Aenigma
(1987*)/The
Beast Must Die
(1974/Amicus*)/Dead
Dicks
(2019/Artsploitation)/Demonia
(1990/*all Severin)/Murdoch
Mysteries: Season 13
(2019 - 2020/Acorn)/Zombie
For Sale
(2019/MVD/Arrow/all Blu-rays)
Picture:
B/B/C/B/B+/B+ Sound: B-/C+/C/C+/B+/B+ Extras: C+/B/C/C+/D/B
Main Programs: C+/B-/C+/C+/B+/C+
Now
for another assortment of thrillers, some of which are more graphic
than usual...
We'll
start with the first of two later films of a popular director in the
horror genre. Lucio Fulci's Aenigma
(1987) is
the director's attempt to do a telekinesis thriller like De Palma's
Carrie
or The
Fury,
but also with a touch of Argento and a film many forget it resembles,
the Australian genre favorite Patrick.
A female student who turns out to be bullied is set up for an
elaborate prank that backfires and gets the gal in a coma and
bedridden in a hospital. Then suddenly, one by one, her tormentors
die!
Set
in New England, it has some interesting moments, but like Patrick
(including the recent Patrick
remake that I thought worked less than the original) just never adds
up and though Fulci does use many images that still suggest the
supernatural, giving the film more form, it never adds up. Simply
put, De Palma helped invent this kind of filmmaking (we could add
Cronenberg's original Scanners
to the list) and hardly anyone has come close. At least it has its
ambitions, unlike so many clones of such storytelling since, though
expect some effective moments of horror and shock here and there.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary with Troy Howarth (author
of Splintered
Vision - Lucio Fulci & His Films),
Writing
Nightmares
- interview with screenwriter Giorgio Mariuzzo, Italian
Aenigma
- appraising late Fulci featurette, a CD soundtrack in some editions
ad an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Paul
Annett's The
Beast Must Die
(1974) is
another underrated Peter Cushing film that is finally getting saved,
much like the even more once-tattered Horror
Express.
Severin has come up with a 4K scan and restoration of the film we
previously reviewed in an Amicus DVD box set. In that review, I said
that the film....
''...what
it would have been like if William Castle made The
Last Of Sheila,
making a mystery out of which guest of a rich man who loves to hunt
(Calvin Lockhart) is actually a werewolf, complete with a Werewolf
Break!
Yes, you get to guess who is the killer in the best of the three
films in this set, with a cast that includes Peter Cushing, Marlene
Clark, Anton Diffring, Charles Gray, Ciaran Madden, Tom Chadbon and
Michael Gambon. Paul Annett directed from Michael Winder's
screenplay that throws in action and even Spy elements to the
story.''
Of
course, Cushing continues to be a fan favorite, from Hammer Films to
Star Wars, Charles Gray continues to be a fan favorite from
Rocky Horror Picture Show, Diamonds Are Forever and
many other films and now, the film can add a new curio interest as
Michael Gambon has become more popular thanks to the Harry Potter
films, et al. That's good, because this is one of my favorite and
best Amicus films of all and deserves this deluxe treatment. It is
my favorite release on this list and is highly recommended.
Expanded
extras include a repeat of previously issued
feature length audio commentary with Director Paul Annett and
Filmmaker Jonathan Sothcott and adds And
Then There Were Werewolves
- Audio Essay By Horror Historian Troy Howarth, Directing
the Beast
- Archival Interview with Director Paul Annett, Audio Interview
Excerpt of Milton Subotsky on Beast
Must Die
- Interviewed by Philip Nutman, an Audio Interview with Producer Max
J Rosenberg – Interviewed by Sothcott and an Original Theatrical
Trailer with Optional Commentary by Genre Scholars Kim Newman and
David Flint. Nice upgrade all around.
Mel
(Kristina Sandev)
visits her suicidal brother Richie (Heston Horwin) to discover each
time he kills himself he is reborn out of a hole in the wall (which
looks like a giant vagina!). Now, Mel has to help Richie somehow get
rid his dead bodies that's been piling up in his apartment, but can
Richie stop killing himself and making more dead bodies?
In
Chris Bavota and Lee Paula Springer's Dead
Dicks
(2019),
Mel just accepted into the university of her choice, but she gets a
call from her brother Richie for help. Richie is a depressed and
suicidal artist and discovers he has been killing himself and being
reborn from a strange hole in the wall each time, now there are
several dead bodies of himself all over the apartment (and he's been
using it for art). Now, they have to get rid of the bodies and
discover how and why this is happening to him, she also has to deal
with Richie's angry neighbor who is tired of Richie's loud rock music
(who they also accidentally kill and he get reborn). They then
discover that ANYONE who dies in the apartment gets reborn. Mel
accidentally drinks poison and she is reborn, BUT Richie forgot to
mention who ever get reborn can't leave the room, now they must find
some way to break the cycle of rebirth. Richie realizes they have to
destroy the brain in order not to be reborn and commits one final
suicide. Mel not knowing what to do decides to crawl into the hole
that birth them.
This
film was one of those weird macabre/horror films, only art students
would use dead bodies for art. While it tries to be horror it just
comes off as weird. Extras include director's commentary, 4 video
diaries and FX featurette.
Lucio
Fulci's Demonia
(1990) is
part of a exploitation cycle of 'killer nun' films, some of which
reach to the past and some of which do not. This one has Canadian
archeologists unleashing a vengeful nun of the past wrongfully
murdered in what looks to be a witchhunt of some kind (the excavation
looks similar to moments from the original Exorcist
and Omen
films) and the nun has a sister!
This
lands up all over the place, but again, does have a rich look that
has a rich enough atmosphere and some of the images are still creepy
and shocking, though some visual effects do not work and were as bad
then as they are now. This can get creative, but it still cannot
escape being as cynical as any other such film we have ever seen (or
avoid) and it cannot escape the subgenre it will always be stuck in.
Extras
include Holy
Demons
- Interview with uncredited Co-Writer/Assistant Director Antonio
Tentori, Fulci
Lives
- Interview with Lucio Fulci on set of Demonia,
Of
Skulls and Bones
- Interview with camera operator Sandro Grossi, a feature length
audio commentary with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond
Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
and an Original Theatrical Trailer.
If
you have
not heard already from our many reviews of previous seasons, Will
Murdoch is a detective solving crimes and murders in Toronto at the
turn of the century at the 4th Precinct, along with Chief Inspector
Brackenreid, Constable Crabtree and Watts, Dr. Julia his wife and
Miss Violet the coroner. Together, they continue to protect the
innocent and bring murders to justice in Murdoch
Mysteries: Season 13
(2019 - 2020).
Murdoch
and his team at the 4th Precinct are known for solving all sorts of
murders using of forensic sciences and Murdoch's wits and inventions.
From catching the crooks, to rewriting history or even saving the
world from criminal masterminds. Chief Inspector Brackenreid is the
captain of the 4th Precinct and he holds the team together and brings
the case, he tolerates and respects Murdoch unorthodox methods
because of his success rate in solving murders. Murdoch is supported
by George Crabtree an aspiring detective and novelist; Watts is a
no-nonsense Jewish inspector who is also secretly homosexual. And
his wife Dr. Julia Ogden and Miss Violet serves as the doctor and
coroner in aiding Murdock with clues on the dead bodies to the
murderer.
This
is a murder mystery series set in the turn of the century in Toronto,
Canada, while the characters felt more English and setting was
postindustrial age. The setting allowed however many American
historical figures to make cameos in the series, including the
President, Ford, Carnegie, etc... While it was a murder mystery
series, the main character strongly reminded me of MacGyver
TV Series in using science, inventions and his wits to help solving
cases. Extras include Q & A with Yannick Bisson and Daniel
Maslany.
We
get 18 shows, more than expected and they are...
Ep
1: Troublemakers
- A bomb blows up at a woman's right protest.
Ep
2: Bad
Pennies
- Murdock must solve a murder between the Pinkertons and dock workers
who are on a strike.
Ep
3: Forever
Young
- Murdoch discovers a dead body of a young woman who body remained
un-aged for over a decade.
Ep
4: Prodigal
Father
- In a murder case, George is reunited with his long-lost father.
Ep
5: Murdoch
and the Cursed Caves
- Murdoch investigates a case where the killer might be a
supernatural being.
Ep
6: The
Philately Fatality
- A murder is committed of a wealthy man, but can the police curb
their homosexual prejudices?
Ep
7: Toronto
the Bad
- Higgin's new side job as a cabby seems to be picking up all the
suspects in their murder case.
Ep
8: The
Final Curtain
- Murdoch and his friends finds themselves in a murder at a theater
about murder and all of the actors are suspects, but will they solve
the murder or be the critics?
Ep
9: The
Killing Dose
- Julia is forced to make a difficult choice when a patient is in
pain or to help her die.
Ep
10: Parker
in the Rye
- A whiskey baron and his family are found murdered and the only
witness has amnesia.
Ep
11: Staring
Blindly into the Future
- Edison, Einstein, Tesela, Curie and greatest minds of the times
have been kidnapped into building a doomsday machine.
Ep
12: Fox
Hunt
- A rich man is found murdered on a fox hunt and Inspector
Brackenreid is in the middle of it.
Ep
13: Kill
Thy Neighbor
- Murdoch's neighbor is found murdered and all evidence points toward
him.
Ep
14: Rigid
Silence
- Murdoch and Julia discovers a plan for a prison break when one of
the prisoners is found murdered.
Ep
15: The
Trial of Terrence Meyers
- Terrence Meyers, a master spy is accused of attempting to
assassinate the Prime Minister, however, Murdock believes he is
innocent.
Ep
16: In
the Company of Women
- Julia, Effie and Miss Cherry decide solve a murder when their
hairdresser is found dead.
Ep
17: Things
Left Behind
- Violet's past begins to catch up to her. Parker is murdered.
George is kidnapped by a crazy fan.
Ep
18: The
Future is Unwritten
- Violet must decide what to do, to continue lying or tell Murdoch
the truth about her past. George must escape his crazy fan. Watts
comes out. Murdoch and Brackenreid decide to NOT do things by the
book in order to do what is right and just.
Finally,
you haven't seen a 'Zom Com' (Zombie Comedy) quite like this unique
Korean horror film, Zombie For Sale also known as The
Odd Family: Zombie For Sale
(2019). This is the latest spoof of the genre, but you get mixed
results and it is not quite as good as Zombieland
or The
Dead Don't Die,
but diehards of the genre will likely want to catch it just the same,
though coming from Korea, it has some moments that just make it a
little different.
The
film stars Se-ah Jang, Jae-yeong Jeong, Ga-ram Jung, Nam-gil Kim,
Soo-kyung Lee, and Ji-won Uhm.
Special
Features:
Brand
new audio commentary with filmmakers and critics Sam Ashurst and Dan
Martin
Q&A
with director Lee Min-jae from a 2019 screening at Asian Pop-Up
Cinema in Chicago, moderated by film critic and author Darcy Paquet
Eat
Together, Kill Together: The Family-in-Peril Comedy
- brand new video essay by critic and producer Pierce Conran
exploring Korea's unique social satires
Making-Of
Featurette
Behind-the-Scenes
footage
Original
Trailer
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by Mike
Lee-Graham
and
FIRST
PRESSING ONLY:
Collector's booklet featuring new writing by Josh Hurtado.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition
image on Aenigma
and 1080p 1.66 X 1 image on Demonia
were both shot on 35mm Kodak color film negative and processed by the
Italian lab Telecolor, so they have their similarities and have been
restored very well here, both from 4K scans. Color is very accurate
and detail is fine and natural. Expect some grain and there are
stylized softer shots here and there. Both offer
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless sound in Italian and
English mixes. Both have heavy post-dubbing and are on the weak
side, but there is more English in both films than expected.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Beast
is a revelation with its new 4K scan of the original camera materials
is a real revelation and finally delivers the film with the clarity
and detail it deserves. The older Dark Sky DVD we reviewed was soft,
weak and disappointing, but this is great, my favorite transfer on
this list and the color is also as fine as the depth in many scenes.
The film rarely show the age of the materials used, but this is far
superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film on home
video. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is also as clean and
clear as we will ever hear this film.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Dead
is weak and disappointing, though some of this is supposed to look
bad we suspect, yet it makes matters much worse when the only
soundtracks are only lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo. Why?
Either way, the combination is poor and disappointing.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Murdoch
episodes are as good as the show has been and the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on each show pretty well
recorded throughout, so the combination is as good as it likely ever
will be for this show.
Finally,
Zombie
For Sale
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
codec and a 2.38:1 widescreen aspect ratio paired with an Original
uncompressed Korean 2.0 PCM Stereo track and Korean 5.1 DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) lossless options. (Both with English subtitles.) The
image clarity is strong and consistent throughout the presentation
and is up to the normal high quality home presentation that Arrow
Video is known for.
-
Nicholas Sheffo, Ricky Chiang (Dead,
Murdoch)
and James
Lockhart (Zombie)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/