Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Billy Zane and Dennis Miller Together, October 29, 2004
This disk collects the two Tales From the Crypt movies on one side of a single disk. For some reason the menu has the second movie listed first.
In the first movie, Billy Zane is excellent as a demon looking for a final key so that the demons can retake the universe. This is the story of his battle with the current Demon Knight, the protector of the key. Wonderfully crafted and dark.
The second movie, Bordello of Blood, is a more tongue-in-cheek T&A-fest and lacks the dark seriousness of the first. Lilith, the queen of all vampires, has been awakened. She can be controlled by a key (the one from the first movie). She has set up a bordello to lure victims to her hunger. Dennis Miller is his wise-cracking self as he portrays a down-and-out private investigator looking for a missing person.
It is nice not to have to flip the disk over or insert a new disk but there is no room for real extras (we do get the original trailers). Seeing the two films together really showcases the extreme difference between the two. The first is dark, well-written and well-acted. The second is gratuitous, crass and just not quite as good (although it is fun in its own way). Now they are together at a reasonable price.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Devilish Double Feature, November 10, 2004
An entertaining double creature--er, that is, double feature inspired by TV's TALES FROM THE CRYPT (which was itself inspired by the identically titled, delightfully decadent EC Comics of the 1950s).
First on the bill is DEMON KNIGHT (1995). On the surface, this one's a typical tale of good-versus-evil, with a noble agent of Heaven working to protect mankind from an evil Demon who, with the help of his minions, seeks to throw a veil of darkness over the universe and oppress mankind in the process. Trite, yes, but a good script, a talented cast (including Billy Zane as the wonderfully smarmy Demon), and high production values raise this one a notch or two above the average morality play. The weakest element of the film is the Crypt-Keeper wraparound, which has too much of the TV show's cheesy feel (though it does feature an uncredited cameo by John Larroquette, whom hardcore genre fans know to be the opening narrator for 1974's original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE). The story proper was drawn from a script originally written independently of the TV series--which is probably why it rises head and shoulders above it--and many of its elements read like a homage to George Romero's classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) more than as an offspring of the series or the comics that inspired it.
The second feature is BORDELLO OF BLOOD (1996). Many fans and critics have panned this one as an bromidic and therefore unworthy follow-up to DEMON KNIGHT, and while it is true that many of the story elements are worn vampire-movie clichés, the film certainly delivers what having TALES FROM THE CRYPT in the title promises to genre fans. The plot involves a beautiful redheaded super-vampiress who is manipulated by a smug, ingratiating Christian evangelist into running a vampire brothel that serves to lure society's undesirables to their doom. Chris Sarandon riotously chews the scenery as the perverse proselytizer, and SNL alum Dennis Miller delivers lots of laughs as a cynical PI hired to locate a teenage victim of the whoring vamps. The film's biggest fault is probably the gratuitous T&A and the misogynistic undertones, but considering that 50% of the mainstream film industry's target audience is horny teenage males, such elements are hardly surprising. In other words, BORDELLO OF BLOOD is admittedly not high cinema, but there are loads of things to keep genre fans interested, and its overall tone is more in line with the TV show that spawned it than was its predecessor, DEMON KNIGHT.
The digital transfers of both films are clear and crisp, and while short on extras, each film is paired with its original theatrical trailer. All in all, this DVD duo is well worth the reasonable asking price.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One masterful horror film, one decent horror film., July 31, 2004
Tales from the Crypt debuted on HBO in fall of 1989. What followed was an absolute phenomenon. The series broadcasted on every continent with the exception of Antarctica. Our pal Crypty went on to be the horror host from Bulgaria to Brazil, from Malaysia to Morocco, from Nicaragua to New Zealand. It went on to last more years as a television show than it did a comic book.
Unfortunately, do to the ineptitude of HBO Video's releasing of the series, Tales from the Crypt has been all but boycotted (note the sales ranks and lack of reviews of both the films and the TV episodes which remain on lackluster VHS). However, what we are left with is a dynamite 93-episode run, and two film spin-offs, including one of the greatest holed-up-in-a-house- with-demons-outside flicks of all time, and a fairly amusing Dennis Miller vehicle.
Both movie spin-offs have been packaged together, with the main attraction being Demon Knight, which was a much larger success both monetarily and critically, and the far less stellar Bordello of Blood being thrown in as sort of a freebee.
DEMON KNIGHT (*****) Demon Knight features a duo of career-highlight performances. WILLIAM SADLER as the hero demon-killer armed only with a six-shooter and a vial of Christ's blood, and (even better) is an Oscar-worthy (!) performance from BILLY ZANE as the knight of the title. How, you ask, could a performance in a movie called "Tales from the Crypt presents Demon Knight" be worthy of an Academy Award? Well, Zane's wicked genius has to be seen to believed. What we have here is a top-notch effort from everyone involved, fully worthy to the series that preceded it.
BORDELLO OF BLOOD (***) Unfortunately, by the time the pseudo-sequel to the superior Demon Knight finally came out, the entire franchise had all but run out of steem. Writers were quitting the show, talent was harder to find, and a softer, more tongue-in-cheek style was all but invading. Bordello of Blood suffers from these things, but not as much as the scathing reviews you may read would suggest. PHIL FONDACARO, one of the best "little person" actors in the business today, gives a fine performance as one of the lead villians, as does DENNIS MILLER as a witty gumshoe. However the real surprise are the two former playmates, ANGIE EVERHART and ERIKA ELENIAK. It is a shame, however, that with their amazing figures, they were the only two females not to disrobe in the film...
Overall package (****) Yes, one film is obviously superior to the other, and there are no extras to be seen, but buying this set brings us just a little bit closer to HBO ultimately releasing the show on DVD, and ending the age-old boycott. So, buy one for yourself, and three for your friends!
-Sean L.
7-31-04
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