The Movie Sleuth reviews the technical aspects of the Spontaneous Combustion blu-ray release.
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| "Too much garlic." |
Tobe Hooper hasn’t had a whole lot of luck after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Despite a minor hit with The Funhouse, the shadow of Steven Spielberg looms over all of Poltergeist and despite his short lived
stint with Cannon Films between 1985 and 86 with Lifeforce, Invaders from Mars
and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,
the once great horror director receded into schlock and remained off the
cinematic radar for almost four years.
Other than occasionally contributing to television programs including Amazing Stories, The Equalizer (yes, the one from The Wolf of Wall Street) and
Freddy’s Nightmares, Hooper let some
time pass before attempting another feature.
His return to full length movies came in the form of Spontaneous Combustion, a low budget
special effects driven science fiction thriller about pyrokinesis.
Since
its release, it’s gained a cult following among Hooper devotees, fans
of cheesy fun and pyromaniacs who wanna see it all go up in flames. With the 2004 Anchor Bay DVD now out of print,
Code Red brings Tobe Hooper’s
forgotten B-movie of the early 1990s to Blu-Ray in a limited edition pressing
of 3,000 copies. The Movie Sleuth takes
a good look at the disc to see how it holds up after all these years.
The
Video
Boasting a new HD master, Spontaneous Combustion most certainly shows its age in many
areas. While advancing over the DVD, the
material appears to have been transferred from a theatrical print exhibiting
faded colors and contrast issues.
Outside of dirty looking scenes with special effects optical composites,
the image looks pretty good for the most part, clean and free of blemishes with
a healthy amount of film grain. Colors
could have been a bit stronger though it’s unclear if this was inherent in the
source or the result of deterioration and dimly lit scenes provide saturated
blue and red hues. Jumps in the image or
wobbling haven’t been corrected and recall the stability issues on the Image
Entertainment Blu-Ray of The Long Good
Friday. Either way this is probably the best it ever will look on home
video considering the limited commercial interest in the title without
investing in a frame by frame digital restoration.
The
Audio
The box says English Mono, but as with the Anchor Bay
DVD, Spontaneous Combustion is
presented in two-channel Dolby Surround 2.0 with slightly higher resolution
DTS-HD audio encoded on the Blu-Ray.
Like the video, the audio is generally flat and could have used some
dental work as the dialogue and foley effects tend to sound raspy with
scratchiness. Graeme Revell’s synthetic
score sounds clear and there’s a decent amount of surround effects when
Dourif’s pyrotechnic abilities come to life.
You also get a decent amount of bass rumble during nuclear explosions
and bursts of flame. Again, considering
the age and limited interest in the title, this is as good as its likely going
to sound but don’t anticipate it to be a reference quality listening.
The
Extras
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| "Smoking causes cancer." |
Other than a peculiar but kind of sexy extra involving
former WWE wrestler Katie Lea dressed as Princess Leia in Jabba the Hutt’s
slave bikini introducing and going into the history of the film, we get zip,
zero, zilch. Not even a trailer is
included when one was offered on the Anchor Bay DVD. The menu itself uses the poster image with samples
of the score in the background. Beyond
that, it’s pretty bare bones.
Given the quality of the disc and the lack of extras,
casual moviegoers are inclined to pass on Spontaneous
Combustion. Tobe Hooper enthusiasts
keen on completing their collection should definitely consider the upgrade in
spite of lacking the trailer on the DVD.
If anything, it’s a hoot rife with 50s sci-fi tropes, some cool makeup
and gore effects and Brad Dourif going berserk as his life and body spiral
hopelessly out of control. You could do
worse with a six pack and a group of friends on a Friday night.
-Andrew Kotwicki