Delinquent
Schoolgirls
(1975/MVD/VCI Blu-ray w/DVD)/Him
4K
(2025/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Out
Of The Fog
(1941/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Together
(2025/Neon Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B Picture: B- & C/B-/B/B+ Sound: C+ &
C/B+/C+/B+ Extras: C/C/C/C+ Films: C+/C-/C+/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Out
Of The Fog
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for more thrillers and expect more than a little exploitation....
Greg
Corarito's Delinquent
Schoolgirls
(1975) is the kind of sleazy, high concept B-movie that was coming
out every week back in the day when you had a bunch of drive-in
theaters, indie movie theaters and the like looking for quick-buck
cheapie films to show that people would go to see for a laugh, no
matter how much of it was done in bad taste. The new PsychoTronica
series from VCI knows this and brands these releases appropriately.
Here,
three horny, crazy guys (some of whom have a criminal past and want
to top themselves) escape a mental institute, heading to a girls
school that will give them more opportunities for sexual assaults,
maybe kidnappings and much more and worse. The twist is they have
been studying martial arts, so the escapees are in for a surprise.
Maybe not a great film, but so bizarre and even a time capsule of the
time that you have to see it to believe it.
Quickly
forgotten, the actors are sort of trying to make this work and
Michale Pataki became a major character actor of the time, making
this a curio for film fans. These kinds of indie films became very
repetitive, eventually fading out as home video came in, but this is
a genuine place to start just to see how these films played, but have
low expectations and if you are easily offended, look out.
Extras
include a reversible cover, feature length audio commentary by Actor
Bob Minor with Elijah Drenner, Psychotronica:
Dive Into Cult Cinema
featurette and Original Trailers.
Justin
Tipping's Him
4K
(2025) is produced by Jordan Peele, whose record for making some of
the best horror films of late (Us,
Nope)
has been exceptional, but this production tries to imitate some of
the form and ideas of his kind of creepy horror without a story that
works and it is a mess. A new quarterback Cameron (Tyriq Withers) is
ready to join a major football franchise (a dupe of the NFL in the
film) and even work with and meet his idol (longtime comedy actor
Marlon Wayans, trying to be the villain and be taken seriously 100%
just by being mean and 'fronting' throughout his performance) as the
newbie is physically assaulted, insulted and much more.
Cameron
is knocked out very early on and over and over as highly questionable
things happen, he never questions any of it, no matter how hurt he
gets, which might be from being stunned a few times at first, but is
a cheat in the script destroying any credibility and suspension of
disbelief the film had in its first few minutes very quickly. Then
it gets worse, drones on and the ending is so dumb, you'll have cared
less by then. No wonder it did nto do well, but Withers has some
talent and this will be a curio no matter what.
Too
bad it might also be a Razzie nominee, if they even remember it.
Extras
include Digital Code, while
the disc (per the press release) adds an Alternate Ending: Zay's
Nightmare
Cheers
features
Tyriq Withers
Don't
Be a Mascot
features Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers
The
Publicist
features Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers and Julia Fox
Fantasy
Football
features Tyriq Withers and Julia Fox
and
Cam's
Discovery
features Tyriq Withers and Julia Fox
Becoming
Them:
Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans didn't just train like athletes,
they learned to think like them. From strict diets and daily
workouts to meditation sessions and leadership drills, we explore
how these two actors didn't just play the part, they lived it.
Hymns
of a G.O.A.T.:
Go behind the scenes with composer Bobby Krlic as he heightens the
film's psychological edge through score, layering aggressive
textures, foreboding tensions, and atmospheric sound design that
heighten every moment.
Anatole
Litvak's Out
Of The Fog
(1941) is a film that cannot decide if it is a film noir, melodrama,
comedy or crime film, having Ida Lupino as a 'good gal' maybe about
to go bad who still lives at home with her grocery store dad, John
Garfield as the criminal troublemaker, some Bowery Boys alumni in the
cast and more jokes than it should have. It sure looks great as
lensed by the legendary James Wong Howe (see more in the tech section
below) but ultimately disappoints otherwise.
Guess
Warner Bros. though if they put in every thing but the kitchen sink
(maybe that's there too) they could have some kind of oddball hybrid
hit, but the silliness undermines everything else. It is almost
condescending if it did not have so much going on and Litvak is a
good director. The supporting cast makes it more watchable too to
the extent they can, including a solid turn by Eddie Albert as the
good boyfriend, Thomas Mitchell, George Tobias, John Qualen, Aline
MacMahon, Jerome Cowan, Odette Myrill, Robert Homans, Paul Harvey,
Lee Gorcey and Bernard Gorcey.
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer and two Technicolor animated
classic Warner shorts: The
Heckling Hare
and Hollywood
Steps Out.
And
then we have this. Dave Franco and Alison Brie star in Michael
Shanks' Together
(2025,) a body horror / relationship horror film from Neon that
definitely has a concept that is new to the genre. In the film there
is a dark cave filled with secrets that harbors a pit of water that
has intense effects on those who drink it, specifically couples, who
fuse together as one being.
While
the film is also available on 4K UHD, we are covering the Blu-ray
version here.
A
strained relationship moves to the scenic country as Tim and Millie
(Franco and Brie) discover a vile fluid that fuses them together
permanently and punishes them if they move too far away from one
another. Is there more to this horrific ordeal than meets the eye
and what secrets lie in this beautiful new place that they call home?
The
film's most effective moments are some of the nightmare sequences
where (spoiler) Dave Franco wakes up with Brie's hair sucking down
his throat (a visual that reminded me a bit of Asian horror films
like The
Ring
or The
Grudge.)
And another effective moment is when the couple have to separate
each other's fused arm skin with a drill, however the filmmaker
chooses to cut away and elude more to the sound offscreen than
forcing the viewer to look at the horror whilst other shots don't shy
away. The psychological push and pull of showing some brutal moments
and not other works very well here.
Special
Features:
Interview
with writer / director Michael Shanks
Interview
with the stars Alison Brie and Dave Franco
Alison
Brie and Dave Franco's codependency quiz
Teaser
and Trailer.
Together
is a visually effective film with a unique filmmaking style that
takes an otherworldly concept and makes it feel pretty real. There
are several psychologically terrifying moments in this that I would
compare in some ways to The
Substance
in that it has a body horror element that works on a jarring
psychological and physical level for the characters and audience.
Together
is obviously a statement on relationship codependency and commitment
and is pretty effective in exploring that theme in a fresh and
demented way.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image om Him
4K
has some moments, but disappoints in more than a few shots, looking
slightly soft or off in a way that has nothing to do with style or
intent, so the 1080p 2.35 X 1 Blu-ray is much softer than expected
and even more disappointing. At
least the lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older
systems) sound mix is more like it, active, articulate and
professional if not remarkable and the best-sounding release on the
list.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Delinquent
can be rough due to its age and low budget, but some efforts have
definitely been made to restore it and make it look as good as it
can, a 4K scan from the original camera negative. The PCM 2.0 Mono
is as good as this will ever sound. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the DVD is much softer as
expected, which we can also say for the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
being more limited than the PCM mix, so it is here for convenience.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image on Fog
looks really good as shot by the legendary James Wong Howe, A.S.C., a
master of monochrome cinematography and it shows throughout. That
helps make the whole film more watchable and expect some demo shots
too, as good as anything in any release here. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix does not hold up as
well and is more sonically limited than expected, even for its age,
but is likely the best it will ever sound.
Together
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and an English DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) lossless mix. The film is
beautifully photographed and has an effective sound mix that helps
elevate the onscreen horror and pits you into the mind of the
characters. Nothing jumped out at me as jarring in terms of the
presentation as it was up to industry standards and I'm sure looks
much better on 4K UHD.
To
order
the Warner Archive Out
Of The Fog
Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20-
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Together)
https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/
