Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skidrow

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT your father's VHS movie
Review: Caveat emptor ... The DVD does NOT contain all the scenes from the original movie (I have an original VHS as well). I made in inquiry to the publisher but never received a response. Transfer is as good as can be expected but for some reason is incomplete.

Rating:
Summary: great DVD, except for...
Review: I know I'm in the minority, but "The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher," is, to me, Ray Dennis Steckler's best movie, which is rather astounding, considering it's just 72 minutes of the same repetitious scenes. This DVD has a good deal of bonus gristle (probably more than the film deserves, but I'm not complaining), with two commentary tracks (one with Steckler, one with Joe Bob Briggs), a still gallery, and interviews with Steckler and Carolyn Brandt. The remastered sound and picture is superb for a Media Blasters release (though the image is a tad grainy). The one problem--and I don't know whether I should be more ticked off about this--is a bug within the DVD encoding (that has to be it, since I exchanged one copy for another copy that had the exact same problem) that occurs after scene selection 8, stops, and skips into scene 10, technically excising the whole scene at the modeling agency. Sheesh. Well, aside from that--and it'll probably be a minor complaint to anyone else--this is a good treatment of a highly disrespected film.

Rating:
Summary: A genius filmmaker
Review: I know I'm in the minority, but "The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher," is, to me, Ray Dennis Steckler's best movie, which is rather astounding, considering it's just 72 minutes of the same repetitious scenes. This DVD has a good deal of bonus gristle (probably more than the film deserves, but I'm not complaining), with two commentary tracks (one with Steckler, one with Joe Bob Briggs), a still gallery, and interviews with Steckler and Carolyn Brandt. The remastered sound and picture is superb for a Media Blasters release (though the image is a tad grainy). The one problem--and I don't know whether I should be more ticked off about this--is a bug within the DVD encoding (that has to be it, since I exchanged one copy for another copy that had the exact same problem) that occurs after scene selection 8, stops, and skips into scene 10, technically excising the whole scene at the modeling agency. Sheesh. Well, aside from that--and it'll probably be a minor complaint to anyone else--this is a good treatment of a highly disrespected film.

Rating:
Summary: A genius filmmaker
Review: Perhaps nothing in this world compares to the individual who lacks talent, even the basic movie making skills, and despitde his liabilities manages to actually create a legendary film. These rare indiviuals, through tenacity or insanity, effectively rises above that forgettable level of total mediocrity to rise to the highest ranks of thos who have earned a name in the film industry. Ed Wood personified this. But the cross dressing Ed Wood was brazen, actually attempting to insert plot, storyline, and even sound into the mix. No, the writer and director of this movie even circumvented these factors to rise to a level even lower than Ed Wood and he is still making money from this film. The formula is simple. Find scantily clad women, two potentially unknown leads, create a storyline on the back of a matchbook, and do some guerilla filmmaking in the seedy portions of LA. This film doesn't even include sex scene unless you consider strangulation some sexual fetish. No social message, no clear arc, nothing resembling a good movie. And you will probably love watching it because in your heart, your soul, you still secretly cheer for that nobody, who hasn't a shrewd of talent, who is blessed by the mighty God who rule Hollywood, and actually end up making money on a movie. Great movie if you keep that in mind.