SPOOKIES (1985) Black Friday Blu-ray
Director(s): Genie Joseph (as Eugenie Joseph), Thomas Doran, and Brendan Faulkner
Vinegar Syndrome

The twisted souls of SPOOKIES are finally unleashed on a Blu-ray that finally tells the whole tale courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome.

For over seventy years, sorcerer Kreon (Felix Ward) and his reanimated ghoul son Korda (A.J. Lowenthal) have watched over the body of his beloved bride Isabelle (Maria Pechukas) who committed suicide when she discovered her husband's evil nature. He has sacrificed many souls in his efforts to revive her, but now the "final foolish victims" are about to arrive and take their places on his game board when nine friends get kicked out of a party due to the actions of hotheaded Duke (Nick Gionta) who drags along long-suffering girlfriend Linda (Joan Ellen Delaney), prankster Rich (Peter Iasillo Jr., SAINT BERNARD), frosty Adrienne (Charlotte Seeley, EMMANUELLE 3) and milquetoast David (Anthony Valbiro), conservative Peter (Peter Dain) and sensible Meegan, spiritual Carol (Lisa Friede) and her boyfriend Lewis (visual effects artist Al Magliochetti, BRAIN DAMAGE) in search of another party along a back country road. They stumble upon a derelict mansion seemingly populated only by a mummified corpse in a closet clutching a Ouija board. Carol finds the planchette and appears to makes more than contact with the other side as she becomes possessed by a demonic entity and tries to kill the others. They discover that something will not let them leave when zombies erupt from the nearby cemetery; however, they are no safer inside the house with demons, ghouls, mudmen, spider woman (Soo Paek), a hook-handed mancat (Dan Scott), and the Grim Reaper himself ensuring that the deck is stacked against them in Kreon's game.

A home video and late night TV guilty pleasure for its everything-but-the-kitchen-sink plotting and fantastic creature effects courtesy of future industry artists Jennifer Aspinall (THE TOXIC AVENGER), Gabe Bartalos (LEPRECHAUN), Arnold Gargiulo (THE DEADLY SPAWN), Vincent J. Guastini (SILENT NIGHT), and John Dods (NIGHT BEAST), SPOOKIES scattershot pacing and patchwork quality was obviously indicative of some reshoots, but the full story of just what the film might have been and what it turned into is even more compelling than anything in the film (well, with the exception of the spider woman). British video pirate-turned-VIPCO label owner and Video Nasty emblem Michael Lee gave American filmmakers Thomas Doran, Brendan Faulkner, and Frank M. Farel – students of Roy Frumkes (STREET TRASH), participants in his unfinished anthology TALES THAT'LL RIP YOUR HEART OUT, and the directors of the gore sequences for IGOR AND THE LUNATICS – with a checklist of requirements for a haunted house picture that had to be "like THE EVIL DEAD" but rated PG. Despite these limitations, they thought they could create something interesting or at least a calling card film. They soon discovered that their creative control was an illusion when Lee arrived on set and started second-guessing them, eventually shutting them out of the editing room and hiring "porn editor" Eugenie Joseph to not only replace forty-odd minutes of footage with new scenes featuring the sorcerer, his bride, son, and mancat servant, as well as a thirteen-year-old runaway (Alec Nemser) who has the misfortune to shelter in the mansion when his parents forget his birthday, but also to recut and reorder what footage remained, resulting in the confusing final product. It is difficult to determine how the missing footage better connected the series of monster encounter sequences, but the lack of interaction between the sorcerer and his bride and the rest of the cast apart from the sorcerer's voice heard through the possessed Carol makes the grafting of footage from different shoots more obvious than the contrasts between the fine photography of Ken Kelsch (THE BAD LIEUTENANT) – who was not fired from the production but left due to tragic family circumstances – and that of documentary cameraman Robert Chappell. What remains of the original footage is memorable due to the ambitious effects on a low-budget, some striking production design by Doran's wife Cecilia (ED WOOD), and a fine synthesizer and harpsichord score by James Calabrese and Kenneth Higgins. The special effects were photographed by hardcore/exploitation cinematographer Larry Revene (who also shot DOOM ASYLUM with effects artist Guastini), the Steadicam was operated by James Muro who had directed STREET TRASH and went onto photograph features like OPEN RANGE and television shows like SOUTHLAND. Future Miramax/Dimension producer Daniel Lupi (DUST DEVIL) worked here as a dolly grip. In spite of their experience with producer Lee, Doran and Faulkner gave it another go with KILLER DEAD, a 1992 creature feature which carried over some of the SPOOKIES cast and crew.

Given scant theatrical release by Sony Video Software at least two years after it was "finished," SPOOKIES was most accessible via their VHS and screenings on USA Up All Night and TNT through the nineties and only accessible in the DVD age via Vipco's PAL DVD which featured an okay video master. A new transfer appeared on a Canadian DVD of mysterious origin a couple years ago and there have been 35mm screenings more recently, but a Blu-ray release seemed unlikely until Vinegar Syndrome's Black Friday Blu-ray. The 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen transfer does not have a lot of competition but it is nevertheless flawless thanks to the original photography and care of the elements. The subtle blue of the night scenes looks natural rather than revisionist, whites remain pure, blacks having varying degrees of underexposed grain, and colors in the eighties clothing and color gels pop while the make-up effects, stop motion, and puppetry holds up extremely well in high definition. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track boasts clear dialogue, effects, and delivers the underrated score with nice presence. An additional Dolby Digital 2.0 track is no hidden commentary or isolated score, just a lossy copy of the mono track. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided.

The two disc set features the film on the first disc with a pair of 2015 Alamo Drafthouse screening introductions by co-director Doran (1:07) who describes the film as good footage badly edited (or "raped") while co-writer/producer Farel (4:07) tells a condensed story of film geeks making a "deal with the devil" (Faulkner and Farel even appeared as zombie extras in DAWN OF THE DEAD through Frumkes, one getting hit with seltzer and other with a pie). The 2015 Hudson Horror Show screening Q&A (20:21) with actors Iasillo and Valbiro, and production assistant Tom Sciacca is a rowdy experience as they mention some of the scenes shot and left out or unfinished (Valbiro says he was ducking and weaving during one scene because ghosts were supposed to be animated into the shots), and castigate both Lee and "porno actress" editor Joseph. Actor Iasillo also appears in an archival locations featurette (5:34) exploring the grounds and recalling the shoot and behind the scenes, while a pinreel outtakes and bloopers sequence (12:03) focuses on the original shoot with plenty of goofing around and a preoccupation clothespins. There is also an extensive behind the scenes still gallery (15:26) while the included theatrical trailer (1:34) bears out Farel's remarks about the finished film looking too bright on video with some of the prosthetic make-up effects looking particularly rubbery here but acceptable in the feature.

If disc two does is left off the standard edition it will be regrettable as it includes "Twisted Tales: The Unmaking of SPOOKES" (100:54), a documentary by Fangoria's Michael Gingold and filmmaker Glen Baisley (THE TENEMENT) featuring Faulkner and Farel (Doran having passed away a few years ago), Cecilia Doran, Dods, Bartalos, Kelsch, Valibro, Gionta, and film historian Max Evry (author of the article "The Strange Saga of SPOOKIES" for The Dissolve online). They recall how Lee heard their proposals but initially wanted them to finish the incomplete British horror film THE ANGER but they felt nothing was usuable, then Lee provided them with his requirements of a horror film and secured the John Jay Jr. estate for filming. Things are pleasant enough when they discuss the casting and how people involved with such disparate productions as THE DEADLY SPAWN, STREET TRASH, and IGOR AND THE LUNATICS came to work together; then, however, Lee's visit to the set a month into production is where things get bad quickly, and no one has anything remotely nice to say about Lee (they even suggest that the added subplot involving Billy's birthday, a crying baby doll, and the headstones of children behind the house was as series of mean-spirited digs by Lee at Kelsch whose infant son died a crib death on location leading to him walking off the production). They have nothing good to say about Joseph either, who accepted an award on behalf of the production and has apparently been quoted as "saving" the film. Sound editor Brian O'Hara (TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE) – who was assisted by future Andy Milligan biographer Jimmy McDonaugh – takes credit for adding the farting sounds to the mudmen (commonly attributed to Lee), and reveals that Lee fired Joseph when she objected argumentatively to the change although they also patched things up quickly.

The documentary is accompanied by an audio commentary track by Gingold and Baisley who reveal their own histories with the makers of the film – Gingold having interviewed Doran and Faulkner about an unfinished anthology and not watching SPOOKIES until years later after hearing the initial horror stories about the production, and Baisley having been contacted by Doran after the 2015 Hudson Horror show screening. They reveal that Farel supplied them with tons of legal documents, photographs, treatments, the first draft screenplay, and articles – some of which are on view in the documentary and some in the first disc's still gallery – and Cecilia Doran supplied props from the film (those she told Lee were lost when he asked for them for the reshoot), and also reveal that they decided to focus largely on the original shoot and not interview many of those who worked on the reshoot (although Gingold does reveal that BLUE VENGEANCE's J. Christian Ingvordsen also did some work on the additional material as well). The deleted scenes (13:05) are also interesting as Faulkner recalls being instructed by Lee to take the film materials to Andy Milligan (whose CARNAGE had been produced by Lee) and that the production location was bombarded by a man who thought they were shooting a FRIDAY THE 13TH sequel, while Gionta reveals that his distinctive wardrobe was supplied by his agent who had another client who was modeling the brand.

Disc two also includes "VIPCO - The Untold Story" (132:21), a somewhat unwieldy and unpolished documentary on Lee and the notorious UK home video label by filmmaker Jason Impey who came of age between Vipco's VHS and DVD days, being heavily influenced by its Euro horror output to the point where he proposed making a zombie film to be distributed by the label. Intercut with Impey's interview with Lee are comments from Vipco wholesaler Barry Gold, Dark Side magazine writer Jay Slater, and various academics and critics including Kim Newman, who note that Vipco was emblematic of the Video Nasty debacle even though they were not one of the larger operators during the period (although they did put out such titles as THE DRILLER KILLER, ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, and CANNIBAL FEROX). They make some fair points about Lee's canniness as a businessman more so than a film fan, and that fan frustration with the BBFC-mandated cuts were conflated with their more justifiable criticisms about the poor quality and lack of extras (while also noting that the label and its reputation built the audience for the sort of special editions upon which Arrow Video has built its own reputation). In the interview, Lee concedes that he is more interested in money, buying his house outright with money for pirated movies before going legit, driving his Rolls Royce, and going to the casino. The intercutting with other commentators is kind of disorienting at first but it actually functions to soften Lee's edges a bit since he makes mention of the early death of his twenty-six year old son offhand while others also note that event and how it lead to him losing interest in the business and developing mental issues late in life (Lee is apparently being cared for in a nursing home now). It may not rehabilitate his reputation for those he stepped on during SPOOKIES, especially since he only makes brief mention of the film at the 111 minute mark and makes it sound like a straightforward experience. Lee's interview can be watched isolated in its entirety with some unused bits as well (26:04). There is also a trailer (1:38) for the documentary. The discs come housed with a reversible cover and a limited edition slipcover. (Eric Cotenas)

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