HACK-O-LANTERN (1988) (Massacre Video Blu-ray Review)

HACK-O-LANTERN (1988) 

Label: Massacre Video
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 88 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Jag Mundha
Cast: Hy Pyke, Gregory Scott Cummins, Katina Garner, Carla Baron, Jeff Brown, Michael Potts, Larry Coven

In the 80's devil-slasher Hack-O-Lantern (1988) (a.k.a. Halloween Night) we have creepy kid Tommy, who has an even creepier grandpa (Hy Pyke, Slithis), who has been grooming the kid from an early age to take his place as the high priest of a Satanic cult, which he appears to host from a barn in his back yard. When Tommy is about ten years old gramps gives him a pumpkin and a magic amulet on Halloween, apparently the kids parents don't like the weirdo grandfather hanging around the kids, and when they find out he was around Tommy's father goes to confront him in his barn, there he discovers grandpa doing Satanic stuff with his robed followers. Gramps doesn't take too kindly be scolded by his son-in-law and has the kid's dad murdered, hiding the crime by placing the corpse in his car and setting it on fire, making it look like an accident - which is exactly what happened in the devil-cult film Enter The Devil (1972) which I just reviewed today, and which was also released by Massacre Video. 

Years later the kid is now a teen played by Tommy Gregory Scott Cummins (Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge), an anti-social teenager weirdo who lays around his basement bedroom daydreaming of playing guitar in Seattle-based 80's metal band DC LaCroix, he even daydreams a pretty cool music video for their song "The Devil's Son", which would not have been out of place on the Headbanger's Ball circa 1989!  

Creepy Satanic grandpa is still grooming the teen to be his heir in the cult, to that end he tells Tommy he must remain "pure" until his indoctrination ceremony into the cult on Halloween night, meaning no sex with his short coiffed blonde girlfriend Nora (porn star Jeanna Fine, New Wave Hookers III) who has a pentagram branded onto her ass, so hot!

Tommy's younger sister Vera (Carla Brown, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama) seems to be your average horny teenager, having to contend with her brother's violent ways when he catches her asshole boyfriend about to pop her cherry. His brother Roger (Jeff Brown, Lady Avenger) is now a local cop who does not approve of his devil-obsessed brother's ways. Meanwhile the mom Amanda (Katina Garner, Cannibal Hookers) is trying to keep the family together and away from her father's satanic influence, all of this happening on the anniversary of her husband's death, Halloween night. 

While all this is happening a devil masked-killer is murdering teenagers around town with a variety of everyday gardening tools, offering some fun, bloody deaths by way of a shovel to the head and a long handled claw- rake. So who's the killer? Well that's the mystery at hand here, and it's answered in a ridiculous sort of way with a multiple shock ending scenario that's as preposterous as it is fun!

Hack-O-Lantern is a silly 80's slasher that brings all the greatest hits of the genre you've come to love, we have horny teens, plenty of nudity, a satanic cult, 80's hair metal and even some disturbing incest implications to spice things up, but the real star here is Hy Pyke as the sinister yet ridiculous satanic grandpa, he really made the film for me. 

Audio/Video: Hack-O-Lantern (1988) arrives on Blu-ray from Massacre Video in 1080p HD framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. Sourced from the original camera negative this has a nice layer of grain that looks heavy but natural, colors are surprisingly vivid, with good depth and clarity, with only a few emulsion scratches to detract from it. There's some soft focus cinematography used throughout, but this is generally and very crisp and robust looking transfer of the film. 

Audio comes by way of lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 with the option to watch it in the original mono or a restored stereo mix, with optional English subtitles. The lossy audio handles the sound well, it lacks fidelity and depth, there's some soft hiss throughout, but not too shabby all things considered. There's also an option to watch the film with just the isolated synth score, large portions of the film have no score to it's a sparse watch. 

Extras kick-off with an audio commentary from Producer Raj Mehrotra, the track tends to go silent for large swaths but does convey some good info along the way. There's also a brand new 11-min making of retrospective featuring Gregory Scott Cummins and Katina Garner. Cummings speak about doing the film for free as an acting credit, the audition, the long hours making the film, and how the director spoke no English, and as there was no interpreter to translate it proved to be a challenge, and shooting large portions of the film without the director being present. Garner speaks about working with Jag, how he fell into an open grave and broke his leg during the shoot in a cemetery, with him having to direct a large portion of the film from a wheelchair!

We also get a bizarre public access interview - is there any other kind? - with director Mundhra, plus stars Katina Garner, and actress Mayra Grant, hosted by an offbeat senior citizen named Georgette. It's a bit of a career highlight interview with clips of various projects, sourced from a VHS source from the looks of it.

Extras are finished up with an image gallery of behind-the-scenes photos with score accompaniment, and a selection of Massacre Video trailers that includes  Nurse Jill, Black Past, Fantom Killer and Ostermontag. 

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentary with Producer Raj Mehrotra
- Isolated Soundtrack Option
- The Power is in the Blood: Interviews with stars Gregory Scott Cummings and Katrina Garner (11 min) HD 
- Public Access Interview (28 min) 
- Behind the Scene Photos (5 min) 
- Massacre Video Trailers: Nurse Jill (2 min), Black Past (2 min), Fantom Killer (1 min), Ostermontag (2 min)

Hack-O-Lantern (1988) is a damn fun time, the kills are goofy and there's no real scares or suspense, but the film is loaded with wacky characters and lots of big 80's hair, and I promise that you will never grow tired of that demented evil grandpa throwing up the devil horns! This movie is a just a lot of goofy 80's Halloween fun, I can definitely see this one being a Halloween tradition going forward, a top-notch release from Massacre Video.
 

ENTER THE DEVIL (1972) (Massacre Video Blu-ray Review)

ENTER THE DEVIL (1972) 

Limited Collector's Edition 

Label: Massacre Video
Duration: 81 Minutes
Rating: Unrated 
Region Code: Region-FREE
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Frank Q. Dobbs
Cast: David S. Cass Sr., Irene Kelly, Joshua Bryant, Happy Shahan, John Martin, Wanda Wilson, Carle Bensen 

Region devil-cult shocker Enter The Devil (1972) (a.k.a. Disciples of Death) is a film I've never even heard of before, but I love me some Satanic 70s horror, and since the film gets a deluxe limited edition release from at Massacre Video it seemed like as good a time as any to finally check it out. The film opens with a crusty old rock hound named Ozzie Perkins (Happy Shahan, The Return of Josey Wales) who finds himself stranded in rural southern Texas when the tire on his car is shot out by an unseen sniper. Luckily he catches a lift with what appears to be a friendly local, but soon enough he finds himself in a cave tied down on an alter of sacrifice, surrounded by cultists in robes, chanting and holding torches, he's then stabbed through the heart with a crucifix handled dagger!

The local sheriff (John Martin, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors) assigns State Trooper Jace (David Cass, The Island of Dr. Moreau) to investigate the prospector's disappearance, it seems it's an election year and the sheriff can't have an unsolved cases hanging around his neck. Jace reluctantly accepts his assignment and heads out into the desert, landing at the Villa de la Mina hunting lodge, a place run by owner Glenn (Josh Bryant, Salem's Lot), who is assisted by housekeeper Juanita (Wanda Wilson, Final Chapter: Walking Tall) - with whom the trooper seems to have a continuing fling with. 

Jace spends a few days lodging at the Villa de la Mina while he searches the area for the missing man, at the same time a group of lecherous city hunters show up for the start of deer season. Eventually the prospector's car is found burned up with his body inside, but an autopsy by Dr. Leslie Culvert (Carle Bensen, Deathrace 2000) reveals that the codger didn't actually die in the car fire, that the scene was most likely staged, leading to the trooper staying in the area a bit longer. It's not long before one of the hunters goes missing, abducted by the robed cultists who overpower him and throw him into a rattler snake-pit, dumping his corpse in the desert where it is found by the trooper and a search party of hunters. 

Enter Dr. Leslie Culvert (Irene Kelly, Rosemary's Baby) who is called in by the coroner, she specializes in religious cults, and notes that the disappearances could be attributed to a fanatical religious group called The Penitentes, who were known to perform ritual human sacrifice in the area.

This dusty devil-cult shocker is a low-budget affair, a cheapie drive-in programmer but I love it, I love the barren Texas setting and the robed and torch carrying cult, it's a nifty little regional horror film. These sort of devil cult movies were popular following Rosemary's Baby (1968), this one coming a year after The Brotherhood of Satan (1971) and a few years before a pair of my personal  favorites, The Devil's Rain (1975) and Race With The Devil (1975). This one is more low-budget than any of those mentioned, but it has a simple, solid story, it's well-paced and the thrills come at a steady clip, with a good amount of action. The scenes of torch wielding cultists in the dark are creepy, and there's a decent amount of bloodletting, plus a few late-in-the-movie twist that I didn't see coming, good stuff.  

One of the stars of the film is the Southwest Texas setting, a dusty landscape with dried-up tumbleweed and seemingly endless vistas of barren rocky outcroppings, the film does a good job making the whole thing feel remote, the filmmakers do a lot with what must have been very little, and they ended up making a film that is actually quite a solid little chiller. Director Frank Q. Dobbs only directed a handful of movies, including the porno The California Connection (1973) a year layer, but he would go onto have a pretty decent career producing a string of popular TV Westerns and min-series in the 90's and aughts, he obviously had a love for Westerns and desert landscapes, and it really shows in this regional rarity. Leading man David Cass offers up some macho charm, an easy going guy who is rugged but not an asshole, a very likable guy. Then we have ranch runner Glenn played by Josh Bryant, who seems like a straight-shooter, striking up a relationship with the lady doc played by looker Irene Kelly, so we get a little bit of romance, some violence, suspense and cult-ish activity, it's  film that offers a little bit of everything for fans of 70's horror.      

Audio/Video: Enter The Devil (1972) arrives on Blu-ray/DVD Combo from Massacre Video in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen,
restored from a recently discovered inter-negative of the film. The regional shocker looks like what it is, an obscure and largely forgotten lesser half of a drive-in double feature. The film is blemished with white speckling, dirt and scratches throughout, the grain is cumbersome in the night scenes, and it has that scuzzy bad-film patina connoisseur's of regional cinema love. A word of warning about the DVD half of this combo though, the extras played fine but the movie is jittery throughout with a stuttering play back, not sure what the issue is with that, but it is absolutely unwatchable. The Blu-ray played just fine without issue though, but if you're DVD-only this is a very serious issue with this release.

This release comes with a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track with optional English subtitles. There's a bit of hiss present on the track, and dialogue is little boxy, but all things considered not too bad, the score from Sam Douglas is pretty nifty too.

Onto the extras we get a new interview with star David S. Cass Sr., who originally hails from right here in Tucson, Arizona, where he started his career as a gunfighter in the streets of Old Tucson before catching the eye of John Wayne while he was filming Mclintock! (1963), then moving to Hollywood, trying to get gigs on his own before reaching out to Wayne who got him a role in film on the long-running TV western Gunsmoke. He also speaks about meeting director Frank Q. Dobbs, his career working with him, and co-writing and making Enter The Devil. He also touches on  writing Dobb's porn film California Connection (a.k.a. The Erotic Adventures of Peter Galore), which is also featured as an extra on this release. The porno is presented full frame, looking to be a greasy looking PAL VHS rip, but it's a cool extra, Cass makes sure to note that he's never seen the film. The porno is exclusive to the Blu-ray disc, it is not featured on the DVD. 

Massacre have also included a clip from the Video Nasty doc Video Nasties The Definitive Guide: Part 2 with critic/author Kim Newman discussing the region terror and how misguided it was that the film was ever classified as a video nasty, it''s always a treat to hear Newman conversate about these obscure horror films. Extras are buttoned-up with an image gallery of still of publicity photos, a trailer for the film, and a pair of Massacre Video trailers.

The 2-disc release comes housed in a clear 2-tray Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork that features a scene from the film on the reverse side. It's not reversible, but Massacre Video also offer up a slipcase with the Limited Collector's Edition version with an alternate artwork option. The DVD and Blu-ray discs inside feature both artwork options. It's a very fine looking presentation, the slip is not rigid but it's not chintzy either, a very handsome presentation from Massacre Video. 

Special Features:
- Limited Edition Slipcover
- 2k Master from original 35mm Inter-negative element
- Sizzling Bonus Feature: Frank Q. Dobbs' California Connection (a.k.a. The Erotic Adventures of Peter Galore)(86 min) 
- Video Nasty Scholar, Kim Newman talks Enter The Devil(5 min) 
- Disciple of Death - An Interview with David Cass (12 min) 
- Extensive Still Gallery (2 min) 
- Enter The Devil Trailer (2 min) 
- Massacre Video Trailers: Dead American Woman (4 min), American Rampage (2 min)

Enter The Devil (1972) is a regional rarity that is worth a watch, it might be strapped for cash but it's not starving for ideas or entertainment value, a solid 70's devil-cult shocker. This 2-disc release from Massacre Video is very handsome, it's a shame that the DVD version of the film is unwatchable, but the Blu-ray is wonderful.