Vinegar Syndrome has revealed its July batch of releases. They are: Body Snatchers (1993), Lady in White (1988), I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), Night School (1981), and The Ultimate Degenerate / A Thousand Pleasures (1969).
Environmental Protection Agency officer Steve Malone (Terry Kinney, The Firm) travels to a US Army base in rural Alabama to investigate potentially toxic materials which have been causing curious symptoms amongst soldiers. His family — teenage daughter Marti (Gabrielle Anwar, Scent of a Woman), young son Andy (Reilly Murphy, Dangerous Game), and wife Carol (Meg Tilly, Psycho II) — go along for the ride and begin interacting with, and being threatened by, locals who are visibly unwell. As events unfold on and around the Army base, it becomes eerily apparent that increasing numbers of people are being replaced by alien replicants while they sleep.
The third feature film adaptation of Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, following films by Don Siegel in 1956 and Philip Kaufman in 1978, 1993's succinctly-titled Body Snatchers served as the major studio debut for noted indie stalwart and provocateur Abel Ferrara. Featuring a crew assembled of Ferrara regulars — screenwriter Nicholas St. John (King of New York, Ms. 45), editor Anthony Redman (Dangerous Game), cinematographer Bojan Bazelli (China Girl), and composer Joe Delia (The Driller Killer, Bad Lieutenant) — alongside a game ensemble cast that also includes R. Lee Ermy (Full Metal Jacket) and Forest Whitaker (Platoon), Body Snatchers is a bold adaptation of an iconic story devised for a Gen-X audience. Vinegar Syndrome is proud to present Abel Ferrara's oft-overlooked sci-fi thriller in a new 4K restoration accompanied by new interviews with the crew, including Ferrara himself.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
TWO-DISC (4K BLU-RAY/BLU-RAY) COMBO PACK RELEASE
NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
New commentary track with author & critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
"Who Are the Good Guys?" (13 min) - an interview with director Abel Ferrara
"The First Cut is Mine" (17 min) - an interview with editor Anthony Redman
"Adults in the Room" (13 min) - an interview with second unit director Phil Neilson
"The Brass Ring" (25 min) - an interview with composer Joe Delia
40-page perfect bound book with essays by film historians Elena Lazic, Willow Catelyn MaClay, and Glenn Kenny (limited edition only)
1962. Nine-year-old Frankie Scarlatti enjoys a homespun childhood in a rustic Western New York town. The entire community gets into the spirit of Halloween, but then two bullies prank Frankie by locking him in his school cloakroom, leaving him trapped for the night. Alone and afraid, his slumber is interrupted when the ghost of a little girl appears, and Frankie witnesses the specter of her murder by an unseen assailant. Later, while recovering at home, the girl's ghost appears to him again. With help from his older brother, Frankie begins investigating the circumstances of her death. He soon discovers that her murder was one of several unsolved crimes connected to a local child-killer. As the town's bucolic veneer fades and long-buried secrets and tensions bubble to the surface, all of the clues to the mystery seem to point towards a huge mansion inhabited by a reclusive woman known as "The Lady in White."
A nostalgia-driven ghost story wrapped within an intricate murder mystery and coming-of-age drama, writer-director-composer Frank LaLoggia's passion project LADY IN WHITE remains one of the most beautiful and original American horror films of the 1980s. Featuring acclaimed actors Alex Rocco (The Godfather), Len Cariou (Executive Decision), and Sydney Lassick (Carrie, The Unseen), it boasts the first starring role by Lukas Haas (Mars Attacks, Inception) as well as breathtaking photography by Academy Award® winner Russell Carpenter (True Lies, The Lawnmower Man). Vinegar Syndrome is honored to bring this genre masterpiece to 4K Blu-ray, newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative and presented in three versions: its pre-release director's cut, its extended home-video version, and its original theatrical version, along with an abundance of both new and archival extras.
New group commentary track with writer/director Frank LaLoggia, alongside actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou for the Pre-Release Director's Cut
New commentary track with Frank LaLoggia, moderated by Scott Neumyer for the Extended Home Video Cut
New commentary track with authors Emma Westwood and Stephen A. Russell for the Extended Home Video Cut
Archival commentary track with Frank LaLoggia for the Extended Home Video Cut
"Learning How to Fly" (10 min) - an interview with actress Karen Powell
"A Snapshot in Time" (9 min) - an interview with actress Lisa Taylor
"Human Touches" (6 min) - an interview with actress Lucy Lee Flippin
"Still Relevant" (16 min) - an interview with actress Rose Weaver
"75% Listening, 25% Editing" (9 min) - an interview with editor Steve Mann
"Welcome to Willowpoint Falls" (6 min) - a location featurette hosted by Benjamin Scrivens, founder of Fright-Rags
"Dream Talking: Looking Back" - a visual group commentary for the Pre-Release Director's Cut with Frank LaLoggia, and actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou (103 min)
Deleted Scenes with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (36 min)
Behind-the-scenes footage with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (16 min)
Extended behind-the-scenes footage (73 min)
Introduction from the 20th anniversary dvd release
Promotional 'industry sales' trailer (7 min)
40-page perfect bound book with essays by film historians Molly Henery, Mark H. Harris, and Heidi Honeycutt (limited edition only)
When his brother June Bug winds up dead under mysterious, jewelry-related circumstances, Army Sergeant Jack Spade returns to his city to find out what really happened. Finding his family harassed by flunkies for the local crime lord, Mr. Big, Jack turns to the legendary neighborhood hero of his youth, John Slade, for help in avenging his brother. It's going to take more than one local hero to get the neighborhood cleaned up, but luckily Slade's old ass-kicking pals Hammer, Slammer, Flyguy, and Kung Fu Joe are all eager to help. That is, if Jack can just stop his Mama from doing the fighting for him.
An affectionate, sharp send-up of Blaxploitation, I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA marked the directorial debut of Keenen Ivory Wayans (Scary Movie). Wayans both wrote and starred in the lead role alongside his talented siblings, all of whom went on to the groundbreaking sketch comedy show In Living Color. Boasting a sprawling cast including genre icons Bernie Casey (Cleopatra Jones, In The Mouth of Madness), Jim Brown (Three the Hard Way, The Running Man), Isaac Hayes (Truck Turner), and Antonio Fargas (Shaft), the film updated themes towards a new generation's aesthetics, including a soundtrack featuring KRS-One, The Gap Band, Curtis Mayfield, and Fishbone. Vinegar Syndrome Ultra is proud to bring you this gold-plated cult action/comedy in 4K Blu-ray via a new scan of its original camera negative.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
TWO-DISC (4K BLU-RAY/BLU-RAY) COMBO PACK RELEASE
NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
New commentary track with film scholar Dr. Artel Great
"Comedy with a Message" (17 min) - an interview with producer/actor Peter McCarthy
"Letting Us Do Us" (11 min) - an interview with actress Dawnn Lewis
"Outrageous Visions" (11 min) - an interview with production designer Catherine Hardwicke
"Playing It Straight" (8 min) - an interview with composer David Michael Frank
"Keeping the Pace" (9 min) - an interview with editor Michael Miller
"Pimp of the Year" (10 min) - an interview with actor Antonio Fargas
"Defying Genre: Re-examining 'I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'" (15 min) - an interview with film scholar Racquel J. Gates, Associate Professor of Film at Columbia University
"The Making-of 'I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'" (6 min) - an archival featurette
Additional interviews & B-Roll (5 min)
40-page perfect bound book with essays by film historians Jourdain Searles, Quatoyiah Murray, and Robert Daniels (limited edition only)
In Boston, a young female teacher's aide is found decapitated in a playground, her head discarded in a nearby bucket. Bearing striking similarities to a murder that took place the week before, Harvard-educated Lieutenant Judd Austin is brought onto the case, who quickly establishes that the latest victim had been enrolled in evening classes at Wendell College, a local girls' school. As suspicions fall on anthropology professor Vincent Millett — whose extra-curricular liaisons with his students are well-known — the black motorcycle helmet-wearing, Gurkha blade-wielding killer strikes again and again, each time decapitating a young woman connected with the school and disposing of the head in water. Can Lieutenant Austin unmask the maniac before the entire female student body loses their heads?
A superlative slasher hailing from the golden age of the slice-and-dice boom, 1981's NIGHT SCHOOL was the final film from celebrated English director Ken Hughes (Casino Royale, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and the feature debut of Golden Globe-nominated actress Rachel Ward (The Final Terror, Fortress). Boasting cinematography from David Cronenberg regular Mark Irwin (Videodrome, The Fly) and a score by Brad Fiedel (The Terminator, Fright Night), NIGHT SCHOOL was branded a "video nasty" in the UK and censored due to its scenes of shocking violence. Now newly restored in 4K from its original camera negative and loaded with brand new bonus features, Vinegar Syndrome is thrilled to unveil this slasher classic on 4K Blu-ray for the first time ever in an edition that goes straight to the top of the class!
Special Features and Technical Specs:
TWO-DISC (4K BLU-RAY/BLU-RAY) COMBO PACK RELEASE
NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
New commentary track with associate producer Leon Williams, stuntman Jeffrey Leavitt, and film historian Bryan Thomas Norton
New commentary track with director of photography Mark Irwin and film historian Bryan Thomas Norton
"Head Hunter" (22 min) - an interview with actor Leonard Mann
"Street Born" (28 min) - an interview with actor Joseph R. Sicari
"Stunt Killer" (9 min) - an interview with stuntman Jeffrey Leavitt
Few filmmakers epitomize the aesthetics of vintage Times Square cinema better than Michael Findlay. Often collaborating with his wife Roberta who served as cinematographer and occasional actor alongside him, the couple created sick and sordid classics which still retain their power to shock. Released at the end of their '60s streak of unforgettable roughies which included the notorious Flesh Trilogy, this set of sleaze classics have been newly restored in 4K from their original camera negatives by Distribpix + Something Weird, replete with in-depth extras including a fresh conversation with Roberta Findlay herself!
Michael Findlay plays Richard Davis in A THOUSAND PLEASURES, where, fresh from murdering his wife, he gets caught disposing of her corpse and is promptly abducted to a remote seaside house by a group of man-hating lesbians. Forced into becoming their slave, Richard is soon subjected to all manner of depravity and torture, the likes of which he never even imagined.
Uta Erickson winds up in rural Vermont looking for sexual kicks in THE ULTIMATE DEGENERATE, as she comes under the control of Michael Findlay playing a ruthless, insatiable sadist. With the help of his servant Bruno, he keeps a pack of women around the house acting out exceedingly stranger, more lurid kinks. This sexual trap seems to offer no release, but what does the degenerate really desire?
Special Features and Technical Specs:
A THOUSAND PLEASURES (68 min) and THE ULTIMATE DEGENERATE (71 min) are newly restored in 4K from their original 35mm camera negatives and both presented with their original mono audio soundtrack
Two feature length audio commentaries with film historian Casey Scott and Findlay expert Neil Martinson
A never before seen sequence deleted from the original negative
Bonus feature film TAKE ME NAKED (1968) sourced from video and playable with an optional archvial audio interview between Roberta Findlay and Casey Scott
Original theatrical trailers for The Ultimate Degenerate/Take Me Naked/The Sin Syndicate
Archival image gallery
Double-sided cover
One double-sided 11x17 replica one-sheet for A Thousand Pleasures and The Ulitmate Degenerate