Category Archives: psychological horror

The Red Glow of EVIL Lurks Inside Your Closet of Trauma. “Midnight Monster” reviewed! (Wild Eye Releasing / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Midnight Monster” is On Sale at Amazon.com!

The police track down a serial kidnapper and murderer of women by relying on Veronica’s projection psychic abilities to keep tabs on the killer’s every move before he claims another victim.  When the rescue and apprehension of the killer went off without incident, saving a woman’s life as a direct result of Veronica’s supernatural ability, the exhaust Veronica returns to what’s consider her normal life but when she sleeps, dreams of a monstrous human figure with glowing red eyes haunts her dreams.  Basking in a hot red glow, the monster lives in her closet and comes out when she sleeps, manifesting terrible visions Veronica can’t tell if she’s awake or dreaming of the monster in her wardrobe space.  Every night the dreams become more intense and frightening and she senses losing control, it consumes her psychic powers and entrances her to confront her past with dire consequences that will change her life forever. 

“Midnight Monster,” also originally known as “Closet Monster” and labeled on other global releases, is the Dustin Ferguson written and directed, psychic-powers and burning-eyed, night terror from 2023.  Ferguson is no stranger to low-budget B-horror moviemaking have worn multiple hats in a budget that doesn’t allow for individual expertise.  Having over two decades worth of directorial credits, including the penny-pinched and scantily-cladded thrills and coherent productions of “Horror Movie Workout,” “Mondo Shock,” and more fittingly enough “Penny Pinchers:  The Kings of Low-Budget Horror,” a documentary about making a horror movie on pennies of the dollar, the multi-faceted filmmaker, who also goes by the alias Dark Infinity, utilizes his own independent film production company, SCS Entertainment, to finance and equip production costs by funneling working capital through non-studio and alternative- spurred means as Joseph Williamson (“Arachnado,” “Ebola Rex”) serve as producer and “Liza:  Warden from Hell’s” Kevin Age and Brad Banacka as executive producers, all three have worked previous together on numerous films throughout the years.

Opening up “Midnight Monster” is the dramatic scene of Veronica using her powers inside a police interrogation room to track down a soulless killer before he nixes the life of another victim tied up in the back of his car, setting up Veronica’s uncanny abilities to project into current time through a personal belonging, or more technically known as psychoscopy, and she apparently does it very well to help authorities capture their suspect.  This also sets up for the conjured misfortune of a closet monster haunting her sleep, representing or demonizing personal childhood trauma.  Alana Dro (“Zombie Rage,” “Death Bitch”) steps into psychic-shoes of the closet creature plagued Veronica with little effort put into the character’s complexity of navigating her powers and her dreams to try and understand them better.  Instead, Dro becomes more of a peepshow prop than a proper lead character trying to solve the evil enigma that skulks from out the closet.  Not all the character flaws can be contributed to Dro with Veronica being written half-hearted into a narrative that requires her to be inquisitive and resolute in curing what haunts her.  There are not many scenes shared between Dro and Robert Lankford (“Nemesis 5:  The New Model”), who portrays the closet monster as more a tip-spear figurehead for Veronica’s ship of trauma rather than an actual beast with unknown intentions, but Veronica and the monster have their individualized zoned moments that are shared and connected only through the power of editing to create a surreal space of subliminal supernaturality between them.  Other characters pop in and then pop out for non-reoccurring roles with the 80s-90s scream queen Brinke Stevens (“Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity,” “Nightmare Sisters”) being the most recognizable actress given primary credit.  Jonathan Nation, Ronnie Angel, Joycelyne Lew, Guillaume Rivaud, Richard During, Roger Trexler, Vida Ghaffari, and Breana Mitchell have their moment as the rest of the cast.

Ferguson’s “Midnight Monster” has interesting, dark undertones of childhood trauma expressed through the manifestation of a monster whose power of Veronica holds her entranced, as if the monster is familiar to her.  It can be understood that the monster represents someone who hurt her, abused her, or raped her as a child, someone close to her who’s authority and relationship has likely brainwashed her into trust, love, and affection.  While these themes are provocatively deep and powerful, Ferguson can’t quite pull in “Midnight Monster’s” narrative into a balanced state and cheapens it with wash, rinse, and repeat scenes of Alana Dro full naked in the shower in an extended shoot of her getting wet and soapy.  Not necessarily a bad thing to have an abundance of gratuitous nudity in a grindhouse picture, there’s typically only one shower scene per film and “Midnight Monster” has two with the same actress doing the exact same thing, a slow full-body soap up, for a good chunk of the already fleeting runtime.  The second shower scene forces the narrative to wander off course and Ferguson tries to wrangle it back in by the finale ties all the pieces together with a meaty twist ending I found blindsided by, in a good way, but it also can feel and seem arbitrary and disconnecting with the introduction of new characters suddenly thrust into the fold without warning in its concluding moments.   

A regular outlet for Dustin Ferguson’s films, Wild Eye Releasing continues to shower horror fans with more of filmmaker’s films onto DVD.  “Midnight Monster” receives a MPEG2 encoded DVD5 in true 720p standard definition.  The digital image is deconsecrated from its divinely detailed imagery due to poor, commercial equipment, and a lesser codec that’s not upscaled, creating more of a SOV aesthetic which I wholly believe to be the intent.  Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on the DVD, the compressed image does decent capturing of the peripheral objects but without an spherical lens, there’s limitations to the scene.  There are some gorgeously soft red lighting and glow to get the monster in the mood for scaring and for surrealism, but most of the film is considerably ungraded with not a lot of other pop to its palette.  There LPCM stereo presents a fine U.S. English dialogue that isn’t quite robust in the forefront but has clarity and no obstruction and the rest of the ambient and environment sound is most comprised of added action in post-production.  The entire encoding is a bit rough and ready, and again that’s likely purposeful in attempt to be a grindhouse picture.  Encoded special features include an interview with actress Alana Dro, an image gallery, and trailers for “Midnight Monster” as well as other Wild Eye Releasing titles.  There are also three fake grindhouse trailers at the beginning as 9-minutes’ worth of B-movie coming attractions with retro visual graphics and each film encased with a 8mm film filter to mimic vintage film stock and films. The clear DVD Amaray case has a neat and red color-infused, illustrated graphic art of the titular monster overlooking a sleeping woman with a reverse side containing a still of the monster.  The runtime listed is 60 minutes, but I had clocked the film in under 50 minutes, even with the faux trailers.  The region free DVD is not rated. 

Last Rites: “Midnight Monster” plays out like a fever dream of serial killers and daddy issues but there’s not enough Scotch tape to make this digital reel work effectively, leaving Ferguson to piece together slim pickings on what could have been a promising night terror.

“Midnight Monster” is On Sale at Amazon.com!

EVIL Has a Sweet Tooth for Children! “The Devil’s Candy” reviewed! (Second Sight Films / 4K UHD and Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Devil’s Candy” 4K UHD and Blu-ray Is Now Available from Second Sight Films!

A financially struggling, heavy metal inspired painter buys a bargain country house with an adjacent studio to work toward commissions and to home his wife and daughter in a bigger, lighter space.  When an unstable man with a child-like intellect disability arrives at their doorstep, wanting to come home to play his electric axe guitar to drown out the Satanic chants he continues to hear, he becomes the beginning of the family’s nightmare in their new home.  The man is a child serial killer, an unwilling agent of the Devil, who believes children are the Devil’s candy and when he can’t muffle out the continuous chanting in his ear, he must obey the commands to supply his master with more hacked up adolescence.  A couple of near miss encounters with the painter’s young daughter put the family on edge and into police witness protection but that won’t stop him from coming for her.

Sean Byrne, the Australian filmmaker who debuted with the insane prom queen killer in “The Loved Ones” and who turned Jai Courtney into a shark-obsessed serial killer in “Dangerous Animals,” directed “The Devil’s Candy” in between those two productions and is his only solely U.S. produced film to date.  The 2015 film that mirrors the Satanic Panic era with its heavy metal and its unspecified yet strongly suggested 1980’s motif is written by Byrnes to symbolize the contentious efforts to divide family bonds in the best and worst of times with the killer representing the invasive and dangerous wedge when the painting father suddenly develops a muse for his work, losing track of time while working and neglecting his family responsibilities.  “The Devils Candy” is produced by Jess Wu and Keith Calder (“You’re Next,” “The Guest”), Chris Harding (“You’re Next,” “The Guest”), and Roxanne Benjamin (“Southbound”) under HanWay Films and in association with Snoot Entertainment.

Ethan Embry is an interesting casting choice to be play principal father Jesse, a father-painter with a heavy metal music edge who becomes possessed to paint disturbing images of upside crosses and children burning.  Embry, who has the softest, puppy-dog eyes in the industry, fits remarkably as the likeable Jesse, sporting a long hair wig overtop his scruffy facial hair and athletic and muscular toned body that becomes a character in itself to display his intensity as a normal painter and more so as a possessed painter but never leaning toward being malevolent under the influence of possession, just a bad dad to daughter Zooey (Kiara Glasco, “Maps to the Stars”) that jeopardizes their close bond.  I found it curious that Shiri Appleby, “The Killing Floor”) is mostly out of the narrative picture as wife Astrid.  There are a couple of heart-ot-heart scenes between her and husband Jesse but from the most part, Astrid is absent working across town and leaving much of the family relationship strain in the hands of Zooey and Jesse without Astrid weighing on Jesse’s lapse in judgements:  forgetting to pickup Zooey from school, leaving the door open late at night while painting, etc.  Astrid is written with too much understanding and not enough mother bear ferocity.  My personal favorite supporting actor, who has been around for decades and here has a bigger antagonist role, is Pruitt Taylor Vince finding and exhibiting his inner calling to kill children.  “The Identity” and “Mississippi Burning” actor with noticeable nystagmus that moves his eyes involuntarily, mostly side to side, has in his firm grip one of the more subtle yet disturbing characters with layers, struggling with the Devil’s speak commanding his ear and becoming violent went his attempts to subside the viperous, chanting tongue hit roadblocks.  “The Devil’s Candy” rounds out the supporting pars with Tony Amendola (“The Curse of La Llorona”), Leland Orser (“Alien Resurrection”), Craig Nigh (“Terror Birds”), Oryan Landa (“Hollow Scream”), Jamie Tisdale (“From Dusk till Dawn:  The Series”), Mylinda Royer, Marco Perella, and Sheila Bailey Lucas.

Satan and heavy metal are nearly synonymous in the horror assemblage – Charles Martin Smith’s 1986 “Trick or Treat,” John Fasano’s 1987 “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare,” Jason Howden’s “Deathgasm,” and even “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” blends Hell with Rock ‘n’ Roll! – and all give a villainy credit to the God antithesis known as the Satan.  “The Devil’s Candy” is a poster child for the Metal and Satan genre, as part of the dubbed “Metalsploition” or “Rocksploitation.”  Yet, the Sean Byrne film plays a different kind of setlist, one that doesn’t slap Satanic right into your face but rather plays to the tune of possible mental illness with a subtle flavor of supernatural forces at work, behind the veil of derangement and delusion.  Hell and brimstone, corporeal demons, or any kind of the depths emerging from the fiery pits of the underworld are greatly and purposefully omitted from “The Devil’s Candy” and that is a welcome change from the aforesaid films, grounding this terrifying exchange more onto the fabric reality, as seen in news reports of child kidnapping and murder.  This instability doesn’t only apply to the Pruitt Taylor Vince’s Devil whispered, child-killing character but also applies to Embry’s Jesse, a family man with a metal edge who flirts with temptation, tempted to the darker side of metal, by being influenced with a malevolent muse to draw disturbing images and skirting responsibility that threatens the stability of his family, causing trust severing discord.  He also toys getting in bed with an artist curator who thrives and lusts after dark, provocative, profane art, with his gallery name being Belial – another name used for Satan in other cultural and religious beliefs.  Jesse must resist fame, fortune, and the guile techniques of Satan on Earth, another pointblank theme mentioned in the movie with a televangelist and return to his roots of connecting with his daughter and wife instead of selling his soul, or selling out, to the Devil. 

Second Sight Film’s dual format, 2-disc, 4K UHD and Blu-ray set of “The Devil’s Candy” is a tremendous gift to the physical media world.  The HVEC encoded, 2160p resolution, BD100 and the AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD50 are strikingly peak picture quality for their respective formats.  The limited edition contains a new, producer-approved 4K restoration of the original digital print and, while there’s likely not a massive different between the digital master and the restoration, Second Sight’s imaging for the release is superb, nonetheless.  Hovering a settled moody and low-key tone, creating an abundance of shadows and underexposure, Simon Chapman’s cinematographer creates the necessary anxiety that nowhere is safe away from a maniac driven by the dark Lord.  There’s beauty in the hard contrast with a cooler tone in more lit areas with details coming through greatly in these scenes that warrant them.  Skin tones and fabric textures have organic tactile and reflective presence.  Both formats are presented in a widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio that gives it a tighter yet lengthier exhibition for the high-def resolution.  The English audio on the both discs is an encoded lossless DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and it rocks!  Metal is master for the metalsploitation picture with great emphasis on the low-tone and harsh electric guitar strumming while a heavy rock soundtrack, consisting of metal band tracks from Metallica, Goya, Slayer, Pantera, and Machine Head to name a few, is infused with the satanism scenario and Jesse and Zooey’s metalhead lifestyle.  Dialogue is clean and clear with prominence above the layers where appropriate, never conflicting with the metal rock.  Range and depth play a factor with off-screen action told through key non-diegetic sounds that can almost paint a picture in your head, and this also goes toe-to-toe with the non-diegetic chanting inside the mind/ear of our principal characters because of its omnipresence, which seemingly engulfs the entire space in frame and then some.  Optional English subtitles are available.  All the special features are encoded on both discs, which is quite unusual for a UHD to have the full list of extras and perhaps suggests a more efficient HVEC compression.  These extras include an audio commentary with director Sean Byrne, Into the Fire a new intro interview by director Sean Byrne, new interviews with actor Ethan Embry Those Fragile Things, director of photography Simon Chapman Devil in the Details, editor Andy Canny The Cutting Room, production designer Thomas S. Hammock A Big Step Forward, and Sean Byrne’s short films: “Advantage Satan” and “Work?”  Like other limited edition sets from Second Sight Films, “The Devil’s Candy” receives a rigid slipbox with warm illustrated art by graphic artist Huan Do that extends beyond the slip box onto the bi-fold UHD and Blu-ray tall jewel case, a front and center lobby card of six with the rest being images from the film, and the book, a 120-page read of new essays from Aton Bitel, Reyna Cervantes, Becca Johnson, Joe Lipsett, Mary Beth McAndrews, and Zoe Rose Smith.  The book also includes production artwork of potential paints, cast and crew credits, and physical media acknowledgements.  This is a heavy (metal) set!  The UK certified 15 release for strong threat, violence, and language has a region free UHD and a region locked B standard Blu-ray with a runtime on both discs clocking in at 79 minutes.

Last Rites: “The Devil’s Candy” is a hard-rocking, hard-hitting thriller on the cusp of Satanic Panic but submerged fully in dangerous mental illness surrounding the welfare of children.

“The Devil’s Candy” 4K UHD and Blu-ray Is Now Available from Second Sight Films!

Driven Mad with Revenge, The Doctor’s Wife has Wanton, EVIL plans for Those Responsible for his Death! “She Killed in Ecstasy” reviewed! (Severin Films / 4K UHD and Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Dr. Johnson is determined to save countless lives from diseases, including cancer, by experimenting his research on human embryos with great results.  However, the more conversative medical board deems his actions too inhumane and unethical for science, rejecting his research, expelling him from the medical board, and revoking his license to practice medicine.  Unable to cope with the loss, Dr. Johnson slowly slips into insanity with his former colleagues’ condemnations rolling through his thoughts to the point where he ultimately takes his own life with one slice of the wrist.  His beloving and dedicated wife reels over his death and swears to avenge him by luring each of the four into a seductive death trap.  Mrs. Johnson entices the respectable professionals one-by-one with her desirable femininity into sordid circumstances that leaves them vulnerable for vengeance but at what cost to her own sanity and the police hot on her trail.

Jesús Franco, aka Jess Franco, writes and directs, under the pseudonym of the Americanized Frank Hollman, a tit-for-tat revenger of European sleaze under the contextual themes of controversial medical research, revenge, and hypocritical moralities with a femme fatale kicker.  The film is called “She Killed in Ecstasy” and was released the same year as Franco’s auteur homoerotic “Vampyros Lesbo” of 1971 and as a pair, the two films see a 4K caliber upgrade from the established genre boutique label Severin with UHD Blu-rays that star sultry actress Soledad Miranda.  Filmed in Spain, more specifically in the Valenciana providence, and like his “Vampyros Lesbos,” “She Killed in Ecstasy” is also a German production produced under Artur Brauner (“The Devil Came from Akasava”) and Arturo Marcos (“Count Dracula”), both of whom worked with Franco on “Vampyros Lesbos,” with Karl Heinz Mannchen returning as well to serve as executive producer under the production banner of Tele-Cine Film und Fernesehproduktion in collaboration with Fénix Cooperativa Cinematográfica. 

If you thought Spanish actress sizzled as a sapphic bloodsucker in “Vampyros Lesbos,” seeing her manipulate those who’ve done her and her husband (“Fred Williams, “The Red Nights of the Gestapo”) wrong with weaponized sex is the naked, full-bodied zenith of her career as the vehemently vindictive Mrs. Johnson.  “She Killed in Ecstasy” offers Miranda more range of arc that takes her happiness, squashes it, and forces her to sex her way through destroying the lives of those who’ve destroyed her own relationship but with each kill slowly piecing away her soul and sanity.  It takes a woman’s touch to evoke the sordid true selves of the husband-damning medical board who are riddled with their own vices that stray not too far from Mr. Johnson’s unethical research.  Masochism, lesbianism, perversion – these are the sexualized traits of the medical board who fall into Mrs. Johnson’s snare to be snuffed out in the summit throes of sexual foreplay, distracted by her iconic figure, lush bush, and deep brown hair and eyes.  Primarily Swiss and Swedish actors makeup the medical board with Paul Muller (“Lady Frankenstein,” “Eugenie de Sade”) as the Dr. Franklin Houston, Howard Vernon (“Angel of Death,” “Zombie Lake”) as Prof. Johnathan Walker, and Ewa Strömberg (“The College Girl Murders”) returning to costar alongside Miranda from “Vampyros Lesbos” as the only woman in the group as Dr. Crawford while Jess Franco himself takes the last spot as Dr. Donen, integrating himself into the madness.  The last principal cast member is “The Horror of Blackwood Castle’s” Horst Tappert and the German actor plays the generic role of a police Inspector monitoring and tracking a killer unleashing knife-edge fury on specific medical professionals.  The Inspector is essentially a throwaway role with no real contribution to the narrative other than to be an aimless cat chasing it’s own tail with no real sleuth work; instead, the Inspector has the persona attributes and gaited grace of a cool, calm, and collected know-it-all except the killer’s identity and motive. 

Now, the premise itself is promising, like most revenge thriller that exploits sexual provocatively for a death strike, but Franco’s narrative is hindered on being formulaic without any kind of deviation from one kill to the next as Mrs. Johnson spins the same trap of being the promiscuous spider enticing the fly to its bed of web.  Mrs. Johnson does disguise herself differently for every scenario and opportunity to lure, attract, and feast upon her targeted prey, using mostly a melee knife from her garter to slit their throats and castrate them as if to say, you killed my husband, now I take your manhood!   Pure spite drives her until the unhinge of insanity takes the helm with each kill taking a little bit of her soul with each murder.  “She Killed in Ecstasy” fits into Franco’s framing and depth of shots by shooting with wide landscapes and incorporating actors as longshots to engulf them in the environment without it feeling isolating or an immense sense of doom.  Franco can also get intimate with closeups as the actors get intimate themselves, it’s as if Mrs. Johnsons is reeling in the unsuspecting lustful and condemning medical board from the wide, long shots through class panes and door frames to between the sheets that is tightly shot on faces, body parts, and the eventual fatal act. 

The second act on a two part Jess Franco and Soledad Miranda film 4K UHD and Blu-ray release from Severin Films, “She Killed in Ecstasy” comes dual formatted with a HVEC encoded BD100 and a AVC ended BD50 and with their respective resolutions of 2160p ultra high-definition and 1080p high-definition.  The work Severin has done is impeccable with a well diffused, well saturated image containing natural and balanced film stock grain and has immersive details.  There’s not a ton of notable differences between the two formats with more of the darker shades or tenebrous areas on the UHD having a richer control in the decoding that has spot yet minor banding on the standard Blu-ray.  Skin tones and textures never break from normal tones and into splotchy territory; it’s quite an achievement to make the newly scanned 4K image from the original camera negative appear like a fresh film right off the digital scan.  The audio is not as complex with just a simple German language mono track with optional English subtitles that’s about as good as it would be sound on any system setup with coequal layers between dialogue, ambience, and soundtrack.  With an international cast, not all the cast speak German with the film’s dialogue, and ambient, layer produced through ADR with German voice actors.  The produced result is overall clean with minor interference static from the used equipment but does not impede verbal progression and dynamics between characters.  English subtitles appeared accurate and well-placed.  The UHD disc has little-to-no special features in what is essentially a feature-only disc that has an accompany German trailer for the film.  The Blu-ray has all the extra glory with a Jess Franco novel author Stephen Thrower interview Ecstasy in Rage,” a location visit In the Land of Franco Part 13, an archived interview with Jess Franco before his death Jess Killed in Ecstasy, an archive interview with actress Soledad Miranda Sublime Soledad, and an archive interview with actor Paul Muller.  The German trailer is also on the Blu-ray disc.  Much like ‘Vampyros Lesbos,” “She Killed in Ecstasy “ has a O-ring slipcover with commissioned graphic art that resembles the original poster art and the Shriek Show DVD cover with Soledad Miranda in one of her rememberable scenes of her character’s sanity crumbling in a upright fetal on a couch moment.  The backside of the slipcover offers up some of her character’s rage which is intense amongst the eyes and fascial expressions.  The black UHD Amaray case comes with a single sided sleeve with original film artwork and no tangible materials inserted inside.    The region free release for both formats provides all Franco and genre fans with a not rated film clocking in at 80 minutes. 

Last Rites: A must-see Jess Franco film for exploitational revenge and a must have physical release for Jess Franco fans, “She Kills in Ecstasy” is an alluring revenge-thriller that exposes thin morality hypocrisy as well as a deepening madness over grief and death.

EVIL’s Duality May Be More Than What Meets the Eye. “The Ugly” reviewed! (Unearthed Classics / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Ugly” Limited Edition Blu-ray Now Available!

A famed female psychologist is requested to work the possible acquittal case of a serial killer named Simon Cartwright and understand his possible motive for slashing his victim’s throats at seemingly random.  Unscrupulously tormented by a pair of odd orderlies, Simon Cartwright calmly carries himself as a humble, articulate, and friendly conversationalist and confessed killer with a darker side, an ugly side that drives him to kill at will.  Cartwright gives her the anecdotal trappings of his kills that prove to be unprovoked and unsystematic from a side of him he can’t ignore.  Confounded by this, the psychologist pushes him to brink for an exact reason, one Cartwright keeps buried deep inside his subconscious that may or may not be supernaturally driven.  As Cartwright’s past continues to haunt him and with the psychologist assertive herself into his psyche, the dangerous method of analyzing criminal behavior won’t stop a plagued killer from killing again as his next victim might just be sitting across from him in the cross-examination room.  

Themes of split personality, past abuse and trauma, and the limited authority of control course through “The Ugly’s” veins like acid, sweltering with tension and ready to burn a hole through the safety of custody and storytelling once the twisted truth is told.  New Zealand filmmaker Scott Reynolds debuted with his feature length film back in 1997. Reynolds also wrote the script that kept an intimate approach between killer and doctor, kept audiences guessing the supernatural aspect, and made taut the lead-up moments filled with human tenderness that went into subsequent violence that painted a portrait of a conflicted killer afflicted by derangement that might not be his own.  Shot in Auckland, New Zealand, “The Ugly” is a production of Essential Films with funds from the New Zealand Film Commission and is produced by “Jack be Nimble” producer Jonathan Dowling.

In a vague mirroring of Dr. Hannibal Lector and FBI Clarice Starling from “Silence of the Lambs,” there’s still the intention to understand the mind of a serial killer.  In the Clarice-like role is a civilian, a psychologist to be more precise, one that has received recognition to get the most dangerous criminals released from incarceration, is Dr. Karen Schumaker, played by Rebecca Hobbs (“Lost Souls”) that would be her biggest lead role in the New Zealand film market.  Opposite her, across the table mostly and chained to a chair, is Paolo Rotondo with a cold stare and a handsome face that doesn’t exactly say I’m a serial killer.  When graced with a prosthetic that makes half his face appear melted or scared in fleeting glimmers or reflections, scenes that often felt needed more attention or a longer say, that’s when Rotondo could exact his intimidation upon the viewer as the true monster, as Cartwright has referred to himself in more words.  Instead, Cartwright’s a clean shaven, well-dressed, and respectable Patrick Batman type without the three-piece suit and the Huey Lewis and the News obsession and not as King’s British and as quirky in his demeanor as Anthony Hopkins as Lector.  Both characters fall and fail hard to the supporting case of the two orderlies and their employing resident psychologist.  Sporting dreads and walking with confidence like a WWE wrestling being introduced, Paul Glover (“The Locals”) has more flavor in his mostly stoic intimidating orderly performance alongside his more animated and ragdoll movement buddy in Chris Graham (“Moby Dick”) as the two mistreat the Cartwright with disdain.  Their employer, Dr. Marlowe, has a snooty creepiness about him that’s akin to being a mad scientist-type that’s fits into the goon orderly dynamic with Roy Ward (“Perfect Creature”) at the helm.  Darien Takle and Vanessa Byrnes costar as chief supports. 

‘The Ugly” is certainly a child of the 1990s with that glossy gleam without it a lens flare spark of digital anamorphic.  The aesthetic matches the subject matter with dreary, cold, and gloomy nu metal nuisances, teetering on the edge of being also grungy.  Editor Wayne Cook’s transitions and cuts are indicative of the era in filmmaking with whooshing transitions and flashes of disorienting cuts, such as white outs or seamless segues.  This techniques also translates into Simon Cartwright’s headspace with acute and fleeting glimpses of his mental state visualized into the real word, or it’s the real world sheathed by a layer from beyond the grave, but either way his perspective quickly provides a glimpse into his reason for killing, his duplicitous degradation into insanity, and that it can be projected to others outside the exclusive rights of his person.  Most of the story is told anecdotally through Cartwright’s perspective and as storyteller, his events are muddled by his own struggle with killing that becomes more evident as the story progresses.  What’s most interesting about Reynold’s film is it’s reality bending to keep the audience engaged as he puts the psychologist character, Dr. Karen Schumaker for those who forgot, right into the frame of his story as a third party speaking directly to Cartwright and only Cartwright can see and hear, but she’s implemented naturally as if sitting at the table with the storied characters or being a part of a three-way conversation that but not truly.  Between these style characteristics and the narrative’s odd macabre, along with the deep black, sour crude oil shaded blood, “The Ugly” is grimly beautiful with visuals and stimulating to watch. 

Unearthed Films, under their Unearthed Classics sublabel, provide a new Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release to the table.  The AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition resolution, BD50 has stored on it a 4K restoration from the film’s original 35mm interpositive and looks neat as a pin presented in it’s 1.77:1 widescreen aspect ratio, rendered with a well-diffused color palette of a lighter blues and grays that contrast starkly with the deeper black blood in a semblance of a dystopian or alternate reality in circa late 90s to early 2000s films.  Saturation is copious with all colors and the details are sharp mostly in the peripheral setting with the focal objects having be defined nicely but there is some textural loss on the skin and clothing under its higher contrast.  The audio formats within are an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 Stereo of the original theatrical audio and a relatively uncommon 4.0 DTS-HD MA that caters to the side and back channels rather than a central output and a LFE subwoofer, so the track is not as deep and resonating and it discerns as such with more range and less punchy impact that encompasses at the dialogue, ambience, Foley, and soundtrack excellently considering.  Dialogue is clean and clear without obstruction or touchups to the original audio files.  English SHD and Subtitles are available for selection.  The collector’s edition contents include an isolated score from composer Victoria Kelly (“Black Sheep,” “The Locals”), a 1997 radio interview from New Zealand with writer-director Scott Reynolds, an audio commentary with chief principal actors Paolo Rotondo and Rebecca Hobbs, Reynolds’ early 90’s short films “A Game With No Rules” and “The M1nute,” “The Ugly Visual Essay” compares “The Ugly” to true crime serial killers of reality, a photo gallery, and the original theatrical trailer.  The physical presence of “The Ugly” is anything but with it’s beautiful packaged design, beginning with the commissioned Slipcover cover art that wholly embodies the essence of the story, rather than being an exploitative mislead, by Scott Jackson of Monsterman Graphic.  The clear Blu-ray Amaray case has a reversible sleeve with the same Jackson art with the reverse containing the film’s original one-sheet artwork.  Inside is a 6-page booklet a pair of essays by Jason Jenkins along with monochrome and colored stills.  The disc is also pressed with a tense hunting scene as well.  The 18th Blu-ray title for the Unearthed Films’ sublabel is region A locked, not rated, and has a runtime of 93 minutes.

Last Rites: As far as understanding the mind of a New Zealand serial killer, Scott Reynold’s “The Ugly” depth charges reality with not only a promising supernatural layer but also a strange world these characters live and act against that invigorates a rather talkative and anecdotal story with eccentric and uncomfortable personalities that rival the killer himself.

“The Ugly” Limited Edition Blu-ray Now Available!

Yorgos Lanthimos Early Day EVIL is Not to be Missed! “Dogtooth” reviewed! (Visions Home Video / 4K UHD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Dogtooth” Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Visions Home Video!

Three adult children remain on home grounds by their manipulative father to protect them from the outside world and keep them suspended in a childlike state.  Educated on a basic level and even educated incorrectly to strategically keep their spongy intellect pure and from asking too many questions about the curiosities beyond the front gate, the children must complete chores and workouts under their father’s regimental thumb, earning tokens to keep them engaged with simple activities and rewards, but the outside can’t be stopped from seeping in with exterior influences raising more questions than the father can keep up with lies, excuses, and fabricated stories.  If he finds his children entertaining an inspiration, his immediate reaction is to manipulatively redirect or even use violence if necessary to put his children back in a stationary line, scaring them of dangers outside the home, such as the killer ferocity of a household cat as it’s curiosity that killed the cat.  Or is it the other way around, did the cat kill the curiosity? 

Way before his 2026 Oscar nominated film “Bugonia,” way before his quicky dark-comedic Frankenstein variation “Poor Things,” way before the shapeshifting deadline of forced relationships in “The Lobster,” offbeat and provocative Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos directed “Dogtooth,” the 2009 psychological horror-drama that displayed a disturbing power-dynamics of a nuclear family by a manipulative father of three.  Lanthimos co-wrote the script alongside Efthimis Filippou, a regular collaborator with the director from Filippou’s debuting “Dogtooth” script up until 2017 psychological, life invasion thriller “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.”  “Dogtooth,” or “Κυνόδοντας” in the native Greek vernacular, is filmed in the heart of Athens, coproduced between Lanthimos, Yorgos Tsourgiannis, and “Do It Yourself” producer Katerina Kaskanioti, and is a collaborated studio project of Boo Productions, Greek Film Center, and Tsourgiannis’s Horsefly Productions. 

“Dogtooth” consists of a tight cast of six actors between the parents, three kids, and a security guard employed at the father’s manufacturer.  Some would say Christos Stergioglou plays one of the worst manipulating parents on screen of our generation with a calm demeanor and a convincing nature while having a ferocious side of physical punishment against those going against the grain.  With a small cast, those taking the beatings can be his children.  “Singapore Sling’s” Michele Valley is in the mother role, an equal schemer in her abetting of the problematic parenting, but it’s quite unclear whether the Mother is either in on the Father’s paranoic protective plan or whether she too is a victim of his deceit.  While she can be seen deriding her children in seldom words and violence, she too follows Father’s strange ways:  pretending to be a four-legged guard dog like her kids, never leaves the house, succumbs to Father’s sexual habits, etc.  The sex never extends from parent to child, leaving most of Father’s perversities kept intact by Mother and a good old fashion VHS stag tape, but there’s still exploitation done amongst the children.  Treated to his own arranged woman to bed, overseen by his Father, the son’s sexual hormones and desires are made docile by the security guard Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou) from his father’s work and is seen as an act of transactional duty rather than having a presence of affection.  Christos Passalis does embody his character with a young, pre-adolescent boy with tempers, sibling competitiveness, and appropriate reactions to all things that accompany a young boy.  Eventually, after Christina is let go exploiting and influencing the younger daughter with sexual tradeoffs and forbidden contraband, the son is forced to have sex with one of his sisters to maintain the stability of a pure environment.  Angeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsonia are the Older and Younger Daughter with similar appearances and attributes, too exemplifying childlike qualities, that make them also like twins in how they act and how they act with each other with the Eldest naturally, without purposeful intent, trying to break free of her father’s grip in the way children do – in irritational and hurtful ways.  Other than Christian, none of the main principal characters have a name, leaving them to be a representation of any family of any kind out in the world.  Steve Krikris, Sissi Petropoulou, and Alexander Voulgaris round out the film’s supporting parts.

Yorgos Lanthimos takes helicopter parenting to the extreme but in subtle, death-by-a-thousand cuts techniques simply by sheltering in place his entirely family for years and himself teaching his children lessons of his own fabrication.  Taught the world is a dangerous place, where cats are the most feared and deadly animal who killed their exiled “brother”, the children fear what’s beyond their sprawling compound so much they don’t dare cross the gate line.  Vulgar worlds like pussy are defined with innocuous objects, such as lamp light, and lesser provocative vocabulary, in this case zombie, is given the designation to little yellow flowers.  The children’s minds are so brainwashed, their identity is also erased along with their names, mostly busying themselves in the same sterile clothing that evokes no emotion whatsoever.  Lanthimos extends this common place sense of being into the character interactions, whether between family members or the supporting characters, that make the entire tone feel that more unsettling and perfunctory.   The sexual tension is chronic, even between the siblings it’s uncomfortably prevalent, but never malicious on the surface as the acts are kept dutiful and necessary to sustain dominion over the children and perhaps even the wife despite its icky film coating.  The whole idea of the titular dogtooth is a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, the latter suppressed by the weaponization of sex, education, and threat, for when the permanent adult canine, or dogtooth as Father puts it, falls out is when a child can leave the next and in that is manipulative false hope that one day, the strongest tooth, it’s ability to rip through meat and sinew, will fall out on its own accord, essentially making the children a metaphorical dogtooth that needs forceful extraction from its rigid system of enameled manipulation.

Courtesy of Visions Home Video, a premium home media label from Vertigo Releasing, “Dogtooth” arrives on 4K UHD Blu-ray in the UK-Ireland.  Presented with 2160p in the original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, the HEVC encoded BD100 has a superior encoding compared to previous models and other region 4Ks with a Yorgos Lanthimos approved transfer of the 35mm negative that’s contains and controls the grain that once had issues in previous releases with ill-defining effects on darker sections of the scene, establishing corrected contrast where intended and needed other releases failed to accomplish.  A natural light grading shines through with immersive coloring from the monochromic, or achromatic, outfits to the saturation of greens of the compound estate, a dynamic range of the metadata, DolbyVision.  There’s very minor speckling off some individual cells on the stock but the overall product is the best “Dogtooth” has looked and deserves it.  There are a pair of audio layers available:  a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a LPCM 2.0 Stereo both in Greek with optional English subtitles.  The monotonic dialogue alleviates many issues associated with these tracks as there are no inflections, tones, forced accents, or any other shaded types of vocal manipulation.  The plainspoken, forth-right conversing creates a naturally prominent layer that’s clean and concentrated above all else.  That’s not the say the soundtrack or the ambience drags or lacks behind though it is slightly less dynamic in its diegetic range.  You won’t be fully immersed with audio hits through side or back channels, but every layer has a stronger and bolder presence than before in previous releases.  Special features include a film in tandem audio commentary with stars Angeliki Papoulia and Christos Passalis, an archived interview with Yorgos Lanthimos from 2009, a 2025 London Film Festival stage interview with more in-depth insights from Lanthimos, three deleted scenes, and two original trailers.  Visions home video release is a vision in itself starting with the beginning layer, a cardboard O-ring slipcover with a somewhat glossy, upscaled image of one of the female children locked behind a bar-cell of bare legs.  The same image is represented as the primary sleeve art inside a Scanova case (no Blu-ray logo at the top).  Inserted inside are four collectible cards of high-quality stills from the film and a double-sided folded mini-poster.  The region free release is UK certified 18 for strong sex and nudity inside the duration of 97 minutes. 

Last Rites: “Dogtooth’s” disturbing fan outs, spreads like an infection of manipulation, but is localized in and around the property that’s become a cage, or an invisible fence, with the latter being more poignant to the storyline with the father having them bark and be on all fours like a dog, a pet symbolism indictive of egocentric power over those one can control from the beginning. The new Visions Home Video 4K UHD release is a new and improved upgrade for any collector’s wall.

“Dogtooth” Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Visions Home Video!