Editorials
2010 BLACK FRIDAY CHOPPING LIST: FILMS & TV
From kick-ass boxed sets to classics put out for the first time on DVD or Blu-ray, 2010 has been a pretty damn good year for horror releases on home video, and in the following “Film & TV” section of B-D’s Black Friday Chopping List we’ve selected a few of the best ones to come out in time for the holiday season. The wide variety of titles included here – from hit T.V. shows about hunky vampires, to a bizarre Japanese film about…well, what exactly?, to the Blu-ray boxed set to top all Blu-ray boxed sets – should cover practically any horror-loving fiend on your list. As for your grandmother, it might be best just to buy her a sensible blouse at JC Penney and call it a day.
COMICS & BOOKS | FILMS | MUSIC | TOYS | GAMES
List Price: $139.99 (standard)/$149.99 (for “Egg” packaging version)
Isn’t this just one of those things that you’d have a hard time buying for anyone else but yourself? This masturbatory boxed set is positively overflowing with hours upon hours worth of bonus features that includes material from all home video releases, all laserdisc releases, the 1999 “Legacy” release and 2003’s Alien Quadrilogy DVD boxed set. In addition, there are four hours of features that have never before been seen on any previous Alien release, period. If you’re feeling especially generous you can go the extra mile and splurge on the version encased in that nifty-looking “Egg” packaging, which also comes with a special edition “Alien” version of the Fox 75th Anniversary poster. So, are you salivating yet? Are ya? It’s ok, me too – just try not to drool all over the gift wrapping.
For the version with “Egg” packaging click here
List Price: $34.99
In case you hadn’t had enough with the original theatrical version, the “version you’ve never seen”, or any of the other versions of The Exorcist you’ve been able to get your hands on over the years, we now have The Exorcist on Blu-ray (finally!) with several hours of new extras. Disc 1 includes the 2000 “Director’s Cut” version, a new 3-hour making-of documentary on the movie (including never-before-seen footage from the set), and commentary by director William Friedkin, among other bonus extras. Disc 2 features the original theatrical version, along with commentaries by Friedkin and screenwriter/producer William Peter Blatty and the feature-length 1998 documentary Fear of God: The Making of `The Exorcist’. To top it all off, the discs are enclosed in a glossy hardback “book” that includes background information on the film, production stills, and actor and filmmaker bios. It’s a must-have for any serious horror fan.
List Price: $19.99
Dark Night of the Scarecrow, now being released for the first time on DVD (indeed, the first time in any home-video format), is a superb 1981 made-for-T.V. movie that has been virtually forgotten for far too long. Starring the excellent Charles Durning, the film is about a mentally challenged man accused of hurting a young girl in town, who is then tracked down and shot to death by a group of good ol’ boys as he hides inside the disguise of a scarecrow in his mother’s field. After the men responsible for his wrongful death – the girl in question was actually mauled by a dog – are let off scot-free by the local judge, they’re systematically hunted down and killed by a mysterious assailant, who foreshadows his arrival by planting a mysterious scarecrow near each of their homes before he comes for them. Overall, Dark Night of the Scarecrow is a terrifically atmospheric, criminally underrated classic that’s now finally being released to a new generation of horror fans, and it would make a great gift for anyone on your list who appreciates under-the-radar gems.
List Price: $39.95 (Blu-ray)/$29.95 (DVD)
Released for the first time ever on any home-video format in the U.S. just last month, House, a completely gonzo 1977 Japanese horror “classic” (depending on how you view that word) directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, is a film that defies easy description. Essentially, the story involves a teenage girl who travels with six of her friends to the old home of her ailing aunt, where they are set upon by all manner of bizarre supernatural beings and possessed household items, including a bloodthirsty piano, deadly mattresses, and man-eating light fixtures. The effects are charmingly low-tech (apparently Obayashi intended for them to look as if they were drawn by young children) and the acting is, shall we say, not exactly of the highest-caliber, but nevertheless the psychedelic, batshit-insane nature of the film has given it quite a cult following through the years. The disc includes a commentary from House of the Devil director Ti West (an admirer of the film), an experimental short titled “Emotion”, and a featurette on the making of the movie in which Obayashi is interviewed. Best gifted to lovers of experimental, kook cinema.
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List Price: $69.97 (Blu-ray)/$59.98 (DVD)
While it may not garner as much watercooler buzz as that other primetime vampire series True Blood, The Vampire Diaries has its own legion of fans (mostly of the “teenybopper” variety) and manages to score solid ratings week by week. Based on the book series of the same name by L.J. Smith, this is essentially the T.V. version of Twilight, with a gorgeous young cast and a storyline that follows a similar love triangle as the Stephanie Meyer series. The DVD set includes all fifteen episodes from the first season of the show, as well as numerous extras including unaired scenes, a gag reel, background information on the show’s development, commentary by series creator Kevin Williamson, and a downloadable audiobook of the novel Vampire Diaries: The Awakening, written by Smith. If you happen to have a teen/”tween”age girl in your household who can’t get enough of the “hunky” breed of vampire currently dominating pop culture (or perhaps an older friend of yours who counts the show as a guilty pleasure), then this is the gift for them.
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List Price: $79.98 (Blu-ray)/$59.99 (DVD)
The “adult” equivalent of The Vampire Diaries, HBO’s sultry, over-the-top, nudity-loving True Blood is now in its third year and going stronger than ever. This set collects all 12 episodes from the second season, which continues to follow the supernatural goings-on of Sookie, vampire lover Bill and the rest of the quirky inhabitants of Bon Temps. In addition to the episodes the set boasts seven audio commentaries from cast and crew, including Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Ryan Kwanten, and series creator Alan Ball, as well as “The Vampire Report”, which gives an overview of the biggest “vampire news stories” from the past year.
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I feel bad for people who never saw Grindhouse in the theater, the way it was meant to be seen…but at least the Blu-ray release gives them the next best thing. After a DVD release that saw both Death Proof and Planet Terror being put out individually, the Grindhouse Two-Disc Collector’s Edition Blu-ray is here to save the day, bringing the films are back together again the way they were meant to be seen. Extras include a behind-the-scenes look at the Planet Terror makeup effects, commentary by Robert Rodriguez, and two making-of featurettes that give a behind-the-scenes look at the production of both the Don’t and Thanksgiving trailers (directed by Edgar Wright and Eli Roth, respectively). While it was admittedly enjoyable to see the extended versions of both Death Proof and Planet Terror in their separate DVD releases, these two babies were meant to be viewed as a cohesive whole, making this a must-have for both fans of the films and anyone who missed out on the theatrical experience.
List Price: $29.97
While sequels Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness were released on Blu-ray previously, fans had to wait until this past August for the original to enjoy the same treatment. With transfers supervised by Sam Raimi, this Anchor Bay release looks and sounds spectacular, without thankfully losing the gritty feel of the original version. Sadly, however, it’s rather skimpy on the extras: while it includes all-new audio commentary from Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and producer Robert Tapert, the “Limited Edition” Blu-ray (which is now tough to come by) actually included a second DVD disc that featured an hour-long retrospective on the making of the film, alternate takes, a reunion panel between the cast, and more. That’s the version to buy if you can manage to get your hands on it, but the single-disc edition alone is still worth the price for fans – at least until the entire trilogy is released in a boxed set.
List Price: $49.95 (Blu-ray)/$39.95 (DVD)
1955 classic The Night of the Hunter – sadly the only film actor Charles Laughton ever directed – has gotten the deluxe Criterion treatment in its Blu-ray release, with a gorgeous digital transfer of the film’s stunning black-and-white cinematography and a host of extras, including a full 2
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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