Midnight Movie Collection, Vol. 2

"Four latter-day efforts from low-budget auteur Ray Dennis Steckler are included in this box set from Media Blasters' offshoot label Guilty Pleasures. Midnight Movies Collection II contains the movies Blood Shack (aka The Chooper), Body Fever (aka Super Cool and The Last Original B Movie), The Hollywood Strangler (aka The Hollywood Strangler Meets The Skid Row Slasher) and The Las Vegas Serial Killer. All four movies have been transferred to disc in widescreen format, letterboxed at 1.85:1 on conventional televisions and enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16x9 monitors, except for The Las Vegas Serial Killer, which is in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. None of the films look especially outstanding here -- they've all been sourced from film prints that have obviously seen some serious use in the past, with Blood Shack looking a bit ragged in spots and The Las Vegas Serial Killer appearing flat and unattractive on video -- but given the low-budget direct-from-the-drive-in style of Steckler's work, the technical flaws aren't always as distracting as one might fear. The audio on all four features has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo from monophonic elements, and the sound is acceptable, though the level on The Hollywood Strangler is uncomfortably low in spots. All the movies are in English, with no multiple language options or subtitles included. Guilty Pleasures have gone out of their way to give all four movies their fair share of bonus goodies; they all feature on-camera interviews with Steckler discussing various aspects of their production, while all but The Las Vegas Serial Killer also include actress Carolyn Brandt chatting with Steckler (who is also her former husband). The Hollywood Stranger and Body Fever feature introductions and optional commentary from drive-in movie authority Joe Bob Briggs, while Steckler recorded commentary tracks for all four movies. Body Fever includes a bonus second feature, The Chooper, which is actually a longer cut of Body Fever with different music and credits; the disc also includes a gallery of stills and ad artwork, along with trailers for other releases from Media Blasters and Shriek Show. The Body Fever disc includes a bonus short subject, Goof On The Loose, and color footage from a show staged to promote Steckler's Rat Pfink and Boo Boo, along with another set of trailers. The Hollywood Stranger boasts a gallery of stills, posters and box-cover art and more trailers. And finally, The Las Vegas Serial Killer features two short subjects by Steckler, Face Of Evil and Slashed, as well as (of course) several coming attractions trailers. While the cover artwork for all four movies is pretty awful, the films themselves have been given quality treatment (beyond the flawed source prints), and fans of Steckler's cinematic free-associations will want to give it spin, especially since the set is list priced at less than twenty bucks, making it an excellent value."