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Yorgos Lanthimos Early Day EVIL is Not to be Missed! “Dogtooth” reviewed! (Visions Home Video / 4K UHD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Dogtooth” Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Visions Home Video!

Three adult children remain on home grounds by their manipulative father to protect them from the outside world and keep them suspended in a childlike state.  Educated on a basic level and even educated incorrectly to strategically keep their spongy intellect pure and from asking too many questions about the curiosities beyond the front gate, the children must complete chores and workouts under their father’s regimental thumb, earning tokens to keep them engaged with simple activities and rewards, but the outside can’t be stopped from seeping in with exterior influences raising more questions than the father can keep up with lies, excuses, and fabricated stories.  If he finds his children entertaining an inspiration, his immediate reaction is to manipulatively redirect or even use violence if necessary to put his children back in a stationary line, scaring them of dangers outside the home, such as the killer ferocity of a household cat as it’s curiosity that killed the cat.  Or is it the other way around, did the cat kill the curiosity? 

Way before his 2026 Oscar nominated film “Bugonia,” way before his quicky dark-comedic Frankenstein variation “Poor Things,” way before the shapeshifting deadline of forced relationships in “The Lobster,” offbeat and provocative Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos directed “Dogtooth,” the 2009 psychological horror-drama that displayed a disturbing power-dynamics of a nuclear family by a manipulative father of three.  Lanthimos co-wrote the script alongside Efthimis Filippou, a regular collaborator with the director from Filippou’s debuting “Dogtooth” script up until 2017 psychological, life invasion thriller “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.”  “Dogtooth,” or “Κυνόδοντας” in the native Greek vernacular, is filmed in the heart of Athens, coproduced between Lanthimos, Yorgos Tsourgiannis, and “Do It Yourself” producer Katerina Kaskanioti, and is a collaborated studio project of Boo Productions, Greek Film Center, and Tsourgiannis’s Horsefly Productions. 

“Dogtooth” consists of a tight cast of six actors between the parents, three kids, and a security guard employed at the father’s manufacturer.  Some would say Christos Stergioglou plays one of the worst manipulating parents on screen of our generation with a calm demeanor and a convincing nature while having a ferocious side of physical punishment against those going against the grain.  With a small cast, those taking the beatings can be his children.  “Singapore Sling’s” Michele Valley is in the mother role, an equal schemer in her abetting of the problematic parenting, but it’s quite unclear whether the Mother is either in on the Father’s paranoic protective plan or whether she too is a victim of his deceit.  While she can be seen deriding her children in seldom words and violence, she too follows Father’s strange ways:  pretending to be a four-legged guard dog like her kids, never leaves the house, succumbs to Father’s sexual habits, etc.  The sex never extends from parent to child, leaving most of Father’s perversities kept intact by Mother and a good old fashion VHS stag tape, but there’s still exploitation done amongst the children.  Treated to his own arranged woman to bed, overseen by his Father, the son’s sexual hormones and desires are made docile by the security guard Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou) from his father’s work and is seen as an act of transactional duty rather than having a presence of affection.  Christos Passalis does embody his character with a young, pre-adolescent boy with tempers, sibling competitiveness, and appropriate reactions to all things that accompany a young boy.  Eventually, after Christina is let go exploiting and influencing the younger daughter with sexual tradeoffs and forbidden contraband, the son is forced to have sex with one of his sisters to maintain the stability of a pure environment.  Angeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsonia are the Older and Younger Daughter with similar appearances and attributes, too exemplifying childlike qualities, that make them also like twins in how they act and how they act with each other with the Eldest naturally, without purposeful intent, trying to break free of her father’s grip in the way children do – in irritational and hurtful ways.  Other than Christian, none of the main principal characters have a name, leaving them to be a representation of any family of any kind out in the world.  Steve Krikris, Sissi Petropoulou, and Alexander Voulgaris round out the film’s supporting parts.

Yorgos Lanthimos takes helicopter parenting to the extreme but in subtle, death-by-a-thousand cuts techniques simply by sheltering in place his entirely family for years and himself teaching his children lessons of his own fabrication.  Taught the world is a dangerous place, where cats are the most feared and deadly animal who killed their exiled “brother”, the children fear what’s beyond their sprawling compound so much they don’t dare cross the gate line.  Vulgar worlds like pussy are defined with innocuous objects, such as lamp light, and lesser provocative vocabulary, in this case zombie, is given the designation to little yellow flowers.  The children’s minds are so brainwashed, their identity is also erased along with their names, mostly busying themselves in the same sterile clothing that evokes no emotion whatsoever.  Lanthimos extends this common place sense of being into the character interactions, whether between family members or the supporting characters, that make the entire tone feel that more unsettling and perfunctory.   The sexual tension is chronic, even between the siblings it’s uncomfortably prevalent, but never malicious on the surface as the acts are kept dutiful and necessary to sustain dominion over the children and perhaps even the wife despite its icky film coating.  The whole idea of the titular dogtooth is a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, the latter suppressed by the weaponization of sex, education, and threat, for when the permanent adult canine, or dogtooth as Father puts it, falls out is when a child can leave the next and in that is manipulative false hope that one day, the strongest tooth, it’s ability to rip through meat and sinew, will fall out on its own accord, essentially making the children a metaphorical dogtooth that needs forceful extraction from its rigid system of enameled manipulation.

Courtesy of Visions Home Video, a premium home media label from Vertigo Releasing, “Dogtooth” arrives on 4K UHD Blu-ray in the UK-Ireland.  Presented with 2160p in the original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, the HEVC encoded BD100 has a superior encoding compared to previous models and other region 4Ks with a Yorgos Lanthimos approved transfer of the 35mm negative that’s contains and controls the grain that once had issues in previous releases with ill-defining effects on darker sections of the scene, establishing corrected contrast where intended and needed other releases failed to accomplish.  A natural light grading shines through with immersive coloring from the monochromic, or achromatic, outfits to the saturation of greens of the compound estate, a dynamic range of the metadata, DolbyVision.  There’s very minor speckling off some individual cells on the stock but the overall product is the best “Dogtooth” has looked and deserves it.  There are a pair of audio layers available:  a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a LPCM 2.0 Stereo both in Greek with optional English subtitles.  The monotonic dialogue alleviates many issues associated with these tracks as there are no inflections, tones, forced accents, or any other shaded types of vocal manipulation.  The plainspoken, forth-right conversing creates a naturally prominent layer that’s clean and concentrated above all else.  That’s not the say the soundtrack or the ambience drags or lacks behind though it is slightly less dynamic in its diegetic range.  You won’t be fully immersed with audio hits through side or back channels, but every layer has a stronger and bolder presence than before in previous releases.  Special features include a film in tandem audio commentary with stars Angeliki Papoulia and Christos Passalis, an archived interview with Yorgos Lanthimos from 2009, a 2025 London Film Festival stage interview with more in-depth insights from Lanthimos, three deleted scenes, and two original trailers.  Visions home video release is a vision in itself starting with the beginning layer, a cardboard O-ring slipcover with a somewhat glossy, upscaled image of one of the female children locked behind a bar-cell of bare legs.  The same image is represented as the primary sleeve art inside a Scanova case (no Blu-ray logo at the top).  Inserted inside are four collectible cards of high-quality stills from the film and a double-sided folded mini-poster.  The region free release is UK certified 18 for strong sex and nudity inside the duration of 97 minutes. 

Last Rites: “Dogtooth’s” disturbing fan outs, spreads like an infection of manipulation, but is localized in and around the property that’s become a cage, or an invisible fence, with the latter being more poignant to the storyline with the father having them bark and be on all fours like a dog, a pet symbolism indictive of egocentric power over those one can control from the beginning. The new Visions Home Video 4K UHD release is a new and improved upgrade for any collector’s wall.

“Dogtooth” Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Visions Home Video!

Stick With Jordan Peele’s EVIL Social Commentary. “Afraid?” reviewed! (Cleopatra Entertainment / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

What Are You “Afraid” of? Check out the DVD now Avialble!

After going through a physical domestic violence incident with her aggressive stepfather that ended with her a little banged up and with his arrest, Sarah can’t wait to spend time with her high school friends at an isolated cabin near Bin Bow Lake over the Halloween season.  Sarah feels like a fifth wheel while her friends have significant others in their party of five, but she makes the best of the situation with anything being better than at home on the weekend with her abuse-recovering mother and unpleasant memories of her stepfather, but the boozy, time-alone getaway turns into a fight of survival when a masked killer targets them, hunting them down one-by-one.  With no cell service, the car not starting, and not a single person around to help, the group scrambles for options of escaping the killer’s malice aforethought in a rural area that wasn’t all that friendly toward their kin color to begin with. 

Claiming to have the same Jordan Peele story vibes, “Afraid?” is the Sky Palmer, aka SkyDirects, helmed urban slasher from 2025 that faces social justice issues point blank in front of a masked killer backdrop.  “Afraid?,” aka “What Are You Afraid Of?,” is the sophomore feature length film for the California-born director fashioned from his own screenplay treatment with an infused racial overtone amongst the horror trope allotment.  The PR and communications tech startup founder and film director SkyDirect’s involvement doesn’t quit there as writer-director, as he also serves as executive producer under his production company SkyDirects Flix alongside co-executive producers with Cleopatra Record’s film entity, Cleopatra Entertainment, with “Frost” and “Cocaine Werewolf’s” Tim Yasui  and Brian Perera, who handle the exclusive distribution of the film, with freelance producers Gregory Mejia and Brian Cooper, the latter Cooper having collaborated with SkyDirect’s debut feature, “Run Nixon.”

The urban thriller is cast with primarily African-American actors and Caucasian actress Rezia Thornton in a semi-lead protagonist role of Sarah with the teen girl’s harrow opening skirmish with an aggressive stepfather and she also becomes the bookend storyteller of survival stemmed from events involving four of her friends, a pair of romantic couples, looking to getaway for a weekend as a group.  Thorton’s doesn’t portray to be your traditional mayo-vanilla character as she fits socially inside the dynamic of culture that surrounds her.  Kendre Berry plays Terrence, a high school football athlete exploring the possible opportunity of collect scholarship while testing the potential distant relationship waters with Latina girlfriend Lisa (Teairra Mari).  Berry and Mari are to have a strong character bond tested by the Sarah’s flirtatious eyes for Terence and while there’s a moment of heated tiff between the lovers, they go right into the one trope you’re not supposed to do in a horror movie, do sex acts in the woods.  The contention is nothing more than a spat when Sarah’s brought in under fire from Lisa’s Latina wrath in a nearly forgotten character plot foil.  Those types of fizzling devices extend to the other couple, Jamal (Gemaine Edwards) who is a military prospect and Jasmine (Nakosha Briggs), with Jamal’s decision to quit his path toward service because of military operations and causes he can’t support because of their support for wealthy interests.  This too gets murky inside the couple’s progression with the quick snap introduction of the killer, never influencing their characters and acts in a solely spout-off with the movie being a platform to convey the message, a common theme throughout “Afraid?’s” hollow horror shell.  There’s one character Dexter (but credited as Nerd Kid?) trips into the discussion of getting away this weekend during their high school hallway hangout, as if part of the crew, but never makes the trip and isn’t seen again in an odd character introduction of wasted space and missed opportunity to become kill-or-hero fodder.  The rest of cast rounds out s and to support to Sarah’s backstory and suspicious rednecks, any of which could be our killer, with Michael A. McGrath, David Ian Wood, P.T Ashlock, and Ashley Heath. 

SkyDirect’s entry into the slasher genre is exploited for platform messaging gain on social and political issues and conspiracies against race and culture as well as the American dream, subverted by wayward government intentions and systematic bigotry of authoritative figures.  “Afraid?” is a film that’s compared to the likes of Jordan Peele, using horror as a metaphor for the undertone, and also often blatant, glitches in American society, typically against African-Americans and other minority groups.  However, “Afraid?” very much feels like a bald-faced weaponization, like a caricature of concept, that doesn’t try to hide the fact under a blanket of horror as characters play into conventions and stereotypes with a hefty amount of exposition to back it up.  The idea of “Afraid?” is that fear inside every black person’s they’re made to be the target of prejudice, whether by the Podunk population of rural, nowheresville America or by unprovoked police offers who question their late-night purposes.  Scenarios of being shot run through their mind, depicted in an unjust nature, and even the interaction with an uber-creepy, stuttering roadside assistant instills a fear despite him being nothing but helpful with their flat tire.  SkyDirect’s introduction of multiple characters with callback actions and lines don’t ever flesh out, such as with Sarah’s abusive stepfather opening that doesn’t add anything to the rest of the storyline or Terence and Gemaine’s partially contentious friendship with a corner drug dealer who was a high school friend where Gemaine’s beef with him is never fully opened and explored.  The acting from the cast renders over fine enough but the scripted dialogue is hackneyed and exclamatory hyperbole in its stating of the obvious that it makes scenes almost painful to hear.  All these negative elements take away from the film’s core slasher theme that does have some decent kills and a definite eerie atmosphere and appearance. 

Cleopatra Entertainment distributes their co-produced venture on DVD home video, a MPEG2 encoded DVD5 with an upscale 720p standard definition, presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  Despite its narrative and character shortcomings, “Afraid?” has a polished picture with a dark, cold grading with a higher contrast to formulate shadow work around the tenebrous trees to the ominous inky corners of a pitch-black cabin without power.  Cobalt toned in its processed coloring, and perhaps some gel work here and there, brings traditional horror color schemes back to the horror table.  Details are not too terrible either but can be eroded by the grading’s creeping shadows and some scenes fair better than others, such as medium-to-close up shots are better equip to handle capacity pixels rather than drone medium-long-to long shots with a drone or a crane, you see the image start to block when Sarah becomes lost in the woods and the camera pulls and away from overhead.  Though not listed, the DVD comes with an English PCM 5.1 surround sound mix.  The audio assortment finds fair footing amongst it’s clear and verbose dialogue that’s the dominating layer, it’s ambience that places last amongst the layers but still pulls off a variety of diegetic and non-diegetic environment noises in a spooky-laden, rain-drenched woods with potent thunder and a deluge of pelting rain pitter-patter, and a vigorous selective soundtrack produced and hyped by its Cleopatra Records’ artists DMX, Pleasure P, and Mase, to name a few.  Bonus features include promotional trailer clips of the film and a image slideshow with the physical DVD, inside a standard tall Amaray, has a photoshop rendered image of a masked killer looking through inky eye openings and over his shoulder with title just below and the tagline Don’t Look Back underneath that.  Disc is pressed with the same image and there are no other extra materials inside.  The 89-minute production is not rated and is region free for global playback,

What Are You “Afraid” of? Check out the DVD now Avialble!

Cinderalla’s Beauty Evokes an EVIL of Jealously, Obsession, and Beauty Standards. “The Ugly Stepsister” reviewed! (Second Sight Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Ugly Stepsister” on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Second Sight!

Elvira’s mother weds a wealthy estate owner to re-establish life and permanence in high society.  Alongside living with her sister Alma and her new, beautiful stepsister Agnes, Elvira keeps on smile on her braced teeth though she’s passively mistreated by those around her.  When Agnes’s father suddenly passes away and it’s unearthed the estate has no money to its name, the opportunity to attend the monarchy ball for the prince to select a wife from a pool of available the virginal maidens is Elvira’s persistent dream to marry a prince and get her family back in wealth and power.  Elvira attends finishing school to learn proper lady etiquette but her braces, round nose, and pudgy exterior pushes her aside of teacher’s attention in favor of the beautiful, blond Agnes.  Primeval cosmetic surgeries, tape worms, and no sympathy from her mother send Elvira down a path of obsession despite the harm to herself as she eyes the prize of landing the prince of her dreams over her stepsister. 

Based off the classic folk and fairy tale Cinderella, debut feature film director Emilie Blichfeldt takes a different perspective on the story that retains its roots in happily ever after but redirects the core narrative to the eldest stepsister in immense obsession, pain, and suffering to obtain the seeming unobtainable, to marry a prince.  “The Ugly Stepsister” the 2025 dark comedy and body horror from Norway that emphasizes the lengths one will take to become noticeably perfect in every aesthetic way.  Blichfeldt regularly visit the concept of a deranged perception of beautiful in her short films from the 2013 documentary “Do You Like My Hair?” that aims to spin a reinvention on beauty standards by finding it from within and the more body fantastical “Sara’s Intimate Confessions” that follows a big and tall disproportional woman exploring what it means to be feminine with her overly talkative vulva.  “The Ugly Stepsister” also tackles beautiful in a more painfully, cathartic way in order to achieve, much the same way a cheerleader sustains a lower body weight to make the squad or the self-harm models put themselves through to stay thin and beautiful.  The film, entitled in it’s native Norwegian as Den stygge stesøsteren, is a coproduction between Lava Films, Film i Väst, Scanbox Entertainment, Zentropa International Sweden, and Mer Film with Lizette Jonjic, Ada Soloman, Mariusz Wlodarski, and Maria Ekerhovd in the role of international producers. 

Though a beauty already in her own right, Lea Myren donned prosthetics and makeup for the titular Elvira to make the appearance of later teen, early 20s woman just on the verge of losing the baby fat.  Other personal traits added to Elvira’s character are braces, dark corkscrew curls, and muted toned outfits to further and contrast as a perceived ugliness within the context of the era, but in reality, Elvira’s beautiful young woman already with soft, large eyes, a curvy physique, and a natural gift of goodness within her that’s twisted by exterior conventions on what is defined as beauty. Shedding some of those elements, like the braces and weight, transform Elvira into a more desirable young lady now visible to all, from her draconian etiquette teacher who initially wouldn’t give her the time of day to the Prince who first looked upon Elvira with disgust in her natural state before become an exquisite creature stemmed from surgery and other unnatural body manipulations.  Myren wonderfully careens the character right into the dirt as Elvira cuts off her nose to spite her face, damn near literally, on the quixotic quest to change her outer shell that ultimately changes her from the inside.  Constants in Elvira’s life, or way, are Agnes, who’s only referenced as Cinderella once in a look that isn’t too cinder-y, played by Thea Sofie Loch Næss (“Arctic Void”) who doesn’t struggles with her character’s looks but contends with her new family’s acute empowerment, mostly rooted in family favoritism and jealousy, as well as Alma, Elvira’s younger sister with a by far majority much more comfortable in her own skin despite having dressed similarly with frizzier, unkempt hair by way of Fo Fagerli’s approach. Loch Næss doesn’t portray the as pure and innocence of the Disney classic, with her passionate romance with the stable boy in the hay barn, but the character is fairly close in all other regards with the more significant change to the characters being the stepsisters, especially Elvira’s reserved notions turned bitter when being compared to Agnes.  Alma is altogether out of the equation with no bitterness in her heart nor with any malice whatsoever to anybody but tends to her sister’s rise and downfall with little pushback.  Ane Dahl Torp (“The Wave”) is in the role of the mother Rebekka who will do anything to advance her daughter in society, mostly for selfish reasons as we’ll gather later on through a course of characters, such as the Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth), stable boy Isak (Malte Gårdinger), brutal plastic surgeon Dr. Esthétique (Adam Lundgren), and finishing school head mistresses/lesbian lovers (Katarzyna Herman & Cecilia Forss) who have contrasting approaches, both negative, toward Elvira’s waistline. 

“The Ugly Stepsister’s” body horror is more than just a serious manipulation in losing weight and cutting more than corners toward image perfection.  The real horror is in the shame, the shaming of the body that’s overlooked, called out, and humiliated and to make matters worse for Elvira, her body type is by all of today’s standards curvy in the right places and beautiful albeit a body double was used for her pre-trim down nude scene.  Prosthetics are in place around the face and arms to make Lea Myren appear a little weightier, but the difference is extremely negligible and that’s the real power of horror when it’s terribly subtle, an already beautiful young girl succumb to peer and societal pressures that induces crazy self-harm for opinionated ideals and appearances.  Blichfeldt’s ideas of body-shaming extreme measures done by Elvira are not a far stretch from what self-conscious people do today about their weight.  Instead of swallowing a tape worm egg, one can stick a figure down their throat to achieve the same effect.  Instead of breaking a nose to re-mold with a hammer and chisel, surgery and medicines are abused ot be the new, easy, fast weight lost solution.  Blichfeldt comparative shots linger on Agnes with Elvira seething with envy and with the director’s bold choice of provocative nudity, exposing genitalia and depiction of X-rated acts, engages an alluring perversity that sheds light on a superficial world of beauty and sex, shielding the core, deeper problem of societal shame. 

Second Sight Films brings the Shudder and Vertigo Releasing North American marketed  “The Ugly Stepsister” to 4K UHD Blu-ray.  The ultra high-definition release is HVEC encoded onto a BD66 and presented in HDR10 with Dolby Vision, at 2160p, and in it’s the original aspect ratio, a European 1.66:1 widescreen.  Match the dark toned nature, the grading also exacts a somber coating with mahogany and ebony wooden structures and dimly lit castles of a Victorian era to bask in an austere state were, more so with personal happiness, is hard to come by.  Details are hard to stomach, in a good way, with proximate detail in the special effects closeups, such as in the mutilation scene where a nearly severed toes are hanging on for dear life by what little skin in left tethered to the foot, that go into macrolevel detail and is accentuated by the additional pixels.  Skin tones appear natural and unique to each individual in a purposeful contrast of fair and tanned skin along with different layers of texturing between organic qualities and the fabric outfits they wear, such as Agnes more single block outfit with a smoother design compared to Elvira’s multiple layers and pattern garb.  The Norwegian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 has an eclectic powerhouse soundtrack of synth and string orchestra from John Erik Kaada and Vilde Tuv.  The story doesn’t have a great deal of direction use for the 5.1 mix with mostly a conversating piece with mostly diegetic ambience, leaving the 5.1 less immersive than required, but there is vitality and strength behind the dialogue and action, clear and unobscured in its clean presence.  The multitude of squishiness, again the severed toes and also the removal of the tape worm through an orifice, is highly emphasized more max effect.  Areas of depth mostly lingers around the front but there are opportune moments in medium shots for audio expression.  English subtitles are clean, accurate, and well-paced.  Special features on the standard 4K release include a new audio commentary with director Emilie Blichfeldt and filmmaker Patrik Syversen, a new audio commentary with critic Meagan Navarro, a new interview with Blichfieldt This is my Ball, a new interview with star Lea Myren Generational Trauma, a new interview with Cinderella actress Thea Sofie Loc Naess Take Up Space, a new interview with special effects artist Thomas Foldberg Character and Gore, a special effects featurette The Beauty of Ugly:  The Effects of the Ugly Stepsister, a visual essay from Kat Hughes A Cinderella Story, deleted scenes, and both the Blichfiedt short films mentioned earlier in this review:  “How Do You Like My Hair?” and “Sara’s Intimate Confessions.”  The review here is for the standard 4K UHD Blu-ray set but there is a limited edition set that includes the 1080p Blu-ray as well.  The black Amaray case features a character still of Elvira on the front cover in all her dark maiden and sweet-faced glory.  There are no physical extras inside.  UK certified 18 for strong sex, nudity, and gore, “The Ugly Stepsister” from Second Sight Films is region free and has a runtime of 109 minutes. 

Last Rites: “The Ugly Stepsister” is a yarn not yet explored in other Cinderella tales, especially when it involves body horror and a sexually explicitness that that will forever make watching the Disney classic now uncomfortable when a recalled thought from Blichfeldt’s film pops into the visual cortex. Yet, it’s a remarkably twisted story from a different perspective that isn’t magically fantastical but grim and tragic.

“The Ugly Stepsister” on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Second Sight!

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!

Two Cops. Two Girls. One EVIL Crime Boss! “Rosa” reviewed! (88 Films / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Grab the Limited Edition Blu-ray of “Rosa” from 88 Films!

Little Monster and Lui Gung didn’t get along to begin with when Little Monster’s accident put Kung’s sister in the hospital for minor injuries but when the two rookie cops get on the bad side of their direct supervisor, Inspector Tin, they have no choice but to work together under his pleasure to see them suffer.  The two cops are assigned to the case of Li Wei-Feng, a smalltime crook who tries to black male mob boss Wong with incriminating photographs of a deal gone deadly.  They stay on top of and befriend Wei-Feng’s ex-girlfriend Rosa in hopes he’ll show up but the cops find themselves going on more double dates between Kung wooing the model Rosa and Little Monster courting Kung’s sister than actually doing any detective leg work.  Before they know it, they’re assisting Rosa out of her gambling debts with medium level bosses and on hot coals with Boss Wong’s formidable henchmen who will stop at nothing and will kill anyone in their way from obtaining the smoking gun film roll. 

“Rosa” is the 1986, Tung Cho “Joe” Cheung directed buddy cop comedy-action film from Hong Kong,  Cheung has delivered a string of action comedies prior, such as with the a torn Kung Fu novice must jealous mend the rift between his two masters before a war ensues in “The Incredible Kung-Fu Master” in 1978 and the story of a veteran police officer who must work both sides of the law to manage his wife’s gambling addiction is paired with a rookie cop to take down transgresses in “Shadow Ninja,” release in 1980.  “Rosa” is another notch of comedic effort in Cheung’s belt but on a bigger scale with well-known actors, a large cast, incredible stunts, and fast martial arts choreography in a script penned by the “Chungking Express” director Wong Kar-Wai and “Hard Boiled” and “Mr. Vampire” writer Barry Wong.  Wong and Anthony Chow (“The Cat”) produce the film under the Golden Harvest Company and Bo Ho Film Company flags.

“Rosa” uses an ensemble cast more for comedic purposes rather than to instill dramatic action, beginning chief principal Biao Yuen, who we’ve recently reviewed in another new phenomenal physical 88 Films Blu-ray release in “Saga of the Phoenix” and has had roles in “Game of Death,” “Encounter of a Spooky Kind,” and “Picture of a Nymph,” as the endearingly named Little Monster, a go-lucky rookie cop with skilled martial arts moves.  Charming and confidence, Yuen plays the most sensible of protagonists without absorbing a lot of humiliation unlike his costar Lowell Lo who finds himself in a more subordinate role of Lui Gung underneath Little Monster’s suavity by having more overreactions, slapstick, and chasing with his tongue out a lost cause – that being Rosa.  “Inferno Thunderbolt’s” Hsiao-Fen Lu plays that titular role, a gambler addict and model with loan shark debt with ties to a small-time crook that incidentally involve her in a deadlier high-stakes blackmail with a power crime boss, but her importance is depreciated by Yuen and Lo’s buddying comedy and not the driving focus of the plot.  In all, the progression is a group effort rather than encamping around a centralized person.  With that being said, Kara Ying Hung Wai (“The Ghost Story”) often feels like an afterthought, a proverbial fourth wheel, as Gung’s sister Lui Lui whos’ gifted lines and a presence here and there but is mainly only Little Monster’s love interest in corporeal presence only.  Rounding out the good guys is the hapless Inspector Tin (Paul Chun, “To Hell With the Devil”), an arrogant supervisor who doesn’t want to get his hands dirty with police work and recruits Little Monster and Kung as punching bags for wrong him in their individualized opening, mishap run-ins with the inspector, another comedy outlet absorbing Rosa’s unintended entrenched Mob connection.  The Mob and other baddies fill out the cast with Billy Sau Yat Ching, James Tien, Charlie Cho, Fat Chung, Chen Chuan, and Dick Wei. 

As far as “Rosa’s” action is concerned, it is topnotch quality between the wide-variety of stunts, the pinpoint choreography, and the excellently executed martial art fights that disproportionately leaves the narrative as a quintessential chop-socky police story.  I say disproportionately because the action is overly consumed by the comedy that, in itself, has struggles.  The humor physicality lands with precision with big hits taken in accidental error or are made within the context of choreographed fight scenes mostly stemmed by Lowell Lo and Paul Chun as they bumble their way through situations, but the dialogued jokes and other vocal gags are terribly corny that unfortunately dilute the overall mirth-murky pool that it becomes too often cringeworthy to swim in.  The light-hearted and sexualized humor is blended with an endless wooing and an outdo rivalry between the forced partnership that evolves into a fond friendship between Little Monster and Lui Gung, who is often referred to as Big Brother.  Lowell Lo embodies a larger slapstick piece of the pie with his distinguishable friendly face and doughy-eyed demeanor, contrasted against the athletic slender of Biao Yuen who outshines him on the conventional society determined good looks scale with an unassuming martial arts skillset to match.  All the serious and grim nature comes out of the Hong Kong’s criminal element with deadly assassins that use piano wire and large caliber handgun to lacerate jugulars and explode cars full of betrayed crooks.  The third act finale finally puts the pieces together and creates a harmonious brawl that blends action and comedy evenly, even integrating Lui Lui into the fold with an out of the blue ability to hold her own and fight just as fast and furious as Little Monster.  

Another Golden Harvest distributed production garners attention once again on 88 Films, in association with Fortune Star Films, with a definitive Blu-ray set from the UK boutique label making their presence known here in the North American market.  The AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition transfer, onto a BD50 has remarkable presentational quality with a pristine print transferred onto a 2K scan from its original 35mm negative.  The immersive quality shows no sign of destabilizing the matrix, leaving audiences with the immense scope of a cleaner, natural image full of depth and range of saturated and diffused color.  Skin tones appear organic and nitty-gritty with the stubble, sweat, beauty marks, and the subtle contrasts of tones.   88 Films’ flexes their restoration efforts that extends the color palate to suitable measure and each scene, through its superb editing by chop-socky veteran Peter Cheung, segues into the next without missing a color resolution beat.  The film is also presented in original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  There are two ADR mono tracks, Cantonese and English.  Cantonese is preferred with the better mouth-to-sound synchronization, but both deliver a really good decoded mono mix despite the singular direction of all the audio but with post-production sound, that can be manipulated to exact timing with the exact sound to create a better disbursed audio design.  There some crackling and hissing in the dialogue but very low-level interference that doesn’t hinder the prominence and really affect the clarity.  The newly translated UK English subtitles are available from Ken Zhang and synch fine with a steady pace and come without typos.  Encoded special features have a new audio commentary by Hong Kong Cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto, a second new commentary from another Hong Kong Cinema expert David west, an interview with director Tung Cho “Joe” Cheung and assistant director Benz Kong, alternate English opening and closing credit titles, an image gallery, and the original trailer.  The limited-edition set comes with a rigid slipbox sheathed by an O-Ring slipcover with new artwork by Sean Longmore that plays into Rosa’s bosomy running ga. Inside the slipbox is a 40-page color booklet with stills and a pair of essays from Fraser Elliott and Paul Bramhell, a collectible postcard, and the clear Amaray case with the same primary Langmore art on the sleeve that can be reversed for the original Hong Kong poster art.  The booklet and slipbox have more original art as well that speaks the action and slapstick.  The not rated, region A and B encoded release has a runtime of 97 minutes.

Last Rites: Fun, exciting, and moderately droll, “Rosa” might hit-and-miss on the comedy, but what definitely hits is the martial arts action defined in a harmony of perfect scrappy chorography.

Grab the Limited Edition Blu-ray of “Rosa” from 88 Films!