Tag Archives: Orgy of the Dead

EVIL Dances Naked the Night Away! “Orgy of the Dead 2” reviewed! (MVD Visual / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Get in on the “Orgy of the Dead 2” on Blu-ray!

The Emperor of the dead and his Princess of the Night return from the dead to behold entertainment from the beyond.  As the Emperor sits on his graveside throne, his lap-seated Princess announces the lineup of dancing deceased, half naked women in a seduction of debauchery and death.  If the Emperor is not entertained, nor turned on, he damns their souls to Hell forever!  Four teens, on their way to the graveyard for sex and drugs amongst the dead, crash their car after some distracting roadhead, killing one of them in absent of a seatbelt.  As they search the graveyard for a living soul for help, they stumble upon the Emperor’s variety of groovy vixen and are captured to witness their dance of the dead.  As the show becomes more and more sordid, not all of the prisoners feel turned off by the show that creeps closer to their doom and their dawn.  

If you’re deeply knowledgeable of cult movies, have a familiarity with Ed Wood Jr. films, and have a genuine affinity for really schlocky horror and eroticism, you may have once in your life experienced the 1965 nudie-cuties erotic horror “Orgy of the Dead” that danced the graveside night away with topless stripteases challenged to entertain the Emperor of the Dead to avoid eternal damnation.  “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and “Jail Bait” filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr. penned the then controversial and provocative script with Stephen C. Apostolof debuting his directorial effort, who then went on to do a number of exploitation pictures, such as “College Girls,” “The Snow Bunnies,” and “Five Loose Women.” The film’s rights were obtained from the Apostolof family by Andrew J. Chambers, who’s credentials followed a similar subgenre to his 1965 predecessors with “Babezilla vs the Zombie Whorde” and “Lust, Magic, and the Witches’ Sabbath.”  Chambers’s goal was to create a sequel, simply entitled “Orgy of the Dead 2” that brought back the Emperor, Princess of the Night, and a slew of scantily cladded undead women to burlesque the night away.  Chambers writes, directs, and produces the 2026 release alongside co-producer Stephen Apostolof’s son, Chrisotpher, under Chambers independent production company, HojBob Productions, and was partially crowdfunded under Indigogo.com, achieving an approx. $3,700 in pledges.

Obviously, the 60-year span between the two films doesn’t see the return of Jeron Criswell back as the Emperor (died 1982), Fawn Silver as the Black Ghoul (long retired and left pictures altogether), or Pat Barrington and William Bates as the stumbling lost couple Shirley and Bob.  Instead, the sequel features new talent in the principal parts as Mike Fantastik dons the undead ruler of darkness as the Emperor who sits on his throne to judge the decaying dancers.  Fantastik is no Criswell but the indie rapper from Nebraska brings his own licentious flair to the character by blatantly reading from cue cards just off screen.  Princess of the Night is played by pinup model Penny Aphrodite (“Pigshit”) that does resemble a bit of Fawn Silver’s Gothicism in looks and mannerisms.  The duo of Bob and Shirley are replaced with a quartette, or a pair of couples, who wreck their car after roadhead sends their car careening into the bushes near a graveyard.  Nick Somers, Adam Peltier, Jaymie Schroeder (“The Devil’s Dancers”), and Jessa Flux (“Debbie Does Demons”) are the new captured and witnesses to the Emperor’s sordid dance space of judgement.  Flux has established herself as a rising scream queen by integrating herself into any and all-types of horror films in a very unselective manner and with “Orgy of the Dead 2,” her character closely recalls other Flux’s roles of a sexed-up hot chick, making her Cindy performance not that stand out, but in contrasts, there’s an omission of emotional guilt and anger compared to the others tied to a staked crosses as they watch the perversion and death unfold.  The dancers a motley of alternate women and unabashed topless stripteasers between Stephanie Love, Bobbi Jo, Mercy Andersen, Tina Mazing, Katie Kadaver, Maia Thomas, Naomi Webb, Kaisa Neal, and Mae Devour with Michael E. Ross, Clint Beaver, Tony Kimball, Zdenek Voprada, and Morgan Molck as the Emperor’s creatures of the night. 

If any of you readers have ever seen the 1965 “Orgy of the Dead,” you’ll find the modern-day sequel to be not really a sequel in the traditional sense but more like a remake.  There’s no firm connection to the original production with Chambers bringing new nudie-cuties to the dance on the graves, a mixed soundtrack, and a totally different perverted vibe that’s cruder than it is implied to accommodate the time period in which the film is made.  Apostolof’s “Orgy of the Dead” had no plot in the traditional sense in what was more of an erotic, burlesque shindig in the middle of ghoulish-driven cemetery and, to be frank, the whole concept didn’t exactly leave an ecstatic and an aesthetic taste in my mouth with its boring static evolution further into the runtime.  I get it.  Times change, movies change, and taste change and Apostolof’s “Orgy of the Dead” might have been the hot ticket punched for some sleazy gawkers but in the early 2000s, when “Orgy of the Dead” made it to VHS, the novel idea just fell hard like a rock sinking to the bottom of a lake.  Chamber’s sequel, following the same design as the original, produces the same effect with its timeless homage to Apostolof’s original and, while that’s honorable, Chambers didn’t reinvent the wheel, he just bedazzled it with different kinks and coarser content.  Product looks even cheaper than the original on its measly $5-$7,000 budget that can only afford cardboard structures and tombstones, a glue on prosthetics, and simple in-laid practical effects.  Plenty of heart with really no soul, “Orgy of the Dead 2” is about as lifeless as the undressing undead. 

From Hojbob Productions and MVD Visual, “Orgy of the Dead 2” is a blast form the past done in contemporary times now on Blu-ray home video.  The unrated, region free release doesn’t have a lot of technical disclosure, but the release is AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, onto a 25GB BD-R with the bruised colored disc underbelly, suggesting a commercial writeable disc and muted colored, textured DVD label on top.  Presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio, the indie production isn’t at the summit of quality and, in fact, is rather low with poor visibility (aka lighting), compression blights such as banding and splotches, and an anemic color saturation.  The former of the three can be accepted to work in the sequel’s advantageous favor that keeps the hazy graveyard cemetery dim as possible and not be evident of key lighting that’ll throw off whatever authenticity “Orgy of the Dead 2” may possess.  The audio is an English Stereo 2.0, uncompressed but not reigned in with it’s noise static when volume levels overload with intense decibels.  Dialogue is clear but varies in strength in part to recording mic placement that can’t capture more than one person standing adjacent to the person next to the mic. The soundtrack by Aaron Gum is perhaps the best with a variety of musical genres from carnivalesque to rhapsody that loosely fits the dance number.  Special features include a making-of featurette with Andrew J. Chambers, a behind-the-scenes featurette with raw footage of takes and setups, actor Adam Peltier’s ramblings, a director and actor feature length commentary track, and the original trailer.  Released in a standard Blu-ray Amray case, “Orgy of the Dead 2” homages its predecessor with a slapped together package design of a blown up still from the actual movie and used as the front cover face.  The sleeve art is also one-sided.  Inside in the insert section, there’s a slick and nicely illustrated retroesque comic book front cover insert of the main characters.  It’s unfortunately uncredited.  The narrowly hour film, coming in at 65 minutes, is the perfect size for the BD-R capabilities.

Last Rites: If a fan of the original “Orgy of the Dead,” the sequel doesn’t stray into new territory with dancing corpses and a killer soundtrack, but don’t expect a novel sequel in this ready-made remake.

Get in on the “Orgy of the Dead 2” on Blu-ray!

Stranded and Terrorized, Longtime Friends Must Confront Their Own EVIL Past! “The Boat” reviewed! (Breaking Glass Pictures / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Kee Your Enemies Close but Your Friends Even Closer! “The Boat” Now Available on DVD

Three well-off couples party on a luxury, personal yacht for a holiday getaway and to celebrate Enrico’s birthday.  Sizzling romance, boozy-filled dancing, and smoking weed relaxes the group on the calming waves as the party goes through into the night but when morning comes, they find themselves coming out of a stupor and in the middle of the ocean with the yacht having been sabotage and adrift with no food, water, or means of communication.  A mysterious voice comes over a hidden walkie-talkie poised to punish those onboard in a plight of revenge for a past transgression involving them all and expose the groups’ dark secret kept from each other.  Tensions rise and their tormentor slowly unveils the truth through a series of chastising games that turn the tide on the group’s closeknit friendship for the worse but not everything is what it seems that’ll shed a light of truth on certain ill-conceived perceptions of the past.

Waking from a party-filled night that can’t be remembered and quickly realizing there’s something inherently wrong about the situation, no land in sight with the yacht drifting further out into the ocean, is a sweat-inducing nightmare scenario that has immense palpable fear with a person’s severe disconnect from land and, to make matters worse, all the life-sustaining supplies and modern day conveniences have strangely vanished.  That’s the primal premise setup for the mystery-thriller “The Boat,” a 2025 released Italian-made film from director Alessio Liguori (“In the Trap,” “Shortcut”) and a trio of writers in Gianluca Ansanelli, Nicola Salerno, and Ciro Zecca.  Filmed just off the port of Piano di Sorrento and in the Amalfi Coast, including the illusion of open water scenes, “The Boat” is a Lotus Production, a subsidiary of Leone Film Group, and Rai Cinema feature under producer Marco Belardi and executive producer Enrico Venti.

Reviewing Marco Belardi and Enrico Venti’s producing film repertoire suggests that the duo have hardly tasted tension and experienced thrilling tenterhooks with a more comedic, period piece, and melodramatic works that revolve around the tough, sometimes scathing, human dynamics.  The cast resembles similarly in their credentials, using the melodramatic, soap opera feigns of being hurt, lost, confused, and damaged inside a tight group of longtime friends getting together for a holiday only to find that maybe they’re not so good friends after all, definitely not good people, harboring hazardous secrets.  Diane Fleri (“Ghost Track”) and Filippo Nigro (“Deep in the Wood”) play the epitome of a wealthy yacht owning couple, the reoccurring nightmare plagued Elena and her breadwinning husband Flavio, Alessandro Tiberi (“The House of Chicken”) and Marina Rocco are the fast-lane lovers Federico, the filmmaker, and Claudia, a social media influencer, and Marco Bocci (“Caliber 9”) and Katsiaryna Shulha (“Hypersleep”) play unemployed birthday boy Enrico with his much younger, new girlfriend Martina make up the struggling confounded stranded on a boat.  The once carefree, ready to party friends fall quickly from a standard of grace by a mysterious man radioing from a nearby boat, instructing and commanding them under his thumb with his own set of terms and in a position of authority by holding all the cards as they slept off the hidden sedative, and soon after, they’re perfectly perceived lives are craved in two from a superficial shell of money laundering, betrayal, and murder.   Eduardo Valdarnini (“Bad Habits Die Hard”) helms the calculated antagonist with a plan but his character isn’t kept faceless as first introduced and has his intentions unmasked way too early, running the impact of what naturally would have been a twist moment where it all clicks and makes sense his reason for retribution.  Valdarnini’s depth is in focus, a clear means with a strong case for a longstanding grudge, but the targeted friends rapidly decline into spineless and spiritless absorbents of their fate and are willing to roll over for reside or kill over an emotionally distraught act despite the situation they’re in, both not fitting the narrative bill 

“The Boat’s” strength resides mostly in the first act setup of each couple’s time together before boarding the yacht with tidbit hints of their idiosyncratic lives and their private opinions of each other.  This establishes personas and mindsets that become, or at least should have become, important later to test their surface laid out bond.  The second act transitions from partying the night away into a quickly devolving situation the next morning, discovering their boat adrift and no supplies left on board in apparently robbery.  By now, the tension is high and not set internally amongst the friends as their bewilderment extends to the audience who are too looking for answers.  Only when the mysterious voice over the radio comes a calling do the third act fail to secure a clean sweep of next level thriller.  There’s little-to-no fight in the mostly pampered elite apart from Enrico who only fits in because of his allotted friendships with the other passengers and he brings in the only outsider, his young girlfriend Martina, to which his friends casually mock the age difference behind his back further clueing us in on their true colors, but even Enrico’s fight is reserved for more diplomatic head-way with a man with a vendetta, especially with a gun pointed at him, but his explanation of involvement in past events is too easily taken to heart by the opposition rather than be questioned for its validity.  This leaves an opening of hope and sacrifice that ill-fits the story’s framework and causes an unlikeable situation based either on truth or the mattes of the heart, both of which are never challenged to the extent they should be in a crusade to bring down the affluent guilty.

Sailing up to DVD is “The Boat” from the Philadelphia-based label Breaking Glass Pictures.  The single-layered MPEG-2 video codec on a DVD5 provides a less than crystally defined picture quality in it’s 720p standard resolution, available for converted upscale.  Presented in a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio that truly engulfs the anamorphic image with isolating oceanic oppression, “Orgy of the Dead’s” Mirco Sgarzi’s ability to retain depth without it being washed away in the vast waters creates anticipating moments of visual stimuli with the example being Flavio sitting solo in a life raft with the mysterious man cruising toward him in the background, an iconic culmination of objects in one frame that can be seen in “Jaws 2” when the shark moves in for the kill on a stationary Sheriff Brody holding a powerline while sitting in a raft.  As mentioned, details are shaky at best with objects often appear fuzzy around contouring lines and darker areas are chalky, but the image is more than suitable enough for DVD image delineating.  “The Boat” comes with a mostly Italian, some English PCM 5.1 Surround Sound audio mix that’s cinematically balanced between a forefront and clear dialogue track and a background of diegetic and non-diegetic of ocean grabs, such as waves splashing, distant gull calls, and the roar of a high-powered boat engine.  “Here After’s” Fabrizio Mancinelli’s score doesn’t have an inspiring bone in its ocean body with a route low-key pulse score; it fails to instill that alone enthralling alchemy of being lost at sea with a maniac great-white-circling and looking for blood.  English subtitles are available for selection and while they pace well, there are a couple of infractions on the translation that won’t ruin the visual picture or transcription.   Special features include only a photo gallery and a trailer with the DVD houses inside a standard Amaray case with an aerial pictorial that provides a strong lured interest.  The region 1 DVD comes not rated and has a runtime of 94 minutes.

Last Rites: “The Boat” sails a nautical knot of secrets to reveal not all old friends are faithful and true with a past that eventually catches up to them. The waters will be tested on this newly released Breaking Glass Pictures DVD.

Kee Your Enemies Close but Your Friends Even Closer! “The Boat” Now Available on DVD

Be Creative, Be EVIL! “Scare Me” reviewed! (Acorn Media / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

The down on luck Fred and a celebrated Fanny are both horror writers. Well, sort of. You see, Fred is an aspiring horror writer with unpretentious stories acted out by his creativity whereas Fanny is the hot, popular artist who just came out with an acclaimed novel everybody is talking about, even Fred. When their paths cross on a remote, snowy getaway during power outage, they consolidate to one cabin to stave off boredom by telling each other off the cuff scary stories, acting out every minor detail to flesh out the macabre tidbits in order for a good scare. As the night carries on and the stories become more involved, Fred’s night has been a rare highlight in recent days and now that day is on the brink of breaking, Fred has one more emotionally-driven scary story to tell the weary Fanny.

You wanna see something really scary? No, not the line from that wraparound story with Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks driving late a night in “The Twilight Zone: The Movie,” but rather really see a scary story come to life before your eyes with enthusiastic performances between two horror writers? Josh Ruben’s “Scare Me” does just that with the filmmakers’ 2020 horror-comedy hit. Ruben, whose latest comedy genre film, “Werewolves Within,” has been a critic success, writes and directs a petite cast packing a powerful punch pitched perfectly more so than this mouthful attempt at an awfully awkward alliteration. “Scare Me” is also produced by Ruben along with Alex Bach and Daniel Powell under a conglomerate of productions companies including Artists First (“Hell Baby”), Last Rodeo Studios (“Save Yourselves!), and Bach and Powell’s Irony Point with Shudder distributing.

Ruben not only writes, directs, and produces his film, he also co-stars as Fred. With this Andy Serkis like looks, motions, and vocal talents, Ruben is a master at amplifying impressions and slapstick from the beginning as Fred using his unrestraint, and probably unstable, imagination to try and write a bestselling horror novel to help him get out of a life funk. Then, their is Aya Cash, who I have personally adored since her villainous role on Prime Video’s “The Boys.” Much like that role’s personality of the super-sadist Storm Front, Cash just dons snarky assertive woman to perfection as she continues the trend by embodying bestselling new age novelist Fanny with such. Fanny downright emancipates…I mean, emasculates…Fred at every chance and at every step along the way despite her warming up to Fred’s kooky lackadaisical first impressions with a side dish of caution for those who yearn for story ideas. Ruben and Cash bounce incredibly well off each other to the point of credibility between the dynamic and the dynamic is far from being a romantic love interest but more so an unlikely best friend; a best friend who constantly proclaims white male privilege whenever the opportunity presents itself. The funnies also keep on coming, especially mixed into the dialogue details, that are sharpened by Ruben and Cash’s timing and delivery telling their individual stories and the reactions each have during them, but then blend into that batter of bust-a-gut with comedian and “Vampires vs. the Bronx” actor Chris Redd, consider your every funny bone in your body rigged for explosion with the trio’s insanely charismatic skits and a musical number about a Devil possessed pop star to die for. Bringing up the rear of the comedic cast is “Key and Peele” writer Rebecca Drysdale.

If you had told me that “Scare Me’s” premise was two writers telling each other scary stories during a power outage, the film would have been near the forgotten bottom of my must-watch list with the inane dancing of “Orgy of the Dead” and the prosaic “Paranormal Activity 4.” After watching the film, all I have to say is this, Mr. Ruben, please accept my heartfelt apology for manifesting one single brain cell of doubt as “Scare Me” is the five-star movie everybody needs to see. I am not worthy. The idea behind the movie is simple, yet novel, that never ceases to peak as Ruben’s film perpetuates a steady incline of sharp-witty dialogue, an involved and spot-on sound design to create the stories’ allusions, and a trope-less ending that fits “Scare Me’s” unique, unbridles nature without being a grandiose end-all finale. Without the punctuating special effects, Ruben definitely curved a workaround with smart dialogue, entertaining writing, and with a cast who couldn’t sell the idea any better. The work lies severely on the shoulders of Cash, Redd, and Ruben and without them, “Scare Me” would probably been acerbically be retitled as “Bore Me” under the breath of many frustrated genre fans. Also, just because there isn’t knock-your-socks-off special effects, that doesn’t mean there was zilch as Fred, Fanny, and Carol (Redd) enact each stories, a slither of their dread-addicted imaginations comes to fruition like window glimpses into their minds and, damn, they can really sell their fear-stroking dark fantasies by telling classic tale spinoffs that could parallel cult favorites, many that were namedropped throughout the 104 minute runtime. “Scare Me” is without a doubt pure love of the genre and a tinseling homage to the macabre.

Better late than never, they say, in viewing Josh Ruben’s bewitching “Scare Me” on UK Blu-ray distributed by Acorn Media International. The region 2, PAL encoded BD25 presents the film in 1080p on a streaming platform dictated 2:1 aspect ratio. Aside from the bookend snowy landscapes and exteriors, much of the setting is located inside the compact two story cabin in the woods in which cinematographer Brandon H. Banks breaks into his debut feature with getting the precise angles to reassure and reaffirm Fred and Fanny’s telling of scary stories. As far as visuals go, the digital recording compression seems to hold up on the BD25 while still flaunting a good amount of bonus material and an English language Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. No issues here with the audio with phenomenally clarity in the diversity of sound bites and in dialogue even with Ruben and Cash’s modifying their voices for story characters. There isn’t a lot of actions to hone on and rein in the depth, but with this type of story inside, as aforementioned, a compact cabin, depth won’t make or break the audio report card. Special features include a director and cinematographer commentary, short interviews with the Ruben and Cash that run through their favorites things inside the horror genre, a behind the scenes photo gallery, a Make Cool Shit Podcast, outtakes, and “Feel the Music, Feel the Light” music video. I’m always up for a good tale of Fright and “Scare Me” slashes all the boxes with a traditional layout themed by envy and has a cast that illuminates each and every scene with funnies and fear.