Average User Rating: 3 Vote(s)
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 Amazon USA | Purchase this movie on DVD! |  Not Available |
| Distributor | CIC |
| Catalogue Number | VHA1091 |
| Release Series | |
| Release Date | June 1984 |
| Duration: | 94m 30s |
| Printed Classification | |
| Notes |
User Reviews:
I remember seeing the second instalment of this four-part
horror anthology on television back in the eighties and thinking it was pretty
damn cool. Emilio Estevez (remember him?) plays a bratty video game 'hustler'
who uses his joystick skills to con money out of archetypal ethnic street
gangs. He also has a fixation on an arcade game called 'Battle of the Bishop',
to the point of breaking into the arcade late at night in an attempt at
cracking the legendary thirteenth level. Well, decades later, this is still the
best part of the film, even though it's ridiculously dated and implausible. To
begin with, the amusement arcade is located in a fucking shopping centre, yet
Emilio is somehow able to break in through a rear exit without triggering a
load of alarms. Secondly, the visual effects aren't on the same level as [i]Tron[/i].
In fact, they're closer to the old public information film [i]Say No to
Strangers[/i] than anything. But enough of the bitching, let's move on to the
other segments. The first one, a cautionary tale concerning just how hazardous
smoking can be to your health, is reasonable. The third, about a priest
undergoing a crisis of faith which is redeemed following a showdown with an
apparently Satanic motor vehicle, is just boring. But the fourth almost caused
me to throw the tape across the room. It's about a family being persecuted by
a giant rat. Not only does the man of the house act like a complete dick from
start to finish, the effects on the rat must have looked laughable even thirty
years ago. They're even worse than the effects in [i]Digby - the Biggest Dog
in the World[/i]. No kidding. I felt sorry for the family cat, then I envied him -
at least his early death meant he didn't have to witness the shitfest that was
unravelling before my disbelieving eyes.