The Films:
This Troma Triple B-Header contains three Troma 'classics' from the eighties:
Blades (1989) - We start off the triple bill with Blades, directed by Thomas R. Rondinella. Blades follows the mysterious hackings of golfers at a golf club, where the two main characters Jeff (David Aldrich) and Jenny (Kara Callahan) are the course pros. When Jenny is giving some of the golfers a lesson, they see the young ball collector viciously hacked up but don't know who did it. The local police chief decides to deploy the golfers on a manhunt to find the homicidal person, but when they catch the ex-employee they believe it is, it soon becomes apparant that the hackings are not the work of a man, but of a lethal lawnmower.
Blood Hook (1987) - Next up is Jim Mallon's Blood Hook. Set at a local annual fishing contest 'Muskie Madness', some of the competitors are mysteriously being dragged into the lake to their death. The police come across problems though when they say that the serial killer is using a giant hook to capture his victims, when it is found that all of the fisherman are actually using the same hook. Yet more murder ensues as the fishermen become the prey.
Zombie Island Massacre (1984) - To start with, let's get one thing straight about John N. Carters only movie (not the same guy from Badlands... sorry): the title is very misleading. There are no zombies, and there certainly isn't any massacre of any kind. In fact, the film follows a bunch of American tourists on vacation in the Caribbean who go on an evening trip to a small island and watch the locals perform some voodoo. They some become stuck on the island though and one by one are killed by a mysterious unknown force.
So that's what the films are about, but are they any good? In a word, no. This is Troma for gods sake. The budgets are low, the plots are low, the special effects are terrible, the direction is awful, the acting sucks and yet it is like a car crash. You just can't help but watch, if for the bizarre death scenes or hammy dialogue. It's interesting to note that the director of Blood Hook even went on to make fun of similar movies with the Mystery Science Theater 3000 stuff. If you're after a few movies for a good laugh with some mates, you won't do much wrong here, but for fans of serious horror, look away and look away now.
The DVD:
Video:
All three movies have been presented on the disc in a 4:3 aspect ratio. The picture quality is that of VHS and suffers from softness, grain and other problems such as lines of damage. I highly doubt that the films will have been kept in the best of places, but Troma could've at least spent some money on improving the picture quality...
Audio:
All three films have been presented in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono, and like the picture quality, the audio leaves a lot to be desired. Dialogue is hard to hear at times and comes across muffled, though this could be how it has always been. The music and dialogue levels are also not consistent in places. Audio could be improved upon, but if a company isn't going to spend money on the picture, then they aren't going to spend money on the audio either.
Extras:
Just 4 lonesome bonus trailers for Troma films. Quite a disappointment, because usually Troma at least but their bizarre adverts starring Lloyd Kaufman on their discs.
