WILDLING (2018) (Scream Factory/IFC Midnight Blu-ray Review)

WILDLING (2018) 

Label: IFC Midnight/Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 92 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1, English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1) 
Director: Fritz Bohm
Cast: Bel Powley, Brad Dourif, Collin Kelly-Sordelet, James Le Gros, Liv Tyler

Feral coming-of-age story Wildling (2018) opens with an extended prologue wherein a man called "daddy" (Brad Dourif, Child's Play) keeps an adolescent girl named Anna locked-away im a room in his home located deep in the woods, he schools her and tells her fairytales of fearsome clawed creatures called "wildlings" whom he says have eaten all the other children in the world. He also uses hypnosis and brainwashing tactics to keep her unquestioning about her surroundings, feeding her a veggies-only diet, and administering daily injections designed to impede her growth as a women, i.e. keeping her menstruation at bay, for reasons not known. Overtime she grows into a young woman, now played by Bel Powley (A Royal Night Out), and the man becomes so distraught that his attempts to curb her turn to womanhood have failed that he blows his own brains out. In the aftermath the confused young girl ends up at the local hospital where it is revealed that "Daddy" wasn't her father at all, though no one is quite sure where she came from and why he kept the girl locked-up in the first place.

When the young girl is about to be shipped off to local orphanage  the doctors the local sheriff Ellen Cooper (Liv Tyler, The Strangers) steps in and takes temporary custody of the girl, and the young woman takes an immediate liking to Cooper's teenage brother Ray (Collin Kelly-Sordelet), a nice kid who assists her with her understanding of the world, such as convincing her that berries that grow on bushed are in fact not the reincarnated souls of the dead, as her daddy taught her, just one of many lies he filled her head with over the years. As Anna begins to develop as a woman her libido is not all that's triggered, she has some serious feral-tendencies, sprouting not only new body hair but claws and a new set of sharp teeth, making her coming of age a bloody one in more ways than one.

Wildling is a pretty solid creature feature, well-directed by director Fritz Böhm and handsomely shot by cinematographer Toby Oliver (Happy Death Day), this coming of age story is along the lines of Ginger Snaps (2000) by way of The Beast Within (1982) with a smattering of Teeth (2007) and The Woman (2011), a powerful coming of age story wrapped in the trapping of a werewolf film, though not that exactly, this one goes more along the way of an urban legend about feral people, or a certain bigfooted cryptid we all know and love, I really liked where it went. Bel Powley says a lot with very few words, conveying fear, disorientation and feral voracity with her big blue eyes and body language, giving a very good physical performance as the woman turned wildling. The story of a young girl transforming into a woman is a journey already fraught with tribulations, even more so when it entails turning into a hairy wild woman, fending yourself from rape-y teen and being hunted by a group of men out to make sure her kind go extinct.

Dourif gives a good turn her as the creepily caring "daddy", we get some intriguing back story and some strange side characters, including a mysterious woodsman called the wolf man, played by James Le Gros (Phantasm II) whom aids the young woman during her difficult time and fills in some of the back story as well. Liv Tyler also turns in a good performance as the local sheriff, she's not someone I would usually say comes across as cno-nonsense usually, but she commands a degree of authority here while also coming across as caring and nurturing to the character of Anna, but it's Powley that carries the film here, she's pretty great.

The film is plenty bloody but not a gore-fest, the transformative body-horror elements are pretty good though, if teeth falling out of your mouth is a nightmare you have this might be nightmare fuel, but the special effects are mostly relegated to her hairy turn into a wildling, and I thought both the physical and digital effects looked great throughout.     

Audio/Video: Wildling (2018) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory and IFC Midnight in 1080p HD framed in 2.40:1 widescreen looking great, the digital cinematography looks solid and without blemish, blacks are good and deep, colors are nicely saturated, and the scope lensing nicely capturing the wooded environs of the film. The surround audio gives the film a nicely immersive sound field to play with, plenty of ambient noise and score to fill the surrounds. 

Extras are slim, we get a handful of deleted scenes and outtakes, plus a trailer for the film, the deleted scenes don't offer much but the outtakes include a fun scene of the special effects crew squirting fake bile into Bel Powley mouth and a scene of Liv Tyler riffing on the "I know what goes with ketchup" line. The single disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a 2-sided sleeve of artwork, the b-side is just a scene from the film and not a reversible artwork option, the disc featuring the same key art as the sleeve, and a slipcover that features a variant of the same artwork with higher contrast, deeper color saturation and a wolf added to the image.

Special Features: 
- Deleted Scenes (6 min) 
- Outtakes (4 min) 
- Trailer (1 min) 

Wildling (2018) is a solid coming of age creature film, if you're a fan of The Beast Within and Ginger Snaps this feral female transformation story is something you're gonna want to checkout, this is definitely one of the best of the IFC Midnight entries so far this year in my opinion. 

THE LARRY FESSENDEN COLLECTION (1991-2006)

THE LARRY FESSENDEN COLLECTION (1991-2006) 

Label: Scream Factory I IFC Midnight
Release Date: October 20th 2015
Region Code:  A
Rating: Unrated, R
Duration: 395 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English SDH Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen(1.78:1, 2.35:1) Fullscreen (1.33:1) 
Director: Larry Fessendden
Cast: Ashley Arcement, David Van Tieghem, Miriam Healy-Louie, Richard Topol, Stephen Ramsey, Larry Fessenden, Meredith Snaider, Patricia Coleman, Jesse Hartman, Aaron Beall, Heather Woodbury, Erik Per Sullivan, Jake Weber, John Speredakos, Patricia Clarkson, James Le Gros, Kevin Corrigan, Connie Britton, Ron Perlman, Zach Gilford 

Filmmaker Larry Fessenden is a writer, a producer, a director and an actor, a man of many trades and a filmaker with voice and a passion for horror cinema. His first four features are brought together in a new four-disc Blu-ray box set from Scream Factory and IFC Midnight that will see release on October 20th. All four films have been remastered in HD for the first time, along with both loads of brand-new and vintage extras including seven short films and two music videos in one Hell of an attractive package.

NO TELLING (1991) 
Rating: R
Duration: 93 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English SDH Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Larry Fessendden
Cast: Ashley Arcement, David Van Tieghem, Miriam Healy-Louie, Richard Topol, Stephen Ramsey

Synopsis: When Lillian Gaines (Miriam Healy-Louie) moves to the county with her husband Geoffrey (Stephen Ramsey) for a quiet summer retreat, she never suspects that meeting activist Alex Vine ( David Van Tieghem) will force her to confront her deepest fears about the man she married, and the bizarre experiment underway in his lab. 

Part of the reason I love this four-disc set is it brought to my attention Fessenden's first feature length movie, the mad scientist movie No Telling, a film I don't think I'd ever even heard of before the announcement of this set. The movie is a rural mad scientist take of sorts about a young and driven doctor whose research into human limb replacement threatens to destroy his marriage to his much neglected wife. His secretive experiments with animals out in the barn cross all sorts of ethical boundaries, even though we don't see a lot of what's transpiring, a lot of it's left to the imagination, and as we will soon discover that is probably for the best. Like many of Fessenden's best works the movie brings to life the humanity of the characters, and in this instance, the inhumanity of science. It also digs into his wife's struggle to maintain the marriage in the face of her husband's science-obsession and her own strength to stay true to him when a romantic opportunity presents itself by way of eco-activist who arrives in the area. 

Unfortunately the movie is a sort of ungainly mash-up of of mad scientist and ecological horror, the latter being a subject Fessenden would explore later with more success with a few movies on this very set. Part of the problem is that this science gone wrong story is a very slow to get a head of steam going, the emotional core of the movie didn't pull me and the wait for the stitched together animal creation made me wait for far too long, when it is finally revealed I can understand why they waited, it just doesn't work very well. 

Every filmmaker starts somewhere, and No Telling is a here Larry Fessenden began, I didn't like it much, but I can certainly appreciate what is was aiming for. While it falls pretty far from the mark I can see the early core Fessenden qualities that would bleed into his later films, the emotional core of the characters is there, and the eco-horror warnings, you can see it there on screen in pieces, but the movie is weak and the acting is spotty. 

NO TELLING Special Features: 
- NEW Director-Approved HD Transfer
- NEW Audio Commentary With Writer/Director/Executive Producer Larry Fessenden
- The Making Of No Telling (1991) (14 Mins) 
- Archival Footage with NEW Intro by Fessenden (1990) (25 Mins) 
- Short Film White Trash (1979) with NEW Intro by Fessenden and New Music By Composer Will Bates (9 Mins) HD
 - Glass Eye Pix Sizzle Reel with NEW Intro by Fessenden (1985-1990) (8 Mins) HD 

HABIT (1997) 
Rating: Unrated
Duration:113 Minutes   
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English SDH Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1) 
Director: Larry Fessendden
Cast: Larry Fessenden, Meredith Snaider, Patricia Coleman, Jesse Hartman, Aaron Beall, Heather Woodbury

In his second feature film Habit director Fessenden turns the camera on himself as Sam, a New York City Bohemiam of sorts who is down on his luck and at the bottom of a bottle. At a Halloween party he meets a young woman named Anna (Meredith Snaider) and the two almost immediately embark on an aggressive sexual relationship with Anna regularly draining Sam of his blood on a nightly basis. The new relationship separates Sam from his old friends, with his health failing he descends further into madness, as he soon begins to suspect that Anna might be a an actual blood-sucking vampire, but can he stop her before she drains him completely, and does he even want to? 

Fessenden looks pretty run down here as Sam, by design, here we have vampirism as a fitting metaphor for addiction, as his unnatural lust and dependence on Anna grows his friends are driven away, while he attempts to rekindle a friendship with his ex. I loved the urban setting, the Bohemian-loser lifestyle portrayed, it's a contemporary movie but it manages to pay homage to the classic bloodsuckers of yesterday in a '90s NYC setting. Anna arrives and lives on a boat anchored in the harbor, straight out of Nosferatu. She must be invited into a home before entering through the door, she only arrives on scene during the dark hours, and there even a Van Helsing type older character who attempts to warn poor Sam about his new lustful lover. Habit is a very NYC-centric movie, a dirty and grimy production with an authentic New York vibe, at times you might think this was an Abel Ferrara movie, and that's a very nice compliment.

The acting is quite good, Fessenden seems like a man genuinely losing his mind and his grip on reality, aggrivated by alcoholic tendencies. Things have spiraled beyond his control and his dependence on his blood-sucking lady friend might just prove to be his undoing, and we're rooting for him, despite the fact that he's a mess of a man hes a good guy. There's a thick layer of psychological horror at play throughout, lending the possibility that perhaps Anna is not a vampire at all, but maybe just a horny blood-junky and Sam might just be imagining it through a haze of alcoholism and depression. Habit is a movie that will stick with you for awhile after watching it, a very interesting art-horror take on Dracula.  

HABIT Special Features: 
- NEW Director-Approved HD Transfer
- NEW Audio Commentary With Actor/Director/Writer/Editor Larry Fessenden
- The Making Of Habit (1995) (24 Mins) 
- Short Film Habit (1981) (18 Mins) HD
- The Making Of Short Film Habit (1981) (6 Mins) HD 
- Save You From Yourself Music Video (4 Mins) 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) 
- Short Film N Is For Nexus From Magnet Releasing's The ABCs Of Death 2 (4 Mins) HD 
- The Making Of N Is For Nexus (4 Mins) HD 
 - Frankenstein Cannot Be Stopped Music Video with NEW Intro by Fessenden (7 Mins) HD 

WENDIGO (2002) 
Rating: R
Duration: 92 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English SDH Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Larry Fessendden
Cast: Erik Per Sullivan, Jake Weber, John Speredakos, Patricia Clarkson

Larry Fessenden's Wendigo is the movie that made me aware of him as a filmmaker, I've longed loved the Native American lore of the Wendigo, and when I saw it on the movie shelf at Block Buster some years back I could not snap it up fast enough. The touching story of a young family and their tragic trip to the Catskills of Upstate New York won me over, for the most part. On their way to their winter getaway the couple have an accident and are besieged by a group of armed deer hunters, one of the hunter named Otis (John Speredakos) has some major beef with the father (Weber) over a chipped deer antler. It's a typical rural folk don't care for city folk encounter, but it sets a threatening tone that carries through the entire movie. 


One day while in town a mysterious Native American shopkeeper tells the son (Malcolm In Middle's Erik per Sullivan) tells him of the Wendigo, the half-man, half-animal spirit of legend, which chills the young boy to the bone. The shopkeeper gives the young boy a wood carving of the creature, and the idea of the mythical beast fills his head and dreams with terrifying thoughts. 

Meanwhile the boys parents struggle with grown-up stresses involving family and rednecks who may or may not be taunting the family, the boy himself attributes the darkness surrounding the family to the spirit of the Wendigo, culminating in a final third of the movie which beings the Wendigo to life, and in a manner that sort of harkens back to the dismal No Telling creature, it might leave you underwhelmed. 

Where the story excels is the 70s period setting and tone of the movie, it has atmosphere to spare and the cinematography is pretty great, Fessenden's movie definitely lean towards art-horror and this is no exception. Patricia Clarkson and Jake Weber are fantastic as the caring but emotionally duressed parents, both are phenomenal actors. For his part the young Sullivan handles the role of introverted kid with a wild imagination very nicely. Likewise, Speredakos as the redneck menace is a simmering menace, his distaste for the family is palpable from the beginning, what starts as maybe just a simple lets pick on the city folk turns into a dangerous game with tragic consequences. 

Wendigo has a lot going for it, an sweet retro art-horror aesthetic, the period setting, the winter environment, an underlying redneck menace, psychological terror and a great cast of actors who bring it together very nicely. What is does not do so well is bring on the wendigo in a form that won't make you laugh, a strange antlered tree-creature, which at times won't elicit a giggle,but there are a few shots. I loved the mythology, the settings and characters of Wendigo, the end might not live up to build-up but I dig this film a ton, recommended. 

WENDIGO Special Features: 
- NEW Director-Approved HD Transfer
- NEW Audio Commentary With Writer/Director/Editor Larry Fessenden
- NEW Audio Commentary With Actors Patricia Clarkson, Jake Weber And John Speredakos
- Searching For The Wendigo – Behind The Scenes Featurette (2001) (32 Mins) 
- Interview With Larry Fessenden (2001) (8 Mins) 
- Wendigo: Animated Series Trailer with NEW Intro by Fessenden (3 Mins) HD 
- Short Film Santa Claws (2008) (5 Mins) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) 
- Glass Eye Pix Sizzle Reel with NEW Intro by Fessenden (2010) (3 Mins) HD 

THE LAST WINTER (2006)
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 101 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English SDH Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Larry Fessendden
Cast: James Le Gros, Kevin Corrigan, Larry Fessenden, Connie Britton, Ron Perlman, Zach Gilford 

The Last Winter was far and away Fessenden's most accomplished film at the time, it takes his eco-horror passion to the next level with a story about a doomed team of oil scouts on the Alaskan tundra as they prepare to drill on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the team is headed by the stubborn Ed Pollack (Ron Pearlman), a can-do company man who is at odds with environmentalist James Hoffman (James LeGross) who is on-site to advise the company. The winter has been unseasonably warm and the permafrost is soft, Hoffman objects to bringing in heavy drilling equipment, fearing it will irrevocably damage the protected lands, this is the source of the initial frustration at the drill-site.

Separate from that, but related, are concerns about the mental healthy of several of the staff at the site, everyones a little on edge and Hoffman's sexual relationship with Pollack's second in command, Abby Sellers (Frasier's Connie Britton), seems to rub the crew boss the wrong way. As tempers  begin to flare strange things start to happen, the crew are acting funny, and things begin to turn deadly, beginning with a crew members who seems to have wandered off it the frozen tundra naked in the dark of night, found frozen to death the next day, crows having pecked his eyes out, truly a disturbing sight. 

With the crew members death things escalate pretty quickly leaving Pollack grasping to control his team, while Hoffman postulates that the thawing permafrost is releasing a deadly "sour gas" which might be affecting the minds of everyone. Other theories begin to emerge, such as the spirits of the fossil fuels below ground are restless and seeking vengeance, or that the Earth is somehow turning against mankind. 

The spirit of the wendigo returns in a way for this film, the movie is loaded with spectral "ghosts" of animal who are not glimpsed directly very much, but left me with a vision of demonic caribou who at various times are present and attack a few characters. I do not think that special effects are Fessenden' bag, but of the four film here I think the practical and digital stuff here is by far his best work to date.

What he does well is nail a very specific apocalyptic vibe that creeps in early and sinks in deep by the end, it's is creepy stuff but the environmental message might be hammered to death a bit too much for some, but I dug it, at times it brought to mind John Carpenter's The Thing, with the isolation and apocalyptic hopelessness. 

LAST WINTER Special Features: 
- Director-Approved HD Transfer
- Audio Commentary With Co-writer/Director/Producer/Editor Larry Fessenden
- The Making of "The Last Winter" – Full-length Documentary Featuring Deleted Scenes (107 Mins) 
- Archival Footage (2005) with NEW Intro by Fessenden (19 Mins) HD 
- Short Film Jebediah (3 Mins) HD 
- Short Film Origins with NEW Intro by Fessenden (8 Mins) HD 
- Short Film Mister (6 Mins) HD 
- Tired Of Killing Myself Music Video (6 Mins) HD 
- NEW 2015 Interview With Larry Fessenden (22 Mins) HD 
- Glass Eye Pix Sizzle Reel (2014) with NEW Intro by Fessenden (4 Mins) HD 
- Includes 24-Page Booklet With Liner Notes By Fangoria's Michael Gingold And Never-Before-Seen Photos, Storyboards, And Sketches.

The four-disc set arrives with brand-new HD transfers approved by Larry Fessenden. Each movie has a commentary, some are newly recorded and benefit from hindsight, wendigo specifically has two new audio commentaries from the cast and director that was great.  All four films have the option of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround or DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English SDH Subtitles and a host of bonus content, including Fessenden's short films, music videos, Glass Eye Pix sizzle reels and behind-the-scenes video footage, a lot of it with new intros from Fessenden. 

All four movies are housed on separate Blu-ray discs inside a single Criterion-sized Blu-ray case with a slipcover, both the Blu-ray sleeve and slipcover feature a painting from The Dude Designs which captures the essence of the release with the characters erupting from the top of Larry Fessenden's head, which is very cool. The collection also features a 24-page booklet with Liner Notes By Fangoria's Michael Gingold And Never-Before-Seen Photos, Posters, Storyboards, Sketches and quotes from Fessenden describing each of the movies. This is a fantastic set, and despite not loving all the movies within I loved the package, the bous content, the attention to detail, this is quite a tribute to the wild-haired Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix and what they've accomplished through the years. Here's hoping we have another volume in a few years, Fessenden has only directed one feature post The Last Winter, the fun killer fish movie Beneath (2013) for the Chiller channel, but he's been busy producing (Late Phases) and acting (We Are Still Here), but the world needs more Fessenden! 3.5/5

Blu-ray Review: PHANTASM II (1988)

PHANTASM II (1988) 

Collector's Edition Blu-ray  

Label: Scream Factory

Region: A NTSC

Duration: 95 Minutes

Rating: R

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Director: Don Consacrelli

Cast: James Le Gros, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, Paula Irvine, Kenneth Tigar, Samantha Philips
Tagline: The Ball is Back!

Phantasm 2 (1988) picks up pretty much right where the events of Phantasm (1979) left off, sort of. It's  six years later and we are introduced to Liz Reynolds, (Paula Irvine), a young woman with a psychic-link to Mike(Michael Baldwin) and the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), we see the events immediately following the first film through a series of visions as Liz reads through her illustrated dream journal. Turns out that after Mike was captured by the Tall Man he was freed from the Lurker's clutches by the ass-kicking-est ice cream man ever, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), who leaped from a second story window, clutching Mike's unconscious body, just a moment before the house goes up in an enormous fiery explosion. It's a great action-packed start to the film and puts you right in the proper Phantasm mindset with plenty of weird Jawa-looking Lurker action.

We learn that Mike, now played by James Le Gros (Zodiac), has been committed to the Morningside Psychiatric Center ever since, for years he's received dream communications from Liz asking for his help, she fears the Tall Man and what he will do to her dying grandfather once he dies. As if it were just that easy Mike decides to start acting sane, meaning denying any of the events of the first film, and just like that is released from the asylum. His first stop is the Morningside Cemetery were he sets about unearthing graves in an effort to convince himself of his own sanity, that the events years earlier were indeed supernatural and not the bi-product of a deranged mind brought on by the tragic death of his brother Jody, and sure 'nuff the graves are empty. Learning that Mike has been released Reggie tracks him down at the cemetery, and guess what, he doesn't believe any of the weird shit from the first film actually happened, which makes no sense if you've seen the first film, but there's a lot that doesn't make sense with these films, instead of your melting your brain trying to make sense of it all it's best to just let the movie wash over you like the surreal, disjointed nightmare that it is.

Mike attempts to convince Reggie that the Tall man is real en route to Mike's house when Mike experiences a premonition that the house is about to explode, which it does, tragically killing Reg's wife, daughter and visiting family members, I am also pretty sure this is the very same explosion from the opening of the film, reused, Now a believer Reggie joins Mike on his quest to find Liz and destroy the Tall Man. From here the movie becomes a bit of a road film as the duo leave Morningside in Reg's sweet '70 Black Plymouth Barracuda, briefly stopping off at the hardware store to stock-up on supplies. It's here we get a great montage as they acquire what will become the duo's signature weapons, a four barreled sawed-off shotgun, a propane fueled flame thrower and a chainsaw, natch.

Meanwhile, in the town of Perigord, where the Tall Man has set-up a new base of operation to harvest the corpses of the dead, our psychic dreamer Liz's fears are being realized. Father Meyers (Kenneth Tigar, Lethal Weapon 2,3) is presiding over the funeral services for her departed grandfather, the priest smells the stench of evil in his town, in an attempt to thwart the strange goings on, which he doesn't fully understand, he opens the casket and plunges a knife into the chest of Liz's departed grandfather  to the shock of his widow who walks in on the priest and faints at the sight of the desecration. Character actor Tigar is cast quite well as the nerve-wracked, whiskey flask sipping man of the cloth.

En route to Perigord Mike and Reggie stop off at small town where the Tall Man has wrought his peculiar brand of destruction, it's a ghost town, the cemetery has been plundered, it's graves unearthed and empty. During the brief stopover the guys encounter a woman with a grotesque slug growing from her spine, it's an unnerving sight and Reggie sends the suffering woman and the creature up in flames. On the road again Mike wakes up from his passenger seat nap to discover that Reggie's picked up a cute hitchhiker named Alchemy (Samantha Phillips, Cheerleader Massacre) who should look a bit familiar to Mike as he just dreamt of her. Mike warns against bringing her along but Reggie is pretty horny and insists. At one point later in the film Reggie and Alchemy hook up we get a quirky, high-energy sex scene with Alchemy riding him cowgirl and slapping his little bald head, wacky stuff.

Back in Perigord Liz returns to the mortuary and encounters the Tall Man, he sets the Lurkers on Liz who is horrified to discover dear old grandma has become one of the mini-zombie minions. She is also pursued by one of the eerie metallic spheres, she escapes when Father Meyers sacrifices himself as a sphere sprays his liquefied brains all over the marbled mausoleum floor. Liz escapes into the darkened cemetery where she runs into Mike and Reggie when she falls in an open grave, as you're prone to do. The united quartet join forces and set out to destroy the demonic mortician before he can enslave more undead souls.

This action-packed sequel ramps up the action quite a bit, there are numerous  explosions including one that sends that sweet '70 Cuda up in a ball o' fire, which was a damn shame. The special effects are quite a bit more fantastic than anything we saw in the first film, the Lurkers are creepier, the creature embedded in the woman's spine would not have seemed out of place in a latter entry of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, and we get not one but a trio of spheres. The spheres this time are even more intricate, not just the barbed brain-spewing variety, we get a gold variation that's laser enabled!

Leading up to the finale is a battle at a crematorium, pitting Liz, Mike and Reggie against suit-wearing Morticians and miner-esque Gravers. Liz turns the tables on a Mortician and incinerates him in a furnace, and another falls victim to errant sphere, it's a great scene as the serrated sphere churns through it's guts, the centrifugal force contorting it's body unnaturally, it's a smart effect. There's a sweet face off when Reggie goes up against a Graver, it's a crotch-shredding chainsaw vs. chainsaw duel, it's a sweet mash-up of My Bloody Valentine (1981) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). When the quartet finally face-off against the Tall Man it's a gruesome sight, an acid-infused finale of yellow goo with  wonderful in-camera effects, after the splatter-riffic conclusion we get a typically surreal Phantasmic coda.

James Le Gros stepping in for Michael Baldwin as Mike goes over quite well, if it weren't for the other sequels featuring Baldwin it would be a seamless exchange, as it is I really enjoyed what he did with the character, after Scrimm he delivers the film's best performance. Bannister as the balding former ice cream vendor turned supernatural shit-stomper is pretty great, offering the film a bit of needed camp. Angus Scrimm is superb as the Tall Man, it'd be hard to imagine the franchise without his iconic mortician to drive it along. The series is ripe for a remake but when I think recasting the Tall Man and I immediately sour against it.

Phantasm 2 is the sequel with the biggest budget by a rather large margin and you definitely see it onscreen. The scope is broader, the sets are bigger, and the effects are gorier. The one things that noticeably missing is the weird dream-logic from the first film, it's a more linear experience, but pretty surreal just the same, this is a Phantasm film after all! Coscarelli's sequel holds up pretty damned well, Phantasm 2 remains a unique vision of surreal horror.

Blu-ray: Shout! Factory imprint Scream Factory bring Don Coscarelli's Phantasm 2 to 1080p Region 'A' locked Blu-ray with an AVC MPEG-4 encode and it's a pretty wonderful presentation, a definite upgrade from the previous Universal DVD (2007). The print the hi-def master is sourced from looks particularly nice,with only very minor instances of print damage that could be detected There's a nice later of fine grain and the close-ups do offer some fine detail. Not sure what is was with the late-80's film stock but there is a familiar softness to the image at times, colors are vivid, there's some moderate depth to the image and shadow detail is strong, this is a a very pleasing transfer, one that brings new life to a familiar favorite.

Scream Factory offer the original DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo and a more immersive 5.1 mix, with optional English subtitles. The 5.1 surround is quite good, there's not a ton of surround action happening but effects and score occasionally do  bleed into the surrounds to nice effect. The dynamic range is surprising, when the spheres do what they do it's brilliant. Both 2.0 and 5.1 offer a well-balanced audio experience, dialogue is crisp, effects and score are never overpowering and even occasionally elicit a nice low end bass response, a very pleasing and immersive audio presentation.

Scream Factory typically jam-pack their Collector's Edition titles with extras and Phantasm 2 is no different. The extras are sure please fans of the film whom previously only enjoyed a trailer for the film on anemic Universal DVD. The Audio Commentary is your typical Coscarelli commentary in that it's awesome, the director and actors Scrimm and Bannister keep it quite lively and entertaining, they're a fun bunch who obviously enjoy each others company, plenty of interesting tidbits about the film, shooting it, and the production.

“The Ball is Back!” (46:38) features new interviews with writer/director Don Coscarelli, actors Reggie Banister, Angus Scrimm, and Paula Irvine. It begins with Coscarelli speaking about not wanting to make another horror film right after the Phantasm (1979) which produced the sword n' sandal cable classic The Beastmaster (1982) before returning to he Phantasm series during Tom Pollack's horror-friendly reign as Universal's studio head.  Coscarelli also goes into the downside of working within the studio system, which were many, including making creative concessions, notably replacing the character of Mike, played in the first, third and fourth in the franchise by Michael Baldwin, with newcomer James Le Gros, even a young Brad Pitt auditioned for Mike and Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development, Hellboy) nearly replaced Bannister as Reggie, hard to imagine. It's a great mini doc with an abundance of neat behind-the-scenes video and stills and clips from the film.

“The Gory Days with Greg Nicotero” (22:01) features effects master Nicotero speaking about his beginnings working on George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985) and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 (1987) plus of Phantasm (1979) and his disbelief that he would end up working with some of his favorite directors on sequels to films he loved. Hearing special effects guys talk about their craft definitely strikes a chord in my horror heart, we get more behind-the-scene clips, some really comedic stuff, too.

Reversible Artwork 

Sourced from Director Don Coscarelli's own personal 35mm film archives are Deleted Scenes (6:51) plus Additional Scenes – Alternate Takes, Deleted Gore Footage from the Workprint (18:58). That's nearly half an hour of extended, alternate and deleted footage from the film, sure to be treat for fans who just can't get enough of Phantasm 2.

Not related to the Phantasm series but a cool feature is a vintage Rare Short film starring Angus Scrimm (18:40). Can you imagine the Tall Man as Abraham Lincoln? Well, now you won't have to, this black and white educational film shows you, fun stuff.

Rounding out the Blu-ray features are a selection of TV Spots and Trailers for the film plus a collection of vintage featurettes. Separate from the Blu-ray extras there's a slipcover for the case featuring brand-new artwork plus a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring the original theatrical artwork, a typically fantastic Scream Factory release and one that will hopefully not just satisfy the existing fans but hopefully convert legions new followers.

Special Features: 

- Audio Commentary with director/writer Don Coscarelli and actors Angus Scrimm and Reggie Banister
- “The Ball is Back!” Documentary – featuring new interviews with writer/director Don Coscarelli, actors Reggie Banister, Angus Scrimm, Paula Irvine, Samantha Phillips and more!(46:38)
- Vintage Behind the Scenes Footage: Makeup Effects (3:12)
- Vintage Behind the Scenes footage: On the Set (4:17)
- “The Gory Days with Greg Nicotero” Featurette (22:01)
- Deleted Scenes from Archival Film Elements from Don Coscarelli’s Archive (6:51)
- Additional Scenes – Alternate Takes, Deleted Gore Footage from the Workprint (18:58)
- 3 Original TV Spots (1:25)
- Trailers for Phantasm (2:17), Phantasm II (1:27) and Phantasm III (1:27)
- Still Galleries: A Collection of 53 Images of Behind the Scenes, Make-up Effects, Poster and Stills (5:17)
- Rare short film starring Rory Guy (aka Angus Scrimm) as Abraham Lincoln (18:40)

Verdict: Scream Factory are making a quite name for themselves as the new home of classic horror, offering Criterion level bonus content and pristine audio/visual presentations, bringing new life to cult classics. Phantasm 2 is a great effects driven sequel, action-packed and oozing with that surreal weirdness inherent to the franchise, it'd be a real treat to see Phantasm (1979) get a definitive Blu-ray. 3.5 Outta 5 

Note: Screen captures are from the Universal DVD and not Scream Factory's Collector's Edition Blu-ray which is far superior