The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark)

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Val Lewton's name is synonymous with the subtlest, most mysterious brand of horror filmmaking in Hollywood's golden age, and the nine horror classics he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946 constitute the most remarkable cycle of creativity in B-movie history. (For the record, the Lewton/RKO legacy also includes two non-horror entries, Youth Runs Wild and Mademoiselle Fifi.)

Before becoming a film producer, the Russian-born Lewton was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of pornographic novels. He also worked for years as assistant to David O. Selznick, a legendary producer with a distinctive personal signature--and a flair for grandiosity Lewton himself never emulated. It's ever so revealing that, on Selznick's Gone With the Wind, it was Lewton who came up with the idea for the famous rising shot of the Atlanta railyard filled with Southern wounded, with the Confederate flag streaming above--only he idly proposed it as a joke, never imagining that anyone would actually film such a spectacularly ambitious scene.

In 1942 Lewton left Selznick to undertake a series of horror films for RKO Radio Pictures. The studio would give him a budget around $200,000 per picture and a title RKO deemed to be grabby; Lewton would have a free hand as long as he stayed on budget, used the title, and gave the studio a salable movie of second-feature length (around 70 minutes). Over time, Lewton would increasingly have trouble with studio supervisors, but RKO was the right place for him. Although low in the pecking order among Hollywood majors, the studio made up for its lack of MGM-style glamour and Warner Bros. grit-and-gusto by working in a finely filigreed, almost miniaturist style. The art department under Van Nest Polglase and Albert S. D'Agostino was capable of exquisite artisanry, and in Nicholas Musuraca, a master of low-key cinematography and supple camerawork, Lewton found an invaluable collaborator in creating moody shadow-worlds where what you couldn't see was more disquieting than what you could.

He was also fortunate in having Jacques Tourneur to direct his first three efforts (they had teamed years earlier on the Bastille-storming sequence for Selznick's A Tale of Two Cities). They scored first time out of the gate with both a popular hit and a masterpiece: Cat People (1942). The story involves a pretty young Serbian woman in Manhattan (Simone Simon) convinced that her ancestors had practiced animal worship during the Middle Ages--and that she herself might shape-change into a lithe, ravening panther if her passions were aroused. The film is uncannily successful in keeping the viewer guessing whether this is a phobia borne of morbid obsession and sexual repression, or a genuine, horrific possibility. There are two sequences of matchless artistry and almost unbearable suspense--a lonely, echoing walk through pools of lamplight alongside Central Park, and a late-night swim in a deserted indoor pool--that build to throat-grabbing climaxes and remain milestones in the history of screen horror.

Many critics feel that the second Lewton-Tourneur endeavor, I Walked With a Zombie (1943), is both men's finest work. The title is so lurid that the heroine-narrator (Frances Dee) must shrug it off with her very first words, yet the movie is an amazingly delicate and poetic piece of spellbinding--nothing less than a reworking of Jane Eyre on a voodoo island in the Caribbean. Other horror aficionados prefer the more mainline ferocity of The Leopard Man (1943), an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story about a serial killer strewing corpses along the U.S.-Mexican border. Although on one level this is the Lewton film that veers closest to conventional mystery-suspense, there's no end of unsettling ambiguity (another black panther on the loose!) and hints of occultism and religious mania.

RKO promoted Tourneur to A-movies after this; Lewton would never again have so masterly a directorial partner. Yet in a weird sense (which is only appropriate), this underscores how much Lewton--with his wealth of arcane historical lore and storytelling archetypes, his quiet, patient attention to detail, and his taste for oblique narrative--was the essential auteur of all his films. Promoting first Mark Robson and then Robert Wise from the editing table, Lewton went on to make the deeply mysterious The Seventh Victim (1943) and The Ghost Ship (1943), two films in which such grotesque elements as Satan worship and murderous psychopathology are folded away inside eerily drifty, almost becalmed sleepwalks into eternal night. The Seventh Victim--a movie populated with more walking dead than Lewton's out-and-out zombie picture--is one of the cinema's supreme meditations on the ways lives brush against one another in the spaces of a great, impersonal city. And The Ghost Ship (the rarest of Lewton's films, owing to a ruinous copyright suit) is like a fever dream from which the viewer never awakens.

That's enough for a legacy, surely. Yet there remain The Curse of the Cat People (1944), a sequel that is not quite a sequel, a pretend-horror movie that's really a contemplation of the fragility of childhood; Isle of the Dead (1945), a doomed reverie about travelers who escape the Goya-esque chaos of a 19th-century war only to be beset with plague on a miasma-shrouded island; The Body Snatcher (1945), an atmospheric Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation that invokes the grisly history of graverobbers Burke and Hare, and supplies a together-again-for-the-last-time occasion for Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; and Bedlam (1946), the Hogarth painting come to life to portray the real-life horrors of an 18th-century insane asylum. Bedlam's critical and box-office failure ended Lewton's quasi-independent status at RKO; he would live to make only three other, unsuccessful films.

James Agee, the premier American film critic of the 1940s, reckoned that Val Lewton was one of the three foremost creative figures in Hollywood--an assessment yet more impressive when we consider that the other two were Charles Chaplin and Walt Disney. His greatest films--Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim--are towering achievements, and even his half-realized projects are haunting experiences, the products of an utterly distinctive sensibility. This is an extraordinary collection. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

Val Lewton, a famous RKO Radio Pictures producer, redefined the horror genre with low-budget, high-box office films. Now available are nine of these horror classics on DVD in the all new Val Lewton Horror Collection. Exclusive to the collection are a new documentary on the producer and 3 of the 9 films.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Greg Mank with Simone Simon on Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, Kim Newman and Steve Jones on I Walked With a Zombie, Steve Haberman with Robert Wise on The Body Snatcher, Tom Weaver on Bedlam, and Steve Haberman on The Seventh Victim.
Documentaries:Shadows In The Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

Val Lewton gives us a new genre: Endearing horror films.......2007-07-19

Val Lewton was that Hollywood anomaly: A creative producer, but whose talents never exceeded the B-movie environment in which he operated. The result was a series of horror films made fast and on the cheap but which, 60 years later, still have enough interest to qualify for their own genre: The endearing horror movie. Through the happenstance of Lewton's ability to attract and work with some talented (and inexpensive) directors and writers, we now have the opportunity to watch these nine movies. Some, notably Bedlam and The Body Snatchers, are very good. Some, like The Leopard Man, are eerily satisfying. Sit back and enjoy.

CAT PEOPLE:
Says psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd to Irena Reed, his reluctant patient. He is describing the things they have just talked about. "...and the cat women of your village...women who in jealousy or anger or out of their own corrupt passions can change into great cats, like panthers. And if one of these women were to fall in love, and her lover was to kiss her and to take her into his embrace, she would be driven by her own evil to kill him." As we can tell, Irena may have a problem. Her husband may have an even worse one.

THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE:
Great potential within limited means, and then the slow leak of air from the balloon. The Curse of the Cat People pulls together Simone Simon, Kent Smith and Jane Randolph from Cat People. This time, however, despite great photography and some eerie situations, the pieces simply fall apart. There is some tension and suspense, but to no great purpose. We just wind up knowing more than we want to about the needs of lonely children.

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE:
"Everything seems beautiful because you don't understand," says Paul Holland (Tom Conway) to nurse Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), on their voyage to Haiti where she will take care of his seriously ill wife. "Those flying fish, they're jumping in terror because bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water...it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies, the glitter of putrescence..." If that attitude isn't enough to be off-putting, Betsy discovers that Holland's "ill" wife may well be a zombie. The movie veers into melodramatic silliness; still, there's plenty of eerie atmosphere.

THE BODY SNATCHER:
For a low-budget, B movie horror quickie, The Body Snatcher holds up remarkably well. The horror is in the situation, not the actors' make-up or the staggering around of corpses. Corpses there are, but they're freshly dug up, and their purpose is not to grasp and choke, but to be dissected by a complex and morally ambiguous surgeon. We're watching a duel, as director Robert Wise says, between the two lead characters. Henry Daniell, the surgeon, and Boris Karloff, who provides bodies, pull off the trick of combining distaste, arrogance and mutual need.

ISLE OF THE DEAD:
This programmer is a good example of why B movies are B movies. The story could be interesting: A small group of people in an isolated setting are forced to deal with a threat to their lives. In the course of the movie some will live and some will die, some will prove brave and some will go mad. "The vorvolaka still lives," whispers the crone of a housekeeper, "rose-cheeked and full of blood!" Even with ripe dialogue like this, the movie becomes predictable.

BEDLAM:
Bedlam was not successful at the box office yet was probably the best constructed of Lewton's films. Along with The Body Snatchers, it stands up as a compelling story with solid dialogue and better acting than we've come to expect from Lewton's films. Boris Karloff, in a performance of skill and complexity, plays Master George Sims, the ruler of St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum in London...a forbidding hulk of a stone building. Bedlam, for short. The time is 1761. Bedlam is the place where the insane are sent, as well as inconvenient or embarrassing relatives. Nell Bowen (Anna Lee), is the smart, privileged and arrogant protege of a fat English lord. When she meets Sims, her dislike is instant. Before long, Mistress Bowen finds herself committed to Bedlam and must find a way to expose Sims. Bedlam is a clever and well-made film.

THE LEOPARD MAN:
Sure, The Leopard Man is a cheap B movie, but I like it a lot. It only runs 66 minutes and it packs a lot of craftsmanship into that time. What seems unusual to me is that the film, made to be filled with dread, is also filled with regret. "What sort of man would kill like a leopard and leave traces of a leopard..." says one character. When we find out, we're a little saddened. This was no raving monster with steel claws taped to his hands, just a quiet guy who was the victim of his nature and his obsessions.

THE GHOST SHIP:
This quickie is the story of a mad sea captain who has become fixated on doing away with his young third officer. Most of the action takes place on ship as the young man tries to convince the crew that the captain is mad. There is no style to the movie and the acting is just passable.

THE SEVENTH VICTIM:
This programer is noteworthy for just three things. First, an atmosphere of creepy mystery. Second, some effective characterizations by actors who never escaped from B-movie purgatory. Third, and by far the most important, an excellent performance by Kim Hunter in her first movie role. The movie has to do with a coven whose members seem to believe in death...for others.
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All the movies look just fine on their two-to-a-disc DVDs.

The Val Lewton Horror Collection.......2007-06-25

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"Cat People"
What you can't see "will" hurt you

A man marries a strange woman with a European accent. She seems shy, but she actually carries a secret. Seems she knows she came from a line of "Cat People" and passion can bring out her claws. This is reinforced in a scene at a restaurant where another one of her kind recognizes her. She also suspects her new hubby's female friend has designs on him. So we get a spooky scene at a swimming pool at night alone in the gym.

There was not enough money or sufficient technology to show scary cat people. They tried people in cat suits, but they just looked cutesy. So they decided to just show shadows and sounds. The rest was up to your imagination. It is a psychological movie with a touch of film noir. ---------------------------------------------
"The Curse of the Cat People"
In many ways superior to the original

The Curse of the Cat People (1944) is not really sequel to Cat People (1942) as much as a stand alone physiological thriller that just happens to be an extension of the original characters. We have seen the formula before but you may not have seen such a presentation; a lonely child Amy Reed (Ann Carter) seeks a playmate that understands her. Who best but the spirit of Oliver's dead wife, Irena (Simone Simon) one of the cat people. Naturally this upsets the parents. Toss in Amy's new relation to reclusive neighbor Julia Farren (Julia Dean). Julia has problems of her own relating to her daughter. The story just gets complex from there.

The question is, is it dangerous to fantasize that much and what will become of the characters in the end.
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"I Walked with a Zombie"
A classic Val Lewton production

We are treated to exotic titles and expectations with titles such as "I walked With a Zombie." My only encounters with Zombies are those that process in an UNIX operating system that can not be killed. I also watched "Weekend at Bernie's II."

As with other Lewton productions he got a way with a psychological thriller in the guise of a monster movie. In the days of sailing ships a nurse (Frances Dee) is employed to go to San Sebastian to look after a plantation owner's wife (Christine Gordon.) She fined that her charge is more than just a victim of a disease that heft her without will. Turns out if you cut the wife she does not bleed. We all know what that means.

The true story is the relationship to man and wife, man and nurse, nurse and wife, brother and brother, brother and wife, need I say more? Could it mean that there is nothing supernatural or is love moving in mysterious natural.

Can this all be straightened out or is Jessica Holland the wife destined to be zomiated for ever and the nurse must learn to love from afar?

Yeah Lord pity them who are dead and give peace and happiness to the living.
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"The Body Snatcher"
Based on a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson

"It is through error that a man tries and rises. It is through tragedy he learns. All the roads of learning begin in darkness and go out into the light." Hippocrates of Gos

This film has the psychological complexity of a Val Lewton production but is a lot more graphic than most of his productions where he just implies violence. He even takes it out on innocent dogs. I feel that some one was pushing Lewton from behind to be more vicious with this film.

A young student (Russell Wade) wants to become a doctor like the great Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane (Henry Daniell.) Little does he know what it will entail?

The DVD has a voiceover commentary from the late Director Robert Wise who directed "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music." Surprisingly he said that the original basic script was written by Philip MacDonald.
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"Isle of the Dead"
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE / Hamlet Act 1. Scene V abt. 1601

`Under conquest and oppression the people of Greece allowed their legends to degenerate into superstition; the Goddess Aphrodite giving way to the `Vorvolaka.' This nightmare figure was very much alive in the mines of the peasants when Greece fought the victorious war of 1912."

Gen. Nikolas Pherides (Boris Karloff) is an experienced watcher. That is he must watch over his troops to be sure the do what they are supposed to and survive to win the day.

Finding some time take a war correspondent (Marc Cramer) to visit the grave yard island where his wife is buried. There he meats a strange collection of people and an unseen enemy that is much deadlier than any bullet. Will he be able to fight it logically and scientifically? Or will his cultural fears lead him to see the truth?

Once again we see that Boris Karloff can act and that Val Lewton can take a scary title and turn it from a cheap horror movie into a classic Psychological Thriller.
---------------------------------------------------
"Bedlam"
Story suggested by The William Hogarth painting Bedlam plate 8 "The Rake's Progress

Once again Val Lewton takes what would have been a second rate horror story and turns it into a sit on the edge of your seat psychological thriller. The basic question of the story is the same as the one in his movie "Ghost Ship"; that is, is man fundamentally good and helpful of others or is he so self centered that he will act even to his own ultimate demise? An added element is that of not quite being granted all mental faculties.

The year is 1791 Lord Mortimer (Billy House) is just one of the upper class (Wiggs) that gets his kicks from watching the loonies of Bedlam loon. His protégé (Anna Lee) is discussed at the treatment of the "guests" by the head apothecary, Master George Sims (Boris Karloff who can actually act). She attempts to correct this to the detriment of Lord Mortimer. So Lord Mortimer and Sims invite her as a guest to Bedlam.

Will she ever get out or just go crazy. While there she applies a theory supplied by a Quaker (Richard Fraser), one of the Society of Friends if this works the tables may turn on Sims. What can Sims say in his defense?
------------------------------------
"The Leopard Man"
All or our lives are like the ball bouncing at the top of the fountain

Rival entertainers meet in a club in New Mexico Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks) brings in a leopard to upstage Clo-Clo (Margo). But Clo-Clo gets the last laugh when she chases the leopard off with her castanets.

All is fun rivalry until people start dying. Naturally the local authorities think it is the leopard. But Jerry Manning (Dennis O'Keefe) who rented the leopard has a theory that this is the work of a demented person. This theory is sort of supported by Dr. Galbraith (James Bell) the local museum curator. To make matters worse the leopard's owner, Charlie How-Come (Abner Biberman) does not remember where he was at the time.

As with the cat people it is what you don't see that can harm you. And the simile turning of a card can mark you for death.

You may recognize Dynamite the leopard that was also used in the movie "Cat People".

Produced by Val Lewton (7 May 1904, Yalta, Crimea, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) ) whose story telling device is unique in that this is more of a psychological film that does not focus on any one person as they are all pawns in a much larger story. Some time it verges on the surreal.

Now that you have seen the film read the book "Black Alibi" by Cornell Woolrich.
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"The Ghost Ship"
A new third mate on his first long sea voyage in introduced to captain and crew. Before he steps on bard he is warned by a blond man. He runs into a mute. And before they even leave port Jensen is found dead, just a heat attack. "With his death the waters of the sea are open to us. But there will be other deaths and the agony of dieing."

Don't go looking for anything supernatural as this is a Val Lewton movie. I would pay close attention to the characters. One of them may be a bit unhinged. The big question in this story is man's nature to help or ignore their fellow man.
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"Shadows in the Dark"
This is more of a Val Lewton biography with more emphasis on his producer years.

The Val Lewton Horror Collection.......2007-06-25

While the plots alone are enough to distinguish Lewton's brand of horror from other practitioners--a mysterious Serbian beauty might or might not have the ability to transform herself into a panther in "Cat People," a death-haunted New York woman is pursued by a cabal of satanists in "The Seventh Victim"--these films are also masterpieces of noir atmospherics. Karloff, an intellectual bored by ghoulish makeup, emerged from semi-retirement to make three pictures with Lewton: "Bedlam," "The Body Snatcher," and "The Isle of the Dead," with Bela Lugosi. It was a fruitful relationship. And this omnibus collection amply demonstrates Lewton's pulpy, lurid genius.

Quintessential Lewton..........2006-10-31

I've read the other reviews, and agree with most. Still, my favorite is "Curse of the Cat People". I've always been fascinated by (good) films that see life through the eyes of a child.Next to "To Kill a Mockingbird", I can't think of another film that brought me back to those simple, sweet times that adults just didn't get! (Except for Atticus, of course). I was also annoyed that the collection was in a tall box that would never fit on my shelf; I hate to separate them to fit on my shelf, alphabetically. Lewton had that wonderful idea, realized by Tourneur, with the glorious black & white photography, crisp and clear as a bell, and much appreciated by those of us who love outstanding film-making. I enjoy this collection a lot, but wish I could put it on the shelf with my other "collections", in a nice box.

Elegant horror.......2006-10-30

Steven Spielberg and Brian DePalma should be locked in a closet with a projection screen and forced to watch these films repeatedly until they swear an oath to imitate them. Made on what Tom Cruises' cleaning bill for one day's shoot would be adjusted for 1940 dollars, and infinitely superior to anything they have done. "Curse of the Cat People" and "The Seventh Victim" are largely unknown but the best and most subtle of these works. Less is more, I only wish there were more of them.

Shadow: Dead Riot: Unrated Collector's Edition

Average customer rating:

Pure Cheez Whiz
Crappy horror film is also a crappy women-in-prison film!
Completely redundant.
Sciamachy
Tony Todd, womens prison, zombies...what's not to like?

Shadow: Dead Riot: Unrated Collector's Edition
Starring: Tony Todd , Andrea Langi , Jaysen Clough , S. William Hinzman , and Captain Haggerty
Director: Derek Wan
Manufacturer: Shriek Show
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ASIN: B000CEV3RI
Release Date: 2006-09-12

Description

Horror icon Tony Todd (Clive Barker's CANDYMAN series) delivers his most powerful and evil performance as SHADOW, an executed and resurrected serial killer who invades a women's prison in search of the girl known only as Solitaire (Carla Greene)! Solitaire senses her impending doom and prepares to single-handedly take on Shadow and his army of zombies in a supernatural martial arts showdown! SHADOW: DEAD RIOT is a unique stylistic fusion of Asian-style action, zombie horror and women's prison drama.

Customer Reviews:

Pure Cheez Whiz.......2006-11-18

I really think that this was made INTENTIONALLY bad! It must fall under the category of "so bad its good." A title bestowed upon classic B movie cheesey ragu sauce like "Plan 9 From Outer Space." Ok so this is no Plan 9 but anything with zombies and Tony todd in the same sentence should be at least DECENT?? NOT SO! Despite having the usually good Tony Todd (Candyman, Night of the living dead remake ) and Tony Leung ( martial arts stunman to Bruce Lee and expert martial arts master hissdamnself ) this is pretty terrible. It is more of an exploitation horror flick, a very cheesy one at that, that has plenty of girl on girl sex and gore. The acting is terrible, and even the stunts are pretty low rate. This is surprising since Tony Leung is a master of the form. The budget they had making this must have been next to nothing. Besides some cool lesbian soft core and a few deent kicks and punches, this is the worst horror movie I've seen in awhile! It incorporates zombies into the already really corny mix of occult and soft core porn. I think this had zombies solely because of Tony Todd, a "zombie flick" alumnus. Better than "Day of the Dead 2" but will this go down in the annals of a "Candyman" or "Night of the Living Dead?" Uhhhh, no! the placement of zombies is just a ploy to get Romero fans and general fans of horror to watch this. It comes off more as reason to touch oneself with ya frat buddies! Really bad and only if you MUST go so low at least absorb the cheese factor for all its worth.

Crappy horror film is also a crappy women-in-prison film!.......2006-06-02

How could director Derek Wan have possibly screwed this one up?

I mean, yes, it was almost certainly going to be campy, mixing in zombies with pretty girls behind bars, but campy is supposed to be fun, isn't it? This movie is NOT fun. It's stupid and uninteresting.

Margaret Baker was very well cast as a predatory lesbian guard who sets her sights on pretty female inmates like Misty Mundae and Ruby Larocca. But aside from some brief conversation, nothing ever happens! There's not one halfway decent girls-molesting-other-girls scene in this entire film! Obviously the decision was made to get right to the stupid zombies instead.

What a disappointing dud!

Completely redundant........2006-05-06

One would think that Fangoria editor Michael Gingold would have seen enough crappy horror movies to know when he was contributing to the problem, but Shadow: Dead Riot stands as testament to the opposite. It's a good thing that a healthy fraction of the horror fan population seems to relish any movie with bare breasts, gore, and heavy metal tunes, because those are the only people who will give this picture's investors a return on their money.

Skip this flick and go with one of the half-dozen GOOD zombie movies released in the last ten years: 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, something else besides this.

Sciamachy.......2006-04-14

There are shelves full of horror films superior to this one. It is not even in the same category as 28 Days Later, for example, and barely allowable on a list including the low budget 2000 Maniacs. That said, Shadow: Dead Riot nevertheless is better than one might expect. It has a watchable mix of mayhem, sleaze, and dark humor. If much of the cast seems plucked off a Jerry Springer Show, this is appropriate for the inmates of the run-down women's prison in which nearly the entire action takes place. Carla Greene makes her rough-edged character Solitaire sympathetic enough to build suspense when she is put in danger. Most horror fans will find this movie sufficiently entertaining.

Tony Todd, womens prison, zombies...what's not to like?.......2006-04-08

Well, you'd think this had the makings of a cult classic ala "Manos" or "Plan 9"...they've even advertised martial arts. How can you go wrong with all these elements? Oh yeah, don't write any type of script, get the worst actors you can possibly find (even Tony's horrible in this) and shoot the whole mess on video. This movie is so awful it can't even be enjoyed in that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" way.
"Shadow: Dead Riot" is, hand's down, the worst movie I've seen in a decade. Stay very far away from this. I'd give it a zero rating if allowed.

Average customer rating:

Pure Cheez Whiz
Crappy horror film is also a crappy women-in-prison film!
Completely redundant.
Sciamachy
Tony Todd, womens prison, zombies...what's not to like?

Shadow: Dead Riot: Special Edition
Starring: Tony Todd , Andrea Langi , Jaysen Clough , S. William Hinzman , and Captain Haggerty
Director: Derek Wan
Manufacturer: Shriek Show
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000CEV3PU
Release Date: 2006-03-28

Description

Customer Reviews:

Pure Cheez Whiz.......2006-11-18

Crappy horror film is also a crappy women-in-prison film!.......2006-06-02

Completely redundant........2006-05-06

Sciamachy.......2006-04-14

Tony Todd, womens prison, zombies...what's not to like?.......2006-04-08

Average customer rating:

Pure Cheez Whiz
Crappy horror film is also a crappy women-in-prison film!
Completely redundant.
Sciamachy
Tony Todd, womens prison, zombies...what's not to like?

Shadow: Dead Riot
Starring: Tony Todd , Andrea Langi , Jaysen Clough , S. William Hinzman , and Captain Haggerty
Director: Derek Wan
Manufacturer: Shriek Show
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

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DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B000EWBNY6
Release Date: 2006-06-27

Description

Horror Icon Tony Todd delivers his most powerful and evil performance as Shadow, an executed and resurrected serial killer who invades a women's prison in search of the girl known only as Solitaire! Solitaire senses her impending doom and prepares to single-handedly take on Shadow and his Army of Zombies in a supernatural martial arts showdown! Shadow: Dead Riot is a unique stylistic fusion of Asian-style action, zombie horror and woman's prison drama.

Customer Reviews:

Pure Cheez Whiz.......2006-11-18

Crappy horror film is also a crappy women-in-prison film!.......2006-06-02

Completely redundant........2006-05-06

Sciamachy.......2006-04-14

Tony Todd, womens prison, zombies...what's not to like?.......2006-04-08

Average customer rating:

Stitches / Dead & Rotting

Manufacturer: Shadow Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Includes the feature length films "Stitches" and "Dead & Rotting"

Average customer rating:

good indie horror film worth tracking down
Well it is original but not great
Not So Great.....
Interesting low-budget horror
GREAT FILM, highly recomended

Shadows of the Dead
Starring: Shadows of the Dead
Manufacturer: First Look Pictures
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ASIN: B00049QJ48
Release Date: 2004-12-21

Customer Reviews:

good indie horror film worth tracking down.......2007-04-16

A good indie horror film worth tracking down.

People who say that this movie is a slow film, either haven't seen this movie or, I suspect that they are merely quoting some other uninformed source who doesn't bother to watch movies before reviewing them.

The are scenes with atrocious dialogue. But If you copy the scenes that are NOT idiotic onto a blank videotape, you'll have a five-star movie that is one hour and twenty-three minutes long with no story elements left out.

The story of this movie is actually pretty good. It contains action scenes, love scenes, playing scenes, scenes of people being human. And all of it is quite credible, given the time and society. And it is not drenched in hostility like the so-called "art" movies or other pretentious fare. The crisis and resolution are believable and satisfying. The music is average.

Bottom line: with the idiot-talk scenes cut, this is a rare movie. A good movie worth tracking down and owning.

Well it is original but not great.......2006-06-23

I like the idea of this film but it's just to slow and needed some spice, blood, action anything, I just stopped caring after awhile. I think the acting was fine but I would not buy this movie just move along to the next dvd.

Not So Great............2006-03-03

I bought this movie previously viewed and being a horror movie fan, I thought that this might be a good movie. Well, I can say I've seen alot better movies than this one. In a nutshell, a couple becomes stranded in the woods and discover what they think is a dead body. Wrong. After coming in contact with the "dead body", they both become infected with a deadly desease. They seek refuge in a deserted cabin because they have no where else to go. They soon realize that they will both suffer a horrible death. They turn to thoughts of murder in order to save their own lives. This flick contains a tiny bit of suspense but is basically a low budget movie that doesn't deliver alot to the viewer. I'd recommend renting it if you are really bored!

Interesting low-budget horror.......2006-01-18

I got interested in this from seeing the cover art in the video store, and found the blurb on the back to be interesting. It seemed like a unique take on the zombie movie, so I checked it out, knowing that it would probably be a very cheaply-made movie but could be fun. I found it pretty well-written with good interaction between the two leads, and the film makes good use of its low budget. It doesn't look cheap, except for some shaky camera work and a lack of variety of locations. The characters avoid many of the dumb mistakes people make in these kinds of movies, for instance they decide to stay in the car until morning instead of run around in the woods, although they also make some monumentally stupid ones, like deciding not to go to the hospital after John is bitten by something in the woods until he actually starts getting sick. I also have to wonder why it's so easy for them to steal medicine from the clinic and why the electricity in the abandoned cabin still works. The movie also doesn't make clear whether they ever got their car back so I wonder how they got around so easily. All in all it's a fun movie which moves slowly in some places and has some clunky dialogue, but worth checking out if you're into zombie movies with an actual plot.

GREAT FILM, highly recomended.......2005-08-02

a movie that I have a love/hate relationship with. In many ways I love this movie because it is a great horror film. It is well conceived and introduces fascinating new characters. The movie shows you can bring horror to the screen with the use of intelligence. I hate the film, cause it's obviously hurt by it's low budget. Couldn't the filmmakers held out for more financing, just so they could have done the story justice. "Shadows of the Dead" is an important interesting horror movie that all must see. Though it focuses on a young couple, it is not a teen-scream movie that relies on bloodshed and a bunch of half-naked chicks running around the set. If the masses would follow these type films away from a lot of the trash that Hollywood throws at us today. We we be a lot better off. Oh, well, such is life.

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