FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 16 ! PAULA-PAULA (2010)

Franco February Day 15 brings you what I would honestly consider one of Jess Franco's worst films, a trippy curio from his very late period, that at least has some digital-psychedelic visuals and a pretty terrific score, but this is one for the Franco completists only. 

PAULA-PAULA (2010)

Label: InterVision Picture Corp.
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 67 Minutes
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.781)
Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Paula Davis, Carmen Montes, Lina Romay

Synopsis: Alma Pereira is a female police officer investigating the murder of an exotic dancer at a sleazy club in Malaga, Spain. She's called to the Flamingo Club in a back alley of Antofagasta, where she confronts the prime suspect, Paula, a friend of the victim. After a brief Q&A the balance of the film shows what happened in the interval leading up to the killing, which turns out to be a crime of passion. Or is it all in the mind of Paula?

I first saw this strange film when I had just started up the blog in 2010, and only just beginning to enter the lurid world of the legendary Spanish cult-filmmaker Jess Franco. I was excited to see what the master of Eurosleaze had left in him at this late stage in his career, having already made roughly two-hundred films at that point, going in to make four more films before his passing in 2013. So what did filthy Franco have for us? Well, just coming into knowing that Franco didn't make "normal" movies with a the most linear narratives is a plus, but that summary is particularly accurate in respect to Paula-Paula.

Advertised as an "An AudioVisual Experience", which it is, but then again, isn't every film since the first "talkie" an audio-visual experience? From what I've been able to make-out we have Paula (Carmen Montes, Snakewoman), an exotic dancer who has been arrested for the murder of another dancer also named Paula (Paula Davis). She is arrested and taken-in for questioning, interviewed by Alma Pereira (Lina Romay, Marquise De Sade), and let me just say that having just watched Franco's sex-fueled Night of Open Sex (1983) last night seeing Romay in her advanced age was a shock, and a reminder of the cruelties of age, but we're all headed that way. It's how I feel when I look up a classmate on Facebook, thinking to myself, 'when did they get old?' and them realizing they're thinking the same thing looking at me! Anyway, Paula's not forthcoming with the answers, coming off as a few tacos short of a proper combination plate at first blush. From here we see fragments of what may have transpired leading up to the murder as seen through Paula's mind's eye, sort of, maybe.

Even after a handful of viewings through the years I still find this whole thing a bit confusing, basically boiling down to a fairly trippy and artsy striptease followed by 20-minutes of slow-mo lesbian sex scene, 'natch, it's a Franco film! All of this culminates in a somewhat baffling and anti-climactic murder scenario. Even with the lurid appeal of a striptease filtered through some acid-trip on a budget visuals, and the girl-on-girl sex-action this was a bit of a slog for me. That's coming from someone who likes a lot of Franco's out-there stuff, though I've only seen about a tenth of his film so far, there's a lot more to go.

Franco makes the assertion that the inspiration for Paula-Paula came from Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll/Hyde story, and while there might be the tiniest hint of such a things that's really stretching it. If I hadn't of read it in the press kit I don't think I would have made this connection.

One thing I will say about this film is that the jazz score provided by the late Austrian composer Friedrich Gulda, who scored Franco's Succubus, which I still have not seen, is terrific. The films serves more as a erotic music video to the set to the fantastic score. Interestingly the music was not scored specifically for the film, it was gifted to Franco by the children of Gulda after his death. Perhaps the film is a tribute to the composer's score, now that is slightly more interesting that what I thought of the film.

Audio/Video: Paula-Paula (2010) arrives on DVD from Intervision framed in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) with a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack with optional English subtitles. The transfer seems to accurately represent the digital video cinematography and is augmented by some artsy digital effects wizardly. The Spanish dialogue seems a bit buried in the mix throughout but the amazing jazz score sounds mighty fine indeed.

Extras includes an introduction and two interviews with Franco. The introduction to the film was recorded mere moments after the initial filming of Paula-Paula and Franco seems quite excited about the project. The other interviews have Franco discussing the state of filmmaking, the music and cast of Paula-Paula all of which I found more intriguing than the film.

Special Features:
- Introduction by Jess Franco (1 min)
- Jess Franco on Contemporary Filmmaking (18 min)
- Jess Franco on Paula-Paula (9 min)

It's just a sad cinema-fact that with age most director's potency seems to fade, not everyone can be George Miller making Mad Max: Fury Road in his seventies, that's the exception. Some of my favorite directors, George A. Romero, Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven among them, made lesser films in their later years, but I loved that they kept chugging along, just like Jess Franco did, he kept at it till he died in 2013, and that's cool. I do not recommend this film unless you're an absolute Jess Franco nut that needs to own every last film he made, like a very serious completist. During one of the interviews on the disc Franco suggests Paula-Paula (2010) might be one of his three weirdest films, now with that I can agree.

BEYOND THE SEVENTH DOOR (1987) (Intervision DVD Review)

BEYOND THE SEVENTH DOOR (1987) 

Label: Intervision Picture Corp

Region Code: 1 NTSC 

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 77 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 

Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1) 

Director: B.D. Benedict

Cast: Lazar Rockwood, Bonnie Beck, Gary Freedman, Ben Kerr 

From the bottom shelf VHS scroungers at Intervision we have a strange Canadian thriller right here, the cover art had me hoping for some mind-melting Lucio Fucli-esque SOV weirdness, but this is not that sort of movie. It opens with Boris (Lazar Rockwood) being released from prison, having been sent to the big house after a botched robbery. He takes a nice long walk in the snow, visiting the shores of what looks like an ocean but might very well be Lake Ontario. Afterward he goes to a diner where he meets his ex-girlfriend Wendy (Bonnie Beck) who is none to pleased to see him, they argue for a bit while discussing the botched robbery that sent him to prison, for which she seemingly bares some blame. He manages to convince her to assist him in robbing her current employer, Lord Breston (Gary Freedman), a wheelchair bound millionaire who forces her to dress in skimpy maid outfits and is very hands-on apparently.

Local legend has it that Breston keeps a treasure in the basement of hos mansion, so to that end the duo go to the mansion and sneak in the back door, they make their way to the lower end of the mansion and using a stolen key they gain access to a door, only to find it locks behind them. A speaker kicks on and the recorded voice of Lord Breston informing them that they have entered his home in an attempt to steal what belongs to him, now they have to face a series of puzzles/challenges in a series of six rooms, if they can solve the various puzzles and survive the traps in each room they will be rewarded with a treasure, and given the option to enter a seventh room! 

The movie is surprisingly brisk in it's paced, as the film plays out the trapped duo face each of the six rooms/challenges, these are lo-fi but sort of cool, pre-dating both Cube (1997) and Saw (2004) as a puzzle-box movie. The challenges includes solving the combination lock on a vault door, word puzzles using lettered tiles on a floor, a room armed with moving walls, another with a descending spiked ceiling, and a trapped doors and a room that fills with water.

For ninety-nine percent of the movie we just follow these two around the puzzle room, and let me just say that our guy Lazar Rockwood, who plays Boris, has such a rad name, he totally sounds like he should be fronting a Faster Pussycat cover band in a dive bar on a Tuesday afternoon at 4PM. Originally from Yugoslavia the guy has a very distinct look, falling somewhere between a n even more emaciated Billy Drago and a crackhead version of Joey Belladonna from metallers Anthrax, with the same sort of mullet hair. He's a chain smoking nicotine fiend, but he has a certain charm, an inept career criminal but somehow not unlikable, with the stilted/exaggerated line delivery of  Tommy Wiseau of The Room (2003) - he's just a special sort of guy. Bonnie Beck (City on Panic) is good as the other half of the duo, the red head is cute and has charms, she even some decent acting chops.

The movie breezes by, which is actually quite a feat for a lo-fi SOV film, even the strangest and weirdest/greatest of these lo-fi 80's shot-on-video films seems to drag but this one flew by at just 77-minutes. Perhaps straying from horror and being more of a thriller helped it in that respect. Even though it's low budget and cheap as Hell you can see that the director has some artier leanings, managing to create some claustrophobic atmosphere in the confined spaces, there's even a fun synth rock theme. The movie certainly has some quirks, the decision to get-it-on after a near drowning/hypothermia situation being just one, and a twist that begs more questions that caps of the movie being another, but these are just part of the inept charm of Beyond the Seventh Door.    

Audio/Video: Beyond the Seventh Door (1987) arrives on DVD for the very first time ever from Severin imprint Intervision Picture Corp, framed in 1.33:1 full screen, which is the original aspect ratio. The lo-fi film looks to be SOV, or at least shot on 16mm film and edited on tape, the full frame presentation is murky and looks like the VHS presentation that it is beneath that digital encode, it's not gonna look great but this is probably the best the movie will ever look on home video. Audio comes by way of an English Dolby Digital mono presentation, there are no subtitles, but for the most part everything is discernible and not too offensive.

Onto the extras we get  Audio Commentary with Writer/Director BD Benedikt and Actor Lazar Rockwood, moderated by Paul Corupe of Canuxploitation.com that is packed with quite a bit of information about the director, how the film came about, and the various locations used in the film and how certain traps were achieved on the low-budget movie. 

There are also 22-minutes worth of interview with the director and star, with the director discussing his Christian beliefs and alternate career writing Yugoslavian religious thrillers, and it looks like he currently works at a movie theater, the interview seems to be conducted while he's cleaning up around the cinema. Lazar shows up and dispenses some acting knowledge on us. There's also a nine-minute tribute to The King of Cayenne, the Toronto eccentric Ben Kerr  who shows up in the film as a corpse, with local personalities and artists paying tribute to the late legend, who apparently had an affinity for cayenne infused cocktail beverages.  

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director BD Benedikt and Actor Lazar Rockwood, moderated by Paul Corupe (Canuxploitation.com)
- Beyond Beyond the 7th Door: Interviews with Writer/Director BD Benedikt, Actor Lazar Rockwood, and Canuxploitation.com’s Paul Corupe (22 min)
- The King of Cayenne: An Appreciation of Legendary Toronto Eccentric Ben Kerr (9 min)


Beyond the Seventh Door (1987) is a weird Canadian thriller, sadly there's no horror to be found here, but it is a strangely compelling and ambitious movie in a low-rent sort of way. That they made it somehow work using what looks to be the same sparse basement sets to create the puzzle rooms is commendable, but it's Lazar Rockwood who will keep you coming back for a second helping. If you're one of those weirdos that likes to seek out strange/amateur lo-fi movies from the 80's and you haven't watched this one yet head on over to www.severin-films.com and pick this up, you will definitely be disappointed, but then you're gonna make all your friends watch it too, and that's it's own twisted reward. 

Severin/Intervision Bring Back Two Home Video Oddities (One of them starring the late, great Vincent Price!)

DARK HARVEST (1992)/ ESCAPES (1986)

Two Bizarre, Underseen Oddities Return From the Home Video Grave

On May 30th, Intervision Picture Corp. is ripping through the fabric of time to bring back two haunted relics of the analog past. This double feature is bursting at the seams with everything members of the video store generation crave - Bold fashions, mysterious videotapes, slasher hysteria, goofball teens, and some late career slumming by genre deity Vincent Price.

DARK HARVEST (1992): It’s stranded tourists vs. killer scarecrows in this early 90s SOV rarity. They planned on a relaxing horseback ride through the desert… They didn’t plan on engine trouble, long-winded campfire stories, deranged hillbillies with a shotgun, and a dangerous trek over cursed terrain. But the real terror begins when they discover that the creepy scarecrow overlooking their campsite has mysteriously disappeared from his cross.

ESCAPES (1986): Matthew Wilson didn’t order ESCAPES, but when a mysterious mail carrier delivers a VHS to his door, he pops it in his top-loader, not knowing what real life danger lurks inside the magnetic tape. Concluding his run of portmanteau chillers (TALES OF TERROR, TWICE TOLD TALES, THE MONSTER CLUB, FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM), horror legend Vincent Price presents these six bizarre tales of the uncanny. This new edition features the full Director’s Cut version!

Special Features:
- Actress Patti Negri Remembers Dark Harvest
- Actor Dan Weiss Remembers Dark Harvest Via Video Skype
- Distributor Tom Naygrow on Escapes Writer/Director David Steensland

Two Of The Most Insane ‘90s SOV Shockers Come To DVD For The First Time Ever!

DREAM STALKER / DEATH BY LOVE 

Intervision Picture Corporation has returned to the mom ‘n’ pop video shop to retrieve two underseen shriek fests from the bottom row of the “Horror” section. DREAM STALKER and DEATH BY LOVE are both brain-busting, reality -decimating slices of artsploitation from the outer edges of the shot-on-video universe. On April 11th, scorch your mind with a double feature disc of these lost gems, newly transferred from the original video masters.

DREAM STALKER:
“It fits right in with THINGS and SLEDGEHAMMER,” raves Outpost-Zeta.com. “DREAM STALKER is something special!” When a Sacramento supermodel is haunted by the super-mulleted corpse of her dead motocross-racer boyfriend, it will unleash an erratically ambitious nightmare of cheap lighting, bad sound, bizarre plotting, gratuitous nudity and grisly effects that Bleeding Skull says is “guaranteed to make you feel like you’re trapped in a lo-fi psychedelic abyss of fun!” 

DEATH BY LOVE:
In this inexplicably obscure psycho-thriller, a studly sculptor (producer/director/writer/star and Texas building contractor Alan Grant) fears that a devil-worshipping childhood pal is murdering his every new girlfriend. Filmed in the suburbs of Dallas and packed with soft-core sex, scattershot performances, thick regional accents and a WTF? plot twist, it may be the most astounding SOV horror vanity project you’ve never seen.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Remembering Ricky: With Actor
- Dirtbike Dreams: Executive Producer Tom Naygrow
- Alan Grant Remembers Death By Love Via Video Skype
- Yvonne Aric and Brad Bishop Remember Death By Love Via Video Skype

FRANCO FEBRUARY! PAULA-PAULA (2010) (DVD Review)

PAULA-PAULA (2010)

Label: Intervision Picture Corp
Region Code: Region Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 76 Minutes 
Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Paula Davis, Carmen Montes, Lina Romay

Synopsis: Alma Pereira is a female police officer investigating the murder of an exotic dancer at a sleazy club in Malaga, Spain. Called to the Flamingo Club in a back alley of Antofagasta she confronts the prime suspect, Paula, a friend of the victim. After a brief Q+A the balance of the film shows what happened in the interval leading up to the killing, which turns out to be a crime of passion. Or is it all in the mind of Paula?

So what's Franco got for us this time? Well, first off you should realize this is not a usual narrative film with a linear narrative. It's being touted as an "An AudioVisual Experience" which it is - then again, isn't every film since the first talkie an audio-visual experience? I found the story hard to follow, but from what I've been able to glean from some close scrutiny and internet scouring we have Paula (Carmen Montes, Snakewoman) in the main role, Paula. She  is an erotic dancer who has been arrested for the murder of another dancer, also named Paula (Paula Davis). Paula only shares the same name but is not an visual twin/doppelganger ala The Double Life of Veronique (1991). Once taken-in for questioning she in interviewed by Alma Pereira (Lina Romay, Female Vampire). However, she's not forthcoming with the answers during the interview, she seems a few tacos short of a combination plate, you know? From there we see fragments of what may have transpired leading up to the point of the murder as seen through Paula's mind's eye. Maybe. This shit was confusing. What it basically boils down to is a fairly trippy and artsy striptease followed by  20 minute lesbian sex scene culminating in a baffling and anti-climactic murder with a loose-narrative prologue. Aside from the lurid appeal of a tasty striptease and some girl-on-girl action this was a bit of a slog for me, to be honest. 

Franco makes the assertion that the inspiration for Paula-Paula came from Robert Louis Stevenson's story Jekyll/Hyde. There's some tiny hint of such a things with some odd mirror and digital effects works but that's really stretching it. If I hadn't of read it in the press kit I don't think I would have made this connection. One thing I can say about this film is that the jazz score provided by the late Austrian composer Friedrich Gulda (who scored Franco's Succubus/Necronomicon) is fantastic. The films serves as merely an erotic visual backdrop to the very cool score. It should be noted that the music was not scored specifically for the film and was gifted to Franco by the children of Gulda after the composer's death - perhaps the films is a tribute to the composer's score. Now that's interesting. 

Audio/Video: Paula-Paula (2010) arrives on DVD from Intervision Picture Corp framed in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) with a Spanish Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack with optional English subtitles. The transfer seems to accurately represent the digital video cinematography and is augmented by some artsy digital effects wizardry. The Spanish dialogue seems a bit buried in the mix throughout but the amazing jazz score from Friedrich Gulda (Succubus/Necronomicon)sounds mighty fine indeed. 

Special features on the disc include an introduction and two interviews with Franco. The introduction to the film was recorded mere moments after the initial filming of Paula-Paula and Franco seems quite excited about the project. The other interviews have Franco discussing the state of filmmaking, the music and cast of Paula-Paula all of which I found more intriguing than the film. 

Special Features: 
- Introduction by Jess Franco (1 min)
- Jess Franco on Contemporary Filmmaking (18 min)
- Jess Franco on Paula-Paula (9 min)

Paula-Paula (2010) works better as an odd extended music video or video art piece than an narrative film in my opinion, not a recommend unless you're a true Jess Franco completest. During the interviews Franco suggests this may be one of 2 or 3 of his weirdest films. Agreed, but sadly not in a good way, if this happens to be your first Franco watch it would probably leave you cold, but trust me, dive deeper, there's some true Eurocult gems from Franco waiting for you to discover them. 1.5/5

Mid 90's Canadian cable access movie PHOBE: THE XENOPHOBIC EXPERIMENTS (1995) gets first-ever home video release!

PHOBE: THE XENOPHOBIC EXPERIMENTS (1995) 

On September 27th, Intervision Picture Corp. enthusiastically returns to the wild world of shot-on-video mayhem with the first ever home video release of PHOBE: THE XENOPHOBIC EXPERIMENTS. Overflowing with the kind of creative spirit and indefatigable commitment to vision that is only possible within the arena of outsider microbudget filmmaking, the Intervision team is thrilled to be introducing this inspiring and ambitious work to a new audience.

Synopsis: In 1994, aspiring Niagara, Ontario filmmaker Erica Benedikty was working part-time at a community cable channel. Over the course of a year – and aided by a dedicated team of friends, volunteers and fellow film rebels – she wrote, produced, directed and edited a wildly ambitious, feature-length sci-fi action thriller for only $250. But when she convinced her employers to broadcast the finished film, PHOBE became a local sensation, was invited to screen at festivals, and remains one of Canada’s most infamous cult hits. Intervision is proud to present Benedikty’s ultra low-budget epic – complete with impressive visual FX, Roman candle pyrotechnics, alien predators, light saber battles and space cops with mullets – now fully remastered with all-new Special Features that reveal the strange, inspired and sometimes tragic story behind this near-impossible DIY triumph.

Special Features: :
- Audio commentary by writer/director Erica Benedikty, moderated by Paul Corupe (Canuxploitation.com) and Peter Kuplowsky (Laser Blast Film Society)
- Director Erica Benedikty's first feature-length movie, BACK IN BLACK
- "The Making of PHOBE", all new featurette by Josh Johnson (Rewind This!)
- Q/A with cast and crew following home town screening of the movie in St. Catharines, Ontario
- Original FX shots from 1995 broadcast version of PHOBE
- Outtakes
- Gribble Hell Performs Phobe Theme

Intervision Pictures Corp Release of Lady Libertine / Love Circles Coming On Blu-ray This September

LADY LIBERTINE (1983) / LOVE CIRCLES (1985) 

Label: Intervision Pictures Corp
Release Date: September 27th 2016
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 177 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Full screen (1.33:1) 
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono 
Director: Gerard Kikoine 
Cast: Christopher Pearson, Jennifer Inch, Sophie Favier and John Sibbit, Marie-France, Josephine Jacqueline Jones

In an effort to increase the global temperature during the more temperate post-Summer months, Intervision Picture Corp is excited to present two titillating feature films from France’s master of erotica, Gérard Kikoïne. Erupting with white hot sexuality and vintage sin, both of these films will satisfy all your wildest desires for art-fueled naughtiness! The flesh gets exposed on September 27th.

LADY LIBERTINE - THE INFAMOUS EROTIC SAGA AN ASHAMED STAR TRIED TO STOP! (1983)

Synopsis: Famed French TV game show hostess Sophie Favier stars in this boldly sexy epic about a cross-dressing teenage orphan named 'Frank' who is adopted by a handsome nobleman with his own strange urges. But when the sultry virgin's gender-bend is revealed, her deflowering unleashes a shocking torrent of voyeurism, violation, sadism and submission that will blur the line between pleasure and pain forever!

This 1984 Playboy production ignited an international controversy when Sophie Favier unsuccessfully sued to stop its long awaited re-release. Her court loss is a victory for Skinemax fans everywhere!

LOVE CIRCLES - AN INTERNATIONAL ODYSSEY OF SEXUAL IMMORALITY! (1983) 

Synopsis: From Paris to Rome, Cannes to Hong Kong, and Los Angeles to New York City, the true universal language is lust! In this decadent update of the scandalous classic LA RONDE, a bevy of international beauties complete a chain of liaisons where every urge is fulfilled and no taboo is left unbroken. Will it take more than one man to satisfy a nymphomaniac's voracious needs? How does a single oiled body trigger an unstoppable steam room orgy? What is the ultimate act of love between sisters?

Special Features:
- Interview with director Gerard Kikoine (French with English subs)
- Gerard Kikoine introducing Lady Libertine at the Fantasia Film Festival

THE BADGER GAME (2014) (Blu-ray Review)

THE BADGER GAME (2014) 

Label: Intervision Picture Corp
Release Date: November 24th 2015 
Region Code: Region-FREE 
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen 
Dirctors: Joshua Wagner, Thomas Zambeck
Cast: Augie Duke, Patrick Cronen, Jillian Leight, Sam Boxleitner, Sasha Higgins 

The Badger Game (2014) in black comedy about a group of bickering friends and their poorly conceived kidnap slash extortion plan, as devised by Alex (Augie Duke) and Jane (Sasha Higgins) who are none to pleased to find out they are the side girls of a wealthy businessman named Liam (Sam Boxleitner). They devise a plan to kidnap him and extort a large amount of money from him, to that end they enlist the help of a down-on-her-luck friend  Shelly (Jillian Leigh), who sports a polka-dot dress and picks the guy up at a local bar. 

Also enlisted in this plan is Alex's brother Kip (Patrick Cronen), a former pest exterminator, who is brought in as the strong-arm of the group. No sooner have they gotten this guy back to their garage and bound him to a chair when things begin to quickly fall apart and never seem to get back on track, which so often happens with these sort of movie, I am thinking of like-minded movie like The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) and The Cottage (2008) while I am watching this, though this has a more low-budget feel to it. 

The writing is keen with some good sharp dialogue exchanges between the victim and the kidnappers and among the kidnappers themselves, who in the expected fashion begin to tun on one another and some subtle and not so subtle betrayals begin to arise. Out four kidnappers are a fun bunch, Alex is the jilted lover, Jane is a Brit-stripper/recovering drug addict, Liam proves difficult to control and Shelly seems in a little over her head in this crime-caper gone wrong. When Liam proves to be more than a handful things begin to crumble, even more so when a snoopy private eye arrives on scene with his own devious plan, throwing a wrench into the works.

The comedy adds up to a lot of fun, the sense of humor is dark and twisted, while the violence tends to be sparse a few of the scenes got under my skin. Male nipple trauma and a garden tool to the face were among the items that got to me, and given that the film relies more on the comedy of blunders and catty dialogue the few moments of violence work particularly well. There are very few people to root for here, the victim seems like a right douche nozzle, and the kidnappers have a few too many character flaws to embrace, but there's at least one person who at least is not loathsome to nth degree, and its fun to see who's left standing at the end of the day. 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Directors Joshua Wagner and Thomas Zambeck, and Composer London May
- Audio Commentary with stars Augie Duke, Jillian Leigh, and Sasha Higgins
- Cast and Crew Interviews from the premiere in Downtown LA

I enjoyed this one quite a bit, theres some decent suspense and the humor is plenty dark, just the way I like it, plus the cast all turn in solid performances across the board. Fans of low-budget dark comedies should have fun with this one, so grab some popcorn and a few brews, curl up on the couch, and enjoy. 3/5

 

QUEEN OF BLOOD (2014) (Blu-ray Review)

QUEEN OF BLOOD (2014)

Label: Intervision Picture Corp
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 77 Minutes
Audio: English LPCM Stereo 2.0 
Video: 1080i HD Widescreen (1.77:1) 
Director: Chris Alexander
Cast: Shauna Henry, Henry Nivek Ogre, Carrie Gemmel, David Goodfellow 

Synopsis: From writer/director/composer Chris Alexander – the editor-in-chief of Fangoria – comes the ‘spiritual sequel’ to his acclaimed debut feature. Shauna Henry returns as the vampire Irina, now reborn to silently roam a lush countryside quenching her thirst for human blood. But rather than follow standard horror narratives, Alexander instead subverts the genre to explore a crimson-soaked fever dream influenced by the ‘70s EuroHorror of Jess Franco and Jean Rollin. Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy and REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA co-stars in this “haunting and visionary” (Cinema Axis) shocker featuring costumes by Alex Kavanagh (the SAW franchise, LAND OF THE DEAD) and FX work from Paul Jones (SILENT HILL, the RESIDENT EVIL films) for an opus of the undead unlike any you’ve ever seen.

A lot of what I said about Alexander's debut film Blood for Irina (2013) holds true for the sequel/prequel Queen of Blood (2014) which again stars Shauna Henry as the ageless vampire Irina. A lyrical tale of vampirism paying homage to the cinematic aesthetic I would compare to Jess Franco and Jean Rollin with a touch of Werner Herzog. Seemingly a prequel to the first movie, this one plays during the American pioneer days, at the start of the movie Irina emerges from the dirty waters of a river at the feet of a woodsman, drained and weakened she is taken back to his rustic home where he begins to mold her into his ideal version of a woman seen in a picture, someone he seems to have lost... that is until she drains him of his blood. I don't think this happened in Blood for Irina, but this time out Irina drains blood not with a set of pronounced fangs but from her fingertips which she sinks into the flesh of those she feeds upon, who seem mesmerized by her, almost offering themselves willingly to her blood lust, which I liked quite a bit. From here she wanders the wooded countryside draining those she happens upon, all the while a degenerate vampire hunter played by Skinny Puppy's Ogre is on her trail, leaving behind him his own body count. 

The images move across the screen with a nice lyricism about them, evoking a combination of a nature documentary punctuated by some occasional bloodletting and onscreen violence, with evocative electronic score that threatened to put me to sleep more than once, which is a bit of a problem when you think about, sure I love me some atmospheric images, but when it's putting you to sleep, there's something missing, some visceral element which would tether me to the story and keep me enthralled, but it's just not there for me. Being low-budget there's are limitations to the cinematography, the exterior shots of nature and wooded areas, which play a huge part in the movie, look great but are inconsistent. There's a palpable sense of artiness and pretentiousness in the way it plays out without the benefit of dialogue, I can appreciate it for the artiness and craft, but this one is not for me. 

The disc from Intervision marks their first foray in Blu-ray, my player displays this is 1080/60fps, not 1080/24fps, so I don't think we're getting full 1080P HD here, which may have something to do with the format the movie was shot on. The English LPCM Stereo 2.0 sounds fine, exporting effects and the score with a nice crispness, as with Blood For Irina this is a wonderful atmospheric score from Alexander and Carrie Gemmel. 

Onto the extras we have a lively commentary from Alexander who doesn't seem to take a breath for the duration of the movie, it's the kind of commentary that touches on the influences, the concept and the execution of making a micro-budgeted movie, and serves to demystify the process, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I also recommend checking out his commentary on the Arrow Video disc of Contamination, good stuff. Additionally we have a brief video introduction for the movie, some gore outtakes, alternate endings, trailer, and a Q and A with the cast and crew at the Toronto Premiere. A nice bonus is that Alexander's debut film Blood For Irina is included on the disc, making this an arty blood-sucking double-feature, which is a nice value-add. 

Special Features: 
- Gore Gaffes (3 Mins) 
- Directing Ogre (5 Min) 
- Nivek Ogre Introduction (1 Min) 
- Alternate Ending #1 (3 Mins) 
- Alternate Ending #2 (3 Mins) 
- Trailer (1 Mins) 
- Audio Commentary with Director Chris Alexander 
- Cast Q and A from the Toronto Premiere (23 Mins) HD 
- BONUS FILM: Blood for Irina (69 Mins) 

As with Blood For Irina (2013) I think Alexander is making exactly the sort of movie he wants to make, an expressionist slice of vampire cinema loaded with some gorgeous low-budget cinematography, but this is just not own cup o' tea. I always preferred the sleazier side of Franco to Rollin and this is way more Rollin than Franco, a little too art house and not enough Eurosleaze for my own tastes. 2/5 

ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD (2006) (Intervision DVD Review)

ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD (2006)

Label: Intervision Picture Corp

Region: 0 

Duration: 97 Minutes
Video: Widescreen 1.78:1
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 

Director: Bruno Mattei

Cast: Yvette Yzon, Jim Gaines, Gaetano Russo

Italian master of schlock Bruno Mattei was still going strong in the 2000s before his death in 2007 at the age of seventy-six, the with a string of quickie-gore films shot in the Philippines that somehow managed to maintain that vintage '80s aesthetic we loved so much. His last few films were a pair of zombie gut munchers and Island of the Living Dead set on a mysterious Spanish island where a group of treasure hunters find themselves stranded following fog-drenched shipwreck off the coast.  

Once on the island it's not too very long before they find themselves at the mercy a a centuries old voodoo curse and an island crawling with conquistador zombies! It is said that good artists borrow and great artists steak... by that logic Bruno Mattei might just be the greatest filmmaker in all of Italy! Lifting liberally from Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters (1978) and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) but shot on a fraction of the budget on digital equipment that gives it the appearance of '90s daytime soap opera. 

Mattei always did make the most of a meager budget and he does it again here with some great Filipino ruins as a stand-in for the Spanish with hordes of zombies dressed up as monks, conquistadors and... flamenco dancers! The zombie effects range is quality from poor to worse but there are a few that shine when spotlighted, a did enjoy the design of the undead on this one, maybe the make-up effects were not the greatest but I could see what they were going for here. There is an odd inconsistency to the creatures, some are your average flesh-tearing  variety and then you have one that is capable of regenerating lost limbs, it's a cheap but fun effect. Others are fanged like vampires and still others speak as if they are ghostly apparitions, not exactly sure what they were going for here but it seems Mattei was just throwing a little bit of everything at the wall on this one and seeing what would stick, and it works for the most part, doesn't make much sense but it does chug along at a good clip. 

The film begins with a great prologue set on the island centuries ago during a voodoo inspired zombie outbreak with the Conquistadors attempting to thwart the undead menace, it's a moody beginning with some great atmosphere and fog shrouded sets with the zombie hordes overcoming the Spanish, here we have a fantastic borrow from Fulci with the headshot that opens Zombie Flesh Eaters in addition to the infamous splinter to the eye scene scene from Fulci's classic but with nowhere near the suspense or eye-gore. Of course, this is a Mattei films so you can expect an abundance of stock footage including a sepia tone naval battle from the early days of cinema that draws attention to itself. 

The cast is just awful with a few exceptions, for one the dialogue has been dubbed and is over-the-top with more than a few choice groaners tossed off every few minutes, pretty silly stuff. The best of the cast is probably Gaetano Russo as the ship captain, outside of being in Mattei's final pair of films his most memorable role is that of a jailer in the film Ladyhawke (1985) and the women-in-prison film Caged Women (1991). he does bring a certain amount of weight and depth to the role but not much. Then we have the star of the film, Yvette Yzon who appeared in several of Mattei's earlier WIP and erotic films, appearing here fully clothed in in full ass kicking mode as the survivor girl, sort of. Ydalia Suarez appeared in Mattei's In the Land of the Cannibals (2003) and also appears here as the other woman among the treasure hunters who doesn't fare so well, in respect to her acting and fate in the film. The remainder of the cast are a bunch of guys who are wooden and stiff but do provide a source of meat for the zombie grinder and some occasional kick-boxing prior to being eaten, they are just bad enough to be entertaining
.  

DVD: The disc from Intervision presents the film in anamorphic widescreen and looks about as good as you can expect from a shot-on-digital film in the early 2000s, a step up from the zero-budget cheapies we see today but nowhere near the 35mm quality of Mattei's Hell the Living Dead (1980) or Rats Night of Terror (1984). The English Dolby Digital Stereo audio does the job but cannot help the poorly dubbed dialogue or the sad synth score, both are awful but do add a certain amount of schlocky charm to the proceeding.

Unlike the recent Bruno Mattei releases from Intervision this one does actually feature more than the trailer as an extras, we have the trailer (2 Mins), a International Sales Promo (5 Mins) and a new Bungle in the Jungle (19 Minutes) featurette both producer Giovanni Paolucci and screenwriter Antonio Tentori reminiscing about their experience making the film and working with Mattei, they speak about the Filipino locations, working with Mettei and his death. 

Special Features:
- Bungle in the Jungle (19 Mins)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins)
- International Sales Promo (5 Mins)

As with Bruno Mattei's later era cannibal films this one manages to maintain that vintage '80s aesthetic, over-the-top and slightly nutty zombie carnage from start to finish. Probably a bit overlong at ninety plus minutes but still quite a fun slice of trashy cinema that straight-up steals from superior films but proves to be a surprisingly good bad film, loaded with corny action and plenty of cheese.