Phoenix Forgotten (2017) Trailer

PHOENIX FORGOTTEN is the new sci-fi thriller from producer Ridley Scott and it hits theaters on April 21st! Check out the trailer below!

Cult Epics Press Release: 100 Girls By Bunny Yeager Blu-ray

 100 GIRLS BY BUNNY YEAGER Premieres on BLU-RAY April 11, 2017

Los Angeles, CA (April, 2017.) Cult Epics presents a homage to 50s Pin up photography. Bunny Yeager, ‘the worlds prettiest photographer’, started out as a beauty contest winner and professional photographer’s model in the 50’s. She established herself as one of America’s top ten glamour photographers throughout the 50’s and 60’s for Playboy and other magazines. This pictorial shows 100 of her most glamorous models, featuring her most famous one Bettie Page, and includes photographs and original footage of Bunny with the girls behind the scenes. Narrated by Bunny Yeager, who past away in 2014. 

Blu-ray features a 2K HD transfer and new bonus features including two featurettes of Bunny’s never-before-seen photos of Bettie Page, as shown and presented at the Catalina Island Museum in 2016. 

100 GIRLS BY BUNNY YEAGER Blu-ray

Price:                              $29.95

Street Date:                              April 11, 2017

Production Year:                     1950/1997/2016

Video run time:                 Approx. 70 Min

Language:                                English language 

Aspect Ratio:                           1.33:1

Audio:                                      Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Label:                                       Cult Epics

Distributor:                              CAV 

Blu-ray Cat.no.                        CE-150

BD UPC:                                 881190015094

Rating:                                     Not Rated

SPECIAL FEATURES

New 2K HD Transfer (from original 16mm film)

Over 200 Pin Up photos

Clips from Bunny Yeager’s Nude Camera and Nude Las Vegas and unseen footage

Bettie Page Uncovered: The Unknown Photographs of Bunny Yeager

 (Introduction by Helmut Schuster) 2016, HD

Bunny Yeager/Bettie Page HD Virtual photo exhibit (2016, HD)

( CLOSED)GIVEAWAY: THE BYE BYE MAN BLU-RAY

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has been kind enough to allow us to host a contest for a brand new Blu-ray copy of the Unrated Edition of THE BYE BYE MAN, available in stores April 11th! See the rules below for entry details!

How To Enter
CLOSED.

That's it, it's that easy! A winner will be selected and notified on April 11th, the film's release date!

MONDO WEIRDO/VAMPIROS SEXOS (Cult Epics) - Blu-ray Review

Austria/1988, 1990
Directed By: Carl Andersen
Written By: Carl Andersen
Starring: Soledad Marceignac, Frank Khunne, Jasmin Bevilaqua
Black & White/134 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE
Release Date: March 14, 2017
Blu-ray/DVD/CD
Limited Edition: 2,000

The Films
This collection of Carl Andersen's three earliest films including two features and a short are nothing short of a midnight movie lovers dream. These films are erotic, experimental, sometimes darkly comedic and wholly Avant Garde ventures into horror and various aspects of human discovery. From tainted olive oil vampires to a teen experiencing the pains of womanhood in the most bizzarely gothic psychadelic mind fuck involving Elizabeth Bathory you're likely to see anytime soon, Andersen's work are light on traditional narrative and storytelling and heavy on visual impact steering us through the adventure.

Hardcore sex and graphic violence are commonplace in the grainy and gritty photography that ranges from beautiful (see the three way split screen in MONDO WEIRDO) to inventive with  the play with exposure and washing out the majority of the picture in several scenes in VAMPIROS SEXOS. The films on display here are a visceral experience that leave you replaying scenes in your mind over and over. The soundtrack on both MONDO WEIRDO AND VAMPIROS SEXOS is from a Model D'oo, a band with a post punk, gothic industrial sort of vibe that I was not previously familiar with but their sound is the perfect backdrop to these pictures as it matches the punk attitude and aesthetic that isn't easily defined but I think a rougher version of early David Lynch is a good place to start.

The Audio & Video
Cult Epics gives these Carl Andersen a home they can be appreciated on for the foreseeable future. MONDO WEIRDO has been newly transferred to HD from the original 16mm film for the first time. It definitely shows good detail and sharpness despite the gritty photography but where you can really see the HD treatment is in the depth of the black and white levels. They saturate the screen in ways a standard DVD cannot. The German audio sounds good with sporadic English subtitles used when they're intended and other times without. The sound quality is surprisingly crisp despite expected imperfections for an underground film such as this.

VAMPIROS SEXOS is presented on DVD and looks as I expected it would after viewing MW on Blu-ray in that it is noticeably grainier and rougher looking overall, in part from some damage the elements have incurred over the years but I was pleased to see that there is still good detail present, especially in close ups and a decent sharpness to the photography overall.


The Extras
The main special features include the 1990 short film WHAT'S SO DIRTY ABOUT IT? and a making-of featurette with interview clips for both MONDO WEIRDO and VAMPIROS SEXOS. An introduction to MW by Erwin Leder, the star of Angst is also included and is a heartfelt introduction and farewell to his late friend. This limited edition also includes a CD soundtrack with 4 unreleased bonus tracks from Model D'oo.

The Bottom Line
These types of films are something you either appreciate or you don't, I find there is usually very little middle ground. If you're the type of movie viewer that can sink their teeth into offbeat and far from typical fare then these Carl Andersen films will be right up your alley and they're a perfect fit for the Cult Epics catalog.

MONDO WEIRDO/VAMPIROS SEXOS is available HERE

THE CREEPS (Full Moon) - Blu-ray Review

USA/1997
Directed By: Charles Band
Written By: Neal Marshall Stevens
Starring: Rhonda Griffin, Justin Lauer, Bill Moynihan
Color/74 Minutes/PG-13
Region FREE
Release Date: February 21, 2017

The Film
A nervous but altogether mad scientist has been stealing original manuscripts of some of the world's most notorious horror fiction including Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in order to bring these legendary characters to life to gain power. He successfully summons Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and The Mummy, the only problem is that he made an error in the process and each of the monsters is a mini three feet tall. Now he needs a virgin to gain full control over the monsters and bring them to their full size and power.

THE CREEPS is an oddball black comedy horror film from director Charles Band. The film is very subdued in its violence with even the worst scene that involves a woman strapped naked to a table and subjected to an experiment that lands her in another dimension being notably light and almost breezy, never feeling mean or exploitative at all. The tone of the film holds it back from being a more successful and entertaining picture than if it went for a more horrific angle. I never felt that the monsters, who have a nicely designed classic look led by Phil Fondacaro as Dracula, were a true threat and the film does little to ever change that with the monsters pulling off more hijinx than scares.

Laughs are held in higher regard in THE CREEPS with Bill Moynihan starring as the stuttering, nervous and inept mad scientist being written solely for comedy or at least that is how it seems. Rhonda Griffin and Justin Lauer star as the main protagonists, a librarian trying to track down her stolen books and the private detective she hired from the back of a video store and they have a good chemistry on screen. The acting is all very hammy though but it fits the campy nature of the picture. When the dust settles I really wish THE CREEPS would have had some darker and more intense moments to really break up the monotony and one note tone of the film. It's not bad but it isn't among Full Moon's best output.

The Audio & Video
Full Moon has restored their film from the original 35mm camera negative for its high definition debut and it's never looked better. The overall image has a decent sharpness that leads to good detail levels. The film as a whole is a bit on the darker side in terms of lighting and there are some softer shots but overall the film looks nice and is a noticeable upgrade. The audio is crisp and without distortion or damage. Stereo 2.0 and 5.1 surround audio options are available.

The Extras
Special features include the original Videozone behind the scenes featurette from 1997 and a selection of trailers.

The Bottom Line
This new Blu-ray release is a nice visual upgrade over previously available editions but this isn't among the classic Full Moon titles.

THE CREEPS is available HERE

PEELERS (2017)

USA/2017
Directed By: Seve Schelenz
Written By: Lisa DeVita, Seve Schelenz
Starring: Wren Walker, Caz Odin Darko, Madison J. Loos
VOD Release Date: March 28, 2017

The final night of business at the Tittyballs strip club isn't the cakewalk owner Blue Jeans (don't call her BJ!) was probably hoping for as she prepares to sell to a skeezy businessman with questionable intentions. The night is full of drunks, a new girl dancing for the first time because a regular is about to pop with a baby, jealous boyfriends and a group of workers from the local coal mine that come in covered in a weird black oil substance that turns anyone that comes into contact with it in to a bloodthirsty maniac. Is it closing time yet?

Seve Schelenz returns for his second feature film after making Skew back in 2010 (previously reviewed HERE) with an overly gory splatterfest that isn't out of line from body melt films like Street Trash and Slime City though it is played straighter than either of those films and doesn't go for the day-glo look instead opting for a thick, black splatter that is vomited and spewed by the gallon. PEELERS will have no trouble attracting an audience with all of the blood and guts flying around in addition to the black sludge. The film is wildly bloody and nobody is off limits. CGI is mixed in with large amounts of practical effects and while it is immediately and definitely a noticeable shift from the practical stuff it isn't off putting.

PEELERS will stand apart from similar films that are released each month because it takes far greater care in its writing and characters than the majority of independent horror films even think about. We get real relationships built within the confines of the walls of this strip club and it all begins and ends with Wren Walker's performance as Blue Jeans. She's a tough but loving owner and a total bad ass chick. Walker is damn good and really carries the film while the support from her security guard Remy played by Caz Odin Darko is more of a straight forward performance that doesn't need any nuance but he plays it exactly how he should. He's a sympathetic character that most guys can relate to in one way or another. It's not just good performances but actual character development that make it such a good script.

PEELERS is a really solid horror film, I can't say it's perfect because it isn't but it is damn entertaining and even though it's not the most original premise and reminds me of countless movies that came before it, it is one of the better strip club horror movies I've seen to date and I had a great time with it. It's rare these days that a movie as splatterific as PEELERS has such a quality production. This one is definitely worth a look.

ATOMICA (2017)

USA/2017
Directed By: Dagen Merrill
Written By: Kevin Burke, Federico Fernandez-Armesto, Adam Gyngell
Starring: Sarah Habel, Dominic Monaghan, Tom Sizemore
In Theaters March 17, 2017
On VOD and Digital HD March 21, 2017

ATOMICA is an isolation thriller set in the not too distant future on a desolate nuclear power plant run by the world's power supplier Auxillisun. Abby (Sarah Habel) is a tech for the company and has been flown in to fix the communication issues present where she meets Robinson Scott (Dominic Monaghan) one of the two people working there. The other, Dr. Zek (Tom Sizemore), has strangely been missing for several days. The events leading up to Abby's arrival and everything she sees and experiences there don't add up but things only get weirder and more deadly when Dr. Zek turns up.

For a film that is being distributed by SyFy Films it has decent production values. Wisely the film is kept mostly to the confines of the power plant's interiors. The sparsely decorated, with only the sporadic computer screen or switchboard, sets add to the feeling of isolation and loneliness which can play tricks on the mind, a theme that the film comes back to again and again despite never really playing into the way things pan out. Even the exteriors which are obviously CGI and green screen aren't bad when there's nothing going on in front of the backgrounds but as soon as action starts happening in the CGI heavy areas it begins to look cheap.

The film doesn't reinvent the wheel but it doesn't really do this style of thriller all that well either. There's too many cases of false identity going on and a few massive plot holes along with subplots that don't go anywhere and are nothing but weak attempts at getting the audience to really gravitate and latch on to a certain character. That said, the cast is actually quite good and do the best with the script they have to work with. If ATOMICA was a wide release, major production I'd be harsher on it but it really isn't too bad when viewed among the ranks of the Syfy channel productions and distributed films. I wouldn't recommend you rush out to see it but if it pops up on a lazy Sunday afternoon you might get more enjoyment out of it than the same 15 year old reruns of COPS.