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| Images courtesy of Culture Shock Releasing |
Vinegar Syndrome partner label Culture Shock Releasing, a joint
project between Lo-Fi Video and Verboden Video, has made a name for themselves
with their releases of pictures shot either on film or videotape produced
within the 1980s through the 1990s and so forth. In partnership with OCN Distribution, the
company has specialized in releasing cult microbudget horror films off the
beaten path in lovingly designed deluxe limited editions with specially
designed slipcovers.
One which seemed to slip through the cracks among many a SOV
(shot-on-video) film collector before being rescued by Culture Shock Releasing
is writer-producer-director Paul Clinco’s SVHS Civil War demon rampage slasher Death
Magic, a film that sandwiches together disparate historical horror elements
with a modern medium and timeline that shouldn’t coalesce but somehow
does. How many videotaped slasher horror
movies do you know of with an undead Civil War captain running amok with a
steadily rising body count and uptick in gory phantasmagorical visuals? Moreover, when’s the last time you saw horny
teenagers getting sliced and diced by a crusty sociopathic eternal nineteenth
century major?
Powell Davidson (Keith DeGreen) and his crew of black magic
acolytes are getting bored with working for their master Donald Graham (Norman
Stone) in search of more lively and dangerous thrills including but not limited
to plans of necromancy. As the starts
align, Powell and crew begin their naked demonic summoning rites but unintentionally
unleash a century old demon in the form of Major Aaron Parker (Jack Dunlap) who
vowed during his public execution by hanging in 1975 that one day he would come
back to destroy the descendants of those who ordered his death. Very rapidly, the vengeful and mad entity
starts taking out the young occultists one by one, sometimes in rather
compromising situations played for over-the-top horror laughs.
In one breath an SVHS Gettysburg, in another a
Satanic conjuring tape ala Alucarda chock full of nudity, blood, guts
and cheap video effects, Death Magic set and filmed in Tuscon, Arizona is
both only one of two films by the late writer-director Paul Clinco as well as
an example of positively homegrown western horror, right down to the film being
hastily self-distributed by the filmmakers before vanishing into
obscurity. Initially created by the ER
doctor/novelist for his local theater troupe Domino Theater, this distinctly
homemade slice of video horror mixing Pagan Cult imagery with Civil War
reenactors and dramatizations is a truly unusual SOV cocktail you rarely if
ever hear about anymore.
Presumably lensed by Paul Clinco with the help of set
decorator Steven Hubble and aided by a very synth keybord score by Malcolm
Orrall, this do-it-yourself venture is very surprisingly a cut above most other
microbudget offerings. Featuring a fair
dosage of special effects by Carzon ‘Koz’ Noel III, the film has some gory
kills that will delight horror fans in between bevy of charmingly lo-fi video
screen effects. The acting is generally
fine with the Civil War era flashbacks acted reasonably well though Jack Dunlap
is clearly having a lot of fun chewing up the scenery in the present tense
scenes of the demonic Major Aaron Parker terrorizing the hapless Satanists who
bit off far more than they could chew.
Paul Clinco oversaw the blu-ray authoring and mastering of his
personal SVHS master and in so doing included a number of extras including
comparisons of other video sources and an extended slightly gorier ending and
also provided an audio commentary, sadly passing away in 2022 shortly before
the disc release hit store shelves. The
resulting regional exploitation horror thriller despite having little to no
means to make let alone distribute the film nevertheless packs a joyous punch
of its own. Moreover, this might be the
only film to cut from a period Civil War trial to a nude Satanist being cloaked
in fog machines before the decorated yet disturbed Major Aaron Parker rears his
ugly head. You don’t get juxtapositions
like this in glossy studio financed films let alone anywhere else.
As a beer-and-pizza film, Death Magic for being
completely top-to-bottom homegrown does a lot with very little means and will
tickle the fancies of many a SOV aficionados.
Who would’ve thought one of the only known-of Civil War infused occult
slasher horror films would be shot and very minimally released on tape? Rarely do you get these varying concepts
married together let alone on such a uniquely modern format. You won’t come across another one quite like
this anytime soon.
--Andrew Kotwicki
