Category Archives: dvd

Stick With Jordan Peele’s EVIL Social Commentary. “Afraid?” reviewed! (Cleopatra Entertainment / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

What Are You “Afraid” of? Check out the DVD now Avialble!

After going through a physical domestic violence incident with her aggressive stepfather that ended with her a little banged up and with his arrest, Sarah can’t wait to spend time with her high school friends at an isolated cabin near Bin Bow Lake over the Halloween season.  Sarah feels like a fifth wheel while her friends have significant others in their party of five, but she makes the best of the situation with anything being better than at home on the weekend with her abuse-recovering mother and unpleasant memories of her stepfather, but the boozy, time-alone getaway turns into a fight of survival when a masked killer targets them, hunting them down one-by-one.  With no cell service, the car not starting, and not a single person around to help, the group scrambles for options of escaping the killer’s malice aforethought in a rural area that wasn’t all that friendly toward their kin color to begin with. 

Claiming to have the same Jordan Peele story vibes, “Afraid?” is the Sky Palmer, aka SkyDirects, helmed urban slasher from 2025 that faces social justice issues point blank in front of a masked killer backdrop.  “Afraid?,” aka “What Are You Afraid Of?,” is the sophomore feature length film for the California-born director fashioned from his own screenplay treatment with an infused racial overtone amongst the horror trope allotment.  The PR and communications tech startup founder and film director SkyDirect’s involvement doesn’t quit there as writer-director, as he also serves as executive producer under his production company SkyDirects Flix alongside co-executive producers with Cleopatra Record’s film entity, Cleopatra Entertainment, with “Frost” and “Cocaine Werewolf’s” Tim Yasui  and Brian Perera, who handle the exclusive distribution of the film, with freelance producers Gregory Mejia and Brian Cooper, the latter Cooper having collaborated with SkyDirect’s debut feature, “Run Nixon.”

The urban thriller is cast with primarily African-American actors and Caucasian actress Rezia Thornton in a semi-lead protagonist role of Sarah with the teen girl’s harrow opening skirmish with an aggressive stepfather and she also becomes the bookend storyteller of survival stemmed from events involving four of her friends, a pair of romantic couples, looking to getaway for a weekend as a group.  Thorton’s doesn’t portray to be your traditional mayo-vanilla character as she fits socially inside the dynamic of culture that surrounds her.  Kendre Berry plays Terrence, a high school football athlete exploring the possible opportunity of collect scholarship while testing the potential distant relationship waters with Latina girlfriend Lisa (Teairra Mari).  Berry and Mari are to have a strong character bond tested by the Sarah’s flirtatious eyes for Terence and while there’s a moment of heated tiff between the lovers, they go right into the one trope you’re not supposed to do in a horror movie, do sex acts in the woods.  The contention is nothing more than a spat when Sarah’s brought in under fire from Lisa’s Latina wrath in a nearly forgotten character plot foil.  Those types of fizzling devices extend to the other couple, Jamal (Gemaine Edwards) who is a military prospect and Jasmine (Nakosha Briggs), with Jamal’s decision to quit his path toward service because of military operations and causes he can’t support because of their support for wealthy interests.  This too gets murky inside the couple’s progression with the quick snap introduction of the killer, never influencing their characters and acts in a solely spout-off with the movie being a platform to convey the message, a common theme throughout “Afraid?’s” hollow horror shell.  There’s one character Dexter (but credited as Nerd Kid?) trips into the discussion of getting away this weekend during their high school hallway hangout, as if part of the crew, but never makes the trip and isn’t seen again in an odd character introduction of wasted space and missed opportunity to become kill-or-hero fodder.  The rest of cast rounds out s and to support to Sarah’s backstory and suspicious rednecks, any of which could be our killer, with Michael A. McGrath, David Ian Wood, P.T Ashlock, and Ashley Heath. 

SkyDirect’s entry into the slasher genre is exploited for platform messaging gain on social and political issues and conspiracies against race and culture as well as the American dream, subverted by wayward government intentions and systematic bigotry of authoritative figures.  “Afraid?” is a film that’s compared to the likes of Jordan Peele, using horror as a metaphor for the undertone, and also often blatant, glitches in American society, typically against African-Americans and other minority groups.  However, “Afraid?” very much feels like a bald-faced weaponization, like a caricature of concept, that doesn’t try to hide the fact under a blanket of horror as characters play into conventions and stereotypes with a hefty amount of exposition to back it up.  The idea of “Afraid?” is that fear inside every black person’s they’re made to be the target of prejudice, whether by the Podunk population of rural, nowheresville America or by unprovoked police offers who question their late-night purposes.  Scenarios of being shot run through their mind, depicted in an unjust nature, and even the interaction with an uber-creepy, stuttering roadside assistant instills a fear despite him being nothing but helpful with their flat tire.  SkyDirect’s introduction of multiple characters with callback actions and lines don’t ever flesh out, such as with Sarah’s abusive stepfather opening that doesn’t add anything to the rest of the storyline or Terence and Gemaine’s partially contentious friendship with a corner drug dealer who was a high school friend where Gemaine’s beef with him is never fully opened and explored.  The acting from the cast renders over fine enough but the scripted dialogue is hackneyed and exclamatory hyperbole in its stating of the obvious that it makes scenes almost painful to hear.  All these negative elements take away from the film’s core slasher theme that does have some decent kills and a definite eerie atmosphere and appearance. 

Cleopatra Entertainment distributes their co-produced venture on DVD home video, a MPEG2 encoded DVD5 with an upscale 720p standard definition, presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  Despite its narrative and character shortcomings, “Afraid?” has a polished picture with a dark, cold grading with a higher contrast to formulate shadow work around the tenebrous trees to the ominous inky corners of a pitch-black cabin without power.  Cobalt toned in its processed coloring, and perhaps some gel work here and there, brings traditional horror color schemes back to the horror table.  Details are not too terrible either but can be eroded by the grading’s creeping shadows and some scenes fair better than others, such as medium-to-close up shots are better equip to handle capacity pixels rather than drone medium-long-to long shots with a drone or a crane, you see the image start to block when Sarah becomes lost in the woods and the camera pulls and away from overhead.  Though not listed, the DVD comes with an English PCM 5.1 surround sound mix.  The audio assortment finds fair footing amongst it’s clear and verbose dialogue that’s the dominating layer, it’s ambience that places last amongst the layers but still pulls off a variety of diegetic and non-diegetic environment noises in a spooky-laden, rain-drenched woods with potent thunder and a deluge of pelting rain pitter-patter, and a vigorous selective soundtrack produced and hyped by its Cleopatra Records’ artists DMX, Pleasure P, and Mase, to name a few.  Bonus features include promotional trailer clips of the film and a image slideshow with the physical DVD, inside a standard tall Amaray, has a photoshop rendered image of a masked killer looking through inky eye openings and over his shoulder with title just below and the tagline Don’t Look Back underneath that.  Disc is pressed with the same image and there are no other extra materials inside.  The 89-minute production is not rated and is region free for global playback,

What Are You “Afraid” of? Check out the DVD now Avialble!

Sometimes Sacrificing for Satan for Favors Does More EVIL Than Good! “Sex Ritual” reviewed! (International Media Network / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

The sudden death of her mother has left Ceren in the hands of a pettish and immoral stepfather.  Smacked around and even possibly raped while unconscious, Ceren becomes reserved while being on defense whenever her stepfather is around.  She ultimately joins a satanist group at the behest of friend Tuna who has ulterior motives of human sacrifice for the 13th of the sacred year where a rare celestial alignment allows Lucifer to grant powers to his disciples in return.  Ceren’s reluctant to be the Satanists’ much needed fourth person for the ritual, involving drinking each other’s blood and eating a helpless kitten, has nearly pushed her to the limit but when a young woman, a promised sinner, is kidnapped, tortured, and murdered on a pentagram and all in the name of Lucifer, Ceren is pushed into immense guilt.  When each of their supernatural powers come to light, Ceren has the ability to resurrect her deceased mother who takes care of Ceren’s immediate problems, such as her abusive stepfather, as well as be a guide to help the falsely accused sinner, the sacrificed young woman, to take revenge on her satanic murderers.

Never in all my horror movie watching existence have I ever seen, or come across, a Turkish horror movie.  Well, there’s a first for everything and Özlem Yesilyurt is the first director to have his horror film from Turkey, entitled “Sex Ritual,” to cross my desk.   Granted, “Sex Ritual” is an eye-catching and provocative title with lots of loaded promises but the conspicuous title is a Westernized conjuring to lure viewers, like me guilty as charged, into an intriguing concept based off title alone.  The real title is “Seytanin Elçiler,” roughly translated as “The Messengers of Satan” a far, far cry from the more outshining “Sex Ritual” title.  The 2023 satanist horror that allures reclusive and repressed individuals into doing horrible things is a scripted story written by Askin Kartal (“Lilith Cinleri,” aka “Lilith’s Demons” and “Zina” aka “Other”).  Mert Ozan Düz (“Zina”) produces the film under his company, Mert Production Media.

The story is casted entirely with Turkish actresses and actors with Yalçin Cemre at the center of the conflict.  Life browbeaten with her mother passing away and she now dwells under the ignoble thumb of an abusive stepfather, Ceren has little-to-no options in life until the opportunity to escape with a new set of friends, friends of the Satanic kind.  Ceren agrees to join at the constant behest of friend Tuna (Atilla Karahan) who has ulterior motives other than to be a good friend to the downtrodden Ceren in a pure case of netherworld summoning exploitation.  Not sure what Ceren was expecting, or perhaps there is some conjecture lost in translation, but when the satanists, which round out with Caner Gölgüoglu and Yagmur Yenice, begin to cut themselves, drink a bowl of their own blood, kill and eat cats, and the event murder with glee satisfaction, a hesitant Certain eventually goes with all of it without much of a stern opposition that makes her just as accountable for all the ritualized death at the groups’ hands.  Yet, the story makes her out to be the duped heroine and the savior of the sacrificed’s spirit, played by Renas Işıklı in life and death as the unfortunate young woman Selin who has her nipples cut off (not shown but implied with edits) during the sacrificial ritual.  Ceren uses her demonic powers for anti-hero good by taking revenge on those who’ve done inherent wrong to others, such as against her stepfather Kazim Arslantas along with Selin, by resurrecting dead mama (Esra Vural) to take exact the revenge. 

Özlem Yesilyurt’s feature can be construed as a very limited budgeted film with only a handful of simple, repeated locations (a scare abode, a vacant warehouse, outside bench), skirted-by special effects, and less-than-effectual emotional and dynamic dialogue between characters to progress a natural story.  Ceren’s stepfather talks a big improper game with threats and innuendos toward Ceren’s youthful beauty, but his actions are rather mild and any physical abuse, other than a handful of open handed slaps, have been crudely implied, barely registering a sexual encounter.  Strobe lights and some clinging-for-dear-life scab prosthetics make up more than most of the special effects efforts coupled by ham-fisted, overexaggerated performances that are more into theatrical play melodramatics rather than embodying a sense of practical realism.  The satanic enthusiasm between Tuna, Berk, and Asli finds refreshing footing with a disturbing appetite to do all the unspeakable rituals just to be granted unnatural powers, ones that prove to be fruitless against Ceren’s revivification of the dead which begs the question of who exactly did the satanist sacrifice for?  You would think if it was actually for Satan himself, he would not have gifted the fourth wishy-washy acolyte Ceren with a formidable ability over his true followers, unless Satan’s a real son of a bitch and likes to see the world burn no matter who bends a knee to him.  The “Sex Ritual” title is pushed to the seams, stretched to sell copies on a provocative promise that isn’t fulfilled as there’s no sex – voluntary, influenced, or forced copulation – to bring about infernal Hell on Earth, or at least in an inner circle of the desperate to be devilish. 

“Sex Ritual” is a conjured up Turkish horror now available in North America on DVD.  The MPEG2 encoded DVD5 comes courtesy of International Media Network, aiming to bring worldwide horror to western audiences.  Presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio, IMN isn’t the pinnacle of transfer quality but the digital picture has a fair amount of inherent success that has already done the preinstalled work but “Sex Ritual” is a release that’s essentially from farm to table with an ungraded picture within the framework of a 720p resolution, possibly upscaled through your player and television setup.  To its advantage, the feature doesn’t have the scenic, action, or special effects range to test the format and that makes the picture look better, cleaner, and with greater emphasis on detail than typical effects boosted horror with a snappier pace to build the intensity and the terror.  “Sex Ritual’s” often slowed down, lingers on scenes, because of the budget limitations and this results in never challenging the compression.  The audio is an uncompressed PCM Stereo 2.0 mixed in the Turkish language with English subtitles that synch and pace just fine with no sign of misspelling or broken sentence structures.  The little devilry ambiance instilled is held at bay, reserved to be only accessorial to the maniacal laughing and victimizing screams, and the dialogue supplied has prominence and strength between a mostly conversating narrative contrived of pressure, abuse, and bullying with little substance in Ceren’s beset angst and a proper farewell to dear old dead mother.  The generic stock soundtrack from Ekrem Düzgünoglu (“Lilith’s Demons”) lacks vitality to be impactful and sounds as it pulled and edited directly from a generated percussion and synthesizer you find free online.  For encoded special features, there is only a chapter selection on the static menu.  The physical DVD comes in a standard Amaray case with a simple, yet bold and captivating sleeve art with a similar relevance to Ceren and the pagan act with “Sex Ritual” hovering over top, a good marketable look for the IMN release.  The 82-minute DVD comes unrated, though not listed, with region free playback. 

Last Rites: Between the poor taste westernized title and the stale progression of the narrative, “Sex Ritual” has no path forward in summoning its darkest qualities for power and glory in this Turkish-made, low-budget, forgettable thriller.

Sex Ritual Trailer (2026) on Vimeo

EVIL’s Blonde, Beautiful, and Without Genitalia! “Darbie’s Scream House” reviewed! (Wild Eye Releasing / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Uh Oh Darbie! “Let’s Go Buy “Darbie Scream House” on DVD!

In Doll Town, Darbie is the most popular doll around.  Blonde, beautiful, and busty, Darbie lives a perfect plastic existence.  When her boyfriend Ben wants to plan a surprise birthday bash for Darbie, Tripper, Darbie’s helpful yet gossipy little sister, interprets Ben’s interactions with Darbie’s friends – Danger Darbie, Ditzy Darbie, and Rodeo Darbie – as infidelity despite no evidence of sexual activity, as well no doll in Doll Town having genitalia, and reports back to Darbie with the unpleasant news.   With her perfect world seemingly crumbling down, Darbie pledges to rid Doll Town of her now ex-best friends by taking a big knife to them in vengeful spite, turning her dream life into a spiral nightmare based off a simple misunderstanding and an obsession with contentment, that drives her insane and no one from her friends to boyfriend Ben, to even her sister Tripper, are safe from her accessorial wrath.  

Former, or current depending on how you look at it, alternative adult content creator turned this next generations cult film scream queen, Jessa Flux (“Murdercise,” “Onlyfangs”) co-writes and co-produces her latest venture “Darbie’s Scream House,” a comedy-horror lampooning of Mattel’s Barbie universe.  Flux’s independent film talents hop aboard a legendary name of the same market in Donald Farmer.  The “Cannibal Hookers,” “An Erotic Vampire in Paris,” and “Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8)” filmmaker co-writes and produces with Flux while helming at the seat of the director’s chair.  Together, Flux and Farmer materialize a plastic doll world full of jealousy, rage, scandalmongering, debauchery, and homicidal tendencies.  Crowdfunded through Indiegogo, the campy horror parody.  The 2026 film is a production of Stratosphere Entertainment. 

Not only collaboratively writing and producing the feature, but Jessa Flux also stars as the titular character Darbie, the buxom queen of Doll Town with an amiable personality up to a point.  That point is when boyfriend Ben comes under the scrutiny of Darbie’s nosy, troublemaking sister, Tripper.  Claude D. Miles has collaborated with Farmer and Flux on a few other projects, such as Donald Farmer’s “Debbie Does Demons” and “Scream Queens Weenie Roast,” and between Flux and Miles, their rapport doesn’t seem forced as it’s flexed to work as comedic love interests in a parody setting.  Ana Xaden, another indie alternative horror actress, also has worked with Farmer, Flux and Miles on “Scream Queens Weenie Roast” from the year prior, turning the trio into a regular entourage for the “Cannibal Hookers” director.  Xaden also busts out along with Flux as the two become elementary with their dialogue, by that I mean their conversations, whether written in the script like this or just the style of acting incurred by spontaneity upon filming, has an artificiality to it with monotonic delivery and exposition.  Funny thing is, you only really see this flat conjecture between Darbie and Tripper, and maybe even a little bit from Ditzy Darbie (Ashleigh Amberlynn, “Night of the Dead Sorority Babes”) but that’s more expected because of her dunce character.  Ben conversing with Beach Blanket Ben (Joe Casterline, “Shark Exorcist 2”  Unholy Waters”), or any other minor male character, has more natural back-and-forth without any fabricated flavoring, and it’s curious to think that maybe “Darbie Dream House” has a layered depth to that nuisance that speaks to the fake talk and gossip associated generally around women and men letting it, generally again, hang all out.  The cast rounds out with Mel Heflin (“Scarlet Rain”) as aggressive lesbian Rodeo Darbie, Fallon Maressa (“Bloodrunners:  Vampire Wine”) as Dream Date Darbie, and Kasper Meltedhair (“Hooker with a Hacksaw”) as a Doll Town reporter with Kimberly Lynn Cole (“Bloodthirst”) listed in the credits but her scenes cut and placed in the special features’ deleted scene. 

This is not one of those This Is Not Barbie:  An XXX Parody type of film but “Darbie Scream House” very much cold have been with it’s dolled up and naked-positive female cast, male characters with bad wigs and depraved names like Sleazy Steve, and a premise around creeping sexual promiscuity.  However, blood axe-wielding aggression, reared by jealousy, fill in the gaps to level up a cheap stag production to a barebones indie horror that doesn’t take itself very seriously in this meta-existences for the chief characters who are playable dolls of a young, imaginative young girl but who are also moving autonomous with their movements and affairs that are not sanctioned by Barbie or Mattel for that matter.  “Darbie” is a different kind of female empowering doll but in the same breath lacks the informed judgement of a jump-to-conclusions partner, insecure and obsessive over people and ideals.  “Darbie Scream House” caters to that what if scenario if Barbie didn’t have mental positivity and broke into sociopathic tendencies?  The core of the story is there but does heavily rely on the gratuitousness of Jessa Flux, Ana Xaden, and Ashleigh Amberlynn to carry it over the finish line, yet the shoddy effects, poor acting, and mishandling of the meta perspective sink this Donald Farmer production like cemented pink platform and rhinestone shoes. 

This is a no playtime, you can be anything Barbie movie with a house in Malibu and driving a pink convertible.  This is “Darbie’s Scream House,” a bizarro, alternative universe mined form the same vein as the classic children’s characters, such as Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, and The Grinch, turned into monstrous villains of your nightmares.  “Darbie’s Scream House” is right up Wild Eye Releasing’s alley with plenty of against-the-grain filmmaking, attitude, and shlocky satire, now available on a DVD home video that’s an MPEG2 encoded DVD5 with 720p resolution.  Even if you’re player + television combo can upscale the quality, the image quality is limited to the commercial grade equipment with passable delineation and detail that offers immersive detail but gets the job done. Lots of the details are washed away also but the use of blue or pink saturating gels that flood tense moments of Darbie’s life on the downspin and much of the exteriors are ungraded, using natural the deflection of natural light to the best of their ability.  The English PCM Stereo 2.0 carries an unbalanced depth that’s inconsistent on keeping characters dialogue level within the shot.  Those closer to the camera often have strength priority with the second person only a step or two back sounding as if they’re a good ten yards away in the closeup-to-medium marked shots.  The recording mic also can’t sustain sounds beyond its limitations, such as screaming that breaks the reproduction into bits of static and distortion at high peaks.  Special features contain a blooper reel, a deleted scene, and feature and other Wild Eye Releasing trailers with the physical package sporting an embellished, AI generated cover, which I aways appreciate the fluffing-up of an indie film.  In this instance, the art doesn’t stray from the truth per se but aggrandizes the finer details quite a bit; however, the nice touch here is the Barbie font used for the title.   The reverse sleeve image inside the clear Amaray isn’t afraid to be gory with a severed head from the story that has been lightly touched up for effect.  The not rated DVD is region free for all players and has a runtime of 75 minutes, enough to satisfyingly slay. 

Last Rites: Jessa Flux’s “Darbie’s Scream House” skewers Barbie into an unperfect, deranged universe of emotional unstable killer toy dolls but leaves much on the table of possibility and has a hard time gluing together an airtight campy story that’s too reliant on the kink than the gore.

Uh Oh Darbie! “Let’s Go Buy “Darbie Scream House” on DVD!

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!

An Old Woman Coughs Up Blood and Smells of Death. That’s When EVIL is Afoot! “Death Ride” reviewed! (International Media Network / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Death Ride” Available on DVD!

Nick’s about to board an overnight bus in Thailand with other passengers travelling toward the city.  As all passengers take their seats, luggage stowed, and the driver starting the engine, one last ticketed passenger boards, a quiet elderly woman who reeks of fermented fish and has a continuous cough.  What should have been a pleasant ride to the city has turned into an unbearable stench that’s seated right next to Nick.  When the woman dies after a severe coughing fit, neither passenger or bus staff know what to do when the body suddenly disappears, and the believed idea of ghost enters most of everybody’s assumptions.  With the small still strongly permeating inside the cabin, the driver agrees to stop at the next rest area and call for a replacement bus, but the dark road has seemingly no end and a strange curse of the old woman snatches the passengers one-by-one, providing a bus terminus of death.

“Death Ride,” aka “VIP Death Seat,” is the 2024 released commercial transportation ghost story hailing from Thailand.  One half of the “Black Magic Mask” directors, Pasit Panitijaroonroj, splinters off to helm the horror, credited in the title cards as Phasit Panitijaroonroj.  Known by various other interpreted titles, such as “Seat 204,” “The Seat,” and as “Rot Tour Wee Ai Phee” in native Thai, the feature is also written for cinematic screen by Panitijaroonroj with the conceptual story conceived by Wiroj Chotichiawong combines the already tense mass transit journey with a supernatural grim fated outcome that pits people not only against a malevolent and eerie force and terror but also seizes each other in a plight of fear of the unknown.  The production studio behind “Death Ride” is Arriya Film, who produced “Black Magic Mask,” “The Attic,” and “Check-in Shock,” and is distributed internationally by Antenna Entertainment. 

The “Death Ride” story has an ensemble cast setup that bounces between westerner Nick, a group of young people, an older narcissist, the pair of bus staffers, and briefly minor support characters who stand out but without expressed intent, such as the mother and son combo, Nick, who’s travelling solo on unmentioned grounds, has more attention as he wanders the bus stations, becomes the primary disgusted toward the old woman, and has an unaccompanied third act all to himself.  Nick is played by American Nathan Bartling, Youtuber of My Mate Nate, a bilingual prankster who actually was in Thailand authorities’ legal crosshairs for teaching Thai children how to flatten coins on a railway and he was threatened with railway obstruction and damage.  Bartling has since been promoting the Thailand in a positive light despite his expatriate infamy.  He goes on to star in the film as the ignorant and blamed party for the cursed bus ride.  Bartling is joined by Pawornwan Verapuchong, Nichapat Chaiaek (“Bangkok Dangerous”), Prasert Weangwichit, Innyada Yurot, and Jariya Rachomas as the group of youngsters on their way to the city and become intwined in the same mesas Nick but Nick ultimately becomes singled out for being a westerner, to stir up offensive requests to change seats, and because he’s an easy target as a lone travler whereas the group of young people travel in a pack.  Another social media personality-prankster in homegrown Jaturong Papho has a smaller but concentrated role as the trip’s first bus driver who must excuse himself from duty when the local cuisine bottoms out in the stomach.  Papho provides a lot, if not all, the comedy that’s been stitched into “Death Ride’s” loose haunting narrative with fart jokes, overreactions, and funny expressions.  The cast fills out with Pichet Iamchaona, Watsana Phunphone, Suchao Pongwilai, and Namgneun Boonnak as the sickly old woman. 

Panitijaroonroj pulls together an ensemble that audiences will have a difficulty relating to, will struggling favoring for in either demise or survival, and just plainly like as characters in general.  There’s nothing characteristically interesting about the ill-fated lot who come to the story without context to their lives or the reason why their on this bus trip the city anyway.  Nick’s is a solivagant who shares not one single tidbit of information about anything substantial to anyone.  In fact, Nick is brutally quiet for much of the duration.  The only time the principal character speaks is to question strange occurrences or be in complaint of the smelly old woman next to him.  The entire cast is written to complain, mostly about the decaying fish smell emanating from who the follow passengers constantly refer to as granny, and this leaves little room to get to know the players of the malevolent spirit misadventure who are trapped with it on a 22-ton bus careening into oblivion. There desperately needs to be some subtext conversations that reach deeper into their lives that sway their motivations or speak to their typology.  Instead, all there is is screaming, bickering, blame throwing, and just being a body just to be fringe fodder for the spirit.  The spirit itself lacks an understanding as the elderly woman is escorted to the bus stop by a boy, assumingly her grandson or nephew, but he wanders off the story at some point before disembarking. At least with the spirit, there can be assumptions made about it, such as a representation of death with the fermented fish smell and the bleeding from the facial orifices, and that suggest this bus fare could cost them everything.  “Death Ride” is also loosely similar to that of Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa’s better evolving and character steeping 2003 holiday-thriller, “Dead End,” but “Death Ride’s” ending steers wildly into a ghostly eldritch to resultingly shock viewers with its foreseeable twist ending.

Our first review coverage of an International Media Network distributed DVD begins with “Death Ride” with a DVD5 encoded with NTSC MPEG2 compression and presented in 720p and a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  The first impressions are not off to a great start with a heavily aliasing with the lower bitrate that hangs around 3-5Mbps, creating an unnatural blur during active motion and reducing the detailed textures.  The story is entirely set at night that inherently produces the appropriately laid out negative spaces, casted shadows from key lighting, and a distinct higher contrast levels and while the negative spaces show some banding, there definitely some data loss with the image breaking down during the decoding.  Color saturation is left muted for a darker grading to set a bleaker tone and an eerie atmosphere.  The Thai PCM 2.0 Stereo track offers a front and center mix that retrieves and decodes dialogue in a precise and prominent reproduction with a range extended to the hum of the bus engine, the haunting echoes of a malevolent spirit, and perhaps the most asinine element, the hyperbolic hits passengers take against each other and from the angry spirit.  The ill-fitting score, uncredited, is what free stock music dreams are made of with an aggressive and overreaching tone harrowing score that was applied to every single situation the characters came to face.  Forced English subtitles appear error free and move along well enough with the quick Thai Siamese language.  IMN’s release is barebones with only a chapter selection in the static menu.  Also not impressive is the tangible DVD presence that doesn’t indicate even who the distributor is and luckily the IMN title card is presented precursing the feature.  What’s also missing is any kind of cast and crew credits from the back in what is rather also a bareboned informational and image design.  There is no MPAA rating listed but the assumption is unrated, if no rating is given.  The region free disc has a feature duration of 85 minutes.

Last Ride: “Death Ride” is a long, arduous trip to sit through. Lacking depth in story and in character, refunding the bus ticket is perhaps a better deal.

“Death Ride” Available on DVD!