The Hearse

I was lucky recently and won a copy of this on Blu-Ray,  I had never seen it before, despite having looked at it in the video store for years as a kid.  It was just one of those ones I never got around to renting, I assumed video stores would always be there,

First, let's talk about the disc itself.  Vinegar Syndrome did an amazing job with the transfer on this. It was scanned in 2K and restored from the original negative.  I can't imagine that it looked this good even at the time of its release.  The colors are all very bright and even the night scenes are clear.  The sound is great and level throughout the movie.  I don't like the releases where the dialogue is quiet and the action scenes deafen you.  Here every sound in the house and outside is crisp and adds to fright factor of the movie.

The edition I got had a reversible cover and I liked the art better than the original theatrical poster. The art is by Chris Garofalo and you should look at his stuff, it's amazing.  Here's a link to his site:   http://quiltfacestudios.storenvy.com/

Now onto the movie itself.  The Hearse revolves around Jane Hardy (Trish Van Devere) who moves from San Francisco to Blackford.  She takes up residence in her aunts old house, which was left to her years ago,

Now all horror fans know that once you move to an old house in the country there are two possible situations.  The house is either haunted or you will be menaced by evil locals.  In this movie it's the former, but with a dash of the latter.

"Why hey there pretty girl" there were no sexual harassment laws in the 80's

 

Once Sarah moves in she find the locals are uncooperative with her and afraid of the house.  It also doesn't take long until the titular hearse shows up to menace her at every opportunity.

Not a sight you want to see in your mirror 

 This is slow burn movie that reminds me a bit of The Changeling  and Burnt Offerings.  I enjoyed it and I miss this era of movies a lot.  There was no heavy reliance on special effects, just old fashioned suspense.

One last thing, is it just me or does the local preacher look like Reverend Kane's younger brother?

Streets of Horror

We recently decided to snap some pics of some streets around Orlando with horror related names.

Enjoy our trip through the mean streets of Orlando.

It didn't seem like a very legendary road.  

Not a summer camp in site.  

There were some odd looking people, but this is Florida

This one just reminded us of Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street

Virus (1999)

A salvage crew discovers an abandoned Russian science ship only to discover the creature that killed the crew is still on-board.

Virus was released in 1999 and had the bad luck to come out after Scream and in the middle of the slasher revival.  People just weren't in the mood for a monster movie.  It's a shame because this movie has some top notch effects and the story, while reminiscent of The Thing is still a lot of fun.

 

The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin, Marshall Bell and Donald Sutherland.  This was one of the last horror movies that Curtis did, and she seems to have nothing but disdain for it.  Which is odd since it is FAR from the worst horror movie she's been in (I'm looking at you Terror Train).

 The practical effects are what really set this movie apart.  If it was made today, they would do all the creatures with CGI and it wouldn't look nearly as good.

Some of the creatures reminded me of the ones from Hardware.  This was the first film directed by visual effects artist John Bruno.  He was responsible for effects on several of James Cameron's films, including The Abyss.

I was actually able to meet John Bruno and one the actors Marshall Bell at a convention in Tulsa Oklahoma before the films release.  They were both very excited about the film and the clips they showed at the con delighted the fans.  It was a shame the movie didn't do better at the box office.