A rubber-suited-monster franchise is an unlikely place for a sequel to improve on its original, but that’s what happens with GAMERA VS. BARUGON. And Shout! Factory’s new DVD finally allows its qualities to stand out for American viewers, following the cropped and dubbed version released to television by Sandy Frank Productions in the ’80s and ’90s and, before that, the cropped, dubbed and edited cut syndicated in the ’60s and ’70s by AIP-TV as WAR OF THE MONSTERS.
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Is it fair to judge a film’s merits based on its creation? When watching APOCALYPSE NOW, it’s hard not to consider the hell that Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Sheen went through while making it. Going into PARASOMNIA (DREAMS OF THE SLEEPWALKER), out this week on DVD and Blu-ray from E1, I knew that director William Malone—one of the original MASTERS OF HORROR—had self-financed this project. What was to be seen would be undoubtedly a labor of love. Some journalists have no trouble coping with that kind of information. Some.
Whether or not you think remaking George A. Romero’s THE CRAZIES was a good idea, Anchor Bay’s DVD and Blu-ray of the result demonstrates that there was a lotta love for Romero among its creators. An audio commentary by director Breck Eisner and a dedicated featurette make it clear that the filmmaking team aimed to be respectful of the original even as they took a somewhat different point of view on the material.
The back of BLOOD ON THE HIGHWAY’s DVD case attributes these words to FANGORIA: “A Texas vampire opus.” Seeing as how Fango has never previously reviewed the movie (now out from E1 Entertainment), one must assume the description came from some sort of announcement or news item about it. The lesson: when filmmakers or distributors are snatching quotes that do nothing to denote the quality or entertainment value of their “opus,” it’s often a bad sign—or, in this case, a terrible, terrible one.
It must be difficult to launch an original genre TV show these days, after LOST and the reboots of BATTLESTAR GALATICA and DOCTOR WHO set the bars for production quality and rabid popularity so high. The circumstances by which SANCTUARY evolved from webisodes to Syfy series has threatened to overshadow the actual show, and fans of comparatively fascinating programs like CARNIVÀLE and DOLLHOUSE might catch a SANCTUARY episode and wonder why it’s the one still running.
At one point in BITTEN (coming on no-frills DVD from Vivendi July 6), a new vampire film starring Jason Mewes, the sexy Danika (a gorgeous Erica Cox) says with full conviction, “It’s like I want to f**k you and eat you at the same time.” Now I want you to take a good, long look at this quote and ask yourself one question—was this meant to be funny, or is it just bad writing?
“Don’t make it look like PULSE” was the mission statement behind SOMEONE’S KNOCKING AT THE DOOR, according to actor/producer Noah Segan on Vicious Circle’s new DVD. And they certainly succeeded at that; KNOCKING has nothing in common with either Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s brooding supernatural drama or the terrible U.S. remake, though it does echo certain recent, more outrageous J-horror entries in its scenes of grotesquely distended genitalia.
The first thing you need to know about CORNERED! is that Steve Guttenberg is in it. Good or bad, original or bland, funny or not—that’ll sort itself out later, but since you probably haven’t seen the Goot in anything in a long time, and now his curly head of hair is back in this horror/comedy, you’ll probably want to see it…at least, that was my thought process when presented with Phase 4’s new DVD.