Tag Archives: The Lockdown Hauntings

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

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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

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

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

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

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

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

An EVIL Auction Decides One Girl’s Self-Inflicted Fate or the Entire School Massacre of Goth Students. “Eating Miss Campbell” reviewed! (Troma Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Eating Miss Campbell” on Blu-ray from Troma Films and Refuse Films!

Vegan-goth Beth Connor contemplates suicide daily while attending a high school with a student body that’s cliché to a 90’s horror film and living with her grossly affectionate father and stepmother who are nonchalant and oblivious to her own self-destruction.  When a new, radical, American headmaster is hired at her British school, he creates the “All You Can Eat Massacre” contest that grants one winner a chance at a fully loaded handgun to either kill those of the winner’s choosing or blow their own brains out.  Apart of the accompanying American contingent on school staff, a new English teacher, Miss Campbell, catches Beth’s eye, and she falls heads-over-heels for her.  The contest is Beth’s way out of this clichéd life but her feelings for a morally complicated Miss Campbell and Beth’s sudden urge to consume human flesh puts a small damper on her chances to win the “All You Can Eat Massacre” that’s also highly sought after by a trio of stuck-up, TV themed-named girls aimed to eradicate every freak, geek, and goth on campus grounds.

“Eating Miss Campbell” is the meta-horror-comedy that amplifies stains of the American way, history, and culture in a concurrent saturation of satire.  The Liam Regan film is everything Lloyd Kaufman and Troma Films dreams of in a Troma presented production with a goal to subvert the routine machine of mostly rightwing establishments and conventional, cherry-coated filmmaking.  The United Kingdom film, shot in Yorkshire, is a sequel to Regan’s “My Bloody Banjo” of 2015 but only with a few returning characters in a new situation rather than direct follow-up.  Regan’s sophomore film is the second chapter to what’s being labeled as the Bloody Banjo saga and is a production of Troma, Refused Films, and the “Bad Taste” inspired-company name Dereks Don’t Run Films with Regan and Kaufman producing and Dereks Don’t Run Films’ Danny Naylor serving as executive producer.

A cast made up UK and US actors, “Eating Miss Campbell” marks the return of some familiar faces and character names from Regan’s “My Bloody Banjo” with Vito Trigo (“Return to Nuke ‘Em High Vol. 1,” “Assassinaut”) as Mr. Sawyer now the progun, proviolence American headmaster of Beth Cooper’s school, Laurence R. Harvey (“Human Centipede 2,” “Frankenstein Created Bikers”) as Mr. Sawyer’s indelicately charming number one Clyde Toulon, Dani Thompson (“No Strings 2:  Playtime in Hell,” “Rock Band vs. Vampires’) as Mr. Sawyer’s well-endowed lover with an affection for younger high school boys, and, of course, no Troma production would be complete without a Lloyd Kaufman appearance or cameo as he re-enters the role of Dr.  Samuel Weil for a brief spell on a how-to dispatch oneself.  These returning personalities are integrated into a new grotesque story that surrounds high school goth and aware of the third wall girl Beth Cooper, played by “Book of Monsters” actress, and who has killer bangs, Lyndsey Craine.  Coopers looking to break out of the horror movie cliché by nixing herself before being consumed by the prosaism of it all, and she expositions this all to the camera, talking right to the viewers, to express her discontent and reasoning.  The tongue and cheek affair doesn’t end there with Emily Haigh (“The Lockdown Hauntings”), Sierra Summers, and Michaela Longden (“Book of Monsters”) playing into that 90’s theme by being Clarissa, Sabrina, and Melissa, all different television role iterations of one of the 90’s most iconic actresses Melissa Joan Hart.  The film rounds out with real life couple James Hamer-Morton (“Dead Love”) and Charlie Bond (“The Huntress of Auschwitz”) playing Beth’s parents, Justin A. Martell (“Return to Nuke ‘Em High Volume 1”) as school board member Tusk Everbone, Annabella Rich (“Powertool Cheerleaders vs the Boyband of the Screeching Dead”) as Nancy Applegate the bloodthirsty racist, Alexander J. Skinner as the girl chaser jock Ethan Rembrandt (Hotel Paranoia), and Lala Barlow in the titular role of English teacher, flesh eater Miss Campbell.

“Eating Miss Campbell” is completely satirical, completely outrageous, complete overtop, and a Troma contemporary classic.  Director Liam Regan understands the Lloyd Kaufman’s market audience to provide an unfiltered, unfettered independent production careening with uncontrollable momentum of bloody cannibalism, screwball antics, and topless gratuitousness and, in turn, solidifies himself as a Troma archetype director.  “Eating Miss Campbell” is a practical effects believer that implements squibs, prosthetics, and buckets of stainable blood to use in borrowed locations and while gruesome aspects work for the film, the pacing and storytelling is quite patchwork.  Covid-19, like the virus did for most films in production prior to 2020 lockdown, halted Regan’s progressive flow and caused a year-and-half, 18-month gap, that required additional weeks’ worth of shots, disrupting the flow in story and in character. There’s not a ton of filler to build history, storylines, or even give a moment to connect the pieces and absorb Regan’s revolving madcap that include references to cherry-picked scenes from “My Bloody Banjo” and the whole meta concept that beleaguers audiences with rants and rancorous tudes about reliving a certain period in time, such as a cliched 90’s horror movie for example, or a culture bastardized by violence and grotesque, maligned shapeshifters, and this becomes more than providing protagonist insight and protest propaganda no matter which way you slice and rearrange the story, and that goes without saying that’s most of Troma’s cuckoo-tastic catalogue.

Troma Films and Refuse Films proudly presents “Eating Miss Campbell” onto a Lloyd Kaufman introductory stated unrated director’s cut, Hi-Def Blu-ray. The AVC encoded, 1080p, BD25 presents the film in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. A feature and a trunk load of extras on the lower shelf of capacity format, keeping in tune with most Troma home releases, shouldn’t surprise or phase the physical media aficionados to know there are compression issues along the darker tones with banding and some posterization, smoothing out textures in poor lighting. When details do emerge, they’re noticeable and visually enriching a right-to-rebel indie production without going overboard into the clarified butter that is major studio glossiness and precision. Often heavy shadow contrasting doesn’t dispel the vivid and appeasing coloring scheme that pops intermittently and skin tones, though skin texture in general bleeds into the adjacent shade, appear about as natural as initially captured without filter, gels, or post work enhancements. The British/American English track in a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mix lessens what should be a quite robust hitting of every audible mark. The scale of “Eating Miss Campbell” is quite expansive from start to finish, carrying over into a number of interior and exterior sets, as well as a lucrative range of diverging, differentiating noisemakers but what’s at hand does the job adequately with plenty of emphasis on the more foolish sense of humor. Depth is rarely utilized in what’s mostly medium-to-closeup scenes and replaced with just a level playing field loading of dialogue, which is clean and clear. An English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is also available. Troma releases are good for special features and “Eating Miss Campbell” is another testament to a haul of extra content, including an audio commentary by director Liam Regan, editor Jack Hayes, and foley artist Finn Brackett, a 7 Days of Hell behind the scenes documentary that looks at the making-of the film with the post-COVID pickup shots, deleted scenes and outtakes, a gag highlight reel, raw b-roll footage, even more behind-the-scenes footage that’s nearly an hour long, the FrightFest premiere, cast interviews, VFX reel, the Troma radiation march against pollution, Troma in Time Square takes a look at Troma’s streaming service, Abbie Harper’s music video Tromatized, and the trailer. There are also a couple of prologue introductions with a Ukraine support intro and a Lloyd Kaufman as character Dr. Samuel Weil with intercut video of director Liam Regan. The traditional Amaray has a dim cover with colorful lettering in a compilation of characters overtop the high school. The disc is equally black with the same colorful lettering and a black and white penciled razor blade encircled by stark red blood. The region free release has a runtime of 94 minutes.

Last Rites: “Eating Miss Campbell” has edge that favors, or even flavors, Troma’s taste with a high school shooting, cannibalistic, no holds barred, teacher-student affair alternate societal universe that’s tough to digest but easy to chew.

“Eating Miss Campbell” on Blu-ray from Troma Films and Refuse Films!