BOUND (1996) (Olive Signature Blu-ray Review)

BOUND (1996)

Label: Olive Films
Region Code: A
Rating: R/Unrated
Duration: 109 Minutes
Audio: English 2.0 DTS_HD MA Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: The Wachowskis
Cast: Christopher Meloni, Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly, Joe Pantoliano, John P. Ryan

Before they hit the mega-big-time with sci-fi game-changer The Matrix (1999) writer/directors The Wachowskis made this little gem of a film, a neo-noir thriller with a lesbian tinge that dazzled me when it arrived in the cinema in the mid-90s and still manages to thrill me today. The woman-on-woman crime caper stars Gina Gershon (Showgirls) as Corky, an ex-con who takes a job doing some paint and plumbing in an apartment, which is where she meets the curvaceous sex-pot Violet (Jennifer Tilly, Bride of Chucky) who lives right next door with her mob-connected boyfriend Caesar (Joe Pantoliano, The Sopranos).

The women strike up a torrid affair that set my early-20s libido on fire when I caught in the cinema, before you know it the pair are lustfully entangled right under the nose of the unhinged - but painfully dimwitted - Caesar, plotting to lift two-million dollars in blood-stained cash that the mob money launderer has hidden away at his place. Should the plan go perfectly it will pit the money launderer against his nemesis, an even more unhinged mob bosses son (played with demented delight by Christopher Meloni from Law and Order: SVU), but like most of the best laid plans it doesn't go off without it's share of danger and violence, as the par seem to have under estimated just how unhinged Violet's man can be. 

The coupling of Tilly and Gershon is sexual perfection, with Tilly's sultry voice and Gershon's seductive lip-curl they are sexual dynamite, their sex scenes are way steamy, even more so on the unrated cut which is included on the disc, in addition to the R-rated version. The story is a deep-dive into Noir visuals with high-contrast cinematography (from Bill Pop of The Matrix trilogy) and striking shadow play, plus we have a cool cast of crime character including John P. Ryan (It's Alive) as one of the mobsters associated with Caesar. It all adds up to a whiz-bang of a debut film from The Wachowskis that has all the style and visual artistry they displayed in their next film, this one holds-up, if you haven't checked it out do yourself a favor, I think you'll be pleased you did.  

Audio/Video: Bound (1996) arrives on Blu-ray for as second time from distributor Olive Films, this time as part of the too-long dormant  Olive Signature collection, touted as a new "HD digital restoration", I am assuming from the same previous master with some restorative tweaking. Things here look good, grain is nicely managed, it's less soft that the previous 2012 release, colors look more saturated and dense with improved contrast. 

Audio comes by way of a robust 2.0 DTS-HD MA stereo track with optional English subtitles. Dialogue  crisp and clean with some nice oomph to it when called upon, the Don Davis (The Matrix Trilogy) sound great in the mix, as do the songs from Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, The Hail Marys and crooner Tom Jones. 

Looking at extras it looks like Olive licensed the audio commentary with writers/directors The Wachowskis; actors Joe Pantoliano, Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon; film editor Zach Staenberg; and technical consultant Susie Brightand from Arrow Video, the track is filled to the brim with technical and anecdotal info. 

Olive also carried-over some of the Arrow extras, beginning with the 10-min “Here’s Johnny!” interview with Christopher Meloni, the 27-min “Femme Fatales” with stars Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly and the 29-min “Modern Noir: The Sights & Sounds of Bound” with cinematographer Bill Pope, editor Zach Staenberg, and composer Don Davis, all of it great stuff. Olive also bring new extras to the table by way of the 7-min “Part and Parcel” with titles designer Patti Podesta, plus a 18-min discussion with academics Ruby Rich and Jen Moorman who speak about noir and the neo-noir movement in relation to Bound. The only extra not carried over from the UK release from Arrow is an interview with Joe Pantoliano, but it is erroneously listed on the slipcover and wrap sent our way for review. 

The single-disc release comes housed in a clear BLu-ray keepcase with 2-sided war, the reverse side featuring images from the film, it also includes a matte finish slipcover plus an 8=page booklet with writing on the film from Guinevere Turner, which is also available as a text-only extra on the disc.

Special Features: 
- New High-Definition Digital Restoration
- Audio commentary with writers/directors The Wachowskis; actors Joe Pantoliano, Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon; film editor Zach Staenberg; and technical consultant Susie Bright
- NEW! “Part and Parcel” – with titles designer Patti Podesta (7 min) HD
- NEW “The Difference Between You and Me” – with B. Ruby Rich and Jen Moorman (18 min) HD 
- “Here’s Johnny!” – with Christopher Meloni (10 min) HD 
- “Femme Fatales” – with Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly (27 min) HD 
- “Modern Noir: The Sights & Sounds of Bound” – with cinematographer Bill Pope, editor Zach Staenberg, and composer Don Davis (29 min) HHD 
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD 
- 8-Page Booklet with Essay by Guinevere Turner

Bound (1996) is a seductive and compelling slice on 90's neo-noir, a stylish film loaded with crime, violence and lesbian-tinged thrills. The new Olive Signature Blu-ray is the best the film has looked on home video and loaded with archival and new extras that pack in the value, plus it has some nice shelf appeal.

CANNON CLASSICS DOUBLE FEATURE: DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987) & DEATH WISH 5: THE FACE OF DEATH (1994) (Umbrella Blu-ray Review)

CANNON CLASSICS DOUBLE FEATURE:

 DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987)/ 
DEATH WISH 5: THE FACE OF DEATH (1994)  

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 100 Minutes/95 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono, English DTS-HD MA Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Director: J. Lee Thompson / Allan A. Goldstein
Cast: Charles Bronson, Dana Barton, Kay Lenz, John P. Ryan, Lesley-Anne Down, Michael Parks, Chuck Shamata, Saul Rubinek 

DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987)(100 min) 
Now living in Los Angeles after the New York set third film, the infamous vigilante Paul Kersey (Bronson, Hard Times) is once again working as an architect, having settled down with a newfound love interest, TV report Kay Sheldon (Kay Lenz, House), but when her teenage daughter Erica (Dana Barron, the original Audrey from National Lampoon's Vacation!) suddenly dies of a crack overdose Paul returns to his perennial vigilante lifestyle, seeking out the dealer who dealt her the toxic drugs, and then aligning himself with mysterious newspaper magnate Nathan White (John P. Ryan, It's Alive) in an effort to turn rival drug pushers against each other to rid the city of crack cocaine.

Now in his late-sixties Bronson was pretty tired looking at this point, but he returned for this J. Lee Thompson (Happy Birthday To Me) directed sequel, cashing a probably large-sized payout for the role and offering his usual tough-guy persona. The action in this one is a bit on the anemic side when compared to previous entries but it still manages to turn a smile with Bronson's character  dispatches bad guys in a series of fun and somewhat corny ways. The film opens with a strange parking garage sequence wherein a woman is being stalked by three stocking-masked thugs who look to be about to rape her when they're interrupted by Bronson, who dispatches of them in the usual point a gun in their direction and pull the trigger sort of way. Without Michael Winner directing this sequel gone is the formerly prerequisite misogynist rape scene the series is known for, making this a bit less seedier than previous entries, but what it lacks in sex-crimes it makes up for in ridiculous action set-pieces. One of my favorite scenes has Bronson going undercover as a wine rep, infiltrating a mobbed-up diner and offering a table of gangsters (including an early appearance from Danny Trejo, Machete) a bottle of explosive wine, the superimposed fiery explosion is so damn cheap looking, but the split-second we see of a mannequin used in the explosion alone is worth the price of admission for me, this is the sort of bad movie stuff that makes bad movies fun.  

The film is a definite drop down in quality for the series, though it is a better looking production than the third entry thanks to the capable direction of J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear), and I love John P. Ryan here in a sinister dual-role, he goes right off the rails towards the end, chewing up scenery in a roller rink with an explosive finale, also featuring another cheap-ass mannequin that goes up in flames. Death Wish 4 is pretty cheesy stuff but this is still tasty cheese, the mold hasn't fully engulfed the 80's action flick and Bronson still caries himself well-enough to make this an entertaining Death Wish film.  

DEATH WISH 5: THE FACE OF DEATH (1994)(95 min)
Having had his revenge against the drug dealers who killed his girlfriend's daughter in L.A. in the last film we catch up to Paul Kersey (Bronson) a few years later, returning to where it all began, New York City. Now in his seventies the vigilante is inexplicably living in the witness protection program and is a professor of architecture at a local university. Again we have a doomed love interest by way of the much younger fashion designer Olivia (Lesley-Anne Down, From Beyond the Grave), and her young daughter Chelsea (Erica Lancaster). Unfortunately for everyone Olivia's ex is vicious gangster Tommy O’Shea (Michael Parks, Tusk) who is using her fashion house to launder dirty money, when she tries to break free of his tyrannical influence the Irish thug sends cross-dressing hit-man Freddie "Flakes" Garrity (Robert Joy, Land of the Dead) to disfigure her as a warning, later going so far as to kill her, continuing a streak of doomed women that Kersey has left in his wake going all the way back to the original film.  

When the mobster gains custody of his estranged daughter following the death of his ex Kersey begins to hunt down O'Shea and his henchmen, with the violence in this one getting even sillier and more cartoonish than the last with Kersey taking out the mobster and his henchmen via a cornucopia of oddball ways, including a cyanide-laced cannoli, an R/C controlled soccer-ball bomb and an ill-advisedly placed vat of acid!

Death Wish 5: The Face of Death (1994) is more of the same for the franchise, but even cheaper than the last. Bronson is considerably older than even the last film, so don't expect a lot from him, thankfully we again have a notable villain by way of Michael Parks (From Dusk Till Dawn), he's venomous fun as the over-the-top Irish mobster, and while he doesn't completely redeem this mostly flat action-less film I think if you made it through the first four films I don't expect you'll walk away from this one too disappointed. 

Audio/Video: Death Wish 4 and 5 arrives on single-disc Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment in 1080p HD, framed in 1.85:1 widescreen and sourced from a good looking element, whatever that may be. Grain is decently managed, with darker scenes showing more visible grain. There doesn't look to be any egregious DNR applied to it, looking very filmic and natural. Colors are also good, skin tones look natural and the black levels are adequate, I wouldn't say inky through and through, but looking alright overall. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA Mono on the first film and stereo for the second with optional English subtitles, no issues with hiss or distortion, well-balanced with score and dialogue coming through without issue. 

Extras are not quite as plentiful as the Umbrella release for Death wish II (1982)/Death Wish III (1985) but are decent, we get two audio commentaries from Film Historian and Bronson expert Paul Talbot - this guy knows his stuff and goes in-depth with a wealth of trivia, anecdotes, and behind the scenes info about each film, getting into the nitty gritty, even minutia like how Bronson played cards with the women in the film but no men were allowed to join in, he even details the various weapons used in the film, including which other film they were used in during that time period. The rest of the extras are relegated to trailers, tv spots, promos and an image gallery with posters, lobby cards, press releases, and various home video releases. 

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentaries  for both film by Film Historian Paul Talbot, Author of Bronson's Loose!
- Death Wish 4 Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- Death Wish 5 Theatrical Trailer (2 min) 
- Death wish 4 TV Spot (30 sec) 
- Death wish 4 Broadcast Promo Spot (30 sec) 
- Death Wish 4 VHS Preview (20 sec) 
- Death Wish 5 VHS Preview (1 min) 
- Image Gallery (63 Images) 

Death Wish 4 and 5 are both cheesy fun if you're in the right frame of mind, Bronson is not in top-form here but if you're a fan of the series (or of Bronson) it's a fun re-visit on Blu-ray. Notably this double-feature marks the HD debut of the fifth film, and Umbrella's Blu-ray looks and sounds very good with two great audio commentaries from a serious Bronson fanatic, both of which I would argue are nearly as entertaining as the films themselves.  

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.