Jungle Trap/Run Coyote Run

Jungle Trap?  Nah, more like Jungle BOOGIE!  With this much fun being had as flickering ghosts of the past serve the patrons of the present a healthy dose of some much needed karma, it’s a wonder that the cast, which includes Renee Harmon, Frank Neuhaus, Heidi Ahn, and Rhonda Collier, didn’t just stay here in the murky moods of Jungle Trap’s shrunken head odyssey that continues to MELT BRAINS!.

"The end result is a SCHLOCK-FEST of neon lighting, smoke machines, and hardcore violence"


At least, that’s what happens when low budget auteur James Bryan (Don’t Go Into The Woods, Hell Riders, Run Coyote Run) picks up his camcorder and decides to make a direct-to-video movie about a jungle hotel full of some very BAD actors and haunted by murder-minded ghosts in LOINCLOTHS!

Jungle Trap originally began its journey to this release from Bleeding Skull and AGFA back in 1990, but the financing fell apart and, thanks to the efforts on display here, is only now truly finished with a GREAT score - imagine a PULSATING Casio keyboard backed by pounding tribal beats!!! - and modern editing in its overall SOV presentation.

And now this LONG SOUGHT AFTER title can truly live again!  From snakes in rooms to machetes hidden in suitcases, Jungle Trap is a nonstop ONSLAUGHT of decapitated heads, stock footage, and a healthy dose of CRAZY!Jungle Trap/Run Coyote Run

The end result is a SCHLOCK-FEST of neon lighting, smoke machines, and hardcore violence as some Italian cannibal flicks from the 1970s get reimagined for the video store revolution.  It’s all soft focus, bad lighting, bad sets - the airplane ride is a favorite - as California gets turned into South America right before our eyes!  Unfortunately, when the film originally wrapped back in 1990, the video revolution was DEAD and no one was chomping at the bit to release another of Bryan's straight-to-video flicks - regardless of how awesome it might have been.  And so the film sat and sat and collected dust until Bleeding Skull took interest in completing the film in 2016.

Thanks to constantly repurposed cardboard sets, you might believe that a mysterious hotel - think a low, low, low rent version of The Overlook Hotel from The Shining - can be HAUNTED by the violent past as pissed off spirits of the mutilated past - but really just flickering lights shone upon the cast for them to react to - return to end the careers of everyone involved in this shoddy (but constantly amusing and intriguing) horror flick from 1990.  

Jungle Trap is a whole bunch of fun for CULT ENTHUSIASTS.  It’s completely GONZO and, as it was never edited together (after the initial funding fell apart) until 2016, works wonders here as a competent RIP of the jungle films of the past.  And, with all the fun being had here in front of the camera, it’s easy to see EXACTLY what Bryan was going for as his love for jungle pointing - "look at that!" - comes through with a GREAT use of stock footage.

Endlessly inspired as five anthropologists find themselves surrounded by the undead spirits of the violent past - including a very creepy bellhop - before getting their own heads lopped off, Jungle Trap is ALIVE once again thanks to the efforts of Bleeding Skull and AGFA.

With the release of these two lost horror projects - as this also includes Run Coyote Run - from director James Bryan and producer-writer-star Renee Harmon, heads will DEFINITELY roll!

5/5 beers

 

Jungle Trap/Run Coyote Run

Blu-ray Details

Home Video Distributor: AGFA
Available on Blu-ray
- March 20, 2021
Screen Formats: 1.33:1
Subtitles
: English SDH
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Two lost horror projects from director James Bryan and producer-writer-star Renee Harmon comes under one release!  Jungle Trap is the final collaboration between James Bryan and Renee Harmon; a surreal horror dreamscape about a jungle hotel haunted by kill-crazy ghosts in loincloths. Shot in 1990, the movie was unedited, unscored, and unseen by human eyes for over two decades . . . until the the Bleeding Skull! team meticulously edited the movie under Bryan’s guidance and recorded a soundtrack utilizing vintage synthesizers.  Run Coyote Run is the ambitious, nightmarish lost project from Renee Harmon and James Bryan. Compiled from over a decade of footage and a sequel to the earlier Lady Street Fighter, this patchwork synapse-fryer features psychic cops, axe-murdering cult members, and reality-defying fist fights!

Video:

Transferred from the original 1” master tape, Jungle Trap looks as good as it is ever going to look, which probably isn’t saying much about a film that was shot on a VHS camcorder in 1990, but it is to be expected.  Completely. The 1.33:1 full screen image is as pretty shitty as you can imagine.  Colors are never bright.  The contrast is never clear and the picture is one big ball of fuzzed out pixels.  Nothing is crisp and the black levels bleed like all the fake blood flicked at the screen in all the death scenes.  If you can get onboard a cardboard plane, you can enjoy this ride through Cheapo Depot Horror!

Audio:

The audio on this film is carried by the original OAR soundtrack.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • There is an excellent commentary track with director James Bryan, star Heidi Ahn, and the Bleeding Skull! Team for Jungle Trap.  Fans are not going to want to miss it!

Special Features:

  • Along with the reversible artwork and the overall appeal of the release, fans also get a nice selection of supplemental items which makes owning this release a NO-BRAINER!
  • It Wasn't My Fault: The Making Of JUNGLE TRAP
  • Jungle Trap Outtakes
  • HORROR CON (1989): surviving footage from James Bryan’s unfinished horror movie, scanned in 2K from the 35mm camera negative
  • Bonus movie: RUN COYOTE RUN (1987), transferred from the original 3/4” master tapes

Blu-ray Rating

  Movie 5/5 stars
  Video  2/5 stars
  Audio 2/5 stars
  Extras 5/5 stars

Overall Blu-ray Experience

3.5/5 stars


Film Details

Jungle Trap/Run Coyote Run

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:
72 mins
Director
: James Bryan
Writer:
James Bryan, Renee Harmon
Cast:
Renee Harmon, Frank Neuhaus, Heidi Ahn
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:

Memorable Movie Quote:
Theatrical Distributor:
Bleeding Skull! Video
Official Site:
Release Date:
September 16, 2016
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
March 30, 2021.
Synopsis: In 1990, exploitation auteur James Bryan pulled out his video camera and made a decapitation-fueled horror movie about a jungle hotel haunted by kill-crazy ghosts in loincloths. The team at Bleeding Skull found it 26 years later and finished it.

 

Art

Jungle Trap/Run Coyote Run