TWO EVIL EYES (1990) (Blue Underground 3-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray Review/Comparison)

TWO EVIL EYES (1990)

3-Disc Limited Edition 4K Remaster 

Label: Blue Underground 
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 120 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Directors: George A. Romero, Dario Argento 
Cast: Bingo O'Malley, Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, E.G. Marshall, Christine Forest, Tom Atkins, Harvey Keitel, John Amos, Martin Balsam, Kim Hunter 

Two-parter fright anthology Two Evil Eyes (1990) pairs legends of horror George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) and Dario Argento (Suspiria), with each adapting a story by seminal horror writer Edgar Allan Poe, each with ghoulish special effects by Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead) and a gorgeous score from Pino Donnagio (Don't Look Now). By 1990 when this was made I feel that both of these directors were looking at the most vibrant part of their careers in the rear view mirror, but this anthology film offers up some late era chills for fans of both directors, even if it's what I consider to be a minor entry in both the directors careers. 

Romero opens the anthology with ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’, a spooky tale about a terminally ill older man named Ernest Valdemar (Bingo O'Malley, Creepshow) who is being kept alive well beyond his expiration date by his money-grubbing, younger wife Jessica (Adrienne Barbeau, The Fog). Jessica is banging her husband's personal physician, Dr. Hoffman (Ramy Zada, After Midnight), the duplicitous cheaters have conspired to keep the terminally ill man in a weird state of hypnosis, feeding into a plot to pull the wool over Valdemar's lawyers eyes, played by E.G. Marshall (Creepshow). In this state of hypnosis Valdemar verbally authorizes his lawyer over the phone to liquidate his assets into cash and deposit them into his wife's account. However, there's a stipulation in the will that states that if the old man croaks before the money is transferred that the agreement will be terminated and she will get nothing, so when the old man keel's over prematurely it puts the pair into a bit of a bind. What to do? They place the old man's corpse in a freezer in the basement with a plan to thaw out his body once the money has been deposited, only then will they properly declare him dead. 

It's a convoluted plan but it gets stranger yet when Valdemar's voice can be heard echoing throughout the house, emanating from the basement. When they open the freezer he's still frozen solid and still seemingly very dead, but it turns out that because he was in a state of hypnosis when he died his soul has been trapped in a void between life and death. This new wrinkle intrigues the scientific brain of the doctor who investigates further, but Valdemar's wife is scared witless by the whole ordeal, and with good reason.

This story is a good and proper chiller, but it does run a bit long, making it a slow burn, but it also gives the story a little room to breath and work up a good head of steam before things get weirder. The cast in this one are a bunch of Romero familiars, it was great to see Adrienne Barbeau reunited with her Creepshow co-stars E.G. Marshall, and Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps), the latter of whom shows up as a detective investigating the bizarre case at the end of the piece.  

It may not be top tier Romero but it's some of the best stuff he did from this point on in my opinion. It's a well-lensed with a terrific looking old stone house with a cool spiral staircase, plus it's great to see Romero playing with a sub-genre he didn't often play in, though there's still an element of the undead. We get some vengeful spirits and supernatural happenings in this one, and I dug the oddball hypnosis element, though I did think that the doc using hypnosis on himself was a bit weird. For the gore-fans we also get Tom Savini creations, including a cool-looking frozen undead  and a gruesome death by digital metronome, which is the bloodiest part of Romero's segment.

Dario Argento tackles Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale 'The Black Cat' starring Harvey Keitel (Blue Collar) as Rod Usher, his name an homage to another Poe story 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. Rod is beret-wearing crime-scene photographer who gets a little too into his work. The film opens on a macabre crime scene of a woman cut in half by a swinging bladed pendulum, another homage to the Poe classic, 'The Pit and the Pendulum'. Right from the get-go you see that the photographer has a curious fascination with death, and throughout the film he is seemingly driven a mad by the arrival of a stray black cat that his violinist gal pal Annabel (Madeleine Potter, The Bostonians) has brought into their home.

The relationship with his Annabel begins to sour after the felines arrival, leading to Rod hitting the bottle and eventually strangling the black cat, going so far as to photographing the crime, and then using the image of the strangled cat on the cover of his new photography book, which is how Annabel discovers that he's killed her beloved cat. She confronts him about it which leads to Rod losing his shit, killing her with a meat cleaver, and then concealing her corpse behind a wall inside his apartment. If you're familiar with the story you know that the black cat returns to ruin his well-laid plans, with some horrific special effects from Tom Savini, who himself turns up in a scene as a grave-robbing lover of dentistry.

Keitel is an actor who never seems anything subtley, he's both intense and a bit over-the-top here, but it works for the character and the film, though the scene of him shrieking "It's fucking cat! Meow! Meow!" always makes me giggle. The special effects are a bit more abundant in the Argento tale than with the Romero, with Savini creating several memorable crime scene corpses, including an homage to Cannibal Holocaust (1980) that would make Vlad the Impaler proud. this scene happens in a surreal dream sequence that finds Rod swept back into medieval times, it's a bit out of place here but I enjoyed it for the strangeness and gruesome imagery. On the whole this mini-film doesn't really have the vintage artful eye feel of Argento's early gialli, but it is attractively shot with some fluid camera movement. 

Be on the lookout for John Amos (The Beastmaster) as an allergy-riddled detective investigating Annabel's disappearance and Martin Balsam (The Stone Killer) and Kim Hunter (Bad Ronald) as an elderly couple who live in the same apartment building as Rod.

I've always thought there should have been some sort of wrap-around story that brought the pair of stories together, maybe an appearance of Keitel's crime scene photographer in Romero's story, something to bridge the gap at least, but there's nothing, and the film's are so disparate in style and tone that watching one run into the other is a bit jarring. Of the pair I prefer Romero's supernatural chiller, it breathes a little better for me, and the tone is more in line with my preferences as a horror fan. I think it holds up a bit better than Argento's tale, which is a story that has been told many times over in cinema and a bit better at that, though perhaps not as gruesomely. 

Audio/Video: Two Evil Eyes (1990) arrives on three-disc limited edition Blu-ray from Blue Underground with a new 4K scam of the original camera negative framed in 1.78:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. The source looks fantastic with nary a blemish in sight, grain had a nice velvety veneer and colors look solid throughout. There's an improved clarity and depth to the image, with gorgeous finely resolved details in clothing textures, facial close-ups and the gruesome special effects, it's just a real pleaser of a presentation. Comparing it to the region B release from 88 Films right away I noticed the Blue Underground disc has a warmer color-grading, that in some scenes a rather significant. I don't have the previous Blue Underground Blu-ray to compare it to, and I cannot say which is truer to the theatrical, but I found this new 4K restoration to be the superior release. To see Blue Underground vs. 88 Films images side by side see the screen captures below in this review.   

Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 7.1, though I found myself preferring the original stereo mix, which seems more robust and direct, the 7.1 to my ears sounded a bit thin by comparison. Everything is nicely balanced with the Pino Donaggio (Carrie) score coming through with excellent fidelity, dialogue is always crisp and clean, optional English subtitles are provided.

Blue Underground come through with a wealth of extras both new and archival, with disc one having a new audio commentary with Troy Howarth, author of 'Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento'. It's another excellent Howarth commentary loaded with production notes, facts and trivia about the film. Also on the first disc we get a theatrical trailer for the film and a photo gallery of international posters, lobby cards, home video releases and original artwork images from artist Enzo Sciotti.

Disc two contains the bulk of extras, beginning with the half-hour archival 'Two Masters' Eyes', interviews with Dario Argento, George Romero, Special Make-Up Effects Supervisor Tom Savini, Executive Producer Claudio Argento, and Asia Argento. Other archival extras include the 13-min 'Savini's EFX', a behind-the-scenes look at the film's special make-up effects, a 5-min interview with Adrienne Barbeau, plus the 16-min 'At Home With Tom Savini', a guided tour of Savini's home.

New stuff begins with the 13-min 'Before I Wake' interview with star Ramy Zada who speaks about getting into acting, auditioning for several Romero films before finally
landing a role in this one, and the pleasure of working alongside Adrienne Barbeau.
Actress Madeline Potter shows up for the 17-min 'Behind The Wall' discussing being cast in Argento's tale, offering some insights into her character, and commenting on the genius of Argento. In the 16-min 'One Maestro And Two Masters' composer Pino Donaggio speaks about working with Brian De Palma and the opportunities that afforded him, scoring this film and it's nod to Bernard Herman's Psycho score, working with Romero and Argento, and the differences between working in America versus Italy. We also get a 16-min interview with Co-Writer Franco Ferrini, 27-min with Assistant Director Luigi Cozzi, 14-min with Special Make-Up Assistant Everett Burrell, and 9-min with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson.

The third disc in the set is a 21-track CD of the original motion picture soundtrack by Pino Donaggio. This three-disc set arrives in a clear oversized Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork, inside there's a 20-page booklet with new writings on the film from Michael Gingold, plus cast and crew credits, and a track list for the CD soundtrack. This also comes with a cool-looking limited edition 3D lenticular slipcover with different artwork than the reversible sleeve.

Blu-ray Comparison:

Top: Blue Underground Blu-ray (Region A) )

Bottom: 88 Films (Region B) Blu-ray

 

 

 

 

Special Features:
Disc 1 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth, Author of Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- Poster & Still Gallery

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Extras:
- Two Masters' Eyes - Interviews with Directors Dario Argento & George Romero, Special Make-Up Effects Supervisor Tom Savini, Executive Producer Claudio Argento, and Asia Argento (30 min) HD 
- Savini's EFX - A Behind-the-Scenes look at the film's Special Make-Up Effects (13 min) HD
- At Home With Tom Savini - A Personal Tour of Tom Savini's Home (16 min) 
- Adrienne Barbeau on George Romero (5 min) 
- NEW! Before I Wake - Interview with Star Ramy Zada (13 min) HD 
- NEW! Behind The Wall - Interview with Star Madeleine Potter (17 min) 
- NEW! One Maestro And Two Masters - Interview with Composer Pino Donaggio (16 min) 
- NEW! Rewriting Poe - Interview with Co-Writer Franco Ferrini (16 min 
- NEW! The Cat Who Wouldn't Die - Interview with Assistant Director Luigi Cozzi
- NEW! Two Evil Brothers - Interview with Special Make-Up Assistant Everett Burrell (14 min) 
- NEW! Working With George - Interview with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson (9 min) 

Disc 3 (CD):
- TWO EVIL EYES Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Pino Donaggio
- BONUS! Collectible Booklet with new essay by Michael Gingold

Two Evil Eyes (1999) might not be the best stuff for either Argento or Romero, but it is what I consider to be the best stuff of their late-era careers, offering enough macabre delights and supernatural frights to give it a recommend. This new 3-disc limited edition release from Blue Underground is easily the definitive version of the film for both it's fantastic restoration and hours of extras, making this an essential item for anyone looking to complete their Dario Argento and George A. Romero collections. 

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986) (Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review)

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986) 

2-DISC COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R (Theatrical), Unrated (Director's Cut) 
Duration: 88 Minutes (Theatrical), 90 Minutes (Director's Cut) 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1, DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Fred Dekker
Cast: Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow, Tom Atkins

Director Fred Dekker's debut film Night of the Creeps (1986) is a fun throwback, even when it arrived in the cinemas in the 80's it was already a throwback to the sci-fi chillers from the 50's, deftly weaving together several genres, including a nod to George A. Romero's undead films. The film however starts off as a sci-fi flick on an alien ship with a renegade nude alien being chased by a pair of nude aliens armed with laser blasters. The renegade alien succeeds in launching some sort of experiment inside a canister from the alien ship, which then lands on Earth near a college campus in '59, where a pair of college kids on lover's lane discover it, with the guy being infected with a slug-like alien parasite, while the unlucky young lady is murdered by an ax-wielding lunatic.

The film then jumps ahead to the 80's on the local college campus during pledge week where likable losers Chris (Jason Lively, National Lampoon's European Vacation)) and J.C. (Steve Marshall) are at a party conversing about how hard it sucks to be unpopular. Here the film transforms into a bit of a campus-comedy, with the shy Chris crushing hard on attractive co-ed Cynthia (Jill Whitlow, Killer Klowns from Outer Space), who unfortunately for him is already dating the campus douchebag Brad (a.k.a. 'The Bradster') (Allan Kayser, from TV's Mama's Family).

The college losers try to fit in by performing fraternity prank involving stealing a corpse from the campus medical facility and dumping it on another fraternity's lawn, resulting in the pair ending up in a cryogenics lab where they unwittingly thaw a corpse that's been frozen since the 50's, and it turns out that it's infected with the alien slugs we saw at the start of the film.

Investigating the break-in at the lab is hard-boiled Detective Ray Cameron (Tom Atkins, Halloween III: Season of the Witch) in what I consider to be his finest role ever, and as a die-hard fan of Halloween III that is saying something. The whiskey sipping, chain-smoking, suicidal detective is a fun nod to the Noir detectives of the thirties, a man haunted by his past who drives around in a cool vintage coup armed with disaffected wit and non-stop parade of quotable lines, including the iconic "thrill me", which never gets old. 

With the slugs now freed from their cryogenic prison they kill the tech at the lab before escaping and infecting more people on campus, creating alien-slug infested zombies, which as you can imagine really starts to become a problem for campus community. The film culminates with the slug-infected zombies laying siege on a sorority house, with the detective, Chris and Cynthia, armed with a flamethrower and a shotgun, fighting off the alien-infected zombies in a fun final showdown.   

The fun of this film, and of Dekker's follow-up Monster Squad, is that it manages to lovingly pay homage to multiple genres while at the same time having a bit of fun with them. A lot of characters here being named after horror icons, we have Romero, Carpenter, Raimi and such, a cliche that seemed fresh in '86 but has since been done to death, but I think this one did it first.  Carefully balancing comedy and a sci-fi horror, you've got the college humor, plus some cool splattery practical effects by way of animals being infected by the slithery parasites and multiple heads being shot, exploded and burned by flamethrowers! Not all the effects hold-up in the higher-resolution light of HD but their still fun nostalgic practical effects.  

The whole film is just a fun and loving homage to vintage sci-fi horror from yesteryear, it's not a film that did gangbusters in the cinema, but it went on to become a stone-cold cult-classic on home video over the years, and it only gets better with age,there's just never a bad time to watch Night of the Creeps. 

Audio/Video: The 2-disc Collector's Edition of Night of the Creeps (1986) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory framed in the original 1.85:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. This is the same HD master used for the 2009 release as Scream were not able to secure the rights to do a new scan of film, so thankfully that older master still looks solid, but nowhere near as good as a fresh 4K scan from the original film elements would have looked. That said, grain looks good but not very finely resolved, colors are solid and black levels are strong throughout. While it could look better there's not a lot to complain about. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA stereo or surround mixes, both keep the dialogue crisp and clean without any issues with hiss or distortion, and the Barry DeVorzon (The Warriors) score sounds great optional English subtitles are provided. 

Onto the extras on the the first disc, which contains the 88-min theatrical cut of the film, carries overs the previous supplements from the 2009 special edition Blu-ray, beginning with the excellent six-part making of retrospective that runs 61-min, loaded with interviews and clips, behind-the-scenes images, and detailing the production of the film on through to discussing it's legacy.  

The 20-min 'Man of Action' is an interview with eternal cool-dude Tom Atkins, discussing his early career in Pittsburgh, getting into acting because of the ladies and his career in general, and of course Night of the Creeps as well as Halloween III and Creepshow. There's also 7-min of deleted scenes plus a theatrical trailer for the film.

The second disc, containing the longer running director's cut, has all the new goodies produced exclusively for this release. While it's a bummer that Scream Factory couldn't get permission for a brand new scan of the film I think they've done right fans by stuffing this thing with cool extras, beginning with a a brand new interview with star Jason Lively, in 'Real Good Plan' the actor discusses auditioning for the film, shooting it, partying with the college kids, and the legacy of the film. 

There's also a new episode of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds with host Sean Clark, exploring locations used in the film, and being joined by director Fred Dekker and actor Jason Lively a bit into it!

Actor Allan Kayser shows up for a 8-min interview in 'The Bradster' discussing his douche-nozzle character, getting into a few mishaps on set, not being liked by his co-stars, and having to wear uncomfortable white eye-lenses.  

In 'I Vote for that One' actor Ken Heron, who played the first slug-infested creep in the film, addresses his role, working with a young director Dekker, and what it was like working in the make-up FX that the role required. 

Character actor Vic Polizos shows up in 'Worst Coroner Ever', a 6-min discussion of his career, balancing a TV gig with shooting this film, and his love of Tom Atkins.

The 6-min 'Answering the Door' features actress Suzanne Snyder briefly discusses her role, relaying that she's not a horror fan, despite finding most of her success in the genre.

The last of the new extras is the 11-min 'Final Cut' with editor Michael N. Knue who met Dekker while editing House which the director wrote. He also discusses finding that special balance of horror and comedy in the edit and finding away to edit around some low-budget shortcomings of the film.

The director's cut also has a pair of archival audio commentaries from the 2009 Blu-ray, the first with director Fred Dekker which is moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures, and a second with actors Tom Atkins, Jason Lively, Steve Marshall and Jill Whitlow. I thought both were solid and entertaining listens, Dekker gets into the nitty-gritty of making the film, including production troubles and issues with the studio. 
  
The 2-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, both are vintage illustrated artworks, one of which is also featured on the slipcover. The same artwork is featured on the discs themselves.   

Special Features:
DISC ONE:
Theatrical Version ·  Thrill Me!: The Making of NIGHT OF THE CREEPS – a five-part documentary on the making of the film featuring interviews with writer/director Fred Dekker, actors Tom Atkins, Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow, producer Charles Gordon, special makeup effects creator David B. Miller, Special Makeup Effects artists Howard Berger and Robert Kurtzman and more! (61 min) 
- Tom Atkins: Man of Action – a look at the actor’s career (20 min) 
- Deleted Scenes (8 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 

DISC TWO:
Director’s Cut
- Audio Commentary with writer/director Fred Dekker
- Audio Commentary with actors Tom Atkins, Jason Lively, Steve Marshall and Jill Whitlow
- NEW Horror’s Hallowed Grounds – a look at the film’s locations today with host Sean Clark, director Fred Dekker and actor Jason Lively (11 min) HD 
- NEW Real Good Plan – an interview with actor Jason Lively  (11 min) HD 
- NEW The Bradster- an interview with actor Alan Kayser (8 min) HD
- NEW I Vote For That One – an interview with actor Ken Heron (10 min) HD
- NEW Worst Coroner Ever – an interview with actor Vic Polizos (6 min) HD
- NEW Answering the Door – an interview with actress Suzanne Snyder (4 min) 
- NEW Final Cut – an interview with editor Michael N. Knue (11 min) 

Night of the Creeps (1986) has long been one of my favorite sci-fi horror comedy films from the 80's, it never gets old, and my love for it keeps growing with each new viewing, a true cult-classic that is riddled with satisfying Tom Atkins quotes. The new Collector's Edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory has a solid A/V presentation, plus the archival and new supplemental material and packaging extras are a sweet bonus.