A member over at DVD Maniacs pointed out this is coming out in the US next month via York Entertainment. The amazing trailer makes it look like a melding of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and 1999's THE MUMMY with some DEMONS for good measure. Sharp-eyed viewers should be on the lookout for some footage from another, more famous film.

THE TOMB trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pofNWpkZ_aM

I saw it for rental but didn't feel like spending $4.00 on it so I'll Netflix it. Are there any reviews for the disc and the film itself?

Are you sure it wasn't Uli Lommel's THE TOMB you saw? Whatever you do, stay away from that!

No, it's the Mattei film. It's listed in this week's new releases on Netflix, and it lists Mattei as the director. I added it to my queue and it lists "Short Wait."

I'm not expecting much, but come on...it's Bruno Mattei. What are we gonna do? NOT watch it?

Wow, I had no idea it hit the streets already. I expect all Mattei students to have their dissertations done by the 13th.

Fine. I bumped it to the top of my queue. I had it listed third after IF... and TROG, but in honor of Mattei's recent passing, he supercedes Lindsay Anderson and Freddie Francis in this case.

I'm at the mercy of Netflix, however. If my doctoral thesis on THE TOMB is posted after the 13th, it's not my fault.

Out of Mattei's post-2000 efforts, this one has to be the worse but at least we are getting an English-speaking print of it. Too bad they released this one and not THE JAIL (his 2006 WIP movie), ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD or his recent ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING.

That's the other one I didn't feel like spending $4.00 on.

OMG, what a cheap DVD. I rented it from Hollywood Video. The main menu screen is this:



This looks like the menu screens from one of those DVD Recorders. Look at the title beside the thumbnail.

Also, the title of the DVD in Windows Explorer reads LOGICALVOLUMEIDENTIFIER which also suggests a DVD recording.

Fortunately since its a DV production, its still sharp and does not look like a VHS to DVD transfer. The 2.0 stereo sound is bold and directional. I haven't watched all of it yet but I thought I'd let you all know.

P.S. The narrator in the opening sequence is the same voice of the narrator in AFTER DEATH's title sequence.

Even not so sharp-eyed viewers will notice the use of stock footage from ARMY OF DARKNESS that must have cost more than the entire production.

Eric,

OMG! That is so amazingly awesome and only adds to the allure of this flick. Now we know the exact date and time it was "authored." Thanks for posting that.

It's actually not a bad flick. Most of the dubbing voices are familiar (the dubbing was supervised by Ted Rusoff who I think dubs the lead actor Robert Madison who is the Italian born son of another American actor who went to Italy to find work in the late sixties). If it were shot on film, it would look exactly like a Mattei flick (it was very professionally shot on DV by Luigi Ciccarese who shot AFTER DEATH and DEMONIA - though it looks better than the Fulci film - who actually lit the film rather than depending on available light like most low-rent stuff) and has the usual Mattei wierdness and awful performances (dubbed or not, the geeky character is really annoying). There is not only stock footage from ARMY OF DARKNESS but some nature stock footage too. There is gore but, unlike the Italian horror we're familiar, it focuses more on the outcome than the actual infliction of wounds as if those mannequins and latex just don't cut it anymore. It's nice to see a professional approach to a ridiculous horror film on DV rather than the streaky, shaky, long-take master shot approach of a lot of them.

Just finished watching this--it's not good at all, but it's not the most howlingly awful thing Mattei ever did. It's basically just an INCREDIBLY cheap ripoff of Stephen Sommers' THE MUMMY, with generous bits of stock footage from that film and especially ARMY OF DARKNESS. More often than not, the irritating characters are attacked more by stock footage from expensive Hollywood movies than than they are any effects generated on the actual set.

Never fear though...old Bruno shows that he didn't at all abandon his long-beloved practice of staging his own sequences stolen wholesale from other flicks--check out the scene where Bruja the healer (played by an actress who looks like she won a Valeria D'Obici lookalike contest) entices lecherous prof Mike Monty (who looks VERY frail and unhealthy here; he died in 2006) in a bar by doing the exact same routine done by Salma Hayek's Satanica Pandemonium in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.

The dubbing is abominable, despite the participation of dubbing stalwarts like Ted Rusoff (it definitely sounds like his wife Carolyn DeFonseca is handling at least one character as well), probably because the voices are completely inappropriate for some of the characters. I realize that's hardly the top concern with this shot-on-video "film." Rene Abadeza, who acted in numerous Antonio Margheriti outings in the '80s, is credited with "special effects explotion," whatever that might be.

It is kinda sad to see Mattei reduced to this embarassingly low-budget affair this late in his life. Say what you will about stuff like HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD and STRIKE COMMANDO, but at least they were, for better or worse, real films with real actors and weren't shot on video with production values that would shame a high-school play being put on by a cash-strapped school district. As bad as he looked, it was nice to see old Mike Monty one more time, but the rest of the cast, from Guy Madison's kid doing a poor man's Brendan Fraser (now that's saying something) to the Famke Janssen lookalike who has one of the funniest screaming fits I've ever seen, was just bad.

Still, mandatory viewing for disciples of Mattei. However, you may find yourself more depressed than amused. Maybe I need to give STRIKE COMMANDO another run to lift my spirits?


YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I reckon that is from the Pioneer DVD recorder, we have one at work too (for quickie copies). At least they chose SP, but you can set it to max out to the length of the movie - DOH!

True but I thought the makeup made her look like Angela from NIGHT OF THE DEMONS.

So as a Christmas present to myself, I picked up Mattei's THE TOMB. What can I say? No normal person would buy it for me and I'm a masochist. Anyway, it is another hodgepodge classic from Bruno...er, David Hunt. He indeed does riffs on Stephen Sommers' THE MUMMY (the heaviest influence), FROM DUSK TIL DAWN, and even a quick nod to THE EXORCIST.

I'll tell you what though, Bruno had some balls. This flick borrows quick footage from the aforementioned THE MUMMY and ARMY OF DARKNESS as well as some little flick called RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. I haven't been that impressed since, well, he stoles bits from JAWS and JAWS 2 for CRUEL JAWS.