Batshit Blu-rays of the Month- 10 for October

            With Halloween looming many Blu-ray companies trot out horror-themed fare and we’re lucky this month to see Freaks out from Criterion, plus the great Spanish shocker Tombs of the Blind Dead, Mario Bava’s gothic classic Black Sabbath, not to mention sci-fi greats getting the 4K treatment like It Came from Outer Space or a new digital restoration of It! The Terror from Beyond Space. And if that isn’t enough, a new 4K UHD of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and Red Dragon and the director’s cut of Gregg Araki’s sublimely transgressive The Doom Generation. More treats than tricks this year.

            Freaks: Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers (Criterion) Truly one of the most bizarre films ever to be made by a major studio, this 1932 MGM shocker, directed by Tod Browning, is set in a carnival filled with real-life oddities rounded up for the film (conjoined twins, human torsos, midgets, and those with microcephaly). It’s about a scheming trapeze artist (Olga Baclanova) who marries a little person (Harry Earles) because of his inheritance but humiliates him while secretly sleeping with the strong man. But during a dark, story night, the “freaks” hunt both of them down in a scene that is pure nightmare fuel. Remember that old line about running off to join the circus- well, Tod Browning actually did it at 16 and for years played carnivals and sideshows and vaudeville before he turned to movies. Included in this great Criterion set are two silent movies Browning did with similar themes- The Unknown, with Lon Chaney as The Great Alonzo, a carnival knife thrower (who pretends to be armless) and his love for the daughter of the circus owner who has a morbid terror of men touching her (played by a very young Joan Crawford). This twisted gem has been restored and looks amazing. The other silent is the rarely seen gem The Mystic starring Aileen Pringle as a phony medium, working with a criminal gang, who attempts to fleece an heiress. The amazing costumes were by visionary Russian/French designer Erte, who was eventually fired by Browning for creating outfits that were visually astounding but impossible to film in.

            Tombs of the Blind Dead (Synapse) 2 disc- Blu-ray restoration of the sensational 1971 Spanish horror film by Amando de Ossorio which became a four-film series. It concerns the living dead Templar Knights, who fought in the Crusades and practiced occult sacrifices of virgins to ensure their immortality. Their eyes were pecked out by crows when they were left hanging by the courts, so now their rotting remains return from the dead in tattered monk’s robes astride skeletal horses to kill and maim. They can’t see you but they can hear your heart beating so they have the ability to strike murderously fast. A memorably gory and great horror movie this Blu-ray set is the deluxe treatment, with a high definition version of the uncut Spanish print. It also includes the bowdlerized American version (where a grisly flashback about the Templars is put at the beginning of the film). There is great audio commentary by Troy Howarth, a documentary on the Spanish zombie film and interviews with surviving cast members. Disc 1 is the original uncut Spanish language version; Disc 2 is the re-edited U.S. cut (which trims down the nudity and violence).

            The Defilers/A Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine (AGFA & Something Weird) Two gleefully depraved “roughies” written and produced by David F. Friedman. The Defilers (1965) is about Carl (Byron Mabe) and Jameison (Jerome Eden), two hedonistic, loathsome degenerates whose motto is, “There’s only one thing in this crummy square-infested life that counts: kicks!” Bored with their carousing and pot-smoking they decide to really get “kicks” by kidnapping a pretty girl- (Mai Jansson), just off the Greyhound bus to Hollywood. They keep her locked and abused in the basement of Carl’s father’s warehouse. Things eventually spin wildly out of control in this nasty little treat. A Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine (1966) is a particular favorite, with sexpot Stacey Walker (The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill) as scheming vixen Sharon, who gets men all hot and bothered and then cries rape (for fun). She gets one boyfriend sentenced to two years in jail (David Friedman is the jury foreman). She gets another co-worker so terrorized and traumatized he leaves town. She even gets another man so sexually frustrated he runs down the street and assaults the first woman he runs into. Even Paula, her lesbian roommate is sexually rebuffed with, “Paula, I may be a bitch, but I’ll never be a butch.” She finally meets her match with a man who is even more rotten then she is. There is archival audio commentary for The Defilers by the late, great Mike Vraney of Something Weird Video, and a rollicking archival audio commentary to A Smell of Honey with David F. Friedman, Frank Henenlotter and Mike Vraney. Plus, a wonderful insert with a great essay “A Tale of Two Roughies” by Lisa Petrucci.

            Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Kino Lorber) The first film directed by Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) with a terrific performance by Clint Eastwood as Thunderbolt, a wily bank robber on the run, disguised as a preacher, who hooks up with a freewheeling, high-energy drifter in a stolen car named Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges). “Red” (George Kennedy) and “Goody” (Geoffrey Lewis) are on the trail of Thunderbolt, thinking he screwed them out of robbery money. They end up joining forces to rob a Montana safe with disastrous results. Cimino’s feel for the scope and beauty of the landscape is evident in the same way he filmed the unfairly maligned Heaven’s Gate, He also fills the film with offbeat humor and real heart. Bridges is such a whacked-out delight in the film and his relationship with Eastwood is very touching (and a bit subversive for movies like this). This 4k UHD Blu-ray is a 4K scan of the original camera negative, and comes with audio commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton and a featurette with audio recordings of director Michael Cimino, who admits it was a daunting task to direct Clint Eastwood. He also advised Jeff Bridges that his one job was to make Clint laugh (up until then Eastwood rarely cracked a smile on film).

            It Came from Outer Space (4K (Kino Lorber) This brilliant 1953 sci-fi classic, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, is about an astronomer (Richard Carlson) and his girlfriend (Barbara Rush) who witness a meteor crash in the New Mexican desert. But the astronomer is convinced it is really a space craft and no one believe him until it is too late. By then townspeople slowly begin to be duplicated by otherworldly creatures. But what are they up to? This superior, smart, sci-fi film was directed by Jack Arnold originally in 3D with memorable scenes of a rock slide and a telescope that hits you in the eye. But this 4K Blu-ray is pretty spectacular looking, and no matter how many times I see this it just gets better. Great use of the Theremin and the poetry of Bradbury’s prose in the dialogue help create a true sci-fi favorite. 

            Red Dragon (Kino Lorber) Great 4K UHD restoration of this 2002 second filmed version of the Thomas Harris book (the other one is Manhunter directed by Michael Mann). I was such a fan of Manhunter that I thought I wouldn’t like this version by Brett Ratner but it actually is pretty great too. Certainly, Anthony Hopkins appearing again as the fiendish killer Hannibal Lector helps. The FBI investigator that arrested him- Will Graham (Edward Norton) visits him in jail to discuss an elusive new serial killer nicknamed the “Tooth Fairy” (played with creepy gusto by Ralph Fiennes), who kills families during a full moon according to his alternate personality (the “Great Red Dragon”) inspired by a William Blake painting. Stylish and suspenseful this looks amazing on this new Blu-ray. With director’s commentary and many featurettes and storyboard to final film comparison.

            It! The Terror from Beyond Space (Kino Lorber) A manned trip to Mars picks up a monstrous stowaway when they blast off the planet- a hideous blood-drinking creature who hides in the air vents and claws its way up hull by hull to kill the crew. Sound familiar? Yes, everyone says Alien ripped off the plot of this scrappy little 69 minute 1958 monster movie. Ray “Crash” Corrigan wore the Paul Blaisdell-created monster suit in this creepy classic. This has been out before on Blu-ray but this is a new 2K scar of the 35mm fine grain. It comes also with new commentary by Tom Weaver, Bob Burns and other film historians.

            Beast from Haunted Cave (Film Masters) Producer/director Roger Corman dragged a film crew to the snowy mountains of South Dakota in the late 1950s and turned out two fun cheapies. The first, Beast from Haunted Cave was the first directorial film by Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop) and is about a bunch of gangsters at a ski lodge who are tracked down by a spider-like hairy creature that lives in a cave and encases his victims in cocoons to drink blood from later. “See screaming young girls sucked into a labyrinth of horror by a blood-starved ghoul from hell!” screamed the ads. But Hellman’s direction is excellent and the monster is cleverly shown and actually genuinely horrific. Also on this disc (which has restored prints of both films) is the other film they shot there with the same cast- Ski Troop Attack (this one directed by Roger Corman) about a bunch of World War II soldiers who enter German territory in order to destroy an important railroad bridge. ”They turned a white hell red with enemy blood,” screamed the ads for this one. (For an Easter Egg scroll to the right on the menu and click on the Beast).

            Black Sabbath (Kino Lorber) A really great 1964 chiller from Italian gothic horror master Mario Bava. Three eerie stories tied together by host Boris Karloff. The first, based on a story by Chekhov “A Drop of Water” is about a nurse who fatally steals a ring from a dead clairvoyant. The lighting and sound in this is brilliant and frighteningly effective. “The Telephone” is about a prostitute (Michelle Mercier) getting threatening phone calls from a dead man she wronged. The best is the final entry “The Wurdalak,” based on a Tolstoy story, which stars Boris Karloff as a hunter who returns home weirdly changed (actually a vampire) who systematically preys on his family. Mark Damon co-stars in this one. An unforgettable creep-fest. This is the AIP American cut (the European version had the stories in a different order).

            The Doom Generation (Strand) “I don’t know what it is but I feel really weird tonight,” says the sweet, if dim, Jordan (James Duval) to his punked-out and permanently pissed-off girlfriend Amy (Rose McGowan). “Like something’s going to happen.” Director Gregg Araki’s punk version of Godard’s Weekend is an incendiary apocalyptic cartoon- loaded with sex and violence and bristling with black humor. Amy Blue (Rose McGowan), a foul-mouthed, amphetamine-popping bad girl, and her passively sweet boyfriend Jordan (James Duval) pick up a sexy drifter named Xavier (Johnathon Schaech) and head across the country, leaving a pile of bodies behind them every time they stop the car. A comic/horrific fantasia about an America filled with stupid roadside slogans, bad fast food and stores where everything cost $6.66. You don’t have to be Damien to figure out where this is heading. Araki calls this is “heterosexual movie,” but trust me: the flirtatious quality between Duval’s Jordan and the dangerous Xavier (Schaech) is anything but. The second film in director Gregg Araki’s “Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy” it pulsates with jet-black humor, loony rude dialogue, wild art direction, splashes of hallucinatory color and a killer soundtrack. Sexy, surreal, violent and very, very funny, This is a gorgeous 4K restored, uncut director’s cut, and the colors pop on the screen. The three leads are dreamy and dig into their parts with just the right kind of deadpan coolness. With fun cameos by Parker Posey, Nicky Katt, Heidi Fleiss and Margaret Cho. What other film has a bad-boy hunk with a Jesus tattoo on his dick? With an exuberant commentary track by Gregg Araki, Johnathan Schaech, Rose McGowan and James Duval.