MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: REPLIGATOR (1998) Visual Vengeance Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review)

REPLIGATOR (1998)

Label: Visual Vengeance

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 85 Minutes 26 Seconds

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)

Director: Bret McCormick

Cast: Gunnar Hansen, Brinke Stevens, Keith Kjornes, TJ Myers, Randy Clower, Carl Merritt

Director: Bret McCormick

Synopsis: An army experiment gone awry turns burly brutes into gorgeous nymphets who morph into gators when they reach orgasm. This crazy, erotic sci-fi romp tells the story of a top secret military experiment that turns burly soldiers into sexy nymphomaniac babes who turn into gators when they reach orgasm! The film stars Gunnar Hansen (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and scream queen Brinke Stevens (Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bowl-A-Rama) who reveals her finest assets. A cult classic ripe for rediscovery, Repligator offers non-stop fun and plenty of topless babes.

There's not a lot more I could add to that distributor provided synopsis, and if I attempted to do so I just might go cross-eyed attempting to make sense of it all, so I won't. In fact, that's probably why they stuffed this screwball comedy with so many topless babes, just to turn off the thinking part of the brain so you could just enjoy how deliciously campy and fun this cornball b-movie is. It also co-stars Gunnar Hansen (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as Dr. Kildare and 80's scream queen Brinke Stevens (Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity) as Dr. Goodbody, oh the names in this movie are something else, let me tell you - Col. Sanders, Gen. Mills anyone? Both are scientist working for the military industrial complex, Goodbody has tapped into the horny thoughts of men and transcribed them into video form, and Kildare has invented a device called the Replicator that is supposed to transport soldiers from one place to another instantly, but ends up turning hard-nosed male soldiers into hubba-hubba horny babes, oh, and he invented x-ray specs that reveal the nude women beneath their clothes - now tell me what's not to love about all of that? There is however one very unfortunate side effect to all of these men turned in gorgeous babes - once these babes are sexed-up and achieve orgasm they transform into alligator-women - that's right - glorious no budget rubber headed alligator-women, but still hubba-hubba in a weird way, women! Now, the rubber heads looks more like T-Rex than Alligators, but what the heck, I'll let it slide.

So, yeah this is a pretty fun bad flick that will illicit plenty of eye-rolling, the brand of comedy is juvenile and the sci-fi techno babble is mind-numbing but they managed something here that's rarely done well, they set out to make a bad movie by design and it actually worked - and it certainly doesn't hurt that there's plenty of topless women throughout, which is sure to please that reptile part of your brain.

The special effects are laugh-out-loud bad with pretty terrible 90's digital effects but the cast are just awful enough in the best possible way to make the screwball script work it's schlocky magic. Imagine if Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker) penned a retro science fiction script and Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall) directed it with Roger Corman producing but only giving them the enough money to cover the catering budget on one of his more anemic productions, that right there is bad movie making firing on all cylinders! To give credit were credit is due the film was written by Keith Kjorned (who co-stars as Dr. Oliver) and produced/directed by Texas b-movie auteur Bret McCormick (The Abomination), this was the first film I'd ever watched by McCormick some years ago, and when I first reviewed the Whacked Out Movies DVD years back I said I had zero interest in watching any of his other films based on my experience - well, I was wrong, my tastes have changed a bit, I've developed more of an appreciation for these trashy little no-budget nuggets; but even so I will say that achieving this sort of "good" bad-film is like capturing lightning in a bottle and your mileage may vary, while I had a hoot revisiting it others might think it's about as entertaining as a jar full of cold piss.

Audio/Video: RepliGator (1998) makes it's Blu-ray debut from Visual Vengeance on a region-free disc in 1080p HD sourced from a new, director supervised SD master from original master tapes, presented in fullscreen (1.33:1). The film was originally shot on 8mm short ends and transferred to tape, and it looks VHS-dupey and SD, but not too shabby. Colors are generally good, and while the image is never sharp it dies have a few surprising moments of appreciable detail in the close-ups. Audi0 comes by way of uncompressed DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles. It's low-fidelity for sure but clean and free of any serious issues that would otherwise cause distraction.

Coming from Visual Vengeance you would expect a ton of extras and you would not be disappointed. We start off with an Audio Commentary with director Bret McCormick and Glen Coburn, followed by a second Audio Commentary with Sam Panico of B&S About Movies and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum. Next up is the 5-min Archival Making Of Featurette, then onto a 6-min Archival Bret McCormick Interview from 2013, plus a 4-min Original Deleted Opening Scene. New extras come by way of nearly 50-minutes of New Interviews with Director Bret McCormick, Producer Wynn Winberg, Actress Brinke Stevens, and Actors Carl Merritt and Randy Clower. The disc is buttoned-up with 4-min of Visual Vengeance Trailers.

The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork featuring a new kick-ass illustration plus the original VHS artwork, plus a First Pressing Only Slipcover featuring unique artwork which itself is pretty bad-add, a digital illustration of a more fully realized gator-babe than what we actually find in the film itself. Inside there's a 2-Sided insert with info about the film, a Folded Mini-Poster with the new illustration from the wrap, and a pair of cardboard Repligator Branded X-Ray Specs which as a kid who always saw the X-ray glasses ads in the back of comics I adore, but the are too small for my fat head, plus the 'Stick Your Own' VHS Sticker Sheet that have accompanied all of the Visual Vengeance releases.