TWO EVIL EYES (1990) (Blue Underground 3-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray Review/Comparison)

TWO EVIL EYES (1990)

3-Disc Limited Edition 4K Remaster 

Label: Blue Underground 
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 120 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Directors: George A. Romero, Dario Argento 
Cast: Bingo O'Malley, Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, E.G. Marshall, Christine Forest, Tom Atkins, Harvey Keitel, John Amos, Martin Balsam, Kim Hunter 

Two-parter fright anthology Two Evil Eyes (1990) pairs legends of horror George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) and Dario Argento (Suspiria), with each adapting a story by seminal horror writer Edgar Allan Poe, each with ghoulish special effects by Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead) and a gorgeous score from Pino Donnagio (Don't Look Now). By 1990 when this was made I feel that both of these directors were looking at the most vibrant part of their careers in the rear view mirror, but this anthology film offers up some late era chills for fans of both directors, even if it's what I consider to be a minor entry in both the directors careers. 

Romero opens the anthology with ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’, a spooky tale about a terminally ill older man named Ernest Valdemar (Bingo O'Malley, Creepshow) who is being kept alive well beyond his expiration date by his money-grubbing, younger wife Jessica (Adrienne Barbeau, The Fog). Jessica is banging her husband's personal physician, Dr. Hoffman (Ramy Zada, After Midnight), the duplicitous cheaters have conspired to keep the terminally ill man in a weird state of hypnosis, feeding into a plot to pull the wool over Valdemar's lawyers eyes, played by E.G. Marshall (Creepshow). In this state of hypnosis Valdemar verbally authorizes his lawyer over the phone to liquidate his assets into cash and deposit them into his wife's account. However, there's a stipulation in the will that states that if the old man croaks before the money is transferred that the agreement will be terminated and she will get nothing, so when the old man keel's over prematurely it puts the pair into a bit of a bind. What to do? They place the old man's corpse in a freezer in the basement with a plan to thaw out his body once the money has been deposited, only then will they properly declare him dead. 

It's a convoluted plan but it gets stranger yet when Valdemar's voice can be heard echoing throughout the house, emanating from the basement. When they open the freezer he's still frozen solid and still seemingly very dead, but it turns out that because he was in a state of hypnosis when he died his soul has been trapped in a void between life and death. This new wrinkle intrigues the scientific brain of the doctor who investigates further, but Valdemar's wife is scared witless by the whole ordeal, and with good reason.

This story is a good and proper chiller, but it does run a bit long, making it a slow burn, but it also gives the story a little room to breath and work up a good head of steam before things get weirder. The cast in this one are a bunch of Romero familiars, it was great to see Adrienne Barbeau reunited with her Creepshow co-stars E.G. Marshall, and Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps), the latter of whom shows up as a detective investigating the bizarre case at the end of the piece.  

It may not be top tier Romero but it's some of the best stuff he did from this point on in my opinion. It's a well-lensed with a terrific looking old stone house with a cool spiral staircase, plus it's great to see Romero playing with a sub-genre he didn't often play in, though there's still an element of the undead. We get some vengeful spirits and supernatural happenings in this one, and I dug the oddball hypnosis element, though I did think that the doc using hypnosis on himself was a bit weird. For the gore-fans we also get Tom Savini creations, including a cool-looking frozen undead  and a gruesome death by digital metronome, which is the bloodiest part of Romero's segment.

Dario Argento tackles Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale 'The Black Cat' starring Harvey Keitel (Blue Collar) as Rod Usher, his name an homage to another Poe story 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. Rod is beret-wearing crime-scene photographer who gets a little too into his work. The film opens on a macabre crime scene of a woman cut in half by a swinging bladed pendulum, another homage to the Poe classic, 'The Pit and the Pendulum'. Right from the get-go you see that the photographer has a curious fascination with death, and throughout the film he is seemingly driven a mad by the arrival of a stray black cat that his violinist gal pal Annabel (Madeleine Potter, The Bostonians) has brought into their home.

The relationship with his Annabel begins to sour after the felines arrival, leading to Rod hitting the bottle and eventually strangling the black cat, going so far as to photographing the crime, and then using the image of the strangled cat on the cover of his new photography book, which is how Annabel discovers that he's killed her beloved cat. She confronts him about it which leads to Rod losing his shit, killing her with a meat cleaver, and then concealing her corpse behind a wall inside his apartment. If you're familiar with the story you know that the black cat returns to ruin his well-laid plans, with some horrific special effects from Tom Savini, who himself turns up in a scene as a grave-robbing lover of dentistry.

Keitel is an actor who never seems anything subtley, he's both intense and a bit over-the-top here, but it works for the character and the film, though the scene of him shrieking "It's fucking cat! Meow! Meow!" always makes me giggle. The special effects are a bit more abundant in the Argento tale than with the Romero, with Savini creating several memorable crime scene corpses, including an homage to Cannibal Holocaust (1980) that would make Vlad the Impaler proud. this scene happens in a surreal dream sequence that finds Rod swept back into medieval times, it's a bit out of place here but I enjoyed it for the strangeness and gruesome imagery. On the whole this mini-film doesn't really have the vintage artful eye feel of Argento's early gialli, but it is attractively shot with some fluid camera movement. 

Be on the lookout for John Amos (The Beastmaster) as an allergy-riddled detective investigating Annabel's disappearance and Martin Balsam (The Stone Killer) and Kim Hunter (Bad Ronald) as an elderly couple who live in the same apartment building as Rod.

I've always thought there should have been some sort of wrap-around story that brought the pair of stories together, maybe an appearance of Keitel's crime scene photographer in Romero's story, something to bridge the gap at least, but there's nothing, and the film's are so disparate in style and tone that watching one run into the other is a bit jarring. Of the pair I prefer Romero's supernatural chiller, it breathes a little better for me, and the tone is more in line with my preferences as a horror fan. I think it holds up a bit better than Argento's tale, which is a story that has been told many times over in cinema and a bit better at that, though perhaps not as gruesomely. 

Audio/Video: Two Evil Eyes (1990) arrives on three-disc limited edition Blu-ray from Blue Underground with a new 4K scam of the original camera negative framed in 1.78:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. The source looks fantastic with nary a blemish in sight, grain had a nice velvety veneer and colors look solid throughout. There's an improved clarity and depth to the image, with gorgeous finely resolved details in clothing textures, facial close-ups and the gruesome special effects, it's just a real pleaser of a presentation. Comparing it to the region B release from 88 Films right away I noticed the Blue Underground disc has a warmer color-grading, that in some scenes a rather significant. I don't have the previous Blue Underground Blu-ray to compare it to, and I cannot say which is truer to the theatrical, but I found this new 4K restoration to be the superior release. To see Blue Underground vs. 88 Films images side by side see the screen captures below in this review.   

Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 7.1, though I found myself preferring the original stereo mix, which seems more robust and direct, the 7.1 to my ears sounded a bit thin by comparison. Everything is nicely balanced with the Pino Donaggio (Carrie) score coming through with excellent fidelity, dialogue is always crisp and clean, optional English subtitles are provided.

Blue Underground come through with a wealth of extras both new and archival, with disc one having a new audio commentary with Troy Howarth, author of 'Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento'. It's another excellent Howarth commentary loaded with production notes, facts and trivia about the film. Also on the first disc we get a theatrical trailer for the film and a photo gallery of international posters, lobby cards, home video releases and original artwork images from artist Enzo Sciotti.

Disc two contains the bulk of extras, beginning with the half-hour archival 'Two Masters' Eyes', interviews with Dario Argento, George Romero, Special Make-Up Effects Supervisor Tom Savini, Executive Producer Claudio Argento, and Asia Argento. Other archival extras include the 13-min 'Savini's EFX', a behind-the-scenes look at the film's special make-up effects, a 5-min interview with Adrienne Barbeau, plus the 16-min 'At Home With Tom Savini', a guided tour of Savini's home.

New stuff begins with the 13-min 'Before I Wake' interview with star Ramy Zada who speaks about getting into acting, auditioning for several Romero films before finally
landing a role in this one, and the pleasure of working alongside Adrienne Barbeau.
Actress Madeline Potter shows up for the 17-min 'Behind The Wall' discussing being cast in Argento's tale, offering some insights into her character, and commenting on the genius of Argento. In the 16-min 'One Maestro And Two Masters' composer Pino Donaggio speaks about working with Brian De Palma and the opportunities that afforded him, scoring this film and it's nod to Bernard Herman's Psycho score, working with Romero and Argento, and the differences between working in America versus Italy. We also get a 16-min interview with Co-Writer Franco Ferrini, 27-min with Assistant Director Luigi Cozzi, 14-min with Special Make-Up Assistant Everett Burrell, and 9-min with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson.

The third disc in the set is a 21-track CD of the original motion picture soundtrack by Pino Donaggio. This three-disc set arrives in a clear oversized Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork, inside there's a 20-page booklet with new writings on the film from Michael Gingold, plus cast and crew credits, and a track list for the CD soundtrack. This also comes with a cool-looking limited edition 3D lenticular slipcover with different artwork than the reversible sleeve.

Blu-ray Comparison:

Top: Blue Underground Blu-ray (Region A) )

Bottom: 88 Films (Region B) Blu-ray

 

 

 

 

Special Features:
Disc 1 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth, Author of Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- Poster & Still Gallery

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Extras:
- Two Masters' Eyes - Interviews with Directors Dario Argento & George Romero, Special Make-Up Effects Supervisor Tom Savini, Executive Producer Claudio Argento, and Asia Argento (30 min) HD 
- Savini's EFX - A Behind-the-Scenes look at the film's Special Make-Up Effects (13 min) HD
- At Home With Tom Savini - A Personal Tour of Tom Savini's Home (16 min) 
- Adrienne Barbeau on George Romero (5 min) 
- NEW! Before I Wake - Interview with Star Ramy Zada (13 min) HD 
- NEW! Behind The Wall - Interview with Star Madeleine Potter (17 min) 
- NEW! One Maestro And Two Masters - Interview with Composer Pino Donaggio (16 min) 
- NEW! Rewriting Poe - Interview with Co-Writer Franco Ferrini (16 min 
- NEW! The Cat Who Wouldn't Die - Interview with Assistant Director Luigi Cozzi
- NEW! Two Evil Brothers - Interview with Special Make-Up Assistant Everett Burrell (14 min) 
- NEW! Working With George - Interview with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson (9 min) 

Disc 3 (CD):
- TWO EVIL EYES Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Pino Donaggio
- BONUS! Collectible Booklet with new essay by Michael Gingold

Two Evil Eyes (1999) might not be the best stuff for either Argento or Romero, but it is what I consider to be the best stuff of their late-era careers, offering enough macabre delights and supernatural frights to give it a recommend. This new 3-disc limited edition release from Blue Underground is easily the definitive version of the film for both it's fantastic restoration and hours of extras, making this an essential item for anyone looking to complete their Dario Argento and George A. Romero collections. 

CHARLES BRONSON - 4 MOVIE COLLECTION (1972-1975) (Blu-ray Review)

CHARLES BRONSON - 4 MOVIE COLLECTION (1972-1975) 

THE VALACHI PAPERS (1972) / THE STONE KILLER (1973) 

 BREAKOUT (1975) / HARD TIMES (1975)

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment
Region Code: A (but possibly Region-Free)
Duration: 351 Minutes 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1,85:1),(2.35:1)
Audio: Uncompressed English PCM 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Directors: Terence Young, Michael Winner, Tom Gries, Walter Hill 
Cast: Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Martin Strother, Martin Balsam, Robery Duvall, Jill Ireland

THE VALACHI PAPERS (1972) 

Rating: PG
Duration: 126 Minutes
Audio:  English Uncompressed PCM 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Terrence Young 
Cast:  Charles Bronson, Lino Ventura, Jill Ireland, Joseph Wiseman, Walter Chiari, Gerald O’Loughlin, Amadeo Nazzari

Truth be told this was my first time watching any of these Bronson films, I have never been one to seek them out and they weren't part of my childhood the way horror and sci-fi films were. The two films I remember of his from my childhood were 10 To Midnight and The White Buffalo, but after seeing the Death Wish sequels as a rearly teen I sort of filed him away in the back of my mind as a past-his-prime tough-guy vigilante actor which just never appealed to me in my youth. In retrospect there's plenty to love about Bronson's later career, even the tough-guy cops stuff, but this four disc set has given me even more of an appreciation for his seventies output.

Directed by 007 director Terence Young (Dr. No, From Russia with Love - two of the BEST!) The Valachi Papers is based on a novel by Peter Maas and purports to tell the real-life story of crime family informant Joseph_Valachi, as played by Bronson. Valachi is a low-level criminal who works his way up through a crime family, the film opens in the 60's in prison where Valachi has been sent following some drug busts, his former boss thinks he's an informant and gives him the "kiss of death", Valachi tries to persuade the boss that he's not the guy who fingered him, but with few alternatives Valachi ironically turns informant to the feds for protection. During his interviews with the fed he relays his story from the 40's on through to the sixties leading up to his incarceration. The film is well done, the period settings are convincing, Bronson is tough-as-nails and the narrative is brutal with many gangland killings, including a gruesome castration sequence. At over two hours in length this one does have some occasional pacing issues, but the story and execution are enthralling. Bronson's wife Jill Ireland shows up as - what else? - his wife, in a typically lackluster performance but even she couldn't tarnish this otherwise engrossing crime story of honor, betrayal and mob justice.

THE STONE KILLER (1973) 

Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio:  English Uncompressed PCM 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Michael Winner
Cast: Charles Bronson, Martin Balsam, Jack Colvin, Paul Koslo, Norman Fell, David Sheiner, Stuart Margolin

The Stone Killer (1973) is the third of six hard-nosed cop thrillers that brought director Michael Winner and Charles Bronson together onscreen. Her we have a New York cop, Lieutenant Lou Torrey (Bronson), who at the start of the film guns down a teen in self defense, but the bad optics lead to a transfer to L.A., almost immediately he gets caught up in some strange mafia happening when a heroin addicted hit man he's transporting is gunned down. The story involves mafia boss Al Vescari (Martin Balsam, The Sentinel) who's hired a group of ex-military assassins to carryout a kill-list having to do with a decades old mafia-hit and his vengeance at those who ordered it. 

This one is fast-paced and intriguing, as the mystery unfolds I was rapt, filming gritty violence and action were Winner's strong suits in life and he was in fine form here, there's a fantastic chase scene of Bronson in a car chasing a culprit on a motorcycle that was a crash-bang-boom good time, and Bronson is in prime silent-but-deadly mode throughout, cracking wise occasionally. There's a lot of colorful mob associated characters here, and be on the lookout for future Three's Company alum Norman Fell (Charley Varrick) and John Ritter (It) as L.A. cops! 

BREAKOUT (1975) 

Rating: PG
Duration: 97 Minutes
Audio: English Uncompressed PCM 2.0 (No Subtitles) 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Tom Gries
Cast: Charles Bronson, Robert DuVall, Randy Quaid, Jill Ireland

Breakout (1975) opens with Harris Wagner (John Huston, The Visitor) framing his grandson Jay Wagner (Robert Duvall) for a crime down in Mexico, the exact reason why he did this wasn't quite clear to me, but nonetheless he's sent to a Mexican prison, making his wife Ann (Jill Ireland, Hard Times) very unhappy. Jill seeks the help of a border town pilot-for-hire named Colton (Charles Bronson, Death Wish 3) and his somewhat dim partner Hawk (Randy Quaid, Christmas Vacation)to fly down to Mexico and rescue him, but she leaves out the fact that it's a prison-break! They arrives to a hail of gunfire and turn tail back to Texas, of course Colton is pissed-off that she didn't inform him they were breaking her husband out of a prison work detail, but drawn in by her charms he's undeterred, offering to try again, this time dressing up his partner Hawk as a woman to break her husband out of prison, but it seems the prison officials were forewarned that a break was about to happen and Hawk is beaten to a pulp by the prison guards. 

While Ann seems oblivious to the fact that someone is tipping off the Mexican authorities Colton latches onto that idea and keeps his next plan a bit closer to the vest, learning to (kind of sort of) fly a helicopter to perform a surgical prison yard extraction, a plan that requires bringing in an old flame named Mirna (Sheree North, Charley Varick) to pose as a rape victim to distract the prison guards! 

A fun and breezy affair this is a somewhat light-hearted prison break romp - rape jokes aside - with a surprisingly gruesome finale out on the runway, a nasty bit of business involving an airplane prop literally obliterating someone - which was surprising for a PG film in addition to the rape humor! This is probably the lightest fare of the bunch on this set, which isn't to say it wasn't entertaining, because it was quite a bit of fun, and it was good to see Bronson playing with humor throughout, not his usual sandbox to play in. It was also interesting to see him and wife Jill Ireland playing against each other, she married to Duvall's character but there's some sexual tension flying between her and Colton, too. 

HARD TIMES (1975)

Rating: PG
Duration: 94 Minutes
Audio: English Uncompressed PCM 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Walter Hill
Cast: Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Jill Ireland, Strother Martin

The crown jewel of this Bronson four-pack is Hard Times (1975), set in Depression era New Orleans Walter Hill's directorial debut opens with a train-hopping wanderer named Chaney (Charles Bronson, Master of the World) arriving in The Big Easy. With only six bucks to his name and looking for some quick cash he wanders into a local bare-knuckles brawl-contest where he easily defeats the night's best fighter with one punch, earning him some dough and the eye of local fast-talking promoter Speed (James Coburn, In Like Flint) who quickly aligns himself with the middle-aged brawler. Chaney clears a path through the local fisticuffs champs with the aid of his new manager and an opium-addicted cutman named Poe, played with a lazy Southern charm by Strother Martin (The Brotherhood of Evil). The film follows the trio through a series of fights which Chaney wins handily, developing a reputation around town as a man to be reckoned with. When one Cajun promoter refuses to pay after a win he chases the rightful winners off with a gun, but that night they track him down to his gin joint and Chaney causes a ruckus, a one-man wrecking crew destroying the promoter's henchman and his bar in the process, and definitely getting the money owed to him. 

One of the first contenders to give Chaney some serious fight-back is the local undefeated champ, a bald-headed brawler named Jim Henry (Robert Tessier, Starcrash), but in the end Chaney's smarts outdo the man's brute strength and notorious knuckle-crushing hard-head. With Chaney crowned the new king around town one of the local promoters brings in a fighter from Chicago in hopes of regaining the throne. 

Along the way Chaney befriends and unsuccessfully courts a local hard luck prostitute played by - who else - Jill Ireland, who is fairly innocuous here in a small role that doesn't ask much. Meanwhile, the fast-talking Speed sinks deeper into debt due to a degenerate gambling habit, which the crooked promoter uses to leverage a new title fight. 

Walter Hill's no stranger to making manly movies about tough guys doing tough things, and this is no different, right out of the gate with his first film it bares his trademarks, Bronson is perfectly suited for the role - a quietly cool man with honor and integrity, and when called upon, his brute strength and a tactical mind serve him well with his brawling pursuits, if not so much when it comes to the ladies.  

Audio/Video: These four 70's Charles Bronson film arrive on 2-disc Blu-ray from budget-minded distributor Mill Creek Entertainment, presented in 1080p HD widescreen in the original theatrical exhibition ratios, both The Valachi Papers and The Stone killer get the 1.85:1 framing while Breakout and Hard Times are presented in scope 2.35:1 widescreen. All four films have been licensed from Sony Pictures, and notably, with the exception of Breakout, were issued this past year on Blu-ray from Twilight Time, and as they licensed their releases from Sony as well this is most likely the same transfer, but with two crammed onto a single disc without the benefit of any extras whatsoever. I was a bit worried about compression issues with this one but am pleased to report that these discs looks to be nicely authored and don't suffer any compression I could detect. Audio on all four film comes by way of uncompressed PCM English 2.0, each sounding clean and well balanced, though there are no subtitle options for any of them.  

The 2-disc release comes housed in a standard 2-tray Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, the disc themselves are standard issue for Mill Creek, black with white lettering, no frills and low-cost. I did notice they misspelled James Coburn's name on the back cover, "Cobern", but aside from no trailers that's my only niggle.  

If you're just looking to buy these films without any extras this is a damn fine release, and at the time of this review you can pick it up for $10, which is a steal, previously just buying the three TT titles would have set you back $75 easily, and they weren't exactly dripping with extras aside from one commentary on The Stone Killer and isolated music scores and trailers, but I will say that TT staff writer Julie Kirgo does some great write-ups for the films in the booklets. That said, even trailers would have been appreciated, but if you just want good looking HD versions of the film here you go, $10, done deal! This economical Bronson package comes highly recommended, and I hope to see more classic Bronson on the way soon! 

KADAICHA (1988) / INNOCENT PREY (1984) (DVD Review)

KADAICHA (1988) / INNOCENT PREY (1984) 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: 4 PAL Format
Rating: M (Mature) 
Duration: 91 Minutes / 90 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (No subtitles) 
Video: 4:3 Full Frame
Cast: Deborah Kennedy, Steve Dodd, Tom Jennings, Zoe Carides, Martin Balsam, P.J. Soles, Kit Taylor, John Warnock, Grigor Taylor 
Director: James Bogle, Colin Eggleston 

KADAICHA (1988)
In this derivative slice of late-80s Aussie horror, also known as Stones of Death, we have a group of suburban high school kids (all in their 20s) who discover that their quiet suburban neighborhood was built on top of an Aboriginal burial ground, very much akin to Poltergeist (1982), which it borrows quite a bit from. Each of the teens begin to have nightmares of "the kadaicha man', a weird aboriginal figure seen in an ominous cave, who in the dream hands each of them a crystal, when they wake in fright afterward they find that somehow the stone from their nightmares has appeared in their hands. While discussing the nightmare with a group of friends one of the teens shows them the stone, a nearby teacher sees the stone and informs her that what she has is a Kadaicha stone, something that aboriginal elders long ago would give to those they had cursed, and death would soon follow for that person. 

Turns out that the kids are cursed because one of their father's developed the land that was a sacred burial ground, and the "evil" comes back to haunt them in their dreams a'la Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), the film also has a bit of an eco-horror angle as the kadaicha spirit can take the form of a number of critters in which to kill the teens, which it does in the form of a barely seen snake, a wild dog, and most notably, a spider which leaps onto the eyeball of one unlucky kid, pumping him full of deadly venom. Most of the spider attack happens obscured by stacks of books, unfortunately, but we do get some keen POV shots of the spider crawling towards the intended victim. 

The movie is not at all original, but the Australian setting and mysticism does lend some atmosphere to the proceedings, the aboriginal mysticism and shaman aspect reminded me a bit of Peter Weir's otherworldly The Last Wave (1977), though much less attractively shot and executed. Originally planned for a cinema release this one went straight to video and TV, which is not a surprise, the direction is rather lacklustre, the cinematography is uniformly low-budget TV looking, and the performances are also TV-centric. Not helping, the special effects are ropey and low-budget, the best special effect would be the kids face all swollen-up after the a spider attack, and a young girl's throat ripped open after the dog attack, but most of the most horrific stuff is happening offscreen or just out of sight. 

If I'd seen this in '88 when I was fifteen it might have a bit more charm for me than it does, but as it is it felt stale and poorly executed. This is a movie I've heard about for years but never had a chance to watch, so the double-feature was appreciated, but this is the clear b-side to the next film, the 80's slasher Innocent Prey (1984).    

INNOCENT PREY (1984)
Here's another movie I've long heard about been never actually had the opportunity to watch, that is until now. In this mid-80's slasher/thriller we have P.J. Soles (Halloween) as Cathy, a Texan with the biggest most bountiful 80s hair you've ever seen - it's enormous. She lives in Dallas with her new husband, New Zealander Joe (Kit Taylor), who turns out to be a whore fucking/murdering son-of-a-bitch, which she finds one night while driving through town, where she spies her husband's car at the local no-tell motel and pulls over to investigate. 

Earlier that night Joe picked up a prostitute, who played Debbie Sue Voorhees (Friday the 13th v: A New Beginning), paid her $500 bucks for the night, and ended up at that hotel. Poor Cathy doesn't just catch him cheating, she spies them through a window and sees Joe throttling the whore from behind in the shower, there's a lot of thrusting going on, then he slices her throat with a straight razor! Cathy runs off home and confronts her husband about what he's done, he grabs a fire-poker and is about ready to bash her brains in when the local Sheriff (Martin Balsam, Psycho) and other cops show-up and stop him, sending him not to jail, but to the asylum. He escapes the asylum a short time later and heads back to finish off his wife, killing a few cops along the way, cutting head off their female cops assigned to protect her, leaving it on a shelf in the kitchen pantry. She manages to escape, as does Joe, who disappears into the night. 

After all that Cathy has had just about enough of Texas and heads for Australia to stay with her dear friend Gwen (Susan Stenmark), who puts her up in an apartment, run by landlord Philip (John Warnock), who seems like a nice guy, a bit peculiar, but seemingly harmless. Turns out he's a damn weirdo too, this lady just attracts the wackadoos I guess. Phil likes to watch and listens in on his tenants through a series of hidden cameras and microphones which are hidden throughout the complex, and so Cathy has another murderous loony on her hands. 

P.J. Soles is charming and has charisma but perhaps there's a reason she wasn't a lead in more film, this was her first, and last I know of, she's a great side character, but her acting here is a bit on the melodramatic side, there's a scene on the beach where she's speaking two a new lover named Rick (Grigor Taylor) about a pregnancy, it felt like a clip from the daytime soap The Days of Our Lives, dreadful stuff. The scene even has a suitably over dramatic score from Brian May (Mad Max), who has done some great scores for ozploitation classics, this time around he's channeling Bernard Hermann from some tasty Psycho-esque cues throughout when he;s not laying on a melodramatic veneer.

I think the main issue I have with the film is that it feels like two separate movies mashed together, at first we have a psycho-hubbie whore-slasher, that is pretty sleazy, but when she gets to Australia it changes gears dramatically, turning into a creepy psychological thriller about a wacko landlord along the lines of Crawlspace (1986), either one would have been a great turn by itself, but together they sort of cancel each other out, and the two are married together with the slowest sort of melodrama you can imagine, it saps the film of a lot of energy.

The movie was directed by Colin Eggleston, who directed the tense eco-horror film The Long Weekend (1978), the movie has some nice lensing, albeit obscured by the full frame presentation, but the story and script are messy and awkward, which is not to say that I didn't enjoy the film, it has it's charm, and it has a wonderful winky finale that had me in stitches, but it is a bit drawn out and conflicted by what sort of thriller it wanted to be. 

Audio/Video: Kadaicha (1988) and Innocent Prey (1984) arrive on a double-feature DVD from Australia's Umbrella Entertainment on a single-disc release, the presentations are both full frame, and from what I've read there are no prints or negatives available for either release, so what we get a looks to be full frame from something along the lines of a 1" video master, it's VHS quality, with Innocent Prey fairing the better of the two, Kadaicha looking murky and soft with poorer contrast, and some scanning lines appearing towards the end of the presentation. Color reproduction and black levels fare much better on Innocent Prey, all things considered the image looks damn decent, but sub-DVD quality. Audio on both comes by way of  English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitle options, sounding mostly clean and audible, it can be a bit tinny at times but it does the job. 

Extras on the disc include a full frame trailers for each film, plus a new 22-min interview with star P.J. Soles produced by Umbrella along with Cinemaniacs. The star looks back on her time on the film, being cast and meeting with the director, hiding her pregnancy during the filming, how pleasing it was to land a lead role, working with the cast and crew, and she even touches on her ridiculous hairdo.    

 Special Features: 
- Kadaicha Trailer (2 min) 
- Innocent Prey Trailer (2 min) 
- Looking Back on Innocent Pray: A Conversation with P.J. Soles (22 min) 

A fun double dose of 80s Ozploitation from Umbrella Entertainment, I don't think either ranks particularly high among my favorite kangaroo-cult classics like Razorback (1984) or Patrick (1978), but I love that we have them on disc, even if they're full frame and none too attractive. At least we have them on a digital format, and hopefully some better sourced prints will turn up at some point, I would love to see Innocent Prey in a restored widescreen presentation, that would be deserving of a re-examination. 

DEATH WISH II (1982)/DEATH WISH III (1985) (Umbrella Blu-ray Review)

DEATH WISH II (1982)/DEATH WISH III (1985) 
A Cannon Classics Double Feature 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: R/18+
Duration: 91 Minutes/92 Minutes 
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Michael Winner 
Cast: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Laurence Fishburne, Vincent Gardenia, Martin Balsam, E. Lamont Johnson, Silvana Gallardo,Kevyn Major Howard, Thomas E. Duffy, Stuart K. Robinson, Robin Sherwood

DEATH WISH II (1982) (92 min) 
Eight years after the original Death Wish (1974) Charles Bronson (The White Buffalo) returned to the role of NYC vigilante Paul Kersey, and as you might expect, producers Golan and Globus along with director Michael Winner (The Mechanic), gave the film a trashy 80s sheen, making it a right slice of 80s era Cannon-fodder, turning the sequel to the vigilante classic into an over-the-top slice of violence and sleaze, amping up the misogyny to the nth degree and laying on the violence with a thick and bloody brush. 

The film picks up with Kersey (Bronson) having relocated from NYC to to sunny Los Angeles after the event of the first film, beginning life anew with his daughter Carol (Robin Sherwood, Tourist Trap) who is now confined to a mental institution following the traumatic events of the first movie, she having watched her mother killed and then raped by her killers scarred her deeply. Paul is still working as an architect, he has a new girlfriend named Jeri, played by his real wife Jill Ireland, who is a radio news reporter. Together they attend a street fair along with his fragile-minded daughter, who they've checked out of the asylum for a day of fun. 

While waiting in line to buy some ice cream Paul is targeted by a group of punks who lift his wallet, he chases them down and beats a thug named Jiver (Stuart K. Robinson, Better Off Dead) pretty badly, but ends up letting him go when it turns out he doesn't have the wallet. However, the other thugs now have his wallet with his home address and they head to his home for some sweet revenge. There they encounter his housekeeper Rosario (Silvana Gallardo) home alone, they assault and rape her, and as this is the unrated director's cut of the film it goes on for a bit, it's vile, humiliating and overstays it's welcome by a few minutes, managing to get pretty sleazy, with the men squealing with delight as they run a train on the helpless woman, the assault ends with her getting a crowbar to the skull, killing her. 

Paul arrives home later that night with his daughter and walks into the horrific scene, he's attacked by the thugs who've been waiting for him, he's knocked unconscious and the thugs make off with his daughter, taking her back to their lair where they rape her. The scene is weird, if it had different music the sex would almost seem consensual, that Winner was a creep, but she fights back and runs away, leaping out a window only to be impaled on a spiked iron fence, dying immediately. 

Of course her death inspires the grieving, but always stone-faced, Kersey to go resort to his vigilante ways, going after the gang with a vengeance, taking out the cartoonish gang in a series of bloody and violent vignettes, complete with the requisite one-liners that Bronson delivers with cold menace, my favorite being when he catches up the thug named Stomper (Kevyn Major Howard, Full Metal Jacket), holding him at gunpoint Kersey aks "Do you believe in Jesus?", responding that he does, Kersey says "Well then, you're going to be with him." before blasting him. One of the gang members named Nirvana (Thomas F. Duffy, Super 8)is later apprehended while high on PCP, found unfit to go to jail they send him to the asylum, Kersey disguises himself as a doc and tracks Nirvana down at the asylum where he has his vengeance, electrocuting the killer with the implicit help of an orderly, played by Charles Cyphers (Assault on Precinct 13). 

The movie is a fairly straight-forward rehash of the original film and as such is predictable and none too enthralling, just amped up with violence and more skin-crawling rape, but if you're a fan of badass Bronson and love cheap, exploitative violence there's plenty here to enjoy, also be on the lookout for a very young Laurence Fishburne (Event Horizon) as one of the gang members named Cutter, wearing pink new wave glasses, who gets shot in the face right through his 80s boom box. Horror fans will also get a hoot spotting Anthony Franciosa of Argento's Tenebre (1982) in the film as the L.A. police commisioner! 

As this is the unrated director's cut it runs about a few minutes longer than the U.S. R-rated theatrical cut, with some extended rape scenes, which don't amount to much in the grand scheme of things but it's here for your pervy eyes to view in all its trashy glory. Also noteworthy is a screaming guitar and synth driven score from Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page - it's not his best work but it's just fine for this slice of street-cleaning trash.    

DEATH WISH III (1985) (91 min) 
Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) arrives back in New York City to visit an old Korean war buddy named Charlie (Francis Drake), only to find his friend has just been attacked by some neighborhood punks, his friend dies in front of his very eyes, which furthers my belief that Paul Kersey is perhaps one of the most cursed men in all of cinema, to just know his name seems to take years off your life expectancy! Once more the stone-faced avenger must face off against a gang of ridiculous looking punkers, but not before he is detained after Charlie's death by the cops, where the police chief Richard Shriker (Ed Lauter, Cujo) recognizes him as the vigilante from the first film, only to release him back into the wilds of the Bronx, with the edict that he works for him, hoping to get an assist from the vigilante to clean-up the violent streets of the Bronx.  

Paul moves into Charlie's apartment and helps the immigrant and senior citizen who live in the slum fight against the horde of violent criminals that infest the neighborhood like cockroaches.  He is befriended by WWII vet Bennet Cross (Martin Balsam, Psycho), and there's also a doomed love interest, a public defender named Kathryn Davis (Deborah Raffin, The Sentinel) who winds up dying in a fiery car explosion, further fueling Kersey's desire for vengeance. 

This one takes up the cartoonish violence a notch while toning down the rape just a tad, but it's a Michael winner film so yeah there's a rape. The gang is lead by ginger nut job Manny (Gavin O'Herlihy, The Descent: Part 2) who proves to be the worst of the scumbags, and he gets an appropriately explosive and utterly overkill demise in the film, the final thirty-minutes of this one is an all-out war zone with the gangs going up against the well-armed citizens of the neighborhood, it's hard not to love it, even though it is nutso.  

By this point in his career Bronson was waning in enthusiasm and his star had fallen quite a bit, hence the work with Cannon Films, and he seems more detached than the first sequel, the driving force of the film seems to be his increasingly cartoonish arsenal, with a new weaponry like an enormous .475 Wildey Magnum hand cannon, a Browning M1919 .30-caliber machine gun and a rocket launcher which conveniently arrives just in the nick of time through mail-order! Super silly stuff, but if you're a fan of badass Bronson and cartoonish urban vigilantism there's plenty of fun to be had with Death wish III. 

Audio/Video: Both films arrive on Blu-ray from Australia's Umbrella Entertainment with 1080p HD presentations framed in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1). These are solid looking HD transfers with excellent color reproduction and skin tones, the grain can be a bit chunky on Death Wish 2 at times but overall these are pleasing, they're not reference quality, but they're pleasing and a nice upgrade from my DVD versions.  Both film share space on a region-free BD50 disc along with a host of extras, plus a bonus DVD with three versions of Death wish 2; the theatrical cut in anamorphic widescreen and the TV cut and the Greek VHS version, both in poor VHS quality full frame presentations. Audio is advertised as DTS-HD MA Mono but we only get a lossy Dolby Digital mono 2.0 track for both films, they're clean and well-mixed, but a lossless option would have been nice, optional English subtitles are provided.  

As for the extras we get quite a few beginning with as assortment of trailers and TV spots for each film, a nearly hour-long archival making-of featurette with behind the scenes footage of Death Wish 3, Runaway Train and House, there are a lot of cool behind-the-scenes stuff and interviews, narrated by actor Katt Williams (House, Carrie), it's a nice Cannon Films focused extra. 

There are also a whopping 100 minutes of extended interviews from Mark Hartley's Cannon doc Electric Boogaloo with actors Alex Winter, Robin Sherwood, screenwriter David Engelbach, and Todd Roberts, son of producer Bobby Roberts. The Winters interview is particularly fun and scathing, calling the film a "dog pile of shit", how he got out of filming a rape scene, pointing out what an unlikable guy Winner was, and commenting on Bronson and what a class act he was, though clearly just doing the picture for money.  There's also an Easter Egg on the Blu-ray disc, a collection of scenes from the Australian VHS version not found on the theatrical cut of the film, a lot of these are scenes between Kersey and Inspector Richard Shriker (Ed Lauter) at the police station and some extended shootout sequences. Notably, while the rest of the disc seems to be region-free this extras would only play on my region-free player and not on the region-A player. There's also a DVD disc featuring three versions of Death Wish 2, the theatrical cut and the Greek VHS and TV cut of the film, each with additional scenes not in the unrated director's cut. All the versions of Death Wish 2 feature notes by Paul Talbot, author of 'Bronson's Loose! The Making of the Death Wish Films', speaking to the various incarnations of the film and what's exclusive or unique about each.

Reversible Artwork

This release comes from Umbrella Entertainment in a thick-style Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, the main option is a new custom artwork from the folks at Umbrella, on the reverse is a wrap featuring the original one-sheets for both films. The Blu-ray disc sports the Death wish 2/Death wish 3 artwork, while the bonus DVD disc features the Death Wish III one-sheet artwork. 

Special Features: 

DISC 1 (Blu-ray) 
- DEATH WISH 2: UNRATED DIRECTOR'S CUT (1982) (91 min) HD 
- Notes on the uncut version of Death Wish 2 by Paul Talbot, author of 'Bronson's Loose! The Making of the Death Wish Films' (Text Only) 
- DEATH WISH 3 (1985) (92 min) HD 
- Death Wish 2 Trailer (2 min) HD 
- Death Wish 2 TV Spot version 1 (28 sec) 
- Death Wish 2 TV Spot Version 2 (23 sec) 
- Death Wish 3 Trailer (2 min) HD 
- Death Wish 3 TV spot (29 sec) 
- Interviews with cast members Alex Winter, Robin Sherwood, screenwriter David Engelbach - and Todd Roberts, son of producer Bobby Roberts. (Extended interviews from Mark Hartley's ELECTRIC BOOGALOO)(100 min) HD 
- ACTION II: Making-of featurette with Behind the Scenes footage of Death Wish 3, Runaway Train and House (52 min) 
- Easter Egg: Death Wish III Extended and Deleted Scenes (6 min) 

DISC 2 (DVD)
- DEATH WISH 2: ORIGINAL THEATRICAL CUT (89 min) (Anamorphic Widescreen) 
-  Notes on the R-Rated version of Death Wish 2 by Paul Talbot, author of 'Bronson's Loose! The Making of the Death Wish Films' (Text Only) 
- DEATH WISH 2: TV CUT (94 min) (Full Frame) 
- Notes on the TV cut of Death Wish 2 by Paul Talbot, author of 'Bronson's Loose! The Making of the Death Wish Films' (Text Only) 
- DEATH WISH 2: GREEK VHS CUT (95 min) (Full Frame) 
- Notes on the Greek VHS release of Death Wish 2 by Paul Talbot, author of 'Bronson's Loose! The Making of the Death Wish Films' (Text Only)

Great to have the unrated version of the these Death Wish sequels on Blu-ray, the U.S. versions have been R-rated threadbare of extras, Umbrella rectify that this fantastic region-free double-feature of 80's badassery, loaded with extras and no less than four versions of the second entry. If you're a fan of the movies this is the one to own.