Death By Love (Intervision Pictures Corp. DVD Review)

Is Death By Love a Hidden Treasure or Dumpster Fire?

DVD Distributed By: Severin Films (Intervision Pictures Corp)

Intervision Picture Corporation has returned to the mom ‘n’ pop video shop to retrieve two underseen shriek fests from the bottom row of the “Horror” section. DREAM STALKER and DEATH BY LOVE are both brain-busting, reality -decimating slices of artsploitation from the outer edges of the shot-on-video universe. On April 11th, scorch your mind with a double feature disc of these lost gems, newly transferred from the original video masters.

In this inexplicably obscure psycho-thriller, a studly sculptor (producer/director/writer/star and Texas building contractor Alan Grant) fears that a devil-worshipping childhood pal is murdering his every new girlfriend. Filmed in the suburbs of Dallas and packed with soft-core sex, scattershot performances, thick regional accents and a WTF? plot twist, it may be the most astounding SOV horror vanity project you’ve never seen.

Trashmen Rubbish Round Table

Jamie

I didn’t want to have a discussion until Jimbo watched Dream Stalker. Jim, did you watch it yet?

Jimbo

I started it but [the wife] made me turn it off. We can at least tackle Death By Love first, the second film in the Severin Films/Intervision Pictures Corp double feature DVD, of which I am honored to say is a product of Dallas, TX. (Maybe “honored” isn’t the right word). Living in the Dallas area, I was surprised to see some of the locations in the movie. Most viewers won’t care, but I at least gleaned some small enjoyment from spotting some of the recognizable area locales.

Jamie

I too would enjoy seeing some locales from a movie shot in Rochester / Webster, NY so I get that.

Death By Love… Yeah, it’s not good. The film suffers from the greatest sin…it’s boring. You’ve got some older man who is a sculptor that’s like some chick magnet who apparently turns into a demon and sucks the blood out of the neck of these whores. With barely any special effects, the film feels like a early 90’s skin flick on Cinemax. I believe Travis mentioned (while we were watching) that this wasn’t even horror. It’s hardly a horror film.

Jimbo

Death By Love isn’t a horror film (at least not at first). It’s a poorly constructed and conceived murder mystery. Allan Grant (credited as Alan Grant) writes, directs, and stars as Joel, the seemingly irresistible artist that has women just falling into his lap. It’s suspect that the women with whom Joel dates end up dead, but the detectives have a solid explanation. It’s Joel’s old buddy Ed (Frank McGill) who has dabbled in devil worship and is stalking Joel. Ed believes Joel is the devil. And anyone with half a brain stem knows what the “twist” is going to be.

As Jamie said – Spoiler alert! – Joel is a demon, or devil, or something. Once this is revealed, the movie pivots into more of a monster movie with Ed taking on the role of protector against Joel. Ed tries to protect one young woman, but fails miserably. The film basically fizzles out in the end and we’re left with a pretty stock cliffhanger of sorts.

Jamie

Twist? I wouldn’t call that a twist per say. You know he’s a killer and when the victims are shown with massive bite marks, you just know he’s not human. I don’t think that is ruining anything. Funny thing is we saw this movie less than a week ago and I already forgot how it ended.

Travis

It didn’t help that we’ve been viewing quite a bit of shot-on-video stuff. I’ve always hated the shittiness and amatuerishness of it, so I am the wrong audience for it.

Jimbo

I think it’s wise when Severin/Intervision release these films as double features. With the release of Dream Stalker and Death By Love on a single disc, and with the inclusion of the four cast/crew interviews, it makes this disc a little more worth the asking price. I do believe the asking price is fair for the right audience. But that’s the main question isn’t it?

It’s too bad Craig isn’t here because I think he and I would fall on the side of “people who collect weird shit.” I suspect you two fall far on the other side of that line.

Travis

I agree that making this a double feature at least dangles the promise of something worth watching on the disc for your hard earned dollars. Decent strategy.

But I do want to disagree a bit that I’m against “weird shit”.

Jimbo

Okay, I’ll clarify… Death By Love is not your brand of weird. You have alternate weird tastes.

Travis

Death By Love just needs to have something else going for it. Either an actual good film despite its limitations, or something so bad it’s good. These in-between movies drive me crazy. While I do think the director was earnest versus just hoping to shoot some cheap shit and get it on video store shelves, it doesn’t hit that sweet spot of low budget regional genre movie making.

Jimbo

Basically, you’re saying it’s boring. Just like Jamie.

I felt like the movie moved better when it was still working as a murder mystery. But once the movie becomes a monster movie, that’s when I really felt the momentum stop. At least when it was still a “who-dun-it” there was a chance that something interesting could develop. But once Allan Grant reveals Joel is a monster but fails to replace the mystery with decent action, scares, or anything resembling drama, I found myself just wanting to get to the final confrontation. And any scene that wasn’t leading to that moment just felt like wasted time and space. About the only thing the movie had going for it was the nudity.

Jamie

I do want to discuss the nudity…there is a lot. You even have the final stages of bush since this was in the early 90’s, right before women started making Oliver Hardy mustaches out of their thick pubes. Much of the first half feels like a late night cable titty movie, perfect for a Friday night viewing. The shocker is seeing a past middle age woman show off her shockingly decent milkers. Good for her!

Travis

I’ll never badmouth nudity, but the harshness of video doesn’t provide any real titillation. It’s unflattering and can’t even pass for late night cable T&A. Allan Grant does get credit for getting so many woman to press flesh. The box liner notes calls it a “vanity project”, and that seems apt. I hope he channeled his inner Kubrick and did hundreds of takes.

Jimbo

I guess this can be considered a vanity project for the simple fact that the star/writer/director has his character making it with so many different women, and he’s not exactly leading man handsome. But the director doesn’t seem particularly vain. Allan Grant doesn’t strike me as a Tommy Wiseau (The Room) or a John De Hart (Geteven). Even the cast seem to have mostly positive things to say about him in the interviews.

I think that plays a part in this movie feeling more “in-between”, as you described Travis. Other vanity projects have stars/directors who are either mentally ill or assholes. When you have strong personalities attached to train wrecks, I think that bleeds into the movie mythos. Allan Grant isn’t a larger than life personality. He’s just kind of a normal, fairly likable, guy that made a really shitty movie.

Jamie

I did watch the video interview with Allan Grant, or however he spells his name. It’s pretty cheap looking (was it a video blog?). I couldn’t believe this was the same actor from Death By Love. It was interesting but because the movie was so bad, I started to not pay attention and got bored with it…much like Death By Love. Maybe Allan is just a boring cat.

It’s no surprise that Allan Grant never directed another film after this.

Jimbo

The Death By Love interviews on the DVD were all conducted via Skype. I can only assume that even Severin felt that flying a team to video, interview, and produce content for this terrible, terrible movie wasn’t a good investment. So they set up Skype interviews with Allan Grant, Yvonne Aric, and Brad Bishop. It’s lower quality but gets the job done just as effectively.

Travis

We should spend more time talking about Dream Stalker. It comes so close to being something worthwhile. Totally nonsensical, bad acting, Freddy knockoff, more make-up but less nudity. I could tolerate that at least. Death By Love made me focus more on keeping my glass refilled.

Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?

Jamie:	(1.5 / 5)
Jimbo:	(1.5 / 5)
Travis:	(1.0 / 5)
Average:	(1.3 / 5)

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