Bring Those EVILLY Responsible to US! “Garden of Love” reviewed! (Unearthed Films / Collector’s Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Garden of Love” on Blu-ray from Unearthed Films!

Rebecca Verlaine is the sole surviving child of a brutal massacre of her family and fellow amity commune by masked killer.  Years later, attending university and in a relationship with a professor named David, Rebecca has not been affected by the tragedy because of her post-traumatic amnesia induced response, a protective reaction by her mind.  When Rebecca begins to see grotesque images and corpses talk to her through the television, to the point of being frozen in fear, her adopted Uncle and Aunt, acting in the role of her real parents, along with David divulge the horrible truth about her father’s slaying.  Unable to shake the feeling she must visit the site of the massacre; Rebecca is escorted by police to the building where the ghosts of the television physically manifest and will slaughter all those Rebecca brings to them in retribution of their unpleasant death.  Rebecca must somehow unearth and bring to post-humorous justice their killer, but little does she know those responsible are already closely intertwined into her life.   

Director and special effects artist Olaf Ittenbach is one of the few kings of independent splatter horror between mid-1990s to present.  The German-born, “Premutos:  The Fallen Angel” and “Dard Divorce” filmmaker has accumulated gorehounds over last two and half decades with outrageous gore effects to the likes of early days Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson and subtle comedic gags inside the ghastliness of bodies being literally ripped to shreds.  The 2003 released “Garden of Love,” aka “The Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine,” is a pure example of Ittenbach never letting loose the reins of cathartic, blood-soaked chaos with a simple tale of supernatural revenge.  Ittenbach cowrites the script with Thomas Reitmair, the third writer-director collaboration behind “Riverplay” and “Beyond the Limits,” and the director has total control over his production by serving as the executive producer financier under his studio company IMAS Filmproduktion in association with Benfeghoul Goldberg Filmproduktion and producers Yazid Benfeghoul (“Sky Sharks”) and Ricky Golderg (“Beyond the Limits”). 

Natacza Boon, the English actress behind acting in a parallel Ittanbach production “Beyond the Limits” the same year, stars the adult version of Rebecca Verlaine bewildered by the truth be told after learning of her amnesia and once ghastly ghosts begin to talk to her through television sets.  Boon does a good job selling the initial fear and then transitioning into acceptance that was she’s visioning is real, real enough to absolute slaughter anyone in a spray of blood spatter when crossing its path.  While Boon is English born, the rest of the cast also includes more Ittenbach entourage American with Daryl Jackson (“Beyond the Limits,” “Dard Divorce”) playing Rebecca’s secret-holding lover David and the German native James Matthews-Pyecka (“Beyond the Limits,” “Legend of Hell”) as the initial inspector on the Verlaine massacre returning to the cold case to assist Rebecca’s need to explore her forgotten history.  Through the differing nationalities and styles each performer brings to the this splatter film, their dynamics have synergy having worked in tandem with another and despite their difference languages there is no language barrier to be broken as the film is written and shot in English with Mattehws-Pyecka, and the rest of the living principal cast of Rebecca’s adopted parents in Uncle Don and Aunt Barbara (Donald Stewart and Alexandra Thom-Heinrich), communicating with clear pronunciation.  German musician and actor, Bela B., a stage name as the punk rock drummer and vocalist for Die Ärzte, has an equally primary role that opposites Boon in portraying her murdered father’s vengeful spirit.  Real name Dirk Albert Felsenheimer, he’s depicted mostly in gruesome face-wounded makeup and ghostly milky white eyes that haunt his onscreen daughter Rebecca from beyond the grave and manifest only in the building where he died (much like that BBC show “Ghosts” but Ittenbach did it first).  Felsenhaimer’s unique facial contours make for good prosthetic balefulness and frightful fear being the head ghost who doesn’t necessarily go for the throat right away like the others.

“Garden of Love” is a cut-and-dry revenge film from the other side with not just a touch of but a full five-finger death punch of gory exaggerated explosion from Olaf Ittenbach.  Gabe Verlaine, his daughter, and his commune of bohemians have their harmony violently stolen from them, creating disharmony in the afterlife.  Their unrest is stretched outward into the corporeal world as love and peace is replaced with hate and spite in stark contrast.  Yet, and this where the little things become lost to the ridiculously entertaining blood splatter, the reason why their group returns to take vengeance is far from being elucidated.  Apparently, Gabe is also sitting on a fortune for his…well…we don’t know.  He plays the guitar but there are hints of him being a talented musician, but it’s never explained on why he’s sitting on a nest egg that’s the overarching theme of greed ingrained into the “Garden of Love” story.  What’s not ambiguous is the practical effects done with complete care in all fields from Olaf Ittenbach and Tommy Opatz (“BloodRayne,” “Black Death”) special makeup and prosthetic effects to the flawless editing work of Eckart Zeraway to piece the components of a sequence together for seamless quality and relayed purpose, such as pulling out comedy from the slapstick splatter of bodies literally being torn apart.  Let’s not forget to mention Holger Fleig’s cinematography as he captures eldritch supernaturality to emphasize the undead commune in an European, specifically Italian, way with a glowingly colorful, backlit haze that’s denotes an otherworldly tone, a tinged musing of Michael Müller’s work in “Premutos, compared to the modernist and contemporary arrangements of a clean and minimalism look with the living done without specialized lighting.

Unearthed Films delivers more Olaf Ittenbach to a 1080p high definition transfer, AVC encoded, Collector’s Limited-Edition Blu-ray, a BD50 disc.  Plenty of storage capacity to handle Fleig’s aura lighting aesthetic that’s show pristine saturation inside the 35mm stock, a format departure for Ittenbach who regularly use of video was an antithesis to pinnacle quality.  With an aspect ratio of 1.77.1 widescreen, “Garden of Love’s” imagery looks good albeit some of its sterile mise-en-scene layering of a production set, colors are touched up nicely to provide a supernatural backlit of purple and blue gel lighting, diffused through a smoke machine that greatly cues the in-and-outs of Gabe Verlaine’s crew of the vengeful dead with an accompanying gore with a stark tone of red and black, and the compression coding is easily digestible on the extended capacity disc with no signs of artefact interference to note and no interruption from a preserved early 2000’s print.  Aforementioned, this German product is entirely shot in English, recorded during principal photography, and can be presented in either an uncompressed PCM 2.0 or an uncompressed DTS-HD 5.1 surround mix depending on your setup.  Dialogue can be a bit boxy, leans little toward overexertion within the scope of the production setup, and is not the native language of a few actors but through the release encoding the mix comes out nicely balanced and clear without any distortion.  Same can be said for the milieu and the action Foley, especially during the carnage of spirits versus the coppers that highlights the perforation of body, the squish and thwack from pulverizing, and the spray of the blood, resulting in a range of onomatopoeia that too includes gun shots and atmospheric reverberate. English subtitles are available.  Extras include a making-of featurette that provides raw footage from behind-the-scene of principal photography and the special effects gags, a second behind-the-scenes featurette with cast-and-crew clipped interviews, an Unearthed Films exclusive outtake reel that runs without audio for much of it, a new photo gallery, and the original trailer.  The first Blu-ray pressings include a limited O-slip cover with a new illustrated composition artwork on the front cover of the slip and inside the Amaray sleeve that showcases exactly what you’re getting – gore, ghosts, and an otherworldly glow – presented in a dark and soul peering artistic rendition.  I did find the slipcover to be annoying too tight around the case, making it difficult to remove the Blu-ray to the point of damaging the product.  The disc is pressed to resemble a vinyl, like the one used in the film to signal the arrival of the spirits’ malevolence.  The region A locked Blu-ray comes not rated and has a runtime of 89 minutes. 

Last Rites: Fans of absurd violence and gore need to see Olaf Ittenbach’s “Garden of Love” that’s not colorfully rich in all its limbs and viscera, as well as an ethereal lighting, on a new Blu-ray release from Unearthed Films!

“Garden of Love” on Blu-ray from Unearthed Films!

EVIL Would Be to Not Allow Yourself to Enjoy Japanese Gravure! “J-Girl Yummy: Mitsuha Kikukawa, Toka Rinne, and Reona Kirishima” reviewed! (Gravure Glamour Girls / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

You Can Find Mitsuha Kikukawa, Toka Rinne, and Reona Kirishima on DVD and Blu-ray at JGirlYummy.com

The J-Girl Yummy series presents three gorgeous new women who are prevalent from the pornographic Japanese Adult Videos (JAV).  Instead of hardcore assembly of action that often doesn’t feel as intimate as maybe one hopes, your favorite starlet now only has eyes for you in this softcore series that nearly leaves nothing to the imagination.  Mitsuha Kikukawa (“My Father Steals My Beautiful Fiancé,” “My Compliant Pet”), Toka Rinne (“Mamacita Stories,” “Married Woman’s Cheating Heart”), and Reona Kirishima (“Countdown to Nakadashi,” “On a Stormy Night – I found Myself Alone with My Sister-in-Law Upon Whom I had a Crush”) find themselves as the next trio lot for the showcasing series that explores their solo talents and provides a one-on-one between their hot bodies and the camera, seducing the lens with playful flirtation, a captivating allure, and a stimulating interaction that breaks the fourth wall as they stare, talk, and moan back with inviting eyes for their loyal fanbase. 

In a world where sex sells, any form of the vice is surely to be valuable.  Hardcore adult films reign as king amongst viewers but there’s also a sizable market for softcore productions, if the ever-desired Skinemax and more highly sought after risky mainstream erotic dramas were not prime evidence enough to make the case.  Across the oceans and lands, hailing from Japan, and landing in the North Americas are the gravure videos, Japanese media of idols, or models, posing suggestively with innocence, brazenness, and fun time pleasureful.  Gravure videos are typically bikini-cladded women, but the Gravure Glamour Girls produced J-Girl Yummy series go the extra mile by rolling back the clothes with the Japanese censorship working overtime trying to keep the pelvis area obscured from view with impenetrable strategically placed objects.  The films offer no credits other than its centerpiece idol on all surfaces of the packaging and in the encoding on the feature.   

We begin with Mitsuha Kikukawa, the now 28-year-old from Tokyo measures in at 5’5” tall with a waist at 61cm (24 inches) that curve down to just above a 3’ hip span and a Japanese F cup bust, equivalent to a U.S size between B and C cup.  With a high and full cheek bone structure, large round eyes, and pearly white teeth underneath a lighter color bob cut, Mitsuha has petite in all the right places of her traditional Japanese physique with a nicely round and slightly larger than hand size breasts and thick tail end around the thighs and rear.  Mitsuha’s presence the best example of erotic foreplay without any physical interaction with a partner as she’s able to work the camera with her eyes, mouth, and body language by herself and that speaks to her level of rising arousal talent coupled by her unique look that closely resembles a live example of an Anime interpretation of a young girl.  Each scene introduces a new element into her working the camera to maximize the intended result, to provoke the viewer’s keen feelings for their obsession, or sex in general, and Mitsuha is the clear winner amongst her J-Girl Yummy counterparts. 

Next, Toka Rinne from the China prefecture feels like a whole foot taller than Mitsuha but according to her stats, Rinne is the same 5’5” in height.  Waist and hips are similar too at 58cm (23 inches) and 90cm (35 inches), making this Amazonian-built like woman smaller around the torso than Mitsuha, despite a small and immaterial front pooch belly, yet her bust size measures in a 98cm, a Japanese I cup, that would secure a U.S. 34D.  Rinne also has long auburn-black hair down to mid-back with a big smile and almond-shaped eyes, Rinne has a classical Japanese face that can be slightly masculine in some areas, such as cheek bones and chin and while she may have more of an hour glass figure with a large rack to appease breast men, she tightens and tucks her chin while leaning her forehead forward slightly.  This might be age related as she’s a whole 6-7 years older than her counterparts, born in 1990.  This is about the tip of the iceberg for her awkward and stiff movements in front of the camera, as if she doesn’t know how to work her hands on herself and she nearly sticks to a single pose for most of the clothes on portions.  Rinne’s body carries her through each scene but is less adventurous within the confines of her imagination to pretend being an intimate partner where it counts. 

Lastly, we come to Tokyo’s Reona Kirishima, the shortest of the three standing at 5’ tall that translates to her 56cm waist (22 inches), hips (33 inches), and a perky D cup bust, a healthy C-cup in the U.S.  Kirishima has lower back length dark hair with a red tint stringing through overtop her girl-next-door-face, well-manicured, slightly freckled face in which she looks more Latina than Japanese.  Though cute and appetizing in all regards to her physical appearance, her camerawork lacks the energy and the sensuality that graces the lens with little-to-no smiles but rather dull, blank stares; her eyes are not overly unique to warrant gazing alone.  She poses half-heartedly through her scenes with a hand timidity and rigidity in her movements, often revealing her hesitation where and how to move her body and, likely, working off verbal instruction from the videographer.  Though lacking kinetic enticements, Kirishima does unveil a little more bush area than Mitsuha (who has no bush) and Rinna (who has some bush).  This opens more opportunity for visual cues for the viewers’ imagination to run wild when teasing just below the top waistline of her bikini bottoms and with her last few scenes, Kirishima may be the most adventurously provocative gravure model of the three despite her lack of expression. 

Each gravure idol entry follows a similar formula that begins innocently enough in the backyard with a simple strip down of clothing, moving toward a semblance of athleticism, such as Mitsuha playing with a toy bat and ball that speaks to her love of baseball, Rinna’s bouncy-in-all-the-right-places jump roping, and Kirishima working the hips quite well with hula hooping.  After breaking a sweat going through the fun physical play motions, it’s time to get ironically down and dirty with a shower scene that begins with a coursing shower head around the button-down white shirt to finally ending up in the tub of murky soap water.  In between, each lady does soap up and massage themselves, missing no spot of skin in the process.  Kirishima nearly bypasses the censorship leg spread in her bath water which is less opaque compared to the others.  From there, it’s sexy secretary time as the ladies’ don similar black skirts, white button downs, and thigh-high or full black stockings that cover a bad girl’s lingerie beneath, slowly being unveiled in an enticing dress down as they longue seductively on leather or velvety upholstered furniture.  Through all the down shirts, up skirts, extreme closeups, thrustings, grindings, and overall peeling back of innocence, the next to last scene embarks head first into a spicier flair by already skimping down the idols into lingerie or bikini in a more vibrantly hot colored walls and décor and introducing a toy of sorts, such as a glass phallus or a fur wand, to accentuate and punctuate their desire and kink.  This sets up the JOI or POV scene of intercourse simulation to the eventual explosion of the male kind right onto the idol’s chest.  These scenes drop the soundtrack and volume up the in-scene sound for erotic dialogue or moaning.  However, not all three participate in the grand finale with Toka Rinna having either opted out or her footage was not included as her video ends with the spicier scene prior; speculation is that since Rinna had retired from JAV a few years prior, she may have opted out of a ”sex” scene.  There’s plenty to like from each three gravure idols but I do wish production was more attended to especially around covering up certain scuffs on the models’ bodies with simple makeup, such as a pair of clotted scrapes on Mitsuha’s hand or even removal of the Band-Aids on the back of Kirishima’s ankles, and this surely speaks to the limited crew and price value of the series and something we’ve noticed before with our last J-Girl Yummy trio review of Ryo Harusaki, Ai Haneda, and Aoi Kurungi.

From Pink Eiga and Gravure Glamour Girls, Mitsuha Kikukawa, Toka Rinne, and Reona Kirishima are now personally available to you in high-definition on the J-Girl Yummy gravures.  The Blu-rays are AVC encoded, offer 1080p resolution, on a 25 gigabyte BD-R, presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  Organic image and lots of natural lighting use, the picture often appears with a resulting soft effulgence, or a heavenly light to go with the heavenly bodies, but there are also no counteractive measures to stop the overexposure, washing out some of details not only in the backdrop but also on the body and face.  The digital quality, in its natural state, can’t re-produce the exact detail without a filter or touchup but this more natural approach provides a realism to the gravure despite the non-compression issue image loss.  A BD-R does not replicate or help retain the picture integrity to its fullest, but the J-Girl Yummy product encoding still manages to sustain a sharper image.  I did notice on Reona Kirishima’s static menu some macroblocking with the replay loop but that’s the extent of the glaring artefacts.  I suspect there is an issue with the encoding as Mitsuha and Toka come with an elevator music layer with the static menu but for Reona there is no music but the menu still loops.  The Japanese PCM Stereo is mostly silent during the feature with a genre variety of music from instrumental piano lounge to alternative rock, to a dabble in a low-key synth mix, often rough cutting from on to another in the same scene.  Dialogue, mostly pleasure derived moans and groans, does come about in the last simulated sex scene from the idol and is organically resonating within the given space and unfiltered camera mic.  There are no translation subtitles with the feature dialogue.  Special features are generally the same across the board that includes a captioned interview with the model just after wrapping the gravure, focusing primarily on their sexual habits and pleasures while dipping toes into their personal time favorites, such as hobbies when not filming scenes.  Compared to Mitsuha and Tokas’ interviews, Reona was extremely short with only a couple questions and a statement to the fans.  There is also a still gallery with each idol, the J-Girl Yummy trailer for them, and a preview of the next gravure model.  The Blu-rays come in standard Amaray with half-naked model front and center overtop a black banner with their name and a rainbow design in the backdrop.  Inside is an insert card with a definite NSFW image of them.  Each title is unrated and are region free with runtimes of 60 minutes for Mitsuha, 58 minutes for Toka, and a full feature-length of 80 minutes for Reona.

Last Rites: Sex is subjective. Depending on your desires and your hots for certain Japanese models, these gravure ladies – Mitsuha, Toka, and Reona – could make for great softcore sessions tailored to be tease in a solo performance that makes intimate and sexy. One thing is for sure, J-Girl Yummy series eases the most beautiful women adult stars from the East to the West and we just might not be ready for them yet!

You Can Find Mitsuha Kikukawa, Toka Rinne, and Reona Kirishima on DVD and Blu-ray at JGirlYummy.com

EVIL is Waking Up to Find Yourself Married as a Simple Wife to An Abusive Island Fisherman. “Splendid Outing” reviewed! (Radiance Films /Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Splendid Outing” on Limited Edition Blu-ray!

President Gong Do-hee is an elite executive on top of the business world that’s mostly male-dominated profession.  Securing trade agreements, being head speaker at events, and forming relationships with male peers of other nations, President Gong is exhausted by the end of the day, returning home to regain recharge even if that means not spending time with her two children by letting the governess oversee play and bedtime.  Vivid dreams of being called to the seaside by a mirror image of herself and her therapist reminding her of her dead twin sister in relation to the dream sends President Gong on a road trip to the shore where she’s tumultuous caught up in a riot and chased by a mob only to find herself waking up to four fishermen handing her off to an agitated Island fisherman, Lee Min-Joo, who claims to be her husband.  Seeming stripped of her life on the mainland, she’s constantly under surveillance and abused by Lee’s certainly of her place under him as a dutiful wife by cooking, cleaning, hosting, and taking care of their crippled daughter. Gong Do-hae plays along, submitting to Lee’s instruction, until the right moment to escape back to Seoul where her past life may not be there anymore. 

Coursing with gender inequality, patriarchal oppression, and imposter syndrome, director Kim Soo-young (“Sorrow Even Up in Heaven”) challenges reality with a surrealistic dissociation and inescapable threat of being forcibly tied to an insufferable situation in his 1978 drama-thriller “Splendid Outing.” The South Korean film, originally titled “Hwaryeohan wichul,” is written by Cho Moon-jin (“Dying in Your Arms”) as a personal nightmare where one loses their existence and cut off from the rest of the world, essentially torpedoing their life before and being replaced or forgotten.  Kim Tae-su’s longstanding Taechang Productions (“Deadly Kick,” “Red Eye”) produces the feature from Seoul on the mainland to the adjacent unnamed islands where filming took place.

Without dishonoring or neglecting her costars’ performances, Yung Jeong-hie is “Splendid Outing’s” one woman show as the stoically exhausted President Gong.  From her POV entrance being escorted to her office where the camera turns to face her undivided business façade to the moment she steps into her affluent home with a nanny and maid, the “Village in the Mist” actress can rub elbows with elite professionals as if gender didn’t exist but there’s still this unbalanced tension that’s unsettling for President Gong, one that’s a male-driven society that flippantly places expectations of systematic conventions in regard to women’s placement within the workforce and society.  That pressure through peer misconduct induces anxiety, subverting her subconscious into a trip toward the seaside where being called to ends up being appallingly costly in a mind-boggling spirit-breaking deconstruction of herself.  This is when she meets Lee Min-joo claiming to be her husband, a brutish fisherman with an abusive hand and tongue with stereotypical, old-fashion perspective on where wife should be spending their time.  “Eros” actor Lee Dae-kun rendition of the role depicts an uncouthly aggressive and maybe even on the spectrum with his island bumpkin behavior.  Lee Min-joo’s not niceties extent beyond his mistreatment of Gong with womanizing ways and thievery.  Being trapped on the island, there’s nothing Gong can do is bide her time, time the punishment, and try to use her decision-making skills for the right time to escape but even when she does, the life that she once knew is over like it never existed before.  Those who saw her daily only see a faint resemblance in who they now considered long dead, her children have moved out of their family home with no mention of a forwarding address, and even her bank accounts of whittled down to nothing to complete the total erasure of her life after a year of living on the island.  “Splendid Outing” rounds out with significantly minor supporting roles in Lee Yeong-ha as the visiting island doctor and Kim Jeong-ian as Gong’s island daughter. 

From the opening walk-through of President Gong’s daily schedule and interactions to the oppressive nature of Lee Min-joo’s husbandry, themes of inequality stack up and out of “Splendid Outing’s” Lynchian narrative that courses like a bad dream of subdued impostorism.  President Gong single-handed success is stolen away by the cackling jabs of male perception that women should get married, someone to take care of them.  That seemingly innocent interaction brings big consequences to the executive’s psyche, inducing dreams of the seaside and her sister, and influencing a far drive to an unnamed fishing town where she doesn’t provoke to be whisked away in an unconscious state only to awake married, handed off to a stranger claiming to be her husband.  From there, President Gong is not only top executive of her class but rather in the position she has feared most – in stereotypical relationship with conventional gender roles of men providing, women working, and its askew gender dominance controlled and welded like a weapon by the uneducated island man called her husband.  Other than dreams and flashbacks during Gong’s time on the island, Kim Soo-young doesn’t lean on fantastical uneasiness to culture the effect.  The situation itself bores that sensation right into your core and frantic motions kick in to try and piece the puzzle together of how, why, and when she ended up on a strange fishing island with a strange fisherman.  Combination of her twin sister and the seashore experienced during the dream deduces possibility – perhaps her twin sister isn’t dead but just ran away?  Or perhaps President Gong is mistaken for her deceased twin and the man claiming to be her husband is her brother-in-law?  And even with sprawling open-aired island with jagged rocky hills and lush nature, a feeling of claustrophobia encompasses her as there’s no escape from the island, a hovering over every move husband, and the distance between neighbors creates a sense of confining isolation.

Coming back from dead, President Gong lost everything, or so she thought.  For Kim Soo-young and “Splendid Outing” coming back from the video graveyard, their feature fairs better, gaining all the glow-ups of a new and improved release with Radiance Films’ Blu-ray.  The limited-edition, single disc Blu-ray, “Splendid Outing’s” world-wide debut on the format, comes AVC encoded with 1080p high-def resolution onto a BD50.  The digitized transfer is produced from a 4K scan from the 35mm negative stored at the Korean Film Archive that was sent to Radiance Films for restoration at the Heavenly Movie Corp and presented to us today in an anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio.  Overall, the picture looks phenomenal with a natural diffused saturation, depth of focus in the details between background and foreground, and a fabric texturing that presents no challenges to distinguish.  Skin coloring appears also organic and captures enough glinty sheen of sweat and wet soaked skin and the coarse nature of a days long stubble.  The original print has survived the test of time to assist in producing a freshened up and restored transfer but there are noticeable but minor and faint instances of vertical scratching, mostly on the viewers’ right side of the frame.  The Korean language PCM mono mix offers an adequate mix that harnesses the surrounding the background noise and integrates it harmoniously in with the dialogue and sound designed or hard sound effects.   Dialogue tops the layers with a vigorous ADR that matches the movements with pleasing synchronicity, especially early on in President Gong’s routine where numerous different languages are spoken, such as Japanese and English before entirely switching solely to Korean.  The range extends from the hustle and bustle of a city urbanscape to the coastal sounds of calling seagulls and water splashes against rocks and shores.  Improved English subtitles are available with this Blu-ray.  Limited to 2500 copies, the catch them if you can special features a new audio commentary from Ariel Schudson, writer of classic gender and Korean films, a new opinion interview with “Peppermint Candy” and “Burning” filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, a new interview with assistant director Chung Ji-young, and a Pierce Conran visual essay Stranded But Not Afraid:  The Island Women of Classic Korean Cinema.”  The interviews are in Korean with English subs.  The Blu-ray comes with Time Tomorrow’s new (primary) and the film’s original artwork (reverse) with an informational technical and synopsis obi strip behind the plastic of a clear Amaray case.  The disc is pressed in the Radiance Films’ conventional single block color of mostly pink with black lettering for the title.  The insert contains a 35-page color picture and essay booklet with essays and excerpts from Chonghwa Chung, director Kim Soo-young, and Pierce Conran along with the cast and crew credits and Blu-ray release notes and acknowledgements.  The region free playback gives all nations the availability to enjoy the 94-minute, unrated mainland to island mystery and psychological thriller. 

Last Rites: “Splendid Outing” is a trip down the rabbit hole and Kim Soo-young is Lewis Carroll surrealistically asserting our Alice, aka President Gong, onto a topsy-turvy island of a have-no-say and abusive marriage, ideals and concepts not of her own nor not of her favor. Soo-yonng’s story deconstructs the consummate family idea into an utter nightmare subverted by a male influenced traditionalist society.

“Splendid Outing” on Limited Edition Blu-ray!

EVIL Pays High Dollar to Hunt, Kill, and Play With their Prey! “Game in the Woods” reviewed! (Jinga Films – Danse Macabre / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Survive the “Game in the Woods!” Buy the DVD!

After her grandfather’s death, Ash travels through Texas with her brother Ted and girlfriend Sam to his isolated ranch cabin to be the first to claim his most valuable possessions before their Ash’s cousin, Bobbie Jo.  They arrive to find the cabin unlocked but about the same as it always been and go into woods for a little rest and relaxation, enjoying nature with a little alcoholic to supplement the relief of tension between the turbulent odds of Ash’s fast-and-loose ways and Sam’s more strict conservatism in regard to their relationship.  When they found a spray painted, screaming woman with a metal collar around her neck and a bear trap lodged into her ankle, they found themselves in the middle of a hunting party of masked men with melee weapons.  Ran by The Game Warden, Ash’s grandfather leased the land for a deadly game of sadistic clients hunting down non-English speaking immigrants for sport and depravity with their bodies no matter if they were alive or deceased. 

A surely bastardized version of “The Most Dangerous Game,” a novel that’s been re-imagined many times over about one man’s obsessive hunting for man, director Mike McCutchen follows up his debut violent chase thriller film “The Next Kill” with “A Game in the Woods” as his sophomore feature that eases him into the horror and exploitation subgenre.  McCutchen cowrites the script with Drew Thomas, the first feature film writing credit for the “Sex Terrorists on Wheels” cinematographer, and is based off a story by the collaboration between McCutchen and Drew Guajardo set in the boondocks of nowhere, Texas where land is aplenty and help is scarce if cried for.  The 2024 produced picture is a product of McCutchen’s Austin, TX based Fault Pictures and is produced by J.J. Weber (“The Next Kill”) with Andrew Bragdon and Kyle Seipp serving associate producers with Lonnie Seipp in the executive producer role. 

Eleanor Newman and Emily Skeen play the lesbian couple Ash and Sam and I make it a point to call out their characters’ sexuality because it feels inherently important to the story.  Newman comes to light in the sophomore Mike McCutchen feature that takes her from out of a minor role to a key lead, if not near final girl protagonist, in the unconventional fearful female but rather head-on heroine in “A Game in the Woods.”  Skeen’s more sensible Sam becomes a quasi-damsel in distress without the distressing part but tries to formulate plans on the fly to escape her demented captors.  Ash and Sam have a palpable troubled relationship like oil and water but find themselves commingling when the right sadistic additives are involved, spearheaded by the apathetic Game Warden from John P. Crowley who also finds himself in a more visible and prominent principal role.  Crowley’s Game Warden harnesses a Bill Moseley energy and sarcastic tone but not in a carbon copy way that adjusts just enough to make confident and cocky Game Warden is own.  The lesbian portion of Ash and Sam does feel engrained into the narrative, especially with two women with shortened names for Ashley and Samantha but it also implies a male identity, as if equal sex.  All the women in the story have a common them about them too, they all have tenacity and a fighting spirit from Ash and Sam’s battling Crowley and the masked hunters to the captured women who fight and kill, to even Ash’s cousin, Bobbie Jo (Grace Robbins), who joins in on the offensive fight for survival.  There are zero helpless women, which is an amazing elemental theme and characterization.  As mentioned, all the male hunters wear masks, hiding themselves behind theiran masks, and the hunted men are tied to an object, make poor decisions, and just have no fight in them.  Even Ash’s brother Ted (Jamison Pitts) doesn’t put up resistance when confront and is more of the farting, comic relief.  Aside from the Game Warden, the male presence is weak charactered by far.  The hunters and the hunted fill out with Gary Kent, Steve Wilson, Kevin Corn, Caroline Schmitt, Doug Field, Scott Kimbrough, J.J. Weber, Ray L. Perez, Kyle Seipp, Yane Carvalho, Lonnie Seipp, Morgan Faber, and Michelle Mendiola with Lloyd Kaufman (“The Toxic Avenger”) making a cameo appearance. 

Working on one’s relationship with their partner usually takes a time, some self- reflection, or maybe even a little therapy.  For Ash and Sam, they come together be means of violence, tossed into the throes of their grandfather’s ghastly involvement in man’s flawed thirst for the cruel and unusual sadism, and though there’s never a come to Jesus epiphanic moment that they can overcome anything, the blood-soaked trial by fire is proof enough.  McCutchen immerses the women, and explosive collar device and spray-painted prey, into a whole new world of hurt in Earth’s backyard.  The clandestine organization the Game Warden works for laces are slightly untied and unkempt with the full scope of their national, maybe even international, chapters of a snuff wonderland where murder is king and nearly anything goes from chopping up bodies to molesting corpses.  McCutchen brings enough gore to the table without it being over gratuitous and overkill, literally.  Exploding heads, a chainsaw eviscerated torso, body parts strewn here, there, everywhere are what to mostly expect as the game devolves with the hunters becoming the hunted as the emotional depth is quickly pushed aside for the conflict ensued rising action, leaving no time for Ash and Sam to master their relationship troubles as the spider never contemplates life when winged food is snared in it’s web. 

From Danse Macabre and Jinga Films LTD comes “A Game in the Woods” on region free, R-rated DVD.  Encoded with MPEG-2 compression onto a single layer DVD5, the film is presented in with an upscale 720p resolution and a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  Basking in the warmth of a dessert brown and tan, Cinematographer Zedrick Hamblin DiMenno opts for a natural approach aesthetic that focuses heavily on the medium-close to extreme closeup shots of gory bits and pieces of tear away flesh.  There’s nothing too terribly stylistic to note with only a hint of television glow and a momentarily use of key lighting with interior scenes.  Compression encoding goes without a hitch that captures image reproduction just find for viewing pleasures, losing only some minor background details of blended foliage and objects viewed from afar.  The English audio formats include a PCM stereo 2.0 and a 5.1 Surround.  The surround sound mix will be the preferred option dependent on your audio setup as the environment layers diffuse evenly through the back and side channels, leaving dialogue and proximity action, such as the kill scenes, to translate with full-bodied effect to squeeze out every squish and squirt from the practical effects carcass.  There are ideal pitch, tone, and range with the clear and prominent dialogue without any underlining interference or hissing effect through the clear, digital recording.  English subtitles are available for selection.  Aside from the feature trailer on the main static menu, there is no other encoded bonus content.  Though the movie is engaging enough through evisceration through torture and there’s a a glimmering theme of women empowerment, if I saw this DVD on the store shelf, the cover art isn’t attractive enough to pickup with its dark imagery of a shadowy hunter drawing his bow toward something off scene.  The façade doesn’t offer a flutter of fancy and there’s no other physical features to warrant a second glance if physical media shopping.  However, give this region free film a once over and there’s a solid film underneath’s it’s dull shell. 

Last Rites: Despite the run-of-the-mill, uninspired DVD cover, check out this sadistic Jinga Films and Danse Macabre “Game in the Woods” where the hunt is solely for the thrill to kill.

Survive the “Game in the Woods!” Buy the DVD!

EVIL Sleeps with Women to Anticipate the Antichrist’s Arrival! “Violent New Breed” reviewed! (Visual Vengeance / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Violent New Breed” is a violent Visual Vengeance video available now!

The city of New York is under siege by a new drug as the narcotic Rapture sticks in the arms of his addicts, leaving them mindless and helpless to the effects.  At the head of the snake, a demon race known as Breeders are responsible for trafficking Rapture across the city.  Jack and Steve are part of a covert government operation well versed with the Breeder’s stimulation scheme of the junkie community. Going undercover at a Breeder establishment front, Jack concealed effort is blown and he falls to the Breeder’s vile ways, leading partner Steve, along with Jack’s teenage daughter Amy, down in the underbelly of the Breeder lair where cyborg servants are constructed and human women are led to breed more demonic spawn, one in particular in plan to be the birth of the antichrist.  In a hellish, NYC basement, amongst viscera and body part leftovers, Steve and Amy must complete the mission and stop the antichrist from reigning hell down on Earth. 

Independent horror filmmaker Todd Sheets has become a master of the microbudget horror scene since the mid-1980’s.  His evolution began with humble shorts, such as “Blood of the Undead” and “Dead Things,” with the latter being re-imagined by Sheets a decade later, and those early years really sowed the seeds of his behind-the-camera love for extreme and outrageous gore and horror as he creates low-budget horror through the years a rapid, breakneck pace, releasing titles such as the lycanthropic “Moonchild,” the anthological horror “Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8) that brings eight of the best indie filmmakers together to tell their tales of terror, and “Clownado.”  Yes, “Clownado” is, you guessed it, a tornado swirling with murderous clowns in it’s vortex.  My personal favorite has always been “Dreaming Purple Neon” for its off-coloring performances and survival-esque storyline with demons and drugs.  “Violent New Breed” is in the middle of his career having been released in 1997 with Sheets gaining traction on multiple filming locations, employing more principal and supporting cast members as well as an abundance of extras, and upping the violent tone and degenerate microcosms that transport viewers to seedier and deadlier worlds.   “Violent New Breed” is written and directed by Sheets under his early production label, Trustinus Productions, securing him a producer credit too.

Sheets has never been the type of filmmaker to follow conventional guidelines when it comes to his characters, often switching them around or executing a red herring to flesh out the real protagonist or anti-hero.  “Violent New Breed” plays into the former with a switcheroo of the principal protagonist, initially beginning with Jack going undercover and infiltrating the Breed’s strip club bar used as a front for their demonic dealings and ending with partner Steve taking the antichrist to the finish line.  The audience will get pretty far and involved with Jack’s life as he struggles with his divorce and custody of daughter Amy (Rebecca Rose).  Mark Glover, who has worked with Sheets on “Bloodthirsty Cannibal Demons” and “Zombie Bloodbath 2,” lands the subconscious weight of personal strife as he inevitably becomes the lone cop sheep in a den of demonic wolves that leave Amy fatherless.  That’s when Nick Stodden (“Clownado”) steps into the fold as Steve.  Steve’s not terribly present in the fist half of the film but is thrust into the Breed labyrinth by duty and by promise to his partner to keep Amy safe.  Strodden plays an average hero with Steve’s bravery in plenty of supply, but the character lacks the hand-to-hand combat skills or weaponry for a government agent trained to deal with supernatural killers.   Embracing entirely Asmodeus, the slick-rick head honcho of the demon hierarchy, is “Moonchild’s” Dave Miller who rather dons the nice suit, cocky attitude, and twisted demon leader suitably despite some reckless decision-making faux-pas moments that ultimately cost the character everything he’s worked toward.  The characters a mostly filled in with little human survivors of the foreboding infernal uprising, such as with Tamara (Jenni Geigel, “The Shivers”) and Trixie (Becky Stodden, “The Shivers”) who find themselves caught in the middle, and with Rod Will (“The Shivers”), Joel Hedge, Jody Rovick (“Prehistoric Bimbos in Armageddon City”), and Andrea Ureno as numerous demons, even one that has a carcinization lower body while still resembling a humanoid at the top-half with protruding mandibles, an absurd radical efforted pulled off successfully by Sheets and his limited budget. 

Sheets’ vision has always been larger than his funds, but the ambitious indie horror filmmaker can’t be contained or constrained by the size of his wallet and the size of his heart for the genre that inspires his creativity.  “Violent New Breed” epitomizes that Todd Sheets ingenuity and the image of a horrifying tomorrow with a large cast, lots of blood, and a striving story set on the streets of New York City while not actually taking one step in the Big Apple.  Yes, “Violent New Breed” is completely filmed in the Midwest, more specifically in Sheets’ hometown and state of Kansas City, Missouri, but the urban jungle is sold through the editing with interjected NYC cityscapes. However, none of the action really happens on the streets but in enclosed bars, basements, and backalleys that could sell to be anywhere, USA. Like many other Todd Sheets productions, there’s not a ton of backstory to chief characters, such as with Jack and Steve’s covert company of infiltrating and obliterating Breeder operations in what is considered an off-the-books undertaking, not recognized officially, yet the pre-apocalypse of the Breeders’ mission isn’t worth the money or resources to warrant the assignment more than two men. Breeders also outweigh hundred-fold, have abilities to invisible-phase, and have an army of Cyborgs all with the influencing poison on the streets to control most of the human population. Sheets sets up a David vs. Goliath narrative without much fight in the heroes and heroines with the Breeders’ shortcomings breed essentially from them tripping over their own shoelaces by not taking advantage when advantage appears opportune. The heroes’ dumbluck constantly and consistently happen through the film and becomes tiresome to watch weak torchbearers fumble to save all of humanity against domineering supernatural terror from Hell!

‘Violent New Breed” gets a violent-illustrated new release from Visual Vengeance. The new Blu-ray glorifies Sheets’ SOV artistic style through an AVC encoded, 1080p high-resolution, BD50. The precursing title card warning of the film’s technical imperfections through commercial or economical equipment, a wonted service by the Wild Eye Releasing’s SOV label, are not egregiously touched up but rather accentuate a cleaner, meaner version for show, presented in its original pillarbox full screen 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The world-wide debut Blu-ray contains the director approved transfer of the SD master tape elements. The faded details incline toward a warmer tone that almost seems ablaze with a glowing heat lamp just out of frame and this also, along with the 720p video, suppresses finer textures with notes of aliasing around character actions. Sheets’ color gels and hazy lighting work to an extent but there’s little pop to the graded coloring. The English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo offers more bite than expected out form it’s two-channel output but has some difficulty deciphering distinct layers inside the scene. Dialogue echoes and varies in volume sporadically through the picture with it also melding into the diegetic environment in a less-than-refined sound. However, dialogue does push through to an extent and is discernible with a rock soundtrack scoring through more effectively like a hot knife through butter. There are English subtitles available for selection. Packed with 12 hours of bonus content, Todd Sheet fans will receive a comprehensive look on not only a “Violent New Breed” but as the filmmaker as a whole. Those with older format copies of the film with be familiar with one of three commentary tracks on the Visual Vengeance release that includes director Todd Sheets and actors Nick Stodden, Antwoine Steele, and Becky Stodden. There’s a Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop magazine commentary and a Visual Vengeance produced 2023 remastered commentary with Sheets and Rob Hauschild, founder of Wild Eye Releasing. Other bonus content contains an interview with actor Jerry Angell and director Todd Sheets, Sheets discussing working with the late “Dolemite” actor Rudy Ray Moore who plays the last-standing city cleric, a behind-the-scenes documentary, a 2023 Q&A session at the Nitehawk Cinema / Visual Vengeance screening, a blooper reel, a behind-the-scenes image gallery, the original Kansas City local news spot, an uncut version of the strip club entrance sequence, Todd Sheets’ 2014 short zombie-western “Fistful of the Undead” from the 2016 anthology “Grindsploitation 2: The Lost Reels,” and the original and Visual Vengeance trailers. Also included are two alternate versions of the film: the DVD version and The Movie Channel’s R-rated cut. Three movies from the prince of one! Now that you’ve gone through 12-hours of encoded content, next stop is the hefty physical content beginning with graphic artist Heavy J’s Ghana-inspired artwork on the pink carboard O-slipcover that unveils inside a more traditional-approach to Visual Vengeance’s orange, yellow, and black, character-compiled primary art for the standard, clear Blu-ray Amary. The reverse side has the original poster art of a blue-tinted negative image of an axe-wielding Breeder cultist. The insert section has a single-sided folded mini poster of the Ghana art, a trifold essay from Tony Strauss with a bio on Todd Sheets, his filmography, and on “Violent New Breed” that also includes behind-the-scene and movie stills, a single fold, cardboard birth announcement for the coming of the antichrist, and a retro sicker sheet. The 114-minute feature is not rated and is region free encoded.

Last Rites: Todd Sheets enlarges an evil urban with an insidious poison coursing through the city, taking women when they please, and bring forth the antichrist and there’s only a handful of ill-equipped humans to stand in their way. “Violent New Breed’s” Visual Vengeance release, packed with extra content and a spiffy physical presence, is a victory for Todd Sheets and all independent filmmakers like him.

“Violent New Breed” is a violent Visual Vengeance video available now!