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‘The Return of Dracula’ Headlines Olive Films’ October Releases
Olive Films October lineup is now available and it’s another good batch with a lot of variety. If straight horror is what you’re looking for Olive has you covered with The Return of Dracula and Special Effects but they’re also provided some anime and sci-fi options as well. Doesn’t look like any of these releases will contain special features which is a bit of a bummer, but at least these are some good new titles to own on Blu-ray. Complete details below.
THE KING OF PIGS
Dir. YEON SANG-HO
Release Date: 10/18/2016Synopsis:
The King of Pigs, a tale of murder, revenge and classism, is the latest film from Korean anime director Yeon Sang-ho (The Fake).
Unflinching in its depiction of violence, The King of Pigs begins moments after the brutal murder of a woman at the hands of her husband, a once-successful businessman, Hwang Kyung-mi (Oh Jeong-se, The Unjust), and flashes back to his school days and the abusive events that have shaped his life and that of his estranged fellow classmate Jung Jong-suk (Yang Ik-june, Always Behind You).
As school boys, both men were considered part of a lower class of student known as “pigs.” Pitted against the affluent, upper-class “dogs,” the “pigs” hope an end to the abuse will come in the form of transfer student Kim Chul (Kim Hye-na, Flower Island), a rebel who will show the cowering students how to fight fire with fire.
THE FAKE
Dir. YEON SANG-HO
Release Date: 10/18/2016Synopsis:
Pastor Sung (Oh Jungse, Running Man), the beloved shepherd to his rural flock, finds himself under the thumb of Elder Choi (Kwon Haehyo, Killer Toon), an unscrupulous man who manipulates him into swindling the villagers out of the money they’re to receive for a relocation project that involves the village being flooded to make way for a new dam.
Realizing that Sung and Choi are not only stealing from the villagers, but putting them in peril, the warnings of a local outcast Min-chul (Yang Ikjune, The King of Pigs) fall on deaf ears. The villagers have come under the spell of these trusted men of God. But Min-chul will not be silenced. When his daughter is put in harm’s way, against all odds, Min-chul unleashes hell on the fakes.
Variety called The Fake, written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho (The King of Pigs), “a ferocious, unsubtle indictment of organized religion” stating that the film “impresses with its backgrounds and richly detailed interiors.”
VILLA RIDES!
Dir. BUZZ KULIK
Release Date: 10/18/2016Synopsis:
Villa Rides!, Buzz Kulik’s (Shamus) sprawling historical adventure set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution stars Yul Brynner (The Magnificent Seven) as the Mexican renegade Pancho Villa and Robert Mitchum (The Night of the Hunter) as Lee Arnold, an American fortune hunter for hire. Villa Rides! features a supporting cast that includes Charles Bronson (Messenger of Death) as Villa’s right hand man, Rodolfo Fierro; Herbert Lom (A Shot in the Dark) as the imperious General Victoriano Huerta; Alexander Knox (The Longest Day) as President Francisco Madero; Fernando Rey (The French Connection) as the dutiful soldier Fuentes; and Grazia Buccella (After the Fox) as Fina, the woman who would share the love of both Villa and Arnold. Villa Rides! is written for the screen by the legendary Robert Towne (Oscar-winning screenwriter of Chinatown – 1975) and Sam Peckinpah (Oscar nominee for The Wild Bunch screenplay – 1970) based on the novel by William Douglas Lansford; photographed by Jack Hildyard (Oscar winner for The Bridge on the River Kwai – 1958) and features a rousing score by three-time Oscar winner Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia – 1963, Doctor Zhivago – 1966, A Passage to India – 1985).
GAS-S-S-S
Dir. ROGER CORMAN
Release Date: 10/18/2016Synopsis:
It’s the end of the world! Get happy!
Gas-s-s-s, a mash-up of the science fiction and comedy genres, is a post-apocalyptic tale viewed through the lens of director Roger Corman (The Trip) featuring a cast of young talents-of-the-day including Cindy Williams (American Graffiti), Bud Cort (Harold and Maude) and Ben Vereen (All That Jazz).
When a military chemical accident (the gas-s-s-s leak of the title) kills everyone on the planet over the age of twenty-five, Earth is left in the hands of the youth. Hippies Coel (Robert Corff, Fright Night) and Cilla (Elaine Giftos, The Student Nurses) will lead the way on a quest for survival joined by boyfriends & girlfriends Hooper (Bud Cort), Coralee (Tally Coppola, The Godfather), Marissa (Cindy Williams), and Carlos (Ben Vereen) in the trippy and darkly comic Gas-s-s-s.
Directed by Roger Corman (The Trip) from a screenplay by George Armitage (Miami Blues), Gas-s-s-s co-stars Alex Wilson (Dirty Little Billy), Alan DeWitt (Tales of Terror), and in a cameo appearance, Country Joe and the Fish musician “Country Joe” McDonald.
STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND
Dir. ANTHONY MANN
Release Date: 10/18/2016Synopsis:
James Stewart (Vertigo) and June Allyson (The Glenn Miller Story) star in director Anthony Mann’s (El Cid) Cold War aviation drama Strategic Air Command. Robert “Dutch” Holland (Stewart), a successful player for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, finds his inactive duty status with the U.S. Air Force suddenly active. When Holland, originally tasked with a staff job, is promoted to commanding a B-36 bomber crew, his attempts to balance domestic life with Sally (Allyson as his devoted wife) and service to God and country will test not only his marriage, but also his sense of self.
Shot in VistaVision and Technicolor by the great William Daniels (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, How the West Was Won), Strategic Air Command features an amazing color palette and stunning aerial photography complimented by a rousing score courtesy of Victor Young (Around the World in Eighty Days, For Whom the Bell Tolls).
Equally impressive is the supporting cast that includes Frank Lovejoy (Try and Get Me), Barry Sullivan (The Bad and the Beautiful), Henry Morgan (High Noon), Jay C. Flippen (The Killing), James Bell (Holiday Inn) and Rosemary DeCamp (Yankee Doodle Dandy).
THE RETURN OF DRACULA
Dir. PAUL LANDRES
Release Date: 10/18/2016Synopsis:
For those who like their vampires with that certain European panache, The Return of Dracula is sure to thrill. Francis Lederer (Terror is a Man) stars as the titular Count – this time using the pseudonym Bellac Gordal – as he travels from his Transylvania home to the United States. In the guise of being a distant relative on vacation, The Count takes up residence at the home of the Mayberry family in sunny California.
Quicker than you can say “I like my stake rare,” The Count … er … Gordal is up to his old nocturnal tricks and comes under the scrutiny of young Rachel Mayberry (Norma Eberhardt, Problem Girls) whom Gordal has set his sights on, which may be her undoing.
The Return of Dracula, directed by Paul Landres (The Vampire) from Pat Fiedler’s script, co-stars Ray Stricklyn (The Lost World), Virginia Vincent (The Hills Have Eyes), John Wengraf (The Pride and the Passion), Gage Clarke (The Bad Seed), Jimmy Baird (The Black Orchid) and Greta Granstedt (They Never Come Back).
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Dir. LARRY COHEN
Release Date: 10/18/2016Synopsis:
From the writer & director of It’s Alive, Larry Cohen’s Special Effects casts a satirical eye on Hollywood, viewed through the prism of the horror film genre. When the fresh-faced Oklahoma country boy Keefe (Brad Rijn, Smithereens) comes looking for his wife Mary Jean (Zoe Tamerlis, Ms .45), a wannabe actress, he soon discovers the seamy side of Tinsel Town when Mary Jean is found dead and he’s the prime suspect.
With a few swipes at Hollywood archetypes (Eric Bogosian as Christopher Neville, a once-revered Wunderkind director; Zoe Tamerlis as Mary Jean look-alike, Elaine, a budding actress who isn’t beyond manipulating the situation for her own benefit), Special Effects offers chills, thrills, shrieks, and a few laughs along the way.
Written and directed by Larry Cohen, Special Effects also stars Kevin O’Connor (Let’s Scare Jessica to Death) and Richard Greene (TV’s Mad Men) in supporting roles.
There’s something really insidious, in a great way, about setting a horror story in a movie theater. It’s something filmmakers have known for decades, going back to The Blob and beyond, but it never fails to strike a chord because, in a way, it hits us exactly where we feel safest. Seeing a horror movie on the big screen, surrounded by like-minded moviegoers, is a communal experience, one in which everyone screams and laughs together. We are together, and therefore we are much less vulnerable, so when someone punctures that bubble of safety, it’s all the more frightening.
Matinee (also released as Midnight Matinee in some territories) is a movie that understands this from the jump, setting up a stunning opening kill that predates a similar sequence in Scream 2 by almost a full decade. A smart, layered, very stylish Canadian slasher released at the tail end of the 1980s, it’s one of those films that’s spent a lot of time in the dark even among the horror faithful (I’m willing to admit that I hadn’t seen it until recently). Now, a new Kino Cult Blu-ray release is out to change that, and it reveals a slasher essential that, while not perfect, has charm and style to spare.
Two years ago, the Paramount Theater in the small town of Halston closed its doors when, during the theater’s annual horror festival, a young moviegoer was murdered in his seat, mid-movie. Leads in the murder quickly dried up, and the case is cold enough now that the town barely talks about it anymore. Fortunately for local horror fans, that means the Paramount can open again in time for its Halloween horror festival, and they’ve got a hotshot producer (William B. Davis) in town for just such an occasion.
As the festival draws closer, the film introduces us to a variety of characters, including rebellious teenager Sherri (Beatrice Boepple), her boyfriend Lawrence (Jeff Schultz), her overbearing mother Marilyn (Gillian Barber), and the theater’s kindly owner, Earle (Don S. Davis), who’s just hoping he can run a business without more bloodshed. But someone clearly remembers what happened two years ago, and their violent streak is on a collision course with opening night.
Matinee has quite a few things going for it, but what stands out right away, and maintains a consistent grip right up through a wonderful crescendo in the third act, is the film’s visual style. Writer/Director Richard Martin, cinematographer Cyrus Block, and special effects wizard Bob Comer make great use of the film’s limited locations, giving the movie a charming small-town feel reminiscent of Halloween or The Blob while building a self-contained little world inside the theater itself that’ll remind you of films like Popcorn and Demons.
The colors are striking, the framing is clever, and the film clearly has a ball making references to all kinds of other horror cinema moments ranging from The Phantom of the Opera to Friday the 13th. The kills, while relatively sparing with gore, are delivered with style and appropriate tension, creating that sense of unease right in the middle of a place where we as movie fans should be comfortable: The movie theater. Along the way, the Paramount itself becomes a character, and this release definitely dials up its retro splendor.
The Blu-ray upgrade preserves the film’s attention to detail and ambitious cinematography, helping the colors to pop while never letting go of the texture and feel of a relatively low-budget horror film made in Canada in the 1980s. There’s a certain gauziness to many exploitation films of this era, that haloed light you get when the scene is perhaps overexposed just a little too much. It makes the film dreamlike even when it reaches for realism, and Kino Cult’s upgrade preserves that feeling. Throw in a smart script and a whodunit plot that leans heavily into the psychological details of each character, and you’ve got a winner.
There are a couple of things that stick out as slight issues here, including the lack of special features beyond an excellent commentary from film historians and Kino regulars Jason Pichonsky and Paul Corupe. The disc is quite reasonably priced, so it’s not a letdown economically speaking, but I’d love a deeper dive into the film and the Canadian slasher boom in general, particularly for a movie like this that seems to have faded from so many memories, including mine. The sound mix also has some issues, probably left over from previous releases, that might have you playing with your volume settings a little more than you’d like over the course of a 90-minute film, particularly when lines of ADR dialogue crop up.
These are minor concerns, though, and they do nothing to diminish the impact of Matinee, or the joy that’ll come from watching this film for the first time if you’re a slasher devotee in search of something new, or even someone who saw this movie way back when hoping to relive its glories. This is one of those slashers I’ll be talking about with fellow horrorphiles for a long time, and it’s because of this disc.
Matinee is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Cult.
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