10 TO MIDNIGHT (1983) (Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review)

10 TO MIDNIGHT (1983) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 102 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: J. Lee Thompson 
Cast: Charles Bronson, Lisa Eilbacher, Andrew Stevens, Gene Davis, Geoffrey Lewis, Wilford Brimley

When I was just barely in the double-digits I caught 10 To Midnight on late-night cable TV, I am pretty sure this sleazy L.A. based thriller was my introduction to the Charles Bronson, and truth be told it's still one of my favorites in his filmography. We have L.A. Detective Leo Kessler (Bronson, Death Wish 2) on the trail of a homicidal killer whose been murdering young women around L.A., the identity of whom is revealed right from the start. The killer is a misogynist office equipment repairmen named Warren Stacy (Gene Davis, Cruising) who stalks young women and stabs them to death with a knife. In a nice bit of exploitation that pushes this Bronson thriller to another level the killer chooses to do so while he's completely nude! As a kid I found that highly disturbing, and it's still an odd bit of business watching it today, but Davis is pretty good here as the misogynist psycho, he's an attractive guy, but is all too ugly on the inside, a real sicko, and a fun villain for Bronson to square off against. 

The violence in the film is not as graphic but as the rampant nudity but it is perverse and dark with enough blood to drive home the blade, but watching it now I was surprised how much of the film is actually a crime procedural with some decent drama, more so than I remembered, but at age eleven I think it's always the nudity and blood you remember from these things. The detective's young and attractive daughter Laurie (Lisa Eilbacher, Beverly Hills Cop) catches the eye of the killer which draws Kessler even deeper into it, and when the psycho proves a bit too clever to catch legally the detective  resorts to planting evidence, which upsets his green but idealistic partner Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens, The Fury). 

The film has some nice slasher sequences that are well done, given an even more lurid leaning by way of a nude killer, which s not something you see everyday. The film is also memorable for a few choices lines of dialogue, like when  Bronson's character says during an examination of the the first victim's body that "anybody who does something like this, his knife has to be his penis!", and when he later whips out a jack-off machine found in the home of a suspect during an interrogation, I challenge you not to laugh at the sight of crusty old Bronson whipping out an 80's vintage jack-off machine, you cannot do it! The highlights here are the murders scenes, including an amped-up finale that mirrors the infamous Richard Speck killings with the nude killer attacking a dorm full of nurses, it does not disappoint, very harrowing stuff, plus a fun vigilante shocker of an end that for my money is right up there with the best of Bronson's vigilante films. 

That being said I think the film is actually a pretty solid thriller with some fun slasher tendencies, there's not a ton of gore, but we do get of nudity and a good bit of bloodshed, making this is thriller that I think slasher fans will enjoy quite a bit. Bronson is also looking pretty committed here, he like working with J. Lee Thompson and it a shows, he's not just collecting a paycheck here they way he did with a few of the later Cannon films. Also be on the lookout for appearances from Wilford Brimley (The Thing) as a cop and Geffrey Lewis (Salem's Lot) as the killer's sleazy lawyer!  

Audio/Video: 10 To Midnight (1983) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with new 4K scan from the OCN. I never did snag the previous OOP Twilight Time Blu-ray release, but Scream do excellent work here presenting the film in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. The source is clean and free of blemishes, grain is velvety rich, colors are well saturated and blacks are pleasantly deep with good shadow detail, fine detail is abundant and skin tones look natural throughout. Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles. The audio is not the most dynamic but it is clean and well-balanced, dialogue is never hard to discern and the score from Robert O. Ragland (Grizzly) sounds terrific. 

Onto the extras Scream Factory carry-over the excellent audio commentary with Producer Pancho Kohner, Casting Director John Crowther, and Film Historian David Del Valle from the TT release, a great track from guys who knew Bronson and who know a thing or two about movies as well, it's a great listen. 

New stuff comes by way of a brand new audio commentary with Writer/Historian Paul Talbot (Author Of Bronson’s Loose! And Bronson’s Loose Again!) who for my money is the authority on all things Bronson-related, his inclusion here makes this the more definitive version of the film right away, his no nonsense style of commentary are essential listening for any Bronson fan. 

Scream Factory also offer-up three brand new interviews, an 11-min interview with Actor Andrew Stevens, 13-min with Producer Lance Hool, 6-min Actor Robert F. Lyons and 7-min Actress Jeana Tomasina Keough, these are all newly recorded and exclusive to this release. Lyons speaks about working with Bronson, he describes him as having a "quiet knowing", not being very buddy buddy but respectful and professional. Noting how he would change in the presence of his wife Jill Ireland, and describing J. Lee Thompson's habit of tearing paper during filming. Actress Jeana Tomasina Keough speaks about her early modeling career, how connections through Playboy lead to her being cast in a ZZ Top music video and other films like Looker and Six Pack, and how a lie about her height on her resume cost her the lead in the film. She also notes how nice Bronson was and how intense Gene Davis was while playing the psycho, and how the director laughed when he realized she didn't know how to break an egg for her kitchen scene. Andrew Stevens recalls working with Bronson first on Death Hunt, where he recalls the actor being a reclusive health nut. He describes director J. Lee Thompson as a "mischievous imp" and also pointing out how he would roll and chew on bits of paper, plus describing Lisa Eilbacher as the best kisser in the world, and commenting on working with his other co-stars, mentioning that Gene Davis was "fearless" in the role of the nude psycho. I enjoyed how he described how he would covertly get Bronson to open-up about his past film roles, very cool. Producer Lance Hool shows up for 13-min speaking about producing the film with J. Lee Thompson, the screenwriting process, and the pros and cons of working with the infamous Cannon Films. He makes sure to praise J. Lee Thompson and his body of work, mentioning that his later-era work with Cannon Films sort of obscured his legacy. 

  

The disc is buttoned-up with a selection of trailers, radio spots and an image gallery of stills, lobby cards, and movie posters. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster which was also used by TT, plus a new illustration from Joel Robinson, which is also featured on the disc and slipcase (o-card). 

Special Features: 
- NEW 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
- NEW Charlie’s Partner – An Interview With Actor Andrew Stevens (11 min) HD 
- NEW Producing Bronson – An Interview With Producer Lance Hool (13 min) HD 
- NEW Remembering Bronson – An Interview With Actor Robert F. Lyons (6 min) HD 
- NEW Undressed To Kill – An Interview With Actress Jeana Tomasina Keough (7 min) HD
- NEW Audio Commentary With Writer/Historian Paul Talbot (Author Of Bronson’s Loose! And Bronson’s Loose Again!)
- Audio Commentary With Producer Pancho Kohner, Casting Director John Crowther, And Film Historian David Del Valle
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- Radio Spots (2 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (7 min) 

10 To Midnight (1983) is a good sleazy 80's Bronson thriller with a memorable psycho and loads of nudity, what's not to love? The new Scream Factory release looks and sounds very good, plus the extras are killer, making this one worth a double-dip. 
  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981) (Retro-VHS Blu-ray Review)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)

Retro-VHS Blu-ray Edition 

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment
Rating: R
Duration: 111 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane, Sharon Acker, Frances Hyland, Lenore Zann, Lisa Langlois, Michel Rene Labelle, Lesleh Donaldson

In this early 80's slasher directed by J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear) we have a setting at the elite Crawford Academy's high school, where a group of popular teens form a click known as the Top Ten, they seem to have it all, but someone is killing them off. This is a movie I caught on cable TV back in the 80's, it's always stuck with me, starring a pair of my  childhood crushes, and blending American slasher-isms with a Euro-thriller notes, namely an endless parade of red-herrings and a black-gloved killer.

Our focus here is top ten member Virginia (Melissa Sue Anderson, Little House on the Prairie) who had some weird experimental brain surgery some years back, which figures into the story. The identity of the killer is kept from us for a long while, it has a sort of giallo flavor you don't usually see in an 80s slasher. The first kill involves a black gloved killer with a sagtright-razor, but sadly the film is no 80s slasher blood fest, with the kills themselves a bit bloody but very tame. Director J.Lee Thompson was a solid director, but in his later years he found himself working for Canon Films, relegated to some sub-par action and adventure films, stuff like Death Wish 4 and King Solomon's Mines, but with this slasher he showed some great direction, and the movie is lensed quite nicely.

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The kill are a lot of fun, featuring teens offed by the gassed-up rear tire of a motorbike, skewered by a shishkabob, and a guy having a hefty weight dropped on his balls while pumping some iron! It's all great stuff, nut the bloody payoff of each kill has been heavily edited, but the climax of this movie is so deliciously overwrought and WTF it erases anything that I had an issue with by that point. The reveal of the culprit's identity and reasoning in this one always leaves me reeling, and while I do think the movie is a bit too convoluted and over-plotted, I still count this is one of my favorite slashers of all time, it's just so dang fun. 

The film has a surprisingly great supporting cast, including the legendary Glen Ford (Pa Kdent from Donner's Superman!), and some lesser known, but no less solid actors, Lawrence Dane (Scanners), Lisa Langlois (Deadly Eyes) and Tracey E. Bregman who I had such a crush on as a kid, she having appeared on one of my mom's soap operas she use to watch in the 80's. 

Audio/Video: The film was previously available from Mill Creek Entertainment on a double-feature Blu-ray with with babysitter classic When a Stranger Calls (1979), now available in the U.S. as a proper stand alone Blu-ray, presented in 1080p HD and framed 1.85:1 widescreen. The slasher looks quite good, blacks are solid, the grain is well-managed. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Stereo, with the original score from composers Bo Harwood and Lance Rubin, no subtitles are offered, and there are no extras for the film.

The single disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with one sided sleeve of artwork, strangely they've gone with what looks to be a variation of the original DVD release, of a young woman (who's not in the film!) holding a birthday cake, it's ugly as sin. However, this release is part of the Retro-VHS Look collection from Mill Creek and features a slipcover with the original movie one-sheet, the one with the shiskabob skewering, that looks like a vintage VHS release with rental store stickers that label it horror, be kind rewind, and penalty stickers for not rewinding, not dissimilar to what MVD are doing with their MVD Rewind Collection. The disc also features an excerpt of the same key art as the slip, with one side of the spine looking like a VHS release, the other looks like the label from the VHS cassette, though I do wish they had used the skewering artwork for the wrap as well. 

Happy Birthday To Me (1981) is a pretty great slasher, it loses some points for being less bloody than others of the era but it's stylish, ludicrous and fun with a giallo bent and one hell of a shocker finale, just the way I like 'em. 

CANNON CLASSICS DOUBLE FEATURE: DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987) & DEATH WISH 5: THE FACE OF DEATH (1994) (Umbrella Blu-ray Review)

CANNON CLASSICS DOUBLE FEATURE:

 DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987)/ 
DEATH WISH 5: THE FACE OF DEATH (1994)  

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 100 Minutes/95 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono, English DTS-HD MA Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Director: J. Lee Thompson / Allan A. Goldstein
Cast: Charles Bronson, Dana Barton, Kay Lenz, John P. Ryan, Lesley-Anne Down, Michael Parks, Chuck Shamata, Saul Rubinek 

DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987)(100 min) 
Now living in Los Angeles after the New York set third film, the infamous vigilante Paul Kersey (Bronson, Hard Times) is once again working as an architect, having settled down with a newfound love interest, TV report Kay Sheldon (Kay Lenz, House), but when her teenage daughter Erica (Dana Barron, the original Audrey from National Lampoon's Vacation!) suddenly dies of a crack overdose Paul returns to his perennial vigilante lifestyle, seeking out the dealer who dealt her the toxic drugs, and then aligning himself with mysterious newspaper magnate Nathan White (John P. Ryan, It's Alive) in an effort to turn rival drug pushers against each other to rid the city of crack cocaine.

Now in his late-sixties Bronson was pretty tired looking at this point, but he returned for this J. Lee Thompson (Happy Birthday To Me) directed sequel, cashing a probably large-sized payout for the role and offering his usual tough-guy persona. The action in this one is a bit on the anemic side when compared to previous entries but it still manages to turn a smile with Bronson's character  dispatches bad guys in a series of fun and somewhat corny ways. The film opens with a strange parking garage sequence wherein a woman is being stalked by three stocking-masked thugs who look to be about to rape her when they're interrupted by Bronson, who dispatches of them in the usual point a gun in their direction and pull the trigger sort of way. Without Michael Winner directing this sequel gone is the formerly prerequisite misogynist rape scene the series is known for, making this a bit less seedier than previous entries, but what it lacks in sex-crimes it makes up for in ridiculous action set-pieces. One of my favorite scenes has Bronson going undercover as a wine rep, infiltrating a mobbed-up diner and offering a table of gangsters (including an early appearance from Danny Trejo, Machete) a bottle of explosive wine, the superimposed fiery explosion is so damn cheap looking, but the split-second we see of a mannequin used in the explosion alone is worth the price of admission for me, this is the sort of bad movie stuff that makes bad movies fun.  

The film is a definite drop down in quality for the series, though it is a better looking production than the third entry thanks to the capable direction of J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear), and I love John P. Ryan here in a sinister dual-role, he goes right off the rails towards the end, chewing up scenery in a roller rink with an explosive finale, also featuring another cheap-ass mannequin that goes up in flames. Death Wish 4 is pretty cheesy stuff but this is still tasty cheese, the mold hasn't fully engulfed the 80's action flick and Bronson still caries himself well-enough to make this an entertaining Death Wish film.  

DEATH WISH 5: THE FACE OF DEATH (1994)(95 min)
Having had his revenge against the drug dealers who killed his girlfriend's daughter in L.A. in the last film we catch up to Paul Kersey (Bronson) a few years later, returning to where it all began, New York City. Now in his seventies the vigilante is inexplicably living in the witness protection program and is a professor of architecture at a local university. Again we have a doomed love interest by way of the much younger fashion designer Olivia (Lesley-Anne Down, From Beyond the Grave), and her young daughter Chelsea (Erica Lancaster). Unfortunately for everyone Olivia's ex is vicious gangster Tommy O’Shea (Michael Parks, Tusk) who is using her fashion house to launder dirty money, when she tries to break free of his tyrannical influence the Irish thug sends cross-dressing hit-man Freddie "Flakes" Garrity (Robert Joy, Land of the Dead) to disfigure her as a warning, later going so far as to kill her, continuing a streak of doomed women that Kersey has left in his wake going all the way back to the original film.  

When the mobster gains custody of his estranged daughter following the death of his ex Kersey begins to hunt down O'Shea and his henchmen, with the violence in this one getting even sillier and more cartoonish than the last with Kersey taking out the mobster and his henchmen via a cornucopia of oddball ways, including a cyanide-laced cannoli, an R/C controlled soccer-ball bomb and an ill-advisedly placed vat of acid!

Death Wish 5: The Face of Death (1994) is more of the same for the franchise, but even cheaper than the last. Bronson is considerably older than even the last film, so don't expect a lot from him, thankfully we again have a notable villain by way of Michael Parks (From Dusk Till Dawn), he's venomous fun as the over-the-top Irish mobster, and while he doesn't completely redeem this mostly flat action-less film I think if you made it through the first four films I don't expect you'll walk away from this one too disappointed. 

Audio/Video: Death Wish 4 and 5 arrives on single-disc Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment in 1080p HD, framed in 1.85:1 widescreen and sourced from a good looking element, whatever that may be. Grain is decently managed, with darker scenes showing more visible grain. There doesn't look to be any egregious DNR applied to it, looking very filmic and natural. Colors are also good, skin tones look natural and the black levels are adequate, I wouldn't say inky through and through, but looking alright overall. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA Mono on the first film and stereo for the second with optional English subtitles, no issues with hiss or distortion, well-balanced with score and dialogue coming through without issue. 

Extras are not quite as plentiful as the Umbrella release for Death wish II (1982)/Death Wish III (1985) but are decent, we get two audio commentaries from Film Historian and Bronson expert Paul Talbot - this guy knows his stuff and goes in-depth with a wealth of trivia, anecdotes, and behind the scenes info about each film, getting into the nitty gritty, even minutia like how Bronson played cards with the women in the film but no men were allowed to join in, he even details the various weapons used in the film, including which other film they were used in during that time period. The rest of the extras are relegated to trailers, tv spots, promos and an image gallery with posters, lobby cards, press releases, and various home video releases. 

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentaries  for both film by Film Historian Paul Talbot, Author of Bronson's Loose!
- Death Wish 4 Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- Death Wish 5 Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- Death wish 4 TV Spot (30 sec) 
- Death wish 4 Broadcast Promo Spot (30 sec) 
- Death Wish 4 VHS Preview (20 sec) 
- Death Wish 5 VHS Preview (1 min) 
- Image Gallery (63 Images) 

Death Wish 4 and 5 are both cheesy fun if you're in the right frame of mind, Bronson is not in top-form here but if you're a fan of the series (or of Bronson) it's a fun re-visit on Blu-ray. Notably this double-feature marks the HD debut of the fifth film, and Umbrella's Blu-ray looks and sounds very good with two great audio commentaries from a serious Bronson fanatic, both of which I would argue are nearly as entertaining as the films themselves.  

FACES OF HORROR (1971-1990) 10 MOVIE COLLECTION (DVD Review)

FACES OF HORROR (1971-1990)

10 MOVIE COLLECTION

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment
Region Code: 1 NTSC
Rating: R, Unrated
Duration: 925 Minutes
Audio: Fullscreen / Widescreen
Video: English Dolby Digital 2.0
Directors: Fred Walton, William Byron Hillman, J. Lee Thompson, Ross Hagen, John Stewart, Robert Hammer, Marc B. Ray, Theodore Gershuny, David Paulsen, Yabo Yablonsky, Percival Rubens
Cast: Charles Durning, Carol Kane, Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Mickey Rooney, Cameron Mitchell, John Carradine, Troy Donahue, Cleavon Little, Keenan Wynn

Mill Creek Entertainment have unleashed a new 10 movie collection, this one titled FACES OF HORROR, bringing together a few titles already released multiple times on past collections, no exclusives on this one, and no noticeable picture quality that I can discern, but what we do get is 15 hours of culty slasher-thriller fun for cheap, this one goes for about $7 on amazon.com right now.

Here's what this oe has to offer...

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (1979)
Rating: R
Duration: 97 Minutes
Audio:English Dolby Digital
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Fred Walton
Cast: Charles Durning, Carol Kane, Colleen Dewhurst, Tony Beckley, Rachel Roberts, Ron O’Neal

Synospsis: A terrified young baby-sitter...an incessantly ringing phone...and whispered threats set the stage for one of the most suspenseful thrillers ever filmed. Carol Kane stars as the baby-sitter who is tormented by a series of ominous phone calls until a compulsive cop (Charles Durning) is brought on the scene to apprehend the psychotic killer. Seven years later, however, the nightmare begins again when the madman returns to mercilessly haunt Kane, now a wife and mother. No longer a naive girl, though still terrified, but prepared, she moves boldly to thwart the maniac’s attack in scenes that culminate in a nerve-shattering conclusion.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)
Rating: R
Duration: 111 Minutes
Audio: english Dolby Digital
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane, Sharon Acker, Frances Hyland, Tracy Bregman, Lisa Langlois

Synopsis: Get ready for a taut mystery-shocker that will keep you at your wit’s end and at the edge of your seat. Popular high school senior Virginia Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson) survives a freak accident, but suffers from memory loss and traumatic blackouts. As she attempts to resume a normal life, something terrible is happening - her friends are ruthlessly murdered one-by-one. Will she be the next victim or is she the killer? The terrifying truth is finally uncovered at Virginia’s 18th birthday party and you’re invited!

DOUBLE EXPOSURE (1983)
Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: William Byron Hillman
Cast: Michael Callan, Joanna Pettet, Cleavon Little

Synopsis: A photographer who specializes in taking pictures for men’s magazines is disturbed by his recurring dreams dealing with the apparent murder of his models. When his models begin showing up gruesomely killed, the photographer and his psychiatrist fear he may indeed be a killer. The photographer struggles to find out the truth behind the killings, whether he is responsible or he is being set up by someone else.

CLICK: THE CALENDAR GIRLS (1990)
Rating: unrated
Duration: 87 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Ross Hagen, John Stewart
Cast: Troy Donahue, Ross Hagen, Hoke Howell

Synopsis: This suspenseful tale takes place in the world of high fashion photography, where a psychotic killer stalks the models who have gathered at a photographer's remote ranch. As the bodies begin to appear, the depravity in which the victims were murder indicates a twisted and sadistic mind. The remaining models and the photographer must protect themselves at all costs, while wondering if the killer is one of them or some stranger who is butchering them.

DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE (1980)
Rated R
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Robert Hammer
Cast: James Westmoreland, Ben Frank, Flo Lawrence

Synopsis: A deranged Vietnam veteran becomes a serial killer who targets the female models he photographs in their lingerie. After the killer dispatches each victim, he calls the female host of a radio show to talk about his problems and behavior. While the police attempt to track him down, the killer decides to set his sights upon the radio psychologist and begins stalking her.

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, while a local police detective, Lt. McCable, is always two steps behind in trying to catch the psycho. Now here's an exploitation gem. Don't Answer the Phone stars James Westmoreland as Kirk, our deranged serial killer and boy is he ever a character. I love this film. My second favorite character is the film is a wisecracking coroner who always says the most inappropriate things, good stuff.

SCREAM BLOODY MURDER (1973)
Rated R
Duration: 85 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Marc B. Ray
Cast: Fred Holbert, Leigh Mitchell, Robert Knox

Synopsis: A young man kills his own father and is subsequently set to a mental institution where he remains for many years. Upon his release, he returns home to discover his mother has remarried and, after growing to dislike his new step-father, murders the gentleman as well as his own mother. The crazed man then turns his attention to a young artist whom he has become obsessed with and continues his murderous ways in order to be with her.

SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1974)
Rated R
Duration: 85 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Theodore Gershuny
Cast: Patrick O’Neal, John Carradine, Walter Abel

Synopsis: A man inherits his family’s mansion that has been unoccupied for years and was at one time a mental hospital. Desperate to sell for much-needed cash, he sends his attorney to the mansion to prepare it for sale. Unfortunately at the same time, a deranged killer escapes from a nearby institution and returns to the town and the mansion, both which hold some dark and sinister secrets.

When a man inherits a country mansion that was the former site of an asylum the bodies start piling up, it stars Mary Woronov (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.

SAVAGE WEEKEND (1976)
Rated: R
Duration: 86 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: David Paulsen
Cast: Christopher Allport, James Doerr, Marilyn Hamlin

Synopsis: A rich New York City businessman decides to take his fiancee and a few friends upstate to his vacation home to relax. Everyone seems to be enjoying their time resting, drinking and enjoying each others company. This good time is spoiled by the appearance of a masked killer who begins stalking and then butchering the vacationers one by one.

THE DEMON (1979)
Rated R
Duration: 93 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Percival Rubens
Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Jennifer Holmes, Craig Gardner

Synopsis: A deranged killer is stalking the citizens of a small-town, brutally killing a family and abducting the daughter. The town is terrified of these events and is unable to find the killer. Only a former cop with psychic abilities appears to be the town’s hope of tracking down the murderer and finding the missing girl.

THE MANIPULATOR (1971)
Rated R
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital
Video: Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Yabo Yablonsky
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Keenan Wynn, Luana Anders

Synopsis: A has-been movie make-up man has gone over the edge by kidnapping an actress and hiding her on the back lot sound stage of an old movie studio. While there, he forces the actress to perform scenes from various productions, all the while shouting orders to imaginary crew members and spiraling further into madness. Faced with death through starvation or by his hand, the actress must try to reason with a man who has clearly lost his mind.

Holy cow, you've never seen Andy Rooney like this, what a surreal slice of 70's movie making!

Audio/Video: Let's be realistic folks, what we have here are ten movies crammed onto a three disc set, When A Stranger Calls and Happy Birthday To Me look decent in anamorphic widescreen, sharing disc one, but everything else is problematic as far as PQ, loads of compression issues, artifacting and rampant print damage, but what else would you expect, honestly we are not buying these budget sets expecting superior A/V presentation, but I will say that with with their recent Blu-ray releases Mill Creek have been doing alright, but these budget collections fare poorly in terms of quality with a few exceptions, the recent Hammer, William Castle and Sci-Fi collections, licensed from Columbia Pictures, have look quite good.

Disc 1:
When A Stranger Calls
Happy Birthday To Me

Disc 2:
Double Exposure
Click: The Calendar Girl Killer
Don't Answer The Phone

Disc 3:
Scream Bloody Murder
Silent Night, Bloody Night
Savage Weekend
The Demon
The Manipulator

Special Features:
- None

These Mill Creek sets are a guilty pleasure, and I credit Mill Creek with bringing a lot of these cult films to my attention through budget sets they've released in the past, of few of which have gone on to receive superior widescreen restorations from niche cult labels like Severin Films and Vinegar Syndrome, but it was Mill Creek that brought them to my eyes the first. If you're looking for superior quality presentations of a few of these films I would recommend seeking out the When A Stranger Calls/Happy Birthday double-feature Blu-ray from Mill Creek, which looks wonderful. Also available, both Double Exposure and Don't Answer the Phone have deluxe restorations available on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, as does Savage Weekend from Kino Lorber, but if you're just looking for some low-grade b-movies fun on the cheap this set from Mill Creek is worth the $7 price tag.