Product Details

• Actors: Gunnar Hansen (II), Debbie Rochon, Jon Miller (XII), Brian Kelly (III), Jeff Jordan
• Directors: Paul Talbot
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Troma
• VHS Release Date: October 31, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004YS5W
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #174,499 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Anthology, Two Out Of The Three Stories Were Cool., May 15, 2000

By	CaptHowdy "CaptHowdy" (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hellblock 13 (DVD)

This anthology of stories feels like a collection of three Tales From The Crypt episodes.

The first story is a 'missing children' one. It revolves around the mother of the lost children and follows her interviews with the police and the time she spends with her boyfriend. After approximately two minutes into the story you pretty well know what the ending will be. It would have been nice if the ending wasn't so blantantly obvious. Pretty descent makeup effects though.

The second story is about a young married couple (stereotypical southern trailer trash). Because of how the characters are played you end up laughing at some of their 'southern' personalities. This one is the best of the trilogy. Heidi Mae is an abused housewife. I found myself cringing watching her husband beat the hell out of her. Man, do you ever sympathise with her character FAST. This one had better twists and turns in the story and just when you are thinking 'ah, this ending is as easy to guess as the last one' it smacks you in the face with something different.

The last story follows a biker gang on it's way to Mexico on a drug run. A superstitious bunch, they stop to pay their respects (in their 'special' way) to a former biker chick (J.J. North) who apparently looks after them from beyond the grave. This one had a larger cast than the others and they are perfect in their roles. The ending is pretty predictable though, but not as easily as the first story. It would have been nice to hear J.J. speak or something, perhaps a bigger role, because she looked hot!

All three of these stories are written by Tara (Debbie Rochon)while on death row. She reads these stories to her prison guard/executioner (Gunnar Hansen) while waiting to get taken away to die. They are basically the 'Cryptkeepers' of this anthology and help it flow from one story to the next. Debbie plays a perfect psychopath. She gets some great lines like 'They remember Poe, Lovecraft, and they'll remember Tara!' Her giggling at the end of the film will spook me for a long time. Gunnar's role was limited, but his line are pretty cool. His name-calling and put downs to Debbie were pretty funny (in sick sort of way I suppose).

The DVD contains a few trailers for Troma films. Other than that, there isn't anything else.

Overall a good anthology for Tales From The Crypt fan types who like indie films. Debbie Rochon fans will like this too.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Three times the scares, November 14, 2000

By	Bob (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hellblock 13 (DVD)

This film is a trilogy of tales related by deathrow inmate Debbie Rochon to her executioner Gunnar Hansen (the original LeatherFace. All three stories are excellent, but I especially liked the last one involving a bizarre biker ritual to revive their dead protector played silently by J.J. North. Someone who looks as good as J.J. does not have to speak! The real star is Debbie Rochon. Her character drips violence and the ending will make you say wow. This film was originally shot in 1997. Troma was smart to pick it up. This pic went over big at the annual Chiller Theatre convention in NJ. Joe Bob Briggs loved it, and it will pave the way for Debbie Rochon to climb to the top of the scream queen list.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad, April 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Hellblock 13 (DVD)

It's an "OK" horror flick. The endings are so predictable, it's not even funny. I swear... so predictable that I thought that the "clues" thrown in were surely meant to throw you off, so that you would really be blown away by whatever surprise twist ending was in store. Not so. The "clues" that are spoon fed to you, are exactly where the stories are heading. Absolutely NO surprises.
However, the story lines (despite the fact that you know where they are going), blood, gore, violence, t*ts and @ss, and overall "mood" of the movie brings it up from what I would consider a 1 star to a 3 star. The predictable endings to all four stories is what ruins it for me. But, this is definitely something I will watch again, in time. Not bad... not great...