Johnny Showtime: Coming Attractions

 by JB

Weird scenes inside the goldmine... of physical media... over the next few months...

For collectors of movies on disc, the immediate future offers some odd treasures. You can have your Fear City, your Elephant Man 4K, and your Rocky Horror documentary Strange Journey (all out today); your Hud, your Michael, your Crying Game, your Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and your Obsession (all out July 14); your Pleasantville 4K, your Falling Down 4K, and your Money from Home 3D (all out July 21); your Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, your Soylent Green 4K, your Explorers 4K, and your Pillow Talk 4K (all out July 28). I will be buying the following... more “specialized” releases.

Because I am a strange person.

July 28: Voices of Desire

This looks interesting, esoteric, and obscure. All these boutique video companies, knowing my weakness for Blu-ray shopping in the wee small hours of the morning when I cannot sleep, send me endless invitations to taste their wares. The latest, received a week and a half ago, is from Something Weird Video and AGFA, the American Genre Film Archive. It reads,

“Before starring in Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, Sandra Peabody shined in Voices of Desire (1972, Color) [....] Filmed in and around Manhattan, the story follows Peabody as she attempts to escape the hauntings of a ghoulish sex cult. Voices of Desire is an undiscovered gem from the Something Weird vaults, and a sublime convergence of arthouse style and grindhouse thrills. Plus, the hallucinations continue with Fly Now, Pay Later (1969, B&W) — a drugged-out blast of sex-horror delirium that was made by gutter dwellers in New York's Greenwich Village, featuring super groupie and Andy Warhol starlet Geri Miller."

I don’t know. They had me at “ghoulish sex cult.” This new disc features a commentary track, booklet essay, and “scintillating short subjects.”

August 11: Mars Attacks! 4K

One of my favorite Tim Burton films finally comes to (non-steelbook) 4K disc. I don’t know about you, but I could watch two full hours of just those honking alien sons of bitches assuring earthlings they have nothing to fear... followed by said earthlings being vaporized by the aliens’ ray guns. Honk! Honk!

It turns out Burton decided to direct Mars Attacks! only after a project called Go Baby Go fell through. Go Baby Go was to be a beach party film as if directed by Russ Meyer with a screenplay by Jonathan Gems. The film was about three go-go dancers who, after being exposed to toxic chemicals, become 50 feet tall and destroy several beaches in Southern California. Burton and Gems left the project after they learned HBO was remaking Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Burton went on to direct Mars Attacks!, which was written by Gems.

August 25: Teenage Riot Video Party

This disc looks especially tasty: four juvenile delinquent pictures from the Something Weird archives (Lost, Lonely, and Vicious; Jacktown; The Flaming Teen-Age; and The Narcotic Story) combined with a collection of “riotous trailers and drive-in snipes.”
“This time, we’re racing for pinks!”

September 8: Hell’s Highway

Just when Teenage Riot Video Party gets you all revved up to go drag racing out past the city limits, here is a collection of 1950s Driver’s Ed “scare films” to bring you down to earth. Interestingly, sociologists and psychologists would theorize decades later that these gruesome classroom films have little to no effect on young drivers, because ALL TEENAGERS THINK THEY ARE IMMORTAL. Buckle up and take a look at the trailer:



September 23: Drive-In Delirium: A New Beginning

Umbrella Entertainment revives its trailer compilation series with 304 mind-blowing, uncensored, and uncut trailers spread across two discs in a Collector's Edition featuring new art cards; a 48-page book with behind-the-scenes material and an extended essay by Guy Davis; archival interviews with trailer editors Steve Carver, Alan Arkush, and Joe Dante; and extensive poster galleries. NOTE: There is also a “non-special edition” available at a lower price without all of the paper ephemera.

September 29: Forbidden Planet 4K

The Daddy of modern science-fiction films finally comes to (non-steelbook) 4K disc.

I confess that I cannot wait to see this old chestnut in 4K; I’m hoping that the transfer was done with as much love and care as the recent War of the Worlds 4K disc. Earthlings can hope.

The included standard Blu-ray features a bevy of special features, some of them brand-new: “Unearthly Aura,” a newly filmed appreciation of Bebe and Louis Barron's pioneering electronic score by historian and composer Neil Brand; “Watch the Skies: Science Fiction, The 1950s and Us,” an archival documentary about the film; “Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet,” another archival documentary; “Robby the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon,” an archival featurette; deleted scenes; lost footage; The Invisible Boy, a bonus feature-length movie featuring Robby the Robot; and "Robot Client," an episode of The Thin Man TV series also featuring Robby the Robot.