Date With A Vampire (2001*)/Evil Nun (2026/Asylum DVD)/Mortal Kombat II 4K (2026/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/The Paranormal (1998/*both MVD/Visual Vengeance Blu-ray)

4K Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: C-/B-/X/C+ Sound: C-/B-/A-/C+ Extras: B/D/B-/B Films: C-/C-/B-/C+

Now for more horror films and schlock...

From the director of Night Owl and the writer of Vampires and Other Stereotypes, Date With a Vampire (2001) is a shot-on-video vampire tale that blends low-budget horror with soft-core eroticism. Very much a product of New York's no-budget underground horror scene of the era, the film has a certain scrappy charm and time-capsule quality, but unfortunately doesn't offer much that genre fans haven't seen done better elsewhere.

There are some interesting ideas buried within the production, and its rough-around-the-edges aesthetic may appeal to viewers with an appreciation for regional and micro-budget filmmaking. However, the film struggles considerably with its pacing. Many of the dialogue-heavy scenes run on far too long without doing enough to advance the story or develop the characters, while the performances aren't always convincing enough to sustain these extended exchanges.

While Date With a Vampire may be worth a look for dedicated fans of obscure shot-on-video horror, its limited resources are often apparent on screen. Ultimately, it works better as an artifact of a particular era of independent New York filmmaking than as a particularly memorable entry in the overstuffed vampire genre.

Date With a Vampire is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a full frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and a lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448 kbps) Stereo mix. The film looks and sounds as good as it can on the Blu-ray format here considering the source material and age.

Special Features:

Commentary with director Jeffrey Arsenault

Interview with director Jeffrey Arsenault

Interview with screenwriter Kevin J. Lindenmuth

Interview with actress Cynthia Polakovich

Interview with 'Basement Vampire' actor Joe Zaso

Location Manager Nathan Thompson: Date With a Vampire Memories

Buckingham Manor Location Video with Nathan Thompson

Image Gallery

Original Trailer

Bonus Film: Blood Craving (2002)

Blood Craving Commentary with director Jeffrey Arsenault

Blood Craving Interview with director Jeffrey Arsenault

Blood Craving Image Gallery

Blood Craving: Original First Draft Trailers

After Midnight Entertainment: Trailer Reel

Visual Vengeance trailers

Reversible sleeve featuring new Blood Craving art

Folded mini-poster

and a Limited Edition O-Card by Rick Melton.

Evil Nun (2025) is another low-budget production from The Asylum, this time hoping to capitalize on the popular trend of supernatural nun movies released by studios such as Blumhouse and others. While the film features some great locations, it suffers from horrific acting and a storyline that feels far too similar to other, more successful horror films.

The story centers on a Catholic nun whose baby is ripped away from her by an evil priest harboring a curse connected to the Mexican churchyard where it originated. When a group of twenty-somethings wanders into the area, they become ensnared by the curse and begin dropping off one by one.

The film offers very little in the way of fun or memorable special effects, and its cinematography fails to capture the uniqueness of its locations. With a little more planning and a more creative approach behind the camera, Evil Nun could have been far more effective. Instead, it feels hastily assembled, as though it were shot in only a couple of days and made simply to fill a release slot, or serve as a tax write-off. The climax is limp and uninspired, while the finale leaves you wishing you could get those two hours back.

Evil Nun is presented in standard definition (480i) on DVD with a 1.85:1widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio mix. The film presentation has noticeable compression issues in the image that is evident to the format. Some scenes, especially dark exteriors at night, are not lit the best and suffer from lack of detail.

The only extras are trailers for other Asylum films.

I get what Evil Nun was trying to be, but it lacks vision and passion which makes it feel like a film made in haste rather than a film that needs to be seen.

Mortal Kombat II (2026) is a sequel that feels like an upgrade over the previous 2021 installment, bringing to life many characters that fans have been clamoring to see on the big screen. The highlight of the film is definitely Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, the wisecracking Hollywood action movie star who finds himself thrown into the bizarre and dangerous world of Mortal Kombat unwillingly where the fate of the universe lies in a trial by fire.

Directed by Simon McQuoid, the film does what it can to embrace the video game's legacy while bringing its distinctive personality to the screen in a creative new way. With elaborate digital effects, large-scale action sequences, and plenty of gore and easter eggs from the games Mortal Kombat II expands upon the world established in the previous film, even if it took several years for the sequel to finally reach the screen.

The film stars Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, and many more.

Mortal Kombat II is presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image. The lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) mixes work very well. Needless to say this new Hollywood film looks slick and beautiful on 4K UHD with little to no flaws and really captures the cinematic experience at home.

Special Features:

Mortal Kombat II: Evolving the Saga

Building the Realms of Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat II: Choose Your Fighter

Klose Quarters Kombat

and A Boon to Gamers Everywhere.

The Mortal Kombat franchise will undoubtedly continue for years to come in one medium or another. Fans have been treated extra well lately with the 4K release from Arrow Video of the original two films from the 1990s, several animated features from Warner Bros. in recent years (reviewed elsewhere on this site), and of course new video games. Clearly, Warner Bros. sees lasting potential in this franchise and it continues to be successful after so many decades. You can tell this movie was made by people who care about the property and that makes all of the difference at the end of the day.

You can read about other films and video releases in the franchise, including the prequel to this film and the original pair of films, all in 4K, at this link:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/new/viewer.cgi?search=kombat

An ambitious indie production, Todd Norris' The Paranormal (1998) is considered one of the great lost films of the shot-on-video era. The film centers on a paranormal investigator and his small team as they explore a haunted movie theater, only for things to take a bizarre turn when the main character is literally sucked into a zombie movie. This is the first release of this film on disc as its last release was in 1998 on VHS.

Norris has a keen eye behind the camera and manages to craft a film that is visually interesting and surprisingly ambitious. With inventive ideas and an effective atmosphere, The Paranormal is at times a movie within a movie that stands miles above many of the other shot-on-video productions I have seen from this era and budget range.

The film stars Todd Norris, Audrey Crabtree, Nenita Gumangan, and C. Wayner Owens.

The Paranormal is presented in 1080p high definition on 2K Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a full frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and a lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448 kbps). Considering the source material and the fact that this is an independent production the image and sound quality is sharp for Blu-ray disc with nothing that deters from the enjoyment of the film even though it was shot on analog tape for the VHS format with noticeable image flaws inherent in the source.

Special Features:

New director-supervised transfer from original tape elements

Commentary with director Todd Norris

Commentary with director Todd Norris and Composer Paul Roberts

New Cast and Crew Interviews

The Two Todds: Todd Norris and Todd Sheets interview

The Paranormal Channel 5 TV Airing Bumpers

Blooper Reel

Deleted Scenes

Original Script Excerpts

Storyboard Gallery

Short Film: The Closet

Short Film: L...

Short Film: Night of the Growling

Short Film: Parallax

Visual Vengeance Trailer

Trailers

Folded mini-poster with art by Giorgio Credaro

Reversible Sleeve Featuring Original VHS Art

'Stick Your Own' VHS Sticker Set

Limited Edition O-CARD featuring art by Uncle Frank

Limited Edition 'Ghost Finder' viewer: FIRST PRESSING ONLY AND WHILE SUPPLIES LAST

and a Limited Edition Promo flyer for 'Z is For Zombie' movie featuring original sleeve art by The Dude

- James Lockhart

https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/