Connect with us

Home Video

Shout! Factory Announces Several Must-Have Horror Titles at #SDCC

Published

on

Shout! Factory held a panel tonight at the San Diego Comic Con where they announced several future titles that they have in the works. I hope you all have your wallets ready or at least have a good standing credit so that you can buy all of these because there’s pretty much not a bad title in the list!

Below is all the movies that Shout! announced at their panel and on Twitter. They include such gems as Black Christmas, Slumber Party Massacre II, Bubba Ho-Tep, Dreamscape, Willard, The House That Screamed, and two films from the legendary David Cronenberg!

If we know anything about Shout! Factory and their horror arm Scream, it’s that they’re passionate about delivering the best product imaginable so that fans feel like every penny was worth it. I know that I haven’t gotten anything from them that I felt didn’t meet my expectations.


To Live and Die in L.A.

Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Willem Dafoe, William Peterson, John Panknow, Debra Feuer, John Turturro
Two cops in Los Angeles try to track down a vicious criminal. Then, one of them is killed and the other one swears revenge no matter what the cost. After that, the hunt becomes an obsession and the law he once swore to uphold becomes meaningless to him. (Source)


Dead of Winter

Director: Arthur Penn
Starring: Mary Steenburgen, Roddy McDowall, Jan Rubes
A fledgling actress is lured to a remote mansion for a screen-test, soon discovering she is actually a prisoner in the middle of a blackmail plot.


The House that Screamed

Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador
Starring: Lilli Palmer, Cristina Galbó, John Moulder-Brown
Lilli Palmer owns and runs a school for wayward girls in France. Her absolute discipline has fostered a social order among the girls with rampant sex, lesbianism and torture the norm. Palmer also has an adolescent son (Moulder Brown) she tries to keep isolated from the young women lest he be tainted by sexual relations; She explains that he must wait for a girl “just like his mother”. Meanwhile, girls are “running away” (being murdered) one by one, with their corpses and any evidence of their outcome not to be found. (Source)


Slumber Party Massacre II

Director: Deborah Brock
Starring: Crystal Bernard, Jennifer Rhodes, Kimberly McArthur
Courtney Bates, the younger sister of Valerie, and her friends go to their condo for a weekend getaway, but Courtney can’t get rid of the haunting feeling that a supernatural rockabilly driller killer is coming to murder them all.


Slumber Party Massacre III

Director: Sally Mattison
Starring: Keely Christian, Brittain Frye, Michael Harris
After a hard day of volleyball at the beach, a teen whose parents are away decides to have a slumber party with her girlfriends. Their boyfriends predictably show up to scare them, but a stranger from the beach is also seen lurking around the house. Soon the group begins experiencing an attrition problem. (Source)


Dead Ringers

Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske
Twin gynecologists take full advantage of the fact that nobody can tell them apart, until their relationship begins to deteriorate over a woman.


Rabid

Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver
A young woman develops a taste for human blood after undergoing experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into rabid, blood-thirsty zombies who proceed to infect others, which turns into a city-wide epidemic.


Dreamscape

Director: Joseph Ruben
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer
A young psychic on the run from himself is recruited by a government agency experimenting with the use of the dream-sharing technology and is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of the U.S. president.


Poltergeist II

Director: Brian Gibson
Starring: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O’Rourke
The Freeling family have a new house, but their troubles with supernatural forces don’t seem to be over.


Poltergeist III

Director: Gary Sherman
Starring: Heather O’Rourke, Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen
Carol Anne is staying with her aunt in a highrise building, and the supernatural forces that have haunted her previously follow her there.


Black Christmas

Director: Bob Clark
Starring: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder
During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.


Willard

Director: Daniel Mann
Starring: Bruce Davison, Elsa Lanchester, Sondra Locke
A social misfit uses his only friends, his pet rats, to exact revenge on his tormentors.


Ben

Director: Phil Karlson
Starring: Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella, Arthur O’Connell
A lonely boy befriends Ben, the leader of a violent pack of killer rats.


Bubba Ho-Tep

Director: Don Coscarelli
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce
Elvis and JFK, both alive and in nursing homes, fight for the souls of their fellow residents as they battle an ancient Egyptian Mummy.


Home Video

‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

Published

on

Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

Continue Reading