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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: October 20th, 2015.
Director: Gilbert Adler
Cast: Dennis Miller, Angie Everhart, Corey Feldman, Chris Sarandon
Year: 1996
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The Movie:
The second in the planed trilogy of Tales From The Crypt films that were to follow the end of HBO's cult classic TV series film puts the humor in front of the horror. While the earlier Demon Knight was able to do that successfully, it still had all the elements of a good horror movie in place - atmosphere, jump scares, genuine suspense, a great villain in the form of Billy Zane, quality gore and Dick Miller surrounded by pretty topless ladies. This movie? Well, mistakes were clearly made here and isn't as good because of it, but it still has its moments.
The story begins with a midget explorer named Vincent (Phil Fondacaro) in the thick of a tropical jungle where he and his team explore a cave and then awakens a foxy vampire queen named Lilith (Angie Everheart). Lilith wakes up and kills off most of Vincent's team, but leaves him alive because he holds a talisman that gives him power over her (this artefact should look familiar to those who have seen Demon Knight).
A short time later, a young man named Caleb (Corey Feldman) is looking to sow his wild oats and hears word of a brothel being run in the local mortuary. He and his friends head out that way, unconcerned about the location. Caleb's sister, Catherine (Erika Eleniak), becomes concerned when hears about this. She hires a private detective named Rafe (Dennis Miller) to follow him and make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble. When Rafe takes the case and follows Caleb on his quest for booty, they all discover that while the girls are all hot and willing, they also have a penchant for human blood - they're all vampires!
While not as over the top in the gore department as its predecessor, Bordello Of Blood still has a fair amount of grue for you, and tops it all off with a plethora of bare skin courtesy of a lovely cast of vampiric ladies of the evening. While the villain in the film isn't a cool or slick as The Collector, she sure is a lot more fun to look at and on a visual level, there's not much to complain about (especially if you like to look at the ladies). Angie Everhart vamps up it rather well in terms of her appearance - her performance, however, really isn't all that inspired.
Miller works his way through the film basically playing himself. He's never short of wit or one-liners and does a pretty decent job as the wisecracking PI but he's smug, as you'd expect if you're even remotely familiar with the guy's routine. He's definitely better suited for political comedy than for a horror movie though, he just doesn't make for good leading man material, at least not in a picture like this. Overall, the film doesn't hit the high marks that Demon Knight does but it makes up for it with lovely ladies, and Corey Feldman (and an odd cameo from Whoopi Goldberg of all people).
Video/Audio/Extras:
Tales From The Crypt: Bordello Of Blood arrives on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory in a 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and it looks very good. The opening credits, wherein we journey into the Crypt Keeper's decrepit old house, look a bit rough but outside of that the image is nice and clean. Detail is much improved over the past DVD release and all in all the picture quality here is quite strong. Compression issues are not a problem and there doesn't appear to be any overzealous noise reduction. Black levels are solid and skin tones look good.
English language audio options are provided in DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo Master Audio tracks. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided. The 5.1 mix does a pretty nice job of spreading out the iconic Tales From The Crypt theme song and the effects, it also does a good job of placing the music and effects properly. Dialogue is clean, clear and nicely balanced and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion.
Extras on the disc start out with an audio Commentary with co-writer/producer A.L. Katz that is refreshing in its honesty about the movie under discussion. Katz gives us his thoughts on what went right and what went wrong, the approach they all took to following up the much better regarded Demon Knight, his thoughts on the efforts of the cast and crew and quite a bit more. This is nicely complimented by a thirty-five minute long featurette called Tainted Blood: The Making Of Tales From The Crypt Presents Bordello Of Blood. Katz shows up on camera here as do actors Corey Feldman, Angie Everhart and Erika Eleniak, editor/second unit director Stephen Lovejoy and SFX guru Todd Masters. Note that Dennis Miller isn't interviewed here, and probably for good reason as he's spoken of pretty unfavorably. This covers some of the same ground as the commentary but as there's input from not just Katz but quite a few others too it also sheds some light on some different aspects of the production.
There's also a still gallery, a video promo spot, a theatrical trailer, animated menus and chapter selection. Shout! Factory has also provided reversible cover art with the original one sheet on one side and the newly created art on the other. That same newly created art also graces the front of the accompanying slipcover.
The Final Word:
Tales From The Crypt: Bordello Of Blood is far from a good movie, in fact, it's a fairly bad movie, but it is worth seeing at least once even if it fizzles more often than not. As to the presentation, Shout! deserves full marks for giving this one a very nice transfer, fine audio and some supplements that are actually quite a bit more rewarding than the feature itself.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
