{"id":21896,"date":"2020-12-28T23:50:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T07:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=21896"},"modified":"2020-12-28T23:50:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T07:50:49","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-he-came-from-the-swamp-the-william-grefe-collection-box-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=21896","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP: THE WILLIAM GREFE COLLECTION Box Set"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Blu-ray box set is currently available from Arrow\nVideo. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you\u2019ve ever stayed up late at night watching low-budget monster\nmovies on cable, then you\u2019ve probably seen a William Gref\u00e9 flick. Considered by\nmany genre enthusiasts to be a Florida exploitation film king, this\nwriter\/producer\/director made a great many independent flicks in his home state\nprimarily through the 1960s and 70s. While he did create a few dramas, his most\nfamous pictures were creature features and psychedelic drive-in efforts. In\nhonor of his 90th<\/sup> birthday, Arrow Video have assembled seven notable\nmovies from his catalog and a recent feature-length documentary in their new\n4-disc Collector\u2019s Set, He Came from the Swamp: The William Gref\u00e9 Collection<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This box of Blu-rays is every bit as extensive as you might have\nimagined. In addition to the movies, the set arrives with numerous bonuses including\na book containing a forward by Gref\u00e9, a brief biography by a film critic and\nloads of production stills, lobby cards and other publicity materials.\nAdditionally, there are printed interviews with comments from Gref\u00e9 about each\ntitle. Of course, you also get the features themselves, which are a wild and\ncrazy assortment of B-movies. So, for those needing a bit more background information\non the specific movies in question, here is exactly what you\u2019ll be in for\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disc 1 includes Sting of Death<\/em> (1966), a goofy\nmonster movie about a professor of marine biology in the Everglades working with\nhis favorite student and a disfigured assistant named Egon. When the faculty\nmember\u2019s daughter arrives with some friends to have a party at her dad\u2019s island\nhome (which involves a lot of footage of the gang dancing to the music of Neil\nSedaka), they are eventually attacked by a jellyfish monster. As it turns out,\nEgon has been conducting experiments of his own that have given him the power\nto turn into a half-man, half-jellyfish monster\u2026 and he has an obsession with\nthe daughter of his employer. The creature get-up essentially involves a\nperformer with a wet suit covered in mud along with a clear, air-filled garbage\nbag over his head. It\u2019s an amusingly ridiculous cheese-fest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In Death Curse of Tartu<\/em> (1966), the villain is the\nresurrected corpse of a 400-year-old Native American witch doctor Tartu, who has\nthe power to transform into any wild creature and kill those who disturb his ancient\nburial mound (to be honest, it\u2019s really more of a cave). Naturally, a professor\nand some archeology students arrive on site and do all the wrong things, becoming\ntargets of the supernatural entity. The kids also find the time to dance in the\nmarsh and there\u2019s a lot more unnecessary padding in this effort, but Tartu\nhimself is an interesting and more fully realized monster. It\u2019s all very silly,\nbut some of the attack scenes (one involving a python and another using a\ncrocodile) do look dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both films come with an introduction from Gref\u00e9 who briefly explains\nthe how each film came into existence. The disc also includes a fun featurette\nabout beach-party monster movies, as well as the spook-show career of the make-up\ndesigner who played the Jellyfish Monster. Each title also includes an\ninformative commentary involving Gref\u00e9 and interviewer Frank Henenlotter (Basket\nCase<\/em>, Brain Damage<\/em>) who talk about the productions and the difficulties\ninvolved in shooting a B-movie in the swampy Everglades. Amusingly, we learn\nthat the Tartu<\/em> was produced on the fly after the distributor of Sting\nof Death<\/em> need a second feature to play with the movie at drive-ins. It was\nwritten in 24 hours and was shot and produced over a much shorter time frame\n(which certainly explains the padding and pacing issues). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The second disc contains some of the filmmaker\u2019s experiments\nin psychedelia. In comparison with the previous features, The Hooked\nGeneration<\/em> (1968) is much more ambitious in scope and subject matter. The plot\nfollows a group of pals making inroads in the drug trade, turning from carriers\nto mini-cartels and making their own deals with Cuban soldiers to import heroin,\ncocaine and marijuana into Florida. They\u2019re not great at their jobs. One of\nthem develops a serious habit, they buddies take hostages and, as expected,\nviolence ensues when they get into conflicts with suppliers, the Coast Guard\nand just about every other person they encounter. It\u2019s a low-budget B-movie,\nbut a very competent one with solid performances. There are some interesting\ncamera angles and on a technical level the flick feels reminiscent of an early\nGeorge Romero picture like Season of the Witch<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Psychedelic Priest<\/em> (1971) is a film shot slightly\nafterwards that wasn\u2019t released until 2001. It\u2019s about a Catholic priest going\nthrough a crisis of faith who drops out of his habit and goes on a trippy\njourney to find himself. In the introduction to the picture, Gref\u00e9 states that\na producer hired him to make a counterculture movie without a script, so he traveled\naround with the lead actor and improvised everything. Some bits work better\nthan others and the protagonist ultimately doesn\u2019t have anywhere to develop to\nexcept back to his original starting point, but it serves as an interesting\nexperiment with some intriguing moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As for extras, there\u2019s a fun featurette on \u201cdrugsploitation\u201d\nfilms and another specifically dealing with The Psychedelic Priest<\/em> and\nthe bizarre story behind its creation. You\u2019ll get a lot of publicity materials\nrelated to The Hooked Generation<\/em>. And in addition to the director introductions\nto each title, both come with commentary tracks. Gref\u00e9 has great stories about The\nHooked Generation<\/em> cast and the production, including some scary tales about\nthe inexperienced crew shooting action scenes and the crazy way in which the\nfilmmaker promoted the movie to teens\u2026 which involved giving pill capsules out\nto teens in front of schools with a message hidden inside about the movie\u2019s\nupcoming release. His stories of the Priest <\/em>movie shoot are even crazier\nand is easily just as entertaining than the feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disc 3 contains the Director\u2019s Cut of The Naked Zoo<\/em> (1970).\nIt\u2019s another trip into hippy culture that boasted the filmmaker\u2019s largest\nbudget at the time, which by Gref\u00e9\u2019s estimation was $250,000 dollars. Set in\nthe Florida community of Coconut Grove (which was the Florida equivalent of the\nHaight-Ashbury district in San Francisco), a pill-popping, womanizing novelist gets\nhimself into serious trouble. The biggest problems arise when he begins an\naffair with an older socialite, played by Rita Hayworth. Her husband discovers\nthe affair and violence erupts with deadly consequences. There are some good\nmoments and a nice sting at the end of the movie, even if it isn\u2019t quite as\nstrong as The Hooked Generation<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next film, Mako: The Jaws of Death<\/em> (1976),\narrived just a year after Jaws<\/em> and was dismissed as a knock-off of the\nSteven Spielberg feature. Gref\u00e9 wants everyone to know that the script was\nwritten many years earlier and that he was only able to finance the picture after\nJaws<\/em> became a smash hit. Richard Jaeckel plays a local eccentric who\nbelieves he has a psychic connection to the area\u2019s tiger shark population (amusingly,\nthe mako variety is not featured in the movie), because of a medallion he given\nto him while serving in the Philippines. He frequently talks to the fish and\nacts as a protector, killing any human whom he believes is causing harm to\nthem. Naturally, he also feeds his victim\u2019s body parts to the sharks. It\u2019s an\ninteresting concept, there\u2019s some impressive underwater footage and the lead actor\nmakes for an entertaining antihero. It\u2019s certainly a cheesy B-movie, but a fun\none in many respects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Extras on The Naked Zoo<\/em> include a commentary that details\nhow he managed to nab bigger names for the film and well as his hatred for the\ntheatrical cut. He explains that one of his investors bought a controlling interest\nin the film. The person re-edited the movie and added explicit sex scenes to it\n\u2013 this disc also includes the alternate cut as a curiosity. While the picture quality\non the Director\u2019s Cut isn\u2019t as sharp, it is largely because Gref\u00e9 has taken out\nseveral scenes and added deleted footage back in, reassembling the feature as\noriginally intended. There\u2019s a ton of bonus material on Mako: The Jaws of\nDeath<\/em>, including an informative commentary track, 2020 telephone interviews\nwith co-star and the film\u2019s screenwriter, lots of publicity materials, as well\nas a featurette giving a brief history of nature-on-the-rampage movies. There\u2019s\na lot of great information on the latter movie and Gref\u00e9 tells great stories\nabout it. This includes a terrible first day of shooting in which the camera\nbroke, one of the ships being used became lodged on a sandbar and lead performer\nRichard Jaeckel split his head open while waiting to begin work. It\u2019s an entertaining\ntrack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disc 4 contains Whiskey Mountain<\/em> (1977), a thriller inspired\nto some degree by the hit film Deliverance<\/em>. This one is about a pair of mountain\nbikers and their wives on a treasure hunt for Confederate rifles, which they\nplan to sell to collectors after locating. While in the mountains, the couple are\nattacked by a gang of hillbilly drug dealers, who take them hostage and torment\nthem. This is a rare feature for the filmmaker that was shot entirely in North\nCarolina and Georgia. Frankly, it has some decent action and stunts at the\nclose, but has plenty of issues. The photography is soft, the framing off at\nvarious points and it generally feels sloppily put together. The director\u2019s\ncommentary explains what brought the filmmaker to this area and the how he managed\nto get country music artist Charlie Daniels to record a song for the picture.\nHe also shares another wild tale about a fight with locals at the wrap party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, the disc comes with a They Came from the Swamp<\/em>\n(2016), a phenomenal 2-hour documentary on Gref\u00e9 that shares insights and\nhighlights of his life and career. There are interviews and comments from actors\nlike William Shatner, crew members and filmmakers including Herschell Gordon\nLewis, Fred Olen Ray and Frank Henenlotter. You\u2019ll also get an early\ndocumentary short from Gref\u00e9, deleted interviews from the documentary, a trip\nto some of the locations featured in the films, a featurette on distributor Crown\nInternational Pictures, and plenty more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The image quality on display isn\u2019t phenomenal (Whiskey\nMountain<\/em> and the Director\u2019s Cut of The Naked Zoo<\/em> in particular have\nplenty of issues), but all the transfers are an improvement over anything previously\nreleased on DVD and other formats. According to reports, the original prints\nand material was in the process of disintegrating and it\u2019s remarkable that these\nmovies were salvaged at all. Fans of the flicks can expect a drive-in like\nexperience. It doesn\u2019t look perfect and there are various problems that are\nevident, but they\u2019ve managed to do their best to save the movies from being permanently\nlost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like everything else from Arrow Video, the distributor has\ndone its best to give fans the best possible package and experience. The box\nset\u2019s extras are amazing and it\u2019s a whole lot of fun in general to visit these\nold B-movies. And the package also includes a great fold out poster with the cover\nart featuring creatures and notable characters from the movies included in the\nset. In the end, B-movie fans will likely be pleased by all of the mayhem included\nin He Came from the Swamp: The William Gref\u00e9 Collection<\/em> Collector\u2019s\nEdition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Blu-ray box set is currently available from Arrow Video. If you\u2019ve ever stayed up late at night watching low-budget monster movies on cable, then you\u2019ve probably seen a William Gref\u00e9 flick. Considered by many genre enthusiasts to be a Florida exploitation film king, this writer\/producer\/director made a great many independent flicks in his home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2124,2923,2949,3073,3075,5477,7683,8965,9319,12732,12962,14186,16454,16455,17775,19122,21004,21167,21675,21954,22727,24192,24312],"class_list":["post-21896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-b-movie","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-reviews","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-blu-ray-reviews","tag-death-curse-of-tartu","tag-florida","tag-he-came-from-the-swamp-the-william-grefe-collection","tag-horror","tag-low-budget","tag-mako-the-jaws-of-death","tag-monster","tag-psychedelia","tag-psychedelic","tag-science-fiction","tag-sting-of-death","tag-the-hooked-generation","tag-the-jaws-of-death","tag-the-naked-zoo","tag-the-psychedelic-priest","tag-they-came-from-the-swamp","tag-whiskey-mountain","tag-william-grefe"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}