Arrow Video, with
domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group,
has a brand new 2K restoration of writer/director Jim Van Bebber’s 1988
cult-status revenge thriller, Deadbeat at Dawn, ready for Blu-ray
distribution on Oct. 23.
This Blu-ray edition will
mark the 30th Anniversary of Bebber’s bloodlust classic that has
been around as VHS and various DVD product offerings over the years — the
original DVD release had seven different street date changes before finally
reaching retail outlets in early 2000 (it was originally set for Jan. 4, 1999
and then delayed until April … and then May … August … October and finally one
year later it arrived).
This is the definitive
Blu-ray edition from Arrow Video! The
others are just footnotes to history now.
Van Bebber (who would go
on to direct and produce The Manson Family) stars as Goose,
the leader of the Dayton, Ohio-based Ravens, who are in a perpetual turf war
against their crosstown rivals, the Spyders.
Naturally, it is over drugs and other illicit activities.
When Christy (played by
Megan Murphy — Money Buys Happiness, Freedom State, Brand Upon the Brain!,
etc.), his girlfriend — with some brains — tells Goose that he has to find a
real life away from the crime and violence or she is going to look for greener
pastures, he realizes that she is right.
He figures that it will
be one last score (to set them up) and then he will be on the path to the
straight and narrow. However, during his
absence a couple of the Spyders decide to have their way with Christy and end
up beating her to death in the process.
Goose is devastated!
What separates Deadbeat
at Dawn from the normal revenge-type thrillers is that Van Bebber
doesn’t do the ABC — cause and effect — pattern with his script. Instead, he takes his time as Goose is
genuinely defeated by Christy’s murder and even contemplates suicide. It’s a slow boil.
Only when he learns that
his Raven buddy, Keith (Ric Walker), has teamed up with Danny (Paul Harper) and
“Bone Crusher” (Marc Pitman) of the Spyders for a big score, does he snap out
of it and extract his many pounds of flesh!
Bonus goodies include
commentary from Van Bebber, who is joined by actor Paul Harper and documentary
filmmaker Victor Bonacore (Diary of a Deadbeat: The Story of Jim Van Bebber). Arrow Video is also including Bonacore’s
documentary on the film, outtakes and a vintage making-of documentary (circa
1986).
Additionally, four of Van
Bebber’s short films have been restored and are included here — Into
the Black, My Sweet Satan, Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin and Gator
Green.
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