1981’s Frightmare (onscreen title, The Horror Star) is a slasher film with a pretty cool premise, that of a legendary horror actor coming back from the dead to slaughter a batch young people. But while watchable and competently made on a low budget, there ain’t much in the way of panache.
Conrad Ragzoff (Ferdy Mayne) is a legendary (and arrogant) horror movie icon whose best days are behind him, resorting to appearing in a commercial. He’s also a murderer, having killed his director and agent for disrespecting him. Then after Conrad himself unexpectedly dies, a group of drama students steal his body and bring him to a big old house to party.
However, Conrad has a party planned of his own. He explodes from his coffin to commence offing these kids one by one. Sometimes the kills are creative and bloody, other times kind of unremarkable. Some of the cast is interesting, though. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Christopher Lee, Mayne is wonderfully hammy, while former Hogan’s Heroes beauty Nina Talbot enjoys a few scene stealing moments. Then there’s pre-Re-Animator Jeffrey Combs in an early role, acting circles around his less gifted co-stars before losing his head.
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| Conrad Ragzoff: Motivational Speaker |
No stranger to home video, Frightmare has been released on Blu-ray before, but this time Troma Entertainment is doing the honors. The overall picture and sound are pretty decent, while the bonus features are a combination of those from Vinegar Syndrome’s 2015 Blu-ray and Troma’s own DVD release from 2005. The Troma-produced supplements have little or nothing to do with the movie itself, mostly just a bunch of self-promotion, some featuring the world’s oldest 12-year-old, Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman.
EXTRA KIBBLES
FEATURETTES - Man with a Camera is an audio interview with director of photography Joel King (and the best of the bonus features); A Gory Lesson From the Set of Meat for Satan’s Ice Box has Lloyd Kaufman discussing his participation in another low budget splatter flick (and has nothing to do with Frightmare); Troma in Times Square also has nothing to do with Frightmare; Perhaps you can tell me why Radiation March is included here.
3 AUDIO COMMENTARIES - 1) By writer-director Norman Thaddeus Vane; 2) By David Del Valle and David DeCoteau; 3) By members of a podcast called The Hysteria Continues. All three are listed as separate bonus features.
INTRODUCTION - By Lloyd Kaufman and Debbie Rechon, which mostly consists of the former trying to be funny.
MUSIC VIDEO - “Innards!” is a musical tribute to, you guessed it, Troma and Lloyd Kaufman.
ARTWORK GALLERY
TRAILER
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