Inside the Packaging: The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler (Severin Films)


Ladies and Gentlemen, we might have The Best Blu-ray Release of 2022 with this set from Severin Films. 20 movies, tons of special features, and some of the best packaging on the planet gives us one outstanding package.

Studio: Severin Films
Release Date: December 1964 (Wild Guitar) / February 10th, 1964 (The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies) / January 21st, 1966 (Thrill Killers) / September 7th, 1966 (Rat Fink a Boo Boo) / August 21st, 1968 (The Lemon Grove Kids) / 1969 (Body Fever) / June 10th, 1970 (Synthia: The Devil's Doll) / 1971 (Blood Shack, The Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire, Count Al-Kum) / 1979 (The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher) / 1986 (The Las Vegas Serial Killer) / October 23rd, 1970 (Nazi Brothel) / 1973 (Dr. Cock Luv) / 1974 (The Sexorcist's Devil) / 1976 (Red Heat) / 1997 (Summer of Fun) / 2006 (Reading, PA) / 2008 (One More Time)
Run Time: 1 hour 32 min (Wild Guitar) / 1 hour 22 min (The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies) / 1 hour 10 min (Thrill Killers) / 1 hour 17 minutes (The Maniacs Are Loose) / 1 hour 12 minutes (Rat Fink a Boo Boo, The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher, ) / 1 hour 18 min (The Lemon Grove Kids, Body Fever, Synthia: The Devil's Doll) / 70 min (Blood Shack), 55 min (The Chooper) / 1 hour 27 min (The Las Vegas Serial Killer) / 50 min (The Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire) / 54 min (Nazi Brothel) / 52 min (Love Life of Hitler's Nazis, Dr. Cock Luv) / 49 min (Count Al-Kum) / 1 hour 1 min (The Sexorcist's Devil) / 
1 hour 21 min (Red Heat) / 1 hour 2 min (Summer of Fun) / 4 hours 17 min (Reading, PA) /1 hour 6 min (One More Time)
Region Code: FREE
Picture: 1080p (1.66:1 aspect ratio) (Wild Guitar)  / 1080p (1.75:1 aspect ratio) (The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies) / 1080p (1.85:1 aspect ratio) (Thrill Killers) (both versions), Rat Fink a BooBoo, Body Fever, Synthia: The Devil's Doll, / 1080p (1.33:1 aspect ratio) (The Lemon Grove Kids, Blood ShackThe Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher, The Las Vegas Serial Killer, The Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire, Nazi Brothel, Love Life of Hitler's Nazis, Count Al-Kum, Dr. Cock Luv, The Sexorcist's Devil,  Red Heat, Summer of Fun, Reading, PA, One More Time)
Sound: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (Wild Guitar, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies, Rat Fink a Book Boo, Rat Fink a Boo Boo, The Lemon Grove Kids, Body Fever, Synthia: The Devil's Doll, The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher, The Las Vegas Serial Killer, The Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire, Nazi Brothel, Love Life of Hitler's Nazis, Count Al-Kum, Dr. Cock Luv, The Sexorcist's Devil, Red Heat, Summer of Fun, Reading, PA, One More Time)  / English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (Thrill Killers, Blood Shack)
Subtitles: English (all films)
Slipcover: Hard Box
Digital Copy: No
Starring: Arch Hall Jr., Nancy Czar, Arch Hall Sr., Ray Dennis Steckler (Wild Guitar) / Ray Dennis Steckler, Brett O'Hara, Atlas King, Sharon Walsh (The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies) / Ray Dennis Steckler, Liz Renay, Joseph Bardo, Carolyn Brandt (Thrill Killers) / Carolyn Brandt, Ron Haydock, Titus Moede, George Caldwell (Rat Fink a Boo Boo) / Ray Dennis Steckler, Mike Kannon, Bart Carsell, Coleman Francis (The Lemon Grove Kids) / Ray Dennis Steckler, Carolyn Brandt, Bernard Fein, Gary Kent (Body Fever) / Bunny Allister, Ted Roter, Brett Zeller, Gary Kent (Synthia: The Devil's Doll) / Carolyn Brandt, Ron Haydock, Jason Wayne, Laurel Spring (Blood Shack) / Pierre Agostino, Carolyn Brandt, Chuck Alford, Jim Parker ( The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher) / 
Pierre Agostino, Ron Jason, Chris Cave (Las Vegas Serial Killer) / Carolyn Brandt, Will Long (Nazi Brothel) / Jerry Delony, Vickie Scott (Count Al-Kum) / Jerry Delony, Margie Lanier (Dr. Cock Luv) / Lilly Lamarr, Kelly Guthrie, Doug Darush, Carolyn Brandt (The Sexorcit's Devil) / Pierre Agostino, Eddie Bach, Rita Cummings, Lovie Goldmine (Red Heat) / Bailey Steckler, Richard Brew, Ken Elder, Roger Farrow (Summer of Fun) / Ray Dennis Steckler, Natasha Diakova, Angela Svejda, John G. Waite (One More Time)

Written by Arch Hall Sr., Bob Wehling (Wild Guitar) / Gene Pollock, Robert Silliphant (The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies) / Gene Pollock, Ray Dennis Steckler (Thrill Killers) / Ron Haydock (Rat Fink a Boo Boo) / Ray Dennis Steckler (The Lemon Grove Kids) / William Edgar, Ray Dennis Steckler (Body Fever) / Herb Robins, Ray Dennis Steckler (Synthia: The Devil's Doll) / Ron Haydock, Ray Dennis Steckler (The Blood Shack) / Ray Dennis Steckler (The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher, Las Vegas Serial Killer, Red Heat, Summer of Fun, One More Time) / 
Jim Parker as Count Dracula, Carolyn Brandt, Rock Heinrich (The Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire) / Arnold Blatt (The Sexorcit's Devil) / 
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler (all films)
Rating: Not Rated (Wild Guitar, 
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies, Thrill Killers, Rat Fink a Boo Boo, Body Fever, Synthia: The Devil's Doll, Blood ShackLas Vegas Serial Killer, Summer of Fun, Reading, PA, One More Time) / G (The Lemon Grove Kids) / R (The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher) / X (The Mad Love Life of a Hot Vampire, Nazi Brothel, Love Life of Hitler's Nazis, Count Al-Kum, Dr. Cock Luv, The Sexorcit's Devil, Red Heat

Two years ago, Severin Films gave us one of the best box sets ever in the history of home media with AL ADAMSON: THE MASTERPIECE COLLECTION. This box set collected all of Adamson's films (with one, LASH OF LUST not being in the set as it has been lost) in beautiful 1080p along with a ton of special features and a full length documentary that covers Adamson's life, and horrifying death, with interviews with many of the people who worked on his films. The packaging was beautiful, to say the least. Severin Films elected to go with digibook style packaging that many CD companies have been using for years, only blu-ray sized. They included a fantastic book that covers all of the films in the set along with LASH OF LUST. I named the set The Best Blu-ray Release of 2020 and I still think it is.

Cut forward two years and Severin Films has given another director the same treatment they gave Adamson. The director this time around is Ray Dennis Steckler. I knew very little about Steckler, having only seen BLOOD SHACK, so I was very excited about this set. I figured, if Severin can repeat what they did for Adamson, then they will have another winner on their hands.

To say that Severin did it would be an understatement. This set is gorgeous. The pictures that you have seen online, including the ones in this very post, don't do the release justice. The front of the box features a still from THRILL KILLERS and is done in the style of a pulp novel. The box is tight with the contents of the set so nothing is really falling out. It might be a little too tight as it takes a bit of shaking to get the contents out.

Inside you will find the digibook-style packaging. Each disc is given two pages of the digibook. The left side gives us the film's poster along with the special features that are found on the disc. The right page gives us the title of the film in the font used on the poster along with the year the film(s) were released and the run time. Each disc fits snuggly in the right page.  

Also inside the box is a 96-page book that covers all of the contents in the box, the history of each film, along with information about the transfers of each film found in the set.

While this set doesn't include every film that Steckler directed (he did a ton of porn in the 70s and early 80s), this set is just so beautiful. The set contains 20 films and they are all interesting to say the least. Each film contains some special features with the non-porn ones containing audio commentaries and interviews. Three of the films even get the Joe Bob Briggs treatment with Briggs giving us an introduction to the film along with an audio commentary. Each non-porn film shot on actual film is given a brand new transfer in either 2K or 4K along with lossless audio. The porn films were restored by Vinegar Syndrom, as this is one of their specialties. The later films in the set were shot on digital video and are presented in 1080p. 

I am going to say this now: THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS OF DENNIS STECKLER might follow the Al Adamson set from 2020 as The Best Blu-ray Release of 2022. This set is damn near perfect and really belongs on the shelf of every genre collector's shelf. Don't sleep on this set. It is worth every penny.




















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