KING KONG (1976) Blu-ray Review

King Kong (1976) d. John Guillerman (USA) (134 min)

After Airport kicked off the all-star disaster-film craze, director Guillermin was tapped to helm Skyjacked, a fairly transparent riff on the Irwin Allen blockbuster, with Charlton Heston’s take-no-guff pilot contending with James Brolin’s mad bomber at 30,000 feet. Fittingly enough, Guillerman landed the next big bang boom, 1974’s The Towering Inferno, the success of which led to his assignment on the decade’s highest profile extravaganza to that point: Dino de Laurentiis’ then-staggering 24-million dollar remake of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale. It proved to be the perfect blend of 1970s big-budget mayhem and the “Nature Strikes Back” Eco-horror wave that was just hitting its peak with Jaws.

NO REASON (2010) Blu-ray Review

No Reason (2010) d. Olaf Ittenbach (Germany) (77 min)

With a loving husband, healthy child, and plans to move to a beautiful home in the country, Jennifer’s (Irene Holzfurtner) idyllic life is shattered when she receives an envelope filled with compromising photos featuring her spouse (Mathias Engel) and the trampy upstairs neighbor (Annika Strauss). To compound woes, her elderly neighbor Elisabeth (Hildegard Kocian), who was babysitting her young son Nico, has disappeared without a trace. Attempting to calm down and plan next moves, Jennifer falls asleep in the bathtub, awakening hours later on the floor surrounded by disembodied limbs and carnage. A voice commands her to watch video footage of various neighbors and friends being brutally murdered, after which she is instructed to follow a path through a mysterious building filled with scenes of torture, each brightly lit in primary colors (red, green, blue). At the end of the journey, she is told by her Cthulhu mask-wearing guide, Salvation awaits… but at what cost?