THE ALIEN COLLECTION: Vol. 1
CREATURE (1985)/THE SLIME PEOPLE (1962)
Directors: Bill Mallone/Robert Hutton
Westlake Entertainment Group

Okay, so I'm always a little leery when some no-name video company puts out a double feature DVD, but nevertheless, I had an opportunity to check out this Westlake Entertainment Group release and boy, do I regret it. One opens the case to be treated to a double-sided DVD with no visible markings until you hold it up to the light just right to see some barely noticeable film titles on each side. I placed the side labeled CREATURE face up and closed the DVD -- it started playing THE SLIME PEOPLE -- these geniuses didn't even switch the titles on the disc around like REAL DVD manufacturers do. Class A.

So, I turned it back around to play CREATURE. It starts with a logo for Westlake Entertainment Group and goes straight into the movie (neither side have a main menu of any kind--just the film). The quality on CREATURE is somewhere between average and below average with decent sound and nothing else (one wonders if these jokers didn't take their copy from Diamond's DVD release). Oh, incidentally, CREATURE is another "Alien" rip-off from the same guy who brought us the remake of THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (which should tell you how good it is and is only notable for Klaus Kinski and a topless chick walking around).

Now onto THE SLIME PEOPLE -- a funny B&W Sci-Fi Horror film from 1962 starring (and directed by) Robert Hutton about a race of subterranean critters who surround the whole of the LA area with an impenetrable wall of fog and proceed to kill everyone (which doesn't sound like a bad idea at times). To quote the average teenage girl, "Oh...my god!" I can't even begin to describe how terrible the print was. The word SH*T best describes it, I think: the copy must have been recorded off of Rhino's EP/SLP VHS release. The print has "waves" running through it, the chapter stops are jumpy and located in weird places, the print is dark (pausing the image on one particularly "foggy" scene resulted in a few shapes emerging from darkness) and, as for the sound, well... the boom must've fallen into some leftover slime or something.

Do yourself a favor and avoid this DVD -- tell the storeowner to take it off the shelf and return it. The morons at Westlake Entertainment Group should be taken out into the street and shot for this. By the way, their company is located in Woodland Hills, California, so we can only hope that the Slime People pay them a visit. (Adam Becvar: bastardo@thegrid.net )

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