To EVIL It’s Only a Game! “Truth or Dare: Legacy” reviewed! (SRS Cinema / 3-Disc, 5-Film Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on November 2, 2026

Own All 5 Films on Blu-ray From SRS Cinema!

Truth or dare is the game that can be played by all. Children will dare each other to do eat dirt or spill the beans on who ate the last chocolate chip cookie. Teens and adults will be riskier in their sexualized dares and their truth sought questions. For Mike Strauber, the longstanding game is life and death. When Mike stumbles upon his wife and friend’s bedroom affair, his dormant psychotic childhood surrounding the game awakens into delusions of playing the game with a woman he hallucinates, ultimately hurting himself enough to be placed in Sunnyville Mental Institution. As Strauber spirals deeper into his madness, he inflicts his truth or dare game on mental patients who cut off their limbs and explode their heads with a grenade Strauber snuck inside. Strauber also mutilates his face and comes to wear a copper mask but his time at Sunnyville is cut short when he escapes his confines and goes on a murderous rampage back to where his breakdown started, with his cheating wife and unscrupulous friend that sets Mike Strauber’s story to influence others to follow in his footsteps and even give Strauber another chance to work the killing field once again.

SOV filmmaker Tim Ritter is renowned amongst hardcore horror fans for his VHS and budget films that ambitiously and thoroughly executed with gory effects accentuated with a sleazy dressing. Select filmic highlights include “Killing Spree,” “Day of the Reaper,” and even a segment in the Hi-8: Horror Independent 8 Films” horror anthology, but his flagship film and franchise stems from the 1986 “Truth or Dare? A Critical Madness” that spurred four sequels stretching from 1994 to 2017 under an array of non-sequentially titled projects, such as “Wicked Games,” “Screaming for Sanity,” “Deadly Dares,” and “I Dared You.” If you haven’t noticed already, the multi-player required game of truth or dare is at the core of the franchise. Ritter wrote and directed the films with Scott Tepperman (“Cruel Summer” franchise) co-directing “I Dared You” as well as starring in the picture, Kevin Lindenmuth (“Vampires and Other Stereotypes”) and SRS Cinema’s Ron Bonk cowriting “Screaming for Sanity,” and Kermit Christman cowriting “Wicked Games.” The original film is an extenuation of a short film of the same subject matter in Ritter’s “Twisted Illusions” anthology. Twisted Illusions would become the name Ritter and Joel D. Wynkoop’s small band production company to finance and shoot the first three films along with Peerless Films, Wynkoop Productions, and Los Bastardz Productions sneaking in here and there in the series as association coproductions with Ritter, Joel D. Wynkoop, Ron Bonk, Scott Tepperman, Yale Wilson, Denise Blackwell, and Reaper M. Jones are the credited producers across the five films.

Other than the centerpiece killer Mike Strauber in all five films, only one other character returns to the storyline and only in three out of the five, although Hess’s profession changes from psychiatric doctor to police detective. One other principal support character from Part IV makes a brief appearance in Part V but has seemingly zero tether to previously film, making his character more confusing in the cast scheme. While there have been many actors to have portrayed Mike Strauber, from John Brace being the first to give it his all as a scorned lover and a broken mental case to more the stereotypical slasher-stoic demeanors of Kevin Scott Crawford (Part II), Bill Cassinelli (Part III), Joel D. Wynkoop (Part IV), and Part V uses the character by notorious legend only, Dan Hess is essentially played by one actor, Joel D. Wynkoop in Parts II, III, and V and this would mark the character as the anthesis against Strauber, much like the Laurie Strode and Michael Myers embattled relationship of intertwined fates. However, unlike Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, Ritter’s plots flare out to mostly not give Strauber all killer credit and gives Strauber’s inspired lot a chance to flourish in his all-encompassing infamy with copycat killers and even killer’s he’s made up in his own demented mind. Like any Ritter production, there’s a slew of sultry, scantily-cladded women show a bit of flesh but their flesh is filleted. The hot bods of Mary Fanaro (“Demon Queen”), Patricia Paul (“Creep”), Lara Stewart, Jessica Cameron, Krista Grotte Saxon (“The Day of the Living Dead”), and Ashley Lynn Caputo are just some highlights that’ll put your sweat glands into overdrive. The 40-year stretched between the first film and the last film offers a variety of styles, culturally inclined for the decade, so nothing between styles and transitions carry over the same from film-to-film but that gives “Truth and Dare” it’s non-commercial edge, right?

“Truth or Dare? A Critical Madness” is unusual proof of how mighty a small production with a lot of can-do attitudes can be with it’s tremendously vast cult following that has reached the likes of Frodo himself, Elijah Wood (“Maniac”) as well as to the casual horror fan bored on a Friday night and decides to rent the movie, digitally unfortunately nowadays. There is a certain crude charm in it’s development of a killer as Tim Ritter evolves the mental state of the man, Mike Strauber, before he turns into a copper-faced killer whereas other slasher kings, like Jason Voorhees or Michel Myers, who are introduced to audiences in the deepest throes of their instable mental state and that is perhaps one reason why the original film works and connects with audiences who can empathize a killer instinct after being bluntly cheated on by their significant other or some other relatable, emotionally vulnerable, traumatic event. The sequels from the 90s, “Wicked Games” and “Screaming for Sanity,” are the only two sequels that are back-to-back and still keep that aforesaid charm of encapsulated brutality surrounding the legacy of Mike Strauber in the form of copycat killers. Strauber never returns to the likes of an immortal juggernaut but his notoriety feeds inspiration and influence for sequels to come, something we haven’t really seen before prior to 1990 and many have now imitated, such as the “Scream” films. This separate but the same idea continues into the more modern last two sequels from the 2010s but has evolved or morphed to accommodate the digital age of internet, online videos, and webcams to infect madness with the truth or dare game being at its very essence. However, Ritter transitions from 16mm and SOV to digital for the latter two sequels, losing that warm and fuzzy glow in the color tones and the 480-interlacing resolution of analog video. The last film “I Dared You” is more of a caricature comedy than it is a tale of severity that preys on themes of derangement, loneliness, and trauma, trading those key aspect of downtrodden humanity for campy kitsch that doesn’t work and alienates itself from the body of the snake by putting a bulgy-eyed frog’s head at the end head of it; it just doesn’t work.

All five films are now available on a “Truth or Dare? Legacy” 3-Disc Blu-ray set from SRS Cinema. A perceptively definitive set, SRS Cinema’s Blu-ray comes AVC encoded with 1080p Hi-Def resolution on a BD50s. Each film is visually exhibited appropriately according to its shooting decade and budget capacity. For instance, the 1980’s “Truth or Dare? A Critical Madness” is shot on super 16 but then scanned to VHS for ease of distribution so there entails the film stock grain and light bleeds as well as interlacing and tracking properties but with an overall and a definitively pleasurable watching experience with it’s extremely minimal wear, tear, and age issues. The 90’s “Wicked Games” and “Screaming for Sanity” were directly shot on SOV and come with that warm, orange coloring as well as soft but intense glow of other color lighting tints used to extract emotion out of the scene. The 2010’s “Deadly Dares” and “I Dared You” are digitally filmed that take away much of that analog aesthetic of indie cinema, trading the format favorites for a cleaner image that has no visual personality to it. These films are not a stylistic artistically with a cinematic flare but there are some visual tricks with tints, composites, and distortions that make the imagery stimulating. Prior to the 2010’s installments, which are displayed in a widescreen 1.78:1, the aspect ratios for the older works are a full screen 1.33:1 aspect ratio. All five films have a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio spec with an unpolished innate recording that has a medium-strength dialogue and feeble organic action that’s naturally captured without the enhancement of an audio strengthening and touchup. There’s voiceover dialogue that’s more robust that loses that in-the-scene spatial distance. English captions are available for each film and all alternate versions. Each disc comes with special features that are rounded around and inspired by each of the films on the disc. Disc one is just the first film “Truth or Dare? A Critical Madness” that contains two cuts of the film supervised by Ritter and Roy Damm and Susan Kapostasy, both versions have an audio commentary featuring director Tim Ritter and actor Joel D. Wynkoop, a feature-length documentary “Celluloid Carnage” that has some behind-the-scenes and raw materials and photos, the original Italian language track is available for both versions, a snippet of the talk show interview between Craig Ferguson and Elijah Wood with Wood discussing “Truth of Dare” as his favorite horror movie, a Ritter short film with Joel D. Wynkoop audio commentary available, a promotional photo gallery, the feature trailer, and a Tim Ritter introduction from 2016. Disc 2 contains “Wicked Games” and “Screaming for Sanity” and contain a parallel audio commentary for each film with Tim Ritter, Joel D. and Cathy Wynkoop, a retrospective interview with Michelle Macabre, the original 1993 making-of “Blinded by the Blood II,” a featurette on the alternate conception “Writer’s Block,” promotional art and trailers, and a secondary interview with Ritter with scream queen Katrina. The third and final disc, “Deadly Dares” and “I Dared You,” also include Tim Ritter audio commentaries with the latter co-hosted with Los Bastardz’s Scott Tepperman and Jim O’Rear along with series staples, Joel D. & Cathy Wynkoop, and rounded out with promotional and crowdfunded extras and fundraiser videos, behind-the-scenes of Part V, an estate location visit with Tepperman and O’Rear, Tepperman’s reflection of making Part V, and Ritter’s short film “Hess” with Joel D. Wynkoop starring which comes with it its own two commentaries, one with Joel D. and Cathy Wynkoop and the other with Marcus Kempton The traditional Blu-ray Amaray has the more contemporary artwork of Mike Strauber in a copper mask and slicing a machete through the air with the title sporting the original font of dripping blood just overhead Strauber. The reverse side of the cover art contains a complete overview of each disc’s special features and transfer specs. First disc resides on left side lock while the last two discs are stacked on a double disc push lock, leaving no room for tangible inserts. With a total runtime of 450 minutes, each film is not rated and comes region free.

Last Rites: Like normal, the sequels slowly dilute the original “Truth or Dare” film until by the 5th film there’s barely a resemblance of Tim Ritter’s heart and soul. Times change, sure, but keeping that underground and spirited essence of “Truth or Dare” would have made more sense than the killer’s influence amongst the masses over the decades. In any case, SRS Cinema’s 5-film Blu-ray is the definitive edition, nonetheless.

Own All 5 Films on Blu-ray From SRS Cinema!

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

Posted by Steven Lewis on June 17, 2026

“Blood Bitch Baby” Now Available!

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Blood Bitch Baby” Now Available!

When Trying to be Good, EVIL Will Always Pull You Back In! “Streets of Darkness” reviewed! (SRS Cinema / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on September 6, 2023

Just Look at this “Streets of Darkness” Cover! It’s a Must Own!

After avenging the death of his friend and sister, Danny completed his prison stint and was released back into his Miami neighborhood to restart his life. Looking to stay clean of violence, Danny doesn’t want to connect himself to any crime organization but when a cruel Cuban drug lord assaults his mother due to his father’s past transgressions, Danny’s seek for solitude drives him into the embracing arms of the Italian mafia who also has a grudge against their rival drug trader. One hit leads to another and Danny finds himself back in the criminal world rising quickly to become one of the mafia’s profitable enforcers. Danny has everything he’s ever wanted – money, respect, and the woman of his dreams – but when a pre-affiliation sexual tussle with one of the crime boss’s young vixens come to light, a division between the family turns the tide on Danny’s uncertain future when a target is placed on his back.

If you’re looking for that Miami Vice feel of a movie with hot locations, hot bods, and hot criminal action, look no further with “Streets of Darkness” having been rightly resurrected from video obscurity, lost to Father Time since the mid-1990s. The 1995 crime thriller comes from director James Ingrassia who hasn’t cinematically published a movie since his double billed features of 1988 – a surfing themed sex comedy entitled “Hot Splash” and an island survival slasher in “Kiss of the Serpent.” “Streets of Darkness,” paying titular tribute to and cashing in on perhaps the popular stage fighting game “Streets of Rage,” is also a direct sequel to “Just a Chance” of 1992, a semi-biographical story of Danny’s descent into the depths of criminal syndicates told anecdotally while in his incarceration Both stories are the pen presentation of Creative Productions’ Vincent LaRusso, the creative wordsmith, producer, and star of both films trying to capitalize on the market’s desire for toned bodies and gang dramas with treachery and murder.

Vincent LaRusso isn’t just the leading man of his own film, he’s also a workout enthusiast that helped his own cause in creating a chiseled mafioso who’s smooth with women and even smoother laying down criminal keystones to the way he runs operations. Yet, LaRusso’s character Danny can often talk-the-talk but can’t seemingly walk-the-walk with his own principles as he quickly turns against his own rules of operations by joining the mafia with dollar signs in his eyes after repeating himself, at least three times, noting how he doesn’t want to be attached to anyone or anything. Repeating himself also becomes a running motif, or maybe a running joke, as much of LaRusso’s script recycles a ton of aforementioned material. You can even make “Streets of Darkness” a drinking game on how many times Danny, or any character in general, says, “you understand me?” If you do make it a drinking game, the possibility of being drunk half-hour in is very possible. You’ve been forewarned. Commingle the script spiraling with LaRusso’s one note performance and what churns out only scratches the surface of potential in what could have been a lucrative gem of indie filmmaking. Instead, what’s achieved is a lifeless centric character in the midst of decent supporting players, such as Armand Cassis as the ruthless Cuban Hector, Jerry Babij as a cuckold crime boss, and Christine Jackobi as the cuckolding and scorned Diabolique. Speaking in regard to the latter’s veneer that LaRusso aims for, “Streets of Darkness” offers that sexy, supermodel, Andy Sidaris-type of female principals, including a Hawaiian Tropic contestant. Monique Lis and Jennifer Cole (a Miss Hawaiian Tropic), along with Christine Jackobi, fit that busty and beautiful bill that solidifies that beach body and vice viscera. “Streets of Darkness” fill out with Joseph Cappello, Peter Gaines, Stanley Miller, Frank Palanza, Gennaro Russilo, Louisette Geiss, Lou Rebino, Angelo Maldonado, and Patrick Berry.

LaRusso’s “Just a Chance” was a made for CTN, the Christian Television Network, to deliver a religious message of strength of endurance and overcoming the cause-and-effect in turning toward a life of violence and crime. For the sequel, LaRusso wanted to embark on a more entertaining product for the public with edgier content, hence the naked women and graphic violence which most of the Christian community won’t understand, shy away, and definitely wouldn’t fund a financial base. With a budget doubling “Just a Chance,” LaRusso is able to obtain through private funding a higher production value with areal cigarette boat footage in and around Miami and its waters, decent lighting in a broad and focal sense, camera movement work, variety of locations though many look like hotel rooms, and achieving the overall Miami mise-en-scene cinematography. For a 90’s indie production, “Streets of Darkness” reaches that particular look of tropical turmoil and drug scene, the perfect beachy bodies, and the complex story of one man’s reluctant return to the savage, dark streets but the picture doesn’t take the elements to the next level beyond other Miami-based gang/cartel movies like “Scarface” or “Cocaine Cowboys” where there’s a continuous blanket of thick aired intensity and explosivity of big shootouts. “Streets of Darkness” is more expositional and story driven, likely due to budget reasons, to integrate gangster Danny’s plight into our own understanding of this character’s vow to do the right thing but ultimately destines him in the opposite direction. The editing starts off funky with a clunky fast forward scene that comes around later to then slowly but eventually, level out to a chin high in too deep path of no return from life of crime.

Due to some shady dealings with a corrupt distributor, the Beta SP master was lost but Ron Bonk and SRS Cinema was able to obtain the VHS master tapes for an Apple Hi-Def ProRes digital remastering of “Streets of Darkness” onto DVD. What results is a beautifully slick and clean appearance of Vincent LaRusso’s vision, especially for a standard definition 480p, sourced almost impeccably from one of the best possible VHS format options, the Beta SP. Though virtually wear free with no signs of VHS degradation issues, details are generally and expectedly soft presented in the letterbox 1.33:1 full frame but not overwhelming glossy smooth to the point of splotchy or granularly patchy. Remastered coloring, along with the innate lighting, sell “Streets of Darkness’s” semigloss South Beach brushstroke and achieving LaRusso’s production value desire tenfold. Audio options only include an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix has been augmented with additional score and soundtrack by Tim Ritter (“Truth or Dare?,” “Killing Spree”) and Toshiyuki Hiraoka (“Clownado,” “Cannibal Claus”). From the commentary track, a few of original soundtracks had expired copyrights and so additional music was needed to rescore the film but, honestly, the additional pieces delved too much into Tim Ritter’s gore-and-shock territory with heavy low-frequency tones that rattle the eardrums and don’t necessarily scream Miami’s synth-beat rock or Latin flair. I would have been interested to hear the original music and compare to the newly supplemented release. However, dialogue protrudes into the forefront with lesser force than normal but still clean, clear, and prominent other than the heavy duty, reverberating bass notes. There’s slight static feedback throughout but doesn’t hinder the audio senses. The Brutal special features include a second film, the Vincent LaRusso’s “Just A Chance” along with video commentaries and interviews with both films featuring video discourse between LaRusso, Tim Ritter, and filmmaker Larry Joe Treadway and Ritter and LaRusso only on the audio commentaries. The bonus content ends with theatrical trailers of both films. While not chockablock with physical fixings, the SRS release has one of the more amazing cover arts sourced from the original poster elements of a shirtless and ripped Vincent LaRusso in between two model women for the front cover. Immediately eye-fetching and intriguing, the image is accentuated by SRS’s mock retro designed DVD casing with a round ACTION and BE KIND REWIND stickers and an image bordering encompassment to make the appearance of a VHS cover. Disc pressed art is the same image but cropped to focus on the three individuals on the front cover. The not rated film has a runtime of 102 minutes and is region free. “Streets of Darkness” is a win-win for SRS Cinema and Vincent LaRusso in its newly remastered form that revives the Miami mania even if it’s only for one more heat and beach encore.

Just Look at this “Streets of Darkness” Cover! It’s a Must Own!

Amongst the EVILs of Digital, Analog Rises from the Grave! “Night of the Zodiac” reviewed! (SRS Cinema / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on July 13, 2023

A Mock VHS Retro on a Mock VHS Retro DVD! “Night of the Zodiac” from SRS Cinema!

A bizarre and grotesque dream about the once notorious Zodiac killer inspires Richard Gantz to create a movie worthy of his idol’s praise. With little income and having just lost his girlfriend and his job, Gantz is on the brink of being homeless and unable to materialize his dream into reality until he receives a mysterious, unexpected phone call. The Zodiac killer got wind of his project and is offering support to finance and bestow guidance to Gantz’s film as long as the struggling, yet eager, filmmaker can crack Zodiac’s cipher and stomach the enigmatic task before him. Gifted the Zodiac’s iconic mask and murder knife, Gantz sets out to record his first kills that pays homage to his aging idol but his mentor wants him to be creative with the new chapter worthy of the Zodiac name and gathering a whole new set of slaves for his paradisal afterlife. When Gantz hits a barrier of inspiration, he solely becomes reliant on the Zodiac’s encouragement that has become few and a far in between.

Susana Kapostasy is who I like to label a mad genius. Many filmmakers have attempted to create antiquated formats of yore with watered down imitations, but for the Michigan-born videographer and editor-by-trade Kapostasy, what has been a challenge to most to faithfully recreate has simply become second nature for the video production enthusiast. Scraping up any and all elderly video camcorders she could find, the “Metal Maniac” director wrote-and-directed her sophomore feature film “Night of the Zodiac,” pulling inspiration from one of the most notorious unsolved murder cases in America by the Zodiac Killer in San Francisco. From the West Coast to the Midwest, “Night of the Zodiac” is filmed in and around the backdropped Detroit area for the Zodiac’s next round of sliced-up slaves – only in the creative, moviemaking sense, of course. The 2022 film has the spitting image of a 1980s/1990s SOV with ghastly, gory effects, a killer hair metal soundtrack, and video characteristics that’ll have you trying to adjust the tracking setting on your DVD/Blu-ray player. The Johnny Braineater Production is produced by star Philip Digby with Kapostasy serving as executive producer alongside co-cinematographer Apollo David Zimmerman.

Stepping into the shoes of the infamous serial killer to embark on a theoretical continuance of the real life mass murdering character is Philip Digby. Channeling his best Jeffrey Dahmer vibe in looks alone with a crazed and obsessive personality suited for Charles Manson, Digby plays a hodgepodge of America’s most notorious killers, adding his own flare for film into the fold to make him a full-fledged psychopath, as he internally celebrates the moniker after his disparaging roommate/Landlord (Victor-Manuel Ruiz) labels him with an ear-to-ear grin and a nearly whoopie jump for joy. Digby’s eccentric mania thrusts us beyond a threshold we didn’t even realized we had crossed from the very first opening dream sequences of a rotting, coffin-thronged corpse oozing maggots and putrid viscera and, believe it not, my opinion is this thrust doesn’t do justice to Gantz’s character because of the lack of foundation of setting up viewers with an inbred psychosis that puts into question, how did he survive this long without killing someone before? Dreams are power but are they powerful enough to twist a seeming normal film lover into a frantic frenzy of vile fates and videotapes? I think only Freddy Krueger can answer that. Gantz goes around town slaughtering people in parks, in their driveways, and even makes one very bad magician (Derek Dibella) wish he requested to hire Gantz as a videographer for a promotional video disappear as Gantz strangles him to death. “Night of the Zodiac” completes the cast with Logan O’Donnell, Mark Polonia (director of “Splatter Farm”), Tim Ritter (director of “Truth or Dare?”), and Benjamin Linn as the voice of the Zodiac.

From the video production veneer to the set decorations and locations to the characters themselves, “Night of the Zodiac” perfectly captures SOV horror in this modern day time capsule. Not until the credits, when I see master craftsman of SOV horror filmming, Tim Ritter and Mark Polonia, appear in the cast credits did it dawn on me that what Susana Kapostasy had accomplished was a labor of love for the niche market, resurrected four decades later and revered by horror fans who were likely still in diapers or weren’t even born yet – maybe to go as far as not even a twinkle in their parents’ eyes. Yet, there were clues to “Night of the Zodiac’s” contemporary construction, such as the opening title which had a clean, well-polished illustration and Kapostasy’s film is very self-aware by slathering horror in every recessed corner with mountainous stacks of VHS tapes, posters, and and often, perhaps every other scene, displayed tribute to filmmakers, like Ritter and Polonia, who were still counterparts and establishing themselves as independent videotape artists during the 80s-90s. This self-awareness harnesses more comedic relief than horror, accentuated by Gantz’s matter-of-fact imbalance, and the humor loosens the reins on “Night of the Zodiac’s” cold cruelty a tad but what the gore spools back in audiences by spilling lots of blood.

SRS Cinema releases “Night of the Zodiac” onto DVD with a single layer encoding and presented in a throwback letterbox 1:33:1 aspect ratio. Kapostasy uses a slew of equipment – Cannon XL2, Sony Video 8 AF, Panasonic AG 450, JVC GY X2BU, JVC GY X3, Panasonic AG 456, Panasonic AG 196, Sony CCD FX 330, and a Sony VO 4800 U-Matic S VTR – with some be more present-time cams run through U-matic VHS playback to degrade for SOV quality. The intentional SOV has a variety of distinct looks with distinct quirks that flexes higher magenta levels in earlier scenes as well as tracking lines and aliasing artefacts. Detail levels also vary but the overall VHS brands generally remain the same with soft, indistinguishable contours with also a surprising amount of depth and hue range. The English Dolby Digital 2-channel (2.0) mix can sound boxy at times and come accompanied with a piercing, underlining interference. Telephone conversations have no distortion depth so the other person on other line sounds present in the room. The soundtrack from Anguish, Locust Point, and the brunt of it provided by Stoker is metal madness but does overshadow the dialogue when shredding through the scenes. Dialogue is often clear, but again, no depth and echoey. There are no subtitles available for this release. Bonus Features include an audio commentary by director Susana Kapostasy, star Philip Digby, and costar Victor-Manuel Ruiz that goes over a lot of technical aspects of “Night of the Zodiac’s” look and how they obtained the gore and blood for the film, a Tim Ritter conversation about how he became involved with Kapostasy’s video enthusiasm and provided analog input, a blood cannon showcase that’s instructionally descriptive as well as you’ll see Kapostasy’s foot accidently go into the 5 gallon Homer bucket, a gore score Ouija board gag, recreating the Zodiac cipher, and the trailer. SRS Cinema’s release dons a retro VHS design front cover with an exact and beautiful illustration of Gantz’s copycat Zodiac attire with a cropped version of the front cover on the disc art inside the traditional black snapper case. “Night of the Zodiac” has a runtime of 86 minutes, is not rated, and has an all-region NTSC playback. Difficult to immerse oneself into a half-a-century old unsolved murder while sticking to glorifying merely the guts and gore, “Night of the Zodiac” stuns more qualitatively with video techniques thought archaic and obsolete but Susana Kapostasy steadfast proves otherwise in her undying love for the flawed, yet nostalgic format.

A Mock VHS Retro on a Mock VHS Retro DVD! “Night of the Zodiac” from SRS Cinema!

EVIL is a Slice of Deep Dish Hell in “Creepy Tales of Pizza and Gore” reviewed! (Bayview Entertainment / Screener)

Posted by Steven Lewis on May 6, 2020

Pizza, that delicious concoction of bread, marinara, cheese, and your topping of choice kneaded and pieced together in a gooey circular of staple culinary awesomeness, has somehow found its way baked into an Italian-sans-meatball horror anthology that promises an equally saucy taste of crusted blood red gore. Five varied, harried tales of horror molded into a gruesome and terrifying VHS-style that will send chills down your spine as you swallow your first piping hot bite of pizza will either have you hungry for more or hurling out your pepperonis. These tales of macabre include the cursed audio tracks of a deadly screaming ghost, the grisly torture and murder in the name of Satan, the tragic and supernatural deaths of two ill-fated lovers, a wooded creature stalking stranded motorists, and a VHS tape that seeks revenge on its former, ungrateful owner.

Let’s take our time traveling machine back to 2014 where Italian filmmaker, Lorenzo Fassina, releases his second feature directorial film behind the horror-comedy, “Anamnesi Mutante,” transmitting by way of a five tale anthology humorously entitled “Creepy Tales of Pizza and Gore;” the titles of the shorts are “Screaming Ghost,” “Devil of the Night,” “Alone in the House,” “Wood,” and “Killer Tape.” Co-directed with producer Marco Giangiarelli, The Milan born Fassina’s background also includes being a director of a collection of short films and music videos for bands that include Italian metal bands Cripple Bastards and Viscera///, similar music scores the anthology. The eclectic tales that greatly homage horror of the 80’s that include rich in color film titles and poignant atmosphere audio mixes, each have a runtime average of approx. 10 minutes long, and offer a mixed macabre of subgenre goodness from technological horror to inanimate object horror besieged with an interlacing host, a faceless, demon-like presenter with much to say, much like the Crypt Keeper. My apologies in advance as the screener that was provided didn’t have subtitles so the host’s soliloquy goes mostly misunderstood, but by the way of editing and how the syntax is structured, one would assume the ghoulish emcee sets up the pizza eaters with the next short video nasty. “Creepy Tales of Pizza and Gore” is produced by Fassina’s indie company, DirtyTape.

Most of us in the States more than likely won’t find any familiar faces inside the confines of these five tales and, know what? That’s okay! Aside from our hell bound host, there’s not a lick of dialogue spoken, but the capability to connect with the characters and the capacity to understand the story without words is as transparent as crystal clear waters of the Venice canals. An assemble of facial and eye expressions and a well edited together script and structure by Fassina for each short provides a sustainable and a sufficient menacing mixed bag of mouthwatering horror. The largely novice cast has either worked on previous projects with Fassina before or are an unknown delight to us viewers and cast list includes Sara Antonicelli, Beatrice Cartoni, Jonathan Farlotta, Jacopo Grandi, Francesco Marra, Tommaso Meledina, Alessandro Melito, Riccardo Tiberi, and Bunny Roberts with a cherry on top topless scene for good measure.

I’m not a terribly big fan of anthologies. Yes, I enjoy “Creepshow 2,” like every other horror fanatic smuck, and I do revel in the grave zest of the low-budget spectrum, especially with compilations from directors of the “HI-8”, aka “Horror Independent 8,” that featured the bloodbath films of some 80s/90’s SOV prodigies in Ron Bonk, Donald Farmer, Tim Ritter, and Marcus Koch, but most anthologies find their unsuccessful way right toward the trash bin, condensed to third-rate releases with little-to-no marketing and hardly any surplus material in the special feature department. “Creepy Tales of Pizza and Gore” may be a foreign anthology barely making an insignificant speck in the cinema market, but certainly shouldn’t be overlooked as the derived golden age of an immensely beloved straight-to-VHS horror courses through the veins of Fassina’s reverencing anthology. The stories garnish b-reel content, but not necessarily effortless or incompetent in substance and range from serious, to tongue-in-cheek, and out right absurdity, with the latter stories being the weaker links. In all, it’s a fun and entertainment horror show from our Italian friends.

“Creepy Tales of Pizza and Gore is delivered fresh and blood warm onto DVD home video courtesy of the New Jersey based distributor, Bayview Entertainment. As aforementioned, Bayview Entertainment publicity provided a streaming screening link so the audio and video aspects will not be critique for this review, but the DVD specs include a single disc, Anamorphic widescreen presentation, with an unrated rating on an Italian language anthology that, supposedly, has English subtitles – my screener did not have subtitles. Bayview Entertainment’s DVD casing resembles entirely like a VHS-cassette with faux movie rental stickers stuck on the outer plastic. The packaging is a nice and warranted touch to a VHS-homaging anthology. There were no special features included with the screener or released in the press release. Chow down on night with “Creepy Tales of Pizza and Gore;” a validating horror anthology worthy of time and effort and reaffirming the faith in anthologies once again with wild, imaginative macabre ambitions without the stiffening efforts of pushy financiers calling behind-the-wheel shots.