it. The surround options offers some discreet use of the surrounds with demonic siege upon the decommissioned church with crackling thunder throughout, it's a good surround track. 

Onto the extras we have two new audio commentaries, the first from Director Ernest Dickerson moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures, Dickerson speaks proudly of the movie with some nice insights into how he came onto the movie and making it. The second commentary comes by way of Special Effects Creator Todd Masters, Visual Effects Supervisor John Van Vliet, Special Effects Coordinator Thomas Bellissimo, And Demon Performer Walter Phelan. The team speak about the technical aspects of making some of the great effects from the movie, what it was like on set, with the usual fun array of behind-the-scenes stuff, the special effects guys always give us fun commentaries.

The highlight of the Blu-ray for me was the 40-minute Under Siege: The Making Of Demon Knight – featuring interviews with Director Ernest Dickerson, Co-producer A.L. Katzm Screenwriters Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris, And Mark Bishop, Stars Billy Zane, William Sadler, Brenda Bakke, Charles Fleischer and others. Zane is a blast as he recalls the cast and crew and the reputation of the movie, plus it's a blast to see William Sadler and the legendary Dick Miller, the latter of whom recalls flubbing his line in the scene with the roomful of nude women. It's a great making of doc, offers a lot of insight into the making of the movie. 

There's also a Panel Discussion From The American Cinematheque Featuring Director Ernest Dickerson, Actor Dick Miller And Special Effects Maestro Rick Baker, a gallery of images and the theatrical trailer for the movie. The disc comes in a standard Blu-ray case with a sleeve of reversible artwork, on side featuring the theatrical poster art and the other being a newly commissioned illustration from regular scream contributor Justin Osbourn, there's also a slipcover featuring the Osbourn illustration.

Special Features
- NEW Audio Commentary With Director Ernest Dickerson moderated by Michael Felsher
- NEW Audio Commentary With Special Effects Creator Todd Masters, Visual Effects Supervisor John Van Vliet, Special Effects Coordinator Thomas Bellissimo, And Demon Performer Walter Phelan
- NEW Under Siege: The Making Of Demon Knight – Featuring Interviews With Director Ernest Dickerson, Co-producer A.L. Katzm Screenwriters Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris, And Mark Bishop, Stars Billy Zane, William Sadler, Brenda Bakke, Charles Fleischer And More (39 Mins) HD
- Panel Discussion From The American Cinematheque Featuring Director Ernest Dickerson, Actor Dick Miller And Special Effects Maestro Rick Baker (10 Mins) HD
- Still Gallery (68 Images) (6 Mins) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins)

I hope this new Blu-ray brings some much deserved love to this under valued nineties entry, when we speak of nineties horror this is a title that doesn't come up often enough, a very solid and action-packed demon-siege movie that has gone under the radar for far too long. Scream Factory have put together a very nice Blu-ray release with a solid transfer and excellent extras, this is a high recommend. If you've not seen it or have dismissed it I suggest you give it watch. 3.5/5

ZOMBIE KILLERS: ELEPHANT’S GRAVEYARD (2014)

ZOMBIE KILLERS: ELEPHANT’S GRAVEYARD (2014)

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment 

Release Date: February 3, 2015
Duration: 104 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Video:: Widescreen (2.40:1) 1080p
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 with Optional English SDH, Spanish Subtitles
Director: B. Harrison Smith

Cats: Billy Zane, Dee Wallace, Mischa Barton, Felissa Rose, Brian Anthony Wilson

We have the small rural community of Elwood, a walled-in community serving as a haven for uninfected humans at a time when most of the world is overrun by hordes of black-goo spewing infected zombies. The community are lead by a retired Army surgeon named Doc (Brian Anthony Wilson) and a man named Seiler (Zane), who leads a group of young men and women known as "the zombie killers" who provide security for the community and patrol the surrounding areas for food and supplies.

The community is also home to a religious zealot named Lia (Felissa Rose) who as with most of her ilk love to point out the moral shortcomings of others, it just wouldn't be the apocalypse without one. Rose does a damn decent job portraying the amped-up bible thumper who loves to rile up the good people of Elwood. 

The film offers up an unusual amount of character based interactions for a zombie film, but there's some good zombie make-up effects throughout, the practical stuff looks mighty good, but the digital effects are Syfy worthy, meaning not so grand. Hordes of zombies off in the distance are one thing, but a stampede of infected deer and leaping killer fish are quite another. Smith's script is more ambitious than his modest budget will effectively allow, and sometimes you just have to cut back when a few decent ideas stretch your budget and abilities to the point of laughability, which is what happened. 

Not enough to completely ruin the movie but enough to make me start picking apart other smaller things that maybe I wouldn't have if the poor effects didn't draw so much attention to themselves. One of those things being how much paintball is front and center in this film right from the beginning till the very end. It begins with some truly awful voice over narration from Doc at the top of the film with an overly long montage of paintballers right through to the very end. Not sure is the San Diego Dynasty  were financing the film or not but it would not surprise me in the least, I get it, you love paintball, you want to show off your awesome paintball arena and cool gear, but don't shove it down my throat for the entire film, this is paintball propaganda with a smattering of zombies and a lot of melodrama. . 

Many will recognize Felissa Rose from the slasher classic SLEEPAWAY CAMP as the religious nut of the bunch and she does a decent job, I have a lot of love to Mrs. Rose but she's not fantastic but I love her just the same. Then we have Billy Zane who or a brief moment had an a-list career for all of five minutes before settling into a career in d-grade movies that are forgettable. He's got a bit of a Western tinge to his performance that I liked, but there no heart in his autopilot performance. Horror veteran Dee Wallace appears for about a minute in a role that adds some heart to the film, but it's very brief appearance and in just one of several facets of the film that should have been excised from the movie, including a strange fracking-origin of the plague that was unnecessarily convoluted and not fully realized, they're going for an environmental message but it's muddied and unnecessary. . 

There's a more than average character moment quotient throughout the film, a bit too much for my simple tastes honestly.  With all the melodrama and character building I was seriously starting to yearn for some damn zombie carnage, which we do get in very small doses but never to the point where I was satisfied. . 

I give the filmmakers a lot of credit for their technical ability, you can see there's some skill behind the camera with numerous panoramic shots highlighting the scenic beauty of the surrounding area and creative use of what I assume are drones for aerial cinematography that mimic more expensive crane shots they are getting the most bang for their buck here, it never fails to amaze me what can be done with high-end consumer grade digital cameras these days. 

Not an awful film, I enjoyed the character-based storytelling to a degree but I was hoping for a more satisfying finale given that the carnage was few and far between, that combined with the poor digital effects did dampen my overall enjoyment of the film. This might be a passable weeknight rental but otherwise this has zero rewatch factor. A competent zombie film, just not my cup of tea.  

Blu-ray Review: SCORNED (2014)

SCORNED (2014) 

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Region: A

Duration: 86 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 with Optional English, Spanish Subtitles 

Video: 1080 Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Mark Jones

Cast: Viva Bianca, Billy Zane, AnnaLynne McCord 

Scorned (2014) is a straight-to-video thriller starring the arguably once popular Billy Zane (Demon Knight) and the gorgeous AnnaLynne McCord who I thought was quite good in the body-horror indie Excision (2012) as a disturbed young woman with surgical aspirations and menstrual sex fantasties. Here McCord is yet again a disturbed young woman though the her character Sadie is much less intriguing though just as dangerous, a manic nut off her lithium at a time when she discovers her douche-nozzle boyfriend Kevin (Zane) is fucking her slutty best-friend (Viva Bianca). On a romantic weekend getaway things turn ugly quickly when Sadie intercepts  a few choice texts on Kevin's phone.  The story is set in motion pretty fast and we get a few missing pieces through ridiculous flashbacks to hours before and a fucked-up childhood - it's a bit of a mess.

Incapacitating Kevin she then lures her former-bestie to the country getaway where she quickly gets the upper hand before subjecting both to a series of psycho-sexual torture games. None of it's overly graphic but it does get a bit ridiculous with finger-breaking, electrocution and forced oral pleasuring. Throw in a sub-plot about an escaped murderer from the local prison in the area and it's just a bit too much, the tortures are so thought out that it's hard to believe she came up with this on the spot and the characters are all so unsympathetic you cannot get behind any of them, you feel absolutely nothing for anyone in this movie. 

A very vanilla thriller that is thankfully quite short at just 86 minutes. I tend to steer clear of Billy Zane projects but after Excision I had high-hopes for McCord but this is a disappointment from start to finish, the writing is lackluster and this is just a very workman-like production with little to no atmosphere or suspense. The Blu-ray looks decent in the AV department but there are no extras on the disc - not even the cast and crew would care to reminisce about the making of this limp thriller.  2 Outta 5