Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Review: The Hidden Face (La Cara Oculta) / Cert: 15 / Director: Andrés Baiz / Screenplay: Andrés Baiz / Starring: Quim Gutiérrez, Martina García, Clara Lago / Release Date: May 20th

Before we start, we urge you NOT to watch the trailer for this Spanish/Columbian thriller. Sure, it might make you want to see it, but it will definitely spoil your enjoyment of the film.

Adrián (Gutiérrez), an eminent conductor on placement with the Columbian Symphony Orchestra, is despairing. His girlfriend, Belen (Lago) has left him, leaving only a video telling him that she is sorry and not to look for her. After days trying to get his head around her sudden flit, Adrián decides to go out and get plastered. It is while drowning his sorrows that he catches the attention of pretty barmaid Fabiana (García), and the pair are soon lovers. However, the police are treating Belen’s disappearance as suspicious.

Without delving too much into spoiler territory, the film is split into three distinct acts, the first focusing on the new affair between Adrián and Fabiana, the second on what actually happened between Adrián and Belen, before it reaches its ironic and very satisfying conclusion. Wrong-footing the viewer into thinking its a supernatural horror film, the ensuing tale is much more interesting, if just as fantastical. While the film is creatively and visually entertaining, director Baiz seems to be in a rush to tell his story, and as such some of the characterisation suffers. Also, there is little sense of time in the first part of the story, giving the impression the events could be happening over a period of days when it actually could be weeks or even months. These minor misgivings notwithstanding, it is an entertaining and riveting film. Lets hope it’s one that will avoid being ruined by a Hollywood remake.

Extras: Trailer

Review: Come Out and Play / Cert: 18 / Director: Makinov / Screenplay: Makinov / Starring: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vinessa Shaw, Daniel Gimecho Cacho / Release Date: May 6th

When holidays go bad, they can go really bad. Young marrieds Francis (Moss-Bachrach) and Beth (Shaw) decide to enjoy a final luxury vacation before their lives change forever with the imminent arrival of their firstborn. They head for a remote island off the coast of Mexico but  they find that their idyllic, sun-drenched destination is completely deserted… apart from a few curious children who quickly run off when approached. Francis and Beth explore the island’s town and finally come across an injured old man who is brutally stabbed and beaten to death – there’s a nasty rock-on-head moment – by a group of cheering children. Not unnaturally, Francis and Beth make a run for it and before long the initially-innocuous children, now vicious cannibalistic killers, are bearing down on them and the couple have to face the terrible dilemma of how to seriously defend themselves against a group of young, fresh-faced kids. Maybe they should have just stayed at home.

In this remake of the Spanish-language cult classic Who Could Kill a Child? (1976), enigmatic director Makinov has crafted a striking, off-kilter thriller which grips and enthrals despite the frustrations of a script which underdevelops its central characters and offers no explanation either for why the couple are so desperate to reach this particular holiday island in the first place or why the children are behaving like homicidal maniacs. But the film looks sensational, the brilliant sunshine and bleached architecture of the town contrasting with the inexplicable violence of the children who prowl its streets. Makinov ratchets up the tension as Beth and Francis try to find a way off the island and the central conceit of possessed, murderous children takes a turn for the deeply unpleasant when Beth starts to give birth. Francis’ final confrontation on the quayside, where he finally and fatally fights back against the children, is still uncomfortable viewing notwithstanding the violence the kids themselves have inflicted.

Despite the simplistic one-tone storyline and the occasional idiocy of the two leads, Come Out and Play is a stylish entry into a long line of ‘killer kids’ movies (2008’s underrated British effort The Children springing most readily and recently to mind) and especially if the original hasn’t crossed your radar, it’s likely to shock and unnerve in equal measure. Surprisingly good.

Extras: None

Review: Captain America – Death Too Soon / Cert: PG / Director: Ivan Nagy / Screenplay: Various / Starring: Reb Brown, Christopher Lee / Release Date: Out Now 

In Captain America – Death Too Soon, Steve Rogers (Brown) continues his role as a crime fighter. This time the US Government call him in after a break-in at a West Coast Laboratory and the kidnapping of a microbiologist, Professor Ilson. The clues point to known revolutionary Miguel (Christopher Lee) who has slipped into the United States to cause havoc using a formula worked on by Ilson to accelerate the ageing process, which he intends to unleash on the City unless our beloved hero can stop him.

The highlight of this follow-up to Sentinel of Liberty has to be Christopher Lee playing the baddie. Yes, you soon realise that he is the most smartly dressed terrorist you will see between this side of Die Hard (and also, why he is called Miguel when he’s so obviously in possession of a British accent?), but you appreciate his sheer malevolence and the ever so slight hamminess that comes with being a top-notch villain.

However, like its predecessor, Death Too Soon suffers from at times incredibly clunky dialogue. In addition, because of a much more elaborate plot, the production itself looks cheap and not in a good way, with Captain America battling hoods with a ‘shield’ that is obviously just a big Frisbee. Death Too Soon, in short, isn’t as good as Sentinel Of Liberty. It tries to be more elaborate in its plot and partly succeeds with a clear villain as played by Christopher Lee, but low production value and poor dialogue make it less enjoyable than one could hope.

Extras: None

Review: Dead End Drive-In / Cert: 18 / Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith / Screenplay: Peter Smalley / Starring: Ned Manning, Natalie McCurry, Peter Whitford / Release Date: April 15th

Brian Trenchard-Smith is one of the most celebrated directors in the Ozploitation movement that was the subject of ace documentary Not Quite Hollywood. His films Stunt Rock and Turkey Shoot are beloved by one Mr Tarantino – as is Dead End Drive-In, a 1986 mash-up of everything that was happening in genre cinema in the early ’80s.

The film is set in a future where war and recession has led to an almost total collapse of society. In this large, loud and lawless place we find the charmingly named Crabs (Manning) who is surviving with his mechanic brother amongst the marauding punks that terrorise the highways. Crabs and his girlfriend Carmen (McCurry) go to a drive-in theatre one night and have their wheels stolen from Crabs’ brother’s prized Chevy. Unable to leave the next day they find themselves trapped with other dregs of society and thugs who have also been unable to leave. They discover that the drive-in is some kind of police-sanctioned attempt to segregate the underclass and contain the lawlessness.

If you are a fan of the newly hip ’80s aesthetic then this film is for you and it’s been lovingly restored by the bods at Arrow Video as well. This film could only have been made in 1986 and boy does it show. Sweat bands, big hair and an awesome soundtrack, which would likely be a collector’s item these days, are all on display. The film riffs specifically on elements of Mad Max, The Warriors and Escape from New York. The problem is all the good intentions and retro value in the world can’t change the fact that not all that much actually happens. There are seemingly endless shots of Crabs moping about and Carmen seems to get her hair done at least twice by the ‘girls down the loos’ (seriously). The performances are also terrible across the board, our lead actor was supposedly 36 playing 24 and it shows, his delivery is stiff and awkward with no weight behind it. The punks surrounding him are a bit better but become over the top caricatures instead of creating any sense of menace or tension.

The film does come to life in the last thirty or so minutes with some good old-fashioned practical car carnage which is still impressive. The film still has good value as a curiosity and as mentioned, the atmosphere and style of the whole thing will guarantee some new fans. Arrow Video should continue to bring these missing in action films to us, even if the results only appeal to the most hard-core grindhouse devotees.

Extras: Trailer

Review: The House in Nightmare Park / Cert: PG / Director: Peter Sykes / Screenplay: Clive Exton, Terry Nation / Starring: Frankie Howerd, Ray Milland, Hugh Burden, Kenneth Griffith, John Bennett, Rosalie Crutchley, Ruth Denning / Release Date: Out Now

There’s a genre of movie that we’re going to call the “old dark house comedy” that started, appropriately enough, with James Whale’s classic and rather strange The Old Dark House (1932). The idea usually involved an eccentric and dysfunctional family with a dark secret in an inevitably old and dark house with equally inevitable hilarious consequences. The genre had a bit of a revival in the seventies and early eighties with such mirth-free offerings as House of the Long Shadows (1983) or Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984). But what you probably don’t know is that we can, with some accuracy, pin the start of this revival to this fairly obscure Frankie Howerd vehicle, The House in Nightmare Park (1973). This is presumably why this new transfer to DVD is being so hyped as a cult piece of cinema and why so many critics are falling over themselves to tell you about its overlooked greatness. Unfortunately, it would seem nostalgia has clouded their vision.

Howerd plays Foster Twelvetrees, a Victorian actor of dubious abilities invited to entertain at a country house for the nefarious purposes of the old colonial Henderson family. There’s real talent at work here with Ray Milland appearing alongside the aforementioned Howerd and no less than Terry Nation involved in the screenplay. Peter Sykes and Ian Wilson have even come up with some brilliant cinematography with some crazy and effective camera angles that really make use of Oakley Court (a veteran of numerous Hammer Horrors) as the titular House. But you know a movie is in trouble when it’s a Frankie Howerd comedy and you’re talking about the cinematography. We love the late, great Howerd as much as the next man (in fact this reviewer once saw him live and he was quite sublime) but this movie would seem an abject lesson in how not to use his talents. Howerd’s real skill was his fantastic ability to address asides to his audience. This was brilliantly turned into a fairly innovative series of fourth-wall-breaking exercises in Howerd’s TV work and his more successful film outings of Up Pompeii (1971) and Up the Chastity Belt (1971). But for some reason, here that wall stays firmly intact and Howerd just mutters his asides to himself. It doesn’t work; it doesn’t engage with the audience and Howerd hardly seems to engage with the rest of the cast.

Despite the great camera work and some bizarre imagery, this was never going to be a frightening film. These things live or die by their ability to make you laugh and, with the exception of one or two lines, it just doesn’t. Sadly, most comedy-horror is neither funny nor frightening and this is no exception. If you want to watch one that nearly works, search out the pre-revival Carry on Screaming (1966) instead.

Extras: Full Frame 4:3 version / Music-only audio track / Original theatrical trailer, TV spot (mute) / Image gallery

Review: Captain America – Sentinel of Liberty / Cert: PG / Director: Rod Holcomb / Screenplay: Don Ingails / Starring: Reb Brown, Len Birman / Release Date: Out Now 

Captain America – Sentinel of Liberty gives us a modern interpretation of how Steve Rogers (Brown) came to be the First Avenger. We are introduced to a very mellow Steve Rogers who has been cruising the coast in a mobile home and has even taken up drawing to pass the time. However, a telephone call from his friend Jeff Hayden suggests that something is not right. Meanwhile, Rogers is asked to visit a government laboratory that has perfected the FLAG (Full Latent Ability Gain) Formula, referred to as a super steroid which gives the user super-speed, strength and ability. Rogers considers taking part. However, this decision is made for him when, upon discovering his friend Jeff Hayden dead, an attempt to run Rogers off the road leaves him in a critical condition; the FLAG Formula is tested with consequences that will change Steve Rogers forever. With his new capabilities and new wardrobe, he uses his new guise to investigate the involvement of Andreas Oil in the death of Hayden and the wider plot they are cooking up…

Sentinel of Liberty is very much a product of its time. Greedy oil companies were the evil of the day in the late 1970s with the decade experiencing a lot of energy shortages, meanwhile the threat of more sophisticated weapons than that of atom bombs was still very much topical at the height of the Cold War. In light of all this, Captain America – Sentinel of Liberty has a very nice retro vibe to it; it has a cool soundtrack and has that Americana ‘innocence with heart’ feel to it that inspired US TV Programmes of the day such as The Rockford Files, ChiPs and later on The Fall Guy; you feel that Steve Rogers is the good guy and you want him to win.

However, Sentinel of Liberty is at times clunky, campy (with no hint of irony) and borders on absurd. It harks back to when comic book adaptations as we know them were relatively new, and is let down by the high standards that we as a modern audience can have.

Extras: None

Review: Dead Souls / Cert: 18 / Director: Colin Theys / Screenplay: John Doolan / Starring: Jesse James, Magda Apanowicz, Bill Moseley / Release Date: July 1st

Dead Souls kicks off with a grisly prologue wherein a crazed preacher dwelling in an old dark farmhouse butchers and crucifies his family and then attempts to crucify himself too (hmm, that last hand was always going to be tricky). Only his infant son escapes the slaughter. Flash forward 17 years, and the infant has grown into mild-mannered New Yorker Johnny (James), who is completely ignorant of his past. Suddenly discovering that he is about to inherit the old dark farmhouse on his 18th birthday, he decides to spend a few hours in the place, and as neither his adoptive mother, his real estate agent nor Emma (Apanowicz), the girl he finds squatting in an upstairs bedroom, bothers to tell him that his whole family perished there in the most gruesome manner, why on earth shouldn’t he? 

It very soon becomes apparent that the prologue is the best bit. The rest of the film is a long, hard slog to the end credits. Director Colin Theys lays it on thick with the horror tropes. As Johnny and Emma explore, faces appear at windows, doors close themselves and open up again, framed photographs hurl themselves onto the floor and get smashed to pieces. But for most of the time, the scariest thing is the wallpaper.

To be fair, there is a story of kinds. Apparently, the mad preacher had been cooking up some kind of ancient Egyptian magic, as a result of which he and the rest of Johnny’s defunct family are able to possess people, both living and dead, and also inhabit the bodies of various animals. Bill Moseley pops up towards the end to explain it all and draw some chalk symbols on the floor before having his head shoved in a sink by Johnny’s adoptive mother, who turns up late for the party. It all builds towards a tumultuous climax with the farmhouse under siege from two (yes, count them, two) zombies. Johnny and Emma have no option but to complete the ritual that will finally lay the family to rest – either that, or they could just walk away at a fast stroll…

The last act is dreamily lethargic and entirely lacking in self-belief, as though everyone concerned is simply going through the motions. Emma chops Johnny’s adoptive mother in the guts with an axe – the woman who has raised him and whom he believed to be his real mother until only a few hours before – and Johnny doesn’t even blink. Well, if they can’t be bothered, why should you? Based on a novel by Michael Laimo. The surname says it all really.

Extras: None

Review: The Seasoning House / Cert: 18 / Director: Paul Hyett / Screenplay: Paul Hyett, Conal Palmer, Adrian Rigelsford / Starring: Rosie Day, Kevin Howarth, Sean Pertwee, Dominique Provost-Chalkley, Anna Walton / Release Date: June 28th

Special make-up effects designer Paul Hyett makes his directorial debut with The Seasoning House, a brutal film set in a war-torn Eastern European country where young girls are kidnapped for the sex trade. The title refers to the place where the girls are enslaved and conditioned to their new world, or ‘seasoned’. Not one for family viewing.

Rosie Day puts in a stellar performance as Angel, a deaf mute girl who has been orphaned by the very men who visit the house and abuse the girls in it. She has become the favourite of Viktor (Howarth), the psychotic and amoral ‘owner’ of the girls. Viktor spares Rosie from forced prostitution due to his fondness for her, and in exchange for her cleaning, cooking food and drugging the girls for the frequent visitors. As she becomes emotionally numb to the nightmare around her, she makes a friend in Alexa (Provost-Chalkley), a new girl whose fate sparks Rosie’s desire for revenge. She soon learns Viktor is not her only problem, as the army’s sadistic leader Goran (Pertwee with a dodgy European accent) tries to stop her.

The disorientating camera shots work along with the soundtrack, a pre-requisite for a good horror film. Dialogue is sparingly used, visuals and atmosphere instead carrying the film. Impressive special effects and gore are no surprise from the director who has previously plied his trade on films such as The Descent, Eden Lake, Harry Brown and The Woman in Black. Old school horror fans might be reminded slightly of I Spit on Your Grave, but in general this is an assured debut from Hyett, who has created the Hostel of the illegal sex trade.

Review: Ghostwatch – Behind the Curtains / Cert: E / Director: Rich Lawden / Starring: Sarah Greene, Sir Michael Parkinson, Mike Smith, Craig Charles, Stephen Volk / Release Date: Out Now

In 1992, on Halloween night, the BBC aired a drama which would become legend. Played out as a live broadcast, Ghostwatch would become one of the most complained about shows in the Beeb’s history, with a newspaper- ed storm and backlash which made the company all but disown it. If you haven’t seen this remarkable piece of television, you owe it to yourself to buy the DVD. If you have, this well made look behind the scenes will be of great interest.

Lawden has managed to coax the majority of the main talent involved, from in front of and behind the camera, to talk about their experiences in making what would become television folklore. The fact that Parkinson and the (still) real life couple Green and Smith are still so passionate about the show is testament to its quality. Sadly, there are no clips (due to licensing costs, this being a low budget labour of love), but this means that there is more time for stories and background titbits, which are anyway much more interesting than rehashed moments taken out of context. This is an ideal accompaniment to the show, and in a perfect world it would be an extra on the DVD release, but for fans it is worth the extra purchase.

The only real negative would be the lack of a spread of opinion. All the interviewees here are fans, from Kim Newman to Andy Nyman and people who watched it when they were kids. It would nice to have heard from some naysayers, but this in no way detracts from the enjoyment of the documentary.  

At 90 minutes, it’s as long as the original drama but doesn’t feel padded and, thanks to the tight editing of the original Ghostwatch director Lesley Manning, there is very little repetition, something that usually happens when several people tell their side of the same story.

Extras: Trailer

Review: Bait 3D / Cert: 15 / Director: Kimble Rendall / Screenplay: Russell Mulcahy, John Kim / Starring: Alex Russell, Julian McMahon, Sharni Vinson, Xavier Samuel, Martin Sacks / Release Date: April 29th

As regular readers of Starburst have probably noticed, the waters of the SyFy Channel seem to be overpopulated with CGI mutant sharks at the moment. But this Australian-produced flick takes a different approach and the silent killers are an added threat to what is essentially a disaster movie.

Josh (Samuel) is a local lifeguard until a shark attack takes the life of his best friend. He gives up the job, and loses his fiancé, his friend’s sister Tina (Vinson). A few years later, and Josh is stacking shelves in an ocean-front supermarket when Tina shows up with her new boyfriend, a robbery is about to take place (Nip/Tuck star McMahon is the reluctant thief) and, if that wasn’t enough, a freak tsunami is about to put the whole store under water. Climbing on top of the fixtures, the survivors soon realise that the influx of water has brought with it two large great white sharks, one which is roaming the aisles, the other the parking bay where more people are trapped.

While this is certainly a cut above the made-for-TV trash that appears all too regularly, there are still a few problems. There are four “additional” writers credited alongside Highlander director Mulcahy and Kim, which has probably muddied the waters a little too much, and as such the film doesn’t really know what it wants to be. It’s not that it isn’t fun, it’s just that a lot of it is illogical. It also features the most airtight car ever manufactured. The shark attacks are, for the most part, very well done. There are some very gory CGI effects, but also some that are in the SyFy level of naffness. All is not lost though; as, when not required to perform somersaults, the sharks are animatronic, and as such much more believable as a threat. The actors are more than serviceable, but the hackneyed subplots of family squabbles and love and forgiveness tend to get in the way of the action. Director Rendell is best known for the Molly Ringwald/Kylie Minogue slasher Cut (2002) and for being second unit director on the Matrix sequels and I, Robot and does a decent job creating tension and atmosphere.

The film was shot in native 3D, and the opening scenes on the beach are visually stunning, but once it get into the more claustrophobic submerged grocery store, the effect is lessened. There are several guns being pointed out of the screen, which were spoilt by the use of selective focus. When shooting 3D you can’t use the same techniques as standard visual storytelling, things need to be sharp for you to see the effect correctly. This gripe aside, the 3D doesn’t take over, and does add to some scenes. Not that too many people will get to see it in that format anyway.

Despite the flaws, it’s a passable, fun view for a quiet night in.

Extras: Making of / Trailer