Vinegar Syndrome has a new 4K film restoration (from the original 35mm camera negative) of writer/director Stephanie Rothman’s 1973 prophetic action flick, Terminal Island, lined up for Sept. 28 as a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack release.
The California penal system is overwhelmed and the death penalty is off the table, so the solution is to put prisoners with life sentences on an island, with no guards and no means of escape. If that plot sounds familiar, you know, John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, you have to remember that Terminal Island was released theatrically eight years prior to the iconic Carpenter film.
In any case, we jump right in with a news crew chronicling the arrival of the newest inmate, Carmen Sims (Ena Hartman), who is dumped on the beach and after that the authorities don’t particularly care what happens to her. Which is painfully obvious as two corpses float by on the way to their destination.
Once ashore, she meets up with Dr. Milford (Tom Selleck in a very early film role), who gives her the “lay of the land.” By daybreak she needs no further lessons as Bobby Farr (Sean Kenney) and his “associate” Monk (Roger E. Mosley) run the show, treat the other women prisoners as slaves and do as they please with them.
Once the pecking order becomes obvious, Carmen joins with other rebel prisoners and they begin plotting the overthrow of Bobby and his minions. War on this island of death … where there is no escape and no hope.
Bonus features include four newly-created featurettes — “Why Be A Man, When You Can Be A Rothman?,” “From Hartman to Carmen,” “Crash Landing On Terminal Island” and “The Rothmanaissance: Rediscovering The Work Of Stephanie Rothman.”
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