THE BOYS NEXT DOOR (1985) (101 Films Limited Edition Blu-ray Review)

THE BOYS NEXT DOOR (1985)

Label: 101 Films

Region Code: B

Rating: Certificate: 15
Duration: 91 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English Stereo PCM with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Penelope Spheeris 
Cast:  Charlie Sheen, Maxwell Caulfield, Patti D'Arbanville, 

Christina Beck, Paul C. Dancer, Richard Pachorek, Vance Colvig Jr., Carmen Filpi, Blackie Dammet, Texacala Jones, Pinkie Tessa, Maggie Ehrig

The Queen of 80's punk cinema Penelope Spheeris (Suburbia) directed The Boys Next Door (1985), her sophomore narrative feature, and it stars Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2) and Charlie Sheen (The Wraith) as a pair of low-rent teenagers who have just graduated highschool. The duo are anticipating a lifelong stint at the local factory becoming blue collar work-stuffs, but before admitting defeat they embark on a what they call a "caveman weekend" in Los Angeles, that quickly turns into an unhinged kill-spree. The film was written by the teenage screenwriting duo of Glen Morgan and James Wong - who went onto to write a ton of the early episodes of The X-Files, as well as penning the first Final Destination (2000) film and the heavy metal horror cult-classic Trick Or Treat (1986). 

The Boys Next Door is a fascinating watch, beginning as a sort of buddy comedy with outcast highschool pranksters

Bo Richards (Charlie Sheen, The Wraith) and Roy Alston (Maxwell Caulfield, Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat). They're both facing dim futures working at the local factory decide to embark on a roundtrip to L.A. where their pent-up white male rage begins to manifest in violent and uncontrolled ways. 

Arriving in L.A. things happen pretty fast, first stop is the gas station where after Bo has a disagreement with the attendance over $2 in gas Roy viciously beats with the nozzle of a the gas pump, leaving the attendant hospitalized and disfigured. After that it's a trip to beach where they terrorize a young woman who ends up on the hood of their car hanging on for dear life, and then as the sun sets they cruise the Sunset Strip making fun of the punk rockers (Maggie Ehrig and Christina Beck, Suburbia) and Hollywood freaks before ending up at a gay bar where they "pick-up" unwitting gay man Chris (Paul C. Dancer) and returning to his apartment where they terrorize and kill him. The next victims are a young couple (Richard Pachorek, Trick or Treat, & Lesa Lee, Memorial Valley Massacre) - the girl had been flirty with Bo but loses interest when she falls for another guy with a higher score (only in the 80s!) which ends in a double-homicide in a parked car, followed by Bo picking up an older woman named Angie Baker (Patti D'Arbanville, Real Genius) whose into astrology and younger guys. Back at her place she gets it on with Bo, but that triggers Roy, who the film heavily implies is a repressed homosexual, who freaks out and murders the woman right in front of Bo, which sort of fractures their tight-knit bond. 

Sheen and Caulfield are stone-cold magnetic in their roles, both are attractive guys and it's interesting to see how they are marginalized by their peers of their town because their poor and from broken homes. It might not be about punk rockers but Spheeris is again working with what she knows, what it's like to be an outsides; only instead of being victim's of society their male rage and incel-esque anger at the world twists them into the brutal victimizers lashing out at society. It's also interesting to see Maggie Ehrig, whom as a kid I loved in Grease 2, transform into an ultra-violent repressed rage killer, outshining the charismatic Sheen. 

There are a lot of interesting facets on display here, some of it sub-text, some of it just bold faced type. The ideal of pent-up male rage unleashed was very prescient for the time, and is very current to  what happening these days, sadly. The undercurrent of Roy's repressed homosexuality feeding his male rage is also quite fascinating; there are many shirtless scenes of the lean and lovely looking Sheen and Caulfield together, and the way that Roy is triggered by Bo' scoring with the astrology-chic definitely hits harder than mere envy; it's a full-on misogynists rage attack. While it's never openly stated that Roy might be gay it's there quite plainly in his actions and his motivations, like when Roy leans in as if to seduces the gay man at his apartment before murdering him, it's almost like he's fighting against himself. 

The movie is better made than Spheeris's previous film Suburbia, I am not sure if she had a bigger budget this time around but the cinematography by Arthur Albert (Dirty Work) is terrific, especially the moodily lit nighttime scenes bathed in the red and green glow of Sunset Strip neon, plus there's solid score from George S. Clinton (Brainscan), plus tunes from Iggy Pop, The Cramps, and the pre-"Once Bitten, Twice Shy" blues rock bullshit of Great White.

 
Audio/Video: The Boys Next Door (1995) arrives on region B locked Blu-ray from 101 Films as part of their Black Label line-up, this being no. 022 in the line-up. Presented in 1080p HD and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen the image has a nice sheen of velvety looking grain, very organic looking and the source is in great shape with only some minor white speckling. Colors looks great and well-lit with moody neon-glow lighting, a few of the exterior day time scenes in L.A. look a tad soft by comparison, but this goes back to the original lensing and is no fault of the transfer and encode. Black are also solid and there's some modest depth and clarity to the image and fine detail in the close-ups of faces and textures in jackets and hair look excellent. Noteworthy, as this is a UK release I did verify that the film was not censored by the BBFC and this is the uncut version of the film. 

Audio comes by way of a sturdy English DTS-HD MA 2,0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. Dialogue sounds good except for one brief exchange early on, but the atmospherics and score, which includes curt from Iggy Pop, The Cramps, Code Blue and Great White sound fantastic. I didn;t detect any issues with hiss or distortion during my viewing, like the visuals it's a solid presentation. 

Extras kick-off with a nicely candid commentary with director Penelope Spheeris and actor Maxwell Caulfield with both talking about the process of making the film, the atmosphere on set and what it was like working with Sheen and others. Caulfield opens with the fact that Crispin Glover originally auditioned for the role Sheen snagged, and later talks about Sheen's dad Martin showing up at his trailer and trying to talk him out of appearing in the movie. Spheeris points out quite a few older character actors like 
Vance Colvig Jr. (Big Top Pee-Wee), Carmen Filpi (Halloween 4) and Blackie Dammet (Class Reunion, and Anthony Keidis of RHCP's old man) and her friends Texacala Jones, Pinkie Tessa and Maggie Ehrig (Suburbia) who play the street band in the film. Spheeris also gets into things that had to be toned down to get the R-rating from the MPAA, like removing the sound effects of one of the murders, and how if she could do it again she wouldn't glamorize the violence. 

Then onto a bunch of cool featurettes and interviews, the first is the 25-minute Blind Rage: Interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Nightmare USA who covers Spheeris's early career leading up to this film, covering the leads careers and performances, the themes of social cast and homoeroticism, and noting that the killers are more spree killers as opposed to the serial killers their advertised as. Thrower gives a very in-depth and insightful breakdown of the film that goes a lot deeper than one might expect, but it's Thrower, so you probably were expecting it!  

The 20-minute Both Sides of the Law: Interview with actors Maxwell Caulfield and Christopher McDonald reunites the actor who first worked together on Grease 2 and ended up in The Boys Next Door. The guys get into the themes of the film, having the freedom to experiment and free-wheel it on the set, and some fun stories about Charlie Sheen. 

The 6-minute Give Us Your Money: Interviews with Street Band Performers Texacala Jones and Tequila Mockingbird is a brief interview with two of the actresses' from the street band seen inthe film, talking about how they were cast, enjoying getting paid and the free meals. The 21-minute 

Caveman Day: Cinemaniacs interview with director Penelope Spheeris and actor Maxwell Caulfield features the director and actor teaming up for an interview with Spheeris talking about her mindset coming into The Boys Next Door, following the death of her brother, and encouraging filmmakers not to make more violent films, apparently we have too many already. Both remember producer Sandy Howard fondly and give him a proper and comedic tribute, and there's plenty of talk about pranker Charlie Sheen and anecdotes from the making of, including more stories of Sheen Sr. trying to talk him out of the film.

The single-disc release arrives in a clear Scanavo keepcase with a single sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster, the same key art is featured on the Blu-ray disc. This comes housed in a slipbox with a pop-art inspired collage of images from the film. Inside the slipbox seated next to the keepcase is a limited edition illustrated booklet, printed on thick cardstock, that Includes new writing on the film by way of Living with the Boys Next Door by John Towlson and AssassiNation: Coldblooded Rebels and the Death of the American Dream by Rich Johnson that have a lot of wonderful insights about the film and other onscreen sociopaths. 

Tales from the End Zone: Interview with actor Kenneth Cortland  (Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge) is a 13-minute piece with the actor who played one one of the character in the gay bar talks about his experience on the film, and how he was pleased that the film featured gay characters, and how the treatment of gays in the film by the cops was very much how gay men were treated by the cops at the time. He also comments on his own insight into the killers mind's and motivations the film's cult status. 

The disc is buttoned-up with the 14-minute The Psychotronic Tourist , a then and now tour of the filming locations with Kier-La Janisse (Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror)which was cool, plus we get a 3-minute Alternate Opening Title Sequence with the Blind Rage title, & Extended Scenes (Silent), plus a 2-minute Trailer for the film. 

Special Features

- Limited edition booklet: Includes Living with the Boys Next Door by John Towlson and AssassiNation: Coldblooded Rebels and the Death of the American Dream by Rich Johnson
- Audio commentary with director Penelope Spheeris and actor Maxwell Caulfield
- Blind Rage: Interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Nightmare USA (25 min) HD 
- Both Sides of the Law: Interview with actors Maxwell Caulfield and Christopher McDonald (20 min) HD 
- Give Us Your Money: Interviews with street band performers Texacala Jones and Tequila Mockingbird (6 min) HD
- Caveman Day: Cinemaniacs interview with director Penelope Spheeris and actor Maxwell Caulfield (21 min) HD 
- Tales from the End Zone: Interview with actor Kenneth Cortland (13 min) HD 
- The Psychotronic Tourist – The Boys Next Door (14 min) HD 
- Alternate Opening Title Sequence & Extended Scenes (Silent) (2 min) HD 
- Trailer (2 min) HD 

The Boys Next Door (1985) is a white-hot slice of teen male-rage gone wrong from the 80's that's anchored by fantastic performances from Sheen and Caulfield as the ultra-violent teenage spree-killers. The limited edition Blu-ray from 101 Films is top-notch with a wonderfully filmic 1080p presentation with, a wealth of extras and attractive limited edition packaging. 

Screenshots from the 101 Films Blu-ray: 

Extras: