Night of the Living Dead Criterion Collection Blu Ray Showcase

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 31 Escape the Undertaker

 

TITLE-Escape the Undertaker

SOURCE-Netflix

A few years back Netflix introduced interactive movies and episodes of tv shows to their streaming service. The best one ended up being the interactive episode of Black Mirror. I heard that WWE Studios was working with Netflix on something. Then 5 weeks ago learned it was a interactive movie. Figured what the hell give it a watch.

The 3 members of the New Day Stable(Big E,Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston) are trying to get inside of Undertaker's home. To get the urn of power. While Taker for the first half sits at a table typing out commands on a keyboard looking like a version of Jigsaw that grew up in rural Texas.

Nothing super scary. Some ok creepy moments. There was some neat ways they used old match footage and made it work in this movie.

And then there is the interactive part. Mostly it has you choosing to follow a member of the New Day. Most of the choices that don't hinge around splitting up the members have an obvious choice that will end in death/end of movie. Pretty sure I got the best ending already after 3 playthrus. And it is decent. 

Hope there is more stuff like this with WWE and Netflix.

Escape the Undertaker gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 30 Eyes of Laura Mars

 

TITLE-Eyes of Laura Mars

SOURCE-Mill Creek Blu ray

So yea I've been hearing about this late 70s film for what feels like all my life. Never saw it airing on tv,never saw it for rent in the VHS days. Then I found the Blu Ray,brand new,for 3 bucks so took a chance and bought it.And like most movies I buy it sat on the shelf for close to a year before I watched it tonight.

Faye Dunaway is a fashion photographer in NYC. She keeps having spells where she is seeing murders through the killer's eyes. And ends up recreating these kills in her various photo shoots. Tommy Lee Jones,looking so much like he does now but with more hair,is the cop assigned to protect Faye,who is the Laura Mars of the title.

Brad Dourif is pretty good as the ex con driver that Laura has. And of course he is one of the many red herrings in the film. And there is Rene Auberjonois as Laura's assistant. The hair and the clothes he is wearing makes he look like my elderly Aunt Dean. Finally we got Raul Julia as Laura's (ex)husband. He has a tiny part and still stands out.

The story feels like an Americanized Giallo film. Looked and turns out the original script,titled Eyes,was written by John Carpenter. And this of course came out the same year as Carpenter's Halloween. David Zelag Goodman took the short script Carpenter wrote and made it into the film. ANd Irvin Kershner directed it.

The film looks nice,the blu ray appears to have been given a great transfer of the film. The sound is decent,and the only extra is a commentary I haven't listened to yet.

But even with this being one of hte earliest US giallo inspired movies...it is just slow as fuck. Almost 2 hours long and there are scenes and one really bad earworm disco song that go on for WAY TO FUCKING LONG!!!

The kills are kinda bloodless. Not graphic in anyway. And seen thru the killers smeary blurry vision. Really the main reason the film got an R rating is the nudity,lots of the photoshoots are fashion shoots with topless models,and some foul language. Maybe if say 20 minutes was cut I wouldn't have checked the timer to see how much more the film had at the 1 hour 30 minute mark. 

I like the cast of just odd stars. Appears someone bought this script to have Barbara Streisand as the lead. She thought hte film was too sleazy so Faye Dunaway ,fresh off Network,got the lead. Dourif and Rene do a lot with what could be throwaway roles. Raul Julia I wish had a bigger part in the film,but of course he is another of the many red herrings in this film.

So yea the killer. I will admit I didn;t figure out who it was until 2 minutes before the reveal near the end. But honestly by that time I was just ready for this to end. 

SPOILERS KILLER REVEALED

Yea Tommy Lee Jones the cop is the killer. He slips up in front of Faye. Tries to kill her then has his multiple personalities fighting for control. Shoots a mirror,forgot to mention Faye's bedroom has mirrors over most of the walls in this oddly oval shaped room. And while Tommy Lee is distracted looking at the bullet hole in the mirror Faye kills him. And thankfully this slow slow slow burn of a film is over.

SPOILERS OVER

Yea for 3 bucks I'm glad I saw it. Looks and sounds good. Just way slower than what I was in the mood for today.

Eyes of Laura Mars gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 29 It Chapter One

 

TITLE-It Chapter One

SOURCE-Blu Ray

When I heard IT was being remade,and gonna be a 2 part film,I was not that happy. That old made for tv mini series was great. Sure parts of the book were left out. And the ending wasn't great. But I didn't expect much from this remake.

So I didn't bother watching IT. Then last year I was in a country pawn shop. And the guy at the counter had let me know if I was buying in bulk he would cut me a deal on prices. Saw they had IT Chapter One on Blu Ray and it ended up costing me a buck. But the Blu Ray sat on the shelf for a long time,like over a year.

Then a few months ago I spent most of one day just uploading a pile of videos I had made to one of my now 4 Youtube channels. So while I waited on the videos to upload I put in the IT Chapter One Blu Ray.

WOW! I was surprised at how good this was. For me the first half of the TV mini series,which deals with the kids fighting It,was the best part of that mini series. But the group of child actors/actress they got for this film was amazing.

Now it's been close to 12 years since I read the novel. But from what I can remember this version follows the novel fairly close. Sure the old mini series couldn't do some stuff,cause of it being made for broadcast tv. And yes the one scene everybody talks about from the first half of the novel of course isn't in the movie,and if you have read the novel you know what scene I'm talking about.

I was majorly surprised at how good the actor playing Pennywise was. Even the people that hated the old mini series will talk about how amazing Tim Curry was in the role. So going into this I wasn't expecting Bill Skarsgard to even come close to how good Curry was. But Bill is almost as good and his version of Pennywise is always terrifying. Where as Curry was at time pretty funny. But not scary the entire time.

At first I wasn't happy with how they had updated the part with the kids from the 60s to the 80s. But I guess that makes sense with them wanting to set Chapter Two in the modern era. 

And yes I have heard that Chapter Two isn't that good. But I heard people saying that about the second half of the old mini series. And while the second half of it isn't as good as the first half,it isn't bad.

It Chapter One gets a A.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 28 Opera

 

Title-Opera aka Terror at the Opera

Source-Tubi streaming app

Somehow this gory and insanely entertaining Dario Argento film escaped my eyes until maybe 8 years ago. I heard about it often in horror mags. But just never saw a copy for rent or happened to catch it airing on TV.

A local playhouse is doing Macbeth. And a killer is taking the lead female,taping pins under her eyes and forcing her to watch him commit brutal murders.

That is pretty much the plot of this film.  But it is the lighting,music and camera work that make this stand out for the thousands of films that have a similar plot. The gore levels in this movie are pretty high. One scene we see a knife being stabbed into the jaw of a guy. And the stabbing victim opens his mouth to scream and there is the blade of the knife covered in piles of blood. 

Appears this movie never got a theatrical release in the States. Mostly having to do with Orion having the rights over here and they were having major money issues.  So most people first got a chance to see this from a VHS release. Of which there was two cuts. An R-rated cut made so the film could get into Blockbuster video. And a fully uncut version that went to other stores.

If you have already seen all the other praised Argento films,Opera is one worth tracking down.

Opera gets a B.

The Gate Of The Night Issue 4 Flipthru

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 27 The VelociPastor

 

TITLE-VelociPastor

SOURCE-Youtube

This low budget and insane horror/comedy came out in 2018. I heard about it back then and wanted to see it. But forgot about the film. Earlier this year I was making a list of films I wanted to review for 31 days of Horror. For some reason VelociPastor popped up in my head. I used the JustWatch site,a great search engine for streaming services,to see if it was on any of the streaming services I have. It wasn't. I mentioned to my lady how I wanted to see the movie and a few minutes later she sent me a link to it on Youtube.

From the first few minutes of this film we can tell what kind of film we are about to watch. The film opens with a car wreck but we dont see the wreck. Instead we see a sign saying something like INSERT WRECK FOOTAGE HERE! So yea we are gonna get a kinda meta horror/comedy.

Doug is our lead and he sees his parents die in the previously mentioned car wreck. Being depressed Doug travels to China on a spiritual journey. He finds a group of ninjas who have an artifact that they claim will turn people into the Dragon Warrior,no not the uber common NES game.

Doug gets infected by the artifact and this causes him to turn into the VelociPastor of the title.And the rest of the film is full of wackiness. With Doug going around fighting people as this dino ninja.

The budget is 35k. And I kinda doubt it was that high. All the FX work looks really cheap. With lots of the scenes with the VelociPastor looking like something I would see in a mid 90s Sega CD video game. But the acting and the really funny and fun script make up for the lack of budget.

This movie was a pretty decent hit on the festival scene. And a sequel is suppose to happen sometime soon.

If you enjoy low budget horror and dumb as a rock comedy this is a movie worth tracking down. Just know going into the film that you are watching a movie that costs less than the catering on any of the big blockbuster movies you have seen in the past 20 years.

The VelociPastor gets a A.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 26 Inferno

 

TITLE-Inferno

SOURCE-Airing on Starz

Usually once a week I will go thru the Dish Network guide and see what films are airing late at night on Starz,Encore and TMC. Sometimes I will find stuff I have been wanting to see for years so will set the DVR. It was back in early summer that I saw Starz was airing Dario Argento's second installment in the Three Mothers series of films. Then Inferno sat on the DVR for months before I took the time to watch it. Mostly cause there is only one TV in the house with the DVR and I get maybe 6 hours a week to watch stuff off that. Because that TV is in the living room and is usually being used by the others I share my house with.

Released in 1980 until the late 90s this was one of the harder to find Dario Argento films. It rarely aired on TV. It had a very limited theatrical release. And it's lone VHS release,on Key Video,was hard to find. 

Which made Inferno a film that I heard a bunch about for years. For years I would read about how this was a somewhat sequel to Suspiria. And how it had amazing visuals and sound work. Being a huge Argento fan,I had seen Suspiria and the US edited version of Creepers,I just had to see Inferno.

 It was at Coast Con in 1993 that I got my first chance to see the film. Like most cons back then there was a dealer with a table full of grey market/bootleg VHS. You know the guy that would have a table full of laserdisc rips on VHS. The guy that would sell ya a 10 generation dupe of the Star Wars Holiday Special for 30 bucks. Well this dealer was a guy who the year before I had bought a few tapes off of. I asked him if he had Inferno and got told not only did he have it but he had a letterboxed version that was uncut and from a Japanese Laserdisc. Back in those days Japanese Laserdisc rips were considered top of the line. I asked him how much,cause he never had prices on his tapes. Got told it was 35 bucks. Checked my wallet and I had 25 bucks in it. So I told him I would be back. Ran out to my car and drove super fast to the nearest branch of my bank and got money out of the ATM. Get back to the con and learn the dealer had sold the tape while I was gone. He offered "well tell ya what kid how about you give me the 35 bucks and your address and once I get home I will make ya a copy and mail it to you." I didn't do it. Mostly cause I was sure he would just take my money and not mail me the tape.

So it wasn't until Inferno got a region 1 DVD release that I got a chance to see it. The day that DVD came out I went to Best Buy on my lunch break and bought it. I think it was 35 bucks. And the next 4 hours at work felt like 12 hours. As soon as I got home I put the DVD in and watched Inferno. And felt let down. Maybe it was cause I had been hyping the movie up for close to 20 years in my head. Doesn't matter I was mad that this movie I had been wanting to see forever and one that I had been told by many people was great wasn't catching my attention.

Skip ahead to 2012 I was introducing my lady to Dario Argento. Before then all she had seen from Argento was his Phantom of the Opera film. After watching Suspiria she wanted to watch Inferno. I warned her that the film was disappointing. But she didn't care. We watched it and this time the movie worked for me. I loved the movie now. And as soon as we finished watching it I got her to drive me to a nearby movie store and bought a copy of Mother of Tears,which is the third film in the Three Mothers series.

A poet living in NYC buys a book from an rare book dealer. This book tells the story of the Three Mothers. One of whom we saw in Suspiria. And another,Mater Tenebrarum AKA the Mother of Darkness is living in NYC. And the poet is pretty sure she is living in the same building Mater Tenebrarum lives in.Following clues in the book the poet tries to find Mater Tenebrarum and sends a letter to her brother ,who lives in Rome where another of the mothers lives.

While not the most compelling plot in an Argento film,the visuals and sound in this movie are some of Argento's best. Plus the second unit stuff was directed by Mario Bava. Who is another great Italian director.

It wasn't until 2007 that Argento managed to get the third and final film in this series out. Mother of Tears is that film. And it is a film that either you love or you hate. I love it. But also understand why people would hate it.

If you like Argento's films and enjoy Italian horror cinema Inferno is a film you must see. And I'm glad that I didn't get to see it until DVD. Cause I bet seeing this on a shitty VHS dub would have hurt my enjoyment of the film. 

Inferno gets a B.

Song of Soloman Blu Ray Showcase

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 25 Killer High

 

TITLE-Killer High

SOURCE-Uncork'd DVD

So last year for Christmas my pretty much mother in law bought me a stack of DVDs she had found at a Dollar General near her home. She knows I'm a huge horror fan. And thought this movie is one of the DVDs she bought me.

Well the DVD got thrown into the unwatched DVD pile and sat there for months. Then earlier today I was looking for a horror film to watch. Saw this and figured hell I will take a chance on it. So went out to my pier and put the DVD into my laptop. 

Made in 2018 and from what I can find premiered in 2019 on the SYFY Channel this is a modern attempt at starting a slasher franchise. In a small town that is almost a ghost town a young lady is planning her 10 year high school reunion. After the hotel she was going to have the reunion at closes she has no choice but to host the reunion at the now abandoned high school. 

At this school someone is wearing the school's mascot outfit,the Wallingham Warthog,and going around the reunion killing people.  So now our lead,Sabrina Swanson played by Kacey Rohl,not only has to deal with all the issues of having a reunion at a building that is falling apart,but she also must deal with there being a killer on the loose.

This film treads a fine line between being a spoof and being serious. In that way it reminds me of films like Waxworks or Evil toons. For being a slasher film the gore levels are not that high. I'm betting when this airs on SYFY they don't have to edit out much.

So if you are a fan of slashers and aren't one of those slasher fans that takes the slasher genre super serious,you know the kind of fan  that seem to think that films like Madman or the Forest are legit good films,this is worth tracking down and seeing. As of right now Killer High isn't streaming on any of the major streaming services in the US. But I have seen the DVD for sale cheap in many Dollar General stores.

Killer High gets a C-.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 24 Trophy Heads

 

TITLE-Trophy Heads

SOURCE-Full Moon DVD

Now I have been into the films from Full Moon since I saw Puppet Master for rent at a video store 30 years ago. But over the last 10 years I kind of lost touch with Full Moon. So when in 2014 Full Moon did Trophy Heads as a tv show on their streaming service I didn't hear about it. 

It wasn't until sometime early this year that I learned the movie existed. CodyLL,who is better known to people that watch the Asshat Podcast youtube channel,was telling me about the movie. And once he mentioned Jaqueline Lovell was in the film I had to see it. Thankfully Cody isn't a Full Moon fan,so he offered to throw the Trophy Heads DVD into the next package he was going to mail me.The package came in and the DVDs in it got added to the ever growing DVD watch pile.

Back in the end of spring I had taken to sitting out on my pier after dinner. I would sit down there and watch DVDs on my laptop as I edited video footage. Usually I was watching DVDs of stuff I had never seen. And one of those evenings I watched Trophy Heads and LOVED IT!

A middle age horror fan,who lives in the basement of his mother's home,has started kidnapping the famous Scream Queens of the 80s thru 90s. He makes them stay in jail cells he has in his home. Then one by one the Scream Queens are made to act in recreations of some of their most famous scenes. Once the Scream Queens are dead our Incelish lead male mounts their heads on his wall.

Now I figured going into this that it's start as a original series for Full Moon's streaming service and the low budget would produce a boring unfunny unscary horror/comedy from Full Moon. One that barely runs 70 minutes and that is with 12 minutes of credits. Sure the origin of this as a series of short films is obvious when you watch the movie. And the low budget hurts some of the scenes. But every member of the cast is having a blast and this energy shines through.

Speaking of the cast,Charles Band got a great cast. Most of whom I'm pretty sure have worked on Full Moon films before. All the Scream Queens are playing slightly fictionalized versions of themselves.

Brinke Stevens,my favorite of the 80s/90s era Scream Queens,is supposedly a massage therapist. Ms Stevens has always been great at comedy and in Trophy Heads she gets some of the best lines and scenes. Pretty sure Brinke's film Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity was a Full Moon movie.

Up next on the Scream Queen front is Darcy DeMoss. I had to look her up and even then still only thing I knew her from was Friday the 13th Part 6. She plays Nikki in that classic. Appears this is her first Full Moon film.

The 3rd Scream Queen is the main reason I wanted to see this film,that is Jacqueline Lovell. I first saw Ms Lovell in Full Moon's Head of the Family. She was great in that and all the other B-movies I saw her in for about a 15 year period. Then she just disappeared. I had heard rumors of her getting married. And now that she was ashamed of her b-movie past,plus she wasn't happy about her stint in softcore porn as Sara St James. First off Jacqueline looks exactly the same as she did in the last film I saw her in 15 years ago. And I looked her up. Appears I was partially right. She did stop acting after she got married and had her first kid. But saw no proof that she was ashamed of the films she did in her past.

Ya can't have a Scream Queen reunion style film without Linnea Quigley. AFAIK Linnea has never been in a Full Moon film before. Sure early in her career she was in Fairy Tales. But that film was made 10 years at least before Full Moon existed. But it did have Charles Band as the director.  Shit I forgot Linnea  was in Sorority Babes in the SlimeBall Bowl-a-rama film.Linnea is great in this cause she is playing herself,but now she is a hardcore Christian. Who goes around knocking on doors and trying to convert people to the ways of Jesus.

Michelle Bauer completes the infamous trio of 80s Scream Queens,her and Brinke and Linnea were the best known of that era's Scream Queens. Michelle has always shown that she has a good sense of comedic timing. And is given the chance to really show that skill off in this film. As a Full Moon connection Ms Bauer was also in Sorority Babes in the SlimeBall Bowl-A-Rama with Linnea and Brinke Stevens.

And our final Scream Queen is Denice Duff. I didn't know who she was when I saw her. The name sounded a bit familiar but I had no clue what I knew her from. Looked her up and she was in Full Moon's SubSpecies series of films. I was never a big fan of that series of films from Full Moon. But Denice is decent in this movie.

Adam Roberts and Maria Olsen are both excellent as the horror fan and his mother. Olsen is so good as the Mom who is doing all she can to help her grown Man Child kidnap and then kill these Scream Queens.

Now sure if you didn't grow up watching all the films these Scream Queens were in I don't know how much appeal this movie will have for you. But if you were one of us that was renting stuff like Nightmare Sisters and Creepazoid from the video store Trophy Heads is worth seeing.

Trophy Heads gets  a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 23 Sorority Row

 

TITLE-Sorority Row

SOURCE-Summit Entertainment DVD

I remember hearing in 2008 that a remake of House on Sorority Row was being remade. Not being much of a fan of the original,and sadly how in 2009 when this remake was released the habit of horror films being cut to PG 13 for theatrical release,and getting an UNCUT/R Rated cut release on DVD,I skipped this movie. In the over 10 years since the film came out I rarely heard anyone ever say they saw it. I just assumed it was another of the many remakes that came out and was not worth even renting.

Skip ahead to last summer. One of the local pawn shops had an overstock of DVDs/Blu Rays. I walked in and the owner let me know that if I bought at least 20 dvds they were 2 for a buck. I dug thru the shelves and bins and found 17 DVDs I wanted. So started looking for 3 more to get to the magical number of 20. Saw Sorority Row and took a chance on it.

And like lots of films I buy the DVD got put into a box and forgotten about. Then I found the box a week ago. Was digging in it,mostly trying to find a dvd to watch while I sat out on my pier doing a bit of video editing work. Figured I would put the film on and halfway listen to it. So I was surprised when 10 minutes into the film I was hooked and gave it my full attention.

A sorority sister gets 5 of her fellow members to help her pull a prank on her boyfriend and one of the sister's brothers. They convince the guys that one of the sisters is dead. They load the "body" up into a van and are planning on driving out to the middle of nowhere and throw the body into a lake. 

When they get to the body of water someone mentions how they gotta get the last of the air out of the dead body's lungs so it won't float to the top of the lake.  So the brother grabs a tire iron and stabs the "dead body" thru the chest. Which of course actually kills her.  The sorority sisters and the two guys dispose of the body and swear to never talk about this.

A year later the sisters start to get odd texts. Yep this is another variant on I Know What You Did Last Summer. I saw this and was thinking that I was gonna not enjoy this film. But I was shocked cause the cast and the FX work kept my attention.

So the cast....of the 6 main females in the film I knew who 4 of them were. You had Greg Evigan;s daughter Briana as Cassidy. Rumer Willis as nerdy sorority sister Ellie.Jamie Chung as the airhead Clarie. And finally the one that it took me most of the film to realize why I thought she looked familiar. Margo Harshman plays Chugs. It is Chug's brother that kills the "Dead" sister. And Margo I knew from being one the main cast on the Disney Channel sitcom Even Stevens. Plus who can forget the late Carrie Fisher as the house mother. Carrie is great in this part and really appears to being having a blast in the role.

The kills are all pretty well done. The best being Chug's death. Where she has a bottle of wine shoved down her throat and chokes on the liquid. I was really surprised at how graphic and gory the deaths are. Sorority Row is a throwback to the 80s slashers. In that we get piles of gory deaths and a decent amount of nudity.

So if you haven't seen the movie and it is streaming/airing on a service you have. Or you find it on home media for 5 bucks or less,give Sorority Row a watch.

Sorority Row gets a C+

Fangoria Issue 175 Flipthru

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 22 Class of 1984

 

TITLE-Class of 1984

SOURCE-Airing on Joe Bob's Last Drive In

Yea you can argue this isn't horror. But if it counts as horror for Joe Bob Briggs that works for me.

Set in a high school,that in many ways reminds me of the school I went to for 9th grade,in 1984 this was one of the many high school from Hell films to come out between the mid 70s and late 80s.Written by Tom Holland the film ended up being a bigger hit than expected and ended up getting a sequel,Class of 1999.

When this came out the two biggest names in the cast were Perry King,on the left in the above picture. And Roddy McDowell,on the right. Perry plays the new music/band teacher at a run down graphitti covered high school. McDowell is a science teacher that has been there for years.

The film starts on Perry's first day. We are supposed to be shocked by scenes of the students smoking pot out in the open,having to go through a metal detector at the front door. And I'm sure back in 81 when this came out that was a bit shocking to lots of the people seeing the film. Sadly now it isn't nearly as shocking. 

McDowell,who carries a gun in his briefcase,tries to tell King that there is nothing they can do. But King wants to change the school. He gets introduced to the gang of street punks that run the school during his first band class of the day. 

In this class is a 15 year old looking Michael Fox,no J yet in his name. I looked and Fox was close to 20 if not a bit older when this was filmed. This was before he got the lead on Family Ties. 

The film is mostly King and McDowell,eventually,trying to get the street punk kids kicked out. But every time King thinks he has them caught the punks get out of trouble. Finally King and McDowell go so far that the street punks go and kidnap King's pregnant wife. 

Which leads to the last 3rd of the film. King is having the school band perform at a concert at the school at night. But before he can start the female member of the street punks delivers a Poloroid of the rest of the gang raping King's wife. King goes after them and we get him killing them in fairly violent ways all through out the school. The best kill is in the woodshop room. Where King uses a table saw to first cut the arm off one of the punks. Then since that isn't enough he shoves the punk down back first onto the running blade.

We end up on the room of the school. King vs the lead punk near a skylight. The punk had planned on hanging King's wife and throwing her through the skylight so that her body would drop down right above where the school band is playing. King of course prevents this and the lead street punk ends up being the one hung and tossed through the skylight.

Now before watching this all I knew Perry King for was Mandingo and the 80s detective show Riptide. He does a great job as our heroic lead. Roddy McDowell of course I've seen in piles of movies. And you believe him as the long time teacher who finally can't take the bullshit anymore. Michael Fox is decent as the band geek. 

Overall this was pretty damn good. I have seen bits of it before. But had never bothered seeing the entire film. So when Joe Bob was showing it as the second film of week 2 of season 3 of Joe Bob's Last Drive In on Shudder I watched it live. It is rare I watch Joe Bob live. 

Class of 1984 gets a B+

fantastic Monsters of the FIlms Gwandanaland TPB Flipthru

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 21 Dead Heat

 

TITLE-Dead Heat

SOURCE-Airing on Joe Bob's Last Drive In

I love how Joe Bob keeps showing films that I have seen but not thought about in years. Dead Heat came on in 1988,and got horrible press. Was called one of the worst films in years. Not sure why I didn't see this in a theater. Because back in 1988 I was going to see pretty much every horror and sci fi film that hit theaters.

Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo are cops and are heading to robbery at a jewel store. Bullets don't seem to effect the robbers. So Williams and Piscopo use a non-conventional way to stop them. Which of course gets them in trouble with their Chief.

A cornor friend of our leads,love that Williams is playing Roger Mortis,informs him that the robbers have autopsy scars. And she remembers performing the autopsy on them. She finds an odd chemical in the dead bodies,so our two cops goto the company that makes this chemical to see what is up. Treat ends up trapped in decompression room. Which the company uses to kill the animals they experiment on. Treat dies.

But Treat is brought back to life. And now him and Joe are trying to figure out how and why someone is using dead bodies to commit major crimes. But can they solve this case before Treat dies again? Seems the process used to bring Treat back also causes his organ to liquify over the course of a few days.

Dead Heat was made by New World Pictures. And appears to have a fairly high budget. But it only made a bit over 3.5 million at the box office. Oddly it found it's audience with home video and cable airings.

The comedy and horror in the film don't mix that well. Which sucks cause the premise is a great idea. But lots of Piscopo's one liners fall flat. Mostly cause they happen during scenes where we are suppose to be scared. Maybe if the gore factor was turned up a few notches this film would have worked better. Look at Peter Jackson's Dead/Alive. It has you laughing while at the same time grossed out.

Whoever did the FX work in this film did a great job. You got lots of puppets. A pile of well done practical effects. 

Dead Heat gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 20 Death Park parts 1 through 6

 

TITLE-Death Park parts 1,2,3,4,5,6

SOURCE-B-Movies TV On Demand 

Back in late 2017 I finally got a ROKU. And thanks to the great DVDVR forum I had learned about B-Movies TV. B-Movies TV is a free streaming service that is only available on ROKU devices. 24/7 it is airing movies,cartoons,tv shows and even some pro wrestling. But unlike most streaming services B-Movies TV has no video on demand. You just know that every 2 hours on the top of the hour a new film will start. And each day has a theme. So for months I would check every 2 hours to see what they were airing. And got to see some rare cult movies on there. Cause B-Movies TV specializes is cult and rare film. 

Skip ahead to summer of 2020 and I learn that there is now a second B-Movies TV streaming service. This second service is titled B-Movies TV on Demand. And is all video on demand stuff. I added it and was looking through what all they offered. Besides the normal public domain stuff that piles of free services offer was 6 short horror movies titled Death Park 1 through 6.

Death Park 1 was released back in 2018.It is only 7 minutes long. Set in a state park it is about a killer running around during the day time ,while wearing a rubber full head Donald Trump mask. And this killer was killing various people in this park in fairly gruesome ways.

Parts 1,2 and 3 are all fairly short. Usually being close to 7 minutes long.And mostly just have people in the park then the killer appears and kills them. Usually by stabbing them with something sharp. Then starting with part 4 we start getting longer entries with more plot.

Part 4 is almost 20 minutes long. In this part we see a graphic kill. Where a guy gets his penis chopped off. And DAMN it looks very realistic. Also in part 4 we learn that one of the park attendents lost his eye when attacked by the masked killer. This attack happened before the first Death Park short.

Part 5 was the last segment of this series that was filmed in 2019. It is almost 30 minutes long. You can tell that by this part the cast and crew got into the groove of low budget film making. So part 5 feels like a legit short film. 

As of right now Part 6,which was released in 2020,is the newest instalment of this series.It is close to 40 minutes long. And like part 5 it is a major improvment in the series. The kills look even better. The acting is much better and it is neat to see the cast and crew get better with each part of the series.

Now sure these are amazing films. But sometimes you are in the mood for something a bit cheesy and cheap. And Death Park 1 through 6 fits that perfectly. The way part 6 ends you can tell they hope to make another installment.

Looking on IMDB I see that Death Park:The End is filming right now in 2021 and is suppose to come out soon.

I just looked and all 6 parts are now on Youtube.So if you don't have a Roku you can watch them.

Playlist of Death Park 1 through 6 on Youtube

The Death Park series is made by Ken Brewer.

Ken wrote,produced and directed all six released Death Park short films and is doing the same for the upcoming Death Park:The End.

He also wrote,produced and directed the short film Slaycation. Which is also on Youtube.

It shows that Ken loves horror. And it is always fun to watch horror films made by people that love the genre.

Death Park 1 through 6 get a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 19 House by the Cemetery

 

TITLE-The House by the Cemetery

SOURCE-Joe Bob's Last Drive In airing on Shudder

Some how this Lucio Fulci classic escaped me. Never found the VHS for rent or for sale. Never saw the DVD for sale. And after a bit I just forgot about it.

Skip ahead to near the end of winter in 2004. My wallet was flush with cash from my recent income tax return. After stopping at a near by Mom&Pop electronics store,bought a 42 inch Samsung Plasma tv,I went across the street to the local mall. Figuring I would buy a few DVDs to watch on my new TV. At a FYE I saw they were having a big sale. Spend 40 bucks and get 2 free DVDs out of their clearance bin. After grabbing a few wrestling DVDs and a couple of comedies I was over the 40 buck threshold. Went to dig into the clearance bin and saw.

I knew that Horror Rises from the Tomb was a Paul Naschy film. And after seeing Fury of the Wolfman and Werewolf vs the Vampire Women I was interested in seeing more of his films. I had no clue what the other 3 films on this set was. Plus since it was 2 discs,flippers with one movie per side,FYE counted it as 2 DVDs. I thought Fuck it! It's a Paul Naschy film I had never seen so I picked it as my free DVDs.

After I got home and hooked up the new TV,this set got place on the ever growing "To Be Watched"pile. And there it sat for a few years. When I moved again in early 2007 we went a few days without cable. So that To Be Watched pile shrunk some. This is when I learned that Zombie Hell House was just a retitled version of Fulci's The House by the Cemetery. 

From what I can find online Zombie Hell House is a UK retitling of the film. I'm guessing Brentwood,who put out the Horror Rises from the Graves set,just assumed this edit of the film was Public domain and released it.

After watching House by the Cemetery I saw why it was loved and hated. You start off right with a nice kill

With a knife to the back of a lady's skull. I wasn't prepared for the next scene though. We got another place. And are introduced to Bob....

As soon as he appeared on the screen I realized two things. First I had seen this same actor before in Warriors of the Wasteland,a great Mad Max Italian ripoff with Fred Williamson and George Eastman. And secondly once Bob spoke  I saw why everybody I knew that saw this film talked about how bad the dubbing for Bob was. He sounds like a 40 year old woman trying to do a young male kid's voice. It is so bad that the actor that plays Bob has at conventions and in interviews apologized for the dubbing.

Bob and his family move into the house where we saw the woman get knife to the skull. And shit just gets weirder. For example a bat comes into the house and attacks them. The dad manages to kill it in a fairly bloody way.

It being a Fulci movie I expected gore. And I'm a bit use to Italian horror films not always making lots of sense. This film has piles of stuff that just doesn't fit or make sense. Like when the mother comes into a room,sees the nanny cleaning blood off the floor. And after being told the nanny had just made coffee the Mom never mentions the big blood stain!

From what I have read an early home video release of this film got a couple of the film reels out of order. So you would see people die,then later on they were back alive. Which I'm sure back in the day people just chalked up to Italian horror not always making sense.

This isn't top tier Fulci horror. But it isn't his worse. The best way to watch this is with a group. And never ever try to figure out what the fuck is going on. Treat it like a nightmare and allow the dream logic to just flow.

The House by the Cemetery gets a C+.

Spring Break Shark Attack DVD Showcase

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 18 Hack-O-Lantern

 

TITLE-Hack-O-Lantern

SOURCE-Joe Bob's Last Drive In on Shudder

For close to 15 years now I have heard about Hack-O-Lantern. But never wanted to pay what a VHS copy was selling for. Then the Blu ray came out and I missed out. Thankfully last year as part of his Halloween special Joe Bob Briggs showed it.

Made by an Indian director this was a money grab to get some of that sweet slasher bucks.By the time this came out in 88 the slasher fad was pretty much dead. And the film wasn't helped by it being really low budget and just odd as fuck.

A wacky grandpa is teaching his grandson the ways of Satanism. This grandson turns out to be a scummy piece of shit. Who goes around killing people while dressed up as a demon.

Speaking of the grandson. Dude has a great collection of horror movie posters in his basement. Plus added bonus his girlfriend is played by Adult Film Star Jenna Fine.

While watching the Joe Bob airing of this I learned why Jenna was hired. The director wanted women with no pubic hair. So hired a pornstar. That way they could do full frontal nudity and not worry  about having to mosaic out the hair when released in Japan.

And man is this film padded. We get two musical numbers from a band. Both times it feels like a music video was dropped into the film. Then at a Halloween Bacholer party we get a stand up comedian doing his stand up set outside. Joe Bob theorized this is because films in India are like a variety show. So the director put that aspect into the movie.

The acting is pretty bad. But the sets and FX work aren't too bad. But hey I finally got to see a film I've been wanting to see for years.

Hack-O-Lantern gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 17 Dawn of the Dead extended Mall Hours Cut

 

TITLE-Dawn of the Dead Extended Mall Hours Cut

SOURCE-Youtube

For years now I knew of this cut of Dawn of the Dead,but never saw it. Sure I had seen the US theatrical cut. Seen the Cannes cut and the Argento cut. But this super long cut,which uses all the footage from those 3 cuts plus stuff never seen,was one I could never track down. Well never track down and not have to pay 40 bucks. Sure I've seen a few SumGuys selling copies at cons. But I wasn't going pay 40 bucks for a dvd-r. And could never talk any of the "collectors" dvd dealers down to 20 bucks. Never thought to look for it on Youtube until the other day.

Of course this film is a sequel to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead.While we are never told it appears to happen a few weeks after the end of Night. Starting off in a news station,where we meet Flyboy and his girl. We see how society has started to collapse already. After this we are taken to a big ass apartment building. This is where we meet our other two leads. They are cops who are invading the building.

Eventually our four leads all meet up and take off in a helicopter. After a stop to get gas,and this scene is amazing,they end up landing on the roof of a shopping mall. The mall has everything they need so they make this into their new home.

The four clear all the zombies out of the mall. Use 18 wheelers to block all the entrances. And it seems like they are going to be OK. 

But a gang of roving bikers spots the mall and invades it. After this invasion of course the mall isn't safe anymore. And we are down to two of our leads,Flyboy got bit and became a zombie and one of the cops had got bit earlier. Our two living leads manage to make it up to the roof get in the helicopter and take off. Knowing they are low on fuel and having no idea what will happen next.

I had first seen Night of the Living Dead in about 1980,thanks to an airing one Halloween night. Not sure how but I had learned there was a sequel. It took me a few years to find a copy for rent at a local video store. Thanks to Fangoria magazine I knew there was at least 2 cuts. What I found to rent was the US theatrical cut. During the late 90s I managed to get the Cannes cut on VHS. A local K-mart was closing and had it for 5 bucks. The Argento cut I didn't get to see until I got that Anchor Bay DVD set that had all three cuts.

The quality of the Extended Mall Hours cut on Youtube is pretty good. It lists that it can be viewed in 1080p,I watched it in 720p. You can tell when it goes to footage that isn't from the US theatrical cut cause the picture quality drops a bit. But never is the picture or sound horrible.

For a long time this was my favorite of Romero's Living Dead series of films. But as I got older I started to enjoy Night even more. Dawn is a close second.

Now that I have seen every cut that is out there. I still prefer the Cannes cut. But this extended Mall Hours cut is pretty damn good. Just the film runs a bit long.

Dawn of the Dead Extended Mall Hours Cut gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 16 Santo Contra los Zombies

 

TITLE-Santo Contra Los Zombies AKA Santo Vs the Zombies

SOURCE-Bootleg DVD

Back in 90 or 91 I discovered the Santo films. I caught half of one on a Spanish channel I could sometimes get on the antenna and was hooked. So maybe 4 years ago as a birthday gift a friend gave me a DVD,turned out to be a DVD-r,of Santo vs the Zombies. Did a bit of research and learned this is the 3rd of the Santo films,but the first to get a release in the USA.

Santo was a wrestling legend in Mexico. In 1958 Santo got talked into making 2 films in Cuba. These were both huge hits so a long line of Santo films followed.

In Santo vs the Zombies a crime spree is happening. And the cops discover through fingerprints that one of the people in these crimes is someone who has been dead for years. So they call in Santo to solve the case.

Now one drawback to the DVD I have is there is no English dub or subtitles. My Spanish skills are shit. I took Spanish for 2 years in High School and did ok. But after high school was over didn't use them for years and forgot all I learned. The little Spanish I know I either picked up from watching CMLL and AAA Lucha Libre for years and the bit I learned the 10 years I lived in Texas. So when I watched the movie I was lost a few times. But these Santo films are not hard to follow even when you can't understand what is being said.

Santo vs the Zombies came out in 1961,so I predates NOTLD. Which means the zombies in this are the voodoo kind not the flesh/brain eating kind we are use to now. Still the movie has a few creepy moments. And I had fun watching it.

Santo vs the Zombies gets a C.

King Kong 76 Dvd Showcase

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 15 The Giant Claw

 

TITLE-The Giant Claw

SOURCE-Mill Creek DVD

Years ago when I was a kid I saw pictures of the monster in various horror reference books. 

Look at that thing!! It looks stupid as fuck. But since the movie only got one release on VHS I never got a chance to see it as a kid. And I know it aired a few times on AMC and TCM over the years. But I never saw it. Then it was October 2008. I was doing home healthcare. Basically I would show up at 8pm 4 nights week.Help this 80 something year old WWII vet take a shower and get ready for bed. Then we would look through the TV channels to find a movie to watch as he dozed off to sleep. It was I think Friday night. He wanted "Something scary to watch." I turned the TV to Turner Classic Movies and The Giant Claw was about to start. In the movie once they showed the creature Mr Perkins started laughing. "That is one messed up looking turkey." We watched the movie and were laughing so much and so loud his wife came down to tell us "Keep it down I'm trying to sleep."

That year for Xmas I found the DVD set that had The Giant Claw,plus 3 other films directed by Sam Katzman. The smile on Mr Perkins face when he opened the package and saw "That messed up looking turkey!" made my day.

The film is your standard mid 50s era creature feature. You get the military vs our creature.And of course atomic energy is used to defeat this horrific creature.

There is no one in the cast I know from any other film. But they all do a good job.Ben H.Kline does an amazing job as the cinematographer. I doubt the budget was high on this. But it looks like it had a pile of money behind it.

One neat bit of trivia is that no one in the film knew what the creature looked like until the film hit theaters.And reports are when the film premiered the crowd would burst into laughter every time the Giant Claw appeared. Which makes sense cause it is one odd goofy looking monster.

So if you want something goofy to watch. Plus something you can watch with kids or others who aren't fans of gory horror,The Giant Claw is perfect.

The Giant Claw gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 14 Horror Hotel

 

TITLE-Horror Hotel AKA The City of the Dead

SOURCE-Cinema Insomnia on OSI 74 Streaming App

Pretty much every year for the past 10 years I've tried to watch a horror hosted film for 31 Days of Horror. Over the years I have covered the bigger known ones like Elvira and Svengoolie. And the lesser known ones like Kreepy Koffee Movie Time or Count Gore De Vol. One of the better known ones I haven't covered is Mr. Lobo of Cinema Insomnia. Cinema Insomnia started back in late July 2001. And as far as I know is still going on. I hear that Cinema Insomnia airs on various tv stations all over the US. But I have only ever watched it on either Vimeo or the OSI 74 app.

Mr. Lobo starts each episode off promising us a fairly well known horror film.But something always happens were that film can't be shown so we get a lesser known film. For this episode Mr Lobo says he is going to show us Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem. But nope we end up with Horror Hotel Aka City of the Dead.

Horror Hotel is in the public domain here in the States. So shouldn't be hard to find online or on many of the various streaming apps that are loaded up with PD films,tv shows and cartoons. Made back in 1960 this film was made by British filmmakers but is set in the US. With Christopher Lee being the best known member of the cast.

The film starts back in the 1690s. Set in Massachusetts we see a witch being burned at the stake.Before she died this witch and her helper have sold their souls to Lucifer. This way they get eternal life and revenge on the town that killed them. All they have to do is sacrifice two virgins a year. On Candlemas Eve & Witches' Sabbath.

Skip ahead to present day,well present day as of when the film was released. A college prof tells one of his students to goto the town from the prologue. This student goes and ends up being the sacrifice on Candlemas Eve.

A couple of weeks later the student's fiancee and her brother head to the same town. They get there seperately. With Bill the fiancee almost dying in a car wreck. This was caused by him seeing the ghostly image of the witch from the start of the film.

Bill and the brother make it to the town. Find out that a coven lead by the witch have taken control of the town. We find out the prof ,played by Christopher Lee

,is part of this coven. And appears to have been providing the town with the needed virginal scarifices two times a year. Our two heroes manage to stop the coven and break the pact with Lucifer.

The above cover is one I remember seeing many times in video stores back in the 80s. Not sure why I never rented it. Might have been because it was b/w. Back when I was a kid and early teen I wasn't much into b/w horror films.

I had forgotten about this movie.Then earlier this week I was driving to town. Listening to one of the many Misfits CDs I keep in my car. Their song Horror Hotel came on and while singing along with it I thought "Man I really need to see that movie". Looked around online and it was easy to find. With copies being on Youtube,Internet Archive and pretty much every streaming app that has "Free Horror movies". Seeing that it is public domain I figured it would be easy to find a version with a horror host. And I've been wanting to watch more Cinema Insomnia with MR Lobo. Looked on the OSI 74 streaming app and they had the episode with Horror Hotel.

You can tell after watching this movie that Rob Zombie was inspired by this when he made Lords Of Salem. But then Lords of Salem was pretty much Rob taking his favorite parts of various Euro Horror films and making that into a damn good movie.

Horror Hotel is a pretty entertaining film. It might feel a bit slow to people use to modern horror. But it has great atomosphere. And Christopher Lee is great in this.So if you want to watch an older horror flick. And don't want to spend any money go track down a copy of Horror Hotel.

Horror Hotel gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 13 Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost

 

TITLE-Scooby Doo and The Curse of the 13th Ghost

SOURCE-Warner Brothers DVD

Back in the fall of 1985 one of the odder and most fun Scooby Doo series started. 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo ran from early September until early December the same year. With only 13 episodes it is also AFAIK  the shortest of the many Scooby Doo tv series.

In this series you had Scooby,Shaggy,Daphne and Scrappy teaming up with Flim-Flam and Vincent Van Ghoul. If you think Scrappy Doo is hated by Scooby fans go ask any of them about Flim-Flam. Flim-Flam was a kid conman that got added to the gang. Vincent on the other hand was great. Voiced by the great Vincent Price. 

The basic plot was Scooby and Shaggy had opened up the Chest of Demons. Which releases  the 13 most terrifying and powerful ghosts and demons ever to walk the face of the Earth.  This of course happens in the first episode. And you would think well there are 13 ghosts and 13 episodes,they catch one per episode. Nope! One ghost was never caught. The series got cancelled,being replaced by re-runs of Scooby Doo's Laff Alympics.

Pretty much now if people talk about this series they are gonna mention how it was the first Scooby series where the ghosts and demons were real and not just people in costumes. And this was the last tv show to use Scrappy.

As a kid back when this aired I missed a few episodes. Then in the mid to late 90s caught it one weekend on Cartoon Network saw all 13 episodes and thought "Well this series is forgotten they will never wrap it up."

Then in late 2018 I hear that early the next year a DTV Scooby movie is coming out. Titled Scooby Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost. Which after over 3 decades would resolve this dangling plotline. At the time I figured I would catch the film on Cartoon Network.

Skip ahead to back in the spring of 2021.I was looking at the dvds at a local store. Saw the above pictured set. Which contains all 13 episodes of the tv cartoon plus the follow up DTV movie. And with it being 7 bucks I grabbed it. One lazy weekend I re-watched the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo and had a blast. Then this DVD set got put in a box and I kind of forgot about it until a week ago.

After a prologue where we see Vincent and his assistant Mortifer capturing all 13 ghosts and sealing them in the Chest of Demons it skips ahead to present day. The Scooby Gang is solving a mystery in a local mall. And get told by one of the local cops that with them turning 18 soon they run the risk of being arrested for criminal negligence.

The gang decide to break up. They hold a garage sale. Selling off everything including the Mystery Machine. Then in a box someone finds the crystal ball Vincent used to communicate with Scooby,Shaggy and Daphne. There is no Scrappy in this film and the one time he gets mentioned Fred and Velma act as if they have no clue who Scrappy is. Which is a nice inside joke for the long time Scooby  fans.Vincent contacts the gang and now Daphne,Shaggy and Scoob must explain to Fred and Velma what happened one summer while Fred and Velma were gone. And how there are real ghosts.

The gang meets up with Vincent and we find out Shaggy sent the Chest of Demons to the Himalayas. So the Scoobs head that way. We find out the last Ghost/Demon they must catch is Asmodeus. Who is one of the creepier looking and acting villains I have seen in Scooby.

I love how Fred feels left out cause Daphne takes charge in this adventure. And how Velma keeps trying to prove that there is no ghosts,demons and magic. Flim-Flam shows back up. Grown up and running a Chest of Demons inspired gift shop.

Asmodeus attacks Vincent in a castle. And thanks to Velma's ever spying eye she figures out that Asmodeus is another human in a costume. So yea really the 13th ghost isn't caught. But we get a nice wrap up. And it is left up to the viewer to decide if the ghosts are real or not.

Most of these DTV Scooby animated films are ok at best. This one I fucking loved. Being a sequel to one of my favorite Scooby tv series. And all the little inside jokes and references they have in this film had me laughing and shaking my head through the entire film.

Now of course Vincent Price is dead. So Maurice LaMarche does the voice. He sounds enough like Price to work. All the voices worked in this. The animation is pretty good. With a few scenes with Daphne's Misstery Machine being CGI and not looking that great.

For the cheap price and including the entire 13 Ghosts series I'm happy with this purchase.

Scooby Doo and The Curse of the 13th Ghost gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 12 Return to Return to Nuke'm High AKA Volume 2

 

TITLE- Return to Return to Nuke'EM High AKA Volume 2

SOURCE-Troma Blu Ray

Back in 2013 Troma released the first part of what is the 4th film in the Nuke'Em High franchise.  I got it as soon as it hit Blu ray and figured in a year or at most 2 years and the second part would hit home video.

It was 6 years. In 2019 Volume 2 hit home video. And by then I had kind of forgot about the film. Then this year back in the end of March a buddy of mine suddenly passed. Blade Braxton was the name most people knew him by. He was a huge Troma fan. And had been one of the Cretins in Return to Nuke'Em High. After seeing the first part I contacted him and got told "Ya most of my scenes will be in the second part." He passed all of the sudden and after getting over the shock of him dying at a young age,he was 45 or 46,I thought damn I need to see Volume 2. Went and saw that Amazon was sold out. But found a copy at Troma's website.

This film picks up right were volume 1 ended.Lauren is in the shower and like in the movie Carrie blood starts to run down her legs. Seems Lauren is pregnant. She got raped by a duck in volume one. After spraying blood and slime all over the shower. Which causes damage to some of the other girls in the shower,Lauren gives birth to a human/duck hybrid. That looks like a chicken nugget mixed with a duck.

Now this is a Troma film so the plot doesn't always make the most sense. The film is mostly about Lauren and her girlfriend,Chrissy trying to stop an evil corp from poisoning the word. This corp is ran by Lloyd Kaufman.

While I did enjoy this movie it does feel like there was at most 40 minutes leftover after volume 1. So Lloyd used stuff that was filmed years before,like the scenes with Lemmy from Motorhead as the President of the USA,and of course the Sgt Kabukiman NYPD car flip stunt is reused. Then there is a pile of new stuff filmed with Lloyd on very limited sets.

This isn't a film that will convert someone into a Troma fan. But if you already are this is one of the wildest Troma films in a long time. You got piles of nudity,male and female. Piles of gore and offensive material.

As far as Blade. Now I've only watched this movie twice now. And spotted him in 2 scenes. One of them he is on camera for a decent amount. The other it is a pause to find him moment. 

This Blu Ray has two discs. And the second disc includes a documentary on the making of the 2 volumes of Return to Nuke'Em High. This documentary is titled 2 Girls 1 Duck. And it is great. Troma makes movies on a low budget. Lots of the time with a crew that is either not getting any pay or getting paid very little. In this documentary there is a great scene of Blade on set. And you can tell he is having a blast. 

So if you are a Troma fan you should go out and get both volumes. If you want to see a decent documentary on the making of a low budget film get Volume 2 and watch 2 Girls 1 Duck.

Return to Return to Nuke'Em High aka Volume 2 gets a B+.