Vinegar Syndrome's March 28 Blu-ray And DVD Product Release Calendar Toplined By Writer/Director Kevin Tenney's Witchtrap

Vinegar Syndrome announced its Blu-ray and DVD selections for the month of March during this past week (all titles will be streeting on Mar. 28).   Leading the four-strong array of newly restored film offerings is none other than writer/director Kevin Tenney’s 1989 gem-of-a-horror tale, Witchtrap.

This haunted house thriller is arriving as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack sporting a new 2k restoration from the film’s 35mm interpositive.

The Lauder-House is a typical spooky old mansion haunted by the ghost of a magician, who just happened to be a serial killer.   People go in, they don’t come out, or so we are told.   So what does one to do as a new property owner?

Bulldoze it and start over?  Sure, that works.  Or, hire Agnes Goldberg (Judy Tatum) and her crew to drive the spirit(s) out (you know, “ghostbusters” … who you gonna call!).  

As genre fans we know that Agnes and her team are the “victim pool,” which includes legendary screen queen Linnea Quigley (who also appeared in Tenney’s Night of the Demons the previous year), who, sadly, dies a horrible death while taking a shower (worth the price of admission). 

Bonus features include commentary with director Kevin Tenney, who is joined by producer Dan Duncan, cinematographer Tom Jewett and actor Hal Havins (as Elwin), video sessions with Kevin Tenney, Linnea Quigley, Tom Jewett and SFX Supervisor Tassilo Baur and filmmaker Kevin Tenney’s short film, Book of Joe (his U.S.C. student graduate film).

Also arriving on Mar. 28 as Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack product offering is director Paul Aratow’s 1975 indie adult-themed action film, China Girl, starring Annette Haven.  A new 2K restoration from the original 16mm film elements is in the offing.

Definitely X-rated for the period, China Girl managed to skirt the lines between    You have to put its release in context and remember that Deep Throat, a hardcore adult film, was able to crossover in 1972 and reach mainstream audiences.   

sexploitation and the world of adult cinema.

This was a turning point in the world of adult filmmaking (another turning point was the arrival of VHS — you must watch filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights to have an appreciation of what came next — but that’s another story), which meant that the key to not getting “busted” as a theatre operator or film producer in the mid-1970s was to have a film with a plot — the film had to have a story that wrapped around the sexual encounters to be exhibited theatrically (safely).

China Girl more than meets those standards as the alluring Annette Haven (in one of her very early roles), is a biochemist, kidnapped by Y. C. Chan (played by James Hong) and his henchwoman, Madame Woo (Pamela Yen), who is drugged with an experimental drug that turns her into a willing sex slave.   Can secret agent David Chase (Tom Douglass) find and rescue her before it is too late!!!

Bonus features include an audio interview with Annette Haven.

Rounding out the Mar. 28 release package from Vinegar Syndrome are two new additions to the company’s popular Peekarama adult film series.

This month we have the Peekarama double features of filmmaker Carlos Tobalina’s Boiling Desires (1987, with Candie Evans and Bunny Bleu), which is teamed with Love Champions (1985, with Crystal Breeze and Colleen Brennan) and Sherlick Holmes (1975, with Harry Reems as Holmes and Zebedy Colt as Watson) which arrives on DVD with Reunion (1976, with Tony Richards and Bree Anthony).