Category Archives: Just fucking awesome

Happy, EVIL Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. Happy, EVIL Halloween, Silver Shamrock! “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” reviewed! (Via Vision / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Halloween III: Season of the Witch” Available on Limited Edition Blu-ray from Via Vision!

Just days before Halloween, a man stumbles hurt and delusional rantings into the hospital of Dr. Daniel Challis.  Clutching a Halloween mask to his chest, Challis figures the man to be crazy before stabilizing his vitals for rest but when the man is heinously murdered in his hospital room and the murderer burns himself alive in the hospital parking lot, Dr. Challis doesn’t know now what to make of the man’s rantings about something or someone is going to kill us all.  In walks Ellie Grimbridge, the man’s daughter, who has been investigating her father’s mysterious death.  Intrigued not only by the case, but also by the lovely Ellie, Dr. Challis and Ellie’s investigative work leads them to the Silver Shamrock mask factory in Santa Mira, the same mask factory that created the mask Ellie’s father was clutching before he died.  What they uncover is a plot of sacrifice on Halloween night, spearheaded by an Irish toy maker in Conal Cochran.

With a novel concept in the hands of one of horror’s most promising filmmakers, John Carpenter, a script penned by an uncredited yet famed British science fiction writer in Nigel Kneale and touched up by Carpenter, and a young Carpenter protégé, Tommy Lee Wallace, at the helm, “Halloween III” attempted to be an off-the-beaten path of success new story for what would have an annual Halloween-themed anthology going forward.  Unfortunately, and regrettable, “Halloween III:  Season of the Witch” failed to connect with an audiences and Michael Myer fanboys too stubborn to let go of The Shape.  It wasn’t until years later that the 1982 feature, released on the coattails of 1981’s part II of the original Michael Myers saga, found footing with fans who now appreciate the unique story, its practical effects, and the bold, yet defunct, vision Carpenter and crew once envisioned.  Carpenter and Debra Hill returned to produce, alongside Joseph Wolf, Irwin Yablans, and Barry Bernadi, with Universal Pictures as the backing studio. 

Now, “Season of the Witch” just didn’t star a bunch of nobodies in this offshoot of a newly branded “Halloween” concept.  Before playing the quasi-alcoholic, deadbeat father Dr. Challis, Tom Atkins was already a rising star in the land of John Carpenter films with “The Fog” and “Escape from New York” In 1980 and 1981.  Atkins’s usual confident and charming qualities underneath the rugged good looks and trimmed mustache serve him the better part of man doing his bit part in a not-his-business investigation of a man’s death to please a good-looking woman that happens to be the dead man’s daughter.  That good-looking woman is Ellie Grimbridge, embodied by the Mad Magazine Production’s “Up the Academy’s” Stacey Nelkin, and if you blink, you might miss Atkin’s Dr. Challis being perhaps the worst father ever to his two children and ex-wife.  The subplot is so subtle and overshadowed by the Silver Shamrock Halloween plot that being invested in the crumbling family dynamics doesn’t even hold substantial weight and it truly works to subvert the subconscious and plant a destructive pipe bomb smartly into your moral compass because if you think Dr. Challis is the hero of the story, which in many perspectives he is, he’s also doesn’t keep up with his own children interests or current events, numerously bails on their planned care, runs off and sleeps with a much younger woman he hardly knows, is an active alcoholic, and is quite the handsy philanderer at that when he grabs his much older nurse’s bottom in a playful moment.  No, Dr. Challis is every ounce an antihero hidden in plain sight and in the guise of a potential savior of the children, the world, as he takes on Silver Shamrock and its founder, an Irish toymaker named Conal Cochran with tremendous evil genius and mastermind appeal by Dan O’Herlihy (“The Last Starfighter”).  “Halloween III:  Season of the Witch” rounds out the cast with Ralph Strait, Jadeen Barbor, Al Berry, Michael Currie, Garn Stephens and Essex Smith in key support roles.

Lots of previous opinionated chatter surrounding “Halloween III” collectively concludes to if the filmmakers decided to title the film anything else, maybe just the tagline of “Season of the Witch,” then the film would have won over audiences with a fresh take of science fictional horror and would not have been wrongfully panned by critics and moviegoers.  I call BS on this take.  The original intention was to deliver a new, Halloween-themed horror film year-after-year with John Carpenter attached in some way, shape, or form of bringing novelty terror to our eyeballs and brain.  Instead, public persuasion and studio submissiveness rendered the concept powerless and as a result, and no disrespect to any Michael Myers films that followed, was the departure of John Carpenter and Debra Hill and a string of mediocre and wacky Michael Myer sequels that went deep off the far end.  “Season of Witch” is not a teeny bit at all slasheresque, separating itself far from Michael Myers as much as possible by unconfining itself from location concentration by expanding the threat domestically, if not globally, with a parlor trick plot that involves special, laser-shooting masks that make kids’ heads melt into glop of crickets, snakes, and other creepy-crawly sui generis of the animal kingdom.  While strange in the cause and effect, the practical effects and superimposed visuals work to convey some taught gore and prosthetic knots that can be unraveled, even retrospectively critiquing them by today’s standards.  Wallace masters the film while, at the same time, hitting the ground running on his debut feature that has a look and feel of a graduate from the film of the John Carpenter. 

Halloween season may be months away, but Christmas comes early with Via Vision’s limited-edition Blu-ray set of “Halloween III: Season of the Witch.” The AVC encoded, high-definition 1080p, BD50 presents the film in a widescreen aspect ratio 2.35:1. Much like the Via Vision’s companion release with “Halloween II,” “Season of the Witch” mirrors the same resolution picture quality and stellar package presentation. Dean Cundey’s delivers another smoky noir realism that definably hard-edged and hard-lit that while isn’t the most colorful contrast it does create an abundance of inky shadow to lost in and sink into. A cleaner picture does bring with a reveal of how obsolete some of the composite matte effects but, simultaneously, revives what once was, nostalgia and a more tactile truth in movie magic. Details come through within contour delineation and textural elements. The English language DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 has dual channel balance and strength with lossless fidelity. Dialogue retains saliency throughout from a rather middle-of-the-road strength ambience albeit a wide range of effects from explosions to laser beam bursts and its constructed, catchy Silver Shamrock jingle, often muted through the television programming, and John Carpenter’s and Alan Howath’s synth collaboration that’s tonally reminiscent of previous “Halloween” films but stands by itself in distinct measure to garner new-sound tension. English subtitles are optionally available. Also, like Via Vision’s “Halloween II” Blu-ray release, a 2024 commentary is recorded and encoded with film critic/historian Lee Gambin and a special appearance by “The Howling” director Joe Dante. Archival commentaries from Tommy Lee Wallace and Tom Atkins are also on the disc with all three commentaries in the setup menu. Special features content includes 2012 Scream Factory-Red Shirt productions with Stand Alone: The Making of Halloween III: Season of the Witch documentary surrounding a Micheal Myers-less picture, it’s critical shockwave, and its ultimate cult following and Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: Revisiting the Original Shooting Locations hosted by Sean Clark visiting a few of the locations used for the film. A still gallery, theatrical trailer, and television spots round out the rest. Of course, my favorite part is the lenticular cover on the limited-edition and numbered cardboard sleeve case of the three, silhouetted little trick-or-treaters with a crone-ish face coming down from above the fire red dusk sky. The slightly thicker Blu-ray Amaray case cover art is stark still image from the movie with another, different image on the reverse side. The black background disc has the skull mask and title across from each other in nice compositional juxtaposition. Next to the Amary case is an envelope with 6 art (picture) cards taken from the film. The Via Vision release is rated M for Mature for moderate violence and moderate coarse language, has a runtime of 109 minutes, and has region B playback only.

Last Rites: Who knew being the outcast looked so damn good. “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” deserved better and received the best on this Australian, limited-edition, lenticular Blu-ray set that’ll leave you whistling the Silver Shamrock jingle and fearing Halloween masks more than ever.

“Halloween III: Season of the Witch” Available on Limited Edition Blu-ray from Via Vision!

Is this EVIL Real or is it a “Deathdream” reviewed! “(Blue Underground / 4K UHD and Blu-ray Combo)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

The Nightmare is Here. “Deathdream” on 4K UHD Blu-ray!

The Brooks family just sat down for dinner before receiving a personal house call by a military commander, conveying the tragic killed in action telegram of their son Andy during a Vietnam War skirmish.  Very early next morning, Andy inexplicably arrives at their doorstep and the whole family is elated with his return and relieved in the military’s gross error about his death.  But something isn’t right with Andy; he isn’t the same affable young man his family and friends knew.  All day, every day Andy sits in his room, gliding back and forth in his rocking chair, won’t eat or drink anything, and has the social personality of a slug.  While his father can’t grasp Andy’s bizarre behavior, his mother defends him, being overjoyed, comforted, and relieved by her son’s safe return.  Anybody who comes close to discovering what Andy has done or has become is preyed upon by Andy’s need for concealment and need for blood. 

If there was ever the quintessential anti-Vietnam War film, Bob Clark’s “Deathdream” is it.  The 1974, Alan Ormsby (“Cat People,” “The Substitute”) scribed grindhouse classic introduces combat shock to audiences through a macabre and ghoulish lens as the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War came to an official end in 1973.  Before becoming one of the holidays’ household names with “A Christmas Story” and “Black Christmas,” Bob Clark sat in what would be one of his first films as a director, a film that wasn’t sold in taking just one title having also been bestowed “Dead of Night,” “The Veteran,” “Night Walk,” and “It Came from the Grave.”  The U.S.-based shot and crewed feature, filmed in and around Brooksville, Florida, is a production of Quadrant Films and Impact Films with United Kingdom producers Gerald Flint-Shipman, Peter James (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”), and Geoffrey Nethercott (“Blue Blood”) with John Trent and Bob Clark coproducing.  

For the ambiguous terror of “Deathdream” to work without baffling audiences to a nonsensical death, the cast had to really give it their all and not only that but also sell the deteriorating dynamics of an American nuclear family when the son returns home strangely different from then when he left for war.   The debut film of Richard Backus, playing the reclusive and uncharacteristic Andy who has returned home from the battlefield, is complimented by the heart-wrenching performances miseries of his onscreen parents in John Marley (“The Dead Are Alive!”), as the distraught father over Andy’s peculiar behavior, and Lynn Carlin (“Superstition”), as the denialist mother who can’t or won’t see the issues with Andy, the gift of her little boy returning home. Not only does Andy’s return ignite a slow-burning divisive wedge between parents and child but it also exposes pre-war schisms that were long established years ago.  We’re initially introduced the family sitting around the dinner table filled with compassion, hope, and happiness but Andy’s return kicks the wasp’s nest and we can see their true nature.  The father is a crotchety, dogged man who can’t connect with a more sensitive son and the mother spoils his only boy the point where Andy must enlist himself voluntarily to prove something to toward his father’s disappointment.  Then, there’s sister Cathy.  Poor sister Cathy, the gentle, positive, and sweet daughter who is all buy nearly forgotten by her parents as they push her out of the way by her father stating to mind her own business or is exclaimed in so many words of her little worth in compared to her brother by her mother.  Yet, Cathy, played softly and attractively by Alan Ormsby’s then wife, Anya Ormsby (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”), continues a cool and level head about her shoulders as the only true family member willing to give Andy time, to let him be himself, while acclimating back into society, let alone his family.  However, the family’s opposing forces is ultimately what destroys them in conjunction with Andy’s terrible, morbid secret.  Henderson Forsythe, Jane Daly, Arthur Anderson, Michael Mazes, and David Gawlikowski fill out the cast.

All of the costly signs of shell shock and PTSD are present within the context of “Deathdream,” blanketed under a sensationalized, representational guise, but the film’s cinematic façade of Tom Savini’s rot and decay special effects and the appalling imagery of living death doesn’t alleviate or even dilute the horror of the revenant in the actual disorder.  In fact, it pales in comparison if you ruminate on it for a while.  Andy’s withdrawn from the likes of acquaintances, friends, and family alike and is severely impassive at signs of cordiality.  Director Bob Clark emphasizes the effect even further in one scene where a World War II veteran anecdotally describes in nonchalant detail the death of a brother in arms and this flashes images in Andy’s mind of him and his friend’s own mortal wounds in the jungles of Nam, sending the young man into a minor fight or flight moment, two of the associated signs of shell shock:  fight and flight.  Within the sensationalized horror context, Andy requires blood to keep his body from decaying, like a reanimated corpse trying to hang on a little long before his skin and muscle tissue just seep and ooze off, and in one scene of attack, Andy shoots up his victim’s blood with a hypodermic needle in a reminiscent drug addiction scene of shooting up narcotics right into the vein of one’s arm, an experience afflicted on many PTSD vets. Ormsby’s script might be specific in the anti-Vietnam War propaganda but is not so detailed in the narrative’s whys and wherefores as much of Andy’s unlikely, and undead, return to his family falls into that inexplicable, ambiguous, “Twilight Zone,” and “Tales from the Crypt” category to foster a greater cloud of mysticism and darkness around the story, one in which has a hopeful, desperate mother conjure will and desire in order to see her son come home again.

In continuing to upgrade their catalogue to the best possible format currently available, “Blue Underground” pulls an Andy and returns “Deathdream” from the dead, heading home to the nearest ultra high-definition player. The 2-disc 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray combo set arrives with a brand-new restoration, scanned in 4K 16-bit from the 35mm negative with Dolby Vision HDR in honor of its 50th anniversary. The UHD is HVEC encoded onto a 66GB Blu-ray with 2160p resolution while the Blu-ray is AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, on a BD50, both presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio. A grainy 35mm print is ingrained with superior color saturation and understanding of how to manage the perceptibility of image. Blue Underground’s previous restorations show a spectrum, step-by-step improvement to get to where the film is today in a higher, upgraded format. “Deathdream” can be a very dark film at times and often, but this release eliminates speculation of events without collapsing the contrast integrity, providing a clear and concise image for its spot in history. Blu-ray is a step down albeit only minorly and with some color stability shimmer, more notably in the finale with a less than standardized and wear-showing deleted scene that is integrated back into the story. A single, English DTS-HD master audio mono track is available. The lossless option doesn’t need any more or any less to effectively be the overlaid track. Distinction runs through the single channel with managed assurances that dialogue, ambience, and soundtrack divide and conquer their respective uniquities. English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles are available. Due to space on 4K UHD disc, all of the package’s special features are encoded onto the standard Blu-ray. The UHD Blu-ray includes an archival commentary from director Bob Clark, a commentary by writer Alan Ormsby, and a brand-new commentary with a pair of film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson, plus the theatrical trailer. All that and a slew of previously recorded content, including a recollection featurette with Alan Ormsby and star Anya Liffey (Ormsby), an interview with composter Carl Zittrer Notes for A Homecoming, an interview with production manager John “Bud” Cardos Flying Down to Brooksville, an interview with star Richard Backus Deathdreaming, an interview with Tom Savini regarding his early years in special effects, a screen test of the original Andy actor Gary Swanson, an alternate opening title sequence, Alan Ormsby’s student film, theatrical trailer and still galleries. The only other new content is an interview with the original Andy actor Gary Swanson The First Andy. The same illustrated cover art composite from the 2017 Blue Underground Blu-ray is recycled for the 4K UHD Blu-ray with tactile elements of a raised title and taglines on the cardboard slipcover. The primary art also resides on the black UHD Amary but the reverse side has retro traits of the film’s starkly contrasted yellow and blue poster art and the “Dead of Night” title to which, once again, is preferrable for me to have diverging slipcover and case cover arts. The two discs reside on their respective sides of the interior with the 4K UHD pressed with the illustrated art and the Blu-ray going contrarily retro like the reverse cover art. There are no loose insert materials. With an 88-minute runtime, Blue Underground release comes region free and is rated R.

Last Rites: Andy didn’t destroy his family. He was only the last straw, a catalyst that tipped the boat over into a sea of slowly brewing tempest. Doesn’t help that he was also decaying right before their eyes as the embodiment of walking death and looked good doing it too with the help from Blue Underground’s sharp-edged and solidly sound 4K upgrade.

The Nightmare is Here. “Deathdream” on 4K UHD Blu-ray!

Classic Sequel Gets a Lenticularly EVIL! “Halloween II” reviewed! (Via Vision / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Halloween II” Limited Edition Blu-ray + 6 Photo Lobby Cards! Order here!

The horrific Halloween night massacre in Haddonfield where a masked escaped mental patient named Michael Myers murdered the close friends of Laurie Strode has not yet ended.  Hurt and in shock after narrowly escape Michael’s relentless pursuit, Laurie is rushed to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital to receive treatment from a skeleton shift while Dr. Loomis, who shot Michael six times, continues his hunt for the hard-to-catch, hard-to-kill killer.  Frantic about the evil inside his former patient, Dr. Loomis will not stop at nothing to track him down with police assistant and try to puzzle together just why Michael had returned to his hometown in the first place.  As Laurie recovers from her injuries and copes with her friends’ deaths, The Shape arrives at the hospital, continuing his emotionless killing spree of hospital staff in order to get to Laurie, and with nowhere to run, Laurie’s only hope is in the hands of a determined Dr. Loomis. 

Picking up where the highly successful independent horror, John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” that changed the slasher genre to what we know it as today, “Halloween II” provides more illumination on The Shape, Laurie, and shuts the door on the significant open-ended and fear-inducing mystery at the finale of Carpenter’s masterpiece.   The 1981 sequel, released three years after the first film, was not helmed by Carpenter whose success skyrocketed post-“Halloween.”  Instead, Carpenter and creative producer Debra Hill agreed to the executive producer title with some creative control in penning the script that would be a what-happens-immediately-next continuation with newcomer Rick Rosenthal sitting in the director’s chair.  The director who would helm later the follow year’s “Bad Boys” with Sean Penn had a goal to retain the same Carpenter stylistic choices to make the sequel seemingly seamless.  Alongside Carpenter and Hill in the melting pot of producers, the more narratively opinionated Moustapha Akkad and Dino De Laurentiis served as executive producers along with Joseph Wolf (“A Nightmare on Elm Street”) and Irwin Yablans (“Tourist Trap”) in what became a coproduction between Universal Studios and Dino De Laurentiis’s production company.

“Halloween” converted the then unknown Jamie Lee Curtis into a couple of things.  She instantly became a household name that at the same time also made Laurie Strode a household icon.  Curtis also became what was a relatively new coined term at the time of a scream queen, propelling her career in the horror genre with “Halloween” subsequent films such as “The Fog,” “Prom Night,” “Terror Train” and, of course, the more recent titular television series “Scream Queens” and the contemporary “Halloween” sequels.  What also emerged post Lee’s performance is the actress was eager for the role and effortless to work with making the 23-year-old daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis a treat to work with, malleable toward her role, and enthusiastic about returning as Laurie Strode for the sequel.  Curtis falls right back into the role as if filming didn’t stop rolling with Strode in a confounding state of shock and injury from her the relatively short scuffle with Michael Myers until Dr. Loomis intervenes with six gunshots into The Shape at the key and climatic moment, saving Strode from being strangled.  The difference in the sequel is Curtis’s instilled knowledge for her frightened character.  It’s that kind of touch that doesn’t hesitate to react to a force of evil.  Returning as Dr. Loomis, and again as if he never stopped performing as the paranoid and fervent good psychiatric doctor, is the iconic and late Donald Pleasence tracking down his former patient with trench coat sagacity, an understanding that no one else shares except for maybe Myers’ ultimate prey, Laurie Strode.  A new cast of relegated kill fodder magnifies part two’s grislier death count with Lance Guest (“Jaws: The Revenge”), Pamela Susan Shoop (“The One Man Jury”), Leo Rossi (“Maniac Cop 2”), Tawny Moyer (“Looker”), Ana Alicia (“Romero”), Gloria Gifford (“Virgin Paradise’), Hunter Von Leer (“Trancers III”), Cliff Emmich (“Hellhole”), Ford Rainey (“The Cellar”), and Dick Warlock putting on the mask as The Shape with Charles Cyphers and Nancy Stephens returning in their respective roles as Sheriff Brackett and Marion Chambers.

What new can be said about “Halloween II” that hasn’t been already said?  Dichotomously, “Halloween” and its sequel share a single narrative that emanates the same stylistic tone; however, both films couldn’t be more different in their surface level and underlying intentions and that gnaws raggedly on the connective tissue that binds them.  Carpenter’s original embraces the mystery enshrouding Michael Myers motivations with a merciless, yet nearly bloodless, killing spree of horny hopped-up teenagers who wiggle themselves out of responsibility for a little trick-or-treat fun under the sheets or for just being alone in their house.  Myers unneeded and unheeded explanation formed The Shape as evil personified, an incarnate force compelled to return home where the light switch was flipped to an expressionless compassion for human life.  Rosenthal’s part two subverted the unknown by providing Michael reason and that reason being Laurie Strode, anyone else who gets in his way, could foil his plans, or are just in the vicinity of the hunt are eliminated with extreme prejudice, and that leads into the ramped-up gore with large pools of blood and other gratuitous displays of damage to unsuspecting soon-to-be stiffs.  Despite the different strokes, the sequel is not bad by a longshot.  In fact, “Halloween II” is just an extension spiraling in intensity and terror, a product of its time when everyone and their brother had directed gore-ladened slashers during the steep beginnings of the slasher renaissance. 

Though a many number of “Halloween II” video media exists between the current formats, the collaboration of Via Vision and Lionsgate release from Australia is beyond reproach for any kind of transfer print woes, lackluster bonus features, and drab packaging.  The limited edition and numbered 2-Dsic Blu-ray set is a physical media thing of beauty with an AVC encoded, full high-definition 1080p, BD50 on both discs.  Disc one houses the theatrical cut of film, presented in a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio, from pristine print, likely the original negative licensed through Universal Pictures for this very release, with the Via Vision caveat of every effort has been made to produce the highest quality on the back cover.  Not a single reason comes to mind on that statement being false as the Dean Cundey’s cinematography retains an undiluted facsimile of the original “Halloween,” represented here with phenomenally suitable contrast that can presumably hide Micheal Myers in every shadow and create the apprehension in every darkly lit scene with minimal key lighting in various, sometimes neon, shades of red, yellow, and white.  The 35mm film grain has a pleasant consistency of a low-to-medium low visual viscosity that never reaches levels of blotting out picture quality, presenting no issues with zoomed in images or any other touchup enhancements to note for that matter.  Perceptible details sanction The Shape’s tactile and weathered look of a rough night in Haddonfield.  Colorfully warranted scenes, such as the Nurse Alves on a gurney in the middle of a pool of her blood, are robust to display the carnage whereas other, more minimalistic approaches detail just enough for the imagination to take over.  Disc two contains the standard-definition, upscaled to 1080p, television cut of the film, presented in a made-for-TV 1.33:1 aspect ratio, that omits some of the gorier moments, suitable for broadcast viewers.  Audio options include two lossless English language selections with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.  The audio codec distributes punchier ambiences of Myers’s rhythmic breathing through the mask, the jarring alert of a hospital room buzzer, and the impactful moments of Myers slamming his fist-loaded weapon into the skull, back, and….a pillow with the cringe-worthy associated crunch and thud.  No impediments on the dialogue track that’s free of crackling, hissing, and popping and is consistently prominent and mixed well within more chaotic, milieu-mania scenes, such as with the finale with hissing air tanks and scalpel swoops.  Optional English subtitles are available.  Special features are consolidated to the theatrical cut disc only with Shout Factory’s inaugurated 2012 documentaries – The Nightmare Isn’t Over:  The Making of Halloween II and Horror’s Hallowed Grounds:  The Locations of Halloween II – featuring cast and crew interviews with director Dean Cundey, Tommy Lee Wallace, Dick warlock, Leo Rossi, and more as well as visiting locations in a modern time with host Sean Clark, and two commentaries featuring director Rick Rosenthal and Leo Rossi in one and stunt man/The Shape Dick Warlock in the other.  There’s a brand new 2024 commentary with author Dustin McNeill, co-author of Taking Shape:  Developing Halloween from Script to Scream.  The encoded features round out with the alternate ending with more explanation on the fate of a certain left ambiguous character, deleted scenes, a theatrical trailer, TV and radio spots, and a still gallery.  What makes the Via Vision a limited, numbered set is the neat package and physical goodies inside.  The rigid lenticular cardboard sleeve of the skull pumpkin has eyes that follow you at every angle.  Inside is a slightly thicker Blu-ray Amaray casing with reversible cover art displaying notable stills from the feature.  The extra disc, disc 1 likely, is in a clear push-lock, page-turner disc holder.  Six photo lobby cards featuring stills from the movie come alongside the Blu-ray.  Via Vision’s release has a region B playback encoding, a runtime of 93 minutes on both cuts, and rated R.

Last Rites: Michael Myers has been slashing away in the cinema for nearly half a century and “Halloween II” has been a staple entry that, to this day, is a memorable fan-favorite in the grand scheme of most of the franchise’s sequels. Via Vision’s limited edition, lenticular Blu-ray packaging just sweetens the deal with a crystal clear and top-tier quality release worthy in any physical media collection.

“Halloween II” Limited Edition Blu-ray + 6 Photo Lobby Cards! Order here!

Psychological and Psychotic EVIL Descend Upon a High School Boy! “Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker” reviewed! (Severin Films / 2-Disc 4K UHD and Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

The 2-Disc UHD and Blu-ray Available for Pre-Order. Due to Release 5/28!

Orphaned Billy Lynch has raised by his Aunt Cheryl after his parents are tragically killed in a motor vehicle accident.  On the verge of his 17th birthday, Billy is ready to move on from his old life living under the overly caring Aunt to building a relationship with girlfriend Julia and possibly moving to Denver on a basketball scholarship, but the threatened Aunt Cheryl will do anything to keep Billy home, even if that means murder.  A brutal, stabbing incident of a local television repair man in their home leads to Detective Joe Carlson to suspect Billy as the main culprit and begins digging into the young man’s life that, coincidently, unearths the dead repair man had a homosexual relationship with Billy’s basketball coach.  Bigotry and intimidate course through Detective Carlson being as he prejudicially hounds and interrogatingly paints Billy as a gay, jealous lover without an ounce of hesitation.  Between his crazy Aunt and an intolerant cop, Billy’s life spirals dangerously out of his control. 

‘Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker,” also known as “Momma’s Boy,” “Night Warning,” or just “Nightmare Maker,” is the 1981 queer awareness and maturing suppression horror-thriller from “Bewitched” TV-series director William Asher.  Trying his hand at an edgier storyline with plenty of graphic violence and subversive themes, Asher helms the picture working off a script by a trio of debuting writers in Steven Breimer, Alan Jay Glueckman (“The Fear Inside”), and Boon Collins (“The Abducted”).  The American-made production brought considered taboo topics to the table when homosexuality was becoming more prominent in American culture in light of the AIDs epidemic and while the sexually transmitted disease has no part in this story, the derogatory fear of same-sex coupling is mercilessly present.  “Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker” is a Royal American Pictures production, distributed theatrically under Comworld Pictures, and is produced by screenwriter Steve Breimer and “Class of 1999” producer Eugene Mazzola.

Hardly does any film ever made have the perfect cast.  “Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker” does not reside in that genus of imperfection.  Every performance is spot on and fitting for this early 80’s video nasty, each actor playing the singular part ingrained into their act that deciphering if their behavior is actually like that in real life can be tremendously difficult and a completely disorienting.  The story focuses on Jimmy McNichol’s 17-year-old high schooler Billy Lynch who, until recently, has been living moderately comfortable under his Aunt Cheryl’s roof.  That is until school sis nearly over and the prospect of college and girls sows the seeds of springing him from his childhood home.  Though the story is supposed to be centrically Billy Lynch, it’s the quirky and unusuality of Susan Tyrrell as the undefined obsessed Aunt Cheryl with a thick undertone of sexual tension toward her nephew that just makes McNichol and Tyrrell’s scenes enormously uncomfortable.  The late actress, who starred in Richard Elfman’s “Forbidden Zone” and would later have roles in “Flesh+Blood” and “From a Whisper to a Scream,” could charm audiences with perky provocativeness and scare into submission with the ability to pivot to a crazed madwoman.  And while we’re slightly turned on and also frightened by Tyrrell, we’re completely in disgust of “The Delta Force’s” Bo Svenson’s one-train-thought, homophobic detective strongarming high school teens, coaches, and even his sergeant (Britt Leach, “Weird Science”) into being cocksure of his own short-sighted homicide theory driven by hate for homosexuality.  Marcia Lewis (“The Ice Pirates”), Steve Eastin (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Julia Duffy (“Camp X-Ray”), and before he was a big superstar, a young Bill Paxton (“Aliens,” “Predator 2”) bring up the supporting cast rear.

For an early 80s video nasty, “Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker” is without a doubt intense and provocative with timeless themes that nearly table the trenchant violence for corrosive mental issues, systematic homophobia, and pressures of maturity.  The two prong antagonistic sides bear down on Billy Lynch and the one principal who still technically a child and learning all the facets of adulthood has his own good being thwarted by conventional adult role models of family and law enforcement.  Director William Asher, through the script, inlays a pro-queer avenue where the gay basketball coach displays immensely more wit, sense, and compassion than that of Aunt Cheryl and Detective Carlson, awarding the coach with more likeability and favor to come out of this ugly business unscathed.  Asher’s very intent on defining the personalities and the actors deliver tenfold under a surly environment of not only the brusque characters but also Cheryl’s home that is a tomb for one of Aunt Cheryl’s past lovers and is becoming a tomb for Billy who will either bend to Aunt Cheryl’s sexually-toned obsessiveness or die a terrible a death.  “Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker” also predates the infamous “Final Destination 2” log truck scene with its own that’s equally hard hitting and macabre, the latter also being expressed thoroughly throughout the entire narrative with a morose overhang that’s simmering to explode. 

Arriving onto a 2-disc UHD and Blu-ray set, “Butcher, Bake, Nightmare” is Severin’s latest title to go ultra-high definition, first for the William Asher film, with an HVEC encoded, 2160p 4K resolution, BD100 and an AVC encoded, 1080p high definition, BD50 for the Blu-ray.  Presented in an anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio, “Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker” favors a stark and naturally vibrant color scheme with low profile compression issues on a pristine transfer, scanned in 4K from the original camera negative.  I could not detect any compression artefacts with the dark spots retaining their inky cohesion and the details retain superior depth in a slightly more saturated contrast of a healthy-looking, grain-appropriate picture quality, even elevated more definitively with the extra pixels.  The English uncompressed PCM mom track has lossless appeal with some foremostly faint dialogue hissing and crackling that’s more of given with age rather than a flaw in the mix.  The mix also doesn’t establish depth all too well with one channel doing all the heavy lifting, but the layers are well-balanced in proportional volume that make the audio composition effective and scary.  English subtitles are available. Encoded special features include 6 hours of content. On the UHD in lies three audio commentaries: one with star Jimmy McNichol, one with cowriters Steve Breimer and Alan Jay Glueckman, moderated by Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson, and the last one with co-producer and unit production manager Eugene Mazzola. The theatrical trailer cabooses the UHD special features. All of the above are also on the Blu-ray special features with additional content that includes a new interview with Bo Svenson Extreme Prejudice, a new interview with director of photography Robbie Greenberg Point and Shoot, a new interview with editor Ted Nicolaou (“Don’t Let Her In”) Family Dynamics, archival cast and crew interviews with Susan Tyrrell, Jimmy McNichol, Steve Eastin, make-up artist Allan A. Apone and producer Steve Breimer, and a TV spot as the cherry on top of some sweet special features. However plentiful and well-curated the special features are, my favorite attribute of this Severin release is the exterior with a dual-sided cardboard slipcover that has new illustrated compositional art and tactile features. Underneath, a reversable cover art featuring the film’s one-sheet poster art with a more Severin Film’s retro constructed “Nightmare Maker” arrangement that’s more red-blood heated. Inside does not contain any insert goodies or booklets and a disc on either side of the interior featuring the slipcase and black UHD Amaray case cover art. Both formats are region free, have a runtime of 93 minutes, and are not rated.

Last Rites: Seriously messed up on so many levels, if being a teenage boy isn’t pressurized enough right before manhood, becoming an adult can be arrantly deadly in this superbly packaged shocker “Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker” now on 4K UHD for the first time ever on May 28th!

The 2-Disc UHD and Blu-ray Available for Pre-Order. Due to Release 5/28!

Gaudy, Superfluous EVIL Sits in Your Living Room and Destroys Your Family. “The Coffee Table” reviewed! (Cinephobia Releasing / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Coffee Table” Would Look Good in Your Living Room! Purchase It Here Today!

Jesús and Maria are new parents with a beautiful baby boy.  Maria has been eager for a baby and sent through several medical treatment for the bundle of joy while Jesús continuous rides the fence about being a father.  When the baby arrives, the boy becomes a source of usually one-sided bickering and jabbing contention as Maria feels Jesús could be a better father to their newborn son.  When they move into a new apartment, they find themselves in a furniture store looking at a gaudy glass coffee table Maria can’t stand the sight of, but Jesús very much can’t live without.  While Maria steps out to shop for an upcoming luncheon with Jesús’s brother and young girlfriend, Jesús briefly stops assembling the table to take care of the baby until a tragic accident happens that reshapes everything and everyone Jesús cares about, and impels him to bottle in the tragedy, hiding it in extreme guilt from his wife and guests, as he struggles to find the right moment to relieve his soul. 

Marriage is hard.  Parenting is even harder.  Choosing a coffee table should be a delicious piece of decision-making cake but for director Caye Casas choosing living room décor can be deadly.  The “Killing God” director follow up his debut feature with the 2022 released domestic disturbing comedy-horror “La Mesita Del Comedor,” aka “The Coffee Table.”   Casas cowrites the film with Cristina Borobla, her first screenwriting credit but not her first collaborative effort working with the director as the vocational Art Director has been involved in Cases’s other works, such as “Killing God,” his 2017 short “RIP,” and amongst others.  Maria José Serra (“Amigo Invisible”) and Norbert Llaràs (“Killing God,” “The Perfect Witness”) put their producer café mugs onto “The Coffee Table” with the hailing from Spain production companies La Charito Films, Alhena Production, and Apocalipsis Producciones. 

Much of “The Coffee Table” is set inside the tiny, newly moved into apartment of Jesús and Maria who even though rag on each other’s opinions and one of them don’t necessarily favor being a parent, deep down the unlikely pair do have a strong love attraction that swims upstream against the repelling.  In the roles of Jesús and Maria are David Pareja, whose worked with Casas inner circle before with “Killing God,” and Estefanía de los Santos with an unforgettable, characteristic raspy voice that magnifies the role tenfold.  Both Pareja and de los Santos are comedically bred with a long list of hilarious Spanish features to prep them to see the gut-punching, black humor of what’s to come in “The Coffee Table.”  Frankly, there’s nothing negatively to report in Pareja and de los Santo’s flawless, funny, and unfortunate family dysfunctional performances surrounding their love-hate relationship and the knot of culpability and the bliss ignorance contrast that’s delineated between them.  Floating into the mix of repressiveness are side stories that become assimilated by the untold tragedy, such as the neighbor’s daughter (Gala Flores) with an intense belief Jesús loves her, the smarmy coffee table salesman (Eduardo Antuña, “Killing God”) who also have an interest in Jesús, and Jesús’s brother Carlos (Josep Maria Riera, “RIP”) and his barely 18-year-old girlfriend (Claudia Riera, “The Communion Girl”) being ribbed for their own odd couple relationship and giving a surprise announcement of their own. 

Though a comedy and a horror, I didn’t find “The Coffee Table” all that funny but more so quirky, outrageously bold, and shockingly hard-hitting instead.  Horror, definitely without a doubt, comes through but not in a typical to be scared or to exact fear way with any of the conventional themes to support its harrowing weight.  The horror that uncoils is every parent’s worst scenario, the underlying nightmare that grabs the soul and squeezes until every drop of anxiety is wrung out of our wet bag of bones and meat.  The incident itself is gnarly and unspeakable but the post-trauma slithers in a nasty case of guilty conscious, shame, and fear that can freeze someone to the spot to where they clam up, sweat profusely, stomach twisted, and have self-harming thoughts from the conjoined cause and effect of having to tell your partner the most terrible of news and see their composure, their affection flush away in a blink of an eye.  Casas able to string along the aftermath to extract a feature length film without it ever approaching critically forced or farfetched, adding on and expanding upon the luncheon or Jesús’s wiggling through painfully with excuses on why Maria should leave the baby sleeping peacefully in their room.  The passively aggressive sparring atmosphere quickly turns into colossal tension and hopelessness through the mechanism of dark black comedy.  As a parent myself, “The Coffee Table” evokes great sadness and mental strife of the situational possibility, the greatest horror of all time.    

The cruel film by Caye Casas arrives onto a Cinephobia Releasing DVD. The MPEG2 encoded, upscaled 720p, DVD5 comes in at being the eleventh release for the Philadelphia based, eclectic independent film distributor. And, boy, is it a doozy. For “The Coffee Table’s” image, not the two, artificially gilded naked women holding an oval shape, unbreakable pane of glass, the feature’s picture quality renders about as good as any single layer capacity unit can decode in a digital age with modest details, muted hues, hard lit, and a good amount of spectrum banding in the darker areas. Not to fret, however, as there’s plenty to discern with a film that isn’t reliant on details but more reliant on hitting you wear it hurts, heavyheartedly. The Spanish language Dolby Digital 5.1 uses a lossy compression that, again, suitable to the movie’s means of conveying a contortioned, ruthless story defining the very meaning of a no way-out, no-win situation. Dialogue really is key for this type of narrative to work and progress and does come through fine without an ounce of earshot hinderance. Also, not that type of film that provides a breadth of range or depth as much of the layers express in a very near arrangement, as expected in a concentrated setting of Jesús and Maria’s apartment home. English subtitles are optionally available, and they synch up and pace well with only one noticeable grammatical error. Not much in the way of special features as only Cinephobia Releasing trailers fill that spot and there is not mid or end credits scene. The 90-minute film’s DVD release comes not rated and has region 1 playback. Other regions are untested, and the back cover does not state the official region playback capacity.

Last Rites: Caye Casas and Cinephobia Releasing has the cajónes to not table this wonderfully bleak black comedy-horror from reaching audiences far and wide. “The Coffee Table” is a painful reminder of just how fragile life can be, much like a cheapy made piece of tawdry decor from China.

“The Coffee Table” Would Look Good in Your Living Room! Purchase It Here Today!