Night Train To Terror (Blu-ray Review) - Vinegar Syndrome

USA/1985
Directed By: Various
Written By: Philip Yordan
Starring: Barbara Wyler, Jamie Scoggin, Stacey Lyons
Color/93 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE

The Film
As a group of teens party aboard a train that is on path to its destruction unbeknownst to them, a few cars down God and Satan discuss the fate of 3 souls that need to either be saved or damned. This is the wrap around story for NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR, with each soul being discuessed making up the trio of stories in this anthology horror film. The first chapter is entitled HARRY, in which a mental asylum uses a man to drug people and bring them back for tests, torture and organ harvesting. There is plenty of gore and nudity in this chapter. The second chapter, GRETTA, features a couple who are lured into the company of a cult-like group called The Death Club who love the thrill of near death experiences. With each meeting of the club a member introduces a new game of fate that could result in a participant's death. These games of Russian Roulette range from the sting of a deadly bug, to electric chairs and even a swinging wrecking ball. Finally the fate of CLAIRE is brought to our attention. She is a woman of faith and her husband is a writer who has just released a book denouncing the existence of God. The couple ends up facing off with a man named Oliver. Oliver just so happens to be the son of Satan. 

NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR is a bit of an oddity. While absolutely working as a campy 80s horror film that is very entertaining, it was meant to be more. The footage for each of the 3 stories were from films that were never completed, which helps explain why sometimes the stories are disjointed and it feels as if we're missing something. It's because we are! All that said, we still get a purely 80s (look no further than the neon-clad music video type scenes and break dance intermission to see just how 80s I'm talking) horror film filled with  gore, nudity and some really cool (if campy) effects and visuals. This film is a fun ride (to terror.)

The Audio & Video
Vinegar Syndrome presents NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack for the first time in HD. The 1080p, 16:9 anamorphic widescreen transfer is largely a revelation for the film. Skin tones are nice and natural, colors are striking and detail levels are strong. There is a bit of edge enhancement and ghosting in a handful of moments but for the large majority of this movie the picture looks great and compared to previous transfers I've seen is a revelation. The audio is also a great job by VS. The mixing job is spot on and dialogue comes through loud and clear. There are some moments of background noise like crackling and hissing but they aren't an on-going problem. I don't think anyone could ask for more out of this disc.

Please note that screen shots have been taken from DVD copy of the film.

The Extras
A pair of commentary tracks, interviews, a trailer and a bonus film for the GRETTA segment? Like I said, I don't think anyone could ask for more out of this disc.

 
The Bottom Line
I was pretty damn excited when I heard Vinegar Syndrome would be releasing NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR on Blu-ray and my excitement has been matched by a great product. The oddball nature of how this film came together is something horror fans should experience and there's no better way than with this release.

NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR is available HERE

October Horror Challenge 2013 - Days 11-13

The weekend got away from me pretty badly as far as keeping the blog updated with each day's viewing, my apologies.

Day 11 started off with a viewing of one of my absolute favorite ridiculous movies, Troll 2. This was watched right before bed after the clock rolled over from day 10. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I watch this movie and quote it as it moves along it remains an absolutely hilarious and endlessly entertaining piece of gold. It is the definition of so-bad-it's-good.

Later that day was a pair of films from a double feature DVD I recently purchased. The first was Night Of The Sorcerer's a jungle vampire flick from director Amando De Ossorio of the Blind Dead fame. I'm a big of Ossorio and while this isn't his best film it was very entertaining and featured a good bit of skin and gore.

The second half of the double feature rounded out the day's viewing... the Paul Naschy exorcist rip-off simply title Exorcism. I've heard a lot of praise over the years for this one but it is pretty damn slow in spots, where not too much happens until the last 10 minutes. It isn't really bad up to that point but it definitely pulls the movie down as they could have given us a bit more exorcism fun earlier in the film.

A friend of mine had picked up the Chucky boxset and we watched the new one, The Curse Of Chucky. The movie is better than I expected it to be but Chucky looked weird throughout the film which was a bit annoying. There were some classic Chucky one-liners and it was a harmless film even if there are a couple of odd timeline issues and overlooking things from the original. At least it was way better than Seed.

The next 4 movies were all on the recently released DVD from Shout/Scream Factory... first was The Outing. The basis of this movie is an ancient genie lamp was discovered during a home robbery and eventually ends up in a museum where it wreaks havoc on the guests. This is total 80s cheese taht had potential to be absolutely classic but didn't quite go far enough over the top. That said it was a nice change of pace to watch a movie involving a Djinn/genie that didn't suck ass like the Wishmaster sequels.

The Godsend was next, a British thriller about an evil child who was abandoned at a family's home and raised by the family as their own. The child begins to kill off her several siblings to get her parents to herself. It was a bit dissapointing in how tame and overall bland it was. The evil child subgenre has been done much better than this.

The day concluded with What's The Matter With Helen, a psychological horror film about a woman going mad from paranoia and stress set in the 30s. It was okay but a bit slow and featured more references and songs from Annie than I'd like to see again.

That DVD set was rounded out with The Vagrant, starring Bill Paxton. This was a goofy one as Paxton deals with a homeless man that is seemingly terrorizing him and driving him insane. It never hides its hammyness but it does a nice job of playing up the psychological horror as well.

While at my friend Jordan's house we checked out the Blu-ray of Jason X. His favorite of the series and one I love as well. I'm sure you've all seen it and either love it for how ridiculous it is or hate it for how ridiculous it is.

After getting home that night and passing out I woke up to check out Living Doll, a dvd from Mondo Macabro in which a medical student falls in love with the girl working at the gift shop and finds her body in the morgue. He brings her corpse home and dresses her up as if she were alive. He goes on a bit of a killing spree after he hears her tell him to avenge her death. This was really enjoyable and I think it deserves more attention.

Finally I re-watched Lucio Fulci's Manhattan Baby. I haven't seen it in a good 7 or 8 years but I remember thinking it wasn't quite as bad as most people think it is... well it'll probably be another 7 or 8 years before I give it another chance. What a bore.

Today's Rundown
Troll 2 - 10/10
Night Of The Sorcerers - 6.5/10
Exorcism - 6/10
Curse Of Chucky 6/10
The Outing 6.5/10
The Godsend 5/10
What's The Matter With Helen 5.5/10
The Vagrant 6/10
Jason X 8/10
Living Doll 7/10
Manhattan Baby 3.5/10

October Horror Challenge 2013 - Day 10

I was thrilled to see that the Stuart Gordon movie Dolls was streaming in HD on some On Demand channel for free. I'd never seen this particular one but Gordon is among my favorite horror directors so I knew I had to watch it. It was classic Empire Pictures fun. Killer dolls protecting a child, a teddy bear come to life to maul some folks and creepy but lovable old folks welcoming everyone into their home. Yup, it was pretty much what I hoped for.

Then came Wolfen, a werewolf movie I''ve never seen before today. It is a crime driven horror story centered around a detective investigating a series of murders that seem to be animal attacks. It takes a deep look into the cities Native American community to find out what is really happening. What is really happening is a decent shell of a movie that is underdeveloped in its mythology which holds it back from being great.

The third viewing of the day was The Body Snatchers, a 1993 adaptation of the story that spawned 2 previous films including the timeless 1978 version. This one was directed by notable exploitation director Abel Ferrara. I'd say this is the weakest of the 3 adaptations but this one is surprisingly decent. It suffers from some dated effects and hammy acting but it really suffers most of all from just being unnecessary after the 1978 version. Ferrara's version is however worth a viewing for anyone curious about it.

The killer snake, crime/horror flick Venom was next. I'd never seen this one but a Black Mamba on the loose as Klaus Kinski holds a family ransom has sounded like a good time to me for a long time. And it was pretty decent, it had solid tension throughout but everything from the tension to the horror could have been upped had they snake been made more of a threat. There are only a couple of moments where the snake is in attack mode and only a couple more where we even see it. That is what holds this movie back from being great.

The day ended with a 2nd viewing of The Unseen. It may as well have been a first time viewing as it's been a long, long time since I saw this and didn't remember much about it. I do remember thinking it was better than this though. The movie is rather unremarkable until the last 15 minutes or so which make it a decent horror flick but this was a disappointment. I do have to say that Scorpion Releasing did an excellent job on their Blu-ray release.

Today's Rundown
Dolls - 7/10
Wolfen - 6/10
The Body Snatchers - 6/10
Venom 6.5/10
The Unseen - 6/10

October Horror Challenge 2013 - Day 8 & 9

I thought I posted day 8 but apparently I was wrong... so here's 8 and 9 together.

Day 8 started with a re-watch of Hatchet 3. I first saw this when it was On Demand and my buddy and I had a marathon of all 3. By the time part 3 came around I had sipped on too many beers to remember a lot of it and I didn't care for most of what I saw. Skip forward to this viewing and I still think it is the worst of the trilogy but it has the same stupid humor as the first 2, which I have found to be pretty entertaining and the same stupid over the top kills which I found fun. Are the Hatchet movies great? No, but they're fun as hell to me.

Next was a short film that was meant to be an installment in a Full Moon anthology film called Pulsepounders but all of the footage was lost back in 1987. This is an adaptation of a H. P. Lovecraft story, The Evil Clergyman. It's cheesy in its delivery but with Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton you really can't go wrong. Interesting to see and has that classic Full Moon charm.

Next up was Corruption, which you can read the full disc review HERE

A slasher was up next, from 1987, The Majorettes. This was from the team responsible for Return Of The Living Dead and was their first film after making that classic. This is no classic, and never will be. It is a rather unremarkable but harmless body count film with a twist easily spotted a mile away. It isn't terrible but it isn't that good either.

The day came to a close with a pre-sleep viewing of The Incredible Melting Man. I'd never seen this movie before and I had just bought the Blu-ray a few days earlier so I figured this was something stupid and easy for while I'm in bed. If you want to get down to it the movie itself, concerning an astronaut returning from around Saturn who is now melting and has to eat human flesh, is pretty damn bad but Rick Baker's awesome special effects are really what you came to see. Nobody cares that much about the story with a title like The Incredible Melting Man, right? The effects are awesome and make for a stupid good time to totally turn your brain off.

Then day 9 came and almost broke me...


I'm sitting at the computer trying to find the words I want to type for the review of the first movie I watched today. Today has introduced me to what may be the single most bang-my-head-into-a-brick-wall worthy movie I've ever seen. It is worse than that. So much worse. Words are failing me. This movie took true stamina and endurance to sit through. It was worse than watching the Baltimore Orioles suck ass for a decade. It was worse than watching The Great Khali wrestle. I'm typing, trying to buy some time until the appropriate words enter my mind. They aren't coming. I'm not even entirely sure they exist.

Detention is about a group of teens who are being killed off by an unknown killer and they have to go back to 1992 to find out who and why. They of course travel through time via the school's bear mascot. I am not going any further into the plot than that because it is so contrived, over saturated with stupid fucking ideas and bullshit 90s worship that it makes my head hurt. Watching this movie is the equivalent to reading the Encyclopedia in 12 year old girl text message language. It will give you a massive headache and it will test your patience to not only turn it off but set your tv on fire so that you don't try to turn it back on just to say you finished it. I'm a person that did a lot of my growing up in the 90s, I have great nostalgia for that decade and miss lots of things about it. This movie takes it to a vomit inducing extreme. The 90s are gone, get the fuck over it. It is as if the most unworthy of his own self-importance, H&M jean, black rim glasses, sweater vest wearing hipster slipped on his fucking boat shoes and decided to make a movie about how much cooler the 90s were. I know nothing about the director, and I won't waste my time. If I'm totally off base on that thought than so be it but it is the most obnoxious thing I've witnessed. Ever stereotype from high school is present and on full display, we even get a flashback through several different eras of high school back to 1992.

On the technical side of things, this movie barely comes together as a movie. I don't know who let the writer even think about writing a screenplay or who gave the editor their job but jesus fucking christ, please someone, anyone, tell them to stop because they haven't a fucking clue. The special effects are cringe worthy and they shit talk Hellboy 2. I've written 3 paragraphs and I still haven't said what I want to say. If I had a physical copy of Detention I'd drive to Ocean City, MD and punt this mother fucker into the briny depths of the Atlantic where it would rest side by side with my friend Keenan's copy of Murder Set Pieces. Except Murder Set Pieces would hitch a ride on a passing crab and get the fuck away from it. Because not even Murder Set Pieces wants anything to do with this turd. Goddamn I am pissed off.


Luckily for me, and my mental state I was eventually able to carry on...

Virgin Witch is an early 70s British horror film that is very light on the scares and very heavy on the skin. Every character in the film gets buck naked at one point or another and often it is in large groups. This is a slow burning story about a coven of witches that never really goes anywhere but I'll excuse it for all the attractive eye candy on display.

A film I've long wondered about but just finally saw followed that up... Night Of The Demon. No, not Night of the Demon aka Curse of the Demon from director Jacques Tourneur, or even the Linnea Quigley lipstick tube classic Night Of The Demons... no, this is 1980's Night Of The Demon, in which bigfoot rips off a man's penis. Yes, this is what I was wondering about. I don't have to tell you that this is going to be cheesy and utterly ridiculous? I also shouldn't have to tell you that if you can appreciate such ham and cheese in your movies that you'll certainly have fun with this one.

The day came to a close with The Baby. I don't know what I expected out of this one directed by Ted Post who recently passed away, but it isn't quite what I got. I liked what I saw though. Everybody in the movie is a little bit off and has their own agendas because they're weird. A solid piece of 70s weirdness.

Today's Rundown
Hatchet 3 - 6.5/10
The Evil Clergyman - 6/10
Corruption - 8/10
The Majorettes - 5.5/10
The Incredible Melting Man - 6.5/10
Detention -
Virgin Witch - 5/10
Night Of The Demon - 7/10
The Baby - 6/10

Corruption (Blu-ray Review) - Grindhouse Releasing

England/1968
Directed By: Robert Hartford-Davis
Written By: Derek Ford, Donald Ford
Starring: Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Noel Trevarthen
Color/91 Minutes/Rated R
Region FREE

The Film
Peter Cushing stars as John Rowan, a well respected surgeon who is dating a gorgeous fashion model named Lynn (Sue Lloyd). At one of Lynn's hip parties, John gets into a fight with Lynn's photographer resulting in a hot lamp burning Lynn's face badly. Desperate for a way to restore his love's face, life and career, John begins researching theories and techniques on plastic surgery and tissue regeneration. John discovers a method the ancient Egyptians used that requires a new pituitary gland for the patient. After getting one from a  body in the morgue and doing his procedure, Lynn's face looks good as new... for a short while. 

It becomes apparent to John that the gland must come from a living patient as it will be fresher and more able to do its job. Lynn pressures John into acquiring the gland she needs to regain her beauty. Of course this means John has to find women that can't be tracked as he has to murder them to get what he needs, and as the pressure on him from his lover mounts Cushing begins to break down. 

CORRUPTION could be viewed as a sleazier take on Eyes Without A Face and nobody would argue with you. It certainly is similar, but it is a different beast, in only for the fact that we get to see The Gentleman Of Horror himself, turn in to a crazed maniac that reminded me of a skinner, and less greasy version of Frank Zito from 1980's Maniac, played brilliantly by Joe Spinell. Of course this film was made over a decade earlier, but after its initial run it wasn't often available and was never seen by this reviewer until today. 

The film is better than you may expect from a short description as "a sleazier Eyes Without A Face". The performances are great, of course that isn't news for Cushing but Sue Lloyd is fantastic as the narcissistic lover who feels she can't live without her beauty and the supporting roles of Jan Waters as a prostitute, and Noel Trevarthen as Cushing's fellow doctor and fiancee to Lynn's sister. There isn't a bad performance in the bunch and the direction is also strong. Look no farther than the laser beam fight at the end of the film or the fish-eye photography when Cushing gets down and dirty.  

 
The Audio & Video
For their second Blu-ray release Grindhouse Releasing brings CORRUPTION to us with a new 2k restoration in a gorgeous anamorphic widescreen print that is free of any digital hiccups or missteps. There are no signs of edge enhancement, DNR, or unceseary tampering with the picture. Skin tones are natural, colors are balanced without any hot spots and detail level on textures and skin are strong. I love the way this disc look. The audio is also fantastic, with a perfectly clean track. There are no pops, hisses or distortions. While CORRUPTION is light on sound effects that will give your sound system a workout, you'll be able to enojoy the dialogue and score without any worry about poor mixing. 

Please note: Images taken from DVD copy of the film
 
The Extras
-Audio commentary with English Gothic author Jonathan Rigby  
-Alternate scenes for various international markets
-Video interviews with Billy Murray, Jan Waters, Wendy Varnals, and Peter Cushing
-Historical documents from the production including the director's original shooting script
-Liner notes
-Still gallery with poster art
-Trailers
-TV and radio spots
+MORE

The Bottom Line 
This is a great piece of horror and Cushing that has been lovingly rescued and re-introduced to the world by Grindhouse Releasing and I couldn't thank them more. Highly recommended.


CORRUPTION is available HERE

October Horror Challenge 2013 - Day 7

I came down with a cold yesterday, which made day 7 a disaster. While I did get 4 movies in, 3 of them were from one fucking terrible franchise....

Wishmaster was a mid-90s horror flick that was half decent, had a cool premise and a monster that had a nifty design. Well, it has spawned 3 sequels in '99, '01 and '02 and each one of them is vomit worthy. Part 2 brings the Djinn into a prison cell to collect 1,001 souls to take over the world. Simple enough story but it goes off in to stupid directions that don't make sense given the story you need to make a wish to the the Djinn for him to get your soul, a few hundred souls are collected randomly at a casino... total bullshit. The acting sucks, the writing sucks and fuck that movie.

Part 3 is a little better I suppose, at least there were more boobs. That is really the only upside it had. So it went from vomit inducing to a test of how long the viewer can hold out for the next set of knockers. And guess what? Part 4... yeah it fucking sucks too. I fell asleep during it and made the fucking mistake of going back to see what I missed. It wasn't much and nothing noteworthy. Fuck this series. Hey Djinn, here's my wish, I wish your shitty fucking series never got made. I should have known movies made by a guy named Chris Angel would suck just as much ass as that douchebag magician with the same name.

At least the day wasn't a total loss as I did watch a creepy 1968 Japanese movie called The Living Skeleton which was a cross between a ghost story, a doppelganger mystery thriller and a mad scientist story. It features some attractive black and white photography and a bit more violence than I was expecting. I would recommend that one. 

Today's Rundown
Wishmaster 2 - 3/10
Wishmaster 3 - 4/10
Wishmaster 4 - 3/10
The Living Skeleton - 7/10

October Horror Challenge 2013 - Day 6

Day 6, after getting home Saturday night I had a some beers and threw on Cabin Fever. It had been quite a long time since I last watched this one and I was pleased to find out that it is still entertaining. There are some problems in the story but nothing that holds it back too much. The cast is funny and the blood and guts are nasty.

The beer continued to flow and so did the movies with a first time viewing of The Taint. The first few minutes of this film are comprised of little else besides blood, gore and cumming dicks. I knew I was in for something ridiculous and thankfully it was done right and never got stupid, or too stupid that is. The movie is funny, over the top and pretty distasteful in every way. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

After getting back from watching the Ravens climb to 3-2 by beating the Dolphins and then watching the shootout between the Broncos and Cowboys, I threw on Amusement, which I'd never seen before but see the DVD around everywhere. It sucked. The narrative is so paper thin and barely slopped together that I thought it was an anthology film with the stories having nothing at all in common. Eventually it becomes clear that isn't the case. It didn't take that long to figure out the movie was awful.

And then the movie watching ended terribly. I bought Witchouse and Witchouse 2 on DVD the other day for $4 each... I'd previously seen Witchouse several years ago and thought it was terrible back then. Why in the blue hell I thought it was a good idea to actually spend money on it and give it another shot (let alone the sequel) is beyond me. I have no idea what I was thinking because Witchouse is a piss fucking poor ripoff of Night Of The Demons. It has none of 80s fun - gore, nudity, lipstick tubes and has all of the worst things that Full Moon can offer. It was a painful 70 minutes. Painful enough that I'm not wasting my team on the sequel.

Today's Rundown
Cabin Fever - 7/10
The Taint - 7/10
Amusement - 3.5/10
Witchouse - 2/10