American
Rickshaw (1989*)/Friday
The 13th 4K (2009
remake/New Line/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Set)/La
Posesion De Altair 1974
(2016*)/Off Balance
(1987 aka Phantom Of
Death*)/Rat
Man (1988 aka RatMan/*all
Cauldron Blu-rays/all MVD)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B Picture: B/X/B-/B/B Sound: B- (Friday:
B) Extras: C+/C/B-/B-/C+ Films: C/C-/C+/C+/C
Now
for some B-movie thrillers you may have never heard of and a remake
that did not work...
Sergio
Martino's American Rickshaw (1989) features actor and Olympian
Mitch Gaylord as one of a group of guys who get hired to run tourists
around in rickshaws, but a striper hits on him and jumps him. He
obliges, not knowing she is having them videotaped in action. Why?
She is going to help frame him for a murder connected to the son of a
tele-evangelist/preacher (Donald Plesence of the original Halloween
films, Death Line, THX-1138 and You Only Live Twice)
and then things get odder... much odder.
The
film wants to be a low-budget Big Trouble In Little China with
bits of other films, but the script is underdeveloped, Gaylord does
not have enough good scenes and the film eventually gets repetitive
and pointless. Plesence is poorly used and underused, while Martino
has even done better with flawed films like Torso and The
Great Alligator. Gaylord was actually in movies before perfect
10 performances at the Olympics (he was a Cub and young stunt guy in
Logan's Run (1976)) so he was not unfamiliar with a film set
for a while.
Not
quite a cult film, American Rickshaw (aka American Tiger
to sell Gaylord's fighting abilities) is still a curio, even as
Gaylord also also continued to be a stunt double in more big films as
well. Though a larger career did not follow like it might have with
better films and a few hits, he at least tried like many of his 1970s
and 1980s contemporaries. These days, not enough actors are getting
the same amount or kind or type of chances.
Extras
include
an Image Gallery
On
camera interviews with director Sergio Martino and production
designer Massimo Antonello Geleng
Then
and now location footage
The
Projection Booth Podcast discuss AMERICAN RICKSHAW
and
a Feature Length Audio Commentary with Samm Deighan & Kat
Ellinger.
Marcus
Nispel's
Friday
The 13th 4K
(the infamous 2009 remake) has the music video director remaking a
surprise hit that turned into a franchise that was played out by the
time of this revival, but instead of something interesting and
effective like End
Of Days
or The
Cell,
this becomes a flat star vehicle for Jared Padalecki. He was the
co-star of Warner's highly successful and highly overrated hit TV
series Supernatural
and the fans mostly stayed home with everyone else and we had no
sequels.
Even
Jason the killer seems as bored as he is boring, knocking off each
unknown character as an undeveloped cardboard bore. This is also
very talky, so much so that at the Pittsburgh premiere of the film,
Tom Savini attended and heckled the film, especially during each
kill. Savini had done the shocking make-up effects for the original
and was rightly not impressed with the film or its cleaner,
less-impressive, digitally-assisted visual make-up effects. He was
not the only one, all speaking to how bad a package deal this was.
For
more on this film and the franchise, you can read our old coverage of
the Blu-ray versions at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8741/Friday+The+13th+-+Pt+2+(1981/Blu-ray)/Friday+T
Extras
are still many and (per the press release) include two cuts of the
film, the Theatrical Cut
(97 mins) and the extended Killer Cut (105 mins)
Limited
edition Greetings from Crystal Lake Postcard
Double-sided
foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by
Gary Pullin
Illustrated
collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Matt
Konopka and Alexandra West
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary
Pullin
Then
the discs add...
DISC
ONE: THEATRICAL CUT
Brand
new audio commentary by writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon
Brand
new audio commentary by director Marcus Nispel
Brand
new interview with director Marcus Nispel
Brand
new interview with writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon
Brand
new interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl
A
Killer New Beginning, an exclusive video essay about why horror
fans shouldn't fear remakes, what 2009's Friday the 13th
remake gets right, and why the film serves as a perfect template
for future franchise remakes by film critic Matt Donato
Excerpts
from the Terror Trivia Track
The
Rebirth of Jason Voorhees archival featurette
Hacking
Back / Slashing Forward archival featurette
The
7 Best Kills archival featurette
Deleted
Scenes
Original
teaser, trailer and TV spots
Electronic
press kit
Image
gallery
DISC
TWO: KILLER CUT
Victor
Dryere's La Posesion De Altair 1974 (2016) is the newest of
the films here, a supernatural tale of terror, haunted houses and a
better version of all the tired Paranormal Activities films
and their endless rip-offs, this is more well paced and thought out
than those formula-fests (Sunn Schick Classics anyone?) and also
avoids imitating the ever horrid Blair Witch Project. The
result is something more palpable and ambitious, a Mexican film that
can go a few rounds with the larger productions and releases.
So
is it a found footage film? Sort of, but you are part of it all the
way without gimmicks or cliches, so anyone serious about such films
or a study of this cycle needs to see this film and how Dryere and
company out-classed so many bad films. Serious horror fans should
consider it a must see, while I was glad I caught it, even if it was
not shockingly good, its still decent.
Extras
include
an Original Theatrical Trailer
•Sound
design featurette
•CD Soundtrack (sounds really good)
•and
a Reversible Blu-ray wrap with alternate artwork
PLUS,
for the record, the out-of-print Limited Edition also featured:
•2
double sided mini lobby cards
•and high quality side loaded
slipcase
Ruggero
Deodato's Off
Balance
(1987 aka Phantom
Of Death)
was made just before American
Rickshaw
and also has Donald Pleasence, this time as a police detective
inspector trying to track down a serial killer who has surfaced as a
high profile concert pianist (Michael York of the Austin
Powers
films, Cabaret,
Logan's
Run)
bring additional class and respect to a classy Italian town. Too bad
the bloody trail keeps growing. Can the Inspector find out who it is
and stop it?
The
two actors are good here, but the dubbing is a little off in the
English version (which they are speaking in) and the Italian dub is a
little more off, while the rest of the mostly unknown cast does their
best. However, the lead is the underappreciated Edwige Fenech (The
Strange Vice Of Mrs. Wardh, The Case Of The Bloody Iris,
Strip Nude for Your Killer) who has worked in many kinds of
film, but is an icon of Italian Giallo thrillers. This film can get
as bloody and gruesome as they are, but not as starkly effective.
Another curio, with more good moments than bad, fans and the curious
will want to catch this one at least once.
Extras
include an Original
Theatrical Trailers in English and Italian
An
Uncommon Director
- An interview with Ruggero Deodato, one of the final interviews with
the controversial director filmed July 2022 (33 min)
Feature
Length Audio Commentary with film historians Eugenio Ercolani and
Troy Howarth
and
a reversible Blu-ray wrap with alternate "Phantom of Death"
artwork.
Giuliano
Carnimeo's
RatMan
(1988) is
the kind of B-movie genre madness you used to get all the time,
pre-internet, when movies were still allowed to be movies. Rat DNA
is mixed with monkeys (et al, or something like that) and the result
is something that looks like a rat with the killer baby from Larry
Cohen's masterwork It's
Alive
(1974) with any killer midget you've seen before. No good taste
here, but no great writing either.
A
woman's sister, a fashion model, is murdered on an island in the
tropics, so Terry (Jenny Agren from Avanti!, Pulp,
Eaten Alive!, City Of The Living Dead) goes to
investigate and slowly starts to find it was not a jealous lover or
killer rapist, but something more unexpected. A new guy she meets
named Fred (David Warbeck, from The Beyond, The Last
Hunter, Twins Of Evil, Trog) who might help her,
but can she trust him? Does he know more than he says?
Well,
it is a little more bloody than average, but not too memorable and is
a curio for hardcore horror fans at best. Not so bad, its good, but
it at the least carries its ideas from start to finish in its own
logic and world. Too bad we've seen most of this already and too
much of this is derivative and a little played out. Still, we've
seen much worse lately.
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer
Lighting the Rat Man:
Interview with cinematographer Roberto Girometti
Framing
the Rat Man: Interview with camera operator Federico Del Zoppo
Just
a Fin: Audio interview with post-production consultant Alberto De
Martino
and
a Feature Length Audio Commentary by film historians Eugenio
Ercolani, Troy Howarth, and Nathaniel Thompson.
Now
for playback performance.
The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on the Friday
remake is not as good as it could be and despite having a solid
Director of Photography in Daniel Pearl, A.S.C., is too standard and
on-the-safe-side shoot. It was shot on Kodak Vision 2 and Vision 3
35mm color negative films, though prints were by Fuji, but this looks
a bit different from the 35mm print I saw back then. Anyone who
likes this should be pleased for the most part, but its nothing
special otherwise. The
sound is a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix as it was in
theaters, also nothing memorable and note it has not been upgraded to
DTS: X or Dolby Atmos, so that tells you what you are getting.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Altair
was shot on Super 8mm color and sometimes black and white film with
one of the Rolls Royce's of Super 8 cameras, a Beaulieu (the 4008
ZM4) which helps make this work better. The results have the
expected grain, but definitely more atmosphere than the vast majority
of digitally-shot horror films since digital overtook photochemical
film. The look is very consistent and effective, nicer still now
that you can scan Super 8 film for the big screen, where not to long
ago you had to cheat. Spielberg and J.J. Abrams used 16mm film to
imitate Super in in their Super 8 feature film because they
could not get actual Super 8 to look this good yet.
The
sound is here in Spanish DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes that sound as good
as they can and not bad for the low budget, with some sonic limits
and the 5.1 only being a little better than the Stereo. Its just
fine, though it also has its share of silent moments. The 16bit/44.1
PCM 2.0 Stereo CD allows you to hear the music more clearly and is a
nice bonus to have here.
The
rest of the Blu-rays, all from Cauldron, are here in solid 1080p 1.66
X 1 digital High Definition image transfers that look very
impressive. Rickshaw
offers a PCM
2.0 Mono lossless mix, RatMan
a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix and Off
Balance
both a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix and Italian
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix. The first two films
sound as good as they ever will, while both Off
Balance
soundtracks offer dubbing that can be too forward and slightly
off-kilter. The English track is the sound that matches how the
actors are talking, issued theatrically in Dolby's old analog A-type
Dolby System format with mono (aka Pro Logic) surrounds that also
ages the film a bit. Both have the Pino Donaggio music score, a plus
for this film. Still, it is as good as the film will also ever sound
and even when the sound is dated on these films, the picture quality
more than makes up for it.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
