Evil Breed: The Legend of Samhain (DVD)
Steve Barton
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Starring Bobbie Phillips, Howard Rosenstein, Ginger Lynn Allen, Chasey Lain, and Taylor Hayes
Directed by Christian Viel
Released by Lionsgate
“A classic slasher film fest. The amount of violence in this film is pretty impressive. Gore-hounds everywhere will be in a state of nirvana!” So reads my quote on the cover of the Region 2 DVD release of Evil Breed: The Legend of Samhain. Thank god those words are nowhere to be found on the just released Region 1 disc as just about everything I was praising has been needlessly excised from this film for its U.S. debut. I cannot imagine why Samhain has been so horribly bastardized for us. It’s literally a shell of what it once was.
The story remains intact as we have a car full of Americans touring Ireland that end up fodder for inbred mutants. That’s about all there is plot-wise; however, a film like this, a film like this was meant to be, doesn’t need an epic storyline. It needs gore. Lots of it. I’m talking entrail ripping, head hacking, balls out violence. It had that. In spades even. Samhain was once an incredibly brutal film. Everything is wrong now, even its packaging. From the cover art you are led to believe that porn siren Jenna Jameson is the star of the film. The back cover proclaims, “Cannibals wreak havoc on Jenna Jameson!” Newsflash: She’s in it for a grand total of about 4 minutes. She was in it a bit longer, but guess what? Her death scene has been trimmed down to about a tenth of its original length. But hey, it’s included in the deleted scenes, and that’s where all cut gore ends up, right?
Well, the answer is both yes and no. Her kill scene and one other are included in the DVD’s special features. Too bad the other several scenes that were trimmed and cut didn’t make it. I have to wonder why. If you’re going to include deleted stuff, why not show everything? Better yet, since the Unrated Edition DVD trend is sweeping the nation, why cut anything at all? We can get more Jennifer Connelly in Dark Water and more incessant yuppie whining in Cry_Wolf, but god forbid we get an extra few moments of gore! Talk about senseless! This is a classic example of taking almost everything that can serve to make a film worth a viewer’s while and flushing it down the toilet for absolutely no reason at all. Do I sound annoyed? You betcha I am! Whoever is responsible for this particular cut of this film should be ashamed of themselves.
On the DVD extra side of things, other than the two deleted scenes we get nothing but a trailer gallery. Any time “Widescreen” is listed as a special feature, you really have to worry. The only thing worse than that is the listing of Chapter Selections. Please! Don’t overwhelm us further! It’s too much stimuli!
Evil Breed: The Legend of Samhain is now a safe and friendly horror film. It pushes no boundaries and doesn’t do anything particularly well. It’s been neutered down to a grade C slasher, leaving us longing for the ferocious splatter fest it once was. It’s a sad day in mutant killer history.
Special Features
Uncut and Deleted Scenes
Trailer Gallery
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