HORRORVISION

Directed by Danny Draven
Written by Scott Phillips
Produced by J.R. Bookwalter and Chuck Williams
Director of Photography - Mac Ahlberg
Edited by David R. Cane

Dez - Jake Leonard
Dazzy - Maggie Rose Fleck
Toni - Brinke Stevens
Bradbury - James black

The best scenes in J.R. Bookwalter's WITCHOUSE 2 occurred when the action was taken out of the murky, claustrophobic castle and into the warm, open air. Those few scenes were a welcome break in a Full Moon formula that had been wearing itself thin for the past few years. This time Producer Bookwalter, along with first time director Danny Draven, gives us HORRORVISION, a film shot almost entirely outside, in the sun-drenched California and Mexican deserts.

I truly hope HORRORVISION is the mold for Full Moon titles to come, there's more substance and character in these 70 minutes than any Full Moon release since CASTLE FREAK. It is a bleak tale of the techno-supernatural bringing about the destruction of mankind in a world where everyone is morally corrupt on some level. It paints a dark, dreary picture, but fills the canvas with wonderfully human details.

Dez, our hero, is the webmaster of a few a porn sites. His major goal is to write the next Hollywood blockbuster. There's just one catch, there's a new type of evil in town and it's gunning for our boy. All of mankind's depravity and malfeasance have merged on the Internet to produce Horrorvision.com, a site where you can loose your soul just by logging on. It turns out that in the cosmic scheme of things, Dez is one of the chosen to do battle with the evils of Horrorvision.com. For what it's worth, the movie is a great deal better then my plot synopsis would lead you to believe. While relatively bloodless and low on violence, the movie maintains a quite sense of erupting chaos.

It has been a long time since I've seen a film this gleefully detrimental to the feminist plight. Of the entire cast, I can only recall a handful of women, all are either debased to whores or killed off pretty quickly. Our hero's girlfriend, Dazzy, has what might possibly be one of the most humiliating introductions in movie history. As Dez is negotiating business with his pornsite, Dazzy is down below, off screen, giving him head. Occasionally her hand pops into frame long enough to smack Dez for his snide remarks. Apparently this is an everyday occurrence as the business associate casually laughs off the incident.

I hate to label a film as being misogynistic especially when I have doubts about the underlying theme being entirely intended, but the argument can be made. Part of the problem stems from a lack of morally straight female characters. The only two women who come close to being morally sound are killed off within the first 20 minutes. Is there room in the future for woman of standards and strength? Not in this film, the remaining women are all crack whores. The most revolting of which is Ariauna Albright, playing the part complete with three blood-dipping track marks. During her cameo she delivers the most disturbing line of the entire film with ferocious verve, "you can suck the snotty end of my f*ck stick." While Albright delivers the line to Dez, into the frame walks another prostitute bashing some poor schmuck's head in with a big stick. .

It's refreshing to see a film refuse to bend to the whims of political correctness. Those that believe contrary forget that one of horror's most misogynistic films is also one of the genre's finest hours. You will hardly ever see a film with such blind hatred for the female gender as John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN, the film that set the formula for allowing only virgins to live through the closing credits.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying HORRORVISION is in the same class of filmmaking as HOLLOWEEN. When it comes to the ballpark, they are in two separate leagues. We're talking majors and minors here. But it goes to show that intelligence can bring substance to film. The intentions to bring a fun and entertaining movie were delivered soundly with the added bonus of depth and wit.

The film clocks in just under 70 minutes, and it's padded to reach that mark. To eat up time we are treated to a few montages of Dez driving his car, allowing the producers to add a hot, California bands to the soundtrack. The filmmakers even joke about high number of these scenes on the DVD. The final montage actually works well, as Dez is driving he sees two guys slugging it out. The camera rolls in slow motion as Dez drives by. It's a throw away seen, but it really sums up the abyss mankind has sank into.

Some of you might remember that last year saw WITCHOUSE 2 nominated against GLADIATOR for a few awards showcasing advancements in DVD technology. Full Moon's Lunar Edition disks are top of the line and packed with extras. As good as the WITCHOUSE 2 disk was, the HORRORVISION disk is that much better. Crammed onto the disk are behind the scenes documentaries, standard cast bios that go a set farther by providing the footage of each actor's initial audition, as well as an entire section showcasing some of director Draven's early, student work. For good measure there is even a Ward Bolt photogallery of Brinke Stevens. The supplementals outweigh the film almost 2:1.

The only downside to an otherwise fantastic disk was a mostly anecdotal commentary by Draven, Bookwalter, Ariauna Albright, and FX Supervisor Dave Barton. It seemed rushed and unprepared, done on the fly in the Tempe main office with phones often ringing in the background. With so much obvious care taken to produce the rest of the disk it seemed like a letdown to add a commentary track with a slapped-on-at-the-last-minute feel. Fortunately the rest of the product is more than makes up it. It's truly a great package for fun movie.

You can order DVD and VHS copies of Horrorvision at great discount prices directly from the Tempe website. Check it out.
Tempe Video
Horrorvision
Full Moon Pictures

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