S.F. Brownrigg Grindhouse Double Feature Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

S.F. Brownrigg Grindhouse Double Feature Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 13, 2018

My hunch is even those who were around and attended drive-in movies during the 1970s may not instantly recognize the name of S.F. Brownrigg, even if one of the two films included on this double feature Blu-ray, Don't Look in the Basement, was evidently regularly paired with Wes Craven’s now legendary The Last House on the Left, and in fact shared (stole?) some of its same advertising techniques, including the “mantra advice” to keep repeating “it’s only a movie. . .it’s only a movie”. Both Don’t Look in the Basement and its sibling Don’t Open the Door have some rather unexpectedly effective moments, but they both suffer from an obvious lack of budget and both fall prey to certain inadequacies in both writing and acting departments. But as commentators David Del Valle and David Decoteau mention in one of the supplements included on this Blu-ray disc, how much teens were actually watching the screens at drive-ins, especially on “event” occasions where theater owners programmed an entire dusk to dawn array of B- (or lesser) films to keep kids there and buying popcorn, may be a debatable point.

For reviews of the two films on this double feature disc, please click on the following links:

Don't Look in the Basement Blu-ray review

Don't Open the Door Blu-ray review

S.F. Brownrigg Grindhouse Double Feature Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality of each release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

S.F. Brownrigg Grindhouse Double Feature Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality of each release is assessed in the above linked reviews.

S.F. Brownrigg Grindhouse Double Feature Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both films included with this release share a disc, and so not every extra on the disc pertains specifically to one film.

• Bonus Grindhouse Trailers (1080p; 12:39) comes with a warning that these have not been restored. Some of these are probably NSFW due to nudity if not outright gore.


• D.O.T.D. Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:58) also come with a warning that they haven't been restored, but some may actually feel these raw scans are preferable to the look of the "restored" film itself.


• D.O.T.D. Production Notes (1080p; 2:46) is a kind of interesting look at a sheaf of papers with guidelines for credits and things like that. This scrolls automatically, so have your Pause button handy if you're busy reading.


• Don't Look in the Basement Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:10) is windowboxed.


• Don't Open the Door Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:03)


• Audio Commentary is available on Don't Look in the Basement and features David Del Valle and David Docoteau.

There is at least one peculiar authoring anomaly on the disc. Pressing Pop Up Menu does bring up three options, but clicking on any of them does nothing (or at least it did nothing for me).

S.F. Brownrigg Grindhouse Double Feature Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kind of hilariously given the fact that film fans still await the release of any number of outright classics on Blu-ray, Brownrigg and these films have had at least some previous high definition releases ( Don't Look in the Basement, Don't Look in the Basement, Chaos/Don't Look in the Basement). While I don't have these other releases and so can't give an opinion on any comparison, our Forum has already offered assessment of some of these, and others have User Reviews, so I highly recommend fans of either/both of these films to peruse those analyses, as well as the screenshots I've uploaded to the reviews of this particular release. In my personal estimation, VCI continues to struggle with its high definition releases, and while there are pluses here, there are also definitely minuses, so fans should weigh the pros and cons as they consider making a purchase.