This week on Deadpit Radio, the legendaryPaul Ehlers(Madman Marz himself) made a special announcement about an upcoming DVD re-release of the seminal 1982 slasher flick Madman. The bombastic axe-wielder told the Deadpit crew: “I found out from Gary Sales who was the owner and original producer of Madman that he had struck a deal with Code Red films to put out a new edition- a re-issue… So, we are going to be coming out with the original film on a re-issue DVD”. Ehlers goes on to say, “We are going to leave the original commentary track on the film…as far as other extras, we’ve decided to reach out to some of the fans of the film. What we’re thinking of doing is that through Deadpit.com, as a central hub for all this, we’re asking…if you (the fans) have a collection of anything to do with (the film) ‘Madman’…anything that you have that might be cool, please send over still photos or limited video of your collections to Deadpit.com. We’d love to take a look at it, and if we think it’s appropriate, we’d love to put it on the extras of the new release.”
That’s right folks, by sending photos or video of your Madman-related collections over to Deadpit Radio, you (or maybe just your stuff) could possibly wind up on a documentary for the upcoming re-release of the DVD! If you think you’ve got the goods, shoot us an email over at deadpit@gmail.com with your submissions. Good luck and beware the Madman Marz!
Update – CODE RED DVD is proud to announce the DVD re-release of the cult hit MADMAN! Once a holy grail for horror fans who didn’t buy the Anchor Bay release back in 2001, MADMAN is back! We have the same extras (commentary/trailers) from that earlier release, but this time it’s an anamorphic transfer, and there are some new on-camera interviews. The dvd will be a limited edition and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Don’t miss the opportunity to buy the film before it’s too late. More news to follow!
Here we go again, another gem that’s been lambasted by critics armchair and professional alike: BCI Eclipse have dug up Robert Hammer’s 1980 sleaze-o-rama Don’t Answer The Phone and given it an uncut release. I do like my slashers but serial killers employing strangulation instead of the good ol’ butcher’s knife struck me as too dull in the past – this flick was a shock to that system. An all-too-human killer played by Nicholas Worth saunters around in an army-camo jacket doing women in with stockings. In between, he taunts a psychologist over call-in radio with a creepy Mexican voice. His victims aren’t all airheads we cheer on to die nor carefully developed characters we earnestly want to live, they’re mostly real seeming women who had the bad fortune to be targeted, and get terrorized and killed in most uncinematic ways. The Killer, with his sweaty balding head leering over them, is a complete psychotic that operates by his own indecipherable world logic. Police procedural breaks up the time spent with the killer, but I wanted to wash myself after watching this. Sadly, real life is the sequel to Don’t Answer The Phone – because there are slimeball nutjobs like this one out there in everyday life.
Audio/Visual:
The 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen is suitably cleaned up but thankfully the late 70’s hasn’t been digitally scrubbed out – this is a gritty flick that relies on its street-level charm/repulsion (take your pick). I’m not sure such high-pitched anguished female screams would need to be in more elaborate multi-channel encoding then the mono sound on offer, so no problems there.
Supplements:
A featurette, Digital Roadshow’s Answering The Phone is directed by Bruce Holecheck and interviews the man behind the serial killer, actor [and now the late] Nicholas Worth. He’s a kind man who chooses his words carefully, so everything he has to say is interesting or important. The Audio Commentary by writer/producer/director Robert Hammer & moderator Shane M. Dallmann covers the whole spectrum of the film’s origin-to-release. Hammer offers free flowing info for Dallmann who prods with a scholarly voice.
Two Easter Eggs are present – on the special features page highlight Off on the commentary option then press Up. The icon will disappear – so then press Right to reveal a red camera icon that opens up more Nicholas Worth footage of the man discussing his other movie roles. The other is footage found after the film when the audio commentary track is on and is best described as commentary on the commentary! Also, an introduction to the film by Hammer & Dallmann autoplays with the film but isn’t advertised on the packaging, so could well be considered an egg itself. Rounding out the disc are the customary lesser extras like the Still Gallery of on-set snaps which runs in montage and trailers for the film and lurid brethren The Hearse, Blood Mania and Roberta (Snuff) Findlay’s Prime Evil.
Graphics:
The classic white text and red phone artwork is reproduced for the cover with subtle enhancements, and comes in a nice plastic-embossed cardboard slipcase. Menu animation featuring bloody razorwire doesn’t overwhelm like others tend to do (and keep us waiting forever until we can pick an option!).
Movie:
Liberal nudity, blood drenched murder shots and a menagerie of quirky characters contribute to this 1987 parcel of fun. It’s what made Cheerleader Camp the Cinemax staple that primarily exposed it to its many praisers. But the standout element is the central character of Alison Wentworth (Betsy Russell). Alison is not only frigid but self absorbed, evoking not sympathy but satisfaction at the terrors she faces throughout. Save for, perhaps, the implications of the final twist, which manages to brew a sense of unease in the viewer’s stomach.
Audio/Visual:
Anchor Bay, as per usual, have implemented a first rate restoration, due in part to acquisition of the original negative. In conjunction with the letterbox framing, it reveals up to now unseen or unnoticed detail, such as an atmospheric set design and the vibrant colors of the girls’ camp uniforms, important when you’re staring at their chests for so long. Also, some off-putting close-ups from the old VHS are now visible in their correct framing/composition. Sound is clear enough in Dolby Mono – let’s agree off the bat that the sound of older films like this don’t benefit from being pulled apart and re-assembled into artificial sounding Dolby 5.1 tracks. The spooky nightmare laughs are all that assault the speakers, and all that need to.
Supplements:
There’s a simple way to divide a bare bones from a special edition: whether a disc has an audio commentary or not. If it does, and especially for Anchor Bay, it means the participants can usually provide materials for other extras. That’s what we have here. Director John Quinn and producer Jeff Prettyman lend their voiceovers, detailing everything you’d want to know about the flick. The information contained leads the listener to a newfound respect for many of the cast, especially Lief Garret (Brett) and Lucinda Dickey (Cory). I gotta grumble though, at the creators insistence that a whole bunch of dallies they had access to (with slight variations/extensions of scenes) weren’t worth including on the disc.
Three trailers seem almost identical but provide a subtle look at the evolution of the film’s marketing. An easter egg reveals a fourth: a promotional trailer composed of rough cut timecoded footage. An alternate title sequence is included under the original title, which is what everyone outside of the USA will be well accustomed to already.
On to the Still Gallery. Quinn contributes a stack of clear on-set photos that give visual insight to the production, but the gravy is a fabulously garish airbrushed foreign cover art – depicting an image that in no way matches any scene in the film. Ah, those were the days.
Leading slasher journalist Adam Rockoff has penned the liner notes for an included booklet (brief at two pages, but not loaded with photo padding) which thankfully doesn’t come off as too repetitious in spite of the commentary (as a few in the past have been prone to). The text ends with a paragraph on the fabled sequel – an ideal lead-in to our own extensive investigation that we’ve carried out over the years here at Retro Slashers.
Graphics:
AB have thankfully used the original artwork on the cover, altered only to include the principle actors’ names up top. The cheerleading skeleton is probably what most first remember about the film – that and mistaking it for Return to Horror High. The menu screens by Crest National’s facilities are of usual top quality – always a perfect mood setter for the film ahead in an age when menu screens look like glorified video games.
I hate posting R.I.P.s, but here’s a great that’s passing is gonna go unnoticed by far too many. Code Red DVD have been the bearer of bad news that Tony Fish, AKA the legendary T.P. from Madman (1982) passed away in 2009.
I couldn’t locate a good picture and it seemed in bad taste to show his character’s death scene (which, it has to be said, is one of the best shot, acted and edited kill scenes in slasher history) so I’ll leave you with the mark of man’s highest achievement: the self-named belt buckle. Pay your respects.
Liberation Entertainment unleash Mark Rosman’s The House On Sorority Row from the attic on Jan 12th. Looks like a decent upgrade from the OOP Elite barebones, and contains a photo and commentary of the lost ending where the heroine is found dead in the pool dressed up in Eric Slater’s clown costume.
Movie: A night shift for the clerks and shelvers at a suburban supermarket is going to be their last. Not just because it’s soon closing for good, but because someone is using the Deli tools to butcher the crew. “Half Off” indeed. Scott Spiegel’s Intruder is an underrated slasher due to the infamous mangling it received by Paramount for it’s original 1989 release. But now it’s here Uncut, and can be judged in it’s true context. What makes the movie stand out from the pack are inventive camera angles, likable characters and a littering of details that ring true for retail clerks.
Audio/Visual:
As is the norm with many Band releases, the transfer is Full Frame. It appears to not be Pan & Scan, which is a good thing, but Open Matte. The reason I suspect that is because there is too much vertical room above character’s heads. This ruins Spiegel’s deliciously framed shots, but at least you’re getting all of the horizontal. It’s a double edged sword. Black levels are too light, but instead of whining about that I fiddled with my contrast bright levels on the ol’ TV until I found a happy medium. The source of the print is unknown, but the quality places it firmly under a film remastering, but firmly above VHS. The sound is crisp and clear enough to satisfy. No background hiss at all, thankfully.
Supplements:
None, which would usually preclude covering it (we are special edition focused where our DVD reviews are concerned) but it is an important DVD release nonetheless. It took over fifteen years to get the film released uncut in an official, readily purchasable form, so I’m keeping that in mind to keep my thoughts grounded here. Sure, I think the movie needs another release down the line with a widescreen transfer and extras featuring the co-operation of Spiegel and the Raimis (those Evil Dead S.E.’s are gold) but for now, it does the job of getting the film out there in a way it was meant to be seen – uncut. It should be noted that there is a trailer included, but it’s a modern-cut and gives away the identity of the killer. Steer clear or you’ll be struck like a deer.
Graphics:
The green artwork and slanted logo implemented for the menu screens is more in tune with the Evil Dead films if anything – and seeing as how this movie shares many principle cast and crew from those flicks I can see why it was chosen. The cover art is nice and stark, sure to reach out to eyes on the store shelves. The only thing that bugs me is the crudely photoshopped Bruce Campbell from Army of Darkness into an Intruder shot on the back cover. Campbell is in the film all of one minute at the end (he doesn’t even get a close-up) and I’m fine with his name being on the front of the DVD to attract sales, because this is a movie the diehard Evil Dead fanboys will want for their collections anyway, but that fake image crosses the marketing line.
It’s the near future and young adults are divided into two factions: the ‘Frats’, the privileged college upperclass, and the poverty-stricken ‘Mutants’, a society of punk protestors. We start out with each group separately but in mirrored situations – a pack of ‘bad’ frat members are in trouble for repeated pranks on a ‘good’ frat, while on the punks’ side of the city, ironically-named peaceful leader Eddie Pain scolds nuclear-scarred metal-armoured Splatter for actions that make his name not at all ironic. It’s when the troublemaking frat boys are sent out to kidnap a Mutant for a party prank that the two groups collide, and Splatter seizes the opportunity to murder Eddie, which defaults himself to leader status, and pin it all on the fratboys, which results in a chase movie with slasher overtones where escape seems impossible.
Ronald W. Moore (who also co-wrote with Kathleen M. Hagan) shot this as Splatter around the midpoint of the 80’s, perhaps the best time to make a genre film. Advertising played up the Texas Chainsaw Massacre connection of having Ed Neal and Marilyn Burns in the same film again, but the links are stronger. This was shot in Austin, Texas, and a TCM poster can even be seen in a shop window in one scene. Yet Future-Kill doesn’t emulate the famous other, in fact it goes out of its way to be a 180 degree counterpoint. Instead of a rural setting and retarded killer wielding second-hand-hardware, we have the inner city, and a calculating, technologically superior killer.
After playing the Hitchhiker, it’s good to see Ed Neal (who also wore a producer’s hat on this) bumped up to lead villain status. I personally find Splatter a more textured badguy then Leatherface. I was entranced by the number of technogadgets housed in Splatter’s armour, which reveal themselves as the film progresses, usually in methods of murder. Except one time after being humiliated by a hooker, when Splatter gets all low-tech on the girl and we’re treated to death by corrugated iron. Marilyn Burns looks pretty rough in the character of Dorothy Grim, a past-her-prime punk (and Splatter’s missus) who’s a far cry from sweet Sally Hardesty.
And that’s what this movie is about: polarized opposites. It’s set up as a frat comedy in the Animal House vein only to turn upside down into a serious violent film at the end of the first act. Anyone who tuned in blind on cable would have had one hell of a surprise at this point. The story also illustrates a massive ecological and cultural divide in future society, which in the 80’s we seemed to be moving towards (with the decades’ emphasis on material goods). Yes, behind the gore and exploitation framework this is a ‘message’ movie, I generally don’t care if that’s implied subtly or waved with a giant waving sign, all that matters is that saying something with the film was important to the creators.
Almost every reviewer loves to point out that the poster art is far better then the film. I tell you, they must think they’re geniuses for each coming up with that tired zinger. Let’s examine: would they prefer films to have cover art somehow psychically tailored to their specific like or dislike of a film? Terrific covers are what got us video store generation horror fans to pick up movies like this of unknown quality that we otherwise wouldn’t consider. There’s also the fact that it was designed by Alien’s HR Giger (after initial shooting, reportedly) which immediately sets his art a high bar not even a multimillion dollar budget could eclipse (See: Species). So comments like that are real cheap shots. To play devil’s advocate, HR’s art, drowned in silver is a slight misleading, pointing toward a more sci-fi tone. Giger did also design an alternative piece which skews completely the other way, into horror imagery. I prefer our Australian version of the art, which only adds some blue and red hues to provide a more balanced cover accurate representational of the film’s interior.
Future-Kill (which I grew up thinking was called Future Hill due to the title font) gives me such a rush every viewing. My favourite supporting player is Tom (Barton Faulks from the also excellent Edge of the Axe). He took the transition from carefree jokester to adrenelised killer in two easy steps (1. face being about to die, 2. strike first). Credit also goes to the black hole urban cityscape of decayed brick, rusted iron and sparse neon that backdrops the blood, sweat and fears. The musical score by Robert Renfrow (Interview) is a downbeat but hopeful synth track. Let’s also pay due to some hilariously filthy lines like “I’d rather suck off a ballbag”, “you worthless shit-cunt”, “let’s score some gash” and “tonight’s feature: the worm in the cage… in 3D”.
The first day of December brings the gift that keeps on giving. After a several year wait when we were beginning to wonder if we’d get at least part 3 of SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT on DVD simply to complete the “Ricky Trilogy”, we get all 3 remaining franchise titles courtesy of Lionsgate. Stuff your stockings with this 3-Disc set…
Scorpion Releasing unleash the er, silence on November 24!
Young co-ed Scotty (Rebecca Balding – The Boogens) is unable to find housing on the campus. She finds a vacancy at the Engels’ mansion, now a boarding house for college students. Mrs. Engels (Yvonne De Carlo, TV’s The Munsters) and her son seem nice enough, but it becomes clear to Scotty that something is not right at her new residence. When her fellow borders begin dying, two detectives (Cameron Mitchell – Toolbox Murders and comedian Avery Schreiber, in a serious role) must solve the mystery of the Engels’ boarding house before the body count rises.
Disc Features: Anamorphic Widescreen transfer (1.78:1)
Audio commentary with writer/producers Ken and Jim Wheat and star Rebecca Balding
SCREAM OF SUCCESS: 30 YEARS LATER
SILENT SCREAM: THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT
THE WHEAT BROS.: A LOOK BACK
Director DENNY HARRIS’ Final Audio Interview
Rebecca Balding Interview
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spot
Arriving on Nov 17 from Lionsgate comes this remake of TERROR TRAIN that ended up HOSTEL by way of locomotive (!). Touring Eastern Europe with her college wrestling team, Alex (Thora Birch) attends a debauched late-night party that causes Alex and several teammates to miss their train to Odessa. Her coach is furious, but a mysterious woman offers the coach and wrestlers a ride on an alternative train. The coach agrees, and the athletes, exhausted and hung over, gratefully climb aboard. But the train harbors a deadly secret, and for Alex and her fellow passengers, a blood-soaked nightmare is just beginning.
