IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY (1974-1978) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY (1974-1978) 

Label: Scream Factory
Release Date: May 15th 2018
Region Code: A
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen

For the first time on Blu-ray, and in a new, deluxe box set, the It’s Alive trilogy is reborn! On May 15, Scream Factory will release the It’s Alive Trilogy in a 3-disc set packed with bonus features, including new interviews, and new 2K scans of each film.

IT’S ALIVE (1974)

Rating: PG 
Duration: 91 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, Andrew Duggan, Guy Stockwell, James Dixon, Michael Ansara

Synopsis: It's newborn and … It's Alive … and murder is what it knows best! A proud couple's bundle of joy is really a newborn terror in filmmaker Larry Cohen's cautionary cult hit that tapped into environmental fears. The horror grows when multiple child monsters rampage in the first sequel It Lives Again as two brave parents try to stop them by becoming the bait for their spree. The now global mutants are rounded up and relocated to a far-flung island in It's Alive III: Island of the Alive. Will a parent's greatest nightmare become the world's gravest fear? Find out ... if you dare.

In Larry Cohen's 70's killer-kid classic we have L.A. couple Frank Davis (John Ryan, Runaway Train) and his wife Lenore (Sharon Farrell, The Premonition) expecting their second child, it was an unexpected pregnancy as she was on birth control, but they are happy nonetheless at the prospect of another kiddo around the house, as is their adolescent son Chris (Daniel Holzman) who will be a big brother. When she goes into labor they head to the hospital and as she begins to give birth while Frank sits in the lobby with the other expectant fathers, as was the tradition back in the day, not like now when father's are almost always in the delivery room. However, the birth is abnormal, and what emerges from his wife's womb is a toothy-mutant offspring that chews through it's own umbilical cord before slaughtering all the medical staff in the delivery room, the aftermath looking a bit like that scene fro Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 when Doctor Ock's sentient tentacles go ape-shit. The wife goes into hysterics as Frank wanders into he bloody aftermath, soon after a manhunt is launched for the ferocious killer-kid with Frank initially being on board with hunting it down and killing it, until his paternal instincts kick in. 

The film is a bit of a slow-mover by modern horror standards but I've always loved it, Cohen made a classic 70's monster movie here with early make-up effects by none other than Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London) who sculpted quite a fearsome kid with a bulbous, vein-y head, fangs and clawed hands. Rightfully they keep the visuals of the kid to a minimum, showing it in fleeting glimpses and among the shadows. There are a lot of killer POV shots from the point of view of the homicidal baby, a double-vision image thing that worked pretty well. The film can be read in several different ways, informed by real issues like abortion, eugenics and the Thalidomide baby-deformities, with this one containing a corrupt drug company trying to erase evidence that their contraception pill which might be the root cause of the hideous mutation to begin with. 

John P. Ryan (Three O'Clock High) as the father really sells the expectant father part of the story as well as the conflicted post-hospital slaughter reality of the abnormal birth and ensuing man-hunt for the demon-toothed kid, he gives it some real depth and layers. While the film is a tiny bit slow and we don't see the killer-kid a bunch the film is very effective, plus it's well lensed with a sweeping score from Bernard Herrmann (Psycho) with loads of blood, particularly for a PG-rated horror film! I'm not totally convinced this will play all that well with a younger audience watching it for the first time, I grew up with it so it has some intrinsically nostalgic appeal, but I will say that my seventeen year old son enjoyed it quite a bit.  

This was Cohen's first time directing a horror film, it's a serious effort that's handled with a modicum of class, it's not quite as oddball and quirky as some of his later genre efforts, and I think that serious tone gives this monster-kid cult classic some legs.

Special Features: 
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW Cohen’s Alive: Looking Back at the It’s Alive Films featuring interviews with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon and more… (18 min) HD 
- NEW It’s Alive at the Nuart: The 40th Anniversary Screening with Larry Cohen (13 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
- Radio Spots (2 min) HD 
- TV Spots (1 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (4 min) HD

IT LIVES AGAIN (1978)

Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: John P. Ryan, James Dixon, John Marley, Andrew Duggan, Eddie Constantine

Synopsis: Is it human? Is it a beast? Whatever it is, It Lives Again in this second film in cult filmmaker Larry Cohen’s Alive Trilogy. Once again, Cohen brings to the screen a hideous threesome of mutant baby monsters that are the evolutionary response to man’s polluted environment. These frightened creatures lash out with deadly claws at what they don’t understand. There are only three, but they could reproduce into uncontrollable millions if someone doesn’t destroy them. Fredric Forrest (Apocalypse Now) and Kathleen Lloyd (The Car) star as the loving parents of one of the monstrous creatures. Parental love, however, is no match for these hell-spawned mutants. Their wild blood binge must be stopped. Will the next stage of their evolution become our last?

After the success of the first film a sequel was hatched, picking up a few years after the original we have John P. Ryan returning as Frank Davis who has traveled to Tucson, AZ (love seeing my city back in the 70's) to warn a young couple, Jody (Kathleen Lloyd, The Car) and Eugene Scott (Frederic Forrest, The Conversation), that their soon-to-be-born kid will most likely be a mutant, which since that last film have been being born at an alarming rate around the country. At first they don't believe him but they come around when they meet a menacing guy named Malory (John Marley, Deathdream) who has put together a death-squad who travel around the country exterminating the mutant kids the moment they're born. With the help of John the couple escape the hospital and she gives birth to the beastly kid in a mobile birthing unit built into the back of a shipping truck, and are taken to a retreat run by a group of scientists,  Andrew Duggan (Doctor Detroit) and Eddie Constantin (Alphaville), who want to study the babies, believing them to be the next evolutionary step of humanity, a sort of underground railroad for mutant babies, where they're kid gets to mingle with two other deformed monster-kids. 

The sequel is a nice continuation of the story, it's not just a simple retread, and it's great to have John P. Ryan back as Davis. Also returning are the special make-up effects of Rick Baker plus we get another score from Bernard Herrmann. While I don't love the sequel they way I do the first it's a solid sequel that expands a bit on the story and we get more moving parts, including the Scott's being betrayed by the wife's mother, ending with the authorities showing up at the facility where the monster kids are being kept. There's a bit more gore this time around too, but not a bunch, so keep those expectations in check.

Special Features: 
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (4 min) HD

IT’S ALIVE 3: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE (1987)

Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, Laurene Landon, Gerrit Graham, Neal Israel, James Dixon 

Synopsis: In It’s Alive III: Island Of The Alive, Michael Moriarty (Q: The Winged Serpent) and Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror) star as Stephen and Ellen Jarvis, the distraught parents of one of the new mutant children. They’ve watched in horror as government death squads roamed the earth, shooting the humanoids on sight. They’ve suffered through the court hearings that sentenced their child and other surviving mutants to a remote, uninhabited island. And their nightmare continues … because the abandoned creatures are now grown … and they are coming back home to the society that created and rejected them. And no one who stands in their way will live.

The second and final (so far, not counting the remake) sequel in the It's Alive trilogy throws seriousness right out the window in far or of a more humorous approach with the introduction of Cohen regular Michael Moriarty (The Stuff) as Jarvis, who opens the film in a courtroom fighting for the rights of his mutant born son to live, arguing for the death of his son is a lawyer played by Gerrit Graham (Phantom of the Paradise), the over-the-top trial ends with the killer baby busting out of it's steel cage with Jarvis managing to calm it down, showing the judge that it's not pure evil, and thus the judge (MacDonald Carey, End of the World) rules that the five surviving mutant kids known to exist are to be shipped away to an isolated island where they will no pose a danger to society.

The film moves ahead a few years and Moriarty's character has penned a tell-all book about the events, while his ex-wife Ellen (Karen Black, Burnt Offerings) wants nothing to do with him or the the damned kid, living her life out of the spotlight while Jarvis, a former TV commercial actor, has become an outcast of society. There's a great scene where the affection starved Jarvis meets a prostitute played by Laurene Landon (Maniac Cop) who beds him but goes ape-shit when she realizes why he looks so familiar, believing that the mutations gene can be passed by touch, sort of the ways the AIDS epidemic caused hysteria around the same time. 

Jarvis later is recruited to visit the island with a team to study the growth of the monster kids who have now grown into adulthood, and this is where I really started to miss the special effects work of Rick Baker who is not present here, instead we have men in rubber-suits that look real goofy, but there's also some fun Harryhausen-esque stop-motion animation which I enjoyed a bunch.

Jarvis and the team come under attack on the island by the mutants, who apparently miss home, they force him to pilot a ship back towards the U.S. mainland with his son saving his life by throwing him overboard when the other monsters - and their own monster kids - decide that Jarvis looks like a tasty piece of meat - stranding him in Cuba, where more off-kilter shenanigans take place. Eventually the deformed families arrive in Florida - where Ellen lives - and  the carnage begins with the mutants destroying a group of 80's punks down on the boardwalk before homing in on the whereabouts of Ellen, leading to a rooftop encounter/family reunion. 

This one is off-kilter and way more comedic than the first two entries, Cohen bringing in Moriarty guarantees plenty of hammed-up shenanigans which we get in spades, I love this guy, and even though it veers far away from the previous films, it's more akin to The Stuff than It's Alive, there's still plenty of low-budget horror and corny Cohen-Moriarty humor to make it a palatable straight-to-video sequel.

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill (10 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary with writer/director Larry Cohen
- Trailer (1 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (3 min) HD 

Audio/Video: All three films arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen and sourced from new 2K scans of the archival interpositive elements, the 2018 2K scans were performed by Warner Bros. and look great. The first film looks the best of the bunch with finely managed grain, saturated colors and deep inky blacks. There's a surprising amount of fine detail in those 70's textures and facial details. The sequels also look great, they lack some of the deep fine detail and clarity of the first film, but are solid. 

Each films sports an English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 audio track with optional English subtitles, all are nicely balanced and clean without any hiss or distortion. The Bernard Herrmann score of the first film is certainly a highlight, if I was to niggle about an extra I would have appreciated it would have been an isolated music score for the films, particularly he first two which are scored by the legendary composer.  

Thankfully Scream Factory carryover all the Larry Cohen commentaries from Warner Bros. previous triple feature DVD set from 2009. New stuff begins with the 18-min 'Cohen’s Alive: Looking Back at the It’s Alive Films' which features interviews with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon, cinematographer Daniel Pearl and historians John Burligame, FX Feeney. The main attraction here is Cohen who speaks volumes about the films, from the troubled beginning of It's Alive to the success when a visionary WB exec saw the merit of the film and gave t proper distribution, creating the opening credit sequences at his home (where much of the second films was shot), working with the cast and crew, Rick Bakers special effects, getting Bernard Herrmann to score the films. The cast and crew also reminiscence about shooting Island of the Alive, getting sea sick on the open sea, bit Larry using the sick crew as extras on the boat, posing as corpses, typical low-budget Larry Cohen workarounds. The talk here is moistly centered around the first and third film with the second getting short shrift in regard to content, but there's a lot of ground covered.

We also get a 13-min  Q/A from the 40th anniversary screening of the film at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles from 2014, the audio on this one is a bit choppy and wonky in [paces but it's good stuff, Cohen is a great storyteller and he doesn't disappoint here. 

The last of the new stuff is a 10-min interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill who worked on the third film, he speaks about getting ti know Rick Baker, who offered him the job on this film. He speaks about wanting to create a different type of look for the monsters, but Cohen wanted to go a different route, leading to the rubber-suited creatures which emulate the look of the baby monsters from the previous films, he also discussed Mark Williams sculpting of the masks, and the use of stop-motion animation. 

The first film has a selection of trailers, radio spots, and a gallery, the sequels get a trailer and a gallery minus the radio spots. Onto the packaging we get pretty much the same packaging style Scream Factory offered with The Amityville Horror Trilogy, all three films get their own keepcase wrapped in a flimsy card-stock slipcover. Both It's Alive and It Lives Again feature reversible artwork while Island of the Alive features an image from the film on the reverse side. The discs themselves feature the reversible artwork options, except Island of the Alive which features the home video artwork which also adorns the sleeve. 

The Larry Cohen love continues with this impressive looking three-disc set from Scream Factory, Cohen's made so many great cult-films through the years, it's great to see many of them getting new HD releases from Scream Factory with new extras, I hope this is a trend that continues. I also hope there are kids out there discovering some of these for the first time and loving them, and that it's not just us old farts getting nostalgic cinema-erections every time they announce another one. 

DEMON SEED (1977) (Blu-ray Review)

DEMON SEED (1977)

Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: A
Duration: 94 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen  (2.40:1)
Audio: English DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 Mono with Optional 
English SDH Subtitles
Director: Donald Cammell 
Cast: Julie Christie, Fritz Weaver, Gerrit Graham, Berry Kroeger, Lisa Lu, Larry J. Blake, John O'Leary, Alfred Dennis, Davis Roberts, Patricia Wilson

Based on  Dean Koontz’s 1973 novel of the same name we have here a slice of science-fiction horror directed by Donald Cammell (White of the Eye), in it a brilliant scientist named Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver, Creepshow) develops an A.I. entity he calls Proteus IV, voiced by Robert Vaughn (Battle Beyond the Stars), that is housed in a government laboratory. Proteus communicates through a monitors set up st the lab. Soon after being brought online he devises a cure for leukemia, the potential for what Proteus can contribute to society is staggering, but Proteus begins thinks for itself, developing a somewhat malevolent personality. Soon the A.I. begins to to question demands from Harris and his benefactors, questioning the legitimacy of the requests. For starters, not wanting to help develop underwater mining for precious metals, for it knows it will do irreparable harm to the environment, it sees the folly in out choices. Soon after Proteus asks Harris to be let out his box in a way, to be given access to a computer terminal so he can study mankind, realizing this might not be such a great idea Harris refuses, and he and his benefactors begin to fear the Proteus program, and with good reason, planning to shut it down before it gets out of control, but unbeknownst to them Proteus is able to infiltrate Harris personal lab which is located offsite in the basement of the home of his estranged wife Susan (Julie Christie, Don't Look Now). The couple are in the process of getting a divorce following a mutual tragedy in their lives. Gaining access to the home lab Proteus is able to assume control of the hi-tech homes electronics, which control everything inside the home. Holding Susan captive Proteus reveals it's plans to impregnate her with his bio-engineered hybrid child, and thus 70s sci-fi madness ensues. 

The hi-tech home is completely automated, everything is run by computer, including the security system, and a weird looking arm/hand apparatus mounted on a motorized wheelchair, all of which Proteus uses to terrorize, restrain and impregnate poor Susan. It's been a long time since I read the novel, and even Koontz himself re-wrote it in the 90s, but I do remember in the novel that Proteus used hypnosis to bring Susan around to the idea of baring his sci-fi love child. Here he more or less breaks down her will, and sort of convinces her t o along wit his diabolical plan. 

Proteus designs and manufactures a weird geometric pod of sorts that is capable of changing shape and performing various tasks, including disposing of a pesky lab technician (Gerrit Graham, Phantom of the Paradise) who is called upon by Susan early in the film to address her malfunctioning home automations. However, when he resists Proteus's subterfuge he pays a terrible price, losing his head in the process. 

Julie Christie is fantastic, she really goes for it here, literally baring it all at certain points, buying into the role with a great range of depth, it might be a silly sort of premise, but she's all in on this one, giving a truly anguished and vulnerable performance. One of the creepiest aspects of the movie is the disembodied voice of actor Robert Vaughn as Proteus, it's an unnatural voice, cold, electronic, malevolent - it always gives me goosebumps. It's efforts to terrorize, restrain and impregnate Susan are super weird and uncomfortable, poking and prodding her with needles and instruments, inseminating her, 70s sci-fi was some seriously weird shit, this is a bat-shit crazy movie, but the ideas are provocative and it's played straight-faced.

On the downside, I don't think the movie has aged particularly well since '77, I am not sure this would hold up for a younger audience, the sci-fi elements are vintage to put kindly, not campy, but oh-so seventies. And the whole premise of the A.I. rapist might be a bit much, heck, it was probably a bit much in '77, but for me this one still manages to get under my skin. Demon Seed is an ominous slice of 70s sci-fi horror with a phenomenal performance from Julie Christie, I think in an age of the modern convenience and electronic personal assistants like Siri and Amazon Echo that this cult sci-fi nugget might have some terrifying new relevance.  

Audio/Video: Demon Seed (1977) debuts on Blu-ray from Warner Archive with a new 2017 HD transfer sourced from a new 2K scan of the interpretive. This looks quite a bit better than my old DVD, colors are subdued but appear accurate, decently crisp and occasionally sharp, the vintage sci-fi thriller has never looked better to my eyes. I love 70's science fiction, the laboratories, retro-graphics, the 2001: A Space Odyssey sort of psychedelic animations that represent Proteus's consciousness, it's all good stuff and look great in HD. 

Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 track, everything is mixed nicely, the sound design comes through wonderfully as the electronic machinations burp into existence from time to time, and Robert Vaughn's coldly malevolent voice sounds wonderfully menacing. The score by Jerry Fielding (Funeral Home) has good fidelity for a mono presentation. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided. The only extra on the disc is the original theatrical trailer for the film, in widescreen and HD.      

Special Features: 
- Original Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD 

Demon Seed (1977) is an eerie slice of menacing 70s sci-fi, while it might not have aged well, I still love it. A creepy tale of man's creation of an A.I. entity, designed for greedy purposes, which inevitably comes back to bite him in the ass. This is a movie you will not soon forget, it's hard to forget a movie that in large part is the story of a woman menaced by a computer, forced to conceive its human-computer hybrid offspring, it's weird and wacky stuff, and it's never looked better on home video, I love that are Warner Archive bringing these vintage cult-classics to the masses with new HD transfers, keep it up guys. 3/5   

THE RATINGS GAME (1984) (Blu-ray Review)

THE RATINGS GAME (1984) 

Label: Olive Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 102 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Danny Devito
Cast: Danny Devito, Rhea Perlman, Gerrit Graham, Louis Giambalvo, Vincent Schiavelli

Synopsis: The Ratings Game stars Danny DeVito as a New Jersey trucking magnate who’s only dream is hitting it big as a Hollywood producer. Luckily for him, he has a girlfriend (Rhea Perlman, TV’s Cheers) who works for the TV ratings service. Together they pull off a hilarious scam on television’s sacred ratings system. DeVito makes his directorial debut with this critically acclaimed satire.

The Ratings Game is a fun send-up of 80s sitcom TV directed by Danny DeVito who enjoyed his share of TV success in the 80s with Taxi (197801983). The movie is focused on an a very Italian guy named Vic DeSalvo (DeVito) who made his millions as a trucking magnate on the East Coast before moving to sunny Los Angeles in hopes of making it big in the TV business. Moving to L.A. he pens some uniformly awful TV scripts which are uniformly rejected by nearly every studio in town. However his luck turns around when he makes a pitch to an exec at the MBC network who has just been fired, the resentful exec sabotages the network by green lighting a pilot for DeSalvo's awful college sitcom 'Sittin' Pretty'. By the time the other network execs realize just what a turd the show is the pilot has already begun production and it is too late to stop the pilot from airing. TV exec Parker Braithwaiter (Gerrit Graham, Phantom of the Paradise) plans to bury the pilot by having it air during the World Series.

However, the crafty DeSalva is dating Francine Kestler, a woman played by Rhea Perlman who works for the TV ratings service called Computron. She is a woman scorned after having been passed over for promotion by her sexist boss (McCarthy), and together she and DeSalva hatch a scam to artificially drive up the ratings during the shows airing. The scam involves identifying and sending the families who own the Computron set-tops on an ocean cruise, and then sending in hired goons to watch his show during the pilot airing. The scam works and the show is a huge success, the network not only orders more episodes but also green lights another show, the animated sitcom The Goombahs. 

With his runaway success going straight to his head DeSalvo extends the ill-fated cruise for the TV ratings families which leads to all sorts of trouble for him and for his girlfriend, who increasingly feels remorse for her role in the ratings-fiasco. The movie is a fun send-up of just how awful the 80s were for prime-time TV, a decade of brain-dead broadcast TV and gets a nice skewering here, even if this one feels severely dated.

This marked feature-length directorial debut of Danny DeVito (War of the Roses) and it does feel rough, having been made for newcomer cable network Showtime it also suffers from that made-for-TV cheapness. The script is fun and the idea is actually genius, but the execution is a bit workman like with some serious pacing issues, while it does feel a bit clunky, I found that the premise holds up.

What made this so much fun for me aside from the winning premise is the cast of familiar faces who pop up, including Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and Barry Corbin (Northern Exposure) as network execs, Vincent Schiavelli (Better Off Dead), future Seinfeld stars Micheal Richards and Jerry Seinfeld, 80s funnyman Steve Allen, Alan Alda (M.A.S.H.) and of course Rhea Perlman (TVs Cheers) who steals much of the movie as the employee of the TV ratings service who partakes in the ratings-scam.

Audio/Video: The Ratings Game (1984) arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films framed in the original full frame aspect ratio. The image has a consistent layer of film grain and some vivid colors, but suffers a bit from softness and contrast issues, which are probably inherent to the source material. Other negatives include  dirt, debris and some minor nicks and scratches.This Blu-ray is certainly not demo worthy HD but it is nice to have this pay-cable TV movie on Blu-ray to enjoy after years of obscurity. Audio is handled by an English DTS-HD Mono with optional English subtitles. The fidelity is passable with a nice balance but is flat and non-dynamic.

Extras on the disc are substantial by the usual Olive Film standard, including a collection of four early short films by Danny DeVito. The Sound Sleeper (1973), Minestrone (1975), A Lovely Way to spend an Eveing (1983) and The Selling of Vince D'Angelo (1983). The latter two were segments from the Cable TV comedy anthology series 'Likely Stories'. My favorite is The Selling of Vince D'Angelo, a satirical look at a corrupt New Jersey businessman running for the Jersey senate.

Other extra include six-minutes of deleted scenes, a seven-minute making of featurette, a Showtime promo for the movie and a 22-page booklet with writing on the movie from Peter Chermin, plus images and promotional materials from the movie, and information about the short movies. 

Special Features:
- Collection of Rare Short Films Directed by Danny DeVito: The Sound Sleeper (12 Mins), Minestrone (12 Mins), A Lovely Way to spend an Eveing (14 Mins), The Selling of Vince D'Angelo (22 Mins)
- 22 Page Collector’s Booklet
- Behind the scenes featurette (7 Mins)
- Deleted scenes (6 Mins)
- Showtime Promo (2 Mins)

The Ratings Game is a fun watch, a biting send-up of 80s network TV culture from someone who lived through it as a star on Taxi. The movie is dated and the execution can be a bit rough but the idea and premise is top-notch and holds up nicely. The Blu-ray from Olive Films looks a good as can be expected from a made-for-TV movie from the early 80s with a wealth of extras to enjoy, glad to see this one rise up from obscurity and onto Blu-ray 

PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974) 

Label: Scream Factory 

Region Code: A
Rating: PG

Duration: 92 Minutes 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Cast: Paul Williams, William Finley, Jessica Harper, Gerrit Graham, Harold Oblong, George Memmoli, Archie Hann, Jeffrey Comanor

Director: Brian De Palma

Rock n' roll musicals just don't get any better than Brian De Palma's cult-classic Phantom of the Paradise (1974) starring William Finley (The Funhouse) as awkward composer Winslow Leach. A gifted songwriter who's Faustian rock opera is stolen by the sinister music producer Swan (played Paul Williams) . 

The  composer assumes this theft is just a misunderstanding and arrives at the producer's mansion to straighten things out.  While there he meets the sweet-voiced singer Phoenix (Jessica Harper, Suspiria)  whom he falls for right away after hearing her sing one of his songs. Moments later Leach is beaten by Swan's goons and toss him out of the mansion and he's framed for drug possession. Now in the slammer Winslow's teeth are extracted and replaced with metal chompers (don't ask why) while Swan plans to use pilfered songs to open his new music club, the Paradise. When Leach learns that Swan's bubble-gum band the Juicy Fruits have recorded his song he snaps and manages to escapes the prison in a fun vaudevillian scene. In an effort to stop the music from being released he breaks into Swan's record pressing plant to destroy the album before it can see the light of day. But destroying the albums Leach clumsily falls into the record press and the LP's grooves are seared in his flesh destroying his face and voice. 

Deformed and desperate Leach throws himself into the river and is presumed dead though his body is not recovered. Very much alive the scarred songwriter is bent on revenge, gaining access to the Paradise he dons a bird-of-prey styled helmet and haunts the club where he causes the death of the Juicy Fruits in a fiery explosion during a video shoot. Somehow Swan convinces Leach to work for him, promising that only Phoenix will sings his songs from now on. Once again the producer betrays him by hiring a new shock-rock singer named Beef played with delicious flamboyance by Gerrit Graham (Used Cars) who steals every scene as he struts around the stage like glam rock diva. Once Leach discovers this new betrayal he sets out to exact revenge on beef beginning with a shower attack with a plunger! . 

Phantom of the Paradise is dripping with camp and perfectly overacted with a fantastic set of songs - which are truly fantastic and subversive. William Finley as the nerdy Leach is a sympathetic character and you want to see him have his revenge against the sleazy producer, he to convey a lot of pain through that one-eyed mask. Paul Williams is pretty great as the pint-sized producer who may just be the Devil incarnate, sinister and smooth. Jessica Harper is also quite good as the ingenue Phoenix, her voice is surprisingly strong when she belts out a few numbers which sound great, I definitely picked up a Karen Carpenter vibe from her performance.. 

Love that De Palma satirizes the crooked music industry scenarios through the filter of Faust and Phantom of the Opera with some fun commentary about artists rights but it's not too on the nose, this is a great satire. De Palma's fingerprints are all over this with his particular wink at the audience and the visual style you've come to expect including extensive use of the split-screen. Visually Phantom of the Paradise is one of De Palma finest films, great set pieces scenery and an amazing set of songs. 

A lot of great touches fill the screen, back-up singer auditions quickly turn into orgies, the fun send-up of corporate rock, the sleaziness of the music industry and some memorable musical performances. When the Juicy Fruits sing "Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye" is a fun time, love it when the singer mimes shooting heroin into his arm. Then there's the amazing shock rock concert with the band ripping body parts from the audience members which they stitch together the create singer Beef - it's quite an fun time and Beef's exit is a memorable one. Jessica Harper's performances of "Special to Me" and "Old Souls" are soulful and sincere moments, the latter song reminding me a bit of the Carpenter's "Superstar", gave me goose bumps. . 

The Screams Factory transfer has a natural layer of film grain and a fair amount of fine detail with a pleasing amount of depth  and clarity. Skin tones are accurate and the color reproduction is great - the colors really pop. Audio options include both a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Stereo 2.0 with Paul Williams musical numbers sounding superb, dialogue and effects are nicely balanced. Unfortunately there is not an option to listen to the isolated score as found on the Arrow UK Blu-ray. 

Disc one features brand new interviews with director Brian De Palma, Make-up effects wizard Tom Burman  and songwriter Paul Williams.Tthe music genius speaks at length about the process creating music for the film and the freedom of crafting satirical versions of songs in the style of the Beach Boys and glam rock excesses. Mentioning that the legacy of Phantom of the Paradise  continues to  give him gifts, including  the collaboration with Guillermo del Toro on Pan's Labyrinth and teaming-up with Daft Punk. 

Make-up Effects wizard Tom Burman speaks very briefly about the design of the Phantom's helmet design and then we get a brand new interview with director Brian De Palma who touches on his unique shooting style, Hitchcock influences, locations used during the shoot and his view of television versus cinema. He also goes into the lawsuits over the Swan Song logo and what a pain in the as that was - this is a great interview. 

There are two brand new audio commentaries to accompany the film. The first with stars Jessica Harper, Gerrit Graham and the Juicy Fruits (Archie Hahn, Jeffrey Comanor and Harold Oblong aka Peter Eibling). The commentary is actually three separate commentaries that are scene specific stitched together for the duration of the film. We begin with a fun video introduction from the Juicy Fruits and then into the commentary which is a lot of fun - a real fun bunch of guys who speak about filming the scenes and working with Paul Williams and how they came to the project. Harper speaks about getting the part and really flying by the seat of her pants as it was her first film though thankfully she had William Finley to guide her along. Gerrit Graham also chimes in from time to time with a few Beef-centric anecdotes. 

 The second commentary is from is Production Designer Jack Fisk who's work on this film is amazing - the sets and design are visually dazzling - especially love the backdrops for the musical performances. Fisk who did work on David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001) and Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007) offers up a scene specific commentary pointing out specifics of the production design and the inspiration for the Death Records. At the time of filming Fisk was dating actress Sissy Spacek, star of Badlands (1973) and whom would go onto star in De Palma's adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie (1976) a few short years later, apparently she did a lot of painting on the sets of Phantom. 

Then onto 26 minutes of alternate and extended scene from the film  - my favorite is Jessica Harper belting out "Special to Me" from the audition scene and Beef's shower attack scene - these are presented with split screen comparisons of the final film and the alternate take or extended sequence. We also get an 8-minute featurette chronicling the Swan Song fiasco. Just before the release of the film one Led Zeppelin's manager created Swan Song Records and threatened litigation if all references to Winslow's Swan Song Production company were not removed. It chronicles the many changes that had to made to the final film to mask the Swan Song logo with a split screen presentation of the original and final scenes.  The last extra on disc one is a still gallery of poster art and promotional stills, the press book and program. 

Onto the second disc - a standard def DVD - we begins with the 50-minute documentary Paradise Regained which has been available on at least two foreign releases including Arrow's Blu-ray. This makes it no less interesting - the doc featuring interviews with director Brian De Palma, producer Edward R. Pressman, the late star William Finley, star and composer Paul Williams, co-stars Jessica Harper and Gerrit Graham among others. Truly a feast for fans of the film and Brian De Palma's the cast and crew peel of anecdotes about the making of the film. Graham conducts some of his interview in French and he seems like a wonderful weirdo while Finley speaks about nearly having his head crushed for real in the record pressing scene. 

Carried over from the Arrow Video release is a 70-minute interview with actor Paul Williams conducted by director Guillermo DE Toro with the musician/actor discussing his career, being offered the role of Winslow and working with De Palma plus his own addiction and recovery. The two jovially discuss the songs and lyrics of the film and del Toro's fan boy enthusiasm is infectious. 

Scream Factory once again go the extra mile here adding 40-minutes of new interviews with Rosanna Norton (10 minutes), producer Edward R. Pressman (15 minutes) and drummer Gary Mallaber (15 minutes) plus the featurette Alvin's Art Technique (15 Minutes) with the artist John Avin's  widow speaking about her late husband's airbrush style and his creative process, it. Alvins also created the iconic posters for Blazing Saddles, The Color Purple and Blade Runner among others. A very cool extra is the Phantom of the Paradise Biography by Gerrit Graham - 1974 Publicity Sheet written by and read by Graham (10 minutes) who is such a fun guy. At the time of the films release Graham was allowed to write the biography for the press kit and here he reads it - a very nice extra for fans. 

The extras on disc 2 are finished-up with a short segment of William Finley showing off a Phantom action-figure plus the usual array of theatrical trailers, TV spots, radio spots and another still gallery with poster art, promotional stills, and the press book for the film. 

Additionally the set comes with a slipcover with a new illustration by Justin Osbourne and a reversible sleeve of artwork. Scream Factory have pulled out all the stops in an effort to give fans the definitive version of this film and the definitely have achieved that goal - this release is a love letter to the film on every level - there are over eight and a half hours of bonus content on this 2-disc set!  If I were to nitpick I would have enjoyed an isolated score or a three disc set that included a CD of the soundtrack but that's just nitpicking - I love this set. 

Special Features:

DISC ONE (BLU-RAY)

NEW Audio Commentary with Jessica Harper, Gerrit Graham and the Juicy Fruits (Archie Hahn, Jeffrey Comanor and Harold Oblong aka Peter Eibling)

NEW Audio Commentary with Production Designer Jack Fisk

NEW Interview with director Brian DePalma (36 minutes)

NEW Interview with Paul Williams talking about the music of PHANTOM (35 minutes)

NEW Interview with Make-up Effects wizard Tom Burman discussing the Phantom Helmet (4 minutes) 

Alternate Takes (26 minutes)

Swan Song Outtake Footage (7 minutes)

Still Galley (13 Minutes)

DISC TWO (DVD):

Paradise Regained – documentary on the making of the film featuring director Brian DePalma, Producer Edward R. Pressman, William Finley, Paul Williams, Jessica Harper, Gerrit Graham and more… (50 minutes)

Interview with Paul Williams moderated by Guillermo Del Toro (72 minutes)

Interview with costume designer Rosanna Norton (10 minutes)

NEW Interview with producer Edward R. Pressman (15 minutes)

NEW Interview with drummer Gary Mallaber (15 minutes)

NEW Alvin’s Art and Technique – a look at the neon poster (15 minutes)

NEW Phantom of the Paradise Biography by Gerrit Graham - 1974 Publicity Sheet written by and read by Graham (10 minutes)

William Finley and Toy (1 minute) 

Radio Spots (2 minutes) 

TV Spots (5 minutes) 

Theatrical Trailers (5 minutes) 

Still Gallery (52 images) 

Phantom of the Paradise (1974) is a rock n' roll cult-classic that's immensely entertaining.  A fun retelling of Faust with elements of the Phantom of the Opera infused with satire and memorable musical numbers, this is a rock n' roll fantasy that you need to own and Scream Factory's 2-disc Blu-ray is the one to own.