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A Homosexual Hooks Up with a Porn Star and Treats Her EVILLY Sleazy. “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” reviewed! (Full Moon Features / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” Finally Recognized by Charles Band and Full Moon Features!

In the fictious setting of Burbank, France, a distraught and wandering Paul grieves over the loss of his gay, drag queen lover.  Wallowing in despair as well as barely entertaining his lover’s mother, Paul is on a half-hearted hunt for a new apartment and runs into Jeannine when the two meet looking at the same rental.  A mostly sexualized relationship ensues at the apartment with Paul treating the beautiful French woman and aspiring adult star like a piece of meat in a homosexual way, stemmed by his inadequacies in bed.  Jeanne, becoming fed up with Paul’s obsessive and polarizing behavior during their romantic tryst, lashes out in various ways, one as a gun-toting adult starlet that makes shooting scenes with her all that more dangerous to one’s health.  Paul’s health too becomes a target as Jeanne’s ultimate distaste for his floundering and obsessive ways, especially in condemning her pornographic lifestyle.

“The Last Foxtrot in Burback” is a film Charles Band (“Puppet Master”) desperately tried to erase and forget along with then newcomer editor, “Halloween’s” John Carpenter, as both filmmakers disassociated and disavowed its existed because of a couple reasons:  1) the romantic satirical spoof was not a horror/sci-fiction film both of them wanted to make at the time and 2) audiences were not appreciating it’s parodical and fleshy colored luster.  The film it removes inspirational humorous bones from is Marlon Brando’s “The Last Tango in Paris,” helmed by Bernardo Bertolucci who is dug a path of steamy sexual dramas, including “Stealing Beauty” and “The Dreamers.”  “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” aimed to capitalize on its 1972 pushing-the-boundaries of sexualization success with writers Bill Haggard and Sam Vaughn behind the screenplay pages.  Band produced the film with filming held in Los Angeles and Marc Perilli serving as executive producer under the Federal Film Incorporation.

In his best Marlon Brando impersonation, Michael Pataki (“Halloween 4:  The Return of Michael Myers,” “The Baby”) opens his pastiche performance with hyperbole and flamboyance to emulate his version Paul to Brando’s version of Paul while still dishing the Brando-isms and deliveries.  Pataki also opens his trench coat to open-faced frontal nudity.  Yet, the one who is mostly nude is Sherry Denton in the role of Frenchwoman Jeanne.  Her role does harness the same essence of “The Last Tango in Pari’s” Maria Schneider, making Denton’s Jenne harder to define as she absorbs Paul’s verbal and emotional abuse, as she contemplates their arranged sexual rendezvous against her emotional withstand all, and how she manages a life in the adult industry as a sex object that runs parallel with being too a sex object outside the profession.  Pataki and Denton’s scenes together resemble that of a mother humoring a spoiled child.  Denton’s rather levelheaded compared to a full-blown exaggeration of Marton Brando in Michael Pataki with acute yelling spats and irrational sex requests that bleed into pleading and disappointment on a childish person of imprudence.  The gut punch of obsession, desire, and more refined melodrama is lost within Band’s spoof in a combination of bad writing and missed opportunities to sell the performances.  While this version of “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” is not the pornographic scene splice in version, the actors still must be comfortable with each other in the story’s requirement of genitalia proximity and exposure as some scenes can be often graphic in its simulation of sex as well as be humiliating.  The cast rounds out with Merlouch Drabin, Sally Marr (“Young Lust”), Simmy Bow, and I. William Quinn (“Alligator”).

Supposedly, “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” is a shot-for-shot spoof but Charles Band’s picture has jagged edges around a nonconformist narrative whereas “The Last Tango in Paris” abides by more linear storytelling.  The gags are not particular funny unless you’ve seen the Brando film and have a puerile sense of humor, but even then, the gags are terribly heavy fisted in a strive to really make light of sexual casualness and obsession in a conduit of Brando’s mumble and gravelly discord with the occasional outburst of hyperbolic flair.  For those who haven’t seen the Brando film, “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” will be totally lost without a reference, especially the France set story shows it’s budget with the English-laden business and directional signs that play into the running gag of the fictious city that combines Burbank, California and Paris, France.   One could see why Charles Band and John Carpenter wanted to disassociate and distance themselves from this film but for both filmmakers, it’s a significant first film that kind of redirected their career paths when they knew comedy, such as this one, wasn’t their forte.  Charles Band even went as far as destroying all copies of the film and changing his name to a pseudonym, Carlo Bokino, to erase all involvement but he unsuccessful and a print was discovered unphased by his attempts to eradicate all known evidence.  Today, Band accepts his first film and even catalogue’s it with a No. 0 on the spine that makes it official Charlie canon. 

The first official and unofficial film of Charles Band’s career comes to Blu-ray home video from Band’s Full Moon Features in an unlikely genre release from the horror and science fiction regular.  The AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition, BD25 comes uncut and uncensored, transferred from an original negative donated from the UCLA archives under an anonymous donor.  Not much is stated here about what kind of a transfer we’re treated but the 2K scan appears adequate with a freshened image with moderate color saturation and details.  There are times the image appearance has a slightly faded realism, similar to that of William Friedkin’s “The French Connection” where details can be soft at times and ungraded.  Most scenes are better than not with palpable textures around more closeups and medium shots.  Skin tones are little more on the orange side, likely due to the chemical dye in the exposure that has an orange base which results in a natural, fringed tint.  The Blu-ray is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio 1.78:1.  Audio comes with an English LPCM 5.1 and a Stereo 2.0.  Both audio formats provide a crisp track of a dialogue, ambience, and what soundtrack is present, but the surround sound does little to enhance the film with its lack of off-camera or multi-directional scenes with mostly centered performances by the actors and not a ton of action.  The stereo 2.0 suffices.  No hissing or crackling present and the interference is kept to a suitable minimum to digest all its wacky dialogue.  The physical presence of Full Moon’s Blu-ray runs the same course as the others with a standard Amaray Blu-ray case and single-sided sleeve art with no other tangible attributes.  The nearly full-bodied orange colored sleeve mirrors “The Last Tango in Paris’” art to an extent and Full Moon uses stills with nudity on the back cover as an added perk.  The 56 minute Blu-ray, shorter because the cut of the hardcore inserts, is rated R and unlocked for multi-region playback. 

Last Rites: “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” is a hard sell with its flat lampooning of “The Last Tango in Paris.” A handful of sleaze to be had but there’s nothing more cringy than watching histrionics for an extremely niche market.

“The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” Finally Recognized by Charles Band and Full Moon Features!

When EVIL is so Ingrained, Drastic, Dangers Measures Must Be Taken. “Confessions of a Police Captain” reviewed! (Radiance Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Confessions of a Police Captain” Now Available on Blu-ray!

Police captain Giacomo Bonavia is a dog with a bone when it comes to pinning an arrest against the corrupt and criminal kingpin Ferdinando Lomunno.  Lumunno is seemingly immune and untouchable to conviction, having been acquitted of charges three times already while in Bonavia’s custody after key witnesses go missing or are found dead deemed by accidental circumstances.  Determined to stick it to Lumunno by going outside the limitations of the law, Bonavia strong arms the release of a professional hitman from a psychiatric ward and who has a lethal grudge against Lumunno for dating his sister.  When the plan backfires in a bloodbath, the captain becomes the subject of investigation for assistant D.A. Traini who suspects Bonavia to be no less corrupt than those he pursues, but when the evidence suggests corruption at the highest level within the public office, Traini wavers on the captain’s crusade against inexorable crime.  

Before moving into a follow-up of powerful possession of one of America’s favorite haunted houses in “Amityville II:  The Possession” and even before formulating a planned coup of an Arican nation with a meticulous plan that involves the hijacking of a major hotel and taking key hostages in “Goodbye & Amen,” Italian director Damiano Damiani tackled corruption on every level with “Confessions of a Police Captain,” released 1971.  Originally titled “Confessione di un commissario di polizia al procuratore della repubblica,” the script is written by Damiani, who usually has his hands mixed into his directed projects, and Salvatore Laurani, based off a story by Damiani and Italian genre utility screenwriter Fulvio Gicco Palli (“The Designated Victim”).  The Italian crime thriller is shot on location in Palmero of the Sicily region and is produced by “Hitch-Hike” producers Mario Montnari and Bruno Turchetto with Euro International Films and Explorer Films ’58 as the coproduction studios.

One of the biggest names in Hollywood shares the screen with one of the biggest names in Italian cinema as questionable colleagues against crime as Martin Balsam of “Psycho” and “12 Angry Men” plays the cynical police captain Bonavia who has lost all faith in the justice system and takes a covert vigilante approach with a dangerous plan that hopefully kills two birds with one stone.  Balsam fashions Bonavia as a man exhausted by law’s red tape, lack of enforcement, and the justice system need for hard evidence, turning the hardnose captain into playing the game just as the criminals do with deceit, guile, and ruthlessness.  While Bonavia’s intentions are in the right place but executed with malice and frustration, deputy D.A. Traini sees the world in black and white and not as red and complex as Bonavia as the deputy is almost near clueless to the corruption with his straightforward approach to the justice system her serves, believing it works without wickedness.  “Django” actor Franco Nero compliments Martin Balsam’s tranquil plotting and coverup with headstrong thoroughness to cover every base to nab the captain in his own misstep or vocally browbeaten and accuse him into a confession.  Nero purposefully feels lost but never out of the cat-and-mouse game that he plays to a character’s fault, losing sight of the real danger of blatant criminality and the scum that pull the strings right under his nose.  The supporting cast includes colorful peripheral characters who double as cynical expendable fodder or are possibly a double agent with their own set of vices with Marilù Tolo (“The Scorpion with Two Tails”), Luciano Catenacci (“Syndicate Sadists”), Arturo Dominici (“Castle of Blood”), Claudio Gora (“Seven Blood-Stained Orchids”), Adolfo Lastretti (“Venus in Furs”), Giancarlo Prete (“Escape from the Bronx”), and Michelle Gammino (“The Virgo, the Taurus and the Capricorn”) in those roles. 

As far as Italian crime thrillers go, “Confessions of a Police Captain” is about as brutal and unforgiving as they come with a medley of fair game for mortal coil and where high rankings, who are opposed to pure corruption, must go beyond that upstanding public official role to bend or break the law to be effective against the insidious nature and unkillable cockroach conduct of crime.  The story puts to question the moral judgement of good men who want to do the right thing but our bound by the shackles of statutes and can do nothing about the misuse of the justice system and how career criminals in high places can get away with murder without even a scratch.  Is Captain Bonavia the good guy of the story as he goes after a hefty criminal or is he the story’s villain for stirring up trouble with a plotted assassination attempt that in turn leads to a string of homicides?  The latter seems pretty damning but, at the same time, it exposes more truth to the underlining criminal element that disguises itself as powerful public figures who are supposed to be on the right side of the law.  Audiences will be neutral with Captain Bonavia and feel more relatable with Deputy D.A. Traini and his confusion and frustration about the internal conflicts of the law, the transgressions, and the blurred line of vigilantism.  There’s also a remark in the story about how integrated crime is the institutions and this goes as far as being very literal too by comment and even exhibiting a scene of a snuffed-out corpse being encased in cement used for pillars of new skyrise construction.  The ruthless and plausibility of cementing someone inside a concrete pillar is one aspect that makes “Confessions of a Police Captain” a visceral Italian crime thriller amongst an already stacked of powerhouse performance.

Damiano Damiani’s “Confessions of a Police Captain” is a taut crime thriller now available on a 2K transfer restoration, limited-edition Blu-ray from Radiance Films.  The UK distributor releases the Blu-ray for the North American market, encoded with both regions A and B, under is AVC compressed BD50 with Hi-Def, 1080p resolution, and presented in a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio.  The restoration refreshes the image with a stronger color saturation and deeper details that make people and objects pop off screen and have a tactile appearance.  This is the best the Damiani picture has ever looked that remains consistent through the runtime with no issues with the well-preserved and maintained print and no issues with compression codec.  Even wide shots of large landscapes around Palmero, from rock click formations to the cityscape are highly detailed and don’t have that washed out and stretched to lesser image discernability.  The Italian uncompressed PCM mono track offers an about as expected with a post-production, or ADR, audio layer distinctly detached for the action, more so with the dialogue that the action effects as gunshots are particularly well integrated.  Not a native Italian linguist, Balsam’s English performance was noticeably mismatched and had an Italian overlay track with a voice acting dub.  English subtitles are available and they pace well without grammatical error.  Special features include new interviews with actors Franco Nero and Michelle Gammino, a new interview with editor Antonio Siciliano, and a new interview with film score export Lovely Jon.  The new artwork sleeve has a reversible side with a replica of original Italian poster art.  Inside, a limited edition booklet feature a pair of archival interviews with Damiano Damiani conducted by Gerard Langlois and Guy Braucort, cast and crew listing, transfer notes and acknowledgement, and black and white stills from the film within the 23 pages.  Housing the release is a clear Scanova Blu-ray case.  The film is not rated and has a runtime of 104 minutes.

Last Rites: “Confessions of a Police Captain” is the epitome of an Italian police story with subversive city corruption, a vigilante lawman, and unflinching narrative that puts every character in the crosshairs of its noir-like composition.

“Confessions of a Police Captain” Now Available on Blu-ray!

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!

Invincible-Seeking EVIL Loves to Hide Behind Strip Clubs! “Decadent Evil 2” reviewed! (Full Moon Features / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

The Sequel “Decadent EVIL II” Bites Hard! Check It Out!

After barely surviving Morella, Dex and Sugar, along with carrying around the homunculous Marvin, traverse across the country to find a vampire master.  Their plan is to take a drop of his blood needed for a resurrection ritual to bring vampire hunter and Marvin’s son Ivan Burroughs back to life after sacrificing himself to stop the deadly, megalomaniac Morella.  Ivan’s golden tracking cross brings them to midwestern gentleman’s club full of possible seedy suspects as the master vampire – the vampiric-attributed club owner Janos, the stern and scary club manager Burke, or even the club’s beautiful top dancer Lena are all suspects.  To uncover the master vampire, Dex and Sugar work their way to being hired at the club in order to snoop around.  Meanwhile, dancers and customers are winding up dead nearby.  As the investigation continues, Dex, Sugar, Marvin, and even the undead Ivan must work together to find the master vampire and stop him from continuing what Morella started. 

“Decadent Evil II” is a direct sequel to the 2005 original that returns Full Moon founder Charles Band (“Puppet Master”) to the director’s chair and writer Domonic Muir to pen the follow-up.  Same vampire tricks, more topless strippers, and a ragtag team of vampire trackers has this 2007 subsequent feature feel like a heel biter by keeping the story going without a lot of time lapsed.  Band retains his personal interest in pint size creatures and nude women in the sequel while keeping costs down as much as possible with limited locations and special effects fields filled in mostly with strippers doing their routines in between.  Band also returns as producer alongside Bill Barton (“Blood Forest”) and Joe Magna (“Dangerous Worry Dolls”) with James Synder, Jon Morrey, and Dana K. Harrloe serving executive producer under Band’s Wizard Entertainment, now Full Moon Productions.

Jill Michelle and Daniel Lennox return to their respective roles of being a vampire-human love story couple, Sugar and Dex.  No longer hiding secrets from one another and on-the-road together, going from one dingy hotel to the next, the carry around the corpses of Ivan Burroughs in hopes to one day resurrect him by securing master vampire blood.  Ivan Burroughs, unfortunately, is played by a new actor, one who in my opinion is an upgrade from the already great Phil Fondacaro (“Land of the Dead”).  Ricardo Gil replaces Fondacaro as the vampire hunter with a vindictive vendetta.  Gil does have similar features to Fondacaro but has more personality in his delivery, making Ivan Burroughs more sarcastic and rougher around the edges than the first subdued portrayal with less snarkiness, and that gives the sequel more notability against the first film.  The vampire lot doubles in villainy with a master vampire purposing sporting his beastly side of a red vampire bat head, complete with pointy airs, conical snout, and elongated fangs, and which, in all honesty, makes him look more like the Prince of Darkness of traditional appearance.  The master vampire hides amongst the human pool of the gentleman’s club to mist the air with mystery of who it is with a suspect list including a club owner Janos (Jon-Paul Gates, “Alice in Terrorland”), club’s top stripper Lena (Jessica Morris, “The Haunted Casino”), and club manager Burke (James C. Burns, “A Haunting at Silver Falls”).  Mike Muscat, Lillie Nyx, and Rory Williamson make up the rest of the cast.

“Decadent Evil II” is comparable to the original film with both being watermarked by Charles Band need for small creatures, campy horror, and substantial number of topless women, the latter being more prominently risky in the sequel with extra suggestive stripper poses that focus on the crotch area to lay gingerly into that filmmaking golden role of bigger and better for a sequel.  “Decadent Evil II” does teeter that idea with also a doubled antagonist pool and a higher body count but not necessarily containing, and also being a sorely lack of, gore that more-or-less stays the same from the original film with a rivulet trickles of blood running down necks and chins.   Band and Muir do take the vampire out of the Gothic setting, one that Morella had resided herself into living at a mansion of marble and stone, and they trade it for an automotive junkyard, an ill-fitting home for a well-dressed vampire whose lived centuries in human culture.  One locale that has remained constant throughout both Band’s films are strip clubs and channeling the success of such gentleman’s club with bloodsuckers as “From Dusk till Dawn, both films prominently display them with great grandeur for the B-roll stripper moves.  With being a sequel, I held quite a bit of disappointment for the story that follows the same thematics as the first, the main being a singular master vampire garnering souls to become invincible and there’s nothing to accentuate that idea even further as it’s surrounded by, again, much of the same – Dex, Sugar, and Ivan, the inexplicable homonculous and his strange attributes, and a strip clubs.  Even the final scene remains familiarity with instead of Marvin making love to another homunculous, he makes doggy love to a full-size person in a cringy and uncomfortable last scene moment.

Charles Band’s “Decadent Evil II” receives it’s Hi-Def Blu-ray as a part of a long and arduous of converting Full Moon’s films to Blu-ray.  The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD25 offers Full Moon’s catalogued 239 title a new pixel perspective of a saturated color palette inside its darker shaded tone.  The details are mediocre as much of the finer points are lost in low light, gel lighting, and haze but the compressions aim to be stable without any artefacts to note on lowest capacity Blu-ray.  Plenty of inky and less visible delineating contrast is a credit to the gaffing and director of photography Terrance Ryker for a soap opera-noir aesthetic.  For the first time ever, the film is presented in HD in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  The audio options are an English LPCM 5.1 surround and a stereo 2.0 that caters to District 78’s alternative, indie rock during the club sequences but elucidates and livens up the dialogue to where nothing obstructed with ambiguity.  Hardly any depth to the sound design as characters never wade beyond medium shots and range is limited to mostly the dialogue track along with imitation actions one would see in a low budget production or cartoon.  English subtitles are not available on the Blu-ray.  Extra features include a behind-the-scenes, a 42-minute featurette Battle of the Bands with a little stroll down memory lane for Charles Band as well as musical ventures for the film, stripper auditions for the Visions Night Club, the original trailer, and Full Moon trailers.  The physical presence is much of the same from Full Moon with a standard Blu-ray Amaray with relatively new artwork focusing on the homunculous rather than the vampires.  The sleeve is one sided with no inserts inside.  The region free Blu-ray has a runtime of 81 minutes and is not rated.

Last Rites: Like stuck on repeat, “Decadent Evil II” doesn’t offer a different type of narrative but ups the amount of nudity and vampires without much formidability in this lackluster sequel.

The Sequel “Decadent EVIL II” Bites Hard! Check It Out!

Elizabeth Bathory Evokes the Birth of EVIL! “Blood Bitch Baby” reviewed! (Blood Sick Productions / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Blood Bitch Baby” Now Available!

What if Countess Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian noblewoman and serial killer who bathed in virgin women blood to obtain youth, didn’t die in a prison cell?  What if Bathory was alive and well, living agelessly as one of the demon Asmodeus’s handmaiden to do his bidding, such as selecting a chosen woman to birth the Antichrist?  The countess does just that by posting a job position of caregiver with Jenny, a unemployed woman with an abusive, greedy boyfriend, responding to the ad.  Selected as the chosen one, Jenny is marked with Asmodeus’s symbol that grants her the power of strength and a craving for human flesh and blood.  After devouring her boyfriend, she meets Iris, a homeless lesbian who witnesses the expedited birth of the antichrist soon after meeting her.  Can Iris and a professor of parapsychology stop the second coming of Satan or will the world be condemned to the Hell on Earth. 

The professional relationship between long time schlocky, low-budget horror director Donald Farmer (“Cannibal Hookers”) and the independent, modern day scream queen Jessa Flux (“Murdercise”) has gone beyond the limitations of a working relationship and into more along the lines of friendship and respect as the two have collaborated on a total of six completed productions from 2023 to date with “Amityville Aliens,” “Darbie’s Scream House,” “Debbie Does Demons,” “Bigfoot Exorcist” and “Shark Exorcist 2:  Unholy Waters.”  The sixth film is the one we’re going to look at today, “Blood Bitch Baby,” aka “Wicked Witch,” provides Flux the opportunity to play a notorious historical figure, the Blood Countess herself, Elizabeth Bathory.  The 2024 released film is also written by Donald Farmer and, if you’re familiar with the cult director’s work, there’s very little money invested into what’s considered a horror spirited feature that takes some liberties with the story.  “Blood Bitch Baby” is produced by the “Coven of the Black Cube” director Brewce Longo under his Blood Sick Productions company.

Jessa Flux might headline the movie but that doesn’t make “Blood Bitch Baby” a solo effort as the energetic cast is entirely occupied by Donald Farmer alternative and willing regulars.  Angel Nichole Bradford takes the protagonist lead as the abused and job-seeking Jenny who falls into Bathory’s classifieds trap, ensnared and bewitched to be the biological mother of the Antichrist.  Bradford co-stars in “Crackcoon” and “Darbie’s Scream House” alongside Flux and the petite, auburn-haired actress, in contrasts the voluptuous, curly-blond Flux and who also has a hand in special effects and makeup on these multi-hat productions, has a knack for acting that isn’t monotonic, flat, forced, or with limited range as often some of these cult B-movie actors can produce in attempt to be melodramatic.  When there’s usually Flux and Bradford in the same film together, Mel Helfrin isn’t too far behind as the third into this triple threat of titillating terror.  Helfrin, a vet of horror schlock, also starred in “Darbie’s Scream House” as well as “Night of the Dead Sorority Babes” with Jessa Flux.  The trio really do live up and liven up every scene with enthusiasm for budget horror, hamming it to death for the sake of blood, guts, and sex within its thin plotline structure that often veers off course.  More Farmer regulars in Claude D. Mills (“Debbie Does Demons”) and Joe Casterline (“Shark Exorcist 2:  Unholy Waters”) find themselves in the mix as bite victims of demonic forces.  There’s overperforming, bad performing, and some decent enough thespian to keep progression from staling but there’s definitely a comfortability and jelling within the troupe that sets expectations on a low-level production and a horrendously hackneyed and expositional script.  Jessie Youngs, Ronnie George (“Deadly Dealings”), Fallon Vendette, Marilyn Paige, and Kimberly Cole Zemke (“Debbie Does Demons”) costar. 

“Blood Bitch Baby” is an alliteration title that makes about as much as the film’s original alliteration title of “Wicked Witch” when considering the story has Jessa Flux in a prologue setup surrounding Elizabeth Bathory’s life post-virginal blood bathing.  Bathory’s deal with demonic forces gives the 16th-century woman what she’s always wanted, youth and beauty, but the agreement is never spoken of again in what’s an integral piece of important backstory to volley the immaculate conception (unless you consider Jenny’s nightmare of a demon raping her the act) of the antichrist.  That’s the theme for the entirety of the film as the story veers and swerves off-course away from a film setup to be about Bathory when really it’s about Jenny as a vessel for antichrist and those around succumbing to the infernal forces that dragon-headed hand puppets in this cost-efficient production.  The film is so strapped for cash that flesh wounds that should result in gaping hole actually grow a slab a raw and discolored meat overtop.  When Jenny eats her boyfriend’s eye, there should be an empty eye socket but what’s there is tumor growth.  The same can be said about Bathory being slashed or bitten in the face by the demon baby as instead of perforating scratches down her face, she too grows a bulbous mass.  Other randomized are added to try and add depth but are terribly too threadbare to fully attach itself with any kind of impression or influence, such as Keller, a Professor of Parapsychology who just randomly shows up at the right place, right time, and Iris, the dope-smoking lesbian who happenstance into a relationship with the recently unattached yet devilishly tranced and impregnated Jenny.  Iris isn’t essential to the story which makes her essentially just a body for sex appeal and for the kill counter.

Blood Sick Productions gives Elizabeth Bathory a lifelong change at more malevolence and death in “Blood Bitch Baby” now available on Blu-ray home video.  The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD25 is riddled with colorful gel tints that play havoc in the details, reducing skin and fabric textures with smooth splotches of image posterization.  When using natural lighting or unfiltered key lighting, the details better render through to illuminate the little details, such as skin imperfections and granulated texturing on all surfaces.  Hue changes run rampant with cinematographer Curtis Everitt can’t pin down a singular style, relying heavily on a multi-color use of tinted lighting to feign supernatural surrealism but when edited, the colors change and there are times when there is no coloring at all in certain frames.   The English LPCM 2.0 Stereo is adequate for the release with clear dialogue until the amplified volume static, that’s not filtered out, comes into play, losing some fidelity out of the dual channel.  The audio is overall flat but that’s expected with the mostly closeup and extreme closeup shots that innately don’t have depth.  Range is limited as well with mostly a talking head narrative and ADS demonic creature sounds.  Mike Treblicock and Tim Ritter’s soundtrack pours into the channels nicely, overtaking when needed, such as the dream sequence, and balanced where needed to be defined.  There are no English subtitles available.  Bonus features include a Donald Farmer video introduction with Kasper Meltedhair standing adjacent to him as agreeable arm candy, behind-the-scenes photo gallery, and Blood Sick Productions trailers for other distributed and produced films.  There’re also bloopers in the after credits.  The standard Amaray Blu-ray comes with killer gory artwork by graphic artist Rick Melton.  There is no image on the reverse side of the sleeve, and the disc is pressed with Jessa Flux’s colorfully tinted Bathory face.  Not rated and region free, the Blood Sick “Blood Bitch Baby” has a runtime of 68 minutes. 

Last Rites: Donald Farmer has always been a king of underground, independent schlock horror but over the years, Farmer’s work has tapered from passion projects to more undistinguishable indies with hammy performances and shoddy effects that has “Blood Bitch Baby” cribbed.

“Blood Bitch Baby” Now Available!