Welcome to the Scream Factory Crypt! In this binge series I will be watching all my Scream Factory titles I own alphabetically! Scream Factory is my favorite imprint of Blu-Ray’s because they take movies that studios and the public might not adore but have fans and deserve to be given respect. This will take a long time as I have over 120(!) titles and counting, I know I will have more before I finish, so stay tuned!  Not only will I talk about them on the podcast but I will review them here as well so you can see how I feel about aspects of each release. Part 17 is a triple review, Bubba Ho-Tep, The Burning, and Caged Fury!

Bubba Ho-Tep is an odd concept. An elderly man (Bruce Campbell) who believes he is Elvis, teams up with an African American man (Ossie Davis) who believes he’s John F. Kennedy must fight an ancient mummy who feeds on their fellow residents at a retirement home.

Hearing a synopsis like that might make you think this movie is too far bonkers to be any good. You would be wrong. The movie is tons of fun with Campbell delivering one hell of a performance. Davis too, is amazing. Directed by Don Coscarelli (Phantasm) Bubba Ho-Tep succeeds because all three men are at the top of their game. Although this is a horror film, Bubba Ho-Tep also deals with aging and dying, so if you come into the movie expecting tons of horror and gore you might be disappointed. However, what you do get is a fun, silly movie.

Bubba Ho-Tep isn’t going to win any awards for being a good looking movie. Dimly lit hallways and a sort of grungy yellow look to it, Bubba Ho-Tep also supports a healthy amount of grain. However the picture is clear and as pretty good detail, my guess is the low budget aspect might be the biggest culprit in the way the film looks.

No issues in the sound department. From creepy crawling bugs, to crisp dialogue, Bubba Ho-Tep sounds great.

Bubba Ho-Tep is packed with extras. From new interviews to vintage features, this disc more than earns its collector’s edition status. Bruce Campbell as always delivers a fun interview and you get two of them on the disc, one new, one vintage. Plus new interviews with Robert Kurtzman, and Don Coscarelli. Carried over are two commentary tracks from the DVD, plus a new one with the author of the short story John Lansdale.

Film: A

Video: B

Audio: A

Extras: A+

Overall : A

The Burning is one of Scream Factory’s earliest efforts and it delivers.

The Burning is a slasher film that came out in the slasher boom of the early 80’s. Telling a different tale of the Cropsy legend, The Burning also sports an impressive cast of up and comers, Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Fisher Stevens lead a cast of unlucky campers who and terrorized by caretaker who was horribly burned in a prank years earlier.

The Burning is not that great of a slasher film. It is more known for Tom Savini’s incredible make-up work, most noticeably on a center piece attack on a raft. Direction is somewhat aimless and the acting borders on passable to downright wooden. For the most part though everyone comes to slasher films for the violence and boobs, The Burning does deliver on those promises.

The Burning has no right to look as good as it does here. Scream Factory does a great job cleaning up the picture. I have seen The Burning in its lo-def glory and it looks amazing on Blu-Ray. Blood is red and the colors are deep. Detail can be seen on Cropsy and the clothes worn by the cast. This is a great looking disc.

Also getting a nice clean up is the films audio transfer. The 80’s music pops. Dialogue is crystal clear. Another winning transfer.

The Burning comes packed with some really terrific extras. My favorite being an interview with Tom Savini. Savini is always fun to listen to, he always delivers some truly great stories. A couple of other interviews pepper the disc as do a couple of commentaries. The commentary with the director is fun, however he mentions Harvey Weinstein in his commentary, because this is the Weinstein’s first film, so it is a little jarring hearing Harvey being mentioned positively (of course this track was recorded a long time ago, before the allegations were known).

Film: C+

Video: B+

Audio: B+

Extras: B+

Overall: B+

Caged Fury is a classic (?) women in prison movie that is so insanely bad that it is super awesome.

Caged Fury has it all. Crooked cops. Sleazy movie producers. And a dude with a mullet that turns into an unbeatable martial arts machine…wait, what? Yup, at one point someone needs to save all the women who are sent to a bogus prison so they can be sold on the sex slave market! Plus Eric Estrada! A super- hot lesbian evil warden! And finally adult film legend Ron Jeremy as an evil jail deputy! You like motorcycles, Caged Fury has them as well! (I really don’t know how to summarize the crazy plot in Caged Fury).

I have no previous experience with Caged Fury, I totally blind bought this. I will say that the transfer looks great. Clean and detailed throughout, I am guessing this is the best this film has ever looked. It looks so good I can make out the marquee for “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” at the end.

In another shock, the audio for Caged Fury is top notch. From punching to motorcycles, Caged Fury is a great sounding blu-ray.

The only disappointment is that the only extra is a trailer. I am guessing that Scream Factory had no idea if Caged Fury would sell and sunk most of the money into the transfer.

Film: B-

Video: B+

Audio: A-

Extras: D-

Overall: B-

All three of these releases are lots of fun, Bubba Ho-Tep is a must buy. The Burning is a fun movie and a must for slasher fans, it might not be for everyone. If you want to turn off your brain, Caged Fury is a fun distraction.