CRYPT-KICKERS - NOISE FROM THE UNDERGROUND VOL. 4

NOISE FROM THE UNDERGROUND VOL. 4

THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION, VOL. 1 (1956/1958) CD - SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT 4 (1990) CD - FABULOUS DISASTER: CRUCIFY THS! (2025) CD

THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION, VOL. 1 CD

Label: Dragons Domain Records 
Duration: 62:49 

Dragon's Domain records double-feature soundtrack CD The Golden Age of Science Fiction Vol. 1 collects a terrific one-two punch of vintage '50 sci-fi via World Without End (1956) and The Queen of Outer Space (1958) 

The score for World Without End (1956) was composed by acclaimed film composer Leith Stevens, who is quite well known for scoring greatest science fiction films of the 50's, including George Pal's Destination moon (1950),When World's Collide (1951) and War of the Worlds (1953). 

His orchestral score here is solid, adventurous themes with woodwinds, occasionally it gets brassier such as on "The Giant Spider Cave", but more often than not the cues are melodramatic and atmospheric, listen to Garnet and John for a sampling of the soundtrack most melodramatic offering. Marlin Skiles (The Crawling Hand) scored Queen if Outer Space,  a fantastic score with traditional 50's sci-fi themes, lots of organ, clarinet and bells, offering both suspense, romance and intrigue, it's a fantastic score with some theremin and occasionally some drums that add punch or depth to the themes, as well as a wonderful eerie soprano female vocal that I adored, totally gave me goosebumps. I especially love the more suspenseful cue like the brassy orchestration of "Queen Unmasked" and the "Giant Spider and Cave Romance" with it sweeping strings. The single-disc Cd release arrives in a jewel case with a clear insert tray with interior artwork. The eight-panel fold-out booklet has writing by author Randall D. Larson that gives synopsis for both film, plus the scores and specific music cues, it's a good read. This release is a limited edition print run of just 500. 

Track Listing: 

The Queen of Outer Space - Composed by Marlin Skiles 

1. Prologue / Main Title (2:17) 

2. Mysterious Ray and Space Station Destroyed (2:05) 

3. We’re Not On Earth (1:58) 

4. Captured by the Posse and Brought to the Queen (2:25) 

5. Take Them Away / Women Drivers (2:34) 

6. The Captain and the Queen (3:25) 

7.  Queen Unmasked (1:21) 

8. Underground Escape (1:14) 

9. Giant Spider and Cave Romance (2:56) 

10. Captured by the Posse Again (2:40) 

11. The Beta Disintegrator (4:35) 

12. Finale and End Credits (1:21) 

World Without End - Composed by Leith Stevens 

13. Prelude

14. The Giant Spider Cave

15. Night Encampment and Mutant Attack

16. The Graveyard and Mutants Attack Again

17. The Underground City and Garnet Appears

18. No Guts and the Tour of the City

19. Garnet and John

20. Eavesdropping and Mories’s Treachery

21. The End of Mories / Final Fight and Rebirth

Buy it!

Amazon

#ad 

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: INITIATION (1990) CD

Label: Dragon's Domain Records

Duration: 49:40

Silent Night, deadly Night 4 (1990) is the third sequel to the original santa-slasher, directed by Brian Yuzna (Society, Bride of Re-Animator), a sequel that eschewed all characters and plot points of the sequels that came before with Yuzna offering a body-horror, bug-infested yuletide oddity that revolves around a coven of witches, with barely any L.A. Christmas vibes. The score for this one is composed by Richard Band (Re-Animator), the compositions are icy all-synth underscore with some creepy waterharp elements. The overall effect is droning and creepy, which is effective as an atonal accompaniment to the film, but not all that terrific on it's own, especially since there are no discernable Christmas themes. The best score material here for me was "Kim Escapes / Lonnie and Kim Into Van", and the "Main Tite" and "Cosuing Title" themes which are the most textured. which has pursuit elements that are pretty suspenseful. The CD from Dragon's Domain arrives in a jewel case with a clear insert tray with interior artwork, the 6-panel booklet offers writings from composer/author Brian Satterwhite that summarizes the four SNDN films and notes Band's compositions. Funnily, the only input from Richard Band is a quite where when asked about scoring the film he is quoted as saying "I Don't remember a fucking thing about that movie", so take that how you will. The booklet is slightly oversized, cut about 1 millimeter to large so it sits bowed in the jewel case, which was somewhat annoying. This release is a limited edition run of 500. 

Track Listing: 

1. Prelude and Main Title (3:03) 

2, Afternoon Delight / Kim’s Frustration / Kim Begins Snooping /Ricky Scares Kim / Kim Eats the Date (2:38) 

3. The Book / Kim Checks The Roof (3:30) 

4. Kim Continues Hallucinating / Hallucinations Become Real (3:35) 

5. Kim Arrives At Picnic / They Toast ‘The Turning Point’ / Transition From Park / Kim Finds Fima / Spiked Coffee (3:33) 

6. The Initiation Begins (6:12) 

7. Kim Rises Very Dazed / Bolts Out The Door / Pops Pills (3:20) 

8. “Hank, Is That You?” / Ricky Enters / Ricky & Hank Fight (2:13) 

9. Phone Rings / Fight Continues / Kim’s Friend Arrives / Voodoo Begins (3:17) 

10. Kim’s Transformation / Katherine “We Need A Life” (2:33) 

11. Kim Escapes / Lonnie and Kim Into Van (5:32) 

12. The Attempted Sacrifice / Finale (5:18) 

13. End Title (3:01)

Buy it!

Amazon

#ad 

FABULOUS DISASTER: CRUCIFY THS! (2025) CD

Label: MDD Records

Duration: 45:39

The German thrashers from Fabulous Disaster 3rd longplayer and first to throttle my ears is a straight-up thrasher classic, as the name implies they owe a debt to bay Area thrash legends Exodus, with vocalist Jan very much falling into the raspy Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza vein, but also able to give a Bobby 'Blitz' Elsworth from Overkill edge on tracks like "Trenchmounth". We get tight knit thrash grooves from rhythm section Andi and Luke, and twin guitar attack from Jan and Matthew. The songs are dynamic, time signatures galore, these guys are technically proficient, but also seething with manic energy and raw edged, delivering one furious old school thrash songs after the other. I don't know how familiar this German band is to U.S. thrashers, but if you love old school thrash of the Bay Area and German variety these guys are freakin' bad-ass and deserve some devil-horned love from the pit. 

Track Listing: 

1. Menace To Sobriety

2. Misanthropolis

3. Trenchmouth

4. Coffin Dwellers

5. Crucify This!

6. Rip It Up

7. A Hard Day´s Fight

8. May Your Mother Wear Black

9. Ten Year Chaos

10. Before The War

11. Trapped In The Dark

HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKERS APOCAYPSE (1991) Lionsgate 4K Ultra HD Review Review

HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKERS APOCAYPSE (1991) 

Label: Lionsgate

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: R

Duration: 97 Minutes 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Fullscreen (1.37:1) 

Director: Eleanor Coppola

Cast: Eleanor Coppola, John Milius, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola

The documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991) takes its name from Heart of Darkness, the Joseph Conrad novella on which Apocalypse Now was loosely based, it features 16mm footage shot by Francis Ford Coppola's wife Eleanor during the tumultuous making of Apocalypse Now, offering a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the making of one of the greatest films of the 20th century, the director shooting a film he is convinced is doomed and destined to ruin him financially and personally, while shooting in a foreign country, battling typhoons, and stars who were either unruly and difficult, or having near fatal heart attacks onset, and having to mortgage his own house to keep the production going after running over-budget. The footage she shot with sat unused and unseen for fifteen years until young filmmakers, George Hickenlooper (Mayor of the Sunset Strip) and Fax Bahr (co-creator of MADtv) approached Coppola's American Zoetrope production company about completing the documentary. Getting the thumbs up they then poured through over eighty hours of the raw footage shot by Eleanor Coppola and then edited it down, then shot new interviews, also in 16mm, with the original cast and crew, and intercut them with Eleanor Coppola's original material.

What we ended up with was one of the best making of docs about filmmaking of all time, a chaotic chronicling of the turbulence the production faces, chock full of intimately naked humanity and folly, including secretly taped conversations with the tormented Coppola who reveals the his fragile state of mind during the disastrous shoot in the Philippines. It's a fascinating watch, truly one of the most raw and compelling making of docs about the making of a film ever put to film. 

Audio/Video: Hearts of Darkness (1991) gets a 4k Ultra HD from Lionsgate in 2160p UHD with Dolby Vision HDR10 color-grades, the original 16mm footage has been scanned in 4K and the scenes from the film have also been upgraded, replacing footage with 2018 4K restoration, and it looks terrific. The 16mm grain looks better resolved then ever, still authentically grainy, but texture and detail is greatly improved over previous versions I have seen, and the WGC color-grade offers deeper more saturated hues throughout. Keep in mind this is a run and gun documentary, the footage will never looks like Bladerunner in 4K, but it certainly looks the best I have ever seen it on home video. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles, the track is clean and is a solid representation of the original documentary footage to my ears, but the original mono track would have been appreciated. 

The sole extra on the Lionsgate release is a 38-min The Making of Hearts of Darkness featuring new interviews with Roman Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, and Fax Bahr, who talk at length about the film with additional stories about Keitel and Brando. 

If you are an extras junkie I would also strongly recommend seeking out the 3-disc UHD/Blu-ray UK release of this film from Studio Canal, which offered copious extras not seen here, including the Audio Commentary by Eleanor & Francis Coppola, and the 23-min Eleanor Coppola: Art Is All Around Us (2003) plus a wealth of Eleanor Coppola's short films and documentaries. 

The single-disc 4K UHD from Lionsgate arrives in a black keepcase with a single-sided wrap, inside there is a redemption code for a 4k digital copy of the film. 

Special Features: 

- The Making of Hearts of Darkness (37:35) 

Buy It!

Amazon

Physical Media Land

Moviezyng 

#ad

BE THE FIRST TO WATCH PREDATOR: BADLANDS AT HOME ON DIGITAL JAN. 6 & 4K BLU-RAY & DVD FEB. 17

PREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025) 

The Hunt Comes Home When Predator: Badlands

 Arrives on Digital Jan. 6 and on

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and DVD Feb. 17

 

A bold new chapter in the legendary Predator franchise arrives January 6 when Predator: Badlands unleashes its pulse-pounding sci-fi action on Digital including Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. The hunt continues in the new year with the film’s arrival on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD February 17.

 

Director Dan Trachtenberg steers the Predator franchise into bold new territory, with audiences enthusiastically embracing his vision. Predator: Badlands has emerged as the highest-grossing entry in the franchise’s 38-year history, earning $183 million worldwide and surpassing the previous record holder, 2004’s Alien vs. Predator ($177.4M). The film’s success is matched by strong audience and critical response, boasting a 95% Rotten Tomatoes® Verified Hot Popcornmeter score and an 86% Certified Fresh Tomatometer critics rating.

 

Predator: Badlands deepens Yautja lore by introducing new characters Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and Thia (Elle Fanning), following them on an underdog hero’s journey shaped by an unlikely alliance. Blending themes of survival and self-discovery with intense combat, striking visual effects, and moments of humor, the film delivers a high-stakes action adventure on both a visceral and emotional level. Fans can explore the world of Predator even further with exclusive bonus features, including behind-the-scenes featurettes that spotlight the film’s bold production design and visual effects, along with deleted scenes and additional insider content.

 

For the ultimate collectors within the Predator storyscape, a limited edition 4K SteelBook dramatically captures the scale and intensity of battle with the Kalisk, while highlighting the unexpected alliance between Dek and Thia.

Film Synopsis

Set in the future on a deadly remote planet, Predator: Badlands follows Dek, a young Predator outcast from his clan, who finds an unlikely ally in Thia and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.

 

Bonus Features*

- Deleted & Pre-Visualization Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary:

- Sand Trap – An early animatic version of Dek’s very different first encounter with Thia.

- Squirt Canyon – The full version of Dek and Thia traversing the water-filled trench while trying to survive Genna…and each other.

- Tessa vs. Abe – Tessa faces off against a superior synth in this deleted scene and storyline.

- Razor Grass – The original previsualization of Dek, Thia, and Bud’s first hunt together…sort of.

- The Outpost – Thia takes Dek to a small Weyland-Yutani field facility where they experience a few things that ended up being used elsewhere in the final film.

- Super Power Loader Extended – Special additional moments during Dek’s climactic final battle with the Super Power Loader and the Kalisk.

Featurettes:

- Embodying the Predator – Meet the talented team of designers, performers, and effects artists responsible for bringing one of cinema’s most terrifying creatures to life on screen in ways we’ve never seen before!

- Authentic Synthetics – Get up close and personal with synths Thia and Tessa as star Elle Fanning walks us through the process of crafting two characters who may look the same but have evolved in surprisingly unique ways.

- Building the Badlands – With razor sharp grass, killer trees, and terrifying animals, never has a planet been more deadly than Genna. Uncover how a team of artisans built this threatening landscape, transforming real locations into the dangerous environments seen on screen.

- Dek of the Yautja – For the first time ever, director Dan Trachtenberg has given audiences an extended peek at Predator culture. Follow the evolution as filmmakers reveal the process behind developing the Yautja’s home world, spacecraft, and family dynamics. 

- Audio Commentary: Watch the film with audio commentary by Director Dan Trachtenberg, Producer Ben Rosenblatt, Director of Photography Jeff Cutter and Stunt Coordinator Jacob Tomuri.

*Bonus features may vary by product and retailer

 

LAW & ORDER: THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL SERIES (1990-2010) Universal Pictures Home Entertainment DVD Review

LAW & ORDER: THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL SERIES

104-Disc DVD Set 

Label: Universal Studios

Region Code:

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 20718 Minutes 

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: SD Fullscreen (1.33:1) - Seasons 1-4, Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) - Seasons 5-20 

Cast: Sam Waterston, S. Epatha Merkerson, Jerry Orbach, Steven Hill, Benjamin Bratt

Synopsis: Law & Order: The Complete Original Series captures every powerful episode from the first 20 seasons. Dick Wolf's primetime series covered the dedicated NYC police who investigated crimes & the district attorneys who prosecuted the offenders. Known for its hard-hitting, ripped-from-the-headlines style, the series showcased the talents of numerous illustrious stars from stage and screen. Rediscover the intelligent writing and riveting acting that continues to captivate audiences around the globe.

The massive 104 disc set, weighing in at thirteen pounds,  encapsulates all 20 original seasons that ran from 1990-2010, each season getting it own dedicated keepcase housed in a Slipbox. The keepsakes are clear and have flipper trays housing the discs, and there are no stacked discs. The seasons span 5-6 disc per season, and the reverse side of the wraps feature an episode listing, though no special features are listed, and comprehensive episode and extras guide certainly would have been appreciated, especially for such a massive set. The slipcase this arrives in is not super-sturdy and it's a bit unwieldy, so be careful how you handle it. 

The SD masters looks solid, and the Dolby Digital audio likewise is just fine, for SD the episodes I sampled looked and sound good, no complaints other than I wish it were a HD Blu-ray set. The series was shot on film, and I would love to see these newly remastered in HD with uncompressed audio.  

Special features on the set include Deleted and Extended Scenes, Cast Profiles, Set Tour and  Crossover Episodes. The cynical part of me thinks that in six months a Blu-ray set will be announced, though I have no insider info on that, but just going by a pattern that I have seen with releases like Young Sheldon, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Shameless and West Wing, first came the DVD release, then came the Blu-ray set six months to a year later. Then again, a 20-season set on Blu-ray might be cost prohibitive, but Universal did do a terrific Blu-ray set for Murder, She Wrote which ran for 12 seasons, so it's a possibility. 

Special Features: 

- Deleted and Extended Scenes

- Cast Profiles

- Set Tour

- Crossover Episodes

Buy it! 

Amazon

#ad 

BAD THINGS (2023) Shudder Blu-ray Screenshots

 

 BAD THINGS (2023) 

Label: Shudder 

Region Code: A

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 86 Minutes 36 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Stewart Thorndike

Cast: Gayle Rankin, Hari Nef, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Rad Pereira, Jared Abrahamson, Molly Ringwald, Ariella Josephine

When a group of friends escape the city to spend the weekend in an abandoned hotel, a pervading eerie energy begins to illuminate the cracks in their little family unit. Ruthie Nodd (Gayle Rankin) inherits the hotel from her grandmother and with bad childhood memories threatening to burst to the surface, Ruthie wants to sell the hotel and never return. But her partner Cal (Hari Nef) drags her there in the hopes of returning it to its former glory. They are joined by their amiable friend Maddie (Rad Pereira) and mysterious grifter Fran (Annabelle Dexter-Jones). As the friends dance, cook, flirt, and fight, they find themselves entwined in the hotel’s seductive embrace and start doing bad things to each other.

Special Features: 

- New audio commentary with director Stewart Thorndike and producers Lizzie Shapiro and Lexi Tannenholtz

- New video interviews with director Stewart Thorndike, cinematographer Grant Greenberg and production designer Amy Williams

- Interview with Molly Ringwald (Ms. Auerbach) (10:39)

- Interview with Hari Nef (Cal) (31:11) 

- Interview with Gayle Rankin (Ruthie Dodd) (18:39)

- Interview with Annabelle Dexter-Jones (Fran) (15:57) 

- Interview with Rad Pereira (Maddie) (17:09)

- Interview with Jared Abrahamson (Brian) (6:00)

- BTS stills galleries featuring on set polaroids and film photos (197 Images) 

- New video essay by film critic Alexandra West (11:03)

- Original Trailer  (1:26) 

- Reversible Wrap 

- 16-Page Illustrated Booklet with new writing by film critic Alexandra Heller Nicholas

Screenshots from the Shudder Blu-ray: 

Buy it!

Amazon

#ad 

TIMECRIMES (2007) Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray Screenshots

 

TIMECRIMES (2007) 

Label: Vinegar Syndrome

Region Code: Region-Free (4K Ultra HD), A (Blu-ray) 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 92 Minutes 26 Seconds 

Audio: Spanish or English-dub DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Nacho Vigalondo

Cast: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, Nacho Vigalondo

Héctor (Karra Elejalde) lives with his wife Clara (Candela Fernández) in the peaceful Spanish countryside. One day, while relaxing in their backyard, Héctor spies a woman removing her clothes in a nearby forest via his binoculars. Once alone, he travels to her location to find the woman naked and presumably dead. He is attacked by an unknown, bandaged man, causing him to run further into the forest, where he stumbles upon a top-secret research facility, which happens to be home to a time machine. Upon meeting El Joven (played by director Nacho Vigalondo), a scientist in control of the facility and its machine, Héctor travels back in time one hour. Operating against El Joven’s wishes, Héctor leaves the facility, setting off a series of events with increasingly dark consequences.

The feature film debut of writer/director Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal, Open Windows), TIMECRIMES is an audacious mash-up of science fiction, horror, and murder mystery. Shot entirely on Super 16mm film by Spanish cinematographer Flavio Martínez Labiano (The Day of the Beast), a frequent collaborator of Álex de la Iglesia, and featuring almost entirely analog effects, TIMECRIMES is a lovingly old-fashioned throwback to the sci-fi films of the 60s and 70s while retaining much of the expected excesses of the genre films of the 2000s. Vinegar Syndrome is proud to present Nacho Vigalondo’s impeccably crafted, often very nasty, journey through time in a brand new 4K restoration of its 35mm DI negative for its world UHD premiere.

Special Features: 

- 2-disc Set: 4K Ultra HD / Region A Blu-ray

- 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range

- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative

- Brand new commentary track with writer/director/actor Nacho Vigalondo, moderated by Justin Laliberty

- Brand new commentary track with writer and podcaster Alexandra West

- Archival commentary track with Nacho Vigalondo

- "Bigger than Me" (18:26) - a brand new interview with Nacho Vigalondo

- "Rewind. Repeat. Revisit." (13:01) - a brand new video essay by film scholar Dr. Valeria Villegas Lindvall and EmeErre

- Alternate chronological edit of Timecrimes (69 min)

- "The Making of Timecrimes" (44 min) - an archival documentary from 2008

- "The Makeup of Timecrimes" (6 min) - an archival featurette from 2008

- Archival cast & crew interviews (10 min)

- Footage from the Timecrimes promotional internet game (33 min)

- "7:35 de la mañana" (8 min) - an Oscar Nominated short film from 2003, directed by Nacho Vigalondo

- Spanish Trailer

- English Trailer

- Newly translated English subtitles

- Reversible Wrap

- Slipcover 

- Limited Edition Rogid Slipbox 

- 44-Page Booklet with Writing by Katie Rife Charles and Mary Beth McAndrews 

Screenshots from the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray: 

Buy it!

Amazon

#ad