A byword for cheap and cheerful fantasy entertainment on VHS in the 1980s, five films from Charles Band's Empire Pictures are now being given the special treatment in a new Blu-ray box set from Arrow. So let's take a look at what's in the box:
Disc One: The Dungeonmaster (1984)
Otherwise known as RAGEWAR, THE DUNGEONMASTER is presented in three different versions on this disc: pre-release (the longest version that also happens to contain nudity not present otherwise), international and US theatrical, the differences with those last two being different orders to some of the film's sequences.
Computer wizard Paul Bradford (Jeffrey Byron) gets pulled into the world of evil actual wizard Mestema (Richard Moll) who sets him seven challenges, the prize being the life of both Paul and his girlfriend Gwen (Leslie Wing). Each of the challenges has a different writer and director, leading to THE DUNGEONMASTER feeling uneven at best and at worst somewhat longer than its actual 77 minutes. The highlight is probably David Allen's riff on Talos from JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS which stands out amongst all the stuff with rubber puppets and wandering around caves.
Extras kick off with a new commentary featuring star Jeffrey Byron and moderated by Dave Wain and Matty Budrewicz. Byron returns for a 15 minute interview and you also get two trailers and an image gallery.
Disc Two: Dolls (1987)
Little Judy Bower (Carrie Lorraine) and her awful parents (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon and Ian Patrick Williams) break down in the middle of nowhere. Pausing only to throw away Judy’s favourite teddy bear (which then comes back giant-sized to tear off Purdy-Gordon’s arm in a weird fantasy bit) the three of them break into a nearby house, only to be confronted by its owners, Gabriel and Hilary Hartwicke (Guy Rolfe and Hilary Mason, effortlessly showing up all the other ‘actors’ in this film). Gabriel is a toymaker whose dolls exhibit very special properties indeed, including giving Charles Band the idea for at least another twenty or so movies based on the concept.
Filmed before Stuart Gordon’s FROM BEYOND but released after because of the amount of post-production animation that was required, DOLLS was a curious follow-up to the director’s previous REANIMATOR. Like many an Empire picture it's only 77 minutes long. Sadly we get little explanation for why Rolfe and Mason would want to trap people and turn them into dolls which is a shame as it’s not as if this film is overlong and some fleshing out of their characters (and some more screen time) would have been most welcome.
Extras on Arrow's disc include three commentary tracks, one of which is new (from David DeCoteau) and two are archival (writer and director Ed Naha and Stuart Gordon on one, members of the vast on the other). Scream Factory's 2014 making of featurette has also been ported over, and there's a new 17 minute interview with editor Lee Percy. You also get three trailers, an image gallery and eight minutes of storyboard to scene comparison.
Disc Three: Cellar Dweller (1987)
Jeffery Combs, doing his very best ‘Herbert West - Animator’ here, plays comics artist Colin Childress in an extended cameo in an extended prologue. Colin is famous for drawing the ‘Cellar Dweller’ comic, which seems to feature nothing but the exploits of a big hairy monster that tears people apart. Colin draws the monster for what must be the thousandth time. It comes alive and attacks him. He burns down the house. Cue the credits, which last for ages to pad out the running time.
Thirty years later, Colin’s house has been turned into an Empire Films version of an art institute, which means it has a scantily clad girl with 1980s hair sitting on a kitchen table and beating eggs, a random assortment of actors playing students, some of whom look dangerously close to retirement age, and an at-the-end-of-her-career and-therefore-cheap Yvonne de Carlo presiding over them. Into this somewhat unrealistic milieu comes Deborah Mullowney, who looks as if she’s studying big hair and bigger ear-rings rather than the comic book art she claims (or acting for that matter).
Debs starts drawing Cellar Dweller. He pops up intermittently to eat people who have upset her slightly using his very rubbery jaws. There’s a girl in a shower. There’s a bloke with a mullet. There are some poor optical effects. Deborah and mullet-boy try and get rid of Cellar Dweller. There’s a twist. The film ends. I really can’t think of anything else to say about it. In fact I've probably said too much already.
If CELLAR DWELLER isn't a very good film (and it isn't) the extras on Arrow's Blu-ray are. There's a new commentary with Michael Deaks (the man inside the monster costume) moderated by Dave Wain and Matty Budrewicz. Deaks returns for a 16 minute interview while Wain and Budrewicz pop up again to give us and enthusiastic and affectionate tribute to CELLAR DWELLER director John Carl Buechler. Finally there are two trailer reels for Empire Pictures product, running 28 minutes in total and a real blast of nostalgia for those of us who likely saw them many times on Entertainment In Video releases back in the day.
Disc Four: Arena (1989)
A pitch from Charles Band about wanting a 'wrestling movie in space' led to writing team who gave us TRANCERS and ELIMINATORS (Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo) coming up with the script for ARENA, even if, according to Bilson on one of the extras, not a lot of their script actually made it to the screen. Steve Armstrong (Paul Satterfield), in need of money owed to the evil Mr Rogor (Marc Alaimo) agrees to be the new fighter for Quinn (Claudia Christian) in the biggest tournament in the galaxy. But needless to say Rogor with the aid of sidekick Weezil (Armin Shimmerman) is determined to see him fail.
ARENA is directed by Peter Manoogian who was also responsible for ELIMINATORS and while this isn't as good as that extremely entertaining comic book picture, it's still a pretty good time and definitely one of the highlights of the set. The only available source was a 35mm theatrical print so the transfer isn't top quality and because of 'difference in colour grading' we get the full frame version as an extra as well.
Other extras include a Manoogian commentary moderated once more by by Dave Wain and Matty Budrewicz. Writer Danny Bilson's 15 minute reminiscence of working for Empire is a must watch, and Michael Deak pops back up on this disc as well (he plays Arena champion Horn in the film) to talk about his role and some of the special effects. Finally you get a couple of trailers and an image gallery.
Disc Five: Robot Jox (1989)
The final film in the set might also be the best, both in terms of picture quality and actual quality. In a post apocalyptic future wars are no longer fought, the task instead performed by each nation being represented by a massive robot. Seeing as the only nations left appear to be the US and Russia that very handily means two robots (although in view of the events of the past few years it's probably good we didn't get to see a British one). Each robot is piloted by a single individual. For the US it's Achilles (Gary Graham) while the Russian pilot is Alexander (Paul Koslo) who swears to destroy Achilles when the two of them fight over the future of Alaska.
ROBOT JOX is directed by Stuart Gordon which means acting and characterisation are above par, even if the plot is rather slight. The robots themselves are well-rendered with stop-motion animation, lending them a ROBOCOP ED-209 feel. In fact the whole film has a (very slight) ROBOCOP feel to it in terms of its vision of a future filled with grey concrete, matte paintings and stop-motion.
Extras consist of two audio commentaries, both of them archival. One is from Stuart Gordon, the other from three members of the visual effects team. New material for this release includes interviews with stars Gary Graham and Anne-Marie Johnson, and a 26 minute appreciation of stop-motion expert David Allen by some of the effects wizzes who knew him. There's an archival interview with Paul Koslo, eight minutes of behind the scenes photos - models, concept art, etc, plus a trailer, image galleries, and publicity material.
Finally, the set comes with double-sided posters for each film, 15 art cards, an 80 page book with new writing on the films and some other bits and pieces as well.
Enter the Video Store: Empire of Screams is out in a limited edition Blu-ray box set from Arrow on Monday 26th June 2023
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