Vinegar Syndrome Announces Its July 31 2018 DVD And Blu-ray Release Calendar

Vinegar Syndrome has tabbed July 31 as the street date for its next round of film restorations destined for DVD and Blu-ray release.   Lots of good stuff on the way!

Leading the parade — and that is always a matter of opinion, tastes and aesthetics — is the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack presentation of director Sharron Miller’s House of the Dead — or Alien Zone, which was the original blink-of-an-eye theatrical title for the film.  A new 2K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative is in the offing. 

Alien Zone got a very limited regional theatrical release around Thanksgiving of 1978 and then dropped out of sight.   In January of 1981 the film resurfaced theatrically again with the new title, House of the Dead, it then went to VHS in 1983 (remember VHS??) and then kind of bounced around from company to company as DVD releases.

The July 31 street date will be the first time that House of the Dead (or, Alien Zone for purists) will be available on Blu-ray.

It is basically an anthology film — in spirit of those terrific Amicus Productions such as The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum (1972) and Tales from the Crypt (1972) — that is built around a philandering husband by the name of Talmudge (John Ericson — 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Bamboo Saucer, Bad Day at Black Rock, etc.), who is caught out in the rain and ends up taking refuge in a mortuary, where the mortician, (Ivor Francis) tells him (creepy) tales to pass the time (four in all).

Bonus features include video sessions with director Sharron Miller and screenwriter David O’Malley. 

Also on the July 31 film restoration slate from Vinegar Syndrome is writer/director Arthur J. Bressan Jr.'s 1985 prophetic film releases of Buddies.   

The Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack debut (never on VHS or DVD) features a 2K restoration from the original 16mm camera negative. 

Bressan’s heartfelt drama about a caregiver (“buddy”) named David (played by David Schachter) spending time with an AIDs patient by the name of Robert (Geoff Edholm) — during his final days — was the first dramatic film about the disease and the onslaught of HIV.   It remains, to this day, a difficult film to watch — so much was unknown at the time — especially so in light of the fact that Bressan would also die of the disease within two years … at just 44 years of age. 

Bonus features include video sessions with actor David Schachter and film historian Thomas Waugh.

Rounding out the July 31 release slate from Vinegar Syndrome are adult film presentations of Liquid Assets (on Blu-ray) and Showdown (on DVD), plus two new limited edition five-film, double-disc Blu-ray compilations — 5 Films • 5 Years, Volume 3 (featuring Dracula Sucks, Corporate Assets, Vixens of Kung-Fu, Tropic of Desire and Baby Rosemary) and 5 Films • 5 Years, Volume 4 (presenting Cry Wilderness, Vampire Hookers, Evil Come, Evil Go, The Cut-Throats and Teenage Seductress).