DEADLINE -- DVD Review by Porfle

One thing 50s and 60s television did so well, and which seems to have been lost these days, was the powerful half-hour drama. This is especially true of the better written and produced anthology shows of the time, including the hardboiled, often riveting journalism drama "Deadline."

Film Chest's new 3-disc, 39-episode DVD collection DEADLINE ("When Reporters Were Heroes") contains the entire run of the show (which aired sporadically from 1959 to 1961), with each episode covering various true-life news stories and the dogged reporters who unearthed them, often putting their lives in jeopardy to do so.

Paul Stewart (CITIZEN KANE) lends the show a distinguished air as the gravel-voiced host who, while sitting in a busy newsroom amidst diligent reporters and other workers, introduces each front-page story and the journalist who broke it.

Most of the stories are crime-related, as the reporters often work alongside police detectives on cases involving murder, robbery, arson, kidnapping, extortion, prison riots, mad bombers, juvenile delinquency, shoplifting, and political corruption.

The reporters track down leads and confront bad guys like hardnosed cops, sometimes giving the show the feel of a "Dragnet" episode.  The low budget and abundance of location shooting in the heart of the city also give it a gritty, realistic look. (Listen for some familiar "Plan 9 From Outer Space" library music within the show's score.)

Some stories are particularly powerful, as when a man (actor/director Mark Rydell) is accused of planting a bomb in his mother's suitcase and killing an entire planeload of people for her insurance money.  In another, a college student's thesis on how to commit the perfect murder is tested with the cold-blooded killings of two innocent men.

In addition to these subjects are the ones more related to human interest and social justice, with the reporters often being portrayed as crusading angels and pillars of moral virtue. Indeed, the series goes to great lengths to dispel any popular notions regarding the profession which are anything but positive.

Here we witness stories of amateur spelunkers being rescued from a cave (a very young Christopher Walken is billed as "Ronnie"), a pair of Burmese nurses being saved from deportation by a reporter (Frank Sutton, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.")  whose life they once saved in a makeshift army hospital, and another reporter going undercover to expose the exploitation of illegal immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.  There's even a heart-tugging Christmas episode.

The stories are lean, terse, and to the point. They're also somewhat addictive, making them good binge-watching material for those so inclined. Like many anthology shows of the time, "Deadline" was a place for writers and actors to hone their talents, often doing work that is inspired.

The film quality of these black and white episodes is generally pristine save for occasional rough spots, which I think only add to their character. According to the promo information, these films were lost and forgotten in a garage in New Jersey for over 50 years before rediscovery.

Stewart himself plays the lead in many of the episodes. Other familiar faces include Telly Savalas, Peter Falk, Simon Oakland, Malachi ("Mal") Throne, Diane Ladd, Joanne Linville, Robert Lansing, George Maharis, Sydney ("Sidney") Pollack, Bibi Osterwald, Frank Overton, Lee Bergere, Jan Miner, Bob Hastings, Walter Brooke, Dana Elcar, Lonny Chapman, Jason ("Herb") Evers, Micheal Conrad, and Alfred Ryder.

As mentioned, the show glorifies the reporter's role as a crusader for justice and defender of all that is good, vowing (also quoting the promo info) to "uphold everything that our civil society stands for."

The text material found in the enclosed episode-guide booklet stresses how tarnished the reporter's image has become in recent years, blaming this not on any failing on the part of today's mainstream media but on its being undermined by alleged "fake news" being spread by the internet and other independent sources.

I find this either willfully naive or intentionally misleading, considering the fact that, in recent years, major print and television news sources seem to have relinquished a great deal of their former integrity while much of the actual truth one is able to glean these days does, in fact, come from the internet. 

Not only that, but the booklet's text as well as a DVD interview with a noted broadcast journalism professor seem to be just as politically biased as is much of today's mainstream media.

Putting such gripes aside, however, DEADLINE is a rich source of entertainment for vintage TV lovers, and Film Chest has done a fine job of preserving and presenting these exciting episodes that are such a valuable part of television history.



BONUS FEATURES
Episode Synopses • Photo Gallery • Trailer •
Trivia • Extended Synopsis: Journalism Past and
Present Overview • Interview with Broadcast
Journalism Professor Joe Alicastro


SKU: FC-647
UPC: 874757064796
SRP: $19.98
Street Date: 11/19/2019
Pre-Book: 11/5/2019
Discs: 3
Box Lot: 30
Production: Arnold Perl
Run Time: 1,006 Mins
Format: DVD
Color/B&W: B&W
Aspect ratio: 4x3
Year Prod: 1959 - 1961
Sound: Mono
Studio: Film Chest
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Television, Crime, Drama
Actor(s): Paul Stewart (narrator), Peter Falk,
Diane Ladd, George Maharis, Robert Lansing
and many more.               
Director(s): Various

DEADLINE -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE UNCANNY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

It's no wonder I was predisposed to like THE UNCANNY (Severin Films, 1977), being a fan of both those old Amicus anthologies such as TALES FROM THE CRYPT and ASYLUM and early Cronenberg classics like SCANNERS.  This British-Canadian horror anthology comes to us via co-producers Milton Subotsky, one of the founders of Amicus, and Cronenberg producer Claude Héroux (SCANNERS, VIDEODROME), giving this production quite a nice pedigree right from the start.

Having an absolutely stellar cast doesn't hurt at all, either. The wraparound segment stars Amicus veteran and all-around horror legend Peter Cushing and Old Hollywood genre icon Ray Milland (PANIC IN YEAR ZERO!, X:THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES, THE THING WITH TWO HEADS) as an author with a deadly fear of cats (Cushing) trying to convince a skeptical publisher (Milland) that his manuscript about how cats are secretly controlling the human race must be shared with the world at once.

As their fireside exchange is quietly observed by Milland's watchful cat, Cushing relates his first cautionary cat tale, "London 1912", which stars venerable actress Joan Greenwood as dying millionairess Miss Malkin and genre sweetheart Susan Penhaligon (PATRICK) as her maidservant Janet. 

Miss Malkin, it turns out, is a cat fancier about to will her entire fortune to her many feline friends, something which Janet and her boyfriend, Miss Malkin's ne'er-do-well nephew, cannot allow.

But when Janet attempts to steal Miss Malkin's will from a hidden wall safe, the old woman is awakened by her vigilant cats and pandemonium ensues, with Janet being viciously attacked in a whirlwind of fangs and claws.  Trapped inside a storage closet guarded by mewling cats, the situation grows more desperate for her even as it gets more and more fun for us.  A well-acted and nicely-mounted period terror tale, "London 1912" gets THE UNCANNY off to a delightful start.

Cushing's next strident narrative, "Quebec Province 1975", concerns a recently-orphaned little girl named Lucy (Katrina Holden) sent to live with her unloving aunt Mrs. Blake (Alexandra Stewart, GOODBYE EMMANUELLE) and hateful cousin Angela (Chloe Franks), both of whom strongly disapprove of Lucy's last friend in the world, a cat named Wellington. 

It's an effectively emotional tale as poor Lucy suffers the callous treatment of Mrs. Blake and cruel bullying from the loathesome Angela, but the last straw comes when Wellington himself is threatened with euthanasia.  This sets off a thrilling finale involving some witchcraft books left to Lucy by her mother, and we're treated to a wealth of wonderful practical effects that aren't always totally realistic but offer loads of giddy, vengeful fun. 

"Hollywood 1936", Cushing's frantic final tale, has a cast to die for--Donald Pleasance (HALLOWEEN, PHENOMENA, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) as Valentine De'ath, a ham actor emoting his way through a lurid horror production, John Vernon (ANIMAL HOUSE, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) as his harried director, and Samantha Eggar (THE BROOD) as a young actress groomed to replace Valentine's wife after she dies during filming in an "accident" of his own device.

With poor Madeleine gone, Valentine is free to romance his mistress and new co-star--until Madeleine's cat becomes the instrument of her revenge from the grave. This sets the stage, so to speak, for another frightful yet enjoyably tongue-in-cheek tale in which the best laid plans of mice and men sometimes get foiled by a bewhiskered hairball with a mind for murder. 

Director Denis Héroux (NAKED MASSACRE, JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS) capably brings the script by Michel Parry (XTRO) to life and the production values are sufficiently eye-pleasing.

Severin Films' print, scanned from an inter-negative recently discovered in a London vault, looks very good despite a few imperfections here and there which, for me, give it character and only add to its appeal.  On a side note, my initial qualms about possible animal abuse were, thankfully, largely unfounded, as the cast of kitties don't appear to have suffered too much discomfort during filming.

As you might guess, the wraparound segment itself is ultimately resolved in cat-astrophic style as Peter Cushing and Ray Milland each play out their string to its horrific and comfortably inevitable conclusion.  It all adds up to a deliciously good time in the Amicus style, and whether or not you're a cat fancier, THE UNCANNY is catnip for fans of good old-fashioned 70s horror. 


Pre-order the Blu-ray or DVD from Severin Films

Street date: May 28, 2019

Special Features:
    The Cat’s Victim – Interview with actress Susan Penhaligon
    Trailer

THE UNCANNY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

"TERROR 5" - Argentinian Horror Anthology Comes April 2nd on DVD & VOD

"TERROR 5"

Indie Horror Film Coming to DVD & VOD April 2

Brothers Sebastian and Federico Rotstein Direct This Horror Anthology

Playfully based on urban legends and featuring a group of young people all coming face-to-face with their inner demons, Terror 5 is far from your typical indie horror. First-time directors Sebastian and Federico Rotstein use a local political crisis in Argentina as the backdrop to the five stories that unfold to horrific conclusions.  Artsploitation Films will release the film this April 2nd on DVD and on several VOD platforms.

“Terror 5 demands repeated viewings to fully grasp the scope and genius of the film, which is thought-provoking and confounding at times, but entirely enticing and compelling.” – WeAreIndieHorror

Synopsis: While most of the residents of a small Argentinian town attend a funeral procession following a tragic building collapse, the few who do not will face terrors of their own in this mashup of urban legends from brothers-filmmakers Sebastián and Federico Rotstein. Think bondage, torture, zombies…and governmental corruption. Hernán and Gabriela, are going to a motel without realizing that inside the room, behind the mirror, there is something waiting for them. Lucio and Paulo have a plan to swap girlfriends without realizing what will really happen. A group of friends are watching a snuff movie ignoring that the real terror is sitting next to them. Juan attends a date with Sonia thinking he is going to get laid, when he realizes that she has bigger plans for him.

As their primal urges distract them all, local officials are judged innocent of the neglect that caused the building collapse—and then the horror really begins.
 
WATCH THE TRAILER

Order Terror 5 on Amazon

 

Terror 5 will be available April 2nd on DVD and Digital HD, including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, VUDU, Google Play, In Demand and more.

Title: Terror 5; Directors: Sebastián Rotstein, Federico Rotstein; Country: Argentina; Year: 2016; Running Time: 78 minutes; Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1; Language: Spanish with English subtitles; Aspect Ratio:  2.39:1; UPC: 851597006742; SRP: $14.99

Copyright © 2019 Artsploitation Films, All rights reserved.

"TERROR 5" - Argentinian Horror Anthology Comes April 2nd on DVD & VOD

ASYLUM -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

ASYLUM is part of "THE AMICUS COLLECTION" (Blu-ray 4-volume box set) from Severin Films.
(And Now the Screaming Starts!/Asylum/The Beast Must Die/The Vault of Amicus)


I missed out on most of the cool-looking Amicus productions covered in "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine when I was a kid. Except TALES FROM THE CRYPT, which I did get to see at the drive-in when it came out and was duly impressed and entertained. 

Which is exactly my reaction to finally getting to see another quintessential Amicus anthology feature, ASYLUM (Severin Films, 1973), surely just as aptly representative of the small but hard-working studio that seemed to rival Hammer in its own modest way, but with a personality all its own, back in the 60s and 70s.

With super-efficient producing partners Max Rosenberg and Milt Subotsky handling the business end of things while hiring the best artistic and technical people for the actual filmmaking duties, ASYLUM ranks as one of their finer efforts thanks to a tight script by Robert Bloch ("Psycho") and what amounts to a pretty impressive all-star cast.

Robert Powell, best known by me from such films as TOMMY, THE SURVIVOR, and the TV mini-series "Jesus of Nazareth" (in the title role, no less), is Dr. Martin, a psychiatrist applying for a position in an asylum for the criminally insane. (I especially enjoyed the robust rendition of Mussorgsky's "A Night On Bald Mountain" that accompanied his country drive to the secluded location.)

The institute's eccentric boss, Dr. Rutherford (Patrick Magee, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), informs him that his predecessor, Dr. Starr, recently went violently mad himself and is now a patient with an entirely different personality.  Rutherford tells Martin that he has the job if he can interview the patients and ascertain which of them is actually Dr. Starr.

Thus hangs the anthology aspect of the film as Martin visits each patient in turn and listens to their stories, which we see in flashback.  They amount to a potent mix of spine-chilling horror tales, each boasting a kind of slow, deliberate storytelling that I find quite satisfying as well as an atmospheric British ambience with that pleasing 70s vibe. 

Things start out with a bang when patient Bonnie (Barbara Parkins, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS) tells the story of "Frozen Fear", the most lurid and visceral tale in the collection.  In it, she and her lover Walter (Richard Todd, LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE) plan to do away with his wife Ruth (Sylvia Syms) via dismemberment. 

Ruth, however, has been dabbling in voodoo and, even in death, turns out to be more than just the sum of her...parts.  It's the liveliest and most grotesque entry, and my favorite. (The film's spoileriffic trailer dwells particularly upon this segment.)

The next story, "The Weird Tailor", has the debt-ridden title character (Barry Morse of "The Fugitive" and "Space: 1999") accepting a lucrative commission for a very strange suit of clothes by a mysterious stranger (played by the great Peter Cushing).  The purpose of the odd suit of clothes turns out to be quite a shock for the old man, and for us when the supernatural tale reaches its violent end.

"Lucy Comes To Stay" offers a two-fer of great leading ladies with Charlotte Rampling (THE NIGHT PORTER, "The Avengers") and Britt Eklund (THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN) in a story of overbearing husband George (James Villiers, REPULSION) plotting against his mentally-unstable wife while her friend Lucy stops at nothing, including murder, to protect her.  It's the most low-key entry with a predictable twist, yet I found it involving enough, especially with such an appealing cast.

The fourth tale, "Mannikins of Horror", takes place right there in the asylum with Herbert Lom as patient Dr. Byron, a man whose hobby is fashioning doll likenesses of his friends and colleagues.  He claims that he can project his soul into his own miniature self, animate it, and use it as a weapon of vengeance against his most hated enemy, who happens to be one of the asylum's inhabitants. Which, in a delightfully staged sequence, is exactly what he does.

The individual flashback tales are involving to various degrees, while the framing story inside that big, Gothic asylum ultimately delivers the goods for a twisty, satisfying finish. 

Direction by Roy Ward Baker (A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH, AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS) is solid and thoroughly professional as are all other aspects of the production, and, while not really gory, it's still strong stuff for its time.

The Blu-ray from Severin contains their usual lavish bonus menu beginning with "Two's A Company", a 70s-produced BBC report on the making of the film which, in addition to cast and crew interviews, features fascinating thoughts on filmmaking from Amicus co-producer Milt Subotsky himself.  Recent interviews of David J. Schow (regarding his friend Robert Bloch) and Fiona Subotsky (about her husband Milt) yield much information and insight. 

The featurette "Inside the Fear Factory" offers directors Roy Ward Baker and Freddie Francis and producer Max J. Rosenberg talking about Amicus. There's also an informative commentary track with Baker and camera operator Neil Binney, reversible cover art, and two trailers. 

ASYLUM is solidly made, nicely atmospheric, and just plain fun genre filmmaking that this horror fan considers time very well spent. 


Order THE AMICUS COLLECTION (Blu-ray 4-volume box set) from Severin Films
(And Now the Screaming Starts!/Asylum/The Beast Must Die*/The Vault of Amicus)
*The Beast Must Die is exclusive ONLY to the boxed set.

Order ASYLUM from Severin Films

Release date: December 19, 2017

Reversible cover art:

Read our reviews of:

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS
THE BEAST MUST DIE!

THE VAULT OF AMICUS

ASYLUM -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

DARK HARVEST -- DVD Review by Porfle

The tagline reads "Death Reaps What You Sow."  Shouldn't that be "You Reap What Death Sows"?  And while we're at it, why a duck? 

But any way you put it, the result of all this reaping is a DARK HARVEST (1992), and I don't mean corn.  Sure, it's corny, but not that kind of corn. More like "so bad it's good" corn. 

A nifty pre-titles sequence gets things off to a shivery start when a bickering young couple lost in the desert in their car have a gross encounter of the worst kind with what appears to be a horrible walking scarecrow in a Don Post shock mask.

Then we join a group of young people in a big white van who, like the unfortunate group of young people in a big white van in THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, are on their way to some fun thing that we're pretty sure they're never going to get to.  As Chuck Heston tells us in ARMAGEDDON: "It happened before.  It WILL happen again."

 

There's an oversexed couple, a bickering couple, some devoted roommates, and the usual loner or two. Some are upbeat and looking forward to their upcoming horseback and hiking vacation, some are spoiled city brats who want to go back home, some are bright, some are dumb, and at least one will turn out to be the most craven sort of coward, giving me at least one character to identify with.

Alex (Cooper Anderson) is the horny lothario who's supposed to be their guide but got them all stranded in the desert when his stupid van broke down (and this was AFTER the hick back at the last-chance gas station warned them NOT to go that way) so he deserves to die right there at the start.

With everyone hiking through the desert on their way to some hypothetical horse ranch in the middle of nowhere, interpersonal relationships start to erode and the chances of them actually making it to where they're going get slimmer by the minute.

 Especially after they split up--never a good thing to do--and start encountering hostile local hicks with guns who seem to have an aversion to city folk.

 

But even these inbred goons are preferable to the scarecrows.  In this cursed neck of the desert, it seems, the scarecrows are alive, and they aren't just content with actually scaring crows.  The film's title, in fact, could easily have been THE HILLS HAVE SCARECROWS.

There are scarecrows with pitchforks, scarecrows that fling acid, scarecrows in cars ("Going my way?"), gay scarecrows, wisecracking scarecrows, and even a scarecrow who--don't ask me how or why--sits around in his own military helicopter waiting to punk lost travelers looking for help. (Director James I. Nicholson, we learn from one of the bonus interviews, worked anything they happened to encounter into the story.)

Before everyone starts getting killed, Alex tells a spooky campfire story that turns out to be the most entertaining thing in the whole movie.  After that, it loses what tenuous grasp on logic it may have had with these doofuses running around the desert like chickens with their heads cut off until the story finally runs out of gas and pulls over to the side of the road. 

While DARK HARVEST starts out okay for a no-budget shot-on-video feature, by the final scenes it looks as though the whole project has been passed off to someone's kid brother to finish.  Which is great if you're into bad movies, as I am, but others may find it about as exciting as watching a real scarecrow scare crows.  



The second, bonus movie on this disc is the 1986 made-for-TV anthology film ESCAPES, which benefits from the presence of venerable horror superstar Vincent Price as its host.

Price also cameos as a mailman who delivers a mysterious package to young Matt (Todd Fulton) containing a VHS tape of a movie called "Escapes", hosted by Price, which Matt didn't order but seems to be in since we're watching him.  (His unwilling participation will become even more uncomfortably first-hand later on.)

There's a nice nostalgic aspect to this segment since getting a new videotape in the mail is still sufficient cause for Matt to call a friend and invite him over to watch it.  Matt also has a vintage toploader VCR like the one I bought in '81, the kind that you couldn't wreck with a hammer and never had tracking problems.



The rest of ESCAPE is basically the usual grab-bag anthology with some longer and more involved stories mixed with a couple of shorter blackout vignettes with a punchline like "Night Gallery" used to do sometimes ("A Little Fishy", "Who's There?").

"Coffee Break" is a rural tale in which an old codger (Robert Mitchum's brother John) teaches a young upstart from the city not to be in such an all-fired hurry all the time.  In "Jonah's Dream" an old woman carries on her late husband's dream of striking gold on their mountain. 

"Think Twice" cautions us not to use a benevolent gift from the beyond for evil, selfish purposes. And finally, "Hall of Faces" brings back Vincent Price to wrap up Matthew's story.



An added tale not in the original version, "Hobgoblin Bridge", is the highlight of the collection and showcases just what a talented director David Steensland was despite ESCAPES being his one and only IMDb credit. 

This story of a little boy who must cross a covered bridge on his bicycle despite the local legend of its being inhabited by a malevolent hobgoblin is a real virtuoso piece of direction and editing that depends almost entirely on visuals for its impact.  

These short tales were often used as filler on The Sci-Fi Channel and others during the 80s and, while not especially remarkable, are well-made and fairly absorbing. The bookend segments with Vincent Price wrap things up nicely and, overall, ESCAPES is a modest but satisfying effort.

---------

The double-feature DVD from Intervision offers these nice bonuses: some goodnatured recent interviews with Patti Negri and Dan Weiss of DARK HARVEST, and distributor Tom Naygrow's recollections of ESCAPES writer/director David Steensland.

Tech Specs: DARK HARVEST
Runtime     1 hr 29 min (89 min) (USA)
Sound           Dolby Digital Mono
Aspect Ratio     1.33 : 1
Shot-on-video
English subtitles

Tech Specs: ESCAPES
Runtime     1 hr 12 min (72 min)
Sound         Dolby Digital Mono
Aspect Ratio     1.33 : 1
35 mm
English subtitles

Street date: May 30, 2017

Buy it from Severin Films

DARK HARVEST -- DVD Review by Porfle

Lightyear Entertainment's 30th Anniversary Re-Release of "ARIA" on Blu-ray, Restored from the Original Film Materials, Arrives March 7

Lightyear Entertainment’s 30th Anniversary  Re-Release of ARIA, Restored from the Original Film Materials and Available in HD
for the First Time, Arrives March 7th on Blu-ray

“Ten directors work magic!”
–Time Magazine (Critics Choice)

“ARIA reminds viewers of the original arithmetic of cinema: sight + sound = sensation.”
–Richard Corliss

In ARIA, ten of the world’s most creative and celebrated directors were each given the same brief: to choose a piece of opera music and then present a visual interpretation of that music with complete artistic freedom. Music was sourced from the massive RCA Red Seal catalog; the score features some of the world’s best opera singers.

The ten directors of ARIA are Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge and Julien Temple.

Actors featured in this one-of-a-kind film include the late, great John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Bridget Fonda, Theresa Russell, Buck Henry, Beverly D’Angelo, Julie Hagerty and Anita Morris.

ARIA was produced by British filmmaker Don Boyd for Lightyear in 1987. Going back to the original 35mm internegative, the film now has been painstakingly restored and transferred to a widescreen HD master and will be released on Blu-ray ($25.99 SRP) for the first time on March 7, 2017 in a special 30th Anniversary Edition.  A new DVD ($19.99 SRP) has also been authored from the HD master, and both skus will be distributed on the Lightyear Entertainment label through Momentum Pictures/Sony Home Entertainment.

The film previously was screened in recent retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Toronto International Film Festival. ARIA was originally released in U.S. theaters by Miramax in 1987, after it debuted in Cannes as the closing night film.

Composers featured in ARIA include Verdi, Lully, Korngold, Rameau, Wagner, Puccini, Charpentier and Leoncavallo.

Singers include Enrico Caruso, Leontyne Price, Robert Merrill, Rachel Yakar, Anna Moffo, Carol Neblett, René Kollo and Birgit Nilsson.

The HD trailer can be seen here: www.lightyear.com/videos/aria

Lightyear Entertainment, a distributor of independent films and music, was founded in 1987, as a management buyout of RCA Video Productions, just before ARIA was completed. So 2017 is also Lightyear’s 30th Anniversary. www.lightyear.com

Lightyear Entertainment's 30th Anniversary Re-Release of "ARIA" on Blu-ray, Restored from the Original Film Materials, Arrives March 7

TALES OF POE -- DVD Review by Porfle

For Edgar Allan Poe fans, film adaptations of his works have always been a mixed bag.  Even the most faithful ones can fail to capture the author's unique essence, while others take his familiar name and story titles in completely different, often inferior directions. 

Any feature-length screenplay based on his short stories, such as in the celebrated Roger Corman films, must use Poe's ideas as a starting point to be built upon and/or padded out, for better or worse.  This is sometimes true even for the anthologies such as TALES OF TERROR and TWO EVIL EYES.

TALES OF POE (2014) is an anthology made up of three short films which, while not strictly adhering to the original stories as written, do a great job of retaining their mood and feeling--along with certain basic plot points--while offering up a wealth of fascinating surprises.  The adaptations conjure a richly atmospheric mood that combines the subtlety of Poe's prose with moments that go shockingly over the top.

 

Directors Alan Rowe Kelly (director and co-star of THE BLOOD SHED)and Bart Mastronardi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Varrati, have come up with three totally fresh, creative adaptations that breathe new life into these oft-told tales without straying too far from the qualities that made them memorable in the first place.  A  once-in-a-lifetime cast of genre favorites and lavish production values (despite a low budget) help make the experience all the richer. 

"The Tell-Tale Heart" gets a sex change, with scream queen Debbie Rochon (MODEL HUNGER, THE THEATER BIZARRE) outstanding as a nurse-for-hire tending to wealthy invalid and former silent screen star Miss Lamarr (Kelly) in her spacious, museum-like estate.  Poe fans will know that the eccentric but otherwise harmless Miss Lamarr sports one blind, milky-white eye which the mentally-unstable nurse finds utterly repulsive to the point of plotting the old woman's murder in the dead of night. 

Rochon's character tells the story in flashback to her fellow inmates in an insane asylum, retaining much of Poe's original prose and adding just enough to keep things enticingly unexpected for the viewer.  Some well-rendered sex and violence also adds just the right measure of visceral impact for modern audiences.  Desiree Gould (SLEEPAWAY CAMP's "Aunt Martha") makes a strong impression as a malicious nurse.

 

Once again centering around one or two particular events that stoked Poe's imagination enough to create a story around them, "The Cask" takes the horror of being imprisoned alive behind a brick wall--while watching it being constructed brick by brick--and fleshes it out into a whole new yet equally chilling story.

This time, wealthy wine connoisseur Fortunato Montresor (Randy Jones, better known as the cowboy from The Village People) and his blowsy new bride Gogo (Alan Rowe Kelly again) are leading a flamboyant assemblage of wedding guests through his vast wine cellar when suddenly one of the women (Zoe Daelman Chlanda), a psychic, starts hugging the cold stone wall and having convulsions.  Apparently, she's foreseeing the horror that's in store for one of the newlyweds when the other proves to be, shall we say, "unfaithful."

Where "The Tell-Tale Heart" is unrelievedly Gothic and dark, "The Cask" mixes a bit more humor (nice and dry, like a good wine) with its chills, bringing to mind the "Something To Tide You Over" episode of CREEPSHOW.  Jones acquits himself very well, as do Brewster McCall as family friend Marco Lechresi and genre stalwart Susan Adriensen (PRISON OF THE PSYCHOTIC DAMNED, THE BLOOD SHED), always a pleasure to watch, as their creepy housemaid Morella.  But it's Kelly who once again impresses the most by playing the role of an overbearing woman to the point of caricature without going over.

The third and final story, "Dreams", is based on various poems by Poe and "A Dream Within a Dream" in particular.  Here, we get the most surreal and non-linear interpretation of his works in the story of a young woman (Bette Cassatt, MODEL HUNGER) whose dreamlike delirium while on her deathbed provides an endless flow of free-form imagery steeped in symbolism that's both poetic and repellent.  

Like a moribund Alice whose wonderland is the twilight world of her own life and death, The Dreamer wanders through ever-changing landscapes of her mind under the guidance of a benevolent Angel of Dreams (Caroline Williams, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2) while being plagued by an evil woman in black (Lesleh Donaldson, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, CURTAINS) who represents negativity and fear.

Even the woman's hospital room is a dark and foreboding place presided over by a scary nurse (Adrienne King of FRIDAY THE 13TH).  Other odds and ends from Poe's repertoire appear such as characters Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether.

Just as the plotless succession of images seems to be going nowhere, it's brought to a poignant conclusion thanks in part to a moving performance by Amy Steel (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2) as The Dreamer's careworn mother.

The DVD from WildEye Releasing is in widescreen with 2.0 sound. No subtitles.  Extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, an interview with director Bart Mastronardi, some very intriguing deleted scenes, and trailers.  

The perversely delightful TALES OF POE is brilliantly rendered by all involved and serves as an excellent primer for any contemporary viewer unfamiliar with Poe who might be wondering what the big deal is.  Dark, mesmerizing, sometimes intoxicatingly nightmarish, it's absolutely top-drawer indy filmmaking which I believe many devotees of the original author will find irresistible.

Buy it at Amazon.com

TALES OF POE -- DVD Review by Porfle

"BATMAN: DEAD END" Director Sandy Collora Launches Kickstarter for Creature Feature "SHALLOW WATER"

SANDY COLLORA ANNOUNCES ANTHOLOGY OF ORIGINAL HORROR/SCIFI SHORTS

SERIES OF "LONG SHORTS" BEGINS WITH SHALLOW WATER - WITH A NEW CINEMA CREATURE, & INTENSE PRACTICAL EFFECTS

Campaign to help fund SHALLOW WATER now live on Kickstarter
85K Goal Halfway Met
   
Los Angeles, CA - Sandy Collora is a longtime special effects artist who helped create some of the more renowned and revered creatures in modern cinema. He produced and directed the fan film Batman: Dead End, hailed by filmmaker Kevin Smith as "possibly the truest, best Batman movie ever made". 

Collora has announced his long-awaited return behind the camera with an anthology of "long shorts" - 20 to 30-minute original genre films. His first entry in the anthology is Shallow Water, a gritty and intense film that unleashes a new cinema creature unlike anything seen before. To help fund it, Collora has launched a Kickstarter campaign.

Shallow Water combines Collora's three greatest loves - horror, the ocean, and the environment. "The underlying theme of Shallow Water is simple.  Humans repeatedly disturb the ecosystem, and the planet gets pissed off."  In the film, Collora introduces the Tiburonera - "he who hunts sharks", which he promises will be "terrifying and different".

 

Shallow Water will be the first of a series that he plans to combine and release as an anthology feature, in the vein of Creepshow and Heavy Metal. Collora believes Hollywood has dropped the ball in introducing fresh new genre concepts. While he attributes it to pressures faced by studios to prioritize safety in meeting their bottom lines, he also feels sequels and remakes are now excessive, and have compromised the art.

Laments Collora: "I love genre films. I grew up on the original Alien and Predator, and they are awesome. But it's too long since we had something new, unique and powerful in that space."

After producing the feature film Hunter Prey, and publishing three volumes of The Art of Creature and Character Design, which he funded with the help of Kickstarter, Collora now returns to short film and to crowdfunding.

Shallow Water proved too costly to finance as a feature with crowd funding, and that started Collora on the path of the anthology.  He seeks $85K from fans to help him make it happen. "With Kickstarter, I can stay independent, and not compromise my vision. That was a big factor in the success of Batman: Dead End. But Shallow Water is longer, with more effects - more ambitious, if you will - so I hope to augment the cost with monies from Kickstarter.

"For this reason, I went to town on the Rewards for people who back it - great value at a low cost, and for those with more to pledge, some pretty intense limited edition collectibles. I was proud Kickstarter designated this campaign as a "Project we Love" on its very first day, and I think it was because of the cool Rewards."

T-shirts, art books, production maquettes and busts/suits from the film are just a few of the available rewards.

Shallow Water tells the story of a small group of fishermen who embark on a fishing trip to find a remote and mythical fishing hole deep in the Sea of Cortez. They scour the Baja peninsula, find it, but encounter unexpected sea life. Adds Collora: "It's Mother Nature versus Human Nature."

"I love Sandy's work. This is a great story, the creature is fantastic, and I love the reliance on practical effects. This is what the independent film movement is all about.." adds Steve Johnson, an Academy Award-winning special FX guru.

"BATMAN: DEAD END" Director Sandy Collora Launches Kickstarter for Creature Feature "SHALLOW WATER"