THE CONTROL GROUP -- Movie Review by Porfle

I like it when a movie starts out with a mystery--such as a group of people trapped in a strange place with no idea how they got there or why--which harkens back to some of the more brain-teasing episodes of "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone." 

THE CONTROL GROUP (Wild Eye Releasing, 2014) does exactly that, this time with a quintet of college students whose last memory is of being at a party before waking up in some kind of vast, deserted facility with no exits.

Bossy, abrasive Vanessa (Jenna Enemy), her sullen boyfriend Grant (Justen Jones), space-case Jaime (Kodi Saint Angelo), and insecure gay guy Corey (Shane Philip) have all known each other since fifth grade.  Jack (Ross Destiche), who recently attempted suicide after the death of his sister and suffers from trust issues, is the outsider of the group.

All will end up at each other's throats before it's over.  Till then, the story is instantly intriguing as they begin to hallucinate (doors they've just walked through are suddenly bricked over, hooded figures with birdlike masks appear in the shadows) while each potential way out ends up leading them further into captivity.

This is my favorite part of THE CONTROL GROUP, because when the true nature of their situation begins to be revealed to them, it turns out to be something we've seen before.  That is, it's all a super hush-hush government experiment and our heroes are the guinea pigs.

While this does make things more mundane, it also ramps up the action, beginning with a shocking death scene that will be the first of several.  The people behind it all are made up of various factions--scientific, military, political--that are at odds with each other to the point where any monkey wrench in their plans threatens to make the whole thing go seriously awry.  Which, of course, it does.

 

That's when the movie quickly becomes a mish-mash of both very cool sequences (the mangled dead bodies coming back to life as freaky, cackling zombies with glowing eyes are fun) and scenes with so much exposition coming at us all at once that I eventually gave up trying to keep track of the plot (something about a machine that separates the spirit from the body) and just rooted for the good guys to kill the bad guys and get out of there alive and intact.

Everything is technically well-done save for some iffy digital effects.  The performances are generally good, especially Brad Dourif (CHILD'S PLAY) playing yet another googly-eyed scientist losing control of his own experiment as he did in ALIEN RESURRECTION. 

Emily Soto is rather endearing as Anne, a childlike girl who's been trapped in the cogs of the machine so long that she may or may not be a ghost.  I also liked Monique Candelaria as government agent Heather, who has a crisis of conscience during the mayhem, and Taso N. Stavrakis as the freakiest, and funniest, of the whacked-out zombies.

 

The tension between the scientists and the military, coupled with the constant threat of both zombies and armed humans whose mental stability is in serious flux, results in a fair amount of gunplay and gratuitously splattery violence.  (Look fast for a blatant nod to Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA during the climax.)

According to the press release, "writer-director Peter Hurd's debut feature is now available on cable and digital platforms, including iTunes, Dish Network, Vudu, Xbox, Google Play, and YouTube.  A DVD release is planned for May."

While confusing at times, at least this movie doesn't get boring and there's always something happening that makes noise or spurts blood, or both.  So if you're simply in the mood to be entertained and don't care how, THE CONTROL GROUP isn't a bad situation to get caught up in. 

Order The Control Group on iTunes

THE CONTROL GROUP -- Movie Review by Porfle

Brad Dourif Leads "THE CONTROL GROUP" on iTunes and Digital HD Today -- DVD in May

The Control Group Begins Its Fiendish Experiments on VOD
Wild Eye Brings Thriller to Cable and Digital HD
DVD Release Planned for May
   
New York, NY - Wild Eye Releasing has announced the North American Cable and Digital HD release of Peter Hurd's The Control Group. 

Starring Brad Dourif (The Child's Play series, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Lord of the Rings) as a mad scientist, The Control Group follows kidnapped coeds as they attempt to escape from his grasp. 

Writer-director Peter Hurd's debut feature is now available on cable and digital platforms, including iTunes, Dish Network, Vudu, Xbox, Google Play, and YouTube.  A DVD release is planned for May.

 

 

 

 

 Five college students wake up in an abandoned, locked-down insane asylum - with no idea how they got there and no means of escape. They discover that they are the subjects of secret experiments, but these tests have awakened something that cannot be explained by science.

The group must now fight to escape both the human and supernatural threats if they are to survive and break out of their prison.

Order The Control Group on iTunes

WATCH THE TRAILER

Brad Dourif Leads "THE CONTROL GROUP" on iTunes and Digital HD Today -- DVD in May

Happy 300th Post! HKCFN Presents Austin's KKvG Musicial Performance

Thanks to Brad for this special exclusive!

Happy 300th Post! HKCFN Presents Austin's KKvG Musicial Performance

Godzilla 1985 Widescreen On Monsters HD:Liner Notes and Pictures

By Brad Thompson

For over 20 years, GODZILLA 1985 was only available in a soft, washed-out, pan-and-scanned transfer on home video in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan. These releases were slightly different from the original theatrical prints of the film which often left off the New World Pictures logo with Godzilla’s roar, among other changes. An Australian rental VHS was released in 1986 that was a minor improvement over the previous releases as it was a better representation of the original theatrical version, yet the image was still mercilessly cropped on the sides. It wasn’t until 2006 until the Monsters HD channel ran the film mastered from 35mm film in 1080i, presented in high definition, dolby digital and widescreen.

The quality of the film is exceptional, easily making the Toho R2 DVD look like VHS quality in comparison. The blacks are actually black, and details I’ve never noticed before were visible such as Yasuko Sawaguchi’s tan-line, the scar tissue on Shin Takuma’s forehead, etc. Unfortunately, this increased resolution has left a majority of Teruyoshi Nakano’s optical, matte, and blue-screen effects which were blurred on previous releases to stick out like a sore thumb. Godzilla’s breath actually appears that someone colored it in with a crayon, the animated birds look like they flew in from a Disney movie and the air holes in the suit’s neck are visible in every close-up. You can literally see Ken Satsuma’s skin inside the suit after Godzilla roars in victory after crushing the Super-X.

The film is presented in widescreen, and appears to be in the correct aspect ratio. Compared to the framing on the R2 DVD release, only a slight area of picture information on the right side of the screen is lost, which will be corrected viewing the film on a computer monitor, eliminating the over-scan problem of television sets.

Compared to the 1986 Image laserdisc release of the film, the version shown on Monsters HD is a revelation in regards to the Raymond Burr scenes-

It should be of note, however, that this version of the film is an older workprint version of the New World cut. These are the differences found-
*The film opens with the New World Pictures logo without Godzilla roaring (this can only be heard in the Japanese and UK home video release of the film)
*The eerie sound heard before the birds take flight is omitted
*The suspenseful musical cue when the Prime Minster watches a helicopter on a monitor has been replaced with mumbling and voices in the background
*Footage of Godzilla stepping on the homeless man is not tinted red (this was corrected on all home video releases except the Australian release which utilized a 35mm theatrical print)
*Half of the music is omitted when Godzilla roars in triumph over the Super-X
*The music is downplayed slightly when Godzilla approaches Mt. Mihara due to an increase of the supersonic sound he is being attracted to
*A slightly different take of the volcano erupting is used before the credits roll. In this version, the credits music begins to play as the screen fades to black.

*The biggest change occurs with the Russian dialogue. None of the Russians are subtitled in this version, even though the original newspaper headlines and location texts are present. It should be noted, however, that the English subtitles for the Russians were video generated in previous home video releases except the Australian one that had burned-in subtitles (which is what theatrical prints used).

Godzilla 1985 Widescreen On Monsters HD:Liner Notes and Pictures

Ichi the Killer 2 Disc Media Blasters DVD Review

By Brad Thompson

Media Blasters had listed their upcoming 2-disc special edition of ICHI THE KILLER in catalog's as early as 2003 yet it nearly took them four years to put it out. So…is it really worth it? For die-hard fans and those who didn’t pick up the standard edition back in 2003, this improvement is worth every penny. The only major drawback would be the gimmicky “Blood Pack” casing; both discs were a major pain in the ass to get out of the packaging and the main feature had some gooey stain on the disc from being pressed too hard against the fake blood. I highly suggest putting the discs in a separate case to prevent possible scratches or unwanted slime smeared on your player’s lens.

Disc 1:

Feature Film – Apparently, this transfer came from a new film print, but I sold my original release a few years ago so I can’t compare the image quality side by side. Looks like a movie made in 2001 would look like: pretty damn nice.

28 Production Photos – Ported over from the older release, these are just promotional photographs found all over the web and aren’t really that special.

Audio commentary with director Takashi Miike and Manga artist/writer Hideo Yamamoto - Fairly entertaining audio commentary ported over from the previous release.

Original Japanese Theatrical Trailer

Tokyo Shock Trailers - (ULTIMATE VERSUS, ZEIRAM, THE NEIGHBOR NO. 13, ZEBRAMAN)

Featurette with director Eli Roth – A short featurette running about 7 minutes with Eli Roth (wearing a Cannibal Holocaust shirt) discussing the “operatic violence” and his love of the film. Also contains nude photos of actress Yuki Kazamatsuri (the prostitute who is graphically beaten with a baseball bat).

Disc 2

MEMORIES OF ICHI: THE MAKING OF- 48 minutes of behind the scenes footage from nearly every violent scene found in the film. If you want to see more nipple slicing, this is for you. **Also contains footage of Miike pulling a Japanese schoolboy by the hair. **

Interviews - with producer Dai Miyazaki ( 18:34 min), actors Tadanobu Asano (“Kakihara” 6:12 min), Nao Omori (“Ichi” 6:11 min), Sabu (“Suzuki” 5:20 min), Shinya Tsukamoto (“Jijii” 5:18 min) and an additional interview with Sabu and Shinya Tsukamoto ( 21:59 min).

Takashi Miike Trailers - FUDOH: THE NEXT GENERATION, THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, DEADLY OUTLAW REKKA, IZO, THE WAY TO FIGHT, VISITOR Q, FAMILY, ONE MISSED CALL, BODYGUARD KIBA, SILVER and the ICHI THE KILLER 2-Disc DVD set.

THE CULT OF ICHI: 10 minutes of fanboys gushing about the film including Stephen R. Bissette (Illustrator of CONSTANTINE and SWAMP THING), Barbara Nedeljakova (Actress in HOSTEL), Lucky McKee (Director of MAY and THE WOODS), Scott Spiegel (Executive Producer of EVIL DEAD II), Jack Ketchum (Author of THE LOST and GIRL NEXT DOOR), Tony Timpone (Editor of FANGORIA), Mike Mendez (Director of THE CONVENT and THE GRAVEDANCERS), Debbie Rochon (Co-Host of Fangoria Radio), Chris D. (Author of OUTLAW JAPANESE MASTERS OF FILM ). I don’t understand why Media Blasters wasted time and money on these when they could have brought over other extras such as the interview with Alien Sun from the Dutch DVD release.

A pretty damned good release even though I don’t care too much for the actual film. It would have been great had Media Blasters included all of the interviews and featurettes on the Dutch release, but you can tell a lot of effort went into this for the fans.

Ichi the Killer 2 Disc Media Blasters DVD Review

Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck DVD Review

(Editors Note: Written a Couple of Weeks Ago)

Earlier today after blowing about $362.27 on Toho’s GODZILLA: DEATH BATTLE CHRONICLES 8 LaserDisc boxset, I figured I could spend even more money and drove down to Best Buy to pick up LionsGate’s release of THE MONSTER SQUAD, a film I hadn’t seen in over 15 years. After spending some time looking for the film due to the misleading photoshopped boxart, I quickly paid the $14 and headed out to my car. As I was going around the corner of the store where I usually park by the Geeksquad’s headquarters, a suspicious man came up to me rambling about how he needed my help.

According to his story, his wife was giving birth in the Target parking lot, he was bitten by numerous brown-recluse spiders (and even pulled up his shirt to show me the puss filled sores), wasn’t on any anti-biodics, and assured me at least four times he wasn’t on any drugs. He continued to rant about how nobody helps others in today’s world, had only $2 on him, bla bla bla. Being the kind-hearted person I am, I led the piece of trailer park trash into an unsuspecting Best Buy and let others deal with his problem.

Driving home I realized I had watched a film a few weeks earlier with a crazy fuck just like that in the film. It was another Lionsgate release called CHICAGO MASSACRE: RICHARD SPECK, a disc Ian has been telling me for over a month to get off my ass and review. I’ll be quick, because the movie is a total waste of time, unless you are into those torture-gore films that are popular today.

The film itself is nothing original, mostly a cross between a CSI episode and a slasher film. Corin Nemec as serial killer Richard Speck and Tony Todd as the Angry Black Man bring this direct to video affair up a notch, but Debbie Rochon as the prostitute (what a shock) ruins the rest of the film the minute she opens her mouth halfway through the picture. The production values are nice and the film’s muted colors that have been popular in recent horror films since THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake are visually pleasing.

Unfortunately, the film’s biggest letdown is one of the reasons people really pay to watch these types of films for: the rapes. Sure, there is plenty of red syrup sprayed across the screen, but nary a single nipple! After raping nine women, you would think they could have added some nudity to the whole affair. In fact, there isn’t a single bare boob in the entire film unless you count Corin Nemec’s breast implants at the end! Fans of this genre are going to wish the filmmakers could have had some balls and made every rape count instead of this G-rated nonsense. Each nurse should have gotten a DEATH WISH 2 style rape and beating. Instead, they gave us a forgettable 90 minute true crime drama which shouldn’t have even been made in the first place and not worthy of the “disturbing sadistic violence including rape, terror, sexuality, language and some drug content” on the back of the box.

The audio and video quality are the DVD are what you would expect from a new movie coming from a major label with only some compression artifacts that do the jitterbug across the image. The disc has trailers for other torture-gore films like MURDER-SET-PIECES, CURSE OF THE ZODIAC, BTK KILLER, BLACK DAHLIA and ED GEIN, but none for the film itself. A few deleted scenes not worth mentioning, lame still gallery and audio commentary by the director Michael Feifer and actor Corin Nemec round out the disc’s special features. I honestly didn’t even listen to the audio commentary. Instead I watched all of the special features on LionsGate’s excellent MONSTER SQUAD disc in one sitting. I guarantee 20 years from now there won’t be a 2-disc special edition for this film. Why couldn’t LionsGate have given a screener of THE MONSTER SQUAD to review?

I should have given that nutcase I ran into this DVD and see if he could get any bright ideas from it.


PICTURES (NSFV):

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Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck DVD Review