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The Mountains Are Alive With the Sound of EVIL! “Cold Prey” trilogy reviewed! (Second Sight Films / 3-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Cold Prey” limited edition trilogy set! Get it while it lasts!

Five snowboarding friends travel to a remote mountain to shred the best scenic power Norway has to offer.  When one of them hurts their leg, the group hunkers down in an abandoned hotel for the night, a hotel with a horrible history of a child and his parents who went mysteriously missing decades earlier.  As the night carries on, a mountain man living underneath the main floor hunts them down.  A lone survivor of the night is taken to a closing down hospital with a skeleton crew.  The mountain man had followed her, prolonging her ordeal of terror, and continues his murderous killing spree through a new batch of medical staff and police officers.  Decades earlier, the mountain man’s abused backstory sets a coming-of-age path of homicidal tendencies as he lives in the woods 12 years later after departing his parents and the hotel.  A group of hikers wander into his woods where he can’t differentiate man from animal game and begins his thirst for the kill that would claim the lives of many years to come.

What I’ve just given is the three basic plotlines for all three of the Cold Prey films, a trio of Norwegian-made slashers with a murderous mountain man at the center of it all.  Including a sequel and a prequal, the films were all produced in a relatively short amount of time of four years between 2006 and 2010.  For the original film, Thomas Moldestad (“The Conference”) wrote the script based off a story he wrote alongside Martin Sundland (“The Wave”) and Roar Uthaug, the latter directed the film and would later go on to direct the 2018 reboot of “Tomb Raider” with Alicia Vikander in the Lara Croft role.  The sequel, “Cold Prey 2,” directly follows the first film but helmed by a different director in Mats Stenberg with Moldestad returning to pen the project.  The prequel innately disconnects the continuous nature of Cold Prey I and II for more history on the homicidal mountaineer with Sundland taking a backseat story idea role to Peder Fuglerud and Lars Gudmestad with Mikkel Braenne Sandernose bringing up the rear in the director’s chair.  The real-world location used in all three shoots was the Jotunheimen mountains and the studios connected to each project are Helgeland Film, SF Norge A/S, Norsk Filmstudio, Film i Väst, Storyline Studios and with the Norsk Filmstudio subsidiary, Fantefilm, involved in all three as the movie’s presenting studio. 

Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (“Chernobyl Diaries”), Thomas Alf Larsen (“Troll Hunter”), Viktoria Winge (“Inside the Whore”), Rolf Kristian Larsen, and Endre Martin Midtstigen play the five friends venturing to the mountains to shred some nice powder but wind up finding themselves stranded with a madman in their company.  That madman is played by Rune Melby, not to be confused with Sweden’s national hockey team player of the same name, to impose his large stature and husky look to be a formidable, silent antagonist that doesn’t need vocals to be threatening.  Surface level inspect of “Cold Prey” has it pegged as another typical slasher but this slasher rolls back the tropes, desaturating the themes and motifs to a reasonable amount and in a more realistic approach rather than having established personas, such as the nerd, jock, slut, etc., having gratuitous sex scene moments, and reduce the bonehead moves that ultimately result in their demise.  The sequel houses a new cast apart from Ingrid Bolsø Berdal making her return as a survivor recovering in a soon-to-be-closed hospital following the events of the first film.  She’s joined by Martha Snorresdotter Rovik, Fridtjov Såheim, and Johanna Mørck as the skeleton crew hospital staff, Kim Arne Hagen as Camilla’s boyfriend and utility emergency service person, Mats Eldøen, Per Schaanning, Andreas Cappelen, and Mads Sjøgård Pettersen as the limited bandwidth local law enforcement, Vetle Qvenild Werring as a boy patient, and Robert Follin replaces Rune Melby as the killer.  A larger cast equates to a larger body in this direct story follow-up and really capitalizes on the killer’s brute force and unstoppable grit that sets up a delusion of him against the world as a misanthropic maniac with some underlying superhuman force, like we see with Michael Myers. Berdal takes on the true survivor and heroine role helping those unaccustomed to the fight and even takes the fight to her tormentor, solidifying more of the final girl trope.  The rest are stuck in the middle as potential kill fodder and support to provide emotional capital as lives hang in the balance in their various relationships, which reminds me one relationship that’s hint at but never explored is the seemingly undercover or seedlings of affection between two medical staff that is quickly squashed by the rise of a killer in their midst.  The scene interaction would have stirred up controversy wither another involved character but never had a change to be problematic.  The prequel doesn’t involve any returning characters and really invests into the mountain man’s background more.  Played by a different actor in Endre Hellestveit and having an appearance more akin to the WWF Undertaker instead of a pelt and parka-cladded mountain man, each filmic version has varying style that almost feels heavily contrasted to the previous one and that can be jarring to that connective tissue for some.  A new band of friends become the hunted prey as they stumble into the mountain man’s forest home under the rough tutelage of illegal game hunter Jon (Nils Johnson) whose brother, police officer Einar (Terje Ranes), pieces the puzzle together the disappearance of the backpackers and Jon’s involvement in something more than poaching.  The backpackers play more into conventions without many complexities in their depth chart with Ida Maria Bakkerud, Julie Rusti, Kim Falck, Pål Stokka, Arthur Berning, and Sturla Rui are put into the mountain man’s crosshairs.  

As you’ve might have noticed, the prequel doesn’t receive high marks but it’s an entertaining bloodbath nonetheless, overshadow by the predeceasing counterparts because of the developing characters and the more interesting story that plays to a similar tune of the first two “Halloweens” and even more so with the continuation storyline between the first and second film with the latter set inside a sparsely populated hospital that definitely gives off “Halloween II” vibes.  That’s not to say the “Cold Prey” films are a carbon copy of notable classics and their sequels as “Cold Prey” brings a Norwegian staple into play with the summitting Jotunheimen mountains and their existence within that snowy terrain and mountain air, building a story around a mountain code that’s often spoken of, a code about safety that goes in deadly contrast toward the inexperience and nativity of youth believing they’re invincible to their surroundings when in reality mother nature, a natural evil within the mountain man living off the land, leaves more than a dent into their humility.  “Cold Prey” will often feel unoriginal with a severe lack of gore as that has almost become intrinsic to contemporary slashers but it’s refreshing to see a step back in the violence, though it’s nonetheless harsher.  Audiences will not be treated to impact violence that creates squeamish reactions and ghastly shock.  Instead, implied violence is the name of the game that results in the same blood-spattered crime scene look without the initializing, violent show of the blade sliding into the sternum.  These stylistic choices, executed perfectly by DoPs Daniel Voldheim (“Cold Prey”) and Anders Flatland (“Cold Prey 2”) in their camera work and expertly cut by Jon Endre  Mørk, are sold convincingly to ensure death is impenetrable when the pickaxe strikes while still flaunting a good amount of practical effects in makeup wounds, prosthetic props, and gallons of fake blood.  “Cold Prey III” dabbles in the same inferences and off-screne violence but shows a lot more too as we see a machine pierce and then slice away the insides of man and that knife going right int between the rib cage of a poor young woman, keeping up with the times of a modern slasher.  

The three film, Blu-ray set comes from Second Sight Films.  The UK label rolls out the red carpet with their high-definition release that’s an AVC encoded BD50, presenting each film with 1080p resolution and in a compressed widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 to capture the majestic Jotunheimen mountains.  Despite having three different directors of photography in Daniel Voldheim, Anders Flatland, and Ari Willey, each “Cold Prey” entry has the same gray sepia grading with a solid reducing of color saturation in attempt to harness cold and bleak surroundings of a harsher landscape.  IN the same breath, each DoP also tries to make the mountains and forest feel awesome and breathtaking while coursing its perilously imposing strength in size and, ironically enough, confining isolation.  You may find the Blu-ray details and textures on “Cold Prey” and “Cold Prey 2” not to be a sharp as expected for an early mid-2000s slasher as both were shot on 35mm for a better film cell texture rather than a captured texture to accentuate the landscape in a cinematic view rather than the digital polish that often downgrades pictures with a one-note aesthetic.  Since the snowcapped mountains were not used in the prequel, replaced with a forest setting, digital film was used to flesh out more raw textural details amongst the dense foliage and in the midst of a dilapidated mountain property.  No compressions issues in the codec to note.  Each film is fitted with a Norwegian language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound, suited to bring the soundtrack and the directional tension to the frontlines of the sound design to setup an impacting impression when the action saunters into frame.  Diffused nicely throughout, depth and direction of sound creates not only the atmospheric of a malevolent presence, it also creates environmental anxiety when sounds go bump in the night or just in the abandoned motel or echoing forest setting.  Dialogue is crystal clear and the English subtitles pace well with the speed and have no noticeable grammatical errors.  Each disc comes with its own special features:  “Cold Prey,” Disc one, has a new audio commentary with Director Roar Uthaug and actress Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, a new interview with Uthaug This is the Vibe, a new interview with Ingrid Bolsø Berdal Draw the Process, an alternate ending shown in storyboard that extends the final cut ending, a behind-the-scenes look at the visual FX of the film, additional car scenes, blooper reel, two short films: “Mountain Rose Run Amok” and “An Evening in the Green,” and Bloodlights’ music video for their hit “One Eye Open.”  “Cold Prey 2,” Disc Two, has a new audio commentary with director Mats Stenberg, a new interview with Stenberg A Blessing and a Curse, new interview with actress Berdal Dissociation, a new interview with fomer director turned solely producer Roar Uthaug Stepping Aside, behind-the-scenes, blooper reel, and extended and deleted scenes.  “Cold Prey 3,” Disc 3,” has a new commentary by Christer Andresen and Phillip Escott of an outsiders’ perspective looking in on the film prequel and a behind-the-scenes featurette.  The limited-edition rigid slipbox is massive and perhaps one the biggest physical copies for a 3-disc production.  James Neal provides new artwork for the front cover that truly represents the story as well as the aesthetic to expect.  The trifold jewel snapcase holds all three discs and have dramatic character portrays from all three films.  Also inside are 5 collector art cards and a 120-page book with new essays from Matt Donato, J.A. Kerswell, Just LaLiberty, Paul Le, Ariel Powers-Schaub, and Nathaniel Thompson, plus the book comes with new artwork, stylized stills, cast and crew acknowledgements, and Blu-ray production acknowledgments and thanks.  The Blu-ray holds a UK certified 15 rating for strong horror, bloody violence, language, sexual threat, injury and abusive behavior.  This particular release is region locked on B and has a total runtime of 278 minutes.

Last Rites: The “Cold Prey” trilogy doesn’t flash new spins on the slasher genre that’s as old as horror itself. Instead, “Cold Prey” a satisfactory slasher that scratches the killer maniac itch with its mountainman maniac!

“Cold Prey” limited edition trilogy set! Get it while it lasts!

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’s Imprint Doesn’t Like Your Friends! “The Girl Who Cried Her Eyes Out” reviewed! (MVD Visual / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Girl Who Cried Her Eyes Out” Now Available on Blu-ray

Maddie’s reserved and loner behavior becomes frazzled when a promised small party in a wooded state park expands with invited surprised guests by best friend and roommate Kim.  What was supposed to be a gathering of letting lose with booze and drugs, tensions rise with Maddie at the center of it all.  A truth or dare game sends Maddie into the forest just after hearing a ghost story about a tragic young girl who haunts the woods, known as Caroline Woodsman, the girl who cried her eyes out.   When Maddie comes across an unsettling girl sitting alone on a bolder, she’s becomes marked by Caroline Woodsman’s spirit and all of her friends are in mortal danger.  After that night, they each are visited by the spirt and disappear, some found to have come to a tragic end, now Maddie and her friends that are left must find a way to stop the curse before Caroline takes them all. 

Inspired by J-horror’s folkloric Onryō subgenre, the vengeful spirit, “The Girl Who Cried Her Eyes Out” is an original American-made Onryō story with heavy influences from “Ringu” or “Ju-on”.  Fabrizio Fante and Debraoh Ricky were the top with the film is the feature length debut of co-writer and director Eugene John Bellida, known to dabble in the melancholic and horror affluent shorts with the tense-laden killer neighbor next door “Upstairs” in 2009 and the contemplative contra of an artist and a mental patient in “Empty Places” of 1999.  The move to a major, yet Independent, feature challenges Bellida to build and retain a taught and haunting tale, filmed in the wooded rural areas of Connecticut and released in 2024.  Like most notable vengeful spirit films, “The Girl Who Cried Her Eyes Out” has creepy children centerstage with a supernatural antagonist ready to curse the minding-their-business unfortunate who stumbles across them.  Deborah Rickey, Fabrizio Fante, and Aurora Athame produce the film for Bellida’s Mimage Pictures.

The characters are comprised of mostly black-garbed, rock-enthused, group of friends, if you can even call them friends because of the unsavory way they treat each other between the cheating on one’s significant other, the physical bullying, the mental bullying, the emotional bullying, the betrayal of trust, the leaving of friends behind, and other plenty more examples of anti-comradery that make this group highly unlikeable amongst an evil ghost child with no eyes.  Being a large cast of character is also detrimental to the narrative’s progression and success as there’s too many too many to pick off to pick off right in a slashersque horror.  A slew of off-screen kills takes over as the core mortality rate, leaving hardly any character confirmed dead or alive in what is mostly hearsay fate from another character.  The only time we know a character is in fact dead is when their ghost returns to play mind tricks on the living in a metaphorical medley of guilt.  Mari Blake’s feature film debut as the lead protagonist Maddie has her inexplicably marked by the urban legend ghost when she stumbles upon in the woods.  Blake’s angsty performance is akin to being an outcast, or the black sheep, amongst the character friends with a tie only to one friend, her roommate Kim (Suzanna Scorcia).  The sight challenged apparition Caroline Woodman whose powers are immense and reaching is played by “V/H/S/Halloween’s” Hallie Ruth Jacob and Woodman terrorize, in an arbitrary manner Maddie’s so-called friends that represent, in their own idiosyncratic way, the worst of friends with Cort (Jason Schlaman), Selene (Aleis Work), Jess (Kelsea Baker), Goose (Chandler Reed), Mikayla (Mikaela Seamans), Max (Mark Ashin), Nikki (Lisa Naso), Lindsay (Meena Knowles), Greg, Tyler (Meteu Bryan), and Landon (H.K. Moore).

Bellida constructs a script that has an elimination process that not only literally purges the social toxicity out of one’s life, Maddie’s life, but also puts Maddie into a downward spiral with the vengeful spirit representing Maddie’s breaking psyche as she’s the only one who can see the ghost and hear the fabricated noises eats at her patience.  Maddie also experiences the friend dysphoria  as a trickster device by the spirit.  “The Girl Who Cried Her Eyes Out” is a solid supernatural chiller but lacks tethering to keep the rising body count closer to the chest and the imprinting curse laid upon Maddie is a bit ham-fisted as the campfire ghost story is literally told by another friend and then sanctioned shortly after by a mere lone walk through the woods.  There’s no story device that stirs up the conflict, it just happens. There’s no unearthed video tape, no discovery of bones, an cursed object, or some ancient spell spoken and without this spurring device that makes the woods instilled with evil, then this would happen to anyone but the woods, which is mentioned to be a state park, don’t come with a warning as surely others would have been affected by the apparitional affliction.  The tale of Caroline Woodsman serves loosely as such catalytic crux.  Considering the special effects, the budget limits the visuals as makeup effects take the lead with Caroline’s pale aura and the illusion of bloody eye sockets.  Quick editing and opportunity sound bites, coupled with performances, provide the ghostly impulses over the group which also seems premeditated with taking the sullied friends out one-by-one in an isolated fashion, an interesting course for a child spirt to take in order to pluck souls just to invite Maddie back to where it all started, the woods, where her troubling, friend-induced psychosis began.

MVDVisual conjures “The Girl Who Cried Her Eyes Out” to Blu-ray home video. The AVC encoded, 1080p Hi-Def resolution, BD25 exhibits the film in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ration. The codec has fair reproduction value of the digitally shot film with a dark-natural saturation scheme that favors more natural lighting than key lighting, even the woods scenes utilize a more translucent tint that offers muted illumination rather than bright as day illumination. Details are a bit fuzzy and less defined but delineation objects and subobjects more than most indie valued releases. There are arranged characters in background and foreground that create measured depth but the lack of color reduces range to mostly blacks and grays of an achromatic color palette. The English surround sound has a compressed, moderate pop with a clear dialogue track that varies in strength, often times the speech stamina goes below other character dialogue despite being in the same scene and on the same depth level of which they’re talking, suggesting a singular or stationary mic placement. There is also a second English audio option of a 2.0 Stereo and, personally, this was option had a better fidelity that didn’t suppress the strength without compromising depth and range. Special features include an audio commentary with director Eugene John Bellida and producer Deobrah Rickey, “Sick Sick Sick” short film by Fabrizio Fante, behind-the-scenes video clips, and a photo gallery. The physical release is pretty bare with a standard Amaray Blu-ray case with a blow up image of Mari Blake’s bloodied and tear-stricken face. The unrated Blu-ray has a runtime of 94 minutes and is region free.

Last Rites: A busy American Onryō clutters, “The Girl Who Cried Her Eyes Out” is stifled on its fair stab on the subgenre but the themes of rocky friendships and the true nature of people become diluted by the sudden deluge of little ghost girl wrath and her pick of the litter within a large group of toxic friends.

“The Girl Who Cried Her Eyes Out” Now Available on Blu-ray

One EVIL AI Knows Our Ultimate Fears, We’re all Doomed! “Jitters” reviewed! (Reel2Reel Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

After being suspended for roughing a fellow detective, Collymore returns to the middle of a nightmarish case of people killing themselves within the throes of their worst fears.  Struggling through a terminal health issue and sharing his young daughter in shared custody, Collymore focuses his efforts on the case with evidence pointing directly toward a new immersive video game called Jitters that uses brain scans and artificial intelligence to infiltrate the network of the human brain.  A maniacal clown with a twisted sense of humor and electrifying headgear presents players with a riddle and if they can solve it, players will be free from his delusion-creating hold that’ll eventually send a person gravely mad to death with fear.  Collymore plays the game to try and stop Jitters from spreading across the city, protecting his daughter from being exposed, but he must investigate through a team of infected developers puzzled by their tailored riddle before they meet their fate. 

Clowns are not a new trope to horror – “Killer Klowns from Outer Space,” “Funhouse,” and we can even through in the infamous, now-mostly banned “Clownhouse” – but in the past five years there has been a reemergence of the killer clown, thanks to one Art the Clown of the “Terrified” films who put the funny bone back into the assortment of removed human bones with a bone saw.  “The Jester,” “Clown in a Cornfield,” and “Helloween” use the bright blue, red, white face paint to mask their malevolent Jokesters outside the circus tent and into our safe space to crank up the coulrophobia in “Terrifier’s” wake, and perhaps with a little help from Pennywise in the “IT” remakes.  “Jitters” is the next clownsploitation feature with a sophomore screenplay by George Wilcox (“Homeless Ashes”) and directed by Marc Zammit (“Witch”).  The 2016, United Kingdom film is an Aptitude Films production and crowdfunded by Indiegogo patrons with nearly £13,000.

In the role of a Jitters, the clown face riddler with ostentatious electro-lit up headgear, is Daniel Jordan (“Witch,” “Embryonic”) harnessing his best virtual AI assistant from Hell, infiltrating every software system to organic system with mischievous jester poise with wicked wordplay.  Jordan can be jaunty enough to make the clownish killer be mad with a “Virtuosity” spread of fear through the global cyberspace network but there’s room for terror toying improvement as the fear doesn’t carry over much to the audience.  Opposite Jordan is Fabrizio Santino (“Are We Dead Yet,” “Witch”) as the black sheep detective Collymore hot on his first case back with the investigation of a girl scared to death while playing a computer game.  Santino’s low gruff and breathy tone naturally gives me the leg up on Collymore’s terminal ailment that has the detective coughing up blood in private.  Yet, that illness never has a purpose to the story other than to garner sympathy from ex-wife Julia (Lauren Budd, “Cinderella’s Curse”).  As Jitters rival, or as another play in the Jitters deadly game, Collymore’s determination to beat the AI clown levels the playing field but the detective is hardly challenged by Jitter’s strong and influential manipulating powers others succumb so easily to in their own version of fear-induced hell.  “Jitters” supporting cast rounds out with Boo Miller (“Afraid of the Dark”), Guillaume Rivaud (“Big Bad CGI Monsters”), Jessica Impiazzi (“The Tombs”), Russell Shaw (“The Lockdown Hauntings”), Richard Wisker and introducing Chloe Hews.  There’s also Anto Sharp (“Witch”) who I follow as a comedic content creator and who did a phenomenal job as Collymore’s partner as I did not realize it was content creator Sharp, suggesting good acting to step into a less funny role. 

“Jitters” is not a direct riff on the “Terrifier” series or any other notable previous killer clown movie but adding a clown mascot to a not-so-carnivalesque AI program can seem like a bandwagon move to cash-in on clownsploitation craze that’s currently happening.  However, with the “Brainscan” edge to the story, the clown getup has unnecessary written all over it.  What Jitters does very well is the themes it tackles, such as video game brain rot, an artificial intelligence takeover, and facing one’s fears no matter how overwhelming they can be.  Jitters, the clown, toys with players’ intrinsic fears that can affect so much on a granular level that they don’t even know exactly what they’re afraid of and that gives the narrative more suspense when time ticks away toward an inexplicable runout threshold and the clown brings an end to the game in stylish fashion involving their fear.  There’re some on-screen gory bits but “Jitters,” overall, is tame on the blood and violence that leaves a few moments to the imagination but leaves just enough to sate the primal, gut-level reaction.  While the story adds a layer of hypothetical futuristic technology that doesn’t quite make sense when you think about it but glad to indulge for the sake of movie progression, I found more distracting detective Collymore’s life complexity to be a softball toss up that never challenges his being or puts his back against the wall.  Collymore evokes workplace violence against an unscrupulous, yet lawfully acquitted, officer that goes without receiving himself a severe managerial punishment for socking him in the office other than some unpaid leave, Collymore also has terminal cancer that’s a narrative non-key element that spurs no action and no conflict.  Lastly, ex-wife Julia gives him too little pushback on their former marriage and how he raises their daughter when she’s with him, and there’s an almost near reconnection between them that’s hastened toward dye to the lack of contention in what’s mostly amiable co-parenting.  Julie and their daughter Chloe never face true peril and have become also naïve or ignorant to Collymore’s pursuit of ridden the world of “Jitters” and that seems task is too big to let potential collateral damage be ignored. 

101Films and Reel2Reel’s AI-gone-bad and videogame rot thriller “Jitters” arrives onto Blu-ray home video with an AVC encoded 1080p Hi-Def resolution, BD25.  Presented in a widescreen.  Presented in a 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio, “Jitters” has compressed cinematic coveralls that’s noir polished with a darker grading of blues, greens, and browns.  The digital image delineates details more than fine within the Blu-ray codec with no compression issues to note.  Textures and fabrics are tangibly perceived; there’s great detail on Jitter’s electric headgear that has a heavier appearance than it probably is in reality, and this is a testament to the fabricated work of the production and art design crew.  Surprisingly, the 2026 release only has an encoded uncompressed PCM 2.0 Stereo track and not surround sound.  The omnipresent AI infiltrator of hardware and organic hookup gives “Jitters” ample range and breadth of depth but instead of a multi-channel 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, the release is limited to a dual output between the audio of dialogue and everything else.  Usually, stereo formats are adequate, but “Jitters” requires the extra legroom as the boisterous soundtrack does insidiously creep onto the other audio layers, diluting the dialogue strength to an elucidating mumble and barely perceivable.  English subtitles are available for selection.  “Jitters” is a feature only release with only the trailer as a title menu option.  The 101 Films and Reel2Reel Blu-ray is housed in a clear Scanova case with a one-sided sleeve that’s detailed and contrast heavy of the titular villain.  The 94-minute film is region encoded B as it’s a UK release with UK certified 15 for strong horror, gore, violence, suicide, self-harm and language.

Last Rites: “Jitters” pulls off being an AI-inspired horror in another round-about of us set on destroying ourselves with our own creation but the added clown element can’t help but think the killer clown craze has struck again, this time negatively.

What’s Fashion Without a Little EVIL Behavior? “Helter Skelter” reviewed! (Radiance Films / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Beauty is Pain. “Helter Skelter” from 88 Films!

Lilico is the hottest Japanese fashion icon.  Fans adore her, brands want her, magazines crave her, and paparazzi and photographers yearn to shoot and work with her beauty that inspires all and commands undivided attention.  However, her astonishing beauty isn’t entirely organic as multiple surgeries through unorthodox surgical procedures that enhance her from a forgettable nobody to an unforgettable somebody.  Her radical surgeries begin to show blight side effects of the surface of her skin, sending her into vanity driven sociopathic spiral of sex, mental torture, and self-destruction, also affecting those closely around her, especially her assistant Hada who takes the brunt of her maltreatment.  When a new, hot model is presented by her manager and the world begins to fall in love with her, seemingly dropping Lilico from being the face of the fashion industry, the model’s snowballing and necrotizing surgical side effects can’t be stopped from becoming all but public. 

Social commentary horror movies like “The Substance,” “The Neon Demon,” and “The Ugly Stepsister” underline the vast awfulness and extreme lengths of beauty standards.  How to keep youthful, how to manipulate the face and body, and how envy can be weaponized from the worst of counterparts are just some of the attributes, which are very accurate outside the cinema, used as tropes for the body horror subgenre where attractiveness is the core catalyst that motivates monstrosities.  These late 2010s and early 2020 films might not have been directly inspired by Mika Ninagawa’s “Helter Skelter” but definitely pulls from the same cloth.  The 2012 Japanese fashion industrialized body and psychological horror is adapted by Arisa Kaneko based off the Kyôko Okazaki manga of the same name with established manga-to-film experienced producers, Morio Amagi (“Cutie Honey”) and Mitsuru Uda (“Xxxholic”), producing the WOWOW, Parco Co. Ltd, and Asmik Ace Entertainment film.

Objectification perspective isn’t always from the outside looking in but can be looking out as well.  In “Helter Skelter,” model Lilico believes in her self-importance, treating others in subordinate to her illustriousness career as the hottest flavor in Japan’s fashion society.  Society objectifies Lilico as nothing more than a stylistic Goddess who can do no wrong and even have the smallest bit of her in their space, whether be the hot topic of conversation or to the be face of their magazine cover, whereas Lilico objectifies those all around her with eviscerating self-proclaimed eminence and dominion over their mind, body, and soul.  “Ghost Train’s” Erika Sawajiri has the perfect look and approach to celebrity derision without blatancy toward others as her expressionless face never contorts with anger, never smiles without the devilish smirk and piercing eyes, that makes the fashion icon unreadable and to sway of control during bi-polar scenes where happiness and disgust swing rapid on a totalitarianism pendulum.  Personal assistant Michiko Hada, under the performance of “R100’s” Shinobu Terajima, takes the brunt of abuse during on-the-clock and off-the-clock professional and personal time.  Terajima’s ordinary bearings for Hada make the character an easy target in contrast to Lilico’s ornate wardrobe and lavish style of living spurred by ruthless nature to be best and most beautiful, taking an authoritative sovereign stance of control in the fashion hierarchy.  Lilico’s spoiled prince behavior coincides by a fueling Kaori Momoi in a queen-like mother figure as the talent agent who mostly advises her star pupil an instigating misconduct mindset with pro-surgical advice and like-minded guidance that artificially influences her body despite the pain and dangers as well as providing a mimicking behavior of dejecting and downcast harm.  Nao Ōmori (“Ichi the Killer”), Gô Ayano (“Woman Transformation”), Kiko Mizuhara (“Attack on Titan”), Hirofumi Arai (“The Neighbor No. Thirteen”), Anne Suzuki (“Returner”), and Mieko Harada (“Ran”) all play a role in the rise and fall of Lilico.

Much like Lilico’s quickly deteriorating fractured state of mind, and body, Ninagawa utilizes a cinematic style that’s overly brilliant with neon colors and a sharp polished look that contrasts reality and distorted perception, creating a disjointed narrative digression Lilico experiences.  The hyper stylization keeps in tandem with the fashion world of flash photography and gaudy maximalism, the ultra-violence and promiscuous behavior depict the cutthroat competition of remaining beautiful and the ugliness that’s truly inside, and the sheer flaunting of indifference and superficiality lingers throughout in and out of favor of our terrible protagonist who is actually the villain and the victim of her own tale.  Each character is flawed beyond reproach and having no redeemable qualities that make them appear strong or promising to be a virtuous type.  Not even the meek and eager-to-please personal assistant Hada who takes the punishing commands of her employer and manager in a purely pitiful subjugation of oneself to not lose a job position and be in the presence of stardom.  Hada even lets Lilico invade her personal life and continues to let it happen with no choice in the matter.  “Helter Skelter” embodies the very definition of the term with its confused and hurried chaotic state in design and in story while, in the same baroque breath, disenchanting the illusion of the fashion industry and beauty standards as not glamourous and genuine but fickle and fabricated with a heavy dish of backstabbing and self-destruction. 

In the same spirit as photogenic magazine models, UK label 88 Films releases a beautifully crafted, limited-edition Blu-ray release.  The numbered release Blu-ray is AVC encoded, 1080 high-definition resolution, onto a BD50 that was already shot digitally with a Red One MX camera through Zeiss Ultra Prime and Angenieux Optimo lenses under cinematographer Daisuke Soma.  This gave “Helter Skelter” a glamorously polished look to accentuate the hyper-stylized and contemporary look that starkly discolor the centralized characters as ruthless people of fashion and high society.  When good finally enters the picture, a young model stepping to Lilico’s high heels as the next young, hot model, the harsh design of modernism is scaled back to simple and sterile aspects with more of the dramatics being held locally to the downfallen characters.  Higher contrasts create deeper shadows amongst a medium-heavy color saturation that primaries strong statement colors like fire-engine red and Duke blue.  The curvature of the anamophoric lenses, presenting in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, do show intentional signs of wrapping at the sides to capture the entirety of the wide shots in smaller spaces but adds to the surrealistic effect and is implemented at the right moments to make it all sensible.  No compression issues to note.  The Japanese DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and 2.0 Stereo tracks are the only two formats encoded.  The 5.1 has formidable attention to the side and back channels with the chaotic fashion-industry ambiance with erratic behaviors steering the scene.  Every action detail is highlighted to bring quieter scenes more tension and every tumultuous moments a fuller body.  The dialogue is crystal clear and layered appropriate with environmental track and soundtrack.  Moods rise up and down with the fluctuation soundtrack that pulsates in breath-holding, provocative, turning-point scenes that while melodies play in more of shocking portions to entice attention during climatic notes.  The newly translated English subtitles have no synchronization or grammatical issues to note and pace well with the visuals.  Special features include a feature in tandem audio commentary with Tori Potenza and Amber T., interviews with star Erika Sawajiri and director Mika Ninagawa, a behind the scenes of raw footage making the film, the Japanese premiere stage greeting, an opening day stage greeting, the Q&A from the Taipei Film Festival with director Mika Ninagawa, the original rehearsal footage, an image gallery, and the teaser and official trailers.  Like Ninagawa’s film, 88 Films tangible release is also hyper-stylized with newly commissioned art by Luke Insect that’s surreal, color, and slightly disturbing.  The clear Scanavo cases comes with an gold Obi strip with film and Blu-ray details and the sleeve is dual sided with original Japaense compositional design on the inside.  Inserted inside is a 23-page color booklet with a chaptered essay by Violet Burns, complete with color photo stills and promotional photos with the front and back art contrasting the two model women in a good and evil, light and dark, way.  The not rated, limited-edition Blu-ray has a runtime of 127 minutes and is A and B encoded to support playback in the Americas as well as Europe. 

Last Rites: There are plenty of horror as well as commentary films about fashion, but none do it with style quite like Mika Ninagawa and still develop an unrivaled cynicism of self-implosion.

Beauty is Pain. “Helter Skelter” from 88 Films!