Tag Archives: thriller

EVIL Knocks, A Child Listens. “Cobweb” reviewed! (Lionsgate / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Cobweb” on Blu-ray at Amazon.com!

Eight-year-old Peter isn’t allowed out on the forthcoming Halloween night.  Frightened by a neighborhood girl who went missing years ago, his strict parents keep a very close eye on their only son who’s social life has been squashed like one of the rotten pumpkins growing in his family’s backyard patch.  Relentlessly bullied and severely sheltered at home, Peter spends most of his time isolated from others until he hears knocking from the inside of his wall in the middle of the night.  Frightened at first in hearing the ensuing young girl’s whispering voice behind the wall, Peter’s loneliness entices a friendly, conversational voice after his parents dismiss the occurrence as Peter’s overactive imagination.  As the two talk through the nights, Peter learns the mysterious voice behind the wall is a terrible secret his parents have been hiding since before Peter was born, but the truth is much more darker and scarier than Peter could ever over imagine.  

Following the success of his written-and-directed 2019 French horror series “Marianne” on Netflix, surrounding the manifesting nightmares of a young writer who returns to her home town, director Samuel Bodin dives right into the spooky season with a Halloween-themed dysfunctional family horror feature that metaphors helicopter parenting as a harmful detriment that eats itself from within the nuclear structure.  The French director builds his vision off the back of the creepy children subgenre and off of the script by Chris Thomas Devlin, an American screenwriter behind the 2022 direct from the original sequel, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” that happens to be another Netflix debut release.  Devlin trades in rip-roaring chainsaws for rickety old houses lined with gaudy, antiquated-pattern wallpaper in this what’s-behind-the-walls thriller, produced by the Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg company Point Grey Pictures (Amazon’s “The Boy’s” and “Invincible”) with Josh Fagen alongside producers Roy Lee (“Barbarian,” “It”) and Andrew Childs of Nu Boyana Productions and Vertigo Entertainment with Lionsgate distributing. 

Ironically at the center of attention is the loneliest boy Peter casted with UK child actor Woody Norman (“The Small Hand,” “The Last Voyage of the Demeter”) to ensure Peter’s anemic spirit with a head full of shoulder length brown hair, downcast eyes, and melancholic demeanor. Yet, like most child dependent horror schemes, Normal can thrust out a gutsy sprint to survive and save the day against not only his oddly adjusted parents who quarterly channel the onscreen unionization of Wendy Robie and Evertt McGill in fiercely fearful “The People Under the Stair’s,” but also something far more secretive and far more sinister.  Anthony Starr, who has worked with Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Productions in “The Boy’s,” is aptly a father suppressing to fold and diminuendo his son’s curiosity and venture with scary stories of disappearing children and a stern childrearing with a sinister smile only Anthony Starr can produce.  Then, there’s Lizzy Caplan as the austere-dressed matron with a retractable badge for her small set of keys, which are an underemphasized plot device for all the doors in the house, both unconcealed and concealed.  I struggled with Caplan’s mother that borders being simplistically prose, like speaking in a fairytale without the elegance of being a dainty princess or the maniacal barbs of an evil sorceress.  The “Cloverfield” actress’s take on how a reticent mother is overly proper and out of place even in this tale that stretches the imagination and even beyond the film’s other flawed portions, which lead me into Cleopatra Coleman’s benignant substitute teacher Ms. Divine, a name not abashed in its metaphorical properties.  Ms. Divine overreaches herself secondary educational authority by interjecting her nosiness into what she mistakenly thinks is Peter’s subconscious cry for help.  The “Infinity Pool” actress goes unnecessarily lone wolf into the lion’s den that would make any parent understandably concerned and angry whether hiding something or not.  “Cobweb’s” cast fills out with Jay Rincon and Gary Busey (“Predator 2”) and Stephanie Sampson’s (“Sharknado 4:  The 4th Awakens”) preteen son Luke Busey who I must say is the spitting image of his father. 

Funny and coincidently enough, this is my second Grey Point Production film watched back-to-back with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” “Cobweb” is not children’s film but resembles more like a Grimm fairytale with elements pulled from various volumes, some from more popular stories such as the long locks of Rapunzel or the pretense of a wolf in planned deceit of the eager youth, and the film certainly embodies the charmingly dark and rustic patina of such tales.  From the words on a page to the visual effects of the screen, “Cobweb” introduces us to a new kind of terror co-bred out of bigotry and fear of a polar difference so severe, so monstrous, that it warrants a shameful imprisonment and a simultaneous misappropriation of tutelage of starkly unalike children because, as parents, we can have this innate fear for ourselves being replaced with the creation transcending the creator threat.  Pour these twisted tales and themes together into a cauldron of storytelling and we can easily overlook how flawed “Cobweb” can appear on the surface, as if to say the story’s phantasmal qualities exempt narrative structural norms.  “Cobweb” has repetitive use of the imagination as an excuse for Peter’s hearing something, someone beyond walls or could even stretch to the parent’s feigning ignorance or diverting tactics as part of making believe whatever they’re secretly hiding doesn’t exist.  Aside from the title, other allusions to an arachnid theme suggests Peter might have an overactive power of invention, integrating his already schoolyard bullied mind and body to form an embodiment of fear. His rigid parents mixed with an overwhelming fear of spiders creates, or wills, a person or creature of shared relations, someone he can converse with quietly and share his concerns but, in the same breath, be frightened of when out from the wall.  Peter has the same reaction between the spider that crawls on his desk in the class and see the wall dweller’s floating out from a hole in a wall, signifying a one-in-the-same fear.  When inevitably revealed, the creature skulks with the movement of an eight-legged arthropod, has hair like a large, draping web, a face with bulging eyes and fangs, lives within and between walls, and has tiny spiders crawling through its hair.  Intense and portentous, “Cobweb’s” creepy-crawlies are sure to be hair-raising with a shocking turn of events.

Become caught up in Lionsgate’s release of “Cobweb” on the Blu-ray + Digital release. The AVC encoded, high-definition 1080p, BD50 has a Mbps decode rate of low 30s and presented in a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio. Centered around the Fall season, “The Transporter’s” Philip Lazano’s cinematography lives in the dichotomy of shadows and a cool blue-green grading. Exteriors look potently seasonal in a dreary-overcast kind of way that fits “Cobweb’s” austere approach to an atypical straightforwardness in such a dark fairytale theme. Unostentatious, Lazano does a remarkable job with shadows, and dim lighting in general, to convey just enough to make the creature’s skuttling a double dose of undetectable dread before you know what hits you. The main audio option is an English DTS-DS 5.1 master audio with Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 alternatives. Again, the skuttling around the house, the faint scraping of dry, old hair on the wood floors, the creaks, oh the creaks, of every inch of that house make “Cobweb” cue every traditional trope of audible terror right to your sensory receptors. Dialogue is clean, clear, and prominent with the only issue being the behind the wall speak that renders more like whispering in the same room than a muffled subdued voice as the layered dialogue overlap in volume. English subtitles are optionally available. Special features are not in-depth with a to the point featurettes with Becoming the Girl that express Bodin’s vision of the person behind the wall and contortionist Aleksandra Dragova’s efforts to bring that vision to life, Through the Eyes of a Child focuses on a small child in a bigger, uglier world through one-sided interviews with the cast and director and how those differences translates an uneasiness not only with the child but also the viewers who are engrossed by the contras, and A Primal Fear rounds out the specials with underlining fears of creaky house sounds, amongst other combined sounds, and how they’re arranged into a design that innate scare us. Physical aspects of the release come in a traditional Blu-ray amaray case housed with a beautifully composition shot that immediately grabs the eyes on a sturdy O-slipcover laced with a slight embossed spine title. Disc art goes for the less is more visage of a blueberry blue background with white font “Cobweb” at the top. In the insert slot is the digital copy waiting for you to either download and discard the physical release (which I hope you don’t) or neglect for way longer than the expired date allows. “Cobweb” is rated R for horror violence and some language, has a runtime of 88 minutes, and is region locked on A. Lionsgate has distributed the boogeyman, or in this case, the boogeywoman in the fretfully concentrated “Cobweb” that turns every scurry or scratch behind your own walls worth your undivided attention.

“Cobweb” on Blu-ray at Amazon.com!

EVIL Will Always Get You in the End! “Ghoulies” reviewed! (MVD Visual / 4K-Blu-ray set)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Ghoulies” Will Get You in the End With a 4K-Blu-ray set!

When a satanic ritual of sacrificing an infant boy is foiled by the acolyte mother, the child is taken far away from the fathering dark warlock who attempted to harness the boy’s youth for his own.  Fast forward 25-years-later, the malevolent father dies and the curse of the fiendish family tree has thought to be lifted.  The mansion is bestowed to very same young boy, Jonathan Graves.  Now a man in graduate studies and with Rebecca, his longtime girlfriend and love of his life, the inherited gothic mansion quickly entrances him into the urge for dark rituals, finding fascination in drawing and calling out the spirits and demons to do his bidding as their exclusive master.  In spite of Rebecca’s concerns and hoodwinking his unsuspecting close friends into a dark rite, Graves unwittingly resurrects his deceased and powerful father who seeks to pick up where he left off with his own callous ceremony from 25 years ago. 

If there are pint sized characters with a mischievous, devious edge, you better believe it that Charles Band is more than certainly behind the little terror-tykes hellbent on hell’s work.  One of the more successful ventures to come out of Charles Band’s empire, literally out from his Empire Production studio, is the 1984 released “Ghoulies.”  Written-and-directed by Luca Bercovici, as his debut feature film and who would later direct “Rockula” and “The Granny,” and co-written with Jefery Levy, who would go on to inevitably write a pair of sequels off the original film, the American-made production masters a flawlessly edited and sound designed layer composition mixed with the imprudence of 80’s stereotyped horror-teen character and nostalgic lighting and matte effects that make “Ghoulies” a travel-sized cult classic.  “Ghoulies” is produced and distributed by Empire pictures with Charles Band as executive producer, Jefery Levy as producer, and Debra Dion (“Oblivion”) as associate producer.

You can’t have a story about necromancing sorcery and demonic disinterring without big personalities and, fortunately, “Ghoulies” has a few that standout with memorable dark magic melodramatics.  Opening scenes of a ritual’s beginning introduces Malcolm Graves, an infernally flamboyant, wide-eyed, and animated with his hands sorcerer who likely won’t win the father of the year award.  “Mulholland Drive” and “Waxwork II:  Lost in Time” actor Michael Des Barres lights up the lurid life of Malcolm Graves with great enthusiasm and piercing eyes.  Graves eccentricity is balanced by another Lynchian actor Jack Nance as the acolyte turned mansion caretaker who oversees the Jonathan Graves’ wellbeing.   Nance meticulous eye gazes and gestural articulation combat and numb down Barress over-the-top dark magic ringmaster.  The “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet” actor definitely transposes his defined and evident presence of idiosyncrasies over to this little monster movie with manipulating occultist mascara that make “Ghoulies” that much more special.  The third actor is principal lead Peter Liapis who swings the pendula between normalcy and obsessive occultist as Jonathan Graves quickly swept up by an invisible force that drives him to become an intermediate master of miniature minions.  Liapis has that on/off switch ability to be sane one second and completely maniacal the next and when acting tranquil and the boyfriend of nicety to Rebecca (Lisa Pelikan, “Jennifer”), you better believe that we are convinced by his prosaic act.  Jonathan’s friends are an mixed lot of stereotypical lambs for the slaughter, to be used as pawns, and never know their role in the ritual of resurrection.  Stoners buds Mike (Scott Thomson, “Parasite”) and Eddie (David Dayan) fill “Ghoulies” with comedic jokester relief, rockabilly rake Dick (Keith Joe Dick) has eyes on the bedding prize with promiscuous Anastasia (Victoria Catlin, “Maniac Cop”), and an awkward dork Mark aka Toad Boy (Ralph Seymour, “Just Before Dawn”) tries to tickle swoon hottie Donna (a very young Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order:  SVU”) are the paired up friends to fall into the, pun-intended, Graves trap.  “Ghoulies” round out the cast with the blonde and busty “Evil Spawn” and “Mausoleum” actress Bobbie Bresee as an open-armed invitation for sex and sacrifice while persons of short stature, Peter Risch (“Malibu Hot Summer”) and Tamara de Treaux (“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”), credited as the smallest actress in the world, made up a pair of mischievous, quarrelling minions fed up with the current incumbent of infernal dealings. 

For a 1984, Charles Band production, especially one of his first to be distributed under his Empire Productions, “Ghoulies” establishes the bar for the miniature maniac mogul’s subsequent earlier films that may have been the peak era for Empire and even Full Moon pictures, having and hitting all the hallmark tropes of effectual horror.  A fog permeating production design with enough gothic hulk in the mansion and in the out-the-window small gravesite to immerse atmospherics, a matte composition of brilliantly simple visual effects blended with the catastrophe force inspired practical effects that aggrandizes the budget, the fantastic editing by now longtime Full Moon filmmaker Ted Nicolaou (director of “Subspecies,” “Don’t Let her In”) to piece together a more-than-palatable sound design and image, the carnivalesque soundtrack by Charles Band’s brother, Richard Band, to enrich impish latency around the characters, and, of course, the icky-coated and reptilian-rinded puppet demons by creator John Vulich (“Dolls,” “From Beyond”) in dynamic surroundings with the living, breathing characters.  What “Ghoulies” could use is fine tuning on was to further the story development.  A little more exposition into the background of who Malcom Graves is or who Jonathan Graves was calling from the slither of beyond could go a long way.  The ending transition also took a lighter approach, an additional aspect in this pre-Full Moon, Empire Production we don’t typical see in the ensuing works that grinds the desolation gears by shifting the clutch into third gear of blood, boobs, and bodies. 

Coming in at number two on the spine of the MVD Rewind Collection, as part of the 4K UHD LaserVision line, “Ghoulies” comes a 2-disc UHD and Blu-ray set. Presented in a 4K Dolby Vision HDR restoration from a16-bit scan of the original camera negative in 2460p and a sister 1080p Hi-Def restoration for the Blu-ray, both transfers exhibit in the original widescreen aspect ratio 1.85:1. Both transfers cherish the source material and even celebrate it with a clean print scan that elevates the definition of a gloomy, brooding abode under the cast of many a shadow. No issues with compression as black levels remain inky and the in-lined picture isn’t blighted by artefacts, revealing the natural grain without a combover to smooth out any original veneer from the 35mm acetated celluloid. Both discs come with an English DTS-HD 2.0 master audio that’s stark as it is clear and orderly with a prominent dialogue track and a ridiculously good sound design edit that enhances the rituals and rambunctiousness of the cult and kids. Boosted levels are balanced and well overlayed to provide max composition as we get a good range and depth of sound and space with the eye lasers, atmospheric house creaks, and an Earth-rattling finale. English subtitles are available on both formats. As usual due to the vast number of gigabytes needed, the Blu-ray special features outnumber the 4K UHD. The 4K special features include once Shout Factory! exclusives, such as a 2015 archival audio commentary by director Luca Bercovici, a 2016 audio commentary with Bercovici moderated by Terror Transmission’s Jason Andreasen. With the Blu-ray, you receive the 4K content plus a video introduction by Bercovici, which is quick, simple, and not much too an opening recollection of the keystone of his career, an interview with editor Ted Nicolau Editing an Empire that more so Nicolau’s career from beginning to current, an interview with actor Scott Thomson A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste as he exchanges his “Ghoulies” remembrance in that same stoner-fog as his character, an interview with Luca Bercovici Just for the Chick Man, a half-hour behind-the-scenes featurette From Toilets to Terror, a photo gallery, four television spots, and the theatrical trailer. The physical contents include a faux crumpled cardboard slipcover of the iconic Ghoulie in the toilet marketing ploy complete with security tag at the bottom. Sheathed inside is a black Blu-ray amaray with an ironed version of the cardboard O-slip. Inside, both discs are pressed with laserdisc-esque pattern art, and the insert contains a folded collectible mini-poster of the faux crumpled slipcover. The 80-minute, region A locked release doesn’t list a rating on the back cover but I suspect an unrated feature like with most Empire/Full Moon products and this seems to be the complete, unedited version. “Ghoulies” is a must-see for the casual horror fan, “Ghoulies” is a must-see for die-hard fans, and this MVD 4K and Blu-ray Rewind Collection release of “Ghoulies” is a must-own for the collector at heart.

“Ghoulies” Will Get You in the End With a 4K-Blu-ray set!

When There is EVIL in the Seoul! “Gangnam Zombie” reviewed! (Well Go USA Entertainment / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Well Go USA’s “Gangnam Zombie” on Blu-ray Hi-Def!

In the Gangnam district of Seoul, South Korea, former backup to the national taekwondo team Hyeon-seok works underpaid and unhappily for a smalltime viral video streaming company.  His colleague and crush, Min-jeong, is a content editor constantly being hit on by the knavish company owner.  Unhappy at their jobs, the two miserably plug away while avoiding the elephants in the room until an infected, flesh-eating man walks into their office rental building, biting and infected the surrounding professionals that turn the place of business into a place of horror and survival.  With the doors chained shut and no way to call for help, Hyeon-seok, Min-jeong, their small band of coworkers, and the building’s landlady react antagonistically against the quickly devolving situation that seeks to sink its teeth into them.  The upstanding Hyeon-seok does the only thing he knows how, to fight his way out while protecting Min-jeong from a mass army of blood-stained teeth.

In the wake of the popular successful running and rampaging outbreak spread of zombie-madness in “Train to Busan,” the 2016 all-aboard the zombie train thriller not only blazed the rails with a hyper-intense, body-over-body, dog-eat-dog infected film confined to the cramped aisles of linked train cars but it also set the tone for years to come with imitators to rake in the cash of the outbreak breakout success.  Though the concept is nothing new, South Korea has adopted the fast-running infected flesh-eater and shaped it with mass affect with newer entries being submitted every year since the release of “Train to Busan.”  “Rodeukil” director Soon Sung Lee has helmed one of those new entries with “Gangnam Zombie,” a far more contained zombie burst confined to a mall-like office building set in the heart of the Gangnam district, hence the title.  “Gangnam Zombie” is a self-produced production of Soon Sung Lee in association with JNC Media Group and Joy N Cinema with co-producer Choe Gwang-rae.

The aphorism less is more can be applied to many things and many situations, often generally true, much like overthinking a simple problem.  For the cast buildup of Soon Sung Lee’s “Gangnam Zombie,” the saying torpedoes any kind of chance connecting with the chaos-engrossed characters.  Opening to Cho Kyoung-hoon and his partner’s breaking and entering of a shipping container full of boxes of I-don’t-know-what, objectively were lost to the here and why this crime becomes not only ground zero for the epidemic, Cho Kyoung-hoon’s Wang-I is attacked by a container-hitching infected cat of all things, but also the motivation for their transgressions of thievery.  I honestly could not tell you what was being hijacked from the container boxes; to me, the contents appeared to be COVID-19 test kits which would make sense since “Gangnam Zombie” forces the paralleling global epidemic done our visual esophagus with a cat instead of a bat.  After dispatching his partner with a bite to the neck, in what is a very vampiric method I might add, Wang-I wanders his dazed self into the city of Seoul, especially the Gangnam district, where he steals red meat from a grocer and stumbles with a self-image conflict into Hyeon-seok and Min-jeong’s office building.  Indiscriminately unhappy with their jobs with a mild sense of attraction between them, the characters are played by Ji Il-ju and Park Ji-yeon who can’t really get into the tumultuously thrown together chemistry needed to make their emotionally pulling tug work with viewers.  The supposed coupling actors’ scenes feel one-sided with Park Ji-yeon in a defensively scared and uncertain shoes but very much guarded against Ji Il-ju who can wear his heart on his sleeve as he roundhouses zombie extras left and right.  Cho Kyoung-hoon feels more enthused in his black-eyed, rabid-smile zombie mode while still able to grasp his humanity with close-quarters hand-to-hand, an enthusiasm not really shared by the others when faced with ground zero apocalypse that doesn’t quiver under one-liners and vapid, vacuous vernacular and vigor.  Min Choi, Tu-in Tak, and Yi-joo Jung round out the cast.

“Gangnam Zombie” falls into the cheap-thrills trap of comparing itself the deadly strain of COVID-19 not because of the cat and bat reference above but because the opening title sequence hammers in a quick recap of the epidemic era in massive overload of visuals with the occasional infected person flashing into frame.  Though not mentioned once of COVID into the dialogue, a tumbling of slowly progressing confusion settles itself inside the narrative of what director Soon Sung Lee is trying to convey comparing COVID to chaotic cannibalism.  The exploit is egregiously akin to Full Moon’s capitalizing indecorous “Corona Zombies.”  The two not only share germs but also share essentially the same title and are both more comedic and lighter, shadowing over and taking away any intensity it intended in this more comedy-horror than horror-comedy.  Zombie carnage is laid waste to bad continuity editing as we see some of the same zombies looking down one hallway and then in the next scene and in a different hallway there is the same infected head, zombies inexplicably rolling on the floor into frame, zombies sneaking up behind people only to hesitate an attack with more of an intent to scare them when the chased turns around, and the infected are not brainlessly dulled and have the ability, or at least only one of them has the ability, to fight back with blocks and other defensive and offensive moves.  “Gangnam Zombie” milks the stouter predecessors with a haphazardly duck taped lesser vessel to slog forward what other South Korean filmmakers have previously perpetuated so well in the subgenre.

On Blu-ray now from Well Go USA Entertainment is “Gangnam Zombie” with an AVC encoded, 1080 hi-def, BD25, presented in a listed widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio that works well in the compressed environment of the office building. Exterior scenes of the city, overall general landscape, suggest a wider aspect ratio, perhaps a 2.35:1 to capture more the of the urban landscape. Speaking of the office building, the well-lit environment provides less complexities on the digital image with the same gray, steel, and translucent facing in most of the scenes. Varying saturations of red diverse the blood shading around the body and face with darker tints often looking like motor oil to match the midnight irises. Details in the digital age rarely see a loss of face with natural skin tones, to the minute details of reflective surfaces, and a properly sterile office space. The only audio track built into the release is a Korean DTS-HD 5.1 master audio that’s balanced appropriately with forefront dialogue and a backseat generic soundtrack mix of heavy metal and crescendo builds. The zombie grunts, groans, and roars tear into the channels, nicely through the backend channels, but with cacophonous irritation at times. There’s decent secondary sound design with the baseball bat being hit across infected faces and the floor, despite revealing its rubbery bounce, and Ji Il-joo kick and punch melodies. Sometimes a hit-or-miss with bonus features on the international releases, this particular Well Go USA release comes bare bones with no special features on the software. The hardware, aka physical features, is also not terribly spectacular with a standard Blu-ray casing with a sketch and paint cover that’s slightly misleading where our protagonist will be when the outbreak breaks. Unlatching the case reveals an advert insert for three Well Go USA distributed films, likely rotational with different features, with a unique fascination disc press art of rope tied radio with outstand hands and fingers appearing to grab the bottom of it. It’s a Blu-ray opening enigma viewers will have watch the feature to understand. Clocking in at 82 minutes, “Gangnam Zombie” is region A locked and is not rated. The bite marks of “Gangnam Zombie” are a familiar pang and now nearly a decade after a formidable Korean zombie subgenre began, we’ve become too desensitized for hackneyed carbon copies.

Well Go USA’s “Gangnam Zombie” on Blu-ray Hi-Def!

Always Wear Protection From EVIL! “It Follows” reviewed! (Second Sight Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“It Follows” You Home on Blu-ray and 4K Home Video!  

After sleeping with a young and handsome man in the back of his car, Jay wakes up strapped to a wheel cheer in an abandoned and dilapidated Detroit warehouse.  The panicked and apologetic man explains that having sex passed something to him and now he has passed it to her.  What it is is a supernatural force, a shapeshifter, always walking toward the last person implanted with an imperceptible sexually transmitted beacon.  Slowly but surely, the entity continues with a steady pace until reaching the infected person and brutally murdering them.  The only way Jay can unload this burdensome curse is to pass it along to someone else, but her tightknit group of friends aim to help her despite not being able to see the entity and drive her out beyond the stretches of her Detroit suburb home.  Yet, no matter how far Jay travels the entity eventually catches up to her, endless following her to wherever she goes, leaving her and her friends without options to alleviate her paranoia and fear.

David Robert Mitchell’s breakout horror success “It Follows” is the 2014 released supernatural teen terrorizer with an immutable edge of not only absolute apprehension but also with a distorted real-world dreaminess not based in vague abstraction.  Mitchell, who not only directed by wrote the film as well, is the sophomore feature from the “The Myth of the American Sleepover“ director who persists in the unravelling of apparent teenage problems, dramas, and sensations in the metro area and in the suburban borders of Detroit, Michigan, the state in which Mitchell was born.   “It Follows” barely scratched a significant budget for production but managed to succeed expectations earning domestically here in the U.S. 13x the film’s budget amount plus the additional international box office revenue and at-home media sales saw Mitchell’s indie horror a major sleeper amongst surprised genre fans who couldn’t get enough of the sexual transmitted spook.  Mitchell, along with Erik Rommensmo, Roby K. Bennett, Rebecca Green, Laura D. Smith Ireland, and David Kaplan, produced the venture under production companies Animal Kingdom and Two Flints with Northern Lights Films presenting.

At the center of a parentless predicament are a group of friends with the nucleate being the followed Jay under the performance of Maika Monroe, who also saw simultaneous and unexpected success in another 2014 thriller, “The Guest.”  Monroe’s slow burn sauntering becomes hit with complete shock when her lover betrays her, sends her spiraling in post-trauma harm, and instills a paranoia that can’t be ignored.  Jay no longer floats in life’s little wonders of love and romance; instead, she finds herself on the other side of the idyllic fantasy with the repercussions of her choices amplified by the supernatural spin.  At her side is her sister Kelly (Lili Sepe, “The Intruder”), childhood friends Paul (Keir Gilchrist, “Dead Silence”) and Yara (Olivia Luccardi, “Kappa Kappa Die”), and the across the street cool guy Greg (Daniel Zovatto, “The Pope’s Exorcist”).  Each play a role in Jay’s post-sex paranormal plight, some are a conductor of relief, such as providing a comforting presence as bodyguards per se or even become the next person to pass along the curse while others project future spurs of ominous ambiguity without the direct intention of doing so.  Though Mitchell might be invoking a dream state of events that may play into the following, I still found the groups’ idle hands to be concerning, especially during a school period from which we see Jay and Greg sitting in class together in one scene.  The cadence of time and responsibility doesn’t exist and that can be really jarring to our sense of natural order where school is an afterthought, juvenile attention is an afterthought, and the only thing that really matters is Jay’s imperceptible anxiety without any other exterior consequences pressuring their decision making.  “It Follows’” complete cast consists of Jake Weary, Bailey Spry, and Leisa Pulido.

Many of the film critics and analysts deconstruct and piece “It Follows” as an allegory for the sexually transmitted disease that will always be with you and how easily, or naively, it can be spread amongst friends and peers in casual intimacy and while that point can be seen as valid, there’s definitely merit behind that theory, I have come to an alternate conclusion of what the entity might represent that has been following me much like the entity has been following Jay. Since parents, or adults in general, are faceless, absent, or represented as attackers, Jay and her friends represent teens having to deal with the peak problematic adolescence with suggestions of suicide, drugs, neglect, abuse running rampant without ever having to be laid out in exposition or be straightforward and evident. The entity represents time running out in their youth dwindling quickly with every adult choice that they make, sex being the main sample of a larger grouping. No matter how hard the teens try to run from their issues, time never ceases and will eventually cause their mortal coil to succumb at an early age. Mitchell’s weirdly timeless set productions and props add systematic value in what has been longstanding through the decades of wriggling deviant teenage behavior. The indifference adult caregivers in themselves can be much scarier than the entity itself, a lack of experience and control often turns wild, unpredictable, and irrational, and set the story’s backdrop as the tatterdemalion surroundings of a once booming Motor City and you have a complete and total degradation of city to soul in one tailgating terrifier.

Follow Second Sight Films for a special release of David Robert Mitchell’s “It Follows” on an AVC encoded, high-definition 1080p, United Kingdom Blu-ray with an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Looking sharp and retaining original grading, this particular new Second Sight product, the standard Blu-ray version of the two-part deal along with a 4K UHD release, doesn’t hinge on perfecting or upgrading the digitally record video. Still, image quality renders like definite de facto distinctness that separates objects with delineated depth and a realistic color palette while the master of the slow pan, Mitchell, keeps scenes alive with an ever-moving camera shooting alternative, odd angles. Backside of the Blu-ray suggests a bitrate decoding at 23 Mbps but I had clocked it higher at low 30s that better suppresses any kind of compressions issues on the more than adequate BD50. The release comes with two English audio options: a Dolby Atmos produced by Second Sight and a DTS-HD 5.1 master audio surround sound. The Atoms provides a pedestal for the original composed score by Disasterpiece aka Richard Vreelord with his note firmly pressed on the slasher pulse while keeping a discordant arm’s length away from being too terribly catchy; instead, we shrill in fear with ever crescendo in letting us know the entity is here and near, foot-over-foot toward the target. Depth and range fathom well to create space and provide more than just a dialogue robust narrative with suburban ambiance as well as the exertion surrounding motivation to stay alive or to be followed and killed. Though not an A/V level up, Second Sight pours all their love and respect in new special features including new experience and opinion-laden interviews with Keir Gilchrist Chasing Ghosts, a new interview with Olivia Luccardi Following, a new interview with produce David Kaplan It’s in the House, new interview with composer Disasterpiece (Rich Vreeland) Composing a Masterpiece, and a new interview with production designer Michael Perry A Girl’s World that focuses on the out of time and oddly placed set dressings for era ambiguity. There’s also new commentary by author Joshua Grimm, an archived commentary with authors/film scholars Danny Leigh and Mark Jancovich, and a Joseph Wallace video essay surrounding “It Follows” Architecture of Loneliness, providing a deep-dive look into Mitchell’s curation of isolating loneliness in all areas of the cinematic story. The green Blu-ray casing has new simple, yet effective, artwork of Maika Monroe floating head bathed in small strips of rainbow glints contrasted against a dark background. No reversible cover or insert inside the Blu-ray but the disc pressing contains an equally color arrangement to the front cover with Monroe bound to the wheel cheer from a plot point moment. The region locked B release plays at a 100-minutes and is UK certified 15 for strong threat, sexualized nudity, violence, gory images, and strong language. Architecturally sound to be great horror movie of originality and inspiration, “It Follows” never succumbs to the frustratingly breeziness with when the entity enters the picture as director David Robert Mitchell is able to keep us ever vigilant with high suspense, stunning visuals, and keep characters from wandering too far off path.

“It Follows” You Home on Blu-ray and 4K Home Video!  

The Only Fire This EVIL Monster is Afraid of is the One in His Pants! “Frankenstein ’80” reviewed! (Cauldron Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Frankenstein ’80” on Blu-ray from Cauldron Films!

At a renowned German hospital, Professor Schwarz has pioneered a new serum that has proven animal-testing results on stopping or reducing the process of organ transplant rejection.  Also, at the same hospital in another wing, a disgraced surgeon, now a posthumous examiner, named Dr. Otto Frankenstein toils away in the morgue, dismembering bodies and piecing together the limbs and organs into a new being he has named Mosiac.  The scarred and lumbering monster has an increase sexual libido and is always in pain from organ rejection, driving him to sexually assault and kill women in the shadows.  Frankenstein steals his colleague’s only batch of serum that could have saved reporter Karl Schein’s ill sister from organ failure.  Now, Karl is on the hunt for the thief along with hot headed police Inspector Schneider that have pieced together a connection between the stolen serum and the grisly deaths of young women. 

Straight from the pages of Mary Shelley’s timeless book, the Frankenstein monster was born out of mad science, or rather the fear of science gone too far, and the deep shadows of Gothic romanticism and tragedy.  The Italian took the creature and patchworked a new take on the reborn monster giving life from expired flesh and jolts of electricity.  Frankenstein took shape as a caricature, a wildly exaggerated shell of the original exterior with an increase sexual appetite and murderous rage that shifts the story from the conflictions of mad scientist to solely the exploits of his mad creation.  That’s what is Frankenstein and his creature succumb to in the 1972 Mario Mancini film “Frankenstein ’80.”  Also known by other various titles such as “Midnight Horror,” “Frankenstein 2000,” and “Mosaic,” the short stinted cinematographer, whose works include “French Sex Murders” and “Vengeance is My Forgiveness,” tackles his own directorial from a co-written treatment penned with Ferdinando De Leone.  M.G.D. Film banners as production company with Benedetto Graziani and Renato Romano (“Seven Blood-Stained Orchids”) producing the sewn-skin and flesh-exposed feature with a concupiscent creature. 

“Frankenstein ‘80” is full of colorful characters that clash literally and figuratively on screen with grandiose personalities that seek to topple over another.  The only normie of the bunch the truth-seeking reporter Karl Schein, played by British actor John Richardson (“Black Sunday,” “Torso”), in the aftermath of a criminal act and tragedy when miracle serum vanishes and his sister (Gaby Veruksy) dies on the operating room table due to potentially her unnecessary organ failure.  Bearing a lookalike tinge of schlock genre director Jess Franco, Roberto Fizz stiffens up to the be academic and scientific creator of the serum in Prof. Schwarz.  His mad science intending to make the world a better place is balanced by Dr. Otto Frankenstein’s sordid abomination and his own self-interest, a wonderfully portentous and arrogantly calm role filled to the brim by the distinguished faced genre veteran and America-born bodybuilder Gordon Mitchell (“Emanuelle, Queen of Sados,” “Malevolence”).  Mitchel doesn’t display his brawniness here as an extinguished gentleman, disgraced surgeon but his unique face with an 1000-yard stare and his tall height made him for a good imposing puppeteer on the brink of losing control of his erratically around and constantly in pain creation Mosaic by Xiro Papas.  With his behavior performance, Papas blended Golden Age horror with new wave violence by being voiceless face of stoic fear who would eventually ravage his beautiful prey.   With all these characters creating havoc and abnormalities, it’s Inspector Schneider that causes the most distress with a cocaine level high performance Renato Romano on the verge of stroking out with him and his men’s own incompetence sleuthing in solving the murder cases.  The diverse nationality cast rounds out with Dalila Di Lazzaro (“Phenomena”) as Karl’s love interest and adopted niece of Dr. Frankenstein, Inspector’s two leading investigators in Fulvio Mingozzi (“Deep Red”) and Enrico Rossi, Lemmy Carson as the suspicious male nurse, and Dada Gallotti (“The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine”) as the Bucher with hardly any clothes underneath the butcher frock.

Frankenstein of the future!  Or, at least, that was the idea for the 1972 released sleazy-schlocker to be conceived as “Frankenstein ’80,” a new generational and bastardized terror with speckles of the original Mary Shelley vision stuffed with horrid-sex aggression and grim depravity.  Blindly held together by it’s key actors, “Frankenstein ‘80” has a pervasive perversity against the unrationalized cowboy science.  We never know just why this particular Dr. Frankenstein is so keen on creating a jerry-rigged juggernaut of mixed-bag blood types and assorted body parts.  Is it because his discredited shame has driven him delusional and mad?  Or is Dr. Frankenstein hellbent on showing the world what abnormal science can accomplish?  Jolting electricity and hunchback henchmen are taken out of the equation altogether in his water version of Frankenstein; we don’t even know where Dr. Frankenstein’s disasterpiece is source from or how the body was brought to be assembled, dismantled, and assembled again over and over as there’s no mention of grave robbery or is just a slabbed soul who fell in the unfortunate hands of a crazed surgical practitioner.  “Frankenstein ‘80’s” has plenty of mania, sleaze, and misshapen aspects that not only include it’s scared and fragmentally pieced together monster that promote Italian ostentation inside the country’s own modern genre elements rather than originating English Gothicism. 

“Frankenstein ‘80” rises alive for the first time North American Blu-ray home video release from Cauldron Films.  The high-definition, 1080p, AVC encoded Blu-ray is pulled from a 35mm print restoration and is presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio.  Stored amply on a BD50, the original print is elevated to a rich color palette that buoys, never dipping below the natural appearing skin tones, compromising the vivid warm grading, or shying away from the inky black voids.  There are spot horizontal scratches that are transparently faint and infrequent.  The release comes with two audio ADR-produced options, an English DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio and an Italian DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio.  The ADR razes the spatial depth a bit but the overall general clarity and prominence is excellent albeit insubstantially faint hissing.  “Frankenstein ‘80” has a nationality diverse cast between the Italian majority and peppered with British and American principals and you’ll see the dub synch better with the native English or Italian proficient depending on the audio track selected.  Range concentrates around the immediate surroundings, limiting the environment to virtually around just the character actions. English subtitles and English SDH are optionally available. Special features include Dalila Forever, an Italian audio recorded message from actress Dalila Di Lazzaro over a still gallery of what is essentially her life as she reminisces about her career, Little Frankensteins, a featurette that pays homage through Italian audio host Domenico Monetti on the assortment of Italian-made Frankensteins that stray from the original story and into a culture phenomenon through a time warp of Italian entries surrounding the creature, and last is an English audio commentary by film historian Heather Drain. The Cauldron Films’ clear-cased Blu-ray displays new art on the front cover, or from at least I can tell without digging up only a handful of one sheets and original posters., with the reverse providing the art from previous DVD versions. Beautifully blood red macabre and psychotronic, both colorfully cover contrasted cover illustrations are a testament to the film’s era and living up what’s on the encoded disc inside, pressed in pure black with a dripping blood red title. The region free Blu-ray comes with an 88-mintue, uncensored final product. Forget what you already know of the stitched together flat-top with pale skin and towering stature of resurrection and death after life as “Frankenstein ’80” embarks on savagery pieced together in the natural stink of science’s putrid decay with an unnatural libido leap into the arms of the unwilling, unsuspecting woman.

“Frankenstein ’80” on Blu-ray from Cauldron Films!