Zombie: Dawn of the Dead (ゾンビ) (1978) - 126 Minute Director's Cut - Victor Japan VHS

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Click on over to The Blood Sprayer to read about the near hell it was in finally receiving this awesome tape from the clutches of eBay...

Awesome Alert: Waxwork (1988) in High Def on FEARnet On Demand!

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Anthony Hickox's late '80s classic is presently available on Fear.net's VOD service in 1080i high definition until February 28th. I'm unsure whether it's the unrated version, the difference is only five seconds during China's vampire brawl, so your enjoyment shouldn't be deterred. It looks very nice, at least given its period, framed at 1.78:1. Most global DVD editions of Waxwork are taken from full frame 480i video masters, so this presentation is particularly cool...

Some quick thoughts on Cannibal Holocaust: The Beginning (Mondo cannibale / Cannibal World) (2003)

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An unscrupulous newswoman and her boss hatch a plan to beat the Iraq war's ratings domination by unearthing the "truth" behind Amazonian cannibals. After assembling a few old comrades, the group enters the green inferno in search of an enigmatic tribe, dubbed "The Invisible", in order to document their man-eating brutality. Upon discovering the savage sect, the documentary makers stage a fake attack by rivals of the indigenous people and burn down their village. Now, the warrior survivors of the massacre are on the hunt for the murderous outsiders, while the evil television network (on location, in Hong Kong!) continues to devise ways of selling the foul product to a wanting public.

Oh Bruno, what possessed you to undertake your millennial streak of wholesale ripitude starting with Land of Death and Cannibal World? If it wasn't obvious after the first sentence, this is Bruno Mattei's rehash of Ruggero Deodato's infamous Cannibal Holocaust. Only the hack maestro's approach is that of a corporate promotional video or a porno without the porno. You're always half expecting cheap graphics advertising positive stock quotes to pop up on the screen or someone's genitalia to suddenly come flopping out. And that's before the jungle sequences. Things don't change much except for the scenery when lush greens dominate the screen. Maybe the worst dubbing ever ("stomachs flopping like palsy butterflies"...?!?), overzealously tight framing, sweaty faces with no make-up, and crowds of painted Indochinese with sticks being paid (hopefully) to chow on raw meat.

That's all that Cannibal World aims to be and it's puzzling anyone thought this type of exploitation film would be marketable today--especially from the director of Hell of the Living Dead (Virus). Mattei manages to completely screw up any distinctive quality found in Deodato's original. In Holocaust, the cannibals were still toothy fans of their fellow man, but were imbued with a certain measure of tact that made their actions seem like authentic, albeit brutal ritual. Bruno says screw all that here in favor of the epitome of crawl-out-from-under-a-rock savagery. So when the reporters burn, kill, and rape; it's hard to feel sympathetic towards the plight of the mud people since both sides are guilty to varying extents.

The reactions of the "civilized" camera-carrying thugs also unconvincingly lurch about. The lead newswoman is sold as being absolutely ruthless over garnering ratings at all costs, but freaks out after the men in her company rape and mutilate a tribe girl under the camera's lens. Her partner, Claudio Morales of Land of Death, is at first ardently pro-rain forest and tribe preservation before suddenly joining in on the treachery with a total 90° turn for the character. At least Cindy Jelic Matic (what the hell kinda name?!?), also of Land of Death, lets her perfectly fake boobs out for some air.

Of course, it's tough trying to decipher logic from a Mattei trash mountain, so I'm not going to abuse my brain further. Compared to the director's other post-'00 outings I've seen including Land of Death, Island of the Living Dead, and Zombies: The Beginning; Cannibal World rests at the bottom of the heap. Not by being the "worst", they all stink, but by being the most boring. There's some laughs, the level of inept reaches a transcendent realm with all of these, but it's more a chore to sit through than idiotic spectacle compared to the others. 

The easiest (and cheapest) DVD to locate is a factory pressed bootleg from Amazon's Marketplace and HKFlix. The disc is nearly an exact copy of the Japanese Fullmedia/Media Suits "Cannibal Holocaust 2" release complete with removable Japanese subtitles over an English track. The 1.78:1 widescreen transfer is anamorphic but interlaced. The Japanese menus include scene selections, a short photo gallery, and Japanese trailers for this one and Land of Death (Cannibal Holocaust 3). Interestingly, while the entire feature is dubbed, the trailers have snippets that aren't, so you hear the real "actors" speaking.

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R.I.P. Jean Rollin (1938-2010)

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Now that it's sadly official after some back and forth...

Some quick thoughts on Evil Spirits (1990)

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Karen Black goes all Norma Bates hearing the disembodied voice of her husband who comfortably rests in her bedroom as a corpse. She runs a boardinghouse, collecting checks, and killing occupants. Michael Berryman is one of the residents; a struggling writer that loves to ogle through walls at topless dancing from beautiful, minor scream queen Debra Lamb. Screen veterans Virginia Mayo, Arte Johnson, Bert Remsen, and Robert Quarry also make regrettable appearances.

Gary Graver's Evil Spirits is honestly one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen. This pain attempts to sell itself as a horror comedy, but both aspects are uncaringly mishandled by an inept work-for-hire filmmaker that mostly undertook smut quickies. The experience of watching can be likened to being at the funeral of someone you really didn't know surrounded by equally unknown mourners. It's still sad despite having no substantive attachment, which only adds an off-putting awkwardness to enduring the affair. Or perhaps a horrible nightmare in which you awaken in the middle of an enormous tank of shit with no sense of direction, light, or air. That's probably the better tantamount scenario.

No, having Berryman constantly snack on everything from cupcakes to pickles in all of his scenes isn't funny. It's only more reminder the man who was Pluto might be the most underappreciated working horror icon. One helluva nice gentleman in person who can surprisingly act when allowed regulated to freakshow status by his visage. Black goes through the motions and hopefully Rob Zombie mailed her this flick after she demanded more money to reprise in The Devil's Rejects. Debra Lamb has a nice striptease scene that's worth fast-forwarding to and then chucking the cassette in the trash after those few minutes. The rest of the cast comprised of seasoned actors, given their history in the business, just look crushed having to resort to such dreck in their twilight years. Unfunny paycheck work by actors who deserve better with its scant unsatisfying kills arriving way late. I'm unsure when Prism Entertainment finally closed shop, but I'd bet it wasn't too long after this dog.

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Retribution (1987) - 1988 OPAL MEDIA AB Swedish VHS

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Snagged this Swedish tape, that's most likely dubbed in that language, on the cheap for the goofy cover art. The Dutch VHS is reportedly the only uncut presentation, but given Sweden's proximity, this one might be uncut as well. Still no PAL VHS capability in the basement though...

Severed Ties (1992) - 1992 Columbia Tri-Star Home Video VHS

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I was originally going to do a more fleshed out write-up for this inaugural Fangoria Films production still only available on tape--that was before actually watching. Severed Ties is one of those films that would be quite serviceable if other, superior examples of its concept didn't already exist. In this case; the work of Henenlotter, Gordon, Barker, and Cronenberg. There's countless flicks that are the horror equivalent of "near beer", but this one gives of the vaguely insulting vibe all that's required to be great is to simply lift ideas from the aforementioned and haphazardly slop them together because, you know, horror fans just love this shit. Even some (weak) KNB-powered puppetry and MPAA-safe "splatter" can't right this sinking ship. A wasted opportunity that's depressingly silly from the moment your VCR first draws the tape against its spinning drum. Classic Horror.com's review nails my sentiments.

Some quick thoughts on Deadline (1981)

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An infamous horror scribe, Steven Lessey (Stephen Young), faces a tight deadline for an impending production based on an as-of-yet-unwritten screenplay. That's not the only thing plaguing the beleaguered Lessey. His wife, Elizabeth (Sharon Masters), is descending into haze of booze and coke, while Steven's career pre-occupation is driving his three children further into resentment. During a guest university lecture, the writer's resolve is badly shaken when hecklers condemn his prior work as vile exploitative garbage (after watching this gory clip). Afterward, despite coming up with ever wilder scenarios, Lessey commands himself to stop authoring "schlock" and chooses to quest for the ultimate in horror. Eventually, the unthinkable tragedy of a child's accidental death befalls the family and Lessey discovers what his pen was desperately seeking all along...

Trolling other opinions of Mario Azzopardi's Deadline, I get the feeling many somehow equate its obscurity as a signal of a bad feature. Some even seem annoyed that such a horror film have the gall to even attempt its weighty concept. They can walk off a short bridge with that bullshit. Truth to be told, while this surprisingly bloody yarn of writer's block madness isn't perfect; it's vastly more thought-provoking than the majority of early '80s boredom deservingly landlocked on analog video. The film presents an interesting parable between the horrors of fiction and reality as Lessey's life spirals amidst struggling to put pen to paper.

The screenwriter's ideas are outlandish and played out in snippets for the viewer to see. A showering woman drowns as the water turns into a torrent of blood while another dies giving birth as the fetus decides to "commit suicide" during the process. Two children burn their tied-down grandmother to death, a group of nuns give themselves communion with the ripped out heart of a crucified priest, and a punk rock band is enlisted by a Nazi to hit a tone that makes bodies explode...or something. These scenes could be seen as useless in their gory glee, but juxtapose nicely with the increasing reckless intensity of Lessey's reality.

The sticking point for most negative reaction toward Deadline is how it's nearly impossible to tell what intellectual point Azzopardi is shooting for with this contrast. Given how slashers were booming at the time, even in its native country of Canada, the serious dramatic tone could be seen as a revolt aganist "cheap" ideas in the genre. It's the same thing horror fans complain about to this day and something David Cronenberg was battling without acknowledgment through his art in the Great White North. Azzopardi might be addressing that, just with much less finesse, but it's not too much of a stretch to see the writer/director condemning the horror genre itself. No matter how horrific the images Lessey's mind conjures, they simply can't compete with his family disintegrating through his fingers.

The ammunition for this perspective comes in the unusually solid performances. Sharon Masters as the writer's wife, in the last role in her short career before disappearing, is reminiscent of Sharon Stone in Casino. A woman with a path to opulence through her husband failing to overcome old, destructive habits. The profane venom she hurls is palpable, but Young's Steven isn't entirely innocent. The writer has a snap temper with physically abusive tendencies and a skewered outlook between family man and playing fledgling mogul with his career's business side.

So it's a tough call that's most likely dictated by your personal perspective. On one end, Deadline could be seen as a direct challenge to the cementing norm of easy boobs n' blood that settled in during its decade. Perhaps Azzopardi was one of those near-maniacal old guard diehards who became super pissed over the fall of Universal and Hammer to the likes of Leatherface. On the other end, the feature's heavy-handedness could be a pointed indictment of how fleeting cinematic horror is compared to the rigors of maintaining ho-hum sanity. It's not quite a lost masterpiece, but there's something refreshing and scrappy about Deadline. It's over-the-top, brazen, and creepy in turns even with its stuffy 1981 presentation.

The Tohokushinsha/VAP Video Japanese VHS is a full screen transfer cropped from 2.35:1 like the North American Paragon Video VHS. The cropping, while still evident, actually isn't terribly distracting (everything seems center-composed). The Japanese has a little more image information along the sides and looks better than the Paragon. Both presentations are uncut, but the Japanese naturally has a little optical censoring to the nudity in the shower scene. I'd recommend the Japanese tape, but the thirty-year-old Paragon is acceptable and not too hard-to-find online at a decent price. The U.S. indie video pioneer released the film twice in a rare big box and cardboard slipcover both with unique art. Maybe if Code Red or Scorpion Releasing hang on long enough, they can give Deadline a deserving digital resurrection.

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In lieu of actual content today...

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Some quick thoughts on Ironmaster (La guerra del ferro - Ironmaster) (1983)

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The elders of a primitive tribe that speak near perfect English wring their hands over who will be the heir to their leadership, either the strong Ala (Sam Pasco) or brash Vood (George Eastman). During a battle with rock slinging mud savages, Vood sees his opportunity to take the reigns by braining the leader with a stone axe. The brutal act is witnessed by Ala who confronts the murderer. In the ensuing fisticuffs, Vood inadvertently kills the oldest member of the tribe and is ran off for his crimes. 

Upon his exile, a great volcano erupts and Vood comes across a crude iron blade from the ashes created from the event. The vengeful mortal realizes he wields the greatest weapon on Earth, conquers his previous tribe, and starts overthrowing all in his wake with the new implement capable of shattering both wood and rock. Ala becomes the new exile and must find a way of stopping Vood, despite befriending a defenseless pacifist clan.

Umberto Lenzi's Ironmaster is awful, even for a cheap sword-and-sandal, but worth seeing for the endearing off-kilter stupidity baked into its era's parasitic Italian cinema. Sam Pasco's Ala, in his only screen credit (outside of gay porn), looks like a bodybuilder version of The Room's Tommy Wiseau with blond locks. Joe D'Amato regular George Eastman as Vood might be featured more here than the hero and wears a horribly unconvincing lion head killed upon first retrieving the blade. Genre scarlets Elvire Audray (Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story) and Pamela Prati star as Ala and Vood's women respectively. Audray exhibits the fact that even neanderthal women wore mascara and lipstick. Prati is sluttier, and even though there's no intentional nudity, she wears such a skimpy halter top that her boobs pop out every time she tries to run (well, prance). There's even an instance of continuity of the actress beginning to run with them bouncing out and later still "revealed" upon reaching her destination. A defeated William Berger appears as the pacifist tribe leader looking a bit like Bruce Glover.

Then there's a bunch of little instances you'd only see in a Lenzi film. The morning after the volcano, Vood digs into what should be molten Earth at ground zero and snatches up the iron hunk that should also be flesh-meltingly searing with all the heat reaction of a freshly toastered Pop Tart. The basic skill of ironwork and sword forging seems "ironed" out literally overnight as Vood's brotherhood cranks them out with the unexplained convenience of modern blacksmith tongs.

The humans battle against groups of hairy man-apes that unfortunately don't wear anything--even underwear. Some grotty cave-dwelling plague victims with open sores also attack Ala and that's about as far as the blood quota pushes aside from a few badly executed slashes. Then there's the requisite stock footage of lava eruptions and high school science class volcano miniature. Guido and Maurizio de Angelis provide an unusually throwaway score with the main theme sounding like a cross between spaghetti western and Egyptian-tinged barbarian dirge. Strangely, the bulk of the feature was shot in Custer State Park in Custer, South Dakota. That explains the inexplicable presence of buffalo herds. Perhaps Lenzi thought the audience would mistake bison for mammoths? Finally, animals lovers be warned, Lenzi can't help himself, a boar and lion appear to have given their lives for this masterpiece.

So Ironmaster definitely doesn't live up to its disproportionately fantastic artwork, when do they ever, but it's good for a chuckle or two. The twenty-five-year-old American National Enterprises/Prism Entertainment VHS is colorful but cropped to full screen from its original 1.85:1 ratio. It's watchable with the compromised framing only evident in a few shots. A good ten minutes of A.N.E. video trailers, including Ironmaster, run before the feature.

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The Beyond (L'aldilà) (1981) - 2000 Grindhouse Releasing/Anchor Bay VHS

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Demon Queen (1986) - 1987 Mogul Communications VHS

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Since this tape sold on eBay earlier (and my meager bid toppled), I dug out my MOGUL of Donald Farmer's DEMON QUEEN, with cover art from Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City (1980), from the catacombs. While a healthy number of these early '80s shot-on-video gore bombs made the transition to disc, Farmer's debut remains extremely obscure on video. As you can see, some asshole rental joint, "Backstage Video" to be exact, chopped down the studio's puffy clamshell-sized cover to shoehorn it into a small plastic case. Bastards.

This tape is ridiculously rare and one of the rarest of MOGUL's fantastic releases. Harder-to-find than Fury (1978) or The Icebox Murders (1982). Consorting with fellow VHS fiends on Facebook, I've learned that SOV madman Mario Dominick of Critical Condition and Horror Society only knows of two or three others besides himself that own this tape and the mangled copy on eBay is the best condition he has seen this in thus far. I haven't watched my copy due to the cassette being a large reel T-60 (notice how the auction copy appears to be a regular T-120). My current VCR has "hunger" handling issues with such tapes. Here's a very knowledgeable review by "capkronos" (get a blog man!) on the IMDB:

"During the video boom era of the 80s, distributors were so desperate for new product to add to their catalogues they'd release just about anything they could get their hands on. Foreign films and made-for-TV movies were popular acquisitions, but thanks to access to affordable consumer grade camcorders, a whole new generation of "filmmakers" came into the picture with various no-budget releases. Johnn Wintergate's awful-but-hilarious BOARDINGHOUSE (1982) was the first notable camcorder effort to turn up on home video (on the short-lived Betamax format under the title HOUSEGEIST), though it apparently was also shown in theaters first! There was also SLEDGE HAMMER (1984), a slasher from David A. Prior, followed by Christopher Lewis' BLOOD CULT (1985), which proudly claimed to be the very first movie made specifically for the home video market. Just one year later, director Donald Farmer fired up his own trusty camcorder and gave us his first of many attempts at horror - DEMON QUEEN (1986), which was shot in both the Miami, Florida and Nashville, Tennessee areas and involves a seductive vampire-demon-succubus. I won't lie, this film is truly terrible in every sense of the word. Sloppy continuity errors, sound that frequently cuts out, opening and closing credits with misspelled words, actors grinning when they shouldn't and badly flubbed lines of dialogue are all allowed to pass into the finished product. It's also very badly padded out. If you cut out the opening and closing credits, the film runs just 46 minutes! There's also a pointless dream sequence of the the demon queen ripping out some guy's heart. That whole sequence lasts a gruelingly long 8 minutes.

Uncut MOGUL vs. butchery

The story centers around Jesse (Dennis Stewart), a lowly drug pusher in an unhappy relationship with bitchy, strung-out girlfriend Wendy (Patti Valliere). Jesse owes dwarf coke dealer Izzie (Ric Foster) six-thousand bucks and when Izzie has his henchman Bone (Cliff Dance) come to collect, a sexy and mysterious female in shades shows up to save the day. Jesse, who was temporarily knocked out, awakens to find Bone dead on the ground, his throat ripped out, and the woman who did it - Lucinda (Mary Fanaro) - in need of a place to stay. Jesse figures he owes Lucinda at least one favor since she saved his life and lets her come crash at his pad. Naturally, Lucinda turns out to be some kind of evil demon-succubus-vampire monster who likes to seduce men, rip out their hearts and then rub them on her bare breasts. Some of those killed by Lucinda return as flesh-eating zombies. To pad out the thin storyline, we get a succession of victims in random scenes getting stalked and killed. To pad out the thin storyline even more, there are several scenes that take place at a video store, where the horror-loving owner talks to a couple renting MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, and deals with a bitchy customer who only wants to rent Barbra Streisand movies.

Fanaro, who has some screen presence, is one aspect of the film they did manage to get right. She's tall, thin, has an alluringly husky voice and a short, spiky hairstyle that reminded me of LA FEMME NIKITA star Anne Parillaud (who got to play a sexy vampire herself in 1992's INNOCENT BLOOD). Fanaro went on to some other roles in higher-profile movies and television shows, and also got to star in Tim Ritter's TRUTH OR DARE around the same time. The less said about the rest of the cast the better. 

There are topless scenes from the leading lady and another actress (who is killed in the bathtub), as well as a couple of OK ripped-throats-gushing-blood effects. The succubus in her demon form is only seen in a few brief flashes but looks like a torched Muppet. One hilariously botched effect occurs when the main actor is struggling with one of the zombies at the very end. Obviously he was supposed to reach up and tear off the zombie's skin to reveal a skull face underneath. Unfortunately, the layer of skin he grabs doesn't come all the way off on the first try, so he casually has to reach up a second time and pull the rest of the way off! To supplement the Casio Keyboard soundtrack, there are also several original cheesy pop-rock songs that I happened to love. They're sung by a female vocalist. One of them goes "Let me be your angel fire... Let me be your one desire..." and is listed as "AngleFire" in the end credits. Ha! You gotta love this kind of stuff, right?"

Street Warriors Part II (Perro callejero II) (1981) - 1987 All Seasons Entertainment VHS

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ASE's titles are rare, but this is one of their more obscure selections. The studio also released the first Perro callejero with similar unrelated tailored promo shots. Unlike earlier big box releases, this is in a slipbox with a closed bottom and opening right side flap. Gotta love FOREIGN NUDITY!

Aliennators (Shocking Dark / Terminator II) (1990) - Caution Video Japan VHS

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Gave this another whirl last night with the real Japanese tape instead of a DVD-R of said release. My previous negative thoughts mostly stand, this particular sci-fi/action ingredient thieving certainly isn't Mattei's finest hour. If anything, you're left wondering how in the world the financiers were convinced this would sell given its obvious likeness to Cameron's Aliens. We have Ripley and Newt clones in all their usual follies. Badass marines headed by a butch Geretta Geretta, dubbed the "Megaforce", in motorcycle helmets and flared shoulder pads. Melty monsters that look like the Humanoids from the Deep with a bad case of acid flesh. The Paul Reiser character revealing himself a tinfoil Terminator with one-track taunts about his poorly exhibited indestructibility. To its credit, the final twist does show a spark of last resort originality. My beef isn't with its lack of a brain, this is Bruno Mattei after all, but all these parts don't homogeneously come together like others in the filmmaker's merrily unoriginal forte.

Much like Mattei's final Hail Marys into the Italian horror abyss, Island of the Living Dead and Zombies: The Beginning, Mattei proves the familiarity of his country's genre forays doesn't change regardless of time. So Shocking Dark, despite my apathy, feels like could have been easily made a decade earlier which would have been quite the feat if attempted intentionally. That's what both blissed and doomed Mattei and his pasta lovin' brethren into obscurity. The actual tape's picture quality is much more bearable than the disc's shockingly dark playback. The Killians also assisted and this time managed to pull a few chuckles out of dialogue so cheesy the actors probably had to keep breath mints handy for the entire production. For the fact alone Bruno had the balls to call this Terminator II, it's hard to resist the temptation of seeing this one at least once.

 

A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) (1964) - 1982 20th Century Fox Video Betamax

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Picked up this "slipbook" box Beta not two blocks away this morning at a yard sale and don't get the choice of (colorized) stills on the back. Why would Fox not choose to feature Eastwood on the back like common sense would dictate? You would think by the time of this tape's release the importance of this milestone to both its genre and Clint's career would have warranted that much. Hell, I can't even find production stills that match. Although, this is Fox we're talking about...

The Rue Morgue Massacres (Hunchback of the Morgue) (1973) - All Seasons Entertainment Big Box VHS

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Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies has just started their Paul Naschy Blogathon and you'd be well advised to scope it out...

Fragile: A Ghost Story (機械じかけの小児病棟) (Frágiles) (2005) - 2007 Shochiku Home Video Japan HD DVD

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HD DVD never really was given much of a chance by the public and ultimately the major studios picked the winner of the high def disc war. Warner's Blu-ray exclusivity announcement was the Toshiba-backed format's death kneel. Despite defending the underdog to its collapse, I'm not particularity bitter since most of the doom-and-gloom of a Sony-controlled home video market hasn't materialized. Blu-ray's DRM scheme offers complete access for studios to do what they wish with the intrusive software, instead of HD DVD's unified structure that only authorized changes after the controlling committee agreed. Complete region free-ness also rocked.

Personally, I was more annoyed by all the effective misinformation spread by BD (and PS3) fanboys about HD DVD's capabilities. Hearing their bull back then, you would have thought the loser was only 720p with DVD quality audio. Currently the winning HD format is viewed a supplement to DVD rather than a dominating force, which is a good thing, Blu-ray media and player prices keep becoming increasingly competitive with the alternatives. My HD DVD players, the tank-like HD-A1 and HD-A35, are still in my racks and I haven't gotten rid of any of my discs. Plus it's nice to pick up brand-new $3 titles every once and again at discount shops. 

In the format's relatively short life, even Betamax lasted (much) longer, imports were all the rage for addicted enthusiasts. Jaume Balagueró's Frágiles was one of those and remains its only HD disc release. The 1080i/60hz transfer is encoded in MPEG-4 AVC. The format was fully capable of 1080p/24, but for some unknown reason Shochiku's few HD DVDs were natively interlaced. The dirty secret that no Best Buy or DirectTV salesman will divulge is that 1080p displays worth their salt deinterlace 1080i signals to 1080p anyway; so 1080i isn't much of a perceptible step down especially with a high bitrate encode like this release. The audio is offered in a lossy 640kbps Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 track. Again, HD DVD supported all three lossless codecs, but the studio opted to only offer Dolby's go-between. The 30GB dual-layered disc has what looks like four extras but I don't speak Japanese. I haven't opened this disc and probably never well due to its extreme rarity nowadays. Balagueró's film finally made its North American video debut with Fangoria's Frightfest DVDs this past September (check out Freddy in Space's review).  

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