I've put off reviewing this disc for a few weeks on purpose because I didn't really know what to say about it. On one hand, “Poltergeist” is probably my favorite genre film of all time, and a DVD release with restored picture and sound is great. For video and audiophiles, maybe this is the version you've been aching to own. I'll have to be honest with you and tell you I don't have a 16:9 plasma screen television or even a home theater sound system, so the picture and sound seem just about the same as they did on the bare-bones disc.

On the other hand packaging that disc, beautiful picture and sound, in a fancy box with “25^th Anniversary Edition” slapped on the cover leaves this particular fan with some higher than average expectations.

A 25^th Anniversary Edition DVD should, for example, include more than a hokey documentary on “real ghosts”.

That's why I can't possibly recommend this DVD, as much as it breaks my heart to say that.

The movie remains, in my opinion, the greatest damned haunted house movie ever made. Everything about “Poltergeist” is pitch perfect. I don't care who “really” directed it. I don't care about the so-called “curse” that's followed the actors. All I'd ever really want out of “Poltergeist” DVD is some insight into why this film worked so well. Give me a commentary by cast or crew, give us a vintage featurette. This disc doesn't even have the classic theatrical trailers (which are fantastic) that were included in the bare-bones edition.

Come on, now. Is the best look inside the making of “Poltergeist” really going to remain that “E! True Hollywood Story” episode I see hawked for $20 by every bootleg DVD dealer at horror conventions? Even putting that on this disc would have been a treat.

I'm not even including our standard link to Amazon.com on this one, guys. In fact:

DON'T BUY IT ON AMAZON.COM

Posted by Mike-ons of Fright at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: OUTBREAK ON A PLANE

In the interest of full disclosure you could pretty much set any movie on an airplane and count me in for the duration of the flight. Long before “Snakes” I've loved aviation disaster movies. I'm patently obsessed with the 70's “Airport” series, could practically write you a production diary about the making of the “Turbulence” films (I count “Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal” amongst my all-time favorites). You just have to make sure you follow the rules of the airplane disaster genre, and if you do, I say feel free to mix it up any way you want.

Nine minutes into “Flight of the Living Dead”, when we've met the retiring captain and the nun I knew we were in good hands.

So, what we have going on in “Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (which, by the way, is not a sequel to “Night of the Living Dead” or “Outbreak”, just in case you were confused) is a mutant malaria virus which kills you and brings you back to zombie-life. A female scientist unlucky enough to be infected is frozen, and placed under suspended animation, then placed in the cargo hold of a 747 by her husband and colleagues for reasons that are unclear to me. During a turbulent storm her “case” is broken and she escapes, killing an armed guard and beginning the zombie infection which soon spreads through the entire plane. Soon nearly everyone on board is coo-coo for co-pilot flesh.

The zombie action is fairly fierce (they're fast zombies, for those who care about that) and I wouldn't call it's extremely gory, but there's a fair amount of blood shed. The zombies mostly just keep biting passengers in the neck, which is a little repetitive, but I suppose it does the trick.

Best thing “Flight of the Living Dead” has going for it is it's cast. Kevin J. O'Connor is in it, and while it's kind of a repeat of the character he played in “Deep Rising”, he brings a lot of humor. Richard Tyson also appears, looking a lot like Kurt Russell, as an Air Marshall. Those two round out the more familiar faces (although there are a few more like Erick Avari as our in-flight mad scientist). Fortunately this isn't one of those low-budget movies where the good actors get top billing and are in it for five minutes. Tyson and O'Connor are around for the duration, which helps support the other actors and props up the movie a few notches.

The ending is typically reliant on a lot of CGI effects, but for the most part they're done well and don't end up looking cheap. That's really the impressive thing about “Flight of the Living Dead”, this is another direct-to-DVD release that didn't have to be anything other than a cheap throwaway, but it never feels that way. It's not original, it's not much of anything you haven't seen before, but for what it is, it works.

BUY IT ON AMAZON.COM:

Posted by Mike-ons of Fright at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Mike-ons of Fright at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maniac

Of the thousands of horror movies I've seen, amid all that blood and gore, there are only a few horror movies that have actually made me sick to my stomach. One of them is Audition. The other one that comes to mind is Joe Spinell's masterpiece, the profoundly disturbing and stomach turning Maniac.

When Maniac came out in 1980, I was only 8, so I don't remember the controversy surrounding it. But the film acted as a flashpoint on a number of topics: child abuse, movie violence and most importantly, misogyny. The movie tells the story of Frank Zito, one of the creepiest characters in all of film. Zito's nightly activities involve him killing, maiming and scalping women all over New York City. He nails the scalps to mannequins in his apartment, where he dresses in boxers and a winged baseball cap, and holds one sided conversations with his dead mother. Spinell's performance is genuinely creepy; the personality tics with which he embellishes Zito paint a picture of a terribly abused, unhinged man who now seeks revenge on women.

If ever a movie relied on atmosphere to disturb, repel and nauseate an audience, this is it. The music, director William Lustig's photography and the use of the city at night all create a mood that would discourage one from walking the street at night. But the violence, mostly against women, is what had women's groups up in arms. Special effects artist Tom Savini creates murders that are not only grotesque, but come across as real. It was as if I were watching a snuff film instead of a horror movie. Too real for me, and too graphic against women for advocate groups to swallow. But to dismiss the film is a mistake. The controversy surrounding Maniac raises questions, ones that should be explored: is it acceptable to make a morally offensive movie if the filmmakers are tackling issues such as child abuse? Is the violence truly gratuitous if Spinell is using it as an engine to drive home a point? Is exploitation filmmaking valid? The women who rabidly suggested boycotting Maniac appear never to have asked these questions of the film industry or themselves. Instead, they blindly attacked the film. What a shame they took this tact, instead of bringing about real debate.

With the release of this DVD, Anchor Bay did much to correct the damage done. The first feature worth looking at is the 49 minute documentary on Joe Spinell. Through interviews with a large number of his colleagues, friends and his sister, Spinell comes across as a genuinely unique, yet disturbed character. Here was a generous and kind man who would help Sly Stallone in his early career, yet spend all the budget of a film on alcohol and women. Despite all his flaws, all the people in this documentary really loved Spinell. A nice accompaniment to the documentary is the film commentary; it includes director Bill Lustig, Savini, the film's editor and Spinell's assistant/buddy. The commentary is thorough, and addresses the woes of low budget filmmaking, the special effects, shooting in New York City (often without permits) and Spinell himself. There's a 15 minute radio interview in which Spinell takes offense to the way women's group approached the picture, as well as various theatrical and radio ads for the film. But my favorite feature of all is the Gallery of Outrage, in which various film critics and one country's film board slam Maniac for its graphic content. It's intriguing to see how critics can go on a pulpit and become moral advocates instead of mere movie reviewers.

When I was a kid in the 1980s, my local video store had a VHS copy of Maniac on the shelf. I remember being terrified by the cover's image of a man with a bloody knife in one hand, a decapitated head in the other, and a bulging erection. The tagline "I Warned You Not to Go Out Tonight" completed my terror perfectly. I bought this DVD when it first came out; I watched it that night with a friend and almost threw up, more than once. I'm glad I bought it though. The point of any horror movie should be to horrify, not merely to disturb. Once I got past the graphic content and realized that a Maniac like this could exist, this movie worked as a powerful example of what horror can accomplish.

BUY IT ON AMAZON.COM 

--Phil Fasso

Posted by Phil at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 Masters of Horror: Sick Girl

Let's play that old Sesame Street game, One of These Things Is Not Like the Others. John Carpenter, John Landis, Joe Dante, Lucky McKee, Larry Cohen, Tobe Hooper. If you chose Lucky, have a cigar. As you can tell from this review's title, the Showtime horror anthology series is supposed to be reserved for the masters of the genre, those who made some of the most horrifying films from the 1970s through today and are acknowledged as the greats of the industry. So what the Hell is Lucky doing here? Here's a man who directed a handful of horror flicks, and he's keeping company with some heavyweights here. Does he deserve to? Read on and see.

Sick Girl is an offbeat film that features: a lesbian entomologist, a lesbian tryst, some frightening interludes with a rather bizarre insect, and one of the most bizarre births this side of Rosemary and her baby. If those factors sound appealing, this is the flick for you. It's certainly different from your average horror film, and that works to its advantage. It's not your stock serial killer or monster flick, and it kept me interested for the full hour. A big reason for that is the acting of Angela Bettis. Here is one of the must underrated characters in the genre, and she carries this film. Her character tics make for a bizarre screen presence; if you doubt me, just give Mckee's project May a view. She plays psycho better than Anthony Perkins ever could.

The extras on every episode of the Masters of Horror season one are impressive, and they live up to that billing here. Unfortunately, because of his severely small catalogue, the Working With a Master featurette and director interview are lacking (though the title Blood, Bugs and Romance is really neat). Three onset interviews with the cast amount to your typical promo stuff. There's a 5 minute behind the scenes which you can skip without feeling guilty, and trailers for most of Season One of MOH. The commentary track with Lucky, the composer and some of the cast is the best special feature on the disc, if only because Lucky and Bettis are both seriously offbeat people. And I learned that the opening scene was actually an homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window. Who would've figured?

Series producer Mick Garris' comments on why he chose Lucky for the MOH series are revealing: he wanted some young up and comers and, even more importantly, George Romero and Roger Corman dropped out at the last second. Those men have long careers and are true heavyweights in the genre. Lucky hasn't done enough to prove himself worthy of that company yet, but if he continues to make challenging films like Sick Girl and May, perhaps one day he'll fulfill his potential and earn the title.

BUY IT ON AMAZON.COM 

--Phil Fasso

Posted by Phil at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 1990

Remaking a classic is always dangerous territory. If a movie is generally regarded as a masterpiece in its genre, why bother to risk alienating fans by telling its story again? Sure sometimes remakes update the story for the current generation (the 1970s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers) or to take advantage of advances in filmmaking technology (Peter Jackson's recent update of King Kong). Sometimes a remake actually advances the concept of the original and actually turns out to be a classic itself (Carpenter's The Thing and Cronenberg's The Fly come to mind).

And then there's the sequel made for the money.

Welcome to Tom Savini's version of Night of the Living Dead.

Any horror fan in his right mind would probably think that a newer NOTLD, with special effects wizard Tom Savini helming a script by the godfather of the genre himself, George Romero, could only amount to a gory classic, with some profound, updated social commentary. This should've been a masterpiece in the making. And yet, this movie fails on all cylinders. It's important to discuss the reason for that before examining the disappointing results. The makers of the original NOTLD left the copyright symbol off the prints when they changed the film's title. So though the movie made millions and was on the midnight movie and drive in circuit for years, Romero and the others saw scant profits. And so every so often, one or more of them tried to recoup those losses with variations on the original. Enter Romero's motivation for creating this remake.

Romero's first mistake was remolding Barbara in the likeness of Ripley from the Alien movies. Though critics invariably have always complained about Barbara's catatonic state in the original, they never seem to realize that if a ghoul attacked your brother and killed him, then tried to eat you, catatonia would be one likely reaction. Also, because her body's functioning without a mind behind it, I always thought it neat that Barbara is another example of a zombie. Plus, there were two other women in the besieged farmhouse, neither of which were sleepwalking in terror. But Romero gave in to public pressure and crafted a new Barbara who goes from schoolmarm to John J. Rambo in the course of a few short hours. Her character may represent a new feminist take on NOTLD, but it does the movie no favors.

In rewriting, Romero also changed the fates of many of the characters. Though the plot remains very much the same, the ending is markedly different, and removes the nihilistic view of the original, replacing it with a cheap "let's kill the prick even though he's not actually a zombie" ending that may have audiences cheering, but should have them questioning themselves for applauding. The acting is over the top from all parties involved, despite the presence of Tom Towles and a pre-Candyman Tony Todd; this does the script no favors.

The script isn't the only problem here. Perhaps even a larger flaw is the special effects. I always thought Savini did the special effects for this film, but his directorial duties forced him to turn the reins over to John Vulich who, based on the rancid results here, should never have been allowed to make up a kid for trick or treating on Halloween. Bad special effects pull a horror audience right out of suspension of disbelief; Vulich's work is so laughably bad, the gags so obviously phony, that he single handedly would have ruined this project even if it were otherwise flawless.

Savini waited for years to get a chance to direct a film. To this day, this is his only feature film as director. So I thought it would be interesting to get his take on the commentary track. Considering he's always lively and has delivers interesting anecdotes on the tracks I've heard him do for Romero's films, I was underwhelmed here. Yes, he gives plenty of background information here, but the track is thoroughly boring. He barely addresses the controversy with the MPAA over getting an R rating, or the behind the scenes troubles with producers and the like. Had he discussed these, perhaps I would have at least been entertained.

The disc also has a featurette about the history of the project. It features the typical behind the scenes stuff, and a few deleted scenes (but why weren't they cut into the film for release as a director's cut? Perhaps the studio didn't care enough about this film). It's almost half an hour long. You could skip it and not miss much. A few trailers round out the disc.

Is it worth remaking a classic? Most times I come down against the idea. But Romero and Savini thought it a solid idea with NOTLD 1990. If only the results were as solid.

BUY IT ON AMAZON.COM:

--Phil Fasso

Posted by Phil at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Seldom have I come across a film that I have nothing good to say about. This is one of them. The name stinks, the story is weak at best, the acting is tops out at nice try, the effects are dreadful, and the selling point for the film is that it stars “Miss Howard Stern” Andrea Ownby. Lets start there. Andrea is in the film for all of ten minutes and she has a speaking role. Have you ever heard her speak? There is only two reasons to have that woman in a film and believe it or not, you don’t get to see either of them. 

            The film looks to be shot in video, if it was done in film it is the worst production ever. The sets are weak and the effects, oh god. We did better make up when I was ten and getting ready for Halloween. They are truly dreadful, and not in the way you want.

            The plot is about a doctor who spends time in the jungle and encounters real zombies. He takes some blood samples back to the States with him. When he returns, he has an affair with a student, which turns into a horribly directed sex scene that looks like a camera man trying to get in to porn the way he shoots her nipples on zoom. After she threatens to tell, he injects her with the zombie blood to start an experiment. Of course it goes horribly wrong. Sarah and Allison are the main characters of the film are in class with Clare (Ownby) and Julie, the two cool chicks. Sarah makes Allison look bad in class and she vows revenge. When Allison discovers the teachers little experiment, she takes the remaining blood and infects Allison. Due to an undetermined reason, Allison doesn’t become a full on zombie. She can keep her wits long enough to plan out who and how she is going to eat someone. The goal is to feel bad for her, but the acting I so lame you don’t feel anything. Also the fact that they hang this on a “Goth” girl is so lame and predictable it’s almost angering.

Posted by Myk at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don’t remember this film from when I was a kid, but  I am sure I probably saw it. After all, the movie consists of spaceships, women and dinosaurs. There is no way I turned that down in my pre-teen years. Upon receiving this dvd, I was excited as they mention effects in the tradition of Ray Harryhausen. I will watch any movie that has anything to do with, in my opinion, the greatest special effects guru the world has ever seen. I should have known better right from the start. A 20^th Anniversary DVD in 2007 for a film that was released in 1979 worldwide and 1981 in the U.S., that kind of math doesn’t add up in any equation, and it is the preface to 90 minutes of similar viewing.

            The films biggest star is James Whitworth of The Hills Have Eyes and Part 2. He plays a tough guy first officer on a spaceship that has crash-landed on an alien planet. As with many films of this genre, the special effects steal the show. The dinosaurs are indeed Harryhausen-esque, although they suffer from a sped up film track that makes them look like a 33 record playing at 45 sounds. Past that, the rest of the effects are sub-par at best. The lasers are hokey and the rockets look like toys. The thing was, Star Wars and Star Trek were being done at this point, and in that context, these effects suddenly become even worse.

            The plot of the film is actually very Alien in plot. The ship at the start of the film is owned by a large corporation and one of their top officials in onboard when the yrun into trouble. Harvey Baylor, played by Harvey Shain, tries to take charge because of his executive position, which means little when you are crashed on a planet. He ends up getting eaten by a dinosaur, similar to Paul Reiser getting his in Aliens. Of course, Cindy, the communications officer ends up with fewer clothes than everyone else and promptly bites it as well. Past that, the film gets really slow and it is a perpetual shot of the cast running back and forth trying to evade dinosaurs. The acting is stiff, the landscape is dull since the film is supposed to be taking place in the desert, and the plot just runs out action.

            The film is better promised than delivered. If you are a fan of cave women films or bad post Planet of the Apes post-apocalyptic stories, you might enjoy the rawness of the film, but after that, it is a weak offering at best.

Posted by Myk at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)