Elvira's Movie Macabre Double Features (three sets including Werewolf Of Washington) + Trailers
From Hell, Vol. Two (w/Little Shop
Of Horrors (1960))/2011/eOne DVDs/Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C+/B Episodes: B-/C Films:
B-
Cassandra
Peterson has still got it, looking like she's hardly aged a day since Movie Macabre originally went off the
air. The recently reintroduced show has
filled the void of there being no nationally recognized horror host in action,
and in a way that no one but the original Mistress of the Dark could.
The host
segments are humorous, and are classic Elvira through and through, so old fans
should feel right at home with the tone of this new program. My biggest gripe is that the show doesn't
always feel so fresh, since most of the movies being used are all the same
public domain fodder that was cycled through the first time around, but what
are you going to do?
The six
films covered on the three double features we have at hand are Night of the Living Dead & I Eat Your Skin, The Satanic Rites of Dracula & The Werewolf of Washington and Santa
Claus Conquers the Martians & Beast
from Haunted Cave. Observant fans
will note that Shout! Factory included The
Werewolf of Washington on one of its own Movie Macabre double features, paired there with The Doomsday Machine.
Next we
take a look at an oddity of a set called Trailers
From Hell. As far as trailer
compilations go, typically you'll get a rapid-fire assault of content intended
to thrill and delight the home viewer with only the best bits of some moldy
oldies. Here though, each of the
trailers is accompanied by an introduction and commentary by different genre
filmmakers – interesting in theory, but the novelty soon wears off.
Each
trailer has a little intro from the chosen speaker, and then they mechanically
rattle off a few of their thoughts before we move on to the next one. Some of the examples of this concept working
well are in the instances when a commentator is talking over a trailer to one of
their own movies, but the limited time in which they have to speak renders it
pretty much unenjoyable anyway. While
you can turn off the commentaries and intros, the selection of trailers then
doesn't flow together that well, and we're still left with annoyances like a
prominent Trailers from Hell logo in
the lower corner as well as a couple trailers that sport watermarks.
Most
content on these discs is presented with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, but it
varies when we get to the trailers, though none of those are anamorphic anyway.
To add some value to the Trailers from Hell collection, an
anamorphic copy of the original Little
Shop of Horrors (1960) has been included with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, but it
doesn't look all that great, and we can surely be expecting a better copy in
the near future, with Blu-ray being a distinct possibility. Sound on these releases isn't anything great,
with everything in basic 2.0 stereo.
There are
a few extras on the Elvira double
features, but none of them are too special and pretty much all of them get
repeated on the other discs.
Whether
you're new to the world of Elvira or a longtime fan, you should enjoy these
Movie Macabre releases a lot; Trailers
from Hell is another matter, and I'd steer clear of this collection. Perhaps it works better online as a series of
bite-size Webisodes, but on a disc, I expect something a little more
substantial.
- David Milchick
