Category: DVD/BLU-RAY

When people talk of the "Evil Dead" franchise, they usually reference the top players in the series, with director Sam Raimi, producer Rob Tapert, and star Bruce Campbell understandably credited for creative successes. 2018's "Invaluable: The True Story of an Epic Artist" seeks to add another name to the list: Tom Sullivan. The man responsible for makeup effects and design work on 1981's "The Evil Dead," Sullivan's imagination helped to define the horror show the production was pursuing, bringing life to grisly imagery and haunting moments. Director Ryan Meade doesn't have much more than an appreciation for Sullivan to help put together this low-budget documentary, but that's enough to charm. "Invaluable" isn't a sharply made picture, but there's a lot of enthusiasm for the subject, and the "Evil Dead" fanbase is treated to a tour of inspiration and location, with Sullivan reflecting on his early achievements, surprising turns of life, and the endurance of the brand name. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Little was expected of 1995's "Billy Madison." It represented Adam Sandler's first starring vehicle, making use of his goofball screen presence and love of juvenile absurdity. The "Saturday Night Live" star wasn't exactly the typical big screen comedian, but Sandler found his way to a decent moneymaker in a delightfully weird endeavor, building on that momentum with 1996's "Happy Gilmore." Sandler had a fanbase, but he turned into a bankable star after the releases of "The Wedding Singer," "The Waterboy," and "Big Daddy," amassing a following that delighted in his bizarre sense of humor, forcing Hollywood to notice the actor and his A-list potential. Such incredible success and studio faith was put to the test in 2000's "Little Nicky," where Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions were entrusted with a large budget for the first time, aiming to create a dark comedy with extensive visual effects while still retaining Sandler's love of stupidity. "Little Nicky" was Sandler's first major bomb when it was released, with its extremity too much for audiences at the time, but the film isn't a creative washout. It's noisy, and the screenplay is too permissive with lame Sandler- isms, but the feature holds together as an interesting experiment in overkill, going for a wild take on hellacious happenings with unpleasant characters, occasionally returning to the comfort of weirdness. It's a tonal gamble that doesn't entirely pay off, but there's some enjoyable anarchy and swift pacing to this ridiculous picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1993's "Undefeatable" is a highly bizarre fight film starring Cynthia Rothrock, who brings a special energy to most of her endeavors, capable of handling action choreography and at least a rudimentary offering of dramatic skills, doing well with limited thespian demands. However, she's practically Streep-esque in this feature, which is a remarkably clumsy effort from director Godfrey Ho, a shockingly prolific helmer with limited interest in production refinement. He's breezing through "Undefeatable," putting zero attention on pace and performance, leaving Rothrock to do the heavy lifting while surrounded by astonishingly wooden actors, placing all of his concentration on fight sequences, which often lose intended ferocity, sliding right into campiness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To understand what's going on in 1981's "Ninja in the Claws of the C.I.A." requires a level of concentration most movies wouldn't dare demand from viewers. It's another offering of confusion and directorial indifference from martial arts star John Liu ("New York Ninja"), who assigns himself a James Bond-esque role in this actioner, which takes viewers around the world as the helmer madly scrambles to assemble something close to comprehensible. "Ninja in the Claws of the C.I.A." tries to approximate the atmosphere of a superspy thriller, blending in plenty of physical fights and betrayals to keep things interesting. However, Liu can only do so much with the picture, which looks like it was stitched together from three different features, keeping up on eye-crossing moves in plot and tone to a point where nothing registers as intentional anymore. It's a big mess, but Liu's enthusiasm for it all is something to see. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Released in 1990 to low box office and critical disinterest, Clive Barker's "Nightbreed" (an adaptation of his novel "Cabal") went on to achieve a modest cult following, tempting those used to the helmer's passions for violent imagery and fantastical storytelling. However, Barker was outspoken in his distaste for the theatrical cut of the movie, which underwent editorial butchery and extensive reshoots to turn a sophisticated monster mythology into a run-of-the-mill slasher film, though one that retained a great deal of Barker's personality due to intricate creature design and gothic overtones. The Theatrical Cut of the picture was the public's first taste of "Nightbreed," but in 2014, creative forces pulled together a "Director's Cut," building on the success of the "Cabal Cut," which was a crude but effective organization of a 1989 VHS workprint, finally exposing Barker's original intent for the endeavor. However, for its debut on UHD, "Nightbreed" only offers a 4K version of the Theatrical Cut, which is not the optimal way to experience this epic effort. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1993 was meant to be a major year for Mike Myers. The tremendous success of 1992's "Wayne's World" brought the "Saturday Night Live" player to the attention of Hollywood, who wanted to turn him into a leading man. The year hastily pushed a messy but hilarious "Wayne's World" sequel through the system, and there was also "So I Married an Axe Murderer," with Myers offered a chance to prove his stuff as a romantic lead. There's a certain air of indecision with the feature, which was originally written as more of a chiller and neurotic comedy before Myers and studio demands attempted to change course, creating a softer, broader movie to help the star shine. "So I Married an Axe Murderer" isn't carried along by a defined vision, but it holds together with comedy, with Myers working to make something charmingly silly with the tale of a serial killer, playing to his strengths as a goofball with a fondness for weird character work. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Matt Stone and Trey Parker are fully committed to the world of "South Park," the iconic animated show they created in the 1990s. "South Park" has been exceptionally good to the men, making them a fortune and creating a legacy of up-to-the-minute production that's unrivaled, with such speed, creative autonomy, and lucrative reward understandably impossible to give up. However, when Stone and Parker elect to make movies, they do really well when manufacturing memorable entertainment, with the pair partnering on 1993's "Cannibal! The Musical," 1997's "Orgazmo," and 1998's "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut." Stepping out of the cartoon womb for a rare visit to the big screen, Stone and Parker try to make a puppet-based action extravaganza with 2004's "Team America: World Police," inhaling Jerry Bruckheimer fumes as they pants the state of the world in the early 2000s, creating their own take on "G.I. Joe," but with marionettes and a healthy disdain for Hollywood actors and North Korean dictators. "Team America: World Police" is certainly unwieldly at times, but it's impressively mounted, with the production refusing to go cheap and easy with this valentine to action cinema and screwball patriotism of the day. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It's impossible to imagine at this point in its extensive exhibition and home video journey, but, in 1995, "Showgirls" was a very big deal and an extremely serious motion picture. Coming off the astonishing success of their smoldering thriller, "Basic Instinct," director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas paired up again to investigate that abyssal trench of sin: Las Vegas. Presented with a hefty budget, an eye-catching cast, and a no-questions-asked use of the NC-17 rating by a major studio, "Showgirls" was ready to break new ground in adult-minded cinema, making sex a major moviegoing event. But we all know how that turned out. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1961's "Gorgo" is largely remembered as the giant monster movie with a heart. There's plenty of destruction in the feature, and even human death, but the production attempts to soften kaiju motivation, making the film more about an angry mother than a more traditional raging beast. Directed by Eugene Lourie, "Gorgo" has a unique personality and interesting locations, taking the action to an Irish island before unleashing mayhem in London, and, as giant monster entertainment goes, there's some inviting man-in-suit work and miniature construction, acting to balance out some of the cruder special effects of the day. The endeavor certainly loses any sense of timing in the final act, but Lourie has command over the tone of the effort, creating genuinely compelling chaos in a subgenre that's often loaded with more generic pandemonium. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1989 was an incredible year for filmgoing, but it was also a strange year for releases. Suddenly, various producers and studios wanted to participate in a type of gold rush, with tales of horror and mystery involving an underwater setting all the rage. This wasn't a usual situation of competing productions (e.g. an "Antz" vs. "A Bug's Life" showdown), but a semi-quarterly event for movie theaters and video stores. The big one was James Cameron's masterful "The Abyss," which had a major budget and full studio support, gunning to be one of the major triumphs of a highly competitive summer. However, other efforts emerged, trying to capture the same audience, with "Deep Star Six," "Leviathan," and "The Evil Below" all attempting to bring the dangers of deep water to viewers perhaps slightly confused as to why there was suddenly a stampede of aquatic endeavors demanding their attention. Never one to leave a dime behind, producer Roger Corman wanted in on the trend, offering "Lords of the Deep" to the masses. Corman being Corman, little money has been spent on the feature, which boasts the talents of people involved with "Aliens" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" to deliver special effects, coming up with a small-scale understanding of an alien visitation, mixed with a little corporate menace. "Lords of the Deep" is very silly, but director Mary Ann Fisher (this being her sole helming credit) at least tries to do something with what little she has to work with, trying to summon suspense with minor moments of alarm, gradually building to a sci-fi payoff that's hilariously short on epic qualities. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If 1992's "Dr. Giggles" wasn't enough of a shocking viewing experience, die-hard horror fans are offered a slightly similar endeavor in 1995's "Sawbones," a Roger Corman production that originally aired on Showtime. Once again, there's a madman with daddy issues targeting special victims used for surgical purposes, with the creep indulging an interest in body horror to scratch a highly specific itch of human suffering. The pictures aren't identical, but they share the same idea, with "Sawbones" trying to be more of a detective story, setting up a young office clerk with instincts for investigation and the fatigued cop who's one step behind the carnage. The screenplay by Sam Montgomery ("U-571," "Breakdown") makes some effort to be a twisty, tortured chiller highlighting frustrated characters dealing with their issues in all the wrong ways, but director Catherine Cyran ("The Prince & Me II: Royal Wedding," "The Prince & Me 3: A Royal Honeymoon," and "The Prince & Me: The Elephant Adventure") goes the B-movie route with the film. The helmer keeps the feature crude and deflated when it comes to suspense, and she's also struggling to fill the run time, padding the event with lengthy surgical nightmare sequences that always bring the tale to a full stop. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Teen horndog cinema goes to the afterlife in 1985's "School Spirit." Or, at least some of the way there. It's a ghost story from screenwriter Geoffrey Baere, who isn't making a horror film, but something incredibly sillier, using the post-death experience of a college student to dream up all kinds of high jinks, slapstick confrontations, and opportunities for nudity, trying to do his part for producer Roger Corman and his interest in the R-rated adolescent comedy market. "School Spirit" has everything one expects from this type of production, but there's a distinct lack of likability with the lead character and his strange determination to treat people like garbage, with Baere looking to make the man a hero of sorts. It's the first of many creative miscalculations with this feature, which isn't nearly as fun as it should be, caught trying to be a party animal movie without putting in the time to generate endearing goons to cheer on. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

War is Hell. And it's potentially profitable for moviemakers. Stepping away from their usual "mockbuster" routine (including "Top Gunner," "Planet Dune," "Battle Star Wars," and "Independents' Day"), production company The Asylum looks to celebrate U.S.A. heroism in World War II with "Assault on Hill 400," which attempts to recreate the spirit of an endeavor from the 1940s, but retains the appearance of a low-budget effort from 2023. Director Christopher Ray ("3-Headed Shark Attack," "Dick Dickster") and writer George Clymer ("The Rebels of PT-218") strive to offer a respectful understanding of military danger and camaraderie, and that intent gets the movie to a certain level of engagement. However, silliness is unavoidable with some creative choices, and the general backyard atmosphere of "Assault on Hill 400" doesn't provide an epic cinematic quality to help bring the story to life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Anthology horror comes to the world of shot-on-video entertainment with 1997's "Guilty Pleasures." Directors Joe Zaso and Joseph F. Parda bring a pair of short stories to life with "Nocturnal Emissions" and "Method to the Madness," which lean toward a "Twilight Zone"-style approach to twists and terror, but mostly serve as a way for the helmers to celebrate the work of Dario Argento and deliver some sexploitation. It's a double feature of sorts, but the material certainly doesn't earn the run time, with the filmmakers generally ignoring the art of editing as they drag out simple ideas for psychological breakdowns, believing the longer the movie, the better it is. That's not the case here, as some genuine SOV ambition is slowly buried by punishing overlength. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Brad Sykes goes the shot-on-video route with "The Pact," which was created in 1995 and released in 2013. It's a ghost story in a way, with the tale examining a young woman's experience with an inherited house, trying to learn more about its previous inhabitant and her own family history with the property. Sykes isn't too ambitious with the endeavor, aiming to keep things modest in terms of story and scares. There are technical limitations as well, with the push to be spooky greatly diminished by the severely limited look of the movie, which resembles a student project. "The Pact" isn't frightening, but worse, it's not interesting, as Sykes is simply trying to put the effort together, not refine it in any way, leading to a glacial viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Horror doesn't have a home, but it has a vacation destination in Florida, with the state providing a setting for genre moviemakers to raise some hell. It's been going on for over 60 years, and perhaps nobody has noticed, but director Sean Donohue is eager to identify such a legacy with his documentary, "Blood, Guts, and Sunshine," which explores the history of the Florida horror scene and identifies many of its participants, looking to boost awareness of filmmakers and films that aren't known beyond cult appreciation, and even that's a stretch for some of these titles. Donohue is serious about his details, asking viewers to spend 127 minutes on the topic, winding through the years as he highlights certain creative achievements and the behind-the-scenes characters that bring them to life. It's a wild ride for about an hour, with fatigue eventually overtaking the viewing experience as self-promotion starts to seep into the feature. Donohue still has plenty of highlights to share about the state and its participation in genre events, offering just enough interesting information to pass. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The world is in ruins in 2003's "Sixteen Tongues," but we don't get to see it. It's a shot-on-video production from writer/director Scooter McCrae, and he doesn't have the money to explore just how awful things have become for humanity. Instead, he remains in the tight confines of hotel rooms with the picture, which follows three characters in extreme states of agitation, each dealing with their own psychological and corporeal corruption as they navigate a corrosive reality that's soaked in pornography. "Sixteen Tongues" has some ambition to be wild with characters and explicit with its visuals, but it's hard to shake the inertia of the endeavor, with McCrae trying to stretch what appears to be an idea built for a short film into a feature-length presentation of madness. Some spikes of extremity work as intended, but the helmer doesn't have enough story to carry the viewing experience, and the general vibe of the shot-on-video effort tends to register more as a private fetish video than a bold creative statement. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1990's "Undeclared War" is something of a take on "The Day of the Jackal," with the material exploring the ways of an assassin and his elusive presence on the international scene, inspiring law enforcement types to find him before he kills again. There's an opening for a political thriller, but director Ringo Lam doesn't have the patience for that, going after big action and short tempers with the endeavor. Guns blaze in "Undeclared War," which has a defined villain and a clear quest for its protagonist, and the violence of the feature is periodically thrilling, sold with attention to mayhem and bodily destruction. Dramatically, the effort lacks focus, dealing with cop cliches and a tangled sense of allegiances, with the central drive for a revenge story losing its potency as the movie makes its way through an overlong tale of rage and terrorism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

We all know the story. In 1975, "Jaws" was released, becoming a box office sensation, thrilling summer audiences with spills and chills, rich characterization, and a premise virtually guaranteeing a thrill ride at the theater. The movie helped to change the way Hollywood did business, and it introduced the world to the directorial mastery of Steven Spielberg. The classic's legacy carries on to this day, with rereleases common and merchandise plentiful, giving generational lift to the endeavor, which has been a popular, in-demand feature for nearly 50 years. Global film industries took notice, and they quickly began work on knockoffs, desperate to sweep up the coins Universal Pictures left behind when dealing with the unexpected explosion of "Jaws"-mania. 1979's "Crocodile" (a.k.a. "Crocodile Fangs") is a Korean-Thai production hoping to bring monster-from-the- deep energy to the screen once again, this time using a giant reptile juiced up on atomic radiation to bring horror to fishing communities. "Crocodile" has more in common with "Godzilla," but finding a specific moviemaking approach to this absolute mess of a picture is the real viewing challenge here, with the effort sloppily stitching together vague story ideas and not-really-special effects with hopes that something resembling a coherent product will materialize in the end. It doesn't. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

High school can be a special time for some students. It can be Hell on Earth for others. For creators Ethan Eng and Justin Morrice, life in Cawthra Secondary School is somewhere in the middle, with the teenagers looking to capture their final year of education and camaraderie by showcasing the "truth about high school," with "Therapy Dogs" sold to staff and students as a "senior video" project, allowing them to roam the halls with cameras. It's a simple idea, but a question of reality remains with the endeavor, which isn't a documentary and doesn't qualify as drama, with the feature primarily built out of horseplay and staged incidents. There's no profound understanding of adolescence, and artfulness is limited at best, with Eng and Morrice basically making a skateboard video with occasional breaks for honest observation, trying to sell a scattered, occasionally tedious study of low impulse control as an epic examination of what it's like to grow up, get real, and enjoy one last year of educational and social opportunities. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com