WOW! In a word, WOW.
Vinegar Syndrome
announced its Sept. 25 line-up of film restorations for DVD and Blu-ray release
this past week and it features new 2K restorations of hard-to-find cult-status
horror films, plus the eagerly awaited return of the company’s popular
“Peekarama” DVD line of products with not one, but two new double-feature
presentations! So let’s get to it.
First up is
writer/director James Riffel’s 1989 self-distributed horror tale, The
Dead Come Home, which picked up a couple of other titles along the way,
including Troma’s sappy Dead Dudes in the House moniker and
later, The House on Tombstone Hill.
Filmed on a modest budget
by NYU Film School graduate James Riffel in and around Cherry Valley, New York
(about 30 miles west of Albany as the crow flies … near Cooperstown). He then took the film out theatrically on
his own in the New Jersey/New York markets before licensing it to Troma for VHS
and subsequently DVD.
Vinegar Syndrome has a
new 2k restoration from the original 16mm camera negative and will be releasing
it for the first time on Blu-ray as Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack.
The story finds a group
of eight guys buying up an old haunted house with plans to refurbish it, but
things don’t go as they envision when they unearth the corpse of Annabelle in
the backyard and she — along with her equally dead daughter — begin doing away
with them!
The Dead Come Home/The House on
Tombstone Hill is a terrific
example of a self-distributed indie film that has gained a following over the
years. Bonus goodies include a video session
with filmmaker James Riffel (Mass of Angels, Black-Eyed Susan,
etc.) moderated by Chris Poggiali and the featurette titled “Three Dead Dudes,”
featuring actors Mark Zobian (Ron), Victor Verhaeghe (Bob) and Douglas Gibson
(Mark and also doubled as Annabelle).
Also getting a new 2K
restoration from the original 16mm camera negatives is the Down Under horror
import, Body Melt.
It went the
direct-to-video route way back in 1994 as a VHS release from the now-defunct
Prism Entertainment and was resurrected by Scorpion Releasing for DVD, but now
Vinegar Syndrome gives it the royal Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack treatment on Sept.
25 (hint: toss your old copies to the curb).
Aussie filmmaker Philip
Brophy’s story focuses on some strange goings on in the Melbourne suburb of Pebbles
Court, where the local research firm, Vimuville, is working on a drug they call
V9. When one of their own, a chemist by
the name of Ryan (Robert Simper — The Lighthorsemen, The Marsupials: The
Howling III, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, etc.), discovers that the head
researcher, Dr. Shaan (Regina Gaigalas — Dead End, For Love Alone), has been
using the good people of Pebbles Court as guinea pigs he sets out to warn them.
The problem is Shaan is
onto him and has given a super-dose of V9 and he fails in his mission. The police get involved, head over to the
headquarters of Vimuville to investigate and are inept. The drugs inventor, Dr. Carrea (Ian Smith)
has been doing some experiments of his own — the poor Nelson family — and we
soon discover that V9 ends with madness (best case) or, as the title screams
out, a complete meltdown of the body!!
Vinegar Syndrome has
loaded this up with all sorts of bonus goodies, beginning with two commentary
options — one with writer/director Philip Brophy, who is joined by
co-writer/producer Rod Bishop and producer Daniel Scharf, and second commentary
with filmmaker Philip Brophy with a focus on the sound design and the film’s
score.
There’s newly prepared
video sessions with producer Daniel Scharf titled “Body Building: The Making of
Body Melt,” a video session with actor Neil Foley titled “Adrenal Glands” and a
trio of featurettes — “Melting Away: The Deconstruction of Body Melt,” “Making
Bodies Melt: The Making of Body Melt” and “Behind-the-Scenes.”
After a four-month hiatus
(basically the summer months), Vinegar Syndrome is back with two new “Peekarama”
adult-themed double-bills on Sept. 25.
We begin with School
Girl Reunion (1977, starring Kim Pope) and the mission to Jupiter saga,
Sensuous
Fly Girls (1976, with Mary Stuart, Holly Wainwright and Dianne Keating),
both directed by the prolific Shaun Costello.
These two adult classics feature new 2K scans from the original 35mm
negatives.
The second “Peekarama”
double-feature is director Ray Dennis Steckler’s 1973 adult/horror film, The
Sexorcist (aka: Undressed to
Kill) and his 1979 film, Deviants in Love (aka: Fade
to Red). Both are new 2K scans
from 16mm film elements.
And last, but not least,
we have the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack release of director Gerard Damiano’s 1974
adult film, Memories Within Miss Aggie, starring Deborah Ashira as Aggie,
with Kim Pope, Mary Stuart and Darby Lloyd Rains as earlier versions of
herself.
This is a new 2K scan
from the original 16mm film negative.
