CODE 46 (2003) (Blu-ray Review)

CODE 46 (2003)

Label: Olive Films
Release Date: February 16th 2016
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 93 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Jeanne Balibar,, Om Puri, Nina Fog

Code 46 is a forbidden love story masquerading as a small scope science fiction film, set in a dystopian future where the government stringently controls human-breeding based on genetic compatibility. If a couple are too closely linked genetically they are forbidden from having children together, this is what is known as a Code 46 violation, from which the movie takes it's name.

Into this future we have a government investigator William Geld played by Tim Robbins (The Player), who is sent to Shanghai from Seattle to investigate a case of passport forgery committed by a young woman named Maria Gonzalez played by Samantha Morton (A.I. Artificial Intelligence). Perhaps fueled by an empathy virus he's been infected with William  falls heads over heel for the woman he's investigating in a short 24-hour period, together they embark on a whirlwind romance, with him covering up her crime, before heading back to Seatte the next day, home to his wife and child.

Once he returns he cannot forget her, and when the case is re opened after a death he is sent back to Shanghai to finish the investigation. There he tracks down Maria to a medical facility where she been given an abortion for a Code 46 violation, additionally she has had all memories of her encounter with William erased, which sort of brought to mind Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind, but on  whole other dystopian future levels, these are government sponsored mind-wipes and abortion, scary stuff.

I love these small scope sci-fi movies, this one in particular presents quite a few themes and threads which are brought to the screen rather matter-of-factly and without the burden of a lot of over explanation about the how and why of things, which might bother some but I liked. It portrays the one-world of the future as ethnically diverse, there's a lot of language cross-pollination, which is another a nice touch. Visually the movie imagines the brave-new-world as nothing too extraordinary, this is grounded in a reality not too dissimilar from our own, peppered with stylish and slightly futuristic aesthetic, with walled-in cities for the privileged citizens and very basic shanty towns on the outside where criminals are exiled.

Robbins comes across as a bit tired or bland in the role of the philandering investigator, it sort of reminded me of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation by way of Gattaca. I think this is a choice, not a ding on his performance by any means. Samantha Morton is desirable as the forger and love interest of the story, I can see the appeal for Robbins character, she is a mysterious and attractive young woman, Morton is a strong actress with a undeniable presence. Like Robbins she pays it a bit subdued, though there's a lot of depth just below the surface of her character, who also narrates the story. I have not seen a ton of her stuff but f you would like to see her boil over in a seething performance check her out in the thriller The Harvest from director John McNaughton, in which she is straight-up terrifying. 

The disc from Olive Films presents the film with a pleasing 1080p transferred framed in the scope aspect ratio. Colors are strong and nicely saturated, skin tones look good all the way around. The disc comes with only the option to view the movie with an English language DTS-HD Stereo 2.0 option, with no subtitles. The dialogue is crisp and clean, and the evocative score from David Holmes sounds just fine, but I do wish they would have carried over the surround audio option from the DVD. 
  
The only extras on the disc is a trailer for the movie, not carried over from the 2004 DVD are a selection of deleted scene and the "Obtaining Cover: Inside Code 46" featurette, so if you are upgrading you may want to hold onto the DVD.

The movie has a haunting quality about it, the ending particularly sad and thought provoking, which caught me by surprise since most science fiction movies don't have much of emotional impact on me, but that is why I say this is a love story wrapped in the trappings of a sci-fi film, at the core this is a story about forbidden love in a cold future world. If a mash-up of Lost in Translation and Gattaca sounds like good time to you I think you will enjoy this one. 3/5

THE AMERICAN HORROR PROJECT ON DUAL FORMAT BD/DVD - FEBRUARY 23rd 2016

THE AMERICAN HORROR PROJECT 

ON DUAL FORMAT BD/DVD - FEBRUARY 23rd 2016

Arrow Video is pleased to announce the American Horror Project, a new series of box-sets which sees a variety of rarely seen and long-forgotten cult horror films being restored and returned from obscurity and risk of being lost forever due to fragility of original film material. American Horror Project will ensure that these unique slices of the American Nightmare are brought back into the public consciousness and preserved for all to enjoy in brand new High Definition transfers from the best surviving elements.

The first volume of the series will be released Feb 23rd2016, with Arrow Video committed to bringing these lesser-known efforts of US genre cinema back into the limelight where they belong. The set will be limited to a run of only 3000 copies.

American Horror Project is a story of the unsung heroes of American horror cinema – films from the USA’s golden age of terror which, for a multitude reasons, have either slipped through the cracks or never gained the recognition they so richly deserve. Films that aren’t mentioned by movie fans in the same hushed tones of reverence as The Exorcist or Halloween – but are every bit as bold, bloody and bizarre as their more famous counterparts.

Synopsis: Everyone knows the classic American horror titles: Night of the Living Dead, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street, to name but a few. But we want to tell you a different story: a story of the unsung heroes of stars-and-stripes terror, films that have remained on the fringes of the genre either through lack of availability or else sheer obscurity. This is where American Horror Project comes in.

Volume One of this series presents three tales of violence and madness from the 1970s. Malatesta's Carnival of Blood (Christopher Speeth, 1973) sees a family arrive at a creepy, dilapidated fairground in search of their missing son, only to find themselves at the mercy of the cannibalistic ghouls lurking beneath the park. Meanwhile, The Witch Who Came from the Sea (Matt Cimber, 1976), stars Millie Perkins (The Diary of Anne Frank) as a young woman whose bizarre and violent fantasies start to bleed into reality - literally. Lastly, every parent's worst nightmare comes true in The Premonition (Robert Allen Schnitzer, 1976), a tale of psychic terror in which five-year-old Janie is snatched away by a strange woman claiming to be her long-lost mother.

Newly remastered from the best surviving elements and contextualised with brand new supplementary material, American Horror Project proudly presents an alternative history of American horror and film heritage.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
· Brand new 2K restorations of the three features
· High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard DVD presentations
· Original Mono 1.0 audio (Uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays)
· English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
· Reversible sleeves for each film featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by the Twins of Evil
· American Horror Project Journal Volume One - Limited edition 60-page booklet featuring new articles on the films from writers Stephen Thrower(Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents), Kim Newman (Nightmare Movies), Kier-La Janisse (House of Psychotic Women) and Brian Albright (Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990: A State-by-State Guide with Interviews)

MALATESTA'S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD
· Introduction to the film by Stephen Thrower
· Audio Commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith
· The Secrets of Malatesta - an interview with director Christopher Speeth
· Crimson Speak - an interview with writer Werner Liepolt
· Malatesta's Underground - art directors Richard Stange and Alan Johnson discuss the weird, mysterious world of Malatesta's underground
· Outtakes
· Draft script (BD/DVD-ROM content)
· Stills gallery

THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA

· Introduction to the film by Stephen Thrower
· Audio commentary with director-producer Matt Cimber, actress Millie Perkins and director of photography Dean Cundey
· Tides and Nightmares - brand new making-of documentary featuring interviews with Cimber, Perkins, Cundey and actor John Goff
· A Maiden's Voyage - archive featurette comprising interviews with Cimber, Perkins and Cundey
· Lost at Sea - director Cimber reflects on his notorious cult classic

THE PREMONITION

· Introduction to the film by Stephen Thrower
· Isolated score
· Audio commentary with director-producer Robert Allen Schnitzer
· Pictures from a Premonition - brand new making-of documentary featuring interviews with Schnitzer, composer Henry Mollicone and cinematographer Victor Milt
· Archive interviews with Robert Allen Schnitzer and star Richard Lynch
· Three Robert Allen Schnitzer short films: 'Vernal Equinox', 'Terminal Point' and 'A

Rumbling in the Land'
· 4 Peace Spots
· Trailers and TV Spots

DETAILS:
Region: Free
Rating: 18
Cat No: FCD1207
Duration: 251 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1/2.35:1
Audio: Mono
Discs: 6

RED KROKODIL (2012) (DVD Review)

RED KROKODIL (2012) 

Label: One 7 Movies
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
duration: 88 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 with Optional Italian, French Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Domiziano Cristopharo
Cast:  Brock Madson, Valerio Cassa, Viktor Karam

Synopsis: Red Krokodil tells the story of a man meant to represent all men. It is the story of a man addicted to Krokodil , that suddenly finds himself alone in a post-nuclear city similar to Chernobyl. His physical decay, caused by the massive intake of drugs, is mirrored in his inner world, as reality mixes with hallucinations. The result is a film that uses the Krokodil as a metaphor of destruction. 

Director Domiziano Cristopharo's film Red Krokodil (2012) combines post-nuclear suffering with Krokodil addiction to tell a dark and hopeless story of a man living in an apartment of a high-rise in Russia after the bomb has dropped. The man without a name (actor Brock Madson) is wrapped in gauze bandages and wearing only some well-worn undies, he spends his days concocting his drug of choice while hallucinating of bunny-faced strangers, detached from reality and entwined within his own psychological issues brought on by the drug-use, wallowing in despair and waiting for death. 

The movie is largely dialogue free aside from some narration from our main character, who speaks cryptically of how he has lost his way and of his descent into madness All the while his body is decomposing, a compounded flesh-rot brought on by what I assume to be radiation sickness and the ill effects of the drug krokodil - a scarily real-life drug. Actor Brock Madson does an alright job in the wordless role, I found it hard to gauge as so very little is happening externally for him, the performance is largely internal, portraying addiction, a deteriorating mental state, confusion and frustration, and to that end he is very successful. 

The setting of the apartment is a dirty place, there's a layer of filth on the walls and floor, the place gave me an icky feeling, definitely the sort of movie that requires a shower afterward. By design the story and movie is dark and depressive, and it made for a challenging viewing, the minimal story and dark tone didn't keep me plugged in. I really struggled to make it through this one, this sort of movie is just not for me, it didn't engage me personally but I know movie fans who dig this sort of slit-your-wrist cinema, but I am not one among them.

The disc from One 7 Movies presents the film in anamorphic widescreen, the image quality is quite good for a low-budget movie. Th colors are desaturated, but the colors and black levels are good. I didn't notice and artifacting or compression issues, this a very fluid image. Audio comes by way of an English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 track with optional Italian and French subtitles. The box indicates an English subtitle option, but there are none. Extras include two deleted scenes, a selection of trailers, the ending with alternate music, a photo gallery and test footage for the ending scene. A pretty well-stocked release by One 7 Movies standards, which are isuallu pretty light on bonus content. 

Special Features:
- Ending with Alternate Music (3 Mins) 
- Deleted Scenes (5 Mins) 
- Trailers (4 Mins) 
-Teaser Trailer (1 Mins) 
- Photo Gallery (3 Mins) 
- Test FX for Ending Scene (1 Mins) 

Watching this I was reminded of another film that was not awful, but like this, wasn't for me, that was the movie was Phil Stevens' Flowers (2014) from Unearthed Films. If you were a fan of that you might dig the sort of darkness this is dredging up, for me it was a chore to get through, turns out post-nuclear drug addiction is a hard thing to watch, and maybe that was the point. Stay away from drugs kids, they're bad for you. 2/5 

COMIN' AT YA! (1981) (MVD Blu-ray 2D/3D Review)

COMIN' AT YA! (1981) 

Label: MVD Entertainment Group
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 Surround, DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: Ferdinando Baldi
Cast: Tony Anthony, Gene Quintano, Victoria Abril, Ricardo Palacios, Lewis Gordon

American star Tony Anthony and Italian Director Ferdinando Baldi teamed-up again for one more spaghetti western following the success of The Stranger films from the '70s. This movie is not part of that cycle, this was something altogether different, a novel idea at the time, they made an in-your-face 3D spaghetti western. Truth be told, against the odds this movie seems to be the one that launched the third-wave of three-dimensional films we saw in the early 1080s> Without this eye-popping Western there might not have ever been a Jaws 3D, Friday the 13th 3D or even an Amityville 3D ...for better or worse, depending on your view of '80s 3D cheese. As a kid in the eighties I remember when Jaws 3D aired on TV and you had to go to the local grocery store to get your 3D glasses to watch, which was cool, because unfortunately I never caught any of the '80s 3D movies in the theater. 

In Comin' At Ya! Tony Anthony stars as H.H. Hart who at the open of the movie is about to be married to his beautiful bride Abilene (Victoria Abril, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down) when two low-life white slavers burst into the church and blast the priest and Hart. They make off with Abiline slung over their shoulder while Hart lays helpless on the floor, wounded. Hart's wounds heal ridiculously fast and he sets off in search of the villainous scum who nabbed his wife.  The wife-nabbers are the Thompson Brothers, Pike (Gene Quintano) and Polk (Ricardo Palacios), treacherous white slavers who raid borders towns for young women, whom they sell to brothels and despot generals down south in Mexico. 

That's pretty much the plot of the movie, we have Hart tracking down the duo, saving his bride and having his revenge -- there's not much else to it. As a late period spaghetti-western director Ferdinando Baldi packs in a lot of the tropes you've come to expect, even borrowing a few from his previous films with Tony Anthony. The movie is short on originality or substance of any kind, but it does capture the look and the feel of a classic spaghetti-western with the widescreen scope cinematography and dusty vistas. 

For his part Anthony is decent enough if somewhat bland at times as H.H. Hart, the guy doesn't have a whole lot of character about him, but he looks good in the part and handles the action well-enough. Victoria Abril who would go onto fame in a string of Pedro Almodovar productions is an attractive woman, though she is not given much to do aside from getting smacked around when she offers lip or getting dragged behind a horse through the ocean surf just long enough to bare her breasts.  Our white-slaver villains are decent, particularly the heavy-set Ricardo Palacios who comes off with a bit of Paul L. Smith about him, he's the greasier of the pair, way more menacing than his brother. 

As the movie that fired the first shot on the '80s 3D renaissance it does manage to throw just about everything right into your face from the opening credits, which seem to go on forever, this one is definitely padded for running time. This is the sort of shameless in-your-face we no one is willing to do anymore, now it's all about depth of field, but back in the '80s it was all about what can we throw in your face, and I loved it. The use of the 3-D is fun, but overused to the nth degree, however, if you love it when stuff is flying off the screen and seemingly into your face you are in for quite a treat. The opening title credits alone offer a a snake, watermelons, beans and a pistol being fired into your face, throughout you get the standard yo-yo scene with it right in your face, and other assorted cornball stuff, it's cheap but I loved it. 

Some of my favorite use of the gimmick comes when Hart is pursued by a native American who is part of the Thompson's gang, he throws spears which come straight into your face. A short time later Hart is chased into a ban, his pursuer firing a quick succession of flaming arrows which set the barn on fire. The third dimension is used to great effect, and the scene is a bunch of action-packed 3D fun. There's also a lot of slow-motion action in the movie, and for the most it works pretty well. As with the 3D it is used a bit too much, but when taken in as a gimmick-riddled 3D spaghetti-western I was alright with it. 

Audio/Video: Comin' At Ya! arrives on Blu-ray from MVD Entertainment from a brand new 4K Master supervised and produced by Tony Anthony himself and Tom Stern (In God's Hands), through his company Sternco 3D. Benefiting from a frame by frame digital conversion of the polarized over-and-under format of the original print, sourced from a brand new internegative into the MVC 3D format. The results are generally pleasing, the source shows some minor white speckling and scratches throughout, as are what appear to be numerous instances of dirt or debris on the the actual lens in numerous shots. While the movie may have been converted frame by frame for digital 3D conversion it doesn't appear to have been treated to a frame-by-frame restoration or clean-up. Though generally colors and black levels are adequate, they're just not stunning. This was my first watch of the movie, with nothing to compare it to I cannot say for sure how accurate this is to the original theatrical presentation. I would assume that some of the 3D effects have been modified to a degree, but for those who complain that modern 3D movies don't jump off the screen enough, you're in for a treat, the depth of field for this one is right up in your face!

Audio options come by way of DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 and DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0, the new surround sound mix is pretty good, with some nice use of the surrounds. I did hear some minor audio hiss and a few pops throughout the movie though, but it was not awful. There are no subtitle options on the disc. Of note is the lyrical score from Carlo Savina, which seems a much finer score than this particular movie would call for, that was an unexpected treat, and the lossless audio option only sweetens it.

The only extras on the disc are a six-minute promo trailer and a two-minute trailer for the movie. I would have loved a restoration demo or something about the Blu-ray 3D conversion process, or even an interview with star Tony Anthony, the lack of anything is a missed opportunity.

Special Features:
- Promo (6 Mins) HD
- Trailer (2 Mins) HD

While the story offers nothing new and the performances are just decent, I think the 3D gimmick saves this western to a degree, it falls a mile short of the Westerns we saw from Sergio Leone or Sergio Corbucci but it is nonetheless a wildly entertaining 3D novelty for fans of the Italian westerns. 

PIECES (1983) 3 DISC DELUXE EDITION (Grindhouse Blu-ray Review)

PIECES (1983) 

3-DISC DELUXE EDITION BD/CD 

Label: Grindhouse Releasing:
Release Date: March 1st 2016
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 83 Minutes, 86 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0, Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0, Vine Theater Experience English Dolby Digital Surround 5.1
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Juan Piquer Simon
Cast: Jack Taylor, Christopher George, Paul L. Smith, Lynda Day George, Bruce Le, Robert Purdom

Spanish filmmaker Juan Piquer Simón's Pieces (1983) opens in 1942 as an adolescent boy assembles a nudie jigsaw puzzle on his bedroom floor as his mother bursts into the room and catches him with the naughty novelty. She chastises the boy with taunts that he is a louse just like his father before she smashes a picture of dear old dad against a mirror. While she searches the boy's room for more naughty contraband she sends the boy to fetch a garbage bag, but he returns with an axe instead which he thrusts repeatedly into her cranium. With mother properly dead he sets aside the axe in favor of a handsaw which he uses to saw off her head, which he places inside a closet before finishing-up his preciously lewd jigsaw puzzle. Eventually the police are alerted by a worrisome nanny and arrive on scene, when they find the young boy in the closet they assume he's the survivor of the grisly ax-attack and not the fiendish culprit.

Some forty years later the adolescent murderer now a disturbed adult who keeps mementos from the massacre hidden away in a shoe box, inside are his mother's blood spattered flower print dress and shoes, plus the naughty jigsaw puzzle now stained with mother's blood. The killer appears to have kept his murderous urges at bay for all these years but when he witnesses a young girl skateboard into a pane of mirrored glass it resurrects his long dormant blood lust and fascination with kinky jigsaw puzzles. The killer begins to terrorize a Boston area college slaughtering young ladies with a chainsaw, collecting their body parts and assembling them into a perverse human jigsaw puzzle of his own creation.

The first piece of the heinous body-puzzle is a co-ed who the killer finds sprawled out on the campus lawn, her head severed with a chainsaw in an artfully shot kill as her head spins through the air followed by a crimson wave of blood. The shocking murder is investigated by Lt. Bracken (Christopher George, The Exterminator) and Sgt. Holden (Frank Brana, Slugs) who arrive on campus to inform the Dean of Students (Robert Purdom, Don't Open Till Christmas) of their odd plan to place police woman Mary Riggs (Linda Day George, Day of the Animals) undercover as a tennis coach in an effort to identity the maniac. Top on the list of suspects is a cock-eyed gardener maned Willard (Paul L. Smith, Sonny Boy) who appears in near every scene with chainsaw in hand, after that we have the odd Prof. Brown (Jack Taylor, Eugenie ...the story of Her Journey into Perversion), and young college student named Kendall (Ian Sera, The Pod People) who has been near the scene of each of the murders ...so of course the cops deputize him and make him part of the investigation. With this brilliant dragnet in place what could possibly go wrong?
  
The investigation does little to deter the chainsaw slasher who dismembers several more co-eds in quick succession. The killer decked in the latest Giallo fashions sports a black trench coat, black leather gloves and a black fedora, it is a very stylish and menacing get-up to be sure. He literally nets the next victim while she skinny dips in a pool and then dismembers her leaving a neat pile of severed limbs right next to the instrument of her death. When the body is discovered the Lt. calls Prof. Brown to the scene and asks if he thinks that perhaps the chainsaw next to the corpse, it's teeth covered in chunks of meat and gore, might possibly be the murder weapon, which is a nice bit of what-the-fuckery. A third victim is a dancer caught in an elevator by our stealthy sicko who somehow sneaks a running, yellow chainsaw into the confines of a small elevator. The woman recognizes the killer's identity but doesn't seem to notice the gas-powered chainsaw behind his back until it's too late. The gore effects in the film are surprisingly gruesome, with plenty of disembowelment, dismemberment, chainsaw savaged flesh and multiple stabbings perpetrated against a variety of nude women. Two of the best kills are left for last, we get an artful Argento worthy slow-mo stabbing on a water bed and a gruesome locker room evisceration with the chainsaw tearing through flesh. It may be a bit surprising just how much great gore is crammed into such a silly film, particularly considering how goofy some of the film's more dramatic elements are. Let's not forget a nutty kung-fu professor which is perhaps one of the most random chop-suey fueled nonsensical moments in all of horror film history, a scene that will leave you scratching your head in wonderment.

One of my favorite scenes comes immediately following the elevator death when all of the film's red-herrings are gathered together in a hallway looking suspicious beyond belief as the lightning dramatically illuminates their faces, a completely hilarious moment straight out of  an episode of Scooby-Doo. The film's final moments are bat-crap insane as one shocking reveal careens preposterously into a shocking, ball-shredding, ending that will leave you speechless and gasping for air. There's nothing else like it out there, not sure if the inherent camp is intended but I don't see how it possibly could be, this is the kind of stuff you just can't plan for and is most likely a happy accident of schlocky b-movie cinema. While there's no other film quite like it I would make a comparison toe Lucio Fulci's The House by the Cemetery which is equally gore-tastic while also uniquely absurd.

Pieces is a very silly movie, it borders on a slasher-parody, but what saves it from pure-camp are some gloriously gruesome gore scenes that rival anything you will see in a more venerated classic slasher. Some of the funky English dubbing might actually enhance the charm of the movie, the dialogue is straight-up crazy. Perhaps the most memorable quote from the movie is Linda Day George's notorious blood curdling shrieks of "BASTARD!" in a bizarre, oddly paced succession, just one of the weird and wonderful oddities of this splatter-classic. Plus we have some fine appearances from Euro-cult all-stars Jack Taylor, Christopher George, Edmund Purdom, and the reddest herring in all of cinema, Mr. Paul L. Smith. The cinematography is above average for an early 80's slasher, too. Perhaps not on par with the works of Argento or Fulci but not too shabby either, that water-bed murder sequence definitely stands out

Audio/Video: Grindhouse Releasing have gone back to the original camera negative for a brand new 4K scan of the movie, and WOW is all I can say about the results. Film grain is nicely managed, the details and textures have never been more crisp and the the colors are more vibrant than ever. I wasn't quite prepared for how robust this gory grindhouse classic would look in 1080p with improved depth and clarity, this is well worth a double or triple dip, as some who own both eh previous Grindhouse and Arrow Video releases I can assure you that you need this in your life. 

The main feature has two audio options, we have the English language version with the library music score featuring Steve Cipriani, Carlo Maria Cordio and Fabio Frizzi and the original, uncensored director's cut presented in Spanish with an original score from Librado Pastor (Don't Panic), both presented with DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 audio. Both come through clean, with the English version having not just the better fidelity, but the better score in my opinion. The Librado Pastor piano score seems a bit clunky in comparison, but both pale in comparison to the Umberto synth re-score also found on this disc. 

The first disc contains the feature length movie, in two version, we now have the Mil Gritos Tiene La Noche (86 Mins) version – the original uncensored director’s cut, presented in Spanish with original score by Librado Pastoras, the versions are seamlessly branched. There's a brand new commentary from Eurocult star Jack Taylor moderated by Calum Waddell with the star reflecting on how he came to appear in the gore-classic, also touching on other facets of his career, reminiscing about the director and his co-stars, mentioning that this was not some great piece of art, ha ha.  A very cool extra is the option to watch the movie with the Matt Hill (Umberto) re-score which he performed live an Beyond Fest and Mono Con. This score is available on CD and vinyl under the title 'The Night Has A Thousand Screams'. Unfortunately the audio option is a music only track, too bad they couldn't have it re mixed into the film as a viewing option with dialogue and sound effects.

Finishing up disc one we have a collection of stills galleries, each focusing on the various video releases, lobby posters, and print ads for the movie. Among these is a video of Simon culling through various lobby cards for the film and nudie pics from the audition process, which are also included in one of the galleries. There are at least two Easter egg tucked away on the main menu of the first disc, one of Eli Roth introducing the film at the New Beverly Cinema and mixing it up with fans waiting in line, while singing the praises of Pieces. This video also has a snippet of actor Clu Gulager (The Initiation) giving an appreciation of the gore-classic! Also hidden away is a an additional five-minutes of J.P. Simon looking at more lobby cards and more  nude shots from the audition process.

Onto disc two of this magnificent set we find the interviews with director Juan Piquer Simón and actor Paul L. Smith from the previous DVD release, both are great, with the Paul L. Smith not just touching on Pieces, but also David Lynch's Dune, Popeye, Red Sonja and Crimewave with Sam Raimi. Grindhouse have also added a brief three-minute audio only interview with Producer Steve Minasian who speaks a bit about the troubled distribution of the movie and being ripped-off by another producer.

The main course on the second disc is the Calum Waddell and Naomi Holwill produced documentary '42nd Street Memories' which is a ton of fun. This is the story of the rise and fall of 42nd street, beginning with its history as a pre-depression era venue for vaudeville acts, descending into a pit of sleaze in the '70s and '80s until it was cleaned-up by Mayor Rudolph Guilliani in the '90s. What makes this one so damn fun is the slew of notable directors and distributors speaking first hand about what a cesspool many of the theaters were. We have appearances from directors Bill Lustig, Larry Cohen, Frank Henenlotter, Buddy Giovinazzo, Jeff Lieberman, Matt Comber, and Joe Dante among others. Well worth a watch, and a lovely tribute to the seedy underbelly of NYC cinemas. The doc is stuffed with vintage video and images of the infamous block, including clips from movies like Nightmare in a Damaged Brain, The Exterminator, Basket Case and The Massage Parlor Murders that features the neon-lit strip in it's heyday. 

Easter eggs tucked away on disc two include a clip of J.P. Simon speaking about Christmas themed horror films, mentioning the the Dick Randell produced Don't Open Till Christmas. The bios contain a few videos, too. One is a funny one-minute promo for Don't Open Till Christmas with producer Dick Randell, the other is a three-minute clip of producer Steve Minasian speaking about promoting Mark of the Devil with the now infamous vomit-bag. You may also find a one-minute clip of Paul L. Smith speaking about a few movies he enjoys, plus another brief clip of Smith behind-the-scene during the interview. Author Michael Worth chimes in with a hidden two-minute clip shedding some light on how Bruce Le happened to appear in the movie in that weird kung-fu scenario. The last hidden interview I found was a two-minute clip of J.P. Simon going through some behind-the-scenes shots of his other movies like Devil's Island and The Crack, some cool special effects make-up shots.

Among the in-depth bios and filmographies are trailers for Primative World (4 Mins), Ecco (4 Mins), Don't Look in the Basement (1 Mins), Mark of the Devil (1 Mins), Last House on the Left (1 Mins), City of the Living Dead (3 Mins), Day of the Animals (1 Mins), and Witchcraft '70 (2 Mins). There are also a videos of Smith speaking about working on his Russian accent for Richard Donner's Maverick, and a three-minute clip of J.P. Simon speaking about his own personal favorite movies.

Separate from the disc extras we have a very handsome embossed slipcover with vibrant coloring - this one really pops and looks stunning on the shelf. Inside there's an eight-page collector's booklet with liner notes by horror journalists Rick Sullivan (Gore Gazette) and Chas. Balun (Deep Red). The Balun notes are also fond on the 2008 DVD release from Grindhouse, the Rick Sullivan entry is new to this release.  

Again Grindhouse have included the original motion picture soundtrack for the English version on a separate CD with a slipcase, much like they have for Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, The Big Gundown and The Beyond. I hope they keep this up, love getting the soundtrack with the movies. Also of note, the first 3000 units include an actual 15-piece jigsaw puzzle of the infamous nude puzzle from the movie, which is just all kinds of awesome. 

Special Features:
– Two complete versions of this shocking gore classic: PIECES (83 min.) – the original, unrated U.S. theatrical version, presented in English. MIL GRITOS TIENE LA NOCHE (86 min.) – the original uncensored director’s cut, presented in Spanish with original score by Librado Pastor
– Spectacular new 4K transfers – scanned from the original camera negative
– Brand New Audio Commentary by star Jack Taylor moderated by Callum Waddel
– Special 5.1 audio option – the Vine Theater Experience!
– In-depth interviews with director Juan Piquer Simón (55 Mins) and genre superstar Paul L. Smith (58 Mins)
- Audio Interview with Producer Steve Minasian (3 Mins)
– 42nd STREET MEMORIES – all-new feature-length documentary containing interviews with Bill Lustig, Larry Cohen, Frank Henenlotter, Buddy Giovinazzo, Jeff Lieberman, John Skipp, Lynn Lowry, Terry Levene, and many other exploitation icons (82 Mins)
– Extensive Gallery of Stills and Poster ArtL Production stills (20 Images) HD, Publicity Materials (22 Images) HD, Video Releases (39 Images) HD, Bits and Pieces (60 Images) HD, Juan Piquer's Still Show (8 Mins) SD
– Exhaustive Filmographies
- Grindhouse Releasing Previews (36 Mins) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (1 Mins) HD
– Liner notes by legendary horror journalists Rick Sullivan (GORE GAZETTE) and Chas. Balun (DEEP RED)
– BONUS CD – original soundtrack – newly remastered from the original studio tapes
- Beautiful embossed slipcover
– First 3000 units include an actual jigsaw puzzle! Strictly limited to 3000 units!

Pieces could be considered an awful film, that beyond reason has turned into one of my favorite slasher movies of all time. A none too subtle demented chainsaw slasher that's straight-up ridiculous and bat-crap crazy, but I love it and consider this a must own schlockfest. Te new Grindhouse 3-Disc Deluxe Edition BD/CD is the finest it has ever looked. Worth the double-dip alone for the '42nd Street Memories' doc, this is a knock out of a release.  5/5

CONVERGENCE (2015) (Blu-ray Review)

CONVERGENCE (2015) 

Label: Dark Sky Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Drew Hall
Cast: Clayne Crawford, Ethan Embry, Mykelti Williamson, Gary Grubbs, Chelsea Bruland, Casey Myers, Catalina Soto Aguilar Kind, Alysha Ochse

Convergence is a pretty ambitious thriller that is set in the city of Atlanta in 1999, where we have an off-duty detective named Ben Walls (Clayne Crawford) who is called back on duty after a horrendous bombing at an abortion clinic. While at the crime scene he is caught in a secondary bomb blast, awakening some time later at the hospital, where he discovers he's been surprisingly uninjured by the blast, though he does seem a bit disoriented. His Captain Saul Miller (Mykelti Williamson) is in the room when he wakes up and encourages Walls to stay in bed, but Walls gets dressed an wanders out into the hallway of the hospital ...right away something seems off about the place,  the halls are empty, and there's not a soul in sight. He does happen upon the Southern-voiced Nurse Delilah (Bruland), she has the most striking eyes, and her nurses uniform seems straight out of the 1950s. Ben asks where his friends might be and the nurse directs him to the Chapel, where he eventually finds Miller with a group[ of strangers, who like the nurse seem to be dressed in clothes from a different decade, they're also having a cryptic conversation that doesn't make sense at first. 

As Walls continues to explore the hospital he encounters more odd character, including a security officer named Peter Grayson (Gary Grubbs), who is gunned-down in front of Walls. Shortly after the murder walls runs into Miller who doesn't seem to believe Walls, attributing the incident to trauma from the blast. Turns out there's a menacing EMT named Daniel (Ethan Embry) at the hospital who seems to be a cult-leader with a group of acolytes  willing to kill for him, he refers to himself as the "Hand of God". Embry is a frightening guy, which seemed like an odd turn for the guy whose gone from '90s comedies like Empire Records and Vegas Vacation to pure badassery, appearing in the Incident on and Off a Mountain Road episode of the Masters of Horror TV series, Embry has a lot of range, able to go from aloof to murderous, and he is probably the most striking performance here, which is good, because in all honesty our lead Clayne Crawford as walls is a bit on the bland side.

Wall must contend with not just Daniel's growing legion of murderous followers but also with a mysterious supernatural component by way of shadowy mist figures who appear from time to time, the images of the mysterious mist figures are striking and well composed. I don't think it will spoil too much if I say that there's a point in the movie when a group of amateur paranormal investigators arrive, and I liked very much where it went from there, it was unexpected but effective. The movie juggles elements of both an action-packed crime thriller with more supernatural horror, it's not a perfect marriage but it is potent. This is the kind of movie I struggled to wrap my head around the first go around, it took a subsequent viewing to fully appreciate the scope of it, and I liked that, this is a challenging movie in a good way, it doesn't drop everything in your lap, you have to do some of the thinking for yourself, but in a good way. 

Convergence arrives on Blu-ray from Dark sky Films looking crisp in HD, the 1080p presentation offers a solid A/V presentation, the surround sound mix is strong with some good use of surrounds used for atmospheric effects, nothing too dramatic though. There are a few extras on the disc, we have a brief making of featurette and seventeen-minutes of deleted and extended scenes, in addition to a handful of Dark Sky trailers for One Eyed Girl, Deathgasm, Applesauce and the '80s rocker doc I Am Thor, which I am dying to see. 

Special Features
- Making Of (7 Mins) HD 
- Deleted and Extended Scenes (17 Mins) HD 
- Trailer (2 Mins) HD 
- Dark Sky Films Trailers: Applesauce (2 Mins) HD, One Eyed Girl (2 Mins) HD, I Am Thor (2 Mins) HD, Deathgasm (2 Mins) HD

If you're looking for something not quite horror, something more psychological with some supernatural trappings and some decent action I think Convergence might be just the movie for you. It holds up to a second viewing, revealing things I didn't catch the first time around, this one might make you think a bit about life and what happens after death, and that can't be a bad thing. 3/5

HELLIONS (2015) (Blu-ray Review)

HELLIONS (2015) 

Label: Scream Factory I IFC Midnight 
Region Code: A 
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 82 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA .1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Bruce McDonald 
Cast: Chloe Rose, Luke Bilyk, Peter DaCunha, Rachel Wilson, Robert Patrick, Rossif Sutherland

Synopsis: Strange trick-or-treaters plague conflicted teenager Dora Vogel (Chloe Rose) at her isolated home on Halloween. Under siege by forces she can't understand, Dora must defend both body and soul from relentless Hellions, dead-set on possessing something Dora will not give them. Set in a visually haunting landscape and featuring "genuine moments of spookiness" (Filmbook) and a score that's "fun, terrifying and inventive" (soundonsight.org), Hellions redefines the boundaries of horror with its potent brew of Halloween iconography, teenage angst and desperate survival.

We have the lovely Chloe Rose as a troubled-teen who finds out she is knocked-up on Halloween, which I imagine would sort of suck all the fun outta the night. While her mom and little brother head out for a night of trick or treating she is stood up by her stoner boyfriend, and ends up staying home to hand out candy to the masked kids in the neighborhood. Its a pretty standard night of handing out sweets until a group of creepy kids show up on her doorstep wanting more than just bite-sized candy bars, the trick or treaters turn out to be demonic creepers intent on snatching her unborn child.

What at first seems like a home invasion type scenario with baby-snatching tendencies turns a bit odder with the introduction of a supernatural element, as a pink haze of unreality descends over the movie, giving this Halloween night a surreal, nightmarish quality. The desaturated pink hued scenes carry with them a certain amount of atmosphere but the whole pink-tinting left me cold, in short it  seemed a rather cheap effect. Up to this point I had enjoyed the cinematography and tone of the movie, but the pink-tinting rubbed me the wrong way if for no other reason that it drew attention to itself. I can see what they might have been going for, a certain amount of pink hued surreality, but it just  didn't work for me. 

On the plus side actress Chloe Rose as our preggers teen is very good in the role, she's a teen in a harrowing place who rises to the occasion, a strong young woman in a weird place, set upon by demonic trick or treaters out for her unborn child. Rose is joined by Robert Patrick (X-Files), who seems to pop up in quite a few indie horror movies these days. I love the guy to death, but he doesn't have a whole lot to do other than to drop some expository dialogue, adding a little to the mythology of the masked-creeps, but he does very little else other than carry a shotgun around. What were left with is basically our teen protagonist trying to survive the night while under attack from the masked-kids, all the while the child within her is developing at an alarming rate, by the end of the movie she has come full term, and I was left scratching my head wondering what the fuck did I just watch, and why?

I did enjoy the design of the demonic trick or treaters, there's  sack-headed scarecrow which brought to mind Sam from Trick 'r Treat, a creepy bucket-headed menace, a doll-faced terror and a few others, the kids were good stuff. If these little bastards showed up on my doorstep on Halloween I would be alarmed, particularly if one was carrying a hatchet. There's also a pretty eerie score for this one, a chorus of children, which added to the creepiness, and the Halloween vibe is strong which I can certainly appreciate. 

The disc from scream Factory looks good, a solid A/V presentation all the way around with an effective surround sound audio mix, unfortunately the disc does not have any extras. As much as I think the movie is a miss I would have liked to hear director Bruce McDonald speak about the movie and what his intentions were. The release does come with a sleeve of reversible artwork and a slipcover. I loved the Halloween vibe of the movie but when the color was sucked out of the picture so too was my enthusiasm. The underlying teen pregnancy anxiety is a good kernel of an idea for a horror movie but this is a bit of a confusing mess of a movie. While I I usually go to bat for horror movies that prefer style over substance I struggled with this pink nightmare of a movie.  2/5