Preacher (2016)

“Twin Peaks - Texas Style!”

Well the start of this one certainly feels like it. Courtesy of Sony Pictures, here comes the first season of PREACHER, an adaptation of writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon’s Vertigo comic book series of the same name.

Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) is the preacher in a small Texas town. He styles his hair similar to Jack Nance in ERASERHEAD (another Lynch connection?), and has a Dark and Mysterious past, which he shared with his ex girlfriend Tulip (Ruth Negga). She arrives back in his life about the same time an Irish vampire called Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) jumps 30 000 feet from an aeroplane and lands with a splat in a nearby field, pausing only to eat an inquisitive cow in order to reconstitute himself.

But it’s not just in Texas that odd things are happening. An African preacher, a priest of the Church of Satan, and Tom Cruise all explode, and before you can say “I beg your pardon?” Jesse has been possessed by the same extra-terrestrial force that did them in. He doesn’t explode, though. Instead it gives him the ability to control others by simply telling them what to do. This results in a chap cutting out his own heart and giving it to his mother (a bit of a mistake, that one,) and a local girl in a coma opening her eyes for the first time in months. And there are even bigger things planned for Jesse and his friends. 

PREACHER starts off really well. There are plenty of quirky characters with interesting back stories, some good acting (Jackie Earle Haley turns up as the evil boss behind the local ‘Meat and Power’ company) and everyone has obviously tried to hard to give this a graphic novel ‘look’. Unfortunately, it does all start to drag a bit after that, with far too much talking and not enough weird things happening. Still, it is early days and apparently the second season premiere is set for 2017, so it may well pick up (the original comic book runs to over 70 issues).

Sony’s three disc Blu-ray and DVD release contains all ten episodes, with deleted and extended scenes, a piece on the stunts and more information on the pilot episode. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a gag reel, and a couple of featurettes - ‘Chainsaw Fight Breakdown’ and “Behind the Killing Machine’ which were not provided for review. 

Preacher Season One is out from Sony on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 17th October 2016

Burnt Offerings (1976)

“Oliver Reed Vs Haunted House” 

And you probably won’t guess who wins if you haven’t seen this, TV Movie maestro Dan Curtis’ shot at big screen haunted house horror, now given a new dual format Blu-ray and DVD release courtesy of Arrow Films.

The Rolf family (father Oliver Reed, mother Karen Black, aunt Bette Davis and son Lee Harcourt Montgomery from BEN and Curtis’ own DEAD OF NIGHT - the ‘Bobby’ episode) move into a remote country mansion for the summer. Even the presence of a flamboyantly eccentric and wheelchair-bound Burgess Meredith to help explain the (very low) rent doesn’t worry them, nor the knowledge that apparently the ancient and reclusive Mrs Allardyce will be living in the top room during their stay.

But they should be concerned, because while Mrs Allardyce is nowhere to be seen, Karen Black starts behaving as if the old lady is in fact there. Lee Montgomery ends up close to death on several occasions, Bette has a stroke and Oliver, while staying off the shandies (for the most part) starts to be haunted by visions of his mother’s funeral, and the scary chauffeur he remembers from it. Is Mrs Allardyce hiding somewhere in the house, or is it the building itself that’s the villain of the piece?

Dan Curtis was best known for TV horror. Movies like THE NIGHT STALKER, TRILOGY OF TERROR and DEAD OF NIGHT still evoke fond memories in horror fans. His soap opera DARK SHADOWS never made it over here but it was instrumental in making his name and giving him the chance to do other work within the genre. 

Unfortunately, with the transition to a lengthy cinema film (nearly two hours) Curtis does lose his way somewhat, with an idea that would be better suited to the shorter television format. Performances are all fine, as is the music by his regular composer Robert Cobert. But BURNT OFFERINGS still lacks something substantial enough to make the movie ultimately unsatisfactory. It’s not entirely a dead loss, but don’t go in expecting too much. Besides, there weren't many mid-1970s movies that boasted the technical credits of both Eugene GORGO Lourie as production designer and Jacques ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN Marquette as director of photography.

As always, Arrow have gone the extra mile to give their presentation of BURNT OFFERINGS some decent extras. There are two commentary tracks, one from Richard Harland Smith and a second from Dan Curtis, Karen Black and screenwriter William F Nolan. Nolan is also the subject of one of the featurettes in which he talks about his collaborations with the director. There’s also a great interview with Lee Montgomery, who shows us his signed script for the film. As well as that there's an interview with character actor Anthony James (who plays the chauffeur), plus a promotional gallery, reversible sleeve and new writing in a booklet that’s limited to the disc’s first pressing. 

Dan Curtis' BURNT OFFERINGS is coming out on Dual Format Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Films in Monday 17th October 2016

Stigmata (1999)

“Pop Video Horror - With Extra Dan Brown & Fighting Priests!”

Before director Rupert Wainwright made the rubbish remake of THE FOG (2005) and THE COLLECTED VIDEOS OF MC HAMMER (2002), and after producer Frank Mancuso Jr helped deliver numerous crappy FRIDAY THE 13TH sequels to an unsuspecting (and frequently unforgiving) public, the two combined their talents to make STIGMATA, now out in the UK on a dual format Blu-ray and DVD combo set from Eureka.

I know, it doesn’t sound terribly promising from the off, does it? Patricia Arquette’s the star of this one, playing Frankie Paige, hairdresser and atheist, who seems to keep an inordinate number of Ritz Cracker boxes in her flat (watch out for them as the camera closes in on her in bed early on). Frankie works at some kind of hairdressing salon-cum-tattoo parlour, goes to nightclubs and generally indulges in the kind of habits that suggest this film is trying terribly hard to make out she’s a bit of an edgy sort, when in fact the girls in a Rob Zombie picture would be overwhelmed by how hygienic and clean living she and her friends are.

Frankie starts to get stigmata. Punctures appear in her wrists, she is subject to a ghostly whipping on the underground, and hawthorn tree-like scratches appear on her forehead. What’s going on?

Evil Catholic Priest Head of the Vatican Jonathan Pryce (because you just know he’s going to be) despatches defrocked organic chemist and born again Catholic priest Gabriel Byrne to find out if there’s anything to ‘that CCTV video on the Pittsburgh subway’ (it must be a quiet week, potential miracle-wise).

Gabriel finds Patricia doing a sub-Italian EXORCIST routine while writing Aramaic on the walls of her flat. Could she be Jesus trying to communicate? Could this have anything to do with the mythical so-called Gospel of Jesus that Jonathan Pryce and his gang have been trying to suppress by excommunicating anyone who discovers anything about it? If this was an OMEN movie they would all have died in ludicrous but jolly creative deaths. But it isn’t, so instead we have to put up with Mr Wainwright’s rather overly flashy pop video way of telling this particular convoluted tale as the movie heads off with gay abandon into Dan Brown conspiracy theory territory.

STIGMATA is quite daft, and it gets dafter the more the film tries to explain itself. That's actually a shame as I was quite enjoying Ms Arquette bleeding for no reason and writing on walls until the explanation came along. It’s certainly not boring, though, and if you fancy something that’s a cross between one of David Seltzer’s TV God squad mini-series things like REVELATIONS (2005) minus Natascha McElhone’s sexy nun but with lots of extra Dan Brown and Catholic priests having a scrap you’ll have fun with this. I just wish FATHER TED had done a version of it.

Eureka’s release comes with a Rupert Wainwright commentary track, a making of, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, a music video with Natalie Imbruglia (now that takes me back), trailer and isolated music (some of which is by Billy Corgan) and effects track. 

Rupert Wainwright's STIGMATA is coming out from Eureka in a dual format DVD and Blu-ray set on Monday 17th October 2016

The Burning (1981)

“Shear Classic Slasher Horror”

A terrible pun hopefully appreciated by anyone familiar with this, Tony Maylam’s post FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) slasher created by Bob & Harvey Weinstein, and now given a limited edition steelbook (!) dual format release by Arrow.

Mean old Cropsy (Lou David) is the caretaker at Camp Blackfoot. Some students decide to scare him by placing a burning skull by his bedside close to the large can of kerosene he presumably keeps there for any midnight fuel emergencies.

In the tradition of the best public information films, Cropsy pays dearly for his improper storage of a flammable liquid, and ends up in a burns unit for five years before being wheeled to the door and bid a not-so-cheery farewell as he’s dumped on the streets of New York.

Understandably miffed by his lack of follow up in the community, and unable to express this as a result of his face resembling an unskilled five year old’s attempt at a papier mache Guy Fawkes before it goes on the bonfire, Cropsy takes out his frustrations on a prostitute before setting off for one of those US countryside summer camps we don’t have here in the UK and a bunch of teenagers on whom he can vent his rage that include Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens.

Sadly, despite gaining skills in canoeing, the use of certain garden tools and most of all, in creeping threateningly around a forest for lengthy periods of time without actually doing anything to anyone, Cropsy meets a grim end as he mistakenly messes about with a blowtorch in an abandoned mine - another public information lesson there, I think.

THE BURNING was one of a wave of movies that followed in the wake of Sean Cunningham’s FRIDAY THE 13TH and is neither the best nor the worst of them. With a bigger budget than many it comes across as rather more polished than some of the ropier efforts, and the standard of acting ranges from okay (the leads) to rubbish (where did they get that chap who works in the burns unit from?). The synth score by Rick Wakeman has been highly praised but I’ve always considered it mediocre at best in a decade that gave us the best work of composers like Fredric Myrow, Charles Bernstein, Richard Band and of course John Carpenter. 

The real star of THE BURNING is, of course, Tom Savini, whose ‘Grande Illusions’ as he called them in his book, are still a grisly joy to behold. Those who fondly remember THE BURNING from its initial (mistaken) uncut UK VHS release on the Thorn EMI label may be surprised to discover just how briefly these effects are seen.

Arrow’s Blu-ray of THE BURNING gives us an excellent transfer and plenty of extras, including three commentary tracks (one of which is new) and interviews with stars Lou David and Leah Ayres, editor Jack Sholder, makeup god Tom Savini and a new interview with composer Rick Wakeman, who is always good value and doesn’t disappoint here. You also get a trailer, image gallery and some behind the scenes stuff. The first pressing also comes with a booklet by Julian Kerswell. 

THE BURNING is getting a limited edition steelbook dual format release from Arrow on 10th October 2016. 

If you prefer to wait for the standard edition that will be out on 19th December 2016, just in time for Christmas! 

Bite (2015)

“A different kind of REPULSION”

Chad Archibald’s squishy subtextual horror picture, which received its premiere at London Frightfest last year in front of a sell-out crowd (I know because I was there), gets a UK DVD release from Second Sight.

Casey (Elma Bergovic) is about to get married. For her bachelorette party she travels with her two best friends to a resort ‘down south’ for sun, sea and booze. While there, as well as dancing, getting trashed and managing to lose most of her stuff (including her diamond engagement ring), Casey takes a dip in a natural pool and gets bitten on the bottom by something other than one of the local boys.

It’s when she gets back to her flat where both her fiance Jared (Jordan Gray) and his domineering mother live that the problems start. Although to be honest, Casey’s personal problems are actually already in full swing. She’s getting married in a week and she’s really not sure she wants to be. Jared wants kids and she doesn’t. Jared’s mother has forbidden him to have sex with her before marriage and he’s actually complied (always a worrying sign). Then to top it all, Casey starts to turn into an egg-laying insect monster thing.

Despite how I might have just sold it, BITE is not a comedy. Reviews have likened it to a Cronenberg picture, which it is on a superficial level (body horror, Casey vomits liquid that dissolves flesh) but in actual fact the movie’s style has far more in common with early Polanski. Early on Casey ends up trapped in her flat as her transformation begins, her change quite possibly instigated not so much by a tropical insect bite but rather by the social pressures that have culminated in her no longer being able to cope with the future life she is being forced into by those around her. As those social pressures intrude on her new life, she kills them. 

For much of BITE‘s running time I was expecting the film to reveal that the gloopy, slimy, egg-covered nightmare that Casey’s flat becomes was actually all in her head. The ending scuppers that idea, but I just wonder if that’s what writer-director Chad Archibald was aiming for - a character study of a woman pressured by society to adopt the traditional roles she isn’t yet ready for and indeed may never be, and the horror that ensues when it becomes obvious that’s not going to happen. In this way, BITE is more art house than exploitation horror, and as such is definitely worthy of attention. 

Second Sight’s DVD has no extras (boo!) apart from two sound options. A director’s commentary for this one would have been very much appreciated. 

BITE is out from Second Sight on UK DVD on 
Monday 10th October 2016

Observance (2015)

“Time for Some of the Freaky Stuff”

         Receiving its UK premiere at last year’s London Film Festival, Joseph Sims-Dennett’s disturbing, challenging dissertation on madness, loss and the nature of identity gets a UK DVD release courtesy of Soda Pictures.

         Parker (Lindsay Farris) is in a bad way. Separated from his wife and still haunted by disturbing, frequently monstrous images after the death of his young son, he takes a job as a private investigator, hired to observe the comings and goings of a young blonde woman.

He is set up by his employer in a flat across the street, communicating with them only by telephone, and using a variety of surveillance devices (cameras, microphones) to record her every movement. As one day follows another, Parker becomes suspicious that something very strange is going on. Meanwhile his nightmarish visions are worsening, the room in which he is holed up seems to be taking on the same state of disrepair as his increasingly fragmenting sanity, and ‘something’ may be leaving ‘offerings’ of dead animals - but what?

         There are no easy answers in this one, and whether or not OBSERVANCE will be for you will depend on if that's your thing. Think of a very low-budget version of Denis Villeneuve’s ENEMY (2013) with the dream-cum-nightmare enigmatic atmosphere of  Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s EVOLUTION (2015). If you liked those then you’ll want to give OBSERVANCE a viewing. I can honestly say I didn’t really know what was going on. The film is part REAR WINDOW in reverse - a kind of extreme psychological horror version of Hitchcock’s film, while asking all kinds of questions about who we are, who is watching whom, and whether or not it is possible for some people to ever recover from the kind of devastating grief that Parker has suffered.

Soda Pictures’ DVD comes with a trailer and a tiny featurette that’s worth a look as it gives you some more insight into the movie and the director’s intentions. Don’t expect anything to be explained, though, because the main aim is quite obviously for you to have to do that yourself. 

Joseph Sims-Dennett's enigmatic and weird OBSERVANCE comes out on DVD from Soda Pictures on Monday 10th October 2016

The Windmill Massacre (2016)

“Terrifically Enjoyable EuroHorror With A Cast of Familiar Faces”

After its premiere at this year’s London Frightfest, Netherlands-filmed supernatural horror picture THE WINDMILL MASSACRE gets a UK DVD release from Kaleidoscope.

Amsterdam. Jennifer (Charlotte Beaumont from BROADCHURCH and JUPITER ASCENDING) is working illegally as an au pair. When she gets rumbled she has nowhere to go and ends up boarding the creepy clapped out Happy Holland tour bus. The driver isn’t too bothered that she hasn’t got a ticket, which means she really should be. 

         She’s joined in the bus by an irritable business man (Patrick Baladi from THE OFFICE and BODIES) and his son as well as a cocaine-addicted art enthusiast with a shady past (Noah Taylor from GAME OF THRONES), an ex-model trying to make it as a photographer (Fiona Hampton), a Japanese tourist mourning the death of his grandmother (Tanroh Ishida) and a marine (Ben Batt) who has done something unspeakably violent to a prostitute and is on the run just like Jennifer.

Off they all go into the land of polders and windmills!

The bus breaks down.

It gets dark.

There’s a windmill.

It’s not on any maps.

Every passenger has a terrible secret and soon, something horrible is picking them off one by one. 

         A very well-made mixture of Agatha Christie and Amicus anthology movie, THE WINDMILL MASSACRE is going to remind fans of classic EuroHorror of Jean Brismée’s 1971 Belgian horror THE DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE in which seven tourists find themselves on a bus driven by death himself, or Leon Klimovsky’s 1974 Spanish THE VAMPIRES’ NIGHT ORGY, where tourists on a bus encounter scary stuff in a grotty old village.

         Originally called THE WINDMILL the retitling is sensible seeing as a Dutch film with that title doesn’t immediately suggest a picture filled with gallons of stage blood (all CGI free - hooray!). WINDMILL MASSACRE is well written, well acted, well directed, and deserving of at least a couple of viewings to pick up on all the clever stuff at the beginning. The director, by the way, produced the equally entertaining FRANKENSTEIN’S ARMY a couple of years ago. Kaleidoscope’s DVD offers a director’s commentary as an extra, along with a short behind the scenes piece and sixteen minutes of ‘B-Roll’ footage. 

THE WINDMILL MASSACRE is out on UK DVD from Kaleidoscope on 3rd October 2016