FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM (1987)

FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM (1987)

Label: Scream Factory

Region Code: A 

Duration: 99 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: English LPCM 2.0 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Jeff Burr

Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Clu Gulager, Susan Tyrrell, Terry Kiser. Lawrence Tierney, Martine Beswick, Vincent Price

Horror anthologies are the comfort food of horror cinema, tiny vignettes of the mad and the macabre you can watch in one sitting or enjoy in bite-size chunks at your convenience, something you can watch a bit of and walk away from and then pick-up again a day or two later, maybe after work, which is how I usually digest them. 

Jeff Burr's anthology From a Whisper to a Scream, alternately known as The Offspring, begins with a pretty decent wrap-around device, and how could it not be, starring horror legend Vincent Price (The Last Man on Earth) as Julian White, the town librarian of Oldfield, Tennessee. He is sought after by a young reporter  (Susan Tyrrell, Cry-Baby) who is curious as to why the old codger did not attend the execution of his murderous niece (Martine Beswicke, From Russia With Love). As the conversation begins he spins a series of tales about the inhabitants of Oldefield throughout history, beginning with a tale of resident sicko Stanley Burnside. 

Stanley Burnside (Clu Gulager, The Initiation) was an awkward grocery clerk who lived with his sickly sister Eileen (Miriam Byrd-Nethery, Leatherface). The two share a strangely intimate relationship with Stanley regularly bathing his nude sibling. Aside from his weird relationship with his sister it turns out that Stanley is creepily obsessed with boss, an attractive woman named Grace (Meghan McFarland), with whom he tries to make conversation with but just comes across as a weirdo. Eventually he manages to invite her to dinner, which she accepts. Unable to control himself on the date Stanley makes a pass at her, however, when she refuses his advances his intimacy turns to murder. Of course, old Stanley is not gonna let something a simple as death stop him from fornicating with her lifeless body. Needless to say the film goes where you might expect, and then it goes a few places you might not! Clu Gulager is fantastic as the creepy weirdo who suffers from the worst kind of nightmares, waking up in a fright, unleashing a nerve rattling scream that you won't soon forget, this one is a perverse shocker. Apparently the segment so angered Forry Ackerman of Famous Monsters magazine that he wrote a letter to Vincent Price decrying the damn thing, poor Uncle Forry couldn't handle the combination of possible incest, murder, necrophilia and demon babies, it's potent stuff, and not for everyone. 

The second story is set in the 1950s and concerns a criminal by the name of Jesse (Terry Kiser, Weekend At Bernie's) who is betrayed by his conniving girlfriend who drops a dime on the guy to a pair of gangsters who want him dead. After shooting him they leave him for dead in the swamp, where he is found and nursed back to health by an old swamp rat named Felder (Harry Caesar). As the two get to know each other it becomes evident that Felder is keeping a secret from Jesse, in fact he might be holding onto the secret to immortality and Jesse wants in on the secret. Of course, messing with someone who may or may not dabble in the occult is risky business and Jesse might just live long enough to regret his decision to betray Felder.

Onto the third story we move even further back in time, to a carnival side show during the 1930s where a local girl named Amaryllis (Didi Lanier) carries a torch for the carnival's resident glass-eater, a strapping young man named Steve (Ron Brooks, Leatherface), The relationship that must be kept a secret from the carnival Snakewoman (Rosalind Cash, The Omega Man), a controlling woman who does not approve of the romance with a local girl. The young lovers defy her at their own peril which ends with the young glass chomper being torn apart from within, this one is a very grotesque entry and the gore-fiends should enjoy it. This one benefits from some great carnival atmosphere and some gruesome flesh-tearing gore, not the best of the bunch but my second favorite so far. 

Keeping with the rhythm of the anthology the fourth and final segment reaches even further back into the history of Oldfield, set during the final days of the American Civil War as Union Sgt. Gallen (Cameron Mitchell, Raw Force) and his small band of men happen upon a farmhouse inhabited by what appear to be war-orphans, but these killer kiddies have a deadly secret. Sgt. Gallen is quite a despicable character from the onset,established as war profiteer and a cold-blooded murderer, what he and his men have coming to them is very well undeserved. Unfortunately the story makes for a lacklustre finale to an otherwise damn decent anthology, this is the one that should have been relegated to the middle of the film so it could have finished-up with something a bit more memorable or punchy in my opinion. 

The wrap-around device with Vincent Price ends quite appropriately, further feeding into the story of Oldfield being an epicenter of evil. From a Whisper to a Scream stands tall and is one of only a handful of anthologies from the '80s that manages to maintain a decent following. While maybe not quite on par with a classic such as Creepshow this one certainly has enough creepy charm to keep me coming back, that it is one of the more gruesome anthologies entities certainly doesn't hurt either,. 

Audio/Video: Jeff Burr's From A Whisper To A Scream (1987) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a 1080p HD transfer framed in the original widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio. The source material looks good with some minimal white speckling and minor dirt throughout but overall an impressive presentation. Colors are strong and despite heavy grain does show some minor depth and clarity, not an overwhelming abundance of fine detail but quite an improvement over the 2006 MGM DVD. Despite being advertised on the jacket as sporting a DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio track what we actually have is a LPCM 2.0. It does the job, the mix is decent and well-balanced but lat and unremarkable.

The A/V merits could be better but Scream Factory and Ballyhoo Motion Pictures have done as exquisite job with the extras for this release beginning with a brand-new audio commentary with Writer/Director Jeff Burr
and a second track with Writer/Producer Darin Scott And Writer C. Courtney Joyner. I only fast-forwarded through the Burr commentary and must say it was pretty damn entertaining with loads of behind-the-scenes anecdotes. I will definitely be revisiting the commentaries for this one again in their entirety next time I find myself doing some chores around the front of the house.

Motion Ballyhoo Motion Pictures have also produced two feature-length documentaries for this release.  A Decade Under The Innocence (77 Mins) is a doc about the Super 8 film culture that developed in Dalton, Georgia in the '70s, among them director Jeff Burr and many like minded folks who found each other through their love of film making, the film tracks their amateur film adventures from middle school on through to their days in college and beyond. There are loads of clips from the Super 8mm films they made, this was a fantastic watch and a nice companion piece to the film in a weird way. 

The Return To Oldfield (116 Mins) documentary covers the making of the film from the very beginning on through to the finish with new interviews from Director Jeff Burr, Producer Darin Scott, Co-Screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner, Actor Clu Gulager and many more. My favorite interviews are if Burr's recalling how he found out where Vincent Price lived and walking-up to his front door, the director was a bundle of nerves, and surprised when Price himself answered the door, apparently in his kitchen baking bread at the time. Equally amusing are the anecdotes of Price's unhappiness on set, particularly after ruining one of Price's own vintage jackets during the making of the film. Additionally there's a trailer, TV spots and an image gallery with commentary from writer/director Jeff Burr, plus a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring the alternate title of the film, The Offspring. 

Special Features:
- Return To Oldfield - A Comprehensive Feature-Length Documentary About The Making Of From A Whisper To A Scream, Featuring Director Jeff Burr, Producer Darin Scott, Co-Screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner, Actor Clu Gulagar And More! (116 Mins) HD
- A Decade Under The Innocence - A Feature-Length Documentary About Teenage Adventures In 'Super 8' Filmmaking During The 1970's In Georgia, Featuring Director Jeff Burr And More! (77 Mins) HD
- New Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Jeff Burr
- Audio Commentary With Writer/Producer Darin Scott And Writer C. Courtney Joyner
- Still Gallery With Commentary By Writer/Director Jeff Burr (10 Mins) HD
- Theatrical Trailer
- "The Offspring" TV Spots (2 Mins) HD

From A Whisper To A Scream is a bonafide '80s horror anthology made my young first-time filmmakers who clearly loved horror and the anthology format in particular, and they did a great job their first-time out! Scream Factory have put a lot of love into this one, the PQ is decent but the special features are something special. The perverse vignette with Clu Gulager is worth the price of admission alone, but everything else after is just gravy, highly recommended.  

NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1995)

NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1995)  

Label: Olive Films

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 85 Minutes 

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 

Video: HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Jeff Burr
Cast: Stephen Root, Bruce Glover, Gary Lockwood,John Hawkes, Dirk Blocker, Martine Beswick, Dirk Blocker, Elizabeth Barondes


When the local troublemaker of a small agricultural community accidentally disturbs the crypt of a long buried warlock the spirit magic man is released. Taking the corporeal form of a scarecrow who immediately sets about wreaking his vengeance on the village whose forefathers betrayed him decades earlier. 

At the top of the film Claire Goodman (Elizabeth Barondes, Not of this Earth), the estranged daughter of the Mayor (Gary Lockwood, 2001: A Space Odyssey), one of four brothers who seem to own the town, we have the priest Uncle Thaddeus (Bruce Glover, Chinatown), the farmer Uncle George (Dirk Blocker, Poltergeist) and the sheriff Uncle Frank (Stephen Root, Office Space). Of course we have to have a love interest for the Mayor's daughter, enter Dillon (prolific TV actor John Mese) as the construction foreman for the Mayor who winds up in her bed pretty damn fast, all you had to do was talk some trash about her blowhard father, because it's just that easy gentlemen. 

A killer scarecrow movie is still pretty fertile ground to mine these days, there are not too awful many but here were definitely a few prior to this one, including the seminal TV terror Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) and the thriller (1988), so even at the time it was not an original idea but it is quite a bit of fun. Shot in the mid '90s the film feels very '90s with director Jeff Burr at the helm, one dimensional characters played by a cast of somewhat limited ability, s a cool scarecrow design for our iller and a bunch of fantastic practical in-camera special effects that should please the gore fans, there are a few pretty awful CGI morphing shots but for the most part they keep it old school cheap thrills, some of which are executed quite nicely.

One of the first kills is a character being thrashed to death by a threshing machine in a barn, which brought to mind Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing (1981), a few others cannot help but conjure the TV terror Dark Night of the Scarecrow, most of these scarecrow films owe that one quite a debt. A lot of the effects have to do with something getting under the skin of the victims, usually straw, sometime tendril type roots the burst out and drag the victim screaming beneath the ground, just on a fun effects driven level this one is a lot of fun. 

The scarecrow does bust out a few groan inducing one-liners in the vein of later era Freddy Krueger but it's kept to a minimum, aside from some wooden performances from a few of the younger cast members this one doesn't stray too far into the realms of camp, thankfully. I loved the design of the scarecrow, a one-eyed (button) menace wrapped in stitched burlap and tattered clothing, with a slightly too affected vocal effect that makes it hard to decipher just what he says from time to time, but it's a small complaint in an otherwise entertaining b-movie. 

Back to the cast I was surprised to see bona fide Bond Girl Martine Beswick (From Russia with Love) in the role of the preacher's wife, I was less surprised to see that the priest's daughter had been singled out for onscreen nudity, the very cute Cristi Harris (Demons 2) with her perky breasts definitely spices up the screen and her ensuing death is one of the best! Stephen Root is always brings something more to the screen, this is a serious turn as a straight-faced sheriff who wants to put an end to the string of murders plaguing his formerly quiet town, he's not threatening to burn down the office over a stapler but he does the job.. 

The story itself is nothing special, a typical small town setting with some shady business dealing, a weak love story and at the kernel of the film, the story of a vengeful warlock having his vengeance, what saves the film is a brisk pace and some quality deaths. There are a few flashback sequences that tell the back story of the warlock, shot is sepia tone they depict one of the most unattractive orgy scenes ever committed to film, these shots are pretty grainy but not near grainy enough to obscure what's transpiring, you've done something wrong when I d not want to see the orgy!

Audio/Video: Night of the Scarecrow arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films with an AVC encode presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and the source material is in pretty good shape, with some heavy grain in the darker scenes and occasional dirt and debris. Colors are sold and nicely saturated but the image quality varies from scene to scene, which I would attribute to the source material and the low-budget nature of the film, none of which ruined my experience. The DTS HD Master Audio 2.0 does a decent job exporting score and dialogue creating a nicely balanced stereo presentation, the unremarkable synth score adding only a modicum of atmosphere to the proceedings. 

Special Features: Bonus content on the disc begins with a very informative commentary from director Jeff Burr moderated by Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. Burr is loaded with technical and behind-the-scenes commentary and it makes for a fascinating listen as he speaks about producers forcing the awful '90s digital special effects on the film, there's never a lull in the conversation and if you are a Jeff Burr fan there's a lot there to enjoy. 

Additionally there's a vintage featurette with participation from special effects man David Miller, Elizabeth Barondes, John Mese, Gary Lockwood, John Hawkes, Christi Harris plus an 8-minute still gallery with some of Jim Manzie's score and commentary from director Jeff Burr. 

Verdict: Night of the Scarecrow (1995) is a fun bit of murderous scarecrow business with some decent kills and plenty of cheap horror thrills, a b-movie that makes for a decent Friday night viewing with a bowl of buttery popcorn and some tasty brews. 

Blu-ray Review: A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1967)

A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1967)  
2-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD

Label: Blue Underground 
Region Code: ALL
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: U.S.: 115 Mins. / International: 118 Mins.
Audio: English and Italian DTS-HD Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, English for Italian Version
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Damiano Damiani (How to Kill a Judge, Amityville II)
Cast: Gian Maria Volonte, Klaus Kinski, Martine Beswick, Lou Castel

Synopsis: At the height of the Mexican revolution, a mysterious young American (Lou Castel of FIST IN HIS POCKET) joins a gang of marauders led by El Chucho (Gian Maria Volonte of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS) on a series of savage raids to steal guns for a powerful rebel general. But when the Gringo brings his own cold-blooded ideals to the bandits, El Chucho discovers that the real weapons of war belong to no army. In a land ravaged by poverty and violence, can true freedom be bought with a single bullet?


The Film: In director Damiano Damiani's "zapato" spaghetti western A Bullet for the General (1966) encounter a revolutionary bandit named El Chuncho (Gia Maria Volonte, A Fistful of Dollars) during the Mexican Revolution and his group of banditos as they stop rob a military cargo train. Ingeniously they stop the train by crucifying a soldier in the middle of the train tracks, it's quite a sight.  After rather easily eliminating the government soldiers on the train El Chucho encounters a well-dressed American named Bill Tate (Lou Castel, Fists in the Pocket) whom earns the nickname "Nino" for his boyish looks. After he earns the trust of El Chuncho  Nino joins the revolutionary bandits. Chuncho and his bandits blaze a path through Mexico exchanging gunfire with the government forces and raiding military compounds collecting weaponry, including a new machine gun, to aide General Elias's revolutionary forces. El Chuncho is not truly a supporter of the revolution and seems motivated mostly by the notoriety of his conquests and the lucrative spoils of war. However, when it is revealed that Nino may be in fact a counter-revolutionary assassin El Chucho's loyalties are put to the ultimate test.

I think the film goes a bit long but I was sucked right in from the start. It's a sweaty film, it feels dirty and sun-bleached with great shoot-outs and arid desert landscapes, you really feel the enviorment. Volonte as the cigar-chompin' El Chuncho is a great villain... or is he? Definitely a film that tests your loyalties, he's someone profiting from the spoils of war -  chewing up the scenery in every shot in the best possible way. Lou Castel as Nino is a pretty cold character, baby-faced and steely-eyed, always with an air of mystery. After these two amazing performances we have an all too brief appearance by the madman himself Kalus Kinski (Aguirre, the Wrath of God) as El Chuncho's brother El Santo , a holy-bandit praying for his enemies fallen in battle, it's an odd role even for the notorious Kinski, I wanted more from this character and my main beef with the film would be just that. Special mention should also be made of the gorgeous brunette sexpot Martine Beswick (Thunderball) whom appears as Adelita, the lone woman among El Chuncho's gang, a supremely alluring beauty and the cause of some friction among Nino and Chuncho.


The film in my opinion is not as violent as Sergio Corbucci's Django (1966) or as twisted as Giulio Questi's Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1966) but there's definitely no shortage of spaghetti western carnage onscreen here right from the start, the assault on the train is fantastic. The film has a great pedigree too, it was penned by Oscar-nominee Franco Solinas (The Battle of Algiers) and features a great score from Luis Bacalov (Django) and Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and looks fantastic with lensing from Antonio Secchi (The Hills Run Red) so we're in good hands here from the ground up except for maybe the director whom went onto direct Amityville II: The Possession but credit where credit is do this is a great film. 

Blu-ray: Blue Underground's region-FREE Blu-ray release features both the U.S. 
(115 mins) and International Version (118 mins) of the film presented in 16:9 enhanced widescreen (2.35:1) in wonderful 1080p HD. The transfer is sourced from a gorgeous print and there's a fine layer of film grain. The colors are vibrant, flesh tones are accurate and the black levels are strong. The image is crisp and while some scenes seem to have received an aggressive dose of digital noise reduction but overall I have no other complaints, a very pleasant image. The Italian and English-dubbed DTS-HD Mono options both sounds very good with crisp dialogue, piercing gunshots and score.


Special Features:
- A Bullet for the Director - Interview with Director Damiano Damiani (5:01)
- U.S. Trailer (1:52) 16:9
- International Trailer (4:29) 16:9
- Poster and Still Gallery
- Bonus DVD - Gian Maria Volonte: Un Attore Contro (112 Mins.)


Verdict: In years past Blue Underground were synonymous in my mind at least with horror and exploitation cinema and not much else, so it's rather nice to expand my adventures into Spaghetti Westerns with their release of Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! and A Bullet for the General. This is a riveting watch and comes recommended not just for fans of the spaghetti westerns but of all westerns, it's right up here with A Fistful of Dynamite and The Wild Bunch. 4 Outta 5