A scene from Robert Morgan’s stop-motion-animated “D is for Deloused,” one of the creative highlights of THE ABCs OF DEATH 2.


said, Risk gives the two-hour-plus film the biggest shot of star power it has. Looking at first like a Margaret Keane balle- rina, she emerges from some unpleasant manhandling with her dignity intact and, when she turns the tables on her abusers, she becomes an aurora of cackling horror that is the film’s single most arresting and memorable image. Stay tuned through the lengthy end credits for an append- age to the story. The Soskas them- selves appear as witches in the backgrounds of Steven Kostanski’s clever TV commercial spoof “W is for Wish,” which also features sup- port from ANTIVIRAL’s Brandon Cronenberg.


Understandably, THE ABCs OF DEATH 2 has a variable as- pect ratio but is limited to 1.78:1 and 1.85:1; the quality and inten- tions of the cinematography like- wise change from segment to


segment, but the best-looking ones are superb, inclining one to suspect that the lesser quality ma- terial is at least faithful to the source material. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is primarily in English, though the spoken languages are sufficiently diverse as to include Hebrew and Arabic at times; these are auto- matically subtitled, and the sub- title options are English, English SDH, French or Spanish. The extras are, in some ways, more absorbing than the segments themselves and provide each of the enterprising filmmakers with oppor- tunities to promote themselves and their skills. For example, the “Mak- ing Of” supplement for the Soska sisters’ segment runs an impres- sive 28m 44s! The next longest is a 19m 35s look behind the scenes of Soichi Umezawa’s “Y is for Youth,” but the majority of these extras run between 3-5m. There


is also a feature commentary by the two producers with input from as many of the contributors as were available.


SEXCULA


1974/2013, Impulse, 86m 3s, $24.95, DVD-0


THE VIXENS OF KUNG FU / ORIENTAL BLUE


1975/1975, Vinegar Syndrome, 71m 13s/84m 42s, $14.98, DVD-0


By John Charles


Hardcore porn producers often riff on mainstream trends and these 1970s productions consist of a bizarre Canadian horror spoof and a pair of attempts by director Bill Milling to cash-in on the ris- ing American appreciation for all things Asian.


Shortly after David Cronen- berg’s SHIVERS (1975) appeared


61


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94