August 20, 2024
demonstrated by 1993's Herencia Diabólica, a zesty killer doll movie from prolific writer-director Alfredo Salazar (who did lots of Santo movies and other insanity) that doubles as nightmare fuel for anyone with a clown phobia. Technically this was initially shot on 16mm and then completed on video, so that's close enough to count. Here's the tender story of Big Apple coupe Tony and Annie, who have to head south of the border when his rich aunt dies and leaves them everything -- including her creepy homicidal clown doll that comes to life now and then to kill people. First to go is Annie, who gets shoved down the stairs just as she's about to give birth. The baby lives, grows up fast to elementary school age, and develops a creepy 
bond with the doll when dad marries his secretary. Cue more murders of any secondary characters in sight. This one tends to get compared to Child's Play a lot, though they don't really have much in common apart from the idea of a young boy bonded with a killer doll; this is a crazed supernatural body count extravaganza perfectly capable of standing on its own two feet. If you didn't know the production date, it would be impossible to guess when this was made as it offers a stew of classic cars, '80s hairdos, practical gore, rampaging toy vehicles, and blazing Bava-style lighting. In short, it's a good time for all. Vinegar Syndrome sublabel Degausser has done a fine job bringing this to Blu-ray, doing the best it can with the surviving tape master (as the raw film material was junked ages ago) and subtitled here in English for the first time. A commentary by film historian Hugo Lara (in Spanish with English subtitles) covers all the bases here including the director's long and wild career, the actors' backgrounds, the filming locations, and connections to other genre films including a shout out to the Puppetmaster series. The one video extra is the 11-minute "Memorias Diabólicas: The Mexican Chucky" with actor Roberto Guinar talking about his acting and singing career as well as getting cast in this film as its nightmarish antagonist, as well as his misgivings about the final result compared to the script. Buy from Diabolik
few have occupied a higher or more longstanding place in the pantheon than Mark Polonia, the surviving half of the genre-loving Polonia Brothers who scraped together dozens of backyard monster movie productions. In more recent years Mark has kept the torch burning by doing The Asylum-style quickies cashing in on the fondness for Amityville, killer sharks, and suspiciously titled projects like Dune World and Empire of the Apes. Case in point: 2023's Cocaine Werewolf, which has no coke-crazed bears but does deliver exactly what the title promises: a drug-addled guy in werewolf suit with red glowing eyes killing off lots 
of amateur actors in the Pennsylvania boonies. On top of that this was made with the involvement of Cleopatra Records (who distribute the Blu-ray and DVD), which means lots of their music acts turn up on the soundtrack. Our plot involves a drug deal gone bad that leads to a stockbroker getting nipped by a werewolf, who then gets jacked up on cocaine and goes on a rampage in the woods. Meanwhile some micro-budget horror filmmakers are busy nearby making a clown slasher movie, which leads to some meta fun as their production keeps getting sabotaged by the lycanthropic trespasser. Yes, this is a super cheap and ridiculous film with some of the most ridiculous CGI blood spatters you've ever seen, but it's always fun seeing Polonia doing his thing with lots of heart and minimal resources. The Blu-ray looks as good as you'd expect for something shot on HD video, and it also features a Polonia audio commentary you can't get on the DVD. He's a fun listen as always ("He's higher than a kite and ready to fight!"), and most importantly, he explains the bizarre stinger at the end that ended up being compromised in the execution. (Spoiler: Cocaine Frankenstein!) Also included are a slideshow, a trailer, and bonus trailers for The Black Mass, What the Waters Left Behind: Scars, Long Dark Trail, The Ghosts of Monday, Frost, and AK Tolstoy's A Taste of Blood. Buy from MVD or buy from Diabolik.
experimental oddity from the VHS era, 1991's Lost Prophet is yet another wild detour in the recent but already very diverse output from VHSHitfest. A dialogue-light 73 minutes (or 58 minutes if you go for the refined director's cut), this black-and-white 16mm fever dream follows a withdrawn drifter (James Burton) who narrates on and off as he goes off a highway and through some woods to an isolated house where he interacts with some colorful, possibly supernatural characters, when he isn't foraging for or hunting food. This was conceived as a thesis film project by director Michael de Avila, who didn't want to make a short nobody would see but also had an issue with stretching it out to the 
longest version. Technically this would fall into the horror genre thanks to its serial killer and witchy elements, but mostly it's an abstract dream on film with some pretty impressive moments of visual and editing invention. On the Blu-ray release, you get a 4K scan from the original 16mm negative of the director's cut as well as the '91 longer version from BetaSP; the former has more detailed grain but either way you'll get the idea. De Avila provides an intermittent audio commentary and a 21-minute video interview (peppered with behind-the-scenes footage) talking about his college days, his move into filmmaking at Ithaca, and the process of putting this project together after some shorts. Burton also turns up for a separate 5m44s interview about his SUNY Purchase days in the '80s, the academic paths that crossed to make this film possible, and his enthusiasm for making this film largely inspired by Dreyer's Vampyr. Also included are a newly created trailer, a 1m39s gallery of production photos and press material, and a trailer for the director's subsequent feature, Burnzy's Last Call. Buy from Diabolik
imagery linked to a certain crusading comic book guy in a cape and his jesting adversary. Eventually as with other corporate-challenged films like Escape from Tomorrow, the path was cleared for the film's release which led to a 2024 Blu-ray from Altered Innocence that feels like some kind of minor miracle to have at all. The end result is fascinating and bound to be divisive, mixing a heartfelt portrait of trans identity with broad satirical nudges at mainstream comic book culture and the establishment comedy scene ranging from UCB to Lorne Michaels (the latter getting the film's most bizarre animated moment). The fact that star/director/editor/co-writer Vera Drew came from that 
same comedy background and earned plaudits on series like Who Is America? makes this an even more interesting manifesto, with Drew starring as a nameless trans Gothamite forced into smiling by a gender dysmorphia treatment drug. Along with other outside-the-box comedians getting into the improv scene, she adopts a Joker persona and becomes a leader of an anti-comedy troupe. She also becomes involved with another Joker personality, Mr. J, who has a dark background connected to Batman, setting the stage for personal epiphanies and a stand against the powers that be. A cinematic mixed media project complete with animated cutaways, CGI backdrops, and gags of pretty much every stripe, this is the kind of personal passion project that some will click with immediately while others will be put off by its ragged aesthetic and treatment of some comic book sacred cows. Or you might just fall somewhere in between. In any case, it's a gutsy release and comes with a slew of bonus features (from a menu screen with Drew in character riffing on your selections-- and you really should watch the entire 20-minute main menu for some wild surprises!) along with the film itself, which looks great and comes with English SDH or Spanish subs for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 English audio. You get no less than three commentaries -- Drew solo, Drew and actor Nathan Faustyn, and a free-for-all one introduced by Elizabeth Purchell with 20 various participants in front of and behind the camera -- which cover just about every aspect of the production and the thought process behind it you could possibly want to know. Then you get a 46-minute video conference discussion with Drew and film critics Willow Catelyn Maclay and Caden Mark Gardner, a 30-minute Suicide Cop pilot spawned from the film, a 5-minute Serve the Date segment expanded from the film with the three creators talking about it, a production gallery (mostly against blue and green screens, of course), a 10-minute "Anatomy of a Scene" featurette, a trailer, and bonus trailers for The Wild Boys, She Is Conann, A Dim Valley, and Dressed in Blue. Buy from Diabolik
found in the 2022 Feed Me, a joint directorial effort from Adam Leader and Richard Oakes, out on Blu-ray from XYZ Films. Traumatized and depressed Jed (Christopher Mulvin) has decided to end it all after the death of his bulimic wife, so he takes up the offer of drawling eccentric Lionel (Neal Ward) to help end it all. However, he gets far more than he bargained for when it turns out Lionel lines to dine 
on human flesh and intends to spread poor Jed out over several meals. However, that's only one of the complications they face over the course of their grisly partnership. Very gory and very broad, this one rides or dies on the strength of its two leads who go way above and beyond for what it requires; it's definitely more extreme in every sense than its more mainstream counterparts like Fresh, though even this can't touch its closest stage equivalent, Stuart Gordon's Taste. (A shame that was never filmed.) The Blu-ray looks excellent as you'd expect and comes with English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 options with English subtitles, plus two commentary tracks -- the first with Leader and Ward, the second with Oakes, producer Ed Polgardy, and composer Benjamin Symons. Also included is a 13-minute reel of deleted scenes, a 21m47s batch of EPK-style interviews with the directors and leads, a 16m57s "Feed Me in LA" featurette on bringing the film to Beyond Fest, a "Contagious" music video, a compendium of footage from the three days in L.A. for Beyond Fest (annoyingly shot in portrait mode on someone's phone), and a silly "Neal Naked" behind the scenes snippet that delivers exactly what it promises. Buy from Diabolik
something of a mini-industry out of making modern-day H.P. Lovecraft mash-ups like Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep and The Deep Ones peppered among his other horror projects. Fairly representative of his approach is 2024's The Old Ones, which 
tosses a lot of comedy and a mixture of CGI and practical critter calamities (plus some really iffy animation) along with guest stars like Kelli Maroney (in crazy Joe Castro makeup as her Deep Ones character) and Cyril O'Reilly. Really though this is a vehicle for Robert Miano and Benjamin Phillip as Russel Marsh and Gideon, with the former washing up seemingly near death at a campsite and claiming to be a sea captain born in 1865. The latter loses his dad quickly to a monster attack, and the two have to team up on a very squishy adventure to stop the "old ones" from taking over humanity. That includes a quest to leap back in time itself and rewrite events both recent and lost gone, but not without a few hiccups. Basically this is an amusing unpretentious monster fest with lots of Lovecraft elements tossed into a blender, including a finale reminiscent of From Beyond. Though Deep Ones has yet to get a stateside Blu-ray release, this one has a very nice edition from Dark Star featuring a crisp transfer and a punchy 5.1 DTS-HD MA English track with English SDH subs (plus superfluous 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital tracks). Ferrin provides a packed though soft-spoken audio commentary running through every aspect of the production imaginable ranging from script changes on the fly to grabbing pick-ups after things went wrong, and you can get a taste of that as well in the 18m18s behind the scenes featurette as well. Also included are a 6m7s "The Effects" featurette, an 8m46s batch of deleted scenes, a trailer, bonus fest trailers, and a photo gallery. 
Ferrin you could also turn to 2022's Night Caller, on Blu-ray from Dark Star. A mixture of giallo-inspired thriller, L.A. neo-noir, and realistic gore set pieces, this one is scattered with familiar faces as well including Maroney again, Steven Railsback, and Bai Ling, along with Ferrin regulars like Robert Miano and Scott Vogel. Susan Priver stars as Clementine 
Carter, who does call-in psychic readings but gets a very unwelcome one when she's contacted by a serial killer known as the Gemini, who slices off the scalps of his victims. She has a close bond with her movie-loving hippie dad (Miano) and enlists his help along with her coworker and fellow psychic, Jade Mei (Ling), since she now suffers from premonitions of the next impending murders. Loads of stylish lighting and some icky brain-baring makeup effects make this one a lot more visually interesting than its itty bitty budget should allow, and Priver is a solid anchor as the story veers in some truly bizarre directions including the obligatory SoCal cult. Extra points for the "wow, never seen that before" final scene, too. The Blu-ray looks excellent with the retro, grainy '80s look retained nicely and augmented against with 5.1 DTS-HD MA and 5.1/2.0 Dolby Digital options with subs, plus a director commentary. Also included are a hefty batch (41m20s) of deleted and alternate scenes, a 16m47s behind the scenes featurette, a general release trailer, a fest trailer, a teaser, an on-set gallery, a storyboard gallery, and an "original song remix." Buy from Diabolik
Chad Ferrin and a big chunk of the cast of Night Caller returned for a sequel, Scalper, which picks up pretty much where the last one left off. Clementine (Priver) is recovering from the climactic attack by the killer who won't be named here, which left her dad (Miano) in a very 
physically compromised (and biologically unlikely) state. Bai Ling and Robert Rhine turn up again here while Jake Busey drops in as a cop working on the case of a new serial killer who seems to be connected to Clementine's now-dead tormentor, whom she fears might be attacking from beyond the grave. This time the candy-colored lighting scene goes out the window for a more sun-bleached look, but the gore still splatters aplenty and Priver makes for an engaging heroine again. Also gone here is the retro grainy look, here swapped for a flat digital veneer that takes some getting used to. Luckily the film has a few fun plot twists in store including another wacko final act, and this time Castro not only handles the gruesome makeup duties but gets an amusing, fairly substantial role as a priest as well. Again this one's out on Blu-ray from Dark Sky with identical a/v properties, a director commentary, a 17-minute making-of featurette, an 8m21s "Bai Ling in Action," red and greenband trailers, additional promo trailers, a "Chasing Clouds" music video, and a gallery. Buy from Diabolik
how about you? That can only mean Hey Folks! It's the Intermission Time Video Party!, a two-disc Blu-ray collection from AGFA and Something Weird bringing together a custom 69-minute mixtape of favorites and pop culture odds and ends tossed into a bizarre stew, and the first six volumes of SW's beloved two-hour compendiums of concession stand ads, holiday snipes, celebrity charity appeals, and other random ephemera used to fill time between trailers and movies. You'll be dying for a 
huge soda and popcorn ten minutes in, and since this hops over at least three different decades, you get a mixture of colorful psychedelia, sex-ed scare book pitches, and cozy appearances by movie stars like Cary Grant and Gary Cooper. Of course, it's also fun to watch how the animation styles evolve, too, with every kind of candy and other foodstuff around coming to life to get you over to that concession stand. There's also some flat-out baffling nonsense in here as well (including a crazy nature slideshow), and the mixtape comes with a new audio commentary by AGFA's Bret Berg and Joseph A. Ziemba riffing as fast as they can on mysterious candy brands, the eerie qualities of talking edibles, and the generational consumer trends on display here. Disc two also has a "supplement" packing in another two hours of brain-bending random goodies, so click on that, too. Quality is obviously variable here as these are all culled from SW's S-VHS masters, but they generally look okay in a retro VHS sort of way and thankfully have almost no watermarks in sight. Buy from Diabolik
so-called "couples movie" was a short-lived but fascinating detour in the history of porno chic, with the wide theatrical play of these films aiming to bring in more upscale male and female audiences with films featuring a focus on character development and visual class. This approach wasn't exactly new (after all, Radley Metzger had built an entire indie company on it), but it resulted in slick-looking films that could also be shot in multiple versions or trimmed down a bit for mainstream cable play and video store placement outside of the XXX room. 
One example from 1980 is Woman in Love (no connection to the same year's hit Barbra Streisand song), which calls itself "A Story of Madame Bovary" beneath the title. As with Metzger, using a famous literary connection as your basic plot framework can be a good idea, though here to connection to Gustave Flaubert's legendary and scandalous French novel is limited to the fact that this movie also features an adulterous wife with multiple lovers. Otherwise this is a completely different story (and it veers in a whole other direction from Flaubert's tragic resolution), with Laurien Dominique starring as Long Island socialite Christine Warren. She's weary of her husband (Cannibal Holocaust's Robert Kerman) neglecting her in favor of his job all the time, so she takes a job working at a clothing store run by the sexually adventurous Simone (Vanessa Del Rio) who's into the swinging scene along with her boyfriend, Georgio (Paul Thomas). Hesitant at first, Christine goes to a Manhattan swingers' party with attendees including Samantha Fox, where she opens up and soon starts seeing an artist named Eric (Ron Jeremy). However, she might be going too far when she and Georgio decide to pursue their mutual attraction as well. Well directed by onetime roughie filmmaker Kemal Horulu, this is a who's who of adult film stars of the era with other familiar faces including Jerry Butler, George Payne, Veronica Hart, Veri Knotty (headlining an insane fantasy sequence with the other cast members doing master and servant shenanigans in a theater), a young and clean-shaven Ron Hudd, Christie Ford, and Jerome Carter, with tons of fun location coverage of NYC at the end of the Carter era. This one hit VHS ages ago from Caballero, who recycled their old transfer for DVD. The 2024 Blu-ray from Quality X is a gorgeous upgrade, fully uncut at 87 mins. and presented from an immaculate 4K restoration from the 35mm camera negative. The DTS-HD MA 2.0 English mono audio is in pristine shape as well and comes with optional English subtitles.
aspiring actress Joan (Veronica Hart), vulnerable 
model and potential sex and drug addict Sherry (Kelly Nichols), and TV producer / former escort Billie (Samantha Fox), all dealing with the challenges of dating, sex, and trying to get ahead at work in NYC. This one doesn't shy away from the sleaze at times, with Jamie Gillis and Bobby Astyr popping up as a couple of particularly odious monsters, while other regulars like Jack Wrangler, Jerry Butler, and Ron Hudd are on hand as well. Mostly though this is a showcase for its three leading ladies, all of whom are very solid dramatic actresses. It's no wonder Vincent kept Hart around for a lot of his films, but the other two are up to the challenge and make you forget at times that you're watching an adult film. This would seem to be a prime candidate for the UHD treatment a la Blonde Ambition, but unfortunately pre-print materials don't seem to exist or be accessible. Thus this Blu-ray features a 2K scan from multiple 35mm prints, at least looking a lot better than the VHS and DVD versions we've had before. An audio commentary with Hart and Nichols is as fun and engaging as you'd expect, with lots of funny reactions to the film and thoughts on aspects of the trio's real life that made it into the story. A softcore version running around the same time was also prepared (a common practice at the time), represented here with a reel of the soft scenes (18m30s) for the curious. The Astyr scene at the end is the most interesting, with a different and quite satisfying punchline. Three trailers are included (X-rated, softcore, R-rated), followed by the great archival 39-minute "Revisiting Roomates" with Hart and Nichols from 2010, and a 65-minute Anthology Film Archives Q&A by Casey Scott from 2014 with Hart, Nichols, cinematographer Larry Reven, Eddie Heath, and co-writer Rick Marx (Doom Asylum). Marx also appears solo for the 29-minute "The Best of Everything" chatting about the attempt to reach mainstream audiences with a strong dramatic project, while Reven turns up in the 35-minute "Moving In" explaining his approach to engaging viewers whether shooting a sex scene or a dialogue exchange. Finally you get newly created music videos for the songs "With You" and "For Everything You Are" (also included on a bonus CD here), a script-to-scene comparison, and an image gallery. A limited slipcase edition also comes with a book featuring essays by Marx and Scott and a fold-out poster. PREVIOUS SICK PICKS:
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