Aftermath (Blu-ray Review) - Image

USA/2012
Directed By: Peter Engert
Written By: Christian McDonald
Starring: CJ Thomason, Monica Keena, Edward Furlong
Color/92 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A
Release Date: August 26, 2014

The Film
A group of survivors hole up in a basement in northern Texas after a series of nuclear explosions rock the breadth of the United States. The group tries to cover any openings into the cellar with dirt to protect themselves from radiation and being discovered by outsiders. As the drama and danger inside the cellar begins to swell the dangers infected outsiders discover their spot and want in. How much has this group of average people changed in just one month and how far will they go to survive?

AFTERMATH is a pretty decent post-nuke "zombie" type flick that focuses more on the survivors and their plight in their confined space than it does with the infected monsters and other threats outside the walls. There is a definite sense of claustrophobia to the film and the performances help convey that to us. Edward Furlong is surprisingly good, one of his better recent roles for sure. CJ Thomason hits his stride about halfway through the film and is rather good from that point after. I don't totally blame his performance earlier in the film as much of the first act is clunky and handled clumsily. While I'm a fan of the focus the film has a bit more action from the outsiders would have spiced things up a bit and made it more entertaining overall. That doesn't make a difference for the powerful ending both visually and emotionally which manages to pack quite a punch.

The Audio & Video
Image/RLJ deliver a rather nice looking Blu-ray with a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Detail level is strong and skin tones are fleshy and natural. The film has a bit of a muted color palette which the Blu-ray handles well. The black levels are deep and don't suffer from any sort of blocking or compression issues and there is no noticeable edge enhancement or excessive DNR. The audio track is a DTS-HDMA 5.1 English track with no real issues to speak of. Levels are consistent and the mix job between dialogue and soundtrack is quite good.

The Extras
Bare bones.

The Bottom Line
AFTERMATH isn't perfect by any means but the good outweighs the bad enough for me to warrant a recommendation of a rental. It doesn't break new ground but it does a solid job on a time tested idea. 

AFTERMATH is available HERE

Varsity Blood (DVD Review) - Image

USA/2014
Directed By: Jake Helgren
Written By: Jake Helgren
Starring: Lexi Giovagnoli, Wesley Scott, Natalie Peyton
Color/87 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: August, 19, 2014

The Film
How the hell does this film not have a tag line like "The night HE came to Homecoming" or some other sort of spinoff on the tag line of John Carpenter's Halloween? It's called marketing people!

It's Halloween night at Hogseye High, the one year anniversary of the death of the principal's daughter who was on the cheer squad. The football team and cheerleaders have a big party planned at an old abandoned house for after the game. The local sheriff, father to one of the girls, warns them to be safe and to have designated drivers. The party doesn't quite go as planned when someone dressed as the school's warrior mascot shows up with a bow and an axe and begins murdering the teens. The kids fight for their lives and to discover who is under the mask.

In a time where slasher films claim to be a throwback to slasher films of the 1980s VARSITY BLOOD really does feel like it was a product of the 1980s. It's a straight forward stalk and slash, body count film filled with blood and gore. While the acting and writing leave much to be desired it doesn't stop VARSITY BLOOD from being a pretty entertaining horror movie.

The Audio & Video
 Image/RLJ bring VARSITY BLOOD to home video on DVD. The 1.78:1 widescreen transfer is decent. Dark scenes have a bit of compression but they're lit well enough that we don't struggle to see what is going on. It's a decent looking disc overall for a production that obviously didn't have a mega-budget. The audio side of things is pretty equal. The mix is decent but not particularly strong. It gets the job done and levels are handled well so we don't lose dialogue amidst the soundtrack.

The Extras
Bare bones.

The Bottom Line
Some well done gore and a body count that will rival Freddy or Jason makes VARSITY BLOOD worth checking out for slasher fans. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

VARSITY BLOOD is available HERE

Pieces Of Talent (2014)

There are hundreds if not thousands of independent horror films released to DVD every year. It goes without saying that we aren't missing out on anything but not seeing the vast majority of these films. Occasionally one of them will gain traction with the internet horror community and receive lots of attention and praise. The hype surrounding these films usually far outweighs any actual merit the film has. Lately, and not entirely different from the days where excess in horror films really took over any sort of artistry as far as mainstream releases go, the 1980s, if you have a particularly violent movie with well done practical effects and gore the movie, at least for a brief period, will become the new hot thing being discussed on forums and message boards. If I have any interest in seeing one of these films I tend to wait until the hype has died down a bit as to go in to seeing the film with as little preconceived notions of what to expect aside from the general premise of the film as I can. Once in while though, I'll hop on the hype train and check out a film that is being jocked and sometimes that movie totally lives up to its hype and all of the praise is deserved.

Charlotte (Kristi Ray) is an attractive girl working as a server in a strip club struggling to make ends meet. Her mother has recently gone back to drinking heavily and isn't the greatest person to be around. Charlotte is desperately trying to become an actress, having worked in a few music videos she wants to become a true actress. After a chance encounter, saving filmmaker David Long (David Long) from a beating outside of the club, the pair become friends and Charlotte gives David a headshot and he tells her he has a project coming up that he'd like to work with her on. David Long's films are nothing more than snuff films with an artistic touch. David has a secluded farm where he brings kidnapped victims and plays depraved games or simply tortures them in various ways, all the while filming them for his "art". Kristi and David begin to develop more of a relationship and David learns more of her unsavory home life. David decides to make a movie for Charlotte about her mother all the while making his movie with Charlotte. David's broken mind and endless search for pieces of talent for his films has tragic endings.

PIECES OF TALENT features excellent performances throughout. Acting is something that drags down countless independent films regardless of drama but it manages to be a major strength here. From Kristi Ray's performance as an endlessly likable small town girl just trying to make something of her life to David Long being able to send chills down your spine the same way a child molester would. Long expertly mixes acting like a genuine nice guy who makes movies with subtlety that he's a murderous psycho. As the viewer we are privy to things that other characters in the film aren't and it allows scenes between Charlotte and David to have massive amounts of uncomfortable moments without the character of prey to ever know it.

Joe Stauffer directed PIECES OF TALENT and co-wrote it with David Long. While neither of these guys are household names in the horror community yet, if they continue to make quality films like this they certainly will be. PIECES OF TALENT is excellently crafted from the script to the cinematography and special effects. Yes, there is a good bit of gore on hand here and it is nasty. Thankfully Joe Stauffer understood the balance between making a visceral piece of horror that doesn't rely on blood and guts to get its message across. The scariest parts about this film aren't those of a head being blown off with a shotgun, or running through a field with shards of glass sticking out of the ground, no, the scariest parts of PIECES OF TALENT are the seemingly heartfelt conversations between Charlotte and David knowing the sinister intentions David has for Charlotte and his inability or simple disregard for anything but creating his "art".

PIECES OF TALENT is one of the rare independent horror films that not only exceeds my expectations and lives up to hype and praise but never once did it feel like I was watching an independent horror film. There's not a damn thing wrong with indie films of any sort, but PIECES OF TALENT feels like it rose above the constraints that being an independent production can present. This is a big time film and is without a doubt one of the best horror films I have seen in a few years.

PIECES OF TALENT is available for purchase HERE and if you enter the code "horror" at checkout you can save yourself a couple of bucks.

The Lost Sex Films of Ed Wood

Ed Wood completeist are a special breed and that is who these films are for. Wood was never a brilliant artist but he could make a movie. The porn films he made here aren't really going to be spank material for anyone as they are beaten and battered prints and are far from sexy films. Or if you don't care too much about the Ed Wood connection there's a plethora of extra stag films on each disc as each disc features the lost films of other porn directors and stars (listed below). Alpha Blue deserves some praise for bringing lost films from the infamous director to the public for the first time since they were released on Betamax, something most companies would have no interest in doing.

NYMPHO CYCLER is the story of a woman fed up with being pimped out by her cross dressing husband (Ed Wood himself) who takes off across the country on her motorcycle. The woman is picked up by a pair of lesbians when she's stranded on the side of the road with an empty gas tank and they take her back to their house for some womanly love before bringing her back to her bike. While that was fun, she just wasn't satisfied so she seduces a fellow bike rider who gives her the man loving she was so desperate for. The pair then get attacked by a motorcycle gang that was sent to get the girl by her husband. The girl is raped while the man is beaten and put in the hospital. After the gang have their way with her she meets back up with her man, not seeming all that concerned about what had just happened and puts him on a train home.

There's nothing too explicit in NC, at least as far as seeing actual penetration goes. It may be rated X but it's not a hard X by any means. The most exciting thing about this film is probably the joys of getting to see Ed Wood in drag. All of the women featured are quite attractive and you can't deny the cool factor of this chick and her motorcycle. At only 52 minutes it never overstays its welcome and is an enjoyable little piece of sexploitation.

NECROMANIA tells the story of a married couple with quite a loveless marriage visiting  a Satanic sex therapist who has big plans for the couple and their fates! NECROMANIA is interesting in that there are two versions of the film, the softcore version and a hard X version with totally different sex scenes. The hardcore scenes may juice it up enough that it becomes a bit more entertaining as the black magic and Satanic angle isn't played up enough to make it interesting, but really, I doubt the hardcore scenes do much to help it.

A wife fights for the affection and sexual desire of her husband with the girls at the local strip club in THE YOUNG MARRIEDS. When he tells her that they turn him on in ways she can't she opens up her sexuality, letting him take sexy pictures and even making him her sex slave. Their blooming sexuality takes a few turns in to wild and sometimes uncomfortable territory for the couple but opens their minds, and legs, to new things. There's plenty of X-rated hardcore action here and very little story to drive it all.

The final film in the collection is THE UNDERGRADUATE and I bet you can figure out what is going on here. Some young coeds explore their sexuality in various ways and it drags on too long with a good bit of monotony. There's not enough interesting side pieces to the sex to make this one really worth while.

Bonus Features
Nympho Cycler - The Lost Films of Casey Larrain Four Film Collection
Necromania - The Lost Films Of Maria Arnold Four Film Collection
The Young Marrieds - The Lost Films Of Alice Friedland Five Film Collection
The Undergraduate - The Lost Films Of Suzanne Fields Four Film Collection

With a total of 21 films across the four discs this collection really will be a prized addition to the smut enthusiast and they're available HERE

Jesse (DVD Review) - Arc Entertainment

USA/2011
Directed By: Fred Carpenter
Written By: Fred Carpenter, Paul Regina, Joanne Tamburro
Starring: Stephanie Finochio, William Forsythe, Armand Assante
Color/86 Minutes/R
Region 1
Release Date: August 12, 2014

The Film
Jesse is a cop who likes to drink away her problems which are based around her failed marriange and her husband who has custody of her kids because she's a pretty terrible person. Jesse's brother is killed by the mafia after he owed them thousands of dollars so Jesse does what she has to do to take down the people responsible.

This movie is a joke right? Where is Ashton Kutcher to pop out of my closet and yell at me tellling me I was punked? JESSE is fucking awful on every level. Every single character in this shit fest is a stereotypical New York loud mouth Italian caricature that you'd find on some shitty reality show. It's fucking ridiculous. Jesse is the least likable protagonist I've seen in a film in quite a while. Her attitude sucks, her personality is loud, self righteous and arrogant. On top of that she's just a major bitch. The acting in this thing seems like a contest of who can put on the strongest accent and overact the shit out of it. It was to the point where every line of dialogue processed through mind as "AY YO BUDDY! I'M FROM LONG ISLAND! YOU GOTSA A PROBLEM OVA HERE!?"

It's all good though because we care about the vengeance on the mafia right? No, no we don't In fact there isn't a single fucking thing to care about in this movie that is pretty much based on the notion that all cops and firefighters hate each other. Oh and Jesse's mother? Yeah, she holds up a gun to a little dog's head at one point to stop an argument. JESSE is filmed on shitty cameras, it is framed poorly half the time and edited like a Skinemax flick. Hell, even the opening credits look like a shitty made-for-TV movie fro the 90s. That's not fair to made-for-TV movies as I think every single one of them would be better than this bullshit.

The Audio & Video
The DVD from Arc Entertainment looks good enough given how it was produced. The 16x9 anamorphic widescreen transfer is attractive and is clean. A decently sharp picture overall with nice colors. The audio is hit or miss as there are times the audio is so poorly recorded that it barely registers in the mix. That is a problem with the production of the film and not the authoring job done on the disc. Otherwise the Dolby Digital track sounds okay.

The Extras
Bare Bones aside from a VUDU digital copy.

The Bottom Line
I'd rather be stuck in some weird reality where I repeatedly poke myself in the eye repeatedly than watch the steaming pile of dog shit that is JESSE, ever again.

JESSE is available HERE

Bunnmany Massacre (DVD Review) - Midnight Releasing

USA/2014
Directed By: Carl Lindbergh
Written By: Carl Lindbergh
Starring: David Scott, Joshua Lang, Julianne Dowler
Color/104 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE
Release Date: August 12, 2014

The Film
Joe and Bunnyman have a nice symbiotic relationship going on. Bunnyman gets to go on his killing sprees while Joe is provided with plenty of meat for his "beef" jerky business. Bunnyman has been going overboard lately and Joe is having a hard time keeping up with the bodies piling up, especially after Bunnyman's massacre of a packed school bus. In a way, Joe can be his own worst enemy as he joins in on the carnage as well, taking down the sheriff's deputies which has made the sheriff very suspicious of the jerky man.

BUNNYMAN MASSACRE sort of reminds me of a C-grade modern take on The Texas Chainsaw Masscare if Leatherface had a bunny costume fetish instead of wearing other people's faces. That's probably the nicest thing I can say about BUNNYMAN MASSACRE, not that it is totally bad. It is entertainingly violent and has plenty of the red stuff flowing but it runs on a bit too long and relies too much on the violence to drive the picture. There's no tension and the bunny suit gimmick wears thin by the end. That said I have to say that BUNNYMAN MASSACRE is every bit as good as some of the more hailed slashers of recent years like Laid To Rest or The Hills Run Red. That isn't saying much but hey, it's something. 

The Audio & Video
Midnight Releasing's DVD of BUNNYMAN MASSACRE is solid for how the movie was shot. The widescreen transfer is clean and has okay sharpness and clarity. The movie wasn't shot on high dollar cameras which is obvious but the disc looks okay. The 2.0 audio track sounds clear and has a pretty decent mix. It's good enough that you won't need to reach for the remote as levels are stable.

The Extras
-Audio commentary track
-Behind-the-scenes featurette
-Deleted scenes
-Interviews
-"Bunnyman Gets Fast Food"
-"Joe's Guide To Dating"

The Bottom Line
BUNNYMAN MASSACRE can be recommended to horror fans that are easily satisfied with plenty of gore or slasher film enthusiasts who want to see everything the genre has to offer. It's not offensively bad but it could be better.

BUNNYMAN MASSACRE is available HERE

Tropic Of Desire / Fantasy World (DVD Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1979
Directed By: Bob Chinn
Written By: Jeffrey Fairbanks
Starring: Laurien Dominique, Jesie St. James, Georgina Spelvin
Color/160 Minutes/X
Region FREE
Release Date: August 5, 2014

The Film
In the waning days of WWII some Navy men on shore leave visit their usual brothel for some fun. Upon arriving one of the men finds that his favorite lady has just left to mourn the death of her husband in the war. While his night is ruined the rest of the men, including a young man experiencing the pleasures of a woman for the first time, get their rocks off in various ways. TROPIC OF DESIRE is a pretty decent wartime adult drama. The acting is pretty decent and there's plenty of skin and action to satisfy the viewer. It has nice sets and is a step above the average skin flick of the time.

If TROPIC OF DESIRE is good FANTASY WORLD IS GREAT. Two separate groups of friends, another trio of Navy men and a trio of ladies that work as telephone operators, looking for fun in the city find their way in to the doors of a night club called Fantasy World where all of your fantasies can come true. A sort of magician with a pale white painted face hosts the evening which starts out with a woman masturbating with a snake and goes on to include all sorts of group sex on stage while taking volunteers from the audience. The volunteers are then treated to their wildest sexual dreams from dominatrix action, to two women or three men. Whatever you fantasize about can be yours if you step through the doors of FANTASY WORLD.

Seriously, FANTASY WORLD is among the best adult films I've ever seen. It has just enough touch of the bizarre along with great direction and an artful touch in lighting and sets to compliment the more carnal delights that await the viewer. I don't keep track of "favorite vintage pornos" like I do horror or spaghetti westerns or something like that but if I did I'm sure FANTASY WORLD would be near the top of list.

The Audio & Video
Vinegar Syndrome's release keeps both films in their OAR of 1.85:1 with anamorphic widescreen transfers. Picture quality is quite good throughout with a bit of speckling and a frame jump occasionally. Detail and color is strong and vivid while flesh tones look healthy. Both films have been kept in pretty nice condition overall and VS has handled them beautifully. The English mono audio tracks have a bit of background noise in the form of crackling but it is intermittent at worst and doesn't distract from the film. Dialogue and soundtrack levels are mixed with skill.

The Extras
A trailer for each film is included

The Bottom Line
I don't think I have to spell it out for you - A couple of quite good X rated flicks, one being among the best I've seen, with a nice presentation from a company that truly cares about its products and fans means this release is highly recommended.

TROPIC OF DESIRE / FANTASY WORLD is available HERE