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Festival Of Fright 2
Synergy Entertainment // Unrated // October 15, 2007
List Price: $14.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Show:
The Monster Club and Synery Entertainment have teamed up once again for a second volume of classic (and not so classic) SF and horror movie trailers: Festival of Fright 2. Like the first volume (read my review of that disc here) this disc presents an hour and 15 minutes of B-movie trailers that are often more fun to watch than the features themselves. While this set has some great promotional films, the presentation is marred by a watermark that's present throughout that's sure to turn off some fans of old-time horror.
Highlights from this volume include the Hammer films, Brides of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein, and Taste the Blood of Dracula as well as so-bad-their-good films like I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and the unbelievable Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. The best of this bunch however are the trailers with over-the-top descriptions of the horror contained in the films. There's some great purple prose in these things. Some of my favorites:
"Here the dead rise from their tombs once a year to repeat their hideous crimes of murder and passion!" - Murder and passion huh? I wonder if it's a tough choice for them?
"...transforming a young girl's love into terrifying bloodlust!"
"Death is a plaything when you're caught in the Devil's Hand"
"See the most sensual and sadistic slaughter the west ever witnessed and the most shock-filled look at raw brutality you will ever see." - Oh where to start... what the heck is sensual slaughter?? And 'See the ...you will ever see' classic.
There are many more great lines in this collection. Fans of hokey films will have a field day.
Like the previous volume, some of these have splices and missing short segment. Others trailers end abruptly though they seem complete. This isn't a huge problem, but it does mar the presentation.
The trailers included in this collection are:
Anatomy of a Psychic (an extended preview, this one runs 2 ½ minutes!)
Atom Age Vampire
Blood Creature warning bell for those of that are faint of heart
Blood of Dracula
Bloodlust
Brides of Dracula
Castle of Blood
The Creature from the Haunted Sea
Curse of Frankenstein
The Devil's Hand
The Five Bloody Graves
Hatchet for a Honeymoon
I Bury the Living
Killer Shrews
Lady Frankenstein
Monstroid
Nightmare Castle
Phantom from Space
Screaming Skull
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Tormented
The Werewolf vs. Vampire Woman
What's the Matter with Helen
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo
Kiss of the Vampire
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
Jesse James Meets Frankensteins Daughter
The Hypnotic Eye
The Curse of the Werewolf
Horror of Dracula
The Premature Burial
The Giant Gilla Monster
The Giant Claw
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
The Devils Partner
The Beast from Haunted Cave
She
Konga
Circus of Horrors
Audio:
The two channel mono soundtrack is fine. There's some background noise present in some of the trailers but the dialog is usually clear and easy to understand. Nothing to write home about, but not bad either.
Video:
These trailers are presented with a 1.33: 1 aspect ratio. That's the original ratio for a lion's share of the trailers, though a few are pan and scan jobs while others preserve the OAR but are non-anamorphic and letterboxed. Everything presented on this disc is in the public domain and none of it has been restored. The quality varies but is generally acceptable. Most, if not all, of these suffer from spots and scratches, sometimes excessively. The images are generally soft, the contrast is sometimes poor, the colors are usually faded, and the level of detail isn't spectacular. Some heavy handed edge enhancement is present in some scenes too. Even with that, these are all watchable and some of them look quite nice. While this disc won't win any awards the trailers are all watchable and the vast majority is much better than that.
The bad news about this volume is that, unlike volume one, there is a "Synergy Entertainment" watermark overlaid on all of the trailers. The mark is light, but it still mars the presentation which wasn't spectacular to begin with.
Extras:
Like the first volume, this one also has an optional "scary music" audio track. Selecting this option plays somewhat eerie synthesizer music over the trailers instead of the original audio. That would make it nice to play it this way during a Halloween party.
This volume also features two old time radio shows, The Creaking Door and The Strange Dr. Weird. These are both unrestored and the audio isn't perfect. There are snaps and pops and the dialog is a bit muddled in parts, but they're both fun to listen to. This was a nice bonus to include.
Final Thoughts:
This was a fun disc, though the watermark really started to bother me after a while. Even with that I'll give the disc a light Recommendation as these trailers are just too much fun to pass up.
The Monster Club and Synery Entertainment have teamed up once again for a second volume of classic (and not so classic) SF and horror movie trailers: Festival of Fright 2. Like the first volume (read my review of that disc here) this disc presents an hour and 15 minutes of B-movie trailers that are often more fun to watch than the features themselves. While this set has some great promotional films, the presentation is marred by a watermark that's present throughout that's sure to turn off some fans of old-time horror.
Highlights from this volume include the Hammer films, Brides of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein, and Taste the Blood of Dracula as well as so-bad-their-good films like I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and the unbelievable Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. The best of this bunch however are the trailers with over-the-top descriptions of the horror contained in the films. There's some great purple prose in these things. Some of my favorites:
"Here the dead rise from their tombs once a year to repeat their hideous crimes of murder and passion!" - Murder and passion huh? I wonder if it's a tough choice for them?
"...transforming a young girl's love into terrifying bloodlust!"
"Death is a plaything when you're caught in the Devil's Hand"
"See the most sensual and sadistic slaughter the west ever witnessed and the most shock-filled look at raw brutality you will ever see." - Oh where to start... what the heck is sensual slaughter?? And 'See the ...you will ever see' classic.
There are many more great lines in this collection. Fans of hokey films will have a field day.
Like the previous volume, some of these have splices and missing short segment. Others trailers end abruptly though they seem complete. This isn't a huge problem, but it does mar the presentation.
The trailers included in this collection are:
Anatomy of a Psychic (an extended preview, this one runs 2 ½ minutes!)
Atom Age Vampire
Blood Creature warning bell for those of that are faint of heart
Blood of Dracula
Bloodlust
Brides of Dracula
Castle of Blood
The Creature from the Haunted Sea
Curse of Frankenstein
The Devil's Hand
The Five Bloody Graves
Hatchet for a Honeymoon
I Bury the Living
Killer Shrews
Lady Frankenstein
Monstroid
Nightmare Castle
Phantom from Space
Screaming Skull
Taste the Blood of Dracula
Tormented
The Werewolf vs. Vampire Woman
What's the Matter with Helen
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo
Kiss of the Vampire
I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
Jesse James Meets Frankensteins Daughter
The Hypnotic Eye
The Curse of the Werewolf
Horror of Dracula
The Premature Burial
The Giant Gilla Monster
The Giant Claw
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
The Devils Partner
The Beast from Haunted Cave
She
Konga
Circus of Horrors
The DVD:
Audio:
The two channel mono soundtrack is fine. There's some background noise present in some of the trailers but the dialog is usually clear and easy to understand. Nothing to write home about, but not bad either.
Video:
These trailers are presented with a 1.33: 1 aspect ratio. That's the original ratio for a lion's share of the trailers, though a few are pan and scan jobs while others preserve the OAR but are non-anamorphic and letterboxed. Everything presented on this disc is in the public domain and none of it has been restored. The quality varies but is generally acceptable. Most, if not all, of these suffer from spots and scratches, sometimes excessively. The images are generally soft, the contrast is sometimes poor, the colors are usually faded, and the level of detail isn't spectacular. Some heavy handed edge enhancement is present in some scenes too. Even with that, these are all watchable and some of them look quite nice. While this disc won't win any awards the trailers are all watchable and the vast majority is much better than that.
The bad news about this volume is that, unlike volume one, there is a "Synergy Entertainment" watermark overlaid on all of the trailers. The mark is light, but it still mars the presentation which wasn't spectacular to begin with.
Extras:
Like the first volume, this one also has an optional "scary music" audio track. Selecting this option plays somewhat eerie synthesizer music over the trailers instead of the original audio. That would make it nice to play it this way during a Halloween party.
This volume also features two old time radio shows, The Creaking Door and The Strange Dr. Weird. These are both unrestored and the audio isn't perfect. There are snaps and pops and the dialog is a bit muddled in parts, but they're both fun to listen to. This was a nice bonus to include.
Final Thoughts:
This was a fun disc, though the watermark really started to bother me after a while. Even with that I'll give the disc a light Recommendation as these trailers are just too much fun to pass up.
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