For those already familiar with the film: I decided to trade in my Anchor Bay copy of Vampyres and get the Blue Underground edition, and I'm glad I did. The lost Caravan scene which Anchor Bay's edition does not contain only consists of about 10 photos of lost footage which doesn't look like it would have added anything to the movie. And Blue Underground's copy only less than half a minute of extra footage in the film itself which is not found in the Anchor Bay edition, and this only consists of additional violence (the scene where a couple gets killed in their car). These alone are nice but not really worth the trade. But what makes the Blue Underground version really superior is: 1) a fun new interview with both Vampyres (and they still look great!), 2) tons of poster art and promotional material from around the world, and 3) a book about the film on DVD-Rom. And there are other nice little touches, like a better choice of artwork for the chapter list sheet, which all adds up to make me even happier with this edition.

For those who have never seen this film: This is one of the best vampire films ever made, and is quite superior to any of the Hammer films, but be forewarned that the reason why it isn't as widely recognized as a classic as it should be is because it is a rather shocking film. But what makes this movie particularly disturbing and effective is that the vampyres do not seem supernatural at all (except for their aversion to daylight). These vampyres messily tear people open with their teeth, like animals, when they drink blood instead of just cleanly sucking it out, which is something any psycho could do. But what makes them really effective is that they are not really "evil", but instead seem like two ordinary women who have freed themselves from all restrictions and willingly give in to the primal, animalistic urges which all people suppress to some extent. They are simultaneously greatly attractive and absolutely repulsive in their freedom. And unlike Christopher Lee's or Bela Lugosi's Dracula, they don't seem to act civil only as an act, but seem to actually enjoy the company of their victims. You will hate yourself for liking them so much. The usual one-dimensional Hollywood monster is far less effective, even with all the expensive makeup and visual effects.

All four films in this collection have very good quality pictures. Although going by average quality of the films themselves this is one of Brentwood's less strong 4-movie collections, there isn't one single movie that I outright hated. And at this price, you only need one good film you are not likely to find elsewhere to make it worthwhile. Going from the weakest film to the best:

SNOW BEAST, a TV movie, takes the then-recent film Jaws, turns the shark into an abominable snowman, and the beach resort into a ski resort, and throws out everything that was good about that film, including any suspense or interesting characters. There are some things worth slight amusement. For example, when the camper (replacing the fishing boat in Jaws) is knocked over by a bunch of rolling logs, somehow the camper winds up filled with the large logs although the whole thing, including the side on which it was hit, is still completely intact! Everyone involved in the film must have failed physics.

MOON OF THE WOLF is a TV movie about a local cop investigating brutal murders which may or may not have been committed by an animal (of course we all know it is a werewolf). Since it is a TV movie it is quite tame and the budget is low, which is not necessarily an impediment to a good film, but it is all too predictable and fails to build suspense. It even completely fails to make any use of potentially interesting local flavour (Cajuns, bayous or local legends) except for the presence of one bed-ridden francophone. Even the fine performances fail to make this film anything more than an adequate time waster.

WOLF MAN is a low budget 1970s movie which was released theatrically only in the southern states. Like most rural films it has a certain charm (local playhouse quality acting and all). It isn't really a copy of the original film, but pretty well everything in it had been done countless times before (in the original, in dozens of Hammer films, etc.) Therefore, since the film has little action, but depends upon building suspense, it doesn't work as well as it should. With such nice touches as the devil-whorshipping southern preacher this film could be a classic if it had come out before most of the things in it became cliched.

In contrast, SCREAM OF THE WOLF, which is the best entry in this collection, is very original. WHICH is why it will actually disappoint viewers who WANT it to follow expectations. Intelligently scripted by Richard Matheson (who scripted the best of Roger Corman's Poe films), competently directed by Dan (Dark Shadows) Curtis, and filled with excellent performances, this film easily surpasses the limitations imposed upon it by nature of being an old TV movie (including by hinting at some things not mentioned on TV in those days). I don't want to risk spoiling anything by describing this movie in more detail.

With 3 out of 4 of the movies being 1970s made-for-TV horror films, this collection does have some nostalgia value for those of us who grew up on such things, and there are many familiar faces and bit players you rarely see anymore. Other than for that reason, and for "Scream of the Wolf", I can't give this collection a very high recommendation. Younger viewers who have no attention spans as a result of growing up on splatter films might want to give this one a pass.

I was tempted to give this collection 1 star for its inclusion of one truly offensive film with no redeeming qualities, but it is still an extremely worthwhile collection for those on a budget for other reasons.

The two films which make this collection worthwhile for people on a budget are "I Eat Your Skin" and "The Undertaker and His Pals". Both are fun films, and the picture quality for both films as found in this collection are about as good as they'll ever get.

THE UNDERTAKER... is a fun black comedy about two j.d.'s who run a diner who team up with a crooked undertaker in a scheme to cook up business. They murder people, the diner gets some free meat, and the undertaker gets bodies he can bury while charging large reconstructive cosmetics fees to the deceaseds' relatives. Extremely low brow satire, but better than any of the Evil Dead films. H. Gordon Lewis style gore with laughs.

I EAT YOUR SKIN is for fans of bad but fun old movies. A scientist is forced to create zombies for a power hungry island landowner. Lots of bad makeup and PRC/Monogram style low-budget horror. No gore in this one despite the title (which was slapped onto the film in the 1970s when it became part of a double bill with I Drink Your Blood), but who needs that for a good time?

THE SEVERED ARM (described in detail in another review) was too long for my taste. It has a great set up and ending, but the middle drags. This is quite unfortunate given the film's great potential. I'd love to see The Severed Arm released with some excess fat removed and cleaned up for easier digestion (Sorry. I couldn't avoid the temptation).

SLAVE OF THE CANNIBAL GOD has all the elements of your typical 1970s/early 1980s Italian cannibal film: 1) stupid people wander off into the jungle; 2) argue with each other for a boring hour and a half while various animals get killed for real; until 3) they run into a bunch of cannibals who kill most of them off while the audience cheers. Unlike some people, I don't think nature is a happy fun land where animals live together in peace and eat nothing but marshmallows and ice cream, nor do I have any illusions over where the meat on my plate comes from, but neither do I find it necessary for a film which is supposed to be entertaining to dwell at such great length on scenes of animals killing each other. Sure, when you are filming in the jungle you are presented with opportunities to capture such things on camera and use it to help establish the setting of the film. This has not coloured my opinion of other similar films. But here, e.g., you have one scene of a monkey being killed very slowly by a snake which goes on forever and in graphic detail to the point of complete tastelessness, and in one truly offensive scene natives cut apart an iguana while keeping it alive as long as possible. This is just plain unnecessary cruelty. Resorting to such immature shock tactics does not serve to salvage this film's poor attempt at a story. This is not daring art making some grand statement; it is just people unable to elicit any reaction but boredom without stooping to the lowest depths.

For those who, like me, don't want to own a DVD with scenes of deliberately staged animal cruelty (as distinguished from acts of nature) "The Undertaker and His Pals" is also available solo in a great copy from VCI, and "I Eat Your Skin" is available from Something Weird as a second feature to "The Child" along with some great shorts. The tradeoff is that you'll be paying more and will miss out on "The Severed Arm".

...just by watching this movie.

Straight to Hell comes off as a purely self-indulgent vanity piece. Like the road to Hell, I'm sure director Cox had very good intentions when he got together with many of his friends in a small Mexican ghost town (actually Spain) and just let the camera roll while everyone improvised. Given all of the peronas involved (including many legends from the early 1980s punk scene and independent filmmakers) you would expect something at least slightly interesting to occur. Unfortunately, the result is just directionless and meandering. Whereas films like Repo Man are iconoclastic and make interesting comments about the disintegration of society, this is just a mess about a bunch of adults acting silly. It may have been fun to film, but it is a chore to sit through.

I wonder if Cox truly felt he had created a worthwhile movie, or if he just tried to salvage whatever he could from the footage he shot after going to the expense. Whatever the case, this disaster bascially ended Alex Cox's career by making it impossible for him to find any further financial backing (he only made one more cheap film in Mexico). Talk about going out with a whimper.

For those who care, this is Courtney Love's first film, from before she became famous through marriage. Everything else about Straight to Hell is equally as trivial as that piece of information.

In the early 1980s Roger Corman unleased a large number of [poorly made] barbarian films in order to cash in on the success of the Conan movies. They sure have not improved with age.

In the first of the two films on this DVD, the Barbarian Queen (played by Lana Clarkson) is about to get married when an evil tyrant comes along and slaughters everyone, and raping and general exploitation ensues. The Barbarian Queen, who of course escapes, meets up with other angry young women who team up with her to get revenge. Such a plot could provide the makings of a guilty pleasure, but it completely fails to deliver. Most of this film is taken up by people walking around and talking to each other. The only thing good that can be said about this film is that it is not quite as bad as the barbarian films Sybil Danning made for Harry Alan Towers (or was it Fred Olen Ray?), but even the horrendous Italian Ator films (one can be found on the second MST3000 collection) at least managed to mix in an iota of imagination along with sheer boredom.

In Barbarian Queen 2, Lana Clarkson plays a descendant of her character in the first film. Her throne is taken from her by an evil tyrant who keeps her alive because he wants a powerful magical sword which is floating around in a magical protective barrier in one of the castle's rooms, and only Lana knows the spell necessary to wield it without bursting into flames. It only occurs to her to free the sword for her own use near the end the film (and even then doesn't really use it). Therefore much of the movie is taken up by the tyrant trying to convince Lana to hand over the bloody sword already. There is one scene in a torture chamber which is interesting in a twisted sort of way, and there is a subplot which is good for some laughs about an evil preteen girl who plans to get married to a guard who is in his early 30s, and he goes along with her romantic advances because she is in line to inherit the throne when she grows up. There is also an interesting twist at the end of the film. For these reasons I considered giving this second film something closer to 2 stars, but, naaah, not quite.

Maybe some people who like other schlocky Corman barbarian films such as Deathstalker will be able to somehow sit through this double feature.

This movie has great special effects. There. Now that I've gone out of my way to say something good about this film, here's what's wrong with it:

About three quarters of the film does little more than establish what a childish and jealous egomaniac the character played by Kevin Bacon is. After he is turned invisible, all he can think of doing with his powers is moving one scientist's drink when she is not looking and molesting a couple of other women. While Bacon becomes increasingly mentally unstable thanks to the invisibility treatment, the audience is supposed to believe that the so-called brilliant scientists who helped turn him invisible are now unable to turn him visible again because they have suddenly turned so stupid that they don't bother completely replicating the conditions that allowed them to bring a gorilla back from invisibility. Instead they search for an entirely new way of bringing Bacon back.

Finally, during the last 20 minutes of the film after Bacon completely snaps there is a long battle scene which only makes sense if you believe the good scientists' intelligence levels have now been reduced to that of vegetables. For example, if the scientists put on their infrared goggles they are able to see the heat patterns of their invisible guinea pigs. But during the battle sequence they don't bother wearing their goggles for more than 2 seconds at a time (well, okay, one of them finally realizes it might be a good idea to keep them on, but only after Bacon has flooded the area with enough hot steam to hide his own heat signature). The hero of the tale, played by Shue, is also so stupid that, after turning on the sprinklers so she can see Bacon's outline, she stands in a hallway staring in only one direction, allowing him to just waltz up to her from the other direction and attack her from behind (maybe she thought it was one of those new-fangled one-way halls). I could go on much longer about how utterly inane this film is, but I won't.

Why can't Verhoeven still make great satires like Robocop instead of unleashing insulting special f/x showcases like this upon the public?

This DVD is only for diehard fans of producer Harry Novak or "actress" Uschi Digart. If you're not already a Novak fan, check out "A Scream in the Streets" or "Kiss Me Quick" (two of his greatest classics) first.

As usual with Novak films, the rather bare plots are summed up in more than sufficient detail on the back cover of the DVD. Anything more would create a false impression of how much plot there is considering that what's there is just an excuse to show lots of women and some violence. Both films have the usual fun overacting, especially Buck Flower's performance as the punchdrunk former boxer in "Below the Belt". Unfortunately, the plots are even sparser than usual in these films, so consequently there is not quite as much of the unintentional humour normally found in Novak films, which renders these two weaker.

But there is one surprise which earns this DVD an extra star for those who love spotting famous people doing things you can be sure they later regretted. In the case of "The Godson", the target of humour is Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, screenwriter and film critic Harlan Ellison. In most of his scene, which involves (sci-fi?) conventioners being entertained courtesy of the hilariously sideburned and afroed godson, you can only see Ellison's arms, but his face is clearly visible for several seconds and he is clearly enjoying himself. This scene was even shot in Ellison's home which is easily recognizable with the many bookshelves almost completely covering all the walls. The best way to watch this scene is after reading any of Ellison's many reviews blasting some fun turkey of a film for not living up to his lofty intellectual and artistic standards. The irony is delicious.

Like Ron Mann's other films ("Grass", "Comic Book Confidential", etc), "Twist" is full of much more fun, colour, movement and wit than the average documentary, and provides an equally entertaining and educational look at 20th century pop history. And, as in his other documentaries, he looks at the broader background and sociological implications behind the main subject matter.

One of the more interesting historical aspects explored in this film is the politics and social engineering behind the '50's dance crazes. The twist itself grew out of the more blatantly sexual, bump and grind dances popular in black music halls. Knowing that it was impossible to wipe out their children's interests in black culture (let's face it, African Americans not only invented rock and roll, but put out far superior music to the watered-down white artists who were more radio-friendly), white adults decided to instead try to replace the dances their children were imitating with something "safer" and more "wholesome" by doing for dance what Pat Boone and company did for rock. Funny clips are shown of whites demonstrating the "proper" technique for twisting with absolutely no hip movement! But they only partially succeeded.

The Twist is not the only dance examined. Mann shows how it evolved from other dances, and how others later tried to cash in on its success by releasing songs with built-in new dances. Witness such Macarenas of the past as the hilarious The Elephant where kids use their arms to imitate an elephant's trunk! (Unfortunately, Mann does not include footage of the Neil Sadaka non-craze, The Jellyfish!!)

All the people most instrumental in creating the dance craze who were alive at the time of filming are interviewed, many of them demonstrating their own twist (pun intended) on the dance. And the music and dancing is absolutely exhilarating.

Sadly, Lulu's (former home of the world's largest stage) in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada where the interviews and new dance sequences were filmed has long since closed down, so this film is also a good nostalgia trip for those who miss the legendary club.

In Monster-A-Go-Go a space capsule returns to earth, crashing off-course. When it is located, the pilot is missing. Meanwhile a giant with bad skin is slowly shambling towards a city and everyone who comes near him drops dead from radiation poisoning. Could the giant really be the astronaut? And will the army remember that it has weapons such as sniper rifles capable of killing people from a distance before the film ends?

The best thing about Monster-A-Go-Go is its title, there is a gratuitous dance club scene, and the monster (played by a real giant) looks great (but you rarely get to see him). The more scientifically advanced viewer will find some amusement in the claim that the monster is becoming increasingly radioactive, causing his radius of danger to increase, when by definition any object which is radioactive becomes less dangerous over time (otherwise it cannot be giving off radiation!!) And there is a phone which does not ring until 7 minutes after it has already been answered (bad soundtrack). But mostly you get dull talky dialogue between people just standing around and detailed narration, most of it dubbed in, all of which put me to sleep more easily than accounting classes. The film is too tedious to watch without fastforwarding through most of it, even for a fan of old monster films like myself who doesn't expect to see gore, death and special fx every few seconds. This gets a very weak 2 star rating.

But you get more than your money's worth with Psyched by the 4D Witch. This is, hands down, THE most insane film ever made, and is almost beyond description (except by giving a detailed blow-by-blow account). It is sort of like a combination of one of Ed Wood's last few films (e.g. One Million AC/DC) and a REALLY intense, bad acid trip. Every few seconds you will ask yourself "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!" I can't imagine even people going to a theatre completely stoned out of their minds failing to question the sanity of the filmmakers. From the beginning until the very end of the film you will think things cannot get any stranger, but they do! Not one single second of the film has visuals which are not weird or experimental. The acid rock theme song played repeatedly throughout the film is also hilarious and will haunt your brain for the rest of your life. Even during the most serious business meeting a voice singing "Beware of the 4D Witch, Beware!" will suddenly pop into your head. Could this film have been part of some sort of otherworldly psychological warfare program targeting the unsuspecting peoples of Earth? Perhaps! I'm wondering when the invasion will begin.

To oversimplify the film, Donnie Darko is about a boy who may have paranoid schizophrenia who is saved from being crushed by an airplane engine which crashes into his bedroom by an imaginary friend that resembles a guy in a demon bunny costume. This new "friend" begins manipulating his actions which creates a chain reaction inevitably leading to the end events. Throughout the film Donnie finds himself confronting such issues as predestination vs free will and the existence of God. The story takes place in the late 1980s, apparently so the viewer will have some expectation of what won't happen in Donnie's future.

The time travel plot provides moments of interest, but is ultimately weak and pointless. I cannot give a full critique without spoiling the ending, but this storyline completely contradicts the point the film is trying to make (see below for more details). However, where the film excels is as a character study of Donnie himself and his interactions with several other interesting characters. Some of the other characters are a bit one dimensional, but that is the point. Such shallow people do exist in real life and never look at the world with the amount of depth or imagination that Donnie does, and seeing the two extremes come into conflict is priceless. This is one of the funniest satires of suburban life I have seen since American Beauty.

If Richard Kelly were more confident to stick to straightforward storytelling and directing (the shifts in camera speed for example are just annoying and campy) and left out the superficial gloss and unnecessary time travel storyline, this film would be a true masterpiece. He does appear to have the potential to create surreal masterpieces like David Lynch, but he first has to figure out how how to avoid completely contradicting himself. It will be interesting to see which way he goes in the future; if he'll make the next American Beauty or the next Mulholland Dr. Maybe he'll surprise us and make a more successfull hybrid.

SPOILER: The film is supposed to divine intervention leading to Donnie's self-sacrifice. However, the tragedies at the end of the film are solely caused by this intervention. For example, Donnie would not have flooded the school or burnt down the kiddie porn house or visited Grandma Death's house without the encouragement of the bunny, so his mother would not be on the plane, his teacher wouldn't have been fired, his girlfriend would not have been killed, nor would the guy in the bunny suit have even died if not for his own intervention! So the whole film lacks even any internal logic (something essential to any surreal film), Donnie's "self-sacrifice" is just plain stupidity, and the emotional impact of most of the events in the film is completely undermined.