DARK WAS THE NIGHT (DVD Review) - RLJ Entertainment

USA/2014
Directed By: Jack Heller
Written By: Tyler Hisel
Starring: Kevin Durand, Lukas Haas, Bianca Kajlich
Color/98 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: September 1, 2015

The Film
After a logging company clears out a section of woods in the town of Maiden Woods a strange and violent series of events start to occur from an unseen force. The two sheriffs must protect the town from this monstrous attack while dealing with their own personal demons.

DARK WAS THE NIGHT is a really well made film full of great performances from the lead Kevin Durand (The Strain) to supporting actors like Nick Damici (Stake Land, Late Phases). Director Jack Heller handles the personal drama that each character faces without turning it into eye-rolling soap opera fare. He blends that in to add into the horrors the town is facing as animals disappear, bloody corpses are found strewn around the woods and strange footprints are seen throughout the town to make a film in which we care about everybody we come across. We want the town of Maiden Woods to survive and that's incredibly important.

To say DARK WAS THE NIGHT is a slow burn would be correct, we don't see much of the monsters at all until the film's finale and before that there's only a handful of gruesome moments but this is a character driven film that works so damn well we know the payoff is coming and that we'll get our horror fix before the end. Until then we have a group of characters we instantly cared about facing some sort of unknown foe. And then shit starts getting really bad for the town, they decide to hole up in the town's church together to wait out a snowstorm as the attacks are getting worse. Here comes the payoff!

And then we get the money shot, we see the monster in all of its... erm... glory. Its Syfy channel CGI dreck glory. I can't overstate my disappointment in what I saw, this poorly rendered, green, scaly, rocky, lump of shit. The film that I was so fully on board with as a horror film driven by characters and sight unseen scares that upped the tension for this showdown took a jump off the high dive into a pool of bullshit. After the reveal I was so let down that I was taken completely out of the movie for the remainder.

Until the final groan inducing little twist at the end. DARK WAS THE NIGHT was right there, potential to be a really really good horror film that didn't rely on blood and guts or tits and ass to grab the audience's attention. Common real life drama pushed the film forward and then when the film needs the horror movie payoff to pull it all together and make it a successful horror film it fails us.

The Audio & Video
The DVD from Image/RLJ Entertainment looks solid top to bottom. The film's color palette is heavy on grey and blue hues to add to the cold and distant feeling of the upstate New York town. The 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is clean and sharp for a standard definition release. There is a Best Buy exclusive Blu-ray that I'm sure looks even better. The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound audio track has a well done mix job and there's no background noise or distractions such as popping or crackling.

The Extras
-Behind the scenes: A Trip To Maiden Woods
-Q & A with the cast

The Bottom Line
DARK WAS THE NIGHT is like that deep fly ball in the bottom of the ninth with a full count and the bases loaded when your team is down by 3 that gets caught on the warning track. The whole thing builds this fantastic drama and story and you're waiting for that huge dramatic payoff and when it comes up just short it's incredibly deflating.

DARK WAS THE NIGHT is available HERE

THE YOUNG LIKE IT HOT/SWEET YOUNG FOXES (Blu-ray Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1983
Directed By: Bob Chinn
Written By: Gail Palmer, Deborah Sullivan
Starring: Hyapatia Lee, Kay Parker, Eric Edwards
Color/176 Minutes/X
Region FREE
Release Date: August 18, 2015
Limited Edition: 2,000 copies

The Films
The employees of a small town phone help line are at risk of losing their job to a new computer system if they can't persuade the bigwigs that they can provide services that no computer can. This instantly leads to phone sex with obscene callers who jack off over the line, getting fucked right in the office even while on the phone, and house call services that their callers have never experienced before!

THE YOUNG LIKE IT HOT is a rather funny comedy filled to the brim with sex. There's no shortage of incredibly attractive women including Hyapatia Lee and there's also some genuinely funny moments including a lewd caller yelling about "fucking your armpits!" This is an easily enjoyable good time from start to finish.

In SWEET YOUNG FOXES Laura (Hyapatia Lee) is home from college and bored out of her mind as her boyfriend is out of town. With little to do besides bicker with her stepmother Laura takes on the quest of finding herself and opens up a world of sexual experiences.

Far more a drama than the first film on this double bill, I found SWEET YOUNG FOXES a bit less fun. The stepmother drama bored me a bit but the scenes with Laura and her friends were energetic, youthful and exciting. Had this film taken a slightly less serious tone I think it could have been a home run like THE YOUNG LIKE IT HOT was.

The Audio & Video
Vinegar Syndrome please never stop what you're doing because these films are yet another example on a growing list of absolutely beautiful transfers. Sure, there's a bit of white and black speckling scattered throughout the film but that never becomes an issue or distracting and the transfers are otherwise spectacular. The rich grain structure keeps the original film look and feel while skin tones are healthy and natural. Colors are vibrant and look no further than Hyapatia Lee's red dress in SYF to see what the definition of "colors that pop" means. Good lord! The original aspect ratios are maintained in the 16x9 anamorphic widescreen presentations that have been restored with 2K scans from their original negatives and have likely never looked this good, maybe not even during their theatrical exhibitions.

As for the audio, it sounds crystal clear with a nice crispness and excellent mix job. There's no background noise or damage to speak of.

The Extras
-Interview with Bob Chinn
-Interview with William Margold
-Theatrical trailer for both films
-DVD combo pack release

The Bottom Line
In the world of adult films you likely have a winner with a pair of Bob Chinn films starring Hyapatia Lee. This release takes that winning combination and gives it the high quality release it has deserved for 30 years.

THE YOUNG LIKE IT HOT/SWEET YOUNG FOXES Peekarama Double Feature is available HERE

THE PIGMAN MURDERS (DVD Review) - Wild Eye Releasing

Ireland/2013
Directed By: Stephen Patrick Kenny
Written By: Stephen Patrick Kenny
Starring: Gerard Fallon, Eugene Horan, Mark Hutchinson
Color/70 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE
Release Date: April 21, 2015

The Film
Seven friends head in to the woods for a camping trip in remembrance of their friend's death one year ago. They have hired a professional cameraman to document their trip to turn in to a gift to their friend's family as a tribute to him. The trip is plagued with personal drama from the start and bad turns to worse when the group finds a badly beaten man covered in blood who warns them of a killer in the woods.

I assumed THE PIGMAN MURDERS was going to be a slasher film in the traditional sense but it isn't It is a found footage film packed with a whole lot of nothing throughout most of the duration. I think the idea of making a documentary of you and your friends camping and partying as a gift to your fallen friend's family is a bit odd to begin with but you'd think the cameraman you hired would have a camera that didn't distort, break up and flicker every minute or two. There's nothing going on in this movie that should make the camera fuck up as often and as badly as it does.

Really, it makes no sense and pulled me out of the movie each and every time it happened. Walking through the woods or the wind blowing doesn't make a camera, especially that which should be a half decent camera from a "professional", distort. The movie is packed with the typical bickering between characters as it seems nobody can ever get along in a found footage film even before anything goes wrong. The only chance this movie had was making the villains interesting, something they didn't do as they're barely on screen even when they're dispatching of people left and right.

Maybe THE PIGMAN MURDERS would have been good had it went the slasher route I was expecting, maybe not. I'd be willing to wager that it would have at least been more interesting and I'd have been able to allow myself to at least TRY and get into the movie, something the constant bullshit with the camera didn't allow me to in this one. The saving grace, if you can call it that is that the movie only runs 70 minutes despite the DVD case stating a 90 minute runtime. Another 20 minutes would have been unbearable.

The Audio & Video
The film's intentional cold and overcast look is on display here with a downbeat color palette full of grey shades. Colors are muted a bit as is sharpness and detail levels. It's all in how the film was photographed. Wild Eye Releasing does a nice job keeping the film's intended look with their anamorphic widescreen transfer. The English audio is passable but far from great, again it's all in how the film was made and not a problem with the production of the DVD. It sounds as if the audio was recorded through a built in microphone on the camera rather than a legit boom mic as it is ruffled and muddy at times. Coupled with thick Irish accents dialogue can be difficult to understand at times.

The Extras
-"Curse Of The Banshee" short film
-Original trailer

The Bottom Line
The worst part about THE PIGMAN MURDERS isn't that I'm disappointed in what the movie isn't, it's that I'm totally let down by what it is.

THE PIGMAN MURDERS is available HERE

THE CURSE OF DOWNERS GROVE (Blu-ray Review) - Anchor Bay

USA/2015
Directed By: Derick Martini
Written By: Bret Easton Ellis, Michael Hornburg,  Derick Martini
Starring: Bella Heathcote, Lucas Till, Penelope Mitchell
Color/89 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A
Release Date: September 1, 2015

The Film
The town of Downer's Grove has had an unlucky streak of a high school senior dying the week before graduation for the passed several years. With graduation quickly approaching Chrissie (Bella Heathcote) begins to think the curse may be upon her after a series of disturbing events have rained down on her in recent days.

The synopsis of the film sounds like a horror film, potentially of the supernatural genre, but instead we get a largely real world based thriller that is driven by the terrible things that can go on in the life of a high school or college student. The problem is that the curse is mentioned throughout the film but only in passing most of the time. It is brought up enough that we are well aware that it is meant to be a plot point but it's never played up as a real big deal and ends up being totally pointless.

The acting is spotty and uneven at best and Tom Arnold at worse. Yes, that Tom Arnold, former husband to Roseanne. He's on screen for a handful of scenes and is fucking awful in each one. The word "abhorrent" immediately comes to mind. Please stop, Tom Arnold, for the love of God. The script is as uneven as the acting and the voiceover work that only occurs at the very beginning and very end serves no purpose, nor do the visions that Chrissie sees throughout the film which serve as the only real reason to believe there may be any sort of supernatural or curse element.

The editing is atrocious, at times making it seem like there are missing frames. The rest of the movie is a pedestrian affair at its best and a waste of time at its worst.

The Audio & Video
Anchor Bay gives us a rock solid Blu-ray presentation with a 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that is very sharp and has a high detail level. Colors are strong and skin tones are natural and healthy looking without any sign of excessive DNR. The English audio is handled with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track that sounds beautiful and crisp. There's no damage or background noise and the mix job is very well done.

The Extras
The lone special feature is a four and a half minute behind the scenes featurette

The Bottom Line
Skip it.

THE CURSE OF DOWNER'S GROVE is available HERE

Wes Craven: In Rememberance

Since the news broke last night that Wes Craven had passed away from a battle with brain cancer I have been debating back and forth if I wanted to write anything about him here as I have done in the past when someone notable to genre film or someone notable to me personally passes on. It isn't that I don't feel Wes Craven is notable enough to deserve my words, in fact it is quite the opposite and the reason which I have decided to post something. My hesitance was because I didn't want this to turn into something where I break down his films and in turn, whether intentionally or not, attack his legacy. It is no secret that I didn't find Wes Craven to be an "elite" director all things considered, but I did respect the hell out of his work and his legacy and am a huge fan of many of his films.

Wes Craven forever changed the landscape of exploitation with 1972's The Last House On The Left. This cold, pessimistic and downright mean film spawned dozens of copy cat films throughout the decade. From its impossible to forget tagline to showing us some of the most depraved acts Craven would ever film, The Last House On The Left is forever embedded in American film culture for better or worse.

Craven would similarly change the landscape of horror forever when he introduced Freddy Kruger to the world in 1984. By no means a forefather to the slasher genre, Freddy gave the body count film a face, a personality and an attitude that may have needed to come a bit later in the cycle to really work. The film was downright terrifying, featured incredible special effects and in later sequels would give us arguably the downright coolest and most beloved monster in horror history. And maybe the timing was perfect as the amount of masked, silent and nameless killers that had come in the 6 years or so between Halloween really popularizing the genre and Freddy's debut left the audience ready for a hero to latch on to that they could quote and talk about with friends. The discussion of a hockey mask and machete can only go so far, but quoting Freddy and talking about all the dream scenarios could last forever.

Then a decade later Craven would do it again with Scream. The self referential, meta horror film from 1996 poked fun at the money making machines of the decade before it, where teens were killed off in a world full of cliches. Craven dipped his toes in the idea a couple years before Scream with New Nightmare, another Freddy Kruger film before nailing the idea with Scream. Scream was a smart film, and very well made. It had been long enough since the slasher craze died down that horror fans could begin to poke fun at themselves with the ideas Scream presented, perhaps something they weren't willing to do with Freddy on screen just two years earlier.

Wes Craven created two cultural icons in the horror genre, Scream's Ghostface remains a popular Halloween costume and is instantly recognizable and Freddy is the pop culture phenomenon he was in the late 80s. Not too many people can claim that sort of success and Craven didn't rest his hat on those two franchises as he made the brilliant The Serpent And The Rainbow which to this day I hold as one of the most underrated (in the sense that it doesn't get brought up in discussion very often) horror movie of all time and made a fantastic horror/exploitation film with The Hills Have Eyes.

When Craven succeeded on a film he really succeeded. He was able to bring these fictional stories and characters to life that resonated on a level of realism that terrified audiences and created nightmares.

It is those nightmares that we'll always have and remember, Wes. And it's the reason we'll always have that thought buried in the back of our minds that we shouldn't fall asleep.

FLESH AND BULLETS (DVD Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1985
Directed By: Carlos Tobalina
Written By: Carlos Tobalina
Starring: Glen McKay, Mic Morrow, Cydney Hill
Color/85 Minutes/R
Region FREE
Release Date: August, 18 2015

The Film
A pair of divorced men fed up with their ex-wives bleeding them dry meet in Las Vegas and make a plan to kill each other's wife. The catch? If they fail to do so they're fair game to be killed as well. The plans get tangled when each man begins to fall in love with their respective target.

Carlos Tobalina is known for his extensive work directing X rated films in the '70s and '80s, plenty of which have been covered here on Celluloid Terror. He's no stranger to creating entertaining films and this rare venture outside of the X rating finds him creating a sexy thriller based on Alfred Hitchock's Strangers On A Train.

While the film doesn't have the budget, beautiful camerawork, top notch performances or signature Hitchcock moments, FLESH AND BULLETS does have well, flesh and bullets. The artistry of Hitchcock's classic is replaced with lots of nudity and sex (no hardcore shots), including scenes with adult stars Mai Lin and Sharon Kelly and some tense action scenes.

Is it fair to really compare the two films? No, probably not. There's no way FLESH AND BULLETS could live up to the film it is mimicking but Carlos Tobalina works within his limits and makes a largely successful skin and guns thriller that will appeal to a wider audience than his normal output.

The Audio & Video
It's immediately apparent that the film elements for FLESH AND BULLETS have been kept in pretty good condition because this DVD from Vinegar Syndrome is nice. The 16x9 transfer has a nice sharpness for a standard definition release along with an overall clean presentation and nice colors. There's some speckling and minor damage but nothing major or distracting. The mono audio sounds good with about as much wrong with it as the picture quality, that's to say nothing much.

The Extras
-Alternate cut of the film under the title "Wife Contract" sourced from a VHS
-Theatrical trailer

The Bottom Line
Sexually charged but not reliant on being hardcore, FLESH AND BULLETS is a fun, tense and seductive thriller that takes Hitchcock on a cab ride through 42nd street. Recommended!

FLESH AND BULLETS is available HERE

RUN, HIDE, DIE (DVD Review) - Image/RLJ Entertainment

USA/2012
Directed By: Collin Joseph Neal
Written By: Allison Monda
Starring: Allison Monda, Alicia Mendez, Ivey Bronwen
Color/75 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: September 1, 2015

The Film
A year after the tragic death of her husband, Addison and four of her friends get away from the real world with a trip to her in-laws cabin for a brief moment of peace and fun however one of the girls is hiding a secret and they're not alone as their trip quickly turns into a night of terror.

The best thing about RUN, HIDE, DIE, originally titled "The Anniversary" which I feel is a far better fit and doesn't have the cheap direct to video feel than the title it has been released under does, is that it knows when to end. The film is a quick 75 minutes, it doesn't linger around like that last late night guest at a party who refuses to leave. The script which was written by star Allison Monda gets us where we need to be and tells us what we need to know without as much as pumping the brakes. This is like riding in the carpool lane to splatter town.

The main draw of the film will be for slasher and torture fans as that makes up almost the entire second half of the film. There's no shortage of bloody violence and the gore is on display here. There's no real surprises here and the film is quite predictable but it doesn't make it any less enjoyable. This is popcorn horror through and through. The real downfall of the film is Addison's friends being quite the annoying and/or entirely too Plain Jane bunch. The supporting girls are plain and bland. I'm not expecting Shakespeare or anything, after all this is popcorn horror driven by bloody torture, but the attempts at creating interesting and developed friends for our lead are weak and half-assed.

The film feels that it could have been made at any time between the 1980s and today and I love that fact. No it isn't amazing and the characters are thin and the script isn't amazing but sometimes being average is good enough for a night's viewing.

The Audio & Video
The DVD from RLJ Entertainment looks okay but for a film shot digitally I expect better. There's a lot of compression issues and pixelation even in scenes without rapid motion or that are particularly dark which are usually the problem areas. When these issues aren't present the 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer has a neutral color palette, and moderately sharp detail level. A 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound audio track is more than capable of handling the English dialogue and score. The mix is well done and the track is free of damage or distortions.

The Extras
Extras? What extras?

The Bottom Line
It's predictable, you've seen it before and the DVD release isn't the best and somehow I still can't knock it too hard. RUN, HIDE, DIE knows what it is and despite its shortcomings it isn't the worst film of the type I've seen recently. Or maybe I'm just in a good mood today.

RUN, HIDE, DIE is available HERE