6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
An evil spirit enters a graveyard and reanimates the corpse of music teacher Eric Longfellow. However, in order to stay alive, he has to wrap his hands around his victims' throats to absorb their life essences. When he moves to the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland, his neighbor begins to suspect something just is not right with Mr. Longfellow.
Starring: Don Leifert, George Stover, Greg Dohler, Steve Frith, Pam DohlerHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 1.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Writer/director Don Dohler has enjoyed cult appreciation for his limited filmography, praised for his fierce independent spirit, finding much of his work captured on his own property, utilizing whatever’s nearby to create sci-fi/horror pictures for nearly three decades (he passed away in 2006). 1978’s “The Alien Factor” gave Dohler a career, solidifying his love for creepy tales of extraterrestrial invasion, with the no-budget endeavor generating attention with B-movie addicts. Dohler follows up his scrappy debut with 1980’s “Fiend,” which, if possible, looks even less produced than his previous effort, literally making the feature in his own basement, trying to stretch a reported $6,000 budget into a suitable chiller. “Fiend” makes “The Alien Factor” looks like a David Lean production, providing only the barest of directorial finesse and production coin. Dohler attempts to shape another tense meeting between worlds with his screenplay, but he’s mostly made a talky endeavor that’s low on scary stuff and personality, spinning its wheels while stuck in the mud pit of lethargic storytelling.
The MPEG-2 encoded visual (1.33:1 aspect ratio) presentation does not provide a restoration of "Fiend." In fact, quite the opposite, with Massacre Video doing next to nothing to clean up the feature for its Blu-ray debut. This is basically just a new scan, lacking clean-up and color refreshing, while the source is in rough shape, with judder, scratches, speckling, and a few chemical blotches detected during the viewing experience. Hues are on the mild side, showing age with slightly faded greenery and house interiors, leaving more pronounced primaries, such as red blood and alien glow, to liven up the palette. Skintones are a tad bloodless but within the realm of natural. Detail reaches as far as the original cinematography allows, offering softness with rare moments of definition, most coming from monster make-up and suburban activity, with a satisfactory level of depth to neighborhood encounters. Costuming also has its moments of texture. Grain is inconsistent throughout. Black levels are a bit milky at times, threatening delineation during shadowy encounters. Granted, this is probably the best "Fiend" is ever going to look on home video, but perhaps some addition care was in order to help it look its best.
The 2.0 Dolby Digital sound mix could technically qualify as intelligible, but age and production limitations have pulled all definition out of the track. Dialogue exchanges are muffled when they aren't plagued by sibilance issues, keeping conversations, suspicions, and threats dulled for most of the listening event. Scoring brings out genre synth to deliver a creep-out factor to the movie, but there's hardly any noticeable force to the electronic wave, offering little support. Sound effects are minor at best, clouded like the rest of the mix. Hiss and pops carry throughout.
"Fiend" is made up of discussions and prolonged stalking sequences, while Dohler's skill level as a director matches early John Waters, sweating to come up with excitement while having very little ability as a craftsman. "The Alien Factor" was minor work as well, yet it contained some level of ambition to achieve a sense of scale. "Fiend" remains in basements, living rooms, and the woods, while sci-fi elements remain underdeveloped and flashes of horror are mismanaged. Perhaps Dohler's ability to pull anything off for lunch money is impressive, but this effort is feeble at best.
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Alien Zone / Zone of the Dead / Five Faces of Terror / Last Stop on 13th St. | Slipcover Limited to 1,500
1978