Arrow Video Tabs May 25 As The Street Date For The Blu-ray Collection Titled Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, will be bringing the four-disc Blu-ray set titled Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection to market on May 25.

If it was a genre film made in Wisconsin between 1974 and 1987, it was most likely directed by cult favorite, Bill Rebane.   Oh sure, there were the exceptions from time to time during the period, Don Keeslar did Bog in 1983 and Mystery Science Theatre 3000 co-creator Jim Mallon gave us the 1987 horror/comedy, Blood Hook, but the rest of the time it was pretty much Rebane.

Arrow Video has assembled five from this period, plus his debut effort from 1965, Monster A Go-Go, co-directed and finished by none other than Hershell Gordan Lewis — it is important to note that connection, since Rebane worked for Lewis for a number of years in the realm of radio (which is another whole story).

Rebane had started on a film he titled Terror at Halfday, with June Travis (retired local actress who was active in film in the late ‘30s — Little Orphan Annie, The Marines are Here … as Della Street in the 1936 Perry Mason film, The Case of the Black Cat, etc.), Peter Thompson and 7-foot, 7-inch former sideshow performer, Henry Hite as the giant space alien (saves on special effects if you actually have a giant playing a giant space alien), as early as 1963, but at some point ran out of money (a lesson learned).  

He parleyed the experience into a gig with Germany’s Studio Bendestorf (Rebane, it should be noted, speaks five languages fluently) and set up domestic offices for the studio to attract “named” American talent to do film work in Germany.   This gave him the resources to pack up his family and buy a “farm” in Wisconsin, which was promptly turned into a film and television production facility (commercials, films, corporate productions, etc.).   He called it “The Shooting Ranch” … it was a great success.

Which, is a nice segue to the other five films in the Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection from Arrow Video on May 25.   These are: Invasion from Inner Earth (1974, written by his wife, Barbara, with Paul Bentzen), The Alpha Incident (1978, with Ralph Meeker), The Demons of Ludlow (1983, Paul Bentzen, a Rebane regular, is joined by Carol Perry), The Game (1984, with Carol Perry, Tom Blair, etc.) and Twister's Revenge (1988).

This collection comes packed with extras, including the six-part production of Straight Shooter, which documents Rebane’s production and direction of the six films included in the collection, and the feature-length documentary titled Who is Bill Rebane?, hosted by film historian and critic David Cairns.  There are also outtakes, extensive still galleries and more!