Dark Force Entertainment Discussion Thread

[SeanJoyce]

Paid far too much money for Steel Arena, but that's par for the course with these titles and it's my fault for not paying attention to the "Bundle" deals when they were available.

Besides, this one seems like a "must-have" CR title.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Paid far too much money for Steel Arena, but that's par for the course with these titles and it's my fault for not paying attention to the "Bundle" deals when they were available.

Besides, this one seems like a "must-have" CR title.

If you end up liking Steel Arena, there are actually quite a few other Code Red and Scorpion Blu-rays with that same vibe available. A lot of people don't tap the CR/Scorpion/DF catalog beyond horror but they have quite a lot of other good stuff.

[SeanJoyce]

Well I dug Pit Stop, and it seems like this would make for a nifty double-bill.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Well I dug Pit Stop, and it seems like this would make for a nifty double-bill.

Do you have...


Highly recommended if not.

[SeanJoyce]

Nope

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Nope

SAE has it if interested
http://screenarchives.com/title_deta...-EXPRESS-1976/

trailer

Moonshine County Express (1977) (VHS Trailer) - YouTube

[dawnofthediscs]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Do you have...


Highly recommended if not.

Great film and one of my favorite CR titles

[WillieMLF]

The Scalper's Gold Chest has a bundle of the rarest titles on the planet. Is that some arbitrary assignment?

[HorrorBlu]

I haven't even watched my disc yet, but I do know my way around Google maps...

[miribeau]

Originally Posted by agent999

The UK VHS was released in 1981

http://www.pre-cert.co.uk/display.php?vId=UK04147

Forced entry was subsequently rejected for a UK cinema release in 1982 (running time unknown)

http://bbfc.co.uk/releases/forced-entry

As to which cut is on the VHS, it's been decades and the only version that I've seen, so I don't know.

It sounds, based on your previous description, like they opted to keep the original title of The Last Victim but, then, put the brutality-laden cut on the vhs, which was a version of Forced Entry that appears to be slightly shorter than the longest cut. It is a UK vhs, you said, and, in the UK, a title like Forced Entry wouldn't fly on a film that wasn't a hardcore film. That is the best explanation I can come up with, based on my knowledge of the oddities of UK censorship.

I'm actually surprised they were able to get a vhs of any version of the film, given how heavily they started censoring over there, when I was young, and that's said as a Brit-mutt who still enjoys home-country television more than American television. I just never understood UK censorship. Probably never will.

Originally Posted by Ruined

Do you have...


Highly recommended if not.

Yes and it's awesome. Check out the cast. Makes it even better.

[slasherdisc]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

I haven't even watched my disc yet, but I do know my way around Google maps...

Nice find! Thought that house looked familiar.

[John Lyons]

Originally Posted by miribeau

It sounds, based on your previous description, like they opted to keep the original title of The Last Victim but, then, put the brutality-laden cut on the vhs, which was a version of Forced Entry that appears to be slightly shorter than the longest cut. It is a UK vhs, you said, and, in the UK, a title like Forced Entry wouldn't fly on a film that wasn't a hardcore film. That is the best explanation I can come up with, based on my knowledge of the oddities of UK censorship.

I just watched the Intervision tape yesterday and it represents a cut not found elsewhere. All of the nude scenes were shot later and spliced into a print of the original PG cut of LAST VICTIM. You can hear the splices on the soundtrack, especially during the flashes to the beach rape of Nancy Allen's body double.
It seems likely that this footage was shot in 1980 or so, but before the FORCED ENTRY recut was created.
That version not only adds some bookending footage incongruously shot in LA, but re-edits the original footage as well as the nude inserts, which look to have been shot on the east coast rather than southern CA, but also includes some voice over narration.
As such (discounting the new recut that Sotos did), there are at least three proper theatrical versions of the film:
The original 1975 LAST VICTIM PG cut which had no nudity.
The c. 1980 LAST VICTIM nude inserts version, found ion the Intervision tape.
The 1981 FORCED ENTRY version.

[miribeau]

Originally Posted by John Lyons

I just watched the Intervision tape yesterday and it represents a cut not found elsewhere. All of the nude scenes were shot later and spliced into a print of the original PG cut of LAST VICTIM. You can hear the splices on the soundtrack, especially during the flashes to the beach rape of Nancy Allen's body double.
It seems likely that this footage was shot in 1980 or so, but before the FORCED ENTRY recut was created.
That version not only adds some bookending footage incongruously shot in LA, but re-edits the original footage as well as the nude inserts, which look to have been shot on the east coast rather than southern CA, but also includes some voice over narration.
As such (discounting the new recut that Sotos did), there are at least three proper theatrical versions of the film:
The original 1975 LAST VICTIM PG cut which had no nudity.
The c. 1980 LAST VICTIM nude inserts version, found ion the Intervision tape.
The 1981 FORCED ENTRY version.

Thanks for the rundown on those. So, essentially, his original Last Victim cut, what I call the "safe for me" cut, is, truly, the less brutal, or implied brutality, PG original cut, the one Sotos now refers to as his original. Then the more extreme violence additions, that I didn't ever want to see again, appear in the UK vhs, using the original title, and, then, some more extreme violence additions, but not as many, appear in the later US Forced Entry cut.

I know there was one more, circa 1984/1985, with what was described to me as "a ton of r@!e" and I genuinely had no desire to see that, but from what you are saying, that would be a re-cut, not one of the theatrical versions from early on.

Does anyone know the specific differences, without graphic description, from the US Forced Entry of 1981, with slightly less brutality than the UK 88 minute cut, to the US re-cut Forced Entry of 1984/1985? And do we know which one is on the blu?

[bipbop13]

Originally Posted by miribeau

Thanks for the rundown on those. So, essentially, his original Last Victim cut, what I call the "safe for me" cut, is, truly, the less brutal, or implied brutality, PG original cut, the one Sotos now refers to as his original. Then the more extreme violence additions, that I didn't ever want to see again, appear in the UK vhs, using the original title, and, then, some more extreme violence additions, but not as many, appear in the later US Forced Entry cut.

I know there was one more, circa 1984/1985, with what was described to me as "a ton of r@!e" and I genuinely had no desire to see that, but from what you are saying, that would be a re-cut, not one of the theatrical versions from early on.

Does anyone know the specific differences, without graphic description, from the US Forced Entry of 1981, with slightly less brutality than the UK 88 minute cut, to the US re-cut Forced Entry of 1984/1985? And do we know which one is on the blu?

Google is your friend. Research is something everyone can do. I spent over an hour coming up with the info that I did. Your turn now.

[CODE RED DVD]

NEW REVIEW

https://unpoppedcinema.blogspot.com/...Khw94qap9rDmzI

[SeanJoyce]

Pretty solid review. A lot of people with obviously unrealistic expectations have dumped on this release, but I'm a fan.

The execution of the stories is middling and truthfully the 4th (tepid) segment should have been excised altogether to make for a tighter feature, but the review is right in stating that the wraparound story is compelling and drenched in atmosphere.

I'm also admittedly a sucker for "cabin in the woods" flicks as well as anthology tales, so the premise especially appeals to me.

Not the greatest value out there for your money but it's one I'm finally happy to own in HD.

[Member-222782]

I've been meaning to ask. The lost segment in Screams Of A Winter Night, the cemetery "witch" story, wasn't that supposed to be the final (4th) story? It was in the middle of the movie and it threw me off. Or was it a different story? That turned out to be my favorite entry, followed by the dudes in the abandoned hospital. I really liked the film overall even if it felt a bit overlong. I also wasn't crazy about the filmmakers decision to recycle the same actors for the stories since it made the film somewhat confusing. This film would make a good companion piece to Scream (1981). Both movies are weird as hell but in a very good way.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

[Show spoiler]I've been meaning to ask. The lost segment in Screams Of A Winter Night, the cemetery "witch" story, wasn't that supposed to be the final (4th) story? It was in the middle of the movie and it threw me off. Or was it a different story? That turned out to be my favorite entry, followed by the dudes in the abandoned hospital. I really liked the film overall even if it felt a bit overlong. I also wasn't crazy about the filmmakers decision to recycle the same actors for the stories since it made the film somewhat confusing. This film would make a good companion piece to Scream (1981). Both movies are weird as hell but in a very good way.

Yeah the lost segment was indeed the "witch" segment, it just threw a lot of people off because it was often referred to as the "4th" one.

That should have originally been retained with the follow-up getting jettisoned; it just doesn't fit with the rest of the content and makes the movie overstay its welcome.

I really dig the setting and wish we would have spent a bit more time outdoors, in the woods and at the lake, with the main characters.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

I really dig the setting and wish we would have spent a bit more time outdoors, in the woods and at the lake, with the main characters.

The creepiest part in the entire film was the all-too-brief jaunt through the woods ending up in the remains of the house by the graveyard with fallen headstones (near the beginning of the film). The

[Show spoiler]"storm"

ending is actually my least favorite part. This movie will grow on me over time.

[John Lyons]

Originally Posted by miribeau

Thanks for the rundown on those. So, essentially, his original Last Victim cut, what I call the "safe for me" cut, is, truly, the less brutal, or implied brutality, PG original cut, the one Sotos now refers to as his original. Then the more extreme violence additions, that I didn't ever want to see again, appear in the UK vhs, using the original title, and, then, some more extreme violence additions, but not as many, appear in the later US Forced Entry cut.

Close, but not quite.
The original PG cut does not include any nudity and all of the rapes/killings are off screen. The only on screen violence is at the very end.

The version released by Intervision is the original PG cut, with the c. 1980 nudity/violence inserts awkwardly cut into the original version.
Those scenes are: the opening wherein a woman has her dress partially ripped off and is then chased through the woods and eventually killed, a series of short bits of Nancy Allen’s character (replaces here with a body double whose face is never shown) being abused on the beach, and a sequence of the girl on the bicycle (again, a body double with an obscured face) being tortured and beaten.
This footage is a little over 5 min in total and was not part of the original production and looks quite out of place cut in as it is, with the exception of the opening segment which works only because it’s not being used to ‘match’ another scene.

The FORCED ENTRY recut isn’t just the original version with the nude scenes added but rather a full restructure of the film, with many scenes reordered. All of the nude footage from the first batch of inserts present in the Intervision release are back, but in addition to them and the overall shuffling of footage, there’s a new intro and epilogue featuring a driving around montage of porn theatres in LA over which the main titles play and then a rather pointless epilogue with voice over.
In fact, this version has voiceover throughout, in an attempt to channel a Taxi Driver vibe.

Anyway, that’s all I have on it.