Toxie's Triple Terror DVD Review page 2

Now it's time to take a look at volume 2 of Brentwood Home Video's Toxie's Triple Terror 3-pack sets. In all honesty, this second set is much better than the first and offers three films that are pretty decent Troma pickups. With this shitty introduction out of the way, let's get into the review.

Evil Clutch

You know, Evil Clutch has a pretty bad reputation. Every review I'd seen for it had been extremely negative. I dreaded reviewing the film, because I expected to set through something pretty pitiful. However, I was surprised that Evil Clutch was not as bad as I expected. A couple vacationing in the Alps meets up with a woman who is in distress. They help her out, until she takes off running when a man who speaks through an electronic speaking aid due to having a tumor removed. The man tells them a harrowing story that causes them to abandon him. They meet up with the same woman again, who tells them the man they met was crazy. But little do they know that they're in the presence of a succubus, a monster that can take control of men. Okay, that plot synopsis is about the best I can do. Unfortunately, Evil Clutch really doesn't have too much of a plot. It has practically no character development and tries to replicate a lot of its style from The Evil Dead. However, what really drives Evil Clutch is the visual style and the effects. Visually, the film is very well shot, though a bit over-indulgent with steadicam shots. Some of the angles were very reminscent to the work of Dario Argento. The effects were very well executed and quite excruciating to watch. For example, the succubus has a three-clawed hand coming from its nether regions that rips into a man's genitals toward the beginning. That was a tough scene to watch. The film also has great atmosphere, due to the lighting and sound design. While it lacks in a lot of areas, it was certainly a fairly enjoyable experience. Another irk is that the succubus character is supposed to be extremely desirable. However, they didn't cast a very attractive actress in the role. In fact, the actress looked frightening like a younger version of my sixth grade school teacher. Making that connotation made the scene where the main character lusts for her extremely disturbing. I'd say Evil Clutch is a mediocre film, but is definately watchable. The plot is basically non-existant and what is there doesn't make much sense. However, the film is done in a very unique style that deserves to be seen. Slow-moving, but stylish, Evil Clutch is worth checking out. VIDEO: The image appears to be a bit overly dark at times and I noticed a small video glitch around the 7 minute mark. I also noticed a few visible digital artifacts, which didn't pop up on the other Toxie's Triple Terror titles. Other than that, Evil Clutch looks great, with a clear image and accurate colors. AUDIO: The film was shot in Italy and like most Italian films, the audio is dubbed and dubbed rather poorly at times. The music and other atmospheric additions definately complemented the visual style perfectly. Like every other Toxie's Triple Terror title, it was oddly presented in 5.1. However, Evil Clutch appears to have a small amount of rear speaker action, noticeable toward the end of the film. BCI succeeds again! RATINGS: Movie: 2.5 out of 5 stars VIDEO: 4 out of 5 stars AUDIO: 4 out of 5 stars

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Chillers

I had already previously seen Chillers, since it was shot in my home state of West Virginia. I had heard mixed reviews on it, but I still wanted to see it, based on the fact that I plan on going into filmmaking and Daniel Boyd, the director of Chillers, is one of the few filmmakers to come from WV (interesting note: Surf Nazis Must Die producer Robert Tinnell is also from WV). Chillers is about a group of five strangers who get stranded at a bus stop and begin discussing their nightmares, providing a wraparound to what the movie really is: a horror anthology, consisting of five segments. The first, is a mediocre tale of a swimmer who comes in contact with the ghost of a dead diver. The second, is about a small boy camping for Boy Scouts(or something like that) whose scoutmaster goes insane. Third, is about a woman who's love call to a newscaster leads into a romantic encounter with him. However, he turns out to be a vampire. Fourth, is a young man who discovers the ability to bring the dead back to life. Fifth, is about a college professor releasing the chant to arise an Aztec spirit from an indian mound. The segments themselves aren't that bad and echo the campy horror films of the 60s. However, just like those campy horror films, most of them have their flaws. In my opinion, the best are the last two, as they are much more interesting than the others, especially, the last segment. The worst, would probably have to be the first. It really wasn't that necessary to include so many shots of guys in speedos. The photography is great, especially in the second segment, when the boy is running through the blue tinted forest. It was edited on video and it becomes extremely apparent during any fades or dissolves. The acting is mediocre at best, but then again, not many of the classic independent horror films have had very good acting. The special effects are good, but they rarely get the screen time they deserve. But all in all, the film is actually quite good. Especially if you enjoy cheesy horror films from the 60s and 70s. It's worth a look if you can find it for rental. However, I'm not sure if it's a film for everyone. I will say, however, if you live in West Virginia, you should probably try to pick it up, just for curiousity's sake. VIDEO: BCI's DVD appears to be much grainier than the previous Troma VHS release. Most of the grain appears to be video or digital related. Not only that, but a few small scratches on the film are visible. The worst part of all is that there's a bad video glitch at the 4:50 mark, which should've been corrected before the DVD was released. I was a bit disappointed in its presentation, the first time I've been disappointed in a Toxie's Triple Terror release. VIDEO RATING: 3 out of 5 AUDIO: In the first segment, the music is a bit too loud and overpowers the dialogue. In the VHS release, the music was not as loud as it appears to be in the DVD release. Whether there was a bit of re-mixing or its just due to the crappy sound quality of VHS is unknown. However, the rest of the film sports some very nice audio, which is leaps and bounds over what I've been hearing on the VHS version. AUDIO RATING: 4 out of 5 RATINGS: Movie: 3.5 out of 5 Video: 3 out of 5 Audio: 4 out of 5

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Beyond Evil

I went into Beyond Evil knowing not a damned thing about the film. Hell, I had never even heard of it being a Troma pickup until seeing it on the outside of the Toxie's Triple Terror box. Hoping that I wouldn't have to endure another film on the level of <i>Deadly Daphne's Revenge</i>, I found that Beyond Evil is actually quite good. The film stars John Saxon as Larry Andrews, an architect who moves to a new house with his wife Barbara(Lynda Day George) while working on a new project. However, the house they move into begins to not look as nice as it seems when they hear stories of a witch who lived there and the bloody past she had. As they settle into the house, Barbara finds herself being possessed by the ghost of the witch. Beyond Evil is a fun little campy horror flick that sports a great cast. The effects are mostly cheap optical effects, such as the possessed Barbara shooting laser beams from her eyes and a continual bright green glow that emphasizes the witch's presence. However, it does make for a pretty fun watch, despite having a few shortcomings. While I wouldn't call it as required viewing for Troma fans, Beyond Evil's not a bad little horror flick. It's definately worth picking up with the Toxie's Triple Terror volume 2 set. All of the films are pretty decent catalog titles, unlike the first set's abysmal titles. VIDEO QUALITY: Beyond Evil appears to be mastered from an old video of an incredibly dark and hazy print of the film. There are analog video glitches about four minutes into the presentation. The entire film is plagued with grain, poor focus, and the occasional print damage. Having a better master copy of this film would've been better, but it's still watchable. AUDIO QUALITY: Audio fares about as well as the video. The audio of the film wasn't spectacular to begin with, as there's some very poorly recorded location sound in the film. RATINGS: Movie: 3.5 out of 5 Video: 1.5 out of 5 Audio: 2 out of 5

Volume 2 of Toxie's Triple Terror is much better than the first. Instead of getting three awful Troma pickups, you get three fairly good smaller Troma titles for a good price. Volume 2 is highly recommended to Troma fans who want to get some good Troma flicks to expand their collections. If BCI's upcoming DVDs follow the same quality of volume 2, we'll all have something to look forward to every month.