Thursday, August 25, 2011

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

A Great Release From MEDIA BLASTERS.

"Devil Dog: Hound of Hell" is a television movie from the late 70's. The film is about a family who adopts a dog after the death of their previous dog. After a year of owning the beloved German Shepard, things start to spiral downward as the father starts to realize that the dog is not of this world. The film is pretty entertaining as far as television movies go, but there's always room for improvement on television movies due to the budget. I haven't really been that big on TV movies but I was quite surprised with this film; I give Devil Dog a 3.5/5.

The video is in pretty amazing shape for an almost 35 year old film. Now, there's one thing I want to address about this film; the scenes where we have our "Devil Dog" were shot on film, but edited in VHS due to the special effects. The scenes with the "Devil Dog" are about a minute in length and it's not that bad but you can tell the PQ drops in these scenes. Now, my issues with the film and why I give it a 4/5, there's print damage here and there that is present, especially in the opening credits and various scenes throughout, but it's not that bad. Now, towards the end 10 minutes when we are taken to the plant where the father works, the low lit interior shots look faded and could have been possibly corrected by doing some contrasting. Overall this is a pretty amazing transfer.

There are two audio tracks present; DTS-HD MA 2.0 English and Italian (Dub). When selecting the Italian dub in the main menu, before the film starts it gives you a message stating that the audio was taken from a television broadcast and that drop outs will occur. And I think both of the audio tracks sound great on this release. 4/5.

Now on to the extras; I have to say that this movie contains the most pointless extras I have ever seen for a film. There's several hours of material, but it's the most boring material I have ever watched. We have a 73 min interview which is divided up between the producer Jerry Zeitman; Kim Richards; and Ike Eisenmann. Jerry Zeitman talks for about 20 minutes about the film and then in the last five minutes or so, talks about other projects. Kim Richards takes up over 30 minutes and barely talks about the film. SHE TALKS AND TALKS AND TALKS AND TALKS SOME MORE ABOUT EVERYTHING! And the only person who actually talks about the film is Ike Eisenmann and he only got like 12 minutes to talk time. And then as soon as the 73 minutes are up, it cuts to an extra 23 minutes of Kim Richards just going on and on. I honestly wanted to hit my head against the wall because of what this woman talks about. Her career is obviously past the point of no return as she's only done two movies last decade; Black Snake Moan and Race to Witch Mountain.

Then, we have an audio interview with the director, which was done some point before his passing. He's really seemed to show no respect for the film and said that it was made for the paychecks. He said he would have rather had his film "Killer Bees" released over this. I don't think this interview should be even present on this disc. Then there's a scrolling video which lists the director's credits. A photo gallery on Martine Beswick who was only in the opening of the film. There's a trailer for the film. And then finally some trailers for Media Blasters releases such as; "Hansel & Gretel"; "Shooting April"; and "The Man Who Collected Food". Extras score a dismal 2.5/5.

Overall, these extras are a doozy; I felt this hurt my overall views on this release. I mean, why put two hours of pointless ramblings from two child actors and a deceased director who seemed to disown the film? I found the addition of an Italian dubbing to be an odd choice to add to this release. But, I am very pleased with the PQ, it is pretty amazing and I hope that Media Blasters treats Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla Vs Megalon with this much respect PQ wise. Movie is entertaining, especially if you love old school films. I spent $13 total on this release, I recommend it. 3.5/5 for this release.

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