All Film Reviews

Blood and Roses DVD (Roger Vadim LE 1200) (PAL Region 2) In 1765 the family Karnstein was nearly wiped out on their estate in Italy by a mob of peasants because they believed the Karnsteins to be vampires.
At a party, some 200 years later celebrating Baron Leopold von Karnstein's ( Mel Ferrer ) fiancée Georgina ( Elsa Martinelli ) the hidden grave of ancestor Millarca is opened and soon the first victim appears with bite marks Based on the novel " Carmilla " by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and shot in gorgeous technicolor by Roger Vadim ( Barbarella), this vampire classic makes its DVD premiere on this Limited Edition import

Bad Dreams / Visiting Hours (Scream Factory) (Blu-Ray) In the mid-1970s the members of the love cult Unity Fields sought “the ultimate joining” by dousing themselves with gasoline and committing mass suicide. A young girl blown clear of the fiery explosion was the only survivor. Thirteen years later, Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin, Screamers) awakens from a coma inside a psychiatric hospital with only buried memories of that horrific day — but now her fellow patients are each being driven to their own violent suicides. Has the sect’s leader (Richard Lynch, Deathsport) returned to claim his final child? Bruce Abbott (Re-Animator) co-stars in the intense shocker Bad Dreams from director Andrew Fleming (The Craft) and producer Gale Anne Hurd (Punisher: War Zone, The Incredible Hulk).

Academy Award®–winner Lee Grant (Best Supporting Actress in 1975 for Shampoo) stars as outspoken TV journalist Deborah Ballin, whose crusade against domestic violence enrages a creepy loner (a truly disturbing performance by Michael Ironside, Scanners) in Visiting Hours. He brutally attacks the anchorwoman in her home, but Ballin survives and is hospitalized. Her assailant is enraged; he is haunted by a horrific childhood trauma . . . and now he has hidden himself inside the hospital to finish what he started. Can anybody — including her concerned boss (William Shatner), a frantic nurse (Linda Purl, Happy Days) or Deborah herself — stop the psycho’s killing spree before it reaches sick new extremes?

Blu-Ray

Ilsa Wicked Warden (Greta the Mad Butcher) (LE 66 Hardbox Blu-Ray All Region) Dyanne Thorne is back as the sadistic ruler of a South American prison for deranged women. But when a young journalist goes undercover to find her missing sister, she learns that survival means submission to the perverse appetites of the guards, the convicts and the wicked warden herself. Soon, this jungle hellhole is aflame with the passions of the depraved and one final act of savage revenge!Directed by the infamous Jess Franco (Succubus, Two Undercover Angels), this legendary shocker was released in various censored versions as Greta The Torturer, Ilsa: Absolute Power and Wanda The Wicked Warden.

Blu-Ray All Region
LE 66 Big Hardbox

I've always thought of myself as a Hitchcock fan, as he had the ability to tell a story through the medium of film so very well, understanding perfectly the necessary elements needed within a story to keep an audience enthralled and engaged. Sure, many may understand these necessities, but it seems few are able to develop them to the level Hitchcock did, and that's what makes much of his work so enduring, even relevant, so many years later. That said, being a self-proclaimed fan and all, I have to admit I'm a bit ashamed that it took me so long to get around to watching Foreign Correspondent (1940), as it's not only a wonderful Hitchcock feature, but a really great film in general (heck, it was nominated for like six Academy Awards, so there must be others out there who share my sentiments). The film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (some just call him Hitch, but I think it's a little disrespectful unless you knew the man personally and were friends with him...I didn't know him, so I'll always use his full name, but y'all can do whatever you like), stars Joel McCrea (The Virginian), Laraine Day (Calling Dr. Kildare), and Herbert Marshall (Duel in the Sun). Also appearing is George Sanders (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir), Albert Bassermann (nominated for one of the six Academy Awards this film received), journalist and popular humorist Robert Benchley, and Edmund Gwenn, who would later appear as Kris Kringle in the holiday staple Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

BIG BAD MAMA / BIG BAD MAMA II

Directed By: Steve Carver, Jim Wynorski
Starring: Angie Dickinson, Tom Skerritt, William Shatner, Robert Culp, Bruce Glover
Studio: Shout! Factory

In my opinion, this Anchor Bay box set is by far one of the major DVD releases of the year 2002. These DVDs let us rediscover four italian movies directed in the seventies and unfortunately half forgotten nowadays. They belong to a peculiar genre the "giallo", a genre whose prominent figures are or were, until this release came out, Mario Bava and Dario Argento.
Two of these movies are masterpieces, SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS and WHO SAW HER DIE ?, both directed by Aldo Lado. The first one is more a mystery thriller than a pure giallo with his hero Jean Sorel, left for dead in the pragian morgue and trying to remember what has happened to him while the doctors prepare his autopsy. Really frightening, a movie that creates the same terror in you than another masterpiece of the genre : George Sluizer's THE VANISHING.
WHO SAW HER DIE ? is a movie shot entirely in Venice, Italy with a haunting musical score by Ennio Morricone. The uneasiness you feel during the movie is greatly increased by the fact that the killer's main victim is a child who's the main character of WHO SAW HER DIE ? during the first 20 minutes of the film. Terrifying.