Bay of Blood

Starring:Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Claudio Camaso, Anna Maria Rosati, Chris Avram, Leopoldo Trieste, Laura Betti, Brigitte Skay, Isa Miranda, Paola Montenero, Guido Boccaccini, Roberto Bonanni, Giovanni Nuvoletti, Nicoletta Elmi, Renato CestiÃ¨
Director: Mario Bava
Studio: Simitar Ent.
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

In some ways, Blood and Iron captures more of graphic novelist Mike Mignola's original vision than Guillermo del Toro's lackluster feature did in 2004. Hellboy, the demon brought into this world by the Nazis, but raised by "Professor Broom" to fight for good, was conceived as a drawing, not an actor buried under make-up and latex. The story, which incorporates elements from Mignola's "Wake the Devil" collection, sends Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Prof. Broom to the haunted mansion of a vulgar millionaire. Hoping to cash in on the supernatural angle, he's filled the house with relics of "Blood Countess" Erzsebet Ondrusko (based on the 16th century Hungarian noblewoman Elizebeth Bathory), whom Prof. Broom defeated in 1939. It's really haunted, and the gang tackles harpies, ghosts, witches, werewolves, vampires, and the goddess Hecate. The key actors from the live action film repeat their roles as voices: Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz), Doug Jones (Abe), and John Hurt (Broom). Perlman makes a suitably underplayed Hellboy, growling his annoyance at everything from a bad donut to a vicious blow from the iron-clad goddess. The limits of the animation would be less problematic if the direction were more dynamic. Tad Stones and Victor Cook don't get the needed power out of the action sequences, especially the prolonged battle between Hellboy and Hecate. It would be interesting to see what a talented director like Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Ruruoni Kenshin) or Hiroyuki Okiura (Jin-Roh) would do with this material. Blood and Iron will appeal to some "Hellboy" fans, but it lacks the dark panache of the original books. (Unrated, suitable for ages 14 and older: violence, grotesque imagery, potentially offensive religious imagery) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

Old Enemies Menace Hellboy's Surrogate Father.......2007-07-01

HELLBOY: BLOOD AND IRON is the second Hellboy animated movie released direct-to-DVD. The first was HELLBOY: SWORD OF STORMS. As in the first feature, Ron Perlman provides the voice for Hellboy. Other stars from the feature film lend their voices as well, including Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Peri Gilpin, and John Hurt. The story is taken from the second story arc of the Hellboy comics. It was originally called, "Wake the Devil".

This movie shows more of Hellboy's upbringing than the feature movie starring Ron Perlman. It also reveals a lot more of Professor (Bruttenholm) Broom's background before he found Hellboy back in the 1940s after the Nazi Germans brought him into this world. As it turns out, Professor Broom was quite the paranormal investigator long before Hellboy arrived.

During those days, the professor's arch-nemesis was Erzsebet Ondrusko, a vampire and worshiper of Hecate, the queen of witches. The opening sequence showing Broom's encounter with the villainess is appropriately chilling and a visual treat. In fact, the whole movie owes more to creator Mike Mignola's artwork than the feature-length movie. The scenes in the animated movie could have been ripped directly from Mignola's comics pages.

Hellboy is introduced while lurking through a sewer system and looking for a monster. He, admittedly, is up to his neck in crap. The humor mixes very well with the action and emotion in the film. This isn't Leo Tolstoy, but it's nice to have characters you feel like you know and can care about. Especially when they're dealing with old business that carries a lot of emotional baggage for them.

Hellboy puts down the creature with help from Abe Sapien and they quickly return to the hidden headquarters of the BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). They sit around talking and the viewer gets to know more about the characters. One of the things I enjoy about the movies is that you don't have to know much to understand who the characters are. You're given what you need to know as you go along, and it's never dull even for the true fans that already know everything.

When assignments are given out, Professor Broom usurps control of the meeting and assigns Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and Liz Sherman to investigate sightings of ghosts in a mansion that's been remodeled into a top-of-the-line museum/lodge. The job was initially a low-priority for them. The professor offers no explanation and the rest of the team is left wondering what's going on. More than that, the professor is going along and that hasn't happened in years. All of them are concerned for his health.

Of course, when they arrive at the mansion, things are decidedly much worse than they were led to believe. There's not just one ghost; there appear to be dozens. And even more evil is afoot.

Interspersed for the current ongoing story line, there are flashbacks to Professor Broom's earlier encounters with Erzsebet Ondrusko. The story concerning Hellboy and the others definitely takes second-place to the overall storytelling until the very last of the movie. It's all the clues and backstory of what has gone on before that really captures the interest.

The fight scene at the end of the movie is multi-layered as Hellboy and the others are divided. It's all interesting to watch, but it tends to drag on the little, especially when you realize that time after time it is not over.

Due to the violence and the scary appearances of many of the monsters, this animated feature is and recommended for young kids. However, if you like cartoons and your kids do too, this is definitely one you can sit down and enjoy together. There's enough story and enough action to keep everyone happy. At 75 minutes, you can easily fit the movie into an evening.

An even better follow-up.......2007-06-16

Hellboy: Blood and Iron is the second animated release in the Hellboy series. This time, Hellboy and co. are asked to investigate a haunted mansion that a rich billionaire plans to turn into a tourist attraction. The case also has a mysterious connection to a Hungarian Blood Countess that Professor Bruttenholm fought in the 1930s.

I liked the first release, Sword of Storms, but Blood and Iron is an even stronger effort. The gothic trappings feel more familar to the style that made Mignola's original comic so acclaimed, and whereas the first film split up the main cast, Blood and Iron keeps them together with focus on the family dynamic. The script is tighter, and at points really pushes the 'older audience' rating; it's a vampire story with lots of blood. Perlman and crew again bring the characters to life with believability and charm.

There aren't quite as many extras this time, but it's still a solid release. The most fun is the "Iron Shoes" short, which adapts Mignola's comic of the same name to hilarious effect. All dvds come packed with a 32-page comic book called "The Yearning." Some exclusives also pack in an extra comic digest called "The Judgement Bell" or a Hellboy figurine.

A great recommendation. Hopefully Hellboy Animated spawns more films or a tv series soon.

Smashing.......2007-06-15

Chances are that if you enjoyed Sword of Storms, the first animated Hellboy straight to DVD movie, you are going to dig Blood and Iron just as much, if not more. Once again, the actors from Guillermo Del Toro's 2004 big screen adaptation return to voice their counterparts: Ron Perlman is Hellboy, Selma Blair is Liz, Doug Jones is fishboy Abe Sapien, and even John Hurt is on board this time around as Professor Broom. The story finds the B.P.R.D. assigned to a ghost crammed mansion, which turns out to be inhabited by a vampiric Blood Countess that Professor Broom took on years before. Featuring dynamic animation, superb voice work, and knowing nods to Mike Mignola's original comics; Hellboy: Blood and Iron is an animated treat. The only downsides to Blood and Iron are what plagued Sword of Storms: the animation may not be everyone's cup of tea, and the film as a whole may be a bit too slow moving for some. All that aside, Blood and Iron is still an enjoyable Hellboy yarn, and the wonderful set of DVD extras included on the disc round out an already sweet package.

'Hellboy': A Force to Be Reckoned With.......2007-06-15

'Hellboy' is an anime' comic book jumping to life. Sparring between good and evil, the titled hero (Ron Perlman) is a demon fighting against the agents of hell on earth. He joins forces with what could be called the comic strip version of 'Ghostbusters' or 'Scooby Doo'. The anime' venue, which sometimes lacks the flow of most animated adventures, looks entirely appropriate with it's Gothic look and feel. Images of wolves with glowing eyes, lady vampires, snakes, and ghosts jump out to challenge our heros after an associate professor "Broom" has let a vampire lady come to life. Complete with a score that rises and falls with the action, 'Hellboy--Blood and Iron' takes all the old horror stories and recreates it with a frightening splendor. While it won't make most teenagers lose any sleep, it does an effective job of telling its story while generating a morbid, creepy interest.

Overall, 'Hellboy-Blood and Iron' does much to impress without an overkill. With a good story and dialogue, Victor Cook and Tad Stones do effective things with Mike Mignola's comic-novel series. (The extras have interesting explanations about how they assembled this movie.)

not to bad..........2007-06-13

I liked Sword of Storms because it seemed more like the comic and less like the movie (even though they had the movie actors do the voices). I liked how Hellboy seemed less of a "big child" and more of a aged sort of "got it together" type of hero.
The little things like Abe not wearing a breathing apparatus and Kate Corrigan made me really happy.
The new movie Blood and Iron only ventures futher into the comic world, even using some of the direct dialogue from the comic. The animation is really well done as well as the voice acting. The movie even seemed like a Mike Mignola Hellboy issue, which I liked a lot.

The DVD extras are pretty cool as well. Behind the scenes features and it even has a Hellboy E-comic. It also includes the short IRON SHOES which is frame for frame of the comic story of the same title. It was really cool to see that animated.

As I was watching this movie I realized it was definitely NOT for kids. Some of the images in the movie would probably scar little kids for life.

Average customer rating:

OPEN THE DOOR TO A TWISTED, DARK WORLD
One of the best horror movies I've ever seen
Where's the uncut version??!!? Uncut Version: 5 stars!!!
"If you cheat us, we'll tear your soul apart!"
Amazing.

Hellraiser
Starring: Andrew Robinson , Clare Higgins , Ashley Laurence , Sean Chapman , and Oliver Smith
Director: Clive Barker
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
Hellraiser III - Hell on Earth
Hellraiser - Bloodline
Hellraiser VI - Hellseeker
Hellraiser - Inferno

ASIN: 6305972001
Release Date: 2000-09-26

Amazon.com

Having made his reputation as one of the most prolific and gifted horror writers of his generation (prompting Stephen King to call him "the future of horror"), Clive Barker made a natural transition to movies with this audacious directorial debut from 1987. Not only did Barker serve up a chilling tale of devilish originality, he also introduced new icons of horror that since have become as popular among genre connoisseurs as Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman. Foremost among these frightful visions is the sadomasochistic demon affectionately named Pinhead (so named because his pale, bald head is a geometric pincushion and a symbol of eternal pain). Pinhead is the leader of the Cenobites, agents of evil who appear only when someone successfully "solves" the exotic puzzle box called the Lamont Configuration--a mysterious device that opens the door to Hell. The puzzle's latest victim is Frank (Sean Chapman), who now lives in a gelatinous skeletal state in an upstairs room of the British home just purchased by his newlywed half-brother (Andrew Robinson, best known as the villain from Dirty Harry), who has married one of Frank's former lovers (Claire Higgins). The latter is recruited to supply the cannibalistic Frank with fresh victims, enabling him to reconstitute his own flesh--but will Frank succeed in restoring himself completely? Will Pinhead continue to demonstrate the flesh-ripping pleasures of absolute agony? Your reaction to this description should tell you if you've got the stomach for Barker's film, which has since spawned a number of interesting but inferior sequels. It's definitely not for everyone, but there's no denying that it's become a semiclassic of modern horror. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

OPEN THE DOOR TO A TWISTED, DARK WORLD.......2007-06-19

Clive Barker realy caught lightning in a bottle with this movie. With this movie, Clive Barker took a Lovecraftian idea and fused it with his own sado-masachist,pain verses pleasure ideas. the result is a complete new enviroment for horror that still holds up, and i'm sure, will hold up for years to come. I don't like giving spoilers so I'll give a brief overview. Larry and his new wife, Julia are moving into the old family home after his brother, Frank disapeared. To celebrate the occation, Kirsty, Larry's daughter has come. It seems Larry doesn't know that Frank, as well as sleeping with Julia, is involved with the occult. He purchased a puzzle box(the Lament Configuration) with the desire to open a doorway to experiance the threshold of pleasure. What he got was unimaginable pain and torment compliments of Pinhead and the Cenobites. As Larry is moving furniture, he cuts, his hand and the blood spilling on the floor somehow ressurects Frank. This has got to be one of the best parts of the movie!! It's very graphic, but with the symphonic music in the backround, it becomes vey beautiful. After Frank's "resurection" all "HELL" breaks loose. This movie was way ahead of its time and was a relief to all the lame slasher films of the time. Any fan of H.P. Lovercraft and science-fiction horror should check this one out!!!

One of the best horror movies I've ever seen.......2007-03-21

I just watched this movie for the first time in years. When I was a kid, it was one of my favorites, and I'll admit that I wasn't expecting much this time around. After a recent viewing of NightBreed (which I also loved when I was younger), I was prepared to have a similar experience with Hellraiser. Instead, I was surprised at how well this movie has held up over the years. Unlike NightBreed, which comes across as cheesey and poorly acted, Hellraiser is still a good horror movie.

The thing that struck me the most about this movie is how complex the plot was for the genre. Back when it was made, horror was dominated by Jason Voorhies and Freddy Krueger. The average horror movie consisted of a bunch of teen-agers being stalked by the Unstoppable Killer, who would slaughter them all in gruesome fashion for such unforgivable crimes as Smoking, Drinking, Having Sex, and Being Mean To The Nice Girl and/or Bookworm Kid (although the Bookworm Kid would usually die first if he commited the deadliest horror movie sin of all... Wearing Glasses).

Instead of these tired old cliches, Hellraiser brought us something fresh, and much deeper. The plot centers on a love triangle between Larry Cotton, his wife Julia, and his brother Frank. The movie opens with Frank solving the Puzzle Box (and suffering the consequences) in his attic. Following Frank's disappearance, Larry and Julia move into the old house. Julia is reluctant, because being in the house stirs old memories of her affair with Frank. But she relents under Larry's enthusiasm. While they're moving in, Larry cuts his hand on a nail. The blood soaking into the floorboards partially revives Frank, bringing him back to a kind of half-life. Frank then convinces Julia to help him get more blood, so he can become whole again. The interplay between Frank and Julia is very layered for this kind of movie. Julia forces herself to become a seductress and murderer, all while telling herself that it will let her finally be with the man she loves. Frank uses his obvious emotional power over Julia to convince her to do unspeakable things for him, all while looking for his next conquest (Larry's daughter Kirsty).

Although they would become the main characters later in the series, Pinhead and the other Cenobites get comparitively little screen time in this film. I think this gives thier appearance a much greater impact when it finally happens. Later movies would reduce Pinhead to being just another horror movie slasher. But here, when the Cenobites arrive to return the murderous and manipulative Frank to Hell, they almost seem to be instruments of divine (?!) justice. As Pinhead himself says at one point: "We are Angels to some, Demons to others".

Where's the uncut version??!!? Uncut Version: 5 stars!!!.......2007-03-10

I first saw this DVD at my friend's place. I was instantly blown away by this movie. In fact, i consider this one of the best horror movies ever made! But my friend's dvd was completly uncut (he owns the american DVD edition). I wanted to have the same totally uncut version my friend owns,but this new cut version is missing great parts like the full shot of the "Ripped to shreds" scene. Who the hell thought of cutting essential parts of an otherwise awesome movie??? Seems like i must search hardly now for the first UNCUT edition print of this DVD in other areas.

"If you cheat us, we'll tear your soul apart!".......2007-02-11

I've read The Hellbound Heart, but the fresh approach Clive Barker made in directing the film added "uumph" to an already excellent story. What a visual conception! Goobers coming up from the floor, the unforgettable scene of spinal cord meeting the goopy brain, the gelid, slippery goo, the half-formed rib cage - hello vicar!

Larry and Julia Cotton are moving into the house left to Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his wayward brother Frank (Sean Chapman). The house is a mess, with maggots in the kitchen and a makeshift bed and evil shrine in one of the upstairs rooms. The shrine shows evidence that Frank has been and gone from the house.

After cleanup, while moving, Larry cuts his hand on a nail and bleeds heavily onto the bare floorboards of the room which formerly held the shrine. Julia (played by Clare Higgins - her businesslike sexiness was a real turn-on) has been reminiscing in the room over her former affair with Frank.

It turns out Frank had been playing with a very dangerous toy in his room, Lemarchard's Box, which opens the gates to a hellish realm ruled by Cenobites from the Order Of The Gash. Indeed, Frank unlocked the gates to hell itself. Larry's blood on the floor sparks Frank's return from hell, growing his flesh back from goo.

Enter the Cenobites, "Angels to some, Nightmares to others", starring Pinhead (played by Doug Bradley). The cenobites rule the worlds of pain and pleasure (we have such sights to show you). Frank wants to come back from hell, and convinces Julia to bring him more blood in order to fill out his fleshless body.

But she's observed by Kirsty, Larry's daughter, and when Kirsty discovers that Frank is alive in the house, she manages to get the box away from him and inadvertently summons the Cenobites again. Can Kirsty make a bargain with Hell, for Pinhead to accept Frank's return instead of taking her?

This is one of the best horror flicks ever made. Pinhead rocks! He's evil and nasty looking, as are his followers. There's a lot of gore and gross, gooey things in the film, more than enough to satisfy that unnatural taste you have for bleeding flesh. Julia's coldness always drew me to her. I loved it, her elegant, icy demeanor. I also love Kirsty's happy drunk. It reminded me of me. The upside-down Hell-Monster was cheesy-cool, unique and frightening.

If you are a horror aficionado and don't own this movie, then buy it ... it won't disappoint. A 10-Star horror flick. Enjoy!

Amazing........2007-02-01

Clive Barker's directing debut follows the tale of a couple (Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins) who move into an old house and discovers a hideous creature (Oliver Smith) -- the man's half-brother (and his wife's former lover) -- hiding upstairs. Having lost his earthly body to three demons, the man's been brought back to life by a drop of blood on the floor. Soon, he's forcing his former mistress to bring him human sacrifices to complete his body. A complete masterpeace.

Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht

Average customer rating:

Resurrection of the legend:
Count Kinski
a good reinterpretation
Nosferatu, aka Dracula, has found a natural heir
GREAT REMAKE OF AN OLD CLASSIC

Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht
Starring: Klaus Kinski , Isabelle Adjani , Bruno Ganz , Roland Topor , and Walter Ladengast
Director: Werner Herzog
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
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Nosferatu
Fitzcarraldo
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

ASIN: B00005YJMX
Release Date: 2002-07-09

Amazon.com

Werner Herzog's remake of F.W. Murnau's original vampire classic is at once a generous tribute to the great German director and a distinctly unique vision by one of cinema's most idiosyncratic filmmakers. Though Murnau's Nosferatu was actually an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Herzog based his film largely on Murnau's conceptions--at times directly quoting Murnau's images--but manages to slip in a few references to Tod Browning's famous version (at one point the vampire comments on the howling wolves: "Listen, the children of the night make their music."). Longtime Herzog star Klaus Kinski is both hideous and melancholy as Nosferatu (renamed Count Dracula in the English language version). As in Murnau's film, he's a veritable gargoyle with his bald pate and sunken eyes, and his talon-like fingernails and two snaggly fangs give him a distinctly feral quality. But Kinski's haunting eyes also communicate a gloomy loneliness--the curse of his undead immortality--and his yearning for Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) becomes a melancholy desire for love. Bruno Ganz's sincere but foolish Jonathan is doomed to the vampire's will and his wife, Lucy, a holy innocent whose deathly pallor and nocturnal visions link her with the ghoulish Nosferatu, becomes the only hope against the monster's plague-like curse. Herzog's dreamy, delicate images and languid pacing create a stunningly beautiful film of otherworldly mood, a faithful reinterpretation that by the conclusion has been shaped into a quintessentially Herzog vision. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Resurrection of the legend:.......2007-05-22

Fifty seven years after F.W. Murnau, Herzog resurrected the Dracula's legend with this film in which his favorite actor/best friend/worst enemy Klaus Kinski played the title role as a very tired, very quiet, very lonely Count Dracula who looked like he literally had not slept for centuries. The film is undeniably Herzog's and has many of his signature signs - the stunning views, the slow deliberate pace, the eerie music, the dreamlike atmosphere, the admiration by the nature and its indifferent to the humans' worries power and remote beauty; even the story of the ship with all crew members dead as the result of the horrible mystery. Breathtakingly beautiful Isabelle Adjani plays an object of Dracula's obsession and the contrast between his ugliness and her divine beauty is simply mesmerizing. In this film, the pure-hearted and brave woman takes it upon herself to face off the undead evil. By the time, Dr. Van Helsing arrives with the stake and hammer, his services are not required.

Count Kinski.......2007-05-15

Best Count Dracula I've ever seen.

Kinski is a marvel, in fact, the entire cast is spot-on perfect. Direction and writing, cinematography...just about flawless--and this is praise from someone who was never a huge fan of Dracula to begin with. A friend suggested I see it, and am glad I did.

Better than Bela, than Lee, than Peter Cushing, et al... Kinski is the man. Some talent.
R.I.P.

a good reinterpretation.......2007-05-12

This film is a wonderful reinterpretation of the 1922 original. It includes dialogue by the characters, while still maintaining a sense of being more visual than audio-based.

I recommend this to anyone who loves the Dracula mythology, especially if you like the 1922 original.

Nosferatu, aka Dracula, has found a natural heir.......2007-02-22

A remake of Murnau's Nosferatu. It speaks and it is full of colour. Very standard remake but a few changes are difficult to explain. For instance Mina and Lucy are inverted and Jonathan is married to Lucy. It may be Bremen but it looks like Amsterdam but with the sea next door. We have the same idea of a plague. But the director takes liberty with this plague and seems to organize at the end of it some kind of open air festivity and Last Supper for the survivors soon to be dead anyway. Morbid in other words. Herzog keeps the ending in which Lucy sacrifices herself by giving herself to Dracula to make him trespass the cock's crowing line. And she succeeds. A vampire in love is thus very silly and selfless enough to forget his survival instinct. But Herzog doubles up the ending with a good stake planted in Dracula's heart, but in the wings, and the arrest of Van Helsing for the murder of Dracula. He will be tried sooner or later. But the best change is that Lucy is dead and Jonathan has completed his transformation and has become a full-fledged vampire and we recapture the ending of the original where the danger of a next generation was left open. Here it is clearly stated and we see Jonathan crossing Europe again on horseback probably to go to his castle in Transylvania. The main interest of the film is not there. The main interest is in the phenomenal actors used for the main three characters and of course the absolutely astounding make-up of these actors. In other words, make-up added, this film recaptures the phenomenal body language and body expressivity of the old Murnau's film. It explains the fact that it does not seem to have very rich dialogues. It is all happening in the movement and syntax of the bodies on the screen.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

GREAT REMAKE OF AN OLD CLASSIC.......2007-01-14

I LOVE THE MUSIC AND FEELING OF THIS DVD. A GOOD CHOICE

Average customer rating:

These people wouldn't know a bad movie...
your all doomed to be eaten up!
Love the movie, but....
Three stars for the zombies and gore, and cheese.
i love this cheesey gore flick, but it is stupid!!

Hell of the Living Dead
Starring: Margit Evelyn Newton , Franco Garofalo , Selan Karay , José Gras , and Gaby Renom
Director: Bruno Mattei , and Claudio Fragasso
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
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City Of The Living Dead
Nightmare City
The House By The Cemetery
Burial Ground - Night of Terror
Zombi 2 (25th Anniversary Special Edition 2-Disc Set)

ASIN: B00005R24H
Release Date: 2002-02-19

Customer Reviews:

These people wouldn't know a bad movie..........2007-06-19

I don't know if we're even talking about the same movie here -- this is definitely NOT the worst zombie movie ever made. A big problem on Amazon reviews is that reviewers just say a product is "good" or "bad," but give no actual description. So instead of doing that, I'll just describe a few things about it, then let you decide if it sounds good or not.

Is it boring? In order for something to be boring, I would say it needs to have pretty much nothing happen for a very, very long period of time. Thats not so in this film; there are several scenes of zombie attacks, a plethora of zombie shootings, and quite a few zombie bitings (all the makings of a good zombie movie). Also, there is some pointless (and culturally offensive) nudity. As far as the acting -- not great, but at least they show emotion (even if it is too much), which is better than a lot of the lifeless acting in most Euro-sleaze.

Is it a blatant rip-off of "Dawn of the Dead?" Yes and no; the costumes are clearly designed to look like the SWAT team blue uniforms in Dawn, and they even "borrowed" some of the Goblin soundtrack from Dawn (hey, at least they "borrowed good music). Other than that, its very different -- the group is constantly moving, not trapped in a single space, the cause of the zombies is explicitly stated to be intentional and man-made, and it is not a "zombie holocaust" like Dawn -- for almost the entirety of the movie, the zombies are confined to New Guinea, and several cut-away scenes reveal that the rest of the world is still operating normally (although panicy).

Is the story oscar-worthy? No, but then again, if you're considering buying a movie called "Hell of the Living Dead," you probably know what kind of story to expect. The plot is very simple -- nuclear plant-look-alikes are being used to create some sort of super secret project, which has accidentally (or was it?) been released into the Native population of New Guinea. A crack para-military unit is sent to the site of original infection for reasons explained in the film.

Are the special effects bad? For a 1980 Italian movie, no. In fact, there are several quite good head-shots. Of course, there are several scenes where the actors are clearly holding raw meat on the victim and chewing on that, and many of the zombies are simply painted blue -- then again, so are practically all the zombies in Dawn.

The worst part of the movie is the director's annoying habit of splicing in stock footage of wildlife, footage which is clearly of lower quality and not blended into the film well at all.

So, is this a terrible movie? No, certainly not. In my mind, terrible movies are movies that are technically inept or that have incomprehensible plots, like "Oasis of the Zombies" and "Children of the Living Dead." Other than that, its just a matter of opinion. If you like sleazy Italian horror, especially Italian zombie movies, you should find this entertaining. If you're looking for a well-crafted Romero-esque film with biting and deep social commentary, this isn't your film.

your all doomed to be eaten up!.......2006-11-20

perhaps one of cheesiest and most bizzare zombie films ever made, hell of the living dead is a very enjoyable undead gorefest. the story involves a team of swat commandos encountering zombies in the jungle of some foreign country. obviously inspired by dawn of the dead, hell of the living dead is a perfect example of the 70's and 80's cannibal and zombie craze. if it wasnt for the bloody gore effects and comical cheesiness of the film, it would be nearly unwatchable. the horrible overacting, riddiculouse dialouge and mind numbing use of stock footage are what keep this film from reaching 4 stars. overall hell of the living dead is an enjoyable, blood soaked zombie atrocity. only for hardcore zombie and euro sleaze fans, everyone else may want to avoid this one.

Love the movie, but...........2006-07-26

The big problem I have with this movie isn't the storyline. I love the storyline, it is a very Faustian, very grim, storyline about the desire to end world overpopulation by...well...as the chemicals show...creating zombies across the 1st and 2nd world countries. And things work out pretty darn well...no more overpopulation, everyone's a zombie, and everyone has a meal... the living... a great story, and while the actors and special effects aren't anything to write home about, I think the movie does a great job bringing the story from beginning to end. The big problem I have with the movie is the transfer of the movie onto DVD. Now, yes this is a fairly old movie, and it seems that the DVD company that's selling it isn't around (at least I couldn't find it on the net). Still, one would hope for this price we would see the transfer far clearer than when the movie was viewed on vhs. I really wish the film was cleaned up enough so that I can see what's going on. Still, if you like zombie movies, this is a great one, I give the movie itself thumbs up...you'll just be straining your eyes to see what's going on!

Three stars for the zombies and gore, and cheese........2006-07-06

This delivers on the zombies and gore despite the craptastic story. Still fun.

When the guy lifts the rat, and it crawls into his cheap mask, the blood begins to spurt and you know you've entered the 'cheese zone', thanks to some horrendously acting (funny in a bad way) and strange story of project HOPE, which is really a sick plan of genocide that goes 'zombie' wrong.

Hell of the Living Dead is a classic cheeseball zombie film, with plenty of zombies (over 100), zombie gore (cheap fx but bloody), worms (real maggots), atmosphere (jungle, town, abandoned mansion, factory all of which contain zombies). Worth at least one watch, this is one for the zombie classic record books; on the bottom of the pile of course.

i love this cheesey gore flick, but it is stupid!!.......2006-06-06

i love this movie ,so it pains me to give it two stars but really other than the gore and bad acting,this is one of the worst!!! only for gore fans(like me),other wise stay away!!!

Average customer rating:

There is a method to the madness of this tottering Jenga of a horror film
It's a shame cos it's a good movie..
Facing Your Fears
Not as bad as I had thought, but that's not saying much
Some good chills, but not too original...

Room 6
Starring: Christine Taylor , Shane Brolly , Chloe Moretz , Jerry O'Connell , and Ellie Cornell
Director: Michael Hurst (II)
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000F3UA84
Release Date: 2006-06-13

Description

Christine Taylor (DODGEBALL, ZOOLANDER and THE CRAFT) stars as Amy, a young schoolteacher with a lifelong fear of hospitals. But when her boyfriend is injured in a car crash and taken to a hospital that no longer exists, Amy and a concerned stranger (Jerry O'Connell of CROSSING JORDAN and SCREAM 2) enter a nightmare where demons walk among us, hallucinations run rampant, and sultry nurses engage in lesbian blood rites. What is the shocking secret of `St. Rosemary's'? Why does Amy dread these cursed halls of healing? And what final soul-ripping horror lies waiting behind the door of ROOM 6? Shane Brolley (UNDERWORLD), Chloe Moretz (THE AMITYVILLE HORROR), Ellie Cornell (HALLOWEEN 5) and Kane Hodder (JASON X) co-star in this graphic shocker from the producers of FREE ENTERPRISE, HOUSE OF THE DEAD and ALL SOUL'S DAY

Customer Reviews:

There is a method to the madness of this tottering Jenga of a horror film.......2007-06-30

Like most of you who have seen this 2006 horror film I checked it out because the trailer for it was popping up on a lot of other DVDs that I was watching. The implication was that there is a room in this particular hospital where the doctors and nurses do evil, wicked, bad and nasty things to patients. How that is the just the ground floor for this tottering Jenga of a horror film. Our heroine is Amy (Christine Taylor), who not only has nightmares about hospitals, she is having nightmares about the hospital in this movies. When she is not asleep and having nightmares Amy is a schoolteacher with one young student who makes weird comments and a tendency to look at people and suddenly see them as demons. Then Amy and her boyfriend Nick (Shane Brolly) are in an accident. A crowd stands and stares but offers no help and then an ambulance shows up to take Nick to the hospital. The problem is that when Amy tries to find Nick, he is in none of the hospitals in town. No, poor Nick is in the hospital that Amy has been seeing in her nightmares.

"Room 6" is one of those horror movies where they seem to be throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, and then that hits you smack in the head too. You have Nick in the hospital from hell, which could be enough to sustain a horror movie plot, but Amy is seeing things and doubting her sanity. Not only that, but she has a deep dark secret in her past, and there is a back story about St. Rosemary's Hospital, which burnt down many years ago. There is a little girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) with a touch of the supernatural, naked nurses finding fun things to do with blood, and Jerry O'Connell in the role of the only person who believes anything that Amy is saying but who is clearly too good to be true. There was so much going on in this movie as the script by Mark A. Altman and director Michael Hurst (the team that brought us "House of the Dead" and "House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim") kept pouring it on, that it was not until the second appearance of the taxi driver (Billy Gardell) that I finally started to get a handle on what was really happening.

You might enjoy "Room 6" more the second time through once you know how to "read" it properly. You might not agree with the point of the story once you know what it is, but it does offer an explanation as to how all of the seemingly disparate elements in this film fit together, especially for people weaned on "The Twilight Zone." On balance, I liked the scenes with Nick in the hospital more than those of Amy trying to find Nick, largely because every time she saw another demon it seemed more like a distraction that another piece of the puzzle. The film does have a nice look, thanks to cinematographer Raymond Stella, who was the camera operator on "Halloween" and 59 episodes of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." For horror buffs there is a cameo by Kane Hodder (a.k.a. Jason), and the boiler room location used is the same one Wes Craven used for Freddy Krueger in "A Nightmare on Elm Street." For DVD extras there is the trailer for "Room 6" and some other Anchor Bay releases, a 41-minute featurette "Hospital From Hell," a decent enough commentary track from Hurst and Altman, and if you pop the disc in your DVD-rom drive you can read the film's screenplay.

It's a shame cos it's a good movie.........2007-05-25

..between horror and deep emotions with a capital fault:
What the hell they think they are in giving us a clear statement against euthanasia??? We are no longer in the middle age I thought.. Even for American standarts this should cause a big scandal!

Facing Your Fears.......2007-02-07

A young woman has a fear of hospitals due some terrible thing she did when she was younger. She still has terrible nightmares about being in a hospital. Now she is faced with a relationship that is developing to the next stage when the two are in an auto accident. He is taken by an ambulance to a hospital. She is not allowed to ride with him and they do not tell her which hospital. She doesn't realize the omission until after she takes a cab to the closest hospital. She then meets the driver of the other vehicle. He tells a similar story. Together they try and find her partner and his sister. Their search of all of the hospitals turns up nothing.

Meanwhile her boyfriend is in a strange hospital and the staff are the ones from her nightmares. He realizes things are not right and tries to learn more and get out of the hospital despite the warnings from others in his ward. He witnesses strange and terrifying things. But as he tries to get out his girlfriend is following unorthodox methods and learns about an old hospital that burned down before she was born. She is told she can find it if she really wants to. The two paths converge as she has to face her fears and their causes before she can locate her boyfriend and help him. The end is unexpected and help explains much of the strangeness in the earlier parts of the film.

This is a film you have to stick with. At first I though it was very poorly written. Take the accident for instance. There are no police. There is no exchange of information. The participants just walk away and leave their vehicles behind. But this and many other strange things will make sense if you watch the whole movie. But you will have to put the bits together. There are no replays of scenes from different angles like in The Sixth Sense or Hide And Seek. But if you do stick with it you will discover what the film is really all about and it really works quite well. But it is not what you would really expect from the trailer. I personally think it winds up being better that they trailer lets on. Check it out.

Not as bad as I had thought, but that's not saying much.......2006-12-04

Of all the recent direct to DVD horror movies that Anchor Bay has been churning out lately, it's safe to say that Room 6 is one of the best. Sadly though, that's not really saying a whole lot: Room 6 features many of the cliche' story conventions and predictable twists, and arguably one of the dumbest characters in a recent horror movie that I've seen lately in Shane Brolly (Underworld: Evolution) who after a car accident is taken to a mysterious hospital where the patients don't come back. Christine "Mrs. Ben Stiller" Taylor stars as his wife, who along with another victim of the accident (Jerry O'Connell) looks to find out just what's going on. The plot hardly makes sense, but Taylor, Brolly, and O'Connell are decent enough in a film that is far undeserving to feature any of them in it. Gore effects are good and Ellie Cornell (all grown up from the later Halloween films) is here, as are some blood drinking lesbian nurses (always a plus in my book), so Room 6 isn't as bad as it could have been. It's worth a look for horror afficiondos, but that's it.

Some good chills, but not too original..........2006-11-23

There are some interesting developments, but basically all the characters are clueless and can't seem to figure out what's right in front of them. "Room 6" immediately reminded me of John Carpenter's "They Live", without the originality, suspense, and especially its way of making the audience learn everything along with the characters, instead of planting clues early on. Not the best; glad it was loaned to me.

Average customer rating:

I Wish You Were My Mummy
Blood From The Mummy's Tomb: The Mummy Film Based On A Stoker Book
Who - - Or What - - Must Not Be Named
Great piece of late Hammer hokum
Jewel is Right

Blood From the Mummy's Tomb
Starring: Andrew Keir , Valerie Leon , James Villiers , Hugh Burden , and George Coulouris
Director: Michael Carreras , and Seth Holt
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005KHJO
Release Date: 2001-08-07

Product Description

A British expedition team in Egypt discovers the ancient sealed tomb of the evil Queen Tera. But when one of the archaeologists steals a mysterious ring from the corpse's severed hand, he unleashes a relentless curse upon his beautiful daughter. Is the voluptuous young woman now a reincarnation of the diabolical sorceress or has the curse of the mummy returned to reveal its horrific revenge? One of Hammer's most notorious productions, BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB was plagued by the sudden deaths of director Seth Holt and the wife of original star Peter Cushing, leading to rumors of a real-life curse. Andrew Keir (QUATERMASS AND THE PIT) and the luscious Valerie Leon star in this supernatural shocker based on Bram Stoker's classic novel JEWEL OF THE SEVEN STARS. Includes a 4-Page Collector's Booklet. The first 10,000 copies will contain a free bonus DVD of THE HAMMER TRAILER COLLECTION.

System Requirements:
Starring: Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon, James Villiers
Director: Seth Holt
Producer: Howard Brandy
Running Time: 93 Min.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Customer Reviews:

I Wish You Were My Mummy.......2006-01-20

One of the last in a long line of Hammer horror films, 'Blood From the Mummy's Tomb' is not among the best. It doesn't possess the same depth and dimension of light and atmosphere that many of the early features are famous for. The footage is dull and drab throughout appearing as though it was filmed in an old abandoned warehouse. The set is also quite spartan, there certainly didn't seem to be much of a budget available for this feature.

However the one thing Hammer didn't jeopardize in this film was there reputation for having at least one beautiful, bosomy woman among their cast of characters. That woman is British actress Valerie Leon in the dual role of the soon to resurrected Queen Tera and Margaret, daughter of the archeologist/Egyptologist responsible for the discovery of Queen Tera's tomb and remains.

Neither scary or insightful, making it quite easy to pass on this one altogether if not for the presence of Valerie Leon on-screen.

Blood From The Mummy's Tomb: The Mummy Film Based On A Stoker Book.......2006-01-09

TO: Hammer Film Fans

WARNING! SPIOLERS!

The Good:
This is a great film based on a Bram Stoker book (Jewel Of the Seven Stars). It dosen't actually have a waling mummy, wrapped up in cloth. Tera is a dark queen of egypt. When a man opens her grave, his wife dies, birthing his daughter. She also dies, but Tera lives inside her. Years later when she gets a ring, tera is relesed inside her, and a ritual to reunite tera with her body begins.

The Bad:
There is one pothedic scene where a cat statue kills a woman.

FROM: The Hammer Film Reveiwer

Who - - Or What - - Must Not Be Named.......2005-10-06

The bosomy young woman Margaret wakes up screaming from a nightmare. Her father Julian comes into her bedroom to comfort her. A scar across Margaret's right wrist makes it look like she has tried to slash it in the past. What could have driven this young woman, who lives alone with her father, to try to kill herself?

Julian gives Margaret a ring with seven stars in the shape of the Big Dipper reflected in it and makes her wear it "for protection." (This movie is based on Bram Stoker's novel Jewel of the Seven Stars and is better than the book.) Margaret and her father hold each other for just a little too long, and Julian looks just a little too longingly into Margaret's eyes.

Wearing the ring, Margaret belongs to her father in a way she hasn't until now. But this relationship must be doomed.

I've read that victims of incest sometimes feel like it's happening to someone else. Margaret really is someone else - - Tera, the uncorrupted beauty Julian stole from Egypt and now keeps hidden in his basement, the woman he sneaks away to look at every night, the woman he wishes his daughter was. (Of course Tera and Margaret are identical).

Decades ago Julian and a group of archeologists found Tera in her crypt, where she had been placed by ancient Egyptian priests who chopped off her right hand (to represent the unnamed "sin" she had committed) and left her to rot. But first they obliterated all reference to Tera, and left a message over her tomb that within lay "She Who Must Not Be Named."

But Tera is "above law and taboo" and it is the priests who die, while Tera waits in her tomb for Margaret to begin to dream of her once Margaret "comes of age." In other words, once Margaret is old enough for her father.

The scientists found Tera's preserved body with its perpetually bleeding right arm (Hammer films did this kind of thing very well) at the exact moment Margaret was being born in England. Both Margaret and her mother died, but once Tera was uncovered by Julian, the baby Margaret started breathing again.

Why did Julian leave his wife in England when she was about to give birth? Egyptian sarcophagi had waited thousands of years; they'd wait another few weeks. Why did he abandon his wife to search for the beautiful Tera, or whatever Tera represented to him? Was Julian tired of his wife already? Did he already want something more? Something strange? Something forbidden?

As Tera's personality gradually replaces Margaret's, she dreams of a "land far away" with "no scheming priesthood, no repressive or archaic laws, and love is the divine possession of the soul." A place where any love is permissible.

Now we may guess what at least one of Tera's sins was. At the moment Margaret's mother died, Margaret became her relplacement.

As Julian looks down at Tera's body, wanting her, you see his knowledge of the wrongness of it in his face. I think Andrew Keir (star of Quatermass and the Pit) - - fleshy, with a sensuous Scottish accent - - was better suited to this role than the thin and flinty Englishman Peter Cushing, who started work on Blood from the Mummy's Tomb but left after his wife died. (If Cushing had played the role, I wonder if I would have even thought about the idea of incest. Which leads to more questions - - did the filmmakers intend it or did that "taboo" come from the actors' performances?)

Margaret has a boyfriend who hits her at one point. Most of the men in her life now that she's a grown, sexually available woman brutalize her in one way or another. Her father is using her, as is one of Julian's old colleagues who wants to control Tera's evil power. (Margaret's boyfriend is named Tod Browning, for the director of Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Freaks. Sometimes in-jokes just take you out of the story and are unnecessary. In a film that doesn't pretend to be anything but a comedy, like Shaun of the Dead, it doesn't matter, but in a movie that takes its story seriously it's better to resist the urge. But to be fair, when this movie came out in 1972 fewer people may have even gotten the reference.)

Julian and Margaret are shown to be matched as a couple in another way. Tera has had her right hand cut off. Julian has a stroke that paralyzes the right side of his body, leaving him unable to use (especially to raise, if I'm not getting too Freudian) his right arm.

In the conflagration at the end, Margaret and her father almost kiss. They slowly come together and almost do it. But they resist and hold hands. In the end they have to accept that they're "as meaningless as all of the dead." (One thing I like about Hammer horror movies over some Universal pictures is that Hammer makes them tragedies. There's no redemption at the end.)

The last scene is chilling and finally makes Blood from the Mummy's Tomb a "mummy movie."

Great piece of late Hammer hokum.......2005-02-01

Plenty of blood and guts, by Hammer standards anyway, in this 1971 offering from the famous "House of Horror". The story concerns an Egyptian princess being reincarnated in modern-day London, thus giving plenty of scope for both contemporary and ancient elements.

A very stylish production is directed with plenty of atmosphere by stalwart Seth Holt (Taste of Fear, The Nanny), who sadly died before filming finished. James Villiers stands out for his sliminess as the central villain, where Valerie Leon stands out mainly for her ample bosom. A great cast also includes Andrew Keir and George Coulouris. The score by Tristram Cary (The Ladykillers, Quatermass and the Pit) is pivotal to the tension.

In-joke alert: Hammer afficianados should look out for the names on the sign outside Villier's house early on in the movie.

Jewel is Right.......2004-01-21

Bram Stoker's little known novella Jewel of the Seven Stars is filled with suspense, Egyptian lore, and just the right amount of sex appeal to lure you. The film takes advantage of that by giving you the visually stunning Leon as a focal point. Backdropped by richly colored Egyptian artifacts, and tinted with that just so shade of horror, this is one of those Hammer Films that you wish they had taken the storyline a little bit further just to see what happens next. Kind of makes you wonder if H.R.R. Ryder and Bram were friends, because Ryder's story which Hammer Films also did, with Ursula Andress as "She", are similiar in nature.

Average customer rating:

Call it whatever you want, it's still low grade junk
return to horror high
"Some of the bodies were pretty torn up, sir."
SIGNS OF A WASTE OF TIME
Please rent Scream instead of this crap

Return to Horror High
Starring: Richard Brestoff , George Clooney , Vince Edwards , Al Fann , and Panchito Gómez
Director: Bill Froehlich
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
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ASIN: B00005UW7P
Release Date: 2002-04-02

Amazon.com

Return to Horror High is a convoluted cheesefest that tries to be spoof and horror movie at the same time, feebly prefiguring Scream. A movie crew is filming a slasher picture at a high school where a series of murders actually occurred; the killings begin again--or are they simply staged for the production? The answer to this question is distinctly uninvolving, but it involves a lot of fake blood. Familiar faces include Vince Edwards and Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick (a uniformed cop), plus--until he becomes the first victim--George Clooney. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Call it whatever you want, it's still low grade junk.......2007-04-27

After watching this one again all I can say is, WOW at what point in making this turkey did they decide to get rid of the script. Really, this makes little or no sense. To bad to be a slasher movie, not funny enough to be a comedy, and that leaves the public holding this bag of cheese.
A film crew is shooting a horror movie at an old High School where,you guessed it,where years before several murders happened,and yeah sure enough the killings start all over again or are they just a stunt to get publicity for the movie. I dare you to care as it grows dumber with each passing scene. Save your money

return to horror high.......2006-02-05

It had some moments, but overall, if i had it to do over again, i wouldn't

"Some of the bodies were pretty torn up, sir.".......2005-08-18

Parody, spoof, satire, prank, hoax, send-up, take-off, lampoon, jest, joke...call it whatever you want, but Return to Horror High (1987) is still a dog...and not a very original one at that, as the film brought to mind the movie Happy Birthday to Me (1981), which, comparatively, was modestly better. That's not to say Return to Horror High couldn't have been more than it was, but it would have taken a whole lot of work to turn it around. The film actually lists four writers, one of them being Bill Froehlich ("Freddy's Nightmares"), who was also the director, this being his first (and only) film. Appearing is a number of actors I'm not familiar with like Brendan Hughes (Howling VI: The Freaks), Lori Lethin (Bloody Birthday), and Richard Brestoff (Car Wash), along with a few that I have heard of, like George Clooney (Welcome to Collinwood), Vince Edwards ("Ben Casey"), Alex Rocco (Detroit 9000), and Maureen McCormick, probably most known for her role as Marcia Brady on "The Brady Bunch" television series, but has had something of a career afterwards appearing in films like Dogtown (1997), The Million Dollar Kid (2000), and Title to Murder (2001), none of which I've actually seen, but they're out there.

At the outset some text is displayed on the screen stating that in 1982, a series of brutal, savage murders occurred at Crippen High School, and the homicidal maniac responsible was never caught. Flash forward to the present (I'm assuming the present being 1987, as that's when the film was released) and we learn a film crew is now occupying the since abandoned school with the intent on shooting a movie about the grisly events. The low budget production has its problems, flighty actors, creative differences between the director and producer, etc., but what no one counted on was that the killer who struck so long ago may still be around...after the disappearance of a few crew members (hardly noticed by anyone..."Say, where's that grip? What his name?"), lead actress Callie Cassidy (Lethin) and policeman/technical advisor turned lead actor (after the male lead left for a better part) Steven Blake (Hughes) become suspicious enough to suspect perhaps there is a malevolent force stalking the halls of Crippen High, an evil that's been waiting patiently these many years for some fresh blood...what gruesome secrets are stashed away within the bowels of the school? Will you care?

First of all, it should be noted this isn't really a horror movie in the conventional sense, but an attempt at a comedy poking fun at the genre. As far as what I actually liked about the film, it wasn't much...I liked Alex Rocco's portrayal of the stereotypical, slightly sleazy, manipulative, condescending, two-faced, backstabbing movie producer Harry Sleerik who was more concerned with the elements the would sell a low budget horror film, specifically buckets of blood and lots of boobage, much to the chagrin of the director who fancies himself a junior Hitchcock of sorts, constantly perturbed at thoughts of having to compromise his artistic integrity for the sake of appealing to, in his eyes, the lowest common denominator...the sequence where Sleerik actually disrupts filming of a scene of the film within the film by grabbing the lead actresses chest, claiming something to the effect of `we need more of this' was really pretty funny. Also, Vince Edwards was pretty good in his role as an actor playing the role of lecherous biology teacher named Mr. Birnbaum ("Mr. Birnbaum, why am I getting a C when I used to get A's? ", "Have you looked in the mirror lately?") And that was really about it...there were perhaps a few more humorous moments, but nothing that stands out in my mind (and I only watched the thing last night). The biggest problem with this movie, in my opinion, is something I believe someone else already brought up, specifically the convoluted nature of the story. I think the intent was to blend the material in such a way as so it would be difficult for the viewer to discern what was actually the movie, and what was the movie within the movie. The story begins sort of at the end, after most of the crew has been murderlated, and then flashes back to how the events came about. This goes on constantly, along with the mixing of realities of the story with that of story of the film within the film...sound confusing? Try watching it...throw in a dream sequence and what you have is a muddled mess, which lost my interest about halfway through. Perhaps the material and how it would go down was clear in the director's mind, but I felt he got just a little to cutesy with it, especially this being his first film. I can't really fault someone for taking a risk, trying to push the boundaries and break from the norm, but such a seemingly complex conceptualization, if not handled properly, will most certainly crash and burn, spectacularly, I might add. I went into this blindly, assuming it was a straight up horror film, but eventually realized otherwise, but it did take awhile, as the comedic aspects were often subtle enough to make me question if the characters were parodies, or just being stupid (the latter not an uncommon occurrence in a lot of the slasher flicks of the early 80s). Overall the acting was just this side of passable (other than the aforementioned performances by Rocco and Edwards), but I suppose someone would say that was also intentional due to the satirical nature of the material, but I'm not buying, as I've seen other parodies with much better performances. I guess the gist of what I'm getting at is by the time this film was released, the slasher/horror genre had grown somewhat stale, even to the point where parodies of the genre had even become tired, but then that's just my opinion.

Anchor Bay Entertainment, as usual, provides an excellent looking widescreen (1.85:1) print transfer on this DVD, along with a clear and audible Dolby Digital 2,0 Mono audio track. I was surprised at the lack of extras, as all that's included is a theatrical trailer along with a 5X7 reproduction of original poster art on a card within the DVD case, the flipside listing the chapter stops.

Cookieman108

SIGNS OF A WASTE OF TIME.......2005-04-04

There are certain guaranteed signals that a movie sucks. Look for these words and/or phrases THE RETURN OF....
BACK TO....
NOW HE IS ALL GROWN UP
GEORGE CLOONEY
RETURN TO
COSTARRING BEN AFFLEK

Please rent Scream instead of this crap.......2005-03-26

Return to Horror High is a complete waste of money and time with really bad acting,cheap special effects,and no plot or point. A director is trying to make a horror movie and then a killer is killing them also. Not good at all,not scary,not funny,and not entertaining, Just dumb and pitiful.

Alex Rocco,Maureen McCormick,and George Clooney make cameo apperances.

Average customer rating:

Gritty, Haunting & Eerily Sublime ...
There vampire's
Be Bitter if this movie was before your time
Jenny Wright and Adrian Pasdar heat up the screen
A Terribly Underated Vampire Film...

Near Dark
Starring: Adrian Pasdar , Jenny Wright , Lance Henriksen , Bill Paxton , and Jenette Goldstein
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0002NIAZC
Release Date: 2004-07-01

Amazon.com

The word "vampire" is never mentioned in Near Dark, but that doesn't stop this 1987 cult favorite from being one of the best modern-era vampire films. It put then-unknown director Kathryn Bigelow on Hollywood's radar and gave choice roles to Aliens costars favored by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron: Lance Henriksen is the leader of a makeshift family of renegade bloodsuckers, nocturnally seeking victims in rural Oklahoma; his immortal gal pal is Aliens and Terminator 2 alumnus Jenette Goldstein; and Bill Paxton is the group's deadliest leather-clad ass kicker. Fellow traveler Jenny Wright lures Okie farm boy Adrian Pasdar into the group with a love bite, and he's soon turning toward vampirism with a combination of frightened revulsion and relentless desire. With Joshua Miller (River's Edge) as the youngest vampire, Near Dark is Bigelow's masterpiece of low-budget ingenuity--a truck-stop thriller that begins well, gets better and better (aided by a fine Tangerine Dream score), and goes out in a blaze of glory. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Gritty, Haunting & Eerily Sublime ..........2007-06-23

Near Dark is a vampire film with a look and feel unlike your typical fang-fest: daylight is harsh and painful, while the quicksand-lull of shadows by night are at once sharp and surreal, altering the landscape and ensnaring the viewer unawares.

Co-written by Eric Red (writer of the original "The Hitcher") and Kathryn Bigelow (director of "Strange Days"), this film is a taut, smart and surly Western Vampire flick that still stands up to - and surpasses - today's standards of chop and spray film-making (thank goodness). This was a film with a vision, evolving out of the mid-80s when film-makers were still taking chances and the genres of old were a-changing. These are no walking corpses in molding black capes, hiding in coffins and dodging wooden stakes. These vampires mean business and the landscape in which they travel is as cruel and as unrelenting and as personable as are they.

Charactor development, the look and feel of the piece, plot, and snappy dialogue are those things that matter in Near Dark. If you're going to make a horror film, by god, make the thing. And the cast/crew/creators of Near Dark did just that.

I was a pre-teen when I first saw Near Dark, back in the late 80s. No movie before or since has left me with such an eerie memory of intensity, pain, and ... strangely enough given the subject matter ... a giddy sort of hope. As a kid the infamous "bar scene" nearly did me in, and provided fodder for nightmares this fearless horror-film watcher didn't think were possible. For years, just remembering that scene, was enough to keep me passing it by in the rental aisles.

But, being the admirer I am of many of the central cast in Near Dark, I couldn't stay away for long, and so I rewatched it with adult eyes. It was even better than I'd remembered it. I'm not ashamed to say I had to buy my own copy, which I watch every couple of months.

There is the naive and flirtacious Caleb Colten, perfectly cast in Adrian Pasdar (who plays the polar opposite in the deliciously wicked "Jim Profit" in the tv show "Profit", also now available on dvd) who meets the at once simple

There vampire's.......2007-05-20

Only Calab doesn't know that. He is thinking with his heart, not his brain.

Be Bitter if this movie was before your time.......2007-05-02

Certain vampire movie franchises which I shall not name are as so many other media products all about selling lipstick and lisp in these shallow shallow days.

This movie has so much style and probably was made for very little money.

Jenny Wright and Adrian Pasdar heat up the screen.......2007-02-28

Put simply, this is the most sensual portrayal of the vampire myth in recent cinematic history, and it does a neat turnaround of the roles, since most renditions have a sweet, innocent young woman seduced by a dark, handsome bloodsucker.

Instead, Jenny Wright is the ethereally beautiful, seductive, mysterious stranger who initiates Adrian Pasdar (as farm boy Caleb Colton, whose openly displayed lust is kind of amusing for a minute there) into the mysteries of her night-focused world. Watch her during the scenes in which she bites Caleb -- and later, kills for him. Jenny Wright certainly never reached the caliber of Meryl Streep during her short career, but she COULD act. Her performance as Mae in "Near Dark" was chilling -- and admirable.

Caleb is on a sort of probationary vampire status, and he finds it impossible to kill (which is a requirement, since according to Mae, "The night has its price.") And yes, the end is probably not what the readers of Fangoria would have preferred, although they probably would've bailed on this anyway once they learned the only real gore was in the bar room scene.

Terrific supporting cast, especially Bill Paxton, who stole every scene he was in. But the scenes with just Wright and Pasdar -- oooh. Powerful, sexy, and unforgettable. Not to be missed.

A Terribly Underated Vampire Film..........2007-01-26

I first watched this film when I was younger, but since then I have loved this film and consider it definitely one of those films that should be much more popular than they are. Most people I know don't even know it, although they claim they have a good knowledge of horror films. I always recommend it, but at least where I live the video stores don't even have it.

Anyway though this movie does go above so many other vampire films made today. It definitely gives its own unique view on vampires. I was a huge fan of Anne Rice's romantic, suffering vampires but watching this film where instead the vampires are dusty and completely cruel to their victims without any air of sophistication gave it a much more real and frightening view on such creatures.

The cast carry out their parts well, but its truly Paxton that steals the show. He is the most cruel of them all, and the loudest. Right away he just steals the show. The others kind of fade compared to him, but quiet Mae, the complete opposite of Severen, holds her own candle on the show. And yes, you do root for her and Caleb, who is roped into being a vampire thanks to her seduction.

A dark, harsh and powerful movie about vampires that matches to the maturity of Interview with the Vampire, yet with a complete new view on their lifestyle. I highly recommend it if you can find it.

4.5/5

Average customer rating:

Rental
Retarded
I was surprised it was so good!
Keep on rockin' me baby!
rosemary's baby iii

Baby Blood
Starring: Christian Sinniger , Jean-François Gallotte , Francois Frapier , Thierry LePortier , and Emmanuelle Escourrou
Director: Alain Robak
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Superstition
Don't Go Into the Woods...Alone!
Dust Devil - The Final Cut
Dark Waters
Masters of Horror - Imprint

ASIN: B000H1RFGY
Release Date: 2006-10-10

Description

It is a voracious parasite from the dawn of creation, surviving centuries in search of the one thing it needs: To be born of a human. But when this cunning creature slithers inside a sexy circus performer (voluptuous French starlet Emmanuelle Escourrou), it demands gallons of fresh blood to grow stronger. Now this reluctantly expectant mommy and her chatty mutant fetus are off on a cross- country killing spree where pre-natal care means violent carnage, horny men make tasty meals, and the ultimate mother's milk is BABY BLOOD! Throw away those grainy bootlegs and get ready to feel this one kick: BABY BLOOD - also known as THE EVIL WITHIN - is now presented totally uncut and uncensored with all of its infamous womb-raiding, gore-spewing and flesh-baring beauty fully restored for the first time ever in America!

Customer Reviews:

Rental.......2007-04-22

"Baby Blood" starts out promising, reminding me somewhat of "Freaks" with its circus setting. It seems that some sort of parasitic creature has infected one of the circus animals. It eventually breaks out, invades a woman and then she goes on a killing spree to "feed" her host baby. There is a fair amount of blood spurting and nudity but not much else. The film depicts the communication between the woman and her parasitic invader and this voice over stuff never really works. It is basically a road trip story with the woman moving from place to place and then killing someone. One thing that I found amusing is that there is a lengthy period towards the end of the film where the woman is covered in blood. No one seems to really care or even ask if she is okay, they treat her requsts for a ride as if she looked otherwise normal. You would think that if someone walked up to you covered in blood you would at least take notice. Really not much in this film worth a purchase, no special features of note, rental only.

Retarded.......2007-03-30

***Warning*** Spoilers.

Baby Blood has a certain charm to it for sure. In reality it is on par
with other dark humored splatterfests like "Braindead aka:Dead Alive",
"Brain Damage" and even the "Basket Case" movies. The movie plods along
without really delving much into Yanka's (the main character)story much
other than that she is an abused woman living in a dominant man based
society.
The fun is where you can see her strong distaste for men and
how later she even revolts against mankind (men mainly and a few women
that get in the way for good measure!haha). She has enough of men
treating her badly and lashes out at them sexually and later with some
old fashioned cold blooded murder. Or is it? After all baby must get
blood to survive!
The film has it's very rand