Vinegar Syndrome
Halfway To Black Friday 2019
Savage Harbor, Lust in the Dust, Nightbeast, and Evil Town
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For the last few years Vinegar Syndrome has a twice yearly tradition of holding a Black Friday and a Halfway to Black Friday Sale. Most of their Blu-ray's are heavily discounted, but the icing on the cake are the mystery titles they release on the days both sales are running. In the past titles have included The Children, Mausoleum, Sweet Sugar, and Deadly Daphne's revenge, among others. This year Vinegar Syndrome are putting out 4 mystery titles 2 of which are standard Vinegar Syndrome releases Lust in the Dust and Don Dohler's sci-fi classic Nightbeast. Outside of that Vinegar Syndrome have launched a new branding "Vinegar Syndrome Archive" named after their physical retail outlet in Connecticut. These 2 titles Savage Harbor and Evil Town will only be sold online at the Vinegar Syndrome website and then only through select brick and mortal retail outlets.
Nightbeast
Director- Don Dohler
Cast- Tom Griffith, George Stover
Country of Origin: US
Writer: Scott MacDonald
Nightbeast is the third feature film by Don Dohler who made his name with the magazine Cinemagic where he guided young low budget 8mm filmmakers how to create their films. Dohler's debut feature "The Alien Factor" is a minor classic that explored what happens when 3 aliens land on Earth, and go on a killing spree in rural America. Nightbeast is essentially the same film, but with a single, and much better looking alien. In Nightbeast the alien's ship collides with a stray asteroid sending the creature to rural Maryland, where it begins a killing spree. The Sheriff immediately tries to evacuate the town, but the mayor is having a party, and wants nothing to do with it. As such the sheriff takes it as his responsibility to take on the creature.
Nightbeast is quite possibly the high point of Don Dohler's career. It features a few of Dohler's repertoire including Tom Griffith and George Stover. The film is not exactly well-acted or directed, yet Dohler manages to create the feeling of a cheap 1950's sci-fi creature feature done for the splatter loving 80's. The film does have some slower bits between the moments where the alien is killing people, and the Sheriff's Department is attempting to take on the alien menace. Still the film is quite excellent, the creature is well designed and quite creepy looking, and the effects while obviously done on the cheap really fit the film quite well.
Vinegar Syndrome presents Nightbeast in a splendid 1:33:1 1080p transfer derived from an original 16mm source. The transfer here looks quite solid. Detail is fine, and it has achieved nice film like textures. There is damage from the source material, including some speckling, and at least one instance of a blue vertical line. Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA mono track in English that sounds quite solid. Vinegar Syndrome has provided a solid package for Nightbeast including multiple cast and crew interviews, an audio commentary, outtakes, bloopers, and more.
Lust in the Dust
Director- Paul Bartel
Cast- Tab Hunter, Divine
Country of Origin: US
Writer: Scott MacDonald
Lust in the Dust reunites Divine with her Polyester co-star Tab Hunter in a comedic western directed by Deathrace 2000 and Eating Raoul's Paul Bartel (do I need to continue, or are you ordering now?). The film opens with Rosie Valez played by Divine dying of thirst while crossing a desert on a much too small donkey. Rosie finds an oasis, and is able to drink and bathe. It is here Rosie meets Abel Wood who agrees to travel with Rosie to the town of Chili Verde, where Abel is on the look out for some hidden gold, and coincidentally Rosie has an interesting birthmark that might help lead the way.
Lust in the Dust mixes action, western, and camp comedy in a way that is well balanced, and always entertaining. The film has an amazing cast from the aforementioned Tab Hunter and Divine to other luminaries like Cesar Romero and Henry Silva. The performances from this cast are quite amazing, and really fitting to the over the top material. Direction from Bartel is excellent, channeling the tone of a standard western blended with the campier elements.
Vinegar Syndrome presents Lust in the Dust with 2 viewing options 2:35:1 and 1:85:1 the latter was the original aspect ratio, but the former fits well, and gives the film a Leone-esque feel to it. The transfer here looks quite excellent, with nice filmlike textures, colors pop, and everything looks pretty awesome. Audio is handled by a mono DTS-HD track in English that sounds quite clear and crisp. Extras include an archival making of, a behind the scenes featurette, a still gallery, and theatrical trailer.
Savage Harbor
Director- Carl Monson
Cast- Frank Stallone, Christopher Mitchum
Country of Origin: US
Writer: Scott MacDonald
Savage Harbor is a film that brings together Frank Stallone (brother of Sylvester, Uncle of Sage), and Christopher Mitchum (son of Robert). Savage Harbor features Stallone as Joe. Joe is a sailor on leave, and he meets a prostitute Anne, who he falls in love with and proposes to. Unfortunately, Anne has a pimp named Harry that is unwilling to let her go, and kidnaps her. It's up to Joe, and his friend Bill (Mitchum) to rescue Anne.
Savage Harbor is an interesting film, not exactly a great one, but at least a passable little time waster. The film opens with a halfway decent action scene, but after that begins to slow down between occasional moments of sleaze and action. Stallone and Mitchum do decent enough work with the material on hand, but neither exactly compare to their famous families. There is at least one oddly out of place surreal moment in the film, but aside from that everything was mostly straightfoward.
Vinegar Syndrome present Savage Harbor in a splendid 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film. The film looked amazing, and is obviously the best Savage Harbor has ever been treated on home video. Savage Harbor looks gorgeous and filmlike, colors pop, and detail is excellent. Audio is presented in a DTS-HD stereo track in English, and sounds quite solid. Extras include a video interview with Stallone, and an audio interview with the cinematographer.
Evil Town
Director- Curtis Hanson, Larry Spiegel, and Mardi Rustam
Cast- Dean Jagger, James Keach
Country of Origin: US
Writer: Scott MacDonald
Evil Town follows a group of hippies traveling down the west coast, when they find themselves in a town known for younger people disappearing. Well as it turns out the rumors are true, and they find themselves falling victim to Dr. Schaeffer, and the town's elderly population who are kidnapping the the kids and performing life-extending experiments on them, to reverse the age of the elderly, but turning the kids into mindless zombies.
Evil Town is a solid horror flick. It's not exactly scary or gory, but it had some decent moments in a plot that seems like an extremely low budget version of Dead and Buried coupled with Night of Death. The film has a solid and fun first 20 minutes, and there is a fan "mad scientist" moment about an hour in that really is a highlight. The film had 3 directors including L.A. Confidential's Curtis Hanson, and it shows. The film has an extended amount of footage from the 70's with a rape heavy subplot that is obviously shot in the 80's. It doesn't exactly match, but it also oddly fits in a weird way.
Vinegar Syndrome presents Evil Town in a very good 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film. Everything here looks quite good, the textures are film like, grain has an organic look to it, black levels are inky and deep, and only some minor damage from the source. There is an audio interview with one of the director's Larry Spiegel, and a compare and contrast between this film and Evils of the Night.
