By Todd Garbarini

Space: 1999 was one of my favorite shows as a child. Even before Star Wars changed my life, I eagerly watched Martin Landau and Barbara Bain and their adventures in outer space in this series created by Gerry Anderson. Unlike its predecessor Star Trek, the show ran for just two seasons. From 1975 to 1977, I was treated to a view of the future that was both exciting and ominous. I say was because the difference between seeing this show as a child and seeing it now as an adult is night and day. At the time, I really was convinced that the show took place in outer space. Viewing the episodes today, the special effects don’t look quite so convincing, to put it charitably.

As a child, I never realized the show was a British production. In the series opener, the moon has become a garbage heap for earth’s nuclear waste. An accident occurs, causing a cataclysmic eruption that occurs on September 13, 1999. The force is so enormous that it knocks the moon out of its orbit, and the result is that many earthlings are sent spiraling into outer space. Most of the episodes are predicated on the fantastic, not the realistic. If you are a fan of this series, this Blu-ray purchase of the complete first season is a no-brainer. Although the series was released in the U.S. on standard DVD nearly ten years ago, this new Blu-ray set puts that DVD set to shame, as the Blu-ray collection is mastered from the original camera negatives and looks as though the show was just made today. The 7-disc set is from A & E.

Visually, the show is obviously inspired by Douglas Trumbull’s work on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and has a Logan’s Run (1976) look to it. Most of the show is relegated to the soundstages, and it cannot compare to today’s action shows for sheer excitement. Still, it is a great time capsule of the type of show that passed for entertainment just over thirty-five years ago. Some of the music is a bit silly, and the episodes do run at a snail’s pace, but for true fans of the show you absolutely cannot go wrong with this set.

It would stand to reason that since season one has been released, there should be a release of season two sometime soon. I am looking forward to this set, as I recall seeing the show’s only two-part episode “The Bringers of Wonder” in 1977 and my younger sister and I were quite frightened of the gooey creatures from this story.

Oh, nostalgia!

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By Todd Garbarini

My love of horror films didn’t start until I was twelve, but as a child in 1974 I recall seeing scenes from a film that featured a white poodle and a monster with eerie, red eyes. I didn’t know the name of it until my grandmother bought a VHS copy of Horror Express in September 1985 from K-mart for the then unheard of amount of eleven dollars. I immediately recognized the images and was delighted to finally know the film that had unnerved me years earlier.

Horror Express takes place at the turn of the 20th Century. Sir Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee), a British anthropologist, discovers frozen fossils during an archeological dig and takes them aboard the Tran-Siberian Express en route to England. Accompanying him are his colleague Dr. Wells (Peter Cushing) and his assistant Mrs. Jones (Alice Reinheart). Almost immediately, people begin to turn up dead if they approach or look into the crate which harbors a defrosted two million year-old creature which possesses a strong red eye that sucks the brain power out of anyone who confronts it. The creature’s stare causes the eyes of its victims to bleed and turn opaque white, and it possesses some ability to remove memories from its victims, the evidence of which appears in the form of removing the victim’s skull cap and exposing the brain which is smooth and free of lines and impressions. What starts out as a run-of-the-mill monster film becomes a much more interesting fright fest, particularly as a loose adaptation of the novella “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr. (which itself provided the basis for The Thing from Another World (1951) and John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)). Telly Savalas, of all people, shows up as an aggressive Cossack determined to find out why people are dying on the train. There is a neat explanation regarding the origin of the monster: when the creature’s eye is removed and studied under a microscope, images of dinosaurs can be seen, in addition to the earth from outer space, indicating that it has been frozen for millions of years and that it is not of this earth.

After many different public domain releases on VHS and several DVD incarnations, Horror Express has finally been given the respect that it deserves from the fine folks at Severin Films. In their new Blu-ray and DVD combo pack, Severin has provided a wonderful assortment of extras:

• Introduction by Fangoria editor Chris Alexander
• Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: Interview with director Eugenio Martin

• Notes from the Blacklist: Producer Bernard Gordon discusses the McCarthy Era
• 1973 Audio Interview with Peter Cushing
• Telly and Me: Interview with composer John Cacavas
• Theatrical Trailer
• Trailers for Psychomania, The House That Dripped Blood, and Nightmare Castle
• Easter Egg: visit to the train station location 

To see Horror Express look this good is a rare treat indeed. There are some scratches on the film and some splices here and there, but nothing to carp about. The introduction by Chris Alexander is spirited and informative, and the interview with composer John Cacavas is a joy to watch as he talks about how he got the project, and his long-standing professional relationship with Telly Savalas. His score for this film is very eerie, memorable, and fits the movie like a glove.

Highly recommended!

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By Todd Garbarini

Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others (2001) is a brilliantly scary film. Almost as scary is realizing that ten years have transpired since this film played in theaters. Released just one month prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, The Others is the flipside of Peter Medak’s The Changeling (1980), a glorious ghost story with enough style and substance to draw comparisons to the genre’s crown jewels: Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (1961) and Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963), both of which are in dire need of Blu-ray upgrades.

The film opens with a series of hand-drawn images that segue into the house where all of the action takes place. This is a device used many times in films, but it is particularly striking in The Others. It is 1945 and off the coast of France on the island of Jersey lives Grace, played skillfully by Nicole Kidman, and her two children Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). Both of these actors are wonderful, and they recall the dynamic created between Martin Stephens and Pamela Franklin in the aforementioned Innocents. They suffer from a skin disorder that will result in a severe outburst that will kill them if they are exposed to sunlight; this requires that they live their lives indoors, away from the windows. Unexpectedly, three servants show up to serve Grace and the kids, and then strange things begin to happen. From this point on, the audience is kept in the dark, just like the characters, and once the strange revelation comes about near the film’s end, all is revealed with the presence of light. It is wonderful to see that a major studio was responsible for distributing such a beautifully-realized work, one that not only clicked with critics but was also financially successful at the box office.

What is all the more amazing about this film is that director Amenábar also wrote the screenplay and composed the musical score; he’s a true jack-of-all trades. The Others is one of the best ghost stories ever filmed, and the new Blu-ray by Lionsgate Home Entertainment is to die for. It sports an absolutely stunning transfer and makes upgrading a no-brainer. Nearly free of grain, the image is the best available on home video outside of a theatrical presentation. The extras which appeared on the standard DVD release from 2002 are ported over, though it would have been nice to have a commentary included by the director.

Highly recommended.

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