DEADLY PREY (1987) (Blu-ray Review)

DEADLY PREY (1987)

Label: Olive Films I Slasher // Video
Region: A
Duration: 88 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.33:1) 
Director: David A. Prior
Actors: Ted Prior, Cameron Mitchell, Troy Donahue, David Campbell, Fritz Matthews

Synopsis: The sadistic and psychopathic Colonel Hogan (David Campbell, The Deadliest Prey, Relentless Justice) is a mercenary for hire who finds a benefactor in Don Michaelson (Troy Donahue, Shock ‘Em Dead, Cry-Baby), a ruthless businessman in need of skilled killers for a special assignment. It’s a win-win for both sides. Michaelson will finance Hogan’s training camp and Hogan will use his trained mercenaries to help out Michaelson. Hogan has the manpower. What he doesn’t have is the prey to hunt in preparation for the big day. His solution: troll the streets of Los Angeles and randomly abduct people. What Hogan didn’t count on was that one of those people would be Mike Danton (Ted Prior, The Deadliest Prey, Relentless Justice). Danton, a Marine with killer skills, doesn’t take too kindly to being kidnapped. Hogan, Michaelson and the mercenaries are in for a world of pain in the action-packed thrill ride Deadly Prey. Deadly Prey co-stars Cameron Mitchell (Hombre, Klansman), Dawn Abraham (Mike’s Murder) and Suzzane Tara (TV’s General Hospital).

In this cheap knock-off of First Blood we have the hard body actor Ted Prior (Killer Workout) as a former 'Nam vet named Danton who is kidnapped from right in front of his home while taking out the trash. The kidnappers are a group of mercenaries lead by Colonel Hogan (David Campbell) who are abducting people and using themas human prey to fine-tune their killer instincts. Unfortunately for the mercenaries they don't realize that Danton is one of Hogan's former soldiers, a deadly killing machine, and he's not finished taking out the trash just yet. 

Cheap doesn't even begin to describe how poor this production is, made for the home video market this one looks like it cost about ten dollars to make in the woods behind the director's house, honestly it make Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except (1985) look like Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now in comparison. Which is not to say I didn't have fun with this pumped-up action movie, loaded with a high body count and enough macho corniness to keep you plugged in through to the end credits. 

The star of this straight-to-video action cult-classic is Ted Prior, the muscle bound brother of director David A. Prior, who here looks a bit like the poor man's version of Mark Singer from Beastmaster. Prior has a golden mullet, a ripped body and a tiny pair of cut-off jean shorts... and he doesn't need much else to lay waste to dozen of Hogan's well-armed men, just a sharpened stick and this wanna-be Rambo is good to go

The kills comes fast and furious, throwing logic out the window, this guy is a one-man killing machine, the only soldier to give him a run for his money is the mercenary Lt. Simmons (Fritz Mathews) who was the beefy lunkhead that Prior fought in the parking lot in Killer Workout, good to these two facing off against each other again. The damn story is paper thin, basically we have the former 'Nam vet squaring off against a squadron of blood-thirsty mercenaries, but writer/director David A. Prior pads it out with some corny filler. We have a wealthy businessman named Michaelson (Tony Danahue) who funds the mercenaries for nefarious reasons that go nowhere, add Danton's poor wife Jaimy (Suzanne Tara) who is also abused and raped, and her father played by veteran actor Cameron Mitchell, who by this point in the '80s would occasionally appear in tasty trash like Without Warning (1980), Raw Force (1982) and From a Whisper to a Scream (1987), but seemed to take about any trashy role thrown at him. He's wasted in more ways than one here but he at least gets one very strange scene and monologue before dying. David Campbell who plays Colonel Hogan gets the best dialogue in the movie. Lovers of bad b-movies might remember him as the angry Detective Morgan from Prior's Killer Workout.  This was a fun slice of action-trash cinema, the '80s were a special time and this is certainly a special sort of movie from a director known for some seriously entertaining low-budget straight-to-video cinema, sure, it's not a "good" movie in the traditional sense but it is highly entertaining and if you have a fondness for trashy cult-cinema this is gonna be a good time in front of the TV. 

Before his passing earlier this year director David A. Prior reunited with bother Ted, David Campbell and Fritz Mathews for a sequel to Deadly Prey, aptly titled Deadliest Prey (2013), also available on Blu-ray from Olive Films and Slasher // Video, which I am keenly looking forward to watching tonight.  

Audio/Video: Disclaimer: Deadly Prey is presented using the best available elements provided by Slasher // Video. Not sourced from an HD Master; remastered from PAL Beta SP and upconverted to Blu-ray and DVD specifications.

So again we have the disclaimer that as with Killer Workout this is sourced from a PAL formatted SD tape source, so what you have is a flat and thick VHS quality image with the added hindrance of a PAL to NTSC conversion. The audio is a bit on the muffled side and not up to Blu-ray standards, but it is intelligible Extras on the disc include a new interview with Make-Up Effects Artists Jack Hojohn who worked on the cash-strapped production, he speaks about his early love of make-up effects and receiving the Pressman Dick Smith make-up kits as a gift for Christmas and how he came onto the project. There's also about 6-minutes of Spanish-dubbed scenes from the movie, an image gallery, a trailer and 4-minutes of outtakes from the production. 

Special Feature: 
- Interview with Make-Up Effects Artists Jack Hojohn (15 Mins) HD
- Photo Gallery (7 Mins) 
- Dubbed Prey (6 Mins) 
- Deadly Prey Trailer
- Outtakes (4 Mins) 

It's not an attractive presentation by any means, and HD fans will not be pleased with how this looks on their high-definition TVs, honestly there's not reason for this to exist on the Blu-ray format, but I do appreciate that Slasher // Video and Olive Films have gone through the trouble of making this slice of '80s action-cheese available to the b-movie loving masses at an affordable price, it speaks to their love of trash cinema, and we love 'em for it. 3/5.

KILLER WORKOUT (1986) (Blu-ray Review)

KILLER WORKOUT (1986) 
(AKA AEROBI-CIDE)

Label: Olive Films I Slasher // Video
Release Date: November 17, 2015
Rated: R
Duration: 85 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 
Video: Full Frame (1.33:1) 
Cast: Ted Prior, Marcia Karr, David James Campbell, Fritz Matthews
Director: David A. Prior
Tagline: Going to the gym may be hazardous to your health. In fact, it could kill you.

Synopsis: Valerie, a model with a promising career, Valerie heads out to the local fitness club to use their sun-tanning bed. She needs to look her best for her Cosmopolitan magazine cover shoot. Alas, Valerie’s visit will end in tragedy when the machine malfunctions, burning her to death. Despite Valerie’s death being a public relations nightmare, things are back up and running at the club with the iron-fisted Rhonda (Marci Karr, Maniac Cop) in charge. But tragedy is lurking just around the corner when another club member is soon found stabbed to death. Enter Lieutenant Morgan (David James Campbell, Scarecrows), the cop on the case. Tasked with solving the crimes, he’s in for more than he expected as the body count rises. Who’s behind the grizzly slayings? What’s their motive? And, who will be the next victim?

Killer Workout is one of my favorite '80s horror entries and for all the wrong reasons, it's a corny slasher from the '80s that is centered around a local fitness club where the aerobic-toned bodies just keep piling up. The killer's weapon of choice is one of the strangest oddities of the movie, a ridiculously over-sized safety, yet it is played straight without any humor intended. However, when you first see that safety pin raised high into the air as the killer prepares to plunge it into the first victim's neck in the shower I dare you not to laugh, this is very silly stuff, but that's why I enjoy it, for the camp and kitsch of this high energy cash-strapped slasher production, not as cash-strapped as maybe the Satan's Blade (1983), also released on Blu-ray from Slasher // Video and Olive Films, but pretty cheap just the same. 

Most '80s slashers are a a bit on the goofy side when it comes down to it, even a solid slasher is just a hair away from falling into camp, and this is one of the goofiest slashers of all, complete with variety of weird characters. We have Rhonda (Marcia Karr) who runs the fitness center with an iron-fist. Then her second in command, the blond tramp Jaimy (Teresa Van Der Woude) with her purse overflowing with rubbers, and there's the muscle headed Jimmy (Fritz Matthews), a regular at the gym who according to Jaimy loves to tie women up and get a little rough, the guy's a creep and one of the most obvious red-herrings.. 

After the first murder Detective Lieutenant Morgan (David James Campbell) arrives at the gym to investigate, meanwhile aerobic classes are still being held in the room next door, they don't even bother to shut down the gym. This guy cracked me up, acting as if he thought this was a hard boiled noir whodunit instead of a cheesy '80s slasher. The next new face on the scene is a handsome, sculpted blond named Chuck (Ted Prior, Deadly Prey), who Rhonda catches snooping through her office, revealing himself to be an investigator of sorts, hired by the mysterious senior partner of the gym. a thread that never comes to anything. Chuck's good looks threaten Jimmy and the two come to fisticuffs in the parking, to the delight of Jaimy who is all too turned-on by Chuck's display of masculine power, cue the hi-energy aerobic music and these two are back at her place and in the sack in record time, this guy could teach Dr. Challis from Halloween III: Season of the Witch a thing or two about bedding women in record time!

Of course more safety-pin murders occur at the gym and in between we're treated to numerous scenes of attractive ladies wrapped in skin-tight spandex, headbands and legwarmers. This is the sort of aerobic-stretching that really tightened my pants as a youth, in the early '80s when I would watch those 20-Minute Workouts on TV before school. Not so much contributing to my love of aerobic exercise but to the massive development of my right-arm, haha. 

I won't spoil the identity of who's murdering these hard bodies in Killer Workout other than to say it was fun and there are a few somewhat shocking moments, including the scarred body of the killer. It's a little on the strange side, maybe not well done, but still a fun slice of '80s slasher cheese with some corny twist and turns that make this a blast to sit through and pick apart for just how silly it is, definitely a relic of the '80s. So throw it on and enjoy the eighties aerobics, the silly songs ('She's a knockout, better look out, she'll take you out !'), the ample nudity and the ridiculousness of the safety pin murders. Only the eighties offered cheese this vintage, many modern indie slasher movie try to capture the aesthetic and unintentional camp witnesses here, but very few can even come close to the authentic stuff.
Audio/Video: Disclaimer: Killer Workout is presented using the best available elements provided by Slasher // Video. Not sourced from an HD Master; remastered from from PAL Beta SP and upconverted to Blu-ray and DVD specifications.  (from the DVD)

Killer Workout is a movie I first acquired through iOffer, a burned copy of poor quality, I had always assumed it was a Shot-On-Video (SOV) movie like Boardinghouse or Blood Cult for the longest time, but it turns out that this is not the case after all. This was shot on film but apparently the only surviving elements was a PAL Beta SP, so what you're watching is pretty much an upconverted version from a PAL formatted tape source with some flaws you're not use to seeing in 1080p HD, such as VHS tracking lines. I think fans of the movie will be quite pleased with what we have here, despite the inherent flaws of the non-HD source material I found this to be a significant upgrade over my burned disc from iOffer. The English DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio is also sourced from a PAL Beta SP and is not crisp by any standard but is not bad, it can be muffled and the dialogue still drops to a very low level during the final moments of the movie, but compared to what we have had available to us before this is an upgrade. This print bares the alternate title card of 'Aerobicide', the original 'Killer Workout' title sequence is available in the extras. 

Onto the extras we have an image gallery of poster art, promotional stuff and VHS box art, the original Killer workout title sequence, and a Slasher // Video re-release trailer for the movie. Unfortunately we do not have any interviews with the late Director David A. Prior, who dies earlier this year, or his brother, actor Ted Prior. I  would have settled for an interview with Marcia Karr but we don't get anything, not even a fan commentary. These are all just nitpicks though, I am pleased as punch that we have this on Blu-ray, this is a movie that in the back of my mind was on an unwritten list of movies that would never see the light of day on an HD format, thanks to the efforts of Jesus Teran and Slasher // Video here it is, not perfect, not widescreen, but as perfect as we are likely to ever have, so dig in. 

Special Features: 
- Photo Gallery (8 Mins) 
- Original Killer Workout Title Sequence (1 Mins) 
- Killer workout Trailer (2 Mins) 


The joy of Killer Workout (AKA Aerobi-cide) is that it's straight-up eighties slasher cheese wrapped-up in neon-colored spandex with some nudity and goofy kills. They can't all be My Bloody Valentine (1981), but they aren't all this enjoyably bad either, you lovers of eighties slasher cheese out there need this in your life, you need it now, so have at it. 3/5