Tag Archives: 4K

Earth’s Greatest Threat of Destruction is an EVIL Extraterrestrial Slug! “Slither” reviewed! (Visions Home Video / 2-Disc Steelbook 4K UHD and Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Slither” Steelbook Can Be Yours! Buy it Here Today!

Wheelsy, South Carolina is a small town where the biggest event of the year is the countdown to deer hunting season.  On the eve to the start of the great hunt, an aggressive, parasitic alien entrenches itself inside a human host.  It impregnates a young woman to gestate thousands of its spawn, slug-like creatures that form telepathic link to the host and undertake its bidding.  Newly appointed Sheriff Bill Pardy, alongside his deputies, the eccentric town mayor, and longtime high school crush, Starla Grant, who’s husband was first infected by the invading extraterrestrial creature, must fight through the zombified hordes of alien controlled friends and neighbors townsfolk to stop the source from spreading and taking over the world but with their force numbers dwindling and the alien growing bigger and uglier by the second, Pardy must himself avoid being a host to the meat-hungry creature that has come to plague his small town community.

James Gunn, who has taken the MCU and DCU by storm with his creative involvement directing all of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, and upending the David Ayer and Zack Synder-universes with his divergent take on “Suicide Squad, and “Superman,” while also producing the just released “Supergirl,” use to bask in horror with “Slither,” a creature feature that captured the appreciation of 80’s monster movies and body horror with a zombie chaser and plenty of practical, tangible effects.  Gunn wrote and directed the now 20-year-old, 2006 movie filmed in a collective of portions of British Columbia, Canada doubling as a backwater town in South Carolina.  Brightlight pictures and Strike Entertainment produce the Gold Circle films presented movie with Paul Brooks (“White Noise,” “The Fourth Kind”), Eric Newman (“Dawn of the Dead” ’04, “The Thing” ’11), and Jeff Levine (“Shadow of the Vampire,” “ATM”) serving as producers. 

An established cast of talent comprises “Slither’s” eclectic character pool of townies being invaded by an outer space slug with a bad attitude.  “Firefly’s” Nathan Fillion is in the newly appointed Sheriff Bill Pardy and Fillion adds his usual spaceship captain comedic charm and swagger in the more grounded role as he stumbles into a world of slithering extraterrestrials that infest, digest, and gestate inside organic organisms.    Fillion’s hung up projection is for Elizabeth Banks’s Starla Grant, perhaps the most beautiful, and nicest, woman in all of Wheelsy, South Carolina,  The “Uninvited” actress adds pleasantries that are a compliment to Starla Grant but also a detriment as she’s unable to express how she really feels about her much older, well-off husband Grant Grant, played by “Henry:  Portrait of a Serial Killer” Michael Rooker.  Effectively, a love triangle ensues between the three with themes of true happiness, dissolution of a marriage, saving a marriage, love, and heartache coming into play amongst a body transformative horror that exceeds our solar system.  Rooker’s the rich Wheelsy resident who’s very protective of his trophy wife and is starting to feel the pangs of his wife pulling away from his advances but still loves her.  The fourth principal character in this quartet “The Darkling’” Tania Saulnier in what is essentially her debut protagonist role as a teen touched by the shared collective of the slugs and with her insight, provides pivotal information for the survivals to work against.  Each play their respective roles to perfection inside the chaos and mayhem of a more dominant species quickly spreading, even Gregg Henry (“Bodily Harm”) and his jaggedly crude role of town mayor fields a certain level of entertaining value to the frantic fray to keep “Slither” a light-hearted Hard-R creature feature.  The remaining cast includes Brenda Gutierrez (“Stone Cold”), Haig Sutherland (“Halloween:  Resurrection”), Jenna Fisher (“The Office”), and Don Thompson (“Horns”).

“Slither” is one of those seminal movies of the creature feature that could, or more accurately did, being a small fry horror movie that made a positive profit financially and amongst the audiences.  Of course, James Gunn found influence in his favorite horror works and borrowed, to an extent, key elements to spin his own craft that works to stand on its own two feet told mostly by its fine performances of the cast.  The down-to-Earth sci-fi action and gore is palpable and designed well in its composition of practical and computer-generated effects, especially for a mid-2000’s horror.  Gunn’s knack for black comedy works to the advantage of his brand of small-town satire and eccentric characters who can range from being charismatic and likeable to crude and inimitable.  Seeing the influences from John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead,” and Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. and Russell S. Doughten Jr.’s “The Blob,” or maybe more so closer to  Chuck Russell’s 1988 remake of “The Blob,” won’t create a rift between the film and audiences as there’s too much to like and laugh about “Slither’s” slimy infiltration and invasion concept without it feeling hackneyed and reaching to strive to be something it’s not in its hark of a classic creature feature and science fiction monster movie.

The first time transferred in 4K, Visions Home Video, a subsidiary label of Vertigo Entertainment, releases “Slither” onto a new 2-disc, steelbook 4K UHD and Blu-ray set.  Disc specs include a 4K UHD HVEC encoded with 2160p resolution on a BD100 and a Hi-Def Blu-ray that’s AVC encoded with 1080p resolution on a BD50, and both films are presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  Image quality has been greatly found immersion with an image that pops off of the screen in the 4K option with the additional pixel count.  The Blu-ray holds its own and is also a fine presentation but in UHD, we’re treated to a little extra texture and a little extra clarity from the DolbyVision that can’t be achieved on the standard Blu-ray, especially around night sequences which most of the chaos and action takes place.  This is not to say the Blu-ray is unclear or obstructed as too has plenty of clarity and detail but what it doesn’t have is that deep sensory engagement of picture.  Coloring and grading are equal on both presentations that involve a more organic approach during the date and a bluish grading during night sequences to work in against the lighting.  No issues with the original 35mm elements as it’s kept clean and persevered well last 20 years, contributing to the natural resolution enhancement of the 4K transfer while also maintaining a healty but subtle grain.  The lossless English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio has no suppressive issues with fidelity and is just as immersive as the picture quality with distinctive directionals of the back and side channels and a balanced output of stereo, LFE, and central action.  Dialogue has no issues with clarity and is prominent above the audio layering.  The effects, such as slithering slugs sounds and gunfire, offer a good amount of bang for the cinematic budget and the overall main creature sound production eclectically engineered to be funny, in its whipping tentacles with that distinctive whip crack, as it’s scary and gross with its guttural growls and slimy trails.  English SDH subtitles are available for selection.  There’s also an uncompressed Stereo 2.0 audio format available.  Special features include an audio commentary with writer/director James Gunn and actors Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker, featurettes The Sick Minds and Slimy Days of Slither and Bringing Slither’s Creatures to Life, Gunn discussions The Genesis of Slither in an interview with the writer/director, an interview with director of photography Gregory Middleton We’ve Got Worms, an interview with editor John Axelrad Feed the Fear, an interview with special make-up effects designer Todd Masters Just a Bee Sting, an interview with composer Tyler Bates What’s Gotten Into You, a location and set tour with actor Nathan Fillion, deleted and extended scenes, a blooper reel, and trailers for film.  The Visions Home Video set case comes in a steelbook with metallic luster and an exclusive, and uncredited from what I can tell, illustrated artwork of survivors in the throes of tentacle mayhem.  The backside also includes additional artwork that has the semblance of a veiny, Resident Evil-like giant eyeball.  Both sides are primarily colored in reddish orange with blue slithering in on the front cover.  Inserted inside is a dual-sided mini folded poster with the same front cover artwork plus alternative compositional artwork on the opposite side on its rigid heavyweight construction paperwork.  The 4K UHD is region free while the Blu-ray is region locked B as it’s a UK release.  The 95-minute film is certified 15 for strong gory violence and language.

Last Rites: An early 2000s oldie but a goodie, “Slither” gives a glimpse of James Gunn’s caliber of losers become winners and to not hold back much of the violence, gore, and rough dispositions of uncouth, unsavory, and unsophisticated characters. This new 4K UHD and Blu-ray release from Visions Home Video re-invades “Slither” into our lives, taking over our brains, and becoming part of our physical media collective.

“Slither” Steelbook Can Be Yours! Buy it Here Today!

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!

EVIL Seduces the Woman of her Dreams. “Vampyros Lesbos” reviewed! (Severin Films / 4K UHD and Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Men Beware of the “Vampyros Lesbos” now on 4K UHD and Blu-ray

Linda’s dreams vividly disturb her with imagery of an idyllic island where blood rivulets watercourse down curtains while being in the romantic embrace of a swarthy beautiful woman.  These dreams are so powerful she must see a therapist about them.  When attending an nude performance art show with husband Omar, she’s shocked to see the woman on stage is the same woman from her dreams.   The coincidence lingers with Linda on her business trip to a Turkish island where she meets Countess Nadine Carody to discuss a large inheritance from a Count Dracula.  Come to her surprise, Countess Carody is the same woman from on stage.  Immediately, Linda’s under Countess Carody’s suggestive sexual influence of a lesbian vampire.  When Carody falls deeply for Linda, she will stop at nothing to have her whole, as one of her, to pass along the tradition of inherence as Dracula has done for her, but Omar, the psychiatrist Dr. Seward who’s familiar with vampirism, and a Memmet, a hotel clerk moonlighting as a rogue and vindictive vampire hunter, aim to help Linda from Carody’s grasp one way or another. 

The director behind some of Europe’s sleaziest erotic-horrors, such as “The Sadist of Notre Dame,” “Ilsa, the Wicked Warden,” and “A Virgin Among the Living Dead,” Jesús Franco, aka Jess Franco, was a prolific cult icon of the past, the present, and will still be in the future.  The Spanish born filmmaker grew up in the Francisco Franco dictatorship for over 30 years but that didn’t stop him from expressing his artistic freedom with the 1971 released “Vampyros Lesbos, “ a German production set in Turkey that mirrors the classic Bram Stoker tale but with teaks of character, scenery, and sexual orientation albeit “Dracula” is too thought to be a homoerotic tale to some filmic scholars.  Compositely filmed in Turkey, Spain, and Germany, “Vampyros Lesbos” is a production of Tele-Cine Film und Fernsehproduktion, Central Cinema Company, and the Fénix Cooperativa Cinematográfica with Karl Heinz Mannchen as executive producer and Artur Brauner as producer, both of whom worked on Franco’s “The Vengeance of Doctor Mabuse,” and the story, based loosely off of Stoker’s tale, is penned by Franco. 

Like other Franco productions of this caliber, the cast is comprised of internationals, ranging from Spain to Sweden, from Britian to Switzerland, and to finally Germany without a single Turkish thespian in sight despite the story’s setting locale of Istanbul.  As mentioned briefly above, “Vampyros Lesbos” follows a threadbare version of Bram Stoker’s iconic Gothic tale that trades the grotesque Gothicisms for sunnier skies and idyllic island houses.  The basic principal characters are present from Stoker’s story but have been tweaked to fit Franco’s feverous surreal aesthetic that has a really sink its teeth into the homoerotic indulgencies.  Swedish actress Ewa Strömberg (“The Devil Came from Akasava,” “She Killed in Ecstasy”) resembles something along the lines of a Jonathan Harker-type but instead of being in real estate, like Harker, her character Linda Westinghouse is an inheritance lawyer dispatched to Countess Carody’s island home where she is bewitched by Carody’s infatuation and lust for her lifeforce.  Countess Carody is the obvious counterpart to Count Dracula but spun in a way that makes Bram Stoker’s story more like a tangent rather than remake as it’s Count Dracula’s fortune Countess Carody is inheriting.  Spanish actress Soledad Miranda (who also costarred with Strömberg in “The Devil Came from Akasava” and “She Killed in Ecstasy”) is the sultriest creature on the screen in Carody’s nude and neck biting pastimes and coupled with the easy-going Linda, Strömberg and Miranda sizzle as lesbian lovers very comfortable with each other’s performances and bodies.  Van Helsing is embodied by Dr. Seward but with reverse tendencies that do not require the doctor to be the stake to stop vampirism but rather entertain an unexpected twist trait that’s quite opposite.  Seward is played by British actor Dennis Price (“Tower of Evil”) and is a comparable Van Helsing amongst the previous lot but definitely less harrowing and dramatic than most.  Seward’s deranged patient Agra is the final piece to the Stoker narrative semblance as the story’s Renfield.  German actress Heidrun Kussin (“The Swingin’ Pussycats”) does not eat or feign eat bugs and other nightcrawlers to aspire being a vampire but retains Renfield’s psychic connection while going hysteria topless as she squirms in bed for her master’s return to whisk her away into the night.  “Vampyros Lesbos” rounds out the cast with new cast not familiar to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” with Andrea Montchal (“Eugenie de Sade”) as Linda’s husband Omar, José Martínez Blanco as Countess Carody’s loyal bodyguard Morpho, Paul Muller (“Lady Frankenstein”) as Dr. Seward’s assistant Dr. Steiner, and Jesús Franco in the role of Memmet, a hotel clerk with a visceral vendetta against vampires. 

Arguably the most notable film out of the prolific Jesús Franco filmography, as I believe it to rival another outstanding piece of work from Franco, “Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion, starring Christopher Lee and Maria Rohm based off the Marquis de Sade novel, “Vampyros Lesbos” is perhaps Franco’s most recognized piece film that has a sliver of notoriety while also spurring a remake years later in a 20-minute short film in 2008 by Matthew Saliba.  Most of Franco’s repitoire can be said as messy, a mash up of other films recut to make a new film, hackeneyed, and a complete dull, but “Vampyros Lesbos” is different.  It’s also not the same Eurosleaze one might be familiar with in regard to his catalogue; in fact, “Vampyros Lesbos,” despite the name, doesn’t even feel like sleaze.  There’s a naturality about it underneat it’s Bram Stoker-homoericism message sans the gratuitous nudity that’s more of a playful exploration of sexuality.  The only resemblance of sex is through the vampiric rite of seductive foreplay and subsequential drinking of the blood and with only Linda and Countess Nadine in scenes of embrace.  Not even poor Linda’s husband, Omar, has conjugal interactions and that plays into the whole theme of the story that Oman and Linda have this sexless relationship and here comes along Countess Nadine and her oozing sexpot of Linda’s fantasies inside a one-side power dynamic.  There’s no degenerate-filled debasement in this sexploitation, one the story’s traits that actually separates itself from “Eugenie,” and Franco, like with “Eugenie” on this element, actually helms an artistic aesthetic with good editing, crafty angles, and a varied cinematography blend of natural and stylized imaging. 

Provocative European sexploitation that isn’t busk European sleaze, “Vampyros Lesbos” is zenith Jess Franco, a social-political rebel and artist unafraid to tell a story that won’t tickle everyone’s interest but definitely be an archetype of the director’s caliber.  Severin Films proudly presents “Vampyros Lesbo” onto a new 4K UHD and Blu-ray dual-format set with a 4K presentation scanned from the original 35mm negative.  The 4K UHD is compressed with HVEC encoding onto a BD100 and the standard Blu-ray is AVC encoded onto a BD50 with respective resolutions of 2160p and 1080p.  The European 1.66:1 widescreen is the aspect ratio on both formats, but the UHD uses DolbyVision to expand upon the already lush color pallet with a richer complexity within the color scheme even though Franco loves his most muted black dressings on characters and on sets.  The extra pixels offer deeper textural, mostly auspiciously perceived in the club scenes that present a room of textures and in often brightly lit captures that don’t washout the details but rather define them more accurately.   The standard Blu-ray offers the same approach but brought back a step or two due to format limitations on the color scale and pixel count but a lesser keen eye won’t take much notice.  The original negative print shows no egregious mishandling damage or degrading emulsion wear.  The only audio track available is the German Mono ADR track with optional English subtitles.  This release does not contain the English dub that’s lost out there in physical media land.  The mono track has a flat tone with no depth to speak of and is full of desynch between dialogue movements and audio overlay but never hides behind the other single output layers. German Manfred Hübler and Sigfried Schwab eclectic score is a fun listen with brass, piano, sentur, light drums, and bass compiled to an era swanky main score that’s quoted being a sexadelic dance party, and rightfully so.  There’s even a distorted vocals on a slow beat jazz track that provides the unsettling and sultry notes for the underplayed horror side of this sexploitation.  Special features on the UHD includes audio commentaries by Kat Ellinger, author of Daughter of Darkness, and a collab between film academic Aaron AuBuchon and Oscarbate Film Collective’s John Dickson and Will Morris.  The UHD concludes with the German theatrical trailer.  The standard Blu-ray has more wiggle room for bons features with all the above from UHD, plus an interview with Jess Franc just prior to his death Interlude in Lesbos, an interview with Stephen Trower, author of Murderous Passions:  The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco, a Jess Franco career appreciation by “Anora” director Sean Baker The Red Scarf Diaries, the Stephen Thrower hosted In the Land of Franco, Part 12 looks at iconic locales from Franco’s films with a primary focus on “The Sadist of Notre Dame” which his set in Paris, France, an interview with Soledad Miranda historian Amy Brown Sublime Soledad, a 3-minute mini interview with Jess Franco labeled Jess is Yoda that provides some comedic flair and “Star Wars” references, and the German opening title sequence.  Physically, Severin’s release has a stark, hard contrast cardboard O-ring slipcover with Soledad Miranda in a seductive position starring right aback at you in front of black background.  The backside of the slipcover contains no technical information but does have review quotes, credit acknowledgments, and lingering stare between Countess Carody and Linda Westinghouse.  Inside you’ll find the classic 4K UHD Amaray with Severin’s original Blu-ray art from 2015, commissioned by graphic artist Ben Benscoter.  There is no reverse image on the sleeve.  The discs are held separately with one each side of the interior.  The 89-minute film is not rated and is region free for global enjoyment.

Last Rites: Jess Franco’s “Vampyros Lesbos” is on the select short list of how the Spanish director should be judged by existing and new fans of his work and remembered in his long career and legacy as a truly psychedelic, auteur driven, lesbian vampire film with plenty of women-centric allure and flesh.

Men Beware of the “Vampyros Lesbos” now on 4K UHD and Blu-ray

One’s Cool, One’s Crazy, Both Are Chasing EVIL. “Cutter’s Way” reviewed! (4K UHD and Blu-ray Combo / Radiance Films)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Cutter’s Way” 4K UHD and Blu-ray Now Availble!

Cruising through life and women without much purpose, Richard Bone finds himself the prime suspect of a young woman’s murder.  Realizing he may have witnessed and seen the killer deposing of the body in a back alley where his car broke down on a raining night, he confides in his longtime best friend Alex Cutter, a crazed and paranoid disabled Vietnam veteran with a drinking problem.  Alex sinks his teeth into the case to exonerate his friend’s good name when Richard possibly recognizes the killer, a powerful oil tycoon revered by society and an employer to many and won’t let up on proving to Richard his suspected guilt by pieces the clues together.  Richard’s amuses Alex’s obsession, stemmed possibly from his trauma delusions, alcoholism, or his passive aggressiveness toward Richard’s infatuation with his wife Mo, but when Alex’s evidence becomes more and more convincing, Richard can no longer ignore his lunatic friend’s fixation as just a waste of time and conjecture. 

Based off the novel “Cutter and Bone” by novelist Newton Thornburg, the 1981 comedic-whodunit-drama “Cutter’s Way” is an unorthodox buddy gumshoe mystery with themes of the pitiful and nearly forgotten veterans of Vietnam War, the magnate power of whitewash and concealment, and to have purpose in life before life is taken away from you.  The late Ivan Passer, director of crime dramas “Law and Disorder” and “Crime and Passion,” focuses paper-to-screen transgressional energy to the pen-to-paper script by Jeffrey Alan Fiskin in the screenwriter’s sophomore feature film following the 70’s biker-exploitation and revenge caper “Angel Unchained.”   “Revenge’s” Fiskin tones down the ruffian violence, trading it for another type of irrational behavior in the form of the half-bodied war veteran drowning what’s left of himself at the bottom of a bottle while his best friend, a full-bodied, red-blooded, ladies man, ironically enough wants the one unavailable woman the vet married  and could keep in his possession despite her own form alcoholism and depression.  Once titled “Cutter and Bone,” changed to “Cutter’s Way” to appear less like a medical horror production, the film is produced by Paul R. Gurian (“The Seventh Sign”) under his namesake production company, Gurian Entertainment, shot in Santa Barbara, California.

“Big Lebowski’s” Jeff Bridges has the story’s focal point being Richard Bone, the happenstance victim becoming a murder suspect while trying to coast through life by walking away from hard problems and not taking the steps to advance.  The Bridges of 1981 is certainly a different breed than of grizzlier Bridges of more than four decades later, and even nearly two decades later around “Big Lebowski’s release, with a slender cut and tall physique, baby-smooth shaved skin, and a head full of dirty blonde hair that certainly makes him the ladies’ man as shown in the opening scene of him dressing himself after a bedroom romp with a slightly older woman.  Bridges embodies both Bone’s lackadaisical commit to himself, his friends, to woman he loves, and even to the conspiracy surrounding the real suspect concocted and presented by his friend, Alex Cutter, but when the tone starts to shift more toward the evidence of a coverup and all the dots begin to connect to Cutter’s alcoholic rantings and ravings that could be construed as convincing conjecture, you see the Bone begin to care more than he’s ever allowed himself to.  Bridges’ Bone is actually not the most interesting, complex character as that accolade goes to John Heard as Alex Cutter.  The “Home Alone” actor deserved to be praised for his performance as the untamable and wildly convincing Veteran horribly disfigured by his service in Vietnam that fuels his drinking problem, causing a seemingly impenetrable yet sociable wall between him and his wife, and always seems to put tolerable Bone in the middle of his trouble, such as his use of the derogatory N-word in a joke at a bar where we first meet his uncouth, drunken, yet surprisingly together state.  Heard’s intensity has range and emotional standing in the character’s cocky hop-a-log swagger that gives the big ability middle finger to his disability that doesn’t stop his motivational obsessions.  Caught in the middle is Mo, played by Lisa Eichorn who would later costar with Jeff Bridges over 20-years later in the mystery-thriller “The Vanishing” alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock.  Also an alcoholic in a less look-at-me kind of way, Mo has the heart of both Bone and Cutter as Bone walked away from their romance years earlier and she marries pre-war Alex, but Bone and Mo’s spark lingers, teases, and eventually comes to fruition as the damn breaks with Cutter’s behavior that leaves Mo isolated and lonely in a pit of depression.  One character that has girth in the first two acts is the murder victim’s sister Valerie from the girl who yelled SHARK! In “Jaws 2” in Ann Dusenberry and while Dusenberry has a sizable part as part of Cutter’s investigating team, almost like an instigator to his whims, Valerie ultimately disappears in near the tale end of act two and completely from act three, making this one of the biggest mysteries alongside the possible murder suspect itself.  “Cutter’s Way” rounds out the cast with Stephen Elliott (“Death Wish”), Arthur Rosenberg (“Cujo”), Nina van Pallandt (“The Sword and the Sorcerer”), and Patricia Donahue (“Paper Tiger”). 

“Cutter’s Way’s” powerhouse duo of Jeff Bridges and John Heard couldn’t be more perfect with two contrasting walks of life that somehow fit and work, drawn together like strong magnets despite their odd shaped and conflicting personas.  At some points during Cutter’s insane theories and aggressive, uncivilized touting, you would think a calm demeanor and conservatively rational Bone would distant himself from Cutter, or even try to stop his stare-induced antics but Cutter’s shenanigans fuel something in Bone that makes this relationship hobble along without any sign of slowing down and that likely is largely in part to Mo being the connective tissue.  There’s perhaps some guilt residing in Bone who escaped the draft whereas Cutter did not, resulting in losing eye, limp, and leg for a country he obviously has contempt for by going against societal norms.  Cutter convincingly lays the framework of suspicion against the big time oil tycoon with intrinsic connections to not only society by to Bone and Cutter’s friends that makes their meaningless existence in comparison to the oil man’s own feels diminutive and impossible to rise up and action against with the evidence toward a police department that already has Bone in their sights because his car was nearby.  However, the investigation follow-up, as well as the acute disappearance of the victim’s sister Valerie, stamp the story with difficulties of resolve and being a well-rounded narrative. These poofs of key parts differ from the death of main character that goes without explanation, or rather has too many explanations that mold in speculation, that adds to story’s deep misgivings of who was there that dark and stormy night of the murder and culminating to a dramatic finish that impresses a linger skepticism and perhaps even a little bit of cynicism between all left involved. 

“Cutter’s Way” has sorely fell under the radar amongst aficionados of cult classics and UK distributor Radiance Films is looking to expand the Ivan Passer directed adaptation to a broader audience of not only to fans of Jeff Bridges and John Heard but to the fans of thought provoking and open-ended features that get the rusted mind gears turning once again for storytelling and not glaze over with immense computer generated special effects.  Radiance Film’s new restored limited edition 4K UHD and Standard Blu-ray set is pretty deluxe with a 4K restoration presented in HDR/DolbyVision.  The 4K is HVEC encoded with 2160p on a BD100 and the Blu-ray is AVC encoded at 1080p on a BD50.  The ample space allows the restoration to fly without constraint with a vibrant and nicely diffused picture through the dynamic coloring with a slight contrast on its essential organic grading that dips into a bluish tone and low light noir here and there when the moment calls for it.  Impressive detail measurement along the texturing as John Heard looks every bit as grizzly as his character entails with a course, unkept beard, long straggly hair, and ill-fitting military-esque attire whereas Bridges has primary color pristine and neat lines about him.  The Panavision spherical lens used creates a natural concise look, often flat but not unnatural, as it doesn’t try to squeeze the framing.  There were no damage spots to note on a well looked after 35mm print.  The English DTS-HD Master Audio mono track is too flat with frontal space only for the enriched dialogue of the script between mostly Bone and Cutter.  The suitability of track doesn’t change despite a lesser vigorous mix that has competent job performance and is adequate to the type of contemporary noir.  Jack Nitzsche’s soundtrack too makes the film more alluring with a blend of Latino influences and an oxymoronic harmonic dissonance of a musical saw and harmonica that plays into the noir undertones.  English subtitles are optionally available.  On the 4K special features coverage there is an introduction by Jeff Bridges and three audio commentaries with novelist Matthew Specktor, assistant director Larry Franco and Production Manager Barrie Osborne, and an archived conversation between film writer Julie Kirgo and late producer Nick Redman.  There’s an isolated soundtrack from Jack Nitzsche formatted in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 compared to the feature’s mono track.  The Blu-ray houses a little more bonus content with all of the above on the UHD and continues with an analyst featurette Piety, Patriotism, and Violence:  The Legacy of Cutter and Bone by film writers Megan Abbott, Jordan Harper, and George Pelecanos, an Ivan Passer interview from 2015, a Lisa Eichorn interview from the Fun City release, an interview with producer Paul Gurian from the Australian Imprint release, an audio only interview with former United Artist exec Ira Deutchman, Cut to the Bone:  Inside the Score is a featurette that interviews music editor Curt Sobel, Bertrand Tavernier is a Sidonis Calysta’s interview of admiration from the French film director, a still gallery, the trailer, and an alternative title sequence with the original “Cutter and Bone” title sequence.  Radiance Film’s physical presence is substance with this limited-edition release held all together in a rigid slipbox with new commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow on both sides and comes with an obi strip with credit and technical information.  Inside is a clear Scanova Blu-ray case with reversible artwork with the primary art a split still image, one image for either side from the feature, with the reverse containing new artwork as well.  The overlapping stored discs are pressed with a blood red tint.  A 78-page mini book is inserted alongside the Scanova with cast and crew acknowledgements, transfer notes and release credits, and essays from Nick Pinkerton, Christina Newland, and Travis Roberts with an Ivan Passer Q&A by Jerry Roberts.  The book also contains color images as well as composition artwork on the bookends.  The region A locked release doesn’t have a rating listed, assuming not rated, and has a 109 minute runtime. 

Last Rites: Jeff Bridges and John Heard are the dysfunctional detective duo you never thought you needed. “Cutter’s Way” is a cathartic comedy and crime thriller refreshed and renewed for ultra-high definition from the fan’s favorite boutique labels, Radiance Films.

“Cutter’s Way” 4K UHD and Blu-ray Now Availble!

EVIL Does Not Sit and Rollover. “Good Boy” reviewed! (Visions Home Video / 4K UHD Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Good Boy” Now Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Visions Home Video

Indy is a good boy, a loyal nova Scotia Tolling Retriever pet and friend to his owner Todd who’s had him since being a puppy.  When Indy senses trouble, a troubling shadowy figure lurking and following his owner, he tries to do all that he can to protect the one he loves the most.  Struggling with a chronic illness, Todd retreats to his grandfather’s isolated cabin deep within the woods for a little rest and relaxation after a medical scare that put him in the hospital.  Indy senses the supernatural force has followed them away from the city and into the rural family home.  As the presence moves about the house, moving closer and closer toward his friend, Todd’s chronic illness becomes increasingly worse, and Indy’s nightmares bend reality as the shadow begins to take a horrifying shape.  Todd’s disease has him nearly incapacitated and unaware of the dangers that surround him, leaving Indy as the last line of defense against the looming dark force that wants to take him.

Pet owners rejoice!  A horror movie with a story from the perspective of its star, a dog.  The 2025 supernatural thriller “Good Boy” has Indy, the then 8-year-old dog’s real name, headlining the film, directed by Indy’s owner Ben Leonberg, horror short filmmaker with such recent credits as “The Fisherman’s Wife” and “Dead Head” from within the last decade.  Leonberg also wrote the script alongside Alex Cannon and took over three years to make due to the complexity of working with untrained animal actors, a task that’s easier said than done, to accomplish Indy’s character narrative from his point of view, and, of course, the rigorous A-to-Zs of creating a feature length film. Leonberg coproduces “Good Boy” with Kari Fischer and Brian Goodheart.  “Good Boy” is a self-referential studio made film with the company name called “What’s Wrong With Your Dog?”

If casting an animal with a hesitation stillness and pensive piercing eyes, Indy is the four-legged fur baby on the short list.  This specific Nova Scotia Tolling Retriever, a breed known for his hunting qualities and retrieval of gunned down carcass and not acting, is an untrained thespian by all means but has a multitude of expressions that work toward the menacing supernatural sense of dread and uneasiness.  When Indy stares into a dark corner, it’s shadows expanding slow across the walls and floors, the stare does convey concern.  When Indy cries and whimpers in apprehension of being left alone or his owner unaccompanied outside the house, those high-pitched cries and frantic movements from window-to-window bring narrative tension to unsafe separation from man and his loyal best friend-protector.  It’s clear that director Ben Leonberg treats his star pup with star focus, providing a dog-level perspective view that incepts and evokes a reaction just like any human character.  This applies even to the interactions with Todd (Shane Jensen) and his swaying, emotional reactions working through his own ebb-and-flow pain of a mysterious illness that plagues him.  Our first scene with Todd has him sitting motionless on the couch, in the dark, and drooling blood from his mouth in an indistinguishable view of his face, a motif amongst all human characters in frame to keep the focus on Indy’s facial Rolodex of emotions.  We never do know what’s wrong with Todd, whether be cancer, organ failure, or perhaps even the supernatural’s malevolent exposure, but it’s made clear he’s on death’s door in more ways than one.  The only human face shown is through the VCR playback of Todd’s grandfather and it’s the unique bone structure of horror friend Larry Fessenden (“Habit,” “Jakob’s Wife”) who often seems to be in, in some way, shape, or form, in a number of Shudder distributed films recently.  Arielle Friedman and Stuart Rudin bring up the small cast rear. 

“Good Boy” is simply not a novel concept.  There have been a few animal centered and perception movies throughout the decades, to name a few we start with “Babe,” the loveable little pig who finds friendship with a barn spider, then there was the tearjerking one with an orphaned bear cub who hitches to an adult male to avoid game hunters in “The Bear,” and, lastly, “Homeward Bound” was an adventurous return home with human voiceovers for two dogs and one cat team.  The element “Good Boy” does differ from those aforesaid examples.  Aside from giving Indy a voice, the non-personified canine is dropped into an intensely atmospheric horror framework that removes the safety net of having opposable thumbs and the misunderstanding between man and animal that makes the tense situation that much more riveting when Indy can’t express to his human the danger that lurks.  There’s a heavy theme of animal sensing danger or something amiss with someone carrying an unseen disease, that disease in “Good Boy” manifests as the shadowy figure that acts like the harbinger of death, or to the dark tune of a grim reaper, lying-in-waiting and eventually reaching for Indy’s human pal, Todd.  In this concept is the tragic downhill of Todd and the heartbreaking care Indy tries to protect and care for his unsuspecting master but in between all of that concern and drive for Indy is a steady fear something isn’t right, looking past Todd’s ailment toward a showier threat that, to an extent, plays like a device of ignorance for Indy, one that truly distracts him for the real danger plaguing Todd that bets the question, do dogs cope with trouble by creating a diversion? 

Visions Home Video, a premium home media label from UK’s Vertigo Releasing, retrieves “Good Boy” for a UK-Ireland 4K UHD Blu-ray release that’s supported on a HEVC encoded, 2160p ultra high-definition, BD100.  Through surreal nightmares, inky darkness, and graded with primarily dark gray and bluish tones, “Good Boy” faces images challenges with an indie production attempting to instill atmospheric fear and subtle bumps in the night.  That challenge is ultimately met its match with DolbyVision that’s able to decode those type, often blocky, negative spaces and darker color scheme in its high dynamic range.  Texturing works to fiber explicate Indy’s golden coat but much of the other details are kept in the dark as Indy’s, with his coloring, is represents almost like a bright spot amongst the color palette, even Todd is obscured in darkness, rain, or mist, but the details that do show do emerge.  Two English audio tracks are encoded with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and a LPCM 2.0 Stereo.  In regard to the surround mix, back and side channels diffuse the atmosphere non-diegetic sounds to create an immersive environment of a creaky old house pitter-pattered by rain and gusts of wind.  Coupled with the front work dialogue and the forceful jump scare moments creates a cinematic bubble that puts viewers right into the dark and stormy eeriness while sitting in their living room, if the viewer has the appropriate audio setup.  Dialogue is clean, clear, and prominent albeit ambiance tries to nudge it out of the way at times to but unsuccessfully.  Minor instances of depth of Indy, or even the presence, scurrying about the house have leveled balance in what is mostly a still air progression of Indy’s voiceless communication efforts. English is the only available subtitles. Special features include a making-of featurette Making an Indy Film and the theatrical trailer. There are more attractive physical features within Visions Home Video’s black and silver two-toned cardboard O-ring slipcover that leans into the shadow motifs. The same image art is also on the Scanova one-sided sleeve but inside, in the insert, is a double-sided folded mini poster with the same art plus an additional design. There are also four post cards with stills from the feature. The UK 15 certified release has strong horror and bloody images in its brisk 72-minute and region free runtime.

Last Rites: In horror, animals are mostly the perceptive ones, able to see and sense danger that can’t be seen with the human naked eye, and Ben Leonberg captures that phenomena through a fear-induced illness metaphor, one that lies and waits until terminal lucidity knows there’s no escaping the inevitable. Not even man’s best friend can stop it.

“Good Boy” Now Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Visions Home Video