Friday November 9 through Thursday November 15, 2007

Friday, November 9, 2007
Kingdom of the Vampires - 1991 original

Ahhh, a Tempe movie shot on video by J.R. Bookwalter. Good times! Not nearly as terrible as his "Bad Movie Police" flicks. Kind of an interesting take on vampires.

Commentary by JR himself. Some historical, some technical, and very self-depreciating. The making of this movie sounds like such a nightmare, so many problems.

Kingdom of the Vampires - 2007 remake

Slicker, but not necessarily better. Better soundtrack, but acting no better. Female lead is hotter, but if anything, a worse actor.

Saturday, November 10, 2007
Tales from the Crypt - 1972

Ahhh, an Amicus production. It's not quite Hammer, but they are always solidly built together. And this one features Joan Collins and Peter Cushing. Stories are simple, and the blood looks like red paint, but this is very nice. A classic anthology. But no extras on the disc besides subtitles.

Vault of Horror - 1973

Ladies and gentlemen, the third Doctor Who, Tom Baker. Equally nice, if a little predictable. Beautiful prints, the only drawback is it's mono sound.

Sunday, November 11, 2007
From Beyond - 1986

What a cast! Jeffrey Combs (my hero), Barbara Crampton (who was also in Re-Animator), and Ken Foree. And it all takes place on Benevolent St! I think Jeffrey's performance is right on. Manic, but not over the top. And this new release has some scenes that were not in my Hong Kong release. Bliss!

Commentary features director Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, and writer/producer Brian Yuzna. Shot in Rome, huh. I never would have thought that. This was nearly a perfectly balanced mixture of technical and historical.

Other extras include an Interview with director SG, and a very cool restoration featurette. Only the greatness of this movie keeps this from being worth the cost of the DVD itself.

Monday, November 12, 2007
The Blood Shed - 2007

Off the chart! OMG, the meal scene 15 minutes in may be the most disgusting thing I've seen in months. IMDB has this classified as Horror only, but I could make a strong case that it's a Horror/Comedy. As horror alone it fails utterly. As a satire on Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it's pretty good.

Commentary has writer/director & star Alan Rowe Kelly , DP Bart Mastronardi , actors Jerry Murdock and composer Tom Burns . The most interesting thing is the complete mystery surrounding the sex of director & star ARK. Pics on IMDB would lead you to believe woman, but the name is Alan. TV? I can't tell. Sounds like a gay guy, but all pics look SO like a woman I got nothin'.

MST3K Vol 12, Disc 1 - E419 - The Rebel Set - 1959

Pretty dull, actually. Certainly not the best MST3K episode ever set to DVD. It did pick up towards the end. "Who is Merritt Stone?"

Special features include a Rap with Don Sullivan, actor from Rebel Set, who remembers what it was like. A surprising feature for a MST3K disc.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007
MST3K Vol 12, Disc 2 - E504 - Secret Agent Super Dragon - 1966 (French)

A truly terrible movie, with truly great riffing! This one is a perfect example of why we love bad movies and MST3K. Hard to believe that the director of this tripe (Calvin Jackson Padget, who is really Giorgio Ferroni) also wrote and directed Mill of the Stone Women .

Extra is the Jack Perkins wraps for the MST3K Hour.

MST3K Vol 12, Disc 3 - E612 - The Starfighters - 1964

OMG, is this movie dull. Who wants to see these "dumber than a box of rocks" pilots train? I pity the MST3K crew having to watch it multiple times.

Extra is the MST3K Jukebox Vol 3. featuring some wonderful songs such as "Creepy Girl", "Cosmic Freight Train", and one of my favorites "Sir Thomas Neville Servo Quartet".

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
MST3k Vol 12, Disc 4 - E811 - Parts: The Clonus Horror - 1979

At last, I see how the Spacegod children came into the possession of Pearl. I've seen E812 Crazy Mixed Up Creatures that Stopped Living and Became Zombies, which is a classic.

This was a fun experiment, because I've seen the Mondo Macabro disc of Clonus. It's better this way with Mike and the bots.

Extra includes an interview with director Robert Fiveson. Thanks the fans for supporting him in his copyright fight against The Island (which was, OBVIOUSLY, a rip off of this film). I believe that my discussion of that move is here in the archives somewhere.

Thursday, November 15, 2007
From Beyond the Grave - 1973

Yet another Amicus anthology, made the same year as Vault of Horror. The disc is subtitled, and the stories feature Peter Cushing (again), Donald Pleasance (yeah!), and David Warner. Fun, fun, fun.