DVD Review: MEMORY OF THE DEAD (2012)

MEMORY OF THE DEAD (2012) 

Label: Artsploitation Films

Region: 1

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 89 Minutes
Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Valentín Javier Diment

Cast: Gabriel Guity, Lola Berthet, Matias Marmorato

We start off with a creepy and macabre lullaby as a young woman, Alicia, wakes up from a frightful nightmare to find her beloved husband Jorge laying dead next to her. Forward forty-nine days later and she has assembled a small group of Jorge's closest friends at her rural home for a reading of a letter Jorge left behind for each of them, and to celebrate his life. 

Perhaps not surprisingly when the film is titles Memory of the Dead there's a bit more to the story than that. It seems Alicia has called upon these friends in an effort to resurrect Jorge from the grave through the occult, and as the clock strikes midnight odd and menacing things creep up on each of the mourners with violent results. 

Argentinian director Valentín Javier Diment's film is a pretty simple conceit, a variation on the classic cabin-in-the-woods story filtered through the eyes of Dario Argento, a phantasmic nightmare of malevolent spirits and geysers of ferocious gore. The images conjured are demented and sopping with blood, the gore hounds will not be disappointed by the visceral experience but some might be a bit turned off (or maybe just confused) by the pervasive dream logic, the narrative can be a bit disjointed at times.

I found the performances to be very natural, if sometimes a bit campy. There's definitely a macabre sense of humor at play throughout the film, it's not all dread and nightmares, particularly the finale. The group of mourners are on the surface friendly with each other but as the night creeps in those friendships are quickly torn asunder and betrayal is evident at every turn. 

The production looks fantastic while the image doesn't have a lot of depth to it's superbly lit in every shot and each sequence is framed nicely, this is a gorgeous film with oodles of macabre atmosphere and surreal imagery. I give this a high recommend, a creepy and nightmarish version of Evil Dead 2 (1987) by way of Argento's Suspiria (1977) and one heck of a ferocious gore-fest, totally fun. 3.5 Outta 5 

ARROW VIDEO 2014 PREVIEW

As 2013 winds down we look forward to what's coming in the new year from our favorite genre film distributors here at the Mausoleum. UK-based distributor Arrow Video have for years assembled quality titles with sweet transfers, new artwork and interesting special features. They've celebrated the careers of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, George A. Romero, Mario Bava and Brian DePalma just to name a notable few, plus rescued many an obscure and scuzzy b-movie from the dirty vaults of horror cinema, they've always been a class act.

I must admit that since the inception of Shout! Factory's horror imprint Scream Factory here in the US I've been hard-pressed for cash to purchase import titles from Arrow and others (Second Sight, Shameless) and my import collection has suffered for it. Unfortunately the sad truth is I only have so much in the budget for movies, somehow I have to feed the mouths and keep the lights on and something had to give. However, I do love Arrow Video, in fact they are the only reason I went region-free a few years back and they continue to be one of my favorite distributors, and 2014 looks to be a great year once again. 

It's great to see Arrow continue their brilliant series of Mario Bava and Brian DePalma Blu-rays in 2014. Arrow have been on a DePalma jag this past year the way that Scream Factory have championed John Carpenter , it's just fantastic stuff. 2014 will also see the release of some euro-eroticism from Tinto Brass, Jack Hill's Pit Stop (1969), Larry Cohen's The Stuff (1985) and the Southwest thriller White of the Eye (1987) which are among my most anticipated titles going into the new year, check out the sweet steelbook editions of Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and White of the Eyes (1987) - wow.

Read on and check out the releases through March 2014 with street dates, artwork and special features plus Amazon pre-order links... 

HELLGATE (1989) 

Release Date: January 27th 2014
Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD

Cast: Ron Palillo, Abigail Wolcott, Carel Trichardt
Director: William A. Levey

BEYOND THE DARKNESS TERROR LIVES FOREVER

SYNOPSIS: Legends abound of ‘The Hellgate Hitchhiker’. So the story goes, a beautiful young woman was once brutally defiled and murdered by a biker gang. Now, returned from the dead, she wanders the roadside luring unsuspecting motorists to their doom…

Refusing to heed the warnings of locals, a group of college friends set out on a cross-country road trip looking for fun and frolics. But they get much more than they bargained for when they wind up in the abandoned mining town of Hellgate and hemmed in by hordes of the undead!

Providing gore and gags in equal measure, Hellgate recalls the good old days of early 90s fright flicks and challenges other gleefully twisted flicks such as Re-animator and Return of the Living Dead for sheer grisly delirium!
SPECIAL FEATURES:
-Limited edition Blu-ray [1000 Copies]
-High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the main feature
-Road to Perdition, B-Movie Style: An extensive interview with Hellgate director William A. Levey
-Alien Invasion, Blaxploitation and Ghost-Busting Mayhem: Scholar, Filmmaker and fan Howard S. Berger reflects on the intriguing film career of William A. Levey
-Video Nasty: Kenneth Hall, writer of the Puppet Master series, speaks about the direct-to-video horror boom that allowed Hellgate to become a classic of the cassette rental era
-Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
-Collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by Lee Gambin, illustrated with original artwork and stills

DETAILS:
Region: B/2
Rating: 18
Cat No: FCD850
Duration: 91 mins
Language: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio: Mono
Colour: Colour

HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN (1988)

Release Date January 27th 2014

Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD
Cast: Julius LeFlore, RCB, Roddy Piper
Director: Donald G. Jackson, R.J. Kizer

SYNOPSIS: With the 20th Century drawing to a close, nuclear war has wiped out civilization as we know it. The embattled human race’s last remaining hope lies with one man and his loaded weapon.

Sam Hell may be an ex-con, but he also happens to be one of the last surviving fertile men on the planet. Now, under the custody of a group of feisty female fighters, Sam finds himself enlisted on a mission to impregnate a harem of beauties. Sounds cushy enough, but the ladies in question are prisoners of Frogtown – home to a gang of mutant (and ill-mannered) amphibians!

Starring wrestler-turned-actor Rowdy Roddy Piper, known to John Carpenter enthusiasts for his body-slamming and bubblegum-chewing antics in They Live, Hell Comes to Frogtown is unashamedly a B-movie through and through with more guns and girls than you can shake a frog’s leg at.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
-Limited Edition Blu-ray [1000 copies]
-High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
-Original uncompressed stereo 2.0 PCM audio
-Grappling with Green Gargantuans: Wrestling icon "Rowdy" Roddy Piper speaks about his leading man turn in Hell Comes to Frogtown
-Amphibian Armageddon: Actor Brian Frank remembers his role as Commander Toty
-Creature Feature Creator: Effects wizard Steve Wang reveals the secrets behind Hell Comes to Frogtown's mutant manifestations
-Extended Scene
-Original Trailer
-Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jeff Zornow
-Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by author and critic Calum Waddell

Region: B/2
Rating: 15
Cat No: FCD849
Duration: 87 mins
Language: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio: 2.0 PCM
Colour: Colour

FRIVOLOUS LOLA (1998) 

Release Date: February 10th 2014
Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD
Cast: Anna Ammirati, Patrick Mower, Max Parodi
Director: Tinto Brass

SYNOPSIS: One of the sunniest of Tinto Brass’s erotic comedies, this sets its breezy tone from the opening scene in which Lola (Anna Ammirati) cycles around a small Po Valley town in a flapping skirt that leaves nothing to the imagination.

But it’s the 1950s, and her baker fiancée Masetto (Max Parodi) is determined that Lola remains a virgin until their wedding night. However, she is equally set on establishing whether or not he’s a good lover before they tie the knot. His dough-kneading technique seems promising, but how can she be sure without an expert to compare him with? In short, can Masetto live up to the erotic ideals professed by Lola’s mother’s lover (Patrick Mower)?

Fortunately, the outwardly innocent town turns out to be a hotbed of licentiousness, with opportunities for voyeurism and maybe more around every corner – all in the interests of self-improving research, of course.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New High Definition digital transfer
- Newly commissioned artwork
- Collector’s booklet
More to be announced!

DETAILS:
Region: B/2
Rating: 18
Duration: TBC
Language: English
Subtitles: TBC
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio: TBC
Colour: Color

CHEEKY (2003) 

Release Date: February 10th 2014
Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD
Cast: Yuliya Mayarchuk, Jarno Berardi, Francesca Nunzi
Director: Tinto Brass

SYNOPSIS: When free-spirited beauty Carla (Yuliya Mayarchuk) moves to London, her search for a flat leads to a lesbian seduction by estate agent Moira (Francesca Nunzi), much to the horror of Carla’s boyfriend Matteo (Jarno Berardi) still stuck in their native Venice. And then he discovers a cache of letters from an ex-boyfriend, accompanied by a highly revealing and very public photograph of her…

Ravishingly shot in two of the world’s great cities, bouncily scored by Pino Donaggio, and crammed with wall-to-wall nudity and casual sexual flings, Cheeky is as lighthearted as its title suggests, but it’s subtler and more philosophical than the average sex romp.

In particular, it’s a genuinely moving look at problems arising when a desire to remain scrupulously faithful collides with the lure of baser instincts. Carla genuinely loves Matteo, but how can she reassure him when he spots temptation around every corner?
SPECIAL FEATURES:
-High Definition Blu-ray and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the film uncut and in widescreen for the first time!
-Optional English and Italian audio
-Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian audio
-Featurette on the film with director Tinto Brass
-Original Trailer
-Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly designed artwork by -The Red Dress
-Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic and author Maitland McDonagh, illustrated with original
archive stills.

Region: B/2
Rating: 18
Cat No: FCD761
Duration: 91 mins
Language: English/Italian
Subtitles: English/English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (16x9)
Audio: 2.0 mono
Colour: Colour

PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974) 

Release Date: February 7th 2014
Format: Blu-ray
Cast: Paul Williams, William Finley, Jessica Harper
Director: Brian De Palma

SYNOPSIS: Brian De Palma’s inspired rock’n’roll fusion of Faust, The Phantom of the Opera and The Picture of Dorian Gray boasts an Oscar-nominated score by Paul Williams, who also stars as an evil record producer who not only steals the work of composer/performer Winslow Leach (William Finley) but gets him locked up in Sing Sing – and that’s not the worst that happens to him along the way.

Few revenge scenarios have ever been so amply justified, but the film is also constantly aware of the satirical possibilities offered by the 1970s music industry, exemplified by Gerrit Graham’s hilariously camp glam-rock star. Jessica Harper (Suspiria) appears in her first major role as the naïve but ambitious singer, on whom Winslow secretly dotes.

STEELBOOK EDITION 

Prodigiously inventive both musically and visually, this is one of De Palma’s most entertaining romps, not least because it was so clearly a labour of love.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
The edition feature a bumper crop of extras but it will also include a very special newly filmed 70 minute interview where renowned director Guillermo del Toro interviews Paul Williams! See the full specs below and pre-order your copy on SteelBook: http://bit.ly/1h9LhtM or Blu-ray: http://bit.ly/1h9Lb5k now!

SPECIAL FEATURES:
-High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the feature, available in the UK for the first time!
-Uncompressed Stereo PCM / 4.0 DTS-HD Master Audio options
-Isolated Music and Effects soundtrack
-Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
-Paradise Regained: A 50-minute documentary on the making of the film featuring director Brian De Palma, producer Edward R. Pressman, the late star William Finley, star and composer Paul Williams, co-stars Jessica Harper and Gerrit Graham and more!
-All new 72-minute interview with Paul Williams by Guillermo del Toro
-The Swan Song Fiasco: A new video piece exploring the changes made to the film in post production
-Archive interview with costume designer Rosanna Norton
William Finley on the Phantom doll!
-Paradise Lost and Found: Alternate takes and bloopers from the cutting room floor
-Original Trailers
-Radio Spots
-Gallery of rare stills including behind-the-scenes images by photographer Randy Black
-Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Red Dress [Amaray release only]
-Limited Edition SteelBook™ packaging featuring original artwork [ SteelBook only]
-Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by festival programmer Michael Blyth and an exploration of the film’s troubled marketing history by Ari Kahan, curator of SwanArchives.org, illustrated with original stills and promotional material.

Region: B
Rating: 15
Duration: 92 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: 2.0 PCM Stereo, 4.0 DTS HD Master Audio
Colour: Colour

RABID DOGS / KIDNAPPED (1974) 

Release Date: February 24th 2014
Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD
Cast: Lea Lander, George Eastman, Riccardo Cucciolla
Director: Mario Bava

SYNOPSIS: Following difficulties in his career Mario Bava happened across an idea that would enable him to compete with the younger directors lighting up the Italian box office such as Dario Argento and Sergio Martino.

Rabid Dogs begins as $70,000 of wages are being transferred when the Ajaccio gang hit. With a hail of bullets in a quick raid they speed off in their waiting getaway car. Tough, violent and realistic, Bava’s film ramps up the tension and doesn’t stop as hostages are added and the film builds to its dizzying finale.

Unfolding in real time, a rare device seen only in earlier films such as High Noon and 12 Angry Men yet totally unheard of in Italian cinema at the time, Rabid Dogs is a singular film in Bava’s filmography and one of the greatest crime films of the period.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of two versions of the film; ‘Rabid Dogs’ – Bava’s original version posthumously completed from his notes & ‘Kidnapped’ – the re-edited, re-dubbed and re-scored version, supervised by Bava’s son and assistant Lamberto Bava and producer Alfredo Leone
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on both versions
- Audio Commentary with Bava biographer and expert Tim Lucas
- End of the Road: The Making of Rabid Dogs – A documentary featurette including interviews with Lamberto Bava, Alfredo Leone and star Lea Lander
- Original Trailer
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Stephen Thrower, a history of the multiple versions of the film from Semaforo Rosso to Rabid Dogs to Kidnapped by Peter Blumenstock, illustrated with original stills and posters
Much more to be announced!

DETAILS:
Rating: 18
Duration: TBC
Language: TBC
Subtitles: TBC
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio: TBC
Colour: Color

THE STUFF (1985) 

Release Date: March 10th 2014
Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD
Cast: Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garrett Morris
Director: Larry Cohen

Are you eating it …or is it eating you?

SYNOPSIS: The Stuff is the new dessert taking supermarket shelves by storm. It’s delicious, low in calories and – better still – doesn’t stain the family carpet… What’s not to like?! Well, for a start it has a life of its own, and we’re not talking friendly live bacteria…

Young Jason seems to be the only one who doesn’t love The Stuff – in fact he won’t go anywhere near it, after having seen the pudding crawling around the fridge one night. What’s more, everyone who eats The Stuff has started acting really weird… Now, teaming up with wise-cracking industrial saboteur “Mo”, Jason must put a stop to The Stuff and the organisation behind it or face a gooey, gloopy demise.

Coming courtesy of horror auteur Larry Cohen (director of the It’s Alive series and scribe behind the Maniac Cop trilogy), The Stuff is a titillating treat for the taste-buds which blends elements of films such as Street Trash with the straight-up B-movie flavour of The Blob. So grab a spoon and dig on into The Stuff – the taste that delivers… much more than you bargained for!

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New High Definition digital transfer
- Newly commissioned artwork
- Collector’s booklet
More to be announced!

DETAILS:
Rating: 15
Duration: TBC
Language: English
Subtitles: TBC
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio: TBC
Colour: Color

BLIND WOMAN'S CURSE 

Release Date: March 17th 2014
Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD
Cast: Meiko Kaji, Hoki Tokuda, Makoto Satô
Director: Teruo Ishii

Synopsis: From Teruo Ishii “The King of Cult”, Blind Woman’s Curse (also known as Black Cat’s Revenge) is a thrilling Yakuza film featuring eye-popping visuals, sensational fight sequences and the gorgeous Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood, Stray Cat Rock), in her first major role.

Akemi (Kaji) is a dragon tattooed leader of the Tachibana Yakuza clan. In a duel with a rival gang Akemi slashes the eyes of an opponent and a black cat appears, to lap the blood from the gushing wound. The cat along with the eye-victim go on to pursue Akemi’s gang in revenge, leaving a trail of dead Yakuza girls, their dragon tattoos skinned from their bodies.

A bizarre blend of the female Yakuza film and traditional Japanese ghost story, with a strong dash of grotesque-erotica (the same movement was a sensibility of Edogawa Rampo whose works were adapted by Ishii in Horrors of Malformed Men), Blind Woman’s Curse is a delirious mash-up of classic genre tropes, of which Ishii was no stranger, having directed everything from Super Giant films to Biker movies!

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New High Definition digital transfer
- Newly commissioned artwork
- Collector’s booklet
More to be announced!

DETAILS:
Region: B/2
Rating: TBC
Duration: TBC
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio: TBC
Colour: Colour

PIT STOP (1969) 

Release Date: March 31st 2014
Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Richard Davalos, Ellen Burstyn
Director: Jack Hill

RAW GUTS FOR GLORY! FLESH AGAINST STEEL!

SYNOPSIS: The most dangerous game ever devised, to pit man against man, flesh against steel – the figure-8 race! Jack Hill (Coffy, Foxy Brown) follows up Spider Baby, once again teaming up with Sid Haig (House of 1000 Corpses) in one of his greatest roles for this action-spectacular crash-o-rama!

Richard Davalos (East of Eden) stars as Rick Bowman, a street punk who winds up in jail after a street race goes wrong. Bailed out by race promoter Grant Willard, Davalos is put in the deadly track where he comes up against Haig’s maniacal winner Hawk Sidney. Featuring an outstanding supporting cast including Brian Donlevy (The Quatermass Xperiment) in his last film appearance, Ellen Burstyn, billed as Ellen McRae (The Exorcist) and Beverly Washburn (Spider Baby) Pit Stop is one of Hill’s lesser known films but arguably his greatest.

Filmed on a real figure-8 track, Hill and his crew were able to capture gripping real-life car wreck scenes lending the film a brilliant sense of realism. You’ve never seen a motion picture like this before – can you take it?

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New High Definition digital transfer
- Newly commissioned artwork
- Collector’s booklet
More to be announced!

DETAILS:
Region: B/2
Rating: TBC
Duration: TBC
Language: English
Subtitles: TBC
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio: TBC
Colour: Color

SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941)  

Release Date: March 17th 2014
Format: Blu-ray 
Cast: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick
Director: Preston Sturges

VERONICA LAKE’S ON THE TAKE

SYNOPSIS: Director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is one of Hollywood’s hottest talents, with an uncanny gift for getting audiences rolling in the aisles. But he’s dissatisfied: he wants to abandon comedy for Serious Statements, and buys the rights to celebrated social-realist novel ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’

To make his masterpiece as realistic as possible, Sullivan naturally has to understand how the book’s downtrodden characters must have felt, so he takes to the road as a hobo, is taken under the wing of a failed actress (Veronica Lake), and learns several valuable home truths about the importance of not patronising his audience.

Writer-director Preston Sturges had an inspired run in the 1940s, turning out some of the funniest American comedies ever made (The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek). Sullivan’s Travels is one of his best: not just hilarious but also truly wise.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- -New high definition digital transfer
- Newly commissioned artwork
- Collector’s booklet
More to be announced!

DETAILS:
Region: B
Duration: TBC
Language: English
Subtitles: TBC
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio: 2.0/5.1
Colour: B+W

WHITE OF THE EYE (1987) 

Release Date: March 24th 2014
Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD
Cast: David Keith, Cathy Moriarty, Alan Rosenberg
Director: Donald Cammell

THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A HUNTER AND A KILLER …IS HIS PREY

SYNOPSIS: A serial killer is on the loose in and around the small community of Globe, Arizona, and housewife Joan White (Cathy Moriarty) gradually comes to suspect that her opera-loving hi-fi engineer husband Paul (David Keith) might know more than he’s letting on…

So far so familiar, but in the hands of British visionary Donald Cammell (who wrote and co-directed Performance with Nicolas Roeg), the film becomes a dazzling kaleidoscope of images and ideas, spanning everything from Apache folklore, desert landscapes and stylish murder set-pieces that recall Dario Argento to a painfully vivid dissection of the emotional fissures undermining a modern marriage. It’s all set to an equally eclectic score co-written by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason.

Described by the distinguished critic David Thomson as “one of the great secret works in cinema”, White of the Eye is one of the most bizarre and unforgettable thrillers ever made.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New High Definition digital transfer
- Newly commissioned artwork
- Collector’s booklet
More to be announced!

DETAILS:
Region: B/2

THE KILLERS (1964)

Release Date: February 24th 2014
Format: Blu-ray
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes
Director: Don Siegel
THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO KILL A MAN…

“I gotta find out what makes a man decide not to run. Why all of a sudden he’d rather die.”

SYNOPSIS: So muses hitman Charlie (Lee Marvin) after his high-priced victim Johnny North (John Cassavetes) gives in without a fight. Obsessed with the answer, Charlie and his hot-headed associate Lee (Clu Gulager) track down Johnny’s associates, and uncover a complex web of crime and deceit involving his femme fatale girlfriend Sheila (Angie Dickinson) and ruthless mob boss Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan in his last screen role).

Loosely inspired by the Ernest Hemingway story, and directed by Don Siegel (whose many other taut, efficient thrillers include Dirty Harry and the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers), The Killers was commissioned as the very first ‘TV movie’, but was given a cinema release because of its violence – although a cast like that really belonged on the big screen in the first place.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New High Definition digital transfer
- Newly commissioned artwork
- Collector’s booklet
More to be announced!

DETAILS:
Region: B

DVD Review: AMERICAN HORROR STORIES 12 Movie Collection

AMERICAN HORROR STORIES 

12 Film Collection 3-Disc Set

Synopsis: Lock your doors and brace yourself for twelve terrifying tales of revenge, murder and madness! This three DVD collection spotlights the urban legends and horror stories that crept through the cracks of time to trigger our innermost fears and phobias. From mysterious mansions to sadistic scientists, this collection of American Horror Stories will test your terror tension!

DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE (1980) 
A deeply disturbed photographer and Vietnam veteran, named Kirk Smith terrorizes Los Angeles by going around strangling lingerie-clad young women in their homes while taunting Lindsay Gale, a young psychologist, by calling her on a radio call-in show to describe his sexual hang-ups and misogynistic ways. Police detective, Lt. McCable, always seems to be two steps behind the psycho. Don't Answer the Phone stars James Westmoreland as Kirk the deranged serial killer and he's quite a character. Westmoreland brings a lot to the role,  my second favorite character is the wisecracking coroner who always says the most inappropriate things, good stuff. A fun electronic score drones away while our giggling pervert goes about his business, we get some nudity but the winner here is the nut job killer, a real wacko and a slice of 70's not-quite-schlock cinema, but it ain't great either, just a fun watch, I love it when the killer sobs uncontrollably and starts freaking out, it's not great but it's a decent bit of junkfood on a Friday night. 

POINT OF TERROR (1971) 

Tony Trelos (Peter Carpenter, BLOOD MANIA) is a nightclub singer at the Lobster House were he performs two shows a night to women in front of a tin foil backdrop as he swivels those hips in his best Tom Jones impersonation. He meets the Andrea Hillard (Dyanne Thorne, ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS) the wife of the CEO of National Records. They carry on a torrid affair while she promises him a contract. Tony is having dreams of murder and he wakes to find they may not be nightmares at all. Wow, this seems like a real vanity project for Carpenter who spends the film singing crap 70's schlock and prancing around 1/2 naked for 3/4 of the film. There's some nice nudity from the very attractive Thorne but otherwise this a nightmarish drama with little atmosphere and with a few weak murders thrown in to spice it up, skip it. .

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1950) 

I love William Castle's gimmicky haunted house extravaganza starring the immortal Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren who invites 5 guests to stay the night at his mysterious mansion located on Haunted Hill, if they survive the night will be awarded $10,000. So much fun

A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959)
Dick Miller (GREMMLINS) stars in this biting black comedy from the master of schlock cinema Roger Corman, Miller as Walter, an awkward schmo whom after accidentally stabbing his landlady's cat to death attempts to covers it up by concealing it with modeling clay. when the strange "sculpture" comes to the attention of some beatnik art types its revered as a great piece of art and pretty soon Walter's a rising star in the art community while the body count climbs.

HORROR EXPRESS (1972) 
HORROR EXPRESS aka PANIC ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS stars the dynamic team-up of horror royalty Christopher Lee (THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD) and Peter Cushing (ASYLUM) in a rare instance of on-screen kinship as opposed to their usual Dracula vs. Van Helsing dichotomy. The film also features a memorable appearance from a scenery chewing Telly Savalas (LISA AND THE DEVIL) and Albert de Mendoza (A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN) as a Rasputin-like Monk. This classic 70's thriller-chiller features a prehistoric creature that turns it's victims into eye-bleeding zombies on the Trans-Siberian Express.The film certainly takes inspiration from John Campbell's story WHO GOES THERE (the inspiration for both Howard Hawks THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and John Carpenter's THE THING) the film masterfully isolates a core group of characters on a train speeding through a desolate landscape. As the mystery deepens the paranoia is ramped up to the breaking point, it's thick with atmosphere and this early 70's chiller is a grisly and macabre slice of sci-fi horror with a pretty steep body count for the day with no less than 15 by my count. At only and hour and a half the film's well-plotted structure keeps the momentum moving forward with thrilling twists and turns, there's no point at which the story becomes stagnant, it's a finely paced film.

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960) 
Seymour works in a skid row florist shop and is in love with his beautiful co-worker Audrey. He creates a new plant that not only talks but cannot survive without human flesh and blood. The print here is not the greatest but for the price of the set I am not complaining. Legend Films have a nice restored edition on DVD with the original black and white plus the colorized version and a Mike Nelson (MST3K) commentary. Gotta love William Castle, he's definitely the Alfred Hitchcock of Schlock, and that's high praise. 

NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965)

A fantastic Italian Gothic thriller starring Euro-vamp Barbara Steele (BLACK SUNDAY) in a dual-role, shot in black and white this chiller is a tale of obsession, madness and depravity of a cheating wife who is tortured to death along with her lover by her sadistic scientist husband when she caught cheating, fun stuff. In attempt to get his hands on her money he marries her the heir to her fortune, her sister, who is a bit unstable having just left the asylum. He and the maid work hard to drive her over the edge and to suicide, she suffers nightmares and visions and their diabolical plan seems to be effective, but it seems that the spirits of the murdered lovers have their own vengeance in mind. Barbara Steele is mesmerizing in this surreal slice of Gothic horror, if it strikes a chord with you I strongly recommend Severin Films gorgeous restored DVD edition. 

SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1974) 

When a man inherits a country mansion that was the former site of an asylum the bodies start piling up, it stars Mary Waronov (HOUSE OF THE DEVIL) and the print is just awful, which makes it difficult to enjoy what's happening onscreen, certainly this is a case of if we had a decent transfer it would be so much more enjoyable but as it stands if you have the patience to sit through it there's a really decent slasher at the asylum story here with some decent atmosphere and gory kills, it's a bit of a slow-burn but the creepy tension and decent payoff kept me hanging in there. 

BLOODY PIT OF HORROR (1965) 

A photographer and his sexy models go to an old, Gothic castle to shoot some sexy covers for horror novels. Unbeknownst to them, the castle is inhabited by an actor/lunatic who believes himself to be the reincarnated spirit of a 17th-century executioner. He calls himself the Crimson Executioner. It's not an original idea my any stretch of the imagination, but it'll do. This film is a bit odd but a lot of fun. Some great torture scenes with lots of gimmicks and gorgeous ladies in minimal clothing, what's not to love?.

THE DRILLER KILLER (1979) 

Abel Ferrara stars in this low-budget Video Nasty about a troubled artist driven to commit a murderous drilling-spree by his squalid living conditions, poverty, and the incessant cacophony of the noise rock band living downstairs. Watching this I was reminded of the film COMBAT SHOCK (1984) which came about five years later, both films are disturbing and compelling case studies of a troubled psyche pushed to far, great lo-fi NYC cinema. 

DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT (1973)
A decent low budget drive-in asylum shocker from cult director S.F. Browning (DON'T OPEN THE DOOR) with some fun grisly gore, it's one of those inmates are running the asylum pics and starts off strong with a bloody ax murder and then a pretty young nurse named Charlotte Beale (Rosie Holotik) shows up for her first day at the asylum and of course things pretty strange and only get weirder from their, we get a nice dose of 70's sleaze with this one, fun stuff. 

DRIVE-IN MASSACRE (1974) 

Love this title but O Lord is this an awful film, a sword-wielding psychopath is terrorizing the drive and two inept detectives are on the case, they even go undercover with one of 'em dressed in drag which sacks of THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN but nowhere near as good. Points for the drive-in gimmick which ties into the finale but it's a dud, skip it. 

Verdict: Just in time for Halloween Mill Creek Entertainment always come through with a few solid budget collections on the cheap, I've seen this one on Amazon.com and Walmart for just a few bucks, sure the transfers are usually sub-VHS quality but always a few dusty horror gems nestled away among the schlock, this set has quite a few fun entries including the Gothic chiller NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965) with Barbara Steel and the HORROR EXPRESS (1972) starring Hammer fright icons Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, for just a few bucks you can't go wrong. 3 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: PSYCHO III (1986) Collector's Edition

PSYCHO III (1986)
Collector's Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Shout! Factory / Scream Factory

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 93 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, 2.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Cast: Anthony Perkins, Diana Scarwid, John Fahey

Director: Anthony Hopkins
Tagline: Norman Bates is back to normal. But Mother's off her rocker again. 

Psycho III begins with a nun (Diana Scarwid) screaming "There is no God!" and one might assume this is a commentary on yet another sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) but you would be mistaken. In fact the first sequel to the iconic film is actually a pretty fantastic watch despite the odds and Universal soon began filming a second sequel with Anthony Perkins in the directing chair and a script by Charles Edward Pogue (Cronenberg's The Fly) based on characters created by Robert Bloch, but not on Bloch's own sequel novelization.

Anyway, back to the film we have the Nun (Diana Scarwid, Rumble Fish) suffering through a spiritual crisis attempting suicide at the top of a bell tower, this whole scenario smacked of the finale to Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), and while she is unsuccessful in her bid for death she does accidentally send the Mother Superior plummeting to her own demise... oops. Packing her suitcase she leaves the Nunnery and wanders the desert until she is picked-up by wandering musician Duane Duke (Jeff Fahey, Planet Terror) who attempts to have his way with the pretty lady but when she puts up s fuss, pissed off he kicks her to the curb during a torrential down pour in the middle of the desert.

As fate would have it the two both end up at Bates Motel where Duane is offered an assistant manager position by Norman which we viewers know was left vacant in pt.2, Dennis Franz's character taking a knife across the face. It's a nice touch when Duane tells Norman he doesn't plan to stay in the position long to which Bates replies "No one ever does". The Nun, whose name is Maureen, catches the attention of Norman back at the greasy spoon diner from the previous film, she bares a striking resemblance to Norman's most famous victim, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and even shares the same initials "M.C." which Norman spots on her luggage, disturbed by the strange encounter Norman flees the diner only to find that Maureen has taken a room at the Motel, in the very same room as Marion Crane.

From here the film draws several parallels to the first film as Norman expectantly begins to lose his mind and does Mother's bidding, in fact when he peeps Maureen in the shower through his favorite spy-hole Mother attempts to repeat certain events we are well familiar with but when the shower curtain is pulled back to deliver the fatal blow the young woman has already slit her own wrists, in her odd state of mind Maureen envisions the Virgin Mary holding a cross instead of Norman in drag with a butcher's knife. At this point Norman snaps back to reality and saves Maureen's life, afterward a relationship ensues but Mother's none too pleased with this turn of events, stirring things up even more is tabloid reporter Tracy Venable (Roberta Maxwell, The Changeling) who arrives to investigate the disappearance of an elderly waitress from the diner, those who saw the first sequel know quite well what happened to her, and so too does Tracy. 

This is a pretty sleazy entry, it's a bit darker tonally, it's more sexually exploitative and the kills are a bit more gruesome, I really enjoyed all these elements. Not sure what I was expecting from Perkins turns as director (his first of just two) but it feels assured. Much as with the previous sequel the deaths here are very slasher-esque, one woman seated on a toilet unexpectedly has her throat slashed, it's great stuff with lots of blood, as is a payphone booth kill of a young slut played by Juliette Cummings of Slumber Party Massacre, neat. Another murder features someone getting their head smashed in with a guitar, a nightmarish follow-up sequence ensues as Norman attempts to dispose of the body but instead ends up in the swamp himself, I really do love the amped-up slasher tendencies that the sequels bring to the franchise. 

Perkins is fantastic as Bates, Fahey in an interview on the disc talks about how uncanny it was to work with Perkins who would snap into character in a split second, it's quite obvious the character was near and dear to the actor and it shows in his nuanced performances as both the troubled son and vengeful mother, one fantastic touch is during a particularly brutal scene Mother takes a second to straighten a crooked picture on the staircase, it's a small moment but I loved it. Fahey is fantastic as the sleazy musician Duane, he exudes a dangerous and sexy charm, and is the perfect replacement for Toomey (Franz) from the first sequel, plus Scarwid is admirable as the spiritually troubled nun as is Maxwell as the nosy reporter, another fun sequel that rises to the challenge with a great cast who bring their a-game. 

Of course, there are the prerequisite nods to the first film including bringing out the iconic black and white shower scene yet again, a skewed re-creation of that very same scene and a tragic version of the staircase death. There's also an underlying sense of dark comedy at play, check out the ice machine scene, it's a very sly film and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a slasher fan there's just not much I didn't like about the film, this is fun stuff, sure it's a bit cheap when compared to Hitchcock's original but when taken on it's own merits in context of the period I thinks it's pretty great, it's not a classic horror thriller, but it's a fun sleazy slasher. 

Blu-ray: Scream Factory bring Psycho III (1983) to Blu-ray with an MPEG4-AVC encode and it looks quite nice on par with what we saw with Psycho II with a nice layer of fine film grain and strong colors, the blacks look just great which is good for us, this is a very dark film. sourced from a great looking print I am quite happy with what we get in the video department, a very pleasing 1080p hi-def image with good contrast. 

The DTS-HD Master Audio options include both the original stereo mix and a newly minted 5.1 and it's a very nice surround audio presentation with some nice use of the surrounds. Dialogue, Carter Burwell's score plus sound effects are clean and well-balanced, it's a very nice audio presentation that offers both the original stereo and a 5.1 mix that makes nice use of the surround system. 

This set features a few more extras than what we found on the Psycho II disc beginning with a commentary with Screenwriter Charles Edward Pogue moderated by Michael Felscher of Red Shirt Pictures and it's a great anecdotal commentary, even speaking poorly of Holland's script for Psycho 2, his reasoning doesn't quite wash as his own script strays from the original quite a bit. There about 42 minutes worth of interviews with actors Jeff Fahey and Katt Shea and Special Make-Up Effects Creator Michael who fondly recalls his time at Universal and returning to work on this sequel, also interview is 80's scream queen Brinke Stevens who was a body double for Diana Scarwid on this film. The Jeff Fahey interview is great, this was an early and important role for the up and coming star, he has many great memories of the cast and his time on-set. 

Scream Factory doesn't offer reversible artwork this time around but we do get a slipcover featuring the theatrical artwork of Norman offering a room key shaped like a dagger. 

Special Features:

- New Audio Commentary with Screenwriter Charles Edward Pogue
- Watch The Guitar – New interview with Actor Jeff Fahey (16:49)
- Patsy’s Last Night – New interview with Actress Katt Shea (8:40)
- Mother’s Maker – interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator Michael Westmore (11:12)
- Body Double – interview with Brinke Stevens (5:14)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (1:54) 

- Still gallery (8:17) 

Verdict: Psycho III (1986) is a fun character study of Norman Bates with some effectively grisly 80's slasher style tendencies, it has a dark vein of humor that I appreciated and some inspired nods to the original film, plus some entertaining exploitative elements, which might turn off some but I loved it. I give this a high recommend to 80's slasher fans, if you haven't watched either of the sequels I would dare say they're required viewing, if not you're missing out. Scream Factory offer up the film with a great hi-def presentation and some value-added extras, what's not to like?  3.5 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND (2010)

THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND (2010) 

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 93 Minutes

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

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1)

Director: Gabriel Blogna

Cast: Danielle Harris, James Duvall, Mircea Monroe, Walker Howard, Electra Avellan, Elise Avellan, Nick Mennell, M.D. Walton, Arcady Golubovich, Robert Patrick 

Tagline: Where Your Deepest Secrets Are Revealed

Well, this took it's sweet time finding it's way to DVD and Blu-ray, which is not always a good sign, but it's not always a fatal blow either. I remember that Trick 'r Treat (2007) took quite a while to emerge on Blu-ray, and that's one awesome Halloween watch so going into this I wasn't put off by that fact, just curious why it languished so long without a release. . 

In The Black Waters of Echo's Pond (2009) young couple Anton (Arcadiy Golubovich, Autopsy) and wife Erica (Elise Avellan, Grindhouse) invite a group of friends to stay the weekend on a remote island of the coast of Maine at a Victorian home with a history that's owned by grizzled family friend Pete (Robert Patrick, T2: Judgement Day). We get an average group of annoying horror stereotypes, there's Erica's twin sister Renee (Electra Avellan, Grindhouse), her fiance Josh (Nick Mennell, Friday the 13th), Kathy (Danielle Harris, Halloween), the brown guy Robert (M.D. Walton), the black dude Trent (Walker Howard), the slutty blonde Veronique (Mircea Monroe) and the guy no one likes Rick (James Duvall, (Donnie Darko), there's some real friction between him and Kathy whose brother died in a car wreck that involved Rick in some way, it's further explored as the film roles along. 

The party rolls on until the power goes out that night, by chance Anton 
discovers a century old board game sealed up behind a wall and the group set down for some game play by candle light. It's sorta like a Greek mythology version of Life or Monopoly, with each role of the dice they move a said amount of spaces and draw a card of chance that instruct each player to reveal a secret, voice a buried jealousy or dare another player to perform some indecent act, sounds like fun so far, right? What the game does is tap into the fears, jealousies and desires of each of the players and what had previously been a minor annoyance, lust or insecurity between friends starts to turn violent and deadly real quickly as tempers start to flare, things start to get quite bloody. 

What's happening seems to be possession of each player by the demonic mythical creature called Pan through the board game, the hoofed beast of myth even makes a few small appearances but perhaps not to the degree some might hope for, this isn't a film about Pan axing his way through a group of 20-somethings, though that would have been awesome. The design of the horned, red-eyed beast is pretty great, I wished to see more of him but I  think the film works quite well as just a group of friends turning against each other.

My main issue with the film is that I think the cast is a bit to large for it's own good, we don't get a lot of character development, I think they could have whittled this down this cast by about half and given Robert Patrick a bit more to do, but nor do I mind watching nine friends turn nasty and do awful things to each other, in that respect it's not unlike a Friday the 13th film, a large cast of annoying folks dying one by one, this is a bit more twisted, it's nine friends killing each other and that's a fun time, too.  

Disc: The Blu-ray from Anchor Bay presents the film in 1080p with an MPEG4-AVC encode in widescreen (1.78:1) with Dolby True HD 5.1 audio and it looks quite nice, a pleasing hi-def image with some modest depth and clarity. The 5.1 is nice but not overly active, some decent use of the surrounds but it's not gonna blow-up your speakers. The only extra is an Alternate Opening (2:36) offering up a subtlety different variation on the film's opening pre-credit sequence which takes place in Turkey in the year 1927. There are no deleted scenes, commentaries or featurettes. 

Verdict: It's not a oozing gore but it's pretty bloody, there's even a damn decent chainsaw dismemberment scene once things start to churn.  Truly, it's just not that original, aside from Greek mythology angle it's your basic pretty people in peril story but it's  fun with some decent grue and some breasts. I'd recommend this as a Netflix or Redbox purchase, perfect Friday night fare for a group viewing with a few tasty brews. Watching this brought me back to those heated nights of Monopoly with the family that ended in a cacophony of shouted f-bombs and hurt feeling, fun stuff. 3 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: PRINCE OF DARKNESS: COLLECTOR'S EDITION (1987)

PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)

Label: Scream Factory / Shout! Factory

Release Date: September 24th 2013

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 102 Minutes

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: John Carpenter

Cast: Donald Pleasance, Victor Wong, Lisa Blount, Jameson Parker, Dennis Dun, Alice Cooper, Susan Blanchard, Peter Jason 

Tagline: Before man walked the Earth... It slept for centuries. It is evil. It is real. It is awakening.

Fresh of making Big Trouble in Little China (1986) director John Carpenter was a bit put-off by the big studio system and it's constraints and set out to make a smaller independent horror film and the results were a neat little Satanic slice of cult cinema, Prince of Darkness (1987) starring Donald Pleasance (Halloween) as a troubled priest who reaches out to noted physicist Professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong, Big Trouble in Little China) and his most gifted students to help unravel the mysteries of an ancient cylinder that's been kept hidden away from humanity in the basement of a decaying L.A. church where it has remained under the watchful of of a secret sect of priests, inside it is a strange, ominous green liquid that swirls around supernaturally. 

The team arrive at the church unsure of what it is exactly they are there for but they set up their equipment and set about doing what they do while their 80's technology pings away in the background as they attempt to translate an ancient book of text which talks about a fallen angel or some such thing. John Carpenter's film about ultimate evil is painted in very broad strokes with some rather laughable dialogue about how evil lives in the atoms of all things, unseen but ever present. Corny Sunday school-esque teachings but then it's spiced up with talk about Jesus's extraterrestrial origins and the anti-God and how religion is a myth perpetrated by the Church - now that's just awesome!

The film starts off with what must be one of the most extended opening credit sequence ever as we met the principal players and set-up their characters, including physicist Brian Marsh (Jameson Parker, TV's Simon and Simon) who meets the cute redheaded physicist Catherine (Lisa Blount, Needful Things) and offers her a cup of coffee, practically the next scene features the two in a state of post-coital exhaustion laying in bed, Brian finally offering her that promised cup o' coffee - does that ever really happen? 

Studying the cylinder the team discover that there's something sentient in the inside, something malevolent. Green liquid seeps from the cylinder and defying gravity pools along the ceiling of the basement crypt and one by one possess the students, it's slightly sexual as the evil liquid spews into women's mouths, at least to me but I am a confirmed pervert. Outside the church the dirty vagrants of L.A., lead by Alice Cooper, start to converge upon the unholy place like a small horde of zombies, pretty soon a small body count is underway as the possessed homeless prevent the inhabitants of the church from escaping what's festering in the basement.

The deaths are pretty decent, particularly when Alice Cooper takes out the nerdiest of the science-geeks with a jagged bike frame, spearing him through the chest as a geyser of blood erupts, apparently the gore-gag is taken right out of Alice Cooper's stage show and it's a keeper. Another notable death features an elderly homeless woman stabbing a scientist to death with pruning shears, I don't know what it is about that scene but the way the shears slice through the air has always had an effect on me, it's pretty neat. The victim is resurrected for a later scene wherein he delivers a warning to the students inside the Church before crumbling into a creepy pile of beetles, it's creepy stuff. 

A lot of strange things seem to have been spurred or effected by the entity inside the cylinder, we get strange swarming behavior not just from beetles but from earthworms and ants plus there's an odd sun and moon configuration in the sky, perhaps signaling the end for humanity, it should be noted that this is part of John Carpenter's unofficial apocalypse trilogy alongside The Thing (1982) and In the Mouth of Madness (1995), check 'em out.

John Carpenter excels here at crafting a creepy and tense environment, the church setting is effective and spooky, plus we get some great moody lighting and cinematography from Gary K. Kibbe (They Live), it's a great looking film. The effects work is pretty decent, if not on par with The Thing (1982). There are some very nicely executed in-camera and make-up effects, some of it definitely feels low-budget, a sequence involving an otherworldly portal comprised of liquid mercury is a bit schlocky, but it does the job I guess. 

Donald Pleasance plays it pretty straight here as the priest, he doesn't chew up too much scenery in a "I shot him six times!" sort of way, pretty low-key. Victor Wong is awesome as the physicist, that guy makes everything better, giving you the eye the way he does, it's just awesome. Dennis Dun from Big Trouble in Little China has a great scene trapped in a confessional, he just loses his shit screaming "I don't wanna die!" as possessed zombie try to claw their way inside, that's just good stuff. 

The film definitely has some shortcomings (no nudity), and while it has some rather intriguing ideas they're not particularly well executed, the worse offender being the quasi-science/religion based dialogue which is not among Carpenter's best work and the cast struggle to work with it but there's only so much you can do, not for lack of trying. What saves it for me is the dense atmosphere of the film, there's some wonderful kin-crawling touches peppered throughout; a crucified pigeon and the massing swarms of insects, there's an unnerving sense of dread building-up and while I don't think it delivers a satisfying end it's still a decent watch with some nice eerie moments, just grab a few brews, kick back and enjoy, don't be afraid to laugh at it every once in a while, and for goodness sake don't try to make sense of it, that's just asking for trouble, not a film to dissect, one to watch.

Blu-ray: This John Carpenter cult-classic comes to Blu-ray from Shout!Factory imprint Scream Factory with a AVC encoded 1080p transfer and it looks quite stunning, very surprised just how great this looked on Blu-ray, damn I love Scream Factory! Sourced from a near pristine print it showcases a layer of fine film grain with a surprising amount of fine detail reproduction in textures and facial details. Colors are reproduced wonderfully and the contrast is fantastic, a very strong visual presentation from Scream Factory with very nice black levels and shading, quite a significant upgrade from the 2003 Universal DVD edition. 

Audio options include both English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and 5.1 with optional English subtitles. The 5.1 is quite strong with a nice low-end rumble, Carpenter and Howarth's awesome synth score gets most of the surround action, it makes for quite a fun experience, a very dynamic presentation.

Reversible Artwork 

Onto the special features we a very nice selection of Red Shirt produced plus the commentary from the Region 2 DVD, here in the US we have suffered with a bare-bones standard-def DVD for a decade so it's nice to get some cool bonus content and a stunning 1080p presentation. The commentary with Carpenter and actor Peter Jason who portrayed Dr. Leahy in the film is quite good, the two reminisce on the film and are quite talkative, they definitely seem to be enjoying their viewing of the film, not a particularly technical commentary but an enjoyable listen. There's over a half hour of new interviews with John Carpenter, Alice Cooper, composer Alan Howarth and actor/special visual effects supervisor Robert Grasmere, the alternate opening from the TV version, a trailer and 2 radio spots plus a very cool entry of Horror's Hallowed Grounds with Sean Clark, I think this and The Fog entry of the entertaining series are two of the best they've done. There's also a very cool Easter Egg featuring John Carpenter worth searching for. 

Packaging extras include a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring the original theatrical poster and newly commissioned artwork from Justin Osborne who also did the great artwork for Scream's edition of John Carpenter's The Fog (1980), it also comes with a cool slipcover featuring the new artwork. Yet another stellar Blu-ray edition of a beloved horror classic from Scream Factory who breath new life into some dusty gems with a great audio/video presentation and some quality extras. 

Special Features: 

- Audio Commentary with John Carpenter and Actor Peter Jason
- Sympathy For The Devil – An all-new Interview with Writer/Director John Carpenter (10:28)
- Alice at the Apocalypse – An all-new interview with Actor/Rock Legend Alice Cooper (9:27)
- The Messenger – All-new interview with Actor/Special Visual Effects Supervisor Robert Grasmere (12:41)
- Hell On Earth – A look at the film’s score with Co-Composer Alan Howarth (10:14)
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds with host Sean Clark (13:44)
- Alternate Opening from TV Version (6:55)
- Original Theatrical Trailer and 2 Radio spots (2:48) 

- Easter Egg (12:10) 

Verdict: I think Prince of Darkness (1987) gets put aside as a minor Jon Carpenter entry and I actually agree, it is a lesser effort, but it's just so damn fun, the clunky joining of science and religion wrapped up in an effective cloak of unnerving creepiness, it's a Satanic-infused haunted house story that's not completely successful but it definitely gets by on pure entertainment value. An atmosphere heavy schlocky cult-classic and a very sweet Blu-ray edition from Scream Factory who continue to impress with each new release. 3 Outta 5