* indicates that the film is also available to rent, buy, or stream on various platforms. Please note that streaming versions may differ from these home video presentations.
“Junk Head” * (2021, Synergetic Distribution) In a dystopian future, humanity has achieved immortality but still faces extinction thanks to a virus and species-wide sterility. When a solution is found among the labor class that toils underground to provide energy for the topside civilization, a scientist is dispatched, but instead finds himself subjected to strange experiments and pursued by nightmarish creatures. Epic-scaled and wildly imaginative science fiction, rendered entirely in painstaking stop-motion by one-man production entity Takahide Hori, who worked on various iterations of the film for nearly a decade. The technical and production aspects of “Junk Head” are often astonishing, and approach the baroque biomechanical worlds of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and H.R. Giger (minus the fetishization), which helps to hold interest when the narrative becomes too dense to follow. Synergetic’s Blu-ray features English subtitles and a lengthy making-of featurette which details Hori’s painstaking work in various formats (stop-motion, digital, motion capture).
“Kill Butterfly Kill” (1983/1987, Neon Eagle Video) Cinematic recycling taken to bizarre lengths, with three very different films generated from the same Taiwanese source, a 1983 thriller called “Underground Wife.” The basic premise of that feature – a violent assault turns Juliet Chan into a killer – is an example of the “Taiwan noir”/”Taiwan black”: cycle, which produced a vast number of frenzied low-budget features which mixed social criticism with graphically violent exploitation tropes; “Wife,” which is included on Neon Eagle’s two-disc Blu-ray set in a full-frame Mandarin presentation, features the subgenre’s perspective (Chan’s assailants become respected members of their community) and tone (a pervasive leering sensibility) as well as some impressive (and odd) lighting and visuals. Neon Eagle also adds two additional films generated from “Wife” by distributor IFD Films, which often Frankensteined multiple titles from a single source, often by adding endless scenes of violence or even a completely new premise at the expense of plot logic and coherence. “Kill Butterfly Kill” ups the sleazier elements of “Wife” and adds a new end title and score (a brace of familiar library music cues), while “American Commando 6: Kill Butterfly Kill” shoehorns Chan’s assault into a hilariously inept spy thriller about agents pursuing a crime boss; it makes little sense but for cult/badmovie devotees, the pleasure comes from the total disconnect between the original films and their spawn, and the clever/ridiculous ways they come together. Neon Eagle presents 4K scans of “Kill” and “Commando,” both with English audio; commentary by Kenneth Brorsson and Paul Fox of the Podcast on Fire Network provides detailed info on both Taiwan noir and the film’s various iterations. and trailers for “Kill” and “Commando” are included, though the best extra is a gallery of hyperbolic IFD trailers, including eight (!) additional “American Commando” films.
“Shadow of Death” * (1969, Mondo Macabro) The arrival of blackmailer Giacomo Rossi-Stuart is the final piece in the puzzle facing icy blonde Teresa Gimpera and her low-rent lover (Larry Ward): what to do with his twin brother (also played by Ward), who happens to be her husband? Their resulting plan – which involves drugstore chemicals, hypnotic suggestion, Vietnam PTSD, and a brace of re-enactments – strains even the loosely anchored credulity and plot logic of ’60s/’70s European horror thrillers like the Italian giallo wave (“Shadow” is a Spanish-Italian production), but remains entertaining thanks to the dedication of director Xavier Seto in bringing this odd ship to port. A groovy score by Franco Micalizzi fuels the drive to the finish; Mondo Macabro’s Blu-ray offers the longer Spanish-language cut (with English or Spanish-language options) taken from the original negative; an appreciation of Seto’s genre efforts by Sitges Festival director Angel Sala, an array of alternate scenes provided for more permissive foreign audiences, a breezy English-language trailer, and the Italian credits round out the disc.
“The Questor Tapes” (1973, Kino Lorber) Android Questor (Robert Foxworth) sets off to find the missing scientist that programmed him, with researcher Mike Farrell and government bad guy John Vernon in tow; his mission reveals a cosmic influence on the development of mankind. Heady and, as is often the case, prescient sci-fi TV-movie (and intended series pilot) from Gene Roddenberry and “Star Trek” line producer Gene Coon, best known today for Questor’s alleged influence on Lt.. Data from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”: it wears its cerebral qualities on its sleeve, like many of Roddenberry’s TV efforts, but that quality may also be the central appeal for Roddenberry and hardcore science fiction devotees. With lab scenes shot at CalTech; Kino Lorber’s Special Edition Blu-ray offers informative commentary by TV historian Gary Gerani and vintage promotional material.
“Four of the Apocalypse” * (1975, Arrow Video) Thrown together when a vigilante gang leaves them the sole survivors of a massacre, a quartet of fringe dwellers – unlucky gambler Fabio Testi, pregnant prostitute Lynne Frederick, amiable drunk Michael J. Pollard, and addled Harry Baird – come together for a chance at redemption, which is quickly upended by psychotic Mansonoid bandit Tomas Milian. Challenging Italian Western from director Lucio Fulci exhibits some of the ugly violence and behavior of his later horror films (see: “Zombie”) but skirts the misanthropy in those titles by virtue of Oscar winner Ennio De Concini’s script, which allows for moments of humanity to slip between all the blood-letting and implied cannibalism, and gorgeous photography by frequent Fulci collaborator Sergio Salvati. Not Fulci’s best Western, as many have stated (“Massacre Time,” which is featured on Arrow’s excellent “Vengeance Trails” box set, is the better pic), but “Apocalypse” runs a close second thanks to a careful balance between exploitation tropes and mature scripted/thematic elements akin to the revisionist American Westerns of the period by Sam Peckinpah and others. Arrow’s Blu-ray – part of its equally fine “Savage Guns” box set of spaghetti Westerns – is culled from a 2K scan from the 35mm camera negatives and features insightful commentary by critic Kat Ellinger (who addresses the misogynist label that hangs over Fulci’s c.v.) and a thorough production overview by Fulci biographer Stephen Thrower. Interviews with production designer Roberto Sbarigia (who recalls Fulci clashes with De Concini), film professor Fabio Metelli, and DJ Lovely Jon (on the score by Fabio Frizzi) round out the disc.
