Disc Details
Special Features:	Widescreen format. Roy Frumkes interviews Director Sal Ciavarello. Audio Commentary with Director Sal Ciavarello, Producer Anthony Fariello, and Director of Photography Huy Truong.
Video Format:	Widescreen (1.85:1) [SS-SL]
Languages:	English (Stereo)
Captions:	None.
Sides:	1-Disc Keep Case

This guy ain't out chopping fire wood!

      Angelique finds a contact number for her grandfather's informant. As the night wears on, the beers disappear. Sarah decides to play a little prank on the cultist. Needless to say, the prank backfires. To drunk to drive out of the snowy mountains, the girls gather themselves for a siege from hell. This is the premise which is the foundation for writer/director Sal Caivarello's creepy, tense and thought provoking horror movie.

      To those who have read this far and said, "Sounds like a Blair Witch Project" rip-off" ...Shame on you! "Hardcore Poisoned Eyes" (HPE) has more in common with "Rio Bravo" "Straw Dogs" or "Assault on Precinct 13" than any other movies I can think of. Yes, you have three people stuck in the woods facing a threat from dark demonic forces. Yes, the movie was shot on digital video for just under $30,000. The similarities end there. The lion's share of the credit for this should be laid at the feet of HPE's writer/director Sal Ciavarello. This independent, diamond-in-the-rough has created a compact, character driven feature which will scare the bejezus out of you.

      Ciavarello's direction is deft. I was impressed, that in his first feature movie he displayed such a flair for timing. With a combination of techniques used by Hitchcock, Romero and Argento, director Ciavarello delivers both suspense and shocks. Hitchcock described the difference between suspense and shocks as having a couple in a room with a bomb. If the bomb goes off and kills the couple, you have a shock. If you let the audience see the bomb before it goes off you have suspense ending (or maybe not) in a shock. Ciavarello delivers both types of thrills in HPE.

      What elevates HPE to a level above your standard horror film is the very smart script, also by Ciavarello. His characters don't make any of your stereotypical "stupid horror movie mistakes." They arms themselves. They stick together. They plan routes of escape. Despite the intelligence shown by the characters, they each pay a dear price for Sarah's prank phone call.

      The element of the script which impressed me the most was the fact the characters had very real conversations about God and the devil. Faced with possible death at the hands of Satanic maniacs, Angelique, Sarah and Ellie are forced to confront eternal questions. Ciavarello doesn't take sides in the debate. Angelique is an angry young woman. Her grandfather was murdered and she also has other issues which, while not explained are accepted as being there by the viewer. She curses God. Sarah argues the counter-point. "Didn't you go to the same Catholic school that I did?" Sarah shouts at Angelique at one point. Ellie doesn't really speak on the issue. The movie's examination of the issue of faith, or lack there of is more realistic than attempts to do the same in films like "The Exorcist" or "The Omen."

      While Ciavarello deserves a lot of credit, the three actresses bring his words to life. In the 12 minute opening, before all hell breaks loose, we are introduced to three brassy girls from the Bronx. Actually they are young women in their mid-twenties.

      Christine Gallo is a classic Italian beauty who reminded me of a softer version of Gina Gershon. She would have been great as Michael Corleone's daughter in "Godfather Part III." Her Angelique wants to be a writer like her grandfather. She has such passion for her dream that she sacrifices her social life for her craft. Faced with the possibility of death, she begins to envy the mousy Ellie with her boyfriend and impending engagement.

      Wendy Allyn's Sarah is the kind of girl any guy would love to hang out with. Sarah could probably out drink, out cuss and out anything else most of the guys in the neighborhood. While nothing is revealed about her family, I imagined she had a bunch of brothers watching her back. She is impulsive and daring. This quality is what gets everyone in trouble. She also has common sense which makes her valuable to the others in battling the hooded fiends hiding in snowy shadows.

      Jessica Hester's Ellie is a mousy, milquetoast character. She is the object Sarah and Angelique's ridicule at various points. She wants nothing more than to marry and settle down with her boyfriend Vinny. Ms. Hester has a great scene when she reveals to her friends that she saw Vinny coming out of a jewelry store with a small box. She sees that everything she wants was about to come true. She worries that it will never happen now. She breaks down and cries. She shines in this one brief scene, but otherwise is overshadowed by the stronger written characters of Angelique and Sarah.

      Huy Truong's videography is also excellent. A combination of stedi-cam and handheld techniques capture the images combine to accentuate the terror felt by the characters.

Picture Quality: 7/10
As this movie was shot on digital video, the 'widescreen format' is artificial. Director Ciavarello told me in the accompanying interview, that Director of Photography Huy Truong matted the eyepiece in order to frame the image as if it was shot with a widescreen lens. The effect is excellent. HPE looks as if it was shot for the big screen. The setting is snowy. During the opening sequence, there are some artifacts and the pixels are visible due to video technology’s inability to capture the color 'white.' The bulk of the movie takes place at night. During this section the picture is excellent. DP Huy's lighting creates and eerie winter horrorland. Were the entire movie shot at night, the picture rating would be higher. Mr. Ciavarello candidly discusses the shortcomings of Digital Video on the commentary track.

Sound Quality: 6/10
98% of the characters dialogue is audible with out turning up the volume on the TV. In a couple of places the musical score was overbearing. Maybe this criticism is aimed at the particular section of music by Deborah N. Hurwitz. The death metal sounded fine to my head-banging ears.

Menu: 5/10
The design is simple and eerie. The menu is basically two screens. It is easy to navigate and gets the job done. Due to the lack of extras and chapter selections, there was no need for a more complex menu.

Extra Features: 9/10
As I said above, there aren't many extras, but the ones there rock. There is a 10 minute interview with director Ciavarello by his mentor and former teacher, feature and documentary film director Roy Frumkes (The Substitute). During the interview, I kept wondering who Mr. Ciavarello looked like. It finally hit me. He resembles a young Albert DeSalvo. Sorry Sal!

Anyone interested in shooting an independent Digital Video movie would learn a lot from the commentary track by Ciavarello, producer Anthony Fariello and DP Huy Truong. Next to the "10 Minute Film School" featurettes by Robert Rodriguiz on the "El Mariachi/Desperado" DVD, this commentary track gave me more insight into the technical aspects of making a movie.

The Final Word:
Horror fans, or fans of just plain good movies would do well to log on to www.hpemovie.com and order the DVD of "Hardcore Poisoned Eyes." It would be money well spent.

Rusty White