Plot: What’s it about?
Shout Factory is one of my favorite film distributors mainly due to their label Scream Factory that focuses on pristine releases of cult classic horror films. Releases that the label is known for are titles like Sleepaway Camp, Halloween II, Army of Darkness and numerous other gems. Recently they had a sale of most of their major titles and I went a bit crazy, purchasing numerous films for my collection. One of the first ones on my list was the Tales from the Crypt movie, Bordello of Blood.
In 1996 a studio executive greenlit a movie starring Dennis Miller, Angie Everhart, Erika Eleniak, and Corey Feldman with a thirteen million dollar budget and expected a return on their investment. This is obviously hilariously bad judgement in hindsight, because the movie was an absolute bomb at the box office, only making back about half of the budget. For me, these are the moments that I live for, when a studio makes a decision that is bad enough to make a cult film. I mean, Corey Feldman? Seriously? This is the same year that Trainspotting and Independence Day came out and they thought that this was going to work.
The movie begins (after an intro from the Cryptkeeper, of course) with some men disturbing the grave of a female corpse. The midget leading the men pulls out a box with a heart separated into four pieces. The pieces form back into a whole and the heart begins to beat and is placed back into the body, awaking the female vampire Lilith (Angie Everhart.) She is controlled by an amulet that the midget holds. After this intro we meet the sex crazed Caleb (Corey Feldman) and his dumb buddies in a bar. A stranger asks them if they would like to go to a brothel. He drives them to a funeral parlor that secretly contains the brothel run by Lilith and full of half-naked beautiful vampires. Caleb’s dumb friends are all killed quickly and Caleb is taken care of by Lilith. Because her brother Caleb has disappeared, Katherine Verdoux (Erika Eleniak) approaches wise cracking private investigator, Rafe Guttman (Dennis Miller) to help her.
The movie itself is a mixed bag – it is not quite as funny as it should be and Miller surprisingly falls a little flat in his joke delivery at times. For me, it’s not as good as the previous Tales from the Crypt movie- Demon Knight- because it doesn’t quite deliver on the scares like the previous film managed to bond with the laughs. That said, I still really enjoy it because it is just stupid raunchy fun that doubles as a good nostalgic trip back to a simpler pre-9/11 time. If you can turn off your brain, there is plenty of fun to be had here with bumbling cops, religious zealotry, and Corey Feldman. At the end of the day, you pretty much know what this movie is and whether or not it is going to be for you.
If you do purchase it, you must watch the Making Of feature – Tainted Blood. It is amazing.
Video: How’s it look?
Shout Factory did a fantastic job on the transfer of the film using an MPEG 4 AVC codec of a new 2K restoration. The transfer is another solid effort by Shout Factory and the image looks natural and good, retaining the full early-nineties midnight movie color scheme that you would expect. I had no problems whatsoever with the image presented.
Audio: How’s it sound?
The audio treatment of Bordello of Blood was pretty good. This is a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix, but the sound design bears the original sound design that isn’t going to tear your house down with effects. I did not detect any audio drops, hiss, or pops. Overall, solid work here.
Supplements: What are the extras?
- Making of – Tainted Blood (1080p; 36:08) – one of the most engaging supplements I have seen in a long time. Angie Everhart, Erika Eleniak, Corey Feldman, and producer/screenwriter A.L. Katz discuss how this film came to exist. The incredible thing is that essentially it was a movie the screenwriters didn’t want to rewrite, actors didn’t want to act in, and director didn’t want to direct. It was an absolute train wreck of a production, and nobody wanted to become friends with Corey Feldman. This feature is sooooo good, it almost justifies a purchase on its own.
- Stills Gallery (1080p; 5:34)
- Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1:42)
- Video Spot (480i; 3:12)
- Audio Commentary– screenwriter A.L. discusses the show itself and the creative personalities behind it, along with the myriad of difficulties that the film faced. This is really a fantastic commentary.
The Bottom Line
Bordello of Blood is an absolute disaster of a film, managing to not pull off comedy or horror properly. It makes sense because it was a film that nobody involved wanted to actually make. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying it as a nice nostalgic romp to a simpler time twenty years ago. Scream Factory has provided an excellent transfer, and the supplements (although not plentiful) are incredibly interesting and almost justify a purchase on their own accord. Overall, even if you are into this type of thing, you may want to do a rental before a purchase.
