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Ghost Canyon

'Savage Nature - 4 Deadly Films' [2-DVD]
(Clare Carey, Lance Guest, Billy Aaron Brown, Richard Moll, et al / 2-Disc DVD / NR / 2019 / Mill Creek Entertainment)

Overview: As seen on The Syfy Channel, 'Savage Nature' is a collection of 4 new deadly films!

DVD Verdict: 'Flu Birds' (Starring: Clare Carey, Lance Guest, Jonathon Trent) - A tight-knit group of teens find themselves fighting for their lives when unexpected visitors - a flock of flesh-eating birds infected by a malicious virus - crash their carefree camping trip in the woods. Can a shrinking group of survivors fight back and reclaim the skies?

'Flu Birds' (aka 'Flu Bird Horror') starts as two guys out deer hunting in some isolated forest are attacked by what look like large reptilian prehistoric birds. One is killed whilst the other is badly injured.

Meanwhile several convicted teens on a trip to the woods with a social worker are also attacked by the birds, with their social worker dead these lay about law-breaking teens have to work together to survive becoming bird food.

Back with the fisherman and he is rescued by a local forest ranger who takes him to hospital where the doctors get very worried as he seems to be infected with a highly contagious and lethal mutant strain of bird flu that could start a worldwide epidemic that could kill billions!

Great, just what the world needed. Another Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' with bad CGI computer effects & a totally lame and predictable story full of holes and bad writing! But, luckily for us all, 'Flu Birds' is slightly above all those levels - but only slightly! This is a Full Screen Presentation (1.33:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

'Headless Horseman' (Starring: Billy Aaron Brown, Richard Moll) - College friends en route to a party find themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere when they take a wrong turn and land in the uncharted town of Wormwood.

As if that weren't weird enough, they're also being chased by a killer who's lost his head!

Now, stop me if you heard this one before. A group of college friends decides to take a shortcut through the woods on the way to a Halloween party, whereupon their truck breaks down, and the inbred inhabitants of a small town set upon them.

Apparently, the SyFy Channel had to film this in Romania, because it seems they couldn't find one of the inbred redneck towns they seem to think dot the countryside of rural America!

Anyhoo, they discover that the Headless Horseman of legend must collect seven heads every Halloween, in order to preserve the town of accursed souls.

Now, this is pretty much the plot of every bad horror movie you've ever seen. What makes this one better than most? I think the characters were more interesting than they usually are in films like this, which is good.

You also have Richard Moll playing the proprietor of the general store, which added some comedy to the film! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

'Monster Wolf' (Starring: Robert Picardo, Leonor Varela, Jason London, Griff Furst) - A creature of ancient legend manifests, bound to protect the ecological balance of the land and killing anyone that threatens it.

This elusive guardian is initially both feared and celebrated by the locals, but when a deadly curse affects them all, they must unite and recapture the monster wolf's spirit or face their ultimate doom.

Unscrupulous oil company boss Stark (Robert Picardo) orders his workmen to blast an ancient Indian artifact with C4 explosives, unleashing Monsterwolf, a vicious, shoddily-rendered, CGI animal spirit dedicated to defending native Americans in their time of need.

Facts: Monsterwolf doesn't like workmen. Monsterwolf doesn't like litterbugs. Monsterwolf doesn't like sell-outs. Monsterwolf doesn't like drunk drivers. Monsterwolf doesn't like being hit by a truck. Monsterwolf doesn't like mercenaries. Monsterwolf doesn't like Stark, etc.

Some poor performances, a generic script, dreadful direction and cheesy special effects all go to make this one hell of a chore to sit through, sorry!

A heavy-handed score works hard to inject some urgency and excitement into proceedings but is woefully unsuited to the lackluster action. Worst of all, perhaps, is a truly amateurish animated sequence that tells of the Indian legend of the Monsterwolf (sorry). This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

'WolvesBayne' (Starring: Jeremy London, Marc Dacoscos, Yancy Butler, Christy Carlson-Romano, Rhett Giles) - An arrogant real estate developer, Russell Bayne (Jeremy London of 7th Heaven, Party of Five, Mallrats), is bitten by a werewolf and finds himself mixed up in a supernatural war between vampires, werewolves, and humans that hunt down such creatures that threaten mankind.

In masterful swordfights and bullet-spraying gun battles, they must fight the evil vampire clan to assemble several magical amulets that will stop Lilith's rise to power and put her away for eternity.

Despite it being SyFy, 'Wolvesbayne' did have a decent premise going for it. But for me it fell well short. 'Wolvesbayne' isn't completely terrible, the werewolf transformation is decent - Jeremy London does what he can with an uninvolving leading role (in terms of character that is) - and Yancy Butler as the evil vampire queen is sexy and seems to be enjoying herself even if she does verge on hammy in places.

However, the remainder of the acting is not great at all, Mark Damascos is badly used with his big scenes very poorly written and anti-climatic, while a lot of the female roles read of looking as sexy as possible but little else. This is a Full Screen Presentation (1.33:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

'Savage Nature - 4 Deadly Films' [2-DVD] is out September 17th, 2019 via Mill Creek Entertainment.

www.MillCreekEnt.com





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