Friday, May 11, 2018

DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM: THE NEW BATCH (Umbrella Blu-ray Review)

DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM: THE NEW BATCH 

 Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: R 18+
Duration: 373 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (No Subtitles) 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen, Full FRame

 Synopsis: Just when you thought that you’d seen every pulse-pounding, blood-drenched, flesh-filled scrap of trailer trash comes this third stupefying serving of mind-numbing, skull-splitting retro movie madness! Bulging with over 6 hours of non-stop sex, violence, vehicle destruction and cockamamie cosmic carnage - DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM: THE NEW BATCH is a rip-roaring, off-road, high-def ruckus that proudly programs your Blu-ray player to DETONATE!

 Strap yourself in with a few cold brews into your favorite ass-worn spot on the couch in front of the TV because the latest installment of the Drive-In Delirium trailer compilation has been unleashed by Umbrella Entertainment, over six-hours of blood-soaked gore, demented trauma, stylish suspense and goose-pimpling intrigue crammed onto a Blu-ray disc for your cinematic enjoyment. 

 We get 175 deliciously remastered trailers in eye-popping HD with a wide-ranging selection of genre movie previews, it goes from spy thrillers to sexploitation, from schlocky sci-fi to b-movie action grinders and 80's slashers, and a little bit of everything in-between to please all manner of genre film fans. 

 What I love about trailer compilations is that you almost always find some golden nugget of horror or an exploitation gem that you've just straight-up missed or forgotten about, and this one was no different, I actually bought the Code Red Blu-ray of Sole Survivor (1984) while I was still watching the trailer for it, it's very rare to watch a Drive-In Delirium entry and not find a new must-see movie to add to the collection or watch-list! This trailer-packed sucker is divided up into two chapters, we have Part One: The Quickening and then Part Two: The New Batch, these are brilliant looking, some of which seemingly looked better than the versions I own of the full-length films. 

 There's also a bonus chapter titled VHS Delirium, featuring 95 minutes of full-frame standard def trailers that look like they were pulled straight off a VHS tape and crammed onto the disc with loads of thick video compression dripping off of it, which is fun in a retro-VHS sort of way, and really make you appreciate the HD remastering of the main feature.  

 Aside from the trailers there are also pre-shows adverts and PSA's for each part including commercials for vintage frog men toys, Secret Sam spy guns (which looked fucking amazing!), a windshield drizzle guard for when you're at the drive-in in the rain, plus vintage refreshment intermissions, and a Star Wars anti-smoking PSA starring C-3PO and R2-D2 which I'd never seen before.  I am very pleased with this set, but if I am allowed to niggle just a tiny bit I would have loved some Trailers from Hell style trailer commentary tracks for a few of these, how cool would that have been to hear Mick Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood) or Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead) wax nostalgic on these? But let's not get bogged down in what could have been because what we get is pretty damn awesome. 

PART ONE: THE QUICKENING (191 min) HD 
  • PreShow
  • The Creeping Unknown (The Quatermass Experiment) 
  • The Angry Red Planet
  • The Green Slime
  • Chosen Survivors
  • Meteor
  • The Dark
  • Without Warning
  • Xtro
  • Altered States
  • Slient Rage
  • 1990: The Bronx Warriors
  • Night of the Comet
  • The Quiet Earth
  • TerrorVision
  • The Hidden 
  • The Curse
  • Our Man Flint
  • When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
  • The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
  • Doc Savage - The Man of Bronze
  • Wizards
  • They Call me Mister Tibbs
  • The Stone Killer
  • The Laughing Policeman
  • Freebie and the Bean
  • Brannigan
  • Night Moves
  • 10 to midnight
  • Tightrope
  • Gorky Park
  • Dead Heat
  • Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
  • Convoy
  • Death Machine
  • Game of Death
  • Swordkill
  • Exterminator 2
  • Death Wish 3
  • Striking Back
  • Rolling Vengeance
  • The Killing Of America
  • Savage Attraction (Hostage)
  • Fair Game
  • Hellhole
  • The Naked Cage
  • The Cassandra Crossing
  • The Domino Principle
  • Eye of the Needle
  • Cabo Blanco
  • Death Hunt
  • Fragment of Fear
  • Eyes of Laura Mars
  • Last Embrace
  • Still of the Night
  • Death Valley
  • Highpoint
  • The Naked Face
  • Dead Ringers
  • Escape to Athena
  • Attack Force Z
  • Missing in Action
  • Mata Hari
  • Death Rides a Dead Horse
  • Adios Sabata
  • Valdez is Coming
  • The Hunting Party
  • Breakheart Pass
  • From Noon Til Three
  • Linda and Abileine
  • Last Tango in Paris
  • Caligula
  • They're Playing With Fire
  • Every Home Should Have One
  • The Pink Panther Strikes Again
  • High Anxiety
  • The Kentucky Fried Movie
  • The Nude Bomb
  • History of the World - Part 1
  • The Man With Two Brains
  • Cannonball Run II
  • Amazon Women on the Moon
  • Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
  • Intermission
PART TWO: THE NEW BATCH (180 min) HD 
VHS DELIRIUM (94 min) SD
  • Christiane F
  • Live a Little, Steal a Lot
  • Sisters
  • Starflight One
  • Fake-Out
  • Full Moon High
  • Q The Winged Serpent
  • High Road to China
  • They Call Me Bruce
  • Fritz the Cat
  • Hostage
  • Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday
  • Yellowbeard
  • Breathless
  • Jaguar Lives
  • The Lonely Lady
  • Split Image
  • Yor, The Hunter from the Future
  • Zulu Dawn
  • Kill and Kill Again
  • The Last Hunter
  • Flesh For Frankenstein
  • Blood For Dracula
  • House by the Cemetery
  • Get Crazy
  • Threshold
  • Brainwaves
  • Caligula
  • Never Say Never Again
  • 21 Hours at Munich
  • Count Yorga Vampire
  • Chrome and Hot Leather
  • High Ballin'
  • Stone Cold Dead
  • The Cold Room
  • An American Werewolf in London
  • Alligator
  • Empire of the Ants
  • The Return
  • Young Doctors in Love
  • Melvin Son of Alvin
  • Scanners
  • The Philadelphia Experiment
  • Cujo
  • Defiance
  • The Fifth Floor
  • Jennifer
  • Secrets of the Phantom Caverns
  • Kill Squad
  • Inseminoid
  • Savage Islands
  • Battletruck
  • Cannonball
  • Cannonball Run II
  • Something Wicked This Way Comes
  • The Rutles
  • Cloud Dancer
  • Hysterical
  • Roadhouse '66
  • 1984
  • Lassiter
  • Losin' It
  • The Key
  • Insatiable
  • Bedside Headmaster
  • Julia
  • When a Stranger Calls
  • Tilt
  • The Pursuit of D.B Cooper
  • Condorman
  • Scarred
  • Seven
  • Filght 90
  • Angel
  • Dominique
  • The Day After
  • The Exterminators of the Years 3000
  • Cross Country
This single-disc Blu-ray is region-free and comes housed in an over-sized 16mm spine Blu-ray keepcase, the cover is an appropriately a sweet mash-up of iconic b-movie illustrations including 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Death Wish 3, Humanoids from the Deep, C.H.U.D., When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, The Green Slime, Futureworld and more! It also includes a sleeve of reversible artwork, the b-side featuring an advert for previous editions of the Drive-In Delirium series and chapter selection for the trailers on the set. The disc itself features the usual film canister artwork that is also featured on past edition of the series. 

Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch is an eye-bleeding array of b-movie mayhem that juggles genres deftly enough that it kept me from suffering something I call genre fatigue, which happens when too many trailers from the same sub-genre are lumped int together, but this one has a nice balance of variety about it. If you're a trailer minded cinephile this would be a great addition to your collection, the HD presentations are top notch and make for a head-spinning good time, highly recommended. 
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