Amber
Alert: Terror On The Highway
(2008/Nasser DVD)/Detour
(1945/Film Chest DVD)/The
Last Days (2013/MPI/IFC
Midnight DVD)/Runaway
Nightmare (1982/Vinegar
Syndrome DVD)/The Snow
Devils (1966/MGM/Warner
Archive DVD)
Picture:
C/C/C/C+/C+ Sound: C+/C/C+/C/C Extras: C-/D/C-/C/C-
Films: C/C+/C/C/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Snow
Devils
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here's
a mix of strange thrillers...
George
Mendeluk's Amber
Alert: Terror On The Highway
(2008) has Tom Berenger playing to type as a frustrated older man who
kidnaps underage girls in this goofy, badly written thriller when he
actually outacts everyone in a badly directed mess. There might have
been a good story in here somewhere, but it is very badly done and
comes across as cheaply and exploitive as it might seem with its
overly melodramatic title. Unless you like Berenger, skip it.
A
trailer is the only extra.
Edgar
G. Ulmer's Detour
(1945) is considered a true Film Noir classic and has been in public
domain for eons, but a good copy has yet to surface anywhere. Tom
Neal plays the guy who keeps getting more deeply into trouble no
matter what he does, made worse by taking the identity of a man who
dies picking him up hitchhiking. I guess this is a complete copy
from Film Chest and it is a fine film, but I found this edition hard
to watch despite their best efforts.
There
are sadly no extras.
Alex
& David Pastor co-directed the post-apocalyptic thriller The
Last Days
(2013) in France and it has some good moments as everyone in the
world suddenly gets a form of agoraphobia and cannot go outside, so
thew world collapses and the survivors who have not had heart attacks
from this development fight to survive. We get some flashbacks,
interesting moments and good performances all around, including leads
Quim Gutierrez and Jose Corronado, but the conclusion does not
necessarily work and sometimes comedy shows up in ways that do not
work. Still, it is ambitious and genre fans might still want to see
it.
A
trailer is the only extra.
Mike
Cartel's Runaway
Nightmare
(1982) is an exploitation film about two guys kidnapped by a female
cult, who intend to do what they want with the guys. Done on the
cheap, the duo witness a big box being buried, then when they
investigate, find a naked woman inside. Then they get kidnapped by
said cult and the nightmare begins. Things are not always shown, the
acting is really bad and the result is an oddity worth a look for
genre fans, but not a good film by any means. Still, it is a time
capsule of an independent horror cinema coming to an end.
Alternate
video scenes of film footage that showed up on video but was not made
by the original filmmakers and a feature-length audio commentary by
Director Cartel are the extras.
Anthony
Margheriti, under his oft used Anthony Dawson moniker, directed the
amusing The
Snow Devils
(1966) is the third of three hilarious space operas he made following
War Of
The Planets
(see elsewhere on this site) and War
Between The Planets
(both also 1966) that are not great viewing by any means, but are
interesting to watch for their ideas of costumes, technology and what
the future might be. The visual effects are also always amusingly
dated, so in this one, the scientists encounter a race of humanoid
snow men up to no good, bad make-up designs and all. This begins
when the footprint of an abominable snow man surfaces. The cats of
mostly unknown Italian actors (and American actor Wilbert Bradley)
are a hilarious plus, even when almost al of them are dubbed. Give
this one a look.
A
trailer is the only extra.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Alert, 1.33 X 1
black & white image on Detour (with its old film print)
and anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Days are well
shot, but these transfers are just too soft and could all look
better. The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Nightmare
and anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image on Devils tie for
first place and look the best including some good color, but there is
still some print issues or damage here and there.
As
for sound, Alert
and Days
(a Spanish track) have lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and tie for the
best-sounding releases here as expected, if not spectacular, sound
good. Days
in particular might benefit from a lossless track. The rest of the
DVDs have lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sound and all show their age,
but they do have a few good sonic moments each.
To
order The
Snow Devils
from Warner Archive DVDs, go to this link for it and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
