Witchouse - Blood Coven

Blood Coven

Full Moon launch into their new Lunar Edition line with cult film maker J R Bookwalters sequel to Witchouse - 'Blood Coven'.

Whilst preparing to build a shopping mall on the site of an old haunted house the unmarked graves of four decomposed bodies are found. A professor and her team of students are called in to investigate the background of the bodies, but they find more than they bargained for...

Infamous the world over for the classic low budget zombie schlocker 'Dead Next Door', director Bookwalter shows here that his skills really have come of age. Throughout his career of ambitious low budget crackers he's shown what he's more than capable of and with Blood Coven his directorial quality shines.

Storywise, the film is indeed in the traditional Full Moon vein. The opening video-cam scene plays big time on the Blair Witch success (and still beats that flick hands down in one scene!) and quickly switches to a more classy production. Lovely gliding long shots that have a very Euro feel, that brings a level of quality that rises the film above the usual Full Moon standard.

Not that there's anything with Full Moon's standards, check out flicks like 'Dead Hate the Living' and 'The Inquisitor' to see the great variety that they can deliver. But I've often heard complaints from genre fans about the low level of red stuff that's on show in their flicks. And yeah, the same is true for 'Blood Coven', there's not much gore in store here, but the films great (particularly with Bookwalters handling) to view and I enjoyed it greatly.

There's some standout performances on show by the cast here too. In particular Ariauna Albright is splendid in her dual role as the straight laced professor and her demonic counterpart Lilith. And Andrew Prine steals the show with his grandiose over the top performance as the town's expert witch slayer, which came across like a demented Peter Cushing ala the good old Hammer films of yesteryear.

Now onto the disc itself. When Full Moon announced the Lunar Edition line I can't imagine anyone would have expected just how good the delivered goods would be. The discs is absolutely crammed to the gills with hours of goodies that will have fans of Bookwalters work positively drooling.

The print used on the film itself is very sharp, showing well the great use of various film techniques that were used in the production. It's also presented in Anarmorphic widescreen with 5.1 surround sound, which must be a first for Full Moon (keep 'em coming folks!)

Extras-wise there's everything that Bookwalters fans will ever need. As well as two great featurettes on the background of the film itself, there's a full Filmography Trailer Reel with optional commentary on the directors career. Everything from 'Dead Next Door' to 'Blood Coven' is covered, with some great trailers (and cool comments) that leaves you screaming for the impending Tempe DVD Special edition line. There's also the inclusion of the great documentary '15 Years in 15 Minutes' which looks behind the origins of the aforementioned 'Dead' flick that hopefully will help interest in this film's disc release speed up a bit.

Oh yeah, I better not forget also there's a full audio commentary with film itself and a couple of music videos and a Full Moon trailer selection and a load of Rom stuff and...and...and...

The list goes on. Yup, a mightily impressive DVD release that is highly recommended to fans of Bookwalters work, and a great sign of things to come for DVD collectors from the team at Full Moon. Check it out !!


 
Directed by J R Bookwalter
Released by Full Moon
Region 1 - Not Rated
Ratio - Anarmorphic widescreen
Audio - Dolby 5.1 surround sound
Extras :
Director & cast commentary
'Dispelling Rumours' featurette
'Bucharest or Bust' Featurette
Two Music Videos
Director Spotlight section
'15 Years in 15 Minutes' Featurette
Filmography Trailer Reel (with commentary!)
Photo Gallery & Screenplay
Trailer Selection
Loads More !!!
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