CLOSED CIRCUIT EXTREME (2012)

CLOSED CIRCUIT EXTREME (2012) 

Label: Jinga Films LTD
Region Code: ALL

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 98 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 

Director: Giorgio Amato
Cast: Stefano Fregni, Francesca Cuttica, Guglielmo Favilla, Gaia Inseng

 While THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT didn't inspire a wave of found footage cash-ins the success of PARANORMAL certainly did and in the aftermath the we had waves after wave of both studio and indie found footage films flood the marketplace, a wave on par with the no-budget zombie dreck that's clogged up Netflix and Red Box for years. Of course there are occasional moments of cleverness and inspired creativity (LAKE MUNGO)  but for every PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and [REC] there are a dozen more along the lines of THE DEVIL INSIDE and PARANORMAL ENTITY. The result if that the term "found-footage" does not fill me with enthusiasm and hasn't for quite some

Now onto the latest found-footage entry CLOSED CIRCUIT EXTREME (2012) coming from the boot-shaped shores of Italy, a country known for borrowing a few good ideas in the name of exploitation cinema going back to the granddaddy of all found-footage, the gut churning classic CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Here we have a young couple whom suspect a a man in the disappearance of their dear friend.  When the authorities don't follow-up on it to their satisfaction the two decide to investigate on their own. They monitor the suspects daily activities and break into his home and install several closed circuit video cameras throughout the home in strategic locations - the living room, the bathroom, bedroom and a view of the front yard and the basement. The closed circuit devices only have a certain amount of storage capacity so every few days the couple must return and pull the footage, which as you can imagine is risky business. They suspect this guy may have murdered a friend and they were lucky to get inside once and install the cameras but visiting the home repeatedly is beyond nutty. 

At first the cameras don't catch much out the ordinary - this guy leads a sad and solitary life. He comes home from work, slips on a pair of slippers and drinks a beer while sculpting his bonsai tree. He's interviewing women for a low-paying child care position which seems a bit suspect for several reasons and very slowly things start to become a bit more interesting. Eventually we observe a few more seriously events but not before I nodded off at least twice - this movie is moving in slow-motion and I was growing tired of watching this guy walk around in his undies - not that it got much better when he started walking around in the nude, nope, not at all..

I didn't think the set-up was awful but the execution is certainly faulty, so very slow and  not that much interesting happens for the better part of an hour. The couple are only glimpsed briefly - not enough to get to know them but we at least understand what they are up to and why. What bothered me was how comfortable they were inside the home pouring through drawers and personal belonging, moving furniture and frequently returning to the home time and time again. If I was in the home of someone I suspected  to be a murderer I would be trembling but these two are way to comfortable. You just know they're going to slip up and sure enough that's exactly what happens 

The minimal cast is decent but the broken English dialogue was quite a slog to get through and sounded so unnatural which was a little annoying. Without spoiling too much the film does go to some dark places which includes rape, murder and dismemberment with a fair amount of nudity which is captured on closed circuit cameras so the fine detail leaves a lot of gore and nudity to the viewer's imagination, which doesn't detract from the film at all. 

There's a brief text introduction explaining how the footage came into the possession of the authorities and is edited to include character pop-ups for each person giving their name, age and other information plus additional text pointing out fingerprint and blood evidence as if the film were edited by the authorities to be used as evidence. It's an odd sort of exposition which took me right out the film every time it popped-up. 

CLOSED CIRCUIT EXTREME moves along at a snail-crawl pace and execution is stiff. When the more interesting stuff comes around I was too far gone to care about it even a little bit, there's zero suspense to be found in even one frame of this overlong found-footage flop. SKIP IT! 

LEGEND OF THE HILLBILLY BUTCHER (2012)

LEGEND OF THE HILLBILLY BUTCHER (2012) 

Label: Whacked Movies

Release Date: September 23rd, 2014
Region Code: ALL

Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 

Director: Joaquin Montalvan

Cast: Paul E. Respass, Theresa Holly, Ron Jason, Suzanne Rick, Chris Shumway

Enter the backwoods domain of Carl Henry Jessup, a simple man who spends his days swilling homemade moonshine and carving-up tender vittles sourced from the unfortunate trespassers on his wooded property. 

Carl was orphaned when his demented father sliced up his ma before taking his own life. Despite the fact his father was a demented turd of a man Carl would do just about anything to have both his parents back, to that end he makes a blood sacrifice to the demon Sam Bakoo - offering his own soul in exchange for his parents return. 

Carl's taken care of by his half-sister Rae Lynn who visits often to clean and cook meals but she has no idea that the meat she's frying up is of the human variety. However, when she discovers her brother's nightmarish slaughter room she better run for her life!

I loved the aesthetic of the film, a sweaty image that appears to have been put through the Instagram toaster filter approximating the look of a well worn VHS tape, it suited the retro vibe of the film quite nicely and appears more natural and authentic than a lot of the grindhouse type filters I've seen on recent indie films. 

Paul E. Respass as the cannibal redneck does a pretty decent job getting across the murderous delirium of his character and manages to give a character, which must be pretty flat on the page, some small amount of depth. The supporting cast is less effective in my opinion but his half-sister played by Theresa Holly is not without her white-trash charms and she's the only sympathetic character in the entire film. 

The carnage is decent with a solid body count with some blood and guts but the film certainly doesn't quite live up to the promise of butchery the title implies. At the end of the day we have a decent set-up with an odd occult detour but not much story to speak of, just a series of gruesome events with long pauses in between. 

While I enjoyed the vintage grindhouse aesthetic and retro electronic score the film suffers from a deathly sluggish pace that proved quite a chore to sit through at nearly 100-minutes. 

It would be hard to recommend this across the board unless you have a fondness for vintage SOV horror or willing to trudge through the muck of lo-fi film making to get your backwoods horror fix. There's definitely a sub-sect of horror fans out there who will appreciate this one, it's just not gonna be for everyone. 

EXTRAS:

- Making Of Documentary
- Short Film: Straight Razor
- Horror Happens Interview
- Trailers
- Press

STAGEFRIGHT (1987) (Blue Underground Blu-ray Review)

STAGEFRIGHT (1987) 

Label: Blue Underground

Region Code: ALL

Duration: 90 Minutes

Rating: Unrated 

Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD; 2.0 DTS-HD with Optional English SDH, French, Spanish Subtitles
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Michele Soavi

Cast: David Brandon, Barbara Cupisti, Ulrike Schwerk, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Mary Sellers

A group of theater actors under the direction of opportunistic director (David Brandon) are rehearsing for a new musical set to open is just a few days. The musical is The Night Owl and involves a serial killer that is raped by his victims. During rehearsals star
Alicia (Barbara Cupisti) injures her ankle and sneaks off to the nearest medical facility for treatment - which just happens to be a sanitarium for the criminally insane. One of the inmates there is a former actor turned serial killer named Irving Wallace who has murdered over a dozen people. Unfortunately for Alicia and her co star Betty (Ulrike Schwerk) the notoriouskiller escapes the asylum and hitches a ride with the ladies back to the theater unbeknownst to them. The killer dispatches Betty with a pick-ax to the face and her body is discovered by Alicia.

The cops are called in and they haul away the body and reveal that the killer must be the escaped Irving Wallace who murdered a male orderly at the asylum with a syringe to the neck. The authorities station a patrol car outside of the theater and the theater troupe lock themselves in the theater as the opportunistic director attempts to rework the musical to capitalize on the gruesome murder by making the notorious Irving Wallace the villain of the play - unaware that the murderous actor is inside the theater and as bloodthirsty as ever. 

That's the set-up for what is a pretty great late-entry slasher and one of the better Italian films of the era from first-time director Michele Soavi who honed his chops as not only an actor in such films as CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and ALIEN 2 ON EARTH but as the first-assistant director working for Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Terry Gilliam. The man has style and it shows with his first feature film which is an assured,  stylish and violent piece of Eurocult cinema. 

The theater troupe provide a fun cast of bitchy characters beginning with a pompous theater director (Brandon) and a sleazy producer Ferrari (Piero Vida) and then there's the cast highlighted by Giovanni Lombardo Radice of CANNIBAL FEROX as a gay actor who trades catty barbs with theater diva Laurel (Mary Sellers) - these two are a fun pair. Much of the other cast are forgettable more or less but they all have memorable deaths so who really cares. 

So we have a ton of awesome visual flourished but did I mention the kicker - the killer Irving Wallace wears an owl-headed mask! This is the most outrageous masked killer since the bear mascot in GIRLS NITE OUT! It helps that our killer has access to a wide range of weapons and uses them to their fullest potential, beginning with knifing an actress to death n front of the entire cast - the outfit he's wearing is one of the signature costumes of the musical and no one realizes the deranged actors intentions until the blood starts to flow. So far we've had a syringe to the neck, the pick-ax to the face and now a knife plunged into a a poor starlet' guts and they only get more violent throughout as the killer makes use of a power drill, a hatchet and a chainsaw - some seriously grisly stuff. 

Now the script is a bit of a let down but these Italian horrors were never reality based in my opinion and were quite fantastical. Logic more or less takes a backseat to blood-spattered visuals and gruesome dismemberment and I am alright with that trade-off - the gore gags delicious and completely make-up for that hilarious final ending. 

Stylistically this is a gorgeous film with some great stylized lighting, scenes are bathed in electric blue light and the colors are vibrant and very nineteen-eighties, very loud and obnoxious. A particular scene of the killer on stage with his victims displayed around him stands out as something quite special, almost hallucinatory as he sits upon a throne admiring the carnage while he strokes a cat named Lucifer and bird feathers float in the air around him, very surreal stuff. Adding to the atmosphere of the film is an effective electronic score from composer Simon Boswell who also scored the films DEMONS, DUST DEVIL and PHENOMENA just to name a few. 

BLU-RAY:
Stage Fright arrives on Blu-ray from Blue Underground in stunning fashion and framed in the original widescreen aspect ratio with a fine looking grain structure. The restoration is top notch - the print is damn near flawless to my eyes. Colors are vibrant and the level of clarity is quite pleasing. Black levels and shadow detail are strong and there's a fair amount of fine detail in the close-ups, this is quite a step-up from the already quite nice standard-def DVD.

Audio option include DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo or 5.1 Surround Mix with optional English, French or Spanish  Subtitles. Not overly dynamic but clean and balanced with no distortion, the score sounds great and the surround mix adds to the atmosphere with some nice use of the surrounds. 

Already a home run wit sweet PQ and audio Blue Underground have stocked this disc with some great new extras beginning with a 19-minute interview with the director who discusses his early career and producer Joe D'Amato offering him his first feature film which was written by George Eastman ((ANTHROPOPHANGUS) going onto describe with some depth what it was to be a first-time director and the film's poor reception at the cinema.

the 12-minute interview with star David Brandon  begins by revealing he first met Soavi on the set of CALIGULA 2: THE UNTOLD STORY where his character cut out Soavi's tongue. As a theater writer/.director he was intrigued by the role of the theater director in the film and was impressed by the director's passion. He speaks of insisting that the director himself handle the very real chainsaw during his death scene and finishes up with a anecdote about Joe D'Amato. 

Star Giovanni Lombardo Radice (THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK) begins by revealing he stole two roles from Soavi before being cast in the director's first film. Apparently he helped doctor the script a bit and was quite good friends the Soavi at the time, admitting he had some difficulty working with a few of the non-professional on the set. 

Composer Simon Boswell speaks about his band LIVE WIRE and a fateful meeting with Dario Argento around the time of PHENOMENA that launched his film scoring career leading to gigs on that film and Lamberto Bava's DEMONS films. He speaks about the director's peculiar way of editing his scores at times and his own style and experimenting with synths and sound. He ends with a weird tale of making two albums with two separate Popes and his new band the UNDEAD who he brought together to perform his scores live. 

Extras are finished up with an 11-minute interview with make-up effects artist Pietro Tenoglio, the original theatrical trailer and an image gallery with 75 pics of stills, poster are of the various titles (AQUARIUS, DELIRIUM, STAGEFRIGHT)  and some cool VHS/DVD artwork from around the globe. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Theatre Of Delirium - Interview with Director Michele Soavi (19 minutes)
- Head Of The Company - Interview with Star David Brandon (12 minutes)
- Blood On The Stage Floor - Interview with Star Giovanni Lombardo Radice
- The Sound Of Aquarius - Interview with Composer Simon Boswell (18 minutes)
- The Owl Murders - Interview with Make-Up Effects Artist Pietro Tenoglio (11 minutes)
- Theatrical Trailer ( 2 minutes)
- Poster and Still Gallery (74 images) 

VERDICT:
A fun slasher film with more than a few stylistic nods to Dario Argento - and that's something to celebrate in my opinion. The enclosed space and the bird-brained killer are inspired choices and while the script falls short the damn thing is peppered with a number of creatively gruesome kills - there's just a lot to enjoy here. Blue Underground are white hot streak of superlative transfers and value-added extras, fans of Italian horror should want this on on their shelf ASAP. 

Prepare to be taken by 'BRUTE FORCE' on 9/14 from Arrow Video in UK

BLU-RAY+DVD COMBO RELEASE – September 15th 2014

NOBODY REALLY ESCAPES

Arrow Films’ Arrow Academy label is proud to announce the release of the American epic Brute Force, on dual-format Blu-ray and DVD on September 15th.
Bursting onto American screens in the summer of 1947, Brute Force’s incendiary cocktail of sensation, sweat and sadism excited heated debates among reviewers, as well as attracting eager audiences whose appetite for violent spectacle had clearly not been sated by the war. Following up from the immensely successful release of The Killers (1946), producer Mark Hellinger re-enlisted his newest Hollywood star Burt Lancaster to star in this dark prison film, and it went on to break box-office records in New York, Los Angeles, and several more cities in its seven-week run.

Boasting an unmatchable team, Brute Force features a screenplay by the acclaimed novelist/writer/director Richard Brooks (Blackboard Jungle, 1955); cinematography by William H. Daniel (Greta Garbo’s lensman of choice), Hungarian composer Miklós Rózsa and most importantly, the incomparable director Jules Dassin, legend of film noir.

This deluxe edition will include an all-new high definition transfer of the film, alongside a new and exhaustive look at Burt Lancaster's early career by Kate Buford, author of Burt Lancaster: An American Life. The discs will also feature the theatrical trailer, stills gallery and a reversible sleeve featuring the original poster and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist. The accompanying collector’s booklet will contain new writing on the film by Frank Krutnik, author of In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity, and Swell Guy, an obituary of Brute Force’s producer, Mark Hellinger, by its screenwriter, Richard Brooks, illustrated with original stills.

Synopsis
Before making the French crime classic Rififi, Jules Dassin was arguably the greatest of film noir directors, responsible for a string of gems including The Naked City, Thieves’ Highway andNight and the City. Brute Force kickstarted that run of pictures and never did a film live up to its name more.

Burt Lancaster is Joe Collins, one of a number of convicts squeezed into cell R17 intent on staging a prison break. Not only does he need to return to the side of his cancer-ridden wife (Ann Blyth), he also wants to escape the clutches of sadistic warden Captain Munsey (an unforgettable performance from Hume Cronyn) who enjoys a reign of terror over the inmates.

Beautifully shot by the great William H. Daniels, tautly written by Richard Brooks (Blackboard Jungle, In Cold Blood) and impeccably acted by its ensemble of noir familiars, Brute Forceremains a prison movie classic.

This deluxe package will be full of special features and bonus material including:

·         New High Definition digital transfer of the film

·         High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation

·         Original mono 1.0 audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)

·         Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

·         Burt Lancaster: The Film Noir Years – an in-depth look at the actor’s early career by Kate Buford, author of Burt Lancaster: An American Life

·         Theatrical trailer

·         Stills gallery

·         Reversible sleeve featuring the original poster and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist

·         Collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Frank Krutnik, author of In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity, and Swell Guy, an obituary of Brute Force’s producer, Mark Hellinger, by its screenwriter, Richard Brooks, illustrated with original stills

 SPECS: 

Region:	B/2
Rating:	12
Cat No:	FCD968
Duration:	98 min
Language:	English SDH Subtitles
Subtitles:	English
Aspect Ratio:	1.37:1
Audio:	1.0
Colour:	Black & White

MASSACRE VIDEO Flings THE NOSTRIL PICKER onto DVD in October!

THE NOSTRIL PICKER (1988) 

 aka THE CHANGER)

Label: Massacre Video
Release Date: October 14th 2014
Duration: 77 Minutes 

Region: 0
Video: Full Screen (1.33:1)

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Director: Mark Nowicki
Cast: Carl Zschering, Bob Bingham, Ann Flood, Clyde Surrell

Joe is an ugly loser, incapable of picking up women. But when he's taught a magical power, capable of transforming him into anyone he pleases and then back to his normal self, he decides to use it to live out his perverse fantasies.

Initially content just watching them shower, Joe soon tires of mindless nudity and gears up to take his ultimate revenge against womankind: luring them to his shabby apartment, violently killing, and even eating them!

This Michigan-lensed thriller, originally released as The Changer, combines gory violence, moments of sly humor, and a shocking twist ending. Massacre Video is proud to present The Nostril Picker on DVD in the US for the very first time, and under its original title.

Bonus Features: 
- The Changer Reversible Cover
- Alternative Title Card
- Interview with Producer/Cinematographer, Patrick J Mathews
- Extensive Stills Gallery
- DVD-Rom Press Kit
- Trailers

THE DEAD 2 (2013)

THE DEAD 2 (2013 

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Region Code: A

Duration: 98 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: The Ford Brothers 

Cast:Joseph Millson, Niharika Singh, Meenu Mishra, Anand Krishna Goyal, Sandip Datta Gupta, Poonam Mathur, Coulsom Sujitabh, Madhu Rajesh 


THE DEAD 2 treads familiar territory for those of us who were fans of the first one, we have an American in a foreign land during a zombie outbreak. This time we have wind turbine engineer Nicholas (Joseph Millson,CASINO ROYALE) who learns that his local; girlfriend Ishani (Meenu Meenu) is pregnant. He's excited by the news but the news is tempered by the fact that the country is plagued by a zombie outbreak. Unfortunately for both of them he is 300 miles away and she's trapped in a Mumbai slum - one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. As the film plays out it serves as an apocalyptic travelogue through India as Nicholas must makes his way through hordes of flesh hungry zombies  across the blistering wastelands. Along the way he befriends an orphaned street kid Javed (Anand Goyal) who has a knowledge of the local area which proves useful to the engineer. 

Much as with the first film there are not a lot of new angles on the zombie apocalypse from the Ford Brothers but again the backdrop for the story is a thing of beauty - the arid desert landscapes are gorgeous and the zombie make-up is pretty decent, too. Not so much wasted zombies up from the grave but white-eyed creepers who have been freshly bitten wandering through the landscape, it's creepy stuff. I still have quite a fondness for the slower Romero-styled walkers and these are very much in that vein. 

Joseph Milson is a strong lead and puts across that his character is just a guy trying to do the right thing. Determined to get to his pregnant girlfriend no matter what the cost may be to his own being and without putting others at risk - he's a stand-up guy and gives the film an emotional resonance. On the other hand I found his girlfriend a bit irritating and overwrought. Thank goodness for the character of Javed whose dynamic with the engineer is the  emotional center of the film, I was stunned when I found out that this was his first acting gig, very impressive.

The gore is decent but not over-the-top, very restrained, but there's a fair amount of flesh-tearing and bite wounds for the zombie aficionados to enjoy - it's just not gore on the level of Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE. The action is tight and quick-paced - more than once do we see our engineer in a tight spot and these scenes get the pulse racing, loved the scene of the engineer escaping via a para glider only to get snagged in a tree dangling just out of reach of the flesh-crazed undead. 

There's not much I didn't enjoy about the film, it's a solid sequel that ramps up everything I loved about the first film and has a good soundtrack that elevates it. The movie looks great with some mesmerizing vista and cinematography which look fantastic in HD. Extras includes a few minutes of deleted scenes and a making of featurette with some harrowing behind-the-scenes anecdotes that are worth a watch. 

The Ford Brothers seemed to have struck gold twice with another low budget zombie epic with a solid emotional core and some fantastic visuals with a gruesome horde of undead. Not sure where the Ford's plan to take the series next but I for cannot wait to see the next chapter. THE DEAD 2 is proof you don't need to reinvent the wheel when making an undead film, just give me a solid human arc and a compelling story, just keep it simple with some decent gore and tensionand that's what we have here, a very solid entry. 

WITHOUT WARNING (1980)

WITHOUT WARNING (1980)

Label: Scream Factory

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 96 Minutes

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Greydon Clark

Cast: Jack Palance, Tarah Nutter. Christopher Nelson, Cameron Mitchell, Neville Brand, Sue Ane Langhorn, Ralph Meeker, Larry Stortch

Teenagers Tom (David Caruso, Session 9), Greg (Christopher T. Nelson), Beth and Sandy (Tarah Nutter) head to a rural lake for some fun in the sun. Tom and Beth are the your standard-issue horny teens while Greg and Sandy are more virginal and innocent and the four pile into a shag carpeted Chevy van and drive into the wilderness.

Also in the area are father (Cameron Mitchell) and his son on a hunting trip and a troop of Cub Scouts and they're leader Larry Storch (of TV's F Troop) earning a few merit badges in the great outdoors. The hunters and the scouts all encounter something strange and deadly lurking in the woods, strange flying jellyfish creatures which latch onto victims and dig into their flesh with tentacles and mouthful of teeth. These tiny suckers aren't the only threat in the woods however, these frightful frisbees of death are merely the weapon of choice for an alien creature with a human blood lust.

Our teens stop for gas and encounter scary proprietor Jack (Jack Palance) who warns the teens to stay away from the lake but they just laugh it off. Horny teens never listen to warnings of doom but if they did what fun would that be? They arrive at the scenic water hole and take a dip before the couples split up to pursue their own interests . Of course, it's the horny teens who disappear  without a trace and the virgins are left to sleuth Scooby-Doo style what happened to their companions. Assuming their friends are off fornicating out in the woods they are quite horrified when they find their gooey corpses in a small shack along with the bodies of the scout leader and the hunters. Freaked out they scurry into town and into a bar where they try to tell warn the locals but the drunken townies just are not buying the story. here we have some fun appearances from veteran actors like Neville Brand (Eaten Alive) and the aforementioned Jack Palance. Then there's Sarge, a nutty 'Nam vet (Martin Landau) who suffers from post-traumatic stress and alien paranoia, and who who just  happens to be the only one who believes the teen's wild story. 

Without Warning is the just the kind of drive-in science fiction drive-in I just love to death. Relics from a bygone era of cinema that don't follow logic and are wrought with bad decision making. The cast of characters is fantastic, we have our teens Greg and Sandy who are just the sweetest teens you could ever imagine, they're so nice and polite, it's sort of disgusting. Both of the young ladies in the film cut quite a figure, very easy on the eyes, and while the teens are supposedly the main characters it's  veterans Jack Palance and Martin Landau who both chew the scenery and steal the movie from right from under them whipper snappers. Landau is particularly fun as the bug-eyed lunatic who believes that the teens and pretty much everyone else have been replaced by aliens, just a lot of fun and ridiculous paranoia. 

The low-budget special effects are a lot of fun, those blood-sucking alien jellyfish pulsate and excrete a yellow liquid that was gooey and gross. There's a scene where they latch onto a windshield which offers a close-up and you can see the teeth gnashing away on the underside, most of the effects are pretty dated but I love these latex creatures designs, very enjoyable. The predatory creature design is a thing of schlocky beauty, an elongated grey alien with a massive cranium and long creepy fingers. Perhaps not the most articulated design but very effective and only glimpsed for brief snatches. The reveal of the alien is quite effective, it's a bit of a shame it's spoiled on the artwork for the Blu-ray. . 

Blu-ray: Without Warning arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in the original widescreen aspect ratio (1.85:1) and appears quite nice. Shot on the cheap it manages to look pretty spiffy with a nice grain structure and some good color saturation. The HD upgrade doesn't give the fine detail a massive bump but a very pleasing image. The source material is in pretty great shape considering this cult item has been hard to come by for years.. The English DTS-HD Mono is clean and well balanced, plus Dan Wyman's creepy score sounds great - there are English subtitles provided. 

Onto the extras we have a 21-minute interview with stars Actors Christopher S. Nelson and Tarah Nutter . Nelson remembers the experience fondly and of working with veterans Jack Palance and Martin Landau, Nutter remembers being cold a lot on set and the struggle to stay warm and being cast in the role. Both speak fondly of each other and director Graydon Clark and what it was like working on a small budget film. Nutter tells of destroying the shack in the field with the sheer volume of her scream, sure.  My favorite story from Nelson is a David Caruso story involving Palance threatening to punch him when he laughed during a scene, now that I would love to see!

Cinematographer Dean Cundey chimes in for about fifteen minutes about working with Greydon on four previous low budget films (Black Shampoo, Satan's Cheerleaders, Hi-Riders, Angels Brigade) and the ambitious low-budget production of Without Warning.  He warmly recollects working on the film just after finishing Halloween with John Carpenter despite being warned to stay away from exploitation films for the sake of his career and what a great experience it was.

There's also a brief six-minute interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator Greg Cannom who speaks about creating the low-budget effects for the film while Co-Writer/Co-Producer Daniel Grodnik speaks about his career producing films which includes slasher classic Terror Train and the comedy Star Hops. Extras are buttoned-up with trailers and still gallery plus a reversible sleeve of artwork.    

Special Features: 

-  Audio Commentary with Producer/Director Greydon Clark
-  INDEPENDENTS DAY: Interview with Cinematographer Dean Cundey (15 minutes) 

- PRODUCERS VS ALIENS: Interview with Co-Writer/Co-Producer Daniel Grodnik (11 minutes) 

- HUNTER'S BLOOD: Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator Greg Cannom

(6 minutes) 
- GREG AND SANDY'S ALIEN ADVENTURE: Interview with Actors Christopher S. Nelson and Tarah Nutter  (21 minutes) 

- Original Theatrical Trailer (2 minutes)
- Still Gallery (4 minutes) 
- Scream Factory Trailers (5 minutes) 

Verdict: I love it when Scream Factory unearth these cult classics and spiff them up for the fans to enjoy. A few months ago they unearthed The Final Terror to Blu-ray and this is right up their with that one in my opinion - these would make a great double-feature. I love this weird slice of science fiction drive-in cinema with it's cast of oddball characters and low-budget charms, this is a fiendishly good time for cult film fans. It might not be a genuinely scary movie but it's certainly a fun relic of a bygone era with some nice atmosphere and alien creepiness.