QUEEN OF BLOOD (2014) Blu-ray Review

SCARE-A-THON Totals to Date: 

Total Movies Watched: 20 

Total First Time Views: 12 

Amount raised for BOXVILLE: $1,446.40 

Queen of Blood (2014) d. Chris Alexander (USA) (77 min) (1st viewing)

A semi-sequel of sorts to writer/director Alexander’s 2012 offering, Blood for Irina, with our titular undead (Shauna Henry) relocated from her previous urban environs to a mystical wooded glade. Based on the period clothing and rustic setting, one might even consider it a prequel except for the fact that it seems to exist in a no-time world where even speech is out of fashion. Yes, it’s a silent, independent, art-house, vampire flick intended as much a tribute to Werner Herzog and Terence Malick (in terms of pacing and attention to the natural surroundings) as it is to the films of Jean Rollin or Jess Franco.

SLUGS (1988) Blu-ray review

Slugs (1988) d. Juan Piquer Simon (Spain/USA) (89 min)

Simon, the maestro behind the gut-busting splatter flick Pieces, delivers another heaping helping of the red sauce, this time with toxic waste-fed gastropods doing the honors. While the line readings and WTF moments are not as abundantly plentiful, there’s enough head-shaking banana boat wackiness to keep guts chuckling and gruesome sequences to keep lunches buckling. When several members of a quiet upstate NY community start turning up munchified, it’s up to public health inspector Michael Garfield (as a character named – snicker – Mike Brady) and his public works buddy (Philip MacHale) to save the day.

CONTAMINATION (1980) Blu-ray Review

Contamination (aka Alien Contamination) (1980) d. Luigi Cozzi (as Lewis Coates) (Italy)

One of the more flamboyant examples of ’80s Italian rip-offs, director/co-writer Cozzi borrows heavily from Ridley Scott’s Alien but then literally explodes in directions you’d hardly think possible. When a mysterious ship comes floating into a New York harbor, a group of investigators headed up by Col. Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau) and NYPD Lt. Tony Aris (Marino Mase) discover a crew that has been turned to a bloody mess and a cargo hold filled with strange pulsating eggs… much like the strange pulsating eggs soon discovered in a NYC warehouse. At this point, a previous space expedition to Mars is revealed, headed up by astronauts Hubbard (Ian McCulloch) and Hamilton (Siegfried Rauch), which also involved some alien eggs, and we’re off to the races, a trail that will lead us all the way down to a Colombian coffee plantation run by Perla de la Cruz (Gisela Hahn), who is growing a very strange crop indeed.

BLOOD FOR IRINA (2012) Blu-ray Review

Blood for Irina (2012) d. Alexander, Chris (USA)

I’ve been a fan of Chris Alexander for a long time. I first became aware of the inglorious bastard during his tenure at Rue-Morgue magazine where – among other achievements – he was one of the few brave journalists to step in the boxing ring with Uwe Boll as part of the “Raging Boll” exhibition match. After he jumped ship to Fangoria, I followed the exploits on his Blood Spattered Blog, which subsequently led to our first collaboration with me serving as copy editor on Midnight Marquee’s Blood Spattered Book. Not long afterwards, he was named the new Editor-in Chief for Fangoria when longtime ghoul Tony Timpone stepped down. No TT disrespect intended, but the magazine took an immediate upswing with this injection of fresh blood – like him or hate him, Alexander brings his distinct personality to whatever he does. I don’t always agree with his opinions or passions, but I respect the fact that he feels them as deeply as he does and staunchly (and articulately) defends them. So it goes without saying that when I heard he was going to be writing, directing, producing, editing and scoring his first feature film, Blood for Irina, I knew the end result would unequivocally be “A Chris Alexander Film.” The real question was, would I like it?