MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN (1992) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN (1992) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 99 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: John Carpenter 
Cast: Chevy Chase, Daryl Hannah, Sam Neill, Michael McKean, Stephen Tobolowsky

When this 90's take on the invisible man originally went to the cinema I was already a huge of director John Carpenter (Prince of Darkness) and the comedies of Chevy Chase (Spies Like Us), so I was primed for what these two had in store for me when I bought my ticket at the local cineplex. Now, that was a long time ago (25 years!) but I remember being rather disappointed by what I saw at the time, it lacked the edge I expected from the director of The Thing, but it also was largely absent the comedy stylings I was expecting from the star, so as a fan of both it was not a great time at the movies for teenage me. I've seen it a few times on home video in the years since and have warmed to it slightly, but my initial assessment is still valid.

Of course now I know that Carpenter was a director for hire on this one, which I didn't know then, stepping in for Ivan Reitman  (Ghostbusters) who left the film due to disagreements with star Chevy Chase, whom from what I've read is a nightmare to work with, but I still love his movies. I could absolutely see Ivan Reitman directing a funnier version of this movie, and I am assuming the problems he and Chevy encountered had to do with the star wanting to play the role more serious and not his usual pratfall self, and that's where I a bit let down by this one, either this had to have more of a dark edge or more broad comedy, and that's where the Carpenter/Chase team-up is a bit puzzling for me. 

Here we have stock analyst Nick Halloway (Chevy Chase) whom while runs into an old friend named George (Michael McKean, Spinal Tap) who introduces Nick to his visiting friend, knockout single-lady Alice (Daryl Hannah, Blade Runner), the two hit it off over and dinner and drinks, and even get some make-out time, but when Nick pushes in for more she rebuffs him, so he drinks-up the rest of the night and is severly hung-over in the morning. He winds up at a lab where he is sitting in on a shareholder's meeting, but finds he too hungover to be useful, so he finds a quiet place in the building for a quick nap, unwittingly triggering a lab accident along the way, with the end result being that he is caught up in a strange meltdown/accident that turns the entire building and himself invisible! 

A shady CIA spook named Jenkins (Sam Neil, Possession) arrives on the scene and soon discovers Nick's condition, realizing what a valuable spy/assassin asset he would be the spook sets about capturing him, but Nick wants no part of it, he just want to be himself again.  

Chevy Chase is going for a more serious tone her with some moments of humor, but no straight-up comedy, I didn't hate his performance, I just think the dual-tonality of the film makes for a somewhat unsatisfying watch overall. Something that always irks me is the voice-over narration from Chase, probably meant to give this a noir-feel, but it always makes me think of the Fletch films and takes me right out of the story. It doesn't help that he and Daryl Hannah have zero chemistry together onscreen, which makes it hard to believe in their whirlwind romance, the whole affair is given such short shrift it feels like it should have been left on the cutting room floor altogether in my opinion. More interesting is villainous CIA spook Jenkins played by Sam Neil, the sinister government operative attempting tracking down the invisible man, he plays bag guys so well, and Carpenter must have liked him a lot as he brought him back a few years later for the starring role In The Mouth Of Madness (1995).

There's a lot of side characters that show up for fun and games in bit roles, we have Michael KcKean as Nick's frenemy, his gossipy wife (Patricia Heaton), a droll wanna-be love interest for Alice (Gregory Paul Martin) and the always fun Stephen Tobolowsky (Groundhog's Day) as Jenkin's CIA supervisor who doesn't seem quit e a cutthroat as his subordinate, though it becomes clear who really has the power in that working relationship early on.

As an invisible man movie we get plenty of special effects throughout, we were at an early stage for digital special effects at the time, and some of them don't hold up all that well with optical effects that seem pretty dated, but there's also some decent practical effects and some digital ones that are cool. If you've ever wondered what it would look like to see an invisible man digest food, hurl and smokes a cigarette this movie answers all those questions for you. Scenes of the invisible man in the rain and running through water don't hold-up all that well, but a few scenes of him being made-up with make-up and the problems that arise from that aren't too bad. There's some fun footage of all the stuff Chase had to do to achieve some of the effects in the film, it's interesting stuff, it just doesn't translate tot he screen twenty five years later with a lot of success in my opinion, not awful, just dated.

Audio/Video: Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) arrives on Blu-ray with a new 2K scan of an archival interpositive performed by Warner Bros., the new transfer looks good, offering more detail and brighter colors than the previous Warner DVD, black levels look solid and grain levels are nicely managed. Fine detail is decent offering some deepened facial features and clothing textures, some of the optical effects don't fare so well, but overall this is a solid HD presentation. 

Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 track, it's well-balanced and sounds good without any hiss or distortion, optional English subtitles are provided. No Carpenter score on this one, but we do get one from Shirley Walker (the Willard remake), it sounds good though I didn't find any it particularly memorable. 

Scream Factory offer no new extras for this non Collector's Edition release, but they do port over what looks to be all the extras from the previous DVD version, this being some behind-the-scenes footage, outtakes, a brief F/X featurette and vintage EPK interviews.

The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a s20sided sleeve of artwork, the main sleeve featuring the familiar key art used on the DVD with the the title and tagline moved around - note that I couldn't find an image of the new cover art, what's pictured above the review is an older promotional image. The reverse side isn't an artwork option, just an image from the film and what looks to be a promotional shot of Daryl Hannah and Chevy Chase with information about the transfer. The disc itself features the same key art as the sleeve. 

Special Features: 
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- How to Become Invisible: The Dawn of Digital F/X (4 min) 
- Vintage interviews with director John Carpenter, actors Chevy Chase and Daryl Hannah (5 min) 
- Behind the Scenes footage (5 min) 
- Outtakes (3 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- TV Spots (4 min) 

As both a fan of the comedies of Chevy Chase and films of John Carpenter I am very pleased to have this slice of 90's sci-fi on Blu-ray, but I do wish we would had gotten some new extras, there's gotta be some great stories about the making of this one. The film get a bad rap, I like it, I don't love it, but it's an interesting take on the invisible man mythos, and it's cool that Carpenter got a chance to do an invisible man movie. 

VAMPIRE'S KISS (1989) / HIGH SPIRITS (1988) DOUBLE FEATURE

VAMPIRE'S KISS (1989) / HIGH SPIRITS (1988) 

Label: Scream Factory

Release Date: February 10th 2015 
Region Code: A

Rating: R/PG13

Duration: 103 Minutes / 99 Minutes 

Audio: DTS-HD MA Stereo

Video: 1080P Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Robert Bierman, Neil Jordan 

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Beal, Maria Conchita Alonso, Daryl Hannah, Peter O’Toole, Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D’Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher, Liam Neeson

VAMPIRE'S KISS (1989)
Synopsis: Teetering on the edge of sanity, volatile literary agent Peter Loew (Nicolas Cage) tries to find purpose in his life through a cutthroat work ethic and a hedonistic night life. But when an encounter with a mysterious beauty leaves Loew convinced that he is turning into a vampire, his behavior turns positively outrageous. - SCREAM FACTORY 

Peter Loew (Nicolas Cage) is a literary agent in the big city struggling to maintain his sanity after his girlfriend has left him, now depressed he regularly seeks the counsel of a shrink (Elizabeth Ashley), who notes Pete's increasingly erratic behavior. The struggle to keep his sanity about him becomes more difficult when he meets a mysterious woman named Rachel (Jennifer Beals) at a nightclub. Back at his apartment she reveals herself to be a vampire and sinks her fangs into his neck, the next day believing himself to be a vampire he is overcome by delusion and madness.

Even at this early stage in his career Nicolas Cage was no stranger to quirky performances, but this might be the first time we saw him go full-on crazy with a stunner of an oddball performance, one that still stands out as one of his most bizarre taking on an accent that sounds like Ted "Theodore" Logan channeled through a Brit, very weird stuff and a choice that calls attention to itself. Cage seems to be aiming for more of Dwight Fry's Renfield more so than any incarnation of a vampire, hunched over and bug-eyed, heightened by the fact that the rest of the cast are playing this very straight. Are they playing it too straight or is her just too weird, regardless the outcome is a off kilter black comedy with Cage completely unhinged.  

A subplot of the film has Peter tasking his secretary Alva (María Conchita Alonso) with finding a missing document in the office archives, when she is unable to produce the document Peter torments the woman with verbal condemnation. So upsetting is the experience that she calls-in sick the next day, but Peter pays her a visit with an apology and fake sympathy, encouraging her to return to work only to flip the switch once she's back at the office.  When the secretary confides in her brother of the torments she suffers at work he sets off to avenge his sister's mistreatment by the increasingly dangerous would-be vampire. 

As the film comes to conclusion we find a deranged Peter running through the streets of the city raving like a lunatic, covered in blood and wearing plastic vampire fangs while carrying on a conversation with multiple figments of his imagination, possibly having murdered several people. 

VAMPIRE'S KISS struggles to find a consistent tone meandering back and forth from dark comedy to a more serious character study of a man suffering from the effects of insanity. Cage gives a completely unrestrained performance which can be both engaging and sort of off putting from once scene to the next. Honestly this is a bit of train wreck of a film but once I bought into it I actually enjoyed myself but I can only imagine I am in the minority, this is a hard sell of film, so uneven and muddled. 

HIGH SPIRITS (1989) 

Synopsis: Daryl Hannah, Peter O’Toole, Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D’Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher and Liam Neeson star in this hilariously haunting comedy! When a castle-turned-hotel owned by Peter Plunkett (O’Toole) falls on hard financial times, he comes up with an idea to turn the place into a tourist attraction by billing it as Europe's most haunted castle. But just when it seems he'll have to give up the ghost, some real phantoms show up — and they're none too thrilled about being exploited. - SCREAM FACTORY 

Peter Plunkett (Peter O'Toole) the owner of a dilapidated Irish castle transforms the shabby stone-walled home into a haunted bed and breakfast in a last-ditch effort to cash in on the tourism trade before his American creditors can foreclose on the property. With the help of his colorful staff they set about creating a series of hokey haunting gimmicks and invite the first round of American tourists to stay at "the most haunted castle in Europe". Right from the start the haunted hotel opens with disastrous consequence to the dismay of the tourist, but when all seems lost it turns out this castle is actually haunted by spooks and spectres. 

Directed by the imaginative Irish director Neil Jordan (IN THE COMPANY OF WOLVES) the film had a wonderful sense of the fantastic with an amazing castle set-piece and a fun eighties cast of characters. Peter O'Toole (ZULU DAWN) is quite fun as the often drunk, somewhat suicidal showman who leads a rag tag crew of Irish housemaids and gardeners into a poorly conceived money-making scheme, the man is a legend for a reason and has charisma to spare.  

The American tourists are represented by eighties funnyman Steve Guttenberg (COCOON) and his frigid wife Beverly D'Angelo (CHRISTMAS VACATION), Martin Ferrero (THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK) as a paranormal skeptic, Peter Gallagher (AMERICAN BEAUTY) as a Priest and Jennifer Tilly (BOUND) as a raspy-voiced vixen who seriously wants to defrock that priest, pretty much the same sultry character she plays in everything. 

Add to this comedic mixture the ethereal beauty of Daryl Hannah (BLADE RUNNER) as the spirit of Mary Plunkett and her murderous husband played by the Liam Neeson (DARKMAN) who both haunt the castle, caught in a spectral loop of honeymoon murder until Guttenberg breaks the cycle, igniting a supernatural love affair. 

Quite a fun and farcical romp from the eighties with loads of sight gags and supernatural hi jinx that should appeal to fans of ensemble comedies CLUE and HAUNTED HONEYMOON, the entire cast play this one pitch perfect, a fun combination of haunted hokum and pratfall humor that is sure to make you laugh out loud. . 

HIGH SPIRITS is the far and away winner on this double feature with it's spirited mix of the supernatural and farce, worth the price of admission alone, but VAMPIRE'S KISS is not without it's own odd appeal. A weird double feature from Scream Factory who have a pretty solid reputation of cult, b-movies and horror releases, but most horror fans have a pretty well-rounded appreciation for cinema in general, and I am sure this will find an audience, HIGH SPIRITS particularly would be a great introduction to horror for your kids. 

THE FINAL TERROR (1983)

THE FINAL TERROR (1983) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
MPAA Rating: R
Duration: 82 Minutes
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional Subtitles
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Andrew Davis
Cast: Adrian Zmed, Daryl Hannah, Rachel Wood, Mark Metcalf, Ernest Harden Jr., Joe Pantoliano, John Friedrich

In the vintage backwoods slasher THE FINAL TERROR (1983) a group of troubled youth head into the wilderness to clean-up the woods and and some naughty good times with minimal adult supervision and a demented bus driver. As the day wears on the smoke some grass and go skinny-dipping, before they settle down for the night for the traditional campfire tale of an escaped mental patient and her incestuous offspring with the expected jump scare at the end. what these teens don't know is that there's actually a killer is actually lurking among the trees with an uncanny ability to blend into the surroundings. The camouflage  aspect is a cool addition as the killer is creep up on the campers without notice. It's not long before the group realize that certain members have wandered from the camp and have not returned and then the heads start to roll. The creepy killer stalks the woods using a unique bladed weapon to dispatch the horny teens one at a time to great effect - even if the kills themselves are not super-gory the set-ups are quite decent.

Set in the majestic redwood forest the film sets-up some great views with some skillful cinematography - it a better shot film than most of the slashers of the time. The film is a kindred spirit to other survival-horror films JUST BEFORE DAWN and RITUALS and is on par and maybe slightly better than either. Director Andrew Davis performed second duty as the cinematographer on set and would go on to direct the mega-blockbuster THE FUGITIVE with Harrison Ford - even at this stage of his career you can see the quality of his craft and the film benefits from it.

THE FINAL TERROR is an eerie and slow-burn with some sweet visceral violence but apparently the producers thought it was so slow they put it on a shelf for a few years until Daryl Hannah made it big with BLADE RUNNER. Hoping to exploit the star's minor role in this entry the producers tagged on an unnecessary prologue which awkwardly bumped up the body count by two. The handful of remaining deaths are not gory in execution but the set-ups are tense and quite effective. One scene that stands out is the assault on the bus with the killer smashing in the windows in an attempt to get at the teens inside - a very atmospheric and tense situation.

The cast is top notch with a slew of first-timers and future stars including a pre-BLADE RUNNER Daryl Hannah and Joe Pantoliano (MEMENETO) plus the douche from ANIMAL HOUSE. Everyone turns in a solid performance even if most of the young ladies don't have meaty roles. The standout here is Pantoliano as the agitated bus driver who seems a bit off from the beginning and only gets worse as the film roles along before disappearing for a large chunk of the movie.

The original negative and film elements are thought to be lost so what Scream Factory have done here is stitched together a new HD master from six prints of the film sourced from collectors. Keeping that in mind I found the image to be surprisingly consistent throughout though marred by flickering and other imperfections such as vertical lines,, cigarette burns and speckling. Whatever digital manipulation used to clean-up the film we are left with a fairly consistent grain structure with some minor depth and fine detail in certain scenes. The only audio option is the DTS-HD Master Audio Mono which is clean and  does a good job of exporting the dialogue and Susan Justin's eerie synth score including a great main title theme. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided on the disc. 

Special features on the disc include a new audio commentary with director Andrew Davis who speaks at length about the cast and location with a few fun anecdotes about the production such as how the prologue added by producer Samuel Z. Arkoff ended up paying for his wedding. There are also new interviews with actors Adrien Zmed and Lewis Smith plus the husband and wife duo of production supervisor Allan Holzman and composer Susan Justin. .

THE FINAL TERROR is strong backwoods slasher with an interesting killer and a creepy vibe set in the gorgeous redwood forest. This gets a definite recommend for fans of the kindred RITUALS and JUST BEFORE DAWN who are looking for an above average slasher entry with some strong survival-horror elements.