Customer Reviews

Ozone (10th Anniversary Special Edition)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER collection is a great deal if you're looking to pick up some indie-horror but don't want to shell out a lot of cash for something that might fall flat.

The mix of movies is really good. A good number of them do actually fall flat, but, except for LAST HOUSE ON HELL STREET, none of them are just plain old unwatchable. Outside of that film, though, they are all at least somewhat enjoyable and some actually cross the line into being good films.

So, for the number of films you get, and the fact that only one of them is garbage, this is a great deal and definitely something you should pick up if you are into indie-horror.

Ozone (J. R. Bookwalter, 1993)

Recently, I've seen a good number of amateur horror flicks. The majority of them are worthless. The one thing I can say in Ozone's favor is that everyone involved was very enthusiastic about the project; sometimes that's enough to distinguish it from the pack.

Bookwalter (The Dead Next Door), who got his start as an extra in George Romero's Day of the Dead, keeps the zombies coming. In this case, they're being created by a drug called ozone (thus the movie's title). Eddie Boone (James Black of The P.J.s), a rogue detective, gets jabbed with a syringe of Ozone during a drug bust. The transformation begins, but not before Boone-- now suspended because his partner got killed in the bust-- begins an investigation into the drug's distribution, leading him to the bestial druglord Bebartolo (Bookwalter regular James L. Edwards, who recently popped up in Speed Freak Productions' The Red Skulls). The fight is on!

Now, don't get me wrong-- this is a dumb movie. The acting is flatline (when it's good), the sets are cheap, the direction is inconsistent, the lighting is awful, the soundtrack worse. The editing's pretty good. (Momma always taught me to say something nice or not say anything at all. She didn't tell me I couldn't preface nice with bad.) But, man, Bookwalter-- who also co-wrote the script-- had some great ideas here. And one gets the idea that rather than let budget constraints force the cutting of some of the movie's more memorable scenes, he stretched as thin as he could to make sure that, say, the audience got to see the arena scene. That takes guts. As a result, we get to see a surprisingly layered and complex zombie movie, albeit a badly-delivered one. Speed Freak Productions did it better with Midnight Skater, but remember this was nine years previous. Given all that, I found it rather enjoyable. Be warned, though, the budget for this movie, according to IMDB, was thirty-five hundred dollars. You get what you pay for. **

Do you have a "thing" for rotting monsters, ghostly axe-murderers, husband killers or Aleister Crowley? Well, have I got a DVD set for YOU!

One of the movies in A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER answers the age-old question: "Whatever happened to Tippi Hedren (from Hitchcock's 'THE BIRDS')?" Why, she's been "Searching for Haizmann." And if Ron Howard hasn't heard from his kid brother recently, it's probably because Clint's been busy helping Tippi look. The shot-on-Super-8 flicks in this collection also feature a reincarnated child-killer, a crazed amnesiac and a serial killer and his female apprentice-- just the sort of folks you'd want as neighbors, if you were as demented as some of these 'Z' grade bombs are. Strictly for fans of gratuitous nudity, gore and general mayhem.

If you like the fright film genre, don't miss BRENTWOOD's BLOOD SOAKED CINEMA: BITE NIGHT. Just another dozen bedtime gories sure to give you pleasant nightmares!

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The following alphabetized program list includes viewer poll ratings (on a 1 to 10 scale), years of release and primary actors for each title.

(3.9) Bloodletting (1997) - Ariauna Albright/Sasha Graham/Tina Krause
(2.3) The Bonesetter (Canada-2003) - Brett Kelly/Jody Hauke/Lloyd Kaufman
(2.9) Collinsville (2003) - Natalie Depina/Hayley Brown/Matt Blake
(4.0) Dead & Rotting (2002) - Debbie Rochon/Barbara Katz-Norrod/Stephan O'Mahoney
(6.3) Hardcore Poisoned Eyes (2000) - Christine Gallo/Wendy Allen/Anthony Fariello
(3.2) In the Little Mansion (2004) - Michael George Owens/Kate Hunter Brown
(3.9) Insaniac (2001) - Robin Garrels/Chris Grega/John Specht
(2.1) Last House on Hell St. (2002) - Leah Schumacher/Schmack Virgin/Robin Garrels
(4.0) Ozone (1993) - James Black/Tom Hoover/Bill Morrison
(4.6) Phobias (2003) - Jon Fish/Katherine Leis/Nick Colameo/Courtney Chitty
(4.3) Searching for Haizmann (2003) - Luke Eberl/Colombe Jacobsen-Derstine/Clint Howard/Tippi Hedren
(3.5) The Seekers (2003) - Felicia Pandolfi/Shannon Barksdale

I am a great fan of early J. R. Bookwalter films. Movies like "Chickboxer" and "Galaxy of the Dinosaurs" illustrate what cinematic cheese is really all about. "Ozone" is a much more mature film, with a somewhat grander scope (and budget) than his earlier movies, and although it has better production values, I find it less fulfilling. The film is a relatively standard dark drug film, filled with evil and gross characters and special effects, which range from relatively laughable to fairly disturbing. James Black and Tom Hoover are in good form as actors here, although James L. Edwards is perhaps not quite in the same league as "The Drug Lord."

Generally, the film is a modestly effective horror flick, a genre that is not one of my favorites, admittedly. It isn't as scary as some big-budget horror movies, and it certainly isn't as fun as the earlier Bookwalter fare, so it left me a bit unsatisfied. I suspect that horror and gore fans will find "Ozone" satisfactory, and people who are fans of the film will love the packaging which features loads of extras including commentary and "making of" shorts.

I saw this movie under the title "Street Zombies" in the previews of another Z-grade horror film. The preview included a man shooting up drugs, and his head subsequently exploding. I thought this movie would be so bad it would be funny.

I have never been so wrong in my entire life. I sat through each minute of this movie, both hoping it would get better and counting down until the end. I literally had to look at the back of the DVD box multiple times to see how close I was to the movie being over. Unfortunately, each minute that passed was a minute wasted and a horrible minute of filmmaking. And it kept on getting worse. Towards the end the "protagonist" fathers a goblin-like child that starts speaking as soon as it exits his wife's body, and he turns into a mass of amorphous goo for no apparent reason.

I think playing "E.T." on the Atari would be more interesting than this, because you know once you get to the pit it is over permanently, unlike this movie.

I feel like an hour and a half of my life was wasted. I could have spent my time doing better things, like reading a book, playing with a dog, or smelling my own flatulence. I think the latter would be far more intellectually stimulating and interesting than this movie.

They could have kept this in their personal home video collection. The only thing I liked was the lead actor James Black. Everything else was worthless.

Yeah, baby! There'ss a stand-alone version of this out there for purchase, but I got it as part of a 4 movie set for a few bucks.

D&R is a product of the short-lived Full Moon/Tempe relationship in the mid 90's that churned out some decent flicks, Dead and Rotting being one of them.

Super low budget, grainy, washed out video and TERRIBLE audio (had to turn the volume up to 58 just to be able to hear things clearly) but this made the 4 movie set worth the 5$ it cost in and of itself.

Our basic premise, three rednecks in Ohio bark up the wrong tree by hiring two stoners to exact revenge against a freak who heckled them and his nutball witch old lady. Unfortunately - never trust stoners - they take things a step further by boiling the lady's cat alive..who just happens to also be her son.. the freak the 3 lead idiots originally had beef with. Said lady is freaky to say the least and delivers the sell line "Do you know what it's like when you're dead and rotting?!?"

MONEY.

The old lady turns herself into a hot little number (Debbie Rochon) and seduces the three rednecks into donating their seed so she can create.. well.. dead and rotted psycho killer ghouls whom she will use to exact her revenge.

She lures them one by one in Rochon mode to be hacked to bits by the ghouls then kept on display with trees coming out of their heads (?!) in a garage.

Luckily the smart one wriggles free with the aid of the other stoner kid who didn't get waxed and they set out on a journey to try and figure out how to put a stop to all of this.

The ending is kind of sudden and a letdown..but hey.. the rest of this movie rocks it, hard. On top of all this, this is a JR Bookwalter production, and is shot relatively close to me here in Ohio.

Some of the other movies on this disc are Bookwalter efforts as well and are generally a cut above standard b horror in terms of story specifically.

Ozone is the other standout in the set, The Bonesetter being the low-light.

You will need drugs to get through this movie!


1) ACTING: While there are no thespians of high quality here, the acting isn't all THAT bad. It's not THAT good, either, but, you know what I mean. it's pretty much hit or miss in this film. Some actors could do great in one scene and then the next scene was horrible! Which relates to the actual script itself, but I digress...

2) PRODUCTION: The lighting is bad. And what was with all the RED lighting?! The soundtrack was bad, the filming was bad...the only good thing about this one was the special effects. While now outdated, (this movie is from 1993), I have to admit the special effects department must've had a field day! It was almost as if each effect had to top the last one! Blood, gore and goo abounds!!

3) THE ZOMBIES: The zombies varied from one end of the extreme to the next. Some were the good ol' favorites we've come to love, and some seemed to be regular folk with a little bit of zombie makeup on their faces!

4)THE CAUSE: Man made street drug called Ozone.

5) NUDITY: None, not even during the childbirth scene!


Aside from the special effects, the only other good thing about this movie was the DVD cover. Which, in itself, is probably a BAD thing, since it lures you in by making it seem like it's a pretty good movie, with its plot description and pics. I think if you watched this one with a group of friends, it would be more enjoyable than if you watched it by yourself.


RATING: 1.5 out of 5

bad acting, bad story, way bad special effects, poorly made all around. can't believe this is being pawned off on unsuspecting customers!

A pleasingly relaxed and charismatic lead performance by James Black, who skillfully carries the film...the grisly special effects are inventive and well-executed. [J.R.] Bookwalter livens things up with some nice visual flourishes and offbeat camera angles...with more cash to play around with, he could be a man to watch!