Argento's Dracula (Blu-ray Review) - IFC

Italy/2012
Directed By: Dario Argento
Written By: Dario Argento, Antonio Tentori, Stefano Piani, Enrique Cerezo
Starring: Thomas Kretschmann, Asia Argento, Rutger Hauer
Color/110 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A

The Film
Dario Argento, a man that has seen the top of the horror mountain. He is responsible for popularizing the giallo genre, along with writing some of the best spaghetti western films. Hearing his name instantly brings about dramatic images, often flooded with color, from his films. He is a visionary director, a style that doesn't sit well with everyone but his vision, at least in his prime cannot be questioned. For me, he is my favorite film maker, and I have enjoyed all of his films to varying degrees, even some of the more recent films which seem to be almost universally disliked. When I first heard of the DRACULA 3D project I was intrigued, and of course excited. My favorite director was going to take on classic horror literature. 

In this version of Bram Stoker's timeless novel, Count Dracula (Thomas Kretschmann) resides in his castle overlooking a small village which live in fear of him. Jonathan Harker has just arrived to the village to work in Count Dracula's library, leaving his beautiful wife Mina behind. He sees his old friend Lucy (Asia Argento) who is Mina's best friend and tells her that Mina will be arriving shortly. Dracula wants Mina for himself, as she bears a striking resemblance to his former lover of 400 years ago and believes Mina to be the reincarnation of her.Dracula leaves a blood stained trail through the village trying to obtain the girl for himself until vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing (Rutger Hauer) arrives to stop his reign of terror. 

While the basic plot of Argento's DRACULA is similar to what you already know of Stoker's novel, the execution and style is far from it. While traditional vampire mythology allows vampires to turn in to bats, Argento has Count Dracula turning into everything from bats, to flies, roaches, wolves, an owl, and even a giant fucking praying mantis in one of the films most insane and bloody scenes. In true Argento form, DRACULA is violent and sexy. Blood sprays across the screen, beautiful women bare their bodies, and it is a classic practice of Italian horror. The film's biggest downfall, and one gripe every viewer has (and rightfully so) is the CGI. It is bad. Really bad. Epically bad. It is cheap, poorly rendered and looks like something out of  a Windows 95 game. The sets on the other hand are actually quite decent. The cobblestone houses, medieval interiors of the castle and dark woods all lend an air of atmosphere that aid the film in being creepy.

The acting is what you'd expect out of Argento film. If you've never seen one acting takes a backseat to style on many occasions. Sound isn't recorded live so each actor is dubbed, no matter what language they're actually speaking on set. The performances are okay. I've seen worse but I've certainly seen these performers do better. DRACULA 3D isn't Suspiria or Deep Red, it isn't even Phenomena or The Stendhal Syndrome. What it is is a violent and sexy exploitative take on the classic story that manages to take a small budget and turn out a pretty cheesy and entertaining film.

The Audio & Video
IFC Midnight delivers a gorgeous looking and sounding Blu-ray of DRACULA 3D. The single disc features both 3D and standard 2D options in full 1080p HD. The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer shines with high levels of detail and a strong color palette. The black levels are deep and skin tones are natural. There is a 5.1 track and a lossless 2.0 track, both in English. The soundtrack from Claudio Simonetti sounds magnificent and is well mixed with the dialogue.

The Extras
The main feature for this disc is a behind the scenes featurette. Also included is a music video for the song "Kiss Me Dracula" which can be viewed in 3D. A pair of trailers round out the disc.

The Bottom Line
While this is far from classic Argento, and is not your grandfather's DRACULA, Argento pulls out an entertaining film with visual appeal. The shortcomings of the film don't hamper my enjoyment of it and I would recommend it if you're a fan of adaptations of the story.

DRACULA 3D is available HERE

I, Cannibali (The Year Of The Cannibals) (Blu-Ray Review) - Raro Video

Italy/1969
Directed By: Liliana Cavani
Written By: Liliana Cavani, Italo Moscati
Starring: Britt Ekland, Pierre Clementi, Tomas Milian
Color/87 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A

The Film 
After viewing THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS (original Italian title I, CANNIBALI) I looked it up online. Prior to receiving the disc I had known nothing about it and part of me thought it would be a jungle horror film. Reading the back cover quickly dispelled my assumptions. When I went to look more into the film after finishing my viewing I was surprised to find how mixed the reviews on this film were. All films will have their detractors, even the most widely loved masterpiece will have a few people that vehemently deny its quality. Now, THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS isn't a masterpiece, but I did find it to be quite good, so the mixed reviews caught me a bit off guard.

The streets of the city are littered with corpses. Both male and female, young and old. These dead bodies are to be left alone by order of the Fascist government. They're a warning to anyone that may want to rise up against the repressive government. As the rain pours down on the bodies and the population walks around, stepping over and on the bodies, Antigone, a pretty redhead, sees her brother's body outside of a cafe and decides that is not where he will lay to rest. With the help of a quiet man named Tiresia who speaks an unknown language they begin to clean the streets starting with Antigone's brother and moving on to others, taking each to a cave by the beach leaving offerings of bread and fish. It doesn't take long for the powers-that-be to catch wind of this breach of conduct and throw Antigone into a sanitarium, until she escapes and finds Tiresia in the streets, along with an entire battalion of military men.

From the shockingly heartless opening scene, to the poignant and unfortunately still relevant worldwide message, THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS strikes a chord deep within. One that forces the viewer to watch, and not only see what is going on but to take note and truly witness the atrocities that lay at their feet because of an out of control leadership. From the priest blessing the corpses while walking in front of a street cleaner that is washing the filth that a rotting body will leave, to the scene in a sauna that shows a small child in total control of military men, this film is chock full of powerful imagery. The performances from our leads Britt Ekland (The Wicker Man) and Pierre Clementi (Belle Du Jour) to the supporting role for Tomas Milian (Almost Human) are strong and help carry the film. We sympathize and root for Ekland and Clementi, putting us into a  similar role of Milian's character. The cinematography has the entire cityscape under a slightly greyish blue hue which plays perfectly with the constant overcast and rainy weather of the film. Ennio Morricone's score is quite good and I have to say the main theme song is, contrary to what I read in some negative reviews of the film, far from belonging in a spaghetti western film. It fits the period and feeling of THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS quite well in my opinion.

Made during a time of great unrest in Italy, THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS remains relevant on a global scale. The themes and messages in the film ring true day after day and the message that a powerful voice can't be silenced even in death if their message is true is one that will hopefully overthrow tyrannical leaders that still run rampant.

The Audio & Video
Raro Video gives THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS an anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 full 1080p HD transfer that looks nice. The stark look to the photography of the film limits how sparkly the film looks but detail levels are strong and there is no DNR or edge enhancement. This transfer has a nice film like look to it. The Italian audio track features newly translated subtitles and sounds good. There's no background noise to speak of and the track is well mixed. Morricone's score and the dialogue compliment each other nicely. 

The Extras
Extra features include:

-Video interview with director Liliana Cavani that clocks in at over 26 minutes
-Original Theatrical Trailer
-Fully illustrated 12 page booklet

The Bottom Line
THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS is well worth checking out as it is not just a film filled with memorable images and scenes but is a film with a purpose.

THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS is available HERE 

Evil Come Evil Go / Widow Blue! / Oh! You Beautiful Doll (DVD Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1970, 1972, 1974
Directed By: Walt Davis,
Written By: Walt Davis,
Starring: Sue Minx, Cleo O'Hara
Color/211 Minutes/Rated X
Region FREE

The Films
Disc one of this 2-disc set features EVIL COME, EVIL GO and WIDOW BLUE. First we'll talk about EVIL COME, EVIL GO. A deranged, God fearing woman is on a mission to spread the word that sex for pleasure is a sin. A very deadly one at that. She recruits another woman for her mission and together they go around singing hymns and killing people who like to fuck for fun. It's a bit demented and bloody and was a lot more fun than I expected it would be. WIDOW BLUE is sleaze central. A gay affair, featuring in-law brothers turns into an orgy and a decapitation. Add in the incest angle, sex on top of a filled coffin, more orgies, even more blood and throw it all in a blender for a fun time in XXX land. This is the goriest porno I've ever seen. 

The second disc of this set holds the special features and OH! YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL, the final film of this triple feature. "The best cock sucker in Hollywood" hasn't worked in films for a few years and is now a private acting instructor. Sort of. Any clients she gets she just tries to have sex with. It makes for some silly, and often hammy comedic moments that saves this lesser of the three films from being a total bore. 

The Audio & Video
The films are all presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The prints are in reasonably good shape overall. They all feature some scratches and dirt but none of them look remotely bad. Colors and flesh tones are vivid and natural while detail levels are decent. The soundtracks all suffer from some crackling and scratching at times but that is too be expected with old pornhouse flicks.  The A/V won't blow you away but it is more than serviceable for these films.

The Extras
The lineup of special features include a video interview with producer Bob Chinn, a trailer for both EVIL COME EVIL GOD and OH! YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL and outtakes from WIDOW BLUE.

The Bottom Line
I have to be honest, before watching these films I didn't do much to learn about them. I expected them to be nothing more than your run of the mill 70s porn that would play to a house of a few lonely gents and maybe their hooker dates in a seedy 42nd Street theater. Well, they probably did play to that crowd but these are more entertaining than just your everyday XXX features. They caught me off guard and for adult film fans looking for something a bit out of the ordinary you need to look into this set from Vinegar Syndrome

The Snake God (DVD Review) - Mondo Macabro

Italy/1970
Directed By: Piero Vivarelli
Written By: Ottavio Alessi, Piero Vivarelli
Starring: Nadia Cassini, Beryl Cunningham, Sergio Tramonti
Color/95 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1

The Film 
Nadia Cassini stars as Paola, the wife of a wealthy businessman who has brought her to the Caribbean to live on his plantation. He quickly leaves on business and Paola befriends a local woman named Stella (Beryl Cunningham) who shows her around. The pair quickly become inseperable and Stella shows Paola the local Voodoo culture. The local people worship a giant snake they believe to be a god named Djamballa. Djamballa immediately sets its sights on Paola, and she spends the rest of the movie fighting the deity's lustful desires.

That's about it. THE SNAKE GOD is a simple premise- Load up the most basic premise with tons of skin, exotic locations and a bit of Voodoo exploitation. Nadia Cassini really helps the 95 minutes fly by as she is barely covered through most of the film. The bits and pieces of Voodoo are mostly tame and more of a "diet" version of more hardcore Voodoo fare. The main exception being the goat ceremony scene, which gets quite nasty.

There isn't much in THE SNAKE GOD that is above average. The direction isn't exactly artful or inspired, the acting is good enough to get by, not bad but not great and the film relies on old tricks that had been done better before and after this production. That said, THE SNAKE GOD manages to be a mildly entertaining tropical romp of Voodoo, skin, sex and snakes.

The Audio & Video
Mondo Macabro gives THE SNAKE GOD  a fantastic looking DVD release with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen print that shows strong detail, very nice color reproduction and an overall clean presentation. There are some instances of dirt speckling but it is light and doesn't detract from this excellent looking disc. The sound side of things is also quite good. The lone track is a Dolby Digital mix in Italian with English subtitles. They're well placed and well timed. The track is loud and crystal clear.

The Extras
Supplements include an interview with Piero Vivarelli, trailers and production notes. 

The Bottom Line
Mondo Macabro does another fantastic job with this US debut of THE SNAKE GOD. The uncut DVD is good enough for exploitation fans and Mondo Macabro collector's to enjoy adding this one to their collection.

Never Sleep Again (Blu-ray Review) - Image Entertainment

USA/2010
Directed By: Daniel Farrands, Andrew Kasch
Written By: Thommy Hutson
Starring: Robert Englund, Wes Craven, Robert Shaye
Color/238 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A

The Film
It was 1984 and the slasher genre was on top of the horror world, if not the entire world of cinema. Director Wes Craven, known for his work on exploitation films such as The Hills Have Eyes and The Last House On The Left, developed an idea for a horror film based on a serial killer who stalks kids in their dreams. A Nightmare On Elm Street was born. Freddy Kruger has since become as pop culture as pop culture get. The Springwood Slasher, the bastard son of a thousand maniacs, has popped up in damn near a dozen films, a TV series, all the merchandise you can think of and just about anywhere else that would have a pop culture icon, Freddy has been. He was a rock star. He was a murderer. He was the villain of  one of the most successful horror franchises in history.

NEVER SLEEP AGAIN is a documentary covering each and every film of the original series from Wes Craven’s classic to the long awaited showdown with fellow horror icon Jason Voorhees. Damn near every key cast and crew member is interviewed on screen, the main exceptions being Johnny Depp and Patricia Arquette, undoubtedly the pair that have gone on to the biggest success and fame. With a runtime of  4 hours each film gets a substantial amount of time allotted to it. Even the TV series and merchandising are covered. A film as popular as this has been talked about, written about and researched to death. It is amazing at how much information in this I’ve never heard before. I had no idea that Divine was originally cast to be in Freddy’s Dead prior to her death. That is my favorite piece of information I learned, but it is far from the only thing. NEVER SLEEP AGAIN is packed with information on the filming, distribution, reception and real world significance of each and every NOES film.

It is almost becoming a trend to make documentaries about the most popular 80s horror films. Friday the 13th has its own with Crystal Lake Memories, Return Of The Living Dead has one with More Brains… NEVER SLEEP AGAIN destroys them all. This is precisely what a horror franchise documentary should be. Crystal Lake Memories doesn’t hold a candle to NEVER SLEEP AGAIN and this 2-disc set will proudly be displayed next to my Nightmare On Elm Street box set.

The Audio & Video
Image Entertainment delivers the 2-disc Blu-ray set of NEVER SLEEP AGAIN with a 1.78:1 widescreen transfer that looks absolutely beautiful. There isn’t a ton to mess up here, all of the main footage is sit down interviews but they do look great. Obviously some of the footage from the sets of the films doesn’t shine like new but even that looks good. The Audio is a DTS-HD track that sounds perfect. The disc should look and sound fantastic and it does.

The Extras
On top of the audio commentary on the main feature disc, this 2 Blu-ray Disc set comes with an entire second disc of special features. Those features include:

-Extended interviews
-A preview of Heather Langenkamp’s “I am Nancy” documentary
-For The Love Of The Glove featurette
-Fred Heads: The Ultimate Freddy Fans
-Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: Return To Elm Street
-Freddy vs. The Angry Video Game Nerd
-Expanding The Elm Street Universe: Freddy In Comic Books and Novels
-The Music Of The Nightmare: Conversations with composers and songwriters
-Elm Street’s Poster Boy: The Art of Matthew Joseph Peak
-A Nightmare On Elm Street In 10 Minutes
-Teaser trailer for NEVER SLEEP AGAIN

The Bottom Line
From the incredible documentary that covers everything you could ask for, to the massive collection of special features that cover everything from even more interview footage, to epic fan collections, and a modern day look at filming locations used on the original film and much more NEVER SLEEP AGAIN is an absolute must own for any Freddy fan. Go buy it!

Abduction Of An American Playgirl / Winter Heat (DVD Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1975, 1976
Directed By: Claude Goddard, ?
Written By: ?
Starring: Jamie Gillis, Susan Sloan, Eric Edwards
Color/141 Minutes/Rated X
Region FREE

The Films
“She tastes sweeter than venison!” - ABDUCTION OF AN AMERICAN PLAYGIRL may be the funniest porno I’ve ever seen.

A couple buddies decide they need to get laid this weekend, having no money, and even less game with the ladies they cook up the half assed plan of kidnapping the first beautiful girl that comes their way. When they get her undressed and go through her things they find out she comes from a wealthy background and the light bulb in their head goes off that they can get ransom for her along with getting their fill of her body. Turns out the girl is insatiable, wanting both men endlessly, at the same time and even more, hell she even wants her sister at one point! Yeah, these bumbling idiots aren’t ready for the trouble they just brought upon themselves.

ABDUCTION OF AN AMERICAN PLAYGIRL is centered around a nasty plot, kidnapping a woman to rape her. However these men are no Krug and his gang, they’re not mean or even really despicable. Well, they are despicable for carrying out this act but their stupid nature is almost lovable. This film is genuinely funny, sexy as you’d expect and isn’t just another excuse for the old in-out.

And while ABDUCTION isn’t just an excuse for some close up shots of penetration WINTER HEAT pretty much is. Not to say its bad, it does what it aims to do quite well. A quartet of nasty individuals, 3 men (including adult film legend Jamie Gillis) and a woman who is a sex toy to the men, stumble upon a house filled with 3 young women, with the youngest looking barely 18, if even legal. You can guess what happens next… a lot of forced sex. It eventually turns to consensual sex which eases the sleaze factor just a bit to ease the viewer into a lighter mindset. The girls are all attractive, the plot is thin and the nudity is plentiful. A couple characters disappear for the last half hour of the film which is unintentionally hilarious to me for some reason. I’ll assume they just exploded into thin air from sexual bliss. WINTER HEAT isn’t art, it’s barely a movie, but it is an enjoyable piece of vintage erotica. And like I said, it does that quite well.

The Audio & Video
Both films are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 for a full frame picture from Vinegar Syndrome. ABDUCTION looks very good with very minor print damage in just a few spots. Colors and flesh tones are strong and natural and is as nice looking as one could hope for. WINTER HEAT is also in mostly good condition, there are some scratches, and some dirt and dust on the print but overall it looks nice. The audio tracks are simple stereo tracks that have a bit of background noise such as crackling and popping as you’d expect from old XXX titles such as these.

The Extras
A trailer for ABDUCTION is the only extra on the disc.

The Bottom Line
This double feature of 1970s porn flicks is of course full of sex, skin and all sorts of kinky stuff. What is a very nice surprise is how funny ABDUCTION is and even WINTER HEAT gets some great humor in at times. This is my favorite Vinegar Syndrome erotica/porn release to date.

Riddick (2013)

Article written by Jordan Reeves-

RIDDICK is the third film in the cult hit series starring Vin Diesel as the titular character.  Though this film is made 9 years after Chronicles of Riddick ,it only takes place 5 years later.  Riddick as the new Necromonger leader is in search of his birth place Furya and when he agrees to give up his role as leader in exchange for finding his home planet, he is betrayed by Vaako played by Karl Urban from the previous film and, is left for dead on a unknown desolate planet and he must survive the planets looming creatures, and 2 separate groups of bounty hunters, one group led by Boss Johns, who is played by Matt Nable.

I had the great pleasure of getting to do a phone interview with Matt Nable and was able to ask a few questions regarding his bad ass character of Boss Johns, who as fans of the series should know is the father to Cole Hauser’s character “Johns” from Pitch Black. 

I asked him whether he had taken anything special from Cole Hauser’s role of Johns in Pitch Black and used it for his performance in Riddick, and he said really the only thing he took was that the line of men that family was and that they are  just ass kickers and good men and tough bounty hunters

In RIDDICK the entire planet is a desert type atmospehre, with it always looking humid and dry, and then later in the film the planet has a torrential down pour that never lets up. I asked Matt about what shooting scenes were like with that weather aspect to the film, and having to wear heavy body armor while carrying heavy guns most of the time, and he said “basically it was shot in studio with control climate, so they weren’t really affected by weather, but with the equipment and long days of shooting made it very tiresome, though it beats digging holes for a living.”

I commented to him on how, as an audience, we are always rooting for Riddick in each film, and how this film in particular was interesting because we have our hero Riddick, who is our guy, and that he not only has to face the monster threat of the “mud demons” in this film but he’s also being hunted down by two separate groups of mercenaries. One group is a rag tag group of wildcards, and the other group, headed by Matt Nable, is a very organized militant group. I found it very cool to be able to root for Boss Johns (Nable) as well because of his characters intentions. Nable said he agreed that it was very clever of the director David Twohy to have Boss Johns be this very stoic man, who couldn’t care less about the enormous bounty placed on Riddick’s head and has been searching for Riddick for the last 10 years and just wants to know what happened to his son from Pitch Black and make Riddick pay and give him the answers he’s been searching for.

On the Blu-ray release of this film, there is an unrated cut which comes with an extra ending that’s about 5 minutes long. Fans of the film like myself will greatly appreciate it, because it directly sets up a 4th film. Nable told me, when I asked him what do we see from his character in a possible 4th film, because his business is concluded with Riddick, he told me “space is big, and we see Riddick at the end go back to the Necromonger world and who knows, we could always see the possibility of Boss Johns coming back into Riddicks world.”   As a fan that had me beyond excited.  

Matt Nable plays such a cool character in this film, and it was my first exposure to the Australian actor,  I asked him “like your character, and mercenary team, you yourself in real life are a jack of all trades person.  You went from being a Rugby star, to boxing, to writing novels and it has only been in the last 8 or so years you have been acting. Whats it like doing all that? And do you have any big film projects in the future for us?“ He replied that its all been really fun for him, and because of his exposure in Riddick, its really been great to him, and as for the future he is currently finishing a novel he’s working on.

For my first interview with someone in a film I fucking loved, Matt Nable was insanely nice and super humble, I enjoyed the time I spent interviewing him, and shared some laughs and appreciation for his performance in Riddick.  Even if you’re not a fan of the first two RIDDICK films definitely check this film out. Its great fun, and features really cool action and special effects.