4K UHD Review: MAXXXINE (2024)

MAXXXINE

Written & Directed by:  Ti West

Distributed by:  Second Sight Films

 The final installment in Ti West's X Trilogy, MAXXXINE is once again a very different style of film as the first two films.  X was a dark and grimy 70's style horror film, while PEARL was a vibrant and colorful nod to old Hollywood, disguised as a horror film.   MAXXXINE is set in 1980's Hollywood and was very reminiscent of Hollywood slashers of the 80's.  

 Here is the basic plot synopsis, courtesy of Second Sight Films:

An adult film star in 80s Los Angeles tries to cross over to the mainstream by starring in a new horror film, but her past soon catches up with her and friends and colleagues start turning up dead.

  This film immediately made me think of Robert Vincent O'Neil's 1984 film, ANGEL.   While that film focused on a serial killer targeting prostitutes,  the killer in MAXXXINE was targeting female adult film actresses.  West did an amazing job of making this film feel like you were watching something straight from the 80's.  The wardrobes and hair styles were spot on.  Also worth noting was the amazing soundtrack featuring tons of 1980's hit songs.  

  Mia Goth again stars as Maxine Minx, the character she portrayed in the original film, X.   If you'll remember from my review of PEARL, she also plays the character of Pearl, the woman that owned the farm Maxine shot the adult film at in X.   Confused?  I was too at first, but somehow Mia Goth pulls it off and makes it work.  I think that is a testament to the talent that she is. 

  As with the previous installments, there are some great effects, with lots of blood and gore.  One scene in particular made me physically cringe, and I expect most males that watched this did the same.  That should be a good hint and what part of the body that effect involved!  

 Director Ti West once again does a wonderful job and makes another very stylistic horror film, and a nice wrap up to the X trilogy.   While I personally think MAXXXINE was the weakest of the 3 films, it was still very good and definitely worth a watch.     Second Sight Films again does a remarkable job with this 4K release.  The picture and sound quality is amazing, and as you can see below, these releases are loaded with some awesome Special Features!

MAXXXINE is available now in 4K UHD and a 4K UHD Limited Edition set.   The standard edition contains the following Special Features:

• Presented in HDR with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

• New audio commentary commentary by Bill Ackerman & Amanda Reyes

• Back to the Blank Page: a new interview with Director Ti West

• Money on the Screen: a new interview with Producer Jacob Jaffke
  
  
• B-Movie Aesthetic: a new interview with Director of Photography Eliot Rockett 
  
  
• Curating Space: a new audio interview with Production Designer Jason Kisvarday
  
  

• The Whole World's Gonna Know My Name: Kat Hughes on MaXXXine

• The Belly of the Beast

• XXX Marks the Spot

• Hollywood is a Killer

• Q&A with Ti West

The Limited Edition set contains all the Special Features from the standard edition, plus the following extras:

• Rigid slipcase with new artwork by OC Agency Group

• 120-page book with new essays by Reyna Cervantes, Sarah Miles, Sam Moore, James Rose, Rebecca Sayce and Michelle Swope

• 6 collectors' art cards 

CLICK HERE to purchase the 4K UHD

CLICK HERE to purchase the 4K UHD Limited Edition set

4K UHD Review: PEARL (2022)

PEARL

Directed by:  Ti West

Distributed by:  Second Sight Films

 I was a big fan of Director Ti West's 2022 film X starring Mia Goth, and I was aware of the other two films in the trilogy, but had just not watched them yet for some reason.   I finally got to check out the 2nd film in the trilogy, PEARL, thanks to the new 4K UHD release from Second Sight films. 

 Here is the basic plot of the film courtesy of the Second Sight Films website:

A troubled young woman pursues stardom in a desperate attempt to escape the boredom, loneliness, and lovelessness of life in her small town. As life on her parent’s farm grows more and more frustrating, her mask of sanity slowly starts to slip.

  PEARL is actually a prequel to X, and like X, PEARL also stars Mia Goth, but this time she's playing the part of the farm owner killer from X. 

 This film was much different than the first film.  X was very dark and dirty feeling.  It had a very 70's Grindhouse horror look and feel to it.    Pearl was vastly different in that it is set in 1918 and is very vibrant in both the tone of the film and the look of the film.  The colors burst off the screen in this new 4K UHD release.   I love the way they made the film look like an older film, especially with the title font and the classic credits that look like they are from an old black and white film.    The film has some a few very gory scenes, mainly at the end, but they are done in such a beautiful and artistic way.  You'll have to check it out to understand, and you'll know what I mean by this as soon as you see it. 

  The acting in PEARL is incredible, with Mia Goth giving another remarkable performance.  All the actors did great, all giving top notch performances.   This is a very interesting film, as it doesn't seem like you are watching a horror film at all.  It is too clean, and pretty.  Later in the film, you'll definitely know you are watching a horror film, as Pearl does some truly awful things to her controlling Mother and her terminally ill Father. 

 Since this is a prequel, you don't have to have seen X to enjoy this film, you can definitely enjoy it for what it is on it's own.  If you have seen X, though, that does add a bit more fun to it as you know who Pearl grows up to be and you understand why she did the things she did in X. 

 This is a great film, and is definitely as good as X, but I might even go out on a limb and say it's probably actually a better made film than X.   Both are enjoyable films, so check them out if you haven't seen them yet.   This new release from Second Sight Films is a perfect way to enjoy the film in pristine picture and sound quality. 

 PEARL is available now in 4K UHD and a 4K UHD Limited Edition set.   The standard edition contains the following Special Features:

• Presented in HDR with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

• New audio commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

• Bold Choices: a new interview with Director Ti West

• The Mother: a new interview with Actor Tandi Wright

• Absorb the Aesthetic: a new interview with Director of Photography Eliot Rockett 

• Going Technicolor: a new interview with Production Designer Tom Hammock

• Hollywood Goes West: a video essay by Joe Wallace

• Coming Out of Her Shell

• Time After Time 

  The Limited Edition set contains all the Special Features from the standard edition, plus the following extras:

• Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Thinh Dinh

• 120-page book with new essays by Jenn Adams, Joel Harley, Mo Moshaty, Tori Potenza, Vannah Taylor and Nadine Whitney

• 6 collectors' art cards 

CLICK HERE to purchase the 4K UHD

CLICK HERE to purchase the Limited Edition 4K UHD

DVD Review: RAGE OF THE MUMMY (2018)

 

RAGE OF THE MUMMY
Written & Directed by:  Dennis Vincent

 I love a good creature feature, and I have always been enamored with mummies.  I don't really know why, but I assume it's because I love zombies, and mummies are just zombies with some added mystery to them.  How are they walking?  What do they look like under all that cloth?   They always  make for a fun film, and Dennis Vincent's RAGE OF THE MUMMY keeps that streak going!     

Here is a brief plot snynopsis from the Dennis Vincent Films website:

A group of occultist steal 13 sacred relics from the tomb of Prince Horus-Kahn in order to create their own supernatural powers. Now, the three thousand year old mummy prince must hunt down the stolen relics while bringing deadly vengeance upon the grave robbers.

 First off, let me start by saying this is a low budget film.   Don't expect the film quality of the Brendan Fraser Mummy films of the late 90's and early 2000's, or the 2017 Tom Cruise Mummy film.   This is a low budget horror film made by someone that you can tell loves the genre and made the best film they could with the resources they had . That being said, they did a remarkable job at making this film not feel so low budget.    The acting is actually really good in this film, and bad acting is probably the quickest way to kill a low budget film.    The sets and effects are good enough to be believable, and the kills are fun.   

 Most of the kills are off screen, or you see the shadow of the kill, but not much blood and gore is seen.  There is one beheading, but it's pretty tame.  This would actually be a great movie to show kids to if you're trying to get them into horror films.   Its a fun for everyone, but not too scary for the kiddos.   

  My favorite part of this film were the animated sequences throughout the film, almost giving it a Creepshow type fell to the movie.  It made it feel like a comic book coming alive right in front of you on the screen.  

 

  Overall, I would definitely recommend RAGE OF THE MUMMY.  It's a fun film that you can tell was a labor of love to the horror genre!  The DVD is available now and contains the following Special Features:

*  Audio Commentary with Director Dennis Vincent and Associate and Executive Producer Steve Engstrom

*  Deleted Scenes & Outtakes

*  Photo Gallery

CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD

Blu-ray Review: TALES OF THE WALKING DEAD (2022)

TALES OF THE WALKING DEAD 

Directed by:  Michael E. Satrazemis, Haifaa Al-Mansour, Deborah Kampmeier, & Ron Underwood

Distributed by:  Acorn Media International /AMC

  If you are a fan of AMC's THE WALKING DEAD, this is a new series you will definitely want to check out.   The new series is unlike any of the other WALKING DEAD spin-off series that you have seen so far.   While all the other spin-offs center on characters from the original show, or new characters that span the entire series, TALES FROM THE WALKING DEAD is comprised of 6 episodes, all dealing with new characters.  Each episode is a stand alone short film in the universe of THE WALKING DEAD. 

Here is some info about this new series from the official Aim Publicity Press Release:

This riveting collection of stories features an acclaimed ensemble cast including Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Expendables), Olivia Munn (The Newsroom, X-Men: Apocalypse), Parker Posey (The White Lotus, Dazed and Confused), Anthony Edwards (ER, Top Gun), Jessie T. Usher (The Boys, Smile), Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick, Captain America: Brave New World), Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Dominion), Jillian Bell (Workaholics, 22 Jump Street), Poppy Liu (Hacks) and Samantha Morton (The Serpent Queen, The Walking Dead), who each offer a different perspective into the apocalypse, capturing not just the monsters that roam the earth, but the ones that live within us. 

 

Set in the months and years following the outbreak, the series follows the unique lives of new and familiar survivors, each facing the undead world in their own way. We follow doomsday prepper Joe (Crews) as he leaves his bunker on a quest to find his online friend and meets an unlikely ally in Evie (Munn) as they embark on a roadtrip that helps them find what they’re really looking for. There’s a tale of two hostile co-workers (Posey and Bell) who try to escape Atlanta – and each other – but find themselves in a time loop, reliving the hours before their deaths over and over again. And the origin story of The Walking Dead character Alpha (Morton) is revealed when we meet her as a mother trying to protect her child Lydia in a refuge. 

 

Other stories involve a settler (Liu), who seeks to convince a scientist (Edwards), that humanity must reclaim the land from the dead; a man (Usher) who wakes with no memory and is accused of murder and a traumatised couple (Pineda and Ramirez) who take refuge in a secluded house where terror may already lurk inside.  

 

The highly anticipated Tales of the Walking Dead is jam packed with gripping performances, cinematic storytelling and the much loved franchises’ trademark blend of adventure, survival, gore and heart. With a mix of dread, suspense and unexpected wit, each self-contained saga dives deep into the psyche of its characters – this is a must-have for fans and newcomers alike.  

Here is the title and plot synopsis of each episode, courtesy of IMDb.com:

Episode 1:  Evie/Joe

In a road-trip story, a reclusive prepper abandons his bunker in search of a female prepper from his past; along the way, he meets an unlikely ally who is his polar opposite; they team up in an effort to find their lost loved ones.

Episode 2:  Blair/Gina

A fast-paced, reality-twisting buddy-action heist, where a disgruntled receptionist and her overbearing boss are trapped together as Atlanta collapses under the Walker Apocalypse, forcing them to work together to escape the city.

Episode 3:  Dee

A mother evolves after she and her daughter escape violence and take refuge on a vintage steamboat; the peaceful ambience deteriorates when a coup attempt forces the mother to revisit her violent past in order to protect her child.

Episode 4:  Amy/Dr.  Everett

A naturalist who studies walkers encounters a spirited settler; an unlikely respect is forged between the two as the settler tries to argue in favour of people taking back the land from the dead.

Episode 5:  Davon

A young stranger suddenly wakes up in a dangerous, foreign town with no memory of how he got there. He must piece together fragments of his broken mind to uncover why the townspeople accuse him of murder.

Episode 6:  La Dona

A haunting tale of an apocalypse-traumatised couple who may or may not be tormented by a haunted house; frightening memories coupled with inexplicable phenomena in the house take a toll on the couple's psyche and their relationship.

  Like I mentioned before, each episode is a stand alone story.   While I was initially thinking this was just going to be a rehash of THE WALKING DEAD we have already seen, just done with different characters, I am happy to report that this is an entirely new concept for THE WALKING DEAD.   Each episode is drastically different from each other and are much more than just a show about zombies.    Each episode is very unique and actually tells a story in styles of different horror genres.   For instance, Episode 2 is almost like a dark horror comedy, with a FINAL DESTINATION feel to it.   This episode also stars one of the most underrated actresses in history in my opinion, the amazing Parker Posey, and one of my favorite comedic actresses, Jillian Bell.  This episode was quite the contrast from the normal gloom and seriousness of the original series.  

 In addition to Episode 2, my other favorites episodes were Episode 1 and 6.  Episode 1 was as close to the original series as any of them I think, although has a different twist and feel towards the end of the episode.   Episode 6 was unlike anything you have seen in the WALKING DEAD universe, as this was more of a supernatural story about a couple that take refuge in a house during the zombie apocalypse that turns out to be full of secrets and really messes with the couple's emotions and makes them question what is real and what is a figment of their imagination.  

 Overall, this was a very enjoyable series, one that I sat and binged all in one afternoon.  The different feel of each episode helped it to stay fresh and interesting.   If you are a fan of THE WALKING DEAD series, this is a must see.  The great thing about TALES OF THE WALKING DEAD though, is that even if you have never seen a single episode of THE WALKING DEAD, it doesn't matter.  These are stand alone episodes with all new characters and situations, so everyone can enjoy this series for what it is.

  TALES OF THE WALKING DEAD is available now on DVD and Blu-Ray from Acorn Media International / AMC. 

CLICK HERE to purchase the Blu-ray

CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD