Beasts
Clawing At Straws
(2020/Artsploitation Blu-ray)/Dark
and The Wicked
(2020/RLJ Blu-ray)/Dahmer
(2002/Blu-ray*)/Dragon
Soldiers
(2020/DVD**)/Game
Of Death
(2020/Cleopatra DVD/*both MVD)/Smiley
Face Killers
(2020/Blu-ray/**both Lionsgate)/Train
to Busan presents Peninsula
(2020/Well Go Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+/B+/B+/B-/B-/B+/A- Sound: B+/B+/B+/B-/B-/B+/B+ Extras:
D/B-/C+/D/C/C/C Films: C+/C+/C+/C-/C/C-/A-
And
now for more creepy (and sometimes dumb) horror and thriller
releases....
An
award winning and quite wild South Korean crime thriller, Beasts
Clawing At Straws
(2020) debuts on Blu-ray disc in America from Transplantation films
and is the debut feature of Kim Yong-hoon. The film has a very
strong visual style akin to a foreign Guy Ritchie with lots of
colorful sets and close up cutaways. The film wonders the age old
wonder and question of the allure of money and how far one would go
to secure a large sum.
The
film stars Shin Hyun-bin, Jean Do-yeon, Jung Ga-ram, Jung Woo-sung,
and Kim Jun-han.
A
Louis Vuitton bag full of cash is up for grabs and a wide variety of
unusual characters are trying to capture it for themselves.
Gangsters, a cop, a crooked customs official, a gym attendant, a
prostitute, her husband, her boss, and yes, even her boyfriend all
violently fight tooth and nail to get their hands on this bag full of
cash.
Beasts
Clawing At Straws
is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio
of 2.39:1 and a Korean DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless audio
mix with English subtitles. The film is very sleek and stylistically
photographed and looks very nice in HD here.
No
extras except for other Artsploitation Trailers.
From
the Director of The
Strangers
and under the Shudder banner comes The
Dark and the Wicked
(2020), which takes place on a farm that is very dark and
atmospheric.
Taking
place over the course of a week, The
Dark and the Wicked
centers on an older man who is dying in his bed and his wife who is
becoming very depressed. As the two grown children visit, they start
to notice that their mom is acting a bit more defeated than maybe she
should be. (The real tip off is when she chops her fingers off in a
quite unnerving scene!) Soon, the two of them start hallucinating
and succumb to the dark force that is overtaking the farm. The
Dark and The Wicked
is a slow burn and has some gory moments that are pretty intense.
The
film stars Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr., Xander Berkeley, Lynn
Andrews, and Julie Oliver-Touchstone. The film is directed by Bryan
Bertino.
The
Dark and the Wicked
is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec and a
widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with a lossless DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 5.1 mix. The film is beautifully photographed and has an
intense soundtrack that comes across nicely here. This is a very nice
HD presentation from RLJE that is highly effective. There is
particularly some nice sound design done here in some of the dark
night exterior scenes at the farm where you can hear the shaking of
trees and the farm animals becoming frightened. There's a nice dark
mood that is captured here that I found pretty effective.
Special
Features: Fantasia Q&A with Marin Ireland and Michael Abbott Jr.
Before
he was an Avenger or nominated for an Oscar for his performance in
The
Hurt Locker,
Jeremy Renner starred in the disturbing biopic Dahmer
(2002) which is based on the life of homosexual serial killer Jeffery
Dahmer. This is the film's first time on Blu-ray disc with a new 4K
master struck from the original camera negative and presented for the
first time in its original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.
The
film also stars Bruce Davison, Dion Basco, Lily Knight, and Artel
Great.
The
film follows the disturbing life of real life serial killer Jeffrey
Dahmer, who murdered 17 young mean in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His
humble beginnings stars as a distraught factory worker and lead into
a bridge of personal affliction and pain to becoming a murder.
Dahmer
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec and a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with a lossless
English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix and an English LPCM 2.0 Mono
mix. The film doesn't look too bad in HD and is certainly an
improvement over previous releases in standard definition formats.
Special
Features:
Audio
commentary by director David Jacobson and actors Jeremy Renner and
Artel Kayaru
Making
of Featurette
Behind
the Scenes Photo Gallery
Story
Boards
Red
Band Trailer
Original
Theatrical Trailer
The
film has some disturbing moments, but can't quite shake the feel of
being a made for TV type movie.
Most
films or shows that feature dragons do so in a medieval setting or a
fantasy world like Game
of Thrones.
This dragon based film, Dragon
Soldiers
(2020), is a low budget romp where modern day military soldiers and a
park ranger go up against a dragon that terrorizes a mountainous
Colorado town. Using the Predator-style
storytelling formula, a group of soldiers are stalked by a dragon,
and picked off one by one. The moments where you actually see the
dragon is quick and the CG ranges from barely passable to god awful,
but still this at least tries and succeeds at being pure camp.
The
film stars Arielle Brachfeld, Tarkan Dospil, Antuone Torbert, Dan
Sinclair, Anne McDaniels, Ruben Pla, and Motown Maurice. The film is
directed by Hank Braxtan (Snake
Out of Compton).
Dragon
Soldiers
is presented in standard definition on DVD with an anamorphically
enhanced 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital
mix. The compression issues are apparent from the get-go with many
nice mountain shots that I'm sure look way better in higher
definition. The camerawork on the whole isn't too bad as I can tell
cranes and the sound design is laughable to say the least. I think
at one point I heard a trademark 'Godzilla' roar soundbite for the
dragon. The score screams stock music as well...
Dragon
Soldiers
is a silly Z-grade monster movie with a highly predictable plot. You
can tell some love went into the making of it, and despite its safe
storytelling, has a cool dragon for the price tag. These things
aside, it's not very memorable or recommendable.
There's
a trailer for the film and other Lionsgate releases, but nothing
else.
Imagine
Jumanj
with a horror spin and you've got Game
of Death
(2020) - and no not the famous Bruce Lee film of the same name. Here
a group of seven teens end up playing this board game where if they
don't kill someone then their heads will explode. It's kill or be
killed in this wacky and bloody film. Some of the acting is a mixed
bag and there's a lot of shaky camera work and yelling going on, but
the film does have some interesting moments and decent effects.
The
film stars Sam Earle, Victoria Diamond, Emelia Hellman, Catherine
Saindon, Ernie Baez, Nick Serino, Thomas Vallieres, and Jane Hackett.
Game
of Death
is presented in standard definition on DVD with an anamorphically
enhanced 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a 5.1 lossy Dolby Digital
mix. The film is nicely shot and compression issues aside doesn't
look too bad on DVD here.
Special
Features: Slideshow and a Trailer.
From
the mind of Bret Easton Ellis (American
Psycho)
is The
Smile Face Killers
(2020), which stars Crispin Glover (Back
to the Future,
Charlie's
Angels
(Barrymore films)). Based on the true Smiley Face killers urban
legend / conspiracy theory, which is about a group of black hooded
killers who travel around and stalk and kill young men - mainly by
drowning them - and leaving the tag mark of a smiley face at the
scene.
Flipping
the usual slasher killer movie formula, usually a young female is the
killer's target but in this case it's a handsome young male college
student. The first hour of the film is slow burn nonsense will
beautiful cinematography, but a plot that drags on and on. The
Smiley Killer stalks the guy in white van (as if that idea hasn't
been played out), and the killer slowly starts to play mind games
with him (hacking his phone, etc.) until finally... FINALLY... they
abduct him. A good twenty minutes of the film is complete nonsense
about the young kid's sex life and a party on a beachside that is
mind numbingly boring. While I won't ruin the ending, it's highly
predictable and silly. The only thing this movie has going for it is
a decent makeup job on Crispin Glover as the killer and some nicely
composed images. Otherwise, it is about as entertaining as watching
paint peel. There are a few sudden gross out gore scenes, but
nothing you haven't seen before.
The
film also stars Ronen Rubinstein, Mia Serafino, Amadeus Serafini, and
Ashley Rickards. The film is directed by Tim Hunter (River's
Edge).
The
Smiley Face Killers
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec and a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a lossless
English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix. The score to the film is
ambient and electronic and adds something to the long and drawn out
shots that desperately needed shortened.
Special
Features:
Behind
the scenes featurette with cast interviews
The
Smiley Face Killers
is just a long and drawn out slasher with a few nice looking gore
scenes and some a pretty young cast, but nothing that could be
labeled as even necessarily scary.
Finally,
four years after the Busan incident, Korea has been quarantined off
from the rest of the world. Former soldier Captain Jung-Seok
(Jung-hyun Lee) is a survivor and is sent back in when to recover a
truck full of money in the heart of the city of zombies. But what he
and his team didn't expect to find was survivors ...survivors who
would do anything to get off the peninsula.
In
Sang-ho Yeon's Train
to Busan presents Peninsula
(2020,) Jung
is a survivor of Korea's zombie apocalypse, but he is traumatized by
survivors' guilt, the people he left behind and also not being able
to save his family. 4 years later he is living in the slums of Hong
Kong, but a chance comes to change his life he is sent back in to
recover a truck full of money. He and his team are able to find and
recover the truck, but before are able to call for their pick up,
they are then ambushed and attacked by survivors living in Korea who
use outsiders as 'entertainment' in zombie survival game. Jung then
is saved by 2 sisters (one with mad driving skills) from another
group of survivors. Turns out the 2 sister and their group were some
of the people Jung left behind 4 years ago. Now their only way off
the peninsula is to find and recover the satellite phone and before
the other group survivors discover he has a way off the peninsula.
This
was the sequel to Train
to Busan
movie, a zombie survival movie where it basically proves again what
is scary isn't the zombies, but the human survivors. It was
basically it was like a Mad
Max
movie mixed with a zombie apocalypse. There are plenty of zombies
fight scenes along with several wild car chase scenes, using trucks
as a battering rams against the zombie hordes.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is an HD shoot (this was
also issued on 4K Blu-ray, but the cameras are not has high in
definition) and the style is effective, consistent and clear enough.
Atmosphere helps too. The
lossless Korean Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 for older systems)
is pretty good, though you have to have a system to really get the
most out of it, but it is fine and about as good as the picture.
Extras
includes making of the movie, interviews and trailers.
-
Ricky Chiang and James
Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/