THE PREY: CAMPFIRE STORY

Released and shot somewhere between 1979 and 1983 depending on which source you choose THE PREY was one of those movies that had a limited theatrical release and soon found its way onto the shelves of video stores everywhere. The cover art at the time featured an axe piercing what appears to be a body. That was enough to get horror fans ready to rent. What they found was familiar and different at the same time.

The story takes place in the Keen Wild national forest in the Colorado where in 1948 a wildfire burned down much of the North Point area. Now 6 college age students are on a camping trip in the area. Before heading up they meet Ranger Mark O’Brien (Jackson Bostwick) who catches the girl’s eyes and leaves tells them to be safe.

The group heads out with one of the girls more interested in her looks than carrying a backpack loaded with supplies. Along the way we get a point of view shot of someone or something watching them. They eventually make camp and settle in for the night. While sitting around the campfire one of the guys tells them a story about what took place all those years ago.

This takes up a large portion of screen time as he tells them a camp of gypsies used to camp nearby. One of the heads of the group was having an affair with a woman from town. When her husband finds out she claims she was raped. He and a few other townsfolk track down the gypsies and kill them with the exception of one, a boy who was born physically challenged and much larger than his age. Now folks talk of him haunting the woods.

Of course the group laughs at him and, of course again, he does indeed exists and begins killing off the kids one by one. We’ve seen this story before and little is added to it for this movie. That is with the exception of a twist at the end.

The movie moves along at a meandering pace which some praise and others condemn. For myself I found it added nothing. The “creature” we’re presented with at the end is also a major let down looking more like a man in a mask than Michael Myers did in HALLOWEEN. I was stunned to read that John Carl Buechler was responsible for this makeup. Then again he did give us the effects for GHOULIES.

There are no performance here worthy of note and the fact that among the 6 actors portraying the students they have less than 100 performances between them says something. Some in fact have only this film to their credit. Smart move.

Here’s the thing. For such a poorly received movie that made its way to video quickly Arrow Video is giving it a major overhaul. Fans of the film will rejoice, slasher fans will be glad to add another film to their collection and the less discerning horror fan will pick it up to make it part of their shelf as well. Making it worth that is the fact that Arrow, as is always the case, are treating this film like a major event and their decision to do so makes it worth picking up, in particular for all of the extras they’ve added.

I mean come on, look at this list of extras! It includes 3 different versions of the film: the original US theatrical cut, the international cut and the composite cut. They’re all 2k restorations of the film giving fans the ultimate quality for the film. The International cut features the gypsy flashback footage that was added later by the producers without the approval of the original filmmakers. The 2 disc set features an original slipcover with the original UK home video artwork, a reversible sleeve with new artwork by Justin Osbourn, a limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by Ewan Cant, a new audio commentary track with producer Summer Brown, a new audio commentary track with director Edwin Scott Brown, an audio interview with Edwin Scott Brown, a new on-camera interview with actress Debbie Thureson, a new on-camera interview with actress Lori Lethin, a new on-camera interview with actor Carel Stuycken, a new on-camera interview with actor Jackson Bostwick (who some may remembers as TV’s Saturday morning hero Shazam from long ago), “In Search of The Prey” where actors Cant and Thureson revisit the original shooting locations in Idyllwild, CA, a Q&A session at Texas Frightmare Weekend in 2019, the VHS trailer and TV spot, the original script on BD-ROM content and an extended outtakes reel with 45 minutes of never before seen outtakes. If that wasn’t enough that composite version features the combined efforts of both the US and International prints to make the most complete version of the film available.

Arrow is doing this movie right like they always do. But changing things up they are limiting it to just 3000 copies so if you’re inclined to want this one in your collection make sure you order yours right away. With so few copies they won’t last long. 

Click here to order.

MAZE: TRUE PRISON BREAK

Based on the true story of the infamous 1983 prison breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from Her Majesty’s Prison Maze. A maximum prison considered escape proof it proved otherwise when these men, convicted of taking part in armed paramilitary campaigns during in Ireland, did indeed escape.

Following a hunger strike in another prison that resulted in several inmates dying certain members were transferred to other locations. Larry Marley (Tom Vaughan-Taylor) is one of those transferred, looked down on by his fellow inmates who think he caved in on the strike. The fact is that he remained loyal to the cause and now wants to prove himself by planning an escape from the Maze.

Each member of the crew must put together bits and pieces of information that they then feed to Marley. By doing so they begin to piece together a map of the prison and understand why the term maze was used. But with this information about the various locations in the prison he is able to work out a plan that would allow them access from one section to the next.

The movie meticulously shows the process that Marley and his crew had to go through to make the escape happen. In so doing it makes for a slow moving film that offers little to no action until the final moments when the escape actually takes place. The thing is that while viewers today may be unused to films like this the reality would have seemed more as depicted here than a rough and tumble action flick.

Perhaps the one thing that will do the movie more harm than anything is the lack of familiarity with the background story being told here, that of the IRA and their battles in Ireland. It’s a story that will be familiar to the Irish and the British but how many people around the world will understand which side to root for and which one to hold accountable? And will that decision lie in your loyalties to one group or the other?

The production values here are well done and the prison looks more realistic than many have in past films about prison breaks. Vaughan-Taylor does a fine job as the main character the story focuses around and brings him to life. Barry Ward as prison guard Gordon Close matches him scene for scene and offers some of the more dangerous aspects of being a guard against this group when his family is nearly bombed.

The end result is a movie that’s good but at the same time incredibly slow moving. The final prison break is interesting and deadly. I have no doubt that the reality of the situation was much more intense than depicted here but once more not being well read in the war going on made the film a bit difficult to sympathize with one group or the other. Knowing more on the topic would make it a much better film so perhaps reading up on the subject would have made it better.

Click here to order.

BODY AT BRIGHTON ROCK: PARK PROBLEM

It’s difficult to make a truly original horror film. So much has been done before and fresh ideas are difficult to pull off no matter how talented the director. With that in mind BODY AT BRIGHTON ROCK is a movie that does its best but in the end is offers mediocre scares. At least director/writer Roxanne Benjamin deserves credit for trying.

Wendy (Karina Fontes) is a part-time park ranger at a major national park filled with beautiful countryside and mountainous terrain. Not as skilled as her friends she opts to trade one of them to cover replacing signs along the trails of one of the more difficult areas. All goes fine until she gets lost in those mountains and then comes across a dead body.

Near Brighton Rock on the map she calls in her location, at least where she thinks she is, and reports the body. Even though in an area with bears roaming around she’s told that she will have to make camp and stay there with the body until the following morning, it’s too late for a chopper to successfully land nearby.

She follows her instructions but then strange things begin happening. The first is that while on a nearby mountain top she sees someone checking out the body. She tells him to leave it alone and has a conversation with him. He tells her he lives nearby and that he saw the body. Eventually they part ways and he leaves her to her lone vigil.

It is during this night alone with a dead body nearby that things begin to happen. The question becomes are they really happening or is it an overactive imagination fueled by her surroundings. On top of that the question of her hallucinating the things she’s seeing is brought forward. It’s a harrowing night and one that she’s not likely to forget but it is the twist at the end you won’t see coming that elevates this film from what it was at the beginning.

Making a horror film that takes place in a national park (unless of course it’s another teens getting killed by mad slasher flick) is not an easy task. It’s even more difficult when you rely on a single character and a dead body to move the story forward. But Benjamin does an admirable job of making the film a bit of a frightener. Perhaps not for the die-hard horror fanatic but definitely for the more average film goer.

Fontes does a decent job here as well but it would be nice to see her in a meatier role before praising or condemning her as an actress. From what is seen here she has great potential. As for the rest of the cast their parts are small enough that they’re not quite noticeable enough to comment on.

The end result is a movie that offers some chills and spills and a few quick laughs but mostly has you rooting for this new ranger. If you place yourself in her shoes you have to wonder if you would have chosen to spend the night with a dead body in the middle of bear infested woods or not. Let’s hope none of us ever have to make that call and if so that you’ve not seen this movie beforehand. 

Click here to order.

DARK PHOENIX: PHOENIX FALLS IN ASHES

 

In a world where super hero movies reign it would seem strange to find one series of films that continually drop viewers rather than find them on the increase. And yet that’s exactly what has happened with the X-Men franchise. The first film kicked off the beginning of the new super hero craze but with each subsequent film they got worse rather than better. In part that was due to their steering away from source material but the major reason is the movies, well, just got worse.

Now we have the last in the line of X-Men films to come from 20^th Century Fox, the company that has owned the rights to the series but was recently bought out by Disney who happens to own the Marvel brand. Talk is already in the works that a new series based on the characters is forthcoming. After DARK PHOENIX we can only hope so.

Opening in 1975 with the tragic accident that landed Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) in the Xavier School for Gifted Children, the story moves to 1992 and just nine years after the last X-Men film involving Apocalypse. The X-Men are now seen as heroes and the President calls on them to save space astronauts trapped in a shuttle as a solar flare heads towards Earth. They save the day but during the rescue Jean is caught in the solar flare and it has devastating effects on her.

The flare increased her psychic abilities and removed a block Prof. Xavier (James McAvoy) placed in her mind preventing her from learning how her parents died. She learns that her father survived and abandoned her to Xavier and goes to visit him where he now lives. Dealing with a form of post-traumatic stress disorder she finds herself in a rage when the X-Men show up to take her home resulting in a battle that leaves one of the key members dead.

Leaving her ex-teammates behind she travels to Genosha seeking the help of Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to control this unstoppable rage. He denies her the assistance and when the US military shows up she unleashes her power on them, Magneto and his people. When Magneto learns who Jean has killed he sets out to eliminate her in New York City.

While this is transpiring Jean runs into Vuk (Jessica Chastain), an alien who has possessed the body of a human here on Earth. The leader of an alien race known as the D'Bari, she explains to Jean a cosmic power wiped out her planet and was traveling the stars when it came across Jean, the solar flare that took place at the beginning of the movie. She offers to take the power cosmic from Jean. But what she doesn’t reveal is that in doing so Jean will die and then she will use the power to conquer Earth. Only the X-Men stand in her way.

The movie fails on numerous levels, none of them technical or effects related. Those are, as always, well done. It fails in the story. First off we’ve already had the story of Jean Grey and the Phoenix in the 2006 film X-MEN: THE LAST STAND. So now we as viewers are supposed to toss aside all of the movies from the original films and assume none of it happened. This on top of the fact that the source material, the actual comics the series is based on, had a completely different storyline as well. Why call it this if you don’t intend to use most of the original story? Unless it was just to get fans in the seats no matter how disappointed they would be.

The film was in turmoil long before it was released to theaters. Problems with the shooting, the failure of the film in the series released before this one and the lack of enthusiasm from the studio made it a one off feature that was just there to finish a contract. It shows. There is no depth of character or story here that would draw in those who loved the original film or even the efforts behind X-MEN: FIRST CLASS which was decent as well.

As I said Disney/Marvel have been talking about rebooting this and the Fantastic Four films that Fox owned the rights to as well and also made a ton of mistakes on. One can only hope that the end result with those from Marvel on board will result in something better than this. As a person who likes to collect entire runs of series on film I will find it difficult to add this to my collection, even if I find it in the used store. If you want to see it to make sure you’ve seen them all go for it but die-hard fans will not want to bother.

Click here to order.