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EVIL’s Beauty is in Her Catwalk Madness! “Nothing Underneath” reviewed! (Rustblade / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Nothing Underneath” 40th Anniversary Blu-ray Available Here!

Bob Crane, a Wyoming park ranger, suddenly sees visions of gloved hands wielding long, sharp shears entering his supermodel, twin sister’s hotel room in Milan, Italy.  His  psychic experience with his sister sends him packing frantically to Italy, specifically to the Hotel Scala, where his sister, amongst many other gorgeous supermodels, reside when working in Milan.  Unable to locate her and without a sign of disturbance in her hotel room, her disappearance is seemingly nothing more than that – a disappearance – but an aging police detective, Commissario Danesi, is willing to investigate the disappearance which will be his very last case before retirement.  Without any leads, Crane and Danesi don’t have much evidence to go off of until another supermodel is brutally murdered in the same hotel and a pair of scissors is the forensically determined cause of death.  The once case of disappearance now turns into a murder investigation and goes deeper into the ugliness of the fashion world with a deranged killer targeting supermodels. 

Considered to be a prominent gem of the giallo genre but not entirely considered to be a full-fledged horror by the filmmakers is Carlo Vanzina’s “Nothing Underneath.”  Known natively as  “Sotto il vestito niente,” inspired by the title only written by Marco Parma, a pseudonym for journalist Paolo Pietroni, Vanzina cowrote the novel extraneous story alongside brother Enrico Vanzina (“Call Girl”), who are siblings more suited in the measures of comedic premises initially, and the prolific horror writer Franco Ferrini’s, whose screenplays of Dario Argento’s “Phenomena,” “Opera,” “The Card Player,” and amongst others, as well as Lamberta Bava’s “Demons”, gave the writer formidable cult status and creditability amongst the international horror fan base, not to forget to mention regular work and collaboration with a master of horror, Dario Argento.  “Nothing Underneath” is shot on location in Milan under the Faso Film productions with executive producer Raffaello Saragò (“The Witches’ Sabbath”) and producer Achille Manzotti (“Beyond Darkness”).

What’s interesting and more infrequent for this Italian production is that it’s entirely shot in English and not dubbed in post-production ADR.  Reason for this was for “Nothing Underneath” to be a synch-sound production with the image and to market it better internationally because of the main cast comprised of American and English actors.  The American actor, starring in his debut feature film, is Tom Schanley (“Savage”) as Wyomning park ranger Bob Crane and the way the story is structure really homes in Crane as the principal lead with a complete credit setup and character follow-through of the Yellowstone National Park.  Schanley’s blonde hair and muscular toned good looks embodies a likeness to his on-screen supermodel sister, played by Nicola Perring, who, as the story displays her, is not in the business of acting with very little dialogue and is only used for her short platinum blonde hair and thin figure for narrative form fitting.   The other native English speaker in a cooperative lead role is “Halloween’s” Donald Pleasence as an investigator on the verge of retirement.  Pleasence is no stranger to Italian cinema, seeing his fair share in the 1980’s psychotronic pictures, including Dario Argento’s “Phenomena” released prior.  The prolific British actor still manages to produce mountains of charm even in his most rubbish Italian accent as the long in the tooth comminssario eager to solve one more exciting, mysterious case and buddying up with young, handsome, and outdoorsy Bob Crane with twintuition.   The love interest falls upon real life model and Denmark native, then 19-year-old Renée Simonsen who is absolutely stunning with her looks and with her debut into acting in what is a significant role that involves a lot of screentime, a lot of dynamic and interactive dialogue, and does show some brief nudity with intimate sexual situations with Schanley.  “Nothing Underneath” has a roster that fills out with Catherine Noyes and Maria McDonald as Milan models, Paolo Tomei as a coke-head jeweler and model philanderer, Cyrus Elias as Comminssario’s Danesi’s assistant, and Phillip Wong as the peculiar fashion photographer Keno Masayuki.

“Nothing Underneath” isn’t a skimpy, loose garment with nothing going for it.  Instead, Carlo Vanzina offers more with his giallo by making it less giallo in terms of its cinematic style and with Pino Donaggio’s score which is in the style of, much like the rest of the filmed and narrative structure, a Brian De Palma erotic thriller.  With plenty of sexy sashaying from beautiful models, a balance between sex and sadism teeters as the alluring aspects of a promiscuously titled are dissected and interspersed with a long sheer psycho engrossed by a theme rarely explored and depicted, but certainly skimmed, during those times of 1980’s Europe and completely disconnected from Paolo Pietroni’s story with keeping only the fashion world and the murder mystery as core elements and adding a supernatural flavoring with the brother and sister telepathy.  Donaggio’s suspenseful brass orchestration and conduit synth-infusion score separate itself others in the subcategory that deploy synth-rock, haunting discord, and, perhaps, even a late 70’s swanky cop thriller piece typically layered alongside.  The composition, coinciding with the temporary expat cast as most giallo’s permit, often feels more westernized while still striking notes of unnerving tension and having collaborated with De Palma on “Dressed to Kill” and “Body Double” years prior, Donaggio imports those arrangement qualities for the Italian market and reaping success amongst the rest of the frayed giallo conventions. 

Italian boutique label Rustblade extends their release of “Sotto il Vestito Niente,” aka “Nothing Underneath” to the North American market with a new region free, 40th anniversary special edition Blu-ray release as well as releasing deluxe releases that come with accompanying limited edition lobby cards postcards, a polaroid, a poster, a colored vinyl, a book, CD soundtrack, a tote bag, and even, yes you’re going to read this correctly, underwear.  The standard release isn’t that supplementally sexy but does have great standalone supplementals in its AVC encoded, 1080p full hi-def, BD50.  The newly restored version stems from the original 35mm negative and presented in 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  The negative print looks to have been in pristine condition that rendered an impeccable transfer that fully provides depth and detail accentuated by well-adjusted and put together color grading that elevates the pop of the natural hues.  No signs of compression issues or smoothing over with sharp detail textures on skin and fabrics alike as well as the metallic shears having reflective qualities as it sheens and shines in mirrored property.  Two audio options are available, an Italian DTS Master Audio 2.0 Mono and an English DTS Master Audio 2.0 Stereo, the latter comes from the English living synch recording mixed in Dolby Stereo.  The English track is preferred here as its natural with innate reflections and tones of the actors on screen.  I noticed brief moments of Italian actors being English dubbed as a mismatch in the A/V synchronization as well as a disturbance in the aural consistency.  The dialogue track has prominence but has intermittent hissing and crackling, likely from the video-synch recording.  English, Italian, Spanish, and German subtitle are available.  Special features include interviews with co-writer Enrico Vanzina and composer Pino Donaggio, plus a film analysis by Francesco Lomuscio, the theatrical trailer, and a still image gallery.  For the standard packaging, the clear Amaray encasement has the supermodel in sheer and blood artwork used in previous DVD and Blu-ray versions and the reverse side as a still image with the opposite a black and red silhouette of shears and blood drop splatters.  The disc is pressed with the same cover art image.  Rustblade’s release is not rated and has a total runtime of 94 minutes.

Last Rites: Rustblade’s 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray of Carlo Vanzina’s “Nothing Underneath” is a great leap toward a go-to less giallo that’s tragically overlooked and underappreciated but ranks high above the bar and near the top sure to please in seduction and in murder.

“Nothing Underneath” 40th Anniversary Blu-ray Available Here!

20-Years or More Incarcerated is No Match for Tenacious EVIL! “The Rapacious Jailbreaker” reviewed! (Radiance / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Break From Your Cage With This New LE Blu-ray of “The Rapacious Jailbreaker”

Masayuki Ueda is nabbed after murdering a drug dealer’s girlfriend during a botched meeting.  Ueda faces a 20-year prison sentence for his crime but after being processed, nothing can change his mind nor his determination to escape.  Willing to sacrifice blood for freedom, Ueda escapes and visits his lover in Kobe for a quick conjugal stop and money only to be caught again when he returns, tacking on additional years to his sentence.  His next escape plan joins forces with two other inmates and, again, his route to freedom is cut short when a brothel visit, while laying low in his sister’s village, turns into a violent brawl with another patron and the authorities round him up in the aftermath, adding more years to his sentence.  While incarcerated, Ueda must kill rival gang bosses who threaten him.  By now, Ueda’s sentence is up to 40-years, and not to be defeated by the prospect of a long term sentence, Ueda has one more desperate attempt for freedom, putting his life on the line.

“The Rapacious Jailbreaker,” aka “Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison” or “脱獄広島殺人囚,”is the crime black comedy from one of the Toei Company’s aggressively eclectic and paced directors Sadao Nakajima (“The Kyoto Connection,” “Female Ninja Magic”).  The prolific yakuza and exploitation filmmaker takes the Tatsuo Nogami (“Father of the Kamikaze”) script, centered on an incessant career criminal hellbent on not spending his days in prison, and runs with it, fashioning the smidgen stitchwork of a nonfictional individual into the post-War World II, American occupation of Japan and adds inner teetering and play-by-play thought narration and the always welcoming gallows humor amongst the exploits of a stubborn felon.  Gorô Kusakabe (“Hell,” “The Red Silk Gambler”) produces the production, which is part of an unofficial Sadao Nakajima trilogy along with “Shimane Prison Riot” and “The Man Who Shot the Don.

Hiroki Matsukata, a prolific yakuza actor from the 1960s to the 1980s with such credits as “Survivor of the Massacre,” “Dangerous Trade in Kobe,” and “Battles Without Honor and Chivalry,” breaks intermittently through the gang wars and boss-laden wall of tattooed violence and varying levels of respect that’s inked the individualized stories’ skin with “The Rapacious Jailbreaker” as the titular lead character under the character’s God-given name of Masayuki Ueda, a tenacious criminal personality type with yakuza-like transgressions of drug peddling and black market trade.  However, Ueda is not a criminal without honor, even if he’s a little rough around the edges, as his loyalties lie with those who are loyal to him: a fellow partner in crime he didn’t rat out, his suffering wife (Yōko Koizumi ), his sister Kazuko (Naoko Ohtani, “Apartment 1303”), and also those who help him escape, such as  Tatsuo Umemiya’s (“Spoils of the Night”) brazen law challenger Yuji.  Yuji and Ueda match well in traits, both eager to test and take risks going against a rather lax authority grain.  Aside from the opening montage of prison routines depicting minor torture from the guards, you don’t get the sense the prison guards have much domination or enough aggressiveness to match the kind of zeal the inmates have to either run a sneaky scheme or take them on toe-to-toe to get what they want, as we see with Yuji’s disgracing efforts against the warden in order to obtain rights that are quickly dismantled by the warden’s reneging, but at the cost of his humiliation.  Matsukata never wavers or deviates from Ueda’s singular drive, layering intensity overtop his thin film of civility with every additional time added to his sentence that eventually goes beyond four decades, but you can see it not only in Ueda’s resolute eyes but in Matsukata’s as well that nothing will stop him from escaping.  The film fills out with Hiroshi Nawa, Gorô Ibuki, Tatsuo Endô, Shigeru Kôyama, Hideo Murota, Harumi Sone, and Akira Shioji in various rolls of yakuza, fellow inmates, and those crossing Ueda’s path in the outside world.

Staying on the theme of Ueda’s loyalty, which is incredibly beyond reproach given his heinous crimes, there’s something to be said for his commitment to be free as a bird but also to the people who do right by him, no matter the circumstances. His wife pledges endless loyalty despite his flaws and felonies, his estranged sister welcomes him with food and shelter, and his opening criminal accomplice provides him a weapon before thanking him for not ratting when Ueda was apprehended by police. There’s an underlining code of respect and duty intertwining the utter most wicked and those blood relations in the field of collateral damage. Ueda’s responsibility for his actions never wanes, never deflects, and never becomes a weight of guilt as the only object, or maybe even obsession perhaps, on his mind is to escape prison and make quick, easy money. His loyalty does come at a fault when his trust reaches into the weeds, especially amongst those he’s already collided head-vs-head against, such as the former head of the black market beef butchers who turns on Ueda for false promises, but it’s in that one and only instance that everything becomes clear, much more to the audience than perhaps Ueda himself, is that in order to remain just out of arms’ length of the law, he must walk his path alone as depicted at the finale moments. The post-World War II American occupation time period has an interest facade to “The Rapacious Jailbreaker’s” context. In fact, the American presence is rarely present at all with Ueda feeling the squeeze mostly in-house within the Japanese penal system with the Americans only rearing their heads in obstacle of his escape attempts in a negative light: Ueda’s standoff against Japanese officers, who won’t shoot him surrounded by a crowd in fear and respect of bystanders, comes to a quick surrender when the Americans, who are perceived to shoot on sight no matter the circumstances arrive on the scene or when his fellow escapee tries attempts to befriend American forces in a military truck only to be runover and killed without remorse or even a slow down. These seemingly insignificant instances spoke volumes against the American occupation as a non-character in Ueda’s tale of total resistance that, one that either represents the American cold passive care of the Japanese under their rule or switch the ironfisted from Japan to America to favor a more lenient system of control.

Radiance Films’ transatlantic “The Rapacious Jailbreaker” lands in the U.S. for the first time on any format, and first on this particular format globally, with a new limited-edition, AVC encoded, 1080p high definition, 50-gigabyte Blu-ray. The dual layer allows for steady color timing and pristine picture quality image that’s leans into its attractively grained 35mm stock and presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio 2.35:1. The original print, transferred into HD from the Toei Company, is nearly faultless with only minor instances of vertical scratching around the theater scene in an otherwise near clean and clear element print. Nakajima’s lower contrast allows for softer coloring and the touch points on Radiance’s treatment showcase a more relaxed but harsh grayish blue with surrounding aspects from the prison’s hoary cement floors and walls to the prison’s steely cell bars and the prisoner’s blue attire. The uncompressed Japanese language PCM mono track offers clearcut dialogue and ambient markers with a clarity on both fronts that render an intelligible layered track without any compromising issue. Kenjirô Hirose (“The Last Dinosaur”) brings a 70’s cop-and-crime swanky score with undertones of traditional Japanese Hyōshigi, the striking of sticks to create that brief and stark crack sound. New translated English subtitles are available, pacing well and are error-free. Encoded special features include a visual essay by film critic Tom Mes and an audio commentary by yakuza film expert and Sadao Nakajima historian, Nathan Stuart. Radiance’s limited-edition set comes in a clear Amaray case with a reversible cover with original and new artwork, the latter commissioned by layout designer Filippo Di Battista (primary). Also included is an obi stirp with the release’s contents, technical specs, and film plot. Limited to 3000 copies, the release comes with a 23-page black and white booklet with stills, an essay Escape as Vocation by Earl Jackson, and a 1974 review by Masaharu. The 97 minute feature comes region A-B locked and unrated from the UK label.

Last Rites: “The Rapacious Jailbreaker” is hardboiled tough as nails while being a series of comedic follies that make this tenaciously titled story of one man’s pursuit of freedom a breakout hit.

Break From Your Cage With This New LE Blu-ray of “The Rapacious Jailbreaker”

Put a Quarter in the Slot to Play EVIL’s Game! “Arcade” reviewed! (Full Moon / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Insert Coin for “Arcade” on Blu-ray!

Arcade, the future of advanced, virtual reality-based video games, piques the interest of a group of teenagers eager to beta test the system in an underground arcade.  Vertigo, who engineered and programmed the game, sends the project manager to also hand out at-home editions of the game for continued testing.  When Arcade sucks in Alex’s boyfriend, Greg, into the game, she pleads to video game aficionado and good friend Nick about the game’s sentient dangers.  Nick experiences firsthand the horrors as their friend Laurie becomes entranced by its manipulative power and disappears during Arcade’s reach into reality.  Alex and Nick must venture into Arcade’s world to save Greg and their friends from a malicious machine seeking to invade and takeover the world, but they must find the hidden keys in all seven stages to reach Arcade’s soul and that’s no easy task when the game becomes very real when dying in the game will not grant respawn in the game or reality.

A movie ahead of its time but not ahead of the game, the Full Moon production “Arcade” is a live-action in a CGI-world thriller that’s one part “Tron” and one part “Virtuosity” for independent cinema, directed by the cybernetic and dystopian familiar filmmaker Albert Pyun (“Nemesis,” “Cyborg”).  Charles Band, founder of Full Moon and of a number of low-budget hit franchises, such as “Puppet Master” and “Demonic Toys,” light bulbs “Arcade’s” concept while David S. Goyer, the same David S. Goyer behind “Dark City,” “The Dark Knight,” and the 2022 “Hellraiser,” penned the script, marking the second collaborative production between Pyun and Goyer (“Kickboxer II”) as well as between Band and Goyer (“Demonic Toys”).  Band serves as executive producer alongside Michael Catalano and is show running produced by Cathy Gesualdo, all of whom were involved in the back-to-back productions with Albert Pyun with “Arcade” and “Dollman.”

Early Full Moon films always had an interest cast mix of known and unknown actors and “Arcade” is no exception with the tragically inclined Alex, a teen with nightmares about her mother’s year ago gruesome suicide and her father’s inability to cope since, played by an early 90’s recognizable beauty and then Full Moon regular Megan Ward (“Crash and Burn,” “Trancers II,”), coming off her success costarring alongside Brendan Fraser, Polly Shore, and Sean Astin as the love interest in “Encino Man.”  Ward role isn’t a damsel in distress one as Alex isn’t afraid to take and dive into a game of certain death to be the lone riser up against all odds.  An interesting piece of casting is Peter Billingsley, a name and face that might be familiar as Ralphie from Bob Clark’s “The Christmas Story.”  Instead of pining over a Red Ryder BB Gun that will undoubtedly shoot his eye out, Billingsley embodies the serious gamer amongst his group of friends who pines for the next level of gaming but also pines secretly for Alex, a subplot that’s not explored as well as it was technically setup.  The lone survivors of Arcade’s acute takeover embark into virtual reality to save the rest of their friends, under the cast of Bryan Dattilo as boyfriend Greg, Brandon Rane, A.J. Langer (“The People Under the Stairs”), and Seth Green (“Idle Hands”) in his early years, all of whom either disappear at moment’s notice of the game’s turn to complete evil or have a moment to stand out with dialogue or a pyshical scene.  John de Lancie’s role is small in comparison to his costars but the Q actor for “Star Trek:  The Next Generation” and “Picard” has the gift to protrude positively amongst the cast with Lancie’s quick-wit and timed deliveries as the Vertigo gaming production representative Difford unaware of the game’s conscious, dark design.   Norbert Weisser (“The Thing”), Don Stark (“Evilspeak”), Sharon Farrell (“Night of the Comet), and the voice of Jonathan Fuller (“The Pit and the Pendulum”) as Arcade’s voice round out the film’s amazingly cult chic cast.

In terms of computer-generated graphics of the early 1990s just eking out of the last decade, “Arcade’s” virtual world is of a clunky, chunky enterprise that epitomizes the era’s current technology.  One could argue “Tron” had that same boxiness only forgiven by its award-winning cast.  “Arcade” may not have an accolade-laden cast but the Band and Pyun production does, too, receive a pass for its eclectic and curious cast of well-rounded and peculiar-implanted actors and actresses, and also crew, that gives “Arcade” not only a reason to subdue the heavily-contrasted and bulky CGI but also rises it up to be larger than life, more than perhaps it deserved to be in regard to the story’s influences.  However, this poor man’s version still has a gimmick coating and the third act editing is atrociously choppy to a point where nowhere could possibly know what’s going on as Alex flies through the seven-level pyramid, easily unearthing the hidden keys, and ending in the summit of Arcade’s human brain wave laced soul.  Pieces of the reel were left on the cutting room floor, pieces that would have depicted more rigorous opposition to thwart Alex’s climb in the levels and would explains a whole lot more why she appears bangs up by the end.  Albert Pyun resurfaces some of his best directional work to create unsettling moments of possession or of being unhinged as well as using smoke to diffuse the primary hue vibrance starkly contrasted against the computerized gaming world.

Newly remastered in high-definition with touched up color and detail refinement, “Arcade” now has a new Blu-ray release from the Full Moon Feature catalogue.  Compounding and restoring various elements, the Full Moon team pulls together the best pieces for the best, up-to-date version available encoded on a MPEG-2 AVC, 1080p, BD25 disc.  Honestly, a BD50 would have been better suited for the compression as “Arcade” runs the gamut of effects, coloring, and dark scenes in which, those scenes outside of virtual reality, aka green screen, Albert Pyun’s infuses smoke for the underground arcade to diffuse the colors, spreading them amongst the crowd and the room to create that dive bar atmosphere.  However, there’s a bit of artificial banding surrounding the natural banding that delineates the colors within the darkness.  Details are also impossible to gauge with the choice styles of hazy and CGI but there are moments of clarity that gives “Arcade” a clean bill of image health around the skin textures. “Arcade” must have been made from televisions as the label remasters the ’93 feature inside it’s full screen 4:3 aspect ratio. Full Moon offers two audio formats: an English PCM 5.1 surround sound and a Stereo 2.0. Dialogue has clear projection without any damage or interference for an independent, 30+ year old film from the early 90’s, but the track isn’t as hardy as desired, especially in the multi-channel that doesn’t diffuse anemically through the side and back channels. Separation also can’t decipher between reality and virtual reality with the layers melding together on a level playing field. Range decently plays a wide berth of tonal shades in computerized, “Tron”-like synth-cycling and in-game explosions and distortions. There are no English subtitles available. Special features include an audio commentary with Full Moon found and producer Charles Band and Alex star Megan Ward in a good one-on-one conversational piece about the past production and a little insight rom Ward’s thoughts and Band’s history as a child to a movie mogul but there’s also a lot of Band flirting with Megan Ward. There’s an archival interview with John De Lancie, a rare VFX reel that extends a few scenes plus displays the scrapped original CGI, the typical accompanying Videozone marketing of Full Moon’s streaming catalogue, other Full Moon trailers, and the original film trailer. Inside the blue Amaray case, the cover art features the original VHS composition artwork and a disc concentratedly pressed with one version of “Arcade’s” virtual villains. The region free release is rated R and has a runtime of 101 minutes.

Last Rites: “Arcade” respawns in a newly remastered high-definition transfer that’s greatly cleaned up the flecked rough patches in front of the computer-generated engine but doesn’t smooth out the rocky terrain of the last act that suffers erratic editing for quick pinch pacing instead of really fleshing out the story flow.

Insert Coin for “Arcade” on Blu-ray!

EVIL Just Wants Their Heads Back! “The House of Lost Souls” reviewed! (Cauldron Films / Standard Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Don’t Lose Your Head in “The House of Lost Souls” on Blu-ray!

A group of geological fossil hunters spend their time researching in what is supposed to be the ideal climate of the Italian mountains but inclement, rainy weather has produced all kinds of inconvenient havoc and challenges that have slowed down their darting research.  Mudslides caused by the constant rain makes mountain roads impassable.  They encounter such a mudslide impasse on the way to their next research grounds and do an emergency detour to a remote, vacant hotel to spend the night out of the cold damp night.  Greeted without a single word from their unusual host, they’re given room keys get some rest before the next day’s hike up the cleared mountain road, resuming course toward the fossil hunt, but the geologists quickly discover something isn’t right with the hotel that has a dark history.  Trapped inside the abandoned hotel, murderous spirits appear and aggressively seek more souls to fill the hotel’s vacancy.

The fourth and final entry in The Houses of Doom series produced from Italian television in 1989, “The House of Lost Souls” is the second Umberto Lenzi (“Nightmare City,” “Ghosthouse”) film of the Lucio Fucli and Lenzi stint from the coproduction of Dania Film and Reteitalia with producers Massimo Manasee and Marco Grillo Spina, behind Lenzi’s “The House of Witchcraft” and Fucli’s “The House of Clocks” and “The Sweet House of Horrors.”  Lenzi also created the story concept and wrote the script that feels like a blend of the American-produced, supernatural thrillers “House on Haunted Hill” and “13 Ghosts” but with more bloodshed, color encoded and has that Italian violence flair too graphic for public television.  Italian-titled “La casa delle anime errant,” the film is also a production of the National Cinematografica that produced other Italian Umberto Lenzi cult classics “Seven Bloodstained Orchids,” “Eaten Alive,” and “Cannibal Ferox.” 

Trapped inside the gruesome lore of the hotel’s deadly history and as the focus of the overall dilemma is the group of geology students and friends, plus one adolescent boy tagging along with his older brother.  Further more concentrated on inside the group is Carla who’s been diagnosed, yes – medically identified, as having clairvoyancy with her psychic nightmare visions, sporadic and jumbled frightening images that yet don’t make sense, but guess what?  To no surprise, they will soon! Stefania Orsola Garello, who went on to have a role in the Antoine Fuqua’s period epic “King Arthur,” played the third eye sensorial Carla investigating the hotel’s sordid past along with quasi-boyfriend Kevin, donned by “The Slumber Party Massacre” American actor Joseph Alan Johnson.  Johnson is the extent of international casting, unless you count the hotel host, or rather head ghost who we’ll touch upon later, and the distinct facial features and the significant height of Japan-born Hal Yamanouchi (“2019:  After the Fall of New York,” “The Wolverine”) as a zombified Hare Krishna ghost, one of his many Italian roles while residing within the country since mid-1970s.  The remaining fill out with Garello countrymen counterparts with Matteo Gazzolo (“Specters”) as the group leader, Constantino Melon (“Who Killed Pasolin?”i as the leader’s little brother Giancarlo, and young lovers Guido and Mary, played by Gianluigi Fogacci and Laurentina Guidotti (“Dark Glasses”), as the victimized geologists being hunted down and tricked into slaughter by, too, victims of a hotel proprietor madman, the key perpetrator to all this madness but reduced to only a reflected role through Carla’s flashbacks.  Aside from Yamanochi, there are a handful of former guests and voiceless ghosts, some stuck in a bloodied stasis at the time of their death, some pristine as if nothing happened at all, haunting and hunting down the warm bodies, including Scottish actor Charles Borromel (“Absurd”), Marina Reiner, Dino Jaksic (“Little Flames”), and Beni Cardoso (“Barbed Wire Dolls”).

A different ghost house picture than Lucio Fulci’s “The Sweet House of Horrors’ but still contributes the same inhuman intensity of one person (or one ghost person) can against another person.  Yet, for Umberto Lenzi, his story thrives through the house’s, or rather hotel’s, ability to dispatch the innocent with household items.  Decapitating dumbbell waiters, a cabinet with a ripping chainsaw blade, a head-eating washing machine, and almost even a walk-in freezer become the tools of fatal terror.  Lenzi depicts little in the way of person-on-person violence with only implied deaths at the hands of another person; instead, the personification of ghost house miscellany is definitely more exciting, very unexpected, and a lot of fun to watch the hapless have their heads fall prey to household items that are supposed to be helpful, not hurtful.  Perhaps, Lenzi’s intentions were to explore the negative dependency of gadgets or appliances and how easily we’re allured by their safe nature marketing and profound assistance to our daily lives that it makes us easy targets with our guard down.  Lenzi also doesn’t believe in nepotism when casting young actors as the two child characters become fair game for the house’s thirst for slaughtered souls, dooming them with an equal risk to a brutal death.  The storied hotel’s notoriety serves as the vessel that drives ghosts to go berserk but the story’s miss is bringing back to the killer hotel owner who chopped the heads off of his guests to rob them, stowing them away to hide his transgressions, only for them to be the root of the ghosts’ reason for revenge against any and all who trespass through the lobby.  As the origin of the ordeal, the omitted owner serves as just flashback fodder that fuels the floor-by-floor fiends. 

Spiders, skeletons, and severed heads make up, but are not limited to, Umbero Lenzi’s “The House of Lost Souls” now on Blu-ray as the last The Houses of Doom release from Cauldron Films.  Presented in the European widescreen aspect ratio 1.66:1, the new 2K scan was restored and released uncut from the original film negative, inviting a clean and beautifully vibrant pictures for a dark, haunted hotel feature.  However, like with many Lenzi pictures of the time, the final product has softer image detail that’s brilliant for producing color but relaxes the stringent textures to a still better than mild palpability that’s more than enough beyond the bar of image quality.  There are no compression anomalies to speak of as Cauldron Films, again, produces an excellent high-definition encoding, much like with the other three Houses of Doom installments.  Audio setup includes an encoded English and Italian 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles for the English track and forced English subtitles on the Italian.  The ADR hits and misses the mark with vocal ranges seemingly too mismatch with the actors, such as with Massimo who looks like a tenor but has a bass voice, or the boy Giancarlo with an unsettling falsetto and you can lipread those who are actually speaking English compared to those who are not native English speakers.  The overall track has no compression issues with a powerful dialogue projection and an adequate ambience that hits every keynote to bring the composition together.  “Demons” and “Tenebrae” composer Claudio Simonetti produces a charming little synch rock trap-threat and of a score that becomes essential to “The House of Lost Souls” snare and stalk of the geologists caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Special features include Cauldron Films’ exclusive interviews with FX artist Elio Terribili Working with Umberto and composer Claudio Simonetti The House of Rock along with two audio commentaries, one with Samm Deighan and the second with Rod Barnett and Adrian Smith, and bringing up the rear is a 2001 interview with Lenzi going through points in his lustrous independent career of exploitation, poliziotteschi, and giallo contributions to Italian cinema in The Criminal Cinema of Umberto Lenzi.  The not rated, region free Cauldron Films standard Blu-ray release, encased in a clear Scanova Blu-ray case with original Matthew Therrien and Eric Lee illustration cover art and logo design, has a runtime of 87 minutes.

Last Rites: That’s a wrap on the fourth and last film on The Houses of Doom collection from Cauldron Films and it’s a beauty scanned onto a new high-definition transfer that brings doomed television features back to life, to live again, to breathe its hot breath of death all over a new generation of viewer unfamiliar to Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, and even Italian horror!

Don’t Lose Your Head in “The House of Lost Souls” on Blu-ray!

This Toyish EVIL is Definitely Not a Toy! “The Monkey” reviewed! (Neon / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Own “The Monkey” on Blu-ray from Neon!

When twin brothers Hal and Bill, who personably couldn’t be more different, come across their deadbeat father’s windup toy grinding monkey amongst his left behind things, every time they wind up the monkey’s rat-tat-tat tune, at the last stroke someone close them dies a gruesome, horrible, seemingly accidental death.  As the deaths hit closer to home, such as the violent aneurism that takes their loving mother, the boys decide to toss the sinister toy into a deep well to stop it’s dooming of another soul.  The boys diverging personalities drive them apart and for many years they don’t speak until Bill calls Hal about the accidental death of their aunt.  A new string of death begins as the toy resurfaces to play its portentous tuneful rattling once again.  Hal, who’s now trying to connect with a son he’s kept at arm’s length in fear of the monkey’s return, must reunite with Bill to stop the carnage before it’s too late for them all.

Stephen King is so hot right now.  Hell, Stephen King has been hot for decades as one of the still living novelists to have numerous film and television series adaptations.  This year alone proves how influential and craved King’s work is amongst filmmakers and fans with “The Long Walk” and “The Running Man” feature films being released in the months to come.  There’s even the upcoming film rendition of “The Stand,” a novel that’s been adapted twice already set to receive a third account.   Since 1976 with his first adapted novel “Carrie,” King has been the king of having his work reimagined for visual scares and entertainment.  Earlier this year’s “The Monkey” is another example of the prolific author’s short story of the same title from his “Skeleton Crew” collection, coming to life on the big screen being helmed by one of the hottest new directors in modern horror, Osgood Perkins (“Longlegs”).  The horror-comedy is written and directed by Perkins in British Columbia, Canada and produced by “Saw’s” James Wan as well as Chris Ferguson, Dave Caplan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Marlaina Mah.  “The Monkey” is a company collaboration between Atomic Monster, The Safran Company, Oddfellows, Stars Collective, and C2 Motion Picture Corp. with Neon presenting theatrical distribution.

English actor Theo James is also no stranger to films adapted from literary works as The Divergent Series film star steps into “The Monkey’s” killing sphere by playing not one but two roles as the Hal and Bill Shelburn, twins with a tragic history that runs integrated with the windup, grinder monkey.  James caters to both personalities with mild-mannered energy that does transition exactly from the children counterparts (Christian Convery, “Cocaine Bear”) in the first half of the 30-year time span. Older Hal is joined by his son, lightheartedly named Petey, played by “Wonka’s” Colin O’Brien with the same deadpan deliveries as Theo James that greatly adds to their combined relationship and antagonism.  There’s plenty of self-deprecating and bullying upon Hal who, amongst the monkey’s supernatural selection-for-death drumming, is fashioned to be a loser but the narrator of the story in his slow burn rise to overcome the blood splattering challenges ahead, turning one-half of the twin duo into a lead principal and the feeble hero of the tale mostly setup by the character’s voiceover of the past and his action of the present.  In a rare showing amongst conventional character work, there is no love interest to note to either Hal or Bill other than possibly the Shelburn mother Lois in a doing in the best with what I got single mothering act by Tatiana Maslany (“Diary of the Dead” ).  Lois’s rough around the edges attitude is more shaved down by her airline pilot husband who left her and the boys and comes across as a guiding light for her twins on the rough, diverging path.  Once she’s removed from the picture, whatever threadbare connection between the twin boys had was severed that day, creating underlining turmoil and bloodshed decades later.  The cast fills in with Rohan Campbell (“Halloween Ends”) a teen obsessed with the monkey since his first encounter, Osgood Perkins as the blunt uncle, Sarah Levy as the unfortunate aunt, and a couple of powerhouse names with cameo appearances in Elijah Wood (“The Toxic Avenger”)  as Petey’s soon-to-be stepfather and Adam Scott (“Krampus”) as the Shelburn deadbeat dad.

Through the mysterious monkey business of randomized, accidental deaths is this dark theme of everybody dies and everybody dies at different times in various ways.  Through Theo James’s Hal narration and a few character jawing harps upon a zero set expiration date for people and really nails the head on the lack of preconceived set of parameters and time span of how long a person should be alive before they die, setting a concentrated focus on the way a person dies, as mentioned in Lois’s post funeral service monologue while holding her two boys that some die screaming in blood curdling agony and some parish peacefully without a blip of hoopla.  The grinding monkey toy (never call it a toy!) represents the sardonically absurd aspects and happenstances of death with its selective process and imminency; in essence, the grinder monkey is a materialized grim reaper.  Stephen King wrote “The Monkey” 45-years ago in 1980 but the film shares similarities to the modern-day horror of the “Final Destination” franchise that provides ominous premonitions precipitating subsequent deaths of those who weren’t supposed to survive a major mass causality event.  Yet, what the two entities possess is their love for the absurd, Mouse Trap ways those in the crosshairs come to end with “The Monkey” rivaling the exploding of gore, gruesomeness, and ferocity that’s made the “Final Destination” franchise rocket with cult fandom. 

Beyond bananas, “The Monkey” shines as an adept and agreeable anarchial Stephen King adaptation.  Neon brings the blood with a standard Blu-ray with an AVC encoded, 1080p high definition, BD25, presented in a widescreen 2:00:1 aspect ratio.  Technically, “The Monkey’s” a sound example of competent compression on a lower capacity format with no evident artefacts of any size.  “Witch Hunt’s” Nico Aguilar’s semi-dark gloss adds a sheen to the elements inside a middle-of-the-road contrast.  Coloring is diffused distinctively into the well-lit scene, providing separation and delineation amongst objects, while the lower lit, more obscure moments, are sprawled by a mellower shadow that is inky or just a void but a stylistic choice to create atmosphere rather than be a menacing presence or a gape of mystery.  The English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio equates much of the same caliber with a clean, clear, and robust dialogue layer with a step down for the ambience, accentuated by range and depth where necessary, and a soundtrack that’s not engrossingly ear-catching but is still full-bodied and present from Edo Van Breeman (“Afflicted”).  Also listed is a Descriptive Audio 2.0 Stereo and there are English and Spanish subtitles optionally available.  Encoded bonus features are a condensed cut of behind-the-scenes featurettes, including Becoming Hal and Billi with Theo James conversing about getting into the mindsets of two completely personalities of twin brothers, Funeral Gallery provides insight on the funeral programs for the multiple services of accident deaths, Outrageously Gory and Thoroughly Gratuitous takes a dive into the cartoon-like graphic violence full of blood – lots of blood and body parts, and The Cast of The Monkey rounds out with in-depth look at the cast playing the cast of eclectic characters.  An assortment of trailers is also in the mix with an included announcement teaser, teaser, and the full theatrical trailer.  Neon’s Blu-ray is standard fare with a conventional Blu-ray case from Viva Elite housed inside a delicate slipcover with a hard detailed look at the grinder toy monkey (again, don’t call it a toy!) in full smile and ready to rap his drum, the same image of stark red and black contrast that’s also on the front cover of the Blu-ray cover art.  The insert section does not contain any physical supplements nor are there any other physical supplements included.  Locked in a region A playback, Neon’s release has a runtime of 98 minutes and is rated R for strong bloody violent content, gore, language throughout, and some sexual references. 

Last Rites: Banging away as a harbinger of death, ‘The Monkey” drums up an honest day’s work as a solid Stephen King adaptation twisted by Oz Perkins’s black comedy and high-level gore only the filmmaker could devise.

Own “The Monkey” on Blu-ray from Neon!