Full Moon Fans Rejoice!
Foywonder
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Charles Band posted a blurb on his blog a couple days ago announcing the impending February 7th release date of the Full Moon Classics Volume One box set. The set will include five Full Moon productions made back during the early days of the noted direct-to-video production that have yet to receive new life on DVD.
Titles included:
Arcade – This 1993 Full Moon production tried to ride the coattails of The Lawnmower Man by having a group of teens contend with a killer video game that sucks victims into its virtual world where they then find themselves playing for their very soul. The production was more ambitious than its meager budget would allow, resulting in a virtual reality flick with actors on green screen sets that look more like PBS-quality green screen sets than an actual state-of-the-art video game. Directed by Albert Pyun (Uh oh!) and written by a guy you may have heard of named David S. Goyer, Arcade starred cutie Megan Ward, grown up A Christmas Story kid Peter Billingsly, Escape from LA‘s AJ Langer, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” star John de Lancie, and a teenage Seth Green.
Bad Channels – This trippy 1992 Full Moon entry is odd even by Full Moon standards. A very strange-looking alien being arrives in a small town and takes over the only radio station. Local disc jockey “Dangerous” Dan O’Dare is taken hostage on the air, but nobody believes him since he’s prone to pulling wild publicity stunts. O’Dare attempts to warn the disbelieving populace as the alien uses the airwaves to capture women for its collection by mesmerizing them with music video hallucinations (featuring music that already feels badly dated 15 years later) and then zapping them back to the station, miniaturized, and confined to a glass container. The campy flick Paul Hipp stars alongside original MTV VJ Martha Quinn.
Shadowzone – One of the earliest Full Moon releases, Shadowzone deals with a deep sleep dream experiment that ended up opening a parallel dimension known as the “shadowzone” from which things can come and go – generally not good things. I have very little recollection of this one, although I do seem to recall that whatever was going on had something to do with a hot naked chick in an oxygen chamber. Written & directed by J.S. Cardone, who would go on to write and direct The Forsaken and Wicked Little Things, as well as having penned last year’s masterpiece The Covenant, the 1990 sci-fi horror flick featured the likes of Louise Fletcher, Shawn Weatherly, and James Hong.
Netherworld – Since I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen this one I can only tell you that which I’ve read about it on IMDB. This 1992 bowl of mumbo jumbo gumbo is about a young man who inherits his late father’s mansion in the Louisiana bayous and discovers that a bird cult is using winged creatures to raise the dead to do their bidding. Sounds routine enough, but then I read it involves a brothel beneath a redneck bar in the swamps and a satanic hand that flies around killing people. Ummm … Okay.
Seedpeople – Question as one might whether or not any of the previous films should ever be labeled “classic” even by Full Moon standards, let there be no argument about this one; Seedpeople is not a classic, not even classically bad. Sometimes bad is just bad. The 1992 flick deals with a sleepy little community called Comet Valley that gets invaded by some outer space plant-life which proceeds to “pollinate” people, turning them into seed carriers to further advance their invasion plans. I remember this one boring the heck out of me and pretty much everyone else I’ve ever known who has seen it despite the appearances by the ridiculous-looking plant aliens, most of which look like shaggy monster muppet throw pillows. It also boasted an early role in the career of actress “Rescue Me” actress Andrea Roth.
Now here’s the kicker. Full Moon Classics Volume One is priced at $59.95. I realize it’s a five movie box set, but considering the, ahem, “quality” of the movies included, $59.95 seems a might steep. Suffice it to say, this is a collection most definitely aimed at the hardcore Full Moon fans.
Personally, I’m holding out for the release of box set consisting of some of my favorites from Band’s Empire Pictures days not currently available on DVD, like Zone Troopers, Terrorvision, Eliminators, Ghost Warrior, and Deadly Weapon. That’s a box set I’d drop $60 on. And where’s Arena on DVD? That one’s overdue, too.
In other Charles Band news, he’s announced that he’ll be making a sequel to his 2005 comeback flick Decadent Evil. Phil Fondacaro will return at the world’s only 3-foot vampire hunter, as well as the film’s prerequisite puppet creature, Marvin, the Horny Homunculus. I can only hope that this time Band decides to deviate from the original by bothering to make an actual movie.
Wonder what else Charlile Band does when he’s not thinking about dolls or midgets in our forums!
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