LUNATICS: A LOVE STORY (1990)
Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: NTSC Region-FREE
Duration: 83 Minutes
Rating: M
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0
Video: Full Frame (1.33:1)
Director: Josh Becker
Cast: Deborah Foreman, Ted Raimi, Bruce Campbell
In this quirky love story starring a bunch of Evil Dead alumni we have L.A. weirdo Hank Stone (Ted Raimi, Skinner), an unemployed nut who fancies himself a poet, who it seems has not left his apartment in six months. Inside he is haunted by his own delusions, imagining threatening rap trios and a mad doctor (played by Bruce Campbell, Evil Dead) out to dissect him, while also suffering hallucinations of brain-eating spiders. The walls of his apartment are covered in tin foil, so you know he's one of those foil-nuts you see out in the streets.
Early on we see him engaged in a phone call with his obviously worried mother, and he's quickly painted as a man who might be a few tacos short of a proper combo platter. Not a bad guy, but a man lost in his own mind, he even imagines making out with the curvy woman on the lingerie billboard he stares at outside his apartment window.
Across town we meet Nancy (Deborah Foreman, April Fool's Day) a kindhearted L.A. transplant from the Mid West, who after seeing a cute puppy get demolished by a dump truck on the street gets dumped by her scuzzbag boyfriend (also played by Bruce Campbell). On the way out the door to meet-up with his new lady friend he snatches all her cash and she ends up evicted from their shared motel room by a callous manager. On the streets she runs afoul of a group of gang members and winds up hiding out in a payphone at a bus stop. This is where she receives a accidental call from weirdo Hank, who dialed the wrong number while trying to call one of those party love lines that were so popular in the early 90's, or at least they were advertised a lot, not sure if they were actually popular, they always seemed sort of desperate, which I guess is kind of the point.
As luck would have it Nancy's situation is so dire she takes this stranger up on his offer to come over to his apartment. Arriving she notices that Hank is a bit offbeat to say the least, a bit astonished by his choice of wall coverings, but she goes along with it, even taking him up on his offer of a Japanese bean paste cake. The poor guy really tries to act normal but his neurosis and overpowering hallucinations begin to kick, knocking her out with an unexpected punch to the face. She wakes up suffering from her own concussed delusion and tries to shoot him with a handgun, before wisely running off.
Not wanting to lose the only real human connection he's had in at least six months the headcase Hank wraps himself in tin-foil armor and heads out onto the streets to find her armed with a bat, but first he has to do battle with the imaginary threats in his mind, including a gaggle of homicidal surgeons in the hallway outside his apartment and the Earth ripping opens and swallowing cars in the street.
Lunatics: A Love Story is a quirky indie film, I imagine it would have the most real interest from fans of Sam Raimi's group of film-making friends, this being directed by Josh Becker, his follow-up to Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except (1985). It's a quirky bit of lo-fi film-making, Ted Raimi and Deborah Foreman have a fun chemistry as two people with real emotional problems trying to come together during a very strange night in L.A.. The film is low-budget but has that Raimi-centric indie spirit, with director Josh Becker offering some moody colored lighting, stop-motion animation and use of miniatures to give the indie production a bit of cinematic zest. Of course it's also great to see Bruce Campbell pop-up here is a few roles, he plays the asshole boyfriend very well, I love the slapstick comeuppance he gets right there at the end!
Audio/Video: Lunatics: A Love Story arrives on region-free DVD from Umbrella Entertainment in full frame 1.33:1 - looking to be sourced from an older looking standard-definition master of some sort. I have no idea if this was originally shot in full frame or widescreen. It at least looks better than a few VHS clips I've seen of it on the Internet, it's never less than watchable, but blacks are anemic and the darker scenes can be pretty murky looking, but colors are fairly decent looking throughout. Audio comes by way of a Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 track that's equally serviceable, the highlight being the wonderfully early 90's score from composer Joseph LoDuca (Army of Darkness) that matches the goofiness of the the film. There are no subtitle options for playback.
This single-disc DVD release comes housed in a standard DVD keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster for the film, the same artwork is used on the disc itself.
Lunatics: A Love Story (1990) is a quirky love story that has largely gone under the radar for years, with only a VHS release from Sony. I don't think it's ever had a legit DVD release until this one right here. It's not the special edition some fans might have wanted, but just having it available on disc for the first time is pretty cool. If you're a die hard fan of cutey Deborah Foreman or the circle of film-making friends who made Evil Dead this will probably be quite a fun discovery for you.
