The Birthday 4K (2013 + Blu-ray*/**)/The Eye 4K (2002*/**)/Highway To Hell (1990/Wild Eye/Visual Vengeance Blu-ray*)/Running Man (1987/Paramount Blu-ray)/Salem's Lot 4K (1979/**all Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/*all MVD)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B Picture: B-/X/C/B-/X Sound: B-/C+/C/B-/C+ Extras: C+/C/C+/D/B- Main Programs: C-/C/C-/C/C+

Now for more wacky horror and genre releases...

Eugenio Mira's The Birthday 4K (2013) has Norman (Corey Feldman) so in love with his girlfriend (Erica Prior) that he intends to propose to her at a party her father (Jack Taylor) is holding, but the guests are eccentric to say the very least and employees her father has hired way too accommodating and polite throughout that it kills his momentum and he slowly starts to realize something is very wrong here.

So this is a 'nice guy in a sick world' horror romp, but making it all weirder, the film was shelved (like hundreds of others, which happens all the time) and the script puts the film on Feldman's shoulders to the the healthy, sane one. Even without his annoying off-screen antics and much worse (they had not accumulated into the mess they are now and continue to be as this review posts,) he is not that good here, a bit awkward and not giving much effort into making the role into a character different from a reality TV turn. In fairness, I can see why this got shelved, even though he was a name at the time.

We have seen all of this before, but it wallows in what it offers, so it is more like a fanboy project or something that feels very unfinished somehow. Whether it be the script, cast, directing or the like, it feels stuck throughout and never really goes anywhere despite the time and money put into it. Might it become a cult item? Maybe, but at least it is now available for you to decide and definitely has some fans.

Extras for both the separate 4K and Blu-ray versions include an audio commentary by actor Corey Feldman and co-writer/director Eugenio Mira

• The Shape of a Miracle, a brand new interview with Mira, shot exclusively for this release

• Pathology, an in-depth breakdown of a scene from the film by Mira, featuring archival behind-the-scenes footage, storyboards and rushes

• 2024 Q&A with Feldman and Mira from the film's 20th anniversary screening at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas

• Original trailer

• 20th anniversary trailer

• Image gallery

• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options

• and a collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by Bryan Reesman.

The Pang Brothers' The Eye 4K (2002) hot 4K two decades after we originally covered it on DVD, which you can read more about at this link:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/551/Eye,+The+(Japanese

It was so successful, a horrid remake...

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7101/The+Eye+(2008/Lionsgate+Blu-ray+++DVD

And several sequels (like The Eye 3) also followed...

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7175/The+Eye+3+(Lionsgate+DVD

On all this, only the original is discussed sometimes, the tale of a young blind gal getting her sight back, only to also see ghosts (Jessica Alba aged-up-a-bit version the remake has her comparatively less vulnerable) is a good high concept, but this original film only gets so much out of it and is downhill from there.

Can men make a 'feminist' Horror film? Brian De Palma's Sisters (1972, reviewed elsewhere on this site) shows it can happen with male director(s) at the helm, but it is a stretch in this case. Still, the film has a following and that is why it is getting this 4K deluxe treatment, but unless you are a huge fan, getting the whole set is something you'll want to only consider after seeing the film.

Extras include...

• Reflections on The Eye, a brand new interview with producer Peter Ho-Sun Chan

• To See and to Feel: Vision, Empathy and the Feminine Ghost Story in The Eye, a brand new visual essay on the film by critic and horror specialist Heather Wixson

• An archival making-of featurette with interviews with producers Peter Ho-Sun Chan and Lawrence Cheng and actors Angelica Lee and Lawrence Chou

• An archival featurette on directors Danny and Oxide Pang

• Original theatrical trailers

• Image gallery

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tommy Pocket

• and a collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by film critic and Asian cinema specialist Hayley Scanlon.

Bret McCormick's Highway To Hell (1990) is part of a long series of product produced on analog videotape for video stores, with possible cable TV pick-up back in the VHS era. For the programs that survived, more than a few have been going for $100+ a tape and higher, specially horror genre titles, because of that genre's heavy following. This film and belatedly, bonus film Redneck County Fever, are from late in that cycle before DVD took over.

A chase/kidnap film, there is nothing new or original here and the script shamelessly seems to celebrate that, so you do get a little energy as a mass murderer escapes prison, grabs a gal and is hunted down by an officer who thinks he can get him. This runs 90 minutes and I was till bored, which I can also say about Redneck County Fever, but they are sort of curios as these analog low def works start to find new homes on Blu-ray, et al. Why studio the makers let other people make hundreds of dollars on old tapes when they can issue better transfers with (relatively) better sound and even extras.

Cheers to Wild Eye and Visual Vengeance for trying out titles like this on disc, but these are not my kind of B-movies. At least the makers behind and in front of the camera got these projects finished and without the tens of millions way too many duds have lately, so there is that.

Extras include a Feature Length Audio Commentary with director Bret McCormick

• Director Bret McCormick interview

• Red Hot Asphalt: actor Richard Harrison interview

• Road Trip: actress Blue Thompson interview

• Writing A Road Map to Hell: screenwriter Gary Kennamer interview

• Actor Tom Fegan interview

• Image Gallery

• Bonus Movie: Redneck County Fever (1992), directed by Gary Kennamer

• Redneck County Fever - Commentary track with Bret McCormick and Gary Kennamer

• Redneck County Fever - Bret McCormick interview

• Redneck County Fever - Gary Kennamer interview

• Visual Vengeance trailers

• 'Stick Your Own' VHS sticker set

• Reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art

• and folded Redneck County Fever mini-poster.

Paul Michael Glazer's The Running Man (1987) is back in a basic Blu-ray edition in time for the remake that has had a mixed reaction. We have previously reviewed the film in two Blu-ray versions from two different countries...

U.S.

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9540/Lionsgate/Paramount+Blu-ray+Wave+One:+Drop+Zone/

Australia

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15675/Black+Angel+(1941/MVD/Arrow+Blu-ray)/Queen+&+Sli

Not a favorite of mine, it remains a modern curio and was a modest hit in its time, helping Arnold Schwarzenegger (along with Raw Deal) build into an international box office star, yet the missed opportunities are glaringly as lame as ever and I do not expect the remake figured out any of that. However, though he is mean and necessarily so for his character, the Richard Dawson as the host/villain is as unusual and compelling as Jerry Lewis was in Scorsese's King Of Comedy, though that was a far better film and having Yaphet Kotto here is also still a plus.

A Digital Movie is included, but there are no extras.

Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot 4K (1979) is one of the few early Stephen King adaptions on film that gets any respect (along with De Palma's Carrie (co-produced by Paul Monash, who produced this mini-series, plus Stirling Silliphant of all people!) and Kubrick's The Shining) and by coincidence for this review, Running Man director co-star Paul Michael Glazer's Starsky & Hutch co-star David Soul plays an author coming back to his childhood home town after a quarter century, only to find people are being murdered and mysteriously disappearing.

He starts investigating, with some signs oddly pointing to a antiques and collectibles shop run by an older man (the great James Mason, taking risks as usual!) and Ben (Soul) has to start putting the pieces together quickly before more people go missing and he is possibly next.

Of course, we all know vampires are involved and the 'creepy/ugly' Nosferatu model was revived for this production, but this coincidentally happened at the same time as the Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski Nosferatu remake the same year. So this has its moments, but as much as I respect this production and like the cast and ideas, I never felt it totally worked and never reading the book, do not know if it is the source or something they skipped. Nevertheless, it is a key vampire adaption, key TV mini-series (one of the early horror genre successes in the format) and one people still talk about.

That remarkable cast lucky enough to join Mason and Soul include Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, Fred Willard, George Dzundza, Ned Flanders, Marie Windsor, Barbara Babcock, Julie Cobb, Geoffrey Lewis and Elisha Cook. Jr., who played a key role in the landmark, classic 1972 vampire TV movie classic The Night Stalker with Darren McGavin, in his first turn as Carl Kolchak. Now that's a cast!

We'll have to look at the sequel series and two 2024 remakes at some point too, hopefully all in 4K, but note that this is now the first classic TV mini-series EVER to make it to 4K, so we hope more will follow and soon.

Extras include a reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options

• Collectors' perfect-bound booklet containing new writing on the film by critics Sean Abley, Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, and Richard Kadrey, plus select archival material including interviews with director Tobe Hooper, and stars Lance Kerwin and Julie Cobb

• Salem's Lot town sign sticker

• Double-sided foldout poster featuring two original artwork options

• DISC 1 - ORIGINAL TV MINI-SERIES VERSION

• Two viewing modes: Play as miniseries in two parts as per the original broadcast or as extended movie

• Brand new audio commentary by film critics Bill Ackerman and Amanda Reyes

• Archive audio commentary by director Tobe Hooper

• Alternate TV footage: commercial bumpers and original broadcast version of the antlers death

• Original shooting script gallery

• DISC 2 - THEATRICAL VERSION & EXTRAS

• Brand new audio commentary by film critic Chris Alexander

• King of the Vampires, a new interview with Stephen King biographer Douglas Winter

• Second Coming, a new appreciation by author and critic Grady Hendrix

• New England Nosferatu, a new interview with filmmaker Mick Garris

• Fear Lives Here, a new featurette looking at the locations of Salem's Lot today

• We Can All Be Heroes, a new featurette with film critic Heather Wixson, co-author of In Search of Darkness

• A Gold Standard for Small Screen Screams, a new featurette with film critics Joe Lipsett and Trace Thurman, co-hosts of the podcast Horror Queers

• Trailer

• and an image gallery.

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 Birthday 4K does have good color and was shot on 35mm film in the Super 35 format, but it is not as good looking as it should be and maybe the lack of definition in non-anamorphic widescreen is part of the issue. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on the regular Blu-ray is poorer still, so expect that too.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless sound mix on both releases, sold separately, shows its age and has an inconsistent soundfield, but we've heard worse. The resulting combinations are mixed.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on The Eye 4K is a mix of low def video imagers, some grainier-than-expected images and some great shots, the latter proving there was definitely room for improvement over that old (and prized to collectors ) DVD edition. When its degraded, that's part of the look of the film and genre, but when it looks good, it looks really good. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) Cantonese 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes are not awful, but prove that the sound budget on this film was limited as our old DVD review suggested and though these both are better than the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 EX mix from the DVD that had sound limits, but they also prove the sonic limits of the original soundmaster. The combination (5.1 or 2.0 Stereo sound, depending on your preference) is as good as this film will ever look or sound.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.33 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Salem's Lot 4K has some nice shots, but like the hit original TV mini-series V from the same period, it was shot in soft matte so it could be shown in theaters in 1.85 X 1. Too bad we don't get that aspect ratio version too, but these are well shot and composed by Director of Photography Jules Brenner, whose other work includes Return Of The Living Dead, Johnny Got His Gun, Dillinger, the Helter Skelter TV mini-series, 1969 and Stoney, he really landed a solid, stark look here that help sell this and deserves a little more credit than he gets. However, versus some similar horror telefilms of the time and before, also shot on 35mm film, this is grainer and not as vivid or effective as I had hoped. Maybe it is the film stock chosen (too fast i.e., 500 ASA/ISO?) for budgetary reasons or the stock just did not hold up in storage as well as it could have because they did not know about its long-term preservability. This is the best I have ever seen all of this, but versus the Night Stalker, Night Stranger, Bad Ronald and/or Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark Blu-rays, it is not quite as good or polished.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono and PCM 2.0 Mono lossless mixes also show the program's age a little more than expected, but is as good as this will likely ever sound. Together with the aspects of the 4K quality that does work, there's no better way to enjoy this min-series outside of a mint film print.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image on Highway To Hell is upscaled from its old SD videomaster and accordingly looks old, soft, poorly defined and has issues, but it looks like all efforts were made to correct analog videotape flaws including video noise, video banding, tape scratching, cross color, faded color and tape damage. Bonus film Redneck County Fever can say the same thing. The PCM 2.0 Stereo for both films are simple stereo at best and sonically limited with compression, harmonic distortion and other low budget and cheap tech limits, sop be careful of volume switching and high volume playback.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Running Man can show the age of the old video master, but I guess we'll see this in 4K at some point, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is also aged sounding. Whether a remaster can improve the older analog sound is an interesting question, but only expect so much from this release.

- Nicholas Sheffo