Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a short preview of this cool as hell set that Anchor Bay is putting out. It's called a Fright Pack and is basically an excuse for Anchor Bay to clear out some inventory, throwing 6 DVDs into a bundle and re-releasing them as a set. That's good news for us cheap bastards out there because you get the flicks at a steep discount. The retail price is, like, $36, but you can get 'em on Amazon for $26. For 6 movies that's less than $5 per film.
They have two Fright Packs coming out, the one I got to preview called WALKING DEAD, mostly '70s Italian zombie flicks, the other called MAN'S WORST FRIEND, which I haven't seen.
Included in the WALKING DEAD set:
DEAD HEAT
This one is a cheesy US flick from 1988 directed by Mark Goldblatt, Michael Bay's editor (he also edited a lot of Joe Dante's earlier stuff, too) as well as the man responsible for the Dolph Lundgren PUNISHER. It teams up Treat "HAIR" Williams and Joe Piscopo as cops in LA. One of them gets killed (Piscopo's character name is Doug Bigelow and Treat Williams' character's name is Roger Mortis... guess which one dies?) and comes back from the dead to help solve his own murder case.
The supporting cast is pretty great. Darren McGavin plays an evil doctor, Robert Picardo plays a superior officer and the man, the myth, the legend Mr. Vincent Price plays the main evil genius.
The movie is cheesy and totally '80s. It's not my favorite of the '80s cheese flicks, but it's worth a watch if you hold any sort of soft spot for this era of genre filmmaking.
The DVD has a commentary with the director, producers and writer as well as deleted scenes, MIFED promo, EPK material, trailer and storyboard art.
CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD
This is my favorite Lucio Fulci film. I know most people think his tops is THE BEYOND or ZOMBIE, but I put this one next to THE PSYCHIC as my favorite of his flicks.
The movie has some of my favorite gore moments ever caught on film, including crying blood, brains squeezed out of the skulls of hapless victims, a drill to the head and the coupe de gras... the vomit scene. I won't go into any detail other than if you don't know what the vomit scene is see this fucking movie. It'll knock you on your ass.
The movie is essentially about a preacher that opens up a gate to hell by hanging himself in a Salem cemetery. A cop and a psychic have to find this gate and close it before hell fully spills over and overruns earth.
The ending of the movie is very anticlimactic and it has a bizarre freeze frame right before the credits roll that I still don't understand after having seen it half a dozen times, but through and through it's great. Keep an ear out for the bizarre soundtrack... the jungle noises in the city. Goddamn, those monkey hoots are hilarious.
The DVD is complete and uncut, but has little else, save for a theatrical trailer and some radio spots.
HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY
The other Fulci film in the series. I also quite like this one. It's the only film of the series I didn't pop into the DVD player, so my memory is a bit vague on the film. I remember kids in danger, a head rolling down stairs, a knife through the skull and out the mout and a fucked up looking zombie thing. I also remember liking this movie a whole lot.
The DVD is the full uncut feature, with some talent bios, theatrical trailers and TV spots and a still gallery.
LET SLEEPLING CORPSES LIE
This is directed by Jorge Grau, a Spanish director that I'm not at all familiar with. The movie wasn't my favorite, but it has its moments. This is one of the "ecological message" horror movies where the zombies are created by a newly invented machine used to kill pests with sound waves. If you die within a certain distance from this machine you become a zombie... or you can be created if you are a corpse and another one of the zombies puts his blood on you.
The movie follows a long haired, bearded motorcycle hippie dude and a girl that runs over his motorcycle. They are stuck together through the movie as they visit her sister. The sister's husband is killed by the zombie (who seems to know when to hide and when to attack) and the sister is blamed, so on top of the ecological message, the film also has a hippie vs. authority angle as the biker clashes with the ignorant cops.
There are some interesting gore moments... rage-filled babies that like to poke nurses in the eyes, breast removals... the works. Not a great movie, but worth a watch if you like '70s zombie flicks.
The disc has an interview with Jorge Grau, TV and Radio Spots as well as a poster gallery.
HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD (aka VIRUS)
This one is weird, weird, weird. It's directed by Bruno Mattei, a well known exploitation director (he did films like SS EXTERMINATION CAMP and GUARDIAN OF HELL).
This movie is out there, man. It's clearly based on George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD... well, not really based on... It blatantly rips it off. The main characters are a SWAT team, dressed up just like Peter, Roger and Stephen. They even have a scene at the beginning where they take out some terrorist kidnappers while wearing the exact same gas masks as the SWAT guys in DOTD, all to music by Goblin. Not just any music, but the DAWN OF THE DEAD soundtrack.
The movie is about 40% stock footage of African tribes and random jungle shots, but has some really great moments, like the little kid zombie who is the scariest little bastard this side of Gage from PET SEMATARY. There's also some good killer zombie rats stuff when the scientific experiment goes wrong at the beginning... don't forget the gratuitous nudity when the main character, a female reporter, goes to talk to the tribes people by completely stripping and painting her titties and face up.
The DVD is complete and uncut (of course, I expect no less from Anchor Bay) and has an interview with Bruno Mattei, trailers and a poster and still gallery.
NIGHTMARE CITY
Ah, Umberto Lenzi, director of such classic flicks as CANNIBAL FEROX (alias MAKE THEM DIE... SLOWLY) and THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER. This flick had running zombies before running zombies were popular. A non-marked government plane makes an unannounced stop at an airport. In the big fucker are multiple hundreds of zombies, armed with machetes and other sharp weapons who run amuck. A journalist witnesses this (and video tapes it), but is stopped by the military from running his story.
This thing moves and has an ending that is dark, dark, dark... until they pull a bullshit horror cliche. I won't say it, but I bet you can guess.
There are zombies in a hospital, zombies in a dance studio (who like to strip the dancers before eating their boobs) and the cream of the crop... zombies in an amusement park.
The DVD comes complete and uncut, with a new interview with Umberto Lenzi and a theatrical trailer.
This set has been a lot of fun for a genre nut like me to go through. It's a bargain... considering that if you buy it through Amazon you get each disc for around the same price as it'd be to rent the film from your neighborhood video store.
I hope you enjoyed the overview of the set, squirts! "Brraaaiiiinnnnsssss..."
-Quint
