STEPHEN KING'S CAT'S EYE (1985) (Umbrella Blu-ray Review)

STEPHEN KING'S CAT'S EYE (1985) 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment 
Region Code: A/B
Rating: M (Mature)
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.4:1) 
Director: Lewis Teague
Cast: Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Alan King, Robert Hays, Kenneth McMillan, Candy Clark

Synopsis: A wandering supernatural feline's adventures provide the linking story for Stephen King's Cat's Eye, a dead on trilogy scripted by King and directed by Lewis Teague (Cujo).
The staff at Quitters Inc promises to help nicotine fiend Dick Morrison (James Woods) kick the habit. If not, someone in Morrison's household might get smoked... because QI is run by a very persuasive mob family. Next, a luckless gambler (Robert Hayes) is forced into a bet involving a stroll around a building - on the five-inch ledge encircling the 30th floor. Finally, our wayfarer kitty rescues a schoolgirl (young Drew Barrymore) from a vile, doll-sized troll.
Fan of the works of Stephen King will have fun finding the many references to his other projects throughout the film.

This often overlooked 80's trilogy of terror begins with the titular feline escaping the jaws of not only the dog from Cujo (1983) but the wheels of the cursed-car from Christine (1983)in a nice homage to Stephen King's other movies. The cat shows up again in the opening story of the anthology, "Quitters, Inc." wherein a die-hard cigarette smoker named Dick Morrison played by James Woods (Videodrome) seeks the help of Quitter's Inc. to curb his addiction to nicotine. Quitters Inc. and the strong-armed Dr. Vinnie Donatti (Alan King, The Bonfire of the Vanities) have put together quite an extreme stop-smoking program, one seemingly based on the tactics employed by mafia, as demonstrated by their willingness to repeatedly electrocute a poor cat as an example of what they will do if they catch him smoking. A threat not directed towards him, but to his lovely wife and family. The threat is only too real as he comes to find out when sneaking a puff proves too much for him to resist, even when faced with dire consequences. The short has plenty of laughs and uncomfortable moments of pain being inflicted upon his wife, Woods is wonderful as the chain-smoker caught between his addiction and his love of family and there's a great surreal party-scene with him surrounded by exaggerated smoking behaviors. .  

Next up, the high-rise thriller "The Ledge", where we have a former tennis pro named Johnny Norris (Robert Hays, Airplane) who has angered wealthy casino owner Cressner by running off with his estranged wife. Cressner is played with comical ruthlessness by Kenneth McMillan (Dune) who kidnaps the would-be Lothario and forces him into accepting a deadly bet. The wager is that if Norris can circumnavigate his high rise penthouse apartment on the exterior ledge without falling to his death he will grant his wife a divorce and give the tennis pro a bunch of money. Norris reluctantly accepts the wager and climbs out onto the perilous ledge where he is menaced by Cressner who harasses Norris with water hoses and loud noises, all while taunting him with the annoyingly awesome line, "just trying to keep you on your toes". Norris must also contend with a tenacious pigeon who relentlessly pecks away at his ankles until they begin to bleed. Unsurprisingly Cressner welshes on the bet when Norris succeeds but when the tables are turned things to not go so well for the casino owner. It was a ton of fun to watch McMillan play such a son-of-a-bitch, he's an intense actor and plays the part with so much diabolical glee. The scenes of Norris traversing the exterior of the high rise are done with what appears to be a mixture of rear projection and miniature sets and the optical effects still look good to my eyes, this is a fun one, those with an aversion to heights might even get a bit light headed by the high rise thrills. 

The third and final entry in this trilogy of terror is "General", starring a young Drew Barrymore (E.T.) as Amanda, a young girl who is being menaced by a breath-sucking troll that lives inside her bedroom wall. However, her mother (Candy Clark, Amityville 3-D) places the blame for the troll's increasingly alarming shenanigans on the family poor cat, banishing him to stay the night outside, leaving poor Amanda unguarded with the malicious troll who threatens to steal her breath while she sleeps. Of course the cat comes through in the end, but I had forgotten what a gory end the troll comes to in this one, and was a bit surprised how bloody it was for a PG-13 rated anthology, but we got away with a lot more in kids movies back then. 

Cat's Eye is a fun watch, based on two of Stephen King's short stories from his Night Shift collection, plus a new one which he scripted just for this movie. I like the connective tissue of the titular cat going from one story to the next, and Lewis Teague, who also directed adapted Stephen King's Cujo for the silver screen, does a fine job with all three of the vignettes within the context of a kiddie friendly horror anthology.  

Audio/Video: Cat's Eye (1985) arrives on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment looking great, there is a nice layer of film grain that looks like it has not suffered any major digital manipulation. The image is crisp, the colors are strong, skin tones look natural and the image is nicely detailed, the cinematography from Jack Cardiff (Ghost Story)looks phenomenal. Audio is handled by a lossless English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 track that is nicely balanced with good depth and fidelity, the score from Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future) sounds good in the mix, optional English subtitles are provided. 

Umbrella's release has two new, exclusive extras, a half-hour interview with actor Robert Hayes, plus an eight-minute interview with animal wrangler Teresa Ann Miller, produced by Cinemaniacs.  The interviews are good, with Hays recalling working on the film, particularly working with McMillan and how some of the high rise visuals were achieved, and animal trainer Miller recalls working on the film with her father Karl Lewis Miller, and how the St. Bernard seen in the film was actually one of the same one from the Cujo adaptation. Notably, Umbrella do not carry-over the audio commentary with director Lewis Teague which is found on the US disc from Warner Bro., so if you own that release you may want to hang onto it.  


The single-disc Blu-ray release comes housed in an over-sized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring new artwork, which is fantastic, made to look like a well-worn Stephen King paperback novel, even the spine has a coll distressed look. The reverse side features a variant of the same artwork minus the rating label, and the backside of the b-side features the original one sheet movie poster for the film. The disc features the same key art as the sleeve. While this release is labeled as a region B it plays just fine on my region A player. 

Special Features: 
- Interviews with Actor Robert Hayes (28 min) 
- Interview with Teresa Ann Miller (8 min) HD 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD 

Cat's Eye looks great on Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment, a solid HD upgrade for this 80's Stephen King horror anthology with some very cool artwork and exclusive new extras. This is an awesome trilogy of terror that is both suspenseful and kiddie-friendly enough that you can watch it with your kids, which is awesome.  

STEPHEN KING'S CAT'S EYE (1985) (Blu-ray Review)

STEPHEN KING'S CAT'S EYE (1985) 

Label: Warner Bros. Entertainment 
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 94 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.4:1) 
Director: Lewis Teague
Cast: Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Alan King, Robert Hays, Kenneth McMillan, Candy Clark

This often overlooked 80s horror anthology begins with the titular feline escaping the jaws of not only Cujo but the wheels of the cursed-car Christine in a nice homage to Stephen King's other movies. The cat shows up again in the opening story of the anthology,  "Quitters, Inc." wherein a die-hard cigarette smoker named Dick Morrison played by James Woods. Quitter's Inc. seeks professional help to curb his addiction. Quitters Inc. and the strong-armed Dr. Vinnie Donatti (Alan King) have put together quite an extreme stop-smoking program, one based on the tactics employed by mafia, as demonstrated by their willingness to repeatedly electrocute a poor cat as an example of what they will do if they catch him smoking. A threat not directed towards him, but to his lovely wife. The threat is only too real as he comes to find out when he finds that the draw of nicotine is just too much him to resist even when faced with dire consequences. The short has plenty of laughs and uncomfortable moments of pain being inflicted upon his wife, Woods is wonderful as the chain-smoker caught between his addiction and his love of family.  

The cat again come into play in the next story, the high-rise thriller "The Ledge", where we have a former tennis pro named Johnny Norris (Robert Hays, Airplane) who has angered wealthy casino-owner Cressner by running off with his estranged wife. Cressner is played with comical ruthlessness by Kenneth McMillan (Dune) who kidnaps the would-be Lothario and forces him into accepting a deadly bet. The wager is that if Norris can circumnavigate his penthouse apartment on the exterior ledge without falling to his death he will grant his wife a divorce and give the former tennis pro a bunch of money. Norris reluctantly accepts the wager and climbs out onto the perilous ledge of the skyscraper where he is menaced by Cressner who menaces Norris with water hoses and loud noises while taunting him with the line "just trying to keep you on your toes". Norris must also contend with a tenacious pigeon who relentlessly pecks away at his ankles until they begin to bleed. Unsurprisingly Cressner welches on the bet when Norris succeeds but when the tables are turned things to not go so well for the casino-owner. It was a ton of fun to watch McMillan play such a sonofabitch, he's an intense actor and plays the part with so much diabolical glee. The scenes of Norris traversing the exterior of the high rise are done with what appears to be a mixture of rear projection and miniature sets and the optical effects still look good to my eyes, this is a fun one, those with an aversion to heights might even get a bit nauseous. 

Our feline tour guide once again escape his confines and makes his way to the third and final entry, "General", starring a young Drew Barrymore as Amanda, a young girl who is being menaced by a breath-sucking troll that lives inside her bedroom wall. However, her mother (Candy Clark) places the blame for the troll's increasingly alarming shenanigans on the family cat, banishing him to stay the night outside, leaving poor Amanda alone with the malicious troll who threatens to steal her breath while she sleeps. Of course the cat comes through in the end, but I had forgotten what a gory end the troll comes to in this one, and was a bit surprised how bloody it was for a PG-13 rated anthology, but we got away with a lot more in kids movies back then. 

Cat's Eye is a fun watch, based on two of Stephen King's short stories from his Night Shift collection, plus a new one which he scripted just for this movie. I like the connective tissue of the cat going from one story to the next, and Lewis Teague, who also directed adapted Stephen King's Cujo for the silver screen, does a fine job with all three of the vignettes within the context of kiddie horror.  

The anthology arrives on Blu-ray from Warner Bros. with a new 4K scan looking healthy in HD, there is a nice layer of film grain left intact, appearing film like and natural without any major digital manipulation. Colors are strong, skin tones look natural and the image is crisp and detailed. Audio is handled by a lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 track that is nicely balanced with good depth and fidelity. The only extras on the disc are a trailer for the movie and the same audio commentary from director Lewis Teague, which is a solid track giving some back story to how he came to the project, working with Stephen King, his experience with various actors and a lot of technical talk about how many of the optical effects were created. 

Warner Bros. offer up a solid HD upgrade for this 80s Stephen King horror anthology, not on par with Creepshow or Nightmares but still a kiddie-friendly watch that you can enjoy with your kids this October. 

SALEM'S LOT (1979) (Blu-ray Review)

SALEM'S LOT (1979) 

Label: Warner Bros.
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG
Duration 183 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Fulscreen (1.33:1) 
Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, Julie Cobb, Elisha Cook Jr., George Dzundza, Ed Flanders, Clarissa Kaye-Mason, Geoffrey Lewis, Barney McFadden, Kenneth McMillan, Fred Willard, Marie Windsor 

Writer Ben Mears (David Soul) returns to his hometown of Salem's Lot, Maine to begin writing a new book, a book based on a creepy old house located on a hill overlooking the town The place is the Marsten House, a dwelling that Mears believes to be a center of evil, a place where bad things have happened and where bad things will again occur. He arrives hoping to rent the place but finds out from local realtor Larry Crockett (Fred Willard) that the old dark house has already been rented by the mysterious Richard Straker (James Mason), an British antiques dealer who is about to open a new curio shop in town, along with his elusive partner Kurt Barlow. 

With the Marsten House not available Mears sets up a room at the local boarding house run by Eva Miller (Marie Windsor). Soon after arriving Ben makes the acquaintance of an attractive young woman named Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia, Die Hard), the daughter of the town doc, Dr. Bill Norton (Ed Flanders), and two begin to fall in love with each other in short order. 

However, things begin to take a turn for the worse when Straker hires a pair of men to deliver a crate to the house, one of them played by 70s TV character actor Geoffrey Lewis, playing grave digger Mike Ryerson. Soon after the creepily cold crate is unloaded into the basement of the house a local kid named Ralphie Glick (Ronnie Scribner) is abducted by Straker and brought to the house as an offering to what turns out to be his vampire master, the elusive Kurt Barlow Has arrived. Now a turned into a vampire Ralphie visits his older brother Danny (Brad Savage) in the middle of the night in a scene directly lifted for by Joel Schumacher for his movie The Lost Boys. Danny succumbs to his bloodsucking brother and now both the Glick boys are vamps, with Danny infecting the gravedigger Mike Ryerson, who also begins to transform into a bloodsucker after a brief flu-like illness. 

And so the story continues the idyllic small town is overcome by vampirism as it spreads like a vampire-virus from one person to the next with only a small group of folks realizing what exactly is happening. Our main protagonists are Mears, Dr. Norton and a schoolteacher named Jason Burke (Lew Ayres), along with Mears' love interest Susan who finds herself in peril. Also brought into the melee is a young boy obsessed with horror movies and monsters, named Mark Petrie (Lance Kerwin), whose parents are killed by Barlow in a great scene that reveals the vamp in all his blue-skinned Nosferatu glory, a scene that had be covering my face in terror when I first watched it at six years old on TV with my mom. 

As a Stephen King adaptation the movie stays very true to the source material, the sprawling cast of characters is left intact, however Barlow is not the cloaked count that King had originally envisioned, more of a rat-like Nosferatu we've come to known from the F. W. Murnau classic, but it works, in fact this is one of my favorite on-screen vampires of all time, some of the make-up effects look a bit dated but I love this design. I also love the make-up work on Geoffrey Lewis when he is transitioning into a vamp, the scene of him sitting on a rocker in a darkened room with glowing eyes is still a chilling watch.

Actor David Soul certainly look more like a gym teacher than a writer, but he does good work here, though a bit on the stuff side he does the job, The standout is the creepy and gentlemanly performance of James Mason (Murder by Decree) who balances menace with British charm effortlessly, always slyly hinting at the whereabouts of his silent partner Barlow, his toying with the local Constable (Kenneth McMillan, Dune), and he is straight up terrifying when he reveals himself as an inhuman ghoul during a confrontation with Dr. Norton inside the Marsten House. In that scene Straker impales the doc on a set of antlers mounted to the wall, yet another scene lifted by 80s vamp favorite The Lost Boys. 

As a kid who loved horror it was a bit of nerd fantasy to imagine myself as the character of Mark Petrie, the boy who loved horror and whose knowledge of horror saved his life, warding off a vamp attack from the menacing Danny Glick, repelling him with a crucifix he breaks off from one of his own Aurora Horror Kits, so cool, this also brought to mind the kid from Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse (1981), who also loved horror and who survives. Tobe Hooper did good work bringing this one to the small screen, a slice of smalltown Gothic horror  laced with dread and one of the best looking bloodsuckers ever to grace the screen, big or small. Also, this is not a movie that gets mentioned nearly enough when discussing the better Stephen King adaptations or highlights from Hooper's body of directorial work, I hope this new HD release remedies that, 

Audio/Video: Salem's Lot arrives on Blu-ray for the first-time ever courtesy of Warner Bros. who present the movie in HD from the original 35mm elements and it looks great, they've gone back and presented the TV movie in the original full frame aspect ratio. Grain is nicely layered and with it you get some damn fine detail and depth to the image. I've watched this movie on a semi-regular basis for years and it has never looked that great on home video, that is until now. Audio chores on the disc are capably handled by a lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track that is clean and nicely balanced, dialogue is crisp and the score and effects come through sharp. The score comes by way of TV composer Harry Sukman (Someone's Watching Me!) and it is damn creepy when it needs to be, way above average for a made-for-TV movie, I love the use of the oboe throughout, a nice deep and foreboding sound.

Extras on the disc are slim but appreciated, the International Theatrical Trailer and a brand new commentary from director Tobe Hooper. Those familiar with Hooper's other commentary tracks are aware that the gravel-voiced director can me a bit verbally lethargic at times with large gaps of no commentary, but he's had some thirty years to look back at his movie and does offer up some nice anecdotes about making the movie, working with Hollywood legends like Elisha Cook Jr. and James Mason in particular. 

I gladly would have plopped down a few more bucks on this one to have new interviews with the surviving cast and crew from Red Shirt Pictures of Freak-O-Rama who have been doing some great work creating extras for vintage horror movies for a wide range of niche cult and horror labels, I would have loved some more extras here. Another extra that would have been a big bonus for me would have been the inclusion of the International 2-hour cut of the movie that was shown theatrically in other territories with a few scenes not included on the TV mini series, even having those clips included as deleted scenes would have been something wonderful, as would have the option to watch it in the original two-part mini series format with opening and closing credits. Still, I am very pleased with the new A/V presentation and the new commentary, well worth the upgrade. 

Special Features:
- Feature-Length Audio Commentary by Director Tobe Hooper
- International Theatrical Trailer

Tobe Hooper's TV adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot holds up very well after all these years, a top-notch Gothic horror entry that while a bit on the dated side from time to time is suspenseful and full of creeping dread. The TV movie is certainly tame by modern horror standards of gore and bloodshed but still offers up a bunch of Gothic chills for horror fans who love a nice slow build up, this is effective stuff. The new transfer looks and sounds fantastic on Blu-ray, a high recommend that you make this part of your October viewing in the lead-up to Halloween.