SOCIETY (1989) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

SOCIETY (1989) 
2-Disc Director-Approved Limited Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Arrow Video
Region: Region-Free
Rating: 18 Certificate
Duration: 99 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English PCM Stereo 2.0 with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Cast: Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Evan Richards
Director: Brian Yuzna

High schooler Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) seems to have it all on the surface, he's a good looking guy with a cheerleader of a girlfriend, and he comes from an affluent Beverly Hills family. He even drives around in a Jeep Wrangler, which in the 80s was what every teen wanted, at I did, until I realized that most people in Wranglers were sort of douche nozzles. Despite his good fortune and affluence something has always seemed a bit off to him. Billy doesn't seem to fit into the Beverly Hills high society crowd, he's an affluent outsider. He regularly sees a therapist, Dr. Cleveland (Ben Slack), to address the paranoia-laced nightmares he suffers from, but when Blanchard (Tim Bartell) approaches hims with an audio cassette with what sounds like a bizarre incestuous orgy involving his sister and their parents things begin to spiral out of control for the young man. When approaches his therapist with the wild story the doc doesn't believe his story, only prescribing a stronger prescription for happy pills, but it will certainly take more than Prozac to set things right for the troubled teen when he discovers the grotesque truth about high society in Beverly Hills.

Society begins like a nightmare version of Beverly Hills 90210 with some affluent high school drama, teenage angst with a few small scenes of weirdness, such as when Billy walks in on his sister Jenny (Patrice Jennings) in the bathroom, she's in the shower but appears to have breasts on her backside, which is confusing to say the very least. The contorted bit of kinky weirdness is just our first glimpse at the weird body horror element that await us in this one, but certainly not the last, there's plenty more to come as the layers begin to peel pick exposing the awful truth of the matter. 

The money-shot of the movie is an extended orgy of stretched out flesh, a strange celebration of twisted bodies and kinky oddness that drives home the point that upper high society has always fed off the lower classes. The surreal special effects of Screaming Mad George are in full force, creating a dizzying series of body-horror sights like you've never seen before, this is why I love the 80's -- the over-driven special effects were awesome. The strange feeding/orgy scene is bathed in red light with a the darkly comic tone about it, very weird and wonderful, while the film Screamers (1980) promised a scene of a man being turned inside out, this film actually delivers on that promise with a very memorable "shunting", body-horror fans are gonna love this one, so gross and gooey.  

I do love the movie, but must admit that it suffer a bit from stiff acting, particularly the attractive young ladies cast in the movie, easy on the eyes, but not the most gifted actresses ever put onscreen, nope, these gorgeous ladies were cast for certain other  criteria. In a weird sort of way the flat line deliveries work in the film's favor, creating a that strange atmosphere and that feeling that something is not quite right. This was Brian Yuzna's directorial debut which probably attributed to the stiffness of the film, but overall this is a solid movie, and a body-horror powerhouse of a film. It does help that Warlock as Billy is an easy guy to get behind, he does a great job tapping into that weird teen paranoia that I think we all experienced at one point at that very special age, if I had watched this in my early teens I would have been highly disturbed by it, after I saw the original Invaders from Mars I was convinced the neighbors were aliens for a bit, they were pretty strange. 

Audio/Video: Brian Yuzna's Society (1989) finally arrives on Blu-ray here in the U.S., having been long out-of-print. Arrow have created a brand new 2K scan of the film and the results are pretty damn sharp, beginning with a nice layer of film grain that is nicely managed and consistent, there's some decent depth and fine detail to the image and the colors are strong and saturated, very nice all the away around. The English PCM 2.0 does a good job exporting the dialogue, score and gooey special effects noises, it comes with optional English SDH subtitles.  

Arrow Video have stuffed this one with some great extras beginning with a brand new commentary recorded for this release, plus Governor of Society (17 Mins), an interview with the director who speaks about going from producing to directing and the making of the film, if you are a fan of the film there's a lot to enjoy here. Then into The Masters of the Hunt (22 Mins), a brand new featurette including interviews with stars Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Ben Meyerson and Tim Bartell whom all speak about reading the oddball script and their time on the set making the film. 

Of course you cannot speak about Society without an interview with the FX team who created the surreal body horror, The Champion of the Shunt (21 Mins) has interview with the notorious Screaming Mad George, David Grasso and Nick Benson who speak about the freedom of creating such strange and disturbing images for the film, fun stuff. The extras are finished up with a 40-minute Q&A with Brian Yuzna from 2014, a brief backstage clip with Yuzna backstage during the world premiere of the film, and a screaming Mad George music video for the song "Persecution Mania" .  

For the sake of review I was sent a screener disc without any of the packaging extras (poor me, right?), but the Director-Approved Limited Edition comes with deluxe Digipak packaging featuring newly-commissioned artwork by Nick Percival, the Society: Party Animal official comic sequel to Society, reproduced in its entirety, and a collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Alan Jones, illustrated with original archive stills and posters for the movie, a pretty grand edition all the way around, Arrow Video went all out for this one.

Special Features:
- Newly remastered 2K digital transfer of the film, approved by director Brian Yuzna
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
- Original Stereo 2.0 audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by Director Brian Yuzna
- Governor of Society – a brand new interview with Brian Yuzna (17 Mins)
- The Masters of the Hunt – a brand new featurette including interviews with stars Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Ben Meyerson and Tim Bartell (22 Mins)  

- The Champion of the Shunt – new featurette with FX artists Screaming Mad George, David Grasso and Nick Benson (21 Mins)
- 2014 Q/A with Yuzna, recorded at Celluloid Screams Festival (39 Mins)
- Brian Yuzna in conversation backstage at the Society world premiere (2 Mins)
- ‘Persecution Mania’ – Screaming Mad George music video (6 Mins) 

- Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by Nick Percival
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Alan Jones, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

The wait for a proper North American release of Society has been a long one and the Director-Approved Limited Edition Blu-ray from Arrow Video was definitely worth the wait, a fantastic transfer with loads of awesome extras and some inspired packaging extras. Society is a body-horror classic, definitely one of the most anticipated releases of the year, and sure to be on my year end top 10, this is top-notch and highly recommended. 

SHIVERS (1975) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

SHIVERS (1975) 

Label: Arrow Video

Region Code: B

Rating: 18 Certificate 

Duration: 88 Minutes 

Audio: English PCM Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Cathy Graham, Fred Doederlein, Allan Kolman
Tagline: BEING TERRIFIED IS JUST THE BEGINNING…

In director David Cronenberg's daring feature film debut we are brought to the Starliner Towers high-rise on Starline Island. It's an idyllic community set apart from the stress of city living. The wealthy residents affluent lives are about to be turned upside down by the experimentation of professor Emil Hobbes (Fred Doederlein) who feels theorizes that humanity has lost touch with their sensual selves. To that end he has developed a parasite that's spreads like a venereal disease from host to host. He incubates his parasites through a young woman named Annabelle Brown (Cathy Graham) whom he murders at the start of the film just before he slits his own throat. Apparently the doc feels his experiment has gotten out of control but it's too late - seems his human petri dish has been sleeping her way around the high-rise infecting others who are exhibiting an abnormal growth in their abdomen, as diagnosed by the building's clinic doctor Roger St. Luc (Paul Hampton) who attempts to thwart the parasites before they can spread to the other inhabitants of the building.

Among the tenant we have Janine (Susan Petrie) and her husband Nicholas (Allan Kolman, SE7EN), Barabare Steel as a sultry lesbian and Roger's super-sexy nurse played by Lynn Lowry (THE CRAZIES) among others. As the parasite spreads the infected are overcome with the insatiable urge to fornicate and spread the parasite further. we have a great scene of Barbara Steele in a bathtub as a parasite work crawls into her lady parts and another gruesome scene of the parasite leaping into a doctor's face, burning him with an acidic secretion he pulls them off his face with a pair of pliers before being bludgeoned to death by the host who them stuffs the parasites back into his mouth. 

The parasites are a few inches long and super-gross. Created by effects wizard Joe Blasco they are old school in-camera effects and awesome, loads of blood mixed in with a perverse sexuality throughout - total Cronenberg. 

Love the scene of one of the hosts vomiting a parasite from a balcony onto an elderly couple below and another of the parasites crawling up the walker of another older couple as the man flicks it off the walking aid and smashes it. 

Another scene features a lesbian kiss and we see the throat of the host bulge as the parasite is transferred from her to the other woman and we see her neck distend - just some great bits of body horror to enjoy here. On top of that we have moments of incest that are just twisted on top of numerous sexual assaults - this is still a subversive and twisted film. 

Paul Hampton and Joe Silver as the docs trying to curtail the spread of the parasites. Silver does a fine job but Hampton comes across cold which might be attributed to his character who at one point rejects Lynn Lowry's advances while she strip nude in front of him, that's just not human! Barbara Steele and Lynn Lowry provide some gorgeous eye candy and at forty years old Steele was still quite a fox. 

For a feature film debut this was quite a film and it contained all the embryonic elements we would come to associate with Cronenberg in later years. SHIVERS remains a seminal work of body-horror and it's vision of parasite driven sex crimes is pretty disturbing stuff. Personally I don;t think I could resist the charms of Barbara Steel or Lynn Lowry if I were thrust into the madness happening at the Starliner Towers. Speaking of Lowry, she had previously appeared in I DRINK YOUR BLOOD (1970) and George Romero's THE CRAZIES (1973) plus softcore goodies like SUGAR COOKIES (1971) and Radley Metzger's SCORE (1974)  I have only to say... WOW! A gorgeous woman and that final scene with her emerging from the pool is just so super seductive, I'd give up without a fight. 

BLU-RAY:

The Blu-ray from Arrow Video presents the film with a brand new HD restoration approved by director David Cronenberg. It's been quite a while since I last watched the long out-of-print DVD but my impression is that this is quite a step up in terms of texture, fine detail, color saturation with more naturally rendered skin tones. There's no hiding this was a low-budget and the image does show some of the limitations of a cheap production but it's not too shabby. I think I can say without hesitation that this is the best the film has ever looked on home video. 

The PCM Mono audio does an adequate job exporting the audio which is expectantly flat but not unpleasant. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

Also available as a Limited Edition Steelbook.

Unfortunately we have no new input from director David Cronenberg on the disc but we do get some decent value added extras produced by High Rising Productions beginning with Parasite Memories: The Making of Shivers – A brand new documentary featuring interviews with stars Barbara Steele, Allan Kolman and Lynn Lowry, special effects genius Joe Blasco and film critic Kier-La Janisse that runs about forty-three minutes. effects artists Joe Blasco recalling his time on the set and reading what he thought was a porno script is awesome - this guy has some great stories about creating the numerous gross effects and the influence on  Ridley Scott's ALIEN just a year later. 

The second making of featurette is a Canadian TV program called ON SCREEN and featuring interviews with Cronenberg and co-producer Don Carmody among others detailing the making of and release of the controversial film. My take away from this one is Cronenberg detailing how actress Susan Petri requested  that Cronenberg take her into the next room to slap her around so she could cry during her scenes, he also goes into Barbara Steele reprimanding him for slapping her around, not realizing she wanted him to do it. 

The video essay From Stereo to Video by Caelum Vatnsdal, author of They Came from Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema charts Cronenberg’s career from his experimental beginnings through to Videodrome. Packed with info this comes across more academic and was my least favorite of the features.

Extras are finished up with the theatrical trailer and a collector's booklet for the film with new writing on the film by Paul Corupe, creator of the Canuxploitation website, reprinted excerpts of Cronenberg on Cronenberg and more, illustrated with original archive stills and posters. The release is also available as a limited edition SteelBook with the same extras. 

There's been some negative buzz about this release from Arrow since it's release based on what appears to be 25 seconds of missing footage and the fact that this is advertised as a director-approved transfer. Arrow sort of pointed the finger at Cronenberg who in turn had stated he only approved of the color timing and did not actually view the restoration himself. I myself am not so well-versed that I can tell where the cuts were made but I can say that this is very fine upgrade of the film, whether it's complete or not I cannot say. As a sub licensed title from Lionsgate - a distributor who is notorious for not giving license of their films to other entities in the US at least - not sure what the chances are that an new uncut HD master would be struck and released in the future. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Limited edition Steelbook packaging
- New High Definition Digital Transfer supervised and approved by writer-director David Cronenberg
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
- Original mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Parasite Memories: The Making of Shivers – A brand new documentary featuring interviews with stars Barbara Steele, Allan Kolman and Lynn Lowry, special effects genius Joe Blasco and film critic Kier-La Janisse (43 Minutes)
- On Screen! – An episode of the Canadian television programme which documents the release history of Shivers, featuring interviews with Cronenberg, co-producer Don Carmody, as well as other cast and crew (48 Minutes)
- From Stereo to Video – A specially-commissioned video essay by Caelum Vatnsdal, author of They Came from Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema, charting Cronenberg’s career from his experimental beginnings through to Videodrome, his first major studio picture (26 Minutes)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (1 Minute)
- Collector’s Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Paul Corupe, creator of the Canuxploitation website, reprinted excerpts of Cronenberg on Cronenberg and more, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

VERDICT:
It was quite fun to re visit SHIVERS which has been quite hard to come by here in the US. It's Cronenberg's first feature film and while it's rough around the edges it has many of the directors touchstones in their embryonic form, this is a body-horror classic from start to finish with loads of squeamish fun and hordes of horny infected people just trying to fornicate for the sake of spreading the parasite. Missing seconds aside this is a top-notch release with a some quality extras. would love to see Cronenberg's follow-up film RABID with Marilyn Chambers get the deluxe HD treatment from Arrow Video. SHIVERS is not available on Blu-ray in the US and this region B release from Arrow is the only way to find it in HD. 

Blu-ray Review: BAD MILO! (2013)

BAD MILO! (2013) 

Label: Magnet Releasing
Region: A

Rating: R

Duration: 84 Minutes

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)

Audio: English DTS-HD Master 5.1 Audio with Optional English Subtitles

Director: Jacob Vaughn 

Cast: Ken Marino, Gillian Jacob, Peter Stormare, Patrick Warburton, Erik Charles Nielson, Steve Zissis, Toby Huss

At it's heart Bad Milo! is a scatalogical version of David Cronenberg's The Brood (1979) by way of 80's horror comedies Critters (1986) and Basket Case (1982) starring Ken Marino (Role Models) as an average put-upon guy under enormous emotional strain. He has a devoted wife Sarah (Gillian Jacobs) who wants a baby, a manipulative boss (Patrick Warburton, TV's The Tick), an annoying co worker (Erik Charles Nielson, TV's Community) and free-spirited mother (Mary Kay Place, TV's Big Love). All of these elements add to his distress and that stress is manifesting itself as a painful gastrointestinal anomaly which he believes might be an ulcer and what the doc diagnoses as polyps. They're both wrong, the cause of Duncan's gut-churning is a vicious, pint-sized ass monster, a toothsome and clawed monstrosity that carries out Duncan's subconscious desire to hurt those who have done him wrong, it emerges from his clenched-sphincter from time to time killing, the ensuing string of deaths are blamed on a rabid raccoon by the media. 

It's a fun watch with some great comedic moments including a nightmare dinner scenario with Duncan's mother who invites an annoying  fertility specialist (Steve Zissis, Baghead) to speed along the baby-making process for her son while her way-younger husband Bobbi (Kumail Nanjiani, TV's Portlandia) whom makes uncomfortable comments about the size of his cock and the difficulty of squeezing into Duncan's mothers ("just-the-tip Tuesday"), eww. 

The film has a great cast heavy with TV comedy players, plus Peter Stormare Toby Huss (HBO'S Carnivàle) plays a humorous proctologist with a colorful bedside manner ("you've got a trooper in your pooper") and an estranged new age father played by News Radio's Stephen Root who is always a pleasure, it's a tremendous cast.

(The Big Lebowski) as a new age hypnotherapist with a mouthy pet parrot who convinces Duncan he must bond with his deadly inner-turd to curb it's murderous tendencies.  

The creature design of Milo is pretty awesome, a cute and dung-demon that's equal parts wide-eyed Gizmo from Gremlins (1984) and grotesque Belial from Frank Henelotter's Basket Case (1982) rendered onset by puppeteers with very little digital enhancement which gives it a particular 80's feel, loved it. Unfortunately the blood spatter is digital but it's not awful. 

There's not a ton of gore but what there is of it is fun stuff, including a painful penis-shredding, ouch. When Milo initially renters Duncan's sphincter the clawed-creature crawls up the leg towards his anal-nest, that made my leg twitch. 

Bad Milo! is a decent horror-comedy with a quirky heart and a fun premise and a great cast who keep this absurd comedy entertaining. It definitely plays up the comedy more than the horror while dealing with real-world issues of fatherhood fears, abandonment issues and relationships wrapped up in toilet humor, fun stuff.

Blu-ray: Magnet give Bad Milo! a very nice 1080p widescreen presentation with an active DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track with a nice set of extras. My only beef with the release would be that they opted not to use the theatrical poster and went with a generic photo shopped cover.

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Director Jacob Vaughn and Writer Benjamin Hayes
- Trailer (2:10) HD
- Magnet Trailers (9:08) for Last Days on Mars, How I Live Now, Best man Down, Mr. Nobody HD 

- Extended Outtakes (7:40) HD
- Extended Dinner Scene (7:01) HD
- Deleted Scene: Veterinarian (1:20) HD
- Behind Milo: The Puppeteers! (1:33) HD
- Behind Milo: Raw Take (1:04) HD
- Interview with Ken Marino  (9:49) HD
- AXS TV: A Look at Bad Milo (3:03)

Verdict: At the end of the day Bad Milo! is a fun weekend watch. I'd highly recommend this to fans of Deadly Spawn (1983), Brain Damage (1988), Ghoulies (1985) and Critters (1986). A b-movie horror-comedy with heart, that's not particularly clever but pretty darn entertaining. 3.5 Outta 5