CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984) 

Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: A
Duration: 82 Minutes 
Rating: R
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Stereo, English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Fritz Kiersch
Cast: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R.G. Armstrong, Julie Maddalena, John Philbin, John Franklin, Courtney Gains 

Eighties killer-kiddie classic Children of the Corn (1984) scared the living Hell out of  me when I caught in my pre-teens on VHS. I grew up in a very rural area in Upstate New York with plenty of corn fields around me, so the idea of a dark Lovecraftian force known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" who spurred children to kill the adults really burrowed down into my psyche and imagination in a big, bad way. Even as a kid I found the idea of kids killing all the adults rather frightening, and while the movie affects me differently now three decades later as a father and, somewhat arguably, an adult, I think this one holds up mighty finely. 

The film opens on a Sunday morning in the small town Gatlin, the

adults are gathered at the local diner for their usual post-sermon breakfast when the kids rise up and massacre every last one them while creepy kid cult-leader Isaac (John Franklin, The Addam's Family) peers through the window. We get some decent carnage as the kids poison the coffee pot, hacking and slashing the adults and slicing off the proprietor of the diner's hand in a meat slicer! Now, the carnage is mostly relegated to splashes of blood but I love it when the kid with the milkshake mustache catches a face full of the red stuff! 

Three years later young couple Vicky (Linda Hamilton, Terminator) and her boyfriend Burt (Peter Horton, TV's Thirtysomething) are travelling through rural Nebraska when a young boy emerges from the corn field right into the path of their car. They put him in the car and drive into the nearby town of Gatlin, which at first seems deserted, but soon enough they discover the kiddie-only inhabitants are nothing to be trifled with, as creepy cult-leader Isaac and his evil-ginger sidekick Malachi (Courtney Joiner, The 'Burbs) capture Vicky and put her on a crucifix made of corn, to be sacrificed to their Lovecraftian lord, He who Walks Behind the Rows. 

Based on the Stephen King short story "Disciples of the Crow," this is probably the first King adaptation I saw as a kid, it was chilling to me as a kid, though now I can see it for the somewhat problematic thing that it is, padded for time to stretch the short-subject source material, adding a young girl with clairvoyant visions, but that the creepy kid cult-leader as played by John Franklin (who was 24 when he made this) still manages to make my skin crawl with his eerie sermons and odd demeanor, he has an evil precociousness that I find chilling. Then we have Malachi, whom develops a feud with Isaac over the proper way to worship their dark Lord, culminating in some treachery. 

The finale is fun piece of work, both frantic, frightful and field-burning, but the visual effects might be a bit problematic for those who weren't raised on this vintage slice of horror - they do not really stand-up to the test of time, but the scenes of He Who Walks Behind The Rows burrowing beneath the surface of the ground and the way it displaces the dirt looks very cool, and the fireball is wonderful.  To this day I cannot pass a corn field and think of this film, it's left it's mark on me for sure, a testament to the iconic nature of this one. 

Audio/Video: The Children of the Corn (1984) arrives on Blu-ray from Arrow Video befitting from a new 2K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative. Right away you see the improvement, this is a step up from my 2009 25th Anniversary Blu-ray from Anchor Bay by a large margin, he film grain seems better resolved and more textured, looking more natural. Colors have more life and you can see a new color timing has been done, not sure if this is more accurate to the theatrical run but to my eyes it looks superior to the previous Blu-ray. Audio on the disc comes by way of an English LPCM 2.0 or DTS-HD MA 5.1, I prefer the stereo track, which has more presence and power to my ears, optional English subtitles are provided. 

Arrow Video carry over all the extras from the 2009 Anchor Bay Blu-ray (minus the trivial trivia track) which were produced by Red Shirt Pictures, and kindly offer-up a handful more new ones to make this the definitive edition of the movie. There's a brand new commentary from with John Sullivan of www.childrenofthecornmovie.com and horror journalist Justin Beahm, and Sullivan shows up again for a 16-min location revisit showcasing the filming locations current day.

Screenwriter George Goldsmith shows up for an interview talking about his early career as a small town investigative reporter before dropping that for screenwriting, working on Master of Kung Fu TV series and Force Five, and adapting the work of Stephen King. another cool extra is the short film "Disciples of the Crow" (1983), which is one of the infamous "dollar baby" King adaptations, this one coming out a year before the feature length movie. There are  also over fifty minutes of new interviews with Actors Julie Maddalena and John Philbin (Return of the Living Dead), all in you're looking at over three hours of extras and that's before you get two the two feature length audio commentaries! 

For the sake of this review Arrow Video sent "check disc" without any of the cool packaging or artwork, so I'll share these pack shots from Arrow Facebook page - this is a cool looking release with a sleeve of reversible artwork, reversible poster, and booklet:

Special Features: 
- Brand new 2K restoration from the original negative
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- NEW: Brand new audio commentary with John Sullivan of www.childrenofthecornmovie.com and horror journalist Justin Beahm
- NEW: Return to Gatlin - A brand new featurette revisiting the film's original Iowa shooting locations with John Sullivan of www.childrenofthecornmovie.com  (16 min) 
- NEW: A Field of Nightmare - A brand New interview with Screenwriter George Goldsmith (17 min) HD 

- NEW: ...And The Corn Shall Lead Them - A Brand new interview with Actors Julie Maddalena and John Philbin (52 min) HD 
- Stephen King on a Shoestring - an interview with producer Donald Borchers (11 min) HD 
- Audio commentary with director Fritz Kiersch, producer Terrence Kirby and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains
- Harvesting Horror - The Making of Children of the Corn - retrospective piece featuring interviews with director Fritz Kiersch and actors John Franklin and Courtney Gains (61 min) 
- It Was the Eighties! - an interview with actress Linda Hamilton (14 min) 
- Welcome to Gatlin - The Sights and Sounds of Children of the Corn, an interview with production designer Craig Stearns and composer Jonathan Elias (15 min) 
- Cut From the Corn - an interview with the actor who played "The Blue Man" in the fabled excised sequence (6 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min) HD 
- Storyboard Gallery (6 min) HD 
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin
- Short Film:  Disciples of the Crow (1983): Originally shot as Children of the Corn, this short film adaptation of the eponymous Stephen King Story was made one year before the 1984 feature version of the version  (19 Minutes) HD 
- First Pressing: Collectors booklet featuring new writing in the film.


Children of the Corn (1984) still works it's 80s killer-kids magic all these years later, a testament to both Stephen King's original story and  to the direction of Fritz Kiersch, this is a film that will be scaring audiences for years to come. Arrow Video have gone deep behind the rows of corn to unearth some awesome extras this release, on top of that the A/V presentation is gorgeous, making this easily the definitive version of the film on home video - for fans and newcomers this is the one to own. 

BLOOD RAGE (1987) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

BLOOD RAGE (1983) 

Label: Arrow Video
Rating: Certificate 18
Duration: 82 Minutes
Region: Region Free
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: Uncompressed PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 

Director: John Grissmer 

Cast: Louise Lasser, Mark Soper, Marianne Kanter, Julie Gordon, Jayne Bentzen 

Synopsis: Twins Todd and Terry seem like sweet boys that is, until one of them takes an axe to face of a fellow patron at the local drive-in. Todd is blamed for the bloody crime and institutionalised, whilst twin brother Terry goes free. Ten years later and, as the family gathers around the table for a Thanksgiving meal, the news comes in that Todd has escaped. But has the real killer in fact been in their midst all along? One thing’s for sure, there will be blood and rage!

Now I fancy myself something of a slasher movie connoisseur but this is one movie that had evaded me until it was announced by Arrow Video for release, so there's some amount of obscurity to it. Shot in 1983 but not released until 1987, Blood Rage is a gruesome and fun slasher movie, with an offbeat tone and a wicked vein of mean spiritedness. It begins innocently enough at a drive-in movie theater in the year 1974 during a presentation of the b-movie chiller The House that Cried Murder. Horny single mother Maddy (Louise Lasser - Frankenhooker) is on a date with her boyfriend, her adolescent twin boys Terry and Todd are asleep in the back of the car> When Maddy and her boyfriend start groping each other the boys awaken and leave the car through the back without the notice of their irresponsible mother. They wander the drive-in and along the way Terry finds a hatchet in the back of a pick-up truck. When the boys come upon a car with a pair of young lovers screwing in the backseat Terry murders the teen with an ax to the face, it's a wonderfully gruesome scene. As the young woman runs away from car nude, screaming for help, Terry smears blood on Todd's face and paces the murder weapon in his hand, blaming him for the murder. In the aftermath Todd is sent away to an asylum in a catatonic state, unable to speak the truth about his innocence.

Now ten years later Todd is beginning to speak to his doctor Dr. Berman (Marianne Kanter) at the asylum, and he now says that it was his twin Terry who committed the heinous ax murder a decade ago at the drive-in. When Todd's mother comes for a Thanksgiving visit to the asylum to see her son the doc informs her of what Todd has said, but Maddy refuses to accept any of it. That night Todd escapes the asylum and returns home to the Shadow Woods apartments, followed by a string of bloody murders. 

I love the set-up of this movie, it's not original in that it apes John Carpenter's Halloween to a certain degree with a child-murderer sent away to the asylum, only to escape on a holiday and return home years later. This time around it's Thanksgiving, even though turkey day is give short shrift with only a few nods to the day of feasting, though we do get a memorable turkey carving scene. The addition of a twin-thread is a nice move but is wasted, we know that Todd is innocent and Terry is the demented killer from the very start, so there is never a chance to build any sort of suspense or intrigue around the whodunit. It seems to me they could have milked that for a bit more than they did, which is a bit of a waste.

As for the cast we have the raspy voiced Louise Lasser from Frankenhooker as yet another slightly demented mom, she plays it straight and over dramatic to great effect. Actor Mark Soper plays the dual-role of the twins, you might remember him as the teen who gets his cock bitten off in The World According to Garp. He plays Terry as outgoing and cocky, his murder-spree at time reminded me of eric Freeman from Silent Night, Deadly Night Pt. 2, very bizarre. Soper's version of "it's Garbage Day!" comes by way of "It's NOT cranberry sauce". Terry's virginal girlfriend Karen (Jayne Bentzen) proves to be the final girl and looks a bit like Amy Steele from Friday the 13th Pt. 2, which doesn't hurt. 

Most of the fun happens in and around the Shadow Woods apartment complex, or the nature walk in the woods nearby, it's a cheap setting and the sets are rather dull honestly. The wooded area nearby proves more atmospheric but for some reason is over lit and not that scary a place, the movie seems too bright in general for a slasher. Where the movie excels is in the gore gag department, courtesy of special make-up effects creator Ed French who cut his teeth on early '80s horror movies like Sleepaway Camp, Breeders, C.H.U.D. and The Stuff. He creates some fun, creative gore, though some of the seams do shows through with this new HD presentation. The torso cut in half, a head split in two exposing a halved brain, the ax to the face, a decapitation, slashed throats and deep knife wounds will keep the gore hounds happy. There's also multiple scenes of nudity from Andrea (Lisa Randall) and others that will keep the pervs properly aroused, nothing too sleazy, a few shots of horny lovers and a prerequisite shower scene. 

The movie has some issues that might dampen your fun,as stated before the apartment is a dull setting, the pace lags from time to time, and the cast ranges from bad to just offbeat, but Mark Soper and Louise Lasser do offbeat to great effect. Particularly Lasser who plays the loony mom to the hilt, stuffing her face with Thanksgiving leftovers while slumped on the floor in a fit of hysterics, some good stuff from her throughout as she takes it over-the-top. 

Blood Rage is certainly not a top-tier '80s slasher and that's okay by me, it's still a gruesome and mean-spirited slice of slasher cinema that I would put alongside the holiday themed slasher New Year's Evil, not truly awful but entertaining for not quite the right reasons. 

Audio/Video: Slasher obscurity Blood Rage arrives on Blu-ray from Arrow Video in a rather deluxe 3-disc presentation featuring three cuts of the movie. The main course is a brand-new 2K restoration of the “hard” home video version featuring all the gore bits you slasher nuts are gonna want. Framed in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) the HD image looks surprisingly nice, with an over abundance of grain the image can be a bit thick and scrappy at times, if you know anything about me you know I don't mind a some film grain in my movies. I prefer it to the excessive digital scrubbing that wipes away fine detail and tone. Colors are nicely saturated and the black levels and shadow detail are good, though I will say that the brightness level seems a tad high, this might be the brightest slasher since Dario Argento's Tenebre, the woodland nature walk scenes look like they were shot on a football field at night with the lighting cranked-up to max. it certainly takes away from the tone and atmosphere of the movie. 

Audio chores are capably handled by an uncompressed English PCM Stereo 2.0 with some good oomph to it, everything comes through well balanced with good fidelity. I love the synth score from composer Richard Einhorn (Shock Waves, The Prowler) with the perfect amount of synth tinged menace and '80s cheese, the recurring main title theme is a knock-out in my opinion. Optional English subtitles are provided for hard of hearing and hearing impaired, or if you just live with loud kids who make it near impossible to watch a movie ...not that I am speaking from experience.  

Onto the extras this is where Arrow Video have gone above and beyond. Let start with the fact that we have three-versions of the movie beginning with the aforementioned 2K restoration of the “hard” home video version, transferred from the camera negative and featuring the original "Slasher" title card, which is my preferred version. We have all that great gore from special make-up effects creator Ed French. Then we have the Nightmare at Shadow Woods version, a shorter theatrical re-cut featuring footage not seen in the Blood Rage home video version, but minus a lot of the great gore, which has either been omitted or cut down significantly.  The third and final version is the longer alternate Composite Cut of the movie combining footage from the home video and theatrical versions, sourced from various elements the quality fluctuates a bit from scene to scene, but it is an interesting watch, though at the end of the day the "hard" restored home video version is the one to go with in my opinion. 

There's also an audio commentary from director John Grissmer and movie rights-holder John Daly moderated by Ewan Cant from Arrow Video. I have not had a chance to pour through the commentary just yet given I watched all three versions of the movie, I anticipate a commentary viewing in the coming days. 

Arrow Video have teamed-up with Red Short Pictures to bring us a series of brand-new interviews with actors Mark Soper and Louise Lasser, plus Ted Raimi who made his first onscreen appearance with Blood Rage as a condom-selling dweeb at a drive-in. There's also a great interview with producer/actress Marianne Kanter who speaks about the challenges raising money or and the making the movie, plus special make-up effects creator Ed French speaks about his time on the movie creating the gruesome special effects. 

There's also featurette revisiting the original locations in Jacksonville, Florida with film historian Ed Tucker, an alternate VHS opening titles sequence featuring the "Blood Rage" title card, plus an image gallery featuring some cool behind-the-scenes shots of the make-up effects being created and applied, courtesy of Ed French. 

This release also includes a collector's booklet with writing on the movie by Joseph A. Ziemba, author of BLEEDING SKULL! A 1980s Trash-Horror Odyssey, plus a sleeve of reversible artwork. Arrow Video have truly gone above and beyond for this release, they are deserving of the Criterion of Horror honor that is so often thrown their way. Maybe Criterion should be called the Arrow of non-horror...

Special Features:

- Brand new 2K restoration of the “hard” home video version, transferred from the camera negative and featuring the original title card Slasher
- Audio commentary with director John Grissmer
- Both Sides of the Camera – an interview with producer/actress Marianne Kanter (10 Mins) HD
- Double Jeopardy – an interview with actor Mark Soper (11 Mins) HD
- Jeez, Louise! – an interview with actress Louise Lasser(10 Mins) HD
- Man Behind the Mayhem – an interview with special make-up effects creator Ed French (13 Mins) HD
- Three Minutes with Ted Raimi – an interview with actor Ted Raimi (3 Mins) HD
- Return to Shadow Woods – featurette revisiting the original locations in Jacksonville, Florida with film historian Ed Tucker (6 Mins) HD
- Alternate VHS Opening Titles with the "Blood Rage" Title Card (5 Mins)
- Motion still gallery featuring rare behind-the-scenes make-up photos (5 Mins) HD 

- Nightmare at Shadow Woods – the re-edited 1987 theatrical re-cut featuring footage not seen in the Blood Rage home video version (79 Mins) HD
- Alternate composite cut of the feature combining footage from the home video and theatrical versions (82 Mins) HD
- Never-before-seen outtakes (27 Mins) HD 

- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Marc Schoenbach

- Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Joseph A. Ziemba, author of BLEEDING SKULL! A 1980s Trash-Horror Odyssey

Blood Rage is a cheesy eighties slasher, there's not a lot of originality about it, the acting is offbeat to say the least, but it does manage to pass the time nicely.  For me it's the loony performances of Louise Lasser as the loving mother and the dual-role from Mark Soper, plus the creative gore from Ed French that will keep me coming back to this one. On top of that we have a solid A/V presentation with loads of awesome extras, this anemic '80s slasher had received one mighty fine release from Arrow Video.

Cult-Classic POPCORN (1991) Coming to BD/DVD from SYNAPSE FILMS 2014

Synapse Films announced via their Facebook page a few days ago that they will be bringing the much sought after film POPCORN (1991)  to BD/DVD in 2014. The release will feature a brand new 2K restoration of the film original vault materials and new extras from Michael Felsher’s Red Shirt Pictures. This is pretty damn exciting new as I've personally been wanting to see this movie for ages! 

POPCORN (1991) 

Buy A Bag, Go Home In A Box!

Popcorn, the 1991 cult classic starring Jill Schoelen (The Stepfather, Cutting Class), Malcolm Danare (Christine, Heaven Help Us), Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-terrestrial, The Frighteners, The Lords of Salem) and Tom Villard (One Crazy Summer, My Girl) is coming to Special Edition Blu-ray and DVD from Synapse Films, Inc in 2014!

This release will give fans a brand-new 2K restoration of the film, taken directly from original vault materials. Supplementary materials from Michael Felsher’s Red Shirt Pictures will round out the exciting package. While the line-up of bonus materials has not yet been finalized, it will feature a retrospective documentary on the making of and legacy of Popcorn along with more extra features currently in the planning stages.

“We are thrilled to be working closely with Kristy Jett and Red Shirt Pictures to bring Popcorn out properly. We now have some amazing materials, including the original camera negative and 35mm Interpositive materials to go through, to make sure this release is the best it can be. We just got a palette of amazing stuff we have to sort through for extras, including never before seen behind-the-scenes photos, documents, vintage interview tapes and even an alternate, never used original movie poster design that I found in the bottom of a random box,” says Donald May, Jr., President of Synapse Films.

Getting Popcorn to this point started very simply with a dedicated fan, Kristy Jett of HorrorHound Magazine, launching a Facebook page with the sole purpose of gaining momentum to encourage a distributor to re-release Popcorn. A year in, she gained the support and guidance of Michael Felsher and within the next year she had secured advocacy from Don May, Jr. and Jerry Chandler of Synapse Films. In late 2013, Synapse Films was able to finally secure the rights to the film, to bring it out properly for the fans.

“Make no mistake, this would not have happened without the support and efforts of Don May, Jr. and Jerry Chandler of Synapse. Other companies inquired over the years but Don and Jerry fought alongside me for the past two years. Without them or Michael Felsher, we would not be here.” –Kristy Jett

More details will be released in the coming months, including the release date (estimated date is Halloween 2014, but this is not confirmed). In the meantime, keep up to date on developments at Popcorn’s Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/popcornmovie

Blu-ray Review: NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984)

NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984) 
Collector's Edition Blu-ray+DVD Combo

Label: Scream Factory / Shout! Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78;1)
Director: Thom Eberhardt
Cast: Robert Beltran, Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Sharon Farreel, Mary Wornov, Geoffrey Lewis
Tagline: It Was the Last Thing on Earth They Ever Expected.

Night of the Comet (1984) at it's core pretty much boils down to The Last Man of Earth (1963) by way of Valley Girl (1983) starring the super-cute duo of Catherine Mary Stewart (The Last Starfighter)  and Kelli Maroney (Chopping Mall) as teenage sisters who wake up the morning after the Earthis buzzed by a strange comet to discover that pretty much everyone else have been reduced to a pile of red dust. Oh boy, and the few remaining survivors have been infected by the effects of the comet and are becoming violent zombified maniacs that our totally awesome valley girls must face-off against to survive. If that brief synopsis sounds a bit goofy let me assure you that it really is but it's a lot of cheesy 80's fun. 

Maroney and Stewart do a great job as the sisters, they come across as believable with the expected quarreling and worrying for each other, plus they're super cute, the relationship is the centerpiece of the movie and what drives it. As a kid watching it on TV I was totally in love with these girls, they kicked my burgeoning hormones into top gear of you know what I mean, boner city. The older sister Reggie works at the local cinema (the famous El Ray) and her film projectionist boyfriend Larry (Michael Bowen) deals prints of obscure sci-fi films out the back door of the theater. I loved how Reggie is obsessed with keeping the high scores on the Tempest video game in the theater lobby, it's such an 80's thing, I myself had a similar addiction to the Galaga arcade game at the local five and dime. Younger sister Sam is a bratty blond cutey, decked out in a cheerleader outfit, there's just nothing I didn't like about that. 

During their end-of-the-world travels the sisters encounter another survivor at the local radio station, a young truck driver named Hector (Robert Bertrand, Eating Raoul). After a rough start the trio team-up and the sisters argue over who has dibs on the seemingly last man on Earth. Not too long after they encounter a group of scientist from a secret underground base and it seems they've been rescued, but of course the scientist have ulterior motives and want the teens blood to save their own skins, no surprise there, once I spotted sinister character actor Geoffrey Lewis (Salem's Lot) I knew something was wrong. One of the scientist named Audrey (Mary Warnov, The House of the Devil) is more sympathetic to the teens survival, while she doesn't get a lot of screen time she makes the most it, her scene with Hector at the radio station is memorably dark and poignant. 

The writing from director/writer Thom Eberhardt (Captain Ron) is very good, this is a funny script that doesn't stoop to ridiculous levels of camp, it's littered with fun Easter eggs for genre fans. The setting is great, the eerily empty L.A. streets with a red-tinted sky definitely sets a tone, the effects are very lo-fi but they work. Other than some cool zombie make-up effects from David B. Miller there's not a lot of special effects work here which helps not date the film, but there are some truly awful 8-bit light show in the sky effects as the comet passes which is vintage 80's cheese, just awful, also be on the lookout for some LA window washers in one shot who shouldn't be there.

Maybe the effects aren't dated but pretty much everything else about the film screams early 80's with no shortage of period fashions, neon lighting, the Tempest video game, those old Diet Pepsi cans and of course Kelli Maroney's wonderful valley girl affectations, it was a real blast from the past, if you're nostalgic for the 80's this should satisfy all your cravings and then some. 

The score from composer David Richard Campbell (All The Right Moves) is weirdly awkward, and while it's certainly 80's is pretty cheesy. Worse yet are the synth-pop tunes that pop up from time to time, the only respite comes in the form of Tami Holbrook's very decent cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" which blasts during an apocalyptic shopping spree at, where else, the mall. 

It's a goofy sci-fi film that comes with a lot of nostalgia for this reviewer, it was plastered on the cable networks throughout the 80's and I have fond memories of it, and while I can appreciate how this might fall a bit flat for a younger, modern audience I think this one still offers a lot of bang for the buck and Scream Factory's Blu-ray+DVD combo has some great features. 

Blu-ray:  Night of the Comet (1984) comes to Blu-ray from Shout! Factory imprint Scream Factory with a 1080p hi-def transfer in (1.78:1) widescreen and like a lot of cheapies shot on shitty 1980's film stock it's not exactly overwhelming, colors are nicely saturated and look accurate but can be soft from time to time and lacking the clarity and richness of a modern presentation, but that's to be expected and Scream Factory have done a fine job with what they had to work with, there's a nice layer of film grain intact and while the source material does show some minor dirt, speckling and grit throughout it's very watchable and a step-up from the previous DVD. 

Audio options include DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with optional English SDH subtitles. The 5.1 offers some very cosmetic immersion from time to time, it's front heavy and did not blow me away, I actually preferred the 2.0. Whichever option you choose the dialogue comes through strong alongside the effects and (awful) score, no distortions, a very clean presentation. 

Scream Factory have done a great job with the extras on this edition with three audio commentaries! We have brand-new commentaries Writer/Director Thom Eberhardt, Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart and Production Designer John Muto all moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures. The commentaries with Eberhardt and stars Maroney and Stewart are fantastic and full of anecdotal behind-the-scenes info, fun stuff.  The commentary with Muto is a bit more on the technical side and pretty interesting and recommended to anyone with an more than a passing interest in what happens behind the scenes on a low budget film set. 

There's a handful of newly produced featurettes with video interviews with stars  Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran and Special Make-Up Effects Creator David B. Miller adding up to just over 32 minutes, it's fun stuff. 

Bertrand speaks about taking the role following Eating Raoul (1986) and recommending Warnov to the producers. He didn't much care for initially but loved the idea that the last guy on Earth was Chicano, he speaks about making changes to the character and fighting to maintain the integrity of the role.

Maroney and Stewart are still cuties today and offer up some fun memories of the shoot and working together to form a real camaraderie on set, what it was like to be a working actor in LA in the 80's, early morning and xmas shoots, the reception of the film and it's cult status in the age of the internet. 

Special Make-Up Effects Creator David B. Miller recalls what a great year he was having at the time following his work on Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video with make-up master Rick Baker and working on this b-movie out of his one car garage, this was his first solo outing as a special effects make-up artist. 

Finishing up the extras we have a theatrical trailer and photo galleries with over 100 images from the film, a slipcover with new artwork from David Levine, who's done some great artwork for Scream Factory including Funhouse (1981) and The Burning (1981), a reversible sleeve of artwork with Levine's and the original theatrical artwork plus a standard-def DVD disc featuring the same set of extras. 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Thom Eberhardt
- Audio Commentary with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart
- Audio Commentary with Production Designer John Muto
- Valley Girls At The End Of The World – Interviews with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart (14:59)
- The Last Man On Earth? – An Interview with Actor Robert Beltran (12:32)
- Curse of the Comet – An Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator David B. Miller (6:32)
- Film Photo Gallery (3:27)  

- Behind the Scenes Gallery (5:02) 

- Theatrical Trailer (1:14)

Verdict: Night of the Comet (1984) is a fun sci-fi mash-up thrown into the neon-blender of the early 80's which riffs on quite a few films including Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978). It's not a horror film but it has elements that will appeal to fans of horror, I would place this firmly in-between Chopping Mall (1986) and Terrorvision (1986) as a goofy 80's science fiction entry, a nice slice of 80's cheese and Scream Factory's new Blu-ray is stuffed with some great extras, a recommend. 3 Outta 5