WITHOUT WARNING (1980)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Greydon Clark
Cast: Jack Palance, Tarah Nutter. Christopher Nelson, Cameron Mitchell, Neville Brand, Sue Ane Langhorn, Ralph Meeker, Larry Stortch
Alien-terror flick Without Warning (1980) concerns teenagers Tom (David Caruso, Session 9), Greg (Christopher T. Nelson, Roller Boogie), Beth (Lynn Theel, Humanoids from the Deep), Sandy (Tarah Nutter), a fun loving bunch of teens who head on out to a rural country lake for some weekend fun in the sun. Tom and Beth are the your standard-issue horny teens while Greg and Sandy are more virginal and innocent types, the four pile into a sweet 70's shag carpeted Chevy van and drive into the wilderness expecting nothing more but a good time.
Meanwhile out at the lake area we have father Hunter (Cameron Mitchell, Blood and Black Lace) and his young son are enjoying a father-son weekend hunting trip, plus there's a troop of Cub Scouts and their scout leader Larry Storch (Sweet Sixteen,TV's F Troop), doing your typical scout-type stuff like earning merit badges in the great outdoors. The pair of hunters and the scout troop both end up encountering more than they bargained for this weekend, as something sinister and deadly is lurking in the woods, as they come under attack from flying jellyfish looking creatures that latches onto it's victims and dig into their flesh. These tiny suckers aren't the only threat in the woods however, these frightful frisbees of death are being flung ninja-star style by an alien creature with a human blood lust.
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Greydon Clark
Cast: Jack Palance, Tarah Nutter. Christopher Nelson, Cameron Mitchell, Neville Brand, Sue Ane Langhorn, Ralph Meeker, Larry Stortch
Alien-terror flick Without Warning (1980) concerns teenagers Tom (David Caruso, Session 9), Greg (Christopher T. Nelson, Roller Boogie), Beth (Lynn Theel, Humanoids from the Deep), Sandy (Tarah Nutter), a fun loving bunch of teens who head on out to a rural country lake for some weekend fun in the sun. Tom and Beth are the your standard-issue horny teens while Greg and Sandy are more virginal and innocent types, the four pile into a sweet 70's shag carpeted Chevy van and drive into the wilderness expecting nothing more but a good time.
Meanwhile out at the lake area we have father Hunter (Cameron Mitchell, Blood and Black Lace) and his young son are enjoying a father-son weekend hunting trip, plus there's a troop of Cub Scouts and their scout leader Larry Storch (Sweet Sixteen,TV's F Troop), doing your typical scout-type stuff like earning merit badges in the great outdoors. The pair of hunters and the scout troop both end up encountering more than they bargained for this weekend, as something sinister and deadly is lurking in the woods, as they come under attack from flying jellyfish looking creatures that latches onto it's victims and dig into their flesh. These tiny suckers aren't the only threat in the woods however, these frightful frisbees of death are being flung ninja-star style by an alien creature with a human blood lust.
Unware of what's been happening our teens stop off at a roadside gas station where encounter bizarre proprietor Joe Taylor (Jack Palance, Jess Franco's Justine), the flick's harbinger of doom who warns the teens to stay away from the lake, but of course they just laugh it off. Soon after the teens arrive at the scenic water hole and take a dip before the couples split up to pursue their own interests. Of course, it's the horny teens who disappear without a trace early on and the virgins are left to sleuth Scooby-Doo style what has happened to their companions. Assuming their friends are off fucking in the woods they are quite horrified when they find their gooey corpses in a tiny shack along with the bodies of the scout leader and the hunters. Freaked out they scurry back into town and into a bar where they try to tell warn the locals, but the drunken townies just are not buying the city-folk's story. It's here we have some fun appearances from Neville Brand (Eaten Alive) and the aforementioned Jack Palance. Then there is the character of Sarge, a 'Nam vet played by Martin Landau (Ed Wood) who suffers from post-traumatic stress and a bit of alien paranoia, so of course he is the only one who believes the wild story.
Without Warning is exactly the sort of drive-in sci-fi/horror flick that I just love to death, a relic from a bygone era of low-budget cinema with characters that don't follow logic and end up making all the wrong choices. The movie also has a fun cast of characters, teens Greg and Sandy are just the sweetest teens you could ever imagine, they're so nice and polite that it's sort of disgusting, haha. It also helps that both of the young ladies in the film are easy on the eyes, too. While the teens are supposedly the main characters of this flic it is veteran actors Jack Palance and Martin Landau who chew the most scenery, stealing the movie from right from under them young whipper snappers. Landau is particularly fun as the bug-eyed lunatic who believes that everyone has been replaced by aliens, it's just a lot of ridiculous paranoiac fun.
The low-budget special effects in the flick are also a lot of fun, those blood-sucking alien jellyfish pulsate and excrete a yellow liquid which is gooey and gross looking, we get a scene where they latch onto a windshield which offers a close-up and you can see the teeth gnashing away. A lot of the effects are dated but I love these rubber creatures designs, as a fan of low-budget cinema this is the butter on my toast. The predatory creature design is a thing of schlocky beauty, an elongated grey alien with a massive cranium and long creepy fingers. Perhaps not the most articulated design you will ever see but very effective, especially when only glimpsed for brief snatches of screen time. The reveal of the alien is quite effective, it's a bit of a shame it's spoiled on the artwork for the Blu-ray. .
Audio/Video: Without Warning (1980) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in the original widescreen aspect ratio (1.85:1) and appears quite nice. Shot on the cheap it manages to look pretty spiffy with a nice grain structure and some good color saturation. The HD upgrade doesn't give the fine detail a massive bump but a very pleasing image. The source material is in pretty great shape considering this cult item has been hard to come by for years, and sort of still is as the this Blu-ray is currently out-of-print. The English DTS-HD Mono is clean and well balanced, plus the Dan Wyman (Hell Night) score is creepy and sounds great - there are English subtitles provided.
Onto the extras we have a 21-minute interview with stars Actors Christopher S. Nelson and Tarah Nutter with Nelson remembers the experience fondly and of working with veterans Jack Palance and Martin Landau, while Nutter remembers being cold a lot on set and the struggle to stay warm and being cast in the role. Both actors speak fondly of each other and director Graydon Clark (Satan's Cheerleaders) and what it was like working on a small budget film. Nutter tells of destroying the shack in the field with the sheer volume of her scream, sure. My favorite story from Nelson is that of Jack Palance threatening to punch David Caruso in the face when the actoer laughed during one of his scenes, now that I would love to see!
Cinematographer Dean Cundey (The Thing) chimes in for about fifteen minutes about working with Greydon on four previous low budget films (Black Shampoo, Satan's Cheerleaders, Hi-Riders, Angels Brigade) and this ambitious low-budget production. He warmly recollects working on the film just after finishing Halloween with John Carpenter despite being warned to stay away from exploitation films for the sake of his career and what a great experience it was.
There's also a brief six-minute interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator Greg Cannom who speaks about creating the low-budget effects for the film while Co-Writer/Co-Producer Daniel Grodnik speaks about his career producing films which includes slasher classic Terror Train and the comedy Star Hops. Extras are buttoned-up with trailers and still gallery plus a reversible sleeve of artwork.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Producer/Director Greydon Clark
- Independents Day: Interview with Cinematographer Dean Cundey (15 minutes)
- Producers vs Aliens: Interview with Co-Writer/Co-Producer Daniel Grodnik (11 minutes)
- Hunter's Blood: Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator Greg Cannom
(6 minutes)
- Greg & Sandy's Alien Adventure: Interview with Actors Christopher S. Nelson and Tarah Nutter (21 minutes)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2 minutes)
- Still Gallery (4 minutes)
- Scream Factory Trailers (5 minutes)
I love it when Scream Factory unearth these drive-in cult classics and spiff them up for the fans to enjoy, this is right up there with backwoods slasher The Final Terror as a true culty gem of a flick - these would make a great double-feature. I love this weird slice of science fiction drive-in cinema with it's cast of oddball characters and low-budget charms, this is a fiendishly good time for cult film fans. It might not be a genuinely scary movie but it's certainly a fun relic of a bygone era with some nice atmosphere and alien creepiness. Sadly this Blu-ray edition is currently sold out and out-of-print, hopefully Scream Factory will re-new the rights and re-issue it, if not I hope someone like Arrow Video or Vinegar Syndrome will pick it up.
