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Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Thriller > Mystery > Murder > Killer > Monster > Zombie > Supernatural > Comedy > Blood & Black Lace – 2 Disc Special Edition + The Demon (1979) + Horrors Of The Black Museum/Headless Ghost Double Feature + The Swamp Of The Ravens/I Eat Your Skin (aka Zombies) Double Feature + 70s

Blood & Black Lace – 2 Disc Special Edition + The Demon (1979) + Horrors Of The Black Museum/Headless Ghost Double Feature + The Swamp Of The Ravens/I Eat Your Skin (aka Zombies) Double Feature + 70s Drive-In Double Feature: Ruby/Kiss Of The Tarantula (VCI DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D (Lace: B)     Films: B/C/C+/C/C/C/C+/C

 

 

For the Halloween 2010 season, VCI has decided to reissue some of its top Horror titles and throw in some new ones.  Some of the older ones are sadly basic editions only, so beware.  Links are included on the titles we have already covered.

 

Blood & Black Lace – 2 Disc Special Edition

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3257/Blood+&+Black+Lace+%E2%80%93+U

 

This new version (with the different cover pictured on the side of this review) is the same exact set with a new cover.

 

 

The Demon (1979) is Producer/Writer/Director Percival Rubens’ sloppy, almost silly attempt to do an Italian Giallo film like Bava, et al, throwing in the latest slasher hits, but the killer is too run of the mill and the cats can only help to do so much to make this work.  Cameron Mitchell is not bad, but this did actually launch Jennifer Holmes (a teacher who becomes the main target for the killer) into a good acting career.  The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono show their age, so expect top adjust to that if you watch.  There are no extras.

 

 

Horrors Of The Black Museum/Headless Ghost Double Feature

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/83/Horrors+Of+The+Black+Museum

+

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9686/Horrors+Of+The+Black+Museum+(195

 

We have covered Museum twice and the VCI edition we covered before was best, which had a nice set of extras this disc totally lacks.  Headless is a silly 1959 would-be comedy from director Peter Graham Scott (who later helmed episodes of The Prisoner, The Avengers and Danger Man) with Herman Cohen (Target Earth, Berserk, Trog, Black Zoo) as a writer and producer in this curio that can get boring, but has a few moments.  I am not a big fan though it sports some good actors including the enduring Clive Revell as the ghost and maybe I would enjoy it more in a better copy, so you can get this set, get the older version of Museum or wait for either or both to come to Blu-ray.  Both are letterboxed 2.35 X 1 (Museum in CinemaScope, Headless in DyaliScope) and have PCM 2.0 Mono, but no extras.

 

 

The Swamp Of The Ravens/I Eat Your Skin (aka Zombies) – Deluxe Widescream Edition Double Feature offers the least seen of the film here, the first of which is 1974 Dr. Moreau wanna be as another doctor (Raymond Oliver) is conducting genetic and similar kinds of experiments that (of course) are gong to go very wrong.  Shot in Techniscope (but in EastmanColor), the film does have an interesting look, but Director Michael Cannon (aka Manuel Cano) can only bring so much to the same old story, yet I at least like the offbeat approach and atmosphere.  I Eat Your Skin (1964, but not released until 1971) is the most famous film by Del Tenney, as a snake venom treatment turns the population on a Carribbean island into zombies.  Now it is considered an early example of a good zombie film.  It may not be great, but it at least is a comparatively ambitious entry into a now long glutted horror subgenre.  Both are anamorphically enhanced (2.35 X 1 for Swamp, 1.85 X 1 for Skin) and have Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono that show their age, but are not awful.

 

There are no extras, but you can read about other Tenney films at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6754/The+Del+Tenney+Collection+(Dark+Sk

 

 

Ruby/Kiss Of Tarantula

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/753/Ruby+(1977)

+

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5048/VCI+Scream+Pack+with+Don%E2%80

 

Both are here in anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 images and Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, but you get no extras, so those more interested in Ruby might want to get the VCI Special Edition we reviewed a while ago or wait for a Blu-ray.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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