Blu-ray Review: FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 4 Film Collection

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 

4-Film Collection  Blu-ray (1996-1999)

Label: Echo Bridge Entertainment
Rated: R
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1/1.78:1)
Audio: English 5.1 DTS and English 2.0 Stereo
Duration: 290 Minutes
Directors: Robert Rodriguez, Scott Spiegel, P.J. Pesce
Cast: Michael Parks, George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Quentin Tarantino, Cheech Marin, Fred Williamson, Danny Trejo, Salma Hayek, Tom Savini

I am still in San Antonio on an extended training trip for the new job, working 74 hours a week is sort of shitty and what little downtime I do have is off hours leaving me few choices other than to sit on my uncomfortable couch and watch a movie or two - which isn't so bad. This week I was able to sift through the Echo Bridge Entertainment FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 4 Film Collection on Blu-ray featuring the classic original team-up of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez plus the two straight-to-video sequels and the full length documentary FULL TILT BOOGIE.

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996) 

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN has the distinction of being written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez and it's a stone cold vamp classic. The introduction to the film is outstanding as actor Michael Parks (RED STATE) portrays a Texas Ranger who enters a liquor store to quench his thirst and use the crapper. He shoots the shit with the clerk (John Hawkes) for a bit and when the old man heads for the bathroom it's revealed that the clerk and a few young women are being held at gun point by a pair of wanted men - brothers Seth and Richard Gecko played by George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino. The Geckos havejust robbed a bank and are on the run seeking refuge in Mexico at a place called El Rey. En route they kidnap a family of three at a hotel. A priest (Harvey Keitel) whose lost his faith and his two teen children Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu) who are forced to smuggle the brothers across the border in their RV.

Clooney is a straight-up thief while his brother Richard is something a bit more fucked-up - a deranged psychopath and violent rapist. Seth loves his brother but clearly finds his brothers depraved proclivities and taste for blood disturbing - especially when he rapes and kills a middle-aged woman -  it's disturbing stuff. 

Crossing the border into Mexico the Geckos and the kidnapped family end up at the Titty Twister trucker bar, a seedy place full of tough dudes and curvy strippers. Of particular note is a sultry temptress named Satanico Pandemonium as portrayed by Salma Hayek! Unfortunately she never truly disrobes but her erotic snake dance is a sexually charged showstopper of performance, the striptease and the stunner intro make this film for me, this is  fantastic stuff. For more of Hayek stripping check her out in Kevin Smith's DOGMA. 

Amidst the booze and boobs it's revealed that the bar is stuffed to the brim with bloodsucking vampires and our band of misfits must band together with a few other patrons to defeat evil. We have some great cameos from Fred Williamson (HELL UP IN HARLEM), Tom Savini, Danny Trejo (MACHETE) and Greg Nicotero who stomp major vampire ass, it's hard to forget Savin's crotch-cannon. 

There's a ton of fun practical gore gags here - the blood is pouring off the screen during the final third of the film but I do have some beef with the effects, most of the vampire make-ups and the digital-aided transformation scenes have dated quite poorly. I just wish I had enjoyed the designs more but it's not awful.  A few qualms about the creature design aside this is a top-tier vamp flick with elements of a bad-ass grindhouse cinema, Tarantino's dialogue is pretty sweet and Rodriguez's directing and editing is very sharp. Plus we have some gruesome special effects work from the KNB EFX group - this one is firing on all cylinders from the get-go. 4 Outta 5 


FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999) 

Three years after the original theatrical release Miramax entered the direct-to-video market with a sequel directed by Scott Spiegel (INTRUDER) and starring Robert Patrick (T2: JUDGEMENT DAY) as Buck - an ex con who puts together a group for a new heist - they're out for money but what the end up with is a battle against undead bloodsuckers. I love me some Robert Patrick but he cannot save this one - it's a bit by the numbers and uninspired - plus it looks pretty damn cheap and lacks the boobs, blood and script of the original. What it does have is a few patented Scott Spiegel POV shots which are just crazy - almost every scene features a nutty POV shot from the bottom of a dog bowl, a beer cooler or from the back of a vamp mouth - weirdness - watch Spiegel's slasher entry  INTRUDER (1989) to see more of his weird POV. 

It starts off with brief cameos from Bruce Campbell (EVIL DEAD) it's pretty damn short - even by Campbell cameo standards. The effects are awful - those damn bats are just horrendous. The Titty Twister bar is reborn here to some degree and Danny Trejo returns as Razor Eddie the bartender - but he comes and goes pretty damn quick. 

There's just way too much of this film is spent watching four dudes watching porn in a hotel room and the tits and gore are few and far between. The horror is weak and the heist elements are worse, this an anemic and very unnecessary cash grab. Props to some decent action sequences and neat vampire make-ups but very little else - skip it.  1.5 Outta 5

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER (1999) 


The same year as the first sequel we get a third entry - a prequel which tells the origin story of the vampire princess Satanico Pandemonium from the first film sans Salma Hayek - so right from the start we're at a deficit. What we do have is the return of actor Michael Parks, this time as the American author Ambrose Bierce who is travelling through the West shortly after the American Civil War to join ranks with the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. En route he meets a priest (Lennie Loftin) and his new wife (child-killer Rebecca Gayheart) and the trio's carriage is overtaken by a group of bandits lead by Johnny Madrid. Madrid  (Marco Leonardi) recently escaped the noose and has taken the gorgeous young Esmerelda (Ara Caeli) hostage - she's the daughter of a hangman and her abusive father is on Madrid's trail.

Later that night the travelers, thieves and the hangman's posse all end up at a whorehouse which we discover is a familiar place from the first and second films. Much as with the first film as the groups gather at the whorehouse the bloodsucking shit hits the fan as the sexy undead drain the precious bodily fluids. 

Having Parks back is a plus - he lends a certain gravitas to the film that was lacking from the first sequel. The setting is better, the cast is improved and the writing is a bit richer - while not on par with Tarantino's script it's serviceable. I enjoyed the vampire make-ups here - more so than even the first film but the digital effects are just as awful. 

Sonia Braga (KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN) appears as Quixtla - the madame of the whorehouse and the mother of the half-blood vampire Esmeralda. As Santanico Pandemonium actress Ara Celi is quite a feast for the eye. We have some fun make-up effects, a story that is entertaining and some nice action sequences and set pieces, not nearly the film that the original was but at least it's entertaining which is more than I could say for previous entry. 2.5 Outta 5

FULL-TILT BOOGIE (1997) 

The feature length doc about the making of the first film is a decent watch but it focuses mostly on the non-union crew members and not enough on the writer and director for my tastes, what little screen time we do get with Clooney and Tarantino feel like scripted comedy bits and the soap opera drama of the crew members bored me to tears. 2.5 Outta 5 

Blu-ray: The Blu-ray from Echo Bridge features all four films crammed onto a single disc. The original films looks nice in 1080p with strong colors, varying degrees of crispness and a natural layer of films grain. It's not perfect, the HD image varies from scene to scene with some black crush. It also sports an English language DTS-HD Master Audio track with well balanced score, dialogue and effects - there are no subtitle options. The A/V quality of the sequels less pleasing with varying degrees of image softness, black crush and artifacting with  FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY looking the worst - that sequel also features on as DTS-HD 2.0 track. FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER sports a 5.1 mix and a slightly better transfer but it's not great. There are no extras on the disc unless you include the inclusion of the feature length documentary FULL-TILT BOOGIE. 

Verdict: I would have preferred at least a 2-disc set instead of the four titles crammed onto a single Blu-ray but you do get a lot of bang for your buck with this one. FROM DUSK TILL DOWN looks and sounds quite nice in 1080p - all the other titles fare considerably less. If you love the first film I recommend buying the stand alone Blu-ray but for the more adventurous types and completest why just snag the whole set. The first sequel is pretty awful but there's some fun to be had with the prequel - for a few bucks there's a lot of value here if not a ton of entertainment but there's no denying what a great film the original is. 3 Outta 5  

Blu-ray Review: FORTRESS (1992)

FORTRESS (992)

Label: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment

Rating: R

Region Code: Region FREE

Duration: 95 Minutes

Video: Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 

Cast: Christopher Lambert, Kurtwood Smith, Loryn Locklin, Lincoln Kilpatrick
Director: Stuart Gordon

Stuart Gordon's lo-fi sci-fi actioner Fortress (1992) offers up some early 90's Dystopian future fun, a very basic film with a minimalist storyline featuring Christopher Lambert (Highlander) as ex-war hero John Henry Brennick whom along with his wife Karen (Loryn Locklin) are sent to a hi-tech maximum security prison called The Fortress buried underneath the burning sands of the dessert. Their crime? Attempting to flee to Canada to have a second child, their first having died during childbirth, which hardly seems offensive but whatya gonna do, that's what happen in one of these dystopian future films, right, big brother's gonna get ya. 

The prison is a privately operated facility operated by the MenTel Corporation and is overseen by Director Poe (Kurtwood Smith, Robocop) and an artificial intelligent piece of software called Zed-10 who keeps watchful eyes on the inmates at all times with 24-7 video monitoring. They can even see your dreams, and if it's something they do not approve of you get "intestinated". What's that you might ask, well the prisoners are implanted with "intestinators" which are small detonators that can cause great pain or even death if you act-up. If you cross the yellow line it means pain, cross the red line and it's death. Early on we get an example as an inmate, having a claustrophobic fit, crosses the line and is detonated, it's splattery piece of grue, fun stuff. Also keeping the peace at the facility are turret drones and Strike Clones, enhanced cyborg combatants which I wish we got to see more of, those were pretty awesome. 

Inside the fortress John befriends several inmates including fidgety newbie Gomez (Clifton Colins Jr, Rules of Attraction), an older inmate approaching parole named Abraham (Lincoln Kilpatrick, The Omega Man) and a tech-savy demolition expert D-Day (Jeffrey Combs, The Frighteners). Also in the picture is a real son-of-a-bitch named Stiggs (Tom Towles, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) and his menacing strong-arm Maddox (Vernon Wells, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior). It's a great cast, everyone brings something to the table here, this low budget actioner is firing on all cylinders when it comes to casting and Lambert might be a little bit out of his depth here, but he does alright for himself. 

John at first believes his wife Karen had escaped capture but comes to find out she too is imprisoned at the Fortress, worse yet, Director Poe has taken a sensual interest in her and threatens a "mind-wipe" of her husband if she does not agree to co-habitate with him. An altercation with Maddox and the resulting punishment, which leaves the other man blown to pieces, enables John to find one of the intestinators amidst the guts strewn on the floor leading to daring and pretty exciting prison escape. 

There's a lot to like here, Gordon does the most with what must have been a tiny budget, the concrete bunker used for the prison set does it's job, it's visually impressive for the time, if not exactly doing a great job of world building outside of the prison walls. I was a bit annoyed that you never really get a feel for the dystopian aspect of what's going on outside in greater society but the story is small scale and does what it does quite well, think of it more a sci-fi prison film than a broader dystopian view.

We definitely need more Stuart Gordon on Blu-ray, in the UK labels like 88 Films are releasing The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) and Castle Freak (1995) on Blu-ray and I was some more Gordon love here in the US! I seem to recall Full Moon planning Blu-ray editions of both sometime in the near future. 

Blu-ray: More films from Stuart Gordon on Blu-ray is always a good thing! We've had recent Blu-rays stuffed with extras from Lionsgate (Re-Animator) and Scream Factory (From Beyond) and now Gordon's sci-fi actioner Fortress gets a Blu-ray from  Echo Bridge Home Entertainment with an MPEG-4 AVC encode in 16:9 widescreen (1.78:1). The print looks quite nice but the A/V is not a huge upgrade from the previous DVD edition, the modest 1080p upgrade does afford it some improved clarity and minor depth. While there is a fine layer of film grain present the fine detail is lacking and colors are muted and rarely pop the way you would hope for. The English language DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 is serviceable with some stereo channel separation but it's not exactly gonna set your surround system on fire by any means, but dialogue, score and effects come through quite adequately. 

Unlike either Re-Animator or From Beyond we get squat for extras, there are no subtitles or special features, it's very bare bones with a very basic start-up menu offering only the option to play the film or select a scene, not even a trailer. My Artisan DVD at least offers a trailer and production notes and cast and crew filmography. 

Verdict: A fun futuristic sci-fi actioner set in a prison, it reminded me of a low rent Total Recall (1990) or Robocop (1987), it definitely had a Verhoeven feel to it at times. Echo Bridge's A/V presentation leaves a bit to be desired but I'm quite pleased to have 1080p widescreen edition of Stuart Gordon's Fortress on Blu-ray. 3 Outta 5 

DVD Review: HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH (1992)

HELLRASIER III: HELL ON EARTH (1992)

LABEL: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
REGION: 1 NTSC
RATING: R
DURATION: 93 mins
VIDEO: Fullframe (.33:1)
AUDIO: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
DIRECTOR: Anthony Hickox
CAST: Terry Farrell, Paula Marshall, Kevin Bernhardt, Doug Bradley
TAGLINE: What began in Hell, will end on Earth.
 

I watched HELLRAISER (1987) a few night backs and was reminded of how much I loved Clive Barker's initial film, it brought me back to seeing it for the first time and being deeply disturbed, it got under my skin and festered for quite some time. Thinking on it again it occurred to me that I've only ever viewed the first two entries in the franchise. Obviously I have great affection for the first, it's a film I've seen projected in 35mm twice and have watched many times since on DVD and Blu-ray. The sequel HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II (1988) is a film I own and enjoy, watched it on DVD about half a dozen times over the years but after that I seemed to have lost interest in the series. Honestly, I'm not even sure how many entries there are in the series, so I was looking forward to finally taking in a viewing of the film some 19 years after the fact.

In the first two films Pinhead (Doug Bradley) was a character that lurked

in the shadows, certainly an important character, but not the focus of the film, particularly in the first entry which was populated with a quite a cast of characters including the delightfully sinister Frank and Julie, and the unfortunate Larry (Andrew Robinson, DIRTY HARRY) plus our protagonist Kirsty (Ashley Laurence, RED). The second film brought back Kirsty now imprisoned in a psychiatric clinic with the evil Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham) who becomes obsessed with the Box and madness ensues. Third time out Pinhead is front and center in a story revolving around a hungry young reporter Joanne (Terry Farrell, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE) who is trying score a news story that will jump start her fledgling career. Is  it just me or does Farrell look an awful lot like Brooke Shields?

While at the hospital Joanne encounters a victim of the Lament Configuration Box, the puzzle box that opens a gateway to the realm of the demonic Cenobites. His flesh is torn, his skin embedded with the hooks on chains that are will be quite familiar to fans of the franchise. Desperate for a story she bursts into the ER just as the chains spring to life with blue shocks of electricity tearing the young man apart in a SCANNERS style explosion right in front of her eyes. Stunned she stumbles from the room and recalls that the unfortunate man had been accompanied by a woman when he entered the ER. Joanne, or "Joey" as she's known, sleuths the whereabouts of the woman to a club called The Boiler Room, a sleazy nightspot owned by JP Munroe (Kevin Bernhardt). The woman in question Terry (Paula Marshall, TV's CALIFORNICATION) is JP's former girlfriend. Aside from being a generally sleazy guy JP is also a collector of disturbing artwork and his latest acquisition is the Pillar of Souls, a relic last seen in at the end of HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II, inside of which the Cenobite Pinhead is imprisoned. After meeting with Terry it is rexplained that Terry's late boyfriend was in possession of the puzzle box which led to his horrific death, she now possesses it.

Joey befriends Terry who gives her the mysterious puzzle Box for safe keeping. Joey discovers a videotaped interview with one of Pinhead's former victims, Kirsty, that she's recovered from the Channard Institute. She is also haunted by nightmares and visions of Pinhead's alter ego Captain Elliot Spitzer who expands on the origins of Pinhead and how it came to be that that his spirit was sent to Limbo while his evil half, Pinhead, survived in the Cenobite realm or some such nonsense. Joanne comes to understand the power of the puzzle box and through Spitzer devises a plan to trap the demon Pinhead in Hell for all eternity.

At the same time Spitzer's alter-self Pinhead has revealed his existence to JP and convinced the him to bring him victims so that he might consume them and free himself of the Pillar of Souls. JP is only too happy to toss him a bimbo following some raunchy sex but Pinhead betrays JP and is once again free to walk the Earth. He waste no time massacring every living soul in The Boiler Room and creating a new army of Cenobites from the transmuted flesh of his victims to assist him in to reclaiming the Box and free himself forever from the Cenobite Realm, which leads to a fiery and explosive finale with perhaps a bit too much slo-mo action.


Pinhead as the main focus of the film seems to me a misstep, he played much better as the dark entity operating within the darkness. Doug Bradley is really hamming it up here and his scenes of him embedded in the Pillar of Souls are pretty corny, as were the new Cenobites; Barbie, Camerahead and The DJ, need I say more? These guys are no Chatterer, that's for sure. The film is heavy with special effects but director Anthony Hockox (WAXWORK, WAXWORK II) just can't polish this turd enough, there was definitely some money thrown into this production so at least it's a shiny turd.

Overall the film strayed too far from the dark pleasures, sex and pain aesthetic of the previous two installments and ventured into more mainstream, later-era A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET territory with a constant stream of dream sequences, and Doug Bradley's eye-rolling one-liners don't help either. It seems as if the film is reaching for a wider audience but it fails on pretty much every level.


Now I will say that on a purely camp level this is pretty fun stuff, I was entertained but the film is most definitely a dud. Not to say it's without its finer points, there are some enjoyable elements. The WWII and 'Nam flashbacks were very well done with some great action shots, the gore is pretty decent, too. We get some fun chains ripping flesh, skinnings, bloody musculature, the head explosion and other on screen practical effects shots though it's obvious cuts were made to the film. Apparently there's an unrated director's cut that includes more gore and a raunchier sex scene that's been released outside the US, so we got screwed on that deal. While the practical effects are cool they are considerably tarnished by some rough (circa '92) digital effects work that's just laughably bad looking back at it now. The film has a decent heavy rock soundtrack featuring Armored Saint (who can be seen performing in the film), Motorhead and industrial rockers KMFDM among others, but the iconic Christopher Young score from the previous films is only glimpsed here, choosing instead to go the rock soundtrack route, wile the soundtrack is cool it's yet another departure that hurts the film. One last cool tidbit occurs at the end when the puzzle box is buried beneath a construction site, years later we are show the building that has sprung up around it and it has taken on the design elements of the puzzle box, very cool.

In conclusion, NOT GOOD, bit it is pretty brainless fun, not good, but entertaining on a level that will please most bad cinema enthusiasts. That said, it's definitely put me off wanting to further investigate the franchise beyond this. HELLRAISER and HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II I'll watch again, this perhaps with some inebriated friends for fun but don't hold me to it.


DVD: Echo Bridge have licensed this film along with many others titles from Miramax films and dumped it with a pretty dismal cropped fullframe transfer, it is quite disappointing to say the least. This was a feature film presented theatrically in widescreen and why in the year 2011 anyone would be releasing fullframe DVD's is just mind- numbing to me. When Miramax licensed HELLRASIER III to Paramount some years back it was released with an anamorphic widescreen transfer and surely it wasn't the greatest looking it was superior in every way to what we have here. Skin tones are tinged red, definition is lacking, it's a murky affair and there are compression and combing issues. I can only assume that Paramount struck their own transfer from the negatives and Miramax can't touch or EB don't wanna pay for it. Sadly, somewhere out t Paramount vault there's a 16x9 widescreen master of this film collecting dust while we get this. One might assume that EB would have access to the original negative elements to the film, and if they'd been so inclined could have struck a new widescreen transfer, but instead chose to dump this rather unimpressive version on us. Insult to injury, there are no special features.

VERDICT: Despite it's flaws and inherent cheese this was a fun watch, it's entertaining in a bad-cinema fromage kinda way but definitely not something I can recommend to the masses without fear of violent reprisal. Still, I would definitely like to see the 16x9 unrated director's cut of the film and I think Echo Bridge really missed an opportunity here, and with many other Miramax licensed titles, that have been dumped onto the market in affordable but otherwise unremarkable editions. That said, the film is available on the cheap for $5 at WalMart and is available as a double feature with HELLRAISER IV or as a four pack collecting III thru VI for a few bucks more.