Verdict
Summary
With a wraparound segment from director Joe Dante, Trapped Ashes is a sexier than usual horror anthology that went under the radar when it was first released. I remember seeing it on DVD when it first came out, and I think the ensuing 19 years has been very kind to it and it’s aged remarkably well. All the stories have their plusses, but I think Russell’s is my favorite because it’s just so out of control with its weirdness. It’s like a deranged Tales From the Crypt episode, although the entire movie feels like a Tales From the Crypt film. It’s weird, sexually explicit, and less scary than it is sexy, and so fans of these types of films should enjoy it.
Plot:
A group of tourists on a studio back lot tour become trapped in a house that has no exit.
Review:
A group of unrelated tourists get aboard a tram for a Hollywood studio back lot tour (looks like Universal Studios and probably is), but their tour guide (played by Henry Gibson) is more than just a little strange: He’s downright creepy in a non-assuming way. The group is led to a house on the lot, and they all filter in, but soon nobody can find their way out of the house. It’s known as “the creepy house” or the “house of horrors” used in some movies, but it’s no joke – this place has no exit. The tour guide tells everyone in the group that in order to leave, they must each tell a story for his amusement, and so the first woman (played by Rachel Veltri) tells her story (“The Girl With the Golden Breasts,” directed by Ken Russell) about how as an actress she found herself aged out of all the sexy roles, and so she got a breast enhancement that went terrible wrong: Her breasts – more specifically her nipples – need to feed on human blood, and she has basically become a vampire with breasts that have little mouths that attach to any of her sexual partners, but hey: At least she’s getting the good parts again! The next story is “Jibaku” (directed by Sean S. Cunningham) about a beautiful woman named Julia (Laura Harris) who goes to Japan and is seduced by a handsome Japanese man, but the next day she finds his body hanging dead in a cemetery … but his ghost continues to seduce and make love to her and eventually leads her to Buddhist hell, where she must find a way out or remain there forever. The third tale is “Stanley’s Girlfriend” (directed by Monte Hellman), about a writer (played by John Saxon as an older man and Tahmoh Penikett as a younger man) who befriends another screenwriter / filmmaker in the 1940s. His friend’s girlfriend (played by Amelia Cooke) is incredibly sexy and seduces him when her boyfriend is away, but this event alters the course of his destiny is ways that he doesn’t quite comprehend until he’s much older. Turns out that Stanley’s girlfriend is an ancient vampire or witch who drifts through time, feeding off the blood and souls of men and women whom she crosses paths with, and it’s not until he’s an older man that he is shown proof of this in an old nitrate film canister. The next story is “”My Twin, the Worm” (directed by John Gaeta) about a young woman who is impregnated by a man, but at the same time she has a tapeworm that grows within her and cannot be removed until she gives birth to the baby. Though she dies in childbirth, the baby girl is eventually born (alongside the worm), and the child is cared for by a family member, but her practice of hoarding food to feed her twin worm is eventually revealed with horrifying results! Meanwhile, the tourists in the spooky house realize their fate when the tour guide explains to them that, though he’s enjoyed their stories, they can never escape the house … because … oh, just watch the movie and find out.
With a wraparound segment from director Joe Dante, Trapped Ashes is a sexier than usual horror anthology that went under the radar when it was first released. I remember seeing it on DVD when it first came out, and I think the ensuing 19 years has been very kind to it and it’s aged remarkably well. All the stories have their plusses, but I think Russell’s is my favorite because it’s just so out of control with its weirdness. It’s like a deranged Tales From the Crypt episode, although the entire movie feels like a Tales From the Crypt film. It’s weird, sexually explicit, and less scary than it is sexy, and so fans of these types of films should enjoy it. Dennis Bartok wrote the whole thing, and it’s fitting that the film finds its way to Bartok’s own “Deaf / Dead” Crocodile boutique label.
Loaded with special features, Trapped Ashes lands on 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray from Dead Crocodile / Deaf Crocodile, and it looks and sounds incredible, but the real treats are in the bonus features here. It’s time to upgrade that DVD on your shelf and add this one to its rightful place amongst your horror anthologies.
Bonus Materials
- New 4K restoration from 35mm OCN/IP by Craig Rogers of Deaf Crocodile
- New HDR Dolby Vision color grading by Tyler Fagerstrom
- Director’s Cut of Monte Hellman’s “Stanley’s Girlfriend” episode
- Original full-length cut of Ken Russell’s “The Girl with Golden Breasts” episode
- Original 5-part Making Of video with cast and crew interviews
- New commentary track by comics artist (Swamp Thing), film historian, and author Stephen R. Bissette
- “Hollywood Parasite: Hysteria in Trapped Ashes” – New visual essay by journalist and physical media expert Ryan Verrill (The Disc Connected) and film professor Dr. Will Dodson
- New video interviews with: Director John Gaeta, cast members Jayce Bartok, Scott Lowell and Lisi Tribble, producers Yuko Yoshikawa & Yoshifumi Hosoya, and cinematographer Zoran Popovic, moderated by producer/writer Dennis Bartok for Deaf Crocodile
- New video interviews with: Cast members Tahmoh Penikett & Tygh Runyan and production designer Robb Wilson King
- New video interviews with: Producer Mike Frislev of Nomadic Pictures
