Vinegar Syndrome Announces June 26 DVD And Blu-ray Film Restorations

Vinegar Syndrome announced this past week that its next wave of DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack releases will take place on June 26.

Leading the June parade is the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack double-feature presentation of Blood Theatre and The Visitants from director Rick Sloane. 

These are new 2K restorations from the original 35mm camera negatives.

Low budget, yes.  First time director, yes.   Say what you will about the 1984 direct-to-video release of Blood Theatre, but despite all of its flaws it remains great horror fun.   

First, if you’ve ever spent the night in a theatre after the projectors and lights have been turned off and everyone has gone home, then you know just how spooky one of these big old barns with a 1,000 seats can be.   Sloane makes good use of the old Warner Grand Theatre (aka: Beverly Hills Theatre), which was built way back in 1931 and has since met-up with the wrecking ball.

Secondly, it features Mary Woronov as the theatre chain owner’s secretary … she is a genre-fan favorite, and any film she appears in is worth a look.   And, the films being shown at the company’s multiplex theatre are a hoot … “Chainsaw Chicks,” “Nightmare of the Lost Whores,” “Clown Whores of Hollywood” and “Amputee Hookers” (all of which were the titles of actual short student films that Sloane made).  How could you possibly go wrong with viewing choices of that caliber? 

As for the plot itself — which is a little hard to follow — an old theatre manager (dressed in a tux) has turned psycho and goes around killing the patrons and staff (11 die … about half in theatre-specific ways, which include death by popcorn machine).   It is hard not to work up some bit of sympathy for him.

Teamed with Blood Theatre is Sloane’s second film, The Visitants (1987).

This is indeed a lost gem.  If anyone has an old VHS copy, god bless them, they can now toss it.   

The Visitants, set in the 1950s, is sort of a cross between alien visitors and the thought of Russian sleeper agents — you know, your normal neighbors (think: Charles Bronson in Telefon) who aren’t what they appear to be.  

Bonus features include commentary for both Blood Theatre and The Visitants by writer/director Rick Sloane, a video session recorded prior to a retro screening of Blood Theatre at the New Beverly Cinema featuring Rick Sloane, Mary Woronov and The Visitants actors Marcus Vaughter and Jordana Capra and a Q&A with Rick Sloane and Mary Woronov.

Also getting a 2K restoration (from the film’s 35mm camera negative) is writer/director Straw Weisman’s 1988 disturbing tale of an undertaker who enjoys his work just a little too much, Grave Robbers.

Grave Robber is being released as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and features commentary from Weisman, an introduction to the film by Weisman and the featurette titled “Digging Up the Past.”

On the DVD release front from Vinegar Syndrome on June 26 we have two adult golden oldies, Naughty Network (1981, directed by Howard Ziehm, with Nicole Black, Laurie Smith, Loni Sanders, and Tantala Ray) and the superhero spoof, Ms. Magnificent (1979, directed by Joe Sherman and starring Desiree Cousteau as a very adult “wonder woman”).