Accident
(2016/Well Go Blu-ray)/Next
Of Kin (1982*)/Invasion
Of The Blood Farmers
(1972/*both Severin Blu-rays)/The
Possessed (1965/MVD/Arrow
Blu-ray)/The Possession Of
Hannah Grace (2018/Sony
DVD)
Picture:
B-/B/B/B/B- Sound: B-/B-/C+/B+/B- Extras: C-/B/C+/B/C+
Films: C-/C+/C/B-/C+
Now
for some horror thrillers, usually here with supernatural aspects...
Dan
Tondowski's ironically entitled Accident
(2016) is a surprisingly badly directed, badly blocked, badly acted
and lame film about two young women (Stephanie Shield, Roxane
Hayward) who are going to a concert by bus, but one of them lies to
her mother because she set up a ride to save them time and money.
When the ride falls through, they hitchhike and as you can imagine,
it is with two guys up to no good, but they are nice and nice to
them. Then they have a wild car accident and the gals are trapped in
the car. Yes, its another 'stuck-in-a' movie.
The
film also implies that because they want to have fun, not follow
rules and might not be sexually conservative enough, they must be
punished by torture or death, though this is not a torture porn film,
just torturous to sit through. Made in South Africa, it could have
been made anywhere as it is so generic, so take your chances and
don't operate heavy machinery if you decide to see it for whatever
reason.
A
trailer is the only extra.
Tony
Williams' Next
Of Kin
(1982) is a haunted house movie that has a following that some people
love and others will at least find different. We recently reviewed
the Australian import version on Blu-ray at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15329/All+The+Creatures+Were+Stirring+(2018/RLJ+DV
Produced
in Australia, it is Oz-Ploitation, but also faithful to the horror
genre overall and has some good moments, but the film overall did not
stick with me in this case, and is a curio because Klaus Schulze did
the music. He is a member of Tangerine Dream and they were producing
some great soundtracks at the time, so that is a plus and his work
helps the film to be more interesting if not a classic. The acting
is not bad either, but films like this were falling behind the likes
of Kubrick's The
Shining
and at least this one takes its audience seriously and treats them
like they are intelligent, something that would become increasingly
rare as the 1980s began and the genre became a joke. If you like
horror films, you should catch it.
Extras
(pretty much the same as the Australian Blu-ray edition) include
feature length audio commentary with director Tony Williams and
producer Tim White, a second feature length audio commentary with
Mark Hartley and cast members Jackie Kerin, John Jarrett, and Robert
Ratti, House of Psychotic Women into by Kier-La Janisse for Morbido
TV, Extended interviews from Not Quite Hollywood, Return to
Monteclare: Location revisit, 2018, Deleted scenes, Before the Night
is Out: Ballroom footage, 1979, Original theatrical trailer, UK VHS
trailer, German theatrical trailer, Alternate German opening, Image
gallery and Tony Williams short films
Ed
Adlum's Invasion
Of The Blood Farmers
(1972) is very creepy cheap and has plenty of blood in it along with
a cast doing wacky things, but plays more like something from the
mid-to-late 1960s versus the best horror films of its or any kind
that were being produced by the time it hit theaters. People are
being kidnapped and bled for their blood for ritualistic, wacky
scientific and sick pleasure reasons. Not that the film is always
coherent, but add people being buried like plants and you get how
this film was all over the place just to get an audience. Needless
to say the acting is really bad, but that happens to match the script
and directing.
Now,
one would think of Motel
Hell
(1980) or early films of Tobe Hooper or the like, while this one
looks more like a Hershel Gordon Lewis knock-off. However, it has a
good independent spirit about it, is campy at times and even the
ending does not totally make sense, but here it is and if you are
really curious, this is as good as the film will ever look or sound.
Extras
are plenty and include a feature length audio commentary with
director Ed Adlum and actress Ortrum Tippel, moderated by Kier-La
Janisse, author of House
of Psychotic Women,
Nothing
You'd Show Your Mom:
Eddie Adlum's journey through exploitation, coin-op & rock n'
roll, and Interview with actor Jack Neubeck, Painful
Memories:
An interview with cinematographer Frederick Elmes and an Original
Theatrical Trailer.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Accident
is an HD shoot that has its flaws throughout and that further
undermines anything that could have worked here, but the 1080p 1.78 X
1 digital High Definition image transfer on Kin
is the same accurate, solid HD master used on the Australian Blu-ray,
even if I was not totally as impressed as my fellow critic. That
leaves the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on
Blood
may have some softness and issues as the film shows its age, but it
is very color accurate and the best color presentation of all five
entries on this list.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Accident
can well mixed, but also has some location audio issues and the
upgrade on Kin
is not bad, oddly sounding as good when all the qualities of the
soundtracks are considered. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono
lossless mix on Blood
can only do so much with such old, low budget audio and the better
sound codec shows more flaws in a very old, cheap production.
Also
known as La
donna del lago,
The
Possessed
(1965) gets the deluxe treatment on Blu-ray thanks to Arrow Video.
Beautifully shot in black and white, the erotic thriller centers
around a man looking for a woman whose gone missing in an Italian
village. While some say she committed suicide, there's more to this
bizarre mystery than seems plausible. Based on a well known crime in
Italy, The
Alleghe Killings,
and adapted from a book on the case by Giovanni Comisso, part giallo
and part film noir, The
Possessed
is a clever and well constructed whodunnit mystery that in some ways
reminds me of The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
if it were set in 1960s Italy.
The
Possessed
stars Peter Baldwin, Virna Lisi, Philippe Leroy, Ennio Balbo,
Valentina Cortese, Salvo Randone, and Pla Lindstrom.
This
exclusive Arrow Video addition presented the film in 1080p black and
white with a new 2K restoration from the original film negative and a
1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio. You can view the film in both the
original Italian (with English subtitles) or a dubbed English version
in uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM audio tracks. The image is very clear
throughout with perfect contrast levels and rich detail in the image
although a few softs appear a little soft focus its certainly
intentional. This restoration is very nicely done and captures the
haunting cinematography of this work.
Special
Features include...
New
audio commentary by writer and critic Tim Lucas
Richard
Dyer on The Possessed,
a newly filmed video appreciation by the cultural critic and academic
Cat's
Eyes,
an interview with the film's makeup artist Giannetto De Rossi
Two
Days a Week,
an interview with the film's award-winning assistant art director
Dante Ferretti
The
Legacy of the Bazzoni Brothers,
an interview with actor/director Francesco Barilli, a close friend of
Luigi and Camillo Bazzoni
Original
trailers
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean
Phillips
and
FIRST PRESSING ONLY : Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new
writing on the film by Andreas Ehrenreich, Roberto Curti and original
reviews
We
conclude with more demons. Mixing the supernatural with the exorcism
genre, The
Possession of Hannah Grace
(2018) is sure to scare the pants out of teenage viewers. While not
quite as effective as The
Autopsy of Jane Doe
(reviewed elsewhere on this site), the film has an interesting
premise that puts it a step above most, although, it doesn't quite
hit the marks that it aims for.
The
film stars Shay Mitchell, Stana Katic, Louis Herthum, Grey Damon, and
James A. Watson Jr.
Megan
Reed (Mitchell - who isn't too bad here), works in a high tech morgue
and is given a cadaver that was previously exorcised named Hannah
Grace. As Grace died during the exorcism, its thought that the
demonic spirit could still be alive in that corpse, and is currently
seeking a new body as a vessel.
The
Possession of Hannah Grace
is presented on anamorphically enhanced standard definition DVD with
a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.
While compression issues are evident in the format, it certainly
affects the presentation during some of the film's darker scenes. A
digital UV copy is also included.
Special
Features include...
Deleted
Scene
An
Autopsy of Hannah
featurette
Megan's
Diaries
and
Killer
Cast
Featurette
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James
Lockhart (Possessed,
Possession)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
