Author: BO

Author Scott Spencer isn't a lucky guy. Here's a writer who's had two film adaptations made from his 1979 novel, "Endless Love," and both endeavors deliberately fly over his dramatic intentions, preferring to turn a tale of dangerous obsession into cinematic bubble gum for a pre-teen audience. The 1981 version arrived first, with director Franco Zeffirelli looking for material that might return him to the box office power he found with 1968's "Romeo and Juliet," sniffing around for another tale of forbidden love and scorching passions. There's something along those lines in Spencer's book, but writer Judith Rascoe doesn't pay close attention to obvious behavioral issues present in the original text, transforming a story about the disintegration of the young man into a gauzy saga of relationship denial, with Zeffirelli electing to turn such enticing distortion into melodrama. It's hard to stay with "Endless Love," which is determined to ignore the reality of the central pairing, striving more for tragedy instead of analysis. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For 1970's "Scars of Dracula," actor Christopher Lee tries to make a part he's played four times before interesting for himself. This Dracula isn't quite the hair-raising monster of menace as previously seen, emerging in this Hammer Films production as more of a talky antagonist, imagined as a threatening host for a weekend of horrors inside his own castle. There should be more frights to "Scars of Dracula," but there's little room in the budget for a consistent run of intimidation. Instead, there's conversation, with the movie more about padding than applying genre pressure, though Baker does manage to get some proper hits of shock into the feature. There's just not enough of that to carry the viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are aliens. Young people. A European setting. And it was made in the 1980s. "Alien Predators" (titled "Alien Predator" on IMDB and "The Falling" on the disc) has everything going for it, created with prime ingredients for a wild genre ride that pits hapless humans against an extraterrestrial threat. And yet, the film is terrible, showing a frustrating lack of interest in creating any sort of fear factor, with writer/director Deran Sarafian unable to decide if he wants to make a goofy movie or a seriously haunting one, ending up with a mess of different tones, supported by a largely incapable cast. That "Alien Predators" chooses to do so little with its premise is almost maddening, with Sarafian clearly lost at sea, unable to decide what he wants from the production or how to steer it to scares. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I'll admit, the lure of Bigfoot as a big screen mystery is bewildering, but there are filmmakers out there who clearly appreciate the cinematic value of hunting a creature of legend. Co-writer/director Matt Allen is one of those deep woods warriors, putting his time into the creation of "Hoax," which tries to launch a John Carpenter-style adventure as a team of experts march into the wild to find Sasquatch, only to receive more than they bargained for. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Tim Sutton wants to bring the pain with "Donnybrook." With previous credits including "Memphis" and "Dark Night," Sutton is no stranger to the unpredictability of human behavior, putting some thought into the construction of his screenplay, which not only examines vicious interactions between unstable characters, but takes a good long look at the current state of America, focusing on an impoverished community of addicts and killers. There's no joy to be found in "Donnybrook," but there's not a lot of engrossing anger either. Sutton is making his western here, only everyone is a black hat and they spend the movie cycling through the same reaction to utter despair. It's a glacial feature, with the helmer mistaking length for profundity, unable to connect with his overall effort to dissect violence as it's experienced by those who can't, or won't, escape abuse. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I'm not entirely sure writer/director Gerard Damiano is aiming for titillation with 1976's "Let My Puppets Come," but that's a deep dive down a kink hole I'm not currently prepared to investigate. Instead of overwhelming sexuality, the X-rated feature is more of a cartoon where marionettes and hand puppets are brought in to put on a show, albeit with adult movie interests. Over the years, there have been a few stabs at raunchy entertainment featuring felt stars (including 2018's borderline unwatchable "The Happytime Murders"), and Damiano deserves credit for jumping into the wilds with this production, which resembles a vaudeville show, only instead of unleashing a steady stream of one-liners, the performers use their stage time to molest one another. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

36 years ago, there were three network television channels. When one of them wanted to command the viewing audience, it required something major to capture national attention. Many mini-series attempted epic storytelling, scoring with high drama over multiple nights. 1983's "V: The Original Mini-Series" offered such an invitation, but added a cherry on top: the lure of sci-fi extravaganza on the small screen. This wasn't simply appointment television, it as a country-wide event, with most televisions tuned into the NBC broadcast for two consecutive nights, devouring the tale of an alien visitation that slowly turns into an invasion. Writer/director Kenneth Johnson takes the entertainment challenge seriously, striving to transform "V" into a major show of force, with unusually sophisticated special effects for the medium and a screenplay that turned into history's battles with hostile takeovers and fascism into an action-oriented ride of spaceships, lizard people, and warfare across Los Angeles. Johnson isn't sculpting with precision here, but his vision for a T.V. blockbuster in the "Star Wars" age is incredibly entertaining and, at times, thought-provoking. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Refusing to give up on his dream of recreating the success of "Alien," producer Roger Corman makes a second attempt at replication with 1982's "Forbidden World." Having already created a knock-off with 1981's "Galaxy of Terror," Corman actually recycles a few of the film's sets for the follow- up production, once again exploring the horror of futureworld space tourism and weird science, only here the budget has been severely trimmed, containing the action to a few rooms inside a genetic research station. Limitations are noticeable, but that doesn't stop director Allan Holzman, who tries with all his might to make something exciting within B-movie boundaries, keeping monster grossness plentiful and exploitation needs satisfied for the most part, but such goodness is stuffed into a somewhat dull endeavor that's missing necessary surges of suspense. It's certainly sci-fi, but thrills are lacking here, despite the presence of goopy gore. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When Roger Corman wants to cash-in on a trend, little stands in his way. For 1981, the veteran producer desired his own "Alien" clone, bringing in co-writer/director Bruce D. Clark to create a similar study of horror in space, tracking the exploits of those unlucky enough to come face-to-face with their own fears while stuck on an unknown planet. Clark doesn't completely replicate the "Alien" experience, finding it hard to do Ridley Scott on a Corman budget. Instead, "Galaxy of Terror" is a more traditional genre offering of multiple deaths and monstrous encounters, though the material tries to work in some head games and plot turns to keep viewers interested. The feature is a bit repetitive, but for cash-in entertainment, "Galaxy of Terror" actually looks good when it wants to, finding the crew (which includes production designer James Cameron) working especially hard to sell this visually textured descent into terror. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1972's "The Harder They Come" was a shot of authenticity from Jamaica, which was, at the time, beginning to establish itself, developing its culture and sound. Director Perry Henzell decided to share that magic with the world, creating a feature that celebrated movie storytelling yet remained verite in style, using a rough sense of filmmaking to pull viewers into island life, following the exploits of a character (portrayed by Jimmy Cliff) who experiences poverty, finds his voice in music, and ends up an outlaw. Henzell can't escape the low-budget stiffness of the production, but there's undeniable energy on display, with the picture soaking in the juices of reggae and smoked into a stupor, all the while providing a grand tour of life in Jamaica, with Henzell creating an enthralling travelogue. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Six months ago, writer/director Daniel Farrands revisited the true crime tale of Ronald DeFeo Jr., hoping to squeeze a little more misery out of "The Amityville Horror" franchise with "The Amityville Murders." It was a dud, but a strange one, turning to the supernatural as a way to explain mental illness and moral dissolve, with Farrands attempting to make a ghost story in a way, with hopes to approach well-worn material from a different, fictional perspective. Feeling good about his creative choices, Farrands does the same thing for the Tate Murders, reimagining a mass murder as some type of elongated descent into nightmares and premonitions, depicting Sharon Tate as somewhat aware of her horrible fate. Distasteful doesn't even begin to describe "The Haunting of Sharon Tate," with Farrands going the B-movie route with a delicate situation of death, toying with the details of the case to manufacture yet another crime tale situated deep in the cartoony unknown. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

"The Poison Rose" is meant to be throwback entertainment, restoring an interest in noir entanglements that haven't been a staple of big screen entertainment in quite some time. The production isn't shy about its fondness for the genre, with the lead character living above a movie theater showing "The Maltese Falcon," while a cat is named Raymond and a character is branded Chandler. I'm sure there are more references to be found, and perhaps finding these touches is more entertaining than the actual film. Loaded with characters and motivations, "The Poison Rose" is a buffet of dangerous activity from untrustworthy characters, but director George Gallo doesn't show much enthusiasm for the construction of suspense, keeping the feature fatigued and overly expository, turning the central mystery into homework, unable to create a delicious cinematic stranglehold. The production wants the audience to know it understands the basics of classic noir, but it shows limited interest in becoming one. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com