THE DEAD ZONE: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON.

Wow. Who would’ve thought that my favorite Stephen King story (and movie!) had the potential to be converted into a hit show, and last for 6 seasons! Well, here we are, and on the cusp of the premiere of Season Six, Season Five makes its way onto DVD.

For those who don’t know the basic story of The Dead Zone, here’s a recap. Anthony Michael Hall plays Johnny Smith, a former school teacher that several years ago suffered a horrible car accident which put him in a coma for 6 years. When he finally awakens, his fiancé is married to another man, his son doesn’t know who he is, and he is left with an odd-gift. With one touch, Johnny Smith can see your future. And even your past. Using his “gifts”, he helps his former fiancés husband, Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno) solve cases and helps prevent the outcome of possible misfortunes. It’s both his blessing and his curse.

He’s also seen the inevitable apocalyptic future caused by future President and current Senator hopeful Greg Stillson (played by The Boondock Saint’s Sean Patrick Flanery) and is doing everything in his power to prevent that future from ever becoming a reality.

season.) Among my favorite episodes is “Independence Day” directed by actor Chris Bruno. Johnny and his best friend Bruce are on a road trip for the July 4thWith that said, Season Five is made up of 11 episodes, and while not all of them are excellent, a few do rank as among the best the series has ever seen. (Quite a rarity for any show in it’s 5th weekend when Johnny has a vision of Bruce in a terrible car accident. Taking the wheel from then on in doesn’t change the vision. Once they’re stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, Johnny’s vision expands to seeing several of the motorists around him all dying later that afternoon. The remainder of the episode has Johnny making choices in an attempt to alter the future he keeps seeing, and this particular episode hits us with a little twist toward the ending half, which I loved.

With such serious material though, the show does offer some really funny moments. In particular, episode 6 “Lotto Fever” is one of the funniest of the series as Johnny is held captive by Boyd, a former mailman who won the lotto and then lost it all. He’s convinced it’s all Johnny’s fault. “Articles Of Faith” deals with Johnny trying to get to the bottom of a murder hate-crime. And even the Season opener, “Forbidden Fruit” is note-worthy, because it co-stars Laura Harris (The Faculty, Severance) as Miranda, Greg Stillson’s wife-to-be. (Ironically enough, both Laura Harris and Sean Patrick Flanery played a couple in the Christopher Walken flick ‘Suicide Kings’)

Overall, Season Five did what every other season of The Dead Zone has managed to do to me. It’s left me craving for more!

Special Features: On top of the usual commentary tracks, there are two featurettes included in this DVD box set release. One titled “The Other Side Of The Camera” which explores the directorial debuts of stars Chris Bruno and John L. Adams. And speaking of John L. Adams, the other featurette lets us follow him around for one full work day on The Dead Zone. Also included are several deleted scenes. The Dead Zone as a series so far has had an incredible run and this DVD set is proof of a successful Season Five. –Robg.

Buy it on Amazon.com!

Posted by Rob G at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok. You see this DVD box cover above and… what do you think? Well, it’s called LIVING DEATH and it stars Kristy Swanson. Well, I loved her in Deadly Friend. So far so good. Ah, it looks like someone’s getting tortured on the cover. And the tag line is “Scream All You Want… He Enjoys It.” And… It’s UNRATED! On the back of the cover? “Torture is the ultimate seduction”! It’s obvious that the DVD distributor is trying to sell this movie as “torture-porn” ala HOSTEL, SAW and whatever other knock-offs are in the works. With all that said, I would normally never give a movie with this cover artwork a chance, but this particular DVD was given to me as a gift, so I ignored the cheesy “torture-porn” marketing and gave the movie a viewing. And guess what? It’s actually pretty good?!

Now don’t get me wrong. This is by no means a new horror “classic” or anything, but it turned out to be very enjoyable, in a “I’d probably catch this on late night cable one night” kinda way.

The beautiful Kristy Swanson stars as Elizabeth (God, does she ever age?! She still looks fantastic!), who is married to the rich & sadistic Victor (played by Greg Bryk – one of the baddies in Cronenberg’s ‘A History Of Violence’). Elizabeth is having an affair with Victor’s lawyer and best friend Roman, and they both plot to kill Victor by using a concentrated dose of tetrodotoxin, a poison from pufferfish (Fugu is the dish made from this fish, which I learned all about from an episode of The Simpsons!) Turns out, this dose of poison only makes Victor appear to be dead for a few days. After some medical students play with his intestines and Roman settles up in with Elizabeth, whatd’ya know? Victor comes back for a little sadistic payback.

The “torture” thing only plays in the very beginning and very ending, since Victor has a room of old medieval torture devices that he uses when he brings ladies home for the night. (Pfft, these rich folks today. Swingin’ and torturin’!) I’m glad that writer/director Erin Berry calls this film a “horror” film in the featurette, because I can see most filmmakers trying to avoid that stigma and call their film a “psychological thriller”. THIS is a horror film. Plain and simple. Horrific things happen in it. And that’s that. The interesting thing is that although unlikely, this kind of thing could happen. So, overall, I actually enjoyed this flick. Only thing I was mixed on was the cheesy one liner Kristy Swanson gives during the climax, and then the final shot. (Which at first, I was confused by, but then realized what happened.)

Special Features: There’s a featurette that includes some behind the scenes footage and a candid interview with director Erin Berry, who repeatedly refers to himself as an asshole. (Come on, dude! Your movie was good!) Not the greatest set of special features, but it’s better then nothing! –Robg.

Buy it on Amazon.com!

Posted by Rob G at 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Can it be? A direct-to-DVD monster movie that's doesn't make me want to pull my eyes out in boredom and make my brains leak out of my nose? "Big Bad Wolf" puts the bite right back into cheesy low-budget horror. "Big Bad Wolf" easily stands alongside "Dog Soldiers" and "Ginger Snaps" as one of the best werewolf movies of the past few years.

The film opens several years earlier when a few hunting buddies are attacked by, well, you know... Flash forward and Derek Cowley, a kid just trying to fit in and son of one of the killed hunters, tries to prove his worth to some frat guys by sneaking the into his stepfathers secluded mountain cabin for the weekend. On a full moon. Big bad idea. Soon the monster attacks are underway and when it's over Derek and his girlfriend Samantha are left wondering if Derek's stepfather is all he seems to be.

You have to give writer-director Lance Dreesen a lot of credit here. Here, with a low-budget it could have been easy to set the film at the cabin letting the monster attack the kids one by one. Instead there's a real story here, and Derek and Sam are beyond just stock characters so you'll actually care about them.  Of course the star of the show is Richard Tyson as our title character. He's fantastic!  Both in human and werewolf form he's searing, menacing, and perverse. If Freddy Kruger was a werewolf, he'd be Tyson's "Mitchell Toblat".

Of course while I'm sure while you're watching this you'll be surprised at how well-written and directed it is, but does it deliver as far as the monster action is concerned? Absolutely and in spade. Yes, the blood flows. Great werewolf effects suit? Hell yes! (Ok, there's an unfortunate CGI transformation that looks not-so-good in the middle of the film, but it's brief and the rest of the werewolf action is practical). Really, I haven't seen a werewolf move around like this in a while. It's great that Dreesen and his effects team decided to avoid CGI or a giant puppet because it actually gives Richard Tyson a chance to emote from behind the makeup, some thing that's been missing from even the better wolf movies of late.

Buy it on Amazon.com!

Posted by Mike-ons of Fright at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)