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Released by: Culture Shock Releasing
Released on: December 22nd, 2022.
Director: Paul Clinco
Cast: Anne Coffrey, Keith DeGreen, Danielle Frons, Norman Stone, Jack Dunlap
Year: 1992
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Death Magic – Movie Review:
Written and directed by Paul Clinco, an emergency room doctor/novelist/local theater participant, 1992’s Death Magic was shot entirely on location in the director’s home town of Tucson, Arizona. The movie opens with a prologue set during the American Civil War where the sinister Major Aaron Parker (Jack Dunlap) is put to death, his execution punishment for unnecessarily killing some civilians during his time in charge of some troops.
From here, we cut to the present day of 1992 where a would-be black magician named Powell Davidson (Keith De Green) and fellow occult traveler Marisa (Anne Coffrey) sit around nude in the dark and eventually get a group together with the intention of bringing Parker back from the dead. Wouldn’t you know it, they’re better at this than they probably expected and after a bit of occult mumbo jumbo, Parker has indeed returned to the land of the living.
Unfortunately for Davidson and company, Parker is still very much the rat bastard he was before he was put to death, and he’s got a new mission, that being to kill off the modern day descendants of those who were responsible for his execution back in the 1800’s. As Parker runs about with a sabre killing off various bit part players, Davidson and his crew bring in black magic expert Donald (Norman Stone) in hopes that he’ll know how to set things right and put a stop to Parker’s killings before it’s too late.
Kind of a weird cross between The Iceman Cometh, A Nightmare On Elm Street and whatever it is your great uncle’s Civil War reenactment troupe does the first Saturday of every other month, Death Magic is a seriously entertaining slice of micro-budget SOV craziness. Made with the participation of the Domino Theatre Troupe, Clinco milks the various bits of Civil War footage for more than they’re worth, using them to pad the movie when we really got all we needed out of the opening scene, but you’ve got to appreciate the detail in the costuming and weaponry in these scenes as there was clearly a good eye for detail at work trying its damnedest to get it right. Occasional pacing issues aside, however, this delivers a solid mix of awesome amateur gore effects, completely gratuitous nudity and general weirdness, checking most of the boxes you want a shot on video horror movie from this era to check.
As to the acting, the cast, presumably comprised of the members of the aforementioned Domino Theater group which Clinco was definitely a part of, if it isn’t always amazing it is consistently entertaining. Jack Dunlap and his mighty beard steal more scenes than anyone else, delivering some, at times, wonderfully overwritten dialogue with a straight face and no shortage of sinister enthusiasm. The movie announces Parker’s arrival at any given scene by bathing it in red light and a bit of dry ice, so as soon as you see this you know things are about to get good. Keith De Green is amusing as the occultist who gets in over his head and Anne Coffrey equally fine as his equally over her head assistant, and Norman Stone, once he’s brought into the proceedings, does a great job of overacting just the right amount.
Death Magic – Blu-ray Review:
Culture Shock Releasing brings Death Magic to Region Free Blu-ray famed at 1.33.1 fullframe and presented in AVC encoded 1080i high definition. Up-resed from the original master tape and using up 17.3GBs of space on a 25GB disc, this ninety-three minute feature looks as good as it probably can and it offers a more than watchable presentation given the film’s analog origins. Colors look surprisingly good for most of the movie, though shadow detail can get lost in some of the movie’s darker moments. Compression is pretty solid and the image is clean enough. No problems here, for an SOV movie this is a nice transfer.
The only audio option for Death Magic is a 16-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono tracks in English. Optional English subtitles are provided. Audio quality mirrors the video quality, in that it isn’t reference quality but it is perfectly fine given the elements available to work with and the film’s origins. Dialogue is generally clean and clear and properly balanced, though things can be a little flat in spots and there are a few lines that are a bit muffled. The score sounds pretty good though, despite some mild background hiss present throughout most of the movie.
Extras start off with a commentary by Director Paul Clinco who talks about shooting pretty much everything that was in the script before going over who played the different parts in the film, where he appeared in the movie as the preacher in the opening, trying to get the Civil War details as accurate as possible, where a lot of the props featured in the movie came from, where scenes were added and why including the scene of male nudity, locations that were used for the feature and where sets were used, how the entire crew was basically comprised of a sound guy and himself, where scenes were made up on the spot and why, the sequence that scenes were shot in and more. When Clinco is talking, he's interesting to listen to but be forewarned that there is quite a bit of dead air here.
The disc also includes a rough cut ending featuring extended gore sequences. This was taken from a SVHS tape that contained the rough cut of the movie and while it does contain some additional gore, it doesn't have the final audio mix (it isn't silent but it doesn't have the score or sound effects mixed in). It runs for just under ten minutes,
Up nexst is a seventeen minute excerpt from the Genre Grinder podcast about Death Magic where the two commentators discuss the fact that it was shot in Tucson, Paul Clinco's passing, the regional qualities of the movie, some of the locations that you can point out in the movie, the movie's bizarre plot and some of the wackier subplots, the movie's ambitious script and production values and some of the stand out scenes in the movie.
The disc also includes a five minute comparison of available video sources, showing the difference between the commercially available VHS release, the color graded D2 and the SVHS rough cut of the movie. What Culture Shock did for the Blu-ray release was, with Clinco's supervision, match the rough cut footage to the D2 grading.
Rounding out the extras on the disc are a behind the scenes still gallery, a gallery of reviews and synopses, a selection of Culture Shock Releasing trailers (Devil Rider, Raw Nerve, The Video Murders), menus and chapter selection options. We also get some nice reversible cover sleeve art with this release.
Death Magic - The Final Word:
Fans of low budget, regional SOV oddities should fine Death Magic a pretty rewarding watch. It’s a genre mashup of sorts and not everything works out quite as flawlessly as it should, but that’s easy to overlook when the movie is as ambitious and weirdly creative as this one is. Culture Shock’s Blu-ray edition presents the movie looking as good as it probably can and with some decent extras as well, making this a well-rounded package for a movie that should hopefully find a larger audience now that it’s readily available on disc for the first time.