Satan’s Blade
Disc: Blu-ray 30th Anniversary
Company: Martini Entertainment / Olive Films / Slasher Video
Starring: Tom Bongiorno, Stephanie Leigh Steel, Thomas Cue,
Elisa R. Malinovitz, Jareen Lowe, Ramona Andrada, Diane Taylor, Marti Neal,
Susan Bennet, Ski Mark Ford, Fred Armond, Meg Greene, Mary Seamen, Richard
Taecker, Carrol Cotion
Plot: Product Description: At a remote ski resort, the
haunting legend of the mountains becomes a shocking reality when seemingly
innocent holiday revelers become victims of sadistic stabbings at the tip of
Satan’s Blade. Romance and murder are horrifyingly entangled in a film that honors
the slasher film genre.
My Review and Thoughts:
This is truly a must see experience for this 80’s slasher
film. This has not looked any better. Gorgeous wrap around VHS cover artwork. A
Blu-ray packed with special features. The video quality and audio is stunning
considering this film is 30 years old and was filmed in the classic style of
35mm. It lovingly brings back old-school horror, MA and PA video stores and the
80’s horror movie reality. This is being brought out by Martini Entertainment
which is a division of one of my favorite DVD and Blu-ray company’s, Olive
Films. Olive Films has joined with Slasher / Video to release this unique
forgotten horror. I was so excited when I learned that Satan’ Blade was getting
a Blu-ray release through Olive Films. What makes this shine and is a must see,
must own experience is that this is digitally mastered from the original 35mm
film which director L. Scott Castillo JR supplied. This process allowed this
forgotten 80’s slasher Drive-In to be seen in a whole new light.
Now this 80’s Drive-in slasher, was written, produced and
directed by L. Scott Castillo Jr. This was his first film. Like the director, most of the cast had never acted in a feature film
before and since. You can also see the director in the film towards the end as
the fisher man, hiker in the woods.
I can’t speak enough about how much work must have went into
transferring this to High Definition. I have seen this movie on VHS and the
quality was absolutely horrible. Looking at this Blu-ray and seeing what went
into cleaning and bringing this forgotten Drive-In, Late Night style horror
film, to a new generation, and new outlet, is absolutely stunning. This is one of
the best fixer upper’s I have ever seen from an old and clearly damaged
negative. I have seen some really bad transfers of really bad recorded films onto DVD and Blu-ray, but this is not one of them. I was iffy at first when I
heard this was going to be coming out on Blu-ray. I thought to myself, the film
it was recorded on was not that good in the first place and I wondered, what they
could do. Well Martini Entertainment/Olive Films clarified that answer and aced
this film on a new outlet that utterly shines.
The old 35mm does has certain spots of scratches, and grain, but it plays well with the film. If you was to compare this with its original
release of VHS, this Blu-Ray is a hundred times better. The scratches of the
negative is there, but does not distract or cause viewing problems.
Now going into this film one must set the mind to the time
period. Place your persona in the 80’s where slasher’s ran rampant, one after
the other. Place your understanding of horror film, into the recesses of a
B-movie, late night, midnight movie marathon. A fat man dressed as a Ghoul is
your host, and is going to introduce and show you, over looked and forgotten about
B-movie’s. Behold Satan’s Blade. This is pure popcorn entertainment of the
B-grade mentality of the 80’s. Satan’s Blade is a low-budget, b-grade
entertainment of the cult film following. Do not go into this expecting
award worthy acting, because you will be majorly let down. This film is not
about award worthy acting or high class film, this is simply low budget,
popcorn entertainment. Satan’s Blade is a perfect example of 80’s horror
cinema.
Absolutely loved the music score. It perfectly fit into the
film. The music was done by Soundtrax, Inc. of San Diego. I think something
neat about this film or the way it's directed and put together, if the voice
was not in the film, and just the music playing, it almost showcases itself
as a silent film. There's moments where there is interactions between the
characters and the villain that plays out like an old-school 20's silent film.
So you start out, a bank robbery. Two women killing and
stealing 50 thousand dollars. They are staying at a cabin resort. Soon they are
permanently out of the picture. The cabin resort is in season and two groups of
young people show up, and both are told about the legend of a killer mountain
man, and a possessed knife.
It has all the trademarks of all the 70's and 80's horrors. 1 hour and 23 minutes of pure low budget classic 80's horror.
It's old-school gritty, Grindhouse style perfection. Boobies,
blood and a possessed knife, what more could you want. If you like B-movies,
sleazy nudity, killer women, goofy cops, over the top acting, a legend and 80's
mustaches, then this is your cup of tea. Simply put, pure 80's candy.
Highly recommended for 80's horror Carnosaurs.
Video/Audio:
High Definition 2K Transfer
Screen: 1.33:1, Color
Languages: English
Extras:
Director’s Narrative with L. Scott Castillo and Jesus Teran.
Loved this interview with the director writer and producer, you got a lot of
information on how the movie came to being such as the movie was filmed in 1980,
but did not get a release on VHS until 1984 through Prism, which finally decided
to take the film and distribute it with 15,000 copies. The interview itself is
filled with great information. Castillo tends to linger or stray from the
basic answering of the questions, but it’s all the more entertaining to listen
to the director’s thoughts. Running time of 16 minutes and 8 seconds.
Remembering Satan’s Blade: Director’s Interview. As I have
stated above the director talks about the film, lingers a lot and strays from the subject,
but gives a great showing of many products involved with the film, posters,
Fangoria, one of the knifes and also the original 35mm Negative print. Running
time of 32 minutes 47 seconds.
Photo Gallery: Awesome exploration of the different styles
of artwork on the VHS’S from around the world. Running time of 10 minutes and
42 seconds.
Instrumental 1: This is great to hear some of the music by
itself. It has a running time of 1 minute and 5 seconds.
Instrumental 2: This is great to hear some of the music by
itself. 1 minute 15 seconds.
Dutch Home Video Scene: Showing a part of the film in the
Dutch language setting. This is a real good example in showing you how much was
done to fix this negative, the high definition and transfer of the Blu-ray version compared to this un-fixed version showcases the Disc brilliance. It showcases
itself in the original viewing negative, how unclear it was and how older
looking the negative was. Running time of 14 minutes and 9 seconds.
Japanese Home Video Scene: Showing a part of the film in the
Japanese setting. This is a real good example in showing you how much was done
to fix this negative, the high definition and transfer. It showcases itself in
the original viewing negative, how unclear it was and how older looking the
negative was. Running time of 2 minutes and 9 seconds.
Satan’s Blade Trailer: Running time of 1 minute.
Satan’s Blade 2 Fan Trailer, this was great to see. A fan
based trailer on the idea of a sequel. A running time of 2 minutes and 36
seconds.
Overall:
This blu-ray is like waking up on a Christmas morning when
your 10 years old and Santa has delivered all the presents, that’s the giddy
and wonderful reality of this Blu-ray. This is my first time seeing Satan’s
Blade so well preserved, and given to the movie world, given to the horror fans,
respected and honored for it’s truly low budget independent nature. A fun
Drive-In feature to enjoy with a large bucket of popcorn. Slip back into the 80’s
all over again with this priceless Drive-in slasher.
This Blu-ray is Fantastic.
This Blu-ray is Fantastic.
INFO:
It will be released on May 12th 2015.
Visit Olive Films at www.olivefilms.com
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