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Never Steal EVIL’s Dead Body and Think to Get Away Scot-Free! “Frightmare” reviewed! (Troma / Tromatic Collector’s Edition)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

It’s not a Nightmare. It’s a “Frightmare” on Blu-ray!

Aging horror icon Conrad Radzoff is on the verge of being forgotten by all except for a few handfuls of diehard fans who gather around a horror society that appreciate classics that are quickly fading from public view.  Arrogant and conceited, Radzoff doesn’t take criticism all too well.  In fact, he kills over it.  After murdering a commercial director and his longtime collaborating director, both of whom loathed his tyrannical, prima donna attitude, Radzoff dies of heart failure shortly after.  The youthful members of the horror society steal his body from Radzoff’s elaborate decorated and booby-trapped mausoleum on a whim and spends the night dining, dancing, and photographing with his lifeless corpse until Radzoff’s wife uses a medium to locate her late husband’s body and inadvertently resurrects him from dead with supernatural psychic powers to pick off his naïve graverobbers one-by-bone in what will be his last great horror performance. 

“Frightmare,” aka “The Horror Star,” is the supernatural slasher that tears into the fabric of being forgotten with a lasting impression, one with deadly consequences for a mischievous teens disrespecting the past in order to live with impunity in the present.  The 1983 picture is written-and-directed by Norman Thaddeus Vane, co-director of “The Black Room” and the Elvira-inspired 1988 film “Midnight.”  Shot mostly in the Los Angeles area, “Frightmare’s” principal photography and wrap was completed during 1981 but the film itself was not released until two years later and is not a remake of and has no connection to the Pete Walker film of the same title years earlier in 1974, which focuses on a seemingly mentally disturbed rehabilitated woman released years after committing deadly crimes.  This more necromancing and resurrecting slasher “Frightmare” is produced by Callie and Patrick Wright and with “Shadow of the Hawk’s” Henry Gellis serving as executive producer under the Screenwriters Production Company. 

“Frightmare” would undoubtedly become director Norman Thaddeus Vane’s first attempt at replicating a horror icon shell that would later inspire him to direct “Midnight” that pulls influences off horror hostesses, such as Elvira or Vampira.  The centralized character, one who’s prim-and-proper snobbish attitude and flair for the theatrical in film and in life, is loosely, in Conrad Radzoff is loosely based off the Vincent Prices and the Christopher Lees of the genre, classically trained method actors astute to the craft.  Radzoff is, however, embellished with a hellish soul, unlike Price or Lee who sustained a rather indifferent or benevolent character.  There’s a lot to take in and enjoy from Ferdy Mayne’s performance as Radzoff.  Mayne’s first role of it’s kind for the actor with its meta intent to be an actor playing a horror actor reawakened as psychic sociopath from the depths of Hell groomed and garbed as a Vincent Price/Christopher Lee-like gothic vampire, in which Mayne was quite trained for having starred in vampiric films such as “The Vampire Lovers” and “The Fearless Vampire Hunters” in the 1970s, and he crushes the performance with profound effect with Vane’s Euro-style slasher that keeps tabs on the killer as he lurks through the property of the horror society, consisting of going from contravening teens to the unfortunate victims played by Luca Bercovici (“Parasite”), Jennifer Starrett (Run, Angel, Run!”), Alan Stock (“Poison Ivy”), Scott Thomason (“Ghoulies”), then Michael Biehn’s now ex-wife Carlene Olson, Donna McDaniel (“Angel”), and one Jeffrey Combs that would be one of his first films pre-“Re-Animator.”   Narratively, this laid out is the core cast of characters but there are peripheral support characters that are introduced and have key moments but are quickly diminished or erased from completing their story arc.  Radzoff’s wife Ette (Barbara Pilavin, “Maniac Cop 3:  Badge of Silence”) barely has five minutes of screentime but provides the undead Radzoff the key, go-ahead directive to kill his body snatchers but after that intense moment where they psychically connect, her scenes are no more other than one moment with a lightly knotted loose end.  Same can about the intensity of Mrs. Rohmer (Nita Talbot, “Puppet Master II”) that it pops clean off after connecting with Radzoff.  Leon Askin (Doctor Death:  Seeker of Souls”), Chuck Mitchell (“Porky’s”), and Peter Kastner (“Steambath”) fill in the cast.

If only one element stood out as “Frightmare’s” most redeeming characteristic, Joel King’s cinematography takes the top spot on the podium with a diffused fog machine backlighting that’s out of this world, angles and movements that complex the simplest and most stationary scenes, and an ingenuity that manifests the magic of a macabre movie also assisted by both of the aforementioned lighting techniques and the camera placements.  “Frightmare’s” also heavily infused with Gothic nuances that pay tribute to the subgenre as well as add to the sinister and oppressive tone of a rapidly enclosing atmosphere of darkness, shadow, and vaulted architecture from Radzoff’s Victorian-era, aristocratic black and white attire to the wood dark-toned and concreated exterior, two-story mansion that becomes the prison to the horror society they can’t escape from, in life with their hobby and in death with Radzoff hunting them through secret passages, dumbwaiters, and its delicately antiquatedly trimmed rooms and hallways.  Blood is accentuated with slow motion and splatter along walls and out of gash wounds with practical effects constructed by “Critters’” Chuck E. Stewart who can build a ghastly looking burned up and smoking body dead on the ground.  “Frightmare” isn’t a narrative that’ll strike fear around every corner but is rather a campy, supernatural slasher with hammed performances and a solid method for one-by-one offing.  The story’s a bit thin with motivations that keep Radzoff’s egocentric boasting about his last performance in death, his deathtrap mausoleum as if the actor knew there would be intruders, and the whole stealing of the corpse that just seemed to be a fruitless, ill-advised whim where there would be no escape from authorities or even the smell of an actively rotting corpse being stowed away in a non-climate controlled attic. 

Troma re-releases the Vinger Syndrome transfer onto their own Blu-ray through a partnership contract where Vinegar Syndrome receives first dibs on the upgraded, high definition 1080p, 2K transfer from the original amera negative with the title holding partner, Troma, releasing their own Blu-ray upon after the agreed term and the VS edition now out of print circulation.  The identical AVC encoded onto a BD50 “Frightmare” is presented on a Tromatic Special Edition set that retains the same quality as the Vinegar Syndrome 2021 release even, carrying over some Vinegar Syndrome special features.  Graded toward a dark tone, Joel King’s diffused backlighting and primary color tint elevates “Frightmare’s” kitschy, campy posture toward saturated spooky atmospherics.  Details are more than generally reproduced with deep absorbing in the smaller aspects of eliciting skin surfaces and object textures, such as the mansion wood-grain aesthetic and cobweb strung attic.  There are darker scenes that have unavoidable crush outside the colorful haze key lighting, but most retain pitchy space in the 1.78:1 aspect ratioed framing.  The English audio mix is a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix that also the same as Vinegar Syndrome’s release that has adequate audio propagation and diffusion without the lift of distinct layer and multi-channeling.  All through single channel can collide at times, especially between Jerry Mosely’s (“Bloodtide”) inclusively gothic score and the dialogue, but despite the rough audio patches, the single-conduit tracks are constructively discernible for a better part of the runtime.  English subtitles are available.  Special features are blend between Vinegar Syndrome produced historical commentary with David Del Valle and David DeCoteau, a now historical commentary by The Hysteria Continues podcast hosts, an archived interview with director Normal Thaddeus Vane, and a video interview featurette with director of photography Joel King and Troma exclusive supplementaries that are not entirely related to the feature, those include an old Debbie Rechon and Lloyd Kaufman generic intro from the original DVD version (Rechon and Kaufman a years younger), Lloyd Kaufman gives his personal lesson opinion to aspire indie filmmakers from the set of “Meat for Satan’s Ice Box,” the music video for “INNARDS!,” an artwork gallery, the original theatrical trailer, and the ever included Troma Radiation March.  “Frightmare” receives new Troma sleeve art that covers the macabre more than the usual campy slapstick with a horror flair, slipped inside a Blu-ray Amaray with no extra accoutrements inside or on the reverse side the sleeve.  The 86-minute Troma release is region free and is like the R-rated version, much like the Vinegar Syndrome was, but is unlisted on the backside or on the disc.

Last Rites: A supernatural slasher gothic in tone and crude around the edges, “Frightmare” is one of Troma’s more earnest acquirements into the horror genre that looks now leagues better in high-definition with Joel King’s hazy effervescent lighting, Norman Thaddeous Vane’s looping self-referential narrative, and reliable physical gore.

It’s not a Nightmare. It’s a “Frightmare” on Blu-ray!

EVIL Pays High Dollar to Hunt, Kill, and Play With their Prey! “Game in the Woods” reviewed! (Jinga Films – Danse Macabre / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Survive the “Game in the Woods!” Buy the DVD!

After her grandfather’s death, Ash travels through Texas with her brother Ted and girlfriend Sam to his isolated ranch cabin to be the first to claim his most valuable possessions before their Ash’s cousin, Bobbie Jo.  They arrive to find the cabin unlocked but about the same as it always been and go into woods for a little rest and relaxation, enjoying nature with a little alcoholic to supplement the relief of tension between the turbulent odds of Ash’s fast-and-loose ways and Sam’s more strict conservatism in regard to their relationship.  When they found a spray painted, screaming woman with a metal collar around her neck and a bear trap lodged into her ankle, they found themselves in the middle of a hunting party of masked men with melee weapons.  Ran by The Game Warden, Ash’s grandfather leased the land for a deadly game of sadistic clients hunting down non-English speaking immigrants for sport and depravity with their bodies no matter if they were alive or deceased. 

A surely bastardized version of “The Most Dangerous Game,” a novel that’s been re-imagined many times over about one man’s obsessive hunting for man, director Mike McCutchen follows up his debut violent chase thriller film “The Next Kill” with “A Game in the Woods” as his sophomore feature that eases him into the horror and exploitation subgenre.  McCutchen cowrites the script with Drew Thomas, the first feature film writing credit for the “Sex Terrorists on Wheels” cinematographer, and is based off a story by the collaboration between McCutchen and Drew Guajardo set in the boondocks of nowhere, Texas where land is aplenty and help is scarce if cried for.  The 2024 produced picture is a product of McCutchen’s Austin, TX based Fault Pictures and is produced by J.J. Weber (“The Next Kill”) with Andrew Bragdon and Kyle Seipp serving associate producers with Lonnie Seipp in the executive producer role. 

Eleanor Newman and Emily Skeen play the lesbian couple Ash and Sam and I make it a point to call out their characters’ sexuality because it feels inherently important to the story.  Newman comes to light in the sophomore Mike McCutchen feature that takes her from out of a minor role to a key lead, if not near final girl protagonist, in the unconventional fearful female but rather head-on heroine in “A Game in the Woods.”  Skeen’s more sensible Sam becomes a quasi-damsel in distress without the distressing part but tries to formulate plans on the fly to escape her demented captors.  Ash and Sam have a palpable troubled relationship like oil and water but find themselves commingling when the right sadistic additives are involved, spearheaded by the apathetic Game Warden from John P. Crowley who also finds himself in a more visible and prominent principal role.  Crowley’s Game Warden harnesses a Bill Moseley energy and sarcastic tone but not in a carbon copy way that adjusts just enough to make confident and cocky Game Warden is own.  The lesbian portion of Ash and Sam does feel engrained into the narrative, especially with two women with shortened names for Ashley and Samantha but it also implies a male identity, as if equal sex.  All the women in the story have a common them about them too, they all have tenacity and a fighting spirit from Ash and Sam’s battling Crowley and the masked hunters to the captured women who fight and kill, to even Ash’s cousin, Bobbie Jo (Grace Robbins), who joins in on the offensive fight for survival.  There are zero helpless women, which is an amazing elemental theme and characterization.  As mentioned, all the male hunters wear masks, hiding themselves behind theiran masks, and the hunted men are tied to an object, make poor decisions, and just have no fight in them.  Even Ash’s brother Ted (Jamison Pitts) doesn’t put up resistance when confront and is more of the farting, comic relief.  Aside from the Game Warden, the male presence is weak charactered by far.  The hunters and the hunted fill out with Gary Kent, Steve Wilson, Kevin Corn, Caroline Schmitt, Doug Field, Scott Kimbrough, J.J. Weber, Ray L. Perez, Kyle Seipp, Yane Carvalho, Lonnie Seipp, Morgan Faber, and Michelle Mendiola with Lloyd Kaufman (“The Toxic Avenger”) making a cameo appearance. 

Working on one’s relationship with their partner usually takes a time, some self- reflection, or maybe even a little therapy.  For Ash and Sam, they come together be means of violence, tossed into the throes of their grandfather’s ghastly involvement in man’s flawed thirst for the cruel and unusual sadism, and though there’s never a come to Jesus epiphanic moment that they can overcome anything, the blood-soaked trial by fire is proof enough.  McCutchen immerses the women, and explosive collar device and spray-painted prey, into a whole new world of hurt in Earth’s backyard.  The clandestine organization the Game Warden works for laces are slightly untied and unkempt with the full scope of their national, maybe even international, chapters of a snuff wonderland where murder is king and nearly anything goes from chopping up bodies to molesting corpses.  McCutchen brings enough gore to the table without it being over gratuitous and overkill, literally.  Exploding heads, a chainsaw eviscerated torso, body parts strewn here, there, everywhere are what to mostly expect as the game devolves with the hunters becoming the hunted as the emotional depth is quickly pushed aside for the conflict ensued rising action, leaving no time for Ash and Sam to master their relationship troubles as the spider never contemplates life when winged food is snared in it’s web. 

From Danse Macabre and Jinga Films LTD comes “A Game in the Woods” on region free, R-rated DVD.  Encoded with MPEG-2 compression onto a single layer DVD5, the film is presented in with an upscale 720p resolution and a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  Basking in the warmth of a dessert brown and tan, Cinematographer Zedrick Hamblin DiMenno opts for a natural approach aesthetic that focuses heavily on the medium-close to extreme closeup shots of gory bits and pieces of tear away flesh.  There’s nothing too terribly stylistic to note with only a hint of television glow and a momentarily use of key lighting with interior scenes.  Compression encoding goes without a hitch that captures image reproduction just find for viewing pleasures, losing only some minor background details of blended foliage and objects viewed from afar.  The English audio formats include a PCM stereo 2.0 and a 5.1 Surround.  The surround sound mix will be the preferred option dependent on your audio setup as the environment layers diffuse evenly through the back and side channels, leaving dialogue and proximity action, such as the kill scenes, to translate with full-bodied effect to squeeze out every squish and squirt from the practical effects carcass.  There are ideal pitch, tone, and range with the clear and prominent dialogue without any underlining interference or hissing effect through the clear, digital recording.  English subtitles are available for selection.  Aside from the feature trailer on the main static menu, there is no other encoded bonus content.  Though the movie is engaging enough through evisceration through torture and there’s a a glimmering theme of women empowerment, if I saw this DVD on the store shelf, the cover art isn’t attractive enough to pickup with its dark imagery of a shadowy hunter drawing his bow toward something off scene.  The façade doesn’t offer a flutter of fancy and there’s no other physical features to warrant a second glance if physical media shopping.  However, give this region free film a once over and there’s a solid film underneath’s it’s dull shell. 

Last Rites: Despite the run-of-the-mill, uninspired DVD cover, check out this sadistic Jinga Films and Danse Macabre “Game in the Woods” where the hunt is solely for the thrill to kill.

Survive the “Game in the Woods!” Buy the DVD!

Alien EVIL Will Suck Your Blood and Tear You From Limb-to-Limb! “Vampire Zombies…From Space!” reviewed! (Cleopatra Entertainment / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Vampire Zombies…From Space” Invades Physica Media! Check it Out Here!

One night in the small U.S. town of Marlow, a flying saucer beams down a bloodthirsty invader and obliterates to smithereens the wife of Tobacco farmer Roy MacDowell’s wife and their two daughters.  Labeled crazy and perceived a wife murderer, Roy and his daughters must contend with the suspicious townsfolk years later until strange occurrences of UFO sightings, unkillable humanoids, and a string of grisly half-eaten corpses pop-up all-around Marlow.  New to the force Officer Wallace suspects an alien encounter from his own similar experience in the big city but the local leadership are hard pressed to believe what’s really happening under their noses, or rather above their heads as an alien race of vampires are planning to take over Earth, beginning with the town of Marlow now they have been inoculated from the ill-effects of the crucifix.   The only side effect is it turns any human bit into a mindless vampire zombie.  With Marlow in jeopardy with an all-out invasion, Wallace and those with previous encounters with the otherworldly invaders lead the town to defend itself from a vampire attack and domination. 

A tributing throwback to the 1950’s science fictional B-movies, “Vampire Zombies…From Space!” is the 2024 Michael Stasko (“Iodine”) directed and cowritten, black-and-white shot picture that recalls McCarthyism fears of a communism invasion in the United States in complete metaphor fashion by replacing the Soviets with vampires not of this world.  However, the film is not a pure-bred homage to the antiquated subgenre of miniatures and elaborate sets as it applies satire and farce comedy, excessive foul language not used during that period of time, and gore…lots of vampire, zombie, man-made gore. Co-written alongside with comedic duo Jakob Skrzypa and Alex Forman (“Luke’s House of Spooks”), “Vampire Zombies…From Space!” is a whole new breed birthed from a historical outréness meant to strike fear and awareness through a science fiction medium.  The Canadian production is from Stasko’s The Dot Film Company, produced by the director, both writers, and fellow “Iodine” filmmaker Ted Bezaire, and representatively sold worldwide by Michael Kraetzer and Nicholas Onetti’s company, Black Mandala (“Francesca,” “Abrakadabra”).

The story essentially follows three groups of characters.  Beginning with the human side of things, new to town Officer Wallace, played by Rashaun Baldeo, finds himself assigned to Marlow after witnessing what he claims are aliens who killed his partner, and he’s subordinate to the resident Chief Ed Clarke with an enacting alcoholic cynicism by Andrew Bee (“A Taste of Blood.” ).  The veteran actor Bee is lopsidedly more comfortable in his role than newcomer Baldeo is rather stiff around the officer’s gills, especially for a backstory consisting of personal death and aliens at the forefront of it but Baldeo and Bee compliment each other enough to pull off good cop and rough around the edges cop.  The next set of Earthlings come from Jessica Antovski (“The Dread”) as the single MacDowell left alive after Mary’s family falls victims to the initial landings of a vampire invasion and she’s joined Oliver Georgiou as a 50’s greaser Wayne who also faced firsthand an extraterrestrial tragedy with the loss of his brother but knows the method of how to kill them.  Antovski and Georgio represent the opposite end of the spectrum – the girl from the family who’s a town joke and the hip, cool kid with friends – but fall for each other in time of crisis, even more so when Wayne’s hand-in-hand instruction with Mary to put into real-time, stake-perforating practice that has an ecstasy emulation effect provided when there’s sexual intercourse.  The last grouping is amongst the vampiric villains and who being the best example of a vampire other than Count Dracula.  Played in a classic, Bela Lugosi-style by Craig Closter (“The Eternal Present”), Dracula’s on the verge of being out of the vampire empire, with a council by an Elvira-like Vampira, A Francis Ford Coppola Dracula-esque version with the large white rotunda for hair, and a classic Nosferatu with a round misshapen head, elongated and pointy ears, and two large fangs front and center, who are not pleased at Dracula’s handling of the Earth appropriation tactics.  With the help of his crucifix-nullifying vaccine creating son, Dylan, Dracula has a chance to change his fate, at least for now.  Robert Kemeny’s first acting role perfectly suits the nerdy and angsty teen vampire, one who very much wishes to be left alone and bemoans his pushy and workaholic father Dracula until his dad’s life is on the line.  Closter’s a passable Dracula for this story’s comedic purpose, but perhaps not as terrifying as others in the same cloak and white makeup shoes prior to his performance.  There are a pair of genre cameos that come up with Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman (“The Toxic Avenger”) as the public masturbator and the original Barbara from George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” Judith O’Dea as Vampira, plus the cast completes with Simon Reynolds (“The Gate II: The Trespassers”), Erik Helle, Mark Lefebvre (“The Eternal Present”), David Liebe Hart, and Martin Quellette.

“Vampire Zombies…From Space!” black-and-white homage to the mid-20th century science fiction film works on multiple levels.  As a science fiction film, practical miniatures are used for the droning flying saucers complete with visual effect laser blasts and its collective beehive space station where Dracula formulates and spearheads all his diabolical plans and convenes with council on holographic communication in a “Star Wars” fashion.  As a horror, a quintessential classic Dracula and general collective of timeless vampire pale face and fangs on every bloodsucker co-armed by the George Romero claw and disembowel flesh and organ eating zombie make for a gory good time.  As a comedy, dark humor gags of ostentatious gore and death using practical effects, social commentary satire surrounding tobacco and ambiguous double-entendres of pedo-politicians, over-the-top era specific dialect and expressions, and, of course, Lloyd Kaufman jerking around on the Marlow laws as the menacing public masturbator.  Stasko shows an understanding of the 1950s B-picture and aggrandizes the hell out of it by folding its absurd premise into the antiquated, monochrome aesthetic that removes the monotony often times those picture can produce and replaces it with more modern but subtle approaches that don’t dull contemporary genre fans.  The third act sprawls the chaos with vampire helmed attack saucers, zombies ripping the shreds out of Marlow’s residents, individualized and isolated scuffles between principals provide microbreak beats in between the major carnage, and ends with an all classic good-guy turnaround when all is thought lost.  Stasko lays all the cards out with “Vampire Zombies…From Space!” by never introducing mystery into the mix.  With all the work done in frame, audiences can literally sit back and just watch an old timey bloodbath of vampire and zombie invasion pandemonium. 

Cleopatra Entertainment, the filmic subsidiary to music label Cleopatra Record, reigns down terror from the skies with “Vampire Zombies… From Space!” on Blu-ray home video . The AVC encoded, 1080p high-def resolution, BD25 is presented entirely in black-and-white but while the black-and-white is a nice touch for honoring science fictions from half a century ago, the feature is not presented in a 1.33:1 full screen that was the common aspect ratio of the time.  Instead, the film has a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio, which is not going to make or break the overall aesthetic but it’s a thoughtful touch that’s forgotten.  Without the dynamic range of color, the lower capacity disc provides sufficient compression with no signs of artefacts.  Even with the green screen elements, which there are many, doesn’t show signs of variability when the action is high, fast, and full of components.  Details are beholden the monochromatic scale but looks quite elaborate in every inch of the frame from the shooting sets, real and fabricated, to the period outfits.  Audio consists of a compressed English Dolby Digital 5.1 and a Stereo 2.0.  The 5.1 mix seizes the cacophonic cluster when the vampires and vampire zombies invade Marlow where land and air attack emanate a wide range of sounds from military gunfire to UFO laser blasts, plus all the melee skirmishes and squish gore, worked in and around the clean and forefront dialogue track.  Ian McGregor Smith’s score harks back to the harrowing brass and percussion of big band compositions with a few more unconventional minor key instruments specific to the science fiction and horror elements.  English subtitles are optionally available. Special features include an audio commentary from director Michael Stasko and producers Jakob Skrzypa and Alex Forman, a 16-minute cast and crew interviews that goes behind the scenes into principal production moments (not listed as a special feature on back cover), a Judith O’Dea online video-conference interview about her experience working on the film (not listed on the back cover), a Lloyd Kaufman video conference interview about his experience (not listed on the back cover), five deleted scenes, a 90-second clip of the film’s premier at the Windsor International Film Festival held at Chrysler Theater, a still slide show, and the official trailer with promotional clips.  There’s also trailers for other Cleopatra Entertainment presented films.  The Blu-ray comes in standard Amaray with one-sided cover art, a character composition arranged in a flying V with Dracula largely in the middle and designed in a classic approach font and format.  The not rated film has a runtime of 98 minutes and is encoded for all regions.

Last Rites: Fans of “Zombies from the Stratosphere,” “War of the Worlds,” and “Planet of the Vampires,” will get a kick out of “Zombie Vampires…From Space” in all its blend of horror and science fiction glory of golden era B-pictures.

“Vampire Zombies…From Space” Invades Physica Media! Check it Out Here!

To Be or Not To Be EVIL? That is the Question! “#Shakespeare Shitstorm” reviewed! (Troma / 3-Disc 4K UHD and Standard Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

A Wild and Crazy Shakespearean Parody of “The Tempest!” Own it here!

Inspired by William Shakespeare’s revenge and restoration themed play, “The Tempest,” the ostracized pharmaceutical scientist Prospero plots his revenge with whale laxative as gushes of multiple killer whale defecation shipwreck the excrement slathered global elite to the shores of Tromaville, New Jersey where Prospero owns a nightclub and laboratory for his mad experiments.  Miranda, his beautiful daughter blinded by the Trauma of her mother’s suicide, falls for Ferdinand, son of the rich pharmaceutical king Big Al who, along with Prospero’s twin sister Antoinette, betrayed Prospero to exile and displacement.  Revenge is a dish best served as cocaine tainted with mutant growth hormones concocted in Prospero lab.  With the help of a wheelchair bound crack-whore as his right-hand pusher, Prospero’s vindictive plan melds bodies and bodily fluids together in one flesh heap of disfigured dysfunction against the conglomerating corporate greed in the midst of two lovers formulating a bound beyond partisan lines.

Troma Entertainment president Lloyd Kaufman returns to the director’s chair to helm a classical rendition of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” with the NSFW eloquent title “#Shakespeare Shitstorm” and, as any self-respecting Tromaville fan knows, Troma titles can be extreme literally and, in this case, the adaptation is one big splash park of diarrhea.  “The Tempest” isn’t the company’s first re-imagining of a Shakespeare’s work with “Tromeo and Juliette” being the humble career beginnings of now mega-MCU and DCU director James Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Superman”).  For Kaufman, “#Shakespeare Shitstorm” might be one of the last directing efforts for the independent filmmaker and social justice warrior as he reaches into his 80th year of age, but that doesn’t stop the 50-year moviemaking vet from passionately wanting to create art from behind the camera to in front of it with this Brandon Bassham script based off a story between Kaufman, Gabriel Friedman (“Slashing:  The Final Beginning”), and, of course, the Bard of Avon.  While Shakespeare doesn’t foot the bill for the budget, him and Troma do have something wildly in common being masters of the low-cost arts as Kaufman, Troma cofounded Michael Herz, Doug Sakmann, Justin A. Martell, and John Patrick Brennan produce “#Shakespeare Shitstorm” on a shoestring budget put muster together a wild and crazy story and effects movie.

Kaufman’s so passionately about making art and filmmaking, and also watching his bottom line, that he also dons a dual role playing the revenge-seeking and masterclass scientist Prospero and crossdressing, which he’s done frequently and without a morsel of shame, to become the treacherous twin sister and marketing guru Antoinette.  Kaufman’s continues to throw caution to the wind in an unabashed performance that’s outrageously crude and lined with verbose dialogue that’s definitely memorized with monotonic intention but none of that should be surprising as Troma was built on fervor absurdity, and all the actors have a range of tactlessness that runs the gamut.  The eclectic personalities never conflict with overlapping or feel forced as sometimes they often do with Troma or with farce comedies in general.  Each character shines on an idiosyncratic level, such as Abraham Sparrow’s Big Al’s magnified pompous and drug-fueled pharmaceutical big shot, Amanda Flowers (“Werewolf Bitches from Outer Space”) crack-whore cripple Ariel, and Dylan Mars Greenberg (“Psychic Vampire”) as a social media influence and justice warrior.  Kate McGarrigle and Erin Patrick Miller, like Kaufman’s Prospero and Antoinette, play two characters from the Shakespearean play with Miranda and Ferdinand respectively.  Their opposite sides, Romeo & Juliet-esque affair has more an even keel, still absurd without a doubt, but better balances the stranger side of the deep character pool.  Let’s also note that “#Shakespeare Shitstorm” is also a musical that puts more effort in synching action and lyrics into a frame already filled with slapstick surrealism and socio-political satire.  The cast rounds out with Frazer Brown, Monique Dupree, Teresa Hui, Ahkai Franklin, Zoë Geltman, Zac Amico, Elizabeth D’Ambrosio, Nadia White, Dai Green, Vada Callisto, and special guest stars Ming Chen, Tommy Pistol, Bill Weeden, Julie Anne Prescott, Doug Sakmann, and Catherine Corcoran.

If afraid to get down and dirty with drowning in logs of whale feces, be offended by the large, and small, phalluses and other nudist behavior, be enraged by the comedic appropriation of the disabled, transgendered, and race communities, or just become upset at the smallest off-kilter behavior and uncouth conduct, then “#Shakespeare Shitstorm” should be on your top ten list of must watch because that’s Troma’s whole schtick is to challenge the uptight and corporate commercial narrative that has everyone on edge and afraid to walk on the permissible wild side, especially in art that’s supposed to covered by freedom of expression and speech.  Kaufman puts the light on the irony, the preposterousness, and the two-faced hypocrisy that is the dark side of social media, such as cancel culture, which is in itself is an ironical dig at far liberal thinking, a stance bred from the same gene pool that has supported Troma over the last half a century, but that doesn’t mean Troma stops parodying and caricaturing the gentrifying and oligarchical elite with their own brand of downright vulgarity, and being funny and rights advocating while doing it, such as an extreme deluge of whale feces being evacuated right onto a luxury yacht, shipwrecking the survivors onto the seedy shores where a tainted drug nightclub brings revenge to a fleshy, body-horror amalgam finale that is Brian Yuzna’s “Society” on steroids and Viagra.  Characters Miranda and Ferdinand represent the best parts of both worlds, restoring and evolving out from their parental trauma induced wormwood ways into love and hope, two core values Troma preaches from the rooftop.

“#Shakespeare Shitstorm” receives a huge 3-disc UHD Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray release that’s….not a shit storm.  The UHD is HEVC encoded, 2160p ultra-high definition resolution, BD66 with an HDR10 range and the standard Blu-ray is AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD50.  Troma pulls out all the stops for what could have been Kaufman’s last feature film directorial, leaving nothing to chance with detail and sound immersion to make sure audiences get into the sticky crevices of every mutated orifice.  Cloudy with haze, bathed in neon lighting, and lots of rough, low-lighting doesn’t provide the utmost specifics surrounding every textural aspect but there’s plenty to field in both formats that warrant squeamish reactions and repulsive states through the mound of transformative flesh that for the most of the time show their fabricated prosthetic qualities.  While both formats produce a vivid image, neither one of them really stand out above the other with only minor, insignificant detailing coming through the UHD.  The film is presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  An English DTS-HD 5.1 master audio mix is surprisingly utilized!  Environmental ambience, diegetic and non-diegetic, has isolated channeling, such as the pitter-patter of rain through the back channels, that provide a layered sound design and added depth to the picture.  The dialogue, through regular conversation and musical numbers, retains a clear understanding without any feebleness and often times with Troma productions, the audio can sound one-dimension, but this Kaufmann film is a multi-diagonal product with an abundance of surround sound through all the bodily fluids and it’s acts of secretion sounds.  Rob Gabriele, Filipe Melo, and Louise Aronowitz music and compositions run with the Troma tide in executing highlighted whimsical and comedically inclined numbers for the actors to either be engulfed by or lip-sync.  English subtitles are available.  Two discs packed with extras extend the endless absurdity.  First disc includes a typical introduction from Lloyd Kaufman, also available before running the feature, who teases the road ahead and shows enthusiasm for the film’s UHD properties, there’s also two commenter tracks – one with Lloyd Kaufman and fellow producers Justin Martell, John Brennan, and Mark Finch and the other with actors Zac Amico, Teresa Hui, Amanda Flowers, and Dylan Mars Greenberg, producer John Brennan and production designer Yuki Nakamura, who both also work on the Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs, regaling their tales through production designing, a music video Tromatized featuring Abbie Harper, a Troma Now advert featuring two lone Tromettes bored and looking for something to do/watch when Uncle Lloyd gives them Troma streaming guidance before locking lips, and the teaser plus three theatrical trailers for the feature.  The bonus 2nd disc includes the full-length, behind-the-scenes documentary Brown is the Warmest Color (a riff on “Blue is the Warmest Color”) that follows the pre-principal-and-post production and all its departmental successes, problems, and day-to-day that though even shows how ardent Lloyd Kaufman is about his on-set direction for art, love, and expression, it also does show how tyrannical, at times, he can be on set with an impatient nature and rigorous time productivity.  Also including on the disc is Tromalbania as the production goes to Albania to finish the yacht sequence, Troma in Times Square is another video marketing maneuver for the company’s streaming service by having Toxic Avenger face off against the evil Netpix, isolated musical numbers from the film in #Shakespeare’s Shitstorm:  Musical Numbers, and the auditions for select roles, including but not limited to Dylan Greenberg Mars, Nadia White, and Amanda Flowers.  The encoded features are definitely good insight and tourist attraction beacons that depict movie magic, intent, and can offer comedic and cringeworthy states of independent filmmaking, but packing a punch as well is the packaging that offers embossed tactile elements of the O-slip with some sick (awesome) illustrative, back-and-front artwork by Sadist Art Designs  The black UHD Amaray sports a white trimmed version of the O-slip backside artwork and inside is a hinged flap that tightly secures discs 1 (UHD feature) and 2 (standard Blu-ray feature) with the third disc snapped securely onto the interior back cover.  Each disc displays a different story depiction with either the front O-slip art on the UHD disc with the standard Blu-ray and the bonus disc with memorable movie imagery.  The self-labeled comedy-epic, with gashes of unhinged body-horror, has a runtime of 94 minutes with the not rated 4K UHD disc is encoded as region free while the Blu-rays are region A.

Last Rites: “#Shakespeare Shitstorm” may be a lot of things – crude, offensive, over-the-top – but Lloyd Kaufman’s supposed last magnum opus seizes every opportunity to make a statement, one that’s literally on a crapload of sociopolitical and cultural renaissance level!

A Wild and Crazy Shakespearean Parody of “The Tempest!” Own it here!

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

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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