FIRESTARTER (1984) (Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review)

FIRESTARTER (1984) 
Collector's Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Duration: 115 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS--HD MA Mono with Optional English subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Mark L. Lester 
Cast: George C. Scott, Heather Locklear, Louise Fletcher, Art Carney, David Keith

Firestarter (1984) was a movie I discovered during its lengthy run on 80s cable TV, I would plop down on the floor in front of the TV to watch it anytime it aired. But, that was back in the 80s, I'm quite a bit older now, and I haven't watched it in years, and with the way that youthful nostalgia works I was a bit worried it wouldn't hold up, but good news, Firestarter is still a good watch.

As a Stephen King adaptation this is a fairly faithful to the source material, we have a gifted youngster Charlene "Charlie" McGee (Drew Barrymore, Santa Clarita Diet), with the power of pyrokinesis, the ability to produce fire without the aid of a flame, which is cool. Her father Andy (David Keith, White of the Eyes) is a telepath who can "push" people into doing things against their will, they are both on the run from a secret government organization known as "The Shop", baddies who want to perform experiments on Charlie, to weaponize her. The Shop is run my Captain Hollister(Martin Sheen, Badlands), and when his standard-issue agents fail to apprehend the super-powered duo Hollister enlists assassin Agent John Rainbird (George C. Scott, The Changeling)to recover the pair by an means necassary. 

Firestarter is sort of a superhero origin story at a time when superhero movies were not as commonplace as they are today, a story with telepaths, gifted youngsters, secret government agencies sort of smacks of the X-Men franchise, and truly the father/daughter on the run storyline is mirrored by the recent film Logan (2017). Another way to see it might be Stephen King's Carrie by way John Farris's The Fury, two movies which were brought from the page to the big screen in spectacular fashion by director Brian De Palma, and while this adaptation doesn't rise to the level of Carrie (1976) it's right up there with The Fury (1978) in my opinion, sharing very similiar themes.

The movie holds up nicely, it's a fun watch, with Drew Barrymore anchoring the whole shebang as the gifted child, apprehended and coerced into honing her pyrokinetic abilities by the baddies. Barrymore has some nice depth about her, she was already a damn fine actress at such a young age. Keith David as her father is good, I've always like him, his concern for his daughter comes through in the performance, but he can be a bit wooden, but overall he turns in a good performance. Martin Sheen as the head of the shop is good, a menacing presence, but not too over-the-top. Then we have the venerable George C. Scott, unfortunately playing a native American assassin, which is silly. Somehow Scott rises above the sorely miscast role, sporting a ponytail and an eye patch, a disturbing character with some truly unsavory plans for Barrymore's young character, while it's never spelled out in black and white it always seemed to me to hint at pedophelia, so creepy. 

At The hop Barrymore's Charlie is kept locked away, sequestered from her father, fake-friended by Rainbird masquerading as a kind-hearted orderly, coerced into showing off her alarmingly frightful abilities, climaxing with young Charlie firing it up full throttle after a tragedy, burning the place to the ground in a rather fulfilling series of scorching scenes. Barrymore anchors the movie, but I think it's all the cool fire stunt work that sticks with people, with plenty of fireballs and baddie agents going up in flames real nice, these are real people on fire, old school stuff that now would be done digitally. 

The movie has a a lot of heart, the father-daughter story is strong, the government agency makes for good baddie, and there's just enough back story peppered into the film to give it some added depth, including flashbacks to Andy's college days, where he volunteered in an experiment in which students were dosed with a hallucinogenic drug called LOT-6, a drug which gave Andy his telepathic abilities. This is also where Andy met Charlie's mother, Vicky (a bright-eyed Heather Locklear, TV's Melrose Place), who also acquired the telepathic ability to read minds, with the two later giving birth to Charlie, who in turn inherited her own special powers. 

Audio/Video: Firestarter (1984) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory framed in the original widescreen scope (2.35:1)  aspect ratio, sourced from a brand new 2K scan of the interpositive. The 2K scan breathes new life into the image, beginning with not having been egregiously DNR-scrubbed as the previous barebones Universal Blu-ray was. With the nicely managed grain we get some good fine detail, with decent depth and clarity. The image appears a bit brighter, colors are more robust, the forest greens are vibrant, skin tones look more realistic, and the image is sharper. On PQ alone this is already a significant improvement. 

The lone audio on the disc is an English language DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track, and it sounds fine, the dialogue and sound effects are crisp and clean. The Tangerine Dream core comes through with a nice resonance, but I think it would have benefitted from a surround sound mix. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

Onto the extras we have an audio commentary with director Mark L. Lester flying solo, he's a bit soft spoken and there's some dead space, but it's good stuff, I think having a moderator would have livened it up a bit. The center piece on the extras is a 55-min making of doc, featuring interviews with director Mark L. Lester, actors Freddie Jones and Drew Snyder, stuntman/actor Dick Warlock and Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream. Lester covers a lot of the same ground on the commentary track, recalling coming to the attention of producer Dino De Laurentiis following the success of his film Class of 1984 (1982), writing the script with writer Stanley Mann, shooting in a non-union state to keep costs low, shooting the fire stunts, and the score.  He also speaks about the casting, bringing big names into the movie, also dropping that Heather O'Rourke (Poltergeist) was in the running to play Charlie. Actor Drew Snyder who played one of The Shop agents recalls Lester being a good director, a creative guy, and working with the stuntmen on-set, including a fire stunt he did, which was the one and only fire stunt stunt of his career. According to him the stuntmen would go to local bars after hours and brawl with the locals. Freddie Jones, who played Dr. Joseph Wanless, doesn't seem to remember a whole lot about the shoot, other than being warned not to wander around town and being intimidated by George C. Scott. Actor/Stuntman Dick Warlock (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning)speaks a bit about working with Barrymore, and the fire stunts. Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream speaks a bit about the process of recording the score, and an odd meeting with producer Dino de Laurentis. Sadly there are no interviews with the main cast, that being Martin Sheen, Drew Barrymore or David Keith, which would have kicked the extras up a notch.

Johannes Schmoelling shows up again for a 17-min interview, speaking about scoring Michael Mann’s movie Thief (1981), which is how they began their decades long career scoring movies, before going into a bit more detail about creating the Firestarter score.  Extras are finished up with a 3-min performance of “Charlie’s Theme” by Johannes Schmoelling on piano, theatrical trailers, TV spots and a gallery of production images, the press kit, and poster art from various territories.

The Collector's Edition Blu-ray from Scream comes housed in a standard blue blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, one side is a new illustration and the other is the original movie poster image. The release also comes with an 0-ring (slipcover) with the new illustration from the CPR Group.

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the inter-positive film element
- NEW Audio commentary with director Mark L. Lester
- NEW Playing with Fire: The Making of FIRESTARTER – featuring interviews with director Mark L. Lester, actors Freddie Jones and Drew Snyder, stuntman/actor Dick Warlock and Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream (55 min) HD 
- NEW Tangerine Dream: Movie Music Memories – an interview with Johannes Schmoelling (17 min) HD 
- NEW exclusive performance of “Charlie’s Theme” by Johannes Schmoelling of Tangerine Dream (3 min) HD 
- Theatrical Trailers (4 min) HD 
- Radio Spot (5 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (6 min) HD 

80s scorcher Firestarter (1984) holds surprisingly well, thanks to the compelling story and a solid cast, further enhanced by the ethereal synth score from Tangerine Dream. The new Collector's Edition Blu-ray looks and sounds great, the image upgrade is significant and the nearly hour long making of doc is good stuff, fans of 80s sci-fi thrillers and Stephen King adaptation should be very pleased with this release, recommended. 3.5/5

SCREEN CAPS

Having already sold my Firestarter Blu-ray from Universal all I had on hand to compare the Scream Factory Blu-ray to was the Universal DVD (2008), which is not a fair comparison, but here you go, for the sake of comparison. 

UNIVERSAL DVD (TOP)

SCREAM FACTORY Blu-ray (BOTTOM)

UNIVERSAL DVD (TOP)

SCREAM FACTORY Blu-ray (BOTTOM)

UNIVERSAL DVD (TOP)

SCREAM FACTORY Blu-ray (BOTTOM)

UNIVERSAL DVD (TOP)

SCREAM FACTORY Blu-ray (BOTTOM)

UNIVERSAL DVD (TOP)

SCREAM FACTORY Blu-ray (BOTTOM)

UNIVERSAL DVD (TOP)

SCREAM FACTORY Blu-ray (BOTTOM)

UNIVERSAL DVD (TOP)

SCREAM FACTORY Blu-ray (BOTTOM)

UNIVERSAL DVD (TOP)

SCREAM FACTORY Blu-ray (BOTTOM)

STRANGE INVADERS (1983)

STRANGE INVADERS (1983) 

Label: Twilight Time 

Region Code: Region Free (A/B/C)
Duration: 93 Minutes
Rating: PG
Video: 1080p High Definition / 2.35:1 / Color
Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles 

Director: Michael Laughlin

Cast: Paul Le Mat, Nancy Allen, Diana Scarwid, Michael Lerner, Louise Fletcher, Wallace Shawn, Fiona Lewis

Synopsis Michael Laughlin directs Strange Invaders (1983), an affectionate homage to science fiction/alien takeover films of the 1950s that stars Paul Le Mat as a university professor searching for his ex-wife (Diana Scarwid), who seems to have disappeared while visiting her hometown of Centerville, Illinois. In fact, the place turns out to be a hotbed of aliens, in place since the Fifties and weirdly unaware of how the outside world has changed. Also starring Nancy Allen as a helpful journalist, and a lively supporting cast including Michael Lerner, Louise Fletcher, Wallace Shawn, Fiona Lewis, and period icon June Lockhart.

I remember watching this on TV in the eighties and I was completely absorbed by it, a straight-faced homage to the alien invasion movies of the fifties, movies which at that young age I had already watched, particularly Invaders from Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Movies I loved, movies that made be think that just maybe my neighbors were aliens from anotherpanet... at least I hoped so. Ovid, New York was a sort of nowhere place, which is probably why I enjoyed Strange Invaders so much, most of the action takes place in Centerville, Illinois which was analog to where I found myself most of my young life in boring Upstate New York, a place also seemingly trapped in the Cold War-era 1950s. 

In the film university professor Charles Bigelow (Paul Le Mat, American Graffiti) becomes obsessed with the disappearance of his ex-wife Margaret (Diana Scarwid), whom had left their young daughter Elizabeth (Lulu Sylbert) with her Charles so she could return to her hometown of Centerville to attend her mother's funeral. When Margaret doesn't return in a matter of days Charles heads to Centerville ot get to the bottom of his ex-wife's whereabouts. Arriving he discovers that the small town is straight out of the '50s, the teens drive around in vintage Chevy cars, and the styles are of the June and Ward Cleaver variety. Contrary to the idyllic appearances no one is welcoming to strangers from out of town, in fact Charles just barely escapes the town with his life intact when he encounters an alien who zaps his car with a beam of pure energy which comes straight from the creatures own mind. 

Returning to the city he seeks the help of tabloid journalist Betty Walker (Nancy Allen, Blow Up) after he sees a picture on the cover of the tabloid which looks exactly like the alien he saw in Centerville. The sassy, chain-smoking reporter nearly laughs him out of the office when he confides to her what happened to him, that is until she is visited by a strange Avon lady (Fiona Lewis) at her apartment,  who locks herself in the bathroom and zaps Betty's landlord (Shawn Wallace, The Princess Bride) before disappearing herself. After the encounter she and Charles approach a shady government agent, played by the wild-eyed Louise Fletcher (the Invaders from Mars remake) as Mrs. Benjamin, who tells them that there are no aliens and there is no town of Centerville, that it was destroyed by a tornado in the fifties.

Regardless, Charles, Betty and the young Elizabth head back to Centerville, and not surprisingly what they find is that the town is has been populated by a race of alien creatures since the fifties, taking on the appearance of the humans they've zapped thirty years ago. What does all this have to do with the missing ex-wife is at the heart of the story, in this fun straight-faced send up of vintage science fiction movies, I love this sort of stuff.  The performances are played flat, which might not go over well with a younger audience who did not grow up watching vintage science fiction tales of alien paranoia like myself, I think you have to have an awareness of what the movie makers are sending up here to appreciate it. 

While I grew up with not only this movie, but the movies that it is clearly riffing on, my teen kids did not, and as such I don't think they had the appreciation for it I do, but they tolerated it. I can understand their perspective, it's a bit on the dry side, it's not played for laughs, it has that same strange sense of weirdness that the Invaders from Mars had, that feeling that something is not quite right here, a disconnect, a wry, antiseptic paranoia about it. The movie does have some fun sci-fi special effects, including a cylindrical mother ship, classic flying saucers, cool alien designs by James Cummins (John Carpenter's The Thing) and retro-styled laser beams! There's a little something for most sci-fi and horror fans to enjoy on some level, even a saccharine nod to Stephen Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind with a happy reunion at the end. 

Audio/Video: Strange Invaders (1983) arrives on Blu-ray for the very first time courtesy of twilight Time who have released the slice of retro sci-fi as part of their Limited Edition Series limited to just 3000 copies, so you had best act fast before it goes out of print and fetch high prices on the secondary market. The transfer is quite good, the eighties film stock used for these cheapies tend not to look great in HD in my opinion, but the image holds up surprisingly well, considering the soft-focus cinematography, which tends not to come across as very crisp, but does lend a retro air of authenticity to the proceeding. Colors are strong, skin tones look good and the image is about as crisp as you could hope for considering the soft-focus cinematography. 

Bonus content includes an Audio Commentary with Director Michael Laughlin and Writer William Condon recorded in separate sessions and stitched together seamlessly to provide a fun, anecdotal and well-rounded track that is sure to please fans of the movie. There's also a trailer for the movie and an isolated score highlighting the fun sci-fi score from John Addison, who scored Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966). Additionally there's an 8 pg. booklet with new writing on the film from Twilight Time staff writer Julie Kirgo, who is always a wealth of insight and perspective.  

Special Features: 

- Isolated Score Track 

- Audio Commentary with Director Michael Laughlin and Writer William Condon

- Original Theatrical Trailer
- 8 Page Booklet with new writing on the film from Julie Kirgo 

Director Michael Laughlin also directed the equally bizarre retro-horror shocker Strange Behavior (a.k.a Dead Kids), a movie that also falls into a weird '50s style sense of place and atmosphere, he had intended a third movie in a series of "Strange" movies, but after this one tanked at the cinema that failed to come to fruition, which is unfortunate, I love these movies, they're strange and I am not at all surprised they failed to draw a large audience, but in retrospect I think these have found a home in the annals of cinema as proper cult-classics, and I would have loved to have a third and final installment in his planned trilogy of "strange" movies.3/5

INVADERS FROM MARS (1986)

INVADERS FROM MARS (1986) 

Label: Scream Factory
Release Date: April 7th 2015
Region Code: A
Duration: 99 Minutes
Rating: PG
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0, 5.1
Video: HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Tobe Hooper

Cast: Laraine Newman, Louise Fletcher, James Karen, Bud Cort, Timothy Bottoms, Hunter Carson, Karen Black

I remember watching the original Invaders from Mars (1953) during one of those Saturday afternoon chiller matinees that aired back in the '80s and it scared the crap right out of me before, for weeks afterward I had recurring nightmares of my family and neighbors becoming alien drones, I'd wake up in a cold sweat scared to death, those were some frightening nightmares. I tell you that between watching this and the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) I was convinced that some insidious alien menace would conquer my small town before spreading out into the surrounding areas before conquering the world.

Tobe Hooper's remake of Invaders from Mars (1986) begins with young David Gardner (Hunter Carson) watching a meteor shower with his father out in the yard, afterward he lays down to sleep when a bright light in the sky catches his attention,. Peering through the bedroom window he sees an alien spacecraft landing in the sand quarry just beyond the hill behind his house. David freaks out at the eerie sight, but of course when his parents have a look out the window the UFO is nowhere to be found and they assume it must have been a bad dream. The next morning his father (Timothy Bottoms) doesn't seem quite himself... hmm, could he maybe be and emotionless drone controlled by an invaders from Mars?

As happens with most of these kids films from the '80s no one believes young David when he tells them that the aliens have landed and have begun to take over the town, no one except the school nurse, played by horror great Karen Black (Burn Offerings). David's science teacher Mrs. McKeltch (Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) seems to have been assimilated along with his father and has her eye on David and the rest of the children, she's even organizing a science trip out the sand quarry. The scene of David discovering that Mrs. McKeltch is under the control of the alien force is pretty creepy and somewhat humorous watching it as an adult, she scarfs down a frog specimen from the science lab head first with the legs protruding from her mouth, scary stuff. 

Most of the adults in town seem to have fallen under the control of the alien invaders, David and the nurse are not sure who they can trust anymore and are left to seek the only help left in the area, the damn Marines.In a way that can only work in a film designed for children General Wilson (James Karen, Return of the Living Dead) believes the wild story and launches an all out assault on the aliens out at the sand quarry without much proof or questioning, and this is when the film loses a bit of steam. It does creepy and paranoid quite nicely from the start, the pure terror of knowing your parents are not your parents and no one believes you, that you are a shrinking minority of free-thinkers is scary stuff, especially for a kids film from the '80s, but once the action is amped up during the finale it just feels a bit bloated. 

Onto the look of the alien menace we are given choice of two distinct creatures, the four--legged worker drones and the veiny supreme martian intelligence, both designs are pretty cool and were designed by artist William Stout and realized by John Dykstra and Stan Winston to great effect. A lot of the effects didn't have the same sway on me that they did when I was younger but on a purely nostalgic level this was a lot of fun. The alien spacecraft is a massive ship buried under the sand which can suck people down into the sand where they are implanted with device thereby losing their free will and becoming one of the worker drones for the martians. The interiors set design for the spacecraft has a cool organic feel about it and are drenched in colored lighting and fog machines, very '80s and a lot of fun. 

Not surprisingly the movie had more of an impact on me in my youth, but I can say that about most of the stuff I watched at that magical age. Watching it now as an adult with my own kids it made for a fun watch laced with a fair amount of nostalgia and some '80s camp, it definitely feels more goofy science-fiction than kiddie horror to me  watching now but that didn't make it any less fun of a watch, I still love this movie. 

Blu-ray: Invaders from Mars arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory presented in the original widescreen aspect ratio (2.35:1) and the results are very pleasing. There's some print damage evident by way of vertical lines and speckling throughout but overall this is a solid hi-def presentation. Color saturation is strong with nicely managed film grain and some decent depth and clarity, a definite upgrade from the MGM Midnite Movies presentation. 

The English language DTS-HD MA 2.0 or DTS-HD MA 5.1 both sound great, crisp and clean without any distortions. The surround mix is pleasing with eerie sound effects and Christopher Young's at times over-the-top score bleeding into the surrounds - though most of the action is front and center. 

Onto the extras we have quite a some really great stuff beginning with a brand new audio commentary from director Tobe Hooper moderated by Michael Felsher of Red shirt Pictures. Hooper is not the most active commentator so having Felsher there to prod him along is a good thing. They touch on Hooper's three-picture deal with Cannon Films which spawned this film plus TCM2 (1986) and Lifeforce (1985), it tends not to be scene specific but has some great anecdotes about the making of the film.  

Speaking of Red Shirt Pictures they created a new 37- minute making of doc with new interviews from Director Tobe Hooper, Actor Hunter Carson, Special Creature Effects Artists Alec Gillis and Gino Crognale, and Composer Christopher Young, some great insights and a look into creating the creatures for the film. Bonus content on the disc is buttoned-up with a production illustration gallery with commentary from artist William Stout, a still gallery, the theatrical trailer and a TV spot for the film. A nice touch is a reversible art option which 

Special Features
- Audio Commentary with Director Tobe Hooper
- The Martians Are Coming! (37 Minutes) - The Making of "Invaders From Mars", an all-new retrospective featuring interviews with Director Tobe Hooper, Actor Hunter Carson, Special Creature Effects Artists Alec Gillis and Gino Crognale, and Composer Christopher Young 
- Theatrical Trailer (1 Mins) HD
- TV Spot (1 Mins) SD
- Original Storyboards (4 Mins) HD
- Original Production Illustration Gallery from Artist William Stout with Commentary by Stout (14 Mins)
- Still Gallery (27 Images) 

Verdict: Hooper seemed to be going for a straight-up homage to the original film and other schlocky b-movie science fiction films from the '50s with a addition of a thin veneer of '80s cheesiness and is largely successful. The movie has a great cast and enough kiddie creepiness and sci-fi goofiness to make this an easy recommend, particularly if you're looking for something not-too-scary to watch with your own kiddies. They just don't make 'em like this anymore, there was something special about these dark kiddie fantasy and science fiction films from the  '80s that cannot be duplicated, more '80's awesomeness on Blu-ray is a good thing. 

Blu-ray Review: DEAD KIDS (1981)

DEAD KIDS (1981) 

Label: Severin Films

Region Code: Region-FREE

Duration: 101 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono 

Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.35:1) 

DIrector: Michael Laughlin

Cast: Michael Murphy, Dan Shor, Fiona Lewis, Dey Young, Louise Fletcher, Mark McClure, Scott Brady

When an eerie series of murders occur in a small Midwest town Sheriff Brady (Michael Murphy) suspects that the strange behavior modification experiments going on at Galesburg College might have something to do with it. In fact the sheriff's long suspected that a certain Professor Le Sange (Arthur Dignam) had something to do with his wife's death years earlier. What he doesn't know is that his son Peter (Dan Shor) is earning pocket money volunteering for these very same experiments under the watchful eye of Professor Parkinson (Fiona Lewis, Innerspace), an icy vixen who continues the bizarre teachings of the late Professor Le Sange. La Sange teaches from beyond the grave via archival film as he directs a chicken with an antennae surgically attached to it's head to obey his every command, very weird stuff. 

Before you can say "chicken, raise your right leg"  teens are inexplicably killing each other in a series of grisly murders, sort of grisly anyway. I thought the set-up for each killing was pretty damn decent with some nice atmosphere but the kills are mostly anti-climatic. The worst offender a throat slash minus any actual gore, in its place we get the classic blood on the edge of a knife prop, but I give it props for some nice set-ups.

There's an abundance of great small town folk who populate the film and give it a true sense of a community including Peter's best friend Oliver (Marc McClure) who looks quite a bit like tennis great John McEnroe, a gossipy house maid and a love interest for the sheriff in the form of a waitress played by the gum-snapping Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).

Ozploitation stuff no matter how absurd usually have a great visual style and Dead Kids does not disappoint, we have some skewed angles and interesting camera movement plus some great use of the New Zealand  scenery which quite perfectly emulate the Midwest setting. As stated before this is stuffed with great atmosphere which is enhanced by the droning Tangerine Dream (Legend) synth score.

Early on the teens attend an awesome costume party with everyone is dressed-up in costumes and pogoing to Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes". The whole scene has Animal House feel to it and ends with a tubby bully named Waldo trying to molest his 13 year-old  date in his car until they're interrupted by a killer wearing a very creepy Tor Johnson Plan 9 from Outer Space mask who stabs Waldo to death and pursues his date through the woods and into a swimming pool before the murder in progress is interrupted by party-goers. This is great stuff and the whole scene is probably the highlight of the film for me. 

I love this one quite a bit, it has so many creepy and what-the-fuck moments that you cannot not at least be partially entertained or horrified. A shot of nude Peter in bathroom carrying on a conversation with his father is a bit strange, that's just not normal. While the films is steeped with atmosphere the pieces of the story don't always fit together neatly and at points it does start to get a bit dull. On top of that many of the kills are sub par despite some nice set-ups. Most of the gore is a let down though we do get a creepy scarecrow cadaver with hollowed-out eyes and a young kid dismembered in the shower, both of these are great The scene that freaked me out as a kid (and still does) is Peter pissing a dark red stream of blood which gave me nightmares as a kid watching this on cable, that's just icky. 

I love the off-kilter exploitation cinema that came out of Australia in  the 70's and 80's and I enjoy Dead Kids (1981) quite a bit even if it doesn't measure up to the classic slashers coming out of America and Canada around the same time but as a psychologically-infused thriller it's a nice slice of entertainment.  

Blu-ray: Severin Films went  straight to the original negative and created a brand new HD transfer of the film framed in it's original widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio and it's a nice upgrade over the 2002 Elite Entertainment DVD. The image is more crisp with finer detail and more saturated colors. The 1080p upgrade is nice but don't expect perfection, sort of an uneven presentation but quite an improvement from the DVD. The English language DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono comes through clean and free of distortion. There's not a lot of depth but it's a decent track and the Tangerine Dream score sounds great, fans of the synth score will enjoy the bonus of an isolated music track. 

Carried over from the previous DVD editions are a fun audio commentary with Co-Writer/Associate Producer Bill Condon and Actors Dan Shor and Dey Young which is never dull and loaded with some great info and anecdotes about the making of the pictures.  There's also a new commentary from Director/Co-Writer Michael Laughlin recorded via Skype which is moderated. It starts off a bit slow but does eventually get rolling along as he speaks about coming into the project, working with Condon and some neat casting anecdotes. 

There's a 20-minute interview with Makeup Effects Artist Craig Reardon who speaks humorously about coming onto the project last minute and the stresses of creating low-budget effects on the set and what worked and what didn't. Finishing up the extras we have the US and international trailer for the film. Missing from this edition are 2 deleted scenes with optional commentary from the previous DVD but it's worth noting that both scenes have been stitched back into the feature for this BD/DVD Combo edition. 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With Director/Co-Writer Michael Laughlin
- Audio Commentary With Co-Writer/Associate Producer Bill Condon and Actors Dan Shor and Dey Young
- Featurette: The Effects Of Strange Behavior – An Interview With Makeup Effects Artist Craig Reardon (20:32)
- US Trailer (1:45)
- International Trailer (3:19) 

Verdict: Better known here in the US as Strange Behavior the under seen Dead Kids (1981) is bit of an odd psychological horror film with some great atmosphere and fun slasher elements that while not perfect is a nifty little creeper. Severin have spruced this one up with a brand new hi-def transfer and new value-added extras. Not a flawless watch by any means but a perfectly entertaining slice of Ozploitation horror. 2.5 outta 5