Astrologer
(1977/aka Suicide
Cult*)/Color
Out Of Space 4K
(2019/Lovecraft/RLJ 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Mind
Games
(1989/aka Mindgames/MVD
Blu-ray)/Night
Of Open Sex
(1983*)/Paganini
Horror
(1988/*all Severin Blu-rays)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A Picture: B-/B+/B-/B/C+ Sound:
B-/B+/C+/B-/B Extras: C+/B-/B-/C+/B Films: C+/B+/C+/C-/C+
Next
up are some down and dirty horror and psychological thrillers, all
made out of the mainstream...
We'll
start with Jim Glickenhaus' The
Astrologer
(1977), a film that wants to mix a little science fiction with
supernatural, speculative fiction, new age religion, cults and
astrology in a cycle that does treat persons of color in a
semi-racist way ('exoticness' is no excuse) and included other
B-movie thrillers, some TV shows and special and silly Sunn Classic
'films' released in theaters covering everything from Jesus to Noah's
Ark. The rare high end of this was the In
Search Of...
TV series hosted by Leonard Nimoy (reviewed elsewhere on this site).
Here,
the tale bounces back and fourth between the journey of a dark and
mysterious man who has a cult of followers and sex with potential
sacrifices or those to be possessed, while a local woman in New York
City (Monica Tidwell, a Playboy Playmate around the time of
production or so) finds instant shock when she has a palm reader
sense something odd about her, but she does not know what the tarot
card reader means. Then, we start to discover a connection between
the two with plenty of trouble and mystery along the way.
Not
necessarily a great film, it does work on a B-movie level showing off
what was then futuristic architecture (post-modernism had not arrived
yet) and then amazing technology that usually now looks dated, though
still very interesting, down to an oversized set of computers. I
have to say it is creepy in ways it may not have intended at the time
and is a time capsule of such filmmaking at the time when there was
still a healthy output of B-movies that tries to do something
different and sometimes produced surprise hit films. Today,
everything is over-anaylized ands the films usually predictably bad.
That is why it is worth a look, interesting in at least trying to
build mystery and suspense.
You
even get an extended shot of a rare Lotus sports car looking for the
lead, shot a bit like the opening of the classic Patrick McGoohan
series The
Prisoner.
Nice try!
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer is a little
rough as the film looks aged in parts and we get the occasional bit
of stock footage or optical printing that adds grain to the image,
but this looks as good as it can and has some atmosphere to it. The
PCM 2.0 Mono sound can also be rough, but it is surprisingly
consistent in sounding as good as it can for its age, so cheers to
whomever remastered the available sound sources.
Extras
include four featurettes: Sign
Of The Times
(on camera interview with the director), Monica
and The
Astrologer
(actress Monica Tidwell on camera interview), Tales
from the Set
(with Brendan Faulkner & Frank M. Farel, veteran crewmen) and
Zodiacal
Locations,
showing what the locations where the film shot look like now, minus
the atmosphere and creepier color.
Next,
from acclaimed filmmaker Richard Stanley (The
Otherworld)
comes a new re-imagining of H.P. Lovecraft's classic story, The
Color Out Of Space
(2019). Starring Nicolas Cage in the lead role, the film is faithful
to the original story and is a welcome return for Director Richard
Stanley with this being the first of a planned trilogy based around
the works of Lovecraft.
The
film also stars Joely Richardson, Q'orianka Kilcher, Tommy Chong, and
Madeleine Arthur.
Nathan
Gardner (Cage) has a normal loving family but they are soon changed
when a meteorite lands on their property. Spawning a mutant alien
organism that bends their minds and the reality around them, the
Gardner's become infected by this malicious alien force.
Hot
off the success of his previous film, Mandy,
Nicolas Cage is doing a great job of being the leading man for more
independent and experimental titles. Color
Out Of Space
is quite atmospheric and definitely captures the feel of the original
story effectively. Fans of John Carpenter's The
Thing
(1982) will also find one of the film's special effects pieces a
subtle nod.
Color
Out Of Space
is presented in 2160p HEVC/H.265, Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra
High Definition image 4K UHD disc with a widescreen aspect ratio of
2.39:1 and a great sounding DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless
mix. This film is quite colorful and uniquely photographed and it
comes across very well on 4K UHD disc as opposed to the also included
1080p high definition Blu-ray disc, though it has NO kind of HDR in
it, despite being a 4K shoot. Still, there are some nice shots,
here, like the close-up shots of nature seen towards the beginning
and later details on effects. This is certainly a very nice looking
disc.
Special
Features include:
The
Making of COLOR OUT OF SPACE
Deleted
Scenes
and
a Photo Gallery
This
a genre film that you should definitely add to your watch list.
Bob
Yari's Mind
Games
(1989/aka Mindgames)
is part of a cycle of 'unwanted guest' thrillers that especially took
off after Adrian Lyne's Fatal
Attraction
(1987) became a huge surprise hit no one expected it to be. Here, a
married couple (Edward Albert and Shawn Weatherly) are on a trip in
their camper with their son (Matt Norero) to have a good vacation.
Unfortunately, despite telling him to stay close, he walks into the
park and finds a young man (Matthew Caulfield) playing a flute and
they start talking.
His
parents are unhappy when they find him, but meet the flutist and
start talking with him. Trusting him, they bring him along
(!!!???!!!) for part of the trip, but this turns out to be a mistake,
as he is a sociopath slowly working on each person to get too close
to them.
This
film probably could not be made the same way today. One scene with
the child might not happen at all now and as the cover art suggests,
the child is in jeopardy, but so are the adults, as no one seems very
wise throughout. Still, the movie rolls on despite this and
Caulfield is able to play his reliable sane-looking-at-first crazy
guy, but so much bad news about torture and murder, especially in the
age of 24-hour news and the Internet exists today, so this film is a
time capsule of a time already long gone.
That
is why this too is worth a look and a rare film directed by the
longtime producer, plus Caulfield's near cult status from Grease
2, et
al, makes it a curio, so you might want to see what they did here.
Its better than many such films I have seen in recent years. The
cast is interesting too.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer has some minor
flaws and softness issues here and there more than a few times, but
looks good otherwise, though a few other shots were a bit faint. The
PCM 2.0
Stereo sound is encoded with Pro Logic-like surrounds, as the film
was originally issued in the cheaper competitor to old Dolby A-type
analog noise reduction for 35mm film releases at the time: Ultra
Stereo. Though Dolby A had its problems and was already made
obsolete by Dolby's new SR (Spectral Recording) analog
noise-reduction format, many films still used it and those who could
not afford it or wanted to save money and have more than just simple
stereo or mono sound on their film licensed Ultra Stereo. The result
is a little more harmonic distortion than even Dolby A-type, but this
still sounds decent for tis age. Note in one scene in the film, when
they are watching a classic Humphrey Bogart film at (what looks like
a single-scene) movie theater, the Ultra Stereo logo is all over the
place.
Extras
(adding to the press release) include a brand new feature length
documentary "The
Making of Mind Games"
(HD, 108 mins) featuring interviews with stars Maxwell Caulfield,
Matt Norero and Shawn Weatherly, producer Mary Apick and director Bob
Yari, then "Bob
Yari: Portrait of a Producer"
(HD, 33 mins) is a surprisingly honest retrospective featurette on
the career of the producer (who talks extensively and is always
interesting) of the Academy Award Best Picture Winning
Crash,
The
Illusionist,
Find
Me Guilty
and many other great films. Also included is the film's original
trailer, reversible artwork sleeve, mini-poster and a limited
slipcover.
Next
up is Jess Franco's Night
Of Open Sex
(1983), which might be the worst film he ever made and part of a
small group of films he made cheap in Spain that hardly got
distribution for unknown reasons, though this one is so bad, I can
see why. Its faint plot has something to do with stealing something
valuable from someone, but its too busy with degrading and degraded
sex and other degraded human encounters to really establish anything
else, and a low budget is no excuse.
In
all cases, the sex here is either by very dirty people, people who
like to be unhealthy/dirty, people who are outright stupid and any
portrayal of sex is very negative from voyeurism to several scenes
(involving the same male and female characters) getting involved
sexually with a third woman, only to cut her, degrade her, torture
her and kill her! This is why it is now part of a review featuring
erotic titles (which we rarely do) because it is not erotic in any
true way despite being sold as such.
Lina
Romay, Robert Foster (aka Antonio Mayans), Lorna Green and Albino
Graziani are among the unknowns who make the cast, but wow, is this
awful and pointless.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer is the default
highlight, shot in the 2-perf Techniscope 35mm format on Eastman
Color film stocks, these films were no longer being processed in
three-strip, dye transfer Technicolor, so the tag 'Chromoscope' was
dropped at this point for non-Technicolor films in Techniscope, which
Technicolor in Italy invented in the mid-1960s. The PCM 2.0 Spanish
Mono shows its age much more and has much dubbing, not sounding well
and even rough, magnifying the film's cheap feel. Extras include
three featurettes: In
The Land Of Franco Part 2,
When
Donald Met Jess and Lina Part 2
(part one of both are on Severin's Cries
Of Pleasure
Blu-ray we will cover soon) and The
Night Of Open Jess.
They are more tolerable than the actual film. Don't say you were
not warned.
Finally,
we have Luigi Cozzi's supernatural thriller The
Paganini Horror
(1988)
with an all girl rock band from the 1980s, looking for a new image
and sound decides to make a music video using an unpublished song by
Niccolo Paganini. However legend has it that Paganini sold his soul
to the devil for fame and fortune, but little do girls and film crew
know how true it is until it is too late and they trapped with the
ghost of Paganini ...killing them one by one.
An
all girl rock band and their manager seeking to find their next
record hit decides to try making the next 'Thriller' music video by
filming in a broken down/haunted mansion with a 'haunted' song.
After playing the song, they discover the legends are true and they
resurrected the ghost of Paganini, who trapped them in a mansion with
an unseen force, but what they though was a joke and ghost story soon
they realize they are in a horror story and they must either find a
way to escape ...or die.
The
film stars Daria Nicolodi, Jasmine Maimone, Pascal Perciano and a
turn by the late, great Donald Pleasence.
This
film, here in a 1080p 1.66 X 1 presentation, looked like it was a VHS
transfer to Blu-ray, this was a horror story from the 1980s featuring
'80s glam rock with's 80's special effects and costuming. What
passed for 'horror' in the '80s now would be considered comedy. The
sound fares better in PCM 2.0 Stereo, but can still show its age.
Extras
include Play
it Again Paganini
- Interview with the Director, The Devil's Music - Interview with
Actor Pietro Genuardi, deleted scenes and alternate ending, a CD
soundtrack and trailer.
-
Nicholas Sheffo, Ricky Chiang (Paganini)
and James
Lockhart (4K)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/