DVD Collectors Online

Black Sabbath, a review by Achim

Title: I tre volti della paura
Year: 1963
Director: Mario Bava
Rating: NR
Length: 92 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.77:1
Audio: Italian: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Michele Mercier
Lydia Alfonsi
Boris Karloff
Mark Damon
Susy Andersen

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Trailers
Gallery
Production Notes
Interviews
Radio spot


We have all seen our share of horror anthologies and know what to expect. And while this one predates the once we have seen by many years it delivers just the same. Short stories with some sort of twist(ed) ending; therefore I can't really talk about the stories here. The three films get bookended by short segments with Boris Karloff, with one at the end finishing off hilariously.

It starts out with The Telephone which more of a thriller, where a young lady gets terrorized through the phone, threatened to get killed before the night is over. The caller apparently is watching her every move already... Bava keeps us ahead of the protagonist most of the time which unfortunately takes away some surprises a little too soon. The story develops nicely though as it always only reveals the currently necessary information.

The Wurdulak is an interesting variation of the vampire theme, where the undead bloodsuckers are not out to kill for food but only to kill the ones they loved the most when they were alive. The romance, as often in these old films, is of the I-only-know-you-two-hours-but-want-to-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-you kind, which usually results in lots of at my end. Boris Karloff plays the the father of the family who got turned into a wurdulak (the vampire) and is now out to get them. Thanks to Bava this plays out in slightly unexpected ways.

The Drop of Water is about a woman who goes to people's houses to dress up the corpses of the recently deceased. On a stormy knight she gets called to the home of a lady where the housekeeper asks her to do her job. After she steals the dead lady's ring things start to become strange around her... I found this one to be (considering its age) solidly creepy with a worthy ending.

Black Sabbath is not as good as Bava's previous effort Black Sunday, it is still a strong film though. Short films like these usually fall a bit short in the character development but Bava makes the best of the little time each segemtn is given. Certainly no masterpieces but well worth time of anyone's interested in horror (anthologies).



(From Mario Bava marathon on June 21st, 2009)

Hostel: Part II, a review by Jon

HOSTEL: PART II

3 out of 5

The first Hostel came in for a lot of criticism for perpetuating "torture porn". Whereas I feel the Saw films fit this description in full, I thought Hostel had more substance. That said it was certainly a guilty pleasure for sick little gorehounds! 

Hostel: Part II also came in for the same complaints, if not more. I must admit, I was put off seeing it for a while because I was given the impression it was more of the same, with less structure; a classic sequel mistake. Also the idea that it uses girls where before it was boys seemed so damn obvious I assumed that was probably the limit of its ambition.

Well I was wrong! Thanks to Empire magazine and a balanced DVD review I was tempted to give it a chance. Overall I liked it. First of all it opens with a simple scene I found very disturbing, then it finishes off the arc of the first film and smoothly demonstrates the depth of the organisation running the show. Then we get two threads running in parallel; the girls being lured into the trap via similar methods that befell the boys, and two business men travelling to Slovakia to take part.

By giving more time to demonstrating the mechanics of the "Hunters Club", the film isn't as immediate and potent as Hostel. It lacks the focus and therefore the punch. The gore seems scaled back, or at least less gratuitous. That's right! It isn't as shocking. This has to be by design though, showing a confidence in the back story. I think I'll appreciate it more on a second viewing when my "I MUST SEE BLOOD!" thoughts have calmed down. Trust me, I really am quite, quite sane. Honest. Really I am...    It'll work really well in a double-bill because it doesn't just repeat, it tries to add something new.

By the way, gorehounds, the blood is still there. There's some really nasty inventive shit to make you squirm! But mainly it's from the point of view of the killer and there's less shock value in seeing the cutter cut than the cuttee be cut. Erm... you know what I mean... 

I found the whole film to have a more slow burn disgust. Hostel was brutal, presenting the killers as relatively faceless monsters with weird fetishes, but here it is more explicit in showing them as normal business men just looking for kicks. I found that quite powerful, probably because it's closer to the truth. In one of the featurettes Eli Roth mentions business men he has met that travel the world just to try different prostitutes. Not so far away really. Those interviews also show how much he is trying to give his film relevance.

This film is worth seeing because it doesn't treat the viewer like a prat. It gives us something new and both parts compliment each other. The first is all round a better film because it has that basic premise of a lonely traveller in a hopeless situation, but two films of that wouldn't have worked (Saw, anyone?). By the end there's been a couple of dafter plot points and cliches, but a nice twist or two. However it's the stories broader targets that are more interesting and give this film real value.

(From Hostel: Part II on November 1st, 2007)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: During his stay at the Utopia Planitia ship yards (prior to his assignment to DS9), Sisko has helped designing and building a ship whose sole purpose was to fight the Borg: The Defiant. It's over-powered and over-gunned for a ship this size but now DS9 needs it. And the feature list has been updated. In the hope to find the Founders of the Dominion without having to engage in battle the Defiant has got a cloaking system - sponsored by the Romulan Empire. Sisko hopes to contact the Founders and show them that the Federation is no enemy of them.

My Opinion: From a diplomatic and tactical POV this was a stupid idea. If you'd want to negotiate with the leaders of an enemy force, would you take your biggest gunship and try to sneak into enemy territory? It would be like taking a B-2 Spirit, landing it on the Red Square and trying to talk to Khrushchev. But I liked the general idea of the Defiant from the beginning. The Star Trekian universe has never been a very peaceful one and the Federation is surrounded mostly by hostile forces. I wonder how many Starfleet ships have been destroyed in the cardassian border wars because they weren't really equipped to fight in a war.

Synopsis: Unfortunately the cloaking system didn't help in the end and when the crew returns to DS9, the Vorta are already there and they negotiate with Starfleet. But Sisko and the others become more and more uneasy because of where these negotiations are going. Meanwhile Kira and Odo are still in the GQ because Odo has finally found his people.

My Opinion:Synopsis: A drunken Klingon attacks Quark in his bar but accidentally kills himself. But Quark tells a story how he heroically killed the warrior in a battle of life and death. And ironically, some Klingons actually want that he sticks to that story, although for different reasons. And suddenly Quark finds himself as the head of a klingon house.

My Opinion: I loved this episode. Quark and Grillka were great together and the clashing of ferengi and klingon culture was also fun to watch. But divorce seems to be painful. And it was nice to see chancellor Gowron again although I have to admit the more klingon episodes I watch the less I can wait for Martok to make his appearance.

Synopsis: Dax begins to behave irrationally and aggressively. Additionally she has hallucinations. Bashir fears that the symbiosis is breaking apart and that they may lose Jadzia. Sisko and Bashir return with her to Trill but the mystery is getting bigger instead of being solved. Something isn't right with one of Dax's previous hosts.

My Opinion: This was an average episode. The 'revelation' wasn't that interesting and the episode hadn't much plot at all.

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on October 18th, 2008)