Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Thriller > Slasher > Twisted Terror Collection (Deadly Friend/Dr. Giggles/Eyes Of A Stranger/From Beyond The Grave/The Hand/Someone's Watching Me)

Twisted Terror Collection (Deadly Friend/Dr. Giggles/Eyes Of A Stranger/From Beyond The Grave/The Hand/Someone's Watching Me)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Films: C+

 

 

Warner Home Video has decided to issue some odds and obscure Horror genre films with their new Twisted Terror Collection on DVD.  The films are not great, but unintentionally funny or feature stars and past names in odd casting.  There are even key names behind the camera.

 

Deadly Friend (1986) is a Wes Craven dud that included the original Buffy –The Vampire Slayer, Kristy Swanson.  Too bad it is one of his least memorable works as he tries to combine robots, brain research and teen films.  Yet, you can see why it is a curio.

 

Dr. Giggles (1982) is the dumbest of all six with Larry Drake as a psychopathic quack who kills.  Unfortunately, the script is dead on arrival and Drake’s career imploded as a result of this dud.

 

Eyes Of A Stranger (1980) is the infamous slasher flick where TV’s Love Boat sweetheart Lauren Tewes plays a TV reporter who becoming the latest target of a serial killer.  If that was not enough, the film introduced Jennifer Jason Leigh as a deaf and blind teen (Wait Until Dark anyone?) who could be the next victim.

 

From Beyond The Grave (1973) is an Amicus Studio anthology film that Warner still has rights too, featuring several stories.  This is a weak set, but Ian Bannen, Diana Dors, Peter Cushing, Ian Ogilvy, Nyree Dawn Porter, David Warner, Leslie-Anne Down and Donald Pleasance make it the most ambitious film in the set and worth a look just the same.

 

The Hand (1981) is Oliver Stone’s goofy film with Michael Caine as an artist who looses his hand, only to have it show up and kill the people he gets angry at in the amusingly infamous dud that was a low point for all.  Like The Swarm, see it for laughs.

 

Someone's Watching Me (1978) is the film John Carpenter made before Halloween and for TV as Lauren Hutton is stalked by a neighbor watching her form one big apartment building to hers.  Adrienne Barbeau also stars in this odd telefilm whose formula both restricts Carpenter and gave him the pacing that made his next film a classic.

 

So you can see how all are curios.  If you are interested in enough of them, this box is worth your time.  If not, gamble to see if you can get them separately.

 

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on all the films, save Giggles in 2.35 X 1 from Super 35mm, is above average at best.  Grave shows its age, but has good color in spots the other films do not.  Watching is widescreen despite being a TV movie, though many of those were shot with 1.85 X 1 in mind, as producers and studios never knew when they might need the footage outside of TV.  Sadly, it does not look as good as 1.33 X 1 filmed TV movies like The Night Stalker or The Night Strangler on MGM DVD, reviewed elsewhere on this site.

 

The Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono on most of the films is fairly good, though Grave is far more brittle and needs some serious work to fix it.  Only Giggles and Hand have Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, said to offer Pro Logic surrounds, but are very weak in that department.  Grave, Friend and Hand all have their original theatrical trailers, Stranger has nothing and Hand also has a commentary by Stone.  Watching has a featurette by Carpenter, which is good, because TV movies do not have trailers.

 

That is weak overall too, but in some cases, there just was not much to say.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com