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DR. ALIEN DVD (CULT VIDEO)
THE MOVIE:B
Wesley is you average nerdy college kid, that is untill he meets his new bilogy proffesor Miss Xenobia. You see Miss Xenobia isnt your average biology teacher, she's an alien who has come to planet earth to experiement on humans with a sex serum to help save her dieing planet. Wesley soon becomes Miss Xenobia's guinnea pig and grows a odd looking appendage on his head which just drives the girls crazy. The odd appendage turns Wesley into a total chick magnet which helps him become cool, join a band , hook up with the girl of his dreams, and many others.
Dr. Alien is a pretty cool 80's sex flick directed by the great David DeCoteau (Sorority Babes in The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama). The plots pretty out there but it keeps the movie interesting. The cast is pretty good for a B flick theres Troy Donahue, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer, and Judie Landers. The only problem I had with this movie at all was the conclusion which had one of the dumbest closing lines ever, but overall I loved Dr. Alien. Any fan of cheesy 80's sex comedys will love Dr. Alien you should definately check it out.
BODY COUNT:
1 (not counting all the nude ones)
DEATHS:D
Sadly only one by a car crash.
PICTURE:B+
Dr. Alien is full framed digitally remastered and just looks great, especially when compared to old video transfers
SOUND:C
O.k, not bad not great
EXTRAS:D-
We get 9 trailers for other Cult Video releases many of them being other David DeCoteau flicks. Sadly though there is no trailer for Dr. Alien. Theres a chapter index with 12 chapters, some cast bios, and an advertisement for Full Moon toys.
OVERALL:B-
Dr. Alien is another great film by David DeCoteau. If you like cheesy 80's sex comedys this is definately a film for you.
REVIEWED BY TONY
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DEAD SEASON VHS (COMBS PICTURES)
THE MOVIE: A-
An obsessed fan of a true crime novelist travels to a small town to convince her favorite writer to start a new book. During this time a deranged serial killer (The subject of the writers 1st book) returns to the town to continue a series of murders that he began 15 years earlier. Now its up to the writer and his obsessive fan to stop the deranged psycho's killing spree.
Dead Season sounds like your average horror slasher film but in reality its really an inventive flick that keeps you guessing all the way to the shocking conclusion. All the actors are great especially new comer Trish Haight as the obsessed fan and Ted Newsom (100 Years of Horror) as the deranged psycho. Director Ron Ford (Hollywood Mortuary) has once again made a great genre film that will keep you guessing until the very end.
BODY COUNT: 13
DEATHS:B-
We get such joys as slashings, shootings, a head crushing, and meat clever to the face.
PICTURE:B
Dead Season appears to be shot on DV and boasts some great camerawork
SOUND:B
No problems here
OVERALL:B+
Dead Season kept me guessing the whole way and had some really great preformances. My only gripe with the film is not enough gore for my taste but the clever story definately makes up for it. If you are a fan of slasher films i urge you to check this one out, its plot twists and great acting really set it apart from the pack.
REVIEW BY TONY
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DOLLS VHS (VERSTRON VIDEO)
THE MOVIE:C+
When David Bower, his bitchy rich wife Rosemary, and his imagative daughter Judy get stranded in a viloent thunderstorm they seek shelter in the only place they can find, a mysterious gothic mansion inhabbited by a elderly couple named the Hartwikes and their thousand of seamingly harmless hand-made dolls. The storm has also braught a young buisnessman and two hitchhiking punk rockers to the spooky dollhouse. Once warm and dry, the group settles in for what they think will be a restfull night. But later the dolls come to life attacking all the "bad" that now inhabit the house.
Dolls was director Stuart Gordons followup to his hit Re-Animator, and what would become Charles Band influence for the overated Puppet Master series. The movie has a fairy tale type of atmosphere to it, which is good for kids but starts to wear thin after awhile. The dolls are great, and so are the ways they take out their numerous victims, check out Rosemary's bloody demise. I liked this movie quite a bit but the plot has been stolen from so many killer toy movies it tends to be boring, even though it predates most killer toy flicks. Overall Dolls is a pretty good killer toys movie, if you liked the Puppet Master series you'll love dolls.
BODY COUNT:
4
DEATHS:
Headcrushing, shootings, stabbings, bitings, sawings, and a mutation scene
OVERALL:C+
Dolls is a pretty good horror film, especially for the kids even though theres some graphic gore scenes. If you like the Puppet Master movies you'll probrally want to check this one out and see weere Charles Band stole his idea from.
REVIEWED BY TONY
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THE DEAD NEXT DOOR DVD (SPLATTER RAMPAGE)
THE MOVIE: A-
An inventive scientist has created the ultimate virus: it takes over and replaces a corpse's cells, using it as a slave to keep supplying its favorite dish...humans! When the virus goes awry, the goverment fights back by creating a crack team of soilders called The Zombie Squad. Their mission: go to Akron Ohio were the virus was created, find the serum, and make an anti-virus to stop the deadly plague. Along the way our heroes have to battle 100's of zombies, and stop an insane religious cult bent on keeping the zombies alive to take over the world.
The Next Door is a great gore filled zombie movie that should be in every gorehounds collection. The special effects are great for such a low budget movie, and we are treated to many awesome gory deaths. The movie does tend to lagg at certain parts, but when things start getting slow you may be assured that someones going to die very soon. Many of the characters are named after horror gods such as Savini, Romero, Carpenter, and Rami. Speaking of Rami, Sam Rami helped produce the movie and Bruce Cambell lends his voice to a couple of the characters including our hero.
BODY COUNT:
33 give or take a few
DEATHS: A-
4 kneck chomping scenes, decapatations, exploding zombies, finger chomping, gut munching, rat eating, headcrushings, and numerous gunshot wounds.
PICTURE: D
The picture on this DVD isnt really that great, theres quite a bit of grain and scratches on the print. Really though I guess its not to bad, considering the film was shot on 8mm.
SOUND: B+
The sound really surprised me, its actually pretty damm good. The whole movie is dubbed and the voices are in perfect sync.
EXTRAS: D-
Heres were this disc fails. All we get is a trailer which highlights many of the gruesome deaths, and a chapter index with 21 chapters.
OVERALL: B+
Dispite the major flaws in this release: the picture, and lack of extras, The Dead Next Door is a great zombie movie which every horror fan should own.
REVIEWED BY TONY
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ED GEIN DVD (FIRST LOOK)
THE MOVIE:D
Ed Gein is based on the true story of America's first famous serial killer. Everyone in small Plainfield, Wisconsin thought Ed was just a little different, a local oddity. But Ed was tormented and haunted by years of family abuse and reppresion which led to the brutal murders and mutilations of countless victims and corpses. In a remote farmhouse filled with the stench of death, Ed is drivin to do unspeakable acts to his victims, acts that his dead mother demands of him, and Ed always listins to his mamma.
Let me start this off by saying that I am Ed Gein fanatic, I have read atleast six books on the guy and have diffenately done my research on him, something I wish the makers of this film would have done a bit better. This movie is just plain horrible, I really couldnt wait for the ending to come, so I could get this crappy DVD out of my player. The screenplay is what mainly bugged me, the dialogue was just horrible and little of it seemed based on actual fact, hell most of the movie came dead wrong when it came to recreating the facts. The acting was O.K, but with the horrible screenplay the actors had to work with it just fails. I want to urge all of you interested in Ed Gein to check out the film Deranged instead, its allot better than this pile of crap and sports Tom Savini's first makeup effects work.
BODY COUNT:
5
DEATHS:
Shootings, natural causes, and fire.
PICTURE:C
The picture itself looks great but sadly its presented in its full frame version.
AUDIO:A
Ed Gein has a DD 2.0 Stereo soundtrack and sounds great.
EXTRAS:D-
All we get here folks is a crummy trailer.
OVERALL:D
I did not like this movie at all, and the way it portrays Ed Gein. If you would like to see a good movie based on the exploits of Ed Gein check out Deranged instead, dont waste your time with this crap.
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EVIL DEAD TRAP DVD (SYNAPSE)
THE MOVIE:B-
Nami, a talk show hostess, tells her audience to send in home videos to profile on her late night program. Soon, she recieves an annonymous videotape in the mail containing the brutal murder of a young woman. Nami then assembles a camera crew to check out the old abondon army base where the film was shot, big mistake. Theres something inhabbiting the old base and its out for blood.
Evil Dead Trap is definately a masterpeice of Japaneese filmaking, which would even make Argento jealous. The film plays like an italian giallo with brutal gory murders, great camera work, and a soundtrack that is reminescent of Goblin. The death scenes are graphic and creative, theres an eyeball scene that would even make Fulci run for his barf bag. The only complaint I have about this film is near the end it totally switches gears. Instead of sticking to its giallo roots it switches to a supernatural Cronenberg type feel, which is entertaining but just doesnt belong. Overall though I loved Evil Dead Trap even though the ending is kind of out there. If you like the work of Argento, Bava, and other giallo directors you'll love this film.
BODY COUNT:
9
DEATHS:A-
Multiple stabbings, hangings, decapatations, and impalings.
PICTURE:B
Evil Dead Trap is presented in its original widescreen format and looks pretty good, with the exception of some slight grain.
AUDIO:B
The film is in its original Japanese dialogue with english subtitles. The music levels are surprisingly much louder than the dialogue, which makes for some good subtitle reading.
EXTRAS:C-
First up we get a theatrical trailer which highlights some of the gory deaths, and kinda gives away the ending. Next there is a chapter index with 16 chapters. And finally there is a commentary by director Toshiharu Ikeda and SPFX manager Shinichi Wakasa. This commentary has to be one of the worst I have ever listened to the two dont say much, there are long periods of silence (were talking a half an hour), and you can barely understand what the two are saying. When the two do talk the director tells some interesting yarns while the spfx manager just keeps talking about the lead actress saying "oh she is so beatiful" every second.
OVERALL:C
Evil Dead Trap is a great giallo in the tradition of Argento and Bava. It does tend to get weird near the end but its still a great flick. Any self respecting giallo fan definately needs to add this one to their collection.
REVIEWED BY TONY
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EVIL TOONS DVD (RETROMEDIA)
THE MOVIE:C+
Four girls working for a cleaning agency, ran by Dick Miller go to an old haunted house to fix it up. After the girls arrive a strange man appears played by David Carradine, who brings the girls an old strange book bound in human flesh with a face on the cover. The girls decide to read the book, which unleashes a peverted cartoon wolf who is bent on taking over their souls, and taking off their cloths.
Evil Toons is a pretty good B horror comedy, directed by cult favorite Fred Olen Ray. There's really not much animation in the movie which is pretty dissapointing, but the scenes involving the perverted wolf are just halarious. The acting in Evil Toons is pretty damm bad (a couple of the girls were porn stars), but we get such great B actors as Dick Miller, David Carradine, and the always great Michelle Bauer. At times Evil Toons is a great B movie with such scenes as Dick Miller watching himself in Bucket Of Blood, or Michelle Bauer reving up her chainsaw. But other times its just stupid, like the lame ass ending. There are basically no gore effects in Evil Toons, instead there are girls getting naked for no reason exept to be naked. This kinda dissapointed me, hell the whole movie kinda dissapointed me, but for some reason I loved it. If you like bad movies your probrally love Evil Toons, if not, dont waste your time.
BODY COUNT:
6
DEATHS:D
We get a hanging, a killer B.J, eating out, and multiple kneck bitings.
PICTURE:A
Evil Toons is presented in its widescreen format and the picture looks great, definately Retromedia's best to date
SOUND:A
The sound is also great
EXTRAS:B-
Scene Selection - 8 chapters
Trailers - Theres a trailer reel with previews for Evil Toons, Hybrid, and Dark Universe
Nite Owl Theater - Pretty cool introduction to the film, but if you've seen any of the Nite Owl Theaters you've seen them all.
Making Of Featurette - The featurette is basically an interview with director Fred Olen Ray. Ray discusses how the movie came about, and how they pulled off the animation with such a small budget. It also contains a pretty lame blooper, and a scene from the film minus the animation
OVERALL:B-
If you like chessy B horror movies like Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers or Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama your probrally love Evil Toons, if not I suggest you dont waste your time.
REVIEWED BY TONY
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