I figured VS might release a trailer that subtly mocked the film à la the one they did for CONGO, and probably a few others. This is on the listing page but I couldn’t bother scrolling down far enough to notice it if it was there on day one. I think they’re kinda trying with this one, but honestly this film was just so shitty there’s only so much to work with. And if anyone really wants to punish themselves, the DVD will get the job done for a lot less money!

I am pretty certain I saw Body Of Evidence in the theater and I was embarrassed for Willem Dafoe while watching it. I loved him several movies before that and he was well known enough to not need this paycheck at the time, or at least I thought.

I was working in a music store during college when this was released and we got lots of press kits and magazines and such sent to the store promoting Madonna and how this was going to be a massive hit for her acting career. I think that was how I saw it because the store got free tickets. Obviously, we all know how that ended up for her.

I don't think I have seen it since then, with the exception of probably catching the candle wax scene on HBO at some point or another.

Watch it drunk or stoned and with a buddy that likes bad movies and then it might be worth your time.

Vs just posted on their Facebook page they are releasing a new VSU edition of Rad later this year.

I think that I am happy with my $10 Mill Creek blu-ray of Rad.

Ugh. I’ve been keeping up the VSU’s and was planning on getting them all, but I can’t see myself double dipping on Rad.

I'm good with my Rifftrax version of Rad.

Supposedly the latest clue points to the ‘90s slasher as being Office Killer, which I must confess to having zero familiarity with.

I actually saw it in the theater!

New titles are up!

I'll post more in a bit, but one thing that's jumping out: VS is teasing a Friday the 13th event for 3/13, and it looks like it involves 1987's Forever Evil.

Quote:

But wait! There’s more! How often do we get two Friday the 13ths in a row? To celebrate, we’re slating a set of slashers to drop this next Friday, March 13th! One will issue a brief return of an old VS favorite, and the other will bring the only slasher likely to ever grace VSL—a strange and bloody affair never before available in English on disc. Be there at exactly 12:01 PM ET on Friday, March 13th, to uncover the mystery, exclusively at VinegarSyndrome.com.

Vinegar Syndrome and its imprints:



And new partner label titles (and the censoring of the Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun cover is on me):



I would normally snap up Forgotten Gialli vol. 9 and The Ghost Galleon (UHD!) in a heartbeat, but '90s gialli isn't exactly setting my heart aflutter, and The Ghost Galleon is the worst of the Blind Dead films. There were murmurs of an Arrow collection for the UK, and maybe that'll still somehow pan out.

I gave up on the Gialli boxes early on. I got the boxed versions of the first two, and the standard for the third. Just too much stuff that’s deservedly forgotten to justify even the sale prices I paid, so the rest have passed me by. And the genre was beyond dead by the 90’s. In countless featurettes over the last 30-ish years, many interviewees – both the original filmmakers and historians alike – lament just how shitty the Italian genre film industry had become by then, with former top names making underfunded films out of a desperation to just keep working. And here we are with a boxed set full of them. I’m beginning to think the well has run dry on that front.

Personally speaking I’d put MASSACRE in with those films too. Proving the rule about the industry’s decline, Fulci reused much of the gore from this film in CAT IN THE BRAIN. It was on YouTube for ages and I don’t recall a DVD release, but 4K? Come on.

Totally agree about GHOST GALLEON. Extremely dull. It’s odd how there’s only ever been one collected release of those films (I think?).

I’m curious about REVIVER 2. If you copy-paste the redacted text the hidden stuff is all ‘2’’s, so I’m not sure if the number of 2’s truly matches the number of letters in the missing words, but my inkling is telling these are from The Philippines, pre-1972. Could be wrong, of course. I’d still prefer another LOST FILMS boxed set over this piecemeal approach, but clearly the LF box wasn’t a bestseller whereas the first REVIVER release sold out.

Aside from that one, and only if looks likely to sell out, there’s nothing crucial for me in this batch, so my wallet rests easy (not that I do preorders anyway). I might try some partner titles if they last until a serious discount.

I think you’re right about the Philippines. Here’s a smidgen of info about Reviver 2 that says as much as can be said without exactly revealing anything.

^ The main giveaway for me was the word ‘Pulisya’ on the side of the, umm, police cars in VS’s trailer, although I had to frame-by-frame to catch it clearly in just one shot. It’s also interesting that that post is by Chris Koenig. When I saw his name in the list of extras for this release it further cemented my suspicions about the Philippines because he’s contributed to supplements in the past for films from there (among other places). Finally, there are a number of actors in the trailer who could certainly be Filipino, as well as the accent on the one heard speaking.


I’m not sure how long it will last on the site. It’s still over 600 copies but that’s a big drop from 3000 and I don’t think they’re doing standard editions on these. But I also can’t really justify ordering just one item shipped up here at their flat-rate shipping cost. I was able to get the first one with my larger Black Friday order, and I still ended up grabbing one at the store here while I was waiting for that to ship, just to be safe (which did allow me to cobble together the first ‘spoiler’ video on YouTube, though ). This time I may have to just cross my fingers and hit the store when it opens on new release day.


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ETA: Moved my previous guesses to a spoiler because I’m now certain that these three pictures are not the secret films in REVIVER 2.

Just bought one title and that was the Fritz Lang double feature. The slipcover variant sold out at like 7pm last night. The FOMO was real on that one. There should be a few hundred left of the standard edition, though.

That Fritz Lang set has been available for forever. It's crazy to me that if you put a slip cover on it, all of a sudden people are gaga over something that they would have never considered buying in a million years.

Yeah. But have you seen that slip?!?!?

The Film Movement releases frequently have me double-checking to see which ones are new and which ones aren’t. It’s kind of a pain. At first I was thinking I only had a DVD set of those Lang films but it turned out it was the same Blu-ray, which in turn made me think they were doing a new special edition of it, which they aren’t. I do think the films are beautifully shot and that slip doesn’t lie: Debra Paget’s outfits and dance numbers are pretty for 1959.

Two I was interested in, Fear Has 1000 Eyes and City Wide Fever, the slip cover versions are already sold out.

So that cleft chin that was bugging me in the REVIVER 2 trailer actually belongs to Robert Winston, an actor who had a very middling career from the early to mid-60’s, appearing in seven TV episodes and four movies, the last released of which was a leading role in Newt Arnold’s Philippines-shot BLOOD THIRST (his last directorial effort until BLOODSPORT). That was released in 1971 but filmed in 1965 in black and white. Vinegar Syndrome released it years ago in one of their Drive-In Collection double feature DVDs with THE THIRSTY DEAD. This got me to thinking about Chris Koenig’s comment in that thread that Adam Tyner linked to.

The executive producer of BLOOD THIRST was Michael DuPont. The webs don’t say, but I’m wondering if he’s related to the famous DuPont family ‘wealth’ that Koenig wrote about. DuPont’s limited filmography is mostly tied to the Philippines, and includes two stints as an actor, one of which was a supporting role in an earlier Newt Arnold horror film, the US-shot HANDS OF A STRANGER, which he also produced. Perhaps that’s where it all began?

In DuPont’s IMDb listing, there are three directorial credits. Two of these appear to have been released: a religious drama called ETHAN (1964), and an ‘boy’s adventure’ called THE SECRET OF THE SACRED FOREST (1971), starring Lassie’s own Timmy, Jon Provost.

In between these sits a movie that doesn’t seem to have been released: THE BLOODLESS VAMPIRE (1965).

Which brings me back around to Koenig’s post:

If BLOODLESS VAMPIRE is one of the movies in REVIVER 2, I’m definitely keen to see it and even more keen to see what the other film is if DuPont supposedly directed it. It does seem like he had some talent but never really went very far with it.

At the moment, only two cast members are currently listed for BLOODLESS VAMPIRE: American actor Charles Macaulay (SPLASH, V, AIRPORT 77, RAISE THE TITANIC and pretty much every TV show that ever aired in the 1960’s, 1970’s, and a chunk of the 1980’s, including two episodes of the original STAR TREK) and mixed-heritage Filipina actress Helen Thompson, perhaps best known in the west for wrapping up her career as one of Sardu’s assistants in the cult classic BLOODSUCKING FREAKS (another Vinegar Syndrome released, by the way).


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ETA: So I posted a variation of this comment on VS’s YouTube trailer right around the same time I posted it here in the wee hours of Monday morning, and lo and behold if someone at that Classic Horror Film Board thread posted here earlier didn’t suddenly just have an inkling earlier today (Tuesday) that one of the movies in the set might be THE BLOODLESS VAMPIRE, minus all the deductive reasoning of course.

The two Friday the 13th titles are Intensive Care and a new slipcover for Unmasked Part 25.

And also:

^ So “something macabre” is literally Lamberto Bava’s MACABRE (1980). I just got an email from Indicator promoting their upcoming release of that and Mario Bava’s FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT, an they note the following:

I picked REVIVER 2 up at the VS store on Friday. Turns out my guesstimate of the contents was about as accurate as I could get with the information then available, in other words well in the ballpark but still missing some puzzle pieces. Christopher Koenig’s posts at the Classic Horror board back then confirmed my suspicion that these were Michael DuPont pictures in some form, and connected to BLOOD THIRST somehow. And that’s all true, as was my speculation that the whole collaboration got rolling when DuPont hooked up with Newt Arnold on an earlier picture made in the U.S.

Arnold’s 1965/71 BLOOD THIRST (which was produced by DuPont), plus the two films in this set, plus another film called LISA, LUYSA - WHAT’S YOUR NAME (aka THE ETERNAL MASK) – which VS apparently discovered residing in their archives a couple of years ago under a different title – comprised a four-picture deal between DuPont and other collaborators.

Only BLOOD THIRST got a theatrical run, six years after it was made. LISA apparently played on TV (in the Philippines, I think?), and the two REVIVER films more or less vanished until now. In his featurette, Koenig shows correspondence between himself and producer Ferd Grofé Jr. (a colleague of DuPont) where the latter said that DuPont never really had to work because of his family fortune and often didn’t follow through on things that might have made a ‘name’ for him aside from the one he was born with. To that end, after the hoped-for TV syndication market didn’t buy in, his interest in distributing these pictures died almost as soon as he’d finished making them (which probably explains BLOOD THIRST languishing so long).

That said, both of these films are very good of their kind, and equal to (maybe even a little better than?) some of the low-budget horror being produced in the Philippines in the 60’s. Both are fully finished productions. As noted in VS’s original preview of the disc, one of the movies suffered severe damage to one reel from a water leak and that has been left intact. The remainder of the footage is in remarkably excellent condition.

When you load the disc, you get a menu screen only offering a ‘horror’ or ‘terror’ option, but no titles. There’s also a main menu which includes both movies and the three featurettes, all of which provide strong context for the existence of these pictures. The VS ‘winding through’ video is about twice as long as it is on YouTube.

I’ll spoiler the rest of this (for now) for those who ordered the set and don’t want any surprises until they open up their copy :



All in all I think this is a worthy followup to REVIVER 1. That disc supplemented the main feature and expanded ‘winding through’ video with three ‘regional’ short films that, while nice to see preserved, didn’t add replay value on their own considering the price point. This set feels like better value with two complete films and three behind-the-scenes featurettes. Might be cool if a future volume will combine everything: double-features, shorts, and supplements.

Shortly after it sold out, VS added another 500 copies a week or so ago (some kind of overrun I think?). These have been selling much more slowly, and might even last until a sale. If you’ve seen and/or enjoyed some of the Filipino movies released over the years by Severin, VCI, Shout’s Corman line, etc., you might get a kick out of these admittedly more minor entries as they do slot nicely into the overall timeline. There will also be standard editions down the road, so there’s hardly any rush.

April titles are up!

Annual April Fool's Day tradition (presumably UHD this year, by the price)
Mutant (UHD)
Escape from Death (UHD)
Faces of Death (UHD)
Liebestraum
Eurocrime Rarities, Vol. 1

and a flash preorder of Macabre.

The partner labels aren't really speaking to me this month, but on the UHD front, there is The Spine of Night.

I'm very excited about Mutant -- a longtime favorite with a DNR'ed-to-hell-and-back BD from Code Red -- and might go ahead and grab the 9th volume of Forgotten Gialli while I'm at it. Actually, I'm editing this post to say that's exactly what I did. Check the Shop app, if you have it. I just ordered that way and got $10 off.

Even if I wanted Faces of Death I do not think that it is a title that would benefit from an upgrade to 4K. I'm probably going to just go with the April Fools title, since I like to be surprised with something random like last years Good Girls Don't/Babewatch double feature.

I might consider FACES in a future sale just to see those outtakes. In the ‘Winding Through’ video, they show a huge stack of outtake reels from which they chose whatever is on the disc, so seeing any of that stuff might be cool, plus the director commentary, etc. Still doubt I’d keep it as I’d only be getting primarily for the supplements. Seeing the various animal slaughter scenes once back in the day was too much.

Nice to see MUTANT getting a new treatment. Don’t need the 4K but I could see replacing the Code Red Blu-ray in a sale. That movie has some flaws but it’s still pretty fun.

Also cool to see Kani dipping back into the non-martial arts Shaw Brothers catalog and bringing out Mabel Cheung’s and Alex Law’s first movie ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, which is also the first in their ‘immigration trilogy’. Cheung won best director at the HK Film Awards for it that year. The other two films are AN AUTUMN’S TALE, which has been put out by 88 in the UK and Imprint in Australia (not sure about the U.S.) and EIGHT TAELS OF GOLD, which I believe is only on HK Blu so far (?).

I wouldn’t mind seeing that Bleeding Skull release of HOUSE OF DREAMS some day. Not familiar with it at all. I’m kinda used to dodgy SOV stuff from them but that one was shot on film, plus there’s a 3-hour mixtape on the disc, albeit with one film, CARNIVAL OF SOULS, that has a better presentation elsewhere.

By the way, that STAR WARS KID documentary is a partial production of Canada’s National Film Board and is available free on their website, although I’m not sure if it’s viewable outside the country so YMMV.
https://www.nfb.ca/film/star-wars-ki...gital-shadows/