Alert: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Turns 40 On Sept. 22

Wild Eye Releasing To Release Writer/Director Johnny Markussen's Absolute Zombies On DVD On Oct. 27

Your first impression, and it will be a lasting one, is that writer/director Johnny Markussen is having a blast with his way-way-over-the-top zombie tale, titled appropriately enough, Absolute Zombies.   

With an eye towards some Halloween-season viewing fun, Absolute Zombies is due out on DVD from Wild Eye Releasing on Oct. 27.

We’ve all seen our share of zombie plague movies.  The end of the world, zombies — hoards of them — on the prowl for fresh (living) human flesh and the few left living battling moment by moment just to stay alive and avoid being the living dead’s next meal.   There are good ones; bad ones … and everything in between.

George Romero’s 1968 release of Night of the Living Dead is the touchstone for zombie flicks and everything on the screen since then has flowed out from that 96-minute masterpiece.   Slow zombies, fast zombies, zombie love affairs, zombie cures, zombie resurrections, you name it and filmmakers have tried it.

Now enter Norwegian filmmaker Johnny Markussen, who must have seen his fair share of post-apocalyptic flesh-gnawing tales, and decided instead to make the equivalent of the Barbarella of space-themed movies for the zombie crowd.   Absolute Zombies is, like Barbarella, a comic book adventure, which finds one of the survivors, Edwige (Silje Reinåmo — Thale) — Markussen’s “Barbarella” equivalent in that she is both eye-candy and capable of handling herself in a zombie attack (a backstory has her as a gun-for-hire) — on a mission to find Boris (T. Benjamin Larsen), a Russian tycoon who appears to be responsible for the zombie outbreak.

With her is her former mentor Franco (David Allen) — it is now clearly a love/hate relationship — and a deaf mute (Hanna Jenny Stark).   She is on a mission to find Boris (does he have a cure?) and in do so must avoid the zombies and two squirrels that are unhinged and enjoying the sport of zombie hunting (and anything that crosses their path).

Wild Eye Releasing’s Absolute Zombies is a zombie thriller like no other and Oct. 27 can’t come soon enough for genre fans looking to have a good time in a zombie alternate universe.

Paramount Home Media Announces A Trio Of Full-Series DVD Collector Sets For Delivery To Retailers On Nov. 3

With an eye towards gifts during the holiday season, Paramount Home Media announced a trio of complete collection sets that will be retail-ready on Nov. 3.

The First Lady of comedy, Lucille Ball, will be available in collectible packaging on that first Tuesday in November in the 33-disc DVD set titled, I Love Lucy: The Complete Series … all nine seasons (from the fall of 1951 until the final goodbye in May of 1957) are included here.   That’s 181 laugh-filled episodes!!!

If your gift-giving plans are for someone who, “Boldly goes where no man has gone before,” then you need look no further than the 25 disc collection of Star Trek: The Complete Original Series – Remastered.   All 80 thrill-packed adventures are showcased here, including the original pilot, “The Cage,” starring Jeffrey Hunter as Capt. Christopher Pike.  

And last, but by no means least, Nov. 3 brings fans of David Duchovny the 14 disc set of Californication: The Complete Series.

Cinema Libre To Release Director Chad Kapper’s Post-Apocalyptic Sci-fi Thriller Rotor DR1 On DVD On Oct. 20

Drones are in the news every single day.   It’s a hot topic.   From combat usages to numskulls buzzing passenger jets landing and taking off at major airports.   There are even cool prototypes for hikers — pull it out of your backpack, fire it up and with a Go-Cam receiver you can scout the trail ahead.  Very cool.

Cinema Libre announced this past week that they will have some drone action of their own on Oct. 20 with the DVD debut of director Chad Kapper’s post-apocalyptic thriller, Rotor DR1.   Kapper started this as a webisode project — much like a classic serial, with cliffhangers and the like — and generated ten chapters for online viewing and he has now edited it into a feature-length film.

A virus outbreak has ravaged the planet’s population, but delivery drones — with life-saving vaccines — continue to make their point-to-point deliveries.  It all seems quite pointless as the virus has run its course.   Survivors, and a teenager named Kitch (Christian Kapper) is one of them, try to avoid roving gangs and have taken to scavenging the delivery drones for their power supplies and other materials.

As the story evolves, Kitch is followed by a drone (the DR1) one day and hits upon the idea of using it to search for his father.   Another teen, Maya (Natalie Welch), hooks up with him to go on his wasteland quest.   But first they have to overcome the threats of 4C (Tom E. Nicholson), the leader of one of the gangs, who have also adapted the drones for their own purposes.

Rotor DR1 is fascinating, not only for the storyline, but also for Kapper’s effective use of new drone prototypes — not only is he a filmmaker, but he is the founder of Flitetest.com — throughout the film.   Like we said, very cool.

Film Chest Media Group Preps The Double-Disc DVD Release Of Rock ‘n Rhythm Collector’s Set For Delivery To Retailers On Sept. 29

Before Dick Clark hit his stride in 1957 with his national television broadcast of American Bandstand, promoters had three choices.  They had radio; the rock’n roll stations that dotted the land.   

They had tours — road trips playing before live audiences.   And they had theatres.

Television was a relatively new medium following the war, but theatres were in their golden age.   Everyone went to the movies!

On Sept. 29 Film Chest Media Group will deliver a trio of mid-1950s theatrical concerts on the double-disc DVD release titled Rock ‘n Rhythm Collector’s Set.

The first in the collection is producer Ben Frye’s 1955 film, Rock 'n' Roll Revue.  Joseph Kohn served as director and DJ Willie Bryant was the host.  On the venue were Duke Ellington and His Orchestra performing “The Moochie,” Big Joe Turner knocking out “Okimoshebop,” Dinah Washington delivering “Only A Moment Ago” and Nat ‘King’ Cole crooning “The Trouble With Me Is You.”   The concert concluded with Larry Darnell’s “What More Do You Want Me To Do” and The Clovers delivering their 1954 hit with “Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash.”  

Rock 'n' Roll Revue was a perfect program filler — television variety in the decade that followed would pattern themselves after this type of theatrical release (which was actually filmed for television, but actually reached a wider audience theatrically).

Next in line is Rhythm and Blues Revue, which also teamed director Joseph Kohn with MC Willie Bryant.  

The tune list included the likes of Cab Calloway’s “Minnie The Moocher,” Count Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump,” the Delta Rhythm Boys rendition of “Dry Bones” and Nat ‘King’ Cole is on hand once again with a lively presentation of “Calypso Blues.”   

Another rock impresario to take advantage of the moment was Alan Freed, who is credited with the term “rock ‘n’ roll” … a recording artist and DJ, his career would come crashing to an end within a couple of years over “payola” and he’d be dead at the age of 43 from acute alcoholism.  But for a brief moment he toplined in five films, including director Will Price’s 1956 theatrical feature, Rock, Rock, Rock!, which combined the elements of a variety concert with the barebones of a plot.

Film Chest included this minor gem that stars a 13-year old Tuesday Weld as a teen in need of a new dress and her father will have nothing to with it.  We said “barebones” … the plot was just an excuse to sting a series of musical performances together.

These include: Jimmy Cavallo & His House Rockers delivering the title song, “Rock, Rock, Rock!,” a young Connie Francis singing “I Never Had A Sweetheart” and “Little Blue Wren,” Chuck Berry knockin’em dead with “You Can't Catch Me” and The Moonglows with “Over and Over Again.”  It has quite the soundtrack!

Brain Damage Films To Release Director Josh Hasty's Honeyspider On DVD This Coming Oct. 13

Midnight Releasing’s Brain Damage Films label whisks us back to 1989 and the Halloween midnight screening of Sleepover Slaughterhouse, Part 3, which is just part of the fun with director Josh Hasty’s creepy Honeyspider.   It will be heading to DVD on Oct. 13 … just in time for some home entertainment Halloween-season viewing fun for genre-fans.

The focus of attention of this horror tale is Jackie Blue (Mariah Brown in her film debut), a college student who earns some extra scratch by working at the local movie theatre.  The theatre just happens to be having its annual midnight “Halloween Horrorthon” and she’s working the midnight shift … on her birthday no less!   

If the truth be known, our girl Jackie is down in the dumps and celebrating both Halloween and her birthday are the things least on her mind this autumn evening.   Her parents are going through a messy divorce, her college professor (played by Frank J. Aard — April Fool's Day, Horror Story) has been extra creepy of late and someone has left her a surprise in her car … and a tarantula too!   

As the evening progresses it isn’t long before Jackie becomes ill, something just isn’t right tonight.   Is she hallucinating?   Is there really someone moving throughout the darkened theatre knifing the paying customers to death?   As her unease grows, she becomes physically ill and starts vomiting up spiders; big hairy tarantulas actually.   

She must be going insane, right?   Is it all an illusion?   Has Professor Lynch slipped her something?   Is the masked killer coming for her?   Relax, sit back and enjoy Honeyspider and all will become clear by the closing credits of Sleepover Slaughterhouse, Part 3.

Bonus features include two commentary options — one featureing director Josh Hasty and the second from writer/producer Kenny Caperton — and the music video titled, “The Ghost in You.”

Full Moon Features Jess Franco Collection Promotion Continues On Sept. 29 With The DVD Debut Of Blue Rita

In June it was Jess Franco’s Jack the Ripper, July yielded Barbed Wire Dolls and on Sept. 29 Full Moon Features returns with the domestic DVD debut of cult filmmaker Jess Franco’s Blue Rita.

Ten films are planned for eventual release during Full Moon’s Jess Franco Collection promotion — all made in conjunction with producer Erwin C. Dietrich — and with the release of this English-dubbed version of Blue Rita (aka: Das Frauenhaus) Full Moon has reached number three in the series.  

This one has to be seen to be believed as it is a cross between Cold War spy thriller, a torture dungeon horror flick and a kinky soft-porn romp.   However you describe it, Blue Rita is certainly pure Jess Franco.

Rita is both a lesbian and a communist agent, who runs a nightclub in Paris, where the wealthy and influential flock.  When she spots any wealthy male it is time for seduction, torture and out-and-out thievery.  But Interpol is on to her and her latest lover, Sun (Dagmar Bürger), could be the key to bringing her lethal operation to an end.