Grindhouse Double Feature: The Curse of Bigfoot/Cathy's Curse [DVD]

Two cut-rate 1970's horror vehicles are paired up on this budget-priced DVD from Alpha Home Entertainment. Both 1976's The Curse of Bigfoot and 1977's Cathy's Curse have been transferred to disc in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (though Cathy's Curse was shot in a widescreen format, with some onscreen titles trimmed at the sides, making them difficult to read). Both features look substandard in this edition -- major color fading has reduced both pictures to a strange mixture of brown and beige tones, scratches are evident throughout, Cathy's Curse is riddled with splices, and the muddy images suggest these movies were sourced from video elements that were already a few generations away from the originals. The audio for both titles has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo, retaining the original monophonic mixes, and while the sound is less distractingly bad than the visuals, neither can be described as especially good. The dialogue for both features is in English, with no multiple language options or subtitles. The only bonus materials included are a collection of trailers for other DVD releases from Alpha, most of which appear to be low-budget direct-to-DVD titles or films from the Ted V. Mikels archive. Even at a $7.98 list price, most fans of Seventies horror are likely to be unsatisfied with the slapdash quality of this release.