Category Archives: 80’s-riffic!

Black Mamba Wriggles Only for EVIL! “Venom” reviewed! (4K UHD and Blu-ray / Blue Underground)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Slither into “Venom” on 4K UHD and Blu-ray Combo Set!

American family, the Hopkins, live in London and while Mr. Hopkins travels the globe to attend to his international hotel business, Mrs. Hopkins and son Philip, live wealthy in their three-story row home along with visiting, Safari-expert grandfather Howard Anderson.  When Mrs. Hopkins plans a trip to see her husband after a month a part, she’s worries for Philip’s severe asthma attacks but with the assurances of the grandfather, the housekeeper, and Philip’s rudimentary zoo in his room, full of furry creatures in vivarium cages, Mrs. Hopkins half-heartedly boards her international flight.   Not everything is going to fine, however, when the housekeeper schemes with the family chauffeur and an Interpol criminal Jacmel to kidnap Philip for ransom.  The foolproof plot commences to plan with departure of Mrs. Hopkins and the arrival of Jacmel but one little mishap causes the plan to quicky unravel when a Black Mamba, one of the most aggressive and poisonous snakes in the world, is mistakenly crated and provided to exotic animal enthusiast Philip instead of his harmless ordered common variety garden snake and when the Black Mamba gets loose, it slithers in the house’s ventilation system, the house they’re all hold up in when the police swarm the outside perimeter. 

What was once going to be a Tobe Hooper (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) directed production before his eventual and sudden departure from the film after a few weeks, the 1981 crime-thriller with a creature feature twist, “Venom,” is then picked up by the late director of  “The Blood on Satan’s Claw,” Piers Haggard, to finish the Robert Carrington (“Wait Until Dark”) adapted screenplay off the Alan Scholefield novel of the same title.  The American screenwriter Carrington writes nearly a faithful iteration of the Scholefield novel but with more emphasis on the serpent’s over-lurking presence as an important reptilian character to the story, serving as a catalyst for the upended kidnapping plot and determining the fate of certain characters.  The UK film is American produced by Martin Bregman, the spear runner for “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Serpico” as well as “Scarface” and “The Bone Collector” later in his career.  Morison Film Group served as production company on the mostly LLC entrusted venture.  

If the American Tobe Hooper did helm this picture, directing Leatherface as an actor would been child’s play in comparison to what would had been if he had to corral a pair of strong-willed, A-type personality Europeans in Germany’s Klaus Kinski and Britain’s Oliver Reed, both with well-known and formidable career of not only in genre films but also to be problematic and difficult to work with.  The “Nosferatu the Vampire” and “Aguiree, the Wrath of God” Kinski was perhaps mostly misunderstood for his not understanding of inflections, innuendos, and gestures of the English language that made him often sounds gruff and antagonistically questioning the director’s every choice whereas the “Paranoiac” and “The Brood” Reed was plagued with alcoholism and was equally gruff in his own right as a dedicated actor saturation with austere method stratagem.  Yet, on screen, Piers Haggard manages to get the two hurricane forces to be on-the-edge cooperating, backed-into-a-corner kidnappers without cutting any tension when interacting with each other.  Distinct in demeanor, Kinski as a calm, trench coat KGB-type and Reed as an anxiously and trigger-happy, hotheaded brute put on a good show in their respective performances and beat the odds of two notorious personas colliding.  Haggard doesn’t coddle them either and lets them loose to exact the carrier in their own right even if off-book and they’re even more vilified by taking hostage a young boy Phillip, the introduction of Lance Holcomb (“Christmas Evil,” “Ghost Story”), his Safari-seasoned grandfather Howard Anderson, played by beard-laden and serial gesticulating Sterling Hayden (“Dr. Strangelove,” “The Long Goodbye”), and a zoo toxicologist named Dr. Marion Stowe who is caught in the middle when checking up on the mishap switcheroo of the snake, played by Sarah Miles (“Blow-up”), neither in shape or in vigor to be a proactive hero.  The no-nonsense Police Commander William Bulloch, shoed with “The Exorcist III” actor Nicol Williamson, a brazen candor and stoic expression with Williamson offering frank wit and a sarcastic dryness that barely gets him one step into the house; instead, it’s the Black Mamba that’s the real and unintentional hero that seemingly only has a fork tongue and fangs for villains, leaving the other hostages alone.  “Venom’s” also has Susan George (“Straw Dogs”) as the traitorous housekeeper, Mike Gwilyn, Paul Williamson, Hugh Lloyd, and the first Butler of the 1980s-1990s Batman quadrilogy Michael Gough playing real life snake wrangler David Ball in tribute. 

From the pages of Alan Scholefield’s novel to the big screen, “Venom” has a slithery way about slipping into between the crosshairs of a crime-thriller and a venomous creature feature.  Leading “Venom’s” charge is an undoubtedly great, if not iconic, cast giving their all to a farfetched plot of bad luck Ophidiophobia.  While the snake seems to have heat vision eyes only for the Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, and Susan George trio of kidnap-for-ransom criminals, who amongst themselves are in a deceitful love triangle that’s doesn’t quite come to a head as one would expect, there’s no animal kingdom peril to the other victimized threesome who, on a physical, first glance surface, are less equipped to handle a dangerous snake with a young, asthmatic-plagued boy, an elderly grandfather, and a nerve-bitten woman but, in reality, Phillip Hopkins, Howard Anderson, and Dr. Marion Stowe are respectively the best equipped to handle the black mamba as an small animal atrium hobbyist, a former African safari survivalist and animal expert, and a venomous snake toxicologist.  Perhaps, this is why the Black Mamba avoids these three at all costs and never interacts with them on a perilous level.  The fantastical mist that’s sprays us lightly with a crimefighting snake has comical properties that standout against what is a palpable thriller involving an international criminal, cop killing, child abduction, and the mutilation of a corpse. 

Blue Underground continues to update their catalogue with a 2-disc, 4K UHD and Blu-ray combo set of ‘Venom.” The UHD is HVEC encoded, 2160p ultra-high-definition, BD66 and the Blu-ray is AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition, BD50. In regard to picture quality, both formats are nearly identical transfer that’s stems from an all new 4K 16-bit restoration from the original 35mm internegative, with the UHD receiving Dolby Vision HDR. UHD is slightly sharper around delineation when gliding between dark and light, which is often inside a merge of a half-lit house to draw more tension toward the potential presence of a deadly snake. The 1080p presentation also provides a pleasing clarity that offers little to negatively note. Color grading and saturation between the two formats show signs of varying quality by a thread with the 4K saturating that much more intently across the board with a better control over the grain levels with the Blu-ray appearing a touch thicker for the pixels to flare optically. The native 4K and 1080p come with an English Dolby Atmos as well as options for either an English DTS-HD 5.1 or a DTS-HD 2.0 stereo. Speaking only to the Atmos, the all-encompassing mix shepherds in a clean, discernible quality without any audible seams. Skirmishes, dialogues, and all the commotions in between find isolated channels of distinction that can put you immerse you into the action. And there’s plenty of action to be had coupled with a Michael Kamen’s brass horn and string score that’s both memorably building with excitement and thrilling that preludes Kamen’s orchestrated composition work of “Die Hard,” starring Bruce Willis. Despite the circumference of sound spaced mostly in interiors with a hodgepodge medley of a street full of police, reporters, and gawkers, the dialogue is equally distinct, discernible, clean, and clear without signs of hissing and crackling strains. Subtitles included are in English, French, and Spanish. The 4K special features include a new audio commentary with Film Historians and Blue Underground commenting regulars Troy Howarth, Nathniel Thompson, and Eugenio Ercolani, an archived commentary with director Piers Haggard, and film trailers. The Blu-ray disc contains the same commentaries and trailers but extends further with new exclusives in an interview with editor-second unit director Michael Bradsell Fangs For the Memories, an interview with makeup artist Nick Dudman A Slithery Story, a film historian point of view interview with British critic and author Kim Newman, and an interview with The Dark Side’s Allan Bryce providing his in-depth two cents and historical surveying. TV Spots are finish out the encoded extras. “Venom” 4K and Blu-ray combo set is physical appeasing to hold and behold with a muted black slipcover with tactile elements on both sides of embossed letters and stark coloring that’s striking in its simple snake fang design arraignment. The black, thick Amaray case has the original “Venom” artwork with the optional reverse cover art. I’m not a fan of the inside design that houses a disc on both sides as there is no room place for 18-page collectible, color picture booklet which just floats inside. The booklet features an essay by Michael Gingold, cast and crew acknowledgements, and chapter selection on the back. The discs are pressed with one or the other cover arts. This gorgeous-looking release, on the outside and inside, comes region free, has a runtime of 92 minutes, and is Rated R.

Last Rites: “Venom” might have been snakebitten back when selling book adaptations of crime capers stopped by a single snake might have seemed farfetched but, today, the 1981 film remains a cult classic of the ophidian nature being one of the earliest serpentine creature features with an imposing, impressive cast. Blue Underground proudly presents the film with a new, and improved, ultra high-definition release.

Slither into “Venom” on 4K UHD and Blu-ray Combo Set!

Three Million and Staying One Step Head of the Cops is EVIL’s Masterplan! “The Cat” reviewed! (Radiance Films / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Cat” Limited-Edition Blu-ray From Radiance Films Now Available!

Two ex-cons hold up a Düsseldorf bank for 3 million German marks.  Armed with handguns and brazen with their daytime theft, the two men hold hostage a handful of alarmed employees, rounded up before the bank opens for business, including the bank manager.  Going into the heist with a money figure in mind, the vault is discovered with only 200,000 inside, but that was to be expected as the arrival of the police surround the building adjacent to the towering Nikko Hotel where a third man, the mastermind, spies down from one of the upper floors, instructing the two armed men inside of his plan as well as spying on the police activity aimed to thwart the robbery.  Always one step ahead, police, bank employees, and even the bank manager’s wife are all a part of the organized crime for the riches, and maybe even exact a little retaliation in the process too. 

The 1988 released, German crime-thriller “Die Katze,” or “The Cat,” is an intense ruse engrained with deception, affairs, and a saturated with emotional weight.  Helmed by directed Dominik Graf (“The Invincibles”) put the Munich-born, drama-comedy filmmaker to the test with the Christoph Fromm script, adapted from the 1984 novel Uwe Erichsen, entitled Das Leben Einer Katze, aka The Life of a Cat.  “The Cat” would be Graf and Fromm’s second feature together who, four years previously, collaborated on the slice of life for carefree, bike friends suddenly finding themselves in the unemployment lane of “Treffer” and who would then go to after “The Cat” with the gambling comedy “Spieler” two years later.  “The Cat” is a production of Bavaria Film and Zweites Deutsches Fernshehen and is produced by George Feil and Günter Rohrbach (“Das Boot”), shot on location at the Hotel Nikko in Düsseldorf as well as in studios in Munich.

“The Cat” contains a hierarchy amongst the thieves with Britz (Ralf Richter, “Das Boot,” “Sky Sharks”) being at the bottom as a hot-headed hired gun, Jungheim (Heinz Hoenig, “Das Boot,” “Antibodies”) is next step up as the managerial ex-con looking to score big with reprisal, untamed purpose, and, lastly, the only man who can keep Jungheim from spiraling out of control and the spying eye from the tower radioing orders is the mastermind behind the heist plan with a calm as a cucumber demeanor and a cool cat, or katze, finesse and his name is Probek (Götz George, “The Blood of Fu Manchu,” “Scene of the Crime: A Tooth for a Tooth “).  But, as we all know and as the old proverb goes, there is no honor amongst thieves, yet Graf’s filmic adaptation does instill some counterbalance against that adage by keeping a sliver of diligence within their circle but there is an underlining truth well-hidden under-the-table, only informing those down the ladder what they need to know, when they need to know.  As tension ebb and flow from each personality type, throw into the mix an equivocal loyal woman (Gudrun Landgrebe, “Rosinni”), an intelligent officer in charge of hostage operation (Joachim Kemmer, “The Vampire Happening”), and a stubborn and quick to catch-on bank manager (Ulrich Gebauer) and the ensembles ensues an edge of your seat volatility elevated by the steadfast performances with the actors unhinged and let loose to exact their roles.  With lots of moving pieces to the characters’ actions, supporting parts are key to the success, adding flavor to their persona types and unravelling more about who they are and how audiences are supposed to perceive them as either friend or foe.  Sbine Kaack, Heinrich Schafmeister, Claus-Dieter Reents, Iris Disse, Water Gontermann, Bernd Hoffman, Uli Krohm, and Klaus Maas co-star. 

Hardboiled in a game of pursuit and evasion, Dominik Graf finds without difficulty the essence of Uwe Erichsen’s thrilling crime novel staying mostly in one location, evolving the story as the police try every trick in the book to thwart who they believe to be ordinary bank robbers and as the confidence, and perhaps a little brazen cockiness, slowly builds self-assured success. This constant stream of checks and balances between the hard focused, unobservant antitheft division of Germany’s finest and the cooperative crooks consisting of brawns following instructions of the brain keeping ahead of a fate less fortunate never lets down, never idles, and never diverts attention. “The Cat,” in a way, feels very much like 1988’s “Die Hard” from director John McTiernan, a steady source of one-upping the good guys peppered with moments of unvarnished, graphic violence and dark, unforeseen levity, minus a lone wolf John McClane hero behind enemy lines. The very opening scenes of Götz George and Gudrun Landgrebe engaged sexually are raw, sensuous, and sweaty but are under top a jaunty soundtrack that mismatch the heat of the moment in its cheerful, breezy Eric Burden and the Animal’s tune “Good Times,” a track with lyrics that speak of regrets of negating better moments with unsavory choices finds more of a potent meaning at the gun blazing finale where facing death is an inevitable outcome for one’s poor decisions.

UK label Radiance Films releases “The Cat” in the North American market for the first time with English subtitles in a limited-edition Blu-ray with a Dominic Graf approved high-definition transfer, newly graded by Radiance Film, onto an AVC encoded, 1080p, BD50. While the heist concept may be familiar conceptually to “Die Hard,” the look of the film also has that natural grading of “Die Hard” as well with Radiance infused punctuations on skin tones with a natural hardness. The print used was a digitized file, likely already spruced from an extracted print used by Euro Video in 2017, but Radiance retains the organic grittiness as well as the grain in their own sprucing up that sees a muted hues appear more intense. Presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio, I’m curious to know if “Die Katze” was cropped in post to avoid nudity in the love scenes between George and Landgrebe that appear stretched with more pixelation and are oddly framed, as if portions were sliced off and positioning did not change. The German audio mixes include lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and a stereo 2.0. The surround mix lets loose and gives way to all to all of “The Cat’s” range in securing side and rear channels with ambient police activity, fireball explosion crackling, and the echoing of cavernous settings juxtaposed against more intimate and cozy locations. Dialogue renders clear, robust, and prominent with a seemingly errorfree, newly translated English subtitle synchronicity albeit the pacing being a little rapid. No signs of compression issues nor any print damage or unpleasant hissing or crackling. Special features include new German-languaged, English subtitled interviews with Dominik Graf, screenwriter Christoph Fromm, and producer George Feil, a scene-select commentary with Graf, and the film’s trailer. Like the rest of Radiance’s catalogue, “The Cat” comes with a clear Amaray with an OBI strip overtop the reversible cover art. The reverse side displays the original home video and poster art. A 19-page color picture booklet features an essay by freelance culture writer and film critic Brandon Streussnig All the Good Times That’s Been Wasted, plus cast and crew credits and transfer information and acknowledgements. The region A/B encoded playback release has a runtime 118 minutes, is not rated, and is limited to only 3000 copies.

Last Rite: A masterful crime thriller, “The Cat” claws away the fuss to unsheathe realism and Radiance Films delivers the Germanic, harrowing heister in all its glory with a Hi-Def release.

“The Cat” Limited-Edition Blu-ray From Radiance Films Now Available!

Master Chen and his EVIL, Alien Clan Try to Take Over the Powers of the Astral Plane! “Furious” (Visual Vengeance / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Get “Furious” Now on Blu-ray from Amazon.com!

After the murder of his sister who sought pursuit and protection of the astral plane power, the mourning and grief-stricken Karate instructor Simon is summoned to Master Chan’s space-age dojo where’s he’s tasked to track down four connecting pieces of a necklace artifact that will lead him to his sister’s murderer.  As soon as Simon leaves the building, his friends join his quest only to be confronted by Howard, a martial arts henchman with a throng of skilled fighter to descend upon Simon and killing his friends.  Simon finds himself in constant battle against not only Howard but also other highly skilled sub-bosses with ties to Master Chan in a devious and traitorous plot to obtain the power of the astral plane for himself.  Simon uses his Karate discipline to kick and punch his way through hordes of trained fighters to reach Master Chan to stop him and exact revenge for his sister. 

A martial arts movie with aliens, astral plans, a dragon’s head, evil fire-shooting magicians, and more, “Furious” lives up to the moniker as one punch after another action and completely ambitiously and guerrilla style on a miniscule 30K budget.  Entirely helming “Furious’s’” creative control and securing actors and stuntmen willing to take risks on their own accord and dime are USC film students Tim Everitt (visual effects animator and composite artist who would go on to work on “Deep Blue Sea” and “Red Planet”) and Tom Sartori (a career film editor) looking to break into the film industry with their own rapscallion production of a marketable chopsocky genre film at the tail end of its string of success coming out of the 1970s and into the early 1980s when horror began it’s rise.  Everitt and Sartori produced the all-American made martial arts production with funding from a motel entrepreneur.

At the center of “Furious” are two Korean-American brothers, Simon and Phillip Rhee, experts in Karate and dojo sensei who, like Everitt and Sartori, were looking break into the business.  The California-born Rhee brothers play the protagonist and antagonist roles with Simon playing the namesake hero thrust into doing evil’s biding while avenging his sister’s death and Phillip donning Master Chen’s white hair and manically, ruthless plot to exploit not only Simon to obtain astral plane summoning necklace pieces but also his henchmen who carry the pieces that must hold the essence of death.  Virtuosos in karate, the Rhee brothers show and pull off incredible difficult moves done practically, especially in the early 1980s without the help of high-flying wires and only a little help with some camera angle movie magic.  The sparring is fast and realistic without being pull-punching obviousness.  All of the sound was done in post, so the Rhee’s real voices are not used to either replicate the martial arts jagged voice synchronicity or sound design was not in the budget.  Likely, a little of both.  The lower-level bosses are a medley bunch and have a range of talents from a staff wielding wilderness man (Bob Folkard), to a tiger style soul fighter (Howard Jackson, “The Delta Force”), to a crazed wizard (Mika Elkan) with flaming projectiles Simon has deal with, one-on-one, in order to reach the pyramidal top, Master Chen.  “Furious” is purely an action film, casting no love interest for Simon resulting in no emotional or romantical arch.  The former is emphasized more intently by Simon’s lack of expressiveness for revenge; there’s a sliver of poignant energy when Simon has visions of his dead friends’ severed heads served to him on a food platter that could warrant retribution attributions.  Jon Dane, John Potter, and Joyce Tilley who are quicky established as character friends to Simon and are equally as quickly dispatched to place Simon in a world of loneliness against an aliens and evil karate master alliance for astral plane domination.

From the depths of Tubi comes a curation for the ages release of “Furious” for the first time ever having a proper package that’s not related to pornography, as was the first and only VHS issuance by VCII, a well-known adult film distributor at the time who released “Debbie Does Dallas.”  “Furious” is an odd, unpredictable, mashup of throwing darts to see what sticks and in that volatility, anticipation of what’s to come next is considerably high, especially when a shoestring budget production surprisingly opens with incredible helicopter shots tracking a foot chase sequence.  From there, “Furious’ keeps astonishment alive with high-level increments of bizarre alien in human skin behavior, punitive human to animal transformations, talking pigs, astral plane battles, Superman flying, and Devo band mania coupled with extensive and coherent editing to flesh out a feature on the front and back ends.  Granted, the plot’s very puzzling and motives are dubious at best to why Master Chen would task a competent fighter like Simon to track down pieces of a unifying necklace when Chen’s own men possess all of them and could easily have killed them himself for the death essence.  There’s also the alien aspect that goes by the wayside in a lack of explanation or exposition by jumping into assumption just by weird behaviors and flashy, ultra-modern buildings to serve as extraterrestrial evidence.  Even with that ambiguity, seeing Simon Rhee perform a triple-hit kick amongst a slew of other highly impressive stunts and special effects relative to the budget has “Furious” become a cult fan favorite. 

Visual Vengeance curates another title from out of the shadows and into our Blu-ray players with “Furious,” encoded with AVC, presented in a high-definition 1080p of the original fullscreen aspect ratio 1.33:1, on a BD50.  Sourced from the original tape elements, which I’m assuming was the original VHS release a few years later as the film was shot on an Arriflex camera that used film stock, the Blu-ray contains a new, director-approved SD master print.  Cleaned up to get some color saturation into the anemic picture, the image doesn’t look as washed as the monochromic qualities of VHS and this is a vast improvement in picture quality as well with some better delineation around objects.  There’s quite a bit of aliasing and ghosting that leaves object trails and rough edging but not enough to warrant visual concern for texture properties, such as the pig stubble or the decapitated heads on a pater that show coarseness where it matters.  Print damage, such as virtual scratches and some rough editing room splices and re-tapings, are present but not profound.  All of this is covered in the technical forewarning, regularly at the beginning of ever Visual Vengeance film so the expectation is set.  The English language LPCM stereo is all postproduction additions with ADR and foley artistry.  The first instances of dialogue don’t come up in the mix until the 13-minute mark, leaving much of the opening left to Foley work to build kinetic and atmospheric sound.  With any early postproduction work, three will always be space in between the synchrony and that can be said here but on slightly jagged edge which says something positive about Everitt and Sartori’s handling of the audio track.  Optional English subtitles are available.  Obscurity doesn’t mean less supplement goodies either and Visual Vengeance has proved that over time again and again with their amazing stockpile of exclusive and archived special features.  New interviews with directors Tom Sartori, High Kicking in Hollywood, and Tim Everitt, The Kung Fu Kid begin the exclusive content with length editing discussions from the directors about their time before, during, and after “Furious.”  Filmmaker and podcaster Justin Decloux provides a slew of material, including a feature length commentary, cohosted with Peter Kuplowsky of Toronto International Film Festival.  Decloux does a pair of video essays – North American No-Budget Martial Arts Cinema Primer and Rhee Brothers career overview. The buck doesn’t stop there with an archive commentary with co-director Tim Everitt, an archive podcast with Everitt circa 2013, Super 8 behind-the-scenes footage of “Furious,” Scorched Earth Policy 1987 EP with full six tracks, Cinema Face live in concert, Tom Sartori’s 80’s music video reel and Super 8 short films, original film trailers, and Visual Vengeance trailers. That’s not all! New slipcover artwork brings together an illustrated compilation of what to expect with the same art on the inside Amaray case. The cover art is reversible, depicting the original VHS cover art that’s not as charismatic, or good. Insert section houses a folded mini-poster reproduction of the original one sheet, a double-sided acknowledgement advert with alternate art, Visual Vengeance’s retro VHS sticker sheet, and a ninja star keychain accessory! The 17th Visual Vengeance title comes region free, has a runtime of 73 minutes, and is unrated.

Last Rites: Anomalously action-packed with a fantasy element, “Furious” is a one-of-a-kind, indie martial arts production that has everything, even the kitchen sink, thrown at with a journeyman tale of alien butt-kicking, astral plane dogfighting, and anthropomorphic black arts.

Get “Furious” Now on Blu-ray from Amazon.com!

Your Hopes and Dreams Come Down to Beating an EVIL Fitness Center in a Workout Marathon! “Heavenly Bodies” reviewed! (Fun City Video / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Move Your Butt to this Fun City Edition of “Heavenly Bodies” on Blu-ray!

Working 9-to-5 has a secretary, Samantha quits her grinding job to pursuit her passion of owning her own dancercise studio.  Leasing a vacant building with her girlfriends, they form Heavenly Bodies to let the craze of group dancing and aerobics take hold of all those interested.  The success of her rapidly flourishing business persuades her to audition to host a regional workout show while at the same time juggling being a single mother and decrypting feelings for a new man in her life.  After winning the audition, Samantha is targeted by fellow finalist and rival aerobicize instructor from a bigger fitness center having felt deserving to be the television host.  With her relationship heading for the rocks and her fitness studio building being bought outright by the larger investor, Samantha insists on an all or nothing dancercise contest against the rival studio heads, challenging her best versus their best in an hours long workout made for the TV world to see.

Dancercise.  A craze I know all too well watching my mother high-knee kick, arm-twirl, and run-in-place to the programs hosted by Jane Fonda and Denise Austin right in the middle of our living room.  “Flashdance,” “Footloose,” and “Dirty Dancing” are just some examples of the dance centric subgenre that swept through the 1980s.  In the middle of that mix is 1984’s “Heavenly Bodies.”  Written-and-directed by Lawrence Dane, an actor, who had more of a horror lining with roles in “Scanners,” “Happy Birthday to Me,” and “Seed of Chucky, who tried his hand being behind the camera, co-wrote also his first script alongside Ron Base.  The Canadian feature was co-produced by Stephen J. Roth and Robert Lantos, both of whom shared a string of erotic dramas early in his career with “Paradise” starring Phoebe Cates and the sex-comedy “Scandale” but the two parted and became more mainstream on their paths with Roth financing “Scrooged” with Bill Murray and “Last Action Hero” with Arnold Schwarzenegger” while Lantos partnered off-and-on with fellow Canadian and body-horror director David Cronenberg on “eXistenZ,” “Eastern Promises,” and “Crimes of the Future.”  “Heavenly Bodies” is a production of Producers Sales Organization, Moviecorp VIII, and is one of the few less erotic features from Playboy Enterprises.  

Leading the casting headline like her character Samantha leading a group in a dancercise routine is Cynthia Dale.  The “My Bloody Valentine” actress with curly shoulder length brown hair, an infectiously joyful smile, and killer dance body is the heart and soul of what makes “Heavenly Bodies” truly worth watching.  Her long take choreographed dances are breathtakingly fun and gracefully executed, full of energy and sizzle with the camerawork angles that move along every part of her kinetic body.  Samantha embodies the strong, independent single mother who do it on her own terms after setting passion aside once for a man, her son’s father, and is determined to not make the same mistake twice nor back down from being intimidated, but her arc is to change, to fall in love again, and to make sacrifices for not only the sake of her dream but to let someone else into her heart by being flexible and compassionate to their needs.  That person ends up being Richard Rebiere (“Happy Birth to Me”) as the football player who falls for Samantha after his team’s instructed to attend her classes to shape up.  The duo is pitted up against an established, powerhouse fitness center managed by Jack Pearson (Walter George Alton, “10”) and his head aerobics instructor Debbie (Laura Henry) to marathon their way to the last person standing in a 8-versus-8 fitness free-for-all, not to forget some scandalous moments of smooching, swindling, and woman abusing in between.  Pam Henry, Cec Linder, and Patricia Idlette, round out the principal cast with a slew of backup dancers working their butts in shape and officiating contests. 

You think Playboy Enterprises, you think erotic, romantic sleaze with dumbed down dialogue, a half-cooked story, and jazzy, yet soulless soundtrack coupled with candle lit moments and insignificant drama a la carte.  That’s not the case here.  Yes, “Heavenly Bodies” has moments of tenderness between dancer Samantha and football star Steve and fleeting glimpses of nudity, but those bare skin moments are more of a garnish than a main course as the story dishes being a dramedy with a killer soundtrack and a solid acting from main street, legitimate actors, and liberal art performers.  Articles on the film accuse it of being a “Flashdance” imitator and I would be so bold to accuse the authors of those articles to have never seen “Flashdance.”  Dancing along to a hot track does not equivalate two features that share no other plot similarities.  “Heavenly Bodies” stands, or rather dances, on its own two peppy feet in its whimsical nature of an aerobics showdown that determines the fate of a single woman, single mother, and single business owner to topple the threatened-felt commercial giant in a desperation attempt to save face and be relevant. 

Fun City Video steps up to release a new, debut high-definition transfer of “Heavenly Bodies” on an AVC encoded, 1080p, BD50.  The film has been out-of-print for over three decades but now there’s a 4K scan and restoration of the original 35mm internegative presented in the widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  The new transfer is absolutely gorgeous and rejuvenates the dance-craze 80s right before our very eyes.  Hyper facticity of detail has remarkable texture and color, diffused nicely over all aspects of costume from the leg warming socks to the diversity hued headband assortments, and punctuated distinguishably when sweat soaks shirts and skin.  The grain has natural analog appeal with no hints of DNR or other types of video smooth over or manipulation.  Original elements appear mostly damage free with an occasional dust speckle here and there.  The sole English LPCM stereo 2.0 is suitable mix for this originally at home, premium cable title that pumps and spreads layers through a dual channel output.  Dialogue renders cleanly without a confluence of popping or hissing along the audio.  The integrated soundtrack has stepping and staying power, full-bodied to frenzy synthesizing sound and catchy ballads and motivation lyrics.  Faint crackling or interference in the background but nothing worth really concerning over as there are plenty of other elements audio senses with attune to.  English subtitles are optionally available.  Special features under a fluid menu of one of more ramping up dance scenes includes a new Cynthia Dale interview, a new feature-length audio commentary track with Atlanta based film programmer of cult and late-night cinema and podcaster Millie de Chirico and Jeffrey Mixed, aka Jeffrey Nelson, co-creator of the horror media label Scream Factory, and an image gallery.  The clear Amaray case showcases a retro vibe of multiple boxy colored lines underneath a framed, perspiring Cynthia Dale in low side crouch of her promotional shot for the film’s one sheet.  The reversible side has more artistic illustration of the same post with a tagline and Samatha striking anther aerobic pose in opposite.  The white disc is pressed with a two-tone, darker emphasized silhouette of a dancercise group.  A 15-page one-part faux channel guide, one-part essay by Cinema Studies academic Nathan Holmes is a nice touch of 80s nostalgia and historical context on dance movies of the era.  The region free release is rated R and has a 90-minute runtime.

Last Rites: By no means is “Heavenly Bodies” horror or sleazy sexploitation this reviewer usually injects right into his caustic-cinema arteries, but the Lawrence Dance directed, Cynthia Dale danced cult film embodies eighties elegance this guy grew up in. Those with similar nostalgia enthusiasms or those who find room in their hearts for ridiculous-raving, dancercising dramedies can’t miss out on this intense workout wonderment.

Move Your Butt to this Fun City Edition of “Heavenly Bodies” on Blu-ray!

EVIL Doesn’t Take Rejection Well. “Village of Doom” reviewed! (Unearthed Films / Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Village of Doom” now on Unearthed Film’s Collector’s Edition Blu-ray!

Tsugio Inumaru is considered the smartest young man in his village.  Illness took the life of his parents, and he raised by his grandmother and lives off her land’s income, looking after him and dreading the day Tsugio becomes drafted as a soldier in war service, which bestows great honor from the villagers.  While husbands are away serving their country, bored and lonely housewives and bachelorettes desire the carnal company of the men remaining and with Tsugio’s youth and his own sexual yearnings bubbling to the surface, he’s prime Kobe beef for the hungry village women.  When Tsugio’s health examination reveals a tuberculosis diagnosis, he’s acutely shunned by the villagers, drying up his sexual escapades, as well as potential betrotheds.  Rejection by his village, and even his country, sends the young man into plotting a massive killing spree, targeting all of those who’ve forsaken or scorned him to a life not worth living. 

In the Tsuyama outskirt village of Kamo of 1938, 21-year-old Mutsuo Toi cut the village’s electricity, strapped flashlights to the side of his head, and took a mini arsenal that included a Browning shotgun, a katana, and an axe to 30 villagers, including his grandmother, in an act to revenge killing for being rejected socially and sexually because of his tuberculosis diagnosis.  What is known as the Tsuyama Massacre, Mutsuo Toi’s cold and merciless act of carnage was the basis for Noboru Tanaka’s “Village of Doom.”  The pinkupsloitation director of “Rape and Death of a Housewife” and “Angel Guts:  Nami” helms the Japanese, semi-biographical tale, penned by Takuya Nishioka (“Tattoo,” “Female Teacher:  Chain and Bondage”), that follows closely the bullet point events of Mustuo Toi but with different named characters and a strong pink eiga touch.  “Village of Doom” is one of Kazuyoshi Okuyama’s (“R100,” “Self-Bondage:  All Tied Up with My Own Rope”) first produced ventures and is a production of the Fuji Eiga and Shochiku Eizo Companies. 

While Mutsuo Toi is not directly portrayed, his downward spiraling steps are indirectly followed by Tsugio Inumaru, played by the late Nikkatsu actor Masato Furuoya.  Furuoya’s relationship with director Noboru Tanaka is well established within their director-actor collaborating context with Furuoya having roles in Tanaka’s previous credits of “Rape and Death of a Housewife” and “Angel Guts:  Nami.”  There’s a blanket of comfortability within Furuoya who must treat his character as one-part pink paramour and one-part biographical massacrer, seducing with a tantamount tease of fantasy and authenticity.  Furuoya’s beleaguered performance is a jagged mountainous range of emotions from confidence and compassion to hormonal desires, to the stressed misgivings from cold shoulders and bad fortune mishandled by Tsugio’s own sense of worth to his himself and the village that has turned its back on him.  In keeping with the simulated practice of Yobai, the night crawling sexual escapades amongst young men and women, typically unmarried men and women, Tanaka portions heavily toward Tsugio’s internal grievances with the suddenly thrusted into the primitive and stimulated needs of a young man’s novice sex drive awaken with a morsel nude photograph.  Furuoya’s costars are the collective antagonist from the perspective of Tsugio with their geniality turned hostility of the TB diagnosis.  Sexualized warmth and freedom run rampant, peppered in between with subdued duty to village and country, that cradles an shy Tsugio’s into his manhood but when his manhood is threatened and the village neglects and rejects his contributions, Tsugio’s acute ostracization from within the only community circle he’s ever known disfigures his rationality into revenge.  The cast is surprisingly pink vet lite with the actors coming from other Japanese oriented popular subgenres like samurai films, erotic but tasteful comedies and romance, and horror with Misako Tanaka, Isao Natsuyagi (“Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion,” Kumiko Ôba (“Hausu”), Shino Ikenami (“Evil Dead Trap 2”), Midori Satsuki, Yashiro Arai, Renji Ishibashi, and Izumi Hara (“Island of the Evil Spirits”).

“Village of the Doom” is a two-toned down spiral to build up only to crash down the hopes of an impressionable young person.  Similarly seen in later works like Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant” where the visually intense, raw, and viscerally slicing culmination of enough-is-enough points back to the series of occurrences that significantly mile mark every step lead to the slaughter.  Set inside a valley surrounded by green mountains, the idyllic and rural riverside village impresses more backdrop tranquility than doom with slower pace and dutiful lifestyles but like most cutoff societies, the slow, insidious corruption of morality courses with infectious infidelity under the guise of Yobai, upends rightful justice and trades in for lynch mobs, and wanes promises for easy streets and exploitation run out dates that run its course for one but not the other.  All these aspects have relevant translatability to today’s cliques and inner circles that oust the unusual to where a sense of belonging feels hopelessly frustrating.  The isolation is so engrained that it highlights, in a very matter-of-fact way but does speak to it quite a bit, is the incestuous relationships between related villagers with the instances of Tsugio and cousin Kazuko’s flirtatious meetups and talk of marriage as well as Tsugio accidental arousal around his cousin’s aunt.  This adds to the tension and the corruption of that old idiom of don’t shit where you eat and the evident sourness spoils relationship ties when family is important to lessen the blows of life’s subsidiary problems.  For Tsugio, who is already dealt a bad hand with both parents deceased and his illness, the whole village rots what’s left of his innocence and ambitions and, in turn, aims to exterminate those who’ve foiled his purity.

A wicked, notorious true crime story now for the rest of the world to visual in “Village of Doom” on Blu-ray, courtesy of Unearthed Films on their Unearthed Classics sublabel.  The new Collector’s Edition Blu-ray is format encoded onto an AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition, BD50.  The picture is tempered with the muted colors, or rather the scaled grays, of an archaic Japanese village coupled by the browns and straw hued housing set amongst in and surrounded by a sea of green foliaged valley, and while objects are delineated nicely without any saturation bleeding or compression issues, the colors don’t necessary pop.  What does pop are the textures of the same articles mentioned above.  The groves of thatched wooden abodes are remarkable deep, the greens, though seamless, are nicely touched upon in the foreground, and skin consistencies vary person-be-person within idiosyncratic personal brackets with dynamic sweatiness and emotion-delivery contouring to accentuate.  The Japanese LPCM 1.0 mono has no problem discerning elements.  Though all funneling through a single channel, the dialogue and ambience works together thanks to the clean, more immersive ADR.  Mashanori Sasaji’s tests the soundscapes of traditional Japanese drum rhythms of Oo-daiko with then modernized synthesized notes to create a forebodingly, entrancing composition.  With any post-production voiceover work, dialogue is very robust, and the synchronized English subtitles offer an error-free and organic translation.  The original audio file is compressed cleanly with no issues with crackling, hissing, or any other damage for noting. Unearthed Film’s 17th spined Classics title supplements with an audio commentary by Asian film experts Arne Venema and Mike Leeder, a look at the Tsuyama Massacre in Dark Asia with Megan: Case #57 Japan’s Darkest Night, a promotional gallery, and the theatrical trailer. The Amary Blu-ray case is housed in a cardboard O-slipcover featuring Mutsuo’s iconic night-crawlin’ getup on Masato Furuoya’s Tsugio in colorless black-and-white. The case has the same image used for the cover with no reversible sleeve and the inside does not contain any tangible inserts or materials. The disc is pressed with not the same image but the same head flashlight Tsugio, this time looking right at you in unison with his shotgun barrel. The not rated feature has a runtime of 106 minutes and is region A locked.

Last Rites: “Village of Doom” depicts the same sad story that strikes the hearts of today’s mass shootings, spurred by the dispel from those in proximity, intimate, and friendly. “Village of Doom” is a true classic of casted out carnage relit by Unearthed Films to retell the notorious narrative of Japan’s deadliest mass killing ever.

“Village of Doom” now on Unearthed Film’s Collector’s Edition Blu-ray!