Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 11th, 2024
"Nuns, guns and gasoline."
Mike Mendez released his first film in 1997. Killers was also just released on Blu-ray from Synapse films. The better of this Synapse double release is The Convent. For me this was the peak of Mendez's low-budget horror films. Synapse must agree with that assessment, because they decided to give The Convent a UHD Blu-ray release in 4K, and that ended up being somewhat of a trick-or-treat combination, with The Convent absolutely being the treat here. Made in 2000, the film took a long time to make it to anyone's screens. There was a distribution deal in place, and it fell through at the last minute. It's the kind of luck Mendez has dealt with his entire career. His friend and co-writer on Killers lost his house when it was mortgaged to pay for that ' creation. He debuted the film at Sundance, and he had hoped for a wider release, at least on home video, but it took 2 years to finally happen.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 31st, 2013
In the 1950's and 1960's Hammer picked up where Universal had left off. They became the studio for the very best in horror films. With names like Lugosi, Karloff and Chaney finally reaching the end of their reign, Hammer offered up the likes of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. They resurrected all of the famous Universal monsters in their own image. Now we had a new cycle of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and The Mummy. While the films were somewhat low-budget and released mostly through the drive-in circuit, these films made a bloody splash with horror fans all over the world. But by the time the 1970's had begun, the studio was falling behind in the horror genre. Anthony Hinds had left the studio, and with him went some of the passion for the horror films that made Hammer famous. The studio heads became more interested in other kinds of films, and the horror department languished for a time.
While the studio was still bringing back the monsters that had made it famous, there was a decided effort to return to their own roots with the psychological thriller, and one of the best turned out to be Hands Of The Ripper. Hammer was certainly in decline, but Hands Of The Ripper had the advantage of being shot at England's famous Pinewood Studios where other more illustrious films were also in production at the time. Sets were utilized from The Private Lives Of Sherlock Holmes and more notably James Bond. M's office would be completely recognizable here, complete with the padded door. These sets and production advantages allowed Hands Of The Ripper to go beyond the cost-cutting measures in place at Hammer during this time. It ends up being one of the studio's richest and most atmospheric films.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brent Lorentson on July 22nd, 2013
Some cult classics you have to just wonder how it is they manage to stand the test of time. For the life of me I’ll never understand the love for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but yet when someone mentions the cult classic Frankenhooker, I can’t help but light up with geeky delight. As film geeks most can admit these cult classics are far from great films, but yet there is a charm about them we can’t resist, and not only do we rewatch these guilty pleasures, but we also have the irresistible urge to thrust these films on our friends.
When a liquor store owner discovers a crate of unopened, cheaply made wine labeled “viper” in his cellar, he does what any good business man would and takes it up to the counter to sell it. The trouble is this special brew does more than give you a hangover; instead it causes the body to swiftly break down and melt into a colorful puddle of goo. Unfortunately it seems the only customers picking up this deadly booze are the local bums who have managed to scrounge up a buck to make their lethal hooch.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on August 29th, 2012
“We decided to tour round Serbia. We’ll go to villages. It will be interesting to see farmers’ reactions to our sexual provocations. Sexual education for Serbs. Widening the horizons. This is our guerilla mission.”
I like to think I am not a prude. My taste in film runs to the controversial, and I don’t shy away from extreme cinema. I think Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom and Caligula are masterpieces; A Serbian Film impressed and affected me, although I have no intention of watching it again. Even the brief inserts of hardcore porn in “mainstream” movies like Shortbus, Antichrist, Brown Bunny or the previously mentioned Caligula don’t offend me, but I must admit I found The Life and Death of a Porno Gang unpleasant and soulless.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 24th, 2012
"Satan has sent me Twins Of Evil."
Okay, it wasn't really Satan, at least I don't think it was. It was the folks over at Synapse who sent me the Blu-ray release for Hammer's Twins Of Evil, and I'm pretty glad that they did. If you're a horror fan of any worth and are old enough, you have some wonderfully frightful memories of Hammer's run of horror films starting in the late 1950's. Hammer pretty much began where Universal ended their celebrated cycle of horror films. Like Universal, the cycle produced a new generation of atmospheric horror films that included the classic creatures. Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy were all resurrected under the Hammer banner. The studio also delivered the next generation of classic horror actors led by Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. While it's true that changes of the guard at Hammer and a lean toward more exploitation cinema led to a decline by the 1970's, there continued to be some notable exceptions. Twins Of Evil was one such exception.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 19th, 2012
"Nikolai Petrovich Rachenko...our warrior elite...a very powerful and valuable tool...if he can be controlled."
It's no secret that they just don't make action movies like they used to. (Sylvester Stallone just shot a brawny arm into the air in protest. I see you, Sly!) These days the odds of seeing a pretty boy like Matt Damon and a perennial tough guy like Bruce Willis headlining an action flick are just about even. You're just as likely to see Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in family fare like Journey 2: The Mysterious Island as you are in an manly romp like Fast Five. Heck, the Arnold Schwarzenegger role in the upcoming Total Recall remake is being played by...Colin Farrell.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on May 24th, 2012
“His name is Samson. He’s big with his cat, with mama and with his stick. Black Samson… he’s mean and clean and rules the scene.”
In the 70s and 80s, filthy little theaters littered New York’s 42nd Street, sandwiched between adult bookstores, porn theaters, and peepshows. These dens of celluloid sin hosted an endless loop of “B” movies affectionately known as grindhouse films. They ran exploitation films, drive-in double features, and European softcore of every subgenre, ranging from Blaxploitation to Sexploitation, from Euro-crime to Sci-Fi and Horror. Some theaters projected these movies 24 hours a day, seven days a week! 42nd Street Forever collects nearly ninety (approximately three hours and forty-five minutes) of sensational vintage trailers from these grindhouse classics.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on April 10th, 2012
“Don't you ever touch the sacrificial fluids... okey dokey?”
“Okey dokey” indeed; in 1985, director Josh Becker gathered his friends, including Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, and they shot Thou Shalt Not Kill… Except in Detroit around Campbell’s childhood home. Working with a microscopic budget, they created a tribute to the savage exploitation films of the sixties and seventies, full of bad lighting, crappy sets, leaden acting, cheap makeup gags, horrible dialog, and a certain goofy infectious fun.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 8th, 2012
A group of high school girls heads off into the woods to make a movie for their film club. What only the two organizers know is that they are heading for the site of a previous film club’s massacre. Their shoot descended into madness, with a participant in a deigan mask killing all the others, and the whole thing was recorded on tape. It isn’t long after the girls arrive that things start to go wrong, and it seems that history might be repeating itself.
I do like the footage we see of the earlier film – it has a genuinely disturbing quality, and when it arrives, it raises one’s hopes that the perhaps the terminally pedestrian set-up is going to give way to something livelier. No such luck. Much in the way of squabbling, wandering around on one’s own, and off-screen murders transpires. The characters are caricatures when they can be distinguished at all, the cinematography is dishwater dull, and the plot, by the end, makes little sense, though it is very unlikely that most viewers will care one way or the other by then.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by M. W. Phillips on December 22nd, 2011
“I'm just crazy about this store.”
Anyone who has worked the night crew in a grocery store, restocking shelves after the place is closed, knows how creepy it can be walking the aisles in the belly of a half-lit behemoth. Now imagine if you were being stalked while you stocked by a mutilating psychopath. This was obviously the motivation for writer/director Scott Spiegel when he created his Super-8 short film Night Crew with childhood friends Sam Raimi, Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell. After co-writing Evil Dead 2 with Sam Raimi, Spiegel chanced on an investor’s meager budget to elevate the short into a full-length feature slasher flick. The distributors didn’t care for the original title, and the film was released as Intruder.
