The Bloodhound (2020)

 

"Eerie Poe-Inspired Art House Horror"

Arrow are releasing writer-director Patrick Picard's singular take on Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher on Blu-ray after its UK premiere on the Arrow channel.

Francis (Liam Aiken) destitute to the point of near homelessness and with his few belongings in storage, receives an invitation from his wealthy childhood friend Jean Paul (JP) Luret (Joe Adler) whom he hasn't seen in years. 

As soon as Francis arrives at Luret's house things are strange. Luret's sister Vivian (Annalise Basso from Mike Flanagan's OCULUS and OUIJA 2) keeps herself locked in a downstairs room and refuses to come out, while JP himself admits it is years since he has left the building, instead having food and other supplies delivered. 

JP wants to rekindle his and Francis' childhood friendship - he cooks Francis' favourite food (if buttered toast really is) and the two play fight inside sleeping bags. But JP has a cruel streak, exhibited when Francis goes to a vault beneath the house for champagne and ends up locked in. So what's really going on? And who is the masked figure that's crawling around JP's house (the Bloodhound of the title)?

Well, it's going to be up to you to decide because THE BLOODHOUND offers more questions than answers. If you're familiar with the Poe story that won't help as it's just the jumping off point for Picard's examination of friendships lost and how we change, both physically and mentally, to the point where old friends become unrecognisable. Is JP even rich? His house looks like the corridors and bedrooms of a university hall of residence, admittedly one with boxes of money stashed everywhere in keeping with JP's eccentricity.

Arrow's disc comes with four Picard short projects, which are very short indeed (about a minute) and are experimental abstracts rather than narrative in nature. There's also a commentary track from the director and his editor David Scorca as well as a 45 minute making of.  The first pressing of the disc also comes with a booklet with new writing on the film from Anton Bitel.

Patrick Picard's THE BLOODHOUND is out on Blu-ray from Arrow on Monday 22nd March 2021

Sacrifice (2020)

 

Probably still best known for her star turn in Stuart Gordon's 1985 REANIMATOR, Barbara Crampton has been quite the festival favourite of the last few years, appearing in all manner of low budget fare from the impenetrably art house (SUNCHOKE) to the frankly daft (PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH). While some of the films have been (to put it kindly) rather below par, her performances in them have always been consummately professional, frequently delivered with an effective and deliciously sinister edge.

In Andy Collier and Tor Mian's film SACRIFICE, getting a release in the UK from 101 Films, she plays a police officer for a small Norwegian village who is keen to question Isaac Pitman (aha!) who has returned home after his mother took him away 25 years ago. There are Cthulhoid statues on sale in the local shop (aha again!) and a cult devoted to something the locals call 'The Slumbering One'. Is Isaac (Ludovic Hughes) going to start growing gills or is the cult more interested in his very pregnant wife Emma (Sophie Stevens)?

SACRIFICE premiered at last year's Frightfest where it became known as 'the one where there's a shot of eggs being boiled from underneath', which indeed there is. It boasts some terrific locations and for such an obviously ultra low budget affair the direction is competent (and believe me that's not always in the case with films that make it into festivals - even Frightfest). In an era when many movies of this type just scrape past the 74 minute mark it seems a shame to suggest that the 87 minute running time of this one could have been tightened up a bit, but there are just a few too many dialogue scenes which feel drawn out, too many sequences with the same 'it was just a dream' punchline, and nowhere near enough made of the potential to build what could have been some great atmosphere, especially in the scenes with the cultists.

Barbara Crampton's performance is excellent (she always gives it her all and what a treasure she is) and there are some refreshingly different locations for the Deep Ones to be hanging out in (or is that under) but ultimately SACRIFICE is just a bit too rough around the edges (and not in a Chad Ferrin's THE DEEP ONES kind of way way) for it to qualify as top tier Lovecraft-inspired horror. 

SACRIFICE is getting a digital release from 101 Films on Monday 15th March 2021

Viy (1967) and Sveto Mesto (1990)

 

Russian author Nikolai Gogol (1809 - 1852) wrote some cracking tales of the macabre, and his work has been adapted for the screen more times than many may realise. The most recent is eight part Russian TV series GOGOL (2017 - 2019) which you can find on Amazon Prime. Before that came Oleg Stepchenko's adaptation of the short story Viy titled FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (2014) starring Jason Flemyng, a film so successful VIY 3 is now filming with the same director and star.

Before all of these, Gogol's most adapted short story was the subject of both the first horror film made in Soviet Russian - VIY (1967) and a Yugoslavian adaptation in 1990, SVETO MESTO aka A HOLY PLACE. Both of these films are getting a Blu-ray release courtesy of Eureka films in a limited edition two disc set.

The basic plot is this: in 19th century Russia, a young student priest is summoned to a remote village to say prayers over the body of a wealthy man's recently deceased daughter. The ritual requires him to stay in the church for three night. The girl rises from her coffin to seduce him, each night bringing more and weirder horrors with her to torment him.

Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov's 1967 version of this tale looks gorgeous and is filled with clever visual effects and some pleasingly weird creations in its final act. Eureka's 1080p transfer is gorgeous and extras include a new commentary from Michael Brooke, a new video essay on Nikolai Gogol, an archival documentary on the film and three Russian silent film fragments.

Djordje Kadijevic's 1990 A HOLY PLACE is included as a bonus on a separate disc. The print is very scratchy to begin with but stick with it because it quickly improves. The film itself feels quite different from VIY (1967), and feels more like a 1970s EuroHorror, and that's very much a compliment. In fact I'd go so far as to say I preferred this version that is low on special effects but high in perverse eroticism and understated weirdness.

The set also boasts new artwork by Peter Savieri and a booklet featuring new writing from Tim Lucas (writing about Alexander Ptushko) and Serbian critic Dejan Ognjanovic who describes SVETO MESTO as "an unparalleled excess of perversity and terror." 

VIY is out from Eureka in a special two disc Blu-ray set on Monday 15th March 2021

Mindwarp (1991)

 

It's time for a bit of low budget post-apocalyptic splattery action as Eureka brings out MINDWARP (released in the UK back in the day as BRAIN SLASHER) to Blu-ray.

There's been an apocalypse. The earth is now divided into the inworlders who spend their days hooked up to computers living fantasy existences, ad the outworlders who inhabit the wastelands, some of whom, the crawlers, have resorted to cannibalism and live underground.

Inworlder Judy (Marta Alicia) has had enough of her fake life, so she unplugs herself from the system and finds herself sent to the outworld where she meets Stover (Bruce Campbell), but it's not long before they end up captured by the crawlers, whose leader is called the Seer (played by none other than the Tall Man himself, Angus Scrimm). Will Judy and Stover escape before they get subjected to the Seer's cannibal grinding food-making machine?

Originally premiered in the UK at Manchester's Black Sunday film festival, MINDWARP feels as if it belongs to the same subgenre as low-budget fare like DEATHSTALKER or THE BEASTMASTER. The monsters are gloppy (courtesy of KNB FX), the girls wear tight underwear and there's lots of running and if you're nostalgic for this sort of thing then this lesser known movie will be just for you.

Extras on Eureka's disc include a commentary tack from Fangoria editor Tony Timpone (MINDWARP was the first film produced as part of the Fangoria Films label) as well as videotape footage of Bruce Campbell and Angus Scrimm at the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in 1990, just after they'd finished work on the film. The first pressing also comes with a booklet containing an essay on the film.

MINDWARP is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 22nd February 2021

Demons and Demons 2 (1985 & 1986)

"The Epitome of 1980s Italian Horror"

Having done a fine job already bringing Lamberto Bava's DEMONS and DEMONS 2 to Blu-ray many years ago, Arrow are now going the extra mile to bring us both films on 4K and UHD.

In many ways, DEMONS is the archetypal Italian horror film, or at least it’s archetypal of a certain subgenre its obsessive fans will be only too familiar with. The plot makes no sense whatsoever, the acting and dubbing is indifferent, and the climax is a bit silly; and yet amongst all of this there are moments of such gobsmacking genius that you find yourself rewatching the entire film just in case you missed a vital point of earth-shattering brilliance to explain all the daft bits. (Don’t worry, you didn’t). 

Most of the action of the first film takes place in a cinema in Berlin, where patrons, who have been given free tickets to an untitled premiere by a masked Michele Soavi, find themselves watching a horror film about the coming of demons. A bite or a scratch from one of these nasty creatures results in the victim turning into a demon themselves. Events in the film mimic events taking place in the cinema, and eventually the place is over-run with infected, clawed, fangy monsters drooling green froth. The hero and heroine escape by using a handy helicopter that crashes through the roof towards the end, only to find that the apocalypse has begun and the demons now overrun the earth.

The film is given a tremendous punch by its soundtrack, which is predominantly heavy metal based, but also features some fine synthesiser work by Claudio Simonetti, including a great main title theme that plays with riffs on Grieg and Bach. 

Overall, then, DEMONS is an example of Italian horror cinema at its most frenzied, confusing, laughable, exhilarating, loud, intense, stylish and horrific. It does nothing by halves and takes no prisoners, laughing in the face of serious criticism just before tearing the eyes out of that face and transforming it into a green foam-drooling unstoppable killing machine. Whether or not you’ll enjoy it will depend on how much that previous paragraph sets your spine tingling or makes you laugh disdainfully.

Even though it may have been thought difficult to do so, Arrow’s new 4K transfer looks fantastic- even better than the previous Blu-ray release. Also, obsessive fans can now rejoice as Arrow have included the two different versions of the film - uncut and slightly cut but with a dubbing track that will be more familiar to fans of the old Avatar VHS release and DVD releases as well. 

The new extra for DEMONS is a Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain commentary track while everything else has been ported over from the previous release, including the commentary track between Lamberto Bava, Sergio Stivaletti and journalist Loris Curci that was brought over from the old Anchor Bay US disc, as well as the newer one from Bava, Stivaletti, Claudio Simonetti and actress Geretta Geretta (Rosemary in the film). Other archival extras include two short featurette interviews, one with Simonetti and one with Dario Argento, and Luigi Cozzi’s Top Ten Italian Horror Films.

DEMONS was such a huge success that the inevitable sequel surfaced a year later, with the same basic technical personnel (including the same four screenwriters!) but a change of location to an apartment block, and a change of soundtrack from heavy metal to goth. DEMONI 2 L'INCUBO RITORNA isn’t a patch on the original but there are still moments that stand out. This time the demon plague comes out of a television set and spreads through the building, with the inevitable chaos ensuing. Less appealing characters and too many moments where the film veers into the outright laughable (a demon dog and some kind of terrible demon puppet thing that’s on screen for far too long are good examples) mean that DEMONS 2 does all fall to pieces as it goes on, and it’s probably only for very forgiving Italian horror enthusiasts.

Once again Arrow's 4K UHD is another splendid presentation. There's a new commentary track from Travis Crawford and a new featurette from Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on both films. Once again all the previous release's extras have been carried over, including the old Anchor Bay US DVD commentary with Lamberto Bava, Sergio Stivaletti and Loris Curci, a little featurette on the special effects, and Luigi Cozzi pops up again (why is he always sitting in the basement of that shop? He must have been there for ten years now) to discuss the history of Italian horror in Bava to Bava.

Exclusive to Arrow's limited edition set is a 60 page booklet featuring new writing on the film, a double-sided poster, one of the DEMONS movie tickets for those who haven't been lucky enough to get one at festival screenings and limited edition packaging with new artwork.

Lamberto Bava's DEMONS and DEMONS 2 are coming out on 4K Blu-ray and 4K UHD double disc sets on Monday 22nd February 2021

Ideal Home (2018)

 

"Charming Comedy with Excellent Chemistry Between the Leads."

Andrew Fleming's heartwarming (that's not a word you see on this site very often) comedy IDEAL HOME is getting a digital release from Signature through Amazon Prime. Now before seasoned veterans of horror ask 'is that the same Andrew Fleming who made the 1989 NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3 rip off BAD DREAMS?' I can tell you that yes it is, and he made 1996's THE CRAFT as well. Since then his career has veered away from horror to include 2008's HAMLET 2, which he also made with Steve Coogan, who stars in IDEAL HOME with Paul Rudd.

The IDEAL HOME of the title is a cooking show hosted by Erasmus Brumble (Coogan) and produced by his long-time partner Paul (Paul Rudd). When Erasmus' son Deau (Jake McDornan) is sent to jail the couple end up having to look after Erasmus' young grandson (Jack Gore).

A film with this subject matter could go in all sorts of directions and while the presence of Coogan and Rudd ensures there are plenty of laughs (and there certainly are) IDEAL HOME does a decent job of providing depth to the key relationships in this without ever making anyone the subject of ridicule. In fact it ends up being quite surprisingly charming and makes you wish Rudd and Coogan would pair up for another film together. A delightful surprise. 

Andrew Fleming's IDEAL HOME is free to view with an Amazon Prime subscription through Signature Entertainment on Monday 22nd February 2021

Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) and Hellraiser: Judgment (2018)

For those who prefer their sequels numbered and have lost count then consider these:

Hellraiser 9

and

Hellraiser 10

Both of which are getting a Blu-ray, DVD and digital release courtesy of Lionsgate. Before we get to the films, however, it's time for another edition of Summarise That Franchise! Regular readers will be familiar with this part of the reviewing process, which I've done previously with TREMORS and before that THE GRUDGE. So, for those who may have lost track of the HELLRAISER films along the way (and possibly after the first one back in 1987), here's a quick House of Mortal Cinema summary:

HELLRAISER (1987) Clive Barker's original and the reason you are reading this.

HELLRAISER II (1988) Tony Randel's sequel that some love but I don't because it feels like a midlantic Italian-style ripoff of the UK-made first film.

HELLRAISER III (1992) Anthony Hickox's surprisingly good part III that some hate but I love because it isn't part II and because it opens up the mythology while remaining true to its origins.

HELLRAISER IV BLOODLINE (1996). Anthology film that director Kevin Yagjer took his name off with the final segment set in space.

HELLRAISER V: INFERNO (2000). Directed by the SINISTER man himself Scott Derrickson

HELLRAISER VI: HELLSEEKER (2002). The one where Kirsty Cotton comes back.

HELLRAISER VII: DEADER (2005). Kari Wuhrer in Bucharest. Me neither.

HELLRAISER VIII: HELLWORLD (2005). Aka The Last One With Doug Bradley (and well done for lasting that long that man). This one stars TV's VIKINGS Katheryn Winnick so might be worth a look. But then again maybe not.

Right! Back to HELLRAISER IX: REVELATIONS. Who knows if the events of the previous films are relevant (I haven't seen it but I suspect not) but anyway a familiar-looking cube is now in Mexico and gets given to two young men who waste no time in getting it open. One disappears into Cenobite-ness while the other gets transported to the family home where most of the action takes place owing to the tiny budget. 

To be fair if all you want from a HELLRAISER movie is the box, the Cenobites, some hooks in flesh and a bit of prattling about how pain and pleasure are, in the words of a once popular song like love and marriage (you can't have one without the other) then you'll be happy enough with this one, and with a running time of 75 minutes you'll still have time to watch something else of an evening, especially as this disc contains no extras. 

HELLRAISER X: JUDGMENT was made in 2018 but is only now getting a UK release. Screenwriter Gary J Tunnicliffe also directs this one and plays one of the cenobites as well, resembling a cross between Claude Raines in James Whale's THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933) and Peter Lorre in Karl Freund's MAD LOVE (1935). 

This one starts off with some unsettling imagery but quickly settles into the 'write anything with Pinhead so we can keep the rights to the franchise' furrow of the last few movies. The police, consisting of cut-price Brad Pitt and cut-price Jason Statham (or possibly Michael Fassbender) are on the trail of serial killer The Preceptor who has been perpetrating a series of low-budget SEVEN-like killings based around the Ten Commandments. 

There's too much emphasis on the bureaucracy of Hell to the extent that suspense and horror are diffused by too much explanation. It's not a terrible film (we've had much worse in the screening room here) but there are much better part tens out there (JASON X being the standard any will be compared to).

Extras on Lionsgate's disc are four minutes of gag reel (mainly silly dancing like on the Marvel discs) and deleted and extended scenes.

HELLRAISER IX: REVELATIONS and HELLRAISER X: JUDGMENT are out on digital from Lionsgate on 22nd February 2021 and Blu-ray and DVD on 1st March 2021