BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 4/22/2020

 

Filmmaker Al Adamson made a lasting name for himself by creating lurid low-budget exploitation movies with that indefinable "so bad it's good" greatness that many strive for but few achieve.  A well-made documentary about his lively career would be interesting enough, but even more so if his personal life ended on a note that was way more fascinating, mystifying, and downright creepy than any of his actual films ever came close to being.

BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON (Severin Films) is that documentary, and it's well-made indeed. It's tricky to construct a documentary with just the right balance of talking heads and informative narration, along with movie clips and other audio-visual elements, while maintaing our interest to the same degree as a fictional narrative, and this one does so in a way that's utterly involving.

Any collection of clips from Adamson's films would be fun to watch, and here we get plenty of footage from such trash classics as "Satan's Sadists", "Horror of the Blood Monsters", "Brain of Blood", "The Female Bunch", "Blazing Stewardesses", and of course what some might consider his magnum opus, the immortal "Dracula vs. Frankenstein."

These are augmented by interview clips with the most important players in the Al Adamson saga, including (besides Al himself) such familiar names as Vilmos Zsigmond, Russ Tamblyn, Fred Olen Ray, Gary Graver, and many others who offer a wealth of personal stories about working with a man whom most remember very fondly, some with gratitude for helping them begin successful careers in the film business.  (Celebrated cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs also started out with Adamson.)

Best are the stories of Adamson's endearing eccentricities and his devotion to making films not to win awards but simply to entertain the masses, using his imagination and ingenuity to overcome meager budgets and resources that would severely daunt other struggling filmmakers.

His exploits in the field serve as a primer for others wishing to follow in his footsteps and are scintillating stuff for those of us who simply love hearing about such adventures.

Adamson's efforts to knock together these films, usually offering his cast and crew valuable experience rather than money, also include the fascinating field of promotion and distribution in which such commodities were sold to the public in whatever form and by whatever means would be most exploitable.

Thus, a film about outlaw bikers might, if trends suddenly changed, be transformed through editing, reshoots, and a new title into a horror or crime thriller.

Conversations with Oscar-winner Russ Tamblyn are fun since he takes an amusedly lighthearted view of his association with the B-movie maven. Like many stars persuaded to participate in these films, Tamblyn was a big name on his way down who was happy for the work since Hollywood was no longer calling. Others included the likes of John Carradine, Kent Taylor, Broderick Crawford, Yvonne DeCarlo, J. Carroll Naish, and Lon Chaney, Jr.

The latter two joined Tamblyn for what may be Adamson's most celebrated classic, "Dracula vs. Frankenstein", which underwent drastic thematic changes during its creation (the original script didn't even include the title monsters).

Dealing with an alcoholic Chaney and a wheelchair-bound Naish, with his noisy dentures and inability to remember his lines, are just two of the interesting elements of this film's production.I had the pleasure of seeing it on a double bill with "Horror of the Blood Monsters" back in the 70s, a movie-going experience that I still treasure.

Long-time producer and partner Sam Sherwood adds invaluable personal knowledge of everything including Adamson's devotion to his wife Regina Carrol, a blonde bombshell who starred in many of his later films until her untimely death from cancer, and a strange project he undertook concerning UFOs and aliens which Sherwood believes was discontinued under shady circumstances involving the government.

But most mysterious of all are the circumstances surrounding Adamson's death, the details of which are fully explored in the film's final third and have all the morbid fascination of an Ann Rule true-crime book.

Even the director's previous association with Charles Manson and his flaky followers at Spahn Movie Ranch pales in comparison to the story of his disappearance from his desert home and the following investigation which uncovered a grisly fate that's right out of a horror movie.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films consists of not only this film but a bonus feature, Adamson's 1971 sleazefest "The Female Bunch" which co-stars a hard-drinking Lon Chaney, Jr. as well as Russ Tamblyn and Regina Carrol.  Pieced together from the best available elements, the print has a delightful grindhouse feel.

The disc also offers some irresistible--one might even say essential--outtakes from the documentary including an in-depth look at Adamson's western movie star father Denver Dixon, Russ Tamblyn's mysterious melted TV, some more creepy stuff about Charles Manson, and a promo reel for that eerie, unfinished project about aliens and UFOs.

Regardless of the man's gruesome demise, however, what lingers most for me after watching BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON is his joyous devotion to making exploitation movies and, we discover, his delight that after many years they were still being enjoyed and even revered by fans old and new.  That many of his most fervent fans include the very people who knew him best is a testament that this documentary so richly conveys.



Buy it from Severin Films

Special Features:

    Outtakes – The Cowboy Life Of Denver Dixon, Russ Tamblyn’s Melted TV, Manson & Screaming Angels, and The Prophetic Screenplay Makes Gary Kent Testify
    Beyond This Earth Promo Reel
    Trailer
    BONUS FILM: The Female Bunch
    The Bunch Speaks Out
    THE FEMALE BUNCH Trailers

WATCH THE TRAILER:

BLOOD & FLESH: THE REEL LIFE & GHASTLY DEATH OF AL ADAMSON -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

MANKILLERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted 9/14/2016

 

In 1984, Sybil Danning led a group of female merceneries called THE PANTHER SQUAD, and in '86 a bevy of Las Vegas showgirls went commando as the HELL SQUAD.  It was as though SCTV's Johnny LaRue (John Candy) had become a real person producing his own special brand of cheap exploitation flicks combining improbable action with generous amounts of T & A.

The pinnacle of this wonderful little distaff genre, in my opinion, is the 1987 anti-epic MANKILLERS.  Not only does it have a cast that includes Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, "Mannix" co-star Gail Fisher, and eternal starlet Edy Williams of Russ Meyer fame--as well as beautiful HELL SQUAD star Bainbridge Scott and Andy Sidaris regular Julie K. Smith--but it also has the most kickass babes and badass bad guys (if you use your imagination a bit) as well as waves of exquisite unintentional hilarity.

Pretty blonde Lynda Aldon is intense as Rachael McKenna, a top government agent whose partner and boyfriend Mickland (William Zipp) betrayed her and left her for dead to become a South American drug kingpin. Years later, Rachael is offered the chance to put together her own commando squad to go down there and clean out Mickand's operation.



Rachael heads straight for Supermodel Prison and chooses an all-female attack force made up of hardened criminals in a sequence that blatantly borrows from THE DIRTY DOZEN, complete with a rebellious "Victor Franco" type in the form of sassy Maria Rosetti (Christine Lunde), who we just know will eventually get with the program and start being all heroic and stuff.  But not before she tries to escape from the training camp and is forcibly restrained by two of her cohorts, who pull the old "she slipped on a bar of soap" routine with Sergeant Edy.

After we get to watch these uncoordinated big-haired bimbos jiggling through their accelerated training program for awhile, it's time to hit the jungle trail where they engage in the first gunfight with Mickland's men.  This consists of Rachael's girls posing cutely behind trees and firing off hundreds of rounds while the guys stand around like idiots waiting for their squibs to go off.  Rachael and Maria get in some cool hand-to-hand contact as well, and of course there's the obligatory kick to the groin here and there.

Meanwhile, Mickland's back at his compound doing dastardly stuff like raping and killing his female captives for fun while taking care of drug and sex-slavery business, which also involves killing people and generally being all scowly and evil.  When he hears about his men being wiped out by a bunch of women, he takes matters into his own hands and leads a counterattack in which he and "Kookie" manage to capture Rachael.

With their leader in the hands of the bad guys, the now-repentant Maria gives the rest of the Mankillers a stirring pep talk and they invade the compound, using their feminine wiles to seduce and then overcome Mickland's men.  This leads to a low-budget free-for-all with lots of gunfire and even some small-scale explosions, and finally a showdown between Rachael and Mickland in which he proves harder to kill than Chucky. 

Several moments stand out during the film, such as the scene in which Rachael can't sleep and gets up to enjoy a cool bottle of brand-name seltzer water which she displays for the camera in a comically blatant case of product placement.  In another memorable moment, one of the Mankillers comes on to Edd Byrnes' vile "Jack" character before pulling a knife and giving him an impromptu vasectomy that will have male viewers crossing their legs.  And then there's the dialogue, which includes this deathless exchange:

MICKLAND: "Well, if it ain't Rachael McKenna.  After all these years I thought you were dead."
RACHAEL: "I'll bet you did."
MICKLAND: "This time...you're gonna die."
RACHAEL: "No...YOU are."

The budget is so low that the Mankillers' training camp and Mickland's compound appear to be virtually the same set, consisting of nothing more than a small array of corrugated tin sheds.  This is par for the course, however, when we learn that the writer-director of MANKILLERS is none other than David A. Prior (KILLER WORKOUT, DEADLY PREY), who gave us the early shot-on-video classic SLEDGEHAMMER (1983) and was used to creating something out of nothing.

The DVD from Martini Entertainment and Slasher Films (a division of Olive Films) has an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is window-boxed.  Apparently the best available copy of the film for transfer is in PAL Beta SP format, which gives it quite an appropriate 80s videotape ambience that will stoke feelings of nostalgia in many viewers.  There are even the usual videotape imperfections in the picture here and there. 

The Blu-ray/DVD covers continue this theme by resembling videotape boxes right down to the "Action" label and "Please Be Kind--Rewind" tags. In addition to the trailer, a photo gallery also emphasizes the film's home video origins. 

Whether you rented it when it first hit video stores way back when or happened to catch the edited version on "USA Up All Night", this is your chance to enjoy MANKILLERS again in all its sleazy, cheezy glory.  Sure, it's junk--but it's a good junk. 

Buy it at Amazon.com:
Blu-ray
DVD

Buy it at OliveFilms.com:
Blu-ray
DVD

NOTE: Stills shown are not taken from the DVD.

MANKILLERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE -- DVD review by porfle

  Originally posted 6/25/2014

 

For those unfamiliar with the story, Severin Home Video's new 3-disc DVD set VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE should serve as a more than adequate recap of one of the strangest cultural battles ever to take place on English soil. And even if you already know all the information imparted by the collection's first disc documentary, "Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship, and Videotape" (2010), the barrage of trailers on discs 2 and 3 should keep you entertained for hours.

The 2010 documentary, directed by Jake West, begins as the home video craze is heating up in the early 80s. One of the hottest attractions is what would become known as the "video nasty", namely those cheap but extremely gory horror flicks that had many of us haunting our local mom 'n' pop video stores looking for anything with some of that good ol' shock value.

But when societal watchdogs in England such as aging activist Mary Whitehouse noticed that these gruesome films were bypassing theatrical age restrictions and being watched on home VCRs by little kids, something was bound to hit the fan.

With something new to censor, various members of Parliament joined Ms. Whitehouse and an indignant press in stirring up public outrage against the "sadist videos" (which Whitehouse admitted to never having watched) along with some heavy legal backlash. The first step was a widespread confiscation, with 32,000 tapes such as DRILLER KILLER and DEATH TRAP being seized and burned in London's Metropolitan area alone.

As righteous anger over these videos grew, so did the penalties for distributing and renting them, with several offenders paying large fines and even going to jail. Newspapers and police began using the films to conveniently explain all sorts of criminal behavior, accusing them of potentially "corrupting and depraving" anyone who watched them.

It wasn't long before Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher jumped on the bandwagon in order to attain some much-needed moral cred, coming up with a list of 72 banned titles that could get you into big trouble if caught renting or distributing them. This list, of course, became a "must-see" menu for fans of the genre although the films were becoming increasingly difficult to find.

The documentary describes how the banned video nasties got copied and passed around by fans, and how these multi-generation tapes had a fuzziness which helped obscure bad FX and make the images seem more mysterious and realistic. One of my favorite things about "Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship, and Videotape", in fact, is how it delves into the nostalgia those of us from the VCR era still have for those big, clunky machines and often battered tapes that we ran through them.

The documentary--and, in fact, the DVD packaging and menus themselves--display an almost fetishistic regard for VCRs, VHS, videotape imperfections, and other quirks of the medium with which I could strongly identify. There's also a fond remembrance of those hole-in-the-wall video stores that seemed to pop up just about everywhere in the 80s, each of which had its own individual ambience and unique variety of titles both familiar and obscure.

What I didn't like so much about the documentary--and it's a small gripe--is that it leans rather heavily on talking heads (politicians, filmmakers, critics, and other interested parties from the era) and not enough film clips. However, since discs 2 and 3 more than make up for this, then disc 1 can be forgiven for being more of a history lesson than anything else.

Disc 2 features trailers for "The Final 39", or the films that were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and "deemed liable to deprave and corrupt." Retailers and distributors could be heavily fined and even imprisoned for handling these hot-button horrors. The trailers range all the way from something called ABSURD to ZOMBIE FLESH-EATERS, with some of the titles in-between including: THE BEAST, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, THE DRILLER KILLER, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN (I think I rented this under the shortened title NIGHTMARES), and the infamous fake-out SNUFF.

Disc 3 contains trailers for the 33 films that were initially banned but later removed from the "leper list" (as I just now decided to call it). Are they truly milder than the notorious 39 and less likely to turn viewers into gibbering sadists? It's your call as the line-up includes such blood-soaked fare as THE BOGEY MAN, DEATH TRAP, DEEP RIVER SAVAGES, THE EVIL DEAD (that one definitely warped MY mind), THE FUNHOUSE, HUMAN EXPERIMENTS, THE TOOLBOX MURDERS, and ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH.

The trailers on Discs 2 and 3 can be viewed in all their uninterrupted glory, or with introductions and reviews (some pretty in-depth) from some of the talking heads seen in Disc 1's feature documentary. Cult horror presenter Emily Booth greets us at the start of each disc. Other extras include VHS box art and video logo galleries. The discs are in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby digital sound. No subtitles.

"Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship, and Videotape" is an interesting but slow-moving and occasionally dull account of a fascinating time in British history. Lots of yakkity-yak and not enough video clips slow things down to a creep even though this is a valuable historical document that should be seen by anyone interested in the subject. But it's that collection of "must-see list" trailers that really rates VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE a nasty niche in your own video library.

Buy it at Amazon.com

Read our review of Part Two

 

VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE -- DVD review by porfle

EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 9/20/2018

 

I have to agree with the Medveds that EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (Scream Factory, 1977) is one of the dumbest horror films ever made.  And yet that's what makes it so watchable--the fact that it's so incredibly, entertainingly dumb.

It's also one of the worst-ever sequels to a classic film.  The nightmarish original from director William Friedkin (THE FRENCH CONNECTION, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., THE BOYS IN THE BAND) was considered by many upon release as the most terrifying film of all time.  Even a lot of first-time viewers nowadays tend to agree.  But for its hapless follow-up, reactions are largely negative.

Linda Blair is back as "Regan", this time several years older than the little girl we first met.  Still suffering the after-effects of her previous ordeal, Regan is undergoing unorthodox treatments from super-shrink Louise Fletcher which are intended to isolate and solve her "mental" problems.  This involves a flashing mutual-hypnosis machine called a "synchonizer", which connects their minds and adds a sort of sci-fi element to the story.

Meanwhile, there's a new priest in town--the great Richard Burton as Father Lamont, a troubled holy man ordered by the Cardinal (Paul Henried) to investigate what happened to Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) leading up to his strange death.  This eventually leads him to Regan, and then to Africa for an encounter with mysterious locust expert James Earl Jones.

What follows is a strange mishmash of conventional horror, sci-fi, African mysticism, and leftovers from the original story that alternates between either dull and meandering, and just plain fascinating as an ill-conceived screen artifact.

At times it feels sort of like one of those soupy 70s-era Dino De Laurentiis or Carlo Ponti productions.  (The overcooked score by Ennio Morricone doesn't help.) Hard to believe it was directed by John Boorman, the same man who gave us DELIVERANCE and EXCALIBUR but has none of William Friedkin's knack for pulling off this kind of horror.

To be fair, Friedkin had much better material to work with.  The weak script was rewritten multiple times, with tepid echoes from the first movie interlaced with such elements as locust attacks (an odd parallel to the evil invading our world) which can only be repelled by that rare someone with a special spiritual power.

This figures very importantly in the wildly bizarre finale as locusts descend on Regan's crumbling old Washington, D.C. townhouse like something out of an Irwin Allen disaster flick (sort of a cross between EARTHQUAKE and THE SWARM), while Father Lamont wrestles furiously in bed with Regan's evilly seductive doppelganger.

As for me, the sequel's undisputed highlight is the infamous tap-dancing scene.  Few examples of unintended hilarity are as sublimely funny as seeing Regan, stricken by the old evil spirit again during a school talent show, valiantly struggling to finish her tap-dancing routine (top hat, tails, cane--the whole works) to the tune of "Lullaby of Broadway" as her body is wracked with violent spasms.

Linda's fans will naturally enjoy seeing her again as an older Regan.  Unfortunately, this was made during that awkward teen phase when Linda wasn't all that convincing in anything beyond the likes of ROLLER BOOGIE or SAVAGE STREETS.  Her chirpy demeanor and weak line delivery constantly work against Boorman's attempts to build realistic tension.

Louise Fletcher (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, DEAD KIDS) and Richard Burton (THE KLANSMAN, THE WILD GEESE) both do what they can with the tepid material. Burton, one of film's greatest actors when given the chance, is especially watchable even though the last act mostly requires him to wander around in a trance.  Kitty Winn returns from the first film as Sharon.  Ned Beatty and a very young Dana Plato are also on hand.

The 2-disc Blu-ray from Scream Factory contains both the original 118-minute cut and the 102-minute reedited version, which was released after the film failed to meet audience expectations first time around.  Both are 2k scans from the original film elements.  Image and sound quality are very good.  English subtitles are available.

Each disc contains ample bonus material, including three commentary tracks (one with director John Boorman) and a revealing interview with Linda Blair.  Also included are trailers and still galleries, plus a reversible cover insert.

EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC is a somewhat exhilarating experience at times--not because it's good, but because it's so flamboyantly bad.  Once you've seen the full version, you'll want to watch the edited cut just to see what they did in the way of damage control.  Either way, it's one of 70s cinema's most interesting failures.


DISC ONE (118 Minute Cut Of The Film):

NEW 2K Scan From Original Film Elements
NEW Audio Commentary With Director John Boorman
NEW Audio Commentary With Project Consultant Scott Bosco
NEW What Does She Remember? – An Interview With Actress Linda Blair
NEW Interview With Editor Tom Priestley

DISC TWO (102 Minute Cut Of The Film):

NEW 2K Scan From Original Film Elements
NEW Audio Commentary With Mike White Of The Projection Booth Blog
Original Teaser Trailer
Original Theatrical Trailer
Still Galleries Including Rare Color And B&W Stills, Behind-The-Scenes, Deleted Scene Photos, Posters, And Lobby Cards

Buy it from Shout Factory

EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

DEAD KIDS (aka STRANGE BEHAVIOR) -- Blu-ray/DVD review by porfle

 Originally posted 2/05/14

 

I can't explain exactly why I like this movie so much.  But it struck me in just the right way the first time I saw it on Cinemax back in the 80s (under the title STRANGE BEHAVIOR) and I've regarded it fondly ever since.

DEAD KIDS (1981), as it's known on DVD, is a low-budget independent film that was made in New Zealand (which doubles for smalltown Illinois) at the height of the slasher-film craze, but there's more to it than just waiting for the next gory kill.  Along with a pretty sweet cast (veterans Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, Fiona Lewis, Scott Brady, Arthur Dignam, and Charles Lane, along with likable youngsters Dan Shor, Dey Young, and Marc McClure) the film takes ample time establishing a bucolic smalltown ambience and introducing us to some characters that we get to know and don't mind spending a little time with.  That way, we're actually concerned when bad things start happening to them.

Shor ("Ram" in the original TRON), whom I've always liked for some reason, is a typical teen named Pete Brady whose dad John (Murphy) is the town's "top cop."  SUPERMAN's Marc McClure plays an even quirkier nerd here as poodle-perky school chum Oliver, who tells Pete that he can earn some extra money as a guinea pig for a local research lab run by primly sexy Dr. Parkinson (Fiona Lewis, THE FURY, LISZTOMANIA). 

Pete feels like a million dollars after the lady doctor first gives him some kind of magic pill, but their second session (one of the film's most harrowing sequences) is another thing entirely--I'm talking strapped down, hypo in the eyeball, pissing blood, falling face-first into somebody's pizza territory here.

But the real horror that gives DEAD KIDS the sort of subtle creepiness that sneaks up on you is the fact that the young people of the town are suddenly starting to kill each other in gruesome ways for no apparent reason whatsoever.  The film opens with such a murder as a young man played by co-scripter Bill Condon (who would later write and direct such films as DREAMGIRLS and GODS AND MONSTERS) gets stalked and stabbed in his own shadow-strewn house while the power is off. 

Director Michael Laughlin (STRANGE INVADERS) shows us his schizo style right of the bat by skillfully establishing an effectively chilling situation and then diluting it when the actual murder is awkwardly staged.  Time and again for the rest of the film Laughlin continues to show real talent as a director and then undermines himself by allowing certain scenes to come out kind of half-baked. 

Still, the good stuff is solid, and even some of the lesser passages get by on a sort of lanky charm.  You can't go wrong by giving Murphy's police chief character a male secretary played by the delightfully cranky Charles Lane, and the way a rumpled Scott Brady (as a state cop sent to aid in the murder investigation) just wanders into the movie during a slow scene and starts regaling Murphy and Lane with stories  of his most gruesome crime scenes is some kind of wonderful.

In order to get the most out of it, you meet this kind of film halfway or not at all.  The rewards--a creepy shot here and there, some suspense, a bit of shocking gore (makeup-effects man Craig Reardon's rushed efforts pay off more often than not), a neat plot twist--keep it all delectably compelling.

There's a party scene that seems to be straight out of 80s teen-movie central (at one point a roomful of dancers actually look choreographed) and is so unabashedly cheesy that I can't help but enjoy it.  This leads to another murder sequence--featuring Elizabeth Cheshire who played the cute little girl in AIRPORT '77-- with Laughlin's patented style of mixing the good, the bad, and the lackluster to come up with something all his own. 

Louise Fletcher, after her Oscar-winning turn as the loathesome Nurse Ratched in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, gets to let her hair down here as a warm-hearted good ol' gal helping John Brady get over his widowerhood.  (The only drawback is that she isn't in the movie nearly enough.)  Murphy (MANHATTAN, MASH) is his usual easygoing self until his character is reminded of his late wife, who died mysteriously while working for the equally mysterious, also-dead Dr. LaSange (Arthur Dignam) at the research lab now run by LaSange's assistant Dr. Parkinson. 

See how it all ties together?  Strange experiments, kids murdering each other, an evil villain reaching out from beyond the grave, and the cold but somehow perversely sexy Fiona Lewis making me feel all tingly in bad ways.  Oh yeah, and in the "cannot be unseen" department, Dan Shor's butt.  What's up with that?  ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL's cute Dey Young shows up as Dan's new girlfriend to help us recover from that sight, but it's too little too late.

What really stays in the mind after watching DEAD KIDS--besides its effectively ominous score by Tangerine Dream--is the exquisitely staged sequence in which matronly housekeeper Mrs. Haskell (Beryl Te Wiata) enters a client's home one night and stumbles into a situation which, thanks to Michael Laughlin hitting all the right notes for a change, is teasingly suspenseful, effectively gruesome, and genuinely, deliciously scary in ways that wouldn't even occur to the usual FRIDAY THE 13TH clone. 

Ditto for the film's nail-biting climactic sequence, which, aside from a tank-sized plothole which I've been trying to figure out for the past thirty years, builds to just short of Cronenberg-level intensity as father and son Bradys fall victim to the heinous evil that infests their formerly horror-free existence.  There's even a twist that I'd forgotten about, so it came as a surprise to me yet again.

The Blu-ray/DVD combo from Severin Films is in 2.35 :1 widescreen with English mono sound.  No subtitles.  Extras include a dry commentary from director Laughlin, a much livelier one featuring co-writer Condon along with stars Shor and Young, an isolated Tangerine Dream musical score, U.S. and international trailers, and a newly-shot interview with makeup-effects artist Craig Reardon.  Running time is 99 minutes.

Why do I like DEAD KIDS (aka STRANGE BEHAVIOR) enough to keep getting that good old-fashioned horror movie vibe from it after all these years, when so many other fright flicks of its era don't even rate a rewatch?  I don't know.  There's just something about the ambience Laughlin manages to create that does something for me.   Strange, huh?

Buy the Blu-ray/DVD combo at Amazon.com

DEAD KIDS (aka STRANGE BEHAVIOR) -- Blu-ray/DVD review by porfle