THE BALLAD OF THE WORMS COMING FROM WRITER/DIRECTOR/BLOGGER/PODCASTER CHUCK CONRY

As you may know by now, horror writer/director Chuck Conry’s (zombiesdontrun.net) film MORBID will be released on August 26 on DVD from Wild Eye Releasing. However, Chuck is about to once again get things rolling on his next film, an action/horror/exploitation hybrid titled, THE BALLAD OF THE WORMS

While little details can be given at this time, what we do know is that it will apparently pit a supernatural ninja against a woman-hating cult and is set in the backwoods of Manchester Tennessee, which is known for being the yearly home of the Bonnaroo music festival.

Pre-production is said to be starting soon with filming hopefully starting before the end of the year. The intention is to have it ready by early 2015 with a release soon after.

For more details visit the Grundy Nation Films Facebook page or follow Chuck himself on Twitter.

Be sure to pre-order MORBID available on DVD from WILD EYE RELEASING on 8/26th 

DEPORTED WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION (1976)

DEPORTED WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION  (1976)

Label: Intervision Picture Corp

Region Code: 1

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 97 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1:78:1)

Director: Rino Di Silvestro
Cast: John Steiner, Erna Schurer, Solvi Stubing, Lina Polito

During the finals days of WWII A group of women are deported to a Gothic castle by the Nazis to be trained for service as prostitutes in the service of the Third Reich. Once they arrive they are deloused and have their beavers neatly shaven in an appropriately gratuitous sequence. Afterwards they are assigned positions as either forced laborers or whores. 

What we have hear is a scuzzy women-behind-bars prison film wrapped in the swastika trappings of a Nazi exploitation movie with copious amounts of nudity and depraved sexuality. If you're into that sort of thing there's some entertainment to be had here. 

The camp is run by a few mean-spirited women named Helga (Erna Schurer) and Greta (Solvi Stubing, STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER) who routinely have their naughty parts nibbled on nightly by the inmates in exchange for preferred treatment. As for men at the camp we have just Commandant Erner (John Steiner,TENEBRE) and his mute sidekick Doberman (Giorgio Cerioni) whom suffers Erner's man-on-man desires. Erner plays it both ways though and has an eye for a young Polish deportee named Tania (Lina Polito, ALL SCREWED UP) who refused his advances years earlier and is no more eager to please him now during her incarceration. Invited to dinner by Erner the depraved commander attempts to seduce the young woman by forcing her to watch Helga and Greta pleasure him - which seems a strange choice for a seduction but maybe I'm just old fashioned that way. 

Tania is sent to solitary confinement where she embarks on a defiant hunger strike before ending up in the infirmary where a sympathetic doc informs her of an underground tunnel from which to escape. Armed with that knowledge Tania plans a daring escape but not before she can exact her cock-shredding revenge against Erner for the humiliations she suffered at his hands.

The film rambles along pretty damn slowly at first but things pick-up for the better about half-way through so just be patient - the ending comes on strong with a spirited and tragic finale. Some interesting angles are played-up including the separation of the poor and wealthy deportees and the politics that come into play but nothing that's fleshed out fully. 

The female cast were decent with a mix of stern-faced bitchiness and sympathetic young ladies in an impossible situation with but it was actor John Steiner as the depraved Nazi commander that stands out - once he shows up things get way more interesting. He plays the role with wonderful enthusiasm which alone is worth the price of admission.

There's no shortage of sleaze in this entry as nearly every woman in the film is stripped bare of and subjected to twisted sexual acts with other women - so yes there are copious amounts of nudity and sex. The more grotesque stuff is kept to a minimum with only a few tit-clamping torture sessions with one particularly brutal session ending with a woman clubbed on the head until her skull bursts opens spewing gore. 

Deported Women of the SS Special Section arrives on DVD framed in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) from Intervision Picture Corp and it's a bit shaky at first with a cropped opening credit sequence is sourced from what appears to be a video tape but soon enough it opens up to something a bit more pleasing to the eyes. A few of the scenes are overly grainy with some vertical lines and white speckling -  but overall this is a very watchable presentation with some nice cinematography from Sergio D'Offizi who shot CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING. A great example of an exploitation film with a few art house moments -  bathed in deep shadows and a cold blue tint this is quite an attractive piece of Eurosleaze. 

The English language mono audio does the job albeit with no small amount of audio hiss. As with  the GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY there's a very nice score which transcends the images  this time from the prolific Italian composer Steivio Cipriani who scored Mario Bava's A BAY OF BLOOD. 

Extras includes a nine-minute interview with star John Steiner (TENEBRE) who looks back at the making of the film with good humor as he remembers taking the just part for money, the nude women on set, the power of the Nazi uniform and his displeasure that the female lead refused to do nudity as well as explaining why he transitioned from actor to California real estate agent. 

There's also a half-hour interview with the director Rino Di Silvestro who speaks about doing script work alongside Lucio Fulci in the early days before getting director gigs and the amount of time he spent striving for authenticity on the film. Carried over from the GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY release is A Brief History of Sadiconazista featurette with Film Historian Marcus Stiglegger (36:30) with the film historian giving a brief history of the nazisploitation sub-genre. 

Special Features:
-A Brief History of Sadiconazista- Interview with Film Historian Marcus Stiglegger (36:30)
- What Does John Steiner Think? (9:19)
- Camp Rino- Interview with Director Rino Di Silvestro (29:29)
-Theatrical Trailer

DEPORTED WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION is not as depraved or haunting as GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY but stick around for John Steiner's scene chewing turn and some fun exploitation elements. 

FLATLINERS (1990)

FLATLINERS (1990)

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Duration: 114 Minutes
Rating: R
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 
Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Joel Schumacher
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, Oliver Platt

Arrogant med school student Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland), convinces four of his medical school classmates — Joe Hurley (William Baldwin), Dave Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt) and Rachel Manus (Julia Roberts) — to help him discover what lies beyond this mortal coil by medically inducing death. As Nelson drift into a sort of afterlife once his heart and brain activity seek he experiences a vision of a child he bullied to death years earlier. Once resuscitated he continues to experience vivid waking nightmares of Billy who not only haunts him but causes him bodily injury. Nelson does not share the strange experience  at first - other than to say there's something out there - and soon four of the five have flatlined and are experiencing they're own waking nightmares which seem to have followed them from the afterlife, 

I caught this sci-fi thriller in in theaters in the Summer of 1999 drawn in by the trailers and the inclusion of Keifer Sutherland who I loved to death in Lost Boys and thought was the coolest dude ever. I also recognized Kevin Bacon from Friday the 13th but it was the adverts that caught my attention. Now 25 years later watching it I was sucked right back into the story such as it is - med students risking it all to answer that eternal question - is there an afterlife. 

Set at a strange looking med school which looks more like a mansion with high vaulted ceiling and apparently undergoing a remodel - there's plastic and sheeting draped everywhere and it's one Hell of a drafty space. The classrooms where the students dissect cadavers are so dark they appear lit by candles and the Mario Bava-esque  light gels casting a blue, green and red pallor on everything - whether it makes sense or not! Obviously Schumacher is going for a slightly surreal nightmarish quality to the film which I accept right away - abandon all sense of realism at the front door or you are gonna have some serious issues

The cast is firing on all cylinders - we have Sutherland as the arrogant God-complex afflicted genius and Julia Roberts as a young woman obsessed with the afterlife following a childhood trauma. Bacon is a doc with the an uncanny knack resuscitation while Baldwin is a sex-obsessed douche and all want in on discovering once and for all if there  is an afterlife for fame, notoriety and their own edification. Everyone except Platt who is the literally the fifth wheel in this death-obsessed journey.who opts not to flatline and is pretty much the voice of reason and who observes while wondering just what-the-fuck is wrong with you people?

I enjoyed this one quite a bit upon revisit - a few things are just unlikely and no sane person let alone a medical professional would cross the ethical lines this group does but just soaking it in on it's own terms this is probably my favorite Schumacher movie - who directed several notably camp-drenched Batman entries - after The Lost Boys (1987) also starring Sutherland. 

More a surreal nightmare than a horror film but this one is a decent watch you can thrown anytime and enjoy with some inspired sets and design elements plus a strong cast. My one complaint would be that the film does not actually answer the question it sets up - the afterlife - or maybe it does and I just didn't care for it. 

DEADLY EYES (1982)

DEADLY EYES (1982) 

Label: Scream Factory

Release Date: July 15th 2014

Region Code: A

Duration: 87 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1)

Director: Robert Clouse

Cast: Sam Gordon, Sara Botsford, Scatman Crothers, Lesleh Donaldson, Joseph Kelly, Lisa Langlois

It seems so long ago that my horror-loving mother rented this vermin-infested chiller on VHS and I plopped down in front of the TV eating my pizza while enjoying the giant-rodent menace before me, those were some good times. That must have been almost thirty years ago but I must say that many of this movies cheap charms have stuck with me through the years. DEADLY EYES (1982) was never before available on DVD so it was a great to sit down and revisit it on a format that for better or worse presents it in the cleanest and sharpest format yet. 

Set in Toronto the city is plagued by a horde of steroid-infused grain eating rats which have grown large by Toronto standards - rats of unusual size are not that unusual in New York which is more than likely what it was not set in NYC. The contaminated grain is ordered destroyed by Health Dept. inspector Elly (Sara Botsford, STILL OF THE NIGHT) and when it goes up in flames the rats flee the factory and head to the city sewers where they spread throughout the city. One of the very first first death scenes is quite a shocker when a baby is dragged by the rats down to the basement and eaten. The child's mother finds a blood trail leading to the basement where she finds the blood-soaked jammies before the rodents dispatch her. Even to this day very few movies go for the death of a small child and this one does right from the start - no one is safe!

Enter into the equation a high school teacher Paul Harris (Sam Groom) who has all the charm of a day old fart but somehow captures the attention of super-cute student Trudy (Lisa Langlois, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME) who is totally crushing on him. It's sort of funny the way she throws herself  at him - going so far as to break-in to his apartment and crawl into his bed in her undies. Paul has very little interest in the young woman but her infatuation threaten to derail his budding relationship with Elly - the Health Department inspector from the start of the film. 

After the baby death there's another less deadly bite attack of a teen n the street but up next is an elderly gent who the rats stalk through the park which ends poorly for the old man. After that attack Elly sends her field inspector (Scatman Crothers, THE SHINING)  down into the city sewers to assess the rodent problem.  The scenes of Scatman driving through the sewer tunnels could have been taken straight from THE SHINING - I sewer its the same outfit! Crother's doesn't last long and is no match for the flesh-starved rats and his death scene is humorous as he lobs four-letter words at them before rolling to one side in the most casual sort of way as the rat-costumed dachshunds lick him to death. 

His death sends Elly and Paul to a rat-expert friend of Paul who theorizes based on reports that a new breed of super-rat may be on the lose in Toronto. Armed with this knowledge the Health Department introduces a deadly gas into the sewers which only sends the rats into the subway system where they gnaw they're way through hordes of Canadian passengers there to celebrate the grand opening of the mass transit system. Chewing through the electric cable supplying power to the subway the passengers are helpless to escape which makes quite a feast for the rodents. 

Before the days of digital effect the filmmakers resorted to using Dachshunds dressed in rat costumes for many of the scenes and I must say while it's at first goofy the overall effect of it holds up. Some shots are better than others and while they don't come of as the desired voracious rodents the mass of living creatures rushing towards victims are effective with only the occasional bark ruining the effect. For the close-ups of the rats we have some fun practical animatronic  toothy rodents gnashing at the camera. Sure, it's a little bit goofy but for an early eighties b-movie rat-fest this is a lot of fun. 

I thought the performance from the leads were a bit wooden but they're not awful either.  I would say it was played a bit too straight for the sort of movie they were making. No one is watching this film for the boring love story that goes nowhere - we're watching it for the scenes of bloody rat violence and on that end it delivers. Director Robert Clouse (ENTER THE DRAGON) keeps the film moving along even with the obvious filler material and threads that go nowhere which pads out the running time . 

The last twenty-minutes are a blast beginning with a ravenous attack at a darkened movie theater where movie goers are enjoying a Bruce Lee retrospective when the rodents start gnawing popcorn-popping patrons by the dozens. Another fun scenario features an unfortunate bowling alley employee resetting pins only to end up as rat bait in the darkened inner workings of the venue, this is fun stuff. Eventually the film climaxes in the subway with out main protagonist holed-up in a maintenance cage while holding off the vermin with acetylene torches - but not before the rats take off his finger! 

After thirty years it was a blast to visit the one again. Scream Factory's new widescreen edition looks nice in hi-def and quite a step-up from the murky VHS of yore. The print used for the transfer - with the alternate NIGHT EYES title card - is quite pleasing with strong colors and decent black levels. There's a nice layer of grain and while it's not reference quality this low-budget Canadian horror is sure to please. The audio is capably handled by an English language DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that is free of distortion and balanced, there are no subtitles. This is a 2-disc set with a standard-def DVD mirroring the feature and extras of the Blu-ray.  

I was surprised the amount of extras on the disc which begins with a brand featurette with interviews from writer Charles Eglee (DEXTER) and art director Ninkey Dalton, special effects artists Alan Apone and Alec Gillis. Writer Eglee speaks of the film being more a tribute to the Roger Corman produced PIRANHA more so than an adaptation of the source material. 

Actress  Lesleh Donaldson (CURTAINS) speaks about her scream queen notoriety in Canada and working on with the cast and the dogs plus she speaks about a few of her other films including HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME with director J.Lee Thompson and STONE COLD DEAD (1979).

Actress Lisa Langlois (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME) who played the blond cutey with the crush of the prof speaks about the audition process and not knowing what director Robert Clouse had previously done till after the shoot. She speaks poorly of Roger Corman and her experience making THE NEST which she says was the worst experience of her life plus almost landing the lead role in TERMINATOR!

There are also interviews with Joseph Kelly and another with special effects artists Alan Apone who comments about working with the Dachshunds and terriers on the film and how hysterical that was at times. There's also a thirty second TV spot for the film. 

 Maybe not the greatest horror title ever to get the Scream Factory treatment but a fun b-movie that's quite entertaining. Great to see Scream unearthing these dusty gems and giving them a spit shine for the fans to enjoy. I f you love b-movie nature-gone-wrong movies like SQUIRM and THE NEST you are gonna want this one, seriously I've watched this three times already.
. 

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980)

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980)  
3-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray + CD 

Label: Grindhouse Releasing

Region: Region-FREE

Duration: 95 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 

Video: 1080p widescreen (1.78:1)

Director: Ruggero Deodato

Cast: Robert Kerman, Perry Pirkanen, Francesca Ciardi, Carl Gabriel Yorke, Luca Barbareschi

Ruggero Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST lures us in with a TV documentary telling of four American documentary film makers who have set off to the Amazon jungles to observe the indigenous cannibal tribes. The documentary team consist of director Alan Yates (Carl Yorke, IDLE HANDS), his girlfriend Faye (Francesca Ciardi, THE TUNNEL) and cameramen Jack (Perry Pirkanen, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD) and Tomasa (Luca Barbareschi. CUT AND RUN). The four have gone missing while documenting the indigenous tries of the Amazon and The news reports spur NYU anthropologist Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman, DEBBIE DOES DALLAS) to form an expedition to find out just what happened to the group. With the assistance of a jungle guide with a penchant for snorting cocaine named Chaco (Salvatore Basile, COBRA VERDE) and his assistant Miguel they arrive in the Green Inferno and set about finding the missing documentarians. 

Not long into their jungle journey the professor and the group discover the worm infested corpse of Felipe who it turns out was the guide of the missing documentary crew - a discouraging sign to say the least. The crew set-up camp on a muddy river bank where Miguel captures and stabs a muskrat which lets out a terrifying death scream as the knife is plunged into it. Mind you this isn't some effect -- this is an animal dying onscreen and it's the first of several questionable artistic decisions made by the filmmakers. Further on the crew observe a tribesman who binds his wife to a stake with rope and proceeds to rape her with a phallic stone implement before packing her womb with mud before ending her life with several blows to her skull. The guide informs the stunned Prof. Munroe that what they've seen is tribal punishment for the woman's apparent infidelity. They follow the murderous tribesman to a village where they negotiate with the villagers for information pertaining to the missing documentarians, whom they are told caused great unrest among the local tribes.

The following day Munroe, Chaco and Miguel knowing their on the right path head further into the  jungle when they come across a macabre scene of warring cannibalistic tribes savaging each other. The group intervene with gunfire turning the battle in favor of the Yanomamo which earns them an invite to dinner back at the village. What could be for dinner you ask, human flesh of course. After dinner the villagers lead Munroe to the grotesque skeletal remains of the documentarian crew.next to the corpses are the canisters of films they'd shot prior to their demise. Munroe trades a cassette recorder for the canisters of film and next thing we know were in New York City. 

Back in NYC Prof. Munroe strikes a deal with a TV channel who want him to host a documentary program and here is the genius twist of the film - this is two films in one and quite possible the first found footage film of it's kind which pre-dates THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and THE LAST BROADCAST by several decades.  Munroe and the TV execs  screen the documentary footage we are treated to a vile film within a film as the original documentary crew's journey from New York to Columbia in search of cannibalistic tribes and we discover the vile acts they committed which lead to their violent and unsavory deaths. 

I won't spoil any more of the film than what I've typed so far other than to say the images captured on film are unstintingly potent and grotesque - even for this seasoned gore hound.  Aldo Gasparri (MAD DOG KILLER) special effects work is astounding with grisly amputation, heads are chopped off, the expected cannibalism and sever graphic rape scenes plus the infamous impalement with a woman speared from anus to mouth - there's nothing decent about it. The effects work apparently so effective that after the film's premiere in Italy it was seized by the local magistrate and Deodato was arrested for obscenity and later charged with making a snuff film! Eventually Deodato produced the actors for the court and the charges were dropped but damn that's some potent stuff right there. 

The film is not so much infamous for the scenes of cannibalism and rape as it is for the actual killing of animals onscreen - even for an exploitation film this is pretty gruesome. Notable acts of cruelty perpetrated upon animals in the film include the death of a shrieking muskrat, a spider-monkey who's skull is chopped off and brains eaten while it's still alive and the brutal slaughtering of a love turtle which I found the most affecting, sickening stuff.  Layered on top of this are some painful stereotypes of the indigenous people portrayed int he film - this is a straight-up exploitation film at it's very worst.  It should be noted that many of the animals slaughtered were eaten by the indigenous cast of the film if that helps you sleep any better.

Very few slice of exploitation cinema are as notorious worldwide as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and with very good reason, there's no other film quite like it and very few go to the extremes this one dares go for better or worse. Taking off where the MONDO CANE films left off director Deodato infuses the film with an unnerving sense of realism. The found footage stuff is shot on 16mm  and is executed superbly -  you are complicit in the act unable to stop what's happening before you and it's gut-churning. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is a film that still has the effect of deeply troubling you and may have you questioning your taste in films at the end. .

The acting is top notch from a cast of inexperienced unknowns. Carl Yorke is particularly effective as the charismatic and cruel documentary filmmaker as is Francesa Ciardi who is quite possibly the only character you can align yourself with if I can dare say that about anyone in the nasty film. 

This edition from Grindhouse Releasing is a thing of cruel beauty arriving in a nice thick-papered embossed slip cover - inside are 2 Blu-rays Criterion-style clear case with a reversible sleeve of artwork. The alternate option is a nude variant of artist Rick Melton's cover illustration.  There's a nice thick 24 pg. booklet with writing on the film from director Eli Roth, legendary horror journalist Chas. Balun, Euro-music expert Gergely Hubai and Italian exploitation film authority Martin Beine plus it features a gruesome centerfold. 

Onto the disc we have the main feature presented in the original widescreen aspect ratio with a new hi-def restoration of the original director's cut which looks amazing. A definite upgrade from the previous release from Grindhouse and quite an improvement over the UK Blu-ray from Shameless Screen Entertainment which was a cut version as the BBFC will not pass the film uncut. We are given two options for viewing - the original theatrical version or for the squeamish amongst you an animal cruelty-free version. I haven't watched the animal cruelty free version yet but I think it's a great addition because it's nauseating stuff plus we still have the option to watch the uncut version so you can have it both ways. 

There are two audio commentaries with director Ruggero Deodato and star Robert Kerman,
plus a second track with stars Carl Yorke and Francesca Ciardi. Both are great commentaries but when watched in conjunction with the interviews there's a lot of the same ground covered. Other bonuses include an Alternate Version of Last Road to Hell plus a trailer gallery. 
Audio includes the choice of the original mono mix or a new DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo remix which sounds great with Riz Ortolani's genius score coming through like never before. This score is amazing, the juxtaposition of those gorgeous string arrangements and the violent imagery punctuated by gurgling electronics is still such a punch to the gut and it sounds great. Also included on this set is a CD in a separate slip cover that has been remastered from the original studio master tapes.

Onto disc two we have a massive set of extras including vintage interviews and extras carried over from the previous release though a few are hidden away as Easter eggs in the menu options - a total of nine are sprinkled throughout the discs! so far the eggs I've uncovered include script ages for a lost scene, the Canadian World Premier for the Re Release, a music video and the Search for Alan Yates plus more. 

There are nearly three hours new interviews  with Ruggero Deodato, Francesa Ciardi, assistant director Salvo Basile and cameraman Roberto Forges Davazat. There's some great commentary on the animal violence in the film and Ruggero's directing style onset from everyone. Robert Kerman is particularly haunted by the death of that muskrat is is not a fan of Deodato direction onset and insists during the interview that Grindhouse should remove the scenes of the animal cruelty.

Other extras include a Cinema Wasteland panel with Deadato who is joined onstage by David Hess, Francesa Ciardi and Carl Yorke among others plus extensive still galleries, video reunions of Deadato with Carl Yorke and Robert Kerman. There's so damn much on this set to pour through! - there are over 8 hours of bonus features to accompany this nauseating cult-classic. So much behind-the-scenes information and commentary on the making of this nasty little film. This release from Grindhouse will be the definitive document of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST for quite some time.  

Coming soon from Grindhouse Releasing are Blu-rays of Lucio Fulci’s THE BEYOND, Duke Mitchell’s GONE WITH THE POPE, and S.F. Brownrigg’s SCUM OF THE EARTH.

VARSITY BLOOD (2013)

VARSITY BLOOD (2013)

Label: Image Entertainment UK
Region Code: 2 PAL
Duration: 82 Minutes
Rating: 15 Certificate 

Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Jake Helgren
Cast: Lexi Giovagnoli, Wesley Scott, Debbie Rochon, Natalie Peyton, Blair Jackson, Elyse Bigler, Jesse Ferraro, Chris Hlozek, Payton Wood

VARSITY BLOOD comes to us from the writer of BLOODY HOMECOMING who both writes and directs this high school set slasher - it's Halloween night and a group of small town jocks and cheerleaders head out to a farmhouse in the woods for some under-age drinking and promiscuous good times. Unfortunately for them someone wearing the hometown team native American warrior costume shows up with his tomahawk and they're not there to cheer on the team - they want sink their tomahawk into the teens nubile flesh. 

Kudos to Helgren for writing a group of teen character who are fleshed out more than the typical stalk and slash movie. Our final girl Hannah (Lexi Giovagnoli, BLOODY HOMECOMING)  is very likable as are most of the cast of characters though we have the mandatory assortment of douche nozzles and bitchy cheer-divas too - because it's just so much fun to watch them die, but we're rooting for quite a few kids with this one. The writing is pretty strong with some true wit and even some depth though not all of the young cast are up to the challenge of the written word. There are plenty of groan-inducing dialogue - particularly when each of the cast face off with our masked killer one on one, sometimes it's just the delivery but often the dialogue is just awful or a bit too corny.

From what I've seen from Jake Helgren's previous writing credit and with this film he is a obviously a huge slasher buff and as such he provides us with a decent masked murder hacking-up the kids - there's some true heart in this one. The mascot suit is a bit ridiculous and not at all practical but it is visually interesting. Unfortunately the suit is so bulky the guy in the costume cannot really add any character to the movement. 

As a low-budget slasher the film looks pretty damn decent - shot on digital we have some great chase sequences and reveals but some a few of the sequences are overly dark and not very well lit.Overall it does have a consistent tone but the score did nothing for me and doesn't muster up much in the way of atmosphere for me. 

The kills are pretty gruesome in a lo-fi sorta way but I give props to the filmmakers for not going super-digital and they seem to stick with mostly practical gore with some decent blood work and decapitations. Other than some budgetary limitations and  my main beef with the production  is the reveal of the killer's identity and everything after - the tone shifts so suddenly from a fairly straight-up slasher to hammy and convoluted camp-fest it took me right out of the movie and it never recovered.

VARSITY BLOOD is a fun slasher throwback with some decent kills and an semi-interesting masked killer but I cannot say I'll revisit this one again despite it having some heart and soul. It just doesn't do much to separate itself from the dozens of indie slashers that pop up on Netflix and Red Box these days - a decent one and done. 

The movie arrives on DVD in the Uk on August 18th from Image Entertainment and on the 19th here in the U.S. also from Image. 

THE FINAL TERROR (1983)

THE FINAL TERROR (1983) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
MPAA Rating: R
Duration: 82 Minutes
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional Subtitles
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Andrew Davis
Cast: Adrian Zmed, Daryl Hannah, Rachel Wood, Mark Metcalf, Ernest Harden Jr., Joe Pantoliano, John Friedrich

In the vintage backwoods slasher THE FINAL TERROR (1983) a group of troubled youth head into the wilderness to clean-up the woods and and some naughty good times with minimal adult supervision and a demented bus driver. As the day wears on the smoke some grass and go skinny-dipping, before they settle down for the night for the traditional campfire tale of an escaped mental patient and her incestuous offspring with the expected jump scare at the end. what these teens don't know is that there's actually a killer is actually lurking among the trees with an uncanny ability to blend into the surroundings. The camouflage  aspect is a cool addition as the killer is creep up on the campers without notice. It's not long before the group realize that certain members have wandered from the camp and have not returned and then the heads start to roll. The creepy killer stalks the woods using a unique bladed weapon to dispatch the horny teens one at a time to great effect - even if the kills themselves are not super-gory the set-ups are quite decent.

Set in the majestic redwood forest the film sets-up some great views with some skillful cinematography - it a better shot film than most of the slashers of the time. The film is a kindred spirit to other survival-horror films JUST BEFORE DAWN and RITUALS and is on par and maybe slightly better than either. Director Andrew Davis performed second duty as the cinematographer on set and would go on to direct the mega-blockbuster THE FUGITIVE with Harrison Ford - even at this stage of his career you can see the quality of his craft and the film benefits from it.

THE FINAL TERROR is an eerie and slow-burn with some sweet visceral violence but apparently the producers thought it was so slow they put it on a shelf for a few years until Daryl Hannah made it big with BLADE RUNNER. Hoping to exploit the star's minor role in this entry the producers tagged on an unnecessary prologue which awkwardly bumped up the body count by two. The handful of remaining deaths are not gory in execution but the set-ups are tense and quite effective. One scene that stands out is the assault on the bus with the killer smashing in the windows in an attempt to get at the teens inside - a very atmospheric and tense situation.

The cast is top notch with a slew of first-timers and future stars including a pre-BLADE RUNNER Daryl Hannah and Joe Pantoliano (MEMENETO) plus the douche from ANIMAL HOUSE. Everyone turns in a solid performance even if most of the young ladies don't have meaty roles. The standout here is Pantoliano as the agitated bus driver who seems a bit off from the beginning and only gets worse as the film roles along before disappearing for a large chunk of the movie.

The original negative and film elements are thought to be lost so what Scream Factory have done here is stitched together a new HD master from six prints of the film sourced from collectors. Keeping that in mind I found the image to be surprisingly consistent throughout though marred by flickering and other imperfections such as vertical lines,, cigarette burns and speckling. Whatever digital manipulation used to clean-up the film we are left with a fairly consistent grain structure with some minor depth and fine detail in certain scenes. The only audio option is the DTS-HD Master Audio Mono which is clean and  does a good job of exporting the dialogue and Susan Justin's eerie synth score including a great main title theme. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided on the disc. 

Special features on the disc include a new audio commentary with director Andrew Davis who speaks at length about the cast and location with a few fun anecdotes about the production such as how the prologue added by producer Samuel Z. Arkoff ended up paying for his wedding. There are also new interviews with actors Adrien Zmed and Lewis Smith plus the husband and wife duo of production supervisor Allan Holzman and composer Susan Justin. .

THE FINAL TERROR is strong backwoods slasher with an interesting killer and a creepy vibe set in the gorgeous redwood forest. This gets a definite recommend for fans of the kindred RITUALS and JUST BEFORE DAWN who are looking for an above average slasher entry with some strong survival-horror elements.