Dead & Buried

1981, US, Directed by Gary Sherman
Colour, Running Time: 94 minutes
Review Source: Blu-ray, Region A, Blue Underground; Video: 1.78:1 1080p 24fps, Audio: DTS HD MA

If you haven’t seen the film before I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll summarise as follows: a prologue introduces a short-lived photographer as he captures images on a beach prior to being beguiled by an attractive female who's all too happy to expose her body for the camera.  The situation not quite panning out as he might have liked, he finds himself surrounded by goons, tied up, and burned alive. The place is a small town called Potter’s Bluff, and the man on the case, Sheriff Gills, is becoming increasingly concerned about the sudden rise in homicidal activity, as people are killed in an almost religiously brutal fashion. One thing that bores me slightly watching certain films is the plot being occupied by excesive periods of police investigation (with a few exceptions – Se7en being a notable one), and Gary Sherman’s dark chiller almost crosses the border into that kind of territory. What breaks it apart from the average policeman-hunting-killer(s) scenario is the fact that this does have a supernatural element behind the concept, but to explain it here would possibly be to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. The other factor is that the deaths are rather nasty – indeed it earned a place on the DPP (banned in Britain) list in the early eighties. Probably the most grotesque death is that of the burned man in hospital – somebody wants him dead and because his eye is the only thing really exposed (due to the bandages), she jams a hypodermic needle into it! Dead & Buried was somewhat mis-marketed in my opinion – because the screenplay here was written by Ronald Shusett and Dan O’ Bannon, who also wrote the story for Alien, the marketers felt the need or desire to try to rope in the crowd who’d already seen that – ‘The Creators of ALIEN bring a new terror to Earth’ proclaimed the posters. Of course this implies extra-terrestrial presence in the film but there is nothing of the sort, and no doubt some viewers have been disappointed over the years if they’ve just watched it on the strength of the promotional material alone (which some will). Aside from possibly lacking in the excitement stakes, the movie is, however, a reasonably effective chiller with a nefarious edge to it along with some pretty nifty characters (the mortician/undertaker, wickedly played by Jack Albertson, being the number one on that list).

I first viewed this on UK videocassette after it was released years following the banning – fullscreen and censored. I didn’t particularly appreciate it, but later on gave the 2 disc DVD by Anchor Bay a shot. Slipcased, this was a nice release presenting the film uncut for the first time in Britain since the banning, widescreen, and with a variety of audio options (DD2.0, DD5.1, and DTS 5.1) and extras. It was also released around the same time by Blue Underground on a similar DVD set. More recently Blue Underground have remastered the film for this Blu-ray release. The image quality is much sharper than before, although grain is very prevalent in many shots, and the variety of cinematographic techniques can be fully appreciated at last. Audio is served up as lossy DD5.1 EX, and lossless Dolby True HD 7.1 plus DTS HD Master Audio 7.1. It’s questionable whether a film such as this will ever benefit from such overblown sound formats, the likes of which are very suited to modern day cinema’s more extreme, layered, and better quality soundtracks, but one shouldn’t knock Blue Underground for putting in this kind of effort. What is slightly disappointing is that they saw fit to drop the original mono track, which was accounted for on the former BU DVD. Given the similarity between the surround tracks available I think it would have made more sense to include the mono and drop one of those, but not to worry – downmixing to stereo via your equipment provides a fairly satisfying listen. A surprising quantity of extras is still a big bonus – three audio commentaries, an interesting featurette with effects master Stan Winston, a Robert Englund interview (who has a small part in the film prior to his explosion of fame as Freddy), plus a Dan O’ Bannon piece too (there are also a couple of trailers). This gives you around five hours of listening/viewing material, which is stellar considering the fact that this is hardly a massive film. The big sell for the Blu-ray though is the great image, although that itself will alienate some because it’s hardly a thing of beauty! But that isn’t the point – we can view Dead & Buried in a manner closely aping what it probably originally screened like, and the film is something that has held up over time.

Leviathan

1989, US/Italy, Directed by George P. Cosmatos
Colour, Running Time: 94 minutes
Review Source: VHS, PAL, CBS/Fox; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: Stereo

A deep sea mining expedition is thrown slightly off schedule on the discovery of a sunken Russian ship that is reportedly still floating around the ocean as part of a larger fleet - it looks to the crew like it was torpedoed. A remote investigation results in the crew bringing back a stash of items, including a frantic Russian captain's final log (luckily the rig's doctor speaks fluent Russian...) and some alcohol. After sneakily taking a few sips of the quickly confiscated drink a couple of the crew fall ill with skin rashes and nausea, soon after one of them dying in a rather gruesome fashion. Then his corpse begins to mutate before the team leader decides to get the body off board before any infection spreads - but whilst they do manage this, they don't initially realise that a prehensile organism remains on the rig, and it's continuing to mutate at an alarming pace.

Clearly Leviathan was inspired by the likes of Alien and Aliens, throwing in elements of The Thing and Forbidden World just in case anything was missed. In this respect it's not remotely original - the plot is structured in order to lead to anything that was good about those other films, the characters are cut and paste jobs from any Hollywood action film of the period (with nicknames like 'SixPack' and hip - for the 80s - dialogue such as 'go suck on a squid', or something like that), and it features a disgustingly forced 'surprise' climax where you thought it was all over but, hey, it's really not! Aside from all that it's fairly easy to watch, with some lovely effects work from one of the 80s masters of prosthetics, Stan Winston - very gooey and disgusting despite the final monster not quite coming off so well. There are a number of name actors on board - post-Robocop Peter Weller doing a very good job as the skipper, Amanda Pays there to look good (though strangely her character takes showers with her bra and panties on... well at least it saves on washing!), the freaky looking Meg Foster as the bitch who actually gets her comeuppance, Daniel Stern as the prerequisite overly sexed stereotype male - but this is really a B movie at heart, and should only be viewed as such. Jerry Goldsmith is also there to give some credibility to the whole show, although his score is strangely generic. Coincidentally he also scored Alien but the material here invokes no emotion whatsoever - for a man who composed such stunning scores as those for The Omen and Total Recall this is a shame. Still, for monster movie fans this is a sci-fi horror (whose director was best known for Rambo: First Blood Part 2) that will pass some time relatively painlessly, if you don't pay too much attention to its shortcomings.

Re-watching this old video cassette makes one appreciate DVD and Blu-ray again!  The picture is horrifically cropped (from a J-D-C Scope ratio) to 1.33:1, sometimes requiring visible scanning to get essential visual information into view. Colours are washed out and detail vague. What colours are there tend to bleed, especially during the end credits. Audio is servicable. There have been a couple of DVDs released of the film over the years in the US and Europe, however it's surprising to note that there has never been a UK release (to my knowledge). I suspect this film would fare a little better presented properly, though it will never be considered essential.

Black Magic

1975, Hong Kong, Directed by Meng Hua Ho
Colour, Running Time: 96 minutes
Review Source: Download; Video: 2.35:1, Audio: Mono

A jaded woman visits a daemonic practitioner of the dark arts in the hope that he can despatch her cheating husband along with his lover (bit extreme - she could have just divorced him, but I guess at least this method avoids lining the pockets of rich lawyers...). Making payment in gold, the two lovers are put to death in the midst of their pleasure, as the magician uses a series of voodoo techniques to end their hedonistic existence. Elsewhere building site worker Xu Nuo is perpetually chased by a horny little nymph by the name of Luo - his boss, no less - despite the fact that he's clearly happily associated with a more conventional partner, Wang. Spurning her advances he's unaware that the selfish woman has deliberately left 'evidence' in his car, specifically for his real girlfriend to discover. Meanwhile the angry Luo smashes an admirer's car when she returns home to find the unwelcome guest. Liang drives off in his battered car to meet a friend where the shady fellow convinces him that he can have Luo by use of black magic, courtesy of ancient sorcerer Sha Jianmai, who lives in a forest outside the city. Heading off on a journey through the forest (more like a jungle actually) our man eventually locates Sha Jianmai in a hut where he is accumulating substances for his work, including milking (quite literally!) a naked woman. The magician demands payment in gold the size of a skull, which the penniless Liang promises in the hope of acquiring it from the very woman he wishes to love - once they are an item and he has his share of her bank balance. The magician needs two things for the spell - a lock of hair for the woman, and footprints in the mud, which Liang dutifully obtains. He then has to dangle a clay model of himself in Luo's house, plus pour the newly devised potion into her drink. Once consumed she's all over him - his plan comes together! At least until the clay model breaks the next morning, this also ending the hold over Luo. She threatens him with her dog 'Terry', demanding to know how he got her into bed. Confessing everything results in Luo coming up with her own plan to ensare her love interest, Xu Nuo. The magician meets Luo and promises she can have Xu Nuo for a whole year if she can supply hair from his head, drops of his blood, and her breast milk, whilst placing some rotting body parts under his bed (hell, she could just try being nice!). During another botched attempt to seduce Xu Nuo at his apartment, she manages to fulfill the requirements of the spell and, after a bizarre graveyard ritual, Liang is dead (for not paying his bill) and Xu Nuo is later bewitched - much to the annoyance of his real partner, Wang, who he has just married! The newly-wed wife won't leave it alone though, so Luo employs the magician to put a death spell on her! However, this ever spiralling situation of complexity is not quite as straightforward as Luo would like it to be, as it seems Sha Jianmai has fallen for her... Wang's friends, concerned that she is descending towards doom as the death spell takes hold, carry her to another magician by the name of Furong, who is then employed to attempt to restore right with the magic-twisted world, resulting in the two sorcerers enagaging in necromantical battle.

Shaw Brothers were known for their quality output of epic action and martial arts films, but occasionally produced something more horror-orientated, such as this film, Jiang tou as it's known in its native land. Strikingly shot from the outset, Black Magic is a love polygon ruled by magic, or the inability of the various characters to obtain the object of their desires via conventional means. Having said that, black magic itself seems to be widely accepted without question by the populating people of this world and the use of it does not seem to be a grave consideration (until it all goes wrong). Ploddingly paced there is still plenty of amusement to be had as one character after another either falls victim to the magician's handy work or actively utilises his services to influence the natural order of things. As is often the case with Hong Kong cinema, there is humour spattered frequently, as well as an offbeat way of telling the story at hand. Performances are often very good, in particular Ni Tien, who plays Luo with style and is foxy throughout (though obviously being doubled for the nude shots of the character's torso...), making an appealing lady of vague morals - indeed, it's difficult to understand why Xu Nuo is more interested in the comparatively mundane Wang than he could easily have the more energetic and sexy Luo, but there's no accounting for taste I guess... The film's horror elements are somewhat overshadowed by the convoluted love tangle, but I would suggest this stems from the Hong Kong tendency of freeform interweaving of genres as they seem less restrained than western counterparts. Nevertheless, there are some effective sequences, notably the short nightmare that Wang has of oddly bouncing ghosts, a lovely head decomposition sequence, and the routinely morbid nature of Sha Jianmai's spell-casting. Not a bad piece of work all round, this can be bought cheaply in the US as a DVD from Image Entertainment, featuring a fully scoped transfer, a surround Mandarin track, plus mono Mandarin and English tracks (I would suggest avoiding the latter but there are some viewers that don't like reading subtitles, so its presence is valid). There was also a region 3 disc released in 2004 by Celestial, fronted by an ugly cover it actually featured a superior transfer, albeit accompanied by just the mono Mandarin track (English subtitles were present on both discs).

The Devil's Rejects

2005, US, Directed by Rob Zombie
Colour, Running Time: 106 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R2, Momentum; Video: Anamorphic 1.78:1, Audio: DTS

The second feature length outing for the multi-talented metal-star-cum-movie-director follows House of 1000 Corpses almost as a sequel: it doesn’t specifically take up the same story but rather focuses on some of the principal antagonists, nasty murderous backwoods dwellers that creator Rob has clearly taken a liking to. Revealing the date to be around the end of the seventies (two years after House…) a group of cops lay siege to a house where a small posse of killers dubbed after the film’s title are hiding. A mass shootout ensues resulting in the loss of several lives, but the surviving Rejects, Baby Firefly and Otis, escape and hijack some old woman’s car to head out on their own strange little road trip. Warning their father (?) Captain Spaulding (the clown from House…) by telephone that the police may be heading his way he dumps his beached-whale missus and dilapidated home to meet them at a mutually convenient motel. When Spaulding arrives he finds they’ve wasted almost no time in capturing a couple of unnecessary hostages to torment, the sort of treatment he’s only too willing to participate in. The sheriff meanwhile has his own personal reasons for tracking down and destroying the Rejects - they were responsible for his brother’s death in the previous instalment. Soon his obsessive desire for vengeance brings him to a full-blooded showdown with the group as they’re hiding out with a friend who’s forced to betray their security.

For those who were interested in such things around the time, House of 1000 Corpses had extreme difficulty finding a distributor due to its proclivity for excess violence. I believe it was Lions Gate Films who eventually gathered together enough bottle to put it on public display (though shorn prior to that of some of its more visceral moments, footage that may now be lost forever), before others followed in picking it up for a more global distribution. Ironic then that after the film makes a few million dollars the sequel should have no trouble at all being produced, despite some of the most extreme violence and torment seen this side of the Video Recordings Act. The opening shot makes it clear to the audience that they’re not in for an easy journey - Tiny (played by supremely tall Matthew McGrory, who unfortunately died just days after the UK opening of …Devil’s) is seen dragging the naked corpse of a girl through the woods by her hair. The shootout after this fails to elicit any sympathy from the audience due to us not particularly caring about any of the characters at that point (in fact, by the film’s end you may even despise them), however, as the story progresses and we’re dragged along the same expedition as the titular characters it’s possible to find ourselves strangely fixated with their horrific antics. You may wince as a head is beaten, innocent victims are psychologically tortured, a girl is splattered across the highway, but you may also find yourself strangely compelled to continue viewing (unless you’re really squeamish of course). Of the number of directors in recent years who’ve laid claim at attempting to recreate the seventies gritty horror atmosphere of flicks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hills Have Eyes, Death Trap, et al., Rob Z is the one who really seems to understand the era. Whether it’s art of any value or not is really down to viewer opinion but he seems to unpretentiously pay homage to a period of film-making clearly admired by him, and he successfully recreates his own scenarios almost as if they could chronologically slot nicely between the aforementioned semi-classics, despite the frequent injection of a more modern approach to editing and style. His astute choice of music reflects his talents for writing it (though I’m not the greatest fan of his music, he’s often displayed flair and creativity with White Zombie and his solo output), from Midnight Rider (Allman Bros.) to Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, in the latter’s epic case a significant portion is implemented too believe it or not. I was surprised to find the soundtrack containing none of his own tracks (unlike the preceding movie) - perhaps he wanted to keep the story’s mood firmly rooted in its reflected era. The film reaches a logical conclusion that almost makes you’ve feel like you’ve satisfyingly accompanied a team of anti-heroes on their final road trip rather than tagged along to involuntarily witness the brutal exploits of despicable serial murderers - Rob Z effectively turns our disgust right on its head with his potent, skilfully constructed, and oddly likeable concoction of seventies grindhouse cinema, spaghetti westerns, and contemporary technique. I should point out also that it’s a movie that works better second time around so repeat viewings are recommended.

Despite having a lower budget than House… the movie looks and feels bigger than its predecessor thanks to smart decision-making and necessarily creative thinking, something that’s reflected by this stupendous transfer - colourful, bold, heavily detailed and with a rocking DTS track to boot. You wouldn’t have been short-changed by picking up the two discer either, with a monolithic 2 hour 20 minute documentary overseeing every practical aspect of pre-production onwards (Rob Z looks intense without his sunglasses but comes across as articulate and very logical in his approach to movie making). The shooting and ultimate omission of a Doctor Satan sequence (one of the characters from the first film) is also discussed, and the fact that it was left out seems like a wise choice despite the deformed man-thing being a fan favourite. For those prepared to be mentally smitten The Devil’s Rejects should offer a hypnotic ride through Hell. That’s a good thing by the way.

Code Red Stuff...

Code Red have announced a few titles for 2013 on DVD, some of them looking like they're gonna wind their way towards my shelves: one of Lucio Fulci's latter day, and lesser liked (but not that bad in retrospect I suppose) flicks, Voices From Beyond, the Italian sex comedy from the 70s Love By Appointment (or Holiday Hookers or Natale in Casa d'appuntamento) which was directed in the seventies by prolific cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi, Mark Lester's TV adventure film Gold of the Amazon Women (with Anita Ekberg and Donald Pleasence), Vengeance by Anthony Dawson (Antonio Margheriti of course), and an obscure Italian comedy called John Travolto... Da un Insolito Destino (AKA John Travolto, The Face With Two Left Feet...!).

They've also alluded to the possibility of a release of Vampire's Night Orgy, one of my favourite Spanish vampire films from the 70s, which was directed by Leon Klimovsky.  Hopefully this will be the full version and a better transfer than what we've had to endure in the past (although I've been thankful to see it on DVD at all).  There is also an early eighties slasher by the name of Trick or Treats, which looks like an inferior Halloween clone, but if you're into slashers you've gotta have 'em all, regardless... Then there's the teens vs demons genre covered with Curse of the Blue Lights (1988), and Death Wish-esque revenge thriller The Mad Bomber (Bert Gordon, 1973) uncut on home video for the first time.

Most surprisingly of all, Code Red are dipping one bloody toe into Blu-ray waters with a couple of announcements: the mid-seventies murder mystery The Electric Chair in a director's cut - prepare yourself because it looks like Maria Kanellis will be 'gracing' this one with her presence.  And possibly of greater interest is the debut of the notoriously gritty Nail Gun Massacre on Blu via a new HD master, presented in both widescreen and fullscreen.  I wouldn't go expecting Night of the Demon on Blu any time soon though...

Finally, there is a new HD transfer being undertaken of the semi-classic slasher Just Before Dawn which will be competing with Shriek Show's now out of print two disc edition as well as an uncut, out of print UK release from Odeon; i.e. this will be most welcome whether it's coming out on DVD or Blu-ray (preferably the latter of course, or perhaps a dual edition?).  I'm certainly glad Code Red have stuck with it through tough times.

The New York Ripper

1982, Italy, Directed by Lucio Fulci
Colour, Running Time: 93 minutes
Review Source: Blu-ray, Region A, Blue Underground; Video: 2.40:1 1080p 24fps, Audio: DTS HD MA

Already steeped in streets of sleaze, New York City is hit by a plague of brutal murders by a psychopath with an apparent dislike of women. Tough but jaded, detective Williams is saddled with the case and chases up various leads to track down the increasingly sadistic killer. Following on from a string of well received fantasy horrors Fulci took on a more real world approach to the genre, effectively stepping back into the realms of the giallo (an area he'd previously experimented with a decade or so prior). The gruesomeness of the films he'd made in the few years preceding New York Ripper is present and accounted for here, although the method here reeks of nihilism and hopelessness. The semi-frequent deaths are clearly as horrific as Fulci could make them at the time, and very well executed they are in terms of editing and framing, being only occasionally let down by the budgetary limitations of the effects themselves (Lord knows how horrible this would have been with more realistic special effects). Still, these death scenes will not be appealing to most viewers. Fulci's characters are victims of the sleazy world in which they've been cultivated from birth, with sexually frustrated rich wives intermingling with moral-free Hispanic immigrants, roamers of streets lined with porn shops/shows, subway travellers almost oblivious to the graffiti-wrecked transport on which they travel, cops who sleep with prostitutes, etc. None of the characters are especially likable, and the cynical nature of the film is summed up by the final scene where a terminally ill, amputee child cries for her dead, homicidal parent. It's nice to see Fulci regular bit part victim Daniela Doria here, more attractive than ever but as always graphically put to an end in arguably the film's most shocking sequence (she was the same lass who coughed up her guts in City of the Living Dead and had a knife put through the back of her skull in House By The Cemetery). I think this one must have put her off acting altogether - it was her last role on film sadly.

I've previously watched this a few times on VHS, and a couple of times on DVD, so how does the Blue Underground Blu-ray compare? Wow! It actually looks amazing, with a bright, clear, sumptuous image throughout, without a doubt stamping on all previous releases. In fact the BD reveals just how well photographed this film is, offering further evidence in my opinion that Fulci was no trash director, even though the subject matter of this particular movie is quite deliberately trash. The increase in detail and clarity almost make this a joy to watch, as much as that may be possible in a case such as New York Ripper. Audio (English only) is served with a 7.1 lossless track alongside the original mono (the former being much quieter, something I've noticed with a lot of DTS HD MA tracks). Extras are minimal, consisting of an interview with Zora Kerova, the girl who takes part in a live sex show before being butchered very nastily by the ripper. I never actually realised before but this is the same actress who plays the unfortunate victim who gets hung up by the boobs in Cannibal Ferox, an experience she describes here as quite painful! She was also in Terror Express and the notorious former-nasty Anthropophagus. Kerova's not looking too bad for her age, speaking quite enthusiastically about the film and Fulci as a colleague. The other extra (apart from the trailer) is a short featurette demonstrating how New York has changed and been 'cleaned up' over the years, with comparison shots between the film and the same locations today. The lack of extras is not for great lamentation when one considers how incredible the film looks - no amount of extras can compensate for a bad transfer in my book. For fans of the film, they have to get this disc.

UK Blues...

Of possible interest, and in some cases marching on their way from the very depths of Hell itself, are the following Blu-ray Discs:
Killer Joe with some romcom pretty boy supposedly giving a chilling performance...
Dark Knight Rises wrapping up Nolan's trilogy, along with a boxed set of all three natch;
Amazing Spider-Man in various permutations, including an enticing looking 3D Blu;
A 30th anniversary box of Blade Runner, which should contain some discs of interest to UK fans who missed the stunning 5 disc Blu-ray set that was released in the States a few years ago;
Resident Evil: Retribution on 2D and 3D, the series that knows now end, even when the world has...
A nice looking digibook edition of the King Kong remake - whilst this is all very welcome I'd still rather the studios put out some of their AWOL titles rather than multiple editions of just their bigger money earners;
David Cronenberg's latest, Cosmopolis, in November;
A Christopher Nolan collection containing the three Batman films of his, Memento, and Inception - pity it couldn't have been genuinely complete and included Insomnia and his vaguely interesting first feature Following;
A 3D Blu of Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder - it was of course originally shot/projected in 3D so it will be great to see this film via a transfer that approximates its theatrical appearance;
Paranorman in both 2D and 3D, which looks like a great film;
V/H/S and House at the End of the Street;
The Japanese classic Onibaba courtesy of the Masters of Cinema series;
A really promising looking Black Sunday (Mario Bava) from Arrow in January;
Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing, again from Arrow;
Hot on the heels of Redemption's Lisa & The Devil is Arrow's own release;
Crawl and Grave Encounters II;
Plus a couple of Radley Metzger films from Arrow - The Score and Lickerish Quartet
Intruder from 88 Films!  Nice to see the UK getting a release;
And nice to see something else making its UK HD debut: Django from Argent Films in January;
And just in time for Christmas, The Snowman on Blu for its 30th anniversary!

A couple of things arriving on DVD that I wish were coming out on Blu, but look quite 'ownable' nonetheless:
Vampire Ecstacy from a company called MediumRare, which I'm hoping is the full (or possibly even both) version of The Devil's Plaything - if so, and the price is low (I won't pay much for a DVD nowadays) I will pick it up;
House of 1000 Dolls with Vincent Price, again from MediumRare;
House with Laughing Windows - one of my favourites from Shameless, but why can't they put this out on Blu?  I doubt if I will buy it again on DVD but anxiously await a HD presentation.  Still, for those that don't own it, this one should really be on your shelves, being one of the best 70s Italian chillers in my opinion.

UK Blues...

Of interest to many horror/exploitation fans is the upcoming Zombie Flesh Eaters Blu-ray (or Zombie to American fans, or Zombi 2 in its purest sense) from Arrow Video in the UK in December (the date has been put back slightly).  This is reportedly a transfer being produced from original negatives, and featuring branched versions of the film so you can watch with any set of pre/post credits to suit the title/tongue you prefer/know best.  Choice of languages is either English or Italian, with English subtitles available, and a mountain of extras.  You can pick up the film as a limited steelbook, a dual Blu-ray/DVD, or one of Arrow's more standard slipcase sets with a choice of cover artwork.  I think the set and artwork looks great personally, and highly promising.  Everyone of course is already aware of the fact that Blue Underground have put out single and double BD editions of the film stateside, with positive results, so one can only hope that this edition is even better.