Anna
and the Apocalypse
(2017/Cinedigm DVD)/The
Drone (2019/Lionsgate
DVD)/Double Face
(1969*)/Ulysses & Mona
(2019/Film Movement DVD)/Whirlpool
(1949/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Who
Saw Her Die? (1972/*both
MVD/Arrow Blu-rays)
Picture:
C/C+/B+/C/B-/B+ Sound: C+/C+/B+/C/C+/B+ Extras: C/C/B/C/C+/B
Films: C/C-/B-/C/C+/C+
Our
look at genre titles out in time for Halloween continues with this
mixed bag of odd releases...
John
McPhail's Anna
and the Apocalypse
(2017) is trying hard to become a cult film, out there in theaters
for a good while hoping it would become hip and audiences would catch
up to it. The tale of more zombies (zzzzzzzzzz) oh, sorry...
zombies invading a small town and killing everyone has already been
played out, but the makers think they have a twist here by making
this into some kind of musical. Wrong!
They
also seem to think it is the first zombie musical (wrong again) and
that it is either funny and/or ironic (singing about no such thing as
a happy ending, guess they missed Scorsese' 1977 epic New
York, New York)
and as much as the cast gives it their best shot, the script is
shooting blanks as soon as this long 93 minutes begins. Ella Hunt
leads a cast that is trying, for what that's worth.
Then
it has to take place around Christmas (also played out, no matter the
monster(s) and after hearing about this one a bit more than your
usual indie release, I can see it was all hype and little substance.
Maybe if they picked another kind of monster?....
The
only extra is a so-so behind the scenes featurette.
Jordan
Rubin's The
Drone
(2019) is one of those all too rare films that at least knows it is
being a bad film and seems to like the genre, here involving a serial
killer who, when the police catch up with him, is holding the title
object and happens to get hit by lightning on the roof at gunpoint
(what luck?) resulting in his death, or is it? His soul has been
zapped into the cheap object so now he can go on killing. Amazing it
was so much more murderous before the lightning struck, so it has
features most drones do not.
Unfortunately,
a good script is not one of them, but a happy couple land up finding
it on one of their garbage cans as they move into a new neighborhood,
not knowing the thing's secret, then the killing begins again. Too
bad the makers could not have been even funnier, more ironic and
tried to take advantage of actually being able to produce schlock
that could have been more amusing schlock with people who
concentrated and tried harder.
Extras
include a trailer gallery, behind the scenes featurette and audio
commentary with Rubin, actor Alex Essoe, cinematographer Jonathan
Hall and Drone Operator (that's a first!) Travis Geske.
Klaus
Kinski stars eloquently in Double Face (1969), a bizarre plot
twister that keeps you guessing until the end. The Italian giallo
centers around Alexander (Kinski), whose wife he catches cheating on
him with another woman, suddenly dies in a car crash. Was the crash
legitimately an accident or was someone behind it and tampered w her
car? The plot thickens when he sees her in a pornographic movie,
eluding to the fact that she could be still alive and faking her
death. The film is visually interesting and features great direction
by Riccardo Freda.
The
film also stars Christiane Kruge, Gunther Stoll, Annabella
Incontrera, and Edgar Wallace to name a few.
Double
Face is presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen
aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and an Uncompressed Mono 1.0 LPCM audio mix
with both the original English and Italian soundtracks, titles and
credits. The film has been remastered in 2K from the original camera
negative and looks considerably cleaned up. There's also newly
translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack. In short,
this is the best the film has looked or sounding possibly ever.
Special
Features include:
New
audio commentary by author and critic Tim Lucas
New
video interview with composer Nora Orlandi
The
Many Faces of Nora Orlandi, a new appreciation of the varied
career of the film's composer by musician and soundtrack collector
Lovely Jon
The
Terrifying Dr. Freda, a new video essay on Riccardo Freda's
gialli by author and critic Amy Simmons
Extensive
image gallery from the collection of Christian Ostermeier, including
the original German pressbook and lobby cards, and the complete
Italian cineromanzo adaptation
Original
Italian and English theatrical trailers
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham
Humphreys
and
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet
featuring new writing on the film by Neil Mitchell
Sebastien
Betbeder's Ulysses
& Mona
(2019) sells itself as some kind of comedy, but something much
weirder and even darker is going on as the title characters (Eric
Cantona and Manal Essa respectively) share an interest in art. He is
55 and she is a 20-year-old art student. Though they know little of
each other, they go on a road trip anyhow and it is not always
hilarity that results.
Maybe
it is some kind of odd sense of humor, but the characters are no as
developed as I would have liked, the ending plays a little too false
and at least she has an interesting boyfriend, but too bad they have
a mostly uninteresting script.
Extras
include trailers and a short film about another road trip called Wolf
Carver that is about ass interesting, but in a far shorter time
period.
Otto
Preminger goes into Hitchcock territory and brings Ben Hecht with him
for Whirlpool
(1949) with Gene Tierney as a woman with money happily married to a
psychiatrist (Richard Conte in a nice guy role for a change) but also
suffers from Kleptomania. When at a fancy shop, she apparently
steals a pin, but a gentleman (the inarguable Jose Ferrer) intervenes
and saves her from arrest. However, he is up to no good and has a
plan to frame her for a murder he intends to commit and he knows
hypnotism.
The
film starts out slow, but when things get complicated, the screenplay
(Hecht co-wrote with the also solid Andrew Solt) and you'll get a
kick out of some older technology going along with a well thought-out
mystery. It has aged well enough, but I wish it held up even better
and remembered much of it after not having seen it for eons.
However, Fox stood by Tierney when she needed them most, giving her
this high profile production and she more than holds her own.
Twilight
Time has licensed this from Fox as one of their Limited Edition
Blu-rays, so you'll want to grab it while supplies last.
Extras
include yet another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and yet another essay by Mike Finnegan, while the
disc adds an older feature length audio commentary track by
critic/scholar Richard Schickel, Isolated Music Score with select
Sound Effects and even an Original Theatrical Trailer that has its
own isolated music score!
Finally,
another older Italian giallo thriller, Who Saw Her Die (1972),
stars former one-time James Bond George Lazenby and a great score by
maestro Ennio Morricone is a sort of political whodunnit mystery
directed by Aldo Lado (Night Train Murders). Remastered in 2K
high definition from the original 35mm camera negative, this is the
first time the full Italian version uncut has been released on disc.
Arrow has once again done a great job on the presentation and
includes some new and interesting supplemental material to match.
Who
Saw Her Die? also stars Adolfo Celi (Thunderball), Anita
Strindberg, Nicoletta Elmi, and Dominique Boschero. The film centers
around a Venice sculptor (Lazenby) whose young daughter gets
murdered. While the police fail to expose the killer, Lazenby takes
matters into his own hands and uncovers a dark secret surrounding the
sudden death.
The
film is presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect
ratio of 2.35:1 and an uncompressed mono 1.0 LPCM audio mix. There's
also original English and Italian soundtracks, titles, and credits
that are newly restored and exclusive to this presentation. The
image is clear with nice levels of contrast in the image and
beautiful cinematography. Like many other giallos, this one is quite
visually pleasing.
Special
Features include:
New
audio commentary by author and critic Travis Crawford
I
Saw Her Die, a new video interview with director Aldo Lado
Nicoletta,
Child of Darkness, a new video interview with actress Nicoletta
Elmi
Once
Upon a Time in Venice, a new video interview with co-writer
Francesco Barilli
Giallo
in Venice, a new video interview with author and critic Michael
Mackenzie
Original
Italian and English theatrical trailers
Poster
and fotobusta gallery
and
a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
by Haunt Love
Now
for the
rest of the playback performance (the Arrow titles are discussed
above). The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition
image transfer on Whirlpool
has
some jumping images and a few frames are warped, but it looks good
otherwise and I hope the studio can get it fixed further when the
time comes for a 4K edition. The sound is here in DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo and 1.0 Mono lossless mix, but the
stereo sounds a little better. Some might find it slightly
over-processed. The film cannot help but show its sonic limits, but
its not bad for its age.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image (including 1.33 X 1 in the
center of said from on Mona) are all on the soft side, more so
than they should be for HD productions so recent, but Drone (despite
some bad, laughable visual effects) just nudges past the other two
with better, more consistent color. Mona only offers lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, while the other two DVDs only offer lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1, and while all are underwhelming, Mona is
the weakest presentation here.
You
can order
the Whirlpool
limited edition Blu-ray while supplies last at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James
Lockhart (Double,
Die)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
