A nice little horror/thriller. Isolation (2017) Cast: Dominic Purcell, Luke Mably, Marie Avgeropoulos, Tricia Helfer, Stephen Lang Director: Shane Dax Taylor Studio: Lionsgate (6/20/17) Video: 2.35:1 for 16:9 screens, color Audio: English 5.1 DD Subtitles: English, Spanish Length: 94 min. Rating: ****1/2 This is full of highly unexpected twists, and proves that it is not wise to trust anyone. Better acting than most horror films, and it is not predermined who will be the last ones standing at the end. I don’t want to introduce spoilers, so just watch the film. The story of the couple trying to patch up a failing marriage by a vacation in the Bahamas is always paramount. And the gore is kept to a bare minimum. A most enjoyable thriller all around, and a nice view of the Bahamas to top of it. The transfer of films to standard DVDs has really gotten excellent lately. —John Sunier
An interesting pre-Code 1933 resurrection starring Melvyn Douglas and Fay Wray. The Vampire Bat, Blu-ray (1933) Cast: Melvyn Douglas, Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill Director: Frank R. Strayer Studio: UCLA/The Film Detective FD0767 (4/25/17) Video: 1:33 B&W & color added for flames Audio: English mono Extras: Featurette on Gregory Hesselberg, son of Melvyn Douglas, Audio commentary by film historian Sam Sherman Length: 63 min. Rating: **** First all, one never even sees a vampire bat in this early film, except for a clearly dead little one in the vest of a troubled man-child they mistakenly peg as the vampire. This macabre feature of vampire attacks in a small German village (but in English) stars the heart-throb of the time, Melvyn Douglas, and King Kong’s Fay Wray. (She was the original “horror chick.”) A featurette attempts to make a documentary of one of the sons of Melvyn Douglas. I did not listen to the film commentary, which I’m sure was fairly interesting. This is a classic horror film with not a great deal of horror in it. The most interesting thing to me was that during the periods when no one spoke, the audio dropped out completely. Guess that’s what they did […]
Restoration of the first film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Dementia 13, Blu-ray (1963/2016) Director & Writer: Francis Ford Coppola Cast: William Campbell, Luana Anders, Bart Patton Studio: Roger Corman/ The Film Detective FD0 561 [7/26/16] Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 screens, B&W Audio: English mono PCM Subtitles: None Length: 75 min. Ratings: Audio *** Video ***** Was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppolla and produced by Roger Corman. A scheming wife covers up her husband’s death (from a heart attack) and tries to get herself written into her mother-in-law’s will. Her main concern is that she only inherents part of the family fortune if her husband is still alive. The entire family lives in an old Irish castle, where there seems to be a resident ghost, not to mention a crazed axe-murderer. It was originally shot in 3D but probably not distributed that way. The strange Halorans family still holds an annual ritualistic ceremony observing the freak drowning accident of her young daughter Kathleen. Louise devises a plan to convince the mother that her daughter is trying to communicate from beyond the grave. She begins to place the child’s toys under the water but is then axed […]
