review: THE RED SKULLS

Tempe Entertainment  //  Buy from Amazon.com The Red Skulls have been the dominant street gang in Bronston for years... but everything changes one night when gang leader Uri sees his best friend hacked to pieces by a rival group. He decides to get out of town before he shares his friend’s fate. But there’s a traitor in the ranks...one who has planted a lethal trap for his comrades. Uri is about to find out the only thing more dangerous than a backstabbing street gang is a mutated, cannibalistic street gang! I'm an unabashed fan & booster of anything Tempe (and the mighty J.R. Bookwalter) release upon the world, as this is truly an independent distribution company in every sense of the word. These are not big budget productions, they do not have slick visuals or big name stars, and the quality of each production varies, but the consistent undercurrent connecting anything from Tempe is that it's good, solid fun -- you are going to get every penny of your money's worth when you slide a DVD with the Tempe logo into your DVD player! "The Red Skulls" is no different - this one is brought to us by the same crew that unleashed "Midnight Skater" and "Demon Summer" (2 Tempe classics) and, truth be told, the evolution in their movie-making abilities from those titles to this latest release is remarkable. While the film is definitely very-much indie, with the acting talent you'd expect, the quality of the story, the production, the editing, is of a much higher calibre than past productions. An engrossing and quite ambitious story, "The Red Skulls" is more than just a tale of youth gangs and the bashing of heads that comes along with that territory -- the story explores the full gamut of human emotion and deliers some surprisingly impressive performances (both in front of, as well as behind, the camera) that make this a fast-flowing flick. I was very impressed and, most importantly, entertained throughout. Not just a hella-cool DVD cover, this is a fine film well worth your hard-earned dough! Video I have to admit that the video presentation of this film is near & dear to my heart, since it appears to be a 1.33:1 (4x3) fullscreen image faux-letterboxed with black bars on top & bottom to give it a (non-anamoorphic) widescreen presentation -- which is exactly what I do for my own self-financed independent horror movies! Gotta love it. Audio The Dolby Digital 2.0 aural mix is a treat on the ears - clean, balanced, with a hootin'-and-hollerin' rockabilly soundtrack to boot! Extras audio commentary by cast & crew behind-the-scenes featurette makeup fx featurette outtakes Lords of the Highway music video trailers Closing Thoughts Really, really well-done indie film replete with story, quality and technical prowess + usual fantastical Temperiffic extras = easy recommendation for any fan of indie filmmaking!