The Return of The Power (1984), plus The Kindred (1987)

February 2, 2014 | By | Add a Comment

A great poster. Period.

What began as a short camera test video has kind of morphed into a promo piece and test video – a test for the GBC CTC-5X Vidicon tube camera, and a promo piece for the kind of video art I started to pursue a year ago, and voice work, because apparently I don’t sound half-bad in podcasts and short-shorts like The Magic Beta Case.

In any event, the original concept – a camera test video – was supposed to be tied to the film review of jOBS (2013), the feature film starring Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

I know – Why review the film? And what does a 1976 video camera have to do with it? – but I’ll explain in the next blog on Tuesday, when reviews of jOBS and the 2008 documentary Welcome to Macintosh are up, alongside the related video and a sort-of bonus short piece.

In the meantime, here’s the first two of three horror reviews that were intended to follow the aforementioned reviews but were held back because sound design and picky editing took longer than expected.

Back in the fall of 2013, Synapse released The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982), a legendary Video Nasty which also had a confusing release history because of assorted re-titling (like Pranks).

Christopher Young made his debut as composer with new filmmakers Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter, although it’s a score Young would rather forget for rather obvious reasons when you see the Dorm.

The three returned with The Power (1984), another film that similarly vanished from home video distribution, but whose soundtrack circulated on LP and inarguably helped Young’s profile as a skilled composer.

I’ve waited more than 25 years to see this movie because Young’s score is very effective, beautifully orchestrated, and nicely performed. I grabbed the old Cerberus LP from Sam the Record Man when I was still in high school, and it’s still a score yet to appear on CD. If anyone does aim for a proper (legit) release, please go for a full score, not the half-hour’s worth in the LP master.

Scorpion Releasing’s already put out a few films from the Film Ventures catalogue, once owned by infamous producer Edward L. Montoro, and while the DVD is very sparse on extras, at least the film’s been given an proper (and legit) release.

Paired with The Power is a review of Obrow and Carpenter’s third and final film as co-directors, The Kindred (1987) – an underrated and fun B-movie that has yet to receive a proper (and legit) DVD release.

Coming Monday: Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D.

Cheers,

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

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Category: EDITOR'S BLOG, FILM REVIEWS

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