Hell of the Living Dead/Rats: Night of Terror - Double Feature

[Jompa]

Both will now be released as a double feature, instead of single releases.

http://www.blue-underground.com/product.php?product=242

[Kentai]

Huh. That's... unexpected?

I was going to pick 'em both up anyway, so if anything that just saves on shelf space, I guess.

[bruce holecheck]

It's a blood-splattered Eurotrash twofer as Blue Underground unleash a Blu-Ray double-bill of Bruno Mattei's HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980) & RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR (1984)!

When a research center fails to quarantine a viral outbreak (known as 'Operation Sweet Death'), a group of SWAT members and a blonde female reporter (sound familiar?) fend off a literal HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD as the plague spreads. Better known Stateside as NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, it's an endless parade of sloppy gore, hilarious dialogue ("She may not know much about chemistry, but in bed, her reactions are terrific!") and ridiculous situations, all scored with a soundtrack of cannibalized Goblin tunes.

A century after the big bomb, a group of post-nuke survivors pick the wrong place to squat, as their new abode is home to thousands of flesh-eating RATS! The magic Mattei formula rears its head again: splattery rat-attacks aplenty, reams of quotable dialogue (a computer expert named Video gives the diagnosis, "This machine needs a kick in the balls!"), and a twist ending so stupid it's borderline genius.

Besides the HD video upgrade of the main features, Blue Underground have assembled a nice slate of supplements to further ensure this disc's essential status. Porting over their previous interview featurette with the director Mattei, the company have also added a brand new documentary titled BONDED BY BLOOD containing interviews with writer/co-director Claudio Fragasso and stars Margit Evelyn Newton, Franco Garofalo, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua and Massimo Vanni, along with the expected trailers and stills galleries. Easily one of the my most anticipated releases of the year!

[siQness]

Awesome , blind buy

[MarsupialRebellion]

Awesome, day one for sure. Have a soft spot for Mattei flicks, especially these two.

[bruce holecheck]

Checked with a friend at Blue Underground and he replied that the new 'Bonded by Blood' documentary runs just under an hour and was put together by pal David Gregory. Can't wait!

[The Great Owl]

I saw Hell of the Living Dead many years ago, except that the one I watched was under the alternate title of Night of the Zombies. I remember thinking that it was a silly movie during the first half, but then it got awesome all of a sudden.

[klauswhereareyou]

Love Italian horrror, so I'll probably pick it up.

[Member-222782]

Hell of the Living Dead (or Night of the Zombies as I know the film) starts out as a fairly weak knockoff of a knockoff with laughable effects but it quickly becomes entertaining enough to draw you in. It's still a very silly film but I enjoy it. Rats Night of Terror has an incredibly weird (and awesome) twist and is also fun. These films are never going to win ANY awards but I think they're worth having in my collection.

[j2raymond]

Grade A cheese! I'm in.

[Kriztoffer Swank]

Never seen either but I suspect both are greasy turds. Lumping them into a two-pack is a good idea. Preordered from Amazon at $21.

I just hope future two-packs aren't the norm from Blue Underground. Something like Stage Fright definitely deserves its own release with loads of extras. Unless they pack it with The Church and give both extensive extras and their own discs.

Now if somebody picks up Zombi 3 from Media Blasters, I would hope that gets thrown on a set with at least a couple other films for like five cents.

[Brian81]

Zombi 3 has some good moments and some really bad ones. If only the whole thing had a serious tone to it, ala Romero's "The Crazies".

[Jompa]

1080p trailer for Hell of the Living Dead:

Hell of the Living Dead 1080p HD Movie Trailer - Blue Underground - YouTube

1080p trailer for Rats: Night of Terror:

Rats: Night of Terror 1080p HD Movie Trailer - Blue Underground - YouTube

First reviews:

http://mondo-digital.com/helldead.html

http://www.mediamikes.com/2014/07/bl...ouble-feature/

http://10kbullets.com/reviews/h/hell...terror-bluray/

[k_huntington]

so my anchor bay HOTLD DVD says it slike 103 minutes long, but the BU bd says it is 99 minutes, but i did not notice any missing footage... hmmm...

[balthazar_bee]

I haven't watched Rats yet, but HOTLD is a blast!

You know those moments when everything "clicks"? Like the world makes sense? When I found out that the master behind Troll 2 penned and co-directed this movie, that was definitely a click.

Is this the most derivative movie ever made? Not just Zombi and Dawn of the Dead -- which this film rips off with both hands as if its life depended on it -- but others as well. Towards the end, an egg-head scientist on TV says something like:

"We examined the trunk of a human body, a body that had had its legs and arms removed. It opened its eyes and tried to move around. It was dead...but it opened its eyes and tried to move."

This is practically verbatim from Night of the Living Dead, lines and presentation.

The cheekiest touch has to be the theft of Goblin's score from Dawn though.

"Let's have SWAT guys burst into the building. Oh, and let's get that great action cue that Romero used under the exact same circumstances in his movie two years ago."

Beyond chutzpah.

And I haven't even mentioned the stock wildlife documentary footage.

[k_huntington]

i mentioned this at the BU thread, but i'll throw it up here as well, since it's probably more appropriate here to begin with.

since i was never a fan of rats to begin with, i decided to make a custom cover for this, like how Scream! Factory did The Town The Dreaded Sundown. It was billed as a single feature, but the bonus features show it includes The EVictors as well. also Criterion did this with Scanners as well. so any rate, here is the customer cover:



if anyone wants this, feel free to pick it up here in full res 300 ppi.

[Kriztoffer Swank]

Nice. I wonder if there's a print shop nearby I could get to make me a nice professional copy (of this and other stuff).

[k_huntington]

Originally Posted by Kriztoffer Swank

Nice. I wonder if there's a print shop nearby I could get to make me a nice professional copy (of this and other stuff).

i just print mine at work. there's a color laser printer there, and they come out SLICK if the source is 300ppi or better.

[jdw89]

Is this worth getting?

[jthefrank]

Do you like old Italian zombie films and Bruno Mattei? If you don't know you may want to watch them before blind buying