Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

If you’re not yet convinced by the BBC’s current inclination to release Blu-ray HD editions of SD TV material recorded (often on videotape) in the 1970s and 1980s, it’s unlikely that this new 3-disc ‘special edition’ of the 1981 six-part Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy TV series will change your mind. The slipcover of the new release proudly proclaims “remastered and restored” but, in all honesty, you’re not likely to see much improvement in the picture quality from the long-available DVD release of the series, although the sound has been beefed up for those with real high-end hardware.

We’re not going to insult you by recapping the story of The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy here; if you’re not familiar with Douglas Adams’ groundbreaking 1970s radio sci-fi comedy (and this subsequent TV serialisation) then you’ve really no business reading Starburst at all. The TV episodes are no better or worse than you might expect from a BBC sci-fi series from the early 1980s, especially one produced by a man best known as producer and occasional director of the long-running rolling-down-the-hill-in-a-tin-bath codgers comedy Last of the Summer Wine – you can’t help but wonder just how far out of his depth he was here. The visual effects are shonky but well-meant, the acting is brutally plummy, and the humour is unavoidably shot through with post-Python Oxbridge smart-arsery. But the ideas are great, and there are loads of them, Adams’ prodigious imagination throwing out concepts and gags which roll and bounce, shooting off in all directions before being replaced with something even wilder and more brain-boggling.

Hitch-Hiker’s is fine and dandy then, with the proviso that it’s approached as an under-budgeted period piece which was never really going to do justice to its creator’s vision. Is this new Blu-ray package worth your time and cash? The first two discs contain all the material from the 2002 DVD release. If you’re going to buy this new edition, you’ll be doing it for disc three which is full of previously unreleased material, the best of which is a lengthy reel of studio footage from the production which sees the cast relaxing, pulling faces and suffering for their art between and during takes, and the show’s admittedly excellent hand-drawn ‘Guide’ animation presented in HD. Everything else is a ragbag of often dodgy quality off-air recordings of old BBC TV shows (some of which see Adams excitedly demonstrating a thrilling new text computer game in 1985), pompous Robert Kee telling Adams he didn’t think his second Hitch-Hiker’s book was as good as the first, Marvin the Paranoid Android ‘performing’ his Top 52 hit single on Blue Peter, ten brief films largely taken from an ancient Adams interview, and several items from the recording of recent audio dramatisations which are little more than adverts for their commercial releases. The most recent piece is an appearance from Simon Jones on BBC’s Breakfast programme in 2012.

Despite its nicely-designed packaging and what can most generously be described as a minuscule improvement in visual quality, Hitch-Hiker’s on Blu-ray disappoints because there’s nothing new here at all, just a lot of old archive baggage exhumed and rammed onto the third disc. There’s nothing here you’ll need to see again. We’re equally ambivalent about the BBC’s Blu-ray releases of ‘classic’ Doctor Who, but at least those sets have some new features, interviews and FX sequences. There’s a whiff of the cash-in about the Hitch-Hiker’s set which, in the end, is only really going to appeal to completists who can’t live without seeing a 1980 clip of Douglas Adams on Nationwide and really aren’t too bothered that the TV show itself looks little better than it ever has.

THE HITCH-HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ALAN JW BELL / SCREENPLAY:  DOUGLAS ADAMS / STARRING: SIMON JONES, PETER JONES, DAVID DIXON, MARK WING-DAVEY, SANDRA DICKINSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

There are a few good ideas floating around The Hatred. Not necessarily original ones, but the kind of building blocks it’s possible to make a decent movie out of if you have the right talent. The Hatred isn’t that movie. It starts promisingly and it’s nicely shot. But the script soon betrays its lack of ambition – or even thoroughness – and the performances are in need of much greater supervision. It’s a shame the writer and director couldn’t have met up to hammer out the finer points before production commenced.

Writer/director Michael G. Kehoe’s film starts in 1968 with a twenty minute-plus prologue; ex-Nazi relic hunter Samuel Sears (Divoff), a close aide to Hitler dealing in occult artefacts, is living as an Amish at an isolated farm, but when he and his teenage daughter quarrel about the amount of control he exerts over her, all hell breaks loose and two deaths result. Half a century later, a group of four young female students are about to go house- and baby-sitting for their professor at his newly-bought isolated country home, after he and his wife are called away to a conference on the day he was supposed to move in.

So, you know pretty much exactly what to expect, and the success of The Hatred depends entirely upon how successfully Kehoe develops the relationships between the girls and how plausible he makes them, and therefore how much we care about which will perish or survive, how effectively he sets up the scares – and how satisfyingly the explanations fit together. On this latter point, the ambiguity over whether it’s the father or the daughter – or indeed the relic – that’s beleaguering the teenagers seems fumbled at the death, and the haunting sequences follow the Conjuring example rather too closely and too arbitrarily to really be worthwhile – except in one very effective example. Which you can watch in the trailer.

It’s really down to the success of the actresses as the beleaguered, then. Kehoe tries to build an atmosphere by saving the full manifestation of his demons till close to the end (while throwing in a number of minor engagements rather sooner, defying his own logic), an approach that, along with some especially unwieldy and bogus-sounding dialogue, pretty much undermines the actors’ performances. Their camaraderie from the beginning feels forced, their Californian positivity misplaced and unnatural, and their reactions to the strange incidents unfolding entirely inexplicable. When one of the girls is almost drowned by invisible hands, they order pizza.

They’d probably all be more likeable in more confident hands, but The Hatred is so ill-considered and ineffectual, it is in the end rather more irritating and frustrating than it is remotely thrilling.

Extras: trailer

REVIEW: THE HATRED / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MICHAEL G. KEHOE / SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL G. KEHOE / STARRING: SARAH DAVENPORT, ANDREW DIVOFF, DARBY WALKER, NINA SIEMASZKO, SHAE SMOLIK, GABRIELLE BOURNE, BAYLEY CORMAN, ALISHA WAINWRIGHT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Filmed in 2015, unceremoniously dropped from the release schedule by Sony in 2016 and left sitting on the shelf, forgotten and unloved ever since, Patient Zero, the Matt Smith-starring viral infection thriller – go on, call it Doctor Who and the Zombies of Doom if you must – is finally creeping out to meet a public that probably wasn’t aware it even existed. While it’s not difficult to see why it was felt unsuitable for a theatrical release – bar a few quick flashbacks it’s largely set in one claustrophobic underground location – it’s harder to work out why it’s been kept completely under lock and key for so long as it’s actually a decent spin on the zombie genre whose profligacy is now at the point of driving us all right up the wall.

We’re told, via a tiresome and lazy opening voiceover, about the viral outbreak, the infected, end of the world, people in hiding blah blah blah. Our interest is piqued by the idea that this particular virus is a mutated strain of rabies; this gives our ‘monsters’ a degree of sentience so they’re not just the usual shuffling/running blood-crazed undead of virtually every other film in this hideously oversubscribed genre.

Deep in an underground bunker (the Romero influence is shamelessly exploited) a cluster of civilian, military and scientific survivors are hidden away eking out a fairly miserable existence. Scientist Gina Rose (Dormer) is feverishly working on a vaccine, military boor Knox (Standen) just wants to shoot anything infected that moves, and Morgan (Smith) has been bitten but hasn’t turned into a raging man-monster. Usefully, he can communicate with infected captives and although he can’t make much headway in the group’s quest to find “patient zero”, the first of the infected, he does strike up a potentially-interesting rapport with former teacher Michael (Tucci), who remains urbane and calculating even when consumed by the desire to rip out people’s throats.

Patient Zero doesn’t quite work, and yet it’s not the disaster it might have been due to some interesting ideas which the script can’t quite come to grips with (despite being characterized as semi-intelligent, and the director’s assertion that his creatures are “much sexier” than your traditional undead brain-muncher, the finale descends into the usual brain-munching carnage), a distinct impression that no-one was really sure exactly how the whole thing should play out, and an ending so abrupt it gives new meaning to the expression “oh, is that it?”.

The “patient zero” reveal is a nicely-played twist, and Morgan’s determination to keep his infected wife (Deyn) alive in the hope of finding a cure adds an interesting dramatic dynamic, but the film starts to wobble dangerously as the stakes are raised and it eventually turns into the sort of film we might have hoped it could avoid becoming. But there’s a nice sense of overheated claustrophobia in the bunker setting, the flashback to Tucci’s character’s infection and its consequences is grim stuff, and Matt Smith’s American accent is a baffling thing of joy. Patient Zero clearly belongs nowhere near a big screen but it’s eighty minutes of watchable home entertainment that’s not likely to feel like a complete waste of time.

PATIENT ZERO / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: STEFAN RUZOWITSKY / SCREENPLAY: MIKE LE / STARRING: MATT SMITH, NATALIE DORMER, STANLEY TUCCI, CLIVE STANDEN, AGYNESS DEYN /  RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 22ND

In The Changeling, George C. Scott plays John Russell, a composer who moves from New York to Seattle after the tragic deaths of his wife and child in an accident. Trying to rebuild his life, the grieving Russell has taken a job lecturing on music, and has rented a large, old house from the local historic society. It’s not long before strange noises, unexplainable voices and shocking discoveries bring Russell to believe his new home is haunted.

Scott’s character is a rational man but, as one who operates on the evidence available to him, the film avoids the pitfalls of some other, similar films by not being about what Russell believes, but instead what he will do about it. When The Changeling also takes an interesting, agreeably bold turn midway through, it becomes both ghost story and something else at the same time.

Sharing much of its cinematic DNA with the type of captivating, classy horror Hollywood had been producing at the time, where it deviates from this, it does so in genuinely fascinating ways, not least in the emotionally brutal ending. Although it arguably lacks a real sense of foreboding or genuine danger for Russell, what makes The Changeling work far outweighs any of the film’s relatively minor issues. Blessed with an excellent score, beautifully shot, directed with thought and care, well-paced and with a faultless central cast (headed up by the incomparable Scott), The Changeling is well worth your time.

Second Sight’s standard edition Blu-ray release boasts a great new restored 4K scan of the film which is most often sharp, clear and makes it appear as if it could have been shot yesterday. For extras, we start with a lively feature-length commentary by director Peter Medak and producer Joel B. Michaels moderated by Severin Films’ David Gregory, in which both share plenty of behind-the-scenes information and an enthusiasm for the film and their star Scott that is certainly justified. Featurette The House on Cheesman Park (17:31 mins) explores the ‘true’ story behind the film. The Psychotronic Tourist (16:02 mins) is a modern-day tour of the film’s striking locations, and there’s interviews with music arranger Kenneth Wannberg (8:59 mins), art director Reuben Freed (10:56 mins) and Mick Garris (5:31 mins) on the movie’s history and production, and like the commentary all show huge affection for the film. A trailer and TV spot round things out.  A fine package for a very good film.

THE CHANGELING (1980) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: PETER MEDAK / SCREENPLAY: WILLIAM GRAY, DIANA MADDOX / STARRING: GEORGE C. SCOTT, TRISH VAN DEVERE, MELVYN DOUGLAS / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 29TH

If you don’t know, Xtro is a British science fiction horror from 1982 that tells the story of Sam (Philip Sayer), a young father who is playing outside his idyllic country cottage home with son Tony until he is seemingly abducted by aliens. Some years later, Sam returns, in a way, to reclaim his son and wife Rachel (Bernice Stegers). Rachel has moved on and is now with new partner Joe, but the return of her lost love throws this all into chaos. And chaos it is, because Sam is not entirely the same as he used to be and it leads to bloody death. It’s one of those films that any two people could feel entirely different about. For everyone who thinks it’s cheap, cheesy nonsense there’s someone else who digs the invention and ambition of the movie and this restored version is sharp and beautiful to behold, making that an easier sell.

Xtro has a reputation of some notoriety for a couple of over the top gore scenes and these days, the effects don’t carry the same weight as they would have done 35 plus years ago. But Xtro has more to it than this, including some great attempts at atmosphere and an emotional core to the story and if you get with the general sense of escalating weirdness you’ll have a good time. It’s an acquired taste but if it works for you, there’s much to enjoy. And at the centre of it all is an appropriately intense performance from Sayer as the conflicted Sam.

Of course, if you know and like the film already then you’re going to be most interested in finding out whether this Second Sight Blu-ray standard edition release’s slate of extras is worth it. And this is where it excels, starting off with a new restoration of the film and the option of alternative endings as well as the original fondly-remembered UK video version. There’s a brand new, affectionate 57-minute documentary on the production of the movie that’s very entertaining and features a number of the film’s key contributors (including Tim Dry, who played the creature) and the likes of genre expert Alan Jones. There’s a featurette on the World of Xtro (27 mins), the archival Xtro Xposed (11 mins), a musical tribute to Sayer (sadly lost to us), some test footage from the proposed reboot of the series, a trailer and TV spot and a book on the production.

Overall, it’s an excellent release doing the film justice, and comes highly recommended.

XTRO (1982) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: HARRY BROMLEY DAVENPORT / SCREENPLAY: IAIN CASSIE, ROBERT SMITH / STARRING: PHILIP SAYER, BERNICE STEGERS, DANNY BRAININ, MARYAM D’ABO / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 22ND

As much as it might want to be, Down a Dark Hall is not your ordinary teens-in-peril horror movie. There’s no deranged murderer stalking a bunch of girls around campus. And don’t let the fact that this was produced by Twilight’s Stephanie Meyer put you off either, although the heroine of this adaptation of the late Lois Duncan’s 1974 novel (published the year after I Know What You Did Last Summer) does share something of a premise with Bella Swan.

Some years after her father’s death, troubled Kit Gordy attempts to burn down her high school, subsequently finding herself involuntarily relocated to the isolated Blackwood Boarding School. Run by Madame Duret, the institution limits itself to a very select group of unsettled students – just the five, in fact – each of whom has encountered problems dealing with an ordinary life but in whom Duret and her staff have spotted a ‘gift’ that they undertake to draw out.

Anyone expecting the teaching staff to turn out to be vampires by this point will be sorely disappointed. The turn the story takes instead proves to be a lot more interesting – but (on screen at least) a lot less well-developed.

Madame Duret and staff, including Jodhi May and Pip Torrens, plus Rebecca Front as Duret’s ‘handy-woman’, are keen to promote ‘the four pillars of learning’: arithmetic, art, literature and music – and that’s the direction the supernatural element of Down a Dark Hall takes us. Kit, under the instruction of Madame Duret’s son Jules, turns out to be something of a piano virtuoso, despite never having exhibited much of a talent for it before – while the other girls are discovering similar proclivities for maths, poetry and painting. Meanwhile there’s an old wing at Blackwood the girls have been forbidden to enter because it ‘isn’t perfectly safe’…

It’s all very atmospherically shot (pity there’s no Blu-ray this side of the Atlantic) by Rodrigo Cortés, although despite some well-realised musical sequences the Spanish director does rather favour cleansing fire over intellectual resolution during the rather predictable last half-hour. The film’s other failing is its lack of any real character development; we dovetail straight from introduction to possession and get little real flavour for the establishment or the girls’ relationships.

That said, AnnaSophia Robb (Tim Burton’s Violet Beauregarde) is excellent as Kit, and both the English members of staff and the other students acquit themselves well. The two Durets are another matter; you’d never guess Noah Silver was raised in France from his dubious accent, and his performance isn’t a whole lot better, while the same goes double for Uma Thurman as Jules’ mother. Thurman exhibits an eccentric authority that has to be seen to be disbelieved.

DOWN A DARK HALL / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: RODRIGO CORTÉS / SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL GOLDBACH, CHRIS SPARLING / STARRING: ANNASOPHIA ROBB, UMA THURMAN, VICTORIA MOROLES, ISABELLE FUHRMAN, TAYLOR RUSSELL, ROSIE DAY, NOAH SILVER, REBECCA FRONT, PIP TORRENS, JODHI MAY / RELEASE DATE:  OCTOBER 22ND

Most Spanish films that fetch up on these shores seem to be either psycho-sexual thrillers or psychological horrors, so this true story about the rescue of an AS332 Superpuma helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan in August 2012 is something of a novelty. It’s no Black Hawk Down, but director Adolfo Martínez gets assistance from the national military in the loan of six helicopters (including the actual Superpuma involved in the accident), and while he’s working to a limited budget, he makes the absolute most of what he’s got.

Army doctor Capitán Varela (Gil) loses the life of a young patient while under fire from local insurgents – the kind of loss that’s led to her seeking a new job back in a Spanish hospital – after which she and her MEDEVAC pilot’s next mission – Capitán Torres (Álamo) is in fact also her brother-in-law – is to rescue a pair of American soldiers, injured during an ambush and under the protection of a small Spanish unit led by Lieutenant Conte (Mérida). Conte’s the son of a prominent and popular ex-soldier beneath whose shadow he finds himself trapped, and makes an error of judgement choosing a landing ground; Torres’ helicopter pitches onto its side in the dust, stranding soldiers and medics alike.

Except they’re not quite stranded. Base commander Ledesma (Garrido) has a difficult decision to make; evacuate the forces at once, blowing up the helicopter so it doesn’t fall into enemy hands – or attempt to rescue the Superpuma too, necessitating everyone staying put overnight until a Chinook large enough to lift it to safety can be found. Factoring in the cost of replacing the aircraft – something that wouldn’t happen, given the Spanish forces’ limited budgets – against the benefits of having a medical rescue vehicle in the country, Ledesma, with the backing of his officers, opts for the latter – and a long night of waiting for the insurgents to return ensues. You know what happens next.

Martínez, in his feature debut after storyboarding a number of massive Hollywood productions, directs with a matter-of-fact style belying some of the script’s character clichés, and makes everything feel much more natural and earned, even if perhaps a little less engaging. And there’s maybe less combat on screen than you might expect, but the rescue itself is filmed with a keen eye for an exciting visual, and there’s an economy and evocation of place (this was actually shot in Andalucía, very effectively) that involves you in events and helps you care who survives.

Rescue Under Fire isn’t going to bother the big studio war films, but for a smaller scale – and crucially, true – story, it’s easily well enough told to make it worth passing ninety minutes of your time with.

Extras: trailer

RESCUE UNDER FIRE (ZONA HOSTIL) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ADOLFO MARTÍNEZ PÉREZ / SCREENPLAY: LUIS ARRANZ, ANDRÉS M. KOPPEL / STARRING: ARIADNA GIL, RAÚL MÉRIDA, ROBERTO ÁLAMO, ANTONIO GARRIDO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

1991’s Popcorn was made on the cusp of change for the horror film. Much of it is very eighties, a well-made but not hugely interesting slasher. The other side experiments with the aware, self-referential horror films that would follow throughout the 90’s. It tells the story of Maggie (Jill Schoelen), a college student having reoccurring dreams of a young girl trying to escape a fire while being hunted by a strange, threatening man.

Meanwhile, her film studies class prepares to put on a show of ‘classics’ at a local movie theatre that is due for demolition. William Castle-style, the chosen films came with gimmicks like Shock-o-Scope and Odorama, and the students decide to resurrect them for the show. In the course of setting this up, when the students discover a ‘banned’ film called Possessor, it eerily matches Maggie’s dream. The man responsible, Lanyard Gates, apparently put on a final showing of his film that ended in murder and fiery death. Maggie becomes convinced he is the man from her dream, and that he will he appear on the big night. Certainly, someone will be responsible for a number of grisly deaths as the evening unfolds.

Popcorn has a lot going for it. There are some solid performances, the films-within-the-film are witty pastiches of sci-fi and horror of previous years, and it’s all done with a good-natured sense of fun. It’s also a little too long, the pace flags and there’s no one to really care about as the film unspools. Fans of harder slashers are unlikely to find much to thrill them here. But if you know the references the film makes, or just enjoy a well-crafted piece of work made with love, you’ll enjoy it.

This 88 Films release ports over everything from last year’s Synapse Blu-ray, and that’s a great thing for fans of the film. It boasts a lovely and crisply colourful 2k scan of the film as well as a 7.1 audio track. There’s a convivial commentary headed up by director Mark Herrier along with stars of the film, as well as an interview with Bruce Glover (from one of the ‘classic films’), a trailer, TV spots and a stills gallery. The jewel however is a near hour-long ‘making of’ documentary with contributions from many of the key players, covering the genesis, development and production of the film. It’s clear from this that there’s a lot of affection for the film from those who made it, which is understandable. Whilst not scary or violent like some others, it’s fun and this release is the essential version of it.

POPCORN / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MARK HERRIER / SCREENPLAY: TOD HACKETT / STARRING: JILL SCHOELEN, TOM VILLARD, DEE WALLACE STONE, DEREK RYDALL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Australian ‘goth’ director Alex Proyas has a distinctive enough style to have acquired a loyal and committed following, for whom this domestic Blu-ray release of his first feature, presented with enough care and attention lavished upon it to ensure that nobody already acquainted with the picture will feel remotely disappointed, will seem like manna from Heaven – although the film itself isn’t exactly of the calibre of The Crow or Dark City.

As seems de rigueur for an Antipodean director (George Miller and Peter Weir having straddled the divide), Proyas’ debut is an isolated and post-apocalyptic black comedy, involving two siblings living alone in the middle of the desert, into whose lives appears a stranger who will apparently irrevocably change their existence before moving on.

Felix Crabtree dreams of escaping via flight, but has been unable, having lost the use of his legs, to build himself the machine he believes will transport himself and his sister to a better life beyond the cliffs to the north. He shares a wooden house with Betty, his even more broken younger sister, who fills the shack with candles, crucifixes and Bibles and spends her days playing mournful tunes on a seemingly homemade musical instrument and tending the grave of their father. There are unanswered questions about this post-apocalyptic existence – where do the candles come from, not to mention the food? – that are perhaps better not asked.

Spirits starts with the arrival of a young stranger, ostensibly on the run from forces unknown, who gives his name only as ‘Smith’ and spends more time smoking cigarettes than talking. Until Felix co-opts him into helping out with the project, that is, which Smith fears will delay his flight from his pursuers, but also hopes will provide a means of escape beyond their ability to catch him up.

Spirits is incredibly beautifully shot – Proyas has an excellent eye for visual composition – and just as memorably scored; Peter Miller’s distinctive compositions have been justly celebrated in the years since this was made. However the three characters are each so eccentrically (if brilliantly) performed and the story so filled with longueurs and non-sequiturs, the first hour is a bit hard-going. When the project gets underway a sense of (ultimately bittersweet) hope is added to the narrative, but the score and pacing could have done with something a little different in the middle to break up the monotony.

That said, for a bunch of young filmmakers decamping to New South Wales to make their first feature, this is incredibly accomplished and the Blu-ray is an aficionado’s dream. The 2k restoration looks improbably crisp and sharp, given the 16mm source, and there are quite extensive catch-up interviews with the actors who played the Crabtrees, along with twenty or so minute’s worth of behind-the-scenes footage from some rather murky old videotapes. Rounded out by a music video based around Miller’s compositions and two worthwhile commentary tracks, this is not a film for everyone but a release that’s certainly worth forking out for.

Extras: two audio commentaries, cast interviews, making of featurette, music video, trailer

SPIRITS OF THE AIR, GREMLINS OF THE CLOUDS / CERT: M (AUSTRALIA) / DIRECTOR: ALEX PROYAS / SCREENPLAY: ALEX PROYAS / STARRING: MICHAEL LAKE, RHYS DAVIS, NORMAN BOYD / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW