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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: July 14th, 2015.
Director: John Carl Buechler/David Schmoeller
Cast: Timothy Van Patten, Vernon Dobtcheff, Brian Robbins, Jeffrey Combs
Year: 1987/1988
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The Movies:
Two more Empire Pictures horror films on Blu-ray from Scream Factory! These were previously released on DVD but now get the Blu-ray treatment.
Cellar Dweller:
The first feature tells the tale of Colin Childress (Jeffrey Combs), a comic book artist who specializes in horror comics. When he creates a monster character for his latest effort by basing it off of The Book Of The Ancient Dead, he unintentionally unleashes it into the real world. When he lights his artwork on fire in an attempt to do away with the beast, he's killed as the ensuing blaze roars out of control.
Three decades after that, a lovely art student named Whitney Taylor (Deborah Farentino) wind up attending the Throckmorton Institute for the Arts. It just so happens that Whitney is a big fan of old horror comics, Childress' artwork in particular is a big inspiration for her. At any rate, the Throckmorton Institute is a rather unorthodox hall of higher learning as it's situated in the middle of nowhere and those who attend go without a telephone or any sort of connection to the outside world. Run by Mrs. Briggs (Yvonne De Carlo), it's a strange place but Whitney is excited to attend even if the woman in charge looks down on her artwork. She soon settles in and gets to know a few of her follow students - Lisa (Miranda Wilson), Philip (Brian Robbins), Norman (Vince Edwards) and Amanda (Pamela Bellwood) and soon sets out to create an all new comic based on Childress' original work.
Just as Amanda and Mrs. Briggs seem to be hatching a plan to get Whitney kicked out of the school, the gory drawings that she conjures up start happening in the real world - history would seem to be repeating itself!
Directed by John Carl Buechler, Cellar Dweller is an entertaining creature feature that benefits from a decent idea and some fun people in the cast. There are plot holes and areas of the story that aren't expanded on or fleshed out as much as they could or should have been, but as far as low budget monster movies go, it's a fun watch. Nicely shot by Sergio Salvati the film has a decent amount of atmosphere and the effects work, most of which revolve around the titular creature and the carnage that follows it wherever it goes, are also nicely done.
Moving at a brisk pace, the film was obviously made fast and cheap as most Empire productions were, but there's some appreciable creativity on display and it often gets the technical side of things very right. It might not be a masterpiece but it's a fun movie that horror fans should certainly have a good time with.
Catacombs:
Up next, David Schmoeller directs Catacombs. Here an American teacher named Elizabeth Magrino (Laura Schaefer) is invited to visit the catacombs at The Abbey Of San Pietro En Valle by a man named Brother Orsini (Ian Abercrombie). Specifically, she's to visit a chapel where a miracle once occurred but a fellow brother of the cloth, Marinus (Jeremy West), is not impressed by Elizabeth's presence and when she enters a room and he sees a cross fall from the wall, it only cements his feelings towards her.
What none of these people seem to realize is that Brother Brandt (Ted Rusoff) has been digging around in those same catacombs and after finding a sealed area, he's removed said seal and unwittingly unleashed the demon that was hidden behind it. Given that this demon, who had years back possessed a poor leper, was too powerful for the church's exorcists to get rid of, that's bad news. As the demon sets its sights on Elizabeth, another priest, Father John (Timothy Van Patten), who has been experiencing a serious crisis of faith, may prove to be her only hope.
Like the first movie this was made with a modest budget and likely a pretty rushed production schedule but it's a decent effort from Schmoeller and company that mixes up some ideas recycled from The Exorcist with more traditional monster movie trappings. The film relies pretty heavily on atmosphere over carnage but it works in that regard, the sets and locations used for the shoot are effective enough that this works.
The cast are also solid here. Laura Schaefer is as pretty as a peach and makes for a perfectly fine female lead, while her interactions with West allow him to craft an interesting, and somewhat suspicious, foil to Abercrombie's well-meaning Orsini. Throwing Empire Pictures regular Timothy Van Patten into the mix as the Father Merrin style priest wrestling with his own issues of faith and devotion was a good choice as well, as Van Patten is always fun to watch, his work here being no exception.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Cellar Dweller and Catacombs arrive on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. Cellar Dweller looks okay, showing decent detail and nice colors but having some trouble in the darker scenes with some washed out blacks and hot looking contrast. This is definitely a big step up from the DVD release and it's more than watchable but it has some issues, albeit none that should really prevent fans from upgrading. Catacombs looks much nicer here, showing more consistent black levels and noticeably stronger detail and texture throughout. It's also got less print damage and would seem to have been transferred from better elements than the first movie.
Audio options are provided for each movie in English language DTS-HD 2.0 stereo with optional subtitles provided in English only. Both movies sound pretty solid here, with some nice directional effects occasionally creeping into the mix to add to the fun. Hiss and distortion are non-issues and the levels are balanced well.
The only extra here, aside from menus and chapter selection, is a commentary track for Catacombs from director David Schmoeller (it first appeared on Shout! Factory's horror movie four pack released awhile back). For those who haven't heard it, Schmoeller does a great job of explaining the history of the film, what it was like working for Empire at this time in their lifespan, the effects work, the contributions of the cast and crew and the effects featured in the film. It's a pretty thorough commentary and as such, definitely worth listening to if you're a fan of the movie.
The Final Word:
Shout! Factory's Blu-ray release of Cellar Dweller and Catacombs doesn't add anything new in terms of extra feature but it does give each of these eighties horror efforts from Empire Pictures decent high definition upgrades.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
