To EVIL It’s Only a Game! “Truth or Dare: Legacy” reviewed! (SRS Cinema / 3-Disc, 5-Film Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Own All 5 Films on Blu-ray From SRS Cinema!

Truth or dare is the game that can be played by all.  Children will dare each other to do eat dirt or spill the beans on who ate the last chocolate chip cookie.  Teens and adults will be riskier in their sexualized dares and their truth sought questions.  For Mike Strauber, the longstanding game is life and death.  When Mike stumbles upon his wife and friend’s bedroom affair, his dormant psychotic childhood surrounding the game awakens into delusions of playing the game with a woman he hallucinates, ultimately hurting himself enough to be placed in Sunnyville Mental Institution.  As Strauber spirals deeper into his madness, he inflicts his truth or dare game on mental patients who cut off their limbs and explode their heads with a grenade Strauber snuck inside.  Strauber also mutilates his face and comes to wear a copper mask but his time at Sunnyville is cut short when he escapes his confines and goes on a murderous rampage back to where his breakdown started, with his cheating wife and unscrupulous friend that sets Mike Strauber’s story to influence others to follow in his footsteps and even give Strauber another chance to work the killing field once again.

SOV filmmaker Tim Ritter is renowned amongst hardcore horror fans for his VHS and budget films that ambitiously and thoroughly executed with gory effects accentuated with a sleazy dressing.  Select filmic highlights include “Killing Spree,” “Day of the Reaper,” and even a segment in the Hi-8:  Horror Independent 8 Films” horror anthology, but his flagship film and franchise stems from the 1986 “Truth or Dare?  A Critical Madness” that spurred four sequels stretching from 1994 to 2017 under an array of non-sequentially titled projects, such as “Wicked Games,” “Screaming for Sanity,” “Deadly Dares,” and “I Dared You.”  If you haven’t noticed already, the multi-player required game of truth or dare is at the core of the franchise.  Ritter wrote and directed the films with Scott Tepperman (“Cruel Summer” franchise) co-directing “I Dared You” as well as starring in the picture, Kevin Lindenmuth (“Vampires and Other Stereotypes”) and SRS Cinema’s Ron Bonk cowriting “Screaming for Sanity,” and Kermit Christman cowriting “Wicked Games.”  The original film is an extenuation of a short film of the same subject matter in Ritter’s “Twisted Illusions” anthology.  Twisted Illusions would become the name Ritter and Joel D. Wynkoop’s small band production company to finance and shoot the first three films along with Peerless Films, Wynkoop Productions, and Los Bastardz Productions sneaking in here and there in the series as association coproductions with Ritter, Joel D. Wynkoop, Ron Bonk, Scott Tepperman, Yale Wilson, Denise Blackwell, and Reaper M. Jones are the credited producers across the five films.

Other than the centerpiece killer Mike Strauber in all five films, only one other character returns to the storyline and only in three out of the five, although Hess’s profession changes from psychiatric doctor to police detective.  One other principal support character from Part IV makes a brief appearance in Part V but has seemingly zero tether to previously film, making his character more confusing in the cast scheme.  While there have been many actors to have portrayed Mike Strauber, from John Brace being the first to give it his all as a scorned lover and a broken mental case to more the stereotypical slasher-stoic demeanors of Kevin Scott Crawford (Part II), Bill Cassinelli (Part III), Joel D. Wynkoop (Part IV), and Part V uses the character by notorious legend only, Dan Hess is essentially played by one actor, Joel D. Wynkoop in Parts II, III, and V and this would mark the character as the anthesis against Strauber, much like the Laurie Strode and Michael Myers embattled relationship of intertwined fates.  However, unlike Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, Ritter’s plots flare out to mostly not give Strauber all killer credit and gives Strauber’s inspired lot a chance to flourish in his all-encompassing infamy with copycat killers and even killer’s he’s made up in his own demented mind.  Like any Ritter production, there’s a slew of sultry, scantily-cladded women show a bit of flesh but their flesh is filleted.  The hot bods of Mary Fanaro (“Demon Queen”), Patricia Paul (“Creep”), Lara Stewart, Jessica Cameron, Krista Grotte Saxon (“The Day of the Living Dead”), and Ashley Lynn Caputo are just some highlights that’ll put your sweat glands into overdrive.  The 40-year stretched between the first film and the last film offers a variety of styles, culturally inclined for the decade, so nothing between styles and transitions carry over the same from film-to-film but that gives “Truth and Dare” it’s non-commercial edge, right?

“Truth or Dare?  A Critical Madness” is unusual proof of how mighty a small production with a lot of can-do attitudes can be with it’s tremendously vast cult following that has reached the likes of Frodo himself, Elijah Wood (“Maniac”) as well as to the casual horror fan bored on a Friday night and decides to rent the movie, digitally unfortunately nowadays.  There is a certain crude charm in it’s development of a killer as Tim Ritter evolves the mental state of the man, Mike Strauber, before he turns into a copper-faced killer whereas other slasher kings, like Jason Voorhees or Michel Myers, who are introduced to audiences in the deepest throes of their instable mental state and that is perhaps one reason why the original film works and connects with audiences who can empathize a killer instinct after being bluntly cheated on by their significant other or some other relatable, emotionally vulnerable, traumatic event.  The sequels from the 90s, “Wicked Games” and “Screaming for Sanity,” are the only two sequels that are back-to-back and still keep that aforesaid charm of encapsulated brutality surrounding the legacy of Mike Strauber in the form of copycat killers.  Strauber never returns to the likes of an immortal juggernaut but his notoriety feeds inspiration and influence for sequels to come, something we haven’t really seen before prior to 1990 and many have now imitated, such as the “Scream” films.  This separate but the same idea continues into the more modern last two sequels from the 2010s but has evolved or morphed to accommodate the digital age of internet, online videos, and webcams to infect madness with the truth or dare game being at its very essence.   However, Ritter transitions from 16mm and SOV to digital for the latter two sequels, losing that warm and fuzzy glow in the color tones and the 480-interlacing resolution of analog video.  The last film “I Dared You” is more of a caricature comedy than it is a tale of severity that preys on themes of derangement, loneliness, and trauma, trading those key aspect of downtrodden humanity for campy kitsch that doesn’t work and alienates itself from the body of the snake by putting a bulgy-eyed frog’s head at the end head of it; it just doesn’t work.

All five films are now available on a “Truth or Dare? Legacy” 3-Disc Blu-ray set from SRS Cinema.  A perceptively definitive set, SRS Cinema’s Blu-ray comes AVC encoded with 1080p Hi-Def resolution on a BD50s.  Each film is visually exhibited appropriately according to its shooting decade and budget capacity.  For instance, the 1980’s “Truth or Dare?  A Critical Madness” is shot on super 16 but then scanned to VHS for ease of distribution so there entails the film stock grain and light bleeds as well as interlacing and tracking properties but with an overall and a definitively pleasurable watching experience with it’s extremely minimal wear, tear, and age issues.  The 90’s “Wicked Games” and “Screaming for Sanity” were directly shot on SOV and come with that warm, orange coloring as well as soft but intense glow of other color lighting tints used to extract emotion out of the scene.  The 2010’s “Deadly Dares” and “I Dared You” are digitally filmed that take away much of that analog aesthetic of indie cinema, trading the format favorites for a cleaner image that has no visual personality to it.  These films are not a stylistic artistically with a cinematic flare but there are some visual tricks with tints, composites, and distortions that make the imagery stimulating.  Prior to the 2010’s installments, which are displayed in a widescreen 1.78:1, the aspect ratios for the older works are a full screen 1.33:1 aspect ratio.  All five films have a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio spec with an unpolished innate recording that has a medium-strength dialogue and feeble organic action that’s naturally captured without the enhancement of an audio strengthening and touchup.  There’s voiceover dialogue that’s more robust that loses that in-the-scene spatial distance.  English captions are available for each film and all alternate versions.  Each disc comes with special features that are rounded around and inspired by each of the films on the disc.  Disc one is just the first film “Truth or Dare?  A Critical Madness” that contains two cuts of the film supervised by Ritter and Roy Damm and Susan Kapostasy,  both versions have an audio commentary featuring director Tim Ritter and actor Joel D. Wynkoop, a feature-length documentary “Celluloid Carnage” that has some behind-the-scenes and raw materials and photos, the original Italian language track is available for both versions, a snippet of the talk show interview between Craig Ferguson and Elijah Wood with Wood discussing “Truth of Dare” as his favorite horror movie, a Ritter short film with Joel D. Wynkoop audio commentary available, a promotional photo gallery, the feature trailer, and a Tim Ritter introduction from 2016.  Disc 2 contains “Wicked Games” and “Screaming for Sanity” and contain a parallel audio commentary for each film with Tim Ritter, Joel D. and Cathy Wynkoop, a retrospective interview with Michelle Macabre, the original 1993 making-of “Blinded by the Blood II,” a featurette on the alternate conception “Writer’s Block,” promotional art and trailers, and a secondary interview with Ritter with scream queen Katrina.  The third and final disc, “Deadly Dares” and “I Dared You,” also include Tim Ritter audio commentaries with the latter co-hosted with Los Bastardz’s Scott Tepperman and Jim O’Rear along with series staples, Joel D. & Cathy Wynkoop, and rounded out with promotional and crowdfunded extras and fundraiser videos, behind-the-scenes of Part V, an estate location visit with Tepperman and O’Rear, Tepperman’s reflection of making Part V, and Ritter’s short film “Hess” with Joel D. Wynkoop starring which comes with it its own two commentaries, one with Joel D. and Cathy Wynkoop and the other with Marcus Kempton  The traditional Blu-ray Amaray has the more contemporary artwork of Mike Strauber in a copper mask and slicing a machete through the air with the title sporting the original font of dripping blood just overhead Strauber.  The reverse side of the cover art contains a complete overview of each disc’s special features and transfer specs.  First disc resides on left side lock while the last two discs are stacked on a double disc push lock, leaving no room for tangible inserts.  With a total runtime of 450 minutes, each film is not rated and comes region free.

Last Rites: Like normal, the sequels slowly dilute the original “Truth or Dare” film until by the 5th film there’s barely a resemblance of Tim Ritter’s heart and soul. Times change, sure, but keeping that underground and spirited essence of “Truth or Dare” would have made more sense than the killer’s influence amongst the masses over the decades. In any case, SRS Cinema’s 5-film Blu-ray is the definitive edition, nonetheless.

Own All 5 Films on Blu-ray From SRS Cinema!

EVIL’s Immortal Goo Goo Gaga! “Busted Babies” reviewed! (Blood Sick Productions / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

‘‘Busted Babies” Bouncing on Blu-ray!

n an alternate or surreal reality, skin-spotted, demon-like humanoids with wings live normally amongst regular humans as construction workers or cinematic directors.  One female of the demonic kind purloins and collects babies that turn into glass.  When she accidently trips and falls at the BBQ Salon, she inadvertently affects herself and her same-specie brethren with the chemicals inside the glass babies busts open, resulting in a bad case of immortality.  As she attempts multiple suicides to end her existence, some more radical and gruesome then most, her immortality doesn’t allow her to die so easily, and she starts to run out of ideas of how to succumb to the sweat air of death yet there is one way to permanently end it all.  Simultaneously, mysterious dancing human men in black suits seek the glass babies for the immortality for unknown reasons but the babies won’t be given up so effortlessly for the sake of all species.

What in the fragile baby hell did I just watch?  The above synopsis is the closest best guess to a comprehendible and coherent storyline one could possibly get out of the 2024 released Blood Sick Production entitled “Busted Babies.”   The Kafkaesque film with nonsensical dialogue and a disjointed narrative shot in an East Coast stretch from Philadelphia to Ft. Lauderdale is the inaugural directorial project of Kasper Meltedhair, alternative indie actress of “Cannibal Cop” and “Coven of the Black Cube,” but is Meltedhair’s sophomore penned feature behind 2017’s “Hooker with a Hacksaw,” cowritten alongside with good friend and constant collaborator in underground indie horror director Donald Farmer (“Cannibal Hookers”).  Meltedhair, her artistic pseudonym by the way, releases her lo-fi, SOV film through Brewce Longo and Michael DiFrancesco’s Blood Sick Productions with Nicholas DeGideo also as executive producer and X Menzak and Charles Smith as co-producers.

Meltedhair stares as the principal humanoid who inadvertently drops a glass baby in front of her Salon-going friends, creating immortal beings.  “Busted Babies” is one of a few of films that don’t name their characters so there’s no way to specifically identify easily other than from their moniker placeholders, such as Movie Star or Wood Chipper, but alongside Kasper Meltedhair as the spotted, winged, and horned humanoids are Erin Caywood (“A Corpse for Christmas,” “Coven of the Black Cube”) as an involved filmmaker  and Cody Brant as some kind of city or construction type worker.  They pursued by cultish G-men types who seek to obtain the immortalizing glass baby goop through off-beat dance moves and dadaist dialogue.  Blood Sick Productions founder Brewce Longo and “The Dark Military’s” Josh Christensen suit up as the men-in-black with Donald Farmer the quasi-leader sporting a different colored attire but still spews the same absurd loquaciousness amongst his men.  Interaction between the groups is minimal and only come to a head in the finale, creating a great fission of distinction between the two until that point in the story where desperation set through bizarre dialogue.  “Busted Babies” cast fills out with Andy Heck Boyd, Brent Grant, Nicholas DeGideo, Elizabeth D’Ambrosio, Mason Roberts, Carla Dickie, Eli Elliott, and Josh Schafer.

Trying to make sense of Kasper Meltedhair’s debut is beyond futile between the dada plot, an anti-establishment storytelling, and its runny absurdism dialogue that’s almost like a language only the character’s can comprehend.   The analog SOV aesthetic adds to the surrealism with its fuzzy details and rugged color reproduction, elevating an already unusual piece of art to esoteric levels that’s perhaps only understood by Meltedhair’s inner circle.  I won’t pretend to know what’s happening on screen, but you have to applaud Meltedhair’s going against the traditional cinema grain and making the approach her own in an auteur rebellion against conventional storytelling.  However, full auteurism usually creates distance between movie and viewer and that disconnection will ultimately hurt “Busted Babies” down the line with the various reviews that can’t quite explain the film and anything too weird is usually pre-treated with avoidance spray.  There’s no explanation of the demonic look her character and others have, there’s no exposition about why the babies are glass and why they have inside an immortalizing substance, there’s no laid out reason why the men in suit dance and talk in arrhythmic prose; there are just too many questions left unanswered and trying to process it is a struggle that carries over also to getting through the 87 minute runtime but what I tell myself is this, and this perspective gives comfort and resolution, that “Busted Babies” is 100%, undiluted, all-natural art meant to be personally interpreted like a Jackson Pollock painting.

Blood Sick Productions releases “Busted Babies” onto an AVC encoded, single-layer Blu-ray, scanned in 2K from the original VHS tape elements.  The obvious psychotronic VHS shooting leaves quality detail matters in the hands of the commercially VHS-shot gods.  Safe to say, details don’t matter but the interlaced look does for a film of this caliber that embraces the warm coloring of magnetic tape and compression malformations of a jaggy-edged blocking, as if one’s watching a movie through the bottom of a colored Coke bottle.  “Busted Babies” is also a 2024 film and I’m guessing they used a retro tape camera to obtain the desired and intended quality.  The English LPCM 2.0 Stereo favors an interference-laced design but not to the point of incoherency.  The unpolished dialogue track captures naturally, meaning you can hear and feel the space around their vocal interactions that go hand-in-hand with the video rather than recorded separately and then manipulated for cinematic effect.  Special features include Kasper Meltedhair short film “Rorph Cranker,” a behind-the-scenes featurette, outtakes, feature trailers, and the Donald Farmer viewing experience, a couching rambling from the indie SOV filmmaker about his experiences and the film itself amongst other areas that interest him.  The standard Amaray incased Blu-ray houses flat coloring composition of the title, the glass babies, some stills, and the production company, all of which are still very colorful in a yellow border but still very flat in pop and depth.  The disc is pressed with a cartoon rendition of the demonic angels   There is a double-sided insert of Erin Caywood in character with the reverse side being a written review snippet from Caroline Kopko.  “Busted Babies” is region free and is not rated.

Last Rites: Kasper Meltedhair’s debut, “Busted Babies,” will target a niche audience, and I have a sneaking suspicion that is purposeful, as the concept and execution is abstract absurdity at all times in an analog setting.

‘‘Busted Babies” Bouncing on Blu-ray!

An Indie Anthology Worth an EVIL Look! “Creatures of the Night” reviewed! (Wild Eye Releasing / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Wild Eye Releasing’s “Creatures of the Night” Now Available on DVD!

A hitman is summoned to arrive an old manor home and offered to be paid to babysit an elderly wheelchair bound man.  The disabled, eccentric loner only gives the hitman one task, to keep him alive until 3 A.M.  The task is easier said than done as the client has the gift for gab that pulls ever so roughly on the strings of the hitman’s already agitated patience, threatening the man with harm from his double barrel shotgun if his playfully doting name calling and persistent chit chat continues through into the night.  In order to pass the time, the old man pulls out of a scrapbook filled with news clippings of mysterious deaths around the surrounding area, regaling a presumptive truth around the circumstances of the victim’s demise:  a Halloween party guest finds himself in the clutches of an aristocratic, demonic cult, a man collects fresh dead bodies to host at his apartment as part of an exclusive club, a work retreat turned into a frightening alien abduction, and bingo night results in a monstrous transformation of screams and blood.

Wild Eye Releasing has a hallmark of putting forth at the same time a string of films helmed by the same director.  We also see this theme in their subsidiary boutique label Visual Vengeance that specializes in underground, SOV films deserving a second, or third, chance by giving them a Hi-Def release.  British director John Williams is one of those repeated filmmakers.  We’ve recently reviewed and approved positively the dead mother and occult tensioner “Watch Me Sleep” from 2023 and now we’re overtop the microscope again looking at another Williams’ production, a horror anthology from a year earlier, entitled “Creatures of the Night.”  Originally and more commonly known as “Tales of the Creeping Death,” the 2022 anthology too tackles the occult but also branches out to divergent purposes of the dead, extraterrestrial interests, and werewolves with mother issues.  Williams wrote the screenplay for the crowdfunded Kickstarter indie with Williams co-producing with Clair Ward (“There’s Something in the Shadows,” “Watch Me Sleep”).

The unnamed wraparound begins with Michael Socha (“As Dead As It Gets”) as a fast car-driving, black cloth-cladded hitman hired to oversee the inexplicable life-or-death of the invalid but chatty Harold, played by television actor Andrew Readman in an over-the-top showcase of uncomfortable friendliness.  With no board games or show of kinetic entertainment afoot, Harold goes into his stories stemmed from the newspaper clippings of unsolved deaths that bring us to four individual tales to pass the time between the two men.  Halloween night proves to be a dud when Billy and his friends can’t find a good, alcoholic party to attend.  Dressed in zombie attire, Billy Cook (“Eat Locals”) is the centric principal amongst on-screen friends Sophie (Solaya Rowley) and Jon (John Solomonides, “There’s Something in the Shadows”) who make him aware of a private invitation to an exclusive party where they meet the formally dressed elders, known as the Gentlemen and named only by their individual numbers, with sinister plans surrounding demons and an unborn twin brother.  The second segment is less serious with a seemingly unstable man collecting bodies of the recently deceased to stage his own exclusive friends club.  Kev, played by the distinct face of Dean Ackerman (“Crispy’s Curse”), caters a performance around being the entertainment host at an old folks home but doesn’t quite seem to fit the loser loner narrative with having friends that are living and dead but Ackerman’s ported derangement is cheeky fun it the playful yet ghastly tale.  Rebecca Parsons is one of a trio of actors whose characters are travelling to a work-related team building retreat but along the way they stop to check out a touristy cave exhibit when the outside world essentially changes as people have disappeared, nothing mechanical works, and the blue glow of alien visitors reveals the terrible truth of an otherworldly abduction.  There’s not much to note performance wise here as the workplace banter, within the confines of the car, quickly evolves into mysterious situations and visuals that leave the group into a dumbfounded and confused what-happened-here state.  The last segment is more visceral in its violence as Steve Wood (“Watch Me Sleep”) plays a disabled son grieving the death of his viciously attacked mother in the woods with her boyfriend but also practices as the new bingo hall host in lieu of his mother demise.  His debut is cut short when a monstrous lycanthrope continues the bloody rampage that began with his mother.  Like his performance in “Watch Me Sleep,” Wood’s range of emotions and precise, performative acting nails his character Peter to the narrative board, fastening a great finale segment to “Creatures of the Nights’” favorable anthology format.  The cast rounds out with Ricky Tomlinson, Darren McAree, James Whitehurst, Wesley Martin, and George Newton.

Just from looking at the cover and reading the synopsis, without doing any research prior to viewing, “Creatures of the Night” doesn’t appear to be an anthology until you get the meat and bone of story where the wheelchair bound Harold opens his book to amuse with darkly grim tales and that’s the moment you know you’re in for a multi-short story fright with a diverse lot of horror.  What’s impressive about this Kickstarter production is its practice effects that produces a disintegrating body and werewolf destruction with detailed suit and deep lacerations.  Visual effects are limited to areas where they’re needed for a smaller production, such as the third story of an alien abduction that composites scenes together to create an unsettling environment.  While the effects are neat and not overbearing, each story is mostly driven by the story structure and acting to establish and flesh out idiosyncrasies in character and in scenarios, adding that something extra to the segments rather than rely heavily on the glitzy yet shallow terror and chase of horrifying situations without an ounce of personality.  On more a negative note, the stories do have a disjointed way about them with the stories, especially more so in stories 2 through 4 that limit exposition to heighten that mystery factor that puts that small morsel of fear in our cerebral nodes.

Those who gravitate to anthologies should find their way to “Creatures of the Night,” a Wild Eye Releasing DVD now available.  The MPEG2 encoded, 720p standard definition, DVD5 is fashioned just as it’s spec’d in a fair reproduction of quality based on the storage capacity and compression codec.  Certainly not polished with a slick grading, there’s a bit of tired veneer on it but the cinematography and special effects more than makes up for the dull grading with a cozy lighting, natural lighting, a slick-and-sick werewolf design, and seamless practical effects.  Depth sates special range and plenty of contrast to set the mood and scene appropriately.  The English LPCM Stereo 2.0 shows no signs of qualms or problematic areas of concern with a clear and presently forth dialogue of the UK dialect.  Range and depth work fine and no issues in the balancing of layers.  Sound design is able to fill in the monstrous roars or the breaking down of biological matter within the context of the scene at the right distance from the camera, never seemingly distant or misplaced.  Bonus features include segment outtakes and the trailer along with other Wild Eye Releasing trailers.  The DVD cover presents an accurate representation of what’s inside which is surprising because usually Wild Eye embellishes the cover to make a more visceral or large-than-life draw toward the film but the “Creatures of the Night” receives an accurate account.  The reverse side of the cover art pulls a shocking scene into a still image.  The DVD houses in a clear Amaray, eco-lite case.  The film is not rated and the DVD is region free with a runtime of 100 minutes.

Last Rites: “Creatures of the Night” holds its own as an anthology, one that can get horror fans behind it, offering a variety of occult tales to surely be mortally hazardous!

Wild Eye Releasing’s “Creatures of the Night” Now Available on DVD!

The EVIL of the Land Before Time Is Awake and Hungry! “Saurians” reviewed! (Visual Vengeance / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Saurians” on Visual Vengeance Collector’s Edition!

A controlled construction site blast along the area of what is known as Fossil Valley, an idyllic area where bone relics of dinosaurs can be unearthed, inadvertently opens up a rock gas-oxygenated pocket that kept preserved two slumbering prehistoric dinosaurs – one herbivore and one carnivore.  Caught in the middle is a group of paleontology students on assignment to find, study, and record their discoveries.  Also caught in the middle are the unlucky ones the carnivore has for a long-awaited meal.  Informing their professor of their extraordinary findings of living, breathing, and full of teeth fossils, the students believe help is on the way but what confronts them is a black-market hunter hired by the professors for monetary gain for their primeval trophy heads.  The students are under the forced direction of a hunter to lead the way but the hunter’s arrogance leaves him ill-equipped to tackle larger-than-life creatures from another time. 

One of the earlier films of “Church of the Damned” and “Splatter Farm” indie-filmmaker Mark Polonia from 1994, “Saurians” is a stop-motion, puppet-staging, super 8-filmed creature feature with Jurassic-sized aspirations to be the “Jurassic Park” of the micro market.  Polonia not only directed but the Pennsylvania-born auteur also wrote the script, produced the film, edited the reel, and had a starring role that secured him his first dino-disaster picture and be a foundation to his prolific, latter career that doesn’t seem to be slowing down one bit.  “Saurians” is filmed local to Polonia in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, an area he’s filmed many of his budget projects, and doubles as underlying theme on the naturalistic dangers and disasters of fracking and blasting as the hills of Wellsboro does contain man-made modernized vision of unearthing for profit margins, which greed is also ingrained into the narrative as well.  Along with Mark Polonia producing the film was his late, twin brother John and the siblings’ Polonia Brothers Entertainment” company was the studio on the film.

As noted, Mark Polonia stars as the nerdy fossilist student Alan who scours the low water level riverbeds for ancient animal relics in Fossil Valley with a pair of colleagues on assignment.  With him are the foretold love interest Lynette, played by Maria Davis (“How to Slay a Vampire”) who would become Polonia’s wife, and the more blitheful to the assignment Charlie, played by Matthew Satterly (“Church of the Damned”).  With a bowl cut, large, framed glasses, and a caterpillar mustache overtop his slender physique, Polonia’s appearance, along with his Lewis Skolnick button down collar shirt and church slacks, screams studious student of archeology compared to the others in more relaxed attire and trendy physical fads.   Their acts contrive adequate concern but still often feel stiff with hesitation, especially with large man-eating dinosaurs attending the all-you-can-eat human buffet.  The personality award goes to the fourth and final principal actor Todd Carpenter (“Bad Magic”) as the hired hunter to track down and kill the dinosaurs like African game, dressed ironically in a bright orange reflector and even more ironically wielding a gunslinger revolver to hunt carnivores, elephant-sized reptilians.  With a theatrical and condescending melodrama in his voice, Carpenter’s caricature villain bites off more than he can chew as his arrogance will get the best of him, or rather the Allosaur type dino.  When the two groups meet, there is no denying their distinction of roles and play into the tension of a prehistoric terror.  The remaining cast round out with victims of the primeval times come to clash with modern times; these roles are played by supporting cast members Dustin Davis, Chris Jones, Josh Nagy, Courtney Marie, Paula Nobles and Todd Rimatti.

Back in the early to mid-1990s, Dinosaurs landing in modern times, wreaking havoc amongst mankind, was all the rage with the height of success of “Jurassic Park,” many thanks toward director Steven Spielberg.  Even dinosploitaiton flicks that released before “Jurassic Park,” such as “Carnosaur” a few months earlier, saw post-release success because on how influential the Spielberg blockbuster was that gave extinct predators a new lease on life.  “Saurians” is no Hollywood mega blockbuster and is extremely lo-fi in all areas from special effects to A/V but there’s no difference of ambition between Spielberg and Mark Polonia who set out to make an adventurous thriller of prehistoric proportions to the extent and limits of their given budget.  The “Saurians” tale is about as routine of a dormant-now-awake monster movie as it comes without involving scientific and technical mumbo-jumbo to exposition a reason for the revival of dinosaurs but still follows core plot devices and themes that parallel bigger productions, such as the unearthing of said creatures, whether be a lifeform preserving pocket of rock gas or a fossilized mosquito in tree sap, and the subject of sin where greed comes into play with the hunter and the turncoat professor try to bank off dino hide by selling it on the black market. 

Visual Vengeance’s 2K scan of the original tape elements keeps the standard definition and early triacetate celluloid Imperfections.  Now, you may say to yourself, “Tape elements?  Didn’t you say Mark Polonia used Super 8 film?”  Yes, I certainly did, but since the film was edited on and for tape, Visual Vengeance scan is from the tape material, which was also approved by director Mark Polonia.  Presented in 1.33:1 full screen aspect ratio, there’s miniscule improvement onto Blu-ray to keep the a 8mm reproduction for the final product with a yellowish tint form emulsion fluid, plenty of cell light leaks, and a grainy textures that retains its naturality.  If you’re looking for quality excellence, don’t expect it here from this release or any Visual Vengeance release that tries to keep the original aesthetic and rightfully so or else loses it’s dated charm.  The English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is scanned from the second dubbing that was produced years after the release.  There’s obvious separation between visual and audio, but the overall clarity is clean and discernible with the dinosaur roars have a stock quality and recycle about it but retains a consistent volume range and condition. Depth doesn’t work with the ADR that keeps all the action near the forefront.    English subtitles are optionally available on the papier-mâché-like motion menu.  A bountiful of special features include a new commentary by Mark Polonia that’s moderated by the Visual Vengeance team, outtakes of the “Saurians” stop-motion effects, the super 8 raw footage, an Rae Don, never-before-seen alternate version of the film, Mark Polonia’s commentary track for the Rae Don version, a bonus Polonia film “The Dinosaur Chronicles” from 2004, a commentary track for the bonus film, the making-of “The Dinosaur Chronicles,” the “Saurians” Visual Vengeance trailer, the Visual Vengeance trailer for “The Dinosaur Chronicles,” the “Saurians 2” trailer, and other Visual Vengeance trailers for their at-home releases.  The Blu-ray release starts with an Andy Warhol inspired cover art with menacing dinosaur heads swallowing tailored-garbed human legs with an pop art orange background and blood splatter.  Inside the clear Amaray, the primary Blu-ray art has more Godzilla destructiveness with a cityscape under a fiery bedlam and two roaring T-Rexes wreaking havoc with the reverse side containing the original VHS art.  Tangible items inside are a mini-folded poster that’s Jurassic Park inspired, a single-page advert for “The Dinosaur Chronicles,” a dime bag with “Saurian’s Attack” mini-slip with 1 piece of the actual Super 8 mm cell, and the usual retro sticker sheet that comes with Visual Vengeance releases.  The 83-minute film is unrated and encoded to play for all regions. 

Last Rites: “Saurians” is no “Jurassic Park” but has the feral heart of the creature feature subgenre brought back from extinction for a new transfer and package of carnivorism.

“Saurians” on Visual Vengeance Collector’s Edition!

Good for Mankind is also EVIL for Greed! “Mandroid” reviewed! (Full Moon Features / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Mandroid” Blu-ray Now Available!

Scientists Dr. Karl Zimmer and his colleague Ivan Drago work in Russia to invent and perfect a humanoid android that uses the converted energy, labeled as SuperCon, from a unique fungus, that has endless potential and possibilities, to power it while controlling the android through a cerebral VR dashboard.  While Zimmer has plans to help humanity with the SuperCon project, Drago has other greedy plans to sell to the highest bidder, in this case the U.S. Government for military grade weaponization.  When Drago steals the mechanized android, he doesn’t have the SuperCon formula to fully complete the sale.  A CIA operative, Zimmer and his daughter, and a U.S scientist sent to validate the SuperCon and android for US. Government use work together to stop Drago who has gone mad with greed and disfigured by the highly radioactive converted energy as nothing will stop him from obtaining the full mandroid package he helped to create. 

A Full Moon produced science fiction that really tones down the campiness to the point where the film doesn’t feel like a typical Charles Band production.  “Mandroid” is the 1993 mecha action-thriller from Swedish director Jack Ersgård (“The Visitors,) and penned by the Charles Band payrolled screenwriters Jack Cannon (“Robot Wars,” “Seedpeople”) and C. Courtney Joyner (“Trancers III,” “Puppet Master III:  Toulon’s Revenge”) under a pair of pennames, Jackson Barr and Earl Keaton.  “Madroid” would be the first of a two-film arc that uses secondary story elements of the “Mandroid” narrative to setup a parallel sequel or companion pieces entitled “Invisible:  The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight” that’s also directed by Ersgard and written by Joyner, creating a perfect double bill for Full Moon.  Charles Band has sole executive producer credit alongside the Romanian producers, a husband and wife team of Vlad and Oana Paunescu, at their studio and production umbrella of Castel Film, located in Romania and a frequent collaborator with the presenting Full Moon company credited with “Subspecies II and III” and “Trancers 4 and 5” to name a few titles.

“Mandroid” acting favors more of the no-nonsense and serious tone for as science-fiction VR-controlled super android thriller set in Russia.  Brian Cousins is credited as the lead playing Wade, an American scientist hired by the U.S. Government to validate the SuperCon project under Dr. Zimmer and Drago but I find Cousins’ character lacks the charisma and the screen time to be unrivaled, sharing, or better thought as being oppugn, the feature prominence with the villain Drago who overshadows him considerably with the wonderfully USSR-trite performance by the late “Werewolf in a Girls’ Dormitory” and “The Entity” actor Curt Lowens.  Lowens brings to Drago the quintessential bad guy charm with the quintessential bad guy scarred looks as he exploits opportunities for personal gain and even using fear to evoke a homeless, Soviet-enthusiast mute (Ion Haiduc, “Bloodstone:  Subspecies II”) to be his henchman.  Their flaws inherently make them villains against a team of scientist, consisting of Wade and Dr. Zimmer (Robert Symonds, “The Exorcist”), his daughter Zanna (Jane Caldwell), and assistant Benjamin (Michael Della Femina, “Invisible:  The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight”) working together to achieve greatness for mankind, the benevolent and noble act.  The last principal piece of the puzzle is CIA agent Joe who’s not very tech savvy and may have more dubious reasons for his representation of the U.S. Government.  Cladded in a leather/faux leather jacket and tan slacks, as well as sporting a rugged 5 o’clock shadow, director Jack Ersgård’s brother, Patrik Ersgård (“The Visitor”), does not look like your conventional CIA agent to add a layer of unresolved mystery around him and to make him dangerous to either side of the good vs evil spectrum, but one thing is for certain about Ersgård character is his cunningness and courage.   Costel Constantin, Mircea Albusecu, and Adrian Pintea provide the Romania support cast to flesh out “Mandroid’s” merciless cold attire.

Less carnivalesque, less campy, and light on the pint-sized killers than most Full Moon productions, “Mandroid” has the seriousness of an early Stuard Gordon x Full Moon collaboration, aesthetically backed with darker tones, infused practical bloody imagery with some compositional VFX, and delivered signed and sealed by distinct and solid performances.  The SuperCon plot device is early days  man-in-a-suit backed by radioactive mushrooms that sound trippy when described out loud but Jack Ersgård subverts the idea’s potential faults and creates an atmosphere of intensity that sees large explosions, plenty of period costuming (Cold War era reminiscent) and is even able to secure SWAT armored vehicles and plenty of interesting, dilapidated locations that, from at least the U.S. perspective, feel like Mother Russia.  Whether a progressive highlight or an expectational fault, depending on the kind of person you ask, “Mandroid” does not contain nudity that can be savored from most of Full Moon’s catalogue; sorry readers but super blonde Jane Caldwell is not only the sole woman in the story but she’s very much clothed all the way through without a smidgen of sexy promiscuity.  The whole quasi-biological, man-and-machine affair represents the actual entertaining and creative storytelling side of Band’s company that has veteran actors mixing it up with up-and-comers to square dance around a radiative weapon of mass destruction tale. 

Full Moon Features remasters “Mandroid” from the original 35mm negative, scanned 2K with a high-definition, 1080p resolution, onto an AVC encoded BD25.  The end result is nothing far from an excellence reproduction that cleans up and clears out the inherent nuisances with standard definition DVD and VHS tape.  There’s a bit of a polished look upgrade that enhances great richness to shadows yet still picks up finer detail points that would have been missed through a lower resolution.  The overall detail is soft because of the nature of the lighting aesthetic that casts a soft glow of ethereal in a cold war era scenario while still maintaining an austere and raw sense of soviet times except with a red flare, “Mandroid” graded with blue.  “Mandroid” Blu-ray is presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  There are two English audio options available:  Dolby 2.0 Stereo and a Dolby Digital 5.1.  The lossy format is typical compression used by Full Moon and while it offers an adequate soundtrack, it does not boost up reproducing fidelity deserving for “Mandroid” explosive and highly active narrative with plenty of sound effects.  Dialogue is favored nicely and balanced with the action along with the atypical for Full Moon non-carnivalesque score by David Arkenstone (“Murdercycle”).  No compression or original audio track issues with little-to-no interference on the inlaid dialogue.  Special features include the original videozone advert, the original feature trailer, and other Full Moon original releases.  The standard Amaray Blu-ray case contains the original artwork and spined at number 88.  Full Moon’s “Mandroid” is rated R, has a runtime of 80 minutes, and is region free.

Last Rite: “Mandroid” is proof that Full Moon wasn’t always skirting by as they are today with cast, talent, and budget. For fans of Full Moon of yore, “Mandroid” is a serious title to be taken seriously, especially with a new Blu-ray release!

“Mandroid” Blu-ray Now Available!