NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972)

Label: Scream Factory 
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 88 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA  Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: William F. Claxton
Cast: Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley, Paul Fix, Melanie Fullerton, Stuart Whitman

"How many eyes does horror have? How many times will terror strike?" This is what the rabbit-less original one-sheet advertised, with  a family holding off the disembodied eyes peering at them through the darkness with a shovel in hand! Man oh man did the studio go out of their way not to advertise that this was a killer-bunny movie when it came into the cinemas back in '72, for fear of it probably being laughed off the screen no-doubt. That's a fair worry I suppose, the premise is plenty silly on paper (an oftentimes in action), and when I saw it on TV as a kid I thought to myself, "killer bunnies, are you fucking kidding me?"  

That they play it so straight is probably why this one has gone on to have such a cult-following all these years later, it's so earnest it's kitschy, the director and cast are straight-faced, as they confront the threat of giant (dog-sized really, not all that giant) rabbits in the Arizona desert. It opens with rancher, Cole Hillman (Rory Calhoun, Motel Hell) riding his horse on his rural property, when suddenly his horse falls to the ground after breaking it's leg in a rabbit-hole, forcing the rancher to pull out his rifle and put the animal out of it's misery. We learn that Cole's property is lousy with rabbits since all the predators have been killed off, so he seeks the help of college president Elgin Clark (DeForest Kelley, Bones from TV's Star Trek). As a longtime resident of Tucson, Arizona it was a hoot to see DeForest and Calhoun speaking right in front of the historic Old Main building on the University of Arizona campus where I worked for 20-years, though the the most notable film shot at the U of A campus to my reckoning would have to be the 80's classic The Revenge of the Nerds (1984)! 

We are then introduced to scientist couple Roy (Stuart Whitman, Eaten Alive) and Gerry Bennett (played by horror royalty Janet Leigh, The Fog) whom are asked by Elgin to go out to the ranch and see what they can do about this over-population of rabbits, which they do. They take a few of the bunnies back to their lab to run some hormone experiments on them in hopes of curbing the breeding population, but their bratty daughter loves one of the test rabbits and pulls an old switcheroo, resulting in the wrong rabbit being released into the population, which somehow enables the animals to grow to abnormal size seemingly overnight!

The normal sized rabbits were already wreaking havoc on the small Arizona community, so you can imagine that 150 lb. dog-sized rabbits prove to be an even more formidable and fearsome. As the menace grows they slaughter a family of campers and a produce truck driver who stops off on the side the road at the worse possible moment, the bloodletting in this is one is surprisingly ample considering this was an early 70's Eco-horror entry. As the rabbits turn to eating people they do not do so in gory detail, but the aftermath is plenty bloody in a Hammer films Kennsington gore sort of way, check out some of the screen grabs in the review for a few shots of this. Even the rabbits get bloody, being fired upon with rifles through the floorboards by people trapped in the basement after a house is overrun by the unfriendly bunnies! Probably the most disturbing footage is real, the film opens with a montage of newsreel footage about past rabbit explosions in the South West, the footage of people rounding them up and slaughtering the long-eared rodents is kind of harrowing. 

The film was directed by William F. Claxton who gad a long and storied career directing westerns for both the big and small screen, I don't think he did any other horror films, though he did direct a handful of Twilight Zone episodes. This is not a Western but it has the look and feel of one, set in rural Arizona there's a lot of dusty vistas, the cast has a Western look about them, so it's nice to see a 70's eco-horror flick with a unique Western atmosphere, it's a good looking movie. There's also a bit of trippiness to a scene of a young girl witnessing the blood-soaked bunnies in a closed-down mine, transitioning to a nightmare scene and the little girl waking up screaming, it's a nice touch. 

    
While this gets plenty of guffaws based on the admittedly silly sounding premise it's played straight without any winks and nods at the viewer, everyone is so damn serious and it makes it a better film I think. The movie is technically well made, even the special effects are good, the rabbits are real - there's no puppets I could spot - though there are some dead rabbits, but apparently they bought them that way, they didn't kill them, and there's a fun anecdote about that on one of the commentaries! The rabbits are shot on miniature sets and in slow-motion to give them some weight, they do great work here I think, it might be laughable to a degree but I just love this sort of thing, it might not have aged well but if you love old school practical and optical effects there's a lot to love, just look at the detail in those miniature Campbell soups cans and Lipton tea boxes! 

I also give the fun finale a nod of approval, it ingeniously involves electrifying a length of train-track to electrocute the bad bunnies, it's a frenzy of frying bunnies, gunfire and rabbits set on fire with a flame-thrower - though I assume the flaming rabbit used for the scene was a bunny-cadaver, and to that end there's a Humane Society approval that pops up at the end of the film, so there's hope.

Audio/Video: Night of the Lepus (1972) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory through their licensing deal with Warner Brother, with a new 2K scan courtesy of WB, and it looks wonderful. The new scan is rich and finely detailed, grain is nicely ma aged, showing up poor in the under lit scenes but it;s very natural and filmic looking Blu-ray, the hairs of the killer bunnies has loads of details, offering plenty of fine detail and some nice looking depth. Black levels are very nice all around, offering good detail in the darker scenes. 

Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono track with optional English subtitles, the score from Jimmie Haskell (Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry) sound quite nice in the mix, dialogue  is always crisp and clean and never difficult to discern, and the horrifying rabbit sounds and gunfire come through robustly. 

Onto the extras it's nice to see Scream Factory are not just plundering the b-movie vaults at Warner Brothers but also providing new extras for the titles, which is something Warner Archive (whom I love for the fantastic work they do) just aren't able/willing to do for catalog titles, so this is why we love seeing them sub-license these titles to someone like Scream Factory! The main extras are two new commentary tracks, the first from author Lee Gambin (Massacred by Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film) who gives a loving and enthusiastic reading on the film, he has an unabashed love for the film, loves it without shame and pours the love on with lots of info about eco-horror, the cast and crew, the ad campaign and how the film was received. The second track is from Pop Culture historian Russell Dyball, who begins by going into a surprising amount of depth about the newscaster at the start of the film, who was apparently the inspiration for Kent Brockman from TV's The Simpsons among other TV newscasters. The inclusion of two commentaries was pretty great, this is not a film I've watched a lot, or even read about much, so there was a lot if info packed into these two commentaries, and there's not a whole lot of overlap between the two, they're both trivia/anecdote heavy and very enjoyable with great energy. 

The disc is buttoned-up with a trailer, TV spots,radio spot and an image gallery. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with 2-sided sleeve of artwork, the a-side featuring the original one-sheet artwork, featuring the now familiar eye-centric illustration, the b-side is not an artwork option but a scene from the film with text detailing the transfer credits, the disc itself features an excerpt of an alternate poster option.     

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW Audio Commentary with author Lee Gambin (Massacred by Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film)
- NEW Audio Commentary with Pop Culture historian Russell Dyball
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD 
- TV Spot (22 sec) HD 
- Radio Spot (1 mn) HD 
- Still Gallery (5 min) HD 

Night of the Lepus (1972) is a fun b-movie entry with a notable cast, it's way better than a killer-bunny movie has any right to be, so if you haven't checked it out don't pass it up, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised if you're a fan of strange 70's eco-horror. The new 2K transfer looks awesome and the new audio commentaries are a great value-add for those looking to upgrade this killer-rabbit classic.

Screenshots sourced directly from Blu-ray reviewed.

Killer Rabbits! Scream Factory Presents "Night of the Lepus" (1972) in its Blu-ray Debut on June 19th

NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972)

Label: Scream Factory 
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 88 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Stuart Whitman
Cast: Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley, Paul Fix, Melanie Fullerton

Synopsis: How many eyes does horror have? How many times will terror strike? Giant mutant rabbits are on the loose in the campy 70’s cult classic Night Of The Lepus for the first time on Blu-ray on June 19, 2018 from Scream Factory. This release features a new 2K scan of the original film elements and comes complete with new audio commentaries.

There was no limit to the horror ... no end to the Night Of The Lepus! A hormone intended to alter the breeding cycle of rabbits overrunning Arizona ranchlands ends up turning them into flesh-eating, 150-pound monsters in Night of the Lepus.

Stuart Whitman (Eaten Alive), Janet Leigh (Psycho), Rory Calhoun (Motel Hell) and DeForest Kelley (Star Trek) are among the intrepid humans facing off against the behemoth bunnies, using guns, flames, dynamite and anything else in their grasp to battle their oversized, hungry tormentors.

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW Audio Commentary with author Lee Gambin (Massacred by Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film)
- NEW Audio Commentary with Pop Culture historian Russell Dyball
- Theatrical Trailer
- TV Spot
- Radio Spot
- Still Gallery

RUBY (1977) (VCI Blu-ray Review)

RUBY (1977)

Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: A
Duration: 85 Minutes 
Rating: R
Audio: English PCM Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Curtis Harrington 
Cast: Piper Laurie, Stuart Whitman, Roger Davis, Janit Baldwin

Directed by Curtis Harrington (Who Slew Auntie Roo?)drive-in shocker Ruby (1977) opens with a surreal prologue set in the 1930s featuring gangster Nicky (Sal Vecchio) and his pregnant lady friend Ruby Claire (Piper Laurie, Twin Peaks). As the couple prepare for a romantic midnight row on the swamp they're interrupted when Nicky is gunned-down by his criminal associates, who have for reasons unknown turned on him, the dying gangster swears revenge with his dying breath. The scene ends with a shocked Ruby laying on the ground in anguish about to give birth. 

Sixteen years later Ruby has gone legit and is now the proprietor of Ruby's Drive-In movie theater, where she strangely employs several of the men responsible for her lover's death, which sort of puts into question whether she was involved in the murder or not. The drive-in is quite a success, drawing in the masses with horror shockers, the drive-in is currently screening the anachronistic sci-fi feature Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) to the delight of the local kids. 

Weird stuff begins to happen at the drive-in beginning with the apparent suicide of the projectionist Jess (Eddy Donno, Invaders from Mars) who seemingly hangs himself with reels of 35MM film stock, the idea of a drive-in movie about a drive-in wherein someone is hanged with film - that's all sorts of tasty. Ruby tells her right hand man/theater manager Vince (Stuart Whitman, Eaten Alive) to quietly dispose of the body in the nearby swamp and to not report it to the police, she doesn't want the authorities snooping around her place. It becomes hard to deny that some sort of supernatural revenge is happening at the drive-in as employees start dying off in mysterious and gruesome ways, stalked by an unseen force. One character named Barney (Len Lesser, Blood and Lace) ends up a corpse inside a soda machine that dispenses his blood into an unsuspecting customer's cup, which she sips before realizing that ain't no Cherry Coke, now that's just fun stuff.

Ruby's deaf and mute daughter Leslie (Janit Baldwin, Phantom of the Paradise) becomes the focus of attention, she might possibly be possessed by the spirit of her murdered father, out for revenge against those whom were responsible for his death years earlier. To assist in the strange matter Vince calls in a prison psychiatrist who moonlights as paranormal psychologist named Dr. Keller (Roger Davis, TV's Dark Shadows), the priest-like character in this Exorcist rip-off, and things just get weirder from there.

Ruby is not a perfect film by any means, far far from it, but what I loved about it was the great setting at a 50's era drive-in located right next to a swamp, as if mosquitoes at the drive-in weren't bad enough without it being set right on the swamp! The 1950's nostalgia is in full effect, a great period setting at a location that is all but gone from the modern cinema landscape, I miss the drive-in, was sad when our own De Anza drive-in abruptly closed here in Tucson back in 2009. There's some great Southern Gothic atmosphere, particularly the fog saturated swamp scenes at night which are eerie, it's very well shot, but drenched in a bit too much soft focus cinematography, the film is lousy with gauzey visuals, which can both enhance and detract from certain scenes. Some of the special effects are hokey as Hell (eyeballs in a jar!) but I love 'em, at one when it's clear that Young Leslie is possessed we get some fun Exorcist-esque sequences a version of the spider-walk. As victims are attacked by an unseen force a few of the sequences are very nicely executed, such as when Vince is running through the drive-in to escape whatever it is that's attacking him a speaker-box attacks him like tentacled creature, fun 70's drive-in fare, it must have been a blast to watch this at the drive-in for sure!

The film gets a bit pacey in places but doesn't drag too much, except when we're focused on Ruby, who's a wanna-be torch singer, that stuff just brought the movie to a halt. Piper Laurie plays a great crazy bitch though, that's for sure, but these scenes dragged. The ending is a bit wham-bam thank you mam sort of affair complete with a plastic skeleton and a freeze-frame. it's awful. This is not the director's original ending, it having been tinkered with by the producer against Harrington's wishes. Abrupt and silly ending aside Ruby is quite an entertaining drive-in shocker with some campy drive-in atmosphere and a few not-so-subtle nods to Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976) and The Exorcist(1973). 

Audio/Video: Ruby (1977) arrives on Blu-ray from VCI Entertainment framed in the 1.85:1 OAR with a new 2K restoration - originally touted as being from the original negative in online press announcements, but it appears we have a scan from a print. Ruby was never a film that looked good on home video, murky and soft focused, it  has always had a hazy quality about it that did not translate well on DVD and doesn't much improve on Blu-ray, the same comments can be leveled at the new Blu-ray. Unfortunately, at the 21:30 minute mark the image fades to black for about nine seconds, the audio is intact but the image is missing, worsened by the fact that it happens during a death scene. These issues have been acknowledged by Bob Blair of VCI in forums and they are working on a disc replacement program to fix the issue.  The English DTS-HD MA Mono audio sounds good, clean and free of distortion, not overly dynamic or nuanced, but the frenzied, Psycho-esque score from composer Don Ellis (The French Connection) comes through well. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

While the video presentation suffers I can say that VCI have done a fine job with the extras, they carry over the audio commentary from their 2001 DVD featuring Director Curtis Harrington and actress Piper Laurie, plus the hour-long interview with Harrington by David Del Valle which covers all of Harrington's career. New to this release are two half-hour episodes of Del Valle's public access TV show the Sinister Image from '88 featuring director Curtis Harrignton who passed away in 2007, again covering his whole career, plus we get a brand new 2017 audio commentary from Del Valle and Curtis Harrington expert Nate Bell, which is a good listen and covers a lot of the director's career with some good insights into the film. 

This release comes housed in a clear Blu-ray keepcase, the artwork in not reversible but there are liner notes on the inner sleeve from Nate Bell, reading the black type on a red background was an eye-strain to be sure but they are decent and informative liner notes, though I've always preferred a booklet to sleeve-notes. There are 2 discs, a Blu-ray and a standard-def DVD with the same feature and extras, the disc artwork is identical, too. Of note, VCI have debuted a new logo with this release, with the VCI Retro Elite tag.   
Special Features: 
- 2K Film Transfer and Restoration
- 2001 David Del Valle Video Interview with Director, Curtis Harrington (59 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary  with Director Curtis Harrington and actress Piper Laurie
- Sinister Image Episode – David Del Valle Interviews Curtis Harrington- Vol 1 (circa '88)(28 min) HD 
- Sinister Image Episode – David Del Valle Interviews Curtis Harrington- Vol 2 (March 8th 1988)(29 min) HD 
- 2017 Commentary Track with David Del Valle and Curtis Harrington expert Nate Bell
- Liner Notes by Curtis Harrington expert Nate Bell
- Original Theatrical Trailer – Restored HD (2 min) HD 
- Includes a Bonus DVD copy!

Ruby (1977) is a fun 70's slice of supernatural-revenge schlock from the 70s, and while this Blu-ray/DVD combo is an upgrade from previous DVD editions it is marred by missing video and an overall lackluster visual presentation, and what looks to be poor disc authoring. The David Del Valle-centric extras are a great value-add, this is definitely worth the upgrade, but maybe wait until the disc replacement program is up and running.   

EATEN ALIVE (1977) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

EATEN ALIVE (1977) 

Label: Arrow Video 

Release Date: September 21st 2015

Certificate: 18

Duration: 91 Minutes

Region Code: A/B/ 1/2

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Audio: English Uncompressed PCM Mono 1.0 with Optional English SDH Subtitles

Director: Tobe Hooper

Cast: William Finley, Mel Ferrer, Marilyn Burns, Janus Blythe, Carolyn Jones, Neville Brand, Stuart Whitman, Roberta Collins, Kyle Richards, Robert Englund

Eaten Alive (1977) is a very strange movie all the way around, it was Tobe Hooper's follow-up to the seminal shocker The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it centers around the run down Starlight Hotel located somewhere in the rural Louisiana bayou. An unattractive roadside hotel run by a Southern-fried weirdo named Judd (Neville Brand, Without Warning), a grizzled, middle-aged man with a wooden leg who deliriously alternates between a somewhat charming Southern nut and a a completely unhinged scythe-wielding, mumbling murdering menace. 

We have several disparate groups of patrons convening at the Starlight Hotel, beginning with a kind-hearted whore named Clara Wood (Roberta Collins, Caged Heat) who has just been fired from a brothel run by Miss Hattie (Carolyn Jones, from The Munsters!) when she won't give-up the backdoor to a local redneck named Buck. The horny backdoor man is played by future Freddy Kruger star Robert Englund. In the opening scene he's trying for some sweet backdoor action with the classic line, "My name's Buck, I'm raring to fuck", a line Tarantino famously paraphrased in Kill Bill Vol.1.  When she refuses to take in the behind Clara is thrown from the brothel by the madame and finds herself at the Starlight, but when the moralistic Judd realizes she one of the local whores he makes quick work of her with his pitchfork before feeding her to the hungry crocodile which he keeps in a swamp right next the hotel. 

Sometime later the Faye (Marilyn Burns) and her wildly disturbed husband Roy (William Finley, The Funhouse) arrive at the starlight with their young daughter Angie (Kyle Richards) and set-up for the night in a room, but not before the croc eats their pet dog in a frenzied scene. Around the same time Harvey Wood (Mel Ferrer, Nightmare City) and his daughter Libby (Crystin Sinclaire, Ruby) arrive on scene, looking for Harvey's runaway daughter Clara, who was the whore Judd just fed to his croc.  Then after a night of drinking and playing pool Buck (Englund) arrives back at the Starlight to Judd's dismay with his girlfriend Lynette (Janus Blythe, The Hills Have Eyes) and the bloody slaughter begins as the demented Judd sets about murdering damn near everyone and feeding them to his croc.

The set-up is simple and sleazy, and the tone of the movie is very surreal, having been shot completely on  a sound stage the movie is washed in an brain-searing red glow, as if a blood red neon-moon was ominously shining down from the sky, plus there's an impenetrable thick fog which enshrouds the area in an otherworldly blanket of fear. It establishes a claustrophobic vibe that seems inescapable, with a nerve shredding electronic score that gives the impression of a bad southern acid-trip. 

Neville Brand is in top-form here as the demented hotel proprietor, a nut who mumbles to himself in between murdering folks with his trusty scythe. He's not the only weirdo at the hotel this night either, William Finley's appearance as either a drugged-out, or clearly insane, Roy is right off the deep end of weirdness, the scene of him looking for his lost eyeball on the shag carpet of the hotel room is straight out of a David Lynch film. Marylin Burns stars as his suffering wife, she matches the ferocity of her final girl from Chainsaw here with ear-shredding screams of terror, as does her movie daughter Kyle Richards (The Car, Halloween), who spends most of the movie hiding beneath the crawlspace of the hotel trying to escape the grasp of the murderous Judd and his hungry croc.

The movie is oozing atmosphere from the first frame, a strange and surreal psychotronic terror film that at times feel almost post-apocalyptic with the neon-red lighting and relentless fog-drenched setting, unhinged and disturbing and maybe not an easy watch for some, a Southern-fried nightmare you cannot get away from. 

Speaking of nightmares, you just cannot get around how awful the ten foot animatronic croc looks on camera. The thing is straight-up dreadful but Hooper wisely keeps it in hidden-away for the most part, you definitely get the impression that his is the croc-version of Bruce the Shark from Spielberg's Jaws, on the numerous extras you can hear multiple testimonies from the cast and crew as to what a nightmare the water-logged croc prop was during the making of the movie. 

So we have a croc that's a croc-o-shit and some mild pacing issues in the mid-section of this Southern slice of surrealistic terror but I can look past the flaws, I love this strange movie and I believable it's an undervalued entry in the Hooper canon, one worth rediscovering on Blu-ray from Arrow Video. 

Audio/Video: Arrow Video have gone back to the original 35mm camera negative for a brand new 2K restoration of Hooper's  Eaten Alive in the original widescreen aspect ratio (1.85:1), and the results are stupendous. The movie has never looked better and far surpasses by Dark Sky Films DVD (2000) in all respects. The colors are rich and nicely saturated, looking more natural and reds not running so hot. There's a nice layer of natural looking film grain with a new depth, clarity and fine detail to the image we've not seen before on home video, it simply looks fantastic. 

Arrow keep the audio pure with an uncompressed PCM 1.0 Mono track with a psychotronic-electronic score from Wayne Bell and Tobe Hooper, it is a harsh listen and it perfectly compliments the images of surreal terror. Dialogue and sounds effects are nicely balanced and optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing are included. 

Reversible Artwork 

Onto the wealth of extras we have all the bonus content from the Dark Sky DVD including the audio commentary with co-writer and producer Mardi Rustam, make-up artist Craig Reardon and stars Roberta Collins, William Finley and Kyle Richards. The commentary is a pastiche of separate commentaries stitched together and placed appropriately throughout the movie and works quite nicely. Also carried over are the featurettes 'My Name is Buck' with star Robert Englund discussing his early career and time on the film with the cast and Hooper. 

'The Butcher of Elmendorf: The Legend of Joe Ball' tells the story of the WWI vet turned bootlegger who is the inspiration for the character of Judd, who may or may not have fed his wife and lovers to the crocs he kept in a pit behind his bar. 

There's also the '5ive Minutes with Marilyn Burns' interview the original scream-queen, and star of Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, plus we get an alternate opening credit sequence. That's pretty much everything from the dark Sky edition, so feel safe to upgrade and enjoy the superior HD presentation. 

Onto the new stuff produced by Arrow Video we have three brand new interview coming in at about thirty-seven minutes in length with director Tobe Hooper, Special Effects Artists Craig Reardon and starlet Janus Blythe, and she seems like quite a character with loads of colorful stories as she recounts cruising the Hollywood studio lots in search of roles, her early career and she briefly mentioning turning down a role in what turned out to be Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem. Craig Reardon gives a somewhat scholarly recounting of history of the lot where the film was shot and his own insights into actor Neville Brand, who by all accounts was quite a weird guy and a decorated WWII soldier. Hooper recalls being pitched the film and how this was his first studio picture, re working the script, the true-life basis for Brand's character, and working on a sound stage and what he was trying to create.

Also included are thirteen-minutes of trailer for the movie under the myriad of alternate titles including Eaten Alive, Death Trap, Starlight Slaughter and Horror Hotel. There's also fifteen-minutes of TV and radio spots, and three galleries of behind-the-scenes and promotional images, including some hilarious comment cards from the test-screenings of the film. 

Away from the disc extras we have a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin and the original poster art, plus a 24-page collector's booklet with new writing on the film from author Brad Stevens, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

Special Features

- Audio commentary with co-writer and producer Mardi Rustam, make-up artist Craig Reardon and stars Roberta Collins, William Finley and Kyle Richards

- New introduction to the film by director Tobe Hooper (1 Mins) HD

- Brand new interview with Hooper (14 Mins) HD 

- Brand New Interview with star Janus Blythe (12 Mins) HD 

- Brand New Interview with Special Effects Artist Craig Reardon (11 Mins) HD 

- My Name is Buck: Star Robert Englund discusses his acting career (15 Mins) SD 

- The Butcher of Elmendorf: The Legend of Joe Ball - The story of the South Texas bar owner on whom Eaten Alive is loosely based (23 Mins) SD

- 5ive Minutes with Marilyn Burns - The star of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre talks about working on Eaten Alive (5 Mins) SD

- The Gator Creator: archival interview with Hooper (14 Mins) SD 

- Original theatrical trailers for the film under its various titles Eaten Alive, Death Trap, Starlight Slaughter and Horror Hotel (13 Mins) HD 

- US TV and Radio Spots (15 Mins) HD 

- Alternate Credits Sequence (1 Mins) HD 

- Galleries: Behind The scene (8 Mins), Still and Promotional Material (64 Images), Comment Cards (34 Images) HD 

- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin

- 24 Pg. Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

Arrow Video have put together a pretty damn definitive HD version of Tobe Hooper's psychotronic terror-classic for fans of the movie, the HD presentation is fantastic and the wealth of extras are superb, very highly recommend. 

Screenshots from www.DVDBeaver.Com

DVD Review: SCREAM THEATER VOLUME 8 - RUBY (1977) & KISS OF THE TARANTULA (1975)

SCREAM THEATER VOLUME 8

RUBY (1977) / KISS OF THE TARANTULA (1975)

LABEL: VCI Entertainment
REGION: ALL NTSC
DURATION: 85 Minutes
RATING: R
VIDEO: Letterboxed Widescreen (1.66:1)
AUDIO: English Dolby Digital 2.o
CAST: Piper Laurie, Stuart Whitman, Janit Baldwin, Roger Davis
DIRECTOR: Curtis Harrington

SYNOPSIS: Piper Laurie (the mother in the horror classic CARRIE) plays Ruby, a mother whose mute daughter becomes possessed by the spirit of her murdered father. In one terrifying night of horror, he exacts his revenge on his assassins.

RUBY (1977) opens with a dreamy, off-kilter sequence featuring a gangster named Nikki (Sal Vecchio) and his pregnant dame Ruby Claire (Piper Laurie, David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS) as they prepare to take a a romantic midnight row on the swamp when Nicky is gunned down in a hail of gunfire by his gangster associates. The scene ends with Ruby on the ground in anguish as her water breaks. Years later Ruby has gone legit and is the proprietor of Ruby's Drive-In movie theater where she oddly employs several of the men responsible for Nicky's death, which puts into question whether she was involved in the crimel. The drive-in is quite a success and is now screening 50's sci-fi feature ATTACK OF THE 50 FT WOMAN (1958) to the delight of the locals. 

Weird shit starts to happen at the drive-in beginning with the apparent suicide of the projectionist Jess (Eddy Donno, INVADERS FROM MARS) who hangs himself with reels of 35mm film stock. Ruby tells her right hand man Vince (Stuart Whitman, from Tobe Hooper's EATEN ALIVE) to dispose of the body and to not report it to the police, she don't want the authorities snooping around her place. Pretty soon it's obvious that something supernatural is happening around the drive-in as one by one the employees start dropping dying in mysterious ways, stalked by an unseen force. One character named Barney is played my none-other than Len Lesser, that's right, "Uncle Leo" from TV's SEINFELD who ends up a corpse inside a soda machine that dispenses his blood into an unsuspecting customer's cup, which she sips before realizing that ain't no Cherry Coke, fun stuff.

It seems that Ruby's mute daughter Leslie (Janit Baldwin, BORN INNOCENT) might be at the center of the bizarre murders, possessed by the spirit of her late father out for revenge against those whom were responsible for his death sixteen years earlier. To assist in the strange matter Vince calls in a paranormal psychologist named Dr. Keller (Roger Davis, TV's DARK SHADOWS) and things just get weirder.

Not a perfect film by any means but what I loved about this movie was the great setting at a drive-in next to a swamp, as if mosquitoes weren't bad enough without setting it right on the swamp! The 1950's nostalgia was in full effect, a great period setting at a location that is all but gone from the modern cinema landscape. Secondly there's some great Southern Gothic atmosphere, particularly the fog saturated swamp scenes at night which are just eerie as shit, it's very well shot. There are some great effects , too, well they're hokey as Hell but great just the same. When it's quite clear that Leslie is possessed we get some fun EXORCIST-esque sequences including a take on the classic spider-walk. Several of the victims are attacked by an unseen force and the sequences were very nicely done, when Vince is running through the drive-in to escape whatever it is that's attacking him we get some speaker-box's attacking him like tentacled creatures and another, fun 70's drive-in fare, it must have been a blast to watch this at the drive-in for sure!

The film gets a bit pacey in places but doesn't drag too much except when we're focused on Ruby who's a wanna-be torch singer cum actress - that stuff just brought the movie to a halt. Piper Laurie plays a great crazy bitch, that's for sure but these scenes were just rote  The ending is a bit wham-bam thank you mam  but it's a decent watch with some great underwater shots, quite an entertaining supernatural thriller with some great Gothic atmosphere and a few nods to Brian De Palm's CARRIE (1977) and THE EXORCIST (1973). 

Why I hate "interlaced" transfers, rampant combing

DVD: VCI presents the film in a non-anamorphic letterboxed presentation (1.66:1). It's an interlaced affair (see the screenshot to the right) but colors are nicely saturated. The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is decent with minimal noise, dialogue and score sound good,  there are no subtitle options. The lone bonus features are trailers for each film. If you already own VCI's 70's DRIVE-IN HORROR DOUBLE FEATURE of the same two films presented here you can set aside your money - it's the exact same set with the same exact same menu as you can see from the screenshot below.

KISS OF THE TARANTULA (1975) 

LABEL: VCI Entertainment 
REGION: ALL NTSC
DURATION: 85 Minutes)
RATING: PG
VIDEO: 16x9 Widescreen (1.851)
AUDIO: English Dolby Digital 2.o
CAST: Eric Mason, Suzanne Ling, Herman Wallner, Patricia Landon, Beverly Eddins, Jay Scott Neal, Rita French
DIRECTOR:Chris Mung

SYNOPSIS: Mommy and Daddy operate and live in a mortuary with their daughter, Susan, who collects tarantula spiders and has always been ostracized by her friends because… well she’s a little bit strange. In true schlocky b-movie horror fashion, this is a real All-American Dysfunctional Family! So when Susan discovers that mommy dearest is plotting to have dear old dad killed… well this puts sweet little Susie over the top and she pulls out all the stops, making good use of her father’s mortuary and her creepy little playmates to exact horrendous revenge! A 70's drive-in classic! 

Susan is a young daughter of a mortician (Eric Mason, GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE) who is right obsessed with eight-legged critters but her bitchy mother just hates the spiders with a passion. One night Susan overhears mommy dearest plotting with her lover (who just happens to be her father's brother) John to kill her husband so Suzanne and her hairy-legged friends do something about, she sneaks into mother's room and drops a tarantula into her sheets. The cold-hearted bitch awakens to the sight of the fuzzy eight-legged crawler and has a fatal heart-attack as Suzanne gleefully watches. 

Now a few years later Suzanne is a teen in high school, a bit awkward and still quite obsessed with tarantulas which might explain what she doesn't really have a lot of friends, the only problem there is she's super-cute - arachnid nut or not this girl would be mobbed by horny coming-of -age teens so right away there goes realism. Left alone for the weekend three teen punks beak into the mortuary and terrorize poor Suzanne killing one of her beloved tarantula and the rest f the film plays outta in proper b-movie fashion with her and her cadre of critters stalking and killing the offenders in a way that's just above and beyond what squashing a spider would seem to entail. 

My favorite scenario played out at the local drive-in with two of the teen offenders on dates with their female companion are crammed into a Volkswagen Bug and while they're busy necking Suzanne saunters up to the compact car and tosses in a handful of tarantulas - which are non-poisonous by the way - into the car and they proceed to crawl over the foursome before they even realize it. Once they finally take notice (10 minutes later) the shit hits the fan and the teens panic like you just wouldn't believe. Sandwiched in between the speaker-box they are unable to simply jump from the car and in the frenzied panic one teens throat is crushed against the steering wheel, another is strangled by the car door and one's throat is slashed on the jagged edge of a broken window leaving the last chic in a fear-induced catatonic state. 

The local authorities are baffled by these "accidents" till Suzanne's uncle John (whom I neglected to mention is a detective) finds a tarantula leg on a victim's body and starts to put prices together. The super-sleazy uncles uses her guilt to try to seduce sexual favors from her, ewww, that's just gross. I love it when he gets what's coming to him in the end, it's a fun twist that I didn't see coming, fun stuff. 

KISS OF THE TARANTULA is a fun 70's drive-in schlocker along the lines of WILLARD (1971) and STANLEY (1972). These killer pet features were pretty common fare on the early 70's drive-in circuit. I really think the film has limited appeal to horror fans but there's some inherent camp cheesiness to the proceedings and if that's your thing there's some fun to be had here, not great nor original but armed with a cheese-tastic electronic score and enough b-movie thrills to make this one worth a drunken midnight viewing. 

DVD: Both films on this double-feature are presented on a single-sided disc. The film is presented in it's original widescreen aspect ratio (1.85:1) that 16x9 enhanced. There's print damage here and there, a few scratches, but colors are decent as are black levels are adequate for a drive-in cheapie that's been used and abused. Audio is on par with the visuals, not great but certainly watchable and we get a trailer for the film, too.

VERDICT: If you love 70's drive-in schlock this is about half a great watch with the EXORCIST/CARRIE mash-up RUBY (1975) with Laurie Piper, a spooky good time. KISS OF THE TARANTULA (1977) falls somewhere below the mark on the whole but has a few creepy moments. So, is it worth a purchase, well that depends on your tolerance for 70's cheese. All eight volumes of VCI's SCREAM THEATER double-feature's arrive on DVD October 19th. 3 Outta 5  

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