Home Video
[Blu-ray Review] ‘Deadly Eyes’ Unleashes Roid-Raging Rats!
When people takes steroids, they typically turn into raging douchebags. Turns out if rats take them, pretty much the same thing happens. In the 1982 Canuxploitation film Deadly Eyes (aka Night Eyes), loads of rats in Toronto consume corn grain contaminated with steroids, transforming them into rabid creatures the size of small dogs. Most of them are in fact daschunds with rat suits on (as I learned from the special features on Scream Factory’s new Blu-ray release) but in close up they’re gnashing, wicked looking puppets. These old school effects are a part of the film’s charm, along with its decent production and strong leads.
The film is a slow build. Before getting to the bulk of the rat carnage, director Robert Clouse (Enter the Dragon) takes us through a love triangle of Paul Harris (Sam Groom), a divorced school teacher whose student Trudy (Lisa Langlois) is convinced she can seduce him. But Paul only has eyes for a health department inspector named Kelly (Sara Botsford), whose boss scoffs at her work ethic. The great thing about Kelly is that she’s a really strong female character, particularly for a horror film. She’s powerful and sexy, but not overtly sexual or slutty. She doesn’t even wait for Paul to ask her out, she does the courting. Trudy may be a bit forward in her seduction of Paul, but at least she’s given more depth than many female leads of this era.
Anyway, back to the giant rats devouring humans. There’s a few gruesome scenes of rats chomping on faces, hands, arm, you name it. These suckers even have the audacity to eat Scatman Crothers, who has a nice small role in the film. His best part comes during the opening credits when his name appears onscreen over a close-up of his face as he’s inexplicably laughing, watching the mounds of corn burn. It’s super uncomfortable. Why does he think it’s so funny? Some men just want to watch the world burn, I guess, including Scatman.
The best scene of rat mayhem takes place in a movie theater, where a packed house is watching Clouse’s Game of Death. It’s a really fun bit and reminiscent of The Blob‘s classic theater scene. Even if the dogs in rat suits are never very convincing, watching them attack a theater full of people is hugely entertaining. The whole movie is, in fact. Anchored by a strong cast and well-developed characters, Deadly Eyes is definitely worth checking out.
The film gets its Blu-ray debut through Scream Factory with a solid 1080p transfer. It’s a really good image too, with strong detail and colors that pop – especially the blood. The 2.0 Mono soundtrack is perfectly fine.
Scream Factory has loaded the disc with interviews. The main one, “Deadly Eyes: Dogs in Rats’ Clothing,” features screenwriter Charles Eglee (who went on to Dexter and The Walking Dead), special effects assistant Alec Gillis, and production designer Ninkey Dalton. They cover a lot of fun ground in their near-30 minute feature. Eglee notes that he had no idea the film had a cult following until one of the other writers on Dexter clued him in. A lot of time is spent talking about the effects work, with both Gillis and Dalton providing their insight.
The other interviews include actors Lisa Langlois (who still looks amazing), Lesleh Donaldson, and Joseph Kelly. Everyone seems to look back on the film fondly. There’s also a discussion with effects artist Allan Apone, who was in charge of wrangling the weiner dogs. Each interview is light and fun to watch.
The disc also includes a short TV spot and the set contains a DVD of all the exact same material.
Home Video
‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]
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.
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