MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM

Saturday, May 2, 2026

THE PARANORMAL (1998) Visual Vengeance Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review + Screenshots

THE PARANORMAL (1998)

Visual Vengeance Collector's Edition Blu-ray

Label: Visual Vengeance

Region Code: Region-Free

Duration: 70 Minutes 11 Seconds

Rating: Unrated

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080i HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)

Director: Todd Norris

Cast: Todd Norris, Audrey Crabtree, Nenita Gumangan, C. Wayne Owens

The Todd Norris directed shot-on-video The Paranormal (1998) was shot at historic Kansas City Englewood Theater, in it a paranormal investigator Kyle Jennings (director Todd Norris) returns to his hometown to investigate a movie theater that is said to be haunted. In an interesting turn of events a film playing at the theater, the haunted happenings are emanating from a low budget zombie movie called Z For Zombie, a film that is possessed by the vengeful spirit the it's director who died during it production. During the screening of the film a portal between the real world and the film's world opens up during splice points, allowing the zombies from the film to spill over into our reality, and also allowing Jennings to enter the film, in an attempt to thwart the film's inherent evil.

It's an impressively ambitious, clever and well thought out low-budget bit of filmmaking, made for $3K, they do a lot with very little. The Englewood location is fantastic, the mix of ghostly happening and the undead zombies are fun stuff. Clearly Norris put some thought into the story and the execution of the shoot, there's some cool lighting and low-budget, it's just a nicely accomplished SOV flick with an interesting premise that rises up above the usual 'let's bang out a cheapie' no-budget schlockfest, which I appreciated. It's still a very low-budget and amateur production with some stiff acting from an amateur cast, but the concept and execution is pretty solid, and I had a great time with this one.

Audio/Video: The Paranormal (1998) makes it's disc debut from Visual Vengeance sourced from director-supervised transfer from original tape elements, so the mage looks like a pretty well preserved VHS tape, it has that dupey look to it, soft and ill-defined, but if you're an SOV junkie this is pretty nice looking with all those caveats in mind. Audio comes by way of English Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles. The track like the video presentation has plenty of source limitations, but sounds fine, slightly muted and thin in the ranges, so I did appreciate the subtitles.

The jam-packed collector's edition features two commentaries, the first is an Audio Commentary with director Todd Norris, and a second with Audio Commentary with director Todd Norris and Composer Paul Roberts. This release is stacked with interviews as well, including 8-min of New Cast and Crew Interviews with director Todd Norris, actors Dave Baldin, Jess Sisson, plus the 15-min The Two Todds: Todd Norris and Todd Sheets Interview.

Other bonus bit include 4-min of The Paranormal Channel 5 TV Airing Bumpers that accompanied airings of the film on that channel, an 11-min Blooper Reel, 12-min of Deleted Scenes, 37-sec of Original Script Excerpts and a 2-min Storyboard Gallery.

The wealth of extras continue on with four Todd Norris Short Films, we get the 6-min The Closet, the 3-min L… , 9-min Night of the Growling, and the 5-min Parallax. The disc is buttoned-up with 4-min of Visual Vengeance Trailers for The Paranormal, he Screaming, Scream Dream, and Splatter Theater.

The single-disc Blu-ray arrives in a clear keepcase with a Reversible Wrap featuring both the original VHS release artwork plus a new illustration by The Dude Designs, tucked away inside are a Folded Mini-Poster with art by Giorgio Credaro and one of the 'Stick Your Own Sticker Set', The Limited edition first-pressing of this release also includes a fun wink and a nod to William Castle gimmickry by way of the 'Ghost Finder' Viewer, and a Promo Flyer for 'Z is For Zombie' movie, which is the movie-within-the-movie, plus a O-card Slipcover featuring art by Uncle Frank.