DEMONWARP (1988) - Vinegar Syndrome

Demonwarp
Vinegar Syndrome

Original Release Date March 1st, 1988

Written by John Carl Buechler (story), Jim Bertges, Bruce Akiyama

Directed by Emmett Alston

Starring George Kennedy, David Michael O'Neill, Pamela Gilbert, Billy Jayne, Hank Stratton, Colleen McDermott

Language English

Purchase yours HERE from Vinegar Syndrome

by "Doc" Hunter Bush

MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Overview:

Demonwarp comes to 4K from Vinegar Syndrome. Director Emmett Alston, probably best known for directing New Year's Evil (1980), brings us a film almost over-stuffed with concepts. Vinegar Syndrome's release of Demonwarp restores the formerly direct-to-video film to a visual and audio clarity that it has most likely never seen and boasts an extensive array of bonus features.

The Movie Itself: 3.5 stars

I feel that I can confidently say Demonwarp is a film like few others. Born of the direct-to-video boom, the film was originally conceived by John Carl Buechler, director of Troll (1986) and Cellar Dweller (1987) as his next picture, before he left the project to direct Friday the 13th: The New Blood (1988) (the seventh installment in the franchise). Demonwarp would then pass along to director Emmett Alston, of New Year's Evil (1980) fame, with the script reworked by Jim Bertges and Bruce Akiyama. If each person involved in its creation added two concepts to Demonwarp, that MIGHT almost explain how crazy it is.

Opening with a wandering minister (John Durbin) witnessing the crash landing of an alien vessel, we jump forward 100 years to find Bill (George Kennedy) playing Trivial Pursuit with his daughter (Jill Marin) in a cabin before being attacked by what appears to be a Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or Skunk Ape. Then we skip ahead just a little bit more to find five teens arriving at the same cabin to investigate what happened there. Demonwarp has three opening scenes. This should give you an idea of the type of the-whole-kit-and-caboodle approach to story craft and internal logic at its core. Without giving anything more away, the film features, yes: aliens and Bigfoots, but also zombies, human sacrifice, boobytraps, one snazzy yellow bucket hat, a very ambitious assortment of practical effects, and more unnecessary nudity than you can shake a stick at.

Demonwarp, as almost everyone interviewed for the bonus features will bring up as tactfully as possible, isn't what you would call "good". It's a gonzo, tits-and-blood monster movie with so many unexpected turns that it's impossible to predict what's coming next. And therein lies its charm. Demonwarp was never going to be for everyone, for mass audiences. Only the folks who love digging through bargain bins, or scouring late night cable channels are likely to even enjoy it. In other words, Demonwarp is for the sickos, and those sickos have probably seen a hell of a lot of movies. After a while, they can start to feel pretty predictable. But not Demonwarp.

Perfect for a Bad Movie Night (or a Bad Movie Podcast), this is a flick that truly must be seen to be believed. For me, Demonwarp is kind of a "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" moment. I am all about film preservation, and that must include oddities like Demonwarp. Now, in the film's defense: I watched it alone, and stone cold sober but I am certain that my viewing would be greatly enhanced if either one of those were not the case. 

The Packaging: 4 stars

The packaging for Demonwarp is almost too good. The case is, of course, your standard black plastic 4K case which is very handsome, but what really sets this apart is the cover art. Both sides of the reversible cover (I believe both illustrations are by Robert Sammelin?) present Demonwarp as something grander and more epic than it truly is. On one side, gorgeously rendered illustrations of George Kennedy, a gun-wielding David Michael O'Neill (as Jack), and several creatures are layered in neon pink void, while the other features a more stylized image that implies Kennedy, O'Neill, and maybe Pamela Gilbert (as Carrie), are all actively on the hunt for monsters, armed with rifles and an ax.

The illustrations are great pieces of work, magnificent, even. But they definitely do not represent something as shaggy as what Demonwarp turns out to be. There's something I find incredibly charming in that. I'm reminded of browsing my local mom & pop video store as a kid, picking something out and then being kind of let down when the film didn't live up to what the cover conjured in my mind. It's like Sammelin is depicting the movie Demonwarp wants to be, and I think that's kind of great, even if it isn't accurate.

The Video: 4 stars

I can only imagine what Demonwarp must have looked like in the years since it originally hit video. In one of the bonus features, composer Dan Slider remarks on the degradation of quality handed down through copies and dupes over the years. He is speaking of the audio specifically, but I'm certain the same would apply to the video. So while I don't have anything to go on, because for once there wasn't a trailer included in the bonus features, I can say that Demonwarp looks good. Almost too good.

I don't mean to come across as though I'm ragging on this film. I enjoyed it just fine, but I think even any Demonwarp die-hards out there would admit it's not the greatest example of the cinematic art form. And to that end, restoring it to such high visual fidelity might actually work against it. Maybe on VHS or DVD that fuzziness would obscure some of the rubber mask special effects and, leaving more up to the imagination, make them more frightening. As it stands, you can see everything.

But, beyond that, this looks fantastic. I dunno how many human sacrifices had to be made to get this movie up to such a clean visual level, and I don't wanna know! The colors are excellently balanced, with deep shadows but largely avoiding flat blacks. The one thing that most impressed me was that it doesn't appear anyone involved in the restoration did any posthumous color-grading. What I mean is that, you can still tell in certain scenes that the master shots were filmed at one time of day and the coverage was filmed at another; it will from time to time have that slight change of visual temperature. I genuinely enjoyed that because it stays true to what I feel is Demonwarp's most endearing aspect: the scrappiness of the whole endeavor.

The Audio: 4 stars

I have a three-channel soundbar, which handled Demonwarp like a charm. No buzzing or vibration no matter how low the synths got, no muddiness in the dialogue, no riding the volume button between action scenes and dialogue scene; nothing of the sort. There were a few instances where a line or part of one, usually a character name, would be sort of swallowed and a little quiet, but I honestly think that was down to the performances (no judgment).

In the interest of full disclosure, I will mention that there were a few audio / visual issues on my viewing. There was a (non-demon) warping in the score during the opening scene (the third one, when the teens arrive). I'm willing to bet this is just an artifact of the original score that couldn't be avoided. There were also two notable instances of visual skipping on my viewing. One was in the film itself, and one was in a bonus feature. It's entirely possible that this was some issue with my player or my disc in particular, and may not be representative of all copies. I'm not holding any of these against the restoration, because overall I think it's a fantastic job.

The Supplements: 4 stars

The special features here may be a little dry, but they're very informative about the craft of low-budget filmmaking. Each of the interview subjects give a good overview of their careers, before and since Demonwarp, then talk about how they came to the project, explaining how and what they did. I was most interested in cinematographer R. Michael Stringer, in the Of Aesthetic Beauty and Bigfoot featurette, because he talked specifically about not just how he approached lighting certain scenes, but also what he might do differently with the benefit of hindsight (backlighting!) which feels to me the most actionable information.

In bonus content, I'm always looking for the context around the film being discussed. Unfortunately, with John Carl Buechler having passed away in 2019, we may never know the exact impetus behind Demonwarp, or even how much of what is present in the finished film was part of his initial intention. But the special features here, which seemed largely to be organized by Ewan Cant if I'm not mistaken, do a damned good job.

Commentary track with director Emmett Alston and producer Richard L. Albert
Beasts & Breasts: an interview with actress Michelle Bauer (19:10) (HD)
Some of It Was Stupid: an interview with writer Jim Bertges (25:09) (HD)
Of Aesthetic Beauty and Bigfoot: an interview with director of photography R. Michael Stringer (36:45) (HD)
Composing Demonwarp: an interview with composer Dan Slider (27:08) (HD)
Audio interview with actor Hank Stratton (36:31)
FX Gallery: with narration by effects supervisor Mark Wolf (10:07) (HD)
Still Gallery

Final Thoughts: Recommended 

For as much as it might seem like I was dragging this movie, I enjoyed it. For any of us in the disc buying business, there are bound to be blind buys where you watch it once and know you'll never revisit it again. I don't think that's the case for Demonwarp. Is it low budget? Sure, but it does a LOT with the resources it has. Is it kind of nonsensical? Definitely, but in a glorious way. The third act throws a lot of craziness at the audience (and characters) that isn't fully explained, but you can infer enough to make it take shape in your head.

And I have to put my money where my mouth is. Like I said above, I'm always harping on about film preservation in all its forms. Well, restoring gloriously schlocky films like Demonwarp is part of that initiative. It has to be. Noah allegedly took all animals onto the ark, after all. We cannot gatekeep, even under the auspices of "quality". I think certain folks will love Demonwarp for the craft of it, or the breasts of it, or the Bigfoots of it,  and the rest of us will enjoy watching it in groups, but there's something beautiful in that regardless. Plus at one point, there's a zombie wearing a Meet the Residents t-shirt. Thanks, Demonwarp.

CLOUD (2024) / CHARISMA (1999) - Eureka Entertainment

Cloud / Charisma
Eureka Entertainment

Original Release Date Sept 27th, 2026 (Cloud, Japan) / February 26th, 1999 (Charisma, Japan)

Written by Kiyoshi Kurosawa 

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Starring Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Kōji Yakusho, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Yoriko Dôguchi

Language Japanese (English subtitles available)

Purchase yours HERE from Eureka, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movies: Excellent

As a disclaimer: I received check discs for these films, which are review copies that don't have the final artwork or packaging. This may also mean some discrepancies between my copies and the finished versions. This dual release is also Region B only, meaning this primarily applies to folks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand OR those of us with region free players.

I am no expert in the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I saw Pulse (2001) when it first came out in the U.S., but I don't remember many details; it's all just lumped in with other films of the J-Horror boom. Much more recently, I have seen Cure (1997) and Sweet Home (1989), both of which I enjoyed, but that's about it as far as my pre-existing knowledge. I wasn't even aware that Kurosawa had directed Sweet Home when I watched it. So if you had pointed all those out to me and asked me if I was "a fan" I would probably have said "Sure?"

Not now though. Having watched both Cloud (2024) and Charisma (1999), two very different films united by Kurosawa's particular vision, I can definitively say "I am now a fan of Kiyoshi Kurosawa." It's an ineffable thing, but I just enjoy the way he makes movies. Both Cloud and Charisma are written as well as directed by Kurosawa, and while there are thematic corollaries, they're really very different films. Cloud is an experience that starts as something like The Strangers (2008) and ends up somewhere akin to Mother! (2017), while Charisma is like Return to Oz (1985) with a touch of The Princess Mononoke (1997).

Cloud follows Ryôsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda), an online reseller, purchasing items and reselling them at an inflated price, as he becomes disenfranchised with his factory day job and quits to move with his girlfriend out to a suspiciously gorgeous house on a lake. Once there the film begins a slow slide away from the somewhat familiar setting and world, transforming into a supernatural-adjacent cautionary tale so gradually that you at first feel completely buffaloed before realizing this had been inevitable the entire time.

Charisma even more quickly abandons its recognizable world, with overworked police detective Goro Yabuike (repeat Kurosawa collaborator Kōji Yakusho) heading into a forest populated with multiple groups willing to battle over their viewpoints, all centered around a rare tree, known as Charisma, and its negative effect on the forest around it. Each faction differs on what they think should be done to / with Charisma, and they're more than willing to go head-to-head over this disagreement.

Both films are allegorical and examine issues of identity and loneliness, two of Kurosawa's pet concerns, but their approach and focus vary widely. In Cloud, Yoshii has wracked up an impressive number of adversaries through his unethical business practices, yet is unaware that he has been constructing the engine of his destruction all along and that his online identity will not hide him forever. In Charisma, Yakusho wanders from one camp to another, largely unbothered by anyone, as they each try to enlist him to their respective points of view. At some point, he inevitably decides to take control of the situation and choose what happens next, but will he be prepared for the repercussions of his actions? Will any of us?

The Packaging: 

As I mentioned above, the copies I received did not have packaging, so I am leaving this section blank.

The Audio + Video: Excellent

Both these transfers look tremendous. It's a little more impressive for Charisma, which comes to us from over a quarter century ago, but I was repeatedly shocked with the visual sharpness and clarity in Cloud as well. There's one brief shot in Cloud, of Yoshii's girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) walking by a car and her reflection across its roof is as clear as the rest of her. It's not an especially impressive shot (or, I should say not deliberately impressive) but it was just gorgeous. This is indicative of Kurosawa's eye. He also favors silhouette, negative space, and strong backlighting and I was enraptured by the soft halos of light coming into the dark spaces throughout Charisma.

That's another aspect of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's filmmaking that really appeals to me: his visual aesthetic is so all-encompassing. It permeates every shot, all locations, thoroughly. There's a stateliness to his shot composition that often feels grander than the subject matter. It's a similar feeling to viewing art in a gallery: these objects and images, though often outwardly mundane, are presented as though they have a greater weight than you may at first realize. It's, if not meditative, then certainly contemplative.

Kurosawa utilizes music with specificity and deliberation. Off the top of my head, I can't remember much about the score of Cloud (by Takuma Watanabe), but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It means it coalesced perfectly with what I was feeling throughout. I can, however, summon up a particular bouncy bit of percussion and wind from the Charisma score (by Gary Ashiya, also the composer for Cure) not only because it's used repeatedly, but is in such seeming juxtaposition to the events of the film that every time I noticed it, I spent time considering what it was conveying. In the end it lends the whole film the feeling of a fable, something of importance, with a lesson and consequences, but with a sense of gleeful adventure beneath or behind it all.

On a more technical level, the quality of the audio mix for both films was impeccable. I utilize a three-channel sound bar and I never had to adjust the volume, though I will mention that the commentary tracks for each film, from Dr. Jonathan Wroot, world cinema teacher and Japanese cinema researcher from the University of Greenwich, are slightly louder. So if you're back-to-backing any of these films with a commentary watch, you might want to bump it down a notch or two, lest you get spooked.

Special Features: Excellent

Between these two discs, I believe Eureka has put together a perfect release as far as context goes. As I said above, this release has cemented me as a Kiyoshi Kurosawa fan and that is due as much to the quality and style of the work as it does to the context provided in the bonus features. The two aforementioned commentary tracks from Dr. Jonathan Wroot did a lot to help me organize my thoughts on Kurosawa by answering many questions I had about the works, but those combined with the video essay A Cerebral Cinema by Joe Hickinbottom is what really catalyzed everything. 

As a heads-up, the disc for Cloud only features the trailer, while the disc for Charisma has two featurettes in addition to the trailer for that film (which actually gives away some big concepts, but I digress). Personally, I love the inclusion of the trailers for the simple fact that it gives me something substantial to compare the video transfer against, as trailers are typically unrestored.

• Cloud commentary track with Dr. Jonathan Wroot
• Cloud trailer (1:02)
• Charisma commentary track with Dr. Jonathan Wroot
• A Cerebral Cinema: the works of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, video essay by Joe Hickinbottom (28:15)
• Making of Charisma (30:00)
• Charisma trailer (0:34)

In Summary: Must Own

Y'all. I am deep in the pocket for Kiyoshi Kurosawa now! I really loved Cure when I watched it, and Sweet Home is cool (and the main inspiration for the Resident Evil games, fun fact), but it wasn't until unpacking the two featurettes here that I began to have an understanding of Kurosawa's interests. To me, his films feel like they don't just ask questions, they feel like they ARE questions, and they don't have an answer. Even now, with this revelation freshly in mind, thinking back on my experience watching Cure, I believe I'm onto something.

Kurosawa isn't concerned with telling you what he thinks. More than any filmmaker I can think of off the top of my head, he's interested in allowing you all the information you need to make your own decisions and then sit in that interpretation. It comes back to what I said about standing in a gallery, considering the art; there is no right or wrong way to appreciate it. What's important is that you appreciate it at all and consider what you believe it is saying.

SpookyJawn Watchlist 2026

SpookyJawn Watchlist 2026

by "Doc" Hunter Bush
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Greetings, boils and ghouls! And everyone who i-dead-tifies as non-spine-ary! Apologies to my close personal friend the Cryptkeeper (who recently got his old job back!) for the gimmick infringement there, I'm just so excited for the spooky season! While I'm sure there are plenty of others who, like me, watch horror movies year-round, I think we'd all agree that they just hit different in the autumn months.

One of my favorite seasonal / movie activities is making a watchlist for my household and some friends to take part in. For the past few years, I've been sharing these watchlists on MovieJawn in an effort to encourage folks to take part and eventually make their own! I've found that for a lot of people, the idea of taking part in a month-long watchlist activity can be a little overwhelming, so below I will walk you through the list of prompts I've prepared for this year, as well as some helpful tips to keep in mind. I'll even be offering suggested films and this year, all my suggestions have a special theme!

To tie into the release of the MovieJawn Fall 2026 zine (purchase your HERE), all the films suggested below will feature some depiction of a cinematic afterlife. It has been said that the greatest unanswered question in life is What Happens After? and these films offer a possible answer, but you might not like it!

First things first: Don't get overwhelmed. I know the idea of watching a movie a day is a LOT for some people. Even I, currently unemployed and surrounded by movies on various formats, don't have time for that every day. So guess what: You don't have to! Instead of looking at this list as a thrown gauntlet or some kind of requirement, look at it as a bunch of suggestions. If you happen to find yourself with a little chunk of time and a desire to watch a flick, just see what that day's prompt is. And y'know what, if you're not feeling that one, just pick a different one; I promise I won't be personally offended.

Another thing that some folks get hung up on is not knowing a film that fits a specific prompt. As I say often, there are no wrong answers! If you think one of the Friday the 13th movies fits the "PHILADELPHIA" prompt because it takes place in New Jersey and that's close enough: Cool! There are no Movie Police coming to slap the cuffs on you. Similarly, if you want to watch something you've never seen before, and it turns out a movie you thought was perfect for "BLACK & WHITE" is actually in color: No big deal. We are, none of us, perfect and now you know for next time!

Lastly, if there's a prompt you just flat out don't like or can't think of anything for, skip it or choose another category for yourself. Maybe you're burnt out on films from the "1990s" and you decide to swap in a werewolf movie: Good call! The world is tough enough without us making things arbitrarily harder for ourselves. Watching movies, and these watchlists, should be fun above all else.

So now, let me run through the prompts really quickly, just for clarity.

Things start off with a bunch of prompts themed around their titles: a couple of specific words in the titles, or a number; a long and a short title; and literally any movie that starts with the word "THE _____".

Then we've got the various genre- or category-themed ones. Remember, there are no wrong answers. If you think of Hellraiser (1987) as a "COMEDY", watch it! For the aforementioned "BLACK & WHITE" prompt, you could watch Beetlejuice (1988) because his suit is most definitely black & white. For the "ORIGINAL" and "REMAKE", they don't even need to be two versions of the same movie. On my list of suggested titles, I chose the 1960 13 Ghosts and it's early 2000s remake, but you could watch the original The Fly (1958) and the remake of The Blob (1988). It's your call! All I ask is that you tag us in your watchlist journey, but more on that below.

The next block of suggestions is grouped by source: something from a "FEMALE FILMMAKER"; films made or set in various broadly-defined international locations; and something inspired by or about "COMICBOOKS"; then the block of films by decade. With those, you could even watch something set in those years, but made at some other time. Watch whatever is most fun for you!

The list wraps up with a few wild cards. "PHILADELPHIA" because I love films set and/or made in my city and try to celebrate that as often as is possible; "SCIENCE" because I knew my suggestions were going to be leaning more into the supernatural side of things and thought it would be a fun challenge to myself to find a scientifically-themed film that still touches on the afterlife; and then "ALL HALLOWS EVE" and "H'WEEN". I'll let you in on a little secret (*waves you in closer*): both of these are your free spaces. Watch whatever you want on either night! Or both! Watch a favorite film, or something you've been meaning to watch all year! Also, not for nothing, Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so you might have plans for at least one of those nights, and this way you have something fun to look forward to at the end of the watchlist.

Now comes your part of the deal. Share this article with anyone you know who you think might enjoy the low-pressure watchlist walkthrough, or any friends who you would like to organize watching some movies with this October. If and when you watch anything, or if you make a full list of titles and are going to try to watch them all: tag @moviejawn and @hwgwpodcast on instagram and use the hashtag #spookyjawnlist26

Have a happy and safe rest of the year. Make the most of your time. Have as much fun as you responsibly can. And Long Live the Movies!

DISCLOSURE DAY (2026) - Universal Pictures

Disclosure Day
Universal Pictures

Original Release Date June 12th, 2026
Written by David Koepp (screenplay), Steven Spielberg (story)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell
Language English (Spanish and French options available) (subtitles available)

Purchase yours HERE from Orbit

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Overview:

Disclosure Day comes to 4K and Blu-ray from Universal Pictures. Directed by Steven Spielberg who you may know from a legendary career in movies, the film is a return to a subject matter, benevolent aliens, that Spielberg hasn't addressed this directly in decades. Universal's release of Disclosure Day features a wonderful video transfer and audio package with bonus features that are comprehensive, if small in number.

The Movie Itself: 4 stars

I think Disclosure Day is an extremely self-aware movie. This is Steven Spielberg approaching the end of his career, and he's emotionally intelligent enough to not just know it, but to actively reckon with it. That's what Disclosure Day is, a man who has always loved aliens both wishing that he would get to know the truth within his lifetime, and earnestly hoping that mankind will have the maturity to handle that truth without him there to guide us.

This is the guy who popularized the "friendly alien" idea. It for sure existed in multiple forms of media before Spielberg ever touched on it, but between Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), no one has ever done as much positive PR for little green men. Almost any popular depiction of aliens interacting with humans that has come since has owed something to Spielberg's vision, either directly or indirectly. And now he is taking what is most likely his last at-bat in a genre that he loves and helped to codify. I mean, he also directed War of the Worlds (2005), which is decidedly in the "unfriendly alien" camp, but that's an adaptation while the others are original stories from Spielberg, as was Disclosure Day.

To be clear, I don't think and certainly do not hope that Steven Spielberg passes or retires anytime soon, but I think he is considering and addressing his legacy. And much as I'd love to see it personally, I can't imagine he'll be making science fiction for the rest of his career. So with Disclosure Day, I feel like he is offering his final say in the matter of alien / human relations.

Disclosure Day features the kind of fleet-footed action, optimistic leads, character-based humor, knowable villains, and sense of wonder that you could expect from a Stevie Speils sci-fi adventure. It follows Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor as two unknowing stewards of a stockpile of information that a powerful government organization doesn't want to become public. Beyond just being better-staffed and better-funded, this agency, WARDEX, also has access to alien technology giving them an incredible advantage over two ostensibly normal folks. The film is essentially a chase across the country with our two underdogs, at first separately and eventually together, trying to avoid capture long enough to blow the lid off of the whole deal.

The action is solid, the performances are good even if I think the characters are a little flat, and I really enjoyed the world constructed around the narrative, but ultimately I find the film to be anticlimactic. Spielberg is not what I think of as a less-is-more filmmaker necessarily, but here he seems to be choosing to end on a powerfully ambiguous note. This is perfectly in fitting with the endings to both Close Encounters and E.T., but feels less exciting since the persons being directly affected at the climax of Disclosure Day are, essentially, everyone.

The Packaging: 3.5 stars

This is a perfectly acceptable and handsome release, with a slipcover and disc cover depicting the same image: Margaret (Emily Blunt) looking up through the silhouette of a cardinal, which is a very meaningful animal within the narrative of the film. The slipcover reproduces the image with a slight reflective effect on it. Beyond that, it's your standard black 4K case with both the 4K and Blu-ray disc inside. Nothing revolutionary, but not shabby by any means, and looks great on a shelf.

The Video: 4.5 stars

Y'all. This is Steven Spielberg working with Janusz Kaminski! In case you don't know, Kaminski is not only one of the GOATs of cinematography, he has worked with Spielberg consistently since Schindler's List (1993)! If you've seen a Spielberg film from the last 30 years and thought "Damn, this movie looks incredible!", that was in no small part due to Kaminski. Spielberg is arguably one of the most natural cinematic talents in the history of the art form and his directing style is largely built around constructing a solid master shot that demands less coverage. This requires the scene be lit in such a way as to allow the camera to move from set-up to set-up without cutting to adjust the lighting.

This has led to Kaminski becoming synonymous with swaths of light coming into scenes from natural and logical points (windows, etc.) in a way that feels like natural lighting, with some of the inherent downsides, but is really anything but. Disclosure Day has this lighting, and no matter how you may end up feeling about the film, I imagine you'll agree it looks incredible. Obviously, this is a recent movie, and that can make the quality of the visual package feel less impressive than a film that required a lot of restoration work, but I assure you: Disclosure Day's visual presentation is fabulous.

The only reason I'm not giving it the full five stars is that I think the film spends a little too much of its run time in the beige and blue area of the color spectrum. I know there are reasons for that, and the film is playing a balance game between cooler tones and warmer tones, and what feelings those hues evoke in the audience, but it can still feel a little same-y the deeper into the 2 hour, 25 minute run time you go.

The Audio: 4.5 stars

If you thought Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski have had a long collaborative relationship, wait til I tell you that composer John Williams has been working with Spielberg since JAWS (1975); so basically Spielberg's entire career! In fairness, Williams did take time away from some Spielberg projects to become one of the most famous film composers in history, with titles like Star Wars (1977), Superman (1978), and Home Alone (1990) in his repertoire! The man is a legend and while his score for Disclosure Day isn't as iconic as his more well-known works, it perfectly supports the film and its themes.

Balance-wise, this release is damn solid. I've got a three-channel soundbar and didn't have any issues with scenes being either too loud or too quiet. Williams' score is minimal, focused on using just a few instruments to tease out a melody or underscore an emotion, and very few instances of elaborate orchestral flourish: a gentle clarinet melody behind a character who is feeling something uncanny, or mild discordant tones when tensions begin to rise.

The Supplements: 4 stars

The bonus features here might be small in number, but overall they pack a punch. The stand-out is the Encountering the Unknown featurette, a nearly hour-long making-of document of the kind that we rarely get anymore. Every aspect of the film is discussed by cast and / or crew from the film's conception, to its ethos, where Spielberg asks "Wouldn't it be wonderful for people to know that this was true?" and refers to alien craft seen in the real world as UAPs, which proves he's a real one. There's also tons of points of interest for the process sickos: Getting to see the sheer number of approaches combined into certain sequences, or getting a peek into how the WARDEX central control room set was conceived and realized instills that classic "the magic of the movies" feeling we are sorely lacking in an era where the answer to most questions is increasingly "I dunno, a computer did it".

Admittedly, I wish there were more with John Williams, the featurette on how he came out of retirement at ninety to do this film is less that five minutes long, and I'm certain many people would love a peek into his process. But that aside, I can't really be too disappointed. The man has given plenty to cinema, he deserves to enjoy retirement. I wouldn't have been mad at a commentary track, but with the speed at which Spielberg tends to work, I'm guessing he was busy.

• Encountering the Unknown: Inside Disclosure Day (54:03) (HD)
• Spielberg & Williams: A Legendary Collaboration (4:09) (HD)

Final Thoughts: Highly Recommended

I know that I may not sound super hot on this film, and I'm not: it's a perfectly solid film, but despite how expertly crafted it is, when its coming from such a master of moviemaking, and is obviously a subject they care so deeply about, that feels maybe worse than if a less experienced filmmaker had made it? It's still an enjoyable ride, with a few really fantastic moments, and excellent supporting performances from Colman Domingo and Colin Firth.

If you haven't seen it, I might knock my rating down to just a Recommended, because it can feel like a lot of build up to a very abrupt ending, even if you're on the same wavelength as the film. If however, you dug the movie and want to know if this is a good version to bring home, OR you're fanatical about the way a few of the greatest craftsmen in film ply their respective crafts, I really think you'll enjoy this.

FRIGHTMARE (1974) - Kino Lorber

Frightmare
Kino Lorber / Kino Cult

Original Release Date November 6th, 1974 (UK)
Written by David McGillivray, based on a story by Pete Walker
Directed by Pete Walker
Starring Paul Greenwood, Kim Butcher, Deborah Fairfax, Sheila Keith, Rupert Davies
Language English

Purchase your copy HERE from Kino Lorber

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Average

Frightmare (1974) opens in black and white, in 1957, with a prologue set in a British carnival that's shuttered for the winter and ends with an unseen couple being sentenced to a very long stint in a mental institution. It promptly jumps forward nearly twenty years where we're introduced to some young miscreants causing trouble in a local pub. After being denied alcohol by the barman, Debbie (Kim Butcher) blows the interaction out of proportion to her boyfriend and after being ejected from the establishment, they wait for the barman to leave, then jump him. The coppers are called and when the dust settles, they're all in the wind and the injured barman can't be found.

We're also introduced to young psychiatrist Graham (Paul Greenwood) at a dinner party where he's been set-up to meet the lovely Jackie (Deborah Fairfax). It's when Jackie returns home that night when we realize that Jackie is Debbie's older sister and caretaker. Some track is laid about how their parents are dead and Debbie was raised in a convent until Jackie was old enough to take care of her. It is at this point that I started to suspect I knew where Frightmare was headed.

This is the film's biggest hurdle. Before much of the run time has passed, any savvy filmgoer or horror hound is going to start getting excited for what's coming. Especially when we find out that Jackie is making clandestine late-night trips to a lonely farmhouse outside the city with packages of meats for her very much alive father Edmund (Rupert Davies) and equally not dead stepmother Dorothy (the great Sheila Keith) whom, tying back into the film's cold open, were the couple once sentenced to that mental institution for (drum roll, please) cannibalism!

By the time the film has dropped the cannibalism hammer on the audience, you're practically salivating to see where this goes. But anyone expecting something akin to the pacing of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (another cannibal film released in 1974) will be disappointed. The bulk of Frightmare is spent with various characters getting caught up to what the audience has known for an increasingly long time. It's a frustrating viewing experience, though there are thrills and chills along the way.

Frightmare plays with what would become the slasher formula codified over the next decade: unlikeable youths, and the occasional innocent, meeting violent ends. Though they avoid gore, there's an absolutely dynamite pitchfork kill that feels incredibly brutal thanks entirely to the editing (by Robert C. Dearberg, who also edited one of my favorite movies, 1972's Horror Express!). There's also a lot of incidental fun to be had with the stiff-upper-lip British accents, as when someone explains to Graham about Dorothy's past: "She et people."

The Packaging: Good

This is a pretty standard Blu-ray case, but it does come with a cardboard slipcover. Both the slip and regular cover feature an updated version of the most prevalent Frightmare poster: a wild-eyed Dorothy pointing a bloody drill directly at the viewer! It's a striking image, and this version, with all the negative space left empty (where the original poster had review quotes) makes it actually more eye-catching.

It's currently VHSeptember, a time of year when all of us who maintain VHS collections of any sort get to show them off on various social media. Frightmare, and other assorted titles in Kino Lorber’s Kino Cult label, with their slip covers recreating the pulse-raising poster imagery, really comes very close to the aesthetic appeal of a shelf full of scandalous VHS covers looking back at you.

The Audio + Video: Good

Frightmare looks great throughout. Director Pete Walker isn't showy, but the guy sure knows how to handle a scene. Frightmare is, at times, filled with deep shadow, but everything important is always very clear and easy to follow. There are some very striking visual compositions, and it's all supported by the transfer. There is film grain present, as there should be, but even in lower light scenes and sequences, I never really noticed it much. Even in the higher contrast opening flashback sequence (in black and white), the blacks were crisp and deep without feeling flat and, aside from obvious artifacts from originally being on film from fifty years ago (meaning the occasional small scratch or mark) it looks fresh.

The audio I similarly had no issues with. There's a certain kind of compression that exists in older films' audio, where it frankly just sounds like an older film. That is, of course, present here, but there is no muffling or distortion; all the dialogue, sound effects, and score come in nice and clear. Composer Stanley Myers, who also worked with director Pete Walker on Schizo (1976) and House of Whipcord (1974), and would go on to score such films as The Deer Hunter (1978) and The Witches (1990), crafts a score for Frightmare that evokes a seasick feeling of dread throughout.

Special Features: Average

I always value bonus content that provides me with context, and I would have liked to see a little bit more of that here. For example, director Pete Walker is a bit of a cult figure with whom I am only vaguely familiar. I know that he began his career in so-called sexploitation films, before transitioning to horror and has a pretty positive reputation among genre film fans. One of the commentary tracks features Steve Chibnall, author of the book Making Mischief: The Cult Films of Pete Walker, and while the commentary track is full of interesting tidbits about Walker, most of them center around Frightmare. I'd have loved a little bit of a career overview from Chibnall to give me a better idea of who Walker is.

Beyond that admittedly minor quibble, I found the rest of the features to be very informative and overall really pleasant. Everyone seems to have had a blast making this film which, for the era, was seen as quite vulgar.

• Commentary by Stephen R. Bissette
• Commentary by Pete Walker, director of photography Peter Jessop, and Steve Chibnall
• For the Sake of Cannibalism (11:56)
• Sheila Keith: A Nice Old Lady? (13:53)
• Interview with editor Robert C. Dearborn (8:02)
• Interview with actor Paul Greenwood (8:57)
• Theatrical Trailer (1:16)

In Summary: Buy it on sale

I wouldn't say Frightmare is a must-see film. It's good, don't get me wrong, but the issue of getting so far ahead of the plot so early means you spend a lot of the runtime mostly waiting for things to coalesce. Occasionally you are pleasantly distracted by small moments; some character interactions, or interesting shots, or the kills. But by and large the pacing is a little pokey.

The highlight for me was Sheila Keith's performance as Dorothy. She seems genuinely unhinged (to the point that it calls into question how anyone thought she was fit to return to polite society) and, according to numerous comments across the various bonus features, as well as the one dedicated to her specifically, called A Nice Old Lady?, she was someone who was the exact opposite and really enjoyed playing such a w-i-l-d character. The film might be worth seeing for her performance alone.

TROY (2004) - Arrow Video

Troy
Disc Releasing Company

Original Release Date May 14th, 2004
Written by David Benioff, based on The Iliad by Homer
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
Starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson
Language English

Purchase your copy HERE from Arrow

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Good

Before there was The Odyssey, there was Troy. No, seriously. This is true on multiple metrics; not only was Troy (screenplay by Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff) released to theaters over twenty years earlier than Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, but it's based on The Iliad by Homer, which follows Achilles (played here by Brad Pitt) and thousands of other Greeks as they arrive on the beaches of the city of Troy and wage the Trojan War. The Odyssey, meanwhile, is the story of Odysseus as he and many others attempt to return home from the war.

As a film, Troy is incredibly solid. I watched approximately six hours of Troy across two successive days (the 2 hour & 43 minute Theatrical Cut one day and the 3 hour & 15 minute Director's Cut the other) and I was actually never bored. And that's not including the bonus features! The story moves well, manages to balance a great number of characters and their interests, all while holding MY interest. It doesn't hurt that the thing looks fantastic.

Director Wolfgang Petersen had previously passed on making Gladiator (2000), but upon seeing the popularity, critical acclaim, and awards that production had accrued, longed to make his own sword & sandals epic and then just a few years later, here comes Troy. Peterson (and crew) really deliver on the epic scale of what is, really, a very personal story. When all's said and done, the Trojan War happened because one of the princes of Troy, Paris (Orlando Bloom) is beefing with Greek king Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) over a girl, Menelaus' deeply unhappy and unsatisfied wife, Helen (Diane Kruger). So Menelaus gets his brother and fellow king Agamemnon (Brian Cox) to rally a thousand ships' worth of Greek soldiers to make it everybody's problem.

Almost everyone in the cast is great, as well. Cox and Gleeson, of course, but also Bloom who I am not usually very hype about, Eric Bana as Paris' brother Hector, Peter O'Toole as their father Priam, and Sean Bean as the aforementioned Odysseus! The only person who I wasn't at all vibing with here, weirdly, is Brad Pitt; an actor I usually enjoy. He just feels very flat to me throughout. Diane Kruger (in her breakout role!) is a little underserved, considering she is essentially the inciting incident, but otherwise I found the writing to effectively be doings its job.

Troy is really well-made, and entertaining, even across multiple viewings, but having now mainlined roughly a full 8-hour work-day's worth of it, I can't imagine having much of a desire to watch it any time soon. But should that desire ever rear it's head, the Arrow release has got my back!

The Audio + Video: Excellent

I legitimately loved the look of Troy. It's a very warm-toned film, visually, with all the beaches, the deep armor and bronzed skin of the numerous warriors, but the sky is always a beautiful azure blue, the greenery within the city of Troy is always vibrant and verdant, and overall the color balance is just excellent. A few scenes are a bit on the dimly lit side of things for me, but it never ends up in Too Dark To See territory. I never once thought about or noticed any real film grain issues, and as I frequently say: it's only an issue if it's distracting.

Similarly, I found the music to be well-balanced, even when I wasn't enjoying it. There is a lot of thematically-appropriate sounding instrumentation in both scores for Troy (more on that in a second) but for my money, James Horner's score (which accompanies the Theatrical Cut) sounds too "American Action Movie" to me. On the other hand, original composer Gabriel Yared's score (included with the Director's Cut) has an appropriately eclectic sound, with movements that evoked a more "Greek Epic" feel, for me. Regardless which one you prefer, the audio package treats them both very well. I will mention that some other music cues (including one from Gladiator, if I remember correctly) are used to fill out the Director's Cut, which caught me off guard from time to time.

Special Features: Excellent

There are a LOT of bonus features, mostly archival, which I mention only so that you are prepared for the gloriously early-2000s computer generated menu animations and transitions included in some of them. So obviously, if you're a Troy completist and already own whatever previous release(s) these originated from, you won't be getting much new content, but if this is your first go-round with owning the flick, you're gonna have a lot of stuff to sort through. There's about an hour and a half, all told, and that's not including the picture-in-picture commentary "In Movie Experience", which, in the interest of transparency, I will say that I haven't checked out yet.

My favorite aspect of Troy are the battle sequences. They're enormous! Watching them, I was genuinely curious as to how much of the armies onscreen could possibly have been real and how much was digital crowd expansion (a tactic that had been around for some time, but had really reached new heights with Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in 2002). Luckily, the bonus features disc is quite expansive on the topics of both the effects AND the battle scenes. It's obviously a mixture of both, but the process shown in the various featurettes is actually really interesting.

• In Movie Experience
• Troy in Focus (13 discrete features) (23:09)
• In the Thick of Battle (17:14)
• From Ruins to Reality (14:03)
• Troy: An Effects Odyssey (10:55)
• Attacking Troy (15:12)
• Gallery of the Gods (12 discrete bios of Greek gods) (10:50)
• Theatrical Trailer (2:08)
• Image Galleries

In Summary: Buy it on sale

Are you a Greek history / myth super fan? Or a scholar of historical warfare? If so, I would honestly recommend Troy pretty strongly. As a borderline fantasy epic (the film tones down the presence of the gods, and attempts to make Achilles' nigh-invulnerability feel more realistic) Troy succeeds, and is chockablock with great small moments and performances, but Brad Pitt feels weirdly unengaged and that makes it hard for me to care about the main character.

The film also does a really cheap bait-and-switch involving Garrett Hedlund as Achilles' "cousin" Patrroclus, which I haven't mentioned because it's a pretty big spoiler (yes, for a film that's over twenty years old, and based on a book that is thousands of years old), but I just do not enjoy being so obviously hoodwinked. This is a relatively minor complaint however, obviously. If you are considering a blind buy, I would still recommend checking it out overall. 

SHANGHAI BLUES (1984) - Film Movement Classics

Shanghai Blues
Film Movement Classics

Original Release Date Oct. 11th, 1984 (Hong Kong)
Written by Koon-Chung Chan, Cheuk-Hon Szeto, Raymond To
Directed by Hark Tsui
Starring Sylvia Chang, Kenny Bee, Sally Yeh, Ching Tien, Man Huang
Language Cantonese (English subtitles available)

Purchase your copy HERE from Vinegar Syndrome

by "Doc" Hunter Bush
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Overview:

Shanghai Blues comes to 4K Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Film Movement's Classics line. Directed by cinema legend Hark Tsui, who has made films in many genres, Shanghai Blues is a love letter to screwball comedies. Film Movement Classics' release of Shanghai Blues boasts a very impressive video transfer and audio package with an excellent audio commentary track to back up the bonus features.

The Movie Itself: 4 stars

Shanghai Blues is an impressive work from a filmmaker with a very diverse array of skills and interests. With nods to films like Bringing Up Baby (1938) and the works of Preston Sturges, Shanghai Blues is Hark Tsui exploring his screwball comedy interests. Inspired by the stories told on a vacation with friends, Tsui wasn't even sure if he wanted to return to directing (he considered becoming a novelist) but the studio strong-armed him: if he wanted to see Shanghai Blues get made, he'd have to be the one to make it.

As a film, and an example of this type of comedy, Shanghai Blues fires on all cylinders. There's slapstick physical comedy, mistaken identities, big characters, lavish locations, plenty of action, a lingering love story, and even some danger thrown in for good measure, but it still manages to maintain a light-on-its-feet feeling throughout. 

Kenny Bee stars as Tung Kwok-Man (also called Do-Re-Mi), who quits being a clown to enlist in the war effort. When the city is bombed and the power goes out, he takes shelter under a nearby bridge along with a young woman named Shu-shu (Sylvia Chang). It's a real war-time meet-cute, as the two fall in love and promise to meet under the same bridge when the war is over. Ten years later, when Tung returns, life has set Shu-shu on a different path. She's now a dancer at a club where she meets Stool (Sally Yeh), a young, ditzier girl who swiftly moves in with Shu-shu. Little do they know that Tung, whom they refer to as Do-Re-Mi, is the handsome gentleman living in the apartment above them. The movie asks us to believe that it was too dark on that night, ten years ago, for either of them to have a clear recollection of what the other looked like.

As far as ridiculous set-ups go, this premise checks all the boxes, but there's also tuba-related physical comedy, a dance number where the dancer onstage doesn't realize her dress has a hold burned in the backside of it, and at one point, Stool wins a contest to become the Calendar Queen of a local department store. She attends a big, fancy mixer where she meets many other such Queens: a Toilet Paper Queen, a Biscuit Queen, a Toothpick Queen, an Insecticide Queen, and more. This leads to the one thing in Shanghai Blues that deserves a bit of a heads-up:

In a lot of screwball comedies, there is a mistaken identity component at some point, in some form and the mistaken romance is a reasonably common one; maybe the wealthy dowager accepts the romantic advances of our lovable loser lead because she thinks he's someone else, etc. Well, in Shanghai Blues, this trope is a little more objectionable. One of the wealthy sponsors of the various Queens intends to roofie Stool and sleep with her, only for her to inadvertently swap drinks with a hoity-toity socialite and fellow sponsor, Madame Yu (Man Huang). So the lecherous sponsor wakes up the next morning expecting to find Stool in bed with him, only to realize he'd "spent the night" with a different, older, lady. It's an uncomfortable moment in a film that's otherwise very sweet and light, but it's done with the tone that it's just another slapstick misunderstanding.

If that's a hard pass for you, I totally understand and I'm glad I took the time to bring it up. It really caught me off guard and cast an unpleasant pall on my first viewing. If you can acknowledge that it's messed up, and still try to approach it in the spirit that it was offered, i.e. with no ill will or ill intent, then Shanghai Blues has a lot of other, better qualities and moments to counter it.

The Packaging: 3.5 stars

This comes in your standard sturdy, black 4K case with a lovely painted cover illustration from Sean Longmore, showcasing a collage of characters and moments from the film. It really highlights how much of the film's settings and costumes are intricate and filled with details, from the clubs and the dancers' outfits to the less extravagant apartments and their neon-lit rooftop. There's also an included booklet with an essay from John Charles, author of The Hong Kong Filmography 1977-1997, that examines Hark Tsui's career at the time of making Shanghai Blues and the film's lasting place in HK cinema.

The Video: 4 stars

As mentioned above, the film is a smorgasbord of fine details, from the fabric patterns and embellishments on clothing to the colors and textures of the locations. The meticulously constructed world all around the characters is a visual treat and this transfer treats all of that detail very well. Film grain, when it’s appropriately calibrated, is almost unnoticeable; it becomes a facet of the film you're watching, a texture present in everything. I personally enjoy its presence (I do not know if this is even a remotely hot take). To that end, there are only a few, short moments where I noticed the grain at all, and they were each over quickly.

The world here is full of heightened colors and dramatic light, at times feeling akin to Burton's Batman (1989) or Beatty's Dick Tracy (1990), though not quite as heightened. There is frequently a slight peach tint that I've encountered in other Hong Kong films from time to time, that gives everything this very pleasant feeling, like an old photograph taken on a bright summer day. There are occasional shots where the focus is a little soft, but nothing beyond what you'd see in a Barbara Walters interview special back in the day. It's enough to notice, but wasn't enough to bother me.

The Audio: 4 stars

Music plays a large part in Shanghai Blues, both textually and subtextually, so the sound mix is very important here. I never noticed any real issues with my three-channel soundbar. The dialogue and sound effects of the main characters are a little loud in the mix from time to time, but it's really only noticeable in some of the more chaotic scenes; ones set in busy shopping districts, or at the fancy gala. In those cases, I noticed it, but it makes the important dialogue very easy to pick out, which is great.

My favorite aspect of the audio mix is that, when Kwok, and/or Shu-shu and Stool are in their apartments, you can always hear music playing softly. It comes across as though someone in a neighboring building is playing a radio at a reasonable volume, and adds to the immersion and reality of these locations, even as we're seeing zany physical comedy like a rat bouncing from person to person across apartments, with everyone freaking out about it.

The Supplements: 3.5 stars

This is a quality over quantity situation. There aren't a LOT of bonus materials, only two interviews adding up to about 45 minutes total, but they're actually very informative. What I look for in special features is anything that adds context for me, and the proverbial horse's mouth is a pretty great source. Hark Tsui talks extensively about his inspirations and impetus for creating Shanghai Blues, and assistant director O Sing-Pui offers even more information about the production itself. I also found the commentary track with Hong Kong cinema expert Frank Djeng incredibly useful as this was where the connections between the mistaken identity roofie scene and the larger history of screwball comedies were highlighted for me. It didn't make me like the scene, but now I understood where it was coming from, which helps.

This is all in addition to the aforementioned booklet and essay. That essay, and the two included interviews really helped me make the connection between Shanghai Blues and Tsui's later film Peking Opera Blues. Side note: yes, I know it was only released two years later AND it contains the "Blues" qualifier in the title, but my brain did not immediately connect those two dots. I'd only seen Peking Opera Blues for the first time a few years ago, but I absolutely l-o-v-e-d it! Once the correlation was pointed out to me, I realized how much connective tissue the two share, with Peking Opera Blues simply adding more operatic martial arts.

• Interview w/ Hark Tsui (26:01) (HD)
• Interview w/ O Sing-Pui (19:12) (HD)
• Restoration Trailer (1:45) (HD)

Final Thoughts: Recommended

While I overall really enjoyed Shanghai Blues, I will acknowledge that it's more of an acquired taste. The screwball comedy subgenre isn't as ubiquitous as it once was, and since that aspect, along with the love story, is the most central theme and tone of the film, it might not fully appeal to the widest audience. If, however, you are a fan of these comedies, or you're looking for a new bit of pure production eye-candy, I can't recommend Shanghai Blues strongly enough. It's just the right amount of silly and sweet (that one sequence aside, of course) that it's genuinely delightful to watch. And if you do watch, and enjoy it, I'll also recommend you check out Peking Opera Blues.