SCREAM QUEEN (1998/2002)
Visual Vengeance Collector's Edition
Label: Visual Vengeance
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 73 Minutes 43 Seconds
Rating: Unrated
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.o with Optional English subtitles.
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Brad Sykes
Cast: Linnea Quigley, C. Courtney Joyner, Jarrod Robbins, Kurt Levee
In the late-era SOV flick Scream Queen (1998), directed by Brad Sykes (Camp Blood) real-life scream queen Linnea Quigley (Night of the Demons) plays a version of herself, a bitchy horror star named Malicia Tombs who makes life miserable for her cast and crew on her latest flick Scream Queen. After a difficult day of shooting the horror star mysteriously in a flaming car wreck, now with the star dead the film remains unfinished.
In the late-era SOV flick Scream Queen (1998), directed by Brad Sykes (Camp Blood) real-life scream queen Linnea Quigley (Night of the Demons) plays a version of herself, a bitchy horror star named Malicia Tombs who makes life miserable for her cast and crew on her latest flick Scream Queen. After a difficult day of shooting the horror star mysteriously in a flaming car wreck, now with the star dead the film remains unfinished.
A year later the surviving cast and crew are summoned to a isolated location by an unknown host, gathering there they are greeted by diminutive minion Runyon (Kurt Levee) and eventually the host makes their identity known. This part is supposed to be a twist but I thought it was broadcast well before the reveal. The host pitches a plan to finish the film but as the guests settle in for the night a masked killer starts chopping and hacking their way through the cast and crew Ten Little Indians slasher style.
That's the basic premise here it's a fun meta idea for a horror flick coming at a time when meta horror was not de rigueur the way it is these days. The good here is pretty much anything with Linnea Quigley, her scenes are made better by the mere fact that she's in them, I particularly liked the music video she's in. The production is ultra low-budget and shot on S-VHS by a mostly novice cast and crew, Quigley is arguably the most skilled person involved in the production, and it shows. It feels like ametuer hour (and it was) with oddball framing that is not so much an artistic choice as it is just bad camerawork. Another plus is that some of the kills are staged pretty decently with a myriad of weaponry and some good blood work, nothing too gory, but decent for a no-budget SOV.
To be honest this was a pretty difficult watch, even at under 80 minutes I found myself bored quite often, I would say that despite an interesting premise and set-up it;s a pretty wretched watch, and unless your a bottom-scraping lover of shot-on-video it would be difficult to recommend this to anyone. I do applaud Visual Vengeance's continued dedication to preserving this niche sub-genre though, you can see their passion for this sort of fringe cinema, but this particular one did very little for me. This is not a recommend unless your a diehard Quigley completist or a SOV bottom-feeder. The real find here are the extras, even if I hate a flick I can enjoy some solid extras and the interviews with the cast and crew, and booklet, do excellent work talking about the problematic shoot, troubled editing, and distribution history, I actually enjoyed the extras quite a bit more than the feature this time around.
Audio/Video: Scream Queen (1998/2000) makes it's worldwide Blu-ray debut and first widely available release from Wild Eye Releasing's Visual Vengeance imprint, presenting the film with a new director-approved 480p SD master presented on Blu-ray from original tape elements. How's it look? Truthfully, fucking awful, but as it was a S-VHS SOV low-budgeter I expected that. Colors are drab, darker scenes are dupey and murky as hell with shit contrast, even by the usual low standard of SOV I thought this looked pretty bad, but considering the source elements it's certainly the best it's ever gonna look.
Audio comes by way of lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles, and the elements sound fine, it's not what I would ever call well-balanced, but it does the job.
Disc extras include an Audio Commentary with Writer / Director Brad Sykes; the 30-minute Once Upon A Time In Horrorwood: Behind the Scenes Documentary, the 79-min Original Producer’s Cut of Movie, 1 12-min New Linnea Quigley Interview; 3-min Editor Mark Polonia Interview, a Behind The Scenes Image Gallery, a Linnea Quigley Image Gallery, Original Script Selects, the 2-min Original Trailer, plus a selection of Visual Vengeance Trailers for Scream Queen (0:51), RepliGator (1:05), Heartland of Darkness (1:27), and Dinosaur Valley Girls.
The single-disc release arrives in a standard clear keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork featuring original home video artwork as well as a new illustration. This comes housed inside a Limited Edition First-Pressing Only Slipcover featuring unique artwork by Rick Melton that unfortunately sets expectations pretty high! Inside we get the patented Visual Vengeance Collector's Edition assortment of ephemera, we get Six-Page Liner Notes by Tony Strauss of Weng's Chop Magazine that explores the trouble low-budget production and stories distribution
history that made it near impossible to see for decades, We also get a Linnea Quigley Folded Mini-Poster featuring a an image of her from a promotional image for the flick, the usual ‘Stick your own’ VHS Sticker Set, plus a cool Limited Edition 'Series 2' Video Store Rental Card that is limited to the first pressing only.
Special Features:
- New director-approved 480p SD master presented on Blu-ray from original tape elements
- Audio Commentary with Writer / Director Brad Sykes
- Once Upon A Time In Horrorwood: Behind the Scenes Documentary (29:47)
- Second Feature: Original Producer’s Cut of Movie (78:35)
- New Linnea Quigley Interview (12:19)
- Editor Mark Polonia Interview (2:59)
- Behind The Scenes Image Gallery (3:14)
- Linnea Quigley Image Gallery (0:50)
- Original Script Selects
- Original Trailer (2:09)
- Visual Vengeance Trailers: Scream Queen (0:51), RepliGator (1:05), Heartland of Darkness (1:27), Dinosaur Valley Girls (1:07),
- Six-page liner notes by Tony Strauss of Weng's Chop Magazine
- Limited Edition slipcase by Rick Melton (FIRST PRESSING ONLY)
- Limited Edition 'Series 2' Video Store Rental Card (FIRST PRESSING ONLY)
- Collectible Linnea Quigley folded mini-poster
- ‘Stick your own’ VHS sticker set
- Reversible sleeve featuring original home video art
Extras: 
- ‘Stick your own’ VHS sticker set
- Reversible sleeve featuring original home video art
Screenshots from the Visual Vengeance Blu-ray:
