Category: Red Triangle

Finishing the Complete Twelfth Season (2022)

Season 12 was a season punctuated with several rather big moments for the channel, ones im very proud of. It was the season that helped us ease into monthly streaming, it was the season to feature our longest review (“Sweet Insanity” – Thanks to Peckingforgoodtv for being a good sport on that one!) it featured probably our most mainstream review (I Spit on Your Grave) and our most obscure review (Santa’s Pocket Watch)

It saw the wind down of “The Comedy Dining Experience” and probably our crowning achievement for the year, as not only did we smash through 150k views (for the 2nd time I might add) BUT! we also FINALLY hit 1000 subscribers after over 6 years of weekly uploads. It’s been a hell of a road, but its one im fiercely proud of, and one that I simply couldnt have done without the help of our wonderful viewers and the many friends and creators i’ve made along the way.

Latter in the year seasons (basically the September – December stint) are always a little less fun for me. Don’t get me wrong! they ARE still very fun, otherwise I wouldnt do them the way I do. But with the pressure to do spooky stuff at Halloween and Christmassy stuff at Christmas, it usually means that at least 8-10 of my 16-18 slots for the year are eaten up with a rigidly structured type of arrangement. one of the things I really love about the February – June/July run is the fact that it’s in total free flow. I can plan the season out months in advance, but all it takes is one release to creep into my radar and I can easily swap it into the schedules with no problem. With the September – December run, im not as carefree.

But this year was a little bit different, Being able to collab with so many wonderful people across this season really helped to keep things fresh and keep my interest on the ball. The fact this years halloween special theme was “Poundland Horror” meant I wasnt rigidly stuck to one genre for a full month and could relax into the season quite nicely. and even the christmas specials were perked up somewhat by being able to tackle movies like “Winterbeast” with George. It just made things a lot less dogmatic and more, just for the fun of it. Yes I didnt get to do everything I wanted to do this season, but I got like; 95% of it done, and thats good enough for me!

Of the two seasons that made up 2022, Season 11 was probably the most fun to work on, but Season twelve was almost certainly the most rewarding. The former was the last hurrah to my old system, and the latter was me basically relearning how to do my trade having upgraded all my kit over the summer. and Season 12b (Im not calling it Season 13, theres no way im cursing this thing right out of the gate) is going to be the biggest and longest season we’ve ever done to date! I honestly cant wait for you guys to see it when we premiere on Feb 3rd 2023!

All I can say is, Season 12 was a fun one, and I hope 2023 keeps that postive energy coming!

by tytdreviews

Silent Night Deadly Night 2 – (1987)

And with that! we’ve reached the end of another season, and once again we’re revisitng the ‘Silent Night Deadly Night’ franchise with probably the most infamous entry of the entire franchise.

Yes, we’re doing the ‘GARBAGE DAY’ movie. and honestly, this one was really quite the blur from a behind the scenes standpoing on the show, the last 3 months of the year were frankly pretty crazy and (to my admitted shame) this one ended up kind of being bashed out in a bit of a haze while dealing with a load of personal issues around work. Nothing too awful mind…just jarring. it’s something im still kind of dealing with now even, but I’ve gotten a bit of a better grasp on it. for now at least.

Anyway; enough of my problems! Silent Night Deadly Night 2! the film that made me wonder how on EARTH they followed up on this with 3 other movies. and…well, you’ll find out exactly HOW they did in a year or two. because…im not touching those movies again for a while let me tell you now!

Anyway! merry christmas and all that! we’ll be back in february! all my love x

by tytdreviews

I Spit On Your Grave – (1978)

Probably the most surprising film of this season for me, I REALLY wasnt looking forward to talking about this one, it’s a catagory 1 Video Nasty however, so I kind of felt obliged to.

I was expecting over 90 minutes of rape and unpleasent grimness that would leave me feeling uncomfortbale. But instead I actually found the film strangely compelling an empowering. I absolutely dont agree with Siskel and Eberts take that this work is Mysoginistic. I think personally it comes from a place of very careful consideration.

As the credits rolled I actually felt more comfortable with the film that I had expected, and I actually kind of got on with it a bit more than say ‘The New York Ripper’ or ‘Night Train Murders’. This one was Palettable, and is absolutely one i’d watch again.

‘Iconic’ is too small a word.
by tytdreviews

Halloween Night (2006)

And so! another Halloween draws to a close and I chose this one to see us out, ‘Halloween Night’ is a VERY early ‘Asylum’ picture, trying to get a publicity boost off the ‘Halloween’ franchise (itself having a reboot upcoming in the form of the Rob Zombie movies at the time) AND given that this year marked the final part of the EVEN NEWER soft reboot of the Halloween franchise with ‘Halloween Ends’ it made sense to check this one out.

And you know what? it’s actually pretty okay! like…its nothing mindblowing, but of all the films i’ve covered this month, this would be the one i’d feel most comfortable coming back to at some point for a stable watch!

Short but sweet, I liked it! give it a go!

As for next halloween? well, I think it’s going to be a bit of a ‘Trick or treat’ grab bag of titles, I have a few already lined up, but it’s still early days!

That cover haunts my nightmares, I remember seeing TONS of them in film and music stores in the mid 2000’s
by tytdreviews

Final Scream (Final Stab) – 2001

It wouldnt be a ‘Rip off’ movie month without taking a look at probably the most proliferated ‘knock off’ feature the 1995-2005 window could produce. David Decoteau’s ‘Final Scream’ a picture that looked at ‘Scream 3’ and went ‘Hey! thats been out for 12 months. Lets make an unofficial one of those!’ before being slapped with a lawsuit and being forced to change its name to ‘Final Stab’ (Itself, a reference to the movie series within the scream franchise that retells the scream films…this is…all getting a bit confusing.’

ANYWAY! the reason it’s so well known (at least in the UK) is because back in the VERY early day of DVD distribution, players were often sold bundled with a few packs of ‘Multi film’ box sets, usually containing the cheapest, lowest budget productions ever shot. and 9 out of 10 of those sets, came with ‘Final Scream’ bundled in with them.

All bein said? its not THAT bad of a movie. it has nothing to do with ‘Scream’ in any way shape or form. but it could have turned out a LOT worse than it actually did.

probably one of Decoteau’s better offerings. I’d say if you can get your hands on a copy for this (and it’s not going for stupid money, i’d say a tenner or less) then maybe check it out? just dont go into it expecting a knock off ‘Scream’ movie…it’s really more of a murder mystery haunted house flick than a reference laiden slasher.

This poster is SUCH a rip off. I kind of love it for that.
by tytdreviews

Dawn of the Living Dead (Curse of the Maya) – 2004

As we continue our deep dive into ‘Films that wish they were part of ‘Official’ film franchises’ We arrive at 2004’s “Dawn of the Living Dead” a ludicrous work that I still have total and utter mixed feelings about. It feels like a made up movie, like something that shouldnt actually exist. It feels odd. like a concussion. situations and circumstances have this overly woozy quality and a total miscasting of Joe Estevez (who I mainly know for ‘On Cinema‘ which adds a WHOLE other level to this thing). Just makes this whole thing a totally surreal watch for me.

Whether its actually any good? I cant say. I know I was so conflicted about it, I ultimately ended up putting it on my ‘Shelf of quite good films’ pending a rewatch (which’ll probably be next halloween now at this rate) I just…Im lost for words with this thing. and I think if you check the below review…you’ll see why.

Still, the posters kinda cool for this one.
by tytdreviews

Sweet Insanity (Stranger: A Soulmate of Chucky) (2006)

Well! it’s our SIXTH Halloween special run (honestly, where does the time go!?) and this year we were going downmarket and dirty, looking at ‘knock off’ movies that were riding the coat tails of much more successful pictures. And this film was very much the inspiration for this months offerings. “Stranger: A Soulmate of Chucky” a film i’d wanted to get my hands on since AT LEAST 2007, maybe even earlier. As soon as a saw the cover and found out it’s intentions in DESPERATELY trying to appear to be tied to the childs play franchise. I just KNEW I needed to see it. It’s apparently quite hard to get ahold of these days, which makes me glad I grabbed mine some years ago when it was just “kinda uncommon” rather than “full blown rare”

Not only is this the start of a new themed month for halloween AND a movie i’ve wanted to watch for the best part of a decade and a half and review since I started the channel, but it also gave me the opportunity to work with a fellow cult film critic and genuinely good egg, Dan From Peckingforgoodtv. Honestly, his ’31 horror movies in 31 days’ halloween specials have EASILY replaced the hole in my life that was created when ‘Cinemassacres Monster Madness’ was wound down. I think the guys spot on with his reviews and is very sincere. and I highly recommend you check his stuff out.

In the meantime though! strap yourself in for 41(ish) minutes of analysis about a killer doll movie that isnt really a killer doll movie! YAY!

That cover is SUCH a fucking lie. Jesus…
by tytdreviews

Footprints On The Moon (1975)

‘Footprints’ was a film that chronically fell into the ‘I’ll cover it next season’ pile. As far back as season 7 I’d intended to cover this one, but when it came to finalising the running order, it just didnt sit right with what was in the dock at the time, so…i’d cull it over to the next season and PROMISE to do it then…where it’d sit on the list again till the very last minute and then ultimately get culled back to the NEXT season and so on.

The fact i’ve actually finally got it out, AND the fact that it came out only a week or so after Severin Films announced a lovely box set which includes this film. was both coincidental and a very nice surprise.

I honestly always seem to forget just how interesting a concept this movie was and how surprisingly fun it could be. Im really going to have to dig it out again in the near future for a re-spin. It’s definitely not perfect. But it is one that I recall with fondness.

Seriously though, quite why the astronauts are in this at all is a mystery to me…oh well..
by tytdreviews

Finishing the Complete Eleventh Season (2022)

Well! when it came to the 2nd half of our 5th anniversairy celebrations, I decided to try and do a bit of everything. Part of me wanted to cover movies i’d wanted to do for years (“Flight to Hell“, “Cannibal Girls“, “Camp Blood“) Some were movies i’d promised id do in the future, and then totally forgot to do in the future (“The American Ninja 4“, “Cyborg Cop 2“, “Alien Species“) and some were first time watches that arrived on short notice and genuinely caught me off guard (“Gatwick Gangsters“, “Night of the Demon“, “Dont go in the house“). Hell, we even rounded off the TYTD Reviews episodes by revisiting our very FIRST video for the channel “The Dragon Lives Again” hopefully finally doing justice to a film I’ve long admired and wished my review of could have been better.

It was a celebration of the old, and a look forward to the future of the channel. With this series marking a few milestones, it being the last season edited in 1080p,the last season edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, The last to use the branding we’ve been using now since 2020 across all fronts and the last season predominantly recorded on my focusrite condensor mic, a mic thats pretty much been what you’ve heard me through since AT LEAST 2020, which also made a few on and off appearences between 2017 and 2019 too.

What does the new season hold? well as seen in the review for “Dont go in the house” i’ve had a systems and kit upgrade on almost all fronts! including a new machine, a new mic, new lights for the packaging shots, new editing software and some other new tools to help give a bit more variety. As such we have new branding across all our main shows, we’ll be solely uploading in 4k going forward with better quality sound and visuals, faster processing power means it takes less time to export and convert reviews now, and as such it means we’ll be able to *hopefully* turn things around a bit quicker which’ll give me some time back to be able to enjoy a sunset or eat a well prepared meal!

There have also been some changes that are not quite as pleasent to announce, but here we are. After 2 years or so of monthly uploads and over 50 feature length commentaries, “The Comedy Dining Experience” will be swapping back to an irregular upload schedule, as it was when we first launched in 2018. Part of this is down to the amount of time it takes to edit the commentaries, part of it’s down to lower uptake than our other shows (we’ve had some episodes record less than 20 views after 3 weeks of being live in some cases) and part of it’s down to both myself and Ben just being absolutely ram jammed with stuff going on at the minute. Im in the middle of writing/recording and editing next years episodes (and I still have stuff to finish with Season 12!) and Bens recently had several good news stories that means he’s a lot busier than he was at the moment.

What this means in practical terms is that the Comedy Dining experience isnt going anywhere, it just means that, for the moment at least, it’s going to be on pause while we sort life stuff out, and when it does come back it’ll be likely an “As and when” affair rather than a regularly scheduled “thing” which will allow me more time to work on and refine our reviews, and it means we wont be oversaturating the channel too.

What it ALSO means is that we can do other fun things like monthly game night streams (we’ve done 3 so far and a pilot) AND it’s meant I can start an official Discord from which we’ll be hosting various watchalongs, games nights and other good stuff, alongside chats on everything from good and bad movies to music and weird youtube oddities, so do please tag along for that!

Season 11 marked a change in the wind for the channel, and with Season 12 currently rolling out weekly, I hope your enjoying the direction we’re taking the channel in, I had an absolute blast working on this season, I think it’s one of my favourites i’ve worked on alongside Season 10 and the chance to work and hang out with so many interesting people in collaboration has been an absolute delight. I couldnt have asked for a better 5th year on the platform.

by tytdreviews

Dont Go In The House (1979)

Well! it’s summertime once again and honestly, im beyond thrilled to be back in the driving seat for our (now annual) summer special! Honestly, not having my usual friday hang out with people as I share that weeks strange flick is always an usual experience, but! needs must while I work away on new episodes for you guys to stretch from September to the end of the year!

I always feel like its a bit of a special occasion when the summer specials come up, it’s a chance to push the boat out, do something a bit off the beat and path and just have a bit of fun with some fantastic creators.

And this years no exception as we have Mike from Rotted Reviews on board to talk about 1979’s Dont go in the house! Mike was an absolute sweetheart through all of this, and I genuinely enjoyed working with him on this slice of fried gold! We talk about it in the video itself, but while this is a VERY fun little movie, it isnt exactly a gold star MUST SEE flick, it’s just quite good fun, and I always enjoy working with collaborators on movies like this as I find it very interesting to see what people make of just “decent” movies. it allows for a much more interesting conversation.

This special also see’s a few changes to “The Red Triangle” it’s our first epiosde in ultra sharp 4k resolution! it’s our first video to feature our brandspanking new “Red Triangle” intro! Our first shakeup of that intro since 2018! (not including our holiday rebrands which were basically just the exact same intos but with either stock snow inserted or coloured with an orange tint!)

Its the first time we’ve used sub bumpers (controversial, I know…but im curious to see if they do work) and we’ve revamped our outro slide, finally retiring our previous slide after 2 years service AND retiring the “Sliding” black and white text motif thats been a part of our outro banners since 2018 as well!

Thats not to mention upgrades in terms of our editing software (whereas “Night of the demon” will hold the title of “First episode we edited on our newly upgraded editing machine”, This episode gets the honour of being the first one we edited using a 4k workflow on a fully paid up version of Da Vinci resolve where we really tested the metal of our new machine!) we also upgraded our mic, retiring our trusty red Focusrite condenser mic (used on and off between 2017 and 2019 before becoming our main mic from 2020 right up to “Night of the Demon”) for a lovely RODE NT1-A Condenser mic, we’ve upgraded our lighting kit for better packing shots AND we’ve upgraded our workflow efficiency with some new tools to help make my life a lot easier in terms of production process and to hopefully take time off rendering and processing.

This is just a brief glimpse into the future of how our reviews will be growing and evolving over the coming weeks/months and hopefully years. and so far, the feedback we’ve recieved has been VERY positive, which honestly, I couldnt be happier about (and thank you so much to everyone who has commented on our refresh, it’s genuinely made me feel so happy!)

So! this was our Summer Special 2022! we’ll be back with a full season starting on September 9th 2022 and I cant wait for you guys to check it out!

Again; super special thanks to Mike for making this review possible, if you enjoyed him here, he has a patreon full of awesome goodies that I highly recomment you check out here!

The original poster is literally a charred cadaver…I couldnt get that past youtubes censorship guidelines…so heres the arrow video art which is just…stunning, Love it!
by tytdreviews