Fangs of the Living Dead

1969, Spain / Italy, Directed by Amando de Ossorio
Colour, Running Time: 74 minutes
Review Source: Download; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: Mono

Receiving legal notification that she is in line to inherit a castle, Sylivia ('the most beautiful woman in Italy, according to her boyfriend's mate...) heads off to the foreign land of the building's location - two weeks before her wedding - to collect what's due to her, intending to be back with a fortune just in time to try on her dress. Jetting off she discovers a strangely antiquated land where superstitious locals fear the very mention of the castle that she's come to inherit. Arriving at the castle she learns that her ancestor was burned at the stake for alchemy - or 'necrobiology' as it's rather eloquently put in the English dub. Apparently the woman was attempting to prolong human life by unnatural means, and it would appear she succeeded: now the inhabitants of the castle are vampires! Furthermore, the residing count wants Sylvia to abandon her more conventional relationship in favour of remaining at the castle for the rest of eternity, or at least until the place is razed to make way for a new Tesco. Soon her boyfriend is also showing up, along with his perpetually present companion, to make sense of her letter to break the whole thing off.

Amando de Ossorio is of course the man famously responsible for the Blind Dead films, four cult horror/exploitation vehicles about the corpses of the Knights Templar returning to life to reap havoc on the living. Another nice piece by the writer/director was La Noche de los Brujos, or Night of the Sorcerers to the non-Spanish out there. Before any of those films he tried his hand at the Gothic Horror, an already successfully explored arena by the likes of Hammer and various Italians (notably Mario Bava of course), and gave the world Malenka, crudely retitled for American cinema and video releases as Fangs of the Living Dead. Somehow they roped in Anita Ekberg to play the title role(s), who had already established herself as Miss Sweden at the beginning of the fifties before embarking on a film career (probably little realising that she would one day end up wandering around a castle fending off bloodsuckers of the night with her breasts half exposed!). She actually strikes me here as an older, slightly more chiselled version of Milla Jovovich. Her character's adventure to a land almost lost in time is typical of 60s European Gothic cinema, and harks back to the days of some of the Universal monster movies. Similarly typical is the picturesque medieval castle populated by the undead. Part of the appeal of this Spanish example of the genre, I have to say, is the presence of a number of busty barmaids who serve at the local inn and vampire ladies wandering around the castle itself. Whilst the historic structure itself is an atmospheric delight, this injection of partially exposed female flesh makes the film all the more attractive to look at...

I get the impression that most people who have seen Malenka are nearly bored to the grave with its neanderthal stagger, but I think the film has been unfairly treated by its US distributors since the original theatrical screenings, a malignity that afflicted almost everything, exploitation-wise, that came out of Europe around the late fifties through to early seventies. For a start the film is severely cut, of around fifteen minutes - this can never help narrative coherence, character development, or aura-building. Secondly the conclusion of the film in this shorter, more widely seen cut, is silly and disjointed to the extreme - I understand this was also a change made to the original version. In addition, the image that I've seen on the various releases available, aside from lacking in fine detail, is always heavily cropped - it's impossible to assess and appreciate image composition in such severely compromised circumstances. The last main concern is, as always, to do with English dubbing. It is rather ridiculous and makes it almost impossible to take the film seriously (unless the viewer is able to look past that), although it does introduce a number of highly amusing moments: after clumsily reading out his fiancee's letter which quite simply states 'My dear niece, I am pleased to inform you that you've now the right to everything your mother has left you' Sylvia's baffled husband-to-be exclaims, 'Good Lord, we've got to decipher it' - classic stuff! There do seem to be quite a few humorous moments but it's difficult to say how much of this is down to the English interpretations made during the dubbing process, or whether de Ossorio actually intended odd moments of humour. Production restrictions were unfairly placed upon de Ossorio at the time, notably with budget (as de Ossorio himself once amusingly stated, the producer "was Jewish, very strict on money" [Dark Side Magazine September 1996 issue]), and when the producer decided to prematurely close down the shoot, forcing the writer/director to cut together what footage he had, changing drastically from his original story in places as a result - it's not a surprise that given the aforementioned American distribution issues, along with the production problems themselves, the results are not proficient and coherent. I understand that a DVDR ripped from a Dutch VHS contains the longer version of the film, though still dubbed in English, and such black market versions can be purchased from one or two sites that specialise in this kind of material - of course I don't condone such stuff but in the absence of anyone coming forward to release the film properly it's a temptation that lingers. I can only hope, most likely in vain, that someone unearths the correct version of Malenka for a legitimate disc one day, because I really don't think it's anywhere near as bad as general opinion might suggest.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

1956, US, Directed by Don Siegel
B&W, Running Time: 80 minutes
Review Source: Blu-ray, Region A, Olive Films; Video: 2.00:1 1080p 24fps, Audio: DTS HD MA

Based on a serialised story entitled The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney that appeared in the American-bred Collier's Magazine in 1954 (which was also subsequently published as a novel), Invasion of the Body Snatchers has become an undisputed classic of science fiction over the half century or so since. It wasn't especially perceived as anything over and above the crowd at the time, but the maturity of the production along with its immortal aura of fear has allowed it to stand the test of decades of progression whilst many other sci-fi movies of the fifties are generally considered by critics as disposable. Dr Miles Bennell returns to his home town amidst a general hysteria of residents feeling that people they know intimately have changed somehow, despite no visible difference in appearance. Bennell is initially ambivalent, unable to decide whether there's any validity in the claims, until he's called round to a friend's house where they've found a 'body' that appears to be an underdeveloped replica of his friend. The body disappears but later on the group discover a number of giant seeds that produce dormant versions of themselves before their eyes. Bennell destroys them and sets off to get out of town with his old flame, Becky Driscoll, realising that the escalating situation is seeing the population being taken over by emotionless imitators that have grown from the mysterious pods. Unable to get a phone line out to other locations, and now the target of a hostile populace, Bennell and Driscoll embark on an increasingly frantic race to avoid becoming one of the others as they fight to escape.

Probably more highly regarded than the Finney novel itself, Invasion... is a frightening tale of paranoia and loss of humanity/autonomy. Made during an era of uncertainty as very real invasion from malevolent international forces, a factor that most likely made the story flavour of the time with the American public, it has been considered to be a parable against communism but Siegel and Finney have both opposed this theory, preferring to uphold its non-political status as simply a science fiction thriller. Of course it's easy to see why viewers will see the proposed political allegory, as everyone effectively becomes the same as they find themselves a victim of the pods, in a world that would eventually be devoid of emotion. It was never really clear in the film how the legitimate bodies were extinguished as they're replaced by the pod-grown replicas, however, Finney's text is more explicit in revealing that they actually turn to dust - I can understand why this may have posed a problem cinematically, either because audiences were more easily shocked at the time or because the budget simply wouldn't allow it (I suspect it was more so the former, as the special effects that are on screen are actually quite impressive). After the part of Bennell was thought to be suitable for a number of other actors, Kevin McCarthy eventually got the job, giving an amiable performance that progresses to mounting panic as hope is gradually torn away. His partner's shoes - that of Becky Driscoll - were filled by the shapely, highly feminine Dana Wynter. Elsewhere it's surprising to see Sam Peckinpah (later to direct such violent tales as Straw Dogs and The Wild Bunch) in a bit role - apparently he worked as a dialogue coach on the film itself (as well as several other of Don Siegel's movies around the time), claiming to have had a large part in re-writing the screenplay, a matter hotly disputed by credited screen-writer Daniel Mainwaring. The dialogue is a product of its time, but the scenarios and overall concept are just as frightening as they ever were. Yet the promised world of the aliens is a superior one in their view - one that is devoid of emotion and therefore problems. It poses an interesting idea and question - is it the presence of emotion that makes humans distinct, and would the world be a better place without it? This very idea would form the basis of another science fiction film made in more recent times - Equilibrium, where emotion is essentially banned in society and children are brought up to acknowledge its lack of use. Of course the argument in Invasion..., presented by the two surviving characters who love each other, is that the removal of emotion via the transition of conventional human to pod-born human is not something that is desirable, despite those that have been converted boasting its advantages. Without wasting a minute Invasion... remains a powerfully gripping experience to this day, with an influence on the genre that has spawned admiration, and remakes of course - these seem to diminish in quality with each subsequent attempt strangely (one is particularly good, one reasonable, and the last is, well...). As usual, the original is the best.

Considering its highly rated standing, a commendable disc release has been a painfully long time coming. I did own this on video cassette in the nineties but as my understanding of composition progressed I became frustrated with the ugly cropped fullframe transfer, and stopped watching it in the hope/expectation that a special edition of some sort would eventually materialise. None of the DVDs really lived up to that - they were either cropped, colourised, or widescreen but with substandard picture quality (Universal treated their UK fans with usual contempt as they put out a couple of can't-be-bothered DVDs that were inadequate), while stateside Republic put out the best DVD which contained both fullframe (useful only really for comparison and for argument against cropping) and fairly accurately framed widescreen versions in one pack, alongside an interview with McCarthy and liner notes - image was not up to much though. Thankfully Olive Films have arrived to correct one of home cinema's great wrongs - their US Blu-ray basically demolishes all releases as far as the transfer is concerned. Reportedly shot in a fairly standard 1.85:1 spherical frame it was projected (supposedly against the director's wishes) in the experimental 'Superscope' ratio of 2.00:1 - that's how it's framed here, and it feels very comfortable (particularly if you've seen the film cropped to 1.33:1, which routinely loses characters on either edge of the screen - ridiculous). The black and white photography can finally be appreciated for the proficient art that it was, detail is sharp throughout, and the gray tones look wonderful. Audio is presented via the respected DTS HD Master Audio format - mono naturally, but very clear. Alas there are no extras, which is a shame (there's room for a historian based commentary here, or a retrospective documentary perhaps). Having said that, if the production of extras compromised the efforts that went into the transfer, then I'd take the improved AV presentation over bonus material every time. The Blu-ray is packaged in an attractive cover, all housed inside a slipcase. An amazing film finally looks and sounds stellar in HD, and there shouldn't be much thought going into whether to buy this if you already like the movie.

Resident Evil: Afterlife

2010, US / Germany / France, Directed by Paul W S Anderson
Colour, Running Time: 97 minutes
Review Source: Blu-ray, Region B, Sony; Video: 2.39:1 1080p 24fps 3D, Audio: DTS HD MA

Infilitrating a huge scientific laboratory, Alice massacres her way through to locate Wesker, one of the people at the top of the nefarious Umbrella Corporation.  The ensuing battle results in a mass of bodies and the nuclear destruction of place, just before she hitches on an escaping jet containing Wesker.  Her assassination attempt fails, however, and in the brief struggle she is injected with a cell 'normalisation' serum by the now-superhuman Wesker.  The jet crashes (as Wesker rather foolishly takes his attention away from the non-automated controls to beat up Alice!) as they conclude their combat and Alice is left to roam a barren landscape in search of uninfected humans and a final solution to the organisation responsible for the worldwide mess.  Eventually locating a small aeroplane, along with an unwilling partner, she sets off on an airbound mission in search of a reportedly safe 'town' called Arcadia.  Closing in on her objective she sees a group of people stranded atop a building surrounded by infected, and particularly hungry, crowds.  Crash landing the plane on top of the building Alice and the group have to find a way off the place in order to reach Arcadia, which they can see via binoculars just a few miles away.

Crossing back and forth over genre borders, Afterlife is as much a superhero action movie as it is zombie horror.  The plot outline above could also be summarised as 'Alice and a group of survivors have to find a way from point A to point B in the hope of discovering safety', and the sequences prior to Alice's arrival on top of the building may have formed the opening set up of an RE console game, just before your take control of Alice to find a way out of the place.  But that's really the tradition of this series.  Emotionally as empty as anything the Resident Evil cinematic cycle has to offer, the film is nevertheless a slickly moving pounder of the senses,becoming a constant stimulus for eyesight and ears as it shows off cutting edge film-making technology and highly tuned technical/artistic flair.  It could at many points topple into the category of 'pop/rock video' if not careful but somehow manages to carry its slim plot and lack of emotional enagegment on its visual achievments and sensory pummelling.  Somewhat inspired - consiously or otherwise - by The Matrix, Wesker is modelled embarrassingly closely on the principal 'Agent' of that film, actor Shawn Roberts doing his utmost to out-Hugo Mr Weaving, while elsewhere flo-mo has been perfected and Alice drifts almost serenely through showers of bullets with near balletic poetry.  In fact, slow motion is used so much during the meticulously designed action sequences the film would probably lose ten minutes or so if everything had been played at normal speed!  Strikingly designed Milla Jovovich appears to be quite comfortable in the role of Alice, while everyone else (including the pretty hot Ali Larter from House on Haunted Hill, the first couple of Final Destination films, and Resident Evil: Extinction) function as they should, probably cognizant of the fact that they are never going to be the stars of the show in any Resident Evil film... Speaking of the stars of the show (aside from Alice), the Dead are there in their millions, as is to be expected, and the gore is quite plentiful, though largely of the digital variety as far as I can tell (and all the less offensive for it unfortunately).  By its conclusion you will be aware that this would not fail to lead up to another sequel, which you may actually be tempted to watch, Afterlife essentially being the guilty pleasure that it can be if you switch off your powers of reason.

Complementing the astute visual imaginations of the film-makers themselves, Afterlife was shot in 3D, specifically using the same PACE Fusion cameras that made the equally emotionally void Avatar so powerful an impact upon the eyes.  The Blu-ray is very sharp and near flawless throughout, with a vast palette of colours and plenty of opportunity to marvel at what you're looking at, whether there's anything else to engage the brain or not (thankfully Anderson avoids the use of annoying shaky cam in this film, something that would probably result in any 3D film becoming unwatchable).  The world is enveloping, compounded by the pounding rock soundtrack along with gunfire, explosions, and anything else the DTS HD track wants to throw at you from varying directions.  The BD can be watched in either 3D or 2D so this is the disc to get (rather than the standard 2D Blu-ray), because even if you don't own 3D viewing equipment yet, you should - and when you do you're gonna wanna watch this on it!  A moderately enjoyable film + a stunning AV presentation = a thoroughly fun experience.

Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

1973, Italy, Directed by Antonio Margheriti
Colour, Running Time: 95 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R1, Blue Underground; Video: Anamorphic 2.35:1, Audio: Dolby Digital Mono

Following a mysterious opening sequence where a body is seen dumped in a cellar and horrifically disfigured by hungry rats we jump forward to meet convent girl Corringa, who is paying a visit to her old family home, a gothic castle in rural Scotland. She’s confronted with all manner of unhinged activity: people are - regardless of traditional gender matching in some cases - having illicit affairs with one another (which she inevitably becomes drawn into herself), there are arguments about the family wealth, and quickly the lady of the house is brutally murdered. This is followed by more killings as the police are brought in to find out who’s behind the bloody mess, Corringa probably wondering what sort of domestic madness she has stumbled upon.

The title, production period, country of origin, and the initial impression of La Morte Negli Occhi Del Gatto may indicate we’re in store for a classic giallo but that’s only partly accurate: the film has a lot in common with the gothic Italian horror stories that proliferated throughout the sixties, a couple of which director Margheriti himself was responsible for (notably Castle of Blood/Danza Macabra and Virgin of Nuremberg). To throw a spanner into the works as far as our preconceptions about genre are concerned, once the killings are under way one of the characters hints at the possibility of vampiric activity (an undead vision at one point supporting this theory), while another blames everything on the poor cat that consistently hangs around doing no harm to anyone - the title seems to be tenuously designed to allude to the possibility that the cat itself witnesses the killings. There’s even a gorilla (!) repeatedly spotted spying on several of the castle’s inhabitants and may be responsible for the deaths as part of some sort of anti-human vendetta. Hence there is a schizophrenic, slightly chaotic edge to the story outline that is not altogether outside the realms of commonality when it comes to seventies Italian genre output, and it certainly takes the ideas of any viewers who think they may be able to fathom out what’s going on and buries those ideas in the castle crypt, right alongside the coffin that’s discovered smashed open from the inside. Having said that, this imaginative approach to crafting an insane plot goes frustratingly astray by the film’s conclusion, which is rather conventional in comparison to what’s preceded it. The journey up until this conclusion is fun nonetheless. Margheriti (here credited with his usual anglicised pseudonym Anthony Dawson) generally seemed like a capable director who pumped out fairly large volumes of work without apparent detriment to quality, though his films aren’t A-class to be honest. Without going overboard on the sex and bloodshed he managed to construct fittingly atmospheric movies that were both raunchy and periodically violent, particularly for their respective eras - see for example the horrific rat face-eating sequence in Virgin of Nuremberg, a film made in 1963! Incidentally the prologue to Seven Deaths… reminds me of that earlier film, featuring as it does a horde of rats devouring some poor sod’s face. Riz Ortolani, one of my favourite Italian composers (e.g. Zeder), provides the score though it’s not especially emphasised and not as notable as some of his other works. The cast function reasonably well, English girl Jane Birkin taking centre stage as the sensual Corringa as she’s surrounded by an assortment of oddballs whose relational issues keep the viewer's eyes focussed generally on the screen. The stereotype police inspector who materialises on the scene the moment a corpse appears, complete with Scottish (dubbed) accent, is an amusing touch. Regarding the soap-opera shenanigans, it’s sometimes hard to follow just what’s going on with who on occasions, but I found this can easily take a back seat to the homicidal nature of the proceedings if one so wishes to mentally disengage. The production design stands out along the way, lending an apparent finesse to the project. Successfully consolidating elements of the giallo and gothic sub-genres Margheriti again proves himself to be a director who delivers pretty much exactly what’s needed with this one.

The best version to seek out is still undoubtedly Blue Underground’s DVD, placed on shelves several years ago. The image is soft, possibly a symptom of its source, while colours are strong, possibly a touch too saturated - overall a satisfying widescreen transfer. Audio is provided in English dub only which is marginally disappointing as I would have liked an Italian track at least for comparison. A couple of scenes seem to have missed English dubbing as they’re present in this cut but with Italian dialogue only (subtitled), however it’s not too jarring and commendation is due thanks to this version being complete. Given the British setting the English dialogue is not out of place, so I can happily live with what’s here despite griping a little. An interview with Giovanni Simonelli rounds out an acceptable DVD release that could admittedly have been improved but is nevertheless welcome due to the film’s preceding obscurity.

Monster House

2006, US, Directed by Gil Kenan
Animation, Running Time: 87 minutes
Review Source: Blu-ray, Region B, Sony; Video: 2.39:1 1080p 24fps (3D), Audio: DTS HD MA

In an American suburb the local kids are terrorized by a bitter old man whenever they step on his property or let their toys fall on to his lawn, causing a real stink on Halloween when kids like to go trick-or-treating (AKA making a complete nuisance). One boy in particular, DJ, is suspicious of what goes on in the old man’s spooky house, setting up a telescope in his bedroom and generally becoming obsessed. As his parents shoot off for holiday - er, sorry: vacation - and the old man himself is taken away by ambulance after a screaming fit leaves him with a heart attack, DJ enlists the help of his fat friend and the local babe (if you’re 13 or under of course) as they begin to realise that the house itself seems to have a mind of its own, apparently ‘eating’ anything that strays too close. The police understandably don’t believe a word of it, so the youngsters decide to take the matter into their own digits - they start formulating a plan to break in.

Presenting itself as a modern mix of The ‘burbs and The Goonies, Monster House is a fairly creative CGI movie showcasing advances in technology to quite astounding effect. The story itself is not ground-breaking but the characters’ behavioural patterns and facial expressions are a joy to watch. The script is executed at a slower pace than expected by the usual roundup of ’stars’ who do an adequate job with the material, though I wasn’t especially keen on Steve Buscemi’s vocal performance as the old man. There is a tragic element to the story (referring to the old man's wife)that's kind of in the background most of the time whilst being ultimately a conceptual driving factor for the entire escapade - I guess it does add some emotional weight but it was something that I felt a little uncomfortable with.  Rendering has reached such heights that the visuals could almost pass for stop-motion photography if the character movements themselves were not so smooth, which almost makes one wonder if the film could just have been shot as live-action utilising CG special effects (especially considering the extensive use of motion capture, which is not true animation). Made using an innovative 3D process for its original theatrical screenings, the technique has stimulated plenty of inventive virtual camera work that helps draw the viewer into the action. There seems to have been a little influence from Tim Burton here also, the score itself coming across as a Danny Elfman imitation on occasions. An acceptably delightful film; kind of an animated horror for children, with a few scenes that may frighten younger viewers.

Have previously seen this a couple of times on DVD, the direct digital transfer was not as sharp as expected but was otherwise very attractive, for standard definition…However, the 3D Blu-ray transfer is another matter. It’s an absolute stunner – there is no softness, only pixel-perfect sharpness to a point where even characters at a distance are neatly defined - the images created by the Sony team are often quite stunning. Colours and contrast are absolutely vibrant and the addition of the third dimension is a thrill from beginning (where a leaf calmly drifts down from a tree top to the ground as we follow it) to the climactic end sequence as DJ is tossed around on the end of a crane hook – be prepared for vertigo! The surround mix is equally absorbing making the Blu-ray an awesome demonstration piece for your system, whether you enjoy the film or not. Monster House is quite a fun ride, a factor multiplied by a hundred if you watch this in 3D.

Salem's Lot

1979, US, Directed by Tobe Hooper
Colour, Running Time: 106 minutes
Review Source: VHS, PAL, Warner Home Video; Video: 1.33:1, Audio: Mono

Returning to the town of his upbringing, author Ben Mears intends to write a book about a solitary house that sits on the outskirts of town, a place that has intrigued him since breaking into it for a dare as a child and witnessing apparitions of some kind. Due to what he thinks he saw inside Mears has come to believe that the Marsten house is inherently evil and therefore attracts evil people; complying with his theory it has recently been purchased by the apparently malevolent Mr Straker, an outsider who is opening up an antiques shop in town. After a study session one night two schoolboys are walking home via a short cut through the woods. Becoming separated one of them manages to reach home but not before something has happened to him to result in hospitalisation. During his stay his missing brother makes a nocturnal visit to his room window where, upon entering, the deathly child bites his brother’s neck draining him of blood and life. Soon the town is in the grip of a vampire curse which begins multiplying and Mears reasons that it has something to do with Straker and his associate, Mr Barlow, a ominous man nobody has actually seen.

This is the theatrical cut of the original three hour made-for-TV version of Stephen King’s novel. They basically took the full version, removed a large portion of material (notably the vials that glow in the vicinity of the undead), inserted a couple of gorier shots and sent it out to cinemas. I always felt it was a tight and concise edit though the rapid pace of character introduction and development early on betrays the fact that footage has been excised - fans of the novel may be disappointed. 70s pop and TV icon David Soul (most famously Starsky & Hutch of course) plays the obsessive lead role well and the articulate presence of James Mason brings a touch of class. The vampires are suitably inhuman and remain a near definitive rendition of cinema’s extensively-used bloodsuckers, in particular Barlow himself, who might just be the most repulsive and frightening vampire on celluloid. All traces of the romanticism that often pervade the sub-genre have been eliminated resulting in creatures that are uncanny and unnerving because of their utter lack of humanity - rotting shells devoid of souls. Harry Sukman's brooding score is reminiscent of an earlier era and aptly supports the material; Salem’s Lot is innately an old-fashioned chiller that relies on atmosphere rather than shocks (although there are a few) and outright bloodshed (of which there is hardly any on screen). The fact that it was made for TV possibly worked in its favour - nowadays, because film-makers can show everything, they often do, sometimes forgetting about what else might make a horror project effective in the process. One of the better King adaptations, this is also one of Tobe Hooper’s finest hours, a man who perennially seems unable to repeat the success of his groundbreaking first movie (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Surprisingly there was a ’sequel’ in 1987, A Return to Salem’s Lot: it’s elusive nowadays and, whilst obviously a cash-in, it wasn’t too bad if my memory serves me well.

Why hold on to this ailing video cassette? Well, Warner have been kind enough to digitally grant us with the full length TV version but there is no sign that the theatrical edit will ever make it to DVD or Blu. The ideal disc package would obviously contain both. While people often want the longest version of a film possible I believe that in this case the shorter version provides a satisfying way to experience the film. There was also ostensibly a European cut that incorporated a couple of slight differences. Full-frame picture quality on the UK tape leaves a lot to be desired as does the muffled sound, but until this becomes available on disc (whether it be SD or HD) I’ll be holding on to this tape.

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.