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Hellgate (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Arrow Films Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (10th February 2014). |
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The Film
 ***This is a technical review only. For reviews on the movie from various critics, we recommend visiting HERE.*** Legends abound of ‘The Hellgate Hitchhiker’. So the story goes, a beautiful young woman was once brutally defiled and murdered by a biker gang. Now, returned from the dead, she wanders the roadside luring unsuspecting motorists to their doom… Refusing to heed the warnings of locals, a group of college friends set out on a cross-country road trip looking for fun and frolics. But they get much more than they bargained for when they wind up in the abandoned mining town of Hellgate and hemmed in by hordes of the undead! Providing gore and gags in equal measure, Hellgate recalls the good old days of early 90s fright flicks and challenges other gleefully twisted flicks such as Re-animator and Return of the Living Dead for sheer grisly delirium!
Video
Arrow Films were due to release this awful slice of eighties horror on DVD only, as part of their ArrowDrome range, but when news of a HD master arised from Lakeshore Entertainment, Arrow decided to up it to a limited edition (of 1000 copies) Blu-ray, knowing the limited potential. Unfortunately, the HD master is not the greatest, but still a vast improvement on the old Anchor Bay DVD release. The transfer includes a reasonable amount of damage running throughout, more noticeable in some scenes than others (credits sequences for example), but noise in darker scenes, often a problem with these eighties genre films, is not a problem. Blacks are not deep enough for my liking, and on occasion, are far to lightly shaded, but other colours show good depth, and skin tones look natural. The level of detail is average, with facial close-ups looking better than any other parts of the feature, though I have to admit that I was surprised at the level of shadow detail, which is better than even some of the newer Hollywood horror films. There are no signs of any sort of digital noise reduction, and I noticed no compression artefacts. The transfer might not be Arrow's greatest, but it's far better than the film deserves, and fans should be relatively happy, all things considering. The disc is region B locked, and the movie runs 91:03.
Audio
There's just a single audio option here; English LPCM 2.0 Dual Mono. To be honest, there isn't really much to say about the track, other than the fact it's adequate for the film in hand. Dialogue is clear at all times, and the sound effects make little impact as they lack a certain depth. There's no major noticeable damage to the track, although I did hear one or two very minor crackles during several instances. Still, there are no drop outs, and no scratches to speak of, and no background hiss either. No subtitles have been included, though Arrow Films have stated this is due to budget limitations on this release.
Extras
The first extra, "Road to Perdition, B-Movie Style", is an in-depth interview with director William A. Levey running 35:01. Levey talks in detail about his career in general, with a focus on Hellgate in particular. He talks about location scouting, and the casting, and he was obviously fond of Ron Palillo who unfortunately passed away in 2012. He sometimes goes on some strange tangents, but overall, Levey gives us a lot of interesting comments, and not always candy coated (such as how he had to remove lines from Joanne Warde). Like most of us, he is unsure why "Hellgate" is referred to as a cult film. Hell, in regards to the acting, he even says "what do you expect, Academy Award winners?". Next up, "Alien Invasion, Blaxploitation and Ghost-Busting Mayhem" is an interview with scholar, filmmaker and fan Howard S. Berger on the film career of William A. Levey (12:33). He makes the obvious links that "Hellgate" attempts to borrow a lot from far superior Lucio Fucli movies such as "City of the Living Dead", and goes on to say how much of an odd production "Hellgate" is, and why it is memorable for reasons that producers would likely not want the movie to be remembered for. Berger talks about Levey's career, Palillo being gay, and how he has viewed the movie several times a year for over twenty years. Surprising, because he seems sane in the interview! The final extra on the disc is "Video Nasty", an interview with Kenneth Hall on the direct-to-video horror boom lasting 7:59. It's an interesting little interview which focuses on the boom of the late eighties, where the likes of Fred Olen Ray, David DeCouteau and Charles Band made successful careers for themselves on the strength of home markets. He also tells us that he didn't make lots of money, despite what people may think, but he made enough to continue making these movies at the time. He talks about nudity, shameless box art, and even how physical media is dying. We also get a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys and a collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by Lee Gambin, illustrated with original artwork and stills.
Overall
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