Adventurers, The (1995/Eureka!*)/Blue Sunshine 4K (1977/Synapse 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray + CD/*both MVD)/House Of Psychotic Women, Rarities Collection Volume Two (Butterfly Kiss (1994)/Morgiana (1972)/Savage Eye (1959)/Glass Ceiling (1971/Severin Blu-ray Box)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B-/B/B Sound: B- (Glass: C+) Extras: B-/B/B Films: C+/B-/B-

Now for some dark thrills, some of which clash with dark history....

Ringo Lam's The Adventurers (1995) starts with an impressive, brutal sequence set in the 1970s when the Khmer Rouge invaded Cambodia as the Vietnam disaster was winding down and started killing people all over the place. It is a rarely seen, documented and discussed event, but they do justice to it. An 8-year-old child sees his parents killed, but he somehow survives. Fast forward to the present (i.e., the time this film is released) and the son is now a grown jet fighting in Thailand and he wants revenge. From San Francisco to back home, the killer is now a wealthy arms dealer and he is still killing.

The young man's father was actually secretly working for the CIA when he was killed and the son is now working with them to get to the kingpin, but he'll have to romance and seduce his daughter to finally get closure.

Unfortunately, this becomes too much of a formula revenge film that only remembers the past is so-so flashbacks and is too slap dash to follow-up, connect and match the opening sequence. The actors are good, but the editing too slick for its own good and plotting as predictable ad it is more formulaic than it should be. Still, it has its moments, but not enough and the missed opportunities keep piling up as the 110 minutes keep moving on. Now you can see for yourself.

Extras in this great slipcase packaging include:

• Limited Edition of 2,000 copies

• Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Time Tomorrow

• New audio commentary by film critic David West

• Two Adventurers: new interview with Gary Bettinson, editor of Asian Cinema journal

• Previously unseen archival interview with writer and producer Sandy Shaw

• Original Theatrical Trailer

• PLUS: A Limited edition collector's booklet featuring a new essay by Hong Kong cinema scholar Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park.

As noted when I did the 'Elvira' version of the film on this site, Jeff Lieberman's Blue Sunshine 4K (1977) is the sometimes funny, always watchable and often intriguing Science Fiction/Horror thriller about an exceptionally deadly batch of LSD that is not only making its former users ill after ten years after the fact, but turning them into psycho-killers. Zalman King is the lead in this thriller and Lost In Space's Mark Goddard also stars.

I can add the I like the look of the film, its pacing, music and the rest of the cast fits in well. The title substance is supposed to be something profitable and becomes entangled in politics, big money and worse, with only some knowing its deadliest side effects. Of course, those in the know might have a new use for it.

As relevant as ever, the film remains a great example of how a low budget horror film can work very well and be very effective when it has a good script and a group of talented people who can bring it together. Synapse has been handling this title for decades and once again, they have expanded on it, saved it, restored it and preserved it for generations to come. Consider it a must for all serious film fans, especially those who love science fiction and horror.

Extras in this great slipcase packaging include:

• Two audio commentaries featuring director Jeff Lieberman

• New introduction to the film by director Jeff Lieberman

• Archival 2003 interview with director Jeff Lieberman

• ''Lieberman on Lieberman'' video interview

• Channel Z ''Fantasy Film Festival'' interview with Mick Garris and Jeff Lieberman

• Fantasia Film Festival 4K Premiere Q&A with moderator Michael Gingold and director Jeff Lieberman

• Anti-drug ''scare films'': LSD-25 (1967) and LSD: Insight or Insanity? (1968), courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive

• Jeff Lieberman's first film The Ringer (Remastered in 4K by Synapse Films from the original camera negative, also worth a good look)

• Theatrical Trailers

• Still Gallery

• Liner notes booklet by Jeff Lieberman, featuring a chapter on the making of Blue Sunshine from his book Day of the Living Me: Adventures of a Subversive Cult Filmmaker from the Golden Age

• Limited edition fold-out poster

• and a Limited Edition remastered CD soundtrack (13 tracks).

The House Of Psychotic Women, Rarities Collection Volume Two follows up a very strong first volume (unreviewed, but highly recommended) that included Identikit with Elizabeth Taylor and Andy Warhol (!!!,) I Like Bats, Footprints and The Other Side Of The Underneath. This set is no slouch either, offering the following:

Michael Winterbottom's Butterfly Kiss (1994) launched the TV/documentary director into feature films with Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction, Needful Things, The Fisher King) as a wild woman named Eunice who gets involved with other women and looking for an old love, but landing up- with a few new ones. Too bad she also likes sex and violence. Saskia Reeves, Kathy Jamison, Emily Aston, Freda Dowie and Ricky Tomlinson are solid in supporting roles and Winterbottom went on to helm the likes of Welcome To Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People, Code 46, 9 Songs and A Mighty Heart. Definitely worth a look.

Juraj Herz's Morgiana (1972) is a surreal love triangle where two sisters (both played by Iva Janzurova without the usual issues most films have when doing this) land up wanting the same man, but only one has inherited the wealth of their father, which means murder may be in the mix. Considered the end of the Czech New Wave, this is highly stylized in costumes, sets, editing and art also added as a unique exercise in gothic horror. The density of time and location is a plus and the results remains creepy and effective. Josef Somr and Josef Abrham also star.

For more on Herz's The Cremator (1968,) read our coverage at this link:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8586/The+Cremator+(1968/Dark+Sky+Films+DVD

The Savage Eye (1959) stars Barbara Baxley as a recently divorced woman living in San Francisco, who tries to move on with a new life, but depression and other issues start to tear at her, with things getting worse and worse throughout. More interesting than it sounds, it took three directors and several cinematographers (including the legendary Haskell Wexler of Medium Cool, Faces, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Bound For Glory, In The Heat Of The Night, the original Thomas Crown Affair) so it has a raw look to it all. Altman veteran Baxley (Nashville, Images, Countdown) also appeared in Sea Of Love, Exorcist III, Norma Rae, All Fall Down and dozens of TV shows and telefilms, so many longtime viewers might recognize her more than expected. It is another gem worth having in this set. Gary Merrill and Herschel Bernardi also star.

Eloy de la Iglesia's The Glass Ceiling (1971) was the director's fourth film and the beginning of his breakaway from standard narratives into taking larger risks and pushing narrative boundaries. Carmen Sevilla plays a housewife left alone by her husband going on a business trip, who starts to lose her grip all the sudden on reality and starts to think the couple upstairs are murderers. Is she just imagining this, or did she catch something shew would have missed had her husband not left?

Sevilla (de la Iglesia's No One Heard Her Scream, Heston's Antony & Cleopatra, The Devil's Cross) is effective and convincing here, the camera liking her very much, while de la Iglesia (Murder In A Blue World, The Creature, Cannibal Man, Navajero, the El Pico films, all reviewed elsewhere on this site, all also from Severin) keeps the pace up with proper tension to the end. That wraps up another really good set of films in a series that I hope continues to be this strong and goes on for a long time.

Extras in this great hardbox packaging are many and include:

• Introduction To BUTTERFLY KISS By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women

• Introduction To BUTTERFLY KISS By Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce

• Audio Commentary For BUTTERFLY KISS By Film Historian Kat Ellinger

• Between Everyday And The Extreme: Michael Winterbottom On Directing BUTTERFLY KISS

• No Judgement: Amanda Plummer Remembers Portraying Eunice

• You're Not Judith: Saskia Reeves On Portraying Miriam

• Pestilence Through Petrol: Julie Baines On Producing BUTTERFLY KISS

• Front Light And Black Sky: Seamus McGarvey On Shooting BUTTERFLY KISS

• BUTTERFLY KISS Trailer

• Short Film: PLEASURES OF WAR (Ruth Lingford, 1998)

• Introduction To MORGIANA By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women

• Audio Commentary For MORGIANA By Stranger With My Face Festival Director Briony Kidd And Cerise Howard, Co-Founder Of The Czech And Slovak Film Festival Of Australia

• Little Drop Of Poison: Actress Iva Janzurova Remembers MORGIANA

• The Stone Forest: Newly Commissioned Short Film On Shooting Location Pobiti Kamani, Animated By Leslie Supnet And Narrated By Kier-La Janisse

• NIGHTMARES - Juraj Herz' 1970 Vampire Rock Musical Made For Czech TV

• Short Film: REST IN PEACE (Rachel Amodeo, 1998) New 2K Scan Of This Cult Favorite By Rachel Amodeo And Dame Darcy

• Audio Commentary For THE SAVAGE EYE By Film Curator/Historian Elizabeth Purchell

• Judith X: Locations Video Essay By Esotouric's Kim Cooper

• Archival Interview With Co-Director Joseph Strick

• THE SAVAGE EYE Trailer

• Trailers From Hell Commentary For THE SAVAGE EYE By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women

• Short Film: INTERVIEWS WITH MY LAI VETERANS (Joseph Strick, 1970)

• Archival Interview With Director Joseph Strick On INTERVIEWS WITH MY LAI VETERANS

• Short Film: MISS CANDACE HILLIGOSS' FLICKERING HALO (Vincenzo Core And Fabio Scacchioli, 2011)

• Introduction To THE GLASS CEILING By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women

• Audio Commentary For THE GLASS CEILING By Shelagh Rowan-Legg, Author Of A Forthcoming Monograph On Director Eloy De La Iglesia, And Faculty of Horror's Alexandra West

• Connected At The Soul: Patty Shepard As Remembered By Her Sister, Judith Chapman

• Alternate Scenes From The TV Version Of THE GLASS CEILING

• THE GLASS CEILING Trailer

• and the Short Film: ANTA MUJER (Agusti Villaronga, 1976).

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Blue Sunshine 4K looks really good, sometimes even better than the rating above in its demo shots with great color, depth and just a palpability that makes the horror, wild shots (more than a few of which are actually in daylight) and darkness really effective. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on the regular Blue Sunshine Blu-ray still looks good and is from the same scan, but it cannot compete in the best ways with the 4K, but nice it is included. In the case of the 4K, its like finding a 35mm or even 16mm mint-condition film print that never warped or faded.

The original optical monophonic theatrical sound has been upgraded to a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes that are both fine, with the 5.1 showing off the music and the age of the materials, then the mono track is the authentic original presentation also worth trying out once. The film will never sound never than it does here. The PCM 2.0 16/44.1 Stereo CD of the music soundtrack sounds fine, even a little better than the CD in the older DVD set Synapse issued eons ago. All in all, a great set!

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on The Adventurers has some pretty good color as shot on Kodak 35mm color negative, but tends to have some softness and flaws here and there, a bit unexpectedly considering it is the newest of all the films. Otherwise, it looks good from its new 2K scan, but why not a 4K scan?

There are three lossless soundtracks to choose from: a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 upgrade and two Cantonese PCM 2.0 Stereo tracks, one restored, the other raw and unrestored. The restored stereo has some good qualities, the unrestored is for nostalgia and the 5.1 has some qualities over the sometimes slightly too forward and brash-sounding restored stereo, but never totally dethrones it as the best sonic option. Now you can judge for yourself, but when listening to the unrestored stereo, be careful of volume switching and high volume playback.

The 1080p presentations on all four Psychotic Women movies look as good as expected and equal to the previous volume, which still impresses me. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Butterfly Kiss is very nice and consistent, flesh tones are very accurate as well as red (for blood) and its solid. Though the film was a Dolby Digital release, we get no 5.1 mix, but a PCM 2.0 Stereo mix with Pro Logic surrounds from the original Dolby Analog SR (Spectral Recording, their most advanced analog noise reduction system) that still sounds good, but why no 5.1 mix?

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Morgiana has fine color and really benefits from its new 4K scan, as shot on Kodak 35mm color negative film. It has a special style and from being the last of the Czech New Wave films, but the transfer handles the artworks and editing just fine. The Czech PCM 2.0 Mono is also good and as good as this film will ever sound.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Savage Eye can show the age of the materials used in small parts, but the restoration impresses and looks really good. Detail and depth are fine and all the hard work paid off. The PCM 2.0 Mono is as good as it can sound, but it shows its low budget and is a little on the weak side, so be careful of volume switching and high volume playback. Leonard Rosenman's score is a plus, best known for his work on Robocop 2, East Of Eden, Hell Is For Heroes, Fantastic Voyage, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Battle The Planet Of The Apes, The Todd Killings, Race With The Devil, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and The Car. He definitely knew his way around genre filmmaking and psychological narratives.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Glass Ceiling also looks really good, with consistent, warm color, detail and depth in its new 4K scan, also as shot on Kodak 35mm color negative. The Spanish PCM 2.0 Mono sound is the original track and has been restored as much as possible, but even if the lesser English PCM 2.0 Mono is sonically a little better, it is nowhere as convincing.

- Nicholas Sheffo