Lifeforce (1985)

 

Arrow Films are releasing Tobe Hooper's deliriously entertaining LIFEFORCE in a brand new 4K restoration of not just the full and proper 116 minute cut but also the mucked about with yet fondly remembered by those of us who saw it at the cinema 1985 cut as well, and God bless them for it.

There are many who love LIFEFORCE - a number that has increased substantially since its original release - and those who don't. Much like the horror genre itself, it's almost impossible to explain to those who don't get its appeal just how wonderful it is, but let's have a go anyway.

LIFEFORCE is a film that, for seasoned aficionados of all things horror and British, always has something going on. Every minute has something to love, whether it's Henry Mancini's score (an odd and yet ultimately perfect choice of composer), the amazing special effects (that still hold up beautifully), or the sight of well-loved British character actors (Frank Finlay, Peter Firth, Michael Gothard, Aubrey Morris, Patrick Stewart, John Hallam, Jerome Willis, Nicholas Ball, John Woodnutt, John Forbes-Robertson) appearing in a horror film that cost nearly three times as much to make as STAR WARS. Have I mentioned Mathilda May? I don't really need to, do I?

The last 30 minutes is an absolute triumph of special effects, film editing and musical scoring as we see the London Underground, double decker buses and even St Paul's filled with zombies and all blown to bits. If you've watched this with an audience you'll know to cheer along with the perfunctory to occasionally downright odd dialogue because that's just all part of the fun. 

So what do we get in Arrow's two disc UHD set? Well for a start all the extras on Arrow's two disc 2013 Blu-ray release have been ported over, so we get all three commentary tracks (Tobe Hooper, FX artist Douglas Smith, Make Up FX artist Nick Maley, also of INSEMINOID fame) on disc one, plus the 70 minute making of which is essential viewing, in fact if you've not seen the film before it might be a good place to start. There are also interviews with Hooper (10 minutes), star Steve Railsback (7 minutes) and Mathilda May (15 minutes). You also get textless opening and closing credits and a trailer.

Disc two gives us the 101 minute version released to UK cinemas which, importantly, is worth watching if for nothing else the Michael Kamen score that was used to paper over the cracks of the edits. Extras on this disc are the new additions, and include 45 minutes of interview footage from Mark Hartley's documentary ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS, including Tobe Hooper, screenwriter Michael Armstrong, editor John Grover and sound designer Vernon Messenger. Also new is a scene by scene comparison between LIFEFORCE proper and its frankly bizarre US TV edit which was only 93 minutes long and spent too much time on Mathilda May's zoomed in face. Watch and chuckle.

Finally, there's a collector's booklet on the film with new writing by Frank Collins (not supplied for review so I have no idea if the original booklet material from the Blu-ray release has been retained or not).

Tobe Hooper's magnificent (because Oh Yes It Is) LIFEFORCE is out on 4K UHD in a two disc set on Monday 17th February 2025 

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

It’s hard to believe it’s now forty years since the Greater London Council felt able to grant an ‘X’ certificate to Tobe Hooper’s seminal, relentless, gut-churning horror picture, while it remained banned in the rest of the UK. Since then a lot has changed, but it’s a delight to report that Hooper’s film hasn’t. In fact if anything, the numerous sequels, retreads, revisions and remakes have only served to prove how very good a film it is. Its own director has never come close to reproducing the sense of horror some of the scenes are still capable of evoking, and the movie can in many ways be considered a career best for all concerned. Over the years since it was first released THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (as the onscreen title would have it) has become a classic, not just of the horror genre but of cinema, such that it’s hard to believe there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know what the film is about.

Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), her wheelchair-bound brother Franklin (Paul Partain) and her hippy friends travel in their hippy bus to visit the grave of Sally’s grandfather. Something horrible has been left in the graveyard and it’s virtually the first thing we see in the film (and all the more drippy in Blu-ray). They pick up a deranged hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) whom they quickly dump, and when they run out of petrol they call at a house that just happens to be home to a family of crazed ex-slaughterhouse employees. They get bumped off one by one until only Sally is left to be served up as a potential dinner to their one hundred year plus year old grandpa. 

Imitated to well past the point when people should have just given up and never, ever equalled, all the rip-off merchants missed the point of TCM, just like they missed the point of John Carpenter’s later HALLOWEEN. Yes, there are murders and yes, the family are raving mad, but Hooper’s film gets everything right that TCM’s imitators either got wrong or couldn’t be bothered with. The killings are probably the most horrible bloodless deaths I’ve still ever seen in a film, and the true horror comes not from excessive blood and gore, but from the implication of what these people have been doing and how they lead what to them is a normal life. Some absolutely brilliant editing helps as well. Then there’s the ‘music’ - never have scrapes, atonal noises and deep synthesised buzzing sounds been so well used in a genre film. 

Second Sight’s Blu-ray is spot on. For those of you worried that a Blu-ray transfer would make the image look too clean and sparkling worry not - this is the TCM you know and love and are terrified by every time you watch it - with every bit of grain and grunge preserved. I suspect this is the best they could get the film to look and if that’s the case we can be grateful - TCM shouldn’t ever look pristine and this transfer does it perfect justice.

There are more extras than can fit on a single Blu-ray disc and so we have two. TCM has been released so many times that the extras are now starting to compete with LORD OF THE RINGS. So what’s new on this version? Well, we get two new commentary tracks - one from Tobe Hooper and another featuring Daniel Pearl (DP), Ted Nicolaou (sound recorder) and J Larry Carroll (editor). There’s also a new short interview with Carroll and another with John Dugan, who played Grandpa. Both a worth a look, with the Dugan one funny and touching by turns. ‘Horror’s Hallowed Grounds’ is a 2006 edition of a TV programme in which the TCM locations  are visited, and there are some newly found deleted scenes and out-takes as well.

Other extras ported over from previous releases include David Gregory’s documentary ‘The Shocking Truth’ and two commentary tracks - one with Hooper, Hansen and Pearl, the other with Marilyn Burns, actors Allen Danziger and Paul Partain, and art director Bob Burns. There are also interviews with Tobe Hooper, Kim Henkel, Teri McMinn and production manager Ron Bozman, a tour of the TCM house with Gunnar Hansen, the ‘Flesh Wounds’ featurette and assorted deleted scenes, out-takes, trailers, TV and radio spots. Oh, and if you feel so inclined, it all comes in a lovely steelbook - what more could you possibly want? 

Second Sight are releasing Tobe Hooper's THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE on Region B Blu-ray in a two-disc limited edition steelbook and two-disc standard edition formats on 17th November 2014

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)

Most people would agree that THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is an all-time gruelling cult horror classic. Some would argue (quite reasonably) that its director Tobe Hooper hasn’t made anything comparable since. In the mid-1980s Hooper was offered a three picture deal by Cannon. Instead of running as fast as possible in the opposite direction (this is the company which, we must remember, made RUNAWAY TRAIN as well as BREAKDANCE 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO) he embraced his new financiers with gusto and set about creating three crazy movies, at least two of which turned out to be quite unique examples of the film-maker’s art (I’ve yet to watch INVADERS FROM MARS, but LIFEFORCE certainly qualifies as both unique and crazy).

But the question on everyone’s lips, and probably Hooper’s himself was, if he was to honour his contract and make a sequel to TEXAS CHAINSAW, how was he going to go about it? The resultant movie is probably the best anyone could have hoped for. Instead of grim and gruelling (although there’s certainly some of that in evidence) Hooper opted for hysterically over the top craziness, piling on the gags, encouraging his performers to overact, and setting half the film in an abandoned amusement park that wouldn’t be out of place in a gore-drenched episode of SCOOBY DOO.

The film didn’t sit well with everyone, unfortunately, and not least many fans of the original. Even they, however, couldn't have complained too much at the movie’s opening. A couple of unlikeable yuppies find more than they bargained for as their car crosses a bridge on which a pickup truck is lurking. The image of Leatherface, holding the mummified body of Edwin Neal’s hitchhiker character from part one, and not just standing but dancing, is a fantastic start to the film and a fine way to reintroduce such an iconic character. The two victims are taking part in a radio phone-in show at the time the mayhem begins and so DJ Stretch (Caroline Williams) ends up witnessing their murder over the airwaves. Along with Lefty Enright (Dennis Hopper) a man on a mission of vengeance for the murder of two of his relatives from the first film, Stretch gets drawn into the hideous and completely crackers world of the Sawyer family, who are now winning prizes for their chilli. “It’s the meat!” cackles Jim Siedow in one of the least understated performances in horror cinema. 

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 is a crazy film, but it’s good crazy, and even though some of the acting is a bit too much over the top, their are fine turns from both Caroline Williams and the remarkable Bill Moseley as Chop Top, who delivers a truly disturbing performance that effectively steals the film. TCM 2 is one to be approached with caution, both by fans of the original and those new to the franchise. You may well love it, but the mixture of outrageous gore and even more outrageous silliness might not sit well with those expecting something far darker.

Once again, Arrow have pulled out all the stops in an attempt to produce the ultimate collector’s edition of a cult film. As well as a Tobe Hooper commentary from 2006 (moderated by David Gregory) there’s an ‘actor’s commentary’ as well. This one’s moderated by Michael Felsher and features Caroline Williams, Bill Moseley and Tom Savini having what sounds like a party in the recording studio. It Runs in the Family is a ninety minute documentary broken up into six parts and featuring interviews with the cast and crew. In Still Feeling The Buzz Stephen Thrower talks for a good half an hour about the making of the movie and its importance as a piece of popular culture. Cutting Moments gives us a short interview with Bob Elmore, who was the stuntman for Leatherface on the picture. There’s also an alternate opening title sequence, some deleted scenes and a trailer. A second disc is a treasure trove of Hooper bits and pieces. First off is THE HEISTERS, which is a whacky ten minute romp, followed by EGGSHELLS, Hooper’s early feature length movie about hippies. This one’s for the true Hooper obsessives only, but at least it’s there if you want it. Rounding out the second disc is an exhaustive trailer reel for Tobe Hooper’s film projects, some of which I had never heard of and will probably get round to seeing eventually, especially as one of them features what looks like a giant CGI crocodile.

Arrow Films will be releasing Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 on a three disc DVD and Blu-ray set on 11th November 2013