'SOAKED IN BLEACH', comes to DVD, re-examines the death of Kurt Cobain coming on August 14th

SOAKED IN BLEACH (2015) 

Benjamin Statler's groundbreaking docudrama explores the controversial death of Kurt Cobain

Soaked In Bleach, a docudrama by Benjamin Statler, reveals the events behind Kurt Cobain's death as seen through the eyes of Tom Grant, the private investigator that was hired by Courtney Love in 1994 to track down her missing husband (Kurt Cobain) only days before his deceased body was found at their Seattle home. Cobain's death was ruled a suicide by the police (a reported self-inflicted gunshot wound), but doubts have circulated for twenty years as to the legitimacy of this ruling, especially due to the work of Mr. Grant, a former L.A. County Sheriff's detective, who did his own investigation and determined there was significant empirical and circumstantial evidence to conclude that foul play could very well have occurred. The film develops as a narrative mystery with cinematic re-creations, interviews with key experts and witnesses and the examination of official artifacts from the 1994 case.

Statler says, "Half of the film is cinematic recreations of Tom Grant's investigation in 94' incorporating actual audio recordings, while the other half of the film is interviews with Tom Grant and some of the world's top experts in the respective areas of the case. The recreations served the purpose of helping people to see how the investigation actually unfolded and to better appreciate the context of certain situations. The interviews provide the objective scientific facts involved in the case of Kurt Cobain's death and back up what Tom Grant has been saying for 20 plus years."

Soaked In Bleach is Benjamin Statler's directorial debut. He also wrote and produced the film under his production company Montani Productions He has been the executive producer on such projects as fan favorite Comic Con Episode 4: A Fan's Hope and the fact-based Navy Seal thriller Act Of Valor.

Soaked In Bleach, is the first in a trilogy of docudramas to be produced by Montani Productions. Ben will also be producing and directing other projects with Montani, which primarily will be based on true life stories.

HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF (1985)

HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF (1985)

Label Scream Factory 

Release Date: July 14th 2015
Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 91 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Philippe Mora

Cast: Reb Brown, Annie McEnroe, Christopher Lee, Sybil Danning, Marsha A. Hunt

This sequel picks-up just after the events of the first Howling movie, TV anchorwoman Karen White is dead following her transformation into a werewolf live on-camera during the nightly news broadcast, but apparently the entire episode has been swept under the rug and her lycanthropic revelation did not have the desired impact of exposing the world to the existence of werewolves. The movie opens with a very odd intro with Christopher Lee standing in front of a star field reading some cryptic passage all the while standing next to a medical skeleton. A very strange beginning for an oddball movie, and it sort of reminded me of the way Dune opens up with the narration only way ore confusing and weird.  

Then we're onto Karen's funeral which is attended by her brother Ben White (Red Brown, Captain America TV Move) and his girlfriend Jenny (Annie McEnroe, The Hand), a reporter. After the funeral Ben is approached by Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee, The Whip and the Body), who introduces himself as an occult investigator, informing Ben that his sister is not actually dead, that she is a cursed werewolf and the only way for her to rest in peace is to stake her through the heart.  Ben doesn't take the news very well but his girlfriend Jenny seem keenly interested in what Crosscoe has to say, and soon enough the trio are headed for Transylvania to fight Stirba - the Werewolf Queen! Wait a minute ...Transylvania, stakes through the heart ... I thought this was a werewolf movie, one of the many oddities about Howling II is they way they throw a bunch of vampire tropes into the mix, which is an odd choice. 

Stirba is played by the busty and lusty Sybil Danning (Chained Heat) wearing a very 80s leather and brass get-up that wouldn't be out of place in a Stryper music video. Striba hosts a series of werewolf orgies at her castle, when she's not sucking the life force from virgins or making glowing crackles of electricity emanate from her fingertips. I love Sybil Danning but this role is overwrought and ridiculous, which is part of the movie's charm, overwrought and fun in a bad sort of way that manages to keep things entertaining, if confusing. 

She has a pair of minions named Vlad (Judd Omen, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure) and the black beauty Mariana (Marsha A. Hunt, who Mich Jagger penned "Brown Sugar" about), whom have a threesome with Stirba (Dannning) which is fantastically awful, the half-transformed lycanthropes are covered in hair, making the most ridiculous oh-faces you've ever seen, clawing at each other, and cooing ridiculously, the contorted faces in this movie are simply laugh-out-loud funny. 

Unfortunately the design of the werewolves owe more to monkeys than wolves and look awful, rightfully so they are kept in the dark or glimpsed only briefly. Knowing that these werewolves were awful I think the filmmakers knew they had to give us at least some decent gore, and we get very little. One of the best is when a midget's eyes explode in a spray of blood, and a priest is attacked by a gargoyle who chokes him with it's tail before crawling down throat, but honestly these are few and far between. Mora seems to be throwing everything and the kitchen sink onscreen into this mess of a movie, but nothing can save it. The final showdown between werewolf-hunter Crosscoe and the Queen of Werewolves Stirba is pretty damn awful, with the Werewolf Queen not transforming into a monstrous werewolf but instead using her occult powers to summon an awful 80's laser-light show which ends with both going up in flames in a less than spectacular fashion. 

Apparently this movie is so awful that Christopher Lee apologized to Joe Dante on the set of Gremlins 2 - The New Batch for having appeared in it - wow. Highlights are some strange but inconsistent atmosphere, some fun set design, and a werewolf who looks remarkably like Daryl Hall from the band Hall and Oates, plus a memorable new wave musical performance from Steve Pasrons with the song "Howling", but not even the prestige of Christopher Lee and the voluptuous nudity of Sybil Danning cannot save this stinker of a werewolf film. 

Audio/Video: Howling II arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a 1080p HD transfer framed in the original widescreen aspect ratio looking pretty good for the most part. The source material has some minor print damage, some specs of dirt and debris and a few small scratches, but the colors are solid through and through, the black levels are decent and skin tones look good -- and trust me -- there's a lot of skin to watch. The mono audio does the job nicely, music, dialogue and score are well balanced and free of distortion. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

This may not be an official Scream Factory Collector's Edition but it is packed with special features, beginning with a pretty great commentary with director Philippe Mora moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures. A very candid commentary, speaking at length about shooting a film from behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia, offering up some real nuggets about the making of this very strange movie, a lot of which explains the strange feel of the film. There's a second commentary from Composer Steve Parsons And Editor Charles Bornstein which I have not gotten around to yet, but I think that the Mora commentary is fantastic,and worth the price of purchase by itself. 

There are also brand new interviews with actor Reb Brown and actress Sybil Danning who chime in on their experience making the film, both with kind words about working with the recently departed horror icon Christopher Lee, and Danning speaks about the infamous topless scene in the movie which is replayed over a dozen times in the film.   

Special Make-Up Effects Artists Steve Johnson And Scott Wheeler offer up a very candid set of interviews about the making of the movie and the set of challenges they faced, including applying hair appliances to actor Judd Omen's cock. Additionally there's some Behind The Scenes Footage, Alternate Opening And Alternate Ending, Theatrical Trailer and a Still Gallery, plus a reversible sleeve of artwork with new artwork from illustrator David Levine.  Scream Factory have gone above and beyond what this awful sequel might have deserved, packing it with loads of great extras. 

Special Features
- Audio Commentary With Director Philippe Mora
- Audio Commentary With Composer Steve Parsons And Editor Charles Bornstein
- Leading Man - An Interview With Actor Reb Brown (14 Mins) HD
- Queen Of The Werewolves - An Interview With Actress Sybil Danning (17 Mins) HD
- A Monkey Phase - Interviews With Special Make-Up Effects Artists Steve Johnson And Scott Wheeler (15 Mins) HD
- Behind The Scenes Footage (In HD - From Philippe Mora's Archive) (4 Mins)
- Alternate Opening (In HD – From Philippe Mora's Archive) (11 Mins) 
- Alternate Ending (In HD – From Philippe Mora's Archive) (10 Mins)
- Theatrical Trailer (1 Mins) HD
- Still Gallery (8 Mins) HD 

Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985) is a seriously confused and awful film, and one of the stranger horror sequels, but it does have some minor appeal. It has a strange atmosphere, and some decent lensing, plus Christopher Lee and Sybil Danning add some legitimacy to the production, but those awful werewolves are pretty hard to forgive, particularly when the first film had such great looking werewolves. I cannot recommend this to the average horror fan, not even if you loved the original film, I think you would have to be quite a bad movie fiend to find this one fun, and I guess I love bad movies because I enjoyed it and have for years. I'm hoping this moves a lot of units and Scream Factory pick-up Philippe Mora's sequel The Marsupials: The Howling III (1987) for release on Blu-ray. that Ozploitation take on the genre is one I absolutely love. 2.5/5

SLEEPAWAY CAMP II: UNHAPPY CAMPERS (1987) & SLEEPAWAY CAMP III: TEENAGE WASTELAND (1988)

 SLEEPAWAY CAMP II: UNHAPPY CAMPERS (1987) 

2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD/BD

SLEEPAWAY CAMP III: TEENAGE WASTELAND (1988)

2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD/BD

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Michael A. Simpson
Cast: Valerie Hartman, Tony Higgins, Brian Patrick Clarke, Pamela Springsteen, Renée Estevez I Tracy Griffith, Pamela Springsteen, Sandra Dorsey, Haynes Brooke, Mark Oliver, Michael J. Pollard

SLEEPAWAY CAMP II: UNHAPPY CAMPERS (1987) 

Synopsis: Welcome to Camp Rolling Hills! Meet your camp counselor, Angela Baker! She's the kind of counselor who enjoys camp songs, nature walks, board games and… murder. Five years after the horrific slaughter at Camp Arawak, Angela (Pamela Springsteen, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) has created a new position for herself as a counselor at Camp Rolling Hills. Angela is about to teach "bad campers" a brutal lesson in survival when they are sliced, stabbed, drilled… and much worse. Renée Estevez (Heathers, Intruder) and Walter Gotell (The Spy Who Loved Me) co-star in this outrageous sequel to the original cult classic.

Beware campers, transgendered killer Angela is back with a vengeance in the sequel which strikes a much different tone from the original, going for more campy (pun intended) humor with more than an eyeful of female nudity and absurd murders. This time out Angela is played by Angela Springsteen (sister of Bruce) and she brings a brattier quality to the character, the tone is completely different, but I like what she beings to the role, a sort of spunky moral avenger with a twisted sense of right and wrong that drives her insatiable appetite for murder. 

It is explained that through whatever means Angela has served her time following the massacre at Camp Arawak at an institution for the criminally insane, and has in fact been granted a sex change operation during her incarceration. A lot of this is told through a spooky campfire tale at the start of the film. What the counselors and kids at Camp Rolling Hills don't realize is that Angela is now a counselor at Camp Rolling Hills and it won't be long before she resumes her killing spree, killing immoral teenagers one at a time. 

The sequel sets itself apart from the original with copious amount of camp humor and a lot of nudity, there's a lot of titties on display throughout, particularly from the character of Ally (played by hottie Valerie Hartman) who just cannot seem to keep her shirt on for more than fifteen minutes in this movie, she's a bitchy teenage fornicator with a nice pair of tits, obviously things will not end well for her. 

The story is almost non-existent, we basically have a group of people who offend Angela through their immoral  action sand then we have Angela stalking and killing them in a series of murderous vignettes, that's about the extent of the storytelling. The set-ups are fun but the kills mostly happen off screen and are not gory, but at least they're fun. There's a lot of bashing people in the head with tree limbs, a bloody drilling, acid to the face, roasted over a fire, a decapitation, multiple stabbings, and homages to both Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees -- complete with a razor-clawed glove and a chainsaw,. The most memorable death being when Angela forces Ally into an outhouse and down into the shit-hole, which for some reason is infested with blood sucking leeches. Some great set-ups but the movie is hurt by the lack of gore, choosing instead to focus on the humor and corny one-liners from Angela, who went from near mute in the first film to slinging Kruger-esque verbal puns. 

Something I always wished the sequels would have exploited more was the psychological underpinnings of Angela's transgendered murder-spree, which is touched upon briefly but largely ignored. There's plenty of deep psychological material here to explore if the screenwriters had chosen to do so but instead it largely bypasses the deeper stuff in favor of the camp comedy and surface level slasher tendencies. There's a pretty great nightmare sequence about halfway through the film, ia dark moody moment that's at odds with the rest of the movie, watching the special features we learn it was created as a convenient way to extend the run time of the film, I would have enjoyed more of that type of tension, but it's just not that sort of slasher. 

As each of the campers and counselors go missing Angela covers their disappearance by explaining she sent them home for bad behavior, which becomes harder to swallow as over a dozen people go missing until the camp is about empty, save for goody-goody Molly, played by Renée Estevez, who I will always identify as Betty Finn from Heathers (1989) .A very silly slasher but I do love the fun tone and playfulness of this camper-slasher, despite the lack of gruesome gore, it's very entertaining. I enjoyed the mid-eighties rock soundtrack which is stuffed with choice cheese from The Dead Milkmen, Anvil and Obsession among others, it's difficult not love an 80's camp slasher loaded with sweet teen boobies and a retro-metal soundtrack.

Scream Factory have given us a bunch of cool extras to pour through beginning with an Audio Commentary With Director Michael A. Simpson And Writer Fritz Gordon. There's a new Red Shirt produced making-of featurette with new interviews from Director Michael A. Simpson, Cinematographer Bill Mills, Editor John David Allen. Unfortunately we don't have any input from star Pamela Springsteen or hottie Valerie Hartman, but sometimes actors move on and jut don't wanna look back, what we do get are some insightful interviews from the cast and crew that fans of the movie will enjoy immensely. 

There's a fun set-visit titled Abandoned – The Filming Locations Of SLEEPAWAY CAMP II and III – A Tour Of The Shooting Locales from the AdamtheWoo.com crew who visit the vastly overgrown filming locations, this was a fun one, its crazy how near unrecognizable and overgrown the former YMCA youth camp looks these days in the wilds of Georgia.

Additionally we have some behind-the-scene video with commentary by director Michael A. Simpson, a home video promotional trailer straight from a VHS source, and a gallery of 43 behind-the-scene and promotional imagery, and a short film which answers just what happened to the character of Molly, which is left open at the end of the film, but is answered here based on the original script.

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentary With Director Michael A. Simpson And Writer Fritz Gordon
- A Tale Of Two Sequels – Part One Featuring New Interviews With Director Michael A. Simpson, Cinematographer Bill Mills, Editor John David Allen And More 28 Mins) 
- Abandoned – The Filming Locations Of SLEEPAWAY CAMP II & III – A Tour Of The Shooting Locales (15 Mins) 
- Behind-The-Scenes Footage With Commentary By Michael A. Simpson (13 Mins) 
- Home Video Promotional Trailer (2 Mins) 
- Short Film: Whatever Happened to Molly? (2 Mins) 
- Still Gallery (49 Images) 

SLEEPAWAY CAMP III: TEENAGE WASTELAND (1988) 

Synopsis: Welcome to Camp New Horizons, where an autumn retreat brings together a group of obnoxious rich kids and surly city thugs for an "experiment in sharing." Under new inept management, this is the ideal setting for notorious psychopath Angela Baker (Pamela Springsteen, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers) to join the camp and do what she does best – eliminating "immoral" teenagers with everything from a knife to a lawnmower. Michael J. Pollard (House of 1000 Corpses, Bonnie & Clyde), Tracy Griffith (Fear City, The First Power) and Jill Terashita (Night of the Demons) co-star in this third installment of the cult series.

The third film in the series continues the campy humor-infused tone of the first sequel beginning with a strange opening, a young woman wakes up in the morning,  bare-breasted naturally, the words "milk" and "shake" are tattooed on her tiny titties, Walking down the street to where she is to catch the bus to camp she is run over by a garbage truck driven by  Angela (Pamela Springsteen) who then proceeds to steal her name and take her place at Camp New Horizons, which is the same location where she massacred campers and counselors just the year before, only this time she one of the campers, not a counselor. 

Camp New Horizon is run by the pervy Herman (Michael J. Pollard) and his obnoxious wife Lily (Sandra Dorsey) who have organized a little "social experiment in sharing" by mixing together underprivileged inner-city kids with more affluent kids, which sounds misguided and a recipe for certain disaster, now add murderous moral-crusader Angela into the mix and you have a corny camper-slasher loaded with carnage, titties and a surprising amount of racism, most of which I had forgotten about since my last viewing.

Officer Barney Whitmore (Cliff Brand) is the third counselor at the camp, and he just happens to be the father of one of Angela's victims from the year before. again, which puts Angela on edge. Again, the story is threadbare only serves to provide a backdrop to the murderous vignettes. Compared the the first sequel the carnage is amped up with more creative and gruesome deaths, which was a plus for me. Again, we have a few too many blows to the skull with tree limbs but Angela spices things up with a lawnmower, drops someone on their head from atop a flagpole and blows someones face off with a firecracker, it's good stuff and we have more blood or better orchestrated slasher scenes which the previous sequel was largely lacking. The Sleepaway Camp sequels are fun body count films, I enjoy the humor, but they do lose pints for a lack of suspense and tension, we know who the murderer is from the very beginning and they lack the impact of the originals shocker-ending, but as a goofy series of camp-slasher films they are hugely entertaining.

Scream factory again come through with some excellent supplemental material to enjoy after your viewing, again we have Audio Commentary With Director Michael A. Simpson And Writer Fritz Gordon, and the second part of the A Tale Of Two Sequels with new Interviews With Director Michael A. Simpson, Cinematographer Bill Mills, Actors Mark Oliver And Kim Wall, another wealth of information about the making of the film, again we have no input from star Pamela Springfield, but what we have is damn good stuff with some fun remembrances of the offbeat actor Michael J. Pollard and the making of the film.

There's another Behind-The-Scenes Footage With Commentary By Michael A. Simpson, Home Video Promotional Trailer, the Tony Lives Short Film,  and a Still Gallery. The best extra for my money is the longer Workprint Cut of the film, which has been sourced from a VHS, the longer cut is authentic to the fullframe VHS source, it look pretty scuzzy but you can now watch it with the gorier bits trimmed by request of the MPAA, and there's some good bloody bits that were cut from this one. A fantastic extra, this is the sort of extra you wish they could dig up for the Friday the 13th films. If you choose not to sit through the entire work print you can watch the extended gore sequences which have been collected in the Deleted Scenes Featuring Additional Gore Footage There's also a slipcover for the release with new artwork by Nathan Thomas Milner who also did the new artwork for Scream Factory's Sleepaway Camp and Sleepaway Camp II releases on Blu-ray. It'd be great if Scream could offer the trio of titles as a box set with a heavy-duty slipcase, sort of like the Nightbreed Director's Cut Limited Edition Blu-ray, offering it as a box set or as a separate slipcase you could purchase, which will never happen, but wouldn't that look great on your shelf? 

Special Features- Audio Commentary With Director Michael A. Simpson And Writer Fritz Gordon
- A Tale Of Two Sequels - Part Two Featuring New Interviews With Director Michael A. Simpson, Cinematographer Bill Mills, Actors Mark Oliver And Kim Wall And More (26 Mins) 
- Behind-The-Scenes Footage With Commentary By Michael A. Simpson (8 Mins) 
- Workprint Of The Longer Cut (From VHS) (85 Mins) 
- Deleted Scenes Featuring Additional Gore Footage (Taken From The Workprint) (19 Mins) 
- Home Video Promotional Trailer (3 Mins)
- Tony Lives Short Film (1 Min) 
- Still Gallery (49 Images) 

The Sleepaway Camp sequels stray from the tone and aesthetic of the original movie, eschewing the transgendered shock ending and the fallout thereof for a more straight-up comedy infused camp slasher that's more along the lines of Student Bodies (1981) or a Troma movie than anything resembling Friday the 13th. But they are fun and the filmmakers have their tongues planted in-cheek and Pamela Springsteen's performance as the crazed moral-avenger is fun stuff through and through, all the sleepaway Camp movies come recomended. 4/5 

ISLAND OF DEATH (1976) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

ISLAND OF DEATH (1976) 

Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: Region Free
Rating: 18 Certificate
Duration: 108 Minutes
Audio: Mono LPCM Audio English with Optional English SDH
Video: 1080p HD Open Matte (1.33:1) 

Cast: Robert Behling, Jane Lyle, Jessica Dublin

Director: Nico Mastorakis

Synopsis: Welcome to Mykonos, the holiday destination of choice for sun, sea and slaughter! From cult director Nico Mastorakis, Island of Death is a travelogue of atrocities with scenes so strong that the British Government was once compelled to ban it as a “video nasty”. Arriving on the idyllic Greek island, Christopher and Celia appear to be every inch the perfect, handsome young couple. Little do the welcoming locals realise that they are in fact a pair of murderous degenerates, determined to spread their own particular brand of perversion across the island. DIY crucifixions, opportunistic bestiality, sexual peeing and murder by all conceivable forms ensue – including death by makeshift blowtorch, samurai sword, dump truck and more!

Christopher (Bob Belling) and Celia (Jane Ryall) are a young English couple whom arrive on the small Greek vacation island of Mykonos for a bit of relaxation and good times. The island is simply gorgeous, the villas are clean with bright white painted walls, the locals are a colorful sort and the weather is fantastic. Upon arriving in such a wonderful place the young couple cram into a phone booth for a quickie while Christopher calls his mother in the midst of their fornicating only to taunt her with their naughtiness, which is very bizarre, but trust me, it gets way weirder! At this point we don't know much about this young couple but were pretty sure that both are probably right fucked in the head and the real fun hasn't even started as of yet.

Soon begins a deadly routine of the couple befriending various islanders, seducing them, photographing the dirty deed and then murdering the victims is a series of gruesome ways. This duo are demented nuts who see themselves as some sort of perverted avenging angels who exact severe punishment on sinners with odd proclivities, which is certainly odd as these two are clearly bat shit insane and drenched in sin, the reveal at the end of the film is the cherry on top of this exploitation sundae. 

Director Mastorakis freely admits he deliberately set out to shock audiences with this slice of exploitation nastiness after having watched Tobe Hooper's seminal shocker The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). He set pencil to paper and simply made a checklist of outrageous sexual perversions and disgusting murders, the sleazier the better, it must have looked something like this...

Incest with sister ✓ 

Sex with a goat  ✓

Sodomy ✓ 

Golden Showers ✓

A lynching from a plane ✓ 

Crucifixion ✓ 

Drowning in lye ✓ 

Death by sword ✓ 

Victimization of minorities ✓ 

Christian hypocrisy ✓ 

Death by spear gun ✓ 

Rape ✓ 

Christopher and Celia are not very likable people, they're definitely not people you can empathize with unless you happen to be a demented psychopath. This is not about sympathetic figures caught in an extreme situation who are forced to do the unthinkable, this is a film that simply enjoys seeing bad people act out terrible deeds upon what are largely undeserving victims. As sleazy as the film is it manages to be quite watchable with some decent cinematography shot by Mastrorakis himself and from a variety of skewed angles. Another quirky element that adds to the movie's charm is an odd folky soundtrack which brought to mind David Hess's score from Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972), there's also some strange narration which doesn't so much endear you to the lead characters as it does ad an element of black humor, the film is quite funny despite what my wife thought, looking at me shaking her head disapprovingly from the other room. Island of Death will never be mistaken for great cinema but I think it's a pretty fantastic watch for those predisposed to raunchy exploitation with a side of weirdness. According to director Mastorakis the c0-star of the film Bob Behling, who also appeared in Cujo (1983), committed suicide in a rather odd way, he apparently crammed a tube connected to a propane gas take down his throat and opened the valve, which sounds just awful.

Arrow Video had previously released Island of Death on DVD back in 2011 and have now simultaneously released it on Blu-ray in the US and UK with a brand new 2K restoration from the original negative, providing a nice bump in A/V quality, colors are more vibrant, skin tones appear more natural and there's a depth and clarity largely absent from the standard-def image. Texture and fine detail also have some nice HD gains

The a newly lossless mono audio also fares well enough, those quirky folk songs will be stuck in your head for a few days, the Blu-ray also offers an English subtitle option. 

Onto the bonus material we have some great new extras beginning with a massive four-part documentary exploring the films of Mastorakis, a thirty-eight minute piece with author Stephen Thrower discussing the movie, and a seventeen-minute piece with the director returning to the island of Mykonos where the film was shot. Additionally there's a 23-minute archival interview with Mastorakis, the original trailer, over a half-hour of Mastorakis film trailers. and five selections from the soundtrack. 

Separate from the disc extras we have a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys, but it's hard to top the original DVD artwork from Arrow, love it. There's also a fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by academic and film historian Johnny Walker.

Special Features:

- Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative, approved by writer-director-producer Nico Mastorakis
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Exploring Island of Death – film historian Stephen Thrower on the making of a cult classic (38 Mins)
- Return to Island of Death – Mastorakis returns to the original Mykonos locations (17 Mins)
- Archive interview with Mastorakis (24 Mins)
- Alternative opening titles (2 Mins)
- Island Sounds – five original tracks from the Island of Death soundtrack (24 Mins)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (3 Mins)
- The Films of Nico Mastorakis – four-part documentary charting the director’s filmmaking career (159 Mins) (Blu-ray Exclusive)
- Nico Mastorakis Trailer Reel (35 Mins) (Blu-ray Exclusive)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
- Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by academic and film historian Johnny Walker

Notably missing from the Blu-ray is the audio commentary with director Nico Mastorakis and author and Calum Waddell which was featured on the previous arrow Video DVD, which I can only assume is part of the fallout between High Rising Productions and Arrow Video. Also absent is the Mastorakis interview and a Q and A session, plus the 2010 re-recordings of “Destination Understanding” from “Island of Death” by the bands Kylie Minoise, Acid Fascists, Sea Bass Kid, Southern Tenant Folk and The Fnords. The original DVD release from Arrow also included a double-sided fold-out poster and a different collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by critic David Hayles.

Island of Death is wonderfully sleazy and faithfully lives up to it's reputation as a demented Video Nasty, a trashy piece of tastelessness and totally awesome. If you love raunchy exploitation movies this is a must own slice of shock-cinema. 

ALIEN OUTPOST (2015)

ALIEN OUTPOST (2015) 

Label: Scream Factory I IFC Midnight

Release Date: July 7th 2015 
Region Code: A

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 92 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD 7.1, DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Jabbar Raisani

Cast: Douglas Tait, Joe Reegan, Rick Ravanello, Reiley McClendon, Adrian Paul

Another week and we have another found-footage entry, this one is an alien-invasion war film shot docu-style with two journalist entering a war zone is Pakistan where we find a group of jarheads holding down Outpost 37 in a mountainous area of Pakistan. There's some world decent building right from the start with numerous text screens and confessional-style interviews with soldiers all of which establish the First Earth War of 2021, when a brutal alien force invaded Earth. The Earths forces were able to defeat the enemy, but during their retreat they left behind thousands of alien-soldiers, creating pockets of alien resistance which we are still fighting ten years later. . 

The human soldiers are a decent bunch of guys, not the most developed characters, but not quite the generic jarheads you might expect either. At times the docu-style cinematography felt a bit like watching a video game as you duck and dive and only catch glimpses of the larger picture around you, but you're never quite able to take in the whole picture, which left me wanting. The aliens are called "heavies" because of the heavy-armor they where, it is nearly impervious to standard weaponry, but the military have developed an armor-piercing round they calls "reds" that are nasty bit of business, which are cool, but you have to wonder why they have not developed something more massive after a decade of fighting the "heavies". 

Maybe one reason might be that the filmmakers have managed to create a world that seems based in reality and not too fantastic, the tech advances seem logical and not crazy advanced, we have no laser-weapons, meanwhile the "heavies" have plasma cannons. The endowment has a lived-in feel, the battle fatigued soldiers come across as standard alpha males, they're on a mission and are focused, but they are underfunded and over extended, and they are worn down. 

The "heavies" are glimpsed only fleeting for the most of the movie, they're hulking reptilian creatures armed with plasma rifles, they're humanoid and heavily armored, and they move really slowly. I liked the design and aesthetic of the aliens but their movement seemed unnaturally stilted which they didn't make for the most threatening menace, this was probably my least favored aspect of the film, they're underused and just not threatening enough, I found it hard to believe that ten years later we are still fighting these slow-moving invaders on our home turf. 

Thankfully we have a great cast of unrecognizable (to me, anyway) actors who do a great job in their respective roles, they sell the toughness and drama, and the battle sequences are well executed with some good large action set pieces throughout. The world-building touches help paint the bigger and more expansive picture, including the explanation of a world wide orbital defense system which is in place to deter future alien invasions, and it is brought to our attention that the local Pakistani people have an intolerance for the American jarheads, who they have violated their sovereignty, which feeds into the story later.  

The first two thirds of the story could be considered slow-paced, but they're creating the world with a lot of exposition put up through text screens and video interviews with the soldiers, there's discussion of the tumultuous political situation in the region and of course we're getting to know each of the soldiers, too. The final third is where the action comes on strong, we have a full on alien-incursion plenty of tense battle scenes, a lot of damage and one huge fireball, because who doesn't love an explosion, right? There's a nice twist that comes along towards the end that is hinted at throughout the movie, so while it wasn't a total surprise it was decent. 

Special Features
- Audio Commentary By Director/Co-Writer Jabbar Raisani And Director Of - Photography/Co-Writer Blake Clifton
- Interviews With Cast And Crew (16 Mins)
- Deleted Scenes (3 Mins)
- Theatrical Trailer (4 Mins) 

I'm not a huge fan of found-footage and docu-style shot movies, in fact I am pretty tired of it, but they did good with this one, the framing of the story didn't feel forced or awkward, until the shit hits the fan and then as ever I had to wonder who the fuck is still filming this? At least this one had the descency to point out we have a war-experienced cameraman shooting the footage, which counts for something. The young cast are solid, and while the story is not original the material is handled handled deftly. This one might not set the world on fire, in fact it will probably drift into obscurity, but this is a decent science-fiction actioner and deserving of a watch, at least a rental for sure. 2.5/5

DARK SUMMER (2015)

DARK SUMMER (2015) 

Label: Scream Factory I IFC Midnight

Release Date: July 7th 2015

Region Code: A

Duration: 82 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English SDH Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen

Director: Paul Solet

Cast: Keir Gilchrist, Maestro Harrell, Grace Phipps, Peter Stormare, Stella Maeve

It's been six years since director Paul Solet brought us the indie horror film Grace (2009), a solid film dealing with some disturbing and unsettling maternal issues, a film I would call a success, yet we had to wait six years for his follow-up feature, what is up with that? Apparently having a solid debut film under your belt does not mean that financiers will come crawling out he woodwork to finance your next movie, or maybe Solet's just not in a hurry to get to the next project, I have no idea, but whatever the reason for the delay it was worth the wait.  

Dark Summer has a set-up that will be familiar to most, it brings to mind Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window with an awkward young man named Daniel (Keir Gilchrist) having been placed under house arrest for committing cybertsalking, having hackd into the online account of classmate Mona (Grace Phipps), an odd young woman whom daniel  has had a crush on for years. However, he's a bit awkward and unsure of himself and has never had the courage to approach her in person or ask her out on a date, which is too bad, as the film plays on you will see why. 

Daniel is assigned a probation office named Stokes (Peter Stormare) who placed an ankle monitor on the young man and explains that he is not allowed to leave his property, cannot use the Internet (they are tracking his IP address) and cannot have his friends over. Of course, as soon the PO leaves his friends Kevin (Maestro Harrell) and Abby (Stella Maeve) show up with an iPad connected to wi-fi from another home, and he immediately sets about hanging poolside with his cohorts smoking weed before attempting to hack into Mona's cloud storage, this guy just doesn't wanna do right, but somehow he comes across as a likable guy. 

That night alone inn his room he receives a video chat from Mona who then proceeds to ramble off some cryptic words before putting a gun in her mouth and shooting herself dead. Afterward Daniel is understandably devastated, believing his violation of her online privacy might be the reason she committed suicide. Soon after he begins to experience a strange haunting of sorts, it seems that Mona's spectre is haunting him and she may be out for revenge against her cyberstalker. Not sure what the spirits motives might be Daniel and his pals begin to pry further into Mona's troubled life, all while keeping it on the down low from Stokes who comes off as slightly sinister himself.

I like the set-up, I like how they reference the Rear Window knock-off Disturbia (2007) which itself I believe was on the receiving end of a lawsuit for ripping Hitchcock, or the writer of the source material off. On top of the familiar thriller elements they layer in a supernatural and occult angle and the story takes a detour along the way, straying from what it originally seemed to be, which I appreciated. It's not too often these days anyone actually comes up with a twist that is nt broadcast from quite distance, and this one managed to keep the surprises pretty close to the vest. 

I am on board for pretty much anything Peter Stormare chooses to be part of and his presence here is appreciated, a soft-spoken but menacing authority figure who bares witness to the strange goings on from the outside looking in. The trio of cast members who make up the teen protagonist and his best friends are solid, Keir Gilchristis believable as an awkward sort of creepy cyberstalker, aloof but with a genuine presence, likewise his friends are decent teens too, but you do have to suspend your disbelief to a point when they go about sleuthing Mona's home in the dark of night, they go full-on into it without batting an eyelash, but when I was a teen I made a lot of stupid decisions, too. There's a decent subplot of Abby having had an unrequited crush on Daniel,, she having been off to the side admiring him from a distance and f course he never noticed, till now, which angers the vengeful spectre. I also enjoyed the way the movie subverted the creepy-stalker aspect of Daniel and Mona, turning that on it's head as the film progresses, not unloading all it's secrets at once, but slowly feeding them to you until the finale, which again turns on itself. 

The occult and supernatural elements are handled nicely, the movie is stylish and well shot, the supernatural elements are heightened by the atmospheric visuals further enhanced by a great score that takes advantage of haunting piano and cello orchestrations and electronic manipulation, it makes for a nice blend of the electronic and organic, creating a great tone and atmosphere throughout the movie.

I don't have any negatives about this one, unless you consider the languid pace a detraction, which I do not. I love a slow burn and at just 82-minutes it would be difficult to call it slow, but the pace can be a bit languid and measured, but with a purpose. I loved the twists and turns of the plot, but I can see the somewhat abrupt end not sitting comfortably with a few folks, though I have to say that I liked they way they brought it to a close and left it slightly open.

Dark summer arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of a fruitful distribution deal with Scream Factory and IFC Midnight which also brought us The Babadook (2014) and Extraterrestrial (2014) from the Vicious Brothers. The disc has some decent bonus content several short interview with director Paul Solet, the cast, composer Austin Wintory and a lengthier one with actor Peter Stomrare who speaks fondly of Solet and talks a bit about the acting lessons he picked-up on from working with cinema legend Ingmar Bergman. Additionally there's an audio commmentary from the director and a theatrical trailer, plus a slipcase cover. 

Special Features
- Audio Commentary With Director Paul Solet (2 Mins)
- Atmosphere And Style Featurette (2 Mins)
- Director Paul Solet Featurette (2 Mins)
- The Art Of Dark Summer Featurette (14 Mins)
- The Music Of Dark Summer Featurette ( 8 Mins)
- A Conversation With Peter Stormare Featurette (16 Mins)
- The Kids - Cast Interviews (2 Mins)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) 

Good to see Paul Solet making movies again, I hope it doesn't take another six years to see his next project come to surface. Dark summer is very good supernatural themed teen movie -- and there's not a lot of those these days -- the sort of movie you wished all those Twilight fans would support, its smart, stylish and doesn't play down to the audience. 3/5

TENTACLES / REPTILICUS DOUBLE FEATURE

TENTACLES / REPTILICUS DOUBLE FEATURE 

Label: Scream Factory
Rating: PG
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo, English DTS-HD MA Mono
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Ovidio G. Assonitis, Sidney W. Pink
Cast: John Huston, Claude Akins, Henry Fonda, Bo Hopkins, Shelley Winters, Delia Boccardo, Ann Smyrner, Bent Mejding, Asbjørn Andersen, Carl Ottosen, Mimi Heinrich, Povl Wøldike

TENTACLES (1976)

The first half of this schlock double feature is a Jaws rip-off from Italian director Ovidio G. Assonitis who also brought us the Exorcist knock-off Beyond the Door just a few years earlier in addition to writing the truly insane movie The Visitor (1979). We have a giant tentacled threat - an octopus - threatening a oceanfront resort community, the terror begins with the snatching a baby right out of a stroller by the creature, who comes right up to the shoreline and reaches at least ten-foot out of the water to snatch that kid. It's a great start, I am not sure why but I love it when horror films kill the kids, maybe I am demented. I just love the way it says to the viewer that anything could happen after this, we just killed a kid! 

As Jaw rip-offs go this one doesn't really ape the original all that much to be honest, but is clearly inspired by the summer film to end all summer films without a doubt, and what a cast! We have John Huston, Shelley Winters, Bo Hopkins, and Henry Fonda rounding out the cast, but Huston, Fonda and Winters are just barely in the movie, they're pretty wasted. Fonda is a millionaire building tunnel under the water, while Huston is a reporter investigating the construction and rash of deaths that seem to be related, and Bo Hopkins -- who gets plenty of screen time -- appears as a marine expert with a pair of trained killer whales at his disposal. 

Unfortunately this one does not go for a bunch of cheap thrills and is pretty restrained for the most part, the attacks by the octopus are pretty tame and mostly happen just off screen, my favorite being a tourist who is snatched by the octopus while swimming in a cove, his carcass carried off by the octopus with the feet comically protruding above the surface of the water while his wife screams in horror, unfortunately we don't get more goofiness of this nature but there are still plenty of cheap effects to enjoy, complete with stock footage, poor practical effects and the prerequisite use of miniature boats, which never looks good.  

Bo Hopkins is some sort of killer whale-whisperer who talks the marine mammals into battling the murderous octopus at the end of the film, but not before the octopus interrupts a catamaran race endangering the youth to the horror of parents who can only stand on the beach and scream helplessly. 

It's not a great movie but it is an entertaining creature feature with all the ecological warnings you might expect from a film of this type, but unfortunately it never goes full schlock and is a bit overlong at 100 minutes. Lovers of creature features will most likely enjoy this one though, with a strangely star-studded cast, a weird and wonderful score, and a pair of killer whales fighting a giant octopus are the highlights of this one.  

REPTILICUS (1957) 

The b-side to this b-movie double-feature is a very schlocky creature movie that is straight-up awful -- even by bad movie standards -- but it might be sort of entertaining to you if you watched a lot of the monster movie matinees on the weekends as a kid, which I did and even then I found this to be a bit of a slog to get through at first, and then I just embraced how awful it was and went with it. 

The simple premise goes that copper miners have unearthed a strange chunk of flesh from deep beneath the surface of the earth after it got caught up on a drill bit. The chunk of meat is brought to a museum for study but once it thaws it begins to regenerate, eventually evolving into a 40 foot monster which sets off on a rampage destroying the surrounding area and spewing a strange green substance from it's toothsome mouth.

I love a cheap monster movie but this one is REALLY CHEAP, chock full of awful puppetry, forced perspective and bad miniature models of cities and vehicles being destroyed by the truly goofy looking creature. On top of the cheap special effects you will have to endure some awful acting and eye-rolling dialogue which is further enhanced by the English-dubbing, this is a Danish movie that's been dubbed, for that added level of bad movie magic. 

Tentacles is a pretty decent watch and a lot of fun, such a strange (and wasted) cast, a weird score and some Orca on Octopus violence that you won't son forget. The b-side to this c-grade double feature is Reptilicus, a truly awful monster movie, and while some might find some enjoyment in just how inept it can be I think you would have to be a hardcore bad movie connoisseur to suffer through it. 2/5