For those caught unawares: the great and prolific writer, director, and producer Charles Band is responsible for a great deal of the home video boom throughout the 1980’s and well into the 1990’s.
In fact, his IMDB.com profile confirms that – presently – he’s ushered an astonishing 432 different titles into celluloid existence; and that’s not small potatoes. Though his was a bit disillusioned with how his projects were getting treated under his original imprint – Charles Band Productions – he had the presence of mind to close up shop and re-open under the name of Empire Pictures; and a solid assortment of popular home video rental and retail outings came to life as a consequence. When Empire got a bit too big for its theatrical britches and experience financial shortcomings, Band recreated the wheel again under the moniker of Full Moon Entertainment; and he continues weaving tapestries for young and old alike to this day.
(Author’s note: those interested in knowing even a bit more about Band, his start in the business, and his lasting legacy are encouraged to pick up a copy of his autobiography Confessions Of A Puppetmaster: A Hollywood Memoir Of Ghouls, Guts, and Gonzo Filmmaking which I’ve reviewed here.)
Of course, a repertoire as vast as Band’s is necessarily going to have some good, bad, and ugly; and, yet, as far as this critic is concerned there are a great number of spectacular B-Movies that have been part and parcel of his epic run behind the camera. Fans do argue that he’s somewhat of an acquired taste; and yet the stats of his success in home video speak for themselves. While I admittedly prefer the stuff he was doing back in the 80’s and 90’s, I’ll also concede that I haven’t had the time as a purveyor to check out even a small sampling of what he’s done since the turn of the century; but I always keep my eyes open for recommendations of the SciFiHistory.Net readership.
Still, I hadn’t had the good fortune of experiencing his trip into the Shadowzone (1990), a Horror/SciFi title that in many ways feels like a low budget re-interpretation of a combination of John Carpenter’s earlier works. Written and directed by J.S. Cardone, the film includes a talented line-up headlined by Star Trek’s Louise Fletcher and Blade Runner’s James Hong. As imperfect as it might be, the project still represents to a good degree all audiences wanted from something that might’ve felt more direct-to-video than it ever did theatrical: a decent story, some appreciable cinematography, and a handful of good scares.
Why, what more could one want for a Friday or Saturday night distraction?
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
In fact, his IMDB.com profile confirms that – presently – he’s ushered an astonishing 432 different titles into celluloid existence; and that’s not small potatoes. Though his was a bit disillusioned with how his projects were getting treated under his original imprint – Charles Band Productions – he had the presence of mind to close up shop and re-open under the name of Empire Pictures; and a solid assortment of popular home video rental and retail outings came to life as a consequence. When Empire got a bit too big for its theatrical britches and experience financial shortcomings, Band recreated the wheel again under the moniker of Full Moon Entertainment; and he continues weaving tapestries for young and old alike to this day.
(Author’s note: those interested in knowing even a bit more about Band, his start in the business, and his lasting legacy are encouraged to pick up a copy of his autobiography Confessions Of A Puppetmaster: A Hollywood Memoir Of Ghouls, Guts, and Gonzo Filmmaking which I’ve reviewed here.)
Of course, a repertoire as vast as Band’s is necessarily going to have some good, bad, and ugly; and, yet, as far as this critic is concerned there are a great number of spectacular B-Movies that have been part and parcel of his epic run behind the camera. Fans do argue that he’s somewhat of an acquired taste; and yet the stats of his success in home video speak for themselves. While I admittedly prefer the stuff he was doing back in the 80’s and 90’s, I’ll also concede that I haven’t had the time as a purveyor to check out even a small sampling of what he’s done since the turn of the century; but I always keep my eyes open for recommendations of the SciFiHistory.Net readership.
Still, I hadn’t had the good fortune of experiencing his trip into the Shadowzone (1990), a Horror/SciFi title that in many ways feels like a low budget re-interpretation of a combination of John Carpenter’s earlier works. Written and directed by J.S. Cardone, the film includes a talented line-up headlined by Star Trek’s Louise Fletcher and Blade Runner’s James Hong. As imperfect as it might be, the project still represents to a good degree all audiences wanted from something that might’ve felt more direct-to-video than it ever did theatrical: a decent story, some appreciable cinematography, and a handful of good scares.
Why, what more could one want for a Friday or Saturday night distraction?
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Scientists experiment with Extreme Dream Sleep and find a Parallel Dimension. Now they find the door works both ways and something has come through.”
It’s been said that Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first screen directors to pioneer using a slowly moving camera about his movie sets in order to establish the look and feel of a particular story; and I’ve also read that many in academic credit John Carpenter with picking up that style of transforming it into his own storytelling hook. While the name of J.S. Cardone might not bring with it the same intellectual influence, the opening of his Shadowzone certainly harkens back to the narrative technique: under his watchful eye, the lens moves across a somewhat off-the-beaten track and fenced in location that undoubtedly has something to hide.
Welcome to Jackass Flats, my friends, and let’s hope everyone gets out alive.
This is Horror, and that rarely happens. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be Horror. Am I right?
From there, Shadowzone takes our hero – Captain Hickok (played by David Beecroft – on a tour of duty beneath the Earth. In this subterranean lair, Dr. Van Fleet (James Hong) and Dr. Erhardt (Louise Fletcher) have been experimenting on the subconscious minds of two subjects preserved in isolation tubes; and somehow – the script is never perfectly clear on this point – they’ve tapped into a shared reality wherein one’s fears and phobias can somehow manifest from this ‘shadow zone’ into our world where they’ll definitely develop an appetite for human flesh.
Essentially, audiences know what they’re likely going to get with a chiller of this variety. Before you know it, all of these players find themselves trapped in this decrepit compound with no way out; and – like in Ridley Scott’s seminal Alien (1979) – they spend the bulk of the script trying to elude their shapeshifting captor(s). But in true locked box mystery fashion, these familiar faces fall one-by-one until the last man standing must figure out a way to save not only himself but the rest of life as we know it in the process. Yes, it’s predictable. Yes, it’s been done before. Yet, audiences show up again almost every time it’s tried.
“Scientists experiment with Extreme Dream Sleep and find a Parallel Dimension. Now they find the door works both ways and something has come through.”
It’s been said that Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first screen directors to pioneer using a slowly moving camera about his movie sets in order to establish the look and feel of a particular story; and I’ve also read that many in academic credit John Carpenter with picking up that style of transforming it into his own storytelling hook. While the name of J.S. Cardone might not bring with it the same intellectual influence, the opening of his Shadowzone certainly harkens back to the narrative technique: under his watchful eye, the lens moves across a somewhat off-the-beaten track and fenced in location that undoubtedly has something to hide.
Welcome to Jackass Flats, my friends, and let’s hope everyone gets out alive.
This is Horror, and that rarely happens. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be Horror. Am I right?
From there, Shadowzone takes our hero – Captain Hickok (played by David Beecroft – on a tour of duty beneath the Earth. In this subterranean lair, Dr. Van Fleet (James Hong) and Dr. Erhardt (Louise Fletcher) have been experimenting on the subconscious minds of two subjects preserved in isolation tubes; and somehow – the script is never perfectly clear on this point – they’ve tapped into a shared reality wherein one’s fears and phobias can somehow manifest from this ‘shadow zone’ into our world where they’ll definitely develop an appetite for human flesh.
Essentially, audiences know what they’re likely going to get with a chiller of this variety. Before you know it, all of these players find themselves trapped in this decrepit compound with no way out; and – like in Ridley Scott’s seminal Alien (1979) – they spend the bulk of the script trying to elude their shapeshifting captor(s). But in true locked box mystery fashion, these familiar faces fall one-by-one until the last man standing must figure out a way to save not only himself but the rest of life as we know it in the process. Yes, it’s predictable. Yes, it’s been done before. Yet, audiences show up again almost every time it’s tried.
Our noble military captain has been dispatched from Washington, DC for an impromptu safety inspection once Van Fleet and Erhardt’s “science” causes the bloody and seemingly explosive death of one unfortunate soul. (What’s left of him lies in relative pieces on a hospital gurney.) At this point, however, it’s not exactly clear whether the central creature is dining on human flesh or is just acting out negatively because of a bad day. There’s an expository scene later which tends to once again imply that this crew is little more than the original ‘meals on wheels,’ but Cardone never felt it necessary to clarify his particulars: instead, he leads his cast through one bloody death sequence after another if for no other reason than what matters most is splatter.
As the hunky lead, Beecroft does just fine. He flexes his jawline here and there whenever considering a harsh set of circumstances, so perhaps the actor knew all too well that he was serving second fiddle to these beastly pursuits anyway. A quick glance of the man’s IMDB.com profile shows that he hasn’t appeared in anything after 2000, and that’s a shame: his leading man looks could very well have led to some other employment, but – then again – not everyone gets to be a George Clooney or Jim Varney. It would’ve been nice had Cardone given the character a bit of a backstory – maybe some interesting service credentials or some greater reason why he was the man best suited for this mission – but such nuance didn’t matter all that much in B-Movies, a shame if ever there were.
While Wong does an affable enough job portraying the resident ‘mad scientist’ who’s trying to hide a great deal of his discoveries because – well – they just might not meet with moral approval, he gets dispatched fairly early in the picture, becoming the first of the Ten Little Indians to fall once Hickok is on the scene. From there, Fletcher steps in quite nicely: though for some reason someone felt it necessary to saddle the actress with some character quirk of constantly applying Chapstick to her otherwise perfect lips, the actress still knew how to deliver even the most obvious conclusion (aren’t we all seeing this?) with the requisite theatrical aplomb. She, too, suffers a grim demise; and is it too much of me to wish that maybe, just maybe, she could’ve gone out a hero? As a talent, the lady knew her stuff; and I just wish she hadn’t spent so much of her later career in roles of cardboard villainy. Even Nurse Ratchet deserved better.
Still, Cardone – as the director and the writer – keeps Shadowzone moving along quite nicely if not predictably. For reasons I can’t quite figure out, he dropped after only about twenty minutes in a brilliant running gag: this facility is, literally, breaking apart all around them, and it makes for a few great early moments with folks banging on doors, smacking and jabbing buttons multiple times, and whatnot. I kept looking for the base’s deficiencies to show back up for another bang, kick, or smack; but instead, the cast and crew just go through the motions. It would’ve been funny had they continued the schtick up until the bitter end – it isn’t as if the lair was getting any better – but I’ll chalk that up to missed opportunities.
As the hunky lead, Beecroft does just fine. He flexes his jawline here and there whenever considering a harsh set of circumstances, so perhaps the actor knew all too well that he was serving second fiddle to these beastly pursuits anyway. A quick glance of the man’s IMDB.com profile shows that he hasn’t appeared in anything after 2000, and that’s a shame: his leading man looks could very well have led to some other employment, but – then again – not everyone gets to be a George Clooney or Jim Varney. It would’ve been nice had Cardone given the character a bit of a backstory – maybe some interesting service credentials or some greater reason why he was the man best suited for this mission – but such nuance didn’t matter all that much in B-Movies, a shame if ever there were.
While Wong does an affable enough job portraying the resident ‘mad scientist’ who’s trying to hide a great deal of his discoveries because – well – they just might not meet with moral approval, he gets dispatched fairly early in the picture, becoming the first of the Ten Little Indians to fall once Hickok is on the scene. From there, Fletcher steps in quite nicely: though for some reason someone felt it necessary to saddle the actress with some character quirk of constantly applying Chapstick to her otherwise perfect lips, the actress still knew how to deliver even the most obvious conclusion (aren’t we all seeing this?) with the requisite theatrical aplomb. She, too, suffers a grim demise; and is it too much of me to wish that maybe, just maybe, she could’ve gone out a hero? As a talent, the lady knew her stuff; and I just wish she hadn’t spent so much of her later career in roles of cardboard villainy. Even Nurse Ratchet deserved better.
Still, Cardone – as the director and the writer – keeps Shadowzone moving along quite nicely if not predictably. For reasons I can’t quite figure out, he dropped after only about twenty minutes in a brilliant running gag: this facility is, literally, breaking apart all around them, and it makes for a few great early moments with folks banging on doors, smacking and jabbing buttons multiple times, and whatnot. I kept looking for the base’s deficiencies to show back up for another bang, kick, or smack; but instead, the cast and crew just go through the motions. It would’ve been funny had they continued the schtick up until the bitter end – it isn’t as if the lair was getting any better – but I’ll chalk that up to missed opportunities.
That’s the thing about B-Movies, however, that some folks get and some don’t: if it’s all going to be a little subpar anyway, then why not celebrate the shortcomings a bit more? When big budget studio productions get to revel in their excess, why shouldn’t auteurs of the secondary features point out they’re shackled with sloppy seconds? After all, it isn’t every day that scientists cast physically perfect human specimens as lab rats – ridiculously well-endowed men and superfluously bossomed women for what amounts to little more than a sleep study – so why not incorporate a joke or two about such ludicrousness along the way? Of course, it’s a cheap and easy laugh, but even some of the best entertainment of critical record includes something of a throwaway gag. (Remember Indiana Jones shooting a swordsman dead in the streets?) Why (oh why) must our B-Movies be so … pretentious?
Shadowzone (1990) was produced by Full Moon Entertainment. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Full Moon Entertainment. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, this release looks surprisingly solid: it’s been billed as a Remastered print, and this is probably as good as it has and will ever look. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Well, that’s a disappointment as the disc includes only a single theatrical trailer: with this older flick finding new life, it’s always nice if a production could give us diehard fans a little something extra.
Alas … only Mildly Recommended.
Though it’s little more than passable entertainment at best, I like to think something like Shadowzone is our passable entertainment: the folks who always find a way to embrace a middling effort that knows what it is, where it’s going, and why it exists in the first place. Producer Band as a master at such a thing, and it’s a low-down dirty shame that more folks haven’t picked up that torch and run with it in the modern era. That said, the story may not make perfect sense – I’ve thought about it over and over again, and I’m still convinced I’ll never quite understand how this ‘zone’ is possible much less how it works – but that’s okay. The feature served its purpose, and now I’m off to discover something else … and, yes, it’ll likely wind up being in the Empire Pictures or Full Moon catalogue when the hunger strikes.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one for my review of Shadowzone (1990) as I purchased my copy of this Remastered release with my own hard-earned cash from the Full Moon Entertainment website.
-- EZ
Shadowzone (1990) was produced by Full Moon Entertainment. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Full Moon Entertainment. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, this release looks surprisingly solid: it’s been billed as a Remastered print, and this is probably as good as it has and will ever look. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Well, that’s a disappointment as the disc includes only a single theatrical trailer: with this older flick finding new life, it’s always nice if a production could give us diehard fans a little something extra.
Alas … only Mildly Recommended.
Though it’s little more than passable entertainment at best, I like to think something like Shadowzone is our passable entertainment: the folks who always find a way to embrace a middling effort that knows what it is, where it’s going, and why it exists in the first place. Producer Band as a master at such a thing, and it’s a low-down dirty shame that more folks haven’t picked up that torch and run with it in the modern era. That said, the story may not make perfect sense – I’ve thought about it over and over again, and I’m still convinced I’ll never quite understand how this ‘zone’ is possible much less how it works – but that’s okay. The feature served its purpose, and now I’m off to discover something else … and, yes, it’ll likely wind up being in the Empire Pictures or Full Moon catalogue when the hunger strikes.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one for my review of Shadowzone (1990) as I purchased my copy of this Remastered release with my own hard-earned cash from the Full Moon Entertainment website.
-- EZ
Purchase your copy of Shadowzone - Remastered (1990) right here:
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