Reanimator Academy - Visual Vengeance

Reanimator Academy, out now from Visual Vengeance, is one of those movies slopped together for the name alone. Director Bret McCormick admits that he pretty much forgot about the movie before he was approached for some special feature stuff for this release. He simply needed work, and someone was willing to spend a couple thousand bucks on him to make a Reanimator knock-off, probably hoping people would rent it or buy it just because it had Reanimator in the title. 

It is about a scientist bringing the dead back to life, but it’s all goofy as hell. It largely takes place at the lamest fraternity party of all time, and there are old-timey gangsters, and a prostitute named Hot Lips, and the head of a shitty comedian is brought back to life, and…fuck it. There’s a reason McCormick forgot about this movie. But it still has a low-budget charm to it. And the hooker starts punching dudes’ heads off at one point, and it’s short, so it’s all harmless. 

But this release is for any nostalgic fans who came across this silly shit over thirty years ago. As always, Visual Vengeance is all in giving movies that don’t deserve it the royal physical media treatment.

Transfer and Special Features

This was shot on video, so the transfer is the best they can do, but it’s still quite clear that this was shot with the same kind of camcorder a dad of the time would use to film Christmas morning.

In the interview with Bret McCormick, he explains that he went with the pseudonym of Judith Priest because the budget was so low, and he was worried about how it would turn out. He picked the name because of a running joke on the Batman TV show, but I didn't really understand the connection.

He talks about pretty much forgetting the movie as it was just a job. He asked for a link to it for this new release to refresh his memory, and he refers to it as a “terrible little movie.” Agreed. And he calls Visual Vengeance “Video Vengeance.” 

I appreciated his honesty.

There's a short featurette of McCormick revisiting the shooting locations. It was nice to see Hot Lips's street corner thirty years later.

There's a featurette on the score. The music is okay, I guess. It's mainly from his band, Lithium X-Mas. But it always sounds like shit because everything is so low budget. Just like McCormick, the composer doesn't remember much about the movie.

Ha ha, they tracked down the dude who played the cop that gets decapitated. He must be buddies with McCormick because he does his interview from the same location as him. 

There's also an interview with Fred the Head. They recreated the prop, aluminum pan and all. It's filled with head puns and Fred claiming he was in pretty much any movie with “head” in the title.

You can also watch the film with a new alternative soundtrack the director did in 2023. I won't, but you can.

There's also another Bret McCormick short film included: Children of Dracula. I'm not watching it. There's also an interview with McCormick about it.

Finally, there’s a Zoom interview McCormick did after a screening of the film at the Nitehawk in NYC. There’s a lot of crossover between that and the other stuff, but he does bring up that he wanted to go back and fix some sound effects and whatnot, so that’s why there’s the alternative soundtrack cut, and I wish I had known that’s what it was before I watched the film, because I would’ve gone with that cut. Oh, well.

There’s all the usual Visual Vengeance stuff, along with a fake movie rental store membership card. As always with stuff like this, I don’t know what to do with it, exactly, but I’m still glad they make shit like that.

Random Thoughts 

While looking up McCormick's IMDb, I found that he played one of Pesci's crew in Casino. He's the one who gets shot by the cops for holding a sandwich. 

Didn't know what to expect from this, but I certainly wasn't ready for Three Stooges-esque old-timey gangsters doing schtick before they kill a prostitute.

At the Ded Hed party, they're mainly drinking Bud Dry, a truly vile choice. And they must've been told to amp up the partying, because everyone is holding at least two beers, and one dude is holding four. 

Nice of someone to get some Biggie sized Wendy's drinks to add to the refreshment table.

Pretty hilarious that they keep Fred the Head in a disposable aluminum roasting tray.

The movie “ends” a little over a half hour in, then turns into a preview for “Reanimator Academy 2” which is just a recap of what we just watched, and then the “sequel” begins. Truly bizarre.

It got a little more enjoyable when the reanimated prostitute started talking shit to everyone, but just a little.

And then she starts punching motherfuckers’ heads off. Okay, this is growing on me.

Cyclops - Visual Vengeance

Cyclops, out now from Visual Vengeance, is basically a short film that was a direct to video release in Japan back in the late ‘80s. As usual with these foreign films, this was confusing either because of bad writing or shoddy translating, but most likely both. But who cares? As you can see from the gruesome slipcover, this is all about gross ass practical effects work. 

There is a bit of a story to Cyclops, but the short run time (right at an hour) doesn’t allow enough time to, pun intended, flesh everything out. There are secretive doctors doing experimental shit to people born with defects. They can cover up the defects, but great stress brings out their true form. I think. 

Cyclops is entertaining enough for the first two-thirds with a decent, if extremely repetitive, score. Bad guys eat at a Denny’s (which I think is some kind of commentary on America, maybe?). There’s murder and nudity. That’s all just there to tide you over for the showstopping final moments of gross goo and tentacles and shit. 

This certainly isn’t for everyone, or maybe anyone. But that final sequence is fun if you’re a Cronenberg fan like me. Overall, it just felt strange that they didn’t go for feature length. I think this would have had a bit more of an impact if they had tried to make a whole movie. Instead, it feels more like a trial video to try to get more effects work in bigger movies. Still made for a short, interesting watch, though. 

Transfer and Special Features

This was shot on 16mm, so it looks better than a lot of the Visual Vengeance stuff. That’s not a knock on them. They’re working with low quality stuff from the start, and it’s a minor miracle that they get such good transfers from these forgotten films. 

I’ll be honest: I checked out on the special features with this one. I just don’t care that much about this director’s career, so the interview with him didn’t interest me. 

And then Justin Decloux strikes again with a commentary and a couple featurettes in which he shows his extensive knowledge of a sub-genre I didn’t even know existed. 

Finally, there’s all the usual great stuff from Visual Vengeance: a slipcover, a reversible insert, some VHS store stickers, and a booklet with an essay on the making of the effects.

Laurin - Visual Vengeance

Laurin, available on blu-ray now from Visual Vengeance, surprised me. Based on the imagery on the case and the little plot description I read, I was expecting some fucked up shit, especially since I had never heard of it, and it takes place in old-timey Germany. But the story of murdered children is much more atmospheric than straightforward horror. And it captures more of a fairy tale childhood darkness than typical horror movie dread. 

Is that all vague enough? It’s all just very European, for better or worse. So it’s certainly slow and needlessly mysterious at times. But it kept me interested throughout, and I appreciate a movie more concerned with expressing the vibe of a time period and situation rather than drowning me in gore and jump scares.

Laurin is about death, but from a child’s perspective. In that case, I think it captures that feeling. The adults are either absent (literally or figuratively) or antagonistic to the children. Laurin is left to figure everything out on her own, and at a young age, or any age, that’s going to be dark and confusing at times. 

Laurin isn’t some hidden masterpiece, but it was an interesting curio that is refreshing compared to more recent films about death and darkness.  

Transfer and Special Features 

This looks great, which is important since it’s a much more atmospheric film than one might expect. There’s also a “VHS” version included, which is something Visual Vengeance does a lot, and I’m all for it. Of course the best quality is preferred, but for people who grew up watching movies like this on VHS, it’s nice to have that nostalgic option.

This includes postcards. This has been common with special editions for years, and I’ve never understood what you’re supposed to do with these things. I never even take them out of the plastic. And honestly, if someone sent me a Laurin postcard, I'd call the FBI.

There’s a new audio commentary with a dude who literally wrote a book about Laurin, so I’m sure it’s great. I just can’t devote the time to check out all the commentaries on these releases. 

The interview with director Robert Sigl is lengthy and covers everything you would want to know about the film. I found it very interesting that he said German films at the time could not address death in any straightforward way. Is that true of Germany in the ‘80s? Anyway, that's his reason for this being more of a dark fairy tale than a traditional horror film. And he claims the house they used and he stayed in was haunted. 

There are plenty of interviews from a 2017 release, conducted by Sigl. These include the actors who portrayed Laurin and Stefan, the cinematographer, and a critic. I skimmed these, but I’m sure they’re informative, especially for fans of the film.

There’s an archival making-of doc that seems to be mainly about how cheap it is to film in Hungary. I’m pretty sure it was simply a promo made by the Hungarian film commission or whatever. Still, plenty of footage from behind the scenes which is always nice.

There’s a clip from the 1988 Bavarian Film Awards (the trophy is wild), and it's odd because there are no speeches from Sigl. It’s just him getting a couple awards.

Two short films from Sigl are also included. They’re not really related to this particular film, but I still checked them out. One certainly shows his love for David Lynch as it has shades of Eraserhead (he also mentioned multiple Lynch movies in his interview as examples of movies that don’t get made anymore). The other is a lockdown movie made during Covid. There’s a lot of mask stuff and paranoia. It’s fine, but aside from Eddington, I’m just not into the pandemic being used in film.

There’s also a slip cover, a mini-poster, and the aforementioned postcards.

Overall, as usual, Visual Vengeance gives you everything you would want from a physical release.

Random Thoughts

I'm not trying to judge anyone's parenting, but Laurin looks like she's in her twenties and is still sleeping in a crib. (The actress was twelve or thirteen when this was made, to be fair, but that’s still pretty fucking old for a crib, even in weird old-timey Germany.)

Went with the dub instead of the original German. It wasn't bad. Actually, it turns out it was filmed in English, and there was a dialect coach on hand to help the actors, most of whom spoke little to no English. There is a German language track available, though, too.

The grandma right after taking a rip off her one-hitter: “Beware the evils of the city, my son.”

Based on the behavior of that entire classroom, maybe it's a good thing that some of these kids are disappearing.

The Nine Demons - Visual Vengeance

I don’t have much to say about this one, but I did have a lot of fun with The Nine Demons, a recent release from Visual Vengeance. It has all the old martial arts movie stuff you’d expect like the sound effects and bad dubbing, but the supernatural element amps things up a bit. This seems, at first, to be a simple Faustian revenge story as Joey (why they Americanized the names of the main characters is beyond me, but it did make me laugh every time “Joey” or “Gary” was invoked by these characters) stumbles into the Black Prince of Hell’s lair and is given the power of, you guessed it, the nine demons.

The nine demons come in the form of dollar store Halloween decor skulls on a necklace. But when Joey does some psychedelic shit and puts on some eyeliner, they morph into a couple ladies and some kids, all flipping around and cackling. They’re great at killing, so revenge is easy for Joey. But there is a catch: all the demons need fresh blood every single day. Joey’s response? Go to a brothel and let the demons kill prostitutes every night. 

Of course, the constant feeding of the demons creates a bit of a reputation for Joey, and…what am I even doing here? It’s crazy, and everyone has to fight every couple minutes. What else is there to tell?

The downside of the film is that the fighting isn’t all that spectacular. The demon shit is funny, but they get annoying after a while. This was certainly an interesting film, but it’s not nearly as enjoyable as it should be, what with the blood-thirsty demons and all. But if this was your shit from back in the day, Visual Vengeance has you covered.

Random Thoughts

The translated names are hilarious. Some of these dudes being called Gary and Joey is fantastic.

When Joey falls into Hell, the subtitles are “mysterious blooping.” Accurate, but still goofy as shit.

“Black Prince of Hell, please save Gary's life!”

The dubbing for some of these characters is Kung Pow-esque.

If part of my Faustian bargain was to feed nine back-flipping cackling demons fresh blood every single day, I'd tell the Black Prince of Hell to get fucked.

At one point the score to Blade Runner is used for ten minutes or so. Can…can you just do that?

“Just kill the really bad rotten ones, and then stop.”

One of the last big fights takes place on water with everyone wearing little water-skis on their feet. I appreciate how this goofy ass movie keeps upping the silliness ante.

Transfer and Special Features 

There’s an audio commentary with podcasters, which I’m typically not a fan of, but if you’re really into this and want to geek out along with a couple people, I’m sure it’s great for that.

A couple featurettes with Justin Decloux in which he lists a bunch of movies I've never heard of. If you're as into this stuff as much as he is, I'm sure these are informative. But for me, I just get lost after the tenth movie I've never heard of gets name-dropped.

There’s a “Dirty VHS” version if you're nostalgic for how you first saw this as a child.

There’s an interview with actor Yu Tai-Ping.

There’s also an episode of a podcast about the film, but no way was I going to listen to a podcast on a blu-ray. I have a little bit of dignity left. But nice of them to include it, I guess?

Look, this is nothing against Visual Vengeance. Special features for obscure stuff are hard to come by, so hats off to them for compiling all this stuff. I'm just not into this film enough to go into a deep dive with it.

Scream Dream - Visual Vengeance

This is my first Donald Farmer experience (if you don’t count seeing his movies discussed on Red Letter Media’s Best of the Worst videos), and I’m not sure if I’ll be delving back in anytime soon. But for those who are fans, Visual Vengeance has your back with this new blu-ray release. 

At first glance, Scream Dream appealed to me on a lot of levels. It’s a metal movie with Satanic panic elements, and it’s filled with terribly funny performances (that first dude is amazing, as is the record exec), and the new artwork made it look like it could be a hidden gem. Then I turned it on and realized just how low budget this thing is. 

By Farmer’s own admission, the budget was less than $5,000. Knowing that is important for your enjoyment of the film because if you go into this expecting a traditional horror film, you’ll probably turn it off ten minutes in. 

I stuck it out, though, and came away with a few laughs, unintentional as they were. The special effects, janky as they are, were decent for the budget (more on that later). And that title song has been stuck in my head ever since I watched this a couple days ago. It’s not a good song, I don’t think, but there’s something to be said for something that’s capable of becoming an earworm, right? 

And there’s something to be said for people who made low-budget stuff like this back when it was much harder. Now with AI and phone cameras being so good, making shitty no-budget movies is easier than ever. But back in the ‘80s you had to hustle to get shit made. You had to find some real collaborators and work with distributors and put in a lot of fucking work. I respect that even if the final result isn’t something I love.

So yeah, Scream Dream isn’t my thing. But the behind the scenes stuff intrigued me, and Visual Vengeance went above and beyond in that department.

Transfer and Special Features 

Look, this is a shot-on-video (SOV) movie, so the blu-ray aspect of it is a little silly. But sure, I feel safe saying this is the best this movie has ever looked. 

There’s an audio commentary with Farmer that I skipped, but only because I watched the nearly hour-long interview with him, which I enjoyed. He gets into how such a low budget movie gets made, in which he points out that you make the movie that is possible. In other words, he had access to a club and a house band, so he made a horror movie with a musical element to it. 

The club didn’t shut down or anything. He was just friends with the owner, who was cool with him filming while they were open. And the band was happy to contribute, as well. Overall, I think I found the interview with Farmer more interesting than the film.

The interview with the actor is okay, but he does the whole thing from his shower, for some reason. And that distracted me to the point that I don’t remember much of what he said.

There’s an interview with an actress, as well, and I do find interviews like this interesting because these are not stars, so I like hearing their stories of how they came to be in these movies and what they’re up to now.

The interview with Rick Gonzalez is interesting since the effects are pretty good (except for the hand puppet) for such a micro-budget. He kept calling the movie “Scream Dreams,” which I enjoyed.

The demon suit was too big for the body double. Apparently if she had turned around there would've been visible duct tape.

The budget makes sense now as Gonzalez points out that most of their props were from other movies.

On the physical side of the special features, Visual Vengeance always has great new artwork and reversible sleeves with original art. There’s also a mini-poster and the usual VHS stickers. The most unique addition is the fake ticket stub for the Michelle Shock concert and a guitar pick. Little touches like that make releases like this special for fans.

Random Thoughts / Favorite Quotes 

The subtitles were nice, and a necessity. Still, at times even the subtitle person gives up and just goes with “indistinct.”

It's a thankless job to have to scream for over a full minute of screen time, but I was relieved when the naked lady at the beginning was killed. Her screaming was awful.

Something tells me that the lady at the beginning with the chainsaw has nothing to do with the rest of the movie.

“I need that for my car payment!:

“So you get behind a little. We're gonna rock!”

“You go out there and tell that dyke to shove that microphone up her tight ass!”

“You are just the drummer’s fucking girlfriend. That's all!”

The demon sock puppet is great.

Even at sixty-eight minutes, this was a slog.

Fatal Flying Guillotine - Visual Vengeance

Thanks to Visual Vengeance, my martial arts movie education continues with Fatal Flying Guillotine (available for pre-order now). Apparently, the use of this weapon in martial arts films was a “craze” in the 1970s, but this is the first cinematic encounter for me, and I had a lot of fun with this one, even if I had no idea what was going on.

Due to bad translating or editing or both, I couldn’t figure out the particulars of the plot. It was clear that the old dude with the titular guillotines was the bad guy, and he had abandoned his family years ago because he needed to go to a magical valley to heal his heart from exercising too much (I swear that’s what the subtitles said). There’s also a book of medicine (and a forgery), and there’s a prince. I don’t know.

What I do know is that every couple minutes there are huge fights with great choreography and the sound effects I’ve come to expect from such a film. More importantly, Nearly everyone who dies in this film does so without their head, which means the title pays off.

As for the guillotines themselves, at first I found them to look silly as shit. They’re like big bells with a bunch of blades all over and inside them. Don’t get me wrong, I would be killed instantly by someone wielding these wacky things, but I would probably giggle right before it happened. The physics of the weapons are gravity-defying, but I dug the horror element of it. They seem to kind of operate on their own, chasing down dudes to decapitate. 

Beyond that, this was simply a fun curiosity for me. 

Transfer and Special Features

Aside from a few janky shots, this looks great, especially for what it is. And if you dig the jank, there’s a “dirty VHS” version of the film that lives up to its name. I only checked out a little bit of that one, but it’s also seven minutes longer, so true fans will get even more from that cut.

There’s a commentary with a podcaster if you’re into that sort of thing, but all I needed was the featurette with the aforementioned podcaster about the history of the flying guillotine in film. So I’m sure the commentary is filled with encyclopedic knowledge of the genre.

There’s also a visual essay, an archival interview with one of the actors, and a martial arts demonstration. 

It has Chinese and English-dubbed audio. 

The packaging is a big selling point, as the new art for the slipcover is awesome, and there’s a reversible cover for the case featuring the original artwork. 

Also included are some art cards, the usual Visual Vengeance VHS-style stickers, a mini-poster, and a booklet with essays. 

In other words, all the great stuff you’ve come to expect from Visual Vengeance. They love these old films, and it shows.