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EVIL Wants the Industry Hot and Desired Jana Bates to be in His Movie! “The Last Horror Film” reviewed! (Troma / Tromatic Special Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Last Horror Film” is Now Available on Blu-ray to Obsess Over!

Obsessed with horror scream queen Jana Bates, New York City cabby Vinny Durand heads to France’s Cannes Film Festival to cast her in his own horror movie, “The Love of Dracula.”  Halted at every entry point of the private, star-studded events that include Jana Bates and being intercepted and rejected by Bates’s producer ex-husband, a rival producer, current boyfriend-manager, her agent, and a director, all of whom are in an intergroup conflict concerning the starlet, Jana, nothing will deter Durand from his perfect star.  When Jana walks in on the decapitated corpse of her ex-husband, a series of murders and missing persons involving her close friends and colleagues ensues in the days after and in all the while, Durand tries every attempt to meet the actress, stalking her with a video camera to film the perfect leading lady in his secret horror movie, invasively stepping into her life in the same instance the murders began to occur. 

A deranged NYC taxi driver flying to Europe for an aggressive meet, greet, and casting of a totally unaware horror actress to be in his own B-picture is the plotline everyone could, should, enjoy!  What’s not the love?  “The Last Horror Film” takes us from the grimy streets of the Big Apple to the exquisite sights and sounds of the seashore Cannes along the scenic French Riviera.  Helmed by London-born David Winters (“Thrashin’”) and penned by Winters, Tom Klassen, and Judd Hamilton (“Maniac”), “The Last Horror Film,” also known as “Fanatic,” is one of the best obsessed fan thrillers out there, such as containing the same context of the Clint Eastwood picture “Play Misty for Me,” but is lesser known to mainstream audiences because it features genre icons Joe Spinell and Caroline Munroe and has been primarily distributed under the unconventional indie picture and filmmaking risk taker, Troma Films, who at times isn’t everyone’s cup of tea distributor.  David Winters’s Winters Hollywood Entertainment and Shere Productions with Judd Hamilton and David Winters producing the 1982 American feature. 

Fans of Joe Spinell (“Maniac,” “Rocky,”) already know this but those who haven’t experienced the New York City-born and bred actor, “The Last Horror Film” role of Vinny Durand is one of his best.  Spinell obviously suits psychosis well, but Vinny Durand takes it down a different path and, believe me or not, Spinell finesse with the character is beyond magnificent in all his mannerisms, expressions, and intonations, in addition to his egg-shaped physical, slick greasy hair, and thin black mustache, that make Vinny Durand a likeable and infatuated with obsessed crazy.  “The Last Horror Film” is the third costar collaboration with female lead, and genre icon in her own right, Caroline Munroe behind “Starcrash” and “Maniac.”  The “Dracula A.D. 1972” and “Captain Kronos:  Vampire Hunter” Munroe essentially plays herself in the role of Jana Bates but with a role that comes with more glamour and prestige as horror actresses rarely received such recognition in the major industry circuits.  Munroe equals Spinell in performance but in her own right as more of normie actress with accolades living it up at Cannes and eventually landing in the final girl trope, exceled into terror within the radius of her killer.  Being embroiled in a different kind of love triangle, one that includes her silver fox husband ex-husband Bret Bates (Glenn Jacobson, “Wild Gypsies”), current boyfriend Alan Cunningham (Judd Hamilton, “Starcrash”), and rival producer Marty Bernstein (Devin Goldenberg, “Savage Weekend”).  As the potential body count rises, so does the continued cast list with David Winters himself in a reflected cameo role as a horror director named Stanley Kline, Susanne Benton (“That Cold Day in the Park”) playing an orthographic variant of her namesake in Susan Archer, and Sean Casey as a rockstar lending his castle to Alan and Jana for retreating safety.  The cast rounds out with Spinell’s mother, Flilomena Spagnuolo, playing Durand’s mother in a convincingly nagging and comedic way that makes me it’s not terrible too far from the truth of their off-screen relationship. 

For a Spinell, Munroe, and David Winters production, “The Last Horror Film” is surprisingly vaulting with ambition for an unpermitted guerilla shot feature through the streets of Cannes.  Large parapet roof signs, gothic castles, the ritzy and beachy French Riviera, a score of happenstance and scripted extras,  and lots of topless women on the beach shots, Winters musters moneyed shots to coincide the well-dressed interiors of Durand’s apartment and hotel room and a slew of exteriors to play into the stalking fold.  Couple these manifested scenes of grandeur with the shocking moments of precision and effective gore and Spinell’s theatrically pleasing, creepy behavior performance and you got yourself a halfway decent meta slasher full of red herrings and a high body count, circling and overlapping itself within Duran’s directorial vision, the fake films within the critic panel and festival screenings and, as well as, the gotcha moment ending that gives one pause to think if what was just witnessed was actually the story, but while you’re scratching your head, perhaps feeling like a cinematic dummy of storytelling comprehension, there’s no doubt that David Winters successfully produced one hell of a horror picture starring Joe Spinell.

The new Tromatic Special Edition of “The Last Horror Film” is seemingly a repeat in some ways to the Blu-ray release from a decade earlier down to the exact cover art without the Tromatic Special Edition banner.  The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution and 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio, is compressed onto a BD50, an uptick in format storage from the 2015 to warrant it a Tromatic Special Edition.  However, image refinement is not in this re-release’s repertoire with a mirrored result of a lightly anemic look that still fails to color pop the feature in its eclectic set designs.  Darker scenes are in and out based of contrast, losing definition, and are inclined to be grainer negatively in the negative spaces.  In the brilliance of light, details can rooted out, especially in skin textures as Spinell’s pot marked face is exhibited in great detail amongst the other casts’ individual facial features.  Winter’s diverse and organized framing, plus with a little editing garnish, elevates whatever kitschy content there might have been into a grade-A B-picture; yet that doesn’t go without saying that there weren’t any editing flaws in the print that was subsequently transposed to the Troma transfer as horizontal cut lines and breaks in recurrent cells kink the chain ever so slightly.  The release also features the same English Dolby Digital 2.0 mix, a fidelity lackluster that doesn’t reflect the power the action medley and the score, the latter from composers Jesse Frederick, the vocalist of the “Full House” theme, and musical instrument compliment, Jeff Koz.  Dialogue renders above the layers but is on the softer side of volume, diluting the more intense moments of chase and murder without that impact punchiness.  Troma, like in my instances, flaunt a noteworthy tidbit in their releases, if there is one to flaunt, and in “The Last Horror Film’s” case, Depeche Mode’s track Photographic is the quoted feature music, says in big white and yellow font on the front cover.  What primarily separates the 2015 and the 2025 releases are the special features.  Archived commentary with Joe Spinell’s assistant and associate producer Luke Walter commentary moderated by Evan Husney from 2009, “The Return of Dolphin Man” short film by director John Patrick Brennan, a segment entitled “Kabukiman’s Cocktail Party,” the feature scrapped “Maniac II:  Mister Robbie’s” promotional trailer, the theatrical trailer, and a Lloyd Kaufman intro that dresses him in drag in the streets of an uninterested NYC are included on the special edition that features additional supplements with two more, 2023 produced, re-used commentaries from 1) Caroline Munro moderated by FrightFest’s Alan Jones and 2) again with Luke Walter by moderated by Severin Films’ David Gregory for the label’s own 2023 release.  Also from the Severin vault is the Like a Father Figure:  Sal Sirchia Remembers Joe Spinell interview with Sirchia’s memories and phoned tape recordings of Spinel’s voice messages, My Last horror Film Ever audio interview with producer Judd Hamilton, and “The Last Horror Film” location revisit featurette from New York City to Cannes, plus additional trailers under the title “Fanatic” (2) and the main title (1).  There are additional Troma materials with trailers from “Return to Nuke ‘Em High Vol. 1” and “Vol. 2,” The Toxic Avenger,” “Class of Nuke ‘Em High,” and “#Shakespeare Shitstorm.”  Aforementioned, the physical properties of the release nearly identical aside from the special edition banner across the top and the additional bonus content.  The 2015 Troma release is region locked A but a decade later Troma realized region free is the smarter move with the single 87-minute cut defining the release that comes not rated.

Last Rites: Take “Maniac” out of the equation, “The Last Horror Film” is Joe Spinell’s finest performance not taken lightly and though the story’s lurching flashes the check engine light, David Winters is able to still cruise along in his fanatic slasher.

“The Last Horror Film” is Now Available on Blu-ray to Obsess Over!

Never Trust an EVIL Trucker with a Drug and Prostitute Addiction! “The Bunny Game” reviewed! (Jinga Films, Danse Macabre, MVDVisual / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Bunny Game” is Not for a Weak Stomach! Now on DVD!

Bunny, a prostitute on the streets of Los Angeles, subjects herself to the lowest of clientele lists looking to exploit her services with their own abusive fetishisms.  Just to get by to her next meal.   Bunny is constantly in coked out state when tricking becomes nearly unbearable.  Manhandled, abused, and unconsciously raped, there seems to be no end, and she must persevere to survive the streets, beautifying and feeding herself physical and mental nourishment to keep up strength.   When she encounter’s a trucker named Hog, Bunny’s just looking to endure another insufferable John, but Hog has other plans for Bunny, kidnapping her, driving somewhere isolated, and chaining her up deep within his trailer, and tormenting and torturing her to a different kind of no end Bunny has never experienced.  Hog’s derangement is fueled by his extreme drug use in what is not his first rodeo with working in whores for his own personal enjoyment and the girls’ own personal Hell. 

Banned in the UK, “The Bunny Game” is an extreme torture porn horror based off the real events that happened to principal star Rodleen Getsic with being abducted.  There’s not much publicly known on her own horrible experience, but the “The Bunny Game” is a baseline shockumentary written in collaboration between Getsic and filmmaker Adam Rehmeier with in the director’s chair of his debut feature film.  Rehmeier, director and cinematographer of numerous music videos and shorts, conjures up a story and a completed film with singer-actress Getsic without ever materializing an official script.  Instead, improvising and extemporizing fluff up Rehmeier’s storyboarding bullet points of where people and places should be in the narrative construct, hence why much of the story goes without dialogue, replaced with frenetic visuals and montages of recalcitrant convention.  Rehmeier co-produced the film under his company Death Mountain Productions alongside Rodleen Getsic.

For having been abducted herself and for the film to be an overemphasis of it, Getsic steps into the main role’s fishnet stockings to be the used and abused sex worker, known only in the credits as Bunny, and the role is no walk in the park or for the faint of heart.  Bunny is a self-inflicted punishing performance and mostly what you see on screen being inflicted upon Bunny is genuinely be done to Getsic which includes branding of the caduceus symbol on her back, as well as the same symbol seared into the flesh of Getsic’s friend, Drettie Page, who was game to receive much of the same for-the-story, for-the-film punishment as another victim of Hog in, supposedly, flashback sequences.  Hog is played by Jeff F. Renfro, a regular in the industry for his transportation services owning a big rig and tractor-trailer, but as the formidable serial killer Hog, Renfro brings and matches the intensity of “The Bunny Game’s” near free for all improvisation and experimentation provocation.  Getsic’s willingness to go the extra mile, from being branded, lighting scored by knife play, having her head shaved, is equally matched by Renfro’s being the recipient of being spit in the face, handling the fondling and the other physical exploitation of Getsic and Page, and being a total wild eyed, masked and shirtless, top of his lungs maniac with a mindset that’s cruel and oppressive with another human being’s life in his hands.  Dynamically, it’s a cat playing with a mouse, a deplorable show of chauvinism, and a callously cruel picture of control with the players in full control and full acceptance of their characters.  Gregg Gilmore, Loki, Curtis Reynolds, and Norwood Fisher cast a supporting line to trawl the Rehmeier, and what Rodleen Getstic refers to, monsterpiece. 

Rehmeier and Getsic have both been recorded stating every action on screen, aside from the excess drug and alcohol use, is 100% real.  Now, “The Bunny Game” immediately slaps viewers in the face with Bunny on her kneeds giving extended, adult industry-enthusiastic, fellatio to some unknown man only shown from his clothed backside at mid-section down to the top of the knee.  While not as sloppy as one might think despite Getsic’s vigorous efforts, the opening oral provides that provocative, eye-opening, banned-in-the-UK scene that now has snuck insidiously in the recesses of our minds and, in conjunction with the previous Rehmeier and Getsic authentic claims that never really specifying sex as one of them, audiences will wonder if what they’re subjected to is in fact a real act of oral sex.  To digress briefly, what’s the deal with movies with Bunny in the title (“The Bunny Game,” “Brown Bunny”) and oral sex?  From there, if you’re not disgusted by the voyeurism and chauvinism of sex work and misogyny, you’re digging Rehmeier’s film and hooked with curiosity tied to Bunny’s unfortunate fate, but what ensues embodies the essence of a crazed industrial music video of minor, discordance chords that produce harsh sounds and tones to envelope the choppy and cutting editing that shatters linear time, as well as the struggling soul, especially in montages of maniacal torture and onset introspective  between the punishment giver and taker in the Hog and Bunny intersection that will instill a catalytic crossroad for one of them.   There’s plenty of empathy to be had for Bunny, or maybe even sympathy if one has gone through similar abduction, torture, or has had a previous life on the streets, but the coarse nature of Hog’s slow and measured wrath can certainly be felt in the 1 hour and 16-minute runtime as revisiting Bunny for another dash of screaming, laughing, and misuse of her body and being at the hands of Hog is often on a wash, rinse, and repeat cycle of cynicism, an unavoidable problematic staleness often associated with films that do not have a shooting script, or any script for that matter.  Ideas tend to run dry and the then cornered concept is to bedazzle with nonstop bedlam but the fresh frenzy of exploitation is often fleeting and expires a lot quicker than the film’s runtime does.

A tale of street tragedy and what should be an always constant reminder that deranged killers are here, there, and everywhere, “The Bunny Game” scores high in extreme exploitation within its experimental execution.  Jinga Films, Danse Macabre, and MVDVisual bring the corrosively cuddly film back onto DVD after the original Autonomy Pictures release has been out of print for a while.  The single layer DVD5’s codec is of MPEG-2 compression and presented in 720p resolution in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  The achromatic black and white image stacks additional bleakness to the already soulless content with a low field of contrast creating borderless shadows but the use of handheld key lighting, aka flashlight, does create a miniscule delineation at times when under a blank of black.  Blacks succeed in being solid for the most part with only a couple instances of minor banding which is pretty good DVD compression, likely a result of the zero color to encode and decode.  The English LPCM Stereo is not a girthy mix of dialogue, soundtrack, and ambience.  Now, all three elements exist, but since “The Bunny Game” has zero script, there’s not much in the way of conversating and what’s there is prominent enough amongst the layers of industrial jarring dissonance that, at times, beats in sync with the visceral montages.  Inside the mic recording scope, ambience comes and goes based off the intensity of the scene and score but there are quieter moments to reflect on the improper handling of Bunny with Hog and the other indiscriminately disgusting Johns her life as a prostitute absorbs.  Special features include an archival Caretaking the Monster behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew, including actors Rodleen Getsic, Jeff Renfro, Greg Gilmore, and director Adam Rehmeier, discussin the original concept that was more aligned with Getsic’s personal abduction accounts but then evolved into something more horrifying that lead to the casting of Renfro, their isolated locations, and the realism inflicted upon Getsic as well as the teaser and theatrical trailer.  The DVD packaging is much the same as previous editions with a video aesthetic resembling black and white contrast but unlike previous releases, the cover art shows off its graphically artistic masked bunny in shackle design that speaks to the content.  The Jinga, Danse Macabre Danse, and MVD release lists this as a rated R release whereas the previous version was unrated; however, both releases have a 76-minute runtime.  A quick review suggests this “R” cut is actually the same as previous versions.  The DVD also has region free playback.

Last Rites: This game is not for the faint of heart. “The Bunny Game” tests willpower to stay through to the end, through the torture, rape, and the real violence in a one-sided acrid affair. If you can survive the brutality, this game is for you.

“The Bunny Game” is Not for a Weak Stomach! Now on DVD!

Enjoy The Last Night in EVIL’s Hotel. “The Innkeepers” reviewed! (Second Sight Films / 4K UHD Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Book a Copy of “The Innkeepers” on 4K Ultra High-Definition!

The Yankee Pedlar is a historic hospitality hotel with over 100 years of service that comes with its own notorious past and haunted tidings.  On the verge of closing for good, the Yankee Pedlar has one more weekend to remain open and house guests but with only a handful of rooms occupied, there’s not much else to do for the two innkeepers, Claire and Luke.  As a way to pass the time, Claire is eager to video capture spooky events to feed into Luke’s website based off the hotel’s history in the death of Madeline O’Malle, a bride to be who committed suicide on her wedding day when the finance no-showed and her corpse was left to rot for 3 days in the basement as hotel owners feared for bad publicity, but when eerie begin to plague, call for her, with visions of a bloodied O’Malle in a white gown, Claire finds herself in the dangerous company with a permanent guest at the dying hotel. 

Ti West, the established genre director with the famed “X” trilogy, kept audiences pale in fear and the hairs on the back of their neck stiff and straight up with his written-and-directed horror films that retained staying power amongst fans.  2009’s “The House of the Devil” is considered one of the more recent better throwback horrors of our time surrounding classic tropes like a satanic cult and a home alone babysitter.  West’s 2011 film  “The Innkeepers” comes at a rebound time when his commercial picture, “Cabin Fever 2:  Spring Fever”, sequel to Eli Roth’s breakthrough hit from 2002 about a flesh-eating virus, didn’t quite feel like his film and “The Innkeepers” also hit a little different by shielding audiences from any type of horrific, on screen splatter violence and be concentrated on pure fear of the senses.  Though narratively set in perhaps Pennsylvania due to some references of towns an hour outside of Philadelphia, “The Innkeepers” was actually filmed more North in Connecticut with the real-life Yankee Pedlar building.  Larry Fessenden (“The Last Winter,” “Rehab”) of Glass Eye Pix and Derek Curl of Darksky Pictures co-produce the film along with Peter Phok and Ti West. 

In the two principal roles of Claire and Luke is “Barbarian’s” Sara Paxton as an unmotivated hotel clerk coasting until the very, bitter end and “Cheap Thrill’s” Pat Healy as a blasé and uninterested front desk colleague interested in getting on the popular haunted house train with his own website about their employer’s centenarian hotel.  Paxton inarguably shoulders much of the screentime as the girl who cried wolf when she experience’s the sounds of a wolf, aka the spooky serenades of one Madeline O’Malle, and the visual eviscerations of her bloodied corpse that would scare the bejesus out of anyone.  However, the frights are not enough to seemingly strike fear in Paxton’s shield of composure or even enough to put West’s story to rest with a simple I’m outta here as most of us chickens would flock toward the exit on the first instance waking from a vivid dream too real for comfort.  Healy ultimately steals the primary performance away from Paxton with his own gruff and irritated by everything:  the hotel, the guests, his own pitiful existence.  Healy does a nice job creating that subtle tension between Luke and Claire, knowing Luke’s own hangups lie somewhere in between and haven’t been exposed yet, all the while being a sarcastic boor for most of the time.  There are also side characters in the form of random guests occupying the skeleton-crewed hotel bringing with them their own set of baggage.  One of guests is Kelly McGillis and the “Top Gun” actress, in a bit of a meta-role of an aging actress turned mystic.  There’s also Alison Bartlett (Gina from various Sesame Street shows and specials) and Jake Ryan (“Asteroid City”) as scorned wife and her son and the peculiar older gentlemen, played by George Riddle, who requests a special room and will not take no for an answer.  One of the more curious castings is Girls’ Lena Dunham as a coffeeshop barista in a one and only brief scene that doesn’t add really anything to the whole in a pointlessly random interaction with Claire that, perhaps, plays off Claire’s repetitiveness and stasis life of going there everyday but not really knowing much about the barista, who is apparently always there too. 

Juggling between the blended tones of comedy and horror, Ti West doesn’t commingle the two directly into one scene, keeping distinction for one or the other in their individualized moments.  This leaves little room for alleviating dread levity inside the scare moment after building tension and fear of being chased or waiting for the silence to be broken but an unsuspected jump scare.  Outside the context of the fright-filled moment, back and forth quips and playful antics between Luke and Claire as two bored and starved for company innkeepers in the hotel’s waning days are delivered in brightly lit rooms and mostly shared with another person to be a telltale safe space against the malevolence of serrating spook-house intensity that often lingers and waits on with bated breath.  In the innermost between is Claire’s internal struggle to cope with the impending outcome that there is nothing on the horizon for her.  No secure job, no ambitions, no plans of any kind are seemingly providing the character with no hope and in that stagnation, she desperately holds onto what’s nearby – Luke’s interest in the Yankee Pedlar’s hauntings.  Enhanced by the odd actions and placement of the modicum of guests – McGillis as a crystal charm intuitive and Riddle as a strange-enough older man with a specific room fascination – Claire motivation to reveal Madeline O’Malle becomes tenfold because of her unconscious lack to move forward in life, which then spurs the question, is Claire’s experiences grounded in truth or are they just a downspout of manifestations induced compensation?  You’ll have to be the judge.

Like “House of the Devil,” another of Ti West films makes the Second Sight Film cut onto a newly restored 4K scanned UHD Blu-ray release.  “The Innkeepers” HVEC encoded, 2160p ultra high-definition, BD100 has the true presence of quality video with a gradual improvement in the finer details of a greater pixel count inside the HDR with Dolby Vision.  Though digitally recorded with a no imperfections to note from previous releases, Second Sight’s release does appear sharper and deeper around the black levels that often improve with better resolution and suitable compression and with a good portion of the story taking place in the dark recesses of a hotel basement and the in the shadows of unlit rooms, there’s no visual compression issue or loss of expected detail.  Contrastively, darker scenes appear more lit by a lower contrast but still, the details are there in depth and in closeup.  The English DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound audio track diffuses the spread of atmospheric creepiness – ghosts whispers, nondiegetic bangs and clangs, and a Jeff Grace building orchestral score that keeps the heart bumping (think Richard Band’s “Re-Animator” but with more lulls”).  Dialogue is prominently clear and in front of the aforesaid layers with depth mostly between Claire and Luke’s conversing in the lobby and range limited to, again, the aforesaid.  English subtitles are available.  Though this review is catered to the limited edition, rigid slipbox release full of tangible goodies, the standard release does have encoded a small army of special features that has two audio commentaries with the first including Ti West, producer Larry Fessenden of Glass Eye Pix, producer Peter Phok, and sound designer Graham Reznick and the second commentary also West but with principal actors Sara Paxton and Pat Healy.  A slew of new interviews provide a well-rounded, in-depth look at the creative design as It West A Lasting Memory, Pat Healy Let’s Make This Good, Larry Fessenden Our Dysfunctional World, director of photography Eliot Rockett Living in the Process, composer Jeff Grace Cast a Wide Net, and line producer Jacob Jaffke A Validating Moment contribute to the retrospective.  Special features round out with archival behind-the-scenes and the trailer.  The physical presence of Second Sight’s “The Innkeepers” keeps in-line with previous standard edition 4K releases with a black Amaray case and a monochromic grayish illustrative cover art setting audiences up for ghostly expectations.  The UK certified 15 release contains strong horror, gore, language, and sex reference – though the gore is subtle and definitely not over-the-top or even explicit.  This particular UK release, that has a runtime of 101 minutes, is region free and presented in a widescreen 2.40:1 aspect ratio.

Last Rites: “The Innkeepers” works, if not wriggles, into the brain, much like the invasive worthlessness inside Claire’s swirling mind, and the Second Sight Films’ 4K UHD Blu-ray is an ultimate celebration of not only the film itself, but also the venerable work of the horror genre’s freshest master Ti West.

Book a Copy of “The Innkeepers” on 4K Ultra High-Definition!

Under Hypnosis, You’ll Do Anything For EVIL! “Vampire at Midnight” reviewed! (MVD Visual / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Vampire at Midnight” is now on DVD!

Gripped by a serial killer dubbed the Vampire Killer, Los Angeles is on high alert as not one single piece evidence could be recovered from the more than a dozen crime scenes where women’s’ necks are ripped to shreds, their bodies are drained of blood, and their corpses dumped for police to discover.  With detectives baffled, cowboy cop Roger Sutter is ordered by the reckless antics-frustrated Captain to stay away from case but when Roger follows a lead that lands in his lap, two people wind up dead and the killer slips through his grasp, the captain suspends him from the force.  Focusing all his energy into a newfound romance with apartment complex neighbor and aspiring pianist Jenny Carleton, Roger finds himself back onto the killer’s trail when his time with Jenny goes from special and exciting to acutely avoiding his every advance.  Roger suspects the Vampire Killer behind Jenny’s sudden change in behavior.  Unofficially back on the case, the off-duty Los Angeles homicide detective finds himself in the middle of the Vampire Killer’s ritual to seduce Jenny into his coven as one of his blood brides. 

The maverick cop versus the serial killer narrative “Vampire at Midnight” is the 1988 investigative thriller with a horror edge from editor-producer Gregory McClatchy (“The Great American Girl Robbery,” “Terror in the Aisles”) in his first, and only horror credited, feature length directorial.  Also, lesser known as “L.A. Midnight, “Hypnos” or “Murder at Midnight,” the entrancing, modern vampire script is penned by “Danger Zone II:  Reaper’s Revenge” writer Dulany Ross Clements from a story by fellow “Danger Zone II” collaborators Jason William (actor in “The Great American Girl Robbery” and “Flesh Gordon”) and Tom Friedman (“Time Walker”).  Skouras Pictures served as the production company and the theatrical distributor with Friedman and Williams also in a producing capacity.

Much like with his lead kidnapper role in “The Great American Girl Robbery,” as well as other skin-a-matic films like “Alice in Wonderland:  An X-Rated Musical” or “Flesh Gordon,” producer, conceptual storyteller, and principal star Jason Williams puts himself into the rough-and-rugged hero to get the girl, or girls, half naked in his arms.  As unorthodox method cop bending procedure to get results, Williams molds handsome homicide detective Roger Sutter to the quintessential trope of a good cop doing everything he can to get the job done, even if that means skirting around lawlessness.  Roger is pitted up against pure vampiric evil who welcomes the lawlessness under the façade of a doctor of hypnotism specializing in unleashing clients’ frustrating mental blockages in their careers and goals.  Argentine-born Gustav Vintas has the physical look of a sophisticated villain (see “Lethal Weapon,” “Verne Miller,” and “Midnight”) with his stage 6 receding hairline and foreign accent and “Vampire at Midnight” also fits the bill with Dr. Victor Radikoff, a smooth talking and charming manipulator who can literally hypnotize his clients into anything, such as serving their necks up to his fangs or be beguiled assassins.  Caught in the middle is aspiring pianist Jenny Carlton, Roger’s beautiful blonde neighbor turned girlfriend turned slave to Radikoff’s hypnosis powers.  Jenny is played by the one-and-done feature film credited Lesley Milne in a rigid performance that’s critically subsided by her well-defined figure, one of several to go topless alongside “Saturday the 14th Strikes Back’s” Jeanie Moore, “Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers’” Esther Elise, and “Angel III:  The Final Chapter” Barbara Hammond.  The film rounds out with Christopher Nee, Robert Random (“Toke”), Jonny Solomon (“Peephole”), Ted Hamaguchi, Richmond Shepard (“Simon, King of the Witches”), and Ceclia Kaye (“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”).

“Vampire at Midnight” is the modern vampire film that tries to blend the old tropes with the new folds.  The malevolent Dr. Victor Radikoff has the menacingly creepy charm and suavity of Bram Stoker’s tale of Count Dracula flirting up against Max Schreck’s appearance as the horribly grotesque Count Orlok in the F.W. Murnau’s bastard film, “Nosferatu:  The Symphony of Horror.”  While the latter may just be an opinionated statement or judgement on Gustav Vintas’s physical naturality, not to say Vintas is grotesque or horrible looking at all, but rather his physical characteristics are atypical of the master vampire, resembling more closely to the baseline Nosferatu with a receding hairline, slender stature, and a uniquely contoured face. Being set in Los Angeles, the gothic qualities that instill fear, dread, and medieval facets from Dracula origins are all but lost, but you must remember, this isn’t Dracula.  This is Dr. Victor Radikoff, the prestigious hypnotist of the affluent, and that speaks true to the hip city of angels setting full of funky-sexualized interpretative dancing and late-night comedy standups as well as fitting into the budget to keep the indie film costs low for the sleek new take of the vampire trope to freshly entertain late 80s audiences.  However, “Vampire at Midnight” doesn’t go plot unscathed with the first act leaning heavily into L.A. paralyzed with Vampire Killer fear and the cops nervously on edge and disheartened by the lack of evidence and leads; the atmosphere felt more despairing and darker with the killer staying one step ahead and a body count slowly rises upward.  Then, the tone shifts slowly from a tough terrorizing case to crack to Roger’s incessant hard-on for a rather focused and naïve pianist.  The case only becomes interested in again when Roger receives a happenstance call in and he’s back in the saddle of his cowboy cop antics until he’s not again, being, in my opinion, unjustifiably suspended for shooting down a suspect trying to kill him and the suspected Killer getting away.  It’s as if the police, as well as the media and the public perception, left the case to fizzle out while the relationship between Roger and Jenny builds up for the sole purpose of being broken by, again, happenstance in Radikoff’s chance meeting with Jenny at a socialite party where she’s hired to play piano.

Arriving onto a MVDVisual DVD, this obscure hypno-vampire gem is entranced with new life.  Unfortunately, however, the new release is not a technically impressive one with its 720p resolution and pillar box 1.33:1 aspect ratio in regard to video.  The MPEG2 DVD5 handles the compression without a substantial hitch.  Other than the lower resolution that creates some blurry/fuzziness, here are no seemingly other issues in the codec, such as macroblocking, or banding.  Blacks retain its void inkiness even inside the confines of a lower contrast, but the grading is nonexistent that results in flat coloring and little life in the range spectrum.  The film has a shot-on-video look, but the transfer is rendered from a 35mm print digitized with little touchup for DVD.  The original print has only minor imperfections, a brief scratch here and there, but no major damage to note.  The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono doesn’t elevate the new release either.  Dialogue isn’t terribly feeble, but it definitely isn’t robust through the single channel where depth doesn’t have an influence.  The overall quality of the recording is not bad with a clean presentation that’s layered in an expertly designed arrangement; big kudos should go to editor Kaye Davis and sound mixer Vic Carpenter who enrich “Vampire at Midnight’s” filmic posture as the two do competently dance together between the audio and video editing.  English subtitles are optionally available.  MVD’s standard release is bare bones without special features.  The standard DVD Amaray sports the beautiful gothic and blood dripping poster as the front cover; however, the backside contains three out of the five stills of Ester Alise, one involving Robert Random, and one with Random and Gustav Vintas and what makes the backside a curiously funny duck is the four blocked together stills are not from the film and were plucked directly from IMDB.com.  Instead, they are from different cult films starring Random and Alise, such as Alise’s “Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers.”  The disc is pressed with the same cover art image.  The rated R release is region free and has a runtime of 93 minutes.

Last Rites: Gregory McClatchy keeps this L.A. vampire picture in constant postulation with an unconscious red herring that’s stable until the very end, but the story pivot strains too far from its gritty and dark cop-chase-killer opening by focusing more on a love polygon of sex, deception, and true devotion, a swivel that puts a stake right in the heart of this 80’s exuberant story.

“Vampire at Midnight” is now on DVD!

EVIL Would Be to Not Experience the Sensual Side of Japan’s Gravure Idols! “J-Girl Yummy: Ryo Harusaki, Ai Haneda, and Aoi Kururugi” reviewed!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

You can order your #Blu-ray and #DVD copies at PinkEiga.com or stream it JGirlYummy.com!

Japanese adult models and actresses Ryo Harusaki, Ai Haneda, and Aoi Kururugi tease with their youthful appearance, hot slender bodies, and alluring moves in a new gravure series as they wear next-to-nothing while starring directly back at you, into your gazing eyes, playfully and erotically enticing you to join them.  As you mentally undress their young bodies, the J-Girls take you on a suggestive journey from the wave-crashing and sandy beach to the idyllic glistening of the pool, from the hot and sweaty exercise room to the cool and wet shower, and then, eventually, to the private bedroom where visual foreplay becomes the ultimate fantasy with your favorite and most seductive J-Girl.  A cat teaser wand, an exercise ball, skimpy lingerie, miniskirts, lotion, and a glass pleasure toy are objects to be desired, creating sensual tension and excitement with erotic tones that tease against the senses, and when the time comes, your joy becomes JOI as the J-Girl finish you off with unforgettable point of view pleasure. 

The J-Girl Yummy label, Gravure Glamour Models, is the responsible party in delivering the one-on-one carnal gravures starring the now 25-year-old, former AV actress Ryo Harusaki (“Ryo Harusaki’s Finest Devirginizing 21,” “Nothing But Tits No. 022”), now 35-year-old AV actress and Tokyo model Ai Haneda (“Slave Room – Lady Who Was Put Up for Auction,” “Teacher Ai’s Alluring Lesson”), and the now 27-year-old the Kyoto prefecture AV actress Aoi Kururugi (“Hot Pantyhose,” “Young Lady with the Special Power of Pussy”), produced and released first in Japan and now available to North American audiences for the first time.  The Pink Eiga sublabel releases the first trio set this August in hopes to find a sympathetically aroused audience for the popular Japanese gravure videos, also known as tease or bikini videos, but with a fleshier and lustful appeal than normal gravures.  These pink films have no directors, writers, or producers within their economically efficient adult release design.

Each release individually caters to each of the three models’ physical and personality attributes in the August release set, beginning with Ryo Harusaki from the Ibaraki Prefecture.  Perhaps the curviest model of the trio, Harusaki has a plumpier backside that delineates closely to an hourglass shape albeit her B cup leaving a slightly asymmetrical shape.  No one person will complain about her curvy hips leading into her rear when bending over in a tight-fitting thong barely containing the peach that’s strategically hidden away or when Harasaki moves her hand to complete a half-moon arc over her cheeks in order to fully lather herself in lotion.   A bob haircut accentuates Harusaki’s round face and large eyes, creating a fixation onto her natural structural beauty.  Aoi Kururugi has contrasting traits as the Kyoto pornographic actress, once named Candy in her industry debut, enchants her regular girl next door physique with a giggly, cutesy persona that’s innate in the model.  Comfortable with a dazzling smile, Kururgi’s emulates, or perhaps even embodies, the Japanese kawaii culture of cuteness evoking a kittenish coy and playfulness.  Last, but definitely not the least in the brand new to the North American market J-Girl Yummy series, is Ai Haneda, the oldest of the three at the ripe age of her early-to-mid 30s at time of filming.  Haneda may be nearly a decade older than Harasaki and Kururugi but she’s certainly the slanderously petite and perky gravure model of the set while still retaining youthful beauty with milky smooth skin and innocent face.  Though not as plump around key private parts, Haneda works the camera like a blend of Harasaki’s smoldering stares and Kururugi’s kittenish play as she saunters and works the camera in getaway locations wearing only very little or nothing at all. 

After watching all three episodes consecutively, the J-Girl Yummy gravure model has been consistent with the narrative-free formula between all three, immediately kicking off each entry with a brief tease of what’s to come in a montage of spliced together scenes as a precursing trailer of what to expect in the next 60-90 minutes from the J-Girl model whose about to show you a good time.  What follows is a pair of music-only scored segments with our models in bikinis or other revealing clothes, such as hiked up miniskirts for an upskirt shot as they shyly try to futilely pull down the edges to cover panties from view.  Repetitive stock music of hypnotic drumbeats, dulcet guitars, generic smooth jazz, and breezy elevator music backfill while the girls twirl their tease-filled tapestries to eventually unveil the bare necessities underneath their clothes.  Eventually, this transitions into an intimate atmosphere with your personal J-Girl as you can now hear their voices for the very first time, peering, smiling, and speaking into the camera as if what was missing component of a VR date is you and you’re now there.  These segments are where personalities emerge and the real personal interactive and peepshows begin with an increasingly stimulation toward a point-of-view sex act thrusting against their pelvises.  There are subtle differences between the three episodes.  For instance, Haneda and Kururugi play with themselves more, with a rather odd self-poking of their nipples, as if cavewomen exploring their bodies for the first time, and pulling at the individual pubic hairs that tease the lower nether region.  Harasaki has a more stoic stature in her breadth of sexual aura and that makes her dangerous to behold, holding your breath as she stares into your soul.  Harusaki also doesn’t quite do the POV sex finale, focusing heavily on self-satisfactory measures for the voyeur at heart, and letting her voluptuous body alone do the work. 

PinkEiga and J-Girl Yummy introduce Ryo Harusaki, Ai Haneda, and Aoi Kururugi in the first set of three of a soon to be released total of 15 models all together in the J-Girl Yummy gravure series. See them undress in a high-definition resolution with an AVC encoded, 1080p, 25 gigabyte BD-R, presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio. Without any indication of the specific camera equipment used, the only aspect that’s clear is its digital component that offers a clean picture with immersive detail that exposes unique dermis areas for each model, such as the circular scar above Haneda’s naval of a removed bellybutton ring, Kururugi’s two-toned blemishes below her left breast and waist, or even Harusaki’s canine imperfection. Much of the digital footage is raw, untouched, resulting in a ton of overexposure from sunlit scenes on the beach, by the pool, and near a brightly illuminated window. For a BD-R, compression has stability as there’s not a saturating amount of bonus materials or an extensive color palette with manipulated contrast levels as the goal is to shoot the load for realism. The releases don’t reveal much about the audio aspects but we’re likely looking at, or rather hearing, the innately uncompressed Japanese PCM 2.0 from the onboard camera of the digital handheld camcorder, evident by the cardioid depth range limited by the mic scope. Mostly garnished by garish stock music, the models’ vocals do express little dialogued moments with grunt and groan interjections while playing with themselves or, sometimes, being influenced by the camera operator’s teasing efforts to induce smiles and arousing moans. Again, the compression works well here with no distortion or interference in what’s chiefly the issue, but insignificantly detrimental, is the weak audio expansion and, be forewarned, there are no English subtitles or optional subtitles of any language for the feature. There are subtitles for each model’s post-gravure exhibition Get To Know Me interview that has the interviewer’s question laid out in vertical Hiragana subtitles right of the screen while English subtitles are below. The interview questions range from common background information about the model’s themselves to the dirty little secrets that turn them on, such as masturbating, their frequency and favorite toys, and their overall conceptions toward sex in general. Additionally in the bonus features, which are all encoded alongside the play feature and backdropped by a naked still of the model, is the model’s trailer, a sneak peek bonus scene of an upcoming J-Girl Yummy gravure model, and a still slideshow. Ai Haneda’s release comes with an extra bonus feature of raw behind-the-scenes footage of the video shoot. The physical attributes of the Blu-ray releases also follow a design formula with a rainbow background with the half-naked model centerstage along with their given or stage name in black banner and cartoon-like clouds nestling them at the bottom as if their angels from heaven. Inside, the BD-R is pressed with the same front cover image, but the insert comes with bare-chested collectible card! All three releases are not rated, have region A encoding, and have a runtime of 86 minutes (Ryo), 60 minutes (Ai), and 62 minutes (Aoi).

Last Rites: J-Girl Yummy is so much more than pink vignette videos of pretty faces. The series is personal one-on-one time with your favorite Japanese starlet, a sensual journey of acquaintance, and there’s value in gravure eroticism from the land the rising sun, bringing new beginnings and new hope in a stiff adult media market.

You can order your #Blu-ray and #DVD copies at PinkEiga.com or stream it JGirlYummy.com!