Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 16, 2018

"Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch" arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Australian label Umbrella Entertainment. The only bonus feature on the disc is a large selection of additional unrestored vintage trailers. In English, without optional English subtitles. Region-Free.

"More trailers, more trailers"

If you are reading this article you are probably already aware of Australian label Umbrella Entertainment’s previous two trailer collections, which we have reviewed here and here. By now you probably also know that I really enjoy trailer collections because when they are done right they are like a great album of special memories. Or at least this is how I view them, because they usually remind me of favorite vintage films that I have not seen in years and inspire me to revisit them.

The third trailer collection, Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch, has two huge sections of freshly remastered trailers for a wide range of vintage cult and smaller genre films. The back cover of Umbrella Entertainment’s release states that there are a total of 175 theatrical trailers, but to be honest with you my eyes were glued to the screen and I never thought of counting them. Also, there is a bonus batch of additional trailers that have not been remastered but are sourced from VHS tapes. In other words, there is a massive amount of content which very few people, if any at all, will see without a break.

In the first two sections you are essentially getting a little bit of everything, from trailers for classic action thrillers like Sam Peckinpah’s Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García and Arthur Penn’s Night Moves to vintage sci-fi gems like Ib Melchior’s The Angry Red Planet and Kinji Fukasaku’s The Green Slime to Aussie gems like Mario Andreacchio’s Fair Game. Then there is also a healthy dose of trailers for popular ‘bad’ films like Peckinpah’s Convoy, Michael Anderson’s Doc Savage: The Man of Bronzeand Ronald Neame’s Meteor. Horror junkies are in for quite a treat as well because there is a huge selection of trailers for genre gems like John ‘Bud’ Cardos’ The Dark, Harry Bromley Davenport’s Xtro, and Mark Goldblatt’s Dead Heat. Somewhere in the middle of the collection you will also discover trailers for post-apocalyptic hits like Geoff Murphy’s The Quiet Earth and Thom Eberhardt’s Night of the Comet. There is even a sparkling trailer for Ralph Bakshi’s cult animated film Wizards. Frankly, whatever your taste in cinema may be there is an excellent chance that this collection has at least a dozen of trailers for some of your all-time favorite films.

I also wish to mention some of the trailers that are included in the bonus section. For example, there is a vintage trailer for Uli Edel’s landmark teen drama Christiane F., which I think should have entered the Criterion Collection a long time ago, as well as trailers for cult action comedies like Marvin Chomsky’s Live A Little Steal A Lot and Brian Hutton’s High Road to China, vintage thrillers like Breathless, and goofy B-pictures like Yor, the Hunter from the Future. Believe it or not, there is even a vintage trailer for Stu Segall’s ‘80s adult classic Insatiable with a special introduction by Marilyn Chambers.

As it was the case with the previous collections the trailers cannot be accessed chronologically via the disc's main menu, but all are listed on the reversible back cover of the release.

This is a superb collection, folks, with an incredible amount of remastered content and bonus vintage content that is just as appealing. As far as I am concerned, it is unmissable.

Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All of the trailers in the two main sections, Part One: The Quickening and Part Two: The Spawning, have been fully remastered. The overwhelming majority of them look either good or very good, though as it is always the case with vintage content occasionally there are some noticeable traces of aging. I wish to make it very clear, however, that these are not recycled trailers that have been quickly repoolished. Some have actually been fully restored, not just remastered, and look very impressive in high-definition. Also, even if there are some source limitations, virtually all of the trailers have strong organic qualities. All trailers in the main sections are encoded with MPEG-4 AVC in 1080p.

The bonus trailers in the VHS section obviously have inferior quality. They are also presented in 1.33:1 and rather predictably some even exhibit basic stability issues. All of these trailers are also presented in 720p, not 1080p.

The disc is Region-Free. Therefore, you can access its content regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu.

Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The trailers in the main sections come with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks, while the bonus trailers come with a Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks. The audio quality of the remastered trailers is typically very good, but there are some minor inherited dynamic fluctuations. The audio quality of the bonus trailers is not as consistent, but this should not be surprising as they are sourced from vintage standard-definition masters. There are no English subtitles.

Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bonus VHS Trailers - please see the main review and the video section for detailed comments. (90+ min, 720p)

• Reversible Cover - please see the attached screenshots.

Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The variety of the content that was gathered for Drive-In Delirium: The New Batch is quite simply overwhelming. I am not exaggerating, folks. If you enjoyed the first two Drive-In Delirium trailer collections, you will have an even better time with this new installment in the series because there is just a lot more content here from a number of different genres. All of the trailers in the main sections have also been remastered and the majority of them look really good in high-definition. The release is Region-Free and playable on all standard Blu-ray players. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.