Tag Archives: Visual Vengeance

An Indie Anthology Worth an EVIL Look! “Creatures of the Night” reviewed! (Wild Eye Releasing / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Wild Eye Releasing’s “Creatures of the Night” Now Available on DVD!

A hitman is summoned to arrive an old manor home and offered to be paid to babysit an elderly wheelchair bound man.  The disabled, eccentric loner only gives the hitman one task, to keep him alive until 3 A.M.  The task is easier said than done as the client has the gift for gab that pulls ever so roughly on the strings of the hitman’s already agitated patience, threatening the man with harm from his double barrel shotgun if his playfully doting name calling and persistent chit chat continues through into the night.  In order to pass the time, the old man pulls out of a scrapbook filled with news clippings of mysterious deaths around the surrounding area, regaling a presumptive truth around the circumstances of the victim’s demise:  a Halloween party guest finds himself in the clutches of an aristocratic, demonic cult, a man collects fresh dead bodies to host at his apartment as part of an exclusive club, a work retreat turned into a frightening alien abduction, and bingo night results in a monstrous transformation of screams and blood.

Wild Eye Releasing has a hallmark of putting forth at the same time a string of films helmed by the same director.  We also see this theme in their subsidiary boutique label Visual Vengeance that specializes in underground, SOV films deserving a second, or third, chance by giving them a Hi-Def release.  British director John Williams is one of those repeated filmmakers.  We’ve recently reviewed and approved positively the dead mother and occult tensioner “Watch Me Sleep” from 2023 and now we’re overtop the microscope again looking at another Williams’ production, a horror anthology from a year earlier, entitled “Creatures of the Night.”  Originally and more commonly known as “Tales of the Creeping Death,” the 2022 anthology too tackles the occult but also branches out to divergent purposes of the dead, extraterrestrial interests, and werewolves with mother issues.  Williams wrote the screenplay for the crowdfunded Kickstarter indie with Williams co-producing with Clair Ward (“There’s Something in the Shadows,” “Watch Me Sleep”).

The unnamed wraparound begins with Michael Socha (“As Dead As It Gets”) as a fast car-driving, black cloth-cladded hitman hired to oversee the inexplicable life-or-death of the invalid but chatty Harold, played by television actor Andrew Readman in an over-the-top showcase of uncomfortable friendliness.  With no board games or show of kinetic entertainment afoot, Harold goes into his stories stemmed from the newspaper clippings of unsolved deaths that bring us to four individual tales to pass the time between the two men.  Halloween night proves to be a dud when Billy and his friends can’t find a good, alcoholic party to attend.  Dressed in zombie attire, Billy Cook (“Eat Locals”) is the centric principal amongst on-screen friends Sophie (Solaya Rowley) and Jon (John Solomonides, “There’s Something in the Shadows”) who make him aware of a private invitation to an exclusive party where they meet the formally dressed elders, known as the Gentlemen and named only by their individual numbers, with sinister plans surrounding demons and an unborn twin brother.  The second segment is less serious with a seemingly unstable man collecting bodies of the recently deceased to stage his own exclusive friends club.  Kev, played by the distinct face of Dean Ackerman (“Crispy’s Curse”), caters a performance around being the entertainment host at an old folks home but doesn’t quite seem to fit the loser loner narrative with having friends that are living and dead but Ackerman’s ported derangement is cheeky fun it the playful yet ghastly tale.  Rebecca Parsons is one of a trio of actors whose characters are travelling to a work-related team building retreat but along the way they stop to check out a touristy cave exhibit when the outside world essentially changes as people have disappeared, nothing mechanical works, and the blue glow of alien visitors reveals the terrible truth of an otherworldly abduction.  There’s not much to note performance wise here as the workplace banter, within the confines of the car, quickly evolves into mysterious situations and visuals that leave the group into a dumbfounded and confused what-happened-here state.  The last segment is more visceral in its violence as Steve Wood (“Watch Me Sleep”) plays a disabled son grieving the death of his viciously attacked mother in the woods with her boyfriend but also practices as the new bingo hall host in lieu of his mother demise.  His debut is cut short when a monstrous lycanthrope continues the bloody rampage that began with his mother.  Like his performance in “Watch Me Sleep,” Wood’s range of emotions and precise, performative acting nails his character Peter to the narrative board, fastening a great finale segment to “Creatures of the Nights’” favorable anthology format.  The cast rounds out with Ricky Tomlinson, Darren McAree, James Whitehurst, Wesley Martin, and George Newton.

Just from looking at the cover and reading the synopsis, without doing any research prior to viewing, “Creatures of the Night” doesn’t appear to be an anthology until you get the meat and bone of story where the wheelchair bound Harold opens his book to amuse with darkly grim tales and that’s the moment you know you’re in for a multi-short story fright with a diverse lot of horror.  What’s impressive about this Kickstarter production is its practice effects that produces a disintegrating body and werewolf destruction with detailed suit and deep lacerations.  Visual effects are limited to areas where they’re needed for a smaller production, such as the third story of an alien abduction that composites scenes together to create an unsettling environment.  While the effects are neat and not overbearing, each story is mostly driven by the story structure and acting to establish and flesh out idiosyncrasies in character and in scenarios, adding that something extra to the segments rather than rely heavily on the glitzy yet shallow terror and chase of horrifying situations without an ounce of personality.  On more a negative note, the stories do have a disjointed way about them with the stories, especially more so in stories 2 through 4 that limit exposition to heighten that mystery factor that puts that small morsel of fear in our cerebral nodes.

Those who gravitate to anthologies should find their way to “Creatures of the Night,” a Wild Eye Releasing DVD now available.  The MPEG2 encoded, 720p standard definition, DVD5 is fashioned just as it’s spec’d in a fair reproduction of quality based on the storage capacity and compression codec.  Certainly not polished with a slick grading, there’s a bit of tired veneer on it but the cinematography and special effects more than makes up for the dull grading with a cozy lighting, natural lighting, a slick-and-sick werewolf design, and seamless practical effects.  Depth sates special range and plenty of contrast to set the mood and scene appropriately.  The English LPCM Stereo 2.0 shows no signs of qualms or problematic areas of concern with a clear and presently forth dialogue of the UK dialect.  Range and depth work fine and no issues in the balancing of layers.  Sound design is able to fill in the monstrous roars or the breaking down of biological matter within the context of the scene at the right distance from the camera, never seemingly distant or misplaced.  Bonus features include segment outtakes and the trailer along with other Wild Eye Releasing trailers.  The DVD cover presents an accurate representation of what’s inside which is surprising because usually Wild Eye embellishes the cover to make a more visceral or large-than-life draw toward the film but the “Creatures of the Night” receives an accurate account.  The reverse side of the cover art pulls a shocking scene into a still image.  The DVD houses in a clear Amaray, eco-lite case.  The film is not rated and the DVD is region free with a runtime of 100 minutes.

Last Rites: “Creatures of the Night” holds its own as an anthology, one that can get horror fans behind it, offering a variety of occult tales to surely be mortally hazardous!

Wild Eye Releasing’s “Creatures of the Night” Now Available on DVD!

The EVIL of the Land Before Time Is Awake and Hungry! “Saurians” reviewed! (Visual Vengeance / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Saurians” on Visual Vengeance Collector’s Edition!

A controlled construction site blast along the area of what is known as Fossil Valley, an idyllic area where bone relics of dinosaurs can be unearthed, inadvertently opens up a rock gas-oxygenated pocket that kept preserved two slumbering prehistoric dinosaurs – one herbivore and one carnivore.  Caught in the middle is a group of paleontology students on assignment to find, study, and record their discoveries.  Also caught in the middle are the unlucky ones the carnivore has for a long-awaited meal.  Informing their professor of their extraordinary findings of living, breathing, and full of teeth fossils, the students believe help is on the way but what confronts them is a black-market hunter hired by the professors for monetary gain for their primeval trophy heads.  The students are under the forced direction of a hunter to lead the way but the hunter’s arrogance leaves him ill-equipped to tackle larger-than-life creatures from another time. 

One of the earlier films of “Church of the Damned” and “Splatter Farm” indie-filmmaker Mark Polonia from 1994, “Saurians” is a stop-motion, puppet-staging, super 8-filmed creature feature with Jurassic-sized aspirations to be the “Jurassic Park” of the micro market.  Polonia not only directed but the Pennsylvania-born auteur also wrote the script, produced the film, edited the reel, and had a starring role that secured him his first dino-disaster picture and be a foundation to his prolific, latter career that doesn’t seem to be slowing down one bit.  “Saurians” is filmed local to Polonia in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, an area he’s filmed many of his budget projects, and doubles as underlying theme on the naturalistic dangers and disasters of fracking and blasting as the hills of Wellsboro does contain man-made modernized vision of unearthing for profit margins, which greed is also ingrained into the narrative as well.  Along with Mark Polonia producing the film was his late, twin brother John and the siblings’ Polonia Brothers Entertainment” company was the studio on the film.

As noted, Mark Polonia stars as the nerdy fossilist student Alan who scours the low water level riverbeds for ancient animal relics in Fossil Valley with a pair of colleagues on assignment.  With him are the foretold love interest Lynette, played by Maria Davis (“How to Slay a Vampire”) who would become Polonia’s wife, and the more blitheful to the assignment Charlie, played by Matthew Satterly (“Church of the Damned”).  With a bowl cut, large, framed glasses, and a caterpillar mustache overtop his slender physique, Polonia’s appearance, along with his Lewis Skolnick button down collar shirt and church slacks, screams studious student of archeology compared to the others in more relaxed attire and trendy physical fads.   Their acts contrive adequate concern but still often feel stiff with hesitation, especially with large man-eating dinosaurs attending the all-you-can-eat human buffet.  The personality award goes to the fourth and final principal actor Todd Carpenter (“Bad Magic”) as the hired hunter to track down and kill the dinosaurs like African game, dressed ironically in a bright orange reflector and even more ironically wielding a gunslinger revolver to hunt carnivores, elephant-sized reptilians.  With a theatrical and condescending melodrama in his voice, Carpenter’s caricature villain bites off more than he can chew as his arrogance will get the best of him, or rather the Allosaur type dino.  When the two groups meet, there is no denying their distinction of roles and play into the tension of a prehistoric terror.  The remaining cast round out with victims of the primeval times come to clash with modern times; these roles are played by supporting cast members Dustin Davis, Chris Jones, Josh Nagy, Courtney Marie, Paula Nobles and Todd Rimatti.

Back in the early to mid-1990s, Dinosaurs landing in modern times, wreaking havoc amongst mankind, was all the rage with the height of success of “Jurassic Park,” many thanks toward director Steven Spielberg.  Even dinosploitaiton flicks that released before “Jurassic Park,” such as “Carnosaur” a few months earlier, saw post-release success because on how influential the Spielberg blockbuster was that gave extinct predators a new lease on life.  “Saurians” is no Hollywood mega blockbuster and is extremely lo-fi in all areas from special effects to A/V but there’s no difference of ambition between Spielberg and Mark Polonia who set out to make an adventurous thriller of prehistoric proportions to the extent and limits of their given budget.  The “Saurians” tale is about as routine of a dormant-now-awake monster movie as it comes without involving scientific and technical mumbo-jumbo to exposition a reason for the revival of dinosaurs but still follows core plot devices and themes that parallel bigger productions, such as the unearthing of said creatures, whether be a lifeform preserving pocket of rock gas or a fossilized mosquito in tree sap, and the subject of sin where greed comes into play with the hunter and the turncoat professor try to bank off dino hide by selling it on the black market. 

Visual Vengeance’s 2K scan of the original tape elements keeps the standard definition and early triacetate celluloid Imperfections.  Now, you may say to yourself, “Tape elements?  Didn’t you say Mark Polonia used Super 8 film?”  Yes, I certainly did, but since the film was edited on and for tape, Visual Vengeance scan is from the tape material, which was also approved by director Mark Polonia.  Presented in 1.33:1 full screen aspect ratio, there’s miniscule improvement onto Blu-ray to keep the a 8mm reproduction for the final product with a yellowish tint form emulsion fluid, plenty of cell light leaks, and a grainy textures that retains its naturality.  If you’re looking for quality excellence, don’t expect it here from this release or any Visual Vengeance release that tries to keep the original aesthetic and rightfully so or else loses it’s dated charm.  The English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is scanned from the second dubbing that was produced years after the release.  There’s obvious separation between visual and audio, but the overall clarity is clean and discernible with the dinosaur roars have a stock quality and recycle about it but retains a consistent volume range and condition. Depth doesn’t work with the ADR that keeps all the action near the forefront.    English subtitles are optionally available on the papier-mâché-like motion menu.  A bountiful of special features include a new commentary by Mark Polonia that’s moderated by the Visual Vengeance team, outtakes of the “Saurians” stop-motion effects, the super 8 raw footage, an Rae Don, never-before-seen alternate version of the film, Mark Polonia’s commentary track for the Rae Don version, a bonus Polonia film “The Dinosaur Chronicles” from 2004, a commentary track for the bonus film, the making-of “The Dinosaur Chronicles,” the “Saurians” Visual Vengeance trailer, the Visual Vengeance trailer for “The Dinosaur Chronicles,” the “Saurians 2” trailer, and other Visual Vengeance trailers for their at-home releases.  The Blu-ray release starts with an Andy Warhol inspired cover art with menacing dinosaur heads swallowing tailored-garbed human legs with an pop art orange background and blood splatter.  Inside the clear Amaray, the primary Blu-ray art has more Godzilla destructiveness with a cityscape under a fiery bedlam and two roaring T-Rexes wreaking havoc with the reverse side containing the original VHS art.  Tangible items inside are a mini-folded poster that’s Jurassic Park inspired, a single-page advert for “The Dinosaur Chronicles,” a dime bag with “Saurian’s Attack” mini-slip with 1 piece of the actual Super 8 mm cell, and the usual retro sticker sheet that comes with Visual Vengeance releases.  The 83-minute film is unrated and encoded to play for all regions. 

Last Rites: “Saurians” is no “Jurassic Park” but has the feral heart of the creature feature subgenre brought back from extinction for a new transfer and package of carnivorism.

“Saurians” on Visual Vengeance Collector’s Edition!

This Movie is So EVIL, It’s Real! “The Paranormal” reviewed! (Visual Vengeance / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Paranormal” is a 3-D Experience Without the Glasses!

Kyle Jennings is a struggling pro-paranormal scientist unable to convince the department head for more research funding without repetitive, physical evidence.  Jennings’ paranormal hypothesis is put the test when an old movie theater in Englewood, Ohio spikes to the cycles the eager researcher has previously recorded.  Accompanying his fact-finding examination of theater is the department head with her own theories to explain the phenomenon.  With the assistance of two theater employees, they experience unexplainable occurrences of movie reels coming alive and playing themselves, unlockable doors mysteriously locked, and a ghostly apparition lurking in the attic, all surrounding an old nitrite film reel with immense paranormal energy.  The foursome find themselves trapped inside a theater with the film reel causing rifts into another dimension through every reel change and splice of a cheap zombie movie.  Before movie zombies step into their reality from off the screen, Kyle must journey to the other side and stop them simply by locking an unlocked door but that’s easier said than done when every act Kyle does in film changes the narrative significant and not in their favor.   

Every once and awhile you’ll come across an obscure, independent made film that just knocks your socks off in all categories.  Todd Norris’s “The Paranormal” is one of those very films.  Norris writes-and-directs the 1998 film alongside cowriter C. Wayne Owens, marking their first and only collaboration together.  Norris went on to do be an accomplished short film editor and cinematographer, working on select cheeky horror full-length features such as “Cadavella” and “Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula.”   “The Paranormal” is the debut film of Todd Norris, filmed in the America Midwest, Kansas City, Mirssouri to be specific.  Riding the device of being a mise en abyme, or more loosely described as a meta-film, “The Paranormal” has a novel concept that makes this film something special. 

Norris not only writes and directs, the then late 20s filmmaker also starred as the lead character, a pro-paranormal scientist named Kyle Jennings who, from the opening, introductory scenes, struggles with validating his department and research that is seen as nothing more than a joke, or is even suggested to be a pseudoscience amongst cross-departmental peers at an undisclosed shared university.  As an actor, Norris never flinches from his nerdy-confident persona, dressed down to seem like a normal man with an equally dressed down obsession toward his research.  The approach and reaction of rejection is a very real-world view and response to being denied opportunity, but he’s given the chance once an unexplained occurrence in Englewood has a striking coincidence to his theorized research on paranormal activity.  Jennings is challenged by theoretical physics and science department chair head Cass Charbonneau (Lisa Winegar) who has this underlying want to believe, in a stoic, scientist indifference type way but can’t swallow the truth that something might more unexplainable out there.  We don’t really get a satisfying character arc with her character as she never really displays the change of heart or update from her rigid persona to welcome Jennings into the university scientific community.  Does he finally get accepted?  We don’t know.  Audry Crabtree and Gina Tarantino respectively play theater owner as well as Jennings’s love interest Lynne Meredith and projectionist Johnnie, providing additional strong female roles unafraid to face the supernatural front alongside Winegar.  The cast rounds out with Jennings’s colleagues and zombie movie characters with C. Wayne Owens, Carol Koehler, Brain Stubler, Jeffrey Sisson, and Davide Baldin who either support a broad pro-paranormal acceptance as we see with C. Wayne Owens moving persuasive speech to convince a reluctant Jennings to investigate Englewood and to support parts in a narrative that changes with every decisive action to keep movie zombies from entering reality. 

For a SOV film, “The Paranormal” is a case study for what to do right during principal and post photography.  Editing and special effects on tape can be cumbersome and clumsy, but Norris makes it look easy with effective sleight of hand tricks and use of multiple video tape recordings to provide overlapping effects that turned out quite well and was quite effective.  Couple that technical success with a fascinating, movie-within-a-movie storyline, there’s little to dislike about this indie feature with a big budget heart.  Horror fantasy becomes reality as supernatural forces bring the movie to life, an idea that germinated before Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1994 action thriller “The Last Action Hero.”  While Schwarnegger’s narrative crossed realities in a bigger, more explosive way, “The Paranormal” teases the threat with brief windows of opportunity that could potentially send fleshing eating zombies into the real world.  Every time I thought the story would falter under its own narrative weight, Norris surprises me with continuous persistence in making the sequences work.  The only downside to “The Paranormal” is the mystical reel that generated the supernatural rift.  The nitrite-filmed reel didn’t receive much of a backstory on how and why it causes the in-movie movie “Z is for Zombie” to be the chosen destructor of the Englewood Theater inhabitants and, potentially, the world.  There’s a flash of a woman apparition that in conjunction with the reel’s unyielding power that, too, isn’t explained.  These inexplicable elements leave plot holes in a what is otherwise a near flawless picture. 

Visual Vengeance continues to drop SOV gold right into our hands.  “The Paranormal” is not only a fantastic meta-horror but now it has sex appeal with profound physical qualities.  The single disc, Blu-ray set comes AVC encoded with 1080p high-definition resolution, encoded on a BD50.  The original tape elements were scanned with director supervision and the quality of the tape retained for its original aesthetic, complete with tracking lines and a distorted, warm coloring amongst the analog anomalies associated with tape.  There’s clearly no hard-edge definition or textural allowance so you can get the feeling that you’re watching magnetic tape just as the media gods intended, exhibited in the full frame 1.33:1 with pillar boxes.  The English LPCM stereo cleanly discerns dialogue, soundtrack, and certain action aspects without the presence of sidetracking distortion, and that’s saying something for an innate original audio recording, but there’s noticeable subtle electrical interference in it’s not so robust reproduction of audio.  The A/V should come at no surprise as Visual Vengeance continues to be upfront with their releases with a precautionary statement before every feature regarding the commercial and inferior equipment used to make these types of films.  Optional English subtitles are available.  Special features are aplenty, as usual with Visual Vengeance, with a Todd Norris feature-length commentary, a second commentary with Norris and composer Paul Roberts, various cast and crew interviews produced by Norris a video interview between Norris and Lisa Winegar and subject interviews with Jeffrey Sisson and Davide Baldin, an interview session between Todd Sheets and Todd Norris as The Two Todds of Kansas City SOV filmmaking, “The Paranormal” channel 5 TV airing, blooper reel, deleted scenes, original script excerpts, a storyboard gallery, short films “The Closed, “I…,” “Night of the Growling,” and “Parallax,” and trailers for other Visual Vengeance at home releases.  The clear Amaray Blu-ray case comes with a limited-edition O-ring for the first pressing with art by graphic artist Uncle Frank.  The original sleeve art is done by The Dude and inside is a mini poster by Giorgio Credaro.  Three graphic artists given the chance to shine on one release is pretty neat.  There’s also the original VHS cover on the reverse side of the sleeve.  Inserts alongside the mini-folded poster include an faux advert for faux movie “Z is for Zombie,” a Ghost Finder for viewing entities (think a slim-downed Viewfinder but can’t see through it), and the usual retro VHS sticker sheet.  The 70-minute feature is unrated and is region free.

Last Rites: Acting, special effects, and the meta concept are all what makes “The Paranormal” a solid film of immersive fantasy becoming an on the verge of a zombie apocalyptic reality.

“The Paranormal” is a 3-D Experience Without the Glasses!

EVIL Rides Murderously on the “Highway to Hell” reviewed! (Visual Vengeance / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Highway to Hell” on Blu-ray from Visual Vengeance!

Prison escaped, serial killer Toby Gilmore treks across the Midwestern terrain killing innocent people to take what he needs to retain his freedom.  City photographer Fran Tucker travels to the countryside to visit her family.  When the two collide, Fran is taken hostage after Gilmore shoots a man down on a road rage whim and he keeps her alive because of his loneliness inside a jail cell for years.  As the bodies pile up on Gilmore’s path toward freedom, the keen photographer will use ever clever trick in her repertoire to get away from a maniacal, yet steely, murderer with no sympathy, no remorse.  Sheriff Earl Dent stopped Gilmore once before and regrets not finishing the killer off when he had the chance.  Now, Dent won’t make the same mistake twice as he’s hellbent on stopping Gilmore once and for all before anyone else falls victim to Gilmore deranged acts of violence. 

“The Abomination” and “Ozone:  The Attack of the Redneck Mutants” filmmaker Bret McCormick strays outside the supernatural confines of horror and into a different kind of terror with an escaped prison and serial killer on the loose, titled “Highway to Hell.”  McCormick helms the 1990 release thriller under the pseudonym of B.A. Jenkins with writer Gary Kennamer penning his debut screenplay.  The story was set on the same near by set locations as “The Abomination” and “Ozone:  The Attack of the Redneck Mutants,” such as in the Poolville, Texas area as well as Dallas, Texas.  If you’ve seen all three of McCormick’s films, you may recognize some of the locations in the same shot angle.  McCormick also produces the film but also in a pseudonym of Max Raven, a regular alias used the aforenoted productions.  Mars Film serves as the production studio for the low budget, regional thriller.

Aside from a large supporting cast of Gilmore whim fodder, a murder spree that’s shows no discrimination, “Highway to Hell’s” cast is chiefly three principal characters, all beginning with Toby Gilmore’s escape from prison involving using stolen jail keys, killing a guard, pilfering the guard’s gun, and absconding on foot through the western landscape.  “Reanimator Academy’s” Benton Jennings, who has since “Highway to Hell” has found success as working up through the minor roles of eclectic of projects, had free reign to mold serial killer Toby Gilmore and the result is a generously entertaining dose of controlled chaos as Gilmore quirks and tics as he runs across the parched Texas land provide insight to his mental mindset but Gilmore is no dummy when he’s calculating next steps with hostages that ultimately benefit his survival.  His guard corpse looted snub-nosed pistol becomes an extension of his madness as he uses it to takeout anyone who puts a pinky toe in his path.  Up against him, his main arch nemesis, is Sheriff Earl Dent, played by an American action star mostly notable for his roles in Italian cinema, such as “Ninja Commando” and “Orgasmo Nero” to name a couple plus with a major role in U.S. “Evil Spawn” with John Carradine.  Harris and Jennings share very little scenes together and the ones they do share are in flashback of Gilmore’s apprehension, one that the Sheriff regrets not putting a bullet in between the killer’s eyes instead.  The other Gilmore antagonist Fran Tucker, an unfortunate photographer on her way to see her family caught in the middle of Gilmore’s escape.  Blue Thompson (“The Abomination,” “Ozone:  The Attack of the Redneck Mutants”) provides Fran’s beauty that strikes Gilmore’s perverse chord after his long jail time stint, providing him the only reason to keep her alive, but Fran isn’t one to backdown and give up her life so easily as she is involuntary thrusted into a misadventure of carnage and death  with no one coming to save her. 

Anchor by Benton Jennings horridness and traversal storyline, “Highway to Hell” doesn’t become stagnant because of its independent and minute budget.  The editing, performances, locations, effects, and overall story are more coherent than not without mostly any confounding measure. There are a couple of plot holes that could have been addressed to sate the quizzical audience, such as how did Toby Gilmore end up with jailhouse keys?  Or how he was able to explode motor vehicles with one shot of his puny revolver handgun?  Gilmore must have been one crack shot.  Yet, the sensationalized key points and action add mystery and cult film nodes to McCormick’s ambitious westernized highway thriller that pits good versus bad, morality versus justice, and insanity versus sanity.  Crackerjack editing from Gregg Phillips and stylistic measures by McCormick salvage any misgivings about the budget or special effects in what is a competent and coherent, yet strangely fascinating, terrain and terror tensioner that has little representational or metaphorical value but high on entertaining merit. 

Visual Vengeance highlights another Bret McCormick Texas hoedown of horror and exploitation with “Highway to Hell” on a new Blu-ray transfer.  The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD50 uses the original SOV tape master and what it lacks in saturation, as tapes usually do, makes up for in quality with a near flawless image quality for a magnetic tape.  Details are not terrible defined, typical of a tape, but there is great delineation and discernibility with all objects in screen.  As mentioned, hues are muted because of analog limitations and the inability to touchup the tape itself.  If a digital transfer was made, doesn’t look like much was done to touch up the color, and perhaps has purposefully retained its analog aesthetic, presented in a full frame 1.33:1 aspect ratio.  The LPCM stereo 2.0 English track offers a dual channel ranged output that has clean and clear dialogue with no issues of hissing, crackling, or any other vocal obstructions.  Overall truck lacks vigorous opportunity within the action context, such as gunshots and explosions, but, again, keeps with the original presented elements of a retro SOV exploitation.  Optional English subtitles are available.  Visual Vengeance delivers another jampacked Blu-ray full of special features that include an audio commentary by Bret McCormick, an interview with McCormick, interview with actor Richard Harrison Red Hot Asphalt, interview with Blue Thompson Road Trip, interview with screenwriter Gary Kennamer Writing a Road Map to Hell, interview with actor Tom Fegan, an image gallery, Gary Kennamer directed movie “Redneck County Fever” from 1992, Bret McCormick interview on Kennamer’s “Redneck County Fever” film, an interview with Kennamer on his movie, a commentary rack with McCormick and Kennamer on “Redneck County Fever,” Kennamer interview on his film, and other Visual Vengeance trailer previews.  Inside the Blu-ray, there’s a stick-your-own, retro VHS sticker sheet, a folded mini-poster with original art, and a reversible cover sheet with new art from Jolyon Yates as well as the original VHS artwork on the reverse side.  The Blu-ray comes in a clear Amaray case sheathed inside a limited-edition O-ring slipcover with more new illustrated artwork almost in a Ghana style fashion.  The 90-minute film is unrated and has region free playback. 

Last Rites: My personal favorite of the Bret McCormick catalogue, “Highway to Hell” is a SOV that’s simple yet effective with its western veneered thrills and a maniac making his will to ride-or-die freedom.

“Highway to Hell” on Blu-ray from Visual Vengeance!

EVIL’s Arms, Legs, Head…All Fall to Pieces and Want a Piece of You! “Colony Mutation” reviewed! (Visual Vengeance / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Colony Mutation” Literally Gives an Arm and a Leg for Blu-ray release!

A genetic scientist working on test batches of a resurrection formula finds out her public relations executive husband, both of whom are working for the same research company, is having a clandestine affair with another colleague.  In a fit of rage, she splashes the latest test batch liquid onto his face when confronting about his illicit affair.  As time passes, the side effects of the experimental drug crave raw red meat but requires the meat to be fresh and, more grotesquely, his appendages are able to separate and become monstrous to do his bidding driven by his impulsive need for meat.  He stalks young women, luring them into hope of a romantic evening, to feed his need.  With no cure existing, he throws caution to the wind and continues the monstrosities against the women, even against his contentious ex-wife and his side woman until he comes face-to-face with his lover’s gun-carrying sister who never trusted the married man in the first place.

Tom Berna’s one and only directorial and screenplay feature film, “Colony Mutation,” takes womanizing and sexual assault to a whole new disturbing level, mutating toxic masculinity for severe severed limb bedlam against young women.  Berna, who went on to having acting credits in independent productions of “Go to Hell,” “Vengeance of the Dead,” and, perhaps the most notable feature, “Jigsaw,” not the “Saw” spinoff story, from the late 90’s and into the early 2000s, shot the film in the Milwaukee metropolitan area to be the background for masculine predatory behavior, finding and integrating influence from body horror films from the likes of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” or David Cronenberg’s “Rabid” to show extremities with aggressive, mutated autonomy and parasitical symbiosis hungry for other humans.  Berna self-produced the film and listed as a film from Tyger Brand Coffee Productions.

David Rommel plays as Jim Matthews, a PR exec having a romantic affair with Jenny Dole (Joan Dinco) at the workplace.  Also at workplace is Jim’s wife, genetic scientist Meredith Weaver (Anna Zizzo).  While Meredith works nights or is away for business, Jim’s able to sneak away and play with Jenny, building a relationship that’s quickly getting serious for Jim, much to his chagrin.  A workplace triangle, by all means, will run to a confrontational head and does with Meredith confronting her husband’s credit card statement that lists hotel stays.   Rommel, Zizzo, and Dinco play to their character’s ability extremely well.  Rommel’s not the epitome of machoism as he’s favors a selfish and cowardice side that doesn’t allow him to break his union with wife Meredith and he doesn’t fully commit to Jenny’s head-over-heels love for him, we see this when Jim stutters and becomes reclusive when the mention of having future children come into the conversation.  Meredith’s rage causes her to toss her experimental resurrection and growth serum into his mouth agape face and this climatic act acts like a metaphor for Jim’s breaking point between the contentiousness with wife and his side piece’s neediness for more than just sex, sending Jim into sexual assault airspace where even his wife Meredith falls victim to a forced oral sex that results the mutation to blow a hole through her head.  Jim goes on to pick up bar women to then kill them for the fresh meat of his mutated biology but mostly done off screen or in the shadows and implied, which could be said as a double entendre for off screen sexual assault.  “Colony Mutation” rounds out the indie cast with Tammy Andersen, Nancy Brown, Clyaton Simchick, Tom Fugina, Yeng Monroe, Carri Krehl, J. Elizabeth Marhal, and Susan L. Cane as Jenny Dole’s sister who had a bad feeling about her new boyfriend Jim in the first place. 

If looking for a DIY body horror with plenty of ambition but short on cash, look no further than “Colony Mutation” that harnesses the B-movie mayhem of an appendage detaching, young woman feasting, monster of a man which, ironically enough, is created by a woman and is innately obsessed with devouring raw meat.  The curious about this modified man-thing, who can appear normal until time to strike then all parts detach into a feasting frenzy, is that he only attacks women, suggesting single-sex predator behavior.  Jim’s detachable limbs and other suggestive parts celebrate the independent spirit with crude construction, inventive editing and imaginative conceptions that appears antiquated on the outside but surely heartfelt in its objective – a David Cronenberg tiered body horror.  The unicellular organisms can be arms, legs, manhood, and even his head in a scene very reminiscent to John Carpenter’s spider-head moment in “The Thing” but the scene stand on its own two idiosyncratic pereopod legs, or rather four legs.  Shot on Super 8mm, the harsh details and near monochromic complexion with all the cell’s imperfections associated to provide the Tom Berna film a classic monster movie façade and since the film was shot in the early 1990s, there are very minimal period specific details that pin down a modern decade.  “Colony Mutation” could be set in the 1980s.

“Colony Mutation” is not longer detached from the body of filmic society with a new, director-supervised Blu-ray release from the Wild Eye Releasing associated company, Visual Vengeance.  The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD50 is pulled, transferred, and restored from the original Super 8mm elements.  The 2K transfer retains plenty of the Super 8mm innate aesthetic with desaturated color palette, cell transparency bleed, and the dust, dirt, and scratches but never do anything of those distort the overall viewing experience.  “Colony Mutation” is a quintessential rare gem of indie filmmaking setting the bar high with practical and stop-motion special effects and pulling off a rough cut of said effects.  With the new and upped pixel count, many of the special effects scenes render over as cheesier than ever with all the minute details now exposed.  While that’s low-hanging fruit, the more problematic issue with Berna’s film is Brad Snowball’s choppy editing that often feels key scenes being cut too short or omitted for crucial continuity.  “Colony Mutation” is presented in the original full screen aspect ratio of 1:33:1. The uncompressed LPCM dual channel English Stereo offers a directionless and flat track that often sounds mono designed but the synched post-production dialogue, ADR, is evident with not an exact detailed synchronization between lips and vocals in its isolated and omnipresent attendance that never feels like it’s within the scene.  Range and depth are loss with the accompany audio track with often loss of Foley that creates moments of silence, typical with films shot on Super 8mm and kept on tighter purse strings.  Optional English subtitles are new and provided for optional selection.  Visual Vengeance always comes out swinging with supported special features on all their releases and this feature includes feature parallel audio commentary with Tom Berna, a second commentary with Weng’s Chop Magazine’s Tony Strauss, a new interview with director Tom Berna, new interview with star David Rommel, new interview with music composer Patrik Nettesheim, archived public access interview with Tom Berna In the Director’s Chair, alternate cuts from the original VHS and DVD releases, the original completed script, an image gallery, “Producer” teaser trailer, and Visual Vengeance preview trailers along with their trademark motion title menu.  The physical release comes with a Justin Coons illustrated slipcover art that’s “The Thing”-esque with additional artwork from Belgium artist STEMO.  The reversible sleeve art also includes the original VHS artwork.  Inside, there’s a sex-risky promotional illustrated mini-folded poster, a tri-folded booklet with an essay by Tony Strauss Of Milwaukee Mutations and Men:  Tom Berna’s Colony and Blu-ray acknowledgements, and a retro sticker sheet.  The region free product is not rated and has a runtime of 83 minutes.

Last Rites: Visual Vengeance brings out of the depths of obscurity Tom Bern’s “Colony Mutation” for a special features packed Blu-ray of body horror bonanza saturated with predatory male sexual addiction.

“Colony Mutation” Literally Gives an Arm and a Leg for Blu-ray release!