BEYOND DARKNESS (1990) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

BEYOND DARKNESS (1990)

Label: Severin Films 

Rating: Unrated

Region: A

Duration: 93 Minutes

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

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)

Director: Claudio Fragasso

Cast: Theresa F. Walker, Michael Stephenson, Gene Lebrock, David Brandon, Barbara Bingham

Beyond Darkness (1990), not to be confused with Beyond The Darkness aka  Buio Omega, was released in Italy as La Casa 5 and comes to us from co-writer/director Claudio Fragasso and co-writer Rossella Drudi, the team-up that brought to us the deliciously awful Troll 2. It starts off with priest Father George (David Brandon, Stage Fright) administering last rites to an unrepentant child murderess named Bette (Mary Coulson, Door Into Silence) at a prison. As she is executed in the electric chair the priest envisions the spirits of the children she murdered surrounding her, and afterward his faith is so shaken by the experience that he hits the bottle hard and leaves the priesthood altogether. 

A year later we zero in on another priest, Father Peter (Gene Lebrock, Metamorphosis), who is moving into a new home in Louisiana where he has been assigned to replace Father George. Joining him are his wife Annie (Barbara Bingham, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan), their freckle-faced son Martin (Michael Stephenson, Troll 2) and young daughter Carol (Theresa Walker). It turns out the house has a evil history, aside from being the house from Lucio Fulci's The Beyond it was apparently built on land where witches were burned at the stake centuries ago. which as you might imagine does come into play. 

In the kid's room there's a creepy black swan rocking toy, one which rocks itself in the dark of night, so you know evil is afoot right from the get-go! It soon becomes apparent that the house is being haunted by a gaggle of undead witches draped in black veils that are out to get the children, pulling them into an evil alternate dimension which first appears as a bright light emanating from a hole in the wall. At this point it might be worth mentioning that this is quasi-sequel to both Ghosthouse (1988) aka La Casa 3 and Witchery (1988) aka La Casa 4, all of which are part of the unofficial La Casa series, which were unofficial sequels to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies which were retitled La Casa and La Casa 2 in Italy. They're not really connected and they are certainly not sequels to the Evil Dead films, but those Italians do love a good cash-in, don't they? 

Eventually the evil forces come after the kiddos, somehow the demonic witch ghost of the child-murderess figures into it too; possessing the freckle-faced boy, and the new priest ends up teaming with the previous priest from the start of the film to exorcise the demonic evil and save the boy. We get elements of Poltergeist and The Exorcist tossed into it, creating an over long mish-mash of euro-cult weirdness that is somehow both batshit and boring in the same breath. The flick is no great shakes bit for what it's worth I did enjoy it a bit more this time than last I saw it. This is the sort of flick that would be improved by having a roomful of friends with witty quips at the ready and plenty of alcohol on hand to get the most out of it. While there are some fleeting moments of creepy imagery and haunting atmosphere they are few and far between and not nearly enough to give this a general recommend. However, if you're on an Italian horror jag and get a kick out of the batshit late-80's, early 90's Italian horror you could do a lot worse. 

Audio/Video: Beyond Darkness was previously issued on a double-feature Blu-ray from Scream Factory with Metamorphosis. That HD transfer that was pretty soft looking with and muted colors, plus it was digitally scrubbed of grain for the most part. Unfortunately it looks like Severin are using the same Filmirage licensed scan, presented in 1080p HD framed in 1.66:1 widescreen with the same inherent issues. It's still watchable, just not optimal, this is an ugly film with diffuse cinematography steeped in fog machine and blasted white light atmosphere, it's was never gonna look pretty. 

Audio comes by way of Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono or English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. I preferred the English track, it doesn't have much depth or exceptional fidelity but it does the job, and the synth score by Carlo Maria Cordio (Aenigma) sounds cheesily good. 

Severin at least offer new extras; we get three new interviews: the 37-min Beyond Possession: Interview With Director/Co-Writer Claudio Fragasso, the 22-min The Devil In Mrs. Drudi: Interview With Co-Writer Rossella Drudi, and the 29-min Sign Of The Cross: Interview With Actor David Brandon. There's also a 2-minute Trailer for the film, plus a CD Soundtrack for the Carlo Maria Cordio score, which I appreciated. 

The interviews are pretty great, with Brandon recalling filming in New Orleans, which he says is one of his favorite cities in all the world. Also getting into his experiences making the film, sitting in the electric chair, his relationship with the the kids in the film, the strange vibes of the house, and they heavy use of smoke machines, and his preference for vomiting blood and not foam. Fragasso talks about the history of the La Casa series, his love of New Orleans and it's culture, hos thoughts on the paranormal, and some strange encounters he has had himself, how great the young actress Theresa Walker was, and what a disaster the American FX crew were, the film's success and his alter-ego Clyde Anderson. Co-Writer Rossella Drudi speaks about her Catholic upbringing, her love of demonology and the occult, her style of research for scripts, and a fun story about how her friend's attributed some incidents to the evil-power of the script, her love of New Orleans, and homages she peppered into the script, and how focused Fragasso was during the making of the film. The interviews are far and away more interesting that the movie itself, so if you're an extras junky this is worth the upgrade in my humble opinion, plus you get the CD soundtrack which I don't think has ever had an official release before. 

The 2-disc BD/CD release arrives in a black dual-hub keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring a brilliant illustration by the late Enzo Sciotti - the man was a horror poster legend and turned many a trash film into movie poster gold. Inside there's a 4-page insert booklet with writing on the film and a track listing for the 17-song CD soundtrack. 

Special Features:

- Beyond Possession: Interview With Director/Co-Writer Claudio Fragasso (37 min)

- The Devil In Mrs. Drudi: Interview With Co-Writer Rossella Drudi (22 min)

- Sign Of The Cross: Interview With Actor David Brandon (29 min) 

- Trailer (1 min) 

- Bonus: CD Soundtrack (17 Songs, 44 Minutes) 

Beyond Darkness (1990) is a bit of a early-90's Italian turd, but if you have an affinity for Italian horror trash it's got some cheesy charms, and I appreciate Severin Films for upgrading it with some solid extras and the CD soundtrack. 

Screenshots from the Severin Blu-ray: 

Extras: 

DEADLY FRIEND (1986) (Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review)

DEADLY FRIEND (1986)

Collector's Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Scream Factory 

Region Code: A 

Rating: R

Duration: 90 Minutes 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Wes Craven

Cast: Matthew Labyorteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett, Anne Twomey, Richard Marcus, Russ Marin, Jim Ishida, Lee Paul 

Wes Craven (Last House on the Left), had made some outstanding terror films, but he was a prolific director but not everything he made was on par with A Nightmare On Elm Street or Scream, and Deadly Friend is one of those lesser entries that you will find peppered throughout his filmography. That's not to say I don't love Deadly Friend though, because like so many other "bad" movies I saw when I young it has that certain magical junk food cinema quality that makes it rewatchable, and thanks to it appearing on cable TV quite a lot in the late-80s early-90s that's exactly what I did, I watched it a ton. 

To me this has always felt like a TV movie, it feels sort of cheap and stilted, the acting is spotty, and the special effects are not up to snuff, particularly when you think about this coming directly off the huge success of ANOES -  though that Anne Ramsey exploding head gag is a highlight for sure - that's the one thing people always remember about it, 'thats the one with the Goonies lady's head exploding exploding, right?'

At it's heart this is a science gone wrongcaitionary tale along the lines of Bride of Frankenstein with teenage genius Paul Conway (Matthew Laborteaux,  Albert from Little House on the Prairie) as the young Dr. Frankenstein of the story. Paul, who has just moved along with his single mom Jeannie (Anne Twomey, Last Rites) into ta new house in a new town, where the teen prodigy has accepted a student-teaching position at the local college under Prof. Dr. Johanson (Russ Marin, The Dark). He makes fast friends with neighborhood paperboy Tom Toomey (Michael Sharrett, Savage Dawn) and his next door neighbor, Samantha Pringle (Kristy Swanson, Ferris Bueller's Day Off). Samantha's abusive alcoholic father Harry (Richard Marcus, The Being), who it is hinted at is also sexually abusing her, keeps her on a short leash, but there are sparks from the start between her and Paul, much to her father's dismay. . 

The teen-genius has built a robot named BB (voiced by Charles Fleischer, A Nightmare on Elm Street), which occasionally misbehaves and goes against it's programming, foreshadowing things to come later in the film. The clunky looking robot attracts plenty of attention, both good and bad, with the bad coming by way of a gang of dirt bike riding hooligans and paranoid old lady with a shotgun named Elvira Parker (Anne Ramsey, The Goonies) who loathes trespassers onto her property. Later a Halloween prank on old Elvira goes wrong ending with BB being shotgunned to death. Paul is devastated by it, and it gets worse when Samantha's abusive father shoves her down a flight of stairs resulting in her "accidental" death. Paul in a moment of deep grief steals Samantha's corpse from the morgue and crams BB's CPU into Samantha's  cranium, which mad science re-animates her, which of course leads to monstrous unintended consequences, with the BB/Samantha hybrid exacting it's revenge on those who did it/her wrong. I also love that all they did to mark her transformation is to slap some blue eyeshadow around he eyes, light her a bit more moodily, and have her do a few corny robotic gestures! 

Craven's film plays things a bit too straight, but the logic is a silly and the science of it all is about as believable as what we saw in Weird Science. Not helping is a wildly shifting tone and an internal logic that is kid-friendly to be kind about it, and it's pretty fucking stupid to be a bit more unkind. It's always felt like a TV movie to me, maybe because I only saw it on TV only for so many years, but it's full of storytelling short cuts and leaps in logic and feels very kid oriented, but then you have murders mixed into it. While it's a hot mess all the way around I do have a bit of a fondness for it that has be coming back to it every few years. 

The acting is very stiff and weird, with Swanson's character having these bizarre robotic motions uses her hands like their robotic clamps, it's so dang goofy, and there's a totally cringe moments when Paul and Tom have a brief exchange about the quality of Samantha's tits that always catches me off-guard, it's so out of place in this movie. It's so weird in fact I could easily be convinced that it's why neither actor appears in the extras, they're probably still ashamed! That said I do like the three teen character together onscreen, they're having fun with it, but it's just not a good movie, not even in an 80's weird sort of way. 

Having grown up watching Little House on the Prairie I lived that a few of the kids from the series went onto do some horror flicks. Aside from Matthew Labyorteaux doing this dud we had Melissa Sue Anderson in Happy Birthday to Me, a superior film for sure, and I love to imagine that Michael Landin was disappointed in them, though he himself starred in I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957).

Audio/Video:  Deadly Friend (1986) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a brand new 2K scan from the interpositive. The grain is nicely resolved for the most part, looking rough in spots, and  colors look accurate and well-saturated. Some of the black levels are not as deep as they could be but I think a lot of this goes back to the original cinematography by Philip H. Lathrop (Class Reunion) who mostly worked on TV productions at this time, which might explain the workman like look of the production. 

Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. The mix is fine, nothing of note, with well-balanced dialogue and score. 

Onto extras, we start off with Hey Sam, Nice Shot – an interview with actress Kristy Swanson, for 9-minutes she discusses her time making the film, including the audition and how the script changed during filming, changing the name from Friend to Deadly Friend and making it more horror than originally intended. She tears up a little bit while remembering Craven who she describes as lovely, incredible and wickedly funny. She also gets into her character and how she could understand the character, working with a mime to do the mechanical robot movements, and acting alongside  Labyorteaux and Anne Ramsey, and reshooting Ramsey's iconic death scene, recalling that the special effects guts stuffed the exploding head with cow brains. She even shows off her head cast that they made for the final shot in the film.

The 8-minute Written in Blood – an interview with screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin who talks about getting the call to adapt the Friend novel, obe of his first gigs in Hollywood, and how he was originally gonna turn it down but he received a message from beyond from his late meditation teacher encouraging him to do it. He also talks about what a great guy Craven was and the original script versus the finished film, and how the studio demanded more violence's after a so-so test screening, then demanded they cut it back after seeing it again, to which he says Craven replied that "every frame that we cut is another million dollars lost at the box office". 

The 5-min Robots, Ramsey and Revenge – an interview with special makeup effects artist Lance Anderson who talks about the special effects in the film, stating up from there were only about two gags in the film, and how he thought the robot sucked, it was too silly looking. He gets into how they achieved the shocker ending nightmare scene and the Anne Ramsey and what they stuffed the exploding head with, which he says were pig parts which went all over the place and stunk up the set.

The last of the new interviews is the 8-min Samantha’s Symphony – an interview with composer Charles Bernstein who has collaborated with Craven on several films beginning with A Nightmare on Elm Street, with Deadly Friend being their second team-up. He gets into his process and creating the themes, blending acoustic and electronic to strike a balance between the human elements and the robotic, and addressing the crazy ending at the morgue and the end title credits song he created for it. 

The disc is buttoned-up with 5-minutes of Trailers in English, Spanish and German, some of which have a nice grindhouse feel to them, plus two minutes worth of TV spots. 

The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster and a new illustration from artist Colin Murdoch, which is also featured on the first-run limited edition slipcover. 

Special Features:

- NEW! 2K scan of the interpositive

- NEW! Hey Sam, Nice Shot – an interview with actress Kristy Swanson (9 min) 

- NEW! Written in Blood – an interview with screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (8  min) 

- NEW! Robots, Ramsey and Revenge – an interview with special makeup effects artist Lance Anderson (5 min) 

- NEW! Samantha’s Symphony – an interview with composer Charles Bernstein (8 min) 

- Theatrical Trailer (in English, Spanish and German) (5 min) 

- TV Spots (1 min) 

Deadly Friend (1986) may not be the best of Craven's 80s horror output, but I love it a bunch and find myself revisiting it every couple of years. There's some interesting ideas onscreen, but none of it is particularly fleshed out and it feels a bit slipshod in it's execution, but its got an 80s charm that still hits me in the sweet spot. Kudos to Scream Factory for bringing this to Blu-ray with some cool extras that will appeal to fans of it, if you're a fan this is worth the HD upgrade. 

Screenshots from the Scream Factory Blu-ray: 

Extras: