Vinegar Syndrome announced its April DVD and Blu-ray/DVD
Combo Pack restorations this past week.
Apr. 25 will be the street date.
Leading the charge is a new 2K restoration (from original
35mm camera negative) of writer/director William Byron Hillman’s 1983 slasher
film, Double Exposure, starring Michael Callan as Adrian Wilde, a
photographer of models (aka: centerfolds
... there is plenty of flesh) who has bad dreams. It arrives as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack.
As genre fans know full well, nightmares in a slasher films
is not a particularly good characteristic for a leading man, especially when
hookers (“models”), including an uncover cop posing as one, are dropping like
flies on the streets of Los Angeles.
So is Adrian the killer?
Or, perhaps, it is his stuntman brother, B. J. Wilde (the late James
Stacy — Posse, A Swingin' Summer), who has issues of his own? Or is it just another Los Angeles slasher on
the prowl!
When Adrian sets his sights on Mindy (Joanna Pettet — Casino
Royale, The Evil, Welcome to Arrow Beach) all bets are off. If he is the killer, then she is a goner,
but if he is not, how can a man with horrific nightmares, who is just hanging
by a thread, ever hope to protect her!
It looks bad for Mindy either way.
Bonus goodies include commentary with filmmaker William
Byron Hillman, video sessions with cinematographer R. Michael Stringer and script
supervisor Sally Stringer, a still gallery and an isolated score featuring the
work of composer Jack Goga.
Also getting a new 2K scan from 35mm vault elements is
director Adam Rifkin’s
1993 direct-to-video release of Psycho Cop Returns … It
too will be available as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack.
When police officer Joe Vickers (Robert R. Shafer), who is
in reality a homicidal maniac — which we know from his last rampage (Psycho
Cop, 1989) — gets wind of an after hours office party he knows just
what to do.
Genre fans will recognize the motif of an “office party” as
the mechanism necessary to assemble a “victim pool.” We have strippers, building security, the
guys throwing the party, office workers who stuck around for the fun and a
lovely workaholic named Sharon (Barbara Niven) who have to run, hide or outwit
Vickers … or die. Most die!!!
Vinegar Syndrome has restored Psycho Cop Returns (aka: Psycho
Cop 2) to it full un-cut glory, or should we say BLOODY glory, plus
there is commentary from director Adam Rifkin.
Also included as extras are the newly prepared 43-minute
documentary titled Habeas Corpus, which features interviews with Rifkin, Shafer and
Niven, plus actors Miles Dougal (Brian, party organizer), Rod Sweitzer (Larry,
Brian’s cohort), Nick Vallelonga (Mike) and Melanie Good (Cindy, a party
“guest”), plus writer Dan Povenmire (seven-time Emmy nominee for his work on
such animated shows as Phineas and Ferb and Family
Guy) and the film’s editor Peter Schink, and the featurette titled “The
Victims of Vickers.”
Arriving on DVD on Apr. 25 from Vinegar Syndrome is a new 2K
restoration of director Leonard Kirtman’s 1984 VCA Pictures production of Hot
Flashes, starring Kristara Barrington as China Lee, with Crystal Breeze
and Karan Summer as Glenda.
Hot Flashes was shot on film (35mm) as opposed to video, which
makes it one of the last of its kind to do so (see Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997
film release of Boogie Nights to more fully understand the significance of an
adult feature actually shot on film during this period).
Rounding out the Apr. 25 restorations from Vinegar Syndrome
is the latest in the company’s popular “Peekarama” double-feature series.
This edition on DVD includes Ladies Night (1980, with Annette
Haven and Lisa De Leeuw) and Her Wicked Ways (1983, starring
Jesie St. James). Both films are 2K
restorations from the 35mm negatives … bonus goodies include a video session
with filmmakers Harry and Louis Lewis.
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