Monthly Archives: September 2016

Contamination (1980) Review

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One from the re watch pile…
Contamination (1980)

Arrow Video’s Contamination Bluray


Film: Italian horror is totally my jam. Even though Re-animator is my favourite horror film, I can’t resist a good… or a bad Italian horror, fantasy or scifi film. They are sometimes nonsensical, sometimes brilliant, but always totally entertaining.

This film was written and directed by Luigi Cozzi, also known for Starcrash and one of my favourite films The Killer Must Kill Again, but here under the alias ‘Lewis Coates’. It has a super score by my favourite band Goblin, and really feels of it’s time, especially if you are an Italian horror film regular.

Contamination: Louise Marleau as Col. Stella Holmes


A freighter arrives in New York with a dead crew and a cargo of boxes of coffee from South America which actually contain some kind of egg which explodes if under any kind of heat, infecting those who are exposed to its bacteria, which then causes them to explode.

An investigation is started, headed by Colonel Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau) along with the survivor of the first egg encounter, police lieutenant Tony Aris (Marino Masé). They experiment on a few of the eggs and come to the conclusion that they are not of this earth, and perhaps the only person who could help them is the only surviving member of a Mars mission, returned astronaut named Commander Ian Hubbard (Ian McCulloch). 

Contamination: Ian McCulloch as Cmdr. Ian Hubbard


Very soon the three are on the trail of the eggs on Earth which leads them to South America, and the secret as to how these eggs made their way here…
Cozzi’s love of science fiction is well on display here, and the heavy inclusion of 70s/ 80s Italian gore makes it a keeper. This film isn’t too disassociated from American 50s scifi as at its core, it’s actually kind of wholesome, with its military trying to end a world-threatening event plot. It’s just the exploding chests and copious amounts of blood, landed it in the list of video nasties in the 80s in the UK, which is where it’s notoriety comes from.

Contamination: eggs… so many eggs!


That finite excuse for that notoriety though may have come from Cozzi’s use of Peckingpah-esque slo-mo for every single chest explosion!!

For years people have said it’s an Alien rip off, and even though Cozzi claims to have been inspired by it, I think it’s unfair to make the comparison. Yes there are eggs, and yes, there are exploding chests, but just because these two elements feature in it to me don’t make it slightly comparable.
Contamination is heaps of sci-fi fun with a dash of 80s gore, and it’s a fit that sits well!
Score: ****

Arrow Video’s Bluray menu screen


Format: The edition of Contamination reviewed in the U.K., region A and B Bluray released by Arrow Video. The film runs for approximately 95 minutes and is presented in a nicely cleaned up 1.85:1 images with a choice of and Italian or English mono soundtrack. It’s not the sharpest image you’ll ever see, and there is the very occasional speck onscreen, but they are minor quibbles for a film of it’s vintage.

Score: ****

Extras: As ever, Arrow have the goods with this release!

Luigi Cozzi on Contamination is an older… sorry, I mean ‘archive’ interview with the director of the film, where he discusses the origins of the film and the process to make it. Cozzi narrates the whole thing, and gives us a look as some behind the scenes footage as well.

Contamination Q&A is an session of questions proposed to Cozzi and McCulloch, hosted by Arrow’s Ewan Cant. It’s an entertaining and amusing discussion for sure.

Sound of the Cyclops is a talk with Goblin keyboardist Maurizio Guarini which for me, as a Goblin fan, was really interesting.

Luigi Cozzi vs. Lewis Coates is a career retrospective interview with Cozzi.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery delves into the ‘Italian Copy’ films that aimed to emulate the success of films like Jaws, The Warriors and Dawn of the Dead, amongst others.

We also have a trailer and black and white graphic novel based on the film, which has some pretty cool indie styled artwork. I don’t get why you’d make a comic an extra on an actual disc, as I’d much prefer an ACTUAL comic included in the packaging like Arrow’s release of Demons.

Also, there is a commentary by Fangoria’s Chris Alexander which is a fan commentary, but Alexander knows his stuff!

Hidden within the disc, one will also find really cool alternate covers for the cover, one with original art and the other with cool new art by Ghoulish Gary Pullin (whose amazing artwork can be found HERE!)  and there is also a fully illustrated booklet with a piece by the aforementioned Mr. Alexander, and details of the restoration.

Score: *****

Contamination: Marino Masé as Lt. Tony Aris


WISIA: Heaps of gore and heaps of corn, you better believe I’m coming back for more!

Warcraft (2016) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
Warcraft: The Beginning (2016)

 

The Australian Bluray cover to Warcraft.

Film: Unfortunately for video game to film adaptations, there have been several cinematic crimes committed over the years that have scarred the eyes of all who watched them: Super Mario Bros., Far Cry, Alone in the Dark, Doom, House of the Dead and Double Dragon. I do have to own up and claim that some of the ‘guilty pleasures’ in my regular spin list, even though they aren’t the greatest movies, are video game based: DOA and Pixels (sure not a ‘proper’ video game film, but there are enough 8 bit legends in that film for me to count it).

People seem to forget about the actual hits though: the first Tomb Raider was good enough to spawn a sequel, Resident Evil is a multi-sequeled series of various quality, but generally enjoyable, the Silent Hill films have ticked several boxes and I liked the Hitman films as well.

Warcraft (which has had the subtitle “The Beginning” attached to it here and there) is based on the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) World of Warcraft, the sensation from entertainment company Blizzard who also gave us Starcraft, Overwatch, and Warcraft associated games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, and none of that is to mention my favourite game from them, Diablo (and it’s sequels).

You have to give the filmmakers credit for attempting this film. Not only do they have millions of World of Warcraft fans to keep happy, but a big budget fantasy film in a post-Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit genre would be a difficult sell to, well ‘normal’ people.
Perhaps in the hands of director Duncan Jones, who previously gave us Moon and Source Code, it could be successful. Jones co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Leavitt, who also wrote Seventh Son, another not entirely bad fantasy film, but different enough from the Hobbit films for it not to be associated, which brings us to the problem this film faced.

Ben Schnetzer as Khadgar

In a world where those aforementioned ‘normal’ folk have become fantasy fans (pfft: ‘muggles’) it’s difficult to sell the tropes of the fantasy genre without seeming to be merely emulating it, even though those of us who have played Dungeons and Dragons or Warhammer, or read associated fiction, have been familiar with ‘orcs’ and other fantasy beasts for our entire fandom, and we are accustomed to them being borrowed from Tolkien’s tomes and other traditional mythologies.

This film does however break the bonds of the traditional fantasy film, and tells a different tale than the ‘a band of brothers of different races overcome their prejudices to fight a common evil’, which is the plot line of SO many fantasy films. Warcraft instead tells the story of two sides of war: of the trials the humans have to endure when an invading force enters their realm, and also that of an army under control of a corrupted leader who don’t all necessarily agree with his motives.

Seeing a fantasy film… or any film that deals with war, fantasy or otherwise, that shows that even in the enemy’s camp there may be dissent is an interesting concept to me, as you perhaps stop and think about the deaths of the bad guys. Though not like in Austin Powers, where it is dealt with in a comedic manner.

I have not played World of Warcraft, but I am a Hearthstone player so I am aware of some of the races and images and even with my limited knowledge it was pretty cool to see some of the beasts and locations that appear in the game pop up here and there (I have to admit to be delighted by the image and sound of a Murloc popping up!)

Haters of CGI are definitely not going to like this film, as there is an astonishing amount of CGI characters and environments, and seeing as how they are keeping to that video game aesthetic, it does all look very artificial. This is no doubt to not alienate those who love the game as they are the people you don’t want to aggravate. I don’t think it’s detrimental to the film at all as the orcs, locations and beasts in general look great. Bare in mind that occasionally the film has little ‘real’ elements in it and it could be best described as an animated feature!

The acting is fine and the direction and fight choreography is exciting, and the production design is certainly on a grand scale. My favourite actor choice though is that of Ben Foster as Medivh. I’ve liked him since I saw him in the teen flick Get Over It and he is quite the intense human being when playing these sort of roles.

Toby Kebbell as Durotan

All in all I enjoyed this film for a couple of reasons. The first is the fact that it is a first, and doesn’t have the plot weight that continuing series’s of films have. This could be just because it’s the first, but I suspect that after the six Tolkien films (which I am still angry at for dumping Tom Bombadil and Goldberry in The Two Towers, but had no problems adding a whole pile of extra crap to three Hobbit films) it might just be a relief to see something free of the shackles of continuing plots. The second reason is it’s just damned fun: just fun with orcs and dwarves and elves and traitors and kings and magic and wizards and giant animals and all that good fantasy stuff.

In my research of this film, to the casual observer and not the obsessive fan, they have certainly been quite faithful to the game with some of the characters and kingdoms appearing, though some of the motives for decisions made may not be entirely fleshed out in the film, but I imagine it is hard to adapt such an open plotted, character driven game in a story driven environment. They managed to do this without that weight I mentioned feeling at all present, but this is due to the fact we are at the origin of the war between orcs and humans. That’s not to say that there perhaps aren’t unresolved plot lines, but we are at the beginning of these plots, rather than halfway through.

I mean it’s not gonna change your life, and the comparisons it receives both to Peter Jackson’s films, and to the Dungeons and Dragons movie from 2000 are certainly unfair for different reasons, but it certainly is a hoot.

Score: ***1/2

Warcraft bluray menu screen

Format: Warcraft was reviewed on the Australian, JB Hifi exclusive release (with extra extras which will be discussed in ‘Extras’) and runs for approximately 122 minutes. It is presented in an immaculate 2.40:1 image with an outstanding Dolby Atmos soundtrack. I must point out that the colours of this film have been amped up for what I guess would be to firstly give it its own identity in a world where the natural-looking Lord of the Rings series exists, and also to have a slightly artificial look to connect it to the video game.

There is also a 3D edition of this film available, as well as a UHD 4K one, for those who have those home cinema capabilities available to them.

Score: *****

Extras: The disc opens with a trailers for Jason Bourne, and one for the Harry Potter-land thing at Universal Studios before we get to the guts of the disc.

Disc one has a bunch of extras:

11 deleted and extended scenes which are interesting, but as one would expect, not necessary.

Gag reel: I love me a good gag reel, and this provided several smiles and a giggle, but no guffaws.

The World of Warcraft on Film is divided into 6 mini features, including Origin Story, The World of Talent, The World of VFX, Outfitting a World, The World of Mo-cap and The World of Stunts. These features explore all the aspects of making the film, as can be seen by the titles, are are each interesting in different ways, though I think they could have been merged together into one single interesting feature.

Travis Fimmel as  Anduin and Paula Patton as Garona

The Fandom of Warcraft is a cool look at the fans of Warcraft, though it may appear to be a little disturbing for non-fandom folk. From the gaming to the cosplay, the fans are pretty hardcore, and awesome! I totally get people who meet friends from gaming as I made really good friends both from Warhammer and Call of Duty, all of whom are still friends today.

Warcraft: Bonds of Brotherhood Motion Comic is one of those special features I’m not really a fan of. I’d rather buy a comic or see a proper animated feature rather than something half animated with a voiceover. That’s not to say it’s a bad story, but I just don’t like this sort of extra.

Warcraft: The Madam Tussauds Experience explores the beautiful waxwork characters Tussauds have created for the Warcraft display.

ILM: Behind the Magic of Warcraft shows the CGI breakdowns of some of the VFX in the film.

Warcraft Teaser is, as you would expect by the name, the sneak peak trailer for the movie.

The second disc is a JB Hifi exclusive in Australia and is a DVD with even MORE extras on it, including Welcome to Warcraft, which explains the origins of the Blizzard game, The Weaponised Magic of Warcraft looks at the physical performance of magic used in the film and The World Within Warcraft explored the locations within the film.

The consistent theme throughout all the extras seems to be the efforts taken to accurately represent the Warcraft game and lore accurately. I reckon that is a pretty cool aspect to take when basing a film on an existing product.

Also, the packaging contains a digital copy of the film, and some bonuses from Blizzard for the games World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone.

Score: *****

WISIA: I don’t think it will be on high rotation, but I doubt if it will gather a year’s worth of dust.

 

 

R. I. P. Herschell Gordon Lewis

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It’s one of those days when you know as soon as you wake up that the rest of the day is going to suck.
The first thing on all of my various news feeds today was that of the passing of filmmaker, Herschell Gordon (H. G.) Lewis, aged 87.

H. G. Lewis


H.G. Lewis started in cinema producing exploitation and nudie cuties, like Goldilocks and the Three Bares and The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, soon turning to horror, making violent and bloody films like Blood Feast and The Wizard of Gore; films which earned him the title of The Godfather of Gore.
His first film career went from 1961 to1972, after which he started a new career in advertising in which he wrote many books on the subject.

In 2002 he returned to filmmaking with Blood Feast 2: All You Can Eat and worked in and around the production of films until his death.

My first exposure to Lewis was with novelisations of 2,000 Maniacs and Blood Feast, but I didn’t actually get to see any of his films until the early 2000s when I first picked up DVD releases from Something Weird Video and I was immediately hooked. His films have an odd innocence that films of the 60s feel like they have mixed with a touch of nudity and a bucket of blood and guts.
Something Weird Video also have an excellent documentary about him that I can’t recommend enough. This, and his other films are available here!

H. G. Lewis documentary


R. I. P. Mr. Lewis, thanks for making us gorehounds!

The Diabolical (2015) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
The Diabolical (2015)

The Australian Blu-ray cover of The Diabolical


Film: I love it when a movie surprises me with a plot twist or a change of direction. I don’t necessarily mean a last ten minute jaw-dropper like in an M. Night Shymalan film, but instead a gear shift part way through. The perfect example of this would be something like From Dusk Til Dawn. At first, your enjoying a total Quentin Tarantino-styled American gangster flick, and then, the clutch is pumped and the gear stick flicked into reverse and it becomes a total Robert Rodriguez Mexicano vampire film.

The Diabolical does this, but not to the extent that QT and RR’s film did. Instead, it takes elements touched on in, believe it or not, Lucio Fulci’s House By The Cemetery, and expands upon them by throwing tropes of another genre that don’t always belong in a story about the supernatural. A warning on the contents of this film could also have the disclaimer ‘may contain traces of The Butterfly Effect’.

The film is slick and well made by first time director Alistair Legrand who co-wrote this film with another first-timer Luke Harvis.

Ali Later as Madison from The Diabolical


Single mum Madison (Ali Larter) has a few problems. Not only is the eldest of her two kids, Jacob (Mx Rose) been acting violently to other kids since the death of his father, but the house they live in (with youngest child, Haley played by Chloe Perrin) is haunted by not one, and not two, but three different spectres. In addition, she may also get kicked out of her home due to unpaid bills, though salvation in this case may be coming in the form of an offer from creepy CamSet employee Austin (Patrick Fischler).

Madison has exhausted all the local priests and paranormal investigators for help with her ghost problem, but when her physicist boyfriend, Nikolai (Arjun Gupta), finds out about it, he decides to assist her in her investigation but during the course of their research, she finds out that maybe HE is a part of her problem… and maybe Austin is more involved than he seems…

What’s great about the script to this film that upon rewatching, the ‘twist’ is hinted to on several occasions, which makes the depth of the script all that more enjoyable, and doesn’t just feel like the pancake flip that From Dusk Til Dawn was.

Amonster from The Diabolical


If I am to criticise this film on anything, it’s two minor things. One, the title The Diabolical really has no reference point in this film as nothing devilish is going on at all. The other problem is the ending is a little bit soft, especially considering how strong the rest of the film is.

That aside, it’s a great film with some great performances that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Score: ****

The Diabolical Bluray title screen


Format: This Australian, region B blu-ray release of this film is in a 1.78:1 presentation, which for the most part is really sharp, but occasionally loses focus around the edge, which is quite strange. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, though, is perfect.

Score: ***1/2

Extras: The disc starts with trailers for Bus 657 and The Drownsman but the only other extras are images of the covers for the films Dark House, Pay the Ghost and Into The Grizzly Maze.

Shame, as the film was clever enough to warrant even a small making of, if just for the twist and the make up effects.

Score: *

WISIA: It’s an entertaining film and has one of my favourites Ali Larter in it so it’ll get looked at again.

Patrick Fischler in The Diabolocal

Rob Zombie’s 31…. on the SPOOKIEST day of the year!

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Rob Zombie’s 31
So you are keen to see Rob’s latest film 31, right? Of course you are! Who doesn’t want to see the latest film from the guys who gave us the awesome House of 1000 Corpses and The Lords of Salem?

Well,  Monster Pictures in Australia have some great news for us! We are going to get to see this film in cinema on the 31st October!

Why is that date so special?

C’mon kids, it’s HALLOWEEN!!!

This is what the official word is from Monster Pictures themselves:

“Rob Zombie, the genius creator of HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, DEVILS REJECTS and the HALLOWEEN reboots, returns to his grindhouse roots with a warts and all gore-fest that will have Halloween audiences across Australia praying for the salvation of their damned souls!

Set on Halloween morning in 1976, the movie tells the tale of five carnival workers who are kidnapped and forced to partake in a blood-crazed game called 31. The mission is to survive 12 hours against a gang of homicidal maniacs dressed as circus clowns – throw in a Nazi midget, murderous hillbillies, buckets of crimson gore and you have a Halloween spectacular from the deepest, nastiest recesses of the Rob Zombie’s depraved imagination!

Monster Pictures will release the film with a series of special event screenings around the country on October 31st ‘Halloween night’ at selected venues in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth with more cities to be announced. These screenings will feature exclusive prerecorded intro’s and Q&A’s from cast and crew including the man himself, Rob Zombie.

Featuring a carnivalesque cornucopia of cult icons such as Malcolm McDowell (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), EG Daily (VALLEY GIRL), Daniel Roebuck (RIVER’S EDGE), Ginger Lynn Allen (DEEP INSIDE GINGER LYNN) and Tracy Walter (REPO MAN) alongside Zombie regulars Sheri Moon Zombie, Meg Foster, Richard Brake, Judy Geeson and Jeff Daniel Phillips.”

You had me at Nazi Midget!

The locations for this event are as follows, again, from Monster Pictures:

Brisbane: New Farm Cinemas October 31st 9.00pm

Canberra: Canberra International Film Festival Cinemas October 31st 8.20pm 

Melbourne: Lido Cinemas Hawthorne October 31st 9pm

Melbourne: Classic Cinema Elsternwick October 31st 9pm

Melbourne: Cameo Cinemas Belgrave October 31st 9pm

Perth: Luna Palace Cinemas Leederville October 31st 9pm

Sydney: Dendy Newtown Cinemas October 31st 9pm

For ticketing requests along with any information regarding the screenings, please contact: info@monsterpictures.com.au.

Need more info, why not try the Monster Pictures website, and also, don’t forget to check out Monsterfest as well!

What are you waiting for? Get on it!

Top Sensation (1969) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
Top Sensation aka The Seducers (1969)


Film: Shameless Screen Entertainment have to be given credit for releasing some movies that most companies would never even give a sly sideways look at. This film, aka The Seducers is probably one of those films… I can’t really see Disney or Sony whipping this out amongst their cheery chick flicks, sad message-filled animated tear-jerkers and rom coms!

This film was written and directed by Ottavio Alessi, who gave us the films Emanuelle in America and Emmanuelle in Bangkok, which should be a fairly big clue as to what to expect with this film. It was co-written by Nelda Minucci, whom has no other cinematic credits and Lorenzo Riciardi, who did a few bits and pieces but is really only known for directing 1961’s Venera Creola.

Ok, so buckle up for this story!


Mudy (Maud Belleroche) wants her clearly brain damaged son, Tony (Ruggero Miti) to lose his virginity, so she invites her friends of loose morals, married couple Aldo (Maurizio Bonuglia)and Paola (Rosalba Neri) and whore Ulla (Edwige Fenech) on a sailing boat trip to help him with his ‘problem’.

Unfortunately, their boat gets stuck on a sandbar and they attempt to get help from the goat farmers on the island close by, engaging in various disturbing sexual adventures here and there, but Tony is quite taken by the farmer’s wife Beba (Eva Thulin) and when Aldo spots this he starts machinations to get her to pop his cherry, which include kidnap.

This of course leads to further crimes on their cruise of doom….


This is when of those times that even though a film may not be very good, at least someone has gone to the trouble of restoring it to their best efforts. I would rather see a film, no matter how bad, than think it may have been lost forever.

To that point, having a film with both Edwige Fenech and Rosalba Neri restored isn’t a bad thing in the slightest.

*sigh* Edwige….

This would definitely make a disturbed double feature with Nico Mastorakis’ Island of Death, though that film is far superior… Yeah, that’s right: I’m saying that Island of Death is BETTER than something else! Over and above any issues with the actual restoration, the problem with this film is the film itself. Sure there is some great footage of Fenech, Neri and Thulin ever so slightly in states of undress, and even some of the scenery is beautiful, but the story isn’t compelling, the ending is flat and some of the acting is overblown and annoying.

The real difficult thing for me is I really like to see cruel people punished at the end of films, and there doesn’t seem to be any come uppence in this film, which would be OK if it attempted to be a dark, disturbed film, but it doesn’t come across as that either, possibly due to the performances being almost pantomime, but also due to the summery, holiday environment.

Basically, one shouldn’t attempt to sell a film on the basis that one of the female characters gets cunnalingus from a goat.

Score: **


Format: It’s difficult to judge this film too harshly on its quality as it is a rebuild of a film from 1969 that Shameless had done of the total film from a variety of sources, but I have to report honestly. This release goes for 91 minutes and the visuals, presented in 1.33:1 is covered in various artefacts and hairs and isn’t very sharp! The sound comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 and switches with no warning from English to Italian (with English subtitles) throughout. I guess you don’t want a warning, as that may make the film a bit stuttered, and you do eventually get used to it, to the point you don’t even really notice it at all!

Score: **

Extras: The disc opens with trailers for future Shameless release The Sect, and current releases of The Sister of Ursula and Formula for a Murder, before hitting the menu screen.

Of Goats and Boats is a subtitled feature lincensed by Shameless from Cinema Obscura and is a series of interviews with Rosalba Neri and Salvatore Puntillo. Interesting for us and nostalgic for them, I think.

The alternate ending was just stupid, and really, not entirely different.

Whilst I am normally a detractor of stills galleries, this one was OK as it wasn’t just freeze frames from the movie but instead was a selection of promo material for the film, done as a slide show over a portion of the soundtrack.

There is also a trailer park, featuring trailers of The Bronx Warriors Trilogy, Love Goddess of the Cannibals, Satan’s Baby Doll, Beat in Space, New York Ripper, Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh, Cannibal Holocaust, Almost Human, Don’t Torture a Duckling, House on the Edge of the Park, Foir Flies on Grey Velvet, Dellamorte Dellamore, Amsterdamned, The Nurse, Viva, Formula for a Murder, 10th Victim, Contraband, Washing Machine and The Sister of Ursula.

I have to also point out I am a sucker for a reversible sleeve, and this has one as seen above, and another that’s pretty average, but it’s the thought that counts.

Score: ***1/2

WISIA: I don’t want to seem harsh, but I can’t imagine ever needing to ever watch this film ever again for any reason whatsoever.

Bloody Birthday (1981) Review

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One from the to watch pile…
Bloody Birthday (1981)


Film: Ain’t no slasher like an 80s slasher!

88 Films have risen so quickly in the go-to UK DVD and bluray collectors scope that they now rival Arrow Films, and the quirky Shameless Screen Entertainment. I admit the only one of these companies that I have bought all the films available is Shameless, but my collectors reflex has been in full flight with the numbered yellow covers.

Whilst I watched many slasher films in the 80s on VHS, I have no recollection of ever seeing this title, even on the shelves! We certainly didn’t have it in the video shop I worked in, and I don’t recall seeing it at any of the other local shops near my house.

This film was directed by Ed Hunt, who also directed Diary of a Sinner and Plague, amongst others and he co-wrote the film with Barry Pearson, who wrote Paperback Hero, and worked with Hunt on several other projects.


This film is about the tenth birthday of three children, Timmy (K.C Martel), Debbie (Elizabeth Hoy) and Curtis (Billy Jayne) who were born during a solar eclipse which, according to astrology, means they are missing ‘something’ in there personality.

What that thing is, is remorse, as over the course of several days, the three start a serial killing rampage, targeting anyone who has wronged them and these victims include teachers, babysitters…. even family members, but can they be stopped, or will their little group fall apart as kids start to blame each other for the murders…


Its a fun movie, for sure. It’s not very bloody and at times feels like it was almost made for television, except for the collection of boobs on show would never have been allowed on TV in the early 80s! The performances range from decent to terrible, and I should point out that both Susan Strasberg and José Ferrer make cameos. The final girl, played by Lori Lethin, is a delight too: a real ‘sunny’ personality.

Score: ***


Format: This review was done with the U.K., region B bluray release of the film, which runs for 85 minutes. The film was presented in an average but clear and artefact free 1.78:1 video with a decent mono audio.

Score: ***1/2

Extras: The first thing I have to say is I like how 88 Films have given us a black bluray cover and a reversible sleeve; one side with original artwork and the other with an unimpressive, updated one. I always dig these kind of physical bonuses!

There’s a couple of OK extras on this disc:

Don’t Eat the Cake: an Interview with Lori Lethin is just that, an interview with the actress who played Joyce which is charming.

A Brief History of Slasher Movies featurette is a short look at the slasher film, but it’s really just an interview with Adam Rockoff, author of the book Going to Pieces: The Rise & Fall of the Slasher Film.

There are also several trailers for Bloody Birthday, Bloodsucking Freaks, Tourist Trap and Two Moon Junction.

There is also a informative commentary by the author of Teenage Wasteland, Justin Kerswell with Calum Waddell.

Hidden in the audio section is also an audio only interview with the director, Ed Hunt which is also played over the film as a director’s commentary.

Score: ***


WISIA: 80s slashers are my jam, of course I’ll give it another spin.