Video Vault - 3.12.25

PICK OF THE WEEK

TRICK OR TREAT (Red Shirt Pictures/Synapse Films): In the 1980s, heavy metal music became a hot-button topic, with its detractors claiming it inspired violence with its “evil” lyrics and that some songs, when played backwards, contained Satanic messages. Afternoon talk shows devoted entire episodes to this “pressing” issue, all the better to garner ratings, and there even some court cases – the most publicized one involving the band Judas Priest.

Well, those heady days of yesteryear were immortalized, so to speak, in this amusing 1986 shocker filmed in Wilmington under the auspices of Dino’s short-lived De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, which marked the feature directorial debut of actor Charles Martin Smith.

Marc Price, then riding high as Skippy on TV’s Family Ties, plays Eddie Weinbauer, a typical all-American teenager devasted when his idol, rock star Sammi Curr (Tony Fields), dies under mysterious circumstances in a hotel fire. Although Eddie is something of an outcast, he’s less a moody misfit than a likable kid who happens to love heavy metal. He pines for cute classmate Leslie Graham (newcomer Lisa Orgolani) and endures the taunts and bullying of bleach-blonde jock Tim Hainey (a memorably nasty Doug Savant).

Gifted a copy of Curr’s unreleased last album by friendly disc jockey Nuke (Gene Simmons), Eddie plays it backwards and – presto! – Sammi Curr re-emerges in spectral form with murderous mischief in mind, determined to wreak Satanic panic in his wake. Initially, Eddie is thrilled that Sammi is back from the grave and ready to party but quickly realizes that he’s literally made a deal with the devil. It all culminates, naturally, with Curr raising hell at the high-school prom, where director Smith has a funny cameo, before the inevitable showdown between Eddie and Sammi.

The film was released in time for Halloween and essentially broke even at the box-office, but audiences expecting a more straightforward, albeit head-banging, horror film were instead treated to an affectionate and sly send-up of the genre, replete with the basic trappings. Trick or Treat doesn’t mock the genre or the music – the Fastway soundtrack is appropriately loud and lurid – but the controversy surrounding heavy metal, hence the appearances by Simmons (who reportedly turned down the role of Sammi Curr), and none other than Ozzy Osbourne (in his feature debut) as a Bible-thumping preacher decrying heavy metal in a TV interview.

Yes, the film is silly, but it’s never stupid and, at its best, even inspired at times. Price is endearing, Fields preens and snarls with gusto, Elaine Joyce plays as Eddie’s dithering mother and, in his only feature role, future X Files and Final Destination creator Glen Morgan (who did some uncredited script rewrites) scores as Eddie’s bumbling best buddy Roger Mockus, who has the film’s comic highlight. (It involves a vacuum cleaner.)

Trick or Treat is available on DVD ($19.95 retail), Blu-ray ($34.95 retail), and 4K Ultra HD combo ($44.95 retail), with the latter two formats boasting a bevy of bonus features including audio commentary, retrospective featurettes and interviews, music video, theatrical trailers, TV and radio spots, and more. Rated R. **½

ALSO AVAILABLE

100 TEARS (Unearthed Films/MVD Entertainment Group): The Blu-ray bow ($34.95 retail) of the director’s cut of Marcus Koch’s award-winning 2007 chiller starring writer/producer Joe Davison and Georgia Chris as tabloid reporters on the trail of a demented circus clown-turned-serial killer (Jack Amos), known as the “Teardrop Killer,” – only to soon realize they’re next on the hit list. Bonus features include audio commentary, the documentary Making of “100 Tears,” behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes, Koch’s childhood short films, trailer, and more.

BEST DEFENSE (Kino Lorber Studio Classics): The Blu-ray bow ($29.95 retail) of the feeble 1984 military farce adapted from Robert Grossbach’s 1974 novel Easy and Hard Ways Out by the husband-and-wife screenwriting duo Willard Huyck (who also directed) and Gloria Katz stars Dudley Moore as a harried engineer working on a top-secret targeting system for the U.S. Army, with “strategic guest star” Eddie Murphy as a tank commander in Kuwait two years later, with Kate Capshaw, Helen Shaver, George Dzundza, David Rasche, Peter Michael Goetz, Tom Noonan, and David Paymer floundering in support. There have long been rumors that Murphy, who doesn’t interact with the other actors and has roughly 15 minutes onscreen, was added to the film after disastrous test screenings (disputed by the audio commentary), but it’s true that when Murphy returned to host Saturday Night Fever months after its release, he joked about how bad it was in his monologue, which was funnier than anything in this lame endeavor that easily ranked among the worst films of its year. Bonus features also include theatrical trailers. Rated R. *

CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY (Kino Lorber Studio Classics): Producer/director Zoltan Korda’s award-winning 1952 adaptation of screenwriter Alan Paton’s best-selling 1948 novel stars Canada Lee (in his final feature and only leading role) as a dispirited clergyman who journeys to Johannesburg in search of his missing son, who is accused of committing murder, and encounters the harsh realities of the racist apartheid regime, with Sidney Poitier (in an early starring role), Charles Carson, Joyce Cary, Geoffrey Keen, and Michael Goodliffe in support. This holds the distinction of being the first major film shot in South Africa, which required the production to inform immigration authorities that Lee and Poitier were indentured servants and not actors (!). Earnest and well-intentioned, although (for once) the 1995 remake was the superior screen version. Bonus features include audio commentary and vintage interview with Lee. **½

GHOST CAT ANZU (GKIDS/Shout! Studios/Shout! Factory): The Blu-ray bow ($22.98 retail) of co-director Yoko Kuno (making her feature debut) and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s award-winning, animated adaptation of Takashi Imashura’s popular fantasy manga (originally titled Bakeneko Anzu-chan) detailing the misadventures of a precocious young girl (voiced by Noa Goto in her feature debut) and the lazy but lovable “ghost cat” (voiced by Mirai Moriyama) who becomes her protector. Bonus features include both French (with English subtitles), Japanese (with English subtitles), and English-dubbed audio options, teasers, and trailers.

THE HUNGRY SNAKE WOMAN (Mondo Macabro): The worldwide Blu-ray bow ($29.95 retail) of director Sisworo Gautama Putra’s 1986 supernatural shocker (originally titled Petualangan Cinta Nyi Blorong) starring Advent Bangan as a greedy sadist who forms an unholy pact with the titular goddess (played by Suzzanna) to achieve wealth and glory, which entails him becoming a bloodthirsty vampire and preying on innocent women. Bonus features include original Indonesian (with English subtitles) and English-dubbed audio options. 

“JOSEPH CAMPBELL AND THE POWER OF MYTH WITH BILL MOYERS” (Film Movement): The title tells all in this top-rated, six-episode 1988 PBS documentary mini-series pairing author and mythologist Joseph Campbell (who died shortly before the series aired) and journalist Bill Moyers in which they discuss and explore enduring myths that have had an impact on global culture, featuring interviews with filmmaker George Lucas, whose work was influenced by Campbell’s work and observations. Both the three-disc DVD ($49.95 retail) and two-disc Blu-ray ($54.99 retail) include all six episodes – “The Hero’s Adventure,” “The Message of the Myth,” “The First Storytellers,” “Sacrifice and Bliss,” “Love and the Goddess,” and “Masks of Eternity” – plus an array of bonus features including companion booklet, the featurette The Mythology of “Star Wars” with Bill Moyers and George Lucas, and the Bill Moyers’ Journal episodes “Joseph Campbell: Myths to Live By – Part 1 and Part 2.”

THE MASK OF SATAN (Severin Films): The North American Blu-ray bow ($34.95 retail) of writer/director Lamberto Bava’s 1989 chiller (originally titled La Maschera del demonio), a contemporized remake of Bava’s father Mario’s 1960 classic Black Sunday, in which a group of skiers trapped in a crevasse unearth a frozen female corpse adorned with a diabolical mask. This originally aired on the Italian anthology series Sabbath and released in some territories as Demons V (despite having no connection to that franchise), with an ensemble cast including Mary Sellers, Debora Caprioglio, and filmmaker Michele Soavi. In Italian with English subtitles, bonus features include retrospective interviews. 

“PERIL & DISTRESS: ENDLESS NIGHT/PICTURE MOMMY DEAD” (Kino Lorber Studio Classics): A self-explanatory 4K Ultra HD combo double-feature ($49.95 retail) of vintage psychological thrillers: Screenwriter Sidney Gilliat’s final directorial outing, the 1972 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1967 novel Endless Night stars Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, Britt Ekland, Per Oscarsson, and George Sanders, and boasts a Bernard Herrmann score; and producer/director Bert I. Gordon’s Picture Mommy Dead (1966) stars Don Ameche, Martha Hyer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Wendell Corey, Signe Hasso, and Gordon’s daughter Susan Gordon (in her final feature). Bonus features include audio commentary for both films and Endless Night trailer.

ROSE (Cohen Media Group/Kino Lorber): Actress-turned-writer Aurélie Saada’s award-winning 2021 feature directorial debut stars Francoise Fabian as the title character, a recent widow whose attempts to overcome her grief and embrace the time she has left puts her at odds with members of her own family, many of whom are burdened with their own problems. In French with English subtitles, both the DVD ($19.95 retail) and Blu-ray ($29.95 retail) include Q&A session and theatrical trailer