LASERBLAST (1978) (Full Moon Blu-ray Review)

LASERBLAST (1978)

Label: Full Moon Features

Region Code: A

Duration: 82 Minutes 

Rating: Unrated

Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono 2.0, Surround 5.1

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen 

Director: Michael Rae

Cast: Cheryl Smith, Roddy McDowall, Kim Milford, Gianni Russo, Keenan Wynn, Eddie Deezen 

Laserblast opens with a green-skinned alien wandering the Southern Californian desert when two stop-motion aliens arrive in a space craft, they disintegrate the green-skinned alien after an exchange of laser-fire but are scared off by an approaching Cessna airplane before they can recover the weapon and and accompanying amulet. 

From here we follow the exploits of teen-loner Billy Duncan (Kim Milford, Corvette Summer), hopping in his sweet 70's van to visit his girlfriend Kathy (Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith, Massacre at Central High), but instead he is hassled by the girls deranged grandfather Colonel Farley (Keenan Wynn, Piranha) and doesn't end up seeing her. As we continue to follow Billy we see he is not well liked, and is hassled by bullies Chuck and Froggy, the latter of whom is played by eternal-dweeb Eddie Deezen (1941), he makes for quite the nasally and nerd-afflicted bully, which is hilarious. Billy is also hassled by two local keystone stoner-cops who issue him a speeding ticket. 

Later while wandering alone if the desert Billy discovers the laser gun and amulet left behind by the aliens, and figures out how to use them in combination with one another - blasting desert scrub brush for fun. With the discovery of the weapon and amulet Billy begins to change, from a somewhat typical brooding-teen with a chip on his shoulder he becomes more resentful and vengeful, the weapon/amulet combo seems to have an adverse effect on his personality, heightening his sense of alienation and propensity for violence.

It also has some physical side effects, where the amulet touches his chest begins to show signs of a strange growth, his concerned girlfriend makes him see the local doc, played by a clearly slumming-it Roddy McDowall (Fright Night) who is there and gone before you know it, a victim of the alien-influence on the murderous teen. He continues to turn green and his teeth sharpen, he seems possessed by the weapon. 

From space the aliens observe Billy and what he's up to, making him the target of a pair of aliens who return to earth to recover the laser gun, but the now deformed and menacing Billy is running around town like a feral Tusken Raider blasting mailboxes, newsstands, pinball games, telephone booths and cars, which is a lot of fun, with loads of fiery car and stuff exploding real nice, they even blow-up a billboard advertising the original Star Wars (1977). 

The main draw for me to this schlock-cinema classic is the vintage stop-motion animation from David Allen, which was hist first job working for Charles Band. The aliens are rough looking but I love the vintage look of the stop-motion creatures, sort of looking like elongated turds with eyes and laser guns, but it has a certain 70's drive-in charm. I also loved the small turns from Keenan Wynn and Roddy McDowall, these guys always class up a picture. There's also a fun electronic score from Richard Band (Re-Animator) alongside Joel Goldsmith (The Man with Two Brains) — son of legendary score-composer Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen), which was the first movie score for both these guys. 

The film is awful but it is a fun watch, there's a reason it was lampooned by the MST3K crew, if you love 70's drive-in schlock there's a lot to love with this slice of Charles Band produced science fiction, but the acting from Kim Milford, who lurches around like a green-skinned, laser-equipped orangutan for the final third of the movie before being done-in by the aliens with a deadly pink laser blast!  On a side not, based on the original poster art, which is used for this Blu-ray release, I always thought that Klaus Kinski starred in it, the rendering of Kim Milford looks a lot like the wild-eyed Kinski.   

Audio/Video: Laserblast (1978) arrives on Blu-ray from Full Moon with a new HD scan from the 35mm answer print and it looks surprisingly good. Grain is a bit chunky at times and there's some white speckling, dirt and minor print damage but the image is decently bright and satisfying. Fine detail is less than stellar, but the colors are decently vibrant with some reds and blues popping nicely, but overall this is not a vibrant movie, lots of earth tones, but decently rendered for Blu-ray. Audio on the disc includes the usual Full Moon lossy-audio,  with both English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono and 5.1 surround options - there are no subtitles provided. The sound is decently mixed, canned sound effects, dialogue and the Goldsmith/Band score sounds good, not super crisp, but well-balanced and clean sounding. 

This release includes a brand new audio commentary by Director Charles Band and his brother Composer Richard Band. The track is fun and laid back, as are most Band commentaries. The recalling mostly what's happening on screen, working with the cast, poking fun at the movie and generally having a good time. It's not very scholarly or well-informed Band could barely recall Kim Milford's name, but it like the movie has a charm, at one pint Richard begins speaking about "bush gardens" in regard to 70's pubic hair, as Charlie feigns embarrassment, which is about par for the course on this track. 

There's also a selection of vintage trailers, including Cinderella, Crash, The Day Time Ended, End of the World, Fairytales, Mansion of the Doomed, and Tourist Trap, however, notably Cinderella and Tourist Trap would not play when selected, which is probably a disc authoring issue. 

Special Features:
- Brand New Audio Commentary by Charles and Richard Band
- Vintage Trailers: Cinderella, Crash (4 min), The Day Time Ended (1 min), End of the World (1 min), Fairytales (2 min) HD, Mansion of the Doomed (2 min), Tourist Trap 

I am loving these vintage Charles Band produced movies coming to Blu-ray, they're not all great, but seeing these VHS era cult-classics getting the HD treatment brings on the nostalgia in a big bad way, we get aliens, lasers, stop-motion, mutations and Roddy McDowall and Keenan Wynn for the win! 
 
 

COMING SOON! Empire Pictures Blu-ray Collector's Box Set!

EMPIRE PICTURES BLU-RAY COLLECTION

Stunning new limited edition, numbered and signed Blu-ray box set celebrates the legacy of '80s genre film studio Empire Pictures.
Every horror and cult movie fan who came of age in the 1980s still speaks in hushed tones about the late, great Empire Pictures. Founded by producer and director Charles Band in 1983, the fabled studio and distributor was responsible for a tidal wave of amazing, imaginative and profitable horror, science fiction and fantasy films many of which have become definitive works and high water marks of their respective genres.

And though Band moved on in the early 1990s to form Full Moon Features - which is still operating successfully today - the wild movies he made during the Empire years continues to loom large.

Now, as a gift to the legion of rabid Empire fans out there, Band and Full Moon (in collusion with Shout! Factory) will release The Empire Pictures Blu-ray Collection, a massive LIMITED EDITION collection (only 600 are being produced) featuring 18 films on 15 discs (14 Blu-rays and 1 DVD) packaged in a stunning, sturdy and elegant black collectors box adorned with a GOREgeous collage of original Empire poster art. Inside there will be an exclusive 24 page book with writing from Band, Empire of the B's author Dave Jay and Delirium editor Chris Alexander. Each set will be numbered and signed by Charles Band.

Classic Empire films included in this set are:

METALSTORM(1983) 
METALSTORM (1983)(3-D version)
THE DUNGEONMASTER (1985) 
GHOULIES (1985) 
TRANCERS (1984) 
ELIMINATORS (1986) 
CRAWLSPACE (1986) 
FROM BEYOND (1986) 
TERRORVISION (1986) 
TROLL (1986) 
DOLLS (1987) 
PRISON (1987) 
CELLAR DWELLER (1988) 
CATACOMBS (1993) 
GHOST TOWN (1988) 
GHOULIES 2 (1987) 
ROBOT JOX (1990) 
ARENA (1989)(DVD)

The Empire Pictures Blu-ray 
Collection ($250 US per unit) will be officially released on May 5th with a pre-sale going live on April 28th at www.FullMoonDirect.com

These units will not be sold in stores and can only be purchased at www.FullMoonDirect.com. Select units will be available at fan conventions across the U.S. where the Full Moon crew is scheduled to appear and vend.

H.P. LOVECRAFT'S LURKING FEAR (1994) (Blu-ray Review)

H.P. LOVECRAFT'S LURKING FEAR (1994) 

Label: Full Moon
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: R
Duration: 77 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen 
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital  2.0 
Director: C. Courtney Joyner
Cast: Jon Finch, Blake Adams, Ashley Laurence, Jeffrey Combs

Synopsis: The town of Leffert's Corners has been plagued by unearthly beings for decades, and now there is only a few people left, including the local priest and a woman traumatized by the death of her sister. But when John Martense turns up to claim his illicit family fortune, with bad guys in pursuit, the last stand had become a lot more complicated.... What everyone is not aware of are the humanoid creatures lurking underneath the holy grounds! Based on the writings of H P Lovecraft.

Full Moon's mid 90s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's Lurking Fear strays far from the macabre source material, even ham-fisting a crime plot into the proceeding with the introduction of an ex-con named John Martense (Blake Adams) who returns to his childhood home of Lefferts Corner to recover a buried cash of money, which was buried in the local cemetery by his ate father with the help of the local mortician Knaggs, played by the odd-looking character actor Vincent Schiavelli of Better Off Dead. 

Digging up the buried loot proves to be more difficult than originally planned when a trio of violent gangsters arrive in Leffert's Corner also intent on recovering the buried money, which is rightfully theirs. Mobster Bennett (John Finch) shows up along with his seductive femme fatal Ms. Marlowe (Allison Mackie), and henchman Pierce (Joseph Leavengood). They each descend upon the small village at about the same time but none of them realize that Lefert's Corners is infested with cannibalistic creatures that dwell below the ground, and on the day they show up the town's few remaining survivors have planned an all out assault on the grotesque creatures. B-movie icon Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) shows up as the wry Dr. Haggis, then we have Hellraiser's Ashley Laurence as the ass-kicking Cathryn and the town Priest (Paul Mantee), who seems intent on martyrdom.

The movie begins with a bang-up intro with two sisters in a mansion with a bay, they're besieged by the long-fingered flesh eating creature who have taken up inside the walls of the dilapidated place, when one is snapped in half and dragged through a hole in the wall  to her death, the surviving sister is Cathryn (Laurence) who becomes obsessed with avenging her sibling. It's a good atmospheric set-up, but unfortunately the disjointed movie fails deliver anything near as good after the opening credits. 

A lot of the movies failure in my mind has to do with the large cast, all played by mostly capable actors, aside from a wooden lead from Adams, but they're undefined and their motivations are shallow and rote, they're just rough sketches of characters. Poor Jeffrey Combs is criminally underused, and they're are just too many damn characters to invest in, they're here for canon-fodder and the characters are streched too thin and poorly written. 

The cannibalistic creatures are nicely designed and look creepy onscreen but are glimpsed sparsely, these white-eyed deformities are awesome, I only wish we had more of them onscreen. Watching the movie I could not help but think if the story had just stuck to the original source material a bit more, if they hadn't of crow-barred in the crime plot, and stuck with the small town horror of the source material, that this could have been something special, but this is largely forgettable despite the kernel of a good idea, the inclusion of Jeffrey Combs and some very cool creature effects. 

The same source material was used for the movie Bleeders (1996) which also strays from the source but had a more solid story, defined characters  and creepier atmosphere. Originally Stuart Gordon (From Beyond) was slated to direct this as a period piece for Empire Pictures, I can only imagine what we missed out on there, surely it would have been better than what we ended up with, which is not awful, but a middle of the road '90s horror entry.  

Lurking Fear arrives on Blu-ray from Full Moon framed in 1080p HD widescreen looking crisp and clean, the image has some nice sharpness and clarity with pleasing moments of fine detail. The movies original aspect ratio is 1.33:1 full frame, what we have hear is a re-framed image, and taking that into consideration I think they did a good job, the picture doesn't feel cramped, though I wish they would have included both the original full frame and widescreen versions of the movie for the sake of completeness. Again FM go the lossy audio route with Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 and Stereo 2.0, of which I preferred the stereo option, there are no subtitles. Dialogue, score and effects are rendered clean and crisp, no issues with the audio, but it would have benefited from a DTS-HD MA upgrade. 

Extras on the Blu-ray begin with an audio commentary from director C. Courtney Joyner who offers a detailed commentary about the making of the movie. There's also a vintage Videozone featurette with on-set interviews from Jeffrey Combs, Ashley Laurence, Allison Mackie, and director C. Courtney Joyner with some cool behind-the-scenes video. There's also four minutes of deleted scenes without any sync sound or subtitles,  apparently those elements have been forever lost, plus there's a selection of FM trailers. 

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentary with Director C. Courtney Joyner
- Videozone (Making of Lurking Fear) (7 Mins)
- Deleted Scenes w/o dialogue, just music (4 Mins)
- Theatrical Trailer (3 Mins)
- Teaser Trailer (1 Mins) 

Lurking Fear missed the mark for me despite some interesting elements, strong creature design, and a decent cast. It's a poor Lovecraft adaptation and the story is too heavy on cast and a clumsy script. The mix of crime with the  Lovecratftian doesn't marry well onscreen, however, if you're a Full Moon completist I have to say the new HD image looks quite nice, just wish FM would opt for lossless audio on their Blu-rays releases.