Blog Archives
Mansion of the Doomed (1976) | Charles Band’s exploitation horror debut on Limited Edition Blu-Ray
From 101 Films comes the Limited Edition Blu-ray release of Charles Band’s 1976 exploitation shocker Mansion of the Doomed in the UK for the very first time. Available from 6 May 2024.
In this twisted take on Georges Franju’s macabre 1959 masterpiece, Les Yeux sans visage (AKA Eyes Without a Face), Richard Basehart stars as ocular surgeon Dr. Leonard Chaney, who only has eyes for his daughter, Nancy (Trish Stewart) – a continual supply of them.
After causing a car crash in which Nancy loses her sight, Chaney kidnaps and drugs people at random, cuts out their eyes to transplant them into Nancy’s rancid sockets, and then locks them up in an electrified cage in his basement. But when the unwitting ‘donors’ find a way to break out of their cell, is the game up for the obsessive doc?
When it comes to indie low-budget genre filmmaking, Charles Band is one of the legendary ‘kings of the Bs’ – and we’ve all grown up watching his Empire Pictures and Full Moon Productions output that’s included such cult classics as Ghoulies and the Puppet Master and Subspecies series. But it was Mansion of the Damned that set him on the road of horror and fantasy exploitation.
Band self-financed his maiden project (which he originally called The Eyes of Doctor Chaney as a nod to Lon Chaney) at the tender age of 22, and with the help of family (including his producer/director dad Albert), friends and some young guns just starting in the business (Stan Winston handles the special effects and future A-lister Andrew Davis is the cinematographer), he was able to pull together one of the most shocking yet compelling horrors of the late 1970s.
The scenes of the imprisoned victims (including an intense Lance Henriksen) attacking each other and stmumbling around in their cage, and the scene where Chaney attempts to kidnap a young girl in a park are genuinely disturbing, as is the real-life eye surgery. So much so the film was seized and confiscated under the Obscene Publications Act in the UK during the Video Nasty panic of the 1980s.
Hollywood stars Richard Basement and Gloria Grahame (who plays Chaney’s loyal assistant Katherine) bring much gravitas to the proceedings (especially Basement’s voice-overs – his deep, resonant tones are honey to the ears), and it’s all held together tightly by actor Michael Pataki in the director’s chair for the first time. All in all, this is a real fave of mine and what a way for Band to start his amazing career.
Look out for Vic Tayback (AKA Mel in TV’s Alice), exploitation star Marilyn Joi, former baseball player Al Ferrara, and even Lenny Bruce’s stand-up comic mum, Sally Marr.
101 FILMS BLACK LABEL SPECIAL FEATURES
- The Charles Band Empire: A new documentary on the career of horror legend Charles Band
- Cutting Teeth: Back to the Future editor Harry Keramidas on Mansion of the Doomed
- Limited edition booklet: Includes On Mansion of the Doomed by filmmaker and critic Chris Alexander and The Eye is Blind if the Mind is Absent: The Legacy of Ocular Violence & Video Nasties within Mansion of the Doomed by writer Andy Marshall-Roberts
Clapboard Jungle | Do you have what it takes to survive the modern independent film business?
If you have ever thought about becoming an independent film-maker, then you must check this out first. Justin McConnell, who writes, directs and features, has worked as a film festival coordinator, as well as being a cinematographer and editor on heaps of featurettes you’ve probably seen as bonus content, and also directed a number of documentaries and helmed two features. But he has still yet to make his mark in this riskiest of businesses, where it has become harder and harder for independents to make a living due to media giant monopolisation and a market oversaturated with product.
Featuring interviews with a vast range of industry luminaries, Clapboard Jungle (which is available on ARROW from Monday 19 April) follows Justin’s personal journey over a five year period, exploring not only the nitty-gritty of the film business (from pitch to product) but also the physical and emotional strain that comes with it. It’s a fascinating insight and something of a survival guide for anyone brave enough to attempt themselves.
Once you have watched the documentary, I strongly urge you to check out the extended interviews which feature a roll call of some of our favourite cult heroes who all discuss their career highs and lows, and their place in the independent film world today. Poignantly, among them are Dick Miller, George Romeo and Larry Cohen, who are no longer with us – so these are very special indeed.
Clapboard Jungle is available from ARROW from Monday 19 April
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• Audio commentary with Justin McConnell
• Crew commentary: Justin McConnell, co-producer Darryl Shaw, executive producer Avi Federgreen and editor/associate producer Kevin Burke)
• Guest commentary/panel discussion: Barbara Crampton, Richard Stanley, John McNaughton, Gigi Saul Guerrero and Adam Mason
• Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Justin McConnell
• Extended interviews: Anne-Marie Gélinas, Barbara Crampton, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Brian Yuzna, Charles Band, Corey Moosa, Dean Cundey, Dick Miller, Don Mancini, Frank Henenlotter, Gary Sherman, George Romero, George Mihalka, Guillermo Del Toro, John McNaughton, Jon Reiss, Larry Cohen, Larry Fessenden, Lloyd Kaufman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Michael Biehn, Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Mick Garris, Paul Schrader, Richard Stanley, Sam Firstenberg, Tom Holland, Tom Savini, Vincenzo Natali
• Documentaries: Working Class Rock Star (2008) and Skull World (2013)
• 13 short films with optional commentaries and intros
• Trailers, promos, photo gallery and Easter eggs
• Artwork by Ilan Sheady
• Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by producer/director Brian Yuzna
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich | World War III begins on your toy shelf!
The murderous marionettes are back as Fangoria presents their ultraviolent reboot of Charles Band’s Puppet Master horror franchise, The Littlest Reich, from directors Tommy Wiklund and Sonny Laguna.
When divorced comic book writer/store clerk Edgar (Reno 911!’s Thomas Lennon) finds one of the infamous Toulon Blade puppets in mint condition at his family home, he decides to sell it for some quick cash. New girlfriend Ashley (Jenny Pellicer) and nerdy pal Markowitz (Nelson Franklin) join Edgar as he heads to Oregon for an auction being held in the mansion where the infamous Toulon Murders took place 30 years previously.
But when the puppets are reanimated and start targeting ‘undesirables’, the trio team up with a security officer (Barbara Crampton) and a clueless cop (Michael Pare) to draw the puppets from out of the shadows to take them down…
The political satire may be as subtle as one of Donald Trump’s speeches, and the acting questionable, but the cartoon gore is a whole lotta fun and wonderfully offensive. A gypsy guy has his head chopped off while taking a leak, and ends up pissing on his own head; a Jewish couple get barbecued alive; and a black woman has her unborn foetus ripped from her stomach. But the OTT carnage really gets going when the toy shelf Nazis launch their all-out attack on the mansion…
Joining old favourites, Blade, Tunneler, Torch (aka Kaiser) and Pinhead, in this 13th-entry are seven new deadly dolls, including Junior Fuhrer, a diaper-wearing baby doll with the face of Adolf Hitler, who takes possession of a blonde German muscle dude by ripping open his back and crawling inside so he can operate him like a real-life puppet. But the Nazi nipper does get his comeuppance when Markowitz throws him into an oven.
With a neat (though short) cameo from Udo Keir (as Andre Toulon), a terrific score from the legendary Fabio Frizzi and an ending that hints at the franchise’s return, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich is a bloody, silly, fun ride indeed.
Out in selected UK cinemas from 19 April 2019
Troll: The Complete Collection | The 1980s fantasy franchise gets a Eureka Classics Limited Edition Blu-ray release
Long before a certain young wizard called Harry Potter waged a magical war against the dreaded Lord Voldemort, another youngster, also called Harry Potter, found himself battling a pint-sized dark wizard in the 1986 fantasy comedy Troll.
While critically-panned at the time, Troll has become something of a cult curiosity ever since it scored big on the home video business, where it even overtook The Goonies in rentals. Noah Hathaway from Never Ending Story fame plays the spunky hero, Harry Potter Jr, who comes under the tutelage of a white witch called Eunice St. Clair (June Lockhart of Lost in Space fame) when his sister Wendy is possessed by Torok (Phil Fondacaro) – a powerful fairy (and Eunice’s former lover) who was turned into a troll after starting a war between fairies and humans.
Small, smart, dripping with saliva, and with teeth that would keep a dentist in bridgework for life, Torok wants to transform the human world back into the grand, magical kingdom that existed many centuries ago… With just 72 hours to complete his mission, Torok creates his fairy world inside a San Francisco apartment block and starts turning its tenants, including Sonny Bono, a pre-Seinfield Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Phil Fondacaro (who also plays a friendly neighbour), into goblins, nymphs and elves. Armed with Eunice’s magical staff, Harry then heads into the alternate world to save the day…
Troll was the brainchild of two protégés from Roger Corman’s New World quickies, screenwriter and former Fangoria-editor Ed Naha and director/sfx artist John Carl Buechler. It was originally planned to be a blood-drenched R-rated horror flick set in a sleazy motel called Goblin for Corman, but got transformed into a PG-13 fantasy in the Ghoulies and Gremlins mold when it was greenlit by Charles Band’s Empire Pictures.
While it has its faults, Troll boasts some neat practical effects, but is also packed with some delightfully odd moments, including a bizarre elfin-led musical number, June Lockhart turning into her real-life daughter Anne – not to mention Moriarty’s hyperactive turn as Harry’s 1960’s music-jiving dad (also called Harry Potter) and the film within the film called Pod People from the Planet Mars which plays on a TV set during all the mischief and mayhem.
In the unrelated 1990 sequel, Troll 2, produced by prolific Italian film-maker Joe D’Amato, young Joshua (Michael Stephenson) makes a connection between the local residents of a town called Nilbog (try writing it backwards?) and a fairytale he was told by his grandfather (Robert Ormsby). Realising that the townsfolk are all goblins, he tries to prevent his family from eating any food before they are turned into vegetable matter…
My word, this is really bad – and not in a good way! In fact, its downright painful to sit through such bad acting, dialogue and makeup effects. This is only for cult film masochists or Joe D’Amato completists. In 2009, Stephenson, directed a documentary about the film’s production and subsequent popularity, humorously titled Best Worst Movie, which is also included in the Blu-ray box-set, as part of the Eureka Classics series, along with the following special features…
• The Making of Troll: featuring director John Carl Buechler, producer Charles Band, Writer Ed Naha, composer Richard Band and more
• Audio commentary on Troll 2 with actors George Hardy and Deborah Reed
• Best Worst Movie: deleted scenes and interview footage
• Interview with Deborah Reed
• Screenwriting Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith, Michael Stephenson and George Hardy
• Fan contributions
• Monstrous – Music Video by ECOMOG
• Booklet featuring rare archival material
• Limited Edition O Card slipcase featuring artwork by Devon Whitehead
Re-Animator (1985) | Stuart Gordon’s cult comedy horror is back, kicking and screaming in gore-ious HD
Herbert West Has A Very Good Head On His Shoulders…
And Another One In A Dish On His Desk
Brilliant medical student Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) arrives at Miskatonic University and immediately clashes with the eminent Professor Hill (David Gale) over his views on brain death. Obsessed with his own radical theories, West concocts an adrenaline-like serum that will bring the dead back to life. Roping in idealistic student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and Dan’s girlfriend Megan (Barbara Crampton), their shocking experiments work all too well, allowing limbs to move, heads to speak, corpses to go berserk and giant intestines to have a life of their own. Stealing the serum, the power crazed Dr Hill then plans to kidnap Megan for his own sick, perverted pleasure – and that’s after he gets his head chopped off. Barf bags at the ready!
IT WILL SCARE YOU TO PIECES
1985 was a great year for some cult-worthy zombie flicks. George A Romero’s Day of the Dead gave his original Living Dead trilogy a grim but superior send off, while The Return of the Living Dead (also available through Second Sight Films) was an inspired punk-fused spoof of the genre. But Re-Animator was a real game changer: a ghoulishly gruesome, outrageously funny thrill ride that rightfully deserves its place in the Horror Hall of Fame. Dripping in gallons of blood, gore and gallows humour, it’s the mad scientist flick that refuses to die and – beyond the shock value – still it holds it own thanks to the witty script, crazy camp performances, and audacious, eye-popping pre-CGI effects. It also propelled director Stuart Gordon, actor Jeffrey Combs and producer Brian Yuzna into horror fandom.
Inspired by Roger Corman’s Gothic Poe pictures starring Vincent Price, Gordon wanted to mine the stories of HP Lovecraft, beginning with his 1922 serial, Herbert West: Re-Animator, to launch his own series of films. But the path from script to screen ended up the stuff of horror cinema legend (check it out on the great Re-Animator Resurrectus extra on this release).
Shot over 22 arduous days, on a budget of just under US$1million, at the same crumbling LA studios that The Terminator was filmed at, Re-Animator was produced by new kid on the block, Brian Yuzna, but owned by Empire Pictures, whose owner Charles Band insisted on bringing in his own crew, including brother Richard, who supplied the film’s cult hit Psycho-inspired score.
Released unrated into US theatres to avoid any cuts by the censor, the gross-out comedy horror became an unexpected critical success at Cannes and quickly recouped its budget, landing Stuart Gordon a three-picture film deal with Empire – starting with From Beyond (also available from Second Sight Films), while its cult status was forever sealed when it was released onto home video (which is how most fans remember the film).
Empire later assembled an R-rated cut, which added 10 minutes to the running time. This (integral) version offers more in the way of character development (especially Dr Hill’s mind control abilities), but it also excised some of the films’ most memorable gore sequences. The Second Sight release presents both this version (great for completists), as well as a brand spanking new 4k print of the unrated version (for the purists), making this bona fide classic of the horror genre a must-have title for your horror collection.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
‘A livid, bloody, deadpan exercise in the theatre of the undead’
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times (Ebert famously championed the movie)
‘A jaw-dropping, steroid-loaded zombie masterpiece’
Glen, Kay, Zombie Movies; The Ultimate Guide
‘Morally offensive’
US Conference if Catholic Bishops Office for Films and Broadcasting
THE SECOND SIGHT FILMS RELEASE
Second Sight‘s Blu-ray Steelbook contains two versions of the gorefest and a bundle of extras (see below), while a two-disc DVD version is also available. The Region B Blu-ray transfer features the film in its 1.78:1 aspect ratio with 5.1 DTS-HD audio master and LPCM stereo option, while the DVD is coded Region 2 and features an 16:9 anamorphic widescreen print.
Disc One
• Unrated version – brand new 4K restoration
• Audio commentary with director Stuart Gordon
• Audio commentary with producer Brian Yuzna and actor Jeffrey Combs, Robert
Sampson, Barbara Crampton and Bruce Abbott
Disc Two
• Integral version (exclusive to Blu-ray)
• Re-Animator Resurrectus: This terrific 2007 documentary looks back at the making of the film with the cast and crew and pays homage to actor David Gale who died in 1991.
• A selection of talking head interviews from 2002 with Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna, writer Dennis Paoli, composer Richard Band and Fangoria editor Tony Timpone
• Extended scenes, deleted scene and trailers
• Behind-the-scenes gallery and production stills
Book review | Empire of the ‘B’s: The Mad Movie World of Charles Band
From Hemlock Books comes the authorised history of American film producer Charles Band’s fabled indie studio Empire Pictures. The 1970s through to the late 1980s was the last great ‘golden age’ for the B-movie community, and with a non-stop series of grindhouse classics like Laserblast, Parasite, Re-Animator and Dolls, it was the era that saw industry pioneer Charles Band take his rightful place in the indie hall of fame and becomes a worthy successor to Roger Corman’s long-held position as ‘King of the B’s’. This hefty tome, which includes a foreward by director Stuart Gordon, is the definitive guide to the rise and fall and resurrection of Band and his 30-year career which has seen him produce some 300 features, and it so deserves a place on the bookshelf of every self-respecting genre film enthusiast. It’s certainly on mine.
WHO IS CHARLES BAND?
After producing his first film Mansion of the Doomed in 1975, Charles Band started up the home video distribution labels MEDA Home Entertainment (1978) and Wizard Video (1981), which turned indie horrors like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I Spit on Your Grave and Zombie into cult favourites, and saw Band back in the director’s chair in films like the 3D horror, Parasite, starring Demi Moore. In 1983 Band founded Empire Entertainment, which resulted in some of the biggest cult hits of the 1980s including Ghoulies, Re-Animator and Troll, before pioneering the direct-to-video feature in 1989 under his Full Moon Entertainment company with the creation of the highly successful Puppet Master. Throughout the 1990s, under the Full Moon Features banner, Band created many well-known video franchises including Trancers, Subspecies and the Gingerdead Man. Most recently, Band has embraced the digital age with his Full Moon Streaming subscription service, which has enabled a new generation of fans to check out the cult movie icon’s immense body of work.
WHAT’S INSIDE THE COVER
There are 65 comprehensive and downright honest reviews interspersed through four chapters covering Band’s career. The chapter on Charles Band Productions (1975-1983) feature interviews with director David Schmoeller, who studied theatre with Alejandro Jodorowsky, on 1979’s Tourist Trap with Chuck Connors; writer Wayne Schmidt on The Day Time Ended (1979); and actor Robert Ginty on 1983’s The Alchemist.
The Empire years 1984-1989 feature reminiscences from Troll actor Phil Fondacaro; writer Jefery Levy on Ghoulies (1985); Trancers star Tim Thomerson; veteran film-maker Stuart Gordon; The Fibonaccis on composing on TerrorVision (1986) and Valet Girls (1987); writer Albert Pyun on Vicious Lips (1986); cinematographer Thomas Callaway on 1987’s Creepozoids; and assistant director Peter Manoogian.
The other Band alumini featured are writer Courtney Joyner, whose first gig was on the 1987 Vincent Price horror anthology The Offspring (aka From a Whisper to a Scream) for director Jeff Burr, who talks about development hell; make-up and sfx masters Screaming Mad George, Jeffrey Farley and Ed French; directors Ted Nicolaou (TerrorVision) and Tim Kincaid (Breeders); and jack of all trades Kenneth J Hall.
LINKS
Charles Band’s Online Blog
Full Moon Streaming
Full Moon Direct
88 Films Full Moon’s UK partner
Kultguy's Keep 