The movie itself was pegged as "A comedy about sex, violence, and other family values." The basic premise of the movie was that Arye's character, a dweeby hotel clerk named Matthew Welch, was a constant liar (playing a role largely like Frank Whaley's in Career Opportunities; both made around the same time) who sought to impress those around him by telling tall tales to anyone who would listen. Needless to say, he gets shot down time and again because he's simply so bad at lying that even the stupidest people, like antagonist Victor Thummell (aptly played by Ray Baker), pick apart his lies with ease. Matthew's desire to have a trophy girlfriend seems in reach when an international model, Hexina (Claudia Christian), comes to town. She's constantly on the television (in some hilariously subtle commercials) and Matthew dons a stolen tuxedo to enjoy the nightlife. He runs into Hexina and the two hook up since she thinks he's a somebody and he finds her beauty and fame irresistible. He builds the usual house of cards and it all comes tumbling down when he finds that Hexina isn't all she appears to be. With a secret past and the willingness to keep it thus under any circumstances, Hexina goes on a rampage, all the while Arye's lies thrust him into the limelight as the primary suspect. That's as much as I'll tell in regards to the movie, not wanting to spoil it for you.

Okay, the movie was ultra low budget (I'd be surprised if it cost as much as a single episode of Spencer's Sledgehammer series) and the cast consisted mainly of third tier talent (not so much in quality as in the pecking order Hollywood assigns them), with R. Lee Ermey and Norman Fell the most recognizable. The movie was designed to be a parody (of sorts) of the multitude of slasher, thriller, and teen movies in general but much of the subtle humor (and there was a lot more than most people will get if they fail to pay attention) was suited for the time it was released. Movie buffs could spend hours dissecting the camera angles, the background props, some of the lines, and situations, to figure out references to other movies but this aspect of the movie has lost some of its charm for me, dating itself in terms of the jokes. The main theme about those who tell lies getting in situations they can't handle has been done to death (and better) but it this aspect of the flick seemed to hold up reasonably well. The famed Claudia Christian nude scenes (a sweet proposition considering how great she looked back then) were sadly done by a body double and the director's cameo role as a clumsy hotel guest was too small for my tastes.

Filmed in Texas (Mr. Spencer spent a lot of time talking about this aspect, often making the commentary track funnier than the movie this time), the movie remains cute enough for me to like but much of my fondness for it relies heavily on my original theatre experience that few of you will have (it grossed a couple of million bucks as I recall) so I'm rating it as a Rent It unless you're already a fan of the movie. The tape has been long out of print and this is the first legitimate release in a long time (I'm told the bootlegs look like crap so upgrade if you liked the movie enough to steal it previously; a sentiment Spencer seems to agree with in the commentary). It was cute, there were a decent amount of jokes, and seeing Claudia in her prime (she still looks hot to me folks) made it worth looking for this week but temper your enthusiasm with the knowledge that it was an uneven comedy and a first feature film effort by a director who acknowledges he had to make numerous compromises due to working with other people's money.

Picture: Hexed was presented in anamorphic widescreen in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio it was shot in. The original tape version was released in full frame so this upgrade will be better in the sense that it contains the whole movie. The picture itself had a lot of grain, some video noise, and other characteristics of a low budget 35mm movie converted to DVD, so especially in the darker scenes at night, it looked weak. There were no compression artifacts and I suspect the company mastering the DVD did everything they could to improve the look of the movie but they didn't have a lot to work with (it didn't look all that great in the theatre either which might've been why it sat on a shelf from the original production date in 1991 until its release in 1993).

Sound: The audio was a bit better than the visual aspects of the movie, sporting a 2.0 Dolby Digital English track with optional English, Japanese, and Spanish subtitles. I didn't hear any separation in the channels so I'm of the opinion that it was a monaural track cleaned up as best could be done with the original source material but it had a decent, if limited dynamic range.

Extras: My favorite extra, by far, was the inclusion of a director's commentary track. While I would've liked to hear Claudia Christian's views on the making of it too (heck, she could've sat in Alan's lap, something I'm sure he'd have agreed to do), he managed to add plenty of little anecdotes about the movie that added to the enjoyment of the movie, going so far as to point out insider jokes, references to other movies, and a host of trivia movie buffs always seem to appreciate. There were some deleted scenes with commentary on them too but I could see why they were deleted so their value was a one time thing. There was also a short featurette (like an extended trailer for the movie) and some trailers to Hexed and other releases.

Final Thoughts: Hexed has enough material in it to remind me of why I liked the spoof on erotic thrillers that were once commonplace in theatres (instead of the usual direct to DVD of cable they seem to fall into now) but it wasn't as strong a release as I thought when I saw it in the second run theater back in 1993 (it was easily worth the whole dollar I spent to see it with other poor people, though admittedly not many). Other than seeing Arye Gross do the usual pratfalls and the over the top performance by Claudia Christian, the commentary track was worth the price of admission for me alone given the dry manner in which director Alan Spencer slipped in so many cute remarks. Reading between the lines of what he said was sometimes a chore though since I felt that he was not always on the level about a topic or two. The sum of the parts here is worth more than the professional critics suggested back in 1993 but only a fan will want to buy it (the movie enjoys something of a cult following, for good reason mind you, but mainstream movie goers will probably focus on the flaws more than the nuances it had to offer).