LASERBLAST (1978) (Full Moon Blu-ray Review)

LASERBLAST (1978)

Label: Full Moon Features

Region Code: A

Duration: 82 Minutes 

Rating: Unrated

Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono 2.0, Surround 5.1

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen 

Director: Michael Rae

Cast: Cheryl Smith, Roddy McDowall, Kim Milford, Gianni Russo, Keenan Wynn, Eddie Deezen 

Laserblast opens with a green-skinned alien wandering the Southern Californian desert when two stop-motion aliens arrive in a space craft, they disintegrate the green-skinned alien after an exchange of laser-fire but are scared off by an approaching Cessna airplane before they can recover the weapon and and accompanying amulet. 

From here we follow the exploits of teen-loner Billy Duncan (Kim Milford, Corvette Summer), hopping in his sweet 70's van to visit his girlfriend Kathy (Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith, Massacre at Central High), but instead he is hassled by the girls deranged grandfather Colonel Farley (Keenan Wynn, Piranha) and doesn't end up seeing her. As we continue to follow Billy we see he is not well liked, and is hassled by bullies Chuck and Froggy, the latter of whom is played by eternal-dweeb Eddie Deezen (1941), he makes for quite the nasally and nerd-afflicted bully, which is hilarious. Billy is also hassled by two local keystone stoner-cops who issue him a speeding ticket. 

Later while wandering alone if the desert Billy discovers the laser gun and amulet left behind by the aliens, and figures out how to use them in combination with one another - blasting desert scrub brush for fun. With the discovery of the weapon and amulet Billy begins to change, from a somewhat typical brooding-teen with a chip on his shoulder he becomes more resentful and vengeful, the weapon/amulet combo seems to have an adverse effect on his personality, heightening his sense of alienation and propensity for violence.

It also has some physical side effects, where the amulet touches his chest begins to show signs of a strange growth, his concerned girlfriend makes him see the local doc, played by a clearly slumming-it Roddy McDowall (Fright Night) who is there and gone before you know it, a victim of the alien-influence on the murderous teen. He continues to turn green and his teeth sharpen, he seems possessed by the weapon. 

From space the aliens observe Billy and what he's up to, making him the target of a pair of aliens who return to earth to recover the laser gun, but the now deformed and menacing Billy is running around town like a feral Tusken Raider blasting mailboxes, newsstands, pinball games, telephone booths and cars, which is a lot of fun, with loads of fiery car and stuff exploding real nice, they even blow-up a billboard advertising the original Star Wars (1977). 

The main draw for me to this schlock-cinema classic is the vintage stop-motion animation from David Allen, which was hist first job working for Charles Band. The aliens are rough looking but I love the vintage look of the stop-motion creatures, sort of looking like elongated turds with eyes and laser guns, but it has a certain 70's drive-in charm. I also loved the small turns from Keenan Wynn and Roddy McDowall, these guys always class up a picture. There's also a fun electronic score from Richard Band (Re-Animator) alongside Joel Goldsmith (The Man with Two Brains) — son of legendary score-composer Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen), which was the first movie score for both these guys. 

The film is awful but it is a fun watch, there's a reason it was lampooned by the MST3K crew, if you love 70's drive-in schlock there's a lot to love with this slice of Charles Band produced science fiction, but the acting from Kim Milford, who lurches around like a green-skinned, laser-equipped orangutan for the final third of the movie before being done-in by the aliens with a deadly pink laser blast!  On a side not, based on the original poster art, which is used for this Blu-ray release, I always thought that Klaus Kinski starred in it, the rendering of Kim Milford looks a lot like the wild-eyed Kinski.   

Audio/Video: Laserblast (1978) arrives on Blu-ray from Full Moon with a new HD scan from the 35mm answer print and it looks surprisingly good. Grain is a bit chunky at times and there's some white speckling, dirt and minor print damage but the image is decently bright and satisfying. Fine detail is less than stellar, but the colors are decently vibrant with some reds and blues popping nicely, but overall this is not a vibrant movie, lots of earth tones, but decently rendered for Blu-ray. Audio on the disc includes the usual Full Moon lossy-audio,  with both English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono and 5.1 surround options - there are no subtitles provided. The sound is decently mixed, canned sound effects, dialogue and the Goldsmith/Band score sounds good, not super crisp, but well-balanced and clean sounding. 

This release includes a brand new audio commentary by Director Charles Band and his brother Composer Richard Band. The track is fun and laid back, as are most Band commentaries. The recalling mostly what's happening on screen, working with the cast, poking fun at the movie and generally having a good time. It's not very scholarly or well-informed Band could barely recall Kim Milford's name, but it like the movie has a charm, at one pint Richard begins speaking about "bush gardens" in regard to 70's pubic hair, as Charlie feigns embarrassment, which is about par for the course on this track. 

There's also a selection of vintage trailers, including Cinderella, Crash, The Day Time Ended, End of the World, Fairytales, Mansion of the Doomed, and Tourist Trap, however, notably Cinderella and Tourist Trap would not play when selected, which is probably a disc authoring issue. 

Special Features:
- Brand New Audio Commentary by Charles and Richard Band
- Vintage Trailers: Cinderella, Crash (4 min), The Day Time Ended (1 min), End of the World (1 min), Fairytales (2 min) HD, Mansion of the Doomed (2 min), Tourist Trap 

I am loving these vintage Charles Band produced movies coming to Blu-ray, they're not all great, but seeing these VHS era cult-classics getting the HD treatment brings on the nostalgia in a big bad way, we get aliens, lasers, stop-motion, mutations and Roddy McDowall and Keenan Wynn for the win! 
 
 

CLASS OF 1984 (1982)

CLASS OF 1984 (1982) 

Label: Scream Factory 

Release Date: April 14th 2015 
Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 98 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0, DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Mark Lester

Cast: Merrie Lynn Ross, Roddy McDowall, Michael J. Fox, Lisa Langlois, Perry King, Timothy Van Patten, Stefan Arngrim, Erin Noble, Neil Clifford, Keith Knight 

The '80s cult-classic Classic of 1984 (1982) scared me beyond belief in the early 80's, the nihilistic vision of urban decay and violence in the classroom were the stuff of nightmares for me. I was only in middle school at the time this is exactly what I imagined would be waiting for in high school, though it turned out that this could not have been further removed from my own experience, but that little fact didn't prevent me from stressing out about it. This was a very affecting film for me and I probably caught it at just the right time for it to have the most most complete affect on me. 

In the film Andrew Norris (Perry King, Big Love) is the new music teacher at inner-city high school Lincoln High. The school overrun with unruly youth, drugs and violence. Peter Stegman (Timothy Van Patten, Catacombs) is the charismatic leader of a group of punkers comprised of Drugstore (Stefan Arngrim, Fear No Evil), Barnyard (Keith Knight, Meat Balls), Fallon (Neil Clifford) and the lone female of the group Patsy (Lisa Langlois, Deadly Eyes), the latter of whom is a true vision of punk girl naughtiness, a very bad girl with shocks of pink hair and an awesome '80s punk aesthetic. 

Walking into this urban jungle of a school nice guy teacher Norris is taken aback by the unruly and violent students who show not one ounce of respect for the teaching staff. On his first day he befriends science teacher Terry Corrigan played my genre veteran Roddy McDowall (Fright Night), after years of abuse Terry has given up any hope of  getting through to the students but the idealistic Norris refuses to give up, does his level best to develop meaningful teacher-student relationships. Peter and his crew prove to be quite a menace for both the teacher and for his star pupils, particularly band students Arthur (a very early Michael J. Fox) and Deneen (Erin Noble). Arthur's best friend scores drugs from the gang which leads to him falling to his death from atop a flagpole, an event which sets in motion an escalating series of altercations ending with a murderous finale during an orchestra performance at school. 

Perry King turns is a solid performance as the good natured teacher who is pushed to the edge by the violent punkers who brutally rape his wife before kidnapping her. After which Norris flips the switch and becomes a serious revenge seeking badass, setting punks on fire and sawing  off limbs in the woodshop, brutal stuff and way darker than I had remembered it to be. There is one scene that always make me laugh a little, when punker Patsy taunts Norris in the hallway and squeezes her titty in a mocking gesture, a quirky scene that has just stuck with me through the years. 

Norris is not the only teacher pushed to the breaking point by the gang, Roddy McDowell goes off the deep end when the punks break into his lab and kill his rabbits, after which he cracks and holds his classroom at gunpoint before attempting to run the thugs down with his car, which doesn't end so well for him, the vile punkers gather round the ensuing inferno and celebrate his death. 

Directed and co-written by Mark L. Lester (Commando), Class of 1984 has original story and screenplay co-written by Fright Night (1985) writer/director Tom Holland and benefits from a strong cast of characters inhabited by some very good young actors. Notably Timothy Van Patten is fantastic as the charismatic head of the gang, he's definitely one of the great assholes of '80s high school cinema. 

The movie features a decent rock tinged score from composer Lalo Schifrin (THX-1138) and the song "I Am the Future", a fairly awful synth tune performed by classic rocker Alice Cooper from his nuwave Zipper Catches Skin album. There is some redemption as we do get a live performance clip from he Canadian punk rock group Teenage Head during which we are treated to scenes of teenage punks slam dancing and a snarling punk chic baring her titties for the band.

Audio/Video: The nihilistic Class of 1984 debut on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer framed in widescreen (1.78:1) with a pleasing amount of natural film grain allowing for some damn decent fine detail and some clarity, quite a nice upgrade from the Anchor Bay DVD, it definitely benefits from the new HD transfer afforded it. Color saturation is strong an natural looking, the school looks plenty run down and gritty as it should. The black levels are deep and inky and skin tones look authentic without any ruddiness. 

The disc comes with the option to watch with English DTS-HD MA 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles. Not surprisingly the surround mix is pretty front-centric with discreet effects and the Lalo Schifrin score providing some additional ambiance through the surround. 

Onto the extras we begin with the Blood And Blackboards Featurette ported over from the Anchor Bay DVD as is the audio commentary with director Mark Lester and Anchor Bay DVD Producer Perry Martin. Scream have stuffed this one with over an hour of new interviews with Director Mark Lester, Composer Lalo Schifrin, Actors Lisa Langlois And Erin Noble and an expansive forty-seven minute career retrospective with star Perry King who speaks about lessons learned from his father and the various directors and actors he's had the privilege to work with through the years, plus condemning a TV Guide reporter who once wrote an article that portrayed him as being ashamed of playing a gay character in a film before going on to discuss his turn in the TV series Riptide. 

The still very cute Lisa Langois speaks of wanting to be cast against type as the fatalistic punk rock chic and of being nearly beat down by the extras at the punk show. Unfortunately the Erin Noble interview is marred by some inferior audio making it sound boxy and clippy. Leading man Perry King covers most if not all of his films including is turn on the '80s TV series Riptide of which I was a huge fan as a kid.  

The disc extras are capped off the original trailer, a few TV spots and a still gallery featuring promotional still, poster art and VHS covers. As with all the Scream Factory Collector Edition Blu-rays this one comes with a slipcase with new artwork by graphic designer Justin Osbourne, which is also features on the sleeve of reversible artwork.

Special Features
- NEW High-Definition Transfer Of The Film From The Interpositive
- NEW The Girl Next Door - Interviews with Actors Lisa Langlois And Erin Noble (16 Mins) 
- NEW History Repeats Itself - Interviews with Director Mark Lester and Composer Lalo Schifrin (21 Mins)
- NEW Do What You Love Career Retrospective Interview With Perry King (47 Mins)
- Audio Commentary With Mark Lester and Perry Martin
- Blood And Blackboards Featurette – Featuring Interviews With Director Mark Lester, - Actors Perry King And Merrie Lynn Ross (36 Mins)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins)
- TV Spots(1 Mins)
- Still Gallery (56 Images) 

Class of 1984 (1982) manages to hold-up surprisingly well after thirty plus years, and it  actually turned out to be a somewhat prophetic vision of classroom violence and urban decay that is not too far removed from the sad reality nowadays. A classic slice of '80s violent classroom cinema and the Scream Factory Blu-ray gets a gold star for offering up brand-new hi-def transfer with a wealth of satisfying new extras, a high recommend for both fans and newcomers. 

THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973)

THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code; A

Rating: PG

Duration: 95 Minutes

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: John Hough

Cast: Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicut

The Legend of Hell House (1973) is one  film I caught on TV during one of those chiller matinee double features that were so awesome.  Watching it when I was just a kid it put a serious fright into me and it's stuck with me for a while. In it we have the infamous Belasco House, a spooky Victorian era mansion originally owned by the very wealthy Emeric Belasco, whom as it turns out was notorious for his unsavory proclivities and depraved orgies. For decades the sprawling mansion has sat vacant - having been sealed up by the Belasco family - following the murder of twenty-seven people found massacred there after attending one of the wild parties. While suspected of the murders the reclusive millionaire mysteriously disappeared without a trace and is presumed dead.

At the story begins the mansion has been sold to an eccentric millionaire named Mr. Deutsch (Roland Culver) who recruits physicist Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) to go the home and find proof of life after death - old man Deutsch looks like he;s on Death's doorstep so he probably wants to know what lies on the others side. The creepy mansion has garnered quite a reputation as "the Mount Everest of haunted houses" and is said to be inhabited by the tortured souls who fell prey to Belasco's demented desires. 

The arrogant Barret is a scientist and a skeptic, also assigned to the investigation are a physical medium named Ben Fischer (Rodddy McDowall, Fright Night) whom has the distinction of being the sole survivor or a previous investigation of the home which claimed eight lives. Fischer is only there for a paycheck - and refuses to open himself up to the influence of the home. The other investigator is the spiritualist Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) who is completely willing to open herself up to the spirits within - more so than you may think. Also along for the ride is Barrett's repressed wife Anne (Gayle Hunnicut).  Anne's only supernatural ability seems to be an unearthly beauty, Gayle Hunnicut is most certainly an attractive woman, no doubt about it. 


Barret being of the scientific persuasion and a skeptic does not believe in the supernatural and attributes the strange goings on at the house as merely unfocused electromagnetic energy which creates a but of believer vs skeptic tension in the group. Fischer having only having just survived his last encounter at the mansion warns bot Barret and Tanner that they are hopelessly outmatched by the evil in the home. 

Right from the start you get the standard haunted house tropes beginning with fog shrouded exteriors of the home and then straight into slamming doors, ghostly voices, creepy black cats, moving furniture and a fun scene of ectoplasm manifesting during one of the psychic's seances. As the investigations gets under way proper a malevolent supernatural attacks Barret during a great dinner scene complete with levitating tables and flying silverware.

There's no shortage of standard haunting elements but something new to the mix are the strange erotic scenes that pop-up from time to time. The repressed Anne is plagued by erotic visions and newly awakened sexual urges which awakens her from her nightly slumber in a horny trance, throwing herself at Fischer who shows an impossible amount of self control in refusing her disrobed charms , in fact he slaps her across the face to snap her out of it. A bit later we have Tanner who so desperately wants to free trapped spirits from the mansion that she has consensual sex with an apparition... now that's commitment!

Without spoiling a whole lot more eventually Barret brings in a super computer of his own design which he believes will drain the home of the violent energies, and with that the film kicks into gear building up to a not quite satisfying ending. 

Scripted by Richard Matheson and based on his own novel The Legend of Hell House is a fun supernatural chiller with plenty of atmosphere and tension - it's thick with both. Right from the very beginning we have some excellent exterior shots of the mansion shrouded in a deep layer of fog - it definitely sets the mood. The art direction and cinematography are top notch, the crushed red velvet walls and multi-colored lighting would not be out of place in one of Mario Bava's Gothic masterpieces. 

Not everything completely works, I found the rampant use of time stamping slightly ridiculous, appearing onscreen about every five minutes throughout the entire film, probably meant to create some form of tension but failing miserably. John Hough's direction is pretty tight and

The Legend of Hell House arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a very nice transfer and strong color reproduction and black levels - definitely an upgrade from the standard-def DVD from a few years ago but nowhere near the impressive level of clarity and fine detail you would expect from a new film. The grain structure appears intact without any excessive DNR having been applied to it, the fine detail is surprisingly strong in a few of the scenes. 

The DTS-HD Master Audio Mono does a decent job balancing the dialogue and effects, a very crisp presentation with optional English subtitles. The electronic music score by Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson sounds great, makes me wish for an isolated misc score option. . 

Onto the extras we have a new audio commentary from actress Pamela Franklin which I must say was a bit of a chore to sit through with frequent pauses without commentary, there's an uncredited moderator who could have done more to keep the conversation flowing - a bit of a letdown. 

The interview with director John Hough was quite a treat and made-up for the lackluster commentary. Hough speaks about the mansion used in the film and the influence of Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963). He goes on to speak of his creative process and camera movement, and how certain technical shots and effects were achieved in the film.  The director also talks about working with John Cassavetes on The Incubus (1982) and his life long desire to work for Hammer Films and Disney - both of which he realized with Twins of Evil (1971) for Hammer and a string of Disney films including Escape from Witch Mountain (1975)  and it's sequel plus the eerie The Watcher in the Woods (1980). Hough has made quite a few great films including the wonderful Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974), this is a great interview. 

Special Features:
- New Interview With Director John Hough
- New Audio Commentary With Actress Pamela Franklin
- Theatrical Trailer (2 minutes)
- Photo Gallery (3 minutes)
- Scream Factory Trailers (5 minutes) 
- Radio Spots ( 2 minutes) 

The Legend of Hell House is a fun ghost story with some keen cinematography and a great cast plus  plenty of things that go bump in the night, a damn good old fashioned chiller. Scream Factory have put together a nice package here with desirable picture quality and a handful of  quality extras that make this an easy upgrade from the standard-def DVD.