Prime Evil/ Lurkers — Prime Evil/ Lurkers (Blu Ray/DVD)

Here we have a double shot of late 80’s horror schlock ‘n’ sleaze from Roberta Findlay- an infamous New York City-based filmmaker, producer, and director, who between the 1960’s & late 1980’s moved between porn, exploitation & horror filmmaking. The two films on this dual format release blend together campy horror plotting, soapy moments, some effectively bloody & at times shocking scenes, with more than a good selection of female nudity. All wrapped up with cheesy dialogue, decidedly mixed acting, and a sometimes nonsensical & unpredictable unfold.

The films presented here are Prime Evil & Lurkers and they where both made in NYC between 1987 & 1988, with a similar key cast; though both have fairly different themes & settings.  Prime Evil is focused towards a more satanic side of things, as it follows the exploits of a group of immortal monks who are trying to rise-up Satan in 80’s New York. And Lurkers is more of a ghost story, that follows young women who’s haunted by dreams & visions of both deformed spirits, and her unbalanced dead mother.

Prime Evil was the first film to be released of the two, and it’s first on the disc. So I’ll discuss that first. The film opens in the 14th century, with a group of catholic monks lead by Father Seaton - played in great a campy & devilish form by William Beckwith. The group declare their love for the horned one, decapitated someone…then we fast forward to 80’s New York, and  Father Seaton is still alive & seemingly un-aged.  We find out the coven of monks have been drinking virgins blood to stay immortal, and they are now looking for the ideal sacrifice to rise Satan into this world. What follows is a blend of soapy interactions, a good dose of female nudity, some fairly bloody & cruel attacks carried by a chubby boil-suit wear henchman, campy satanic ceremonies, and a finale that brings together mutilated 'n' maggot strewn bodies & a rubbery lo-grade demon.

Lurkers opens in great deranged & unsettling form- we get a clearly unbalanced mother telling off her daughter, and going at her with an iron. The little girl runs out of the apartment down the stairs to a group of children playing with a skipping rope- all of a sudden the rope is around her neck, and the children are chocking her- then we get two figures appearing, a ghostly white-haired girl & a middle age women wrapped in what looks like a curtain- neither says anything, but the girl is released from the skipping rope. Next, we move to night time, the little girl is reading under the covers with a touch- and suddenly she is surrounded by a selection of leering faces, see-through hands & bodies of adult ghosts. After this things do slow somewhat as we’re introduced to the little girl now grown-up- she's a violinist, who has a photographer boyfriend- we get a selection of inane dialogue, cheese romantic moments,  some female nudity, and her boyfriend chatting up other women.  From time-to-time, we see her chilling daydreams, nightmares & visions which include her mother trying to drown her in the bath, leering & deformed figures dressed in 1920’s get-up, & her mother on a gurney with a carving knife in the middle of her chest, etc. As the film moves on it turns out the boyfriend is cheating on her at ever opportunity, and we more towards the truly bizarre & at times nonsensical  last quarter of the film- which features a chase between the women & a man with a sledgehammer, a party full of weird characters, and a  frankly  surreal-yet- campy rooftop finale. Of the two films, I guess this has a slightly more wondering pace, with one at times finding boredom starting to creep-in; but do bear with it, as there are some great moments here.

Moving onto the extras on this reissue- first up we get a good cleaned-up/ look to both films, with Vinegar Syndrome giving their usual care & love to both features, and if you compared the picture quality to the trailers( also featured)- you really see what a great job they did.  You get a really interesting new commentary from Fidlay on Prime Evil, on this she of course primarily talks about Prime Evil, but she does also touch on  Lurkers too. The track is very relaxed, chatty, informative & rewarding- making it of interest to anyone who is a fan of  80’s horror or exploitation in general.

The only previous films I’d seen connected to Ms. Fidlay where the Flesh trilogy (The Touch of Her Flesh, The Curse Of Her Flesh, and The Kiss of Her Flesh)- the series of infamous roughies she made with her husband Michael in the late 1960’s.  I’d always had a soft spot for the campy & bad taste blend of horror ‘n’ sex that the Flesh Trilogy offered up. So when I saw this double set appeared I was keen to check it out, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed both films on offer here. Sure both films are overly chatty, and lull in places- but there are always unexpected moments coming up- either gory wise, flesh wise or just general WTF moments. I now must see if I can check out more of Ms Findlay’s filmography.