The unclassy – okay, trashy revenger Savage Streets (1984) starring Linda Blair and Linnea Quigley is headed back to DVD via Code Red. Back? You may remember BCI previously released it, with extras produced by Code Red. But CR have the whole film now which means a new print, and word has it there may be some new or different extras. Here’s a screen from that new print:
Many more can be found on Code Red’s blog.
UPDATE MAY 9: Mondo, the collectible art boutique arm of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, is pleased to announce a partnership with Intervision Picture Corporation to release 1983’s SLEDGEHAMMER on VHS. SLEDGEHAMMER, the first shot-on-tape slasher movie for the home video market, will be the first video release of Mondo Video, a label created to release rare genre films in a collectible VHS format. The VHS release will coincide with the film’s first release on DVD and a Terror Tuesday screening on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX. Mondo Video’s SLEDGEHAMMER includes the original box art and copy from the 1983 VHS release and will be available for purchase only at MondoTees.com on Wednesday, May 11, 2011. The Intervision DVD will also be available for purchase on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at Amazon.
Mondo creative director Justin Ishmael says, “I am downright crazy about VHS, so it gives me great pride that we get to make SLEDGEHAMMER the first release on our new Mondo Video label. There has been a major resurgence in VHS collecting the last few years after it was announced that the tapes would stop being made, so being fans ourselves, we jumped at the opportunity to actually resurrect the format and release some of our favorite movies on VHS. People thought they killed the video tape back in 2008, but like a phoenix, it is rising from the ashes! Never Forget!”
“Either by way of budget constraints, warped vision or both,” says Intervision marketing director Evan Husney, “SLEDGEHAMMER is a piece of a cinematic underbelly from a universe all its own. This is the new cult canon: Buried in obscurity and ripe for reintroduction, it delivers top-shelf bizarro derangement, gonzo action, transcendental fever dreams and beyond.”
Alamo Drafthouse’s Terror Tuesday programmer Zack Carlson, says “1940s scientists put years of study into creating the nuclear bomb, but it wasn’t until the first tests at Los Alamos that they realized its inhuman powers of absolute destruction. Four decades later, filmmaker David Prior similarly unveiled SLEDGEHAMMER, a shot-on-VHS masterstroke of anti-intellectual decimation. On that day, cinema quietly crumbled into dust. Ted Prior (star of Deadly Prey; brother of the director) leads a cast of self-loathing alcoholics who face off against a shape-shifting, dimension-crossing spectre with a penchant for blunt object trauma. By the end, brains, bowels and Budweiser will be smeared across every inch of the walls. A rewardingly lethal collision of ‘80s slasher video-vomit, suburban legend and unintentional surrealist art, Prior’s supernaturally disabled death opera is the most visionary migraine to ever pummel its way into your skull. If you survive it, you’ll never ever forget it.” Get tickets here.
Follow up to our older news item. Read on for final Sledgehammer DVD special features:
Severin Films announced an agreement with the estate of Larry Gold, Sr. to handle all future production and marketing for Intervision Picture Corporation. The arrangement commences with the 5/10 release of 1983’s SLEDGEHAMMER, notorious as the first shot-on-tape ‘slasher’ thriller for the then-exploding home video market. Gold, a pioneer of ‘70s film distribution and ‘80s genre VHS, died in March following a massive coronary at his home in Thailand. Severin’s Evan Husney will supervise all production and marketing for the label. Intervision product will continue to be distributed in the United States by CAV Distributing Corporation.
Intervision was reactivated in January 2011 with the DVD releases of recent Goya Award Winner Jess Franco’s 1973 rarity SINISTER EYES OF DR. ORLOFF and his acclaimed 2010 ‘audio-visual experience’ PAULA-PAULA. The 5/10 release of SLEDGEHAMMER marks the return of director David A. Prior’s bizarre video shocker, which was celebrated as part of Los Angeles’ Cinefamily ‘Homemade Horror’ series and will be screened on street-date at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse. Future Intervision releases include the 1989 ‘Canuxploitaion’ oddity THINGS and 1993’s disturbing THE SECRET LIFE: JEFFREY DAHMER.
So much has been said about the involvement (or non-involvement) of Tom Savini on Nightmare that often others with definitive special FX contributions to the film are overlooked. Code Red are looking to change that with this late breaking extra for their Nightmare 2-disc set.
“Special effects make-up artist Edward French, Oscar Nominee and Emmy Winner, quickly gave CODE RED a last minute interview regarding the New York gore scene in NIGHTMARE!
French told us about his involvement in the effects, including who made the decapitated head, and who supervised it and who was there. Cleve Hall did the Florida scenes, but now we’ll all finally know who did the bloody final scene!
French also gave us some other wonderful stories regarding RIOT ON 42nd STREET, BLOOD RAGE, BREEDERS and DEADTIME STORIES. The insightful interview will hopefully be edited on time and be featured on the dvd!”
French was also responsible for the gruesome special effects in Sleepaway Camp (1983).
It was nice to come back from a little Retro Slashers holiday to discover Code Red have finally brought their website into the 21st century. Maybe that’s not breaking news, but it’s the first I’ve seen of it in an updated, fully-functioning condition, at least. The new site has catalogue listings of their DVDs, future releases and a handy Out Of Print list for collectors.
The company is continuing their commitment to retro horror, one of the promising future releases being The Witchmaker (1969), but slasher fans are of course hanging out for July 5th’s release of Nightmare. And it turns out Rituals actually is available now. Seems things are moving smoothly.
By Film, By VHS, By laserdisc, Bye Bye! Quick, release The Mutilator on DVD before we run out of cheesy puns. Okay, so the following which was posted on Code Red’s blog is more of a clarification than updating, but we’re betting much of it will be news to readers who haven’t been following the multi-year non-opus of giving The Mutilator a worthy DVD release.
There have been some 2nd hand statements and slanderous lies posted on few message boards regarding CODE RED and the motion picture THE MUTILATOR. Here is the truth once again to set the records straight.
(1) CODE RED has a valid contract with Buddy Cooper on the film.
(2) Mr. Cooper told us that he had the negative and prints in New York, but later we realized that the place was gone. Buddy used his assistant to search for it, only to come up empty handed.
(3) Buddy did find a 3/4 inch tape (I recall the R cut), but this is unusable for today’s standards for a DVD release. 3/4 will look worse than your old VHS Vestron Tape and most likely will not play since it has had a 15 year lifespan.
(4) A youtube video poped up with Buddy showing a storage shack with some 35mm cans in the background. I talked to Buddy and he told me it was empty. He did find some trims and some trailers which we sent to a Los Angeles lab (the one Something Weird used). The 35mm trailer was damaged due to poor storage/weather conditions after 25 years. If there had been a 35mm print inside, it would most likely also be damaged/beyond repair.
(5) Rumor circled around that Movielab New York had the negatives. Cliff MacMillan of BCI personally asked Mike Vraney of Something Weird and he didn’t have it. It was not at Movielab. Since then, many print collectors and film storage people were contacted. Nothing.
We can’t understand why so many people spew slanderous lies about us regarding this film. We have mentioned these facts countless times, but it seems we might have to put this bulletin out once a year. If Buddy has a 35mm usable print, he never told us or delivered it to us. This is the 2011 bulletin. Come back next year to probably see the same bulletin all over again. This is what we have on the table, nothing else.
Presenting the DVD cover for Code Red’s Nightmare DVD! Forgive the roughness of this post. My PC/laptop access is a little constrictive right now, but this couldn’t wait. Great to see the classic artwork, of course, and click that baby for stunning hi-res! Thoughts?
Holy guacamoley, we really outdid ourselves this year with the April fool’s day prank, which consisted of two co-ordinated efforts for a winning result. Our complete and total rule is best exemplified in the comments on Blood Test, where longtime reader Tuzo wrote “I used to [love] the April Fool’s day jokes on this site, but you guys are slipping a bit in your obviousness. Good try, though.” Dave’s spectacular fake Blood Test was the classic red herring which successfully bait-and-switched you all away from calling out Thomas’ fabricated Honeymoon Killer piece, the more nuanced affair. Once again Retro Slashers wins the pig, the keg, and the paper crown! See you next year. Now for some history and what you can expect this coming week.
Code Red received quite a bashing from the genre DVD community for taking their own sweet time assembling a special edition of Nightmare (1981). Romano Scavolini’s film is a virtual camera lens inside the mind of a sweaty, mouth-foaming psychotic, and required special handling to bring this 2-Disc DVD to fruition. July 5th will see the sleazy slasher finally released onto the streets. Take a squiz at the details Code Red exclusively shared with Retro Slashers.
A remake may be out in a few weeks and an appendage-movie in Father’s Day later, but June 7 brings Mother’s Day (1980) home on blu-ray. Not typical Troma fare at all, but back then 80’s Troma wasn’t really Troma yet. I always found the flick somewhat atypical and unsafe. The opening scene pulls a real con on slasher tropes, and once the ladies are in over their head, story structure falls apart for a seemingly never-ending loop of degradation. Of course it’s all set-up for another reversal, this time comeuppance for the villains. It’ll be interesting to see how well this grungy movie scrubs up for BD – not too well I hope! Read on for cover art & extras.
Start-up distributor Intervision Pictures Corp, who have a name and logo right out of the 1980’s, will release Sledgehammer (1983) to DVD on May 10. There’s something about a clear “laughing” mask that’s creepy beyond Michael Myers’ pale mug. Variations of it have been commonly employed in horror movies as a prankster’s tool (Friday The 13th Part 3, Whodunnit: The Creep Island Murders) or for brief maniac usage (Slumber Party Massacre 3), but Sledgehammer gave the visage a little more due. Read on for the cover art and skinny.
