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Retromedia gives us a whole bunch of Fred Olen Ray for the price of one. |
Released by: Retromedia
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| Click Picture to Purchase |
Release Date: June 1st, 1980
Region Code: REGION FREE
Run Time: 1h 14m (The Alien Dead)
53m (The Brain Leeches)
24m (Halloween Planet)
Audio: LPCM 2.0 English (The Alien Dead)
Dolby Digital 1.0 (The Brain Leeches and Halloween Planet)
Video: 1080p (1.85:1 Aspect Ratio) (The Alien Dead)
1080p (1.33:1 Aspect Ratio) (The Brain Leeches)
480p (1.33:1 Aspect Ratio) (Halloween Planet)
Tom Corman: What do you think about, Shawn?Shawn Michaels: I don't know. Growing up. Getting out of the swamp. Eating hamburgers. Stuff like that.
THE FEATURES [3.5 out of 4]
Commentary with Fred Olen Ray
Writer/Director Fred Olen Ray is joined by director Steve
Latshaw (Biohazard 2 and Jack-O) in this very funny and
informative commentary. Ray has a lot to say about The Alien Dead and there is not a moment of dead air. Ray starts
out by saying that he hates the opening scene, the one with the man at the
typewriter because it adds nothing to the film, but run time. The scene that
follows, a man and a woman trying to find gators in the swamps, was shot MOS
(without sound) because Ray was being arrested at the time the scene was being
shot, for trespassing. That is right, while that scene is playing, just think
that right off screen is a man being arrested. Ray continues telling story after
story until the film is over. Steve Latshaw chimes in now and again, but this
is Fred Olen Ray’s track and he owns it. If I were to say anything bad about
this wonderful track is that the audio seems very echo-y,like he is recording
the track from across the room. I wish that Ray would get a microphone, but the
audio is still listenable and doesn’t get in the way. This is a wonderful
track.
1992 Cast Reunion (5m 47s, SD)
Stars Mike Bonavia, Dennis Underwood, and Shelley Youngren
are on hand to tell some stories about the making of The Alien Dead. They talk about how they were cast (Fred Olen Ray
out an ad in the newspaper), their praise and awe over actor Buster Crabbe, and
Youngren tells a story about how she got naked for the whole crew, but didn’t even
know it. This piece was recorded in 1992 and it looks like they are backstage
at some type of convention or awards show. This is a nice little featurette
that I wish would have gone on longer.
VHS Cover Gallery (1m 31s, SD)
Fred Olen Ray talks about the various VHS covers for the
film from around the world. Normally I hate still galleries, but there is
narration, so I was able to get through it without falling asleep.
Still Gallery (2m 18s, SD)
This is a normal still gallery that has music playing as the
stills montage moves on. The music is not from the film.
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This is Fred Olen Ray’s first feature and it shows. This
film, about leeches that came from outer space and infect humans, is an
Invasion of the Body Snatchers rip off. The leeches attack humans and then go about
the daily life of that human while trying to get other people to join them.
There is a funny scene with a comedian who has been “leeched” and tells jokes
based around the leeches. It is a scene that goes nowhere, but it is amusing
nonetheless. The film was shot in black and white and printed on 16mm, which
means that it could have been shot on 8mm. The film cost $298.00 according to
Fred Olen Ray. The film is bad and Ray even thinks that watching it can harm
you. The film may be bad, but it is more coherent than The Alien Dead, the film that this film is featured on and the film
that would follow. The film moves at a snail’s pace and feels like hours have
gone by even though the film is less than an hour long. Most of the film was
shot MOS and the soundtrack is filled with songs from a public domain record
that Ray owned. The result is a terrible film that should be watched just to
see what a bad film looks like.
The picture quality here is just as terrible as the film.
Ghosting, crushed blacks, washed out whites, and lots of noise. The film
registers as HD when playing, but I can’t even believe that this is HD. So much
wrong with the picture. Then again, I have seen worse. It seems that Ray just
put whatever he had on the blu-ray and that is that.
The sound is good when the songs are playing. The audio
falls apart when dialogue comes into the mix. The songs sound loud and bright
while the dialogue, sometimes recorded in post, is messy and inconsistent. I
guess that it fits the picture pretty well.
Audio Commentary with Fred Olen Ray (Brain Leeches)
Ray sits down for another commentary track and this is in
the same vein as the track for The Alien
Dead. Ray starts off by saying that he isn’t going to commentary over the
whole film because that would be torture for him and us, but ends up talking
for the whole film. He talks about shooting in the swamps (which he loves
doing) and how he cast the film with friends from the cable station he was working
at. The camera that the film was shot on was loaned out to him from the station
and they gave him a box full of expired (out of date) film. The track becomes a
little bit somber when Ray talks about his brother (who is in the film). Ray’s
brother passed away a few years ago and the film reminds Ray of his brother.
This is another great track from Ray.
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This $5000 production was funded by Ray in the hopes that he
would land a TV deal. Of course we know that didn’t happen, but now we know
why. This is really bad. If you thought that Brain Leeches was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Two kids fly a space ship from their planet because they
want to (?) and land on Halloween Planet, a place where all of the monsters
that we know and love (and some that are brand new) have a mixer all the time.
The kids are welcomed on this planet and are given a tour before they go back
home.
The plot is barely there and the film just plods along for
almost twenty-five minutes. Nothing happens before the kids go back home. There
is a lot of potential, but it is wasted, probably because of budget. This is
another one you can skip, unless you are a big Fred Olen Ray fan or you like to
torture yourself.
Audio Commentary with Fred Olen Ray (Halloween Planet)
Another winner from Ray. Here he talks about financing this
short. He wanted to be the producer of a kids TV show, but when this didn’t
happen, he left for California. He also talks about why he didn’t direct this
short (he didn’t see a future in directing) and how he lost every penny he sent
on this. (which is why it is a special feature on another film’s blu-ray). He even offered it to TV stations for free
and still no one would take it.
THE PACKAGING [3 out of 4]
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The front cover is a really nice piece of art that portrays
a monster dragging a woman by her hair, the tagline reading: THEY CAME FROM
OUTER SPACE TO EAT THE LIVING. The tagline doesn’t really work, but the artwork
is very striking and beautiful.
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I like that companies
like Shout!/Scream Factory, Blue Underground, Severin, Synapse, and Arrow can
release product in nice blu-ray cases, but the bigger companies can’t be
bothered to. They release all their stuff in those dreaded ECO CASES and I hate
them.
The disc is REGION
FREE
THE PICTURE [2 out of 4]
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There is a lot of film grain here, but it doesn’t take away
from the enjoyment of the film. There is very little in the way of detail, but
this happens a lot when films are put through a remaster or the negative is
lost, which is the case here. Still, I think that the film looks about as good
as it can and I am ok with that.
THE SOUND [2 out of 4]
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THE FILM [2 out of 4]
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The Alien Dead is
the second film that Ray directed and it is ok. It doesn’t have the craziness
of Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers or the
cheesiness of Alienator because Ray
is essentially making a zombie film. If you take out the space ship that
crashes into a cabin boat, you find that the film is a zombie film. The “alien
dead” of the title are nothing more than dead people who want eat living ones.
There is nothing all that memorable about the film, but that
is ok with me. Sometimes I like being able to walk away from a film with
nothing more than I came in with. It allows me to watch the film again like it
was new to me. I know that sounds crazy but it works out sometimes.
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There is a scene where a woman is being chased by an “alien
dead”. She runs into a place in the swamp where there is a walkway. She runs
around this walkway while the “alien dead” stalks her. She hides underneath the
walkway, but the “alien dead” finds her and kills her. This scene makes no
sense because it wasn’t set up properly, nor was it shot with any type of
skill. It is just a series of random shots that we can kind of make out if we
really try.
With all the crap that I have flung at this film, why did I
give it a higher score? It comes to heart. Sure, heart can’t make a film good,
but it can help in the viewing of said film. Fred Olen Ray wanted to make a
film about aliens eating people. He accomplished this goal because he believed
that he could. Sure, the film is bad, but it is honest. Films like The Room or Birdemic are bad films, but they are not honest films. Fred Olen
Ray was honing his craft and learning by doing. Tommy Wiseau and James Nguyen
haven’t learned anything from making their films. They are firmly in the belief
that they are the best because they are the worst. Ray knows that he is making
crap, but he does so with a talent that he learned over years of making films.
The Alien Dead is
not all that entertaining, but is never boring. The film keeps moving even when
it stumbles, which it does a lot.
OVERALL [3 out of 4]
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I am glad that I bought The
Alien Dead. The film is a fun watch if you can get in the right mindset.
The picture quality is not that great, but I don’t think that it can get any
better. The sound is pretty bad, but still listenable. The biggest selling
points are the three commentary tracks from Fred Olen Ray. Sure, you have to
watch the films in order to follow the commentary tracks, but that is ok. The
tracks are worth it and they are worth the price of this blu-ray.