Aesthetics
Of A Bullet
(1973/Radiance**)/Cold
Steel (1987/Alliance
Blu-ray)/Colony
Mutation
(1998/Visual Vengeance**)/Dream
Eater
(2025/Eli Roth/*both Alliance Blu-ray)/Dust
Bunny 4K
(2025/Lionsgate 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/Solo
(1970/Radiance/**all
MVD Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B-/B-/B-/B/X/B- Sound:
C+/C+/B-/B/B+/C+ Extras: C+/D/C-/C/B-/C+ Films: C+/C/B/C/B/C+
And
now for another array of thrillers you may not have heard of....
Sadao
Nakajima's Aesthetics
Of A Bullet
(1973) has a street
vendor (Tsunehiko Watase) who also sells rabbits, but is not the most
well-rounded
individual, gets picked to be a 'hitman' for a yakuza gang. Of
course, he is no great shot either and is being used to get at a
rival gang. Has some amusing moments and small ironies, made by the
director at a smaller company when all the major Japanese studios
passed on it.
It
is decently cast, well shot for the genre and has its moments, but it
is no classic. Yet, it is the kind of smaller film in the genre that
makes it at least different from the films coming from Japan and even
Italy in the genre.
Miki Sugimoto heads that supporting cast and those interested will
definitely want to take a look.
Extras
include a newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Robert Schwentke
(2026)
New
interview with filmmaker Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (2026)
Archival
interview with Sadao Nakajima (2023)
Original
Theatrical Trailer
Reversible
sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
and
a Limited Edition booklet featuring new writing.
Dorothy
Ann Puzo's Cold
Steel (1987)
is one of the odder curios you may have missed, with the director
being a rare female to direct anything in the crime genre, turning
out to be one of five children of The
Godfather
author Mario Puzo. This revenge crime film has Brad David (Midnight
Express)
getting killed out of nowhere, but is a starting point for payback
against him. A pre-stardom Sharon Stone is the gal who he gets
involved with and New Wave Pop British music legend Adam Ant is one
of the main villains (here longer than his glorified cameo in an
Equalizer
episode with Edward Woodward as a child sex trafficker) and the film
starts with a bad Danger
Zone
knockoff song.
Produced
and issued by the smaller Cinetel Films at the time, all that did not
make it a cult item later and Anthony LaPaglia actually makes his
acting debut here. You may even recognize some of the other
supporting actors like Johnathan Banks, Eddie Egan, William Lanteau,
Michael Warren and Mindy Seeger, so it is very fair to say this was
an ambitious project and they hire people who made sense for the
genre. Unfortunately, it is a little flat, has nothing special or
different to offer and is not very memorable in itself. However, it
has enough talent in it that it should be in print and here it is for
the most curious.
There
are no extras, but there is likely more curiosity for some.
Tom
Berna's Colony
Mutation
(1998) is a low budget body horror film that is actually pretty well
done all things considered. Obviously inspired by the films of David
Cronenberg and The
Thing
by John Carpenter, the film follows a genetic scientist who discovers
her husband's torrid love affair and, as revenge, doses him with an
experimental and highly unstable serum. The serum causes his body
parts to separate from his torso and take on monstrous lives of their
own, all of them now craving human flesh. Soon, he is stalking the
streets in search of young women to quench the insatiable hunger of
his evil appendages.
Special
Features Include:
New,
director-supervised 2K transfer and restoration from the original
Super 8 film elements
Commentary
from producer/director Tom Berna
Commentary
with Tony Strauss of Weng's
Chop Magazine
Interview
with director Tom Berna
Interview
with star David Rommel
Interview
with music composer Patrick Nettesheim
In
the Director's Chair:
archival public access interview with Tom Berna
Alternate
original 1998 VHS version of Colony
Mutation
Alternate
original 2013 DVD version of Colony
Mutation
Complete
original script
Image
gallery
Producer
teaser trailer
Visual
Vengeance trailers
''Stick
Your Own''
VHS stickers
Reversible
sleeve featuring original VHS art
and
a folded poster with original illustrated art
Colony
Mutation
is crude and full of torrid humor and gross-out moments similar to a
Frank Henenlotter film like Brain
Damage
or Basket
Case.
If you enjoy low-budget, highly raunchy gross-out fare, then this is
right up your alley.
Eli
Roth presents Dream
Eater
(2025), which follows Mallory, a documentary filmmaker, who heads to
a remote cabin in the mountains with her boyfriend Alex to document
his violent sleepwalking. As his condition worsens, Mallory begins
to suspect that something more sinister may be at play. As the
nightmares escalate, she finds herself in a life-threatening
situation with a man she loves but whose actions she no longer
recognizes.
The
film jumps between documentary-style video footage and cinematic
narrative sequences, which effectively supports the story. The film
features a few effective jump scares and creepy moments, but it
ultimately isn't anything we haven't seen before. It plays out like
a possession film with a minimal cast and low-budget aesthetic,
though it never becomes especially compelling.
The
film stars Alex Lee Williams, Mallory Drumm, Robin Akimbo, Justin
Hewitt-Drakulic, and Dainty Smith. The film is directed by Mallory
Drumm, Alex Lee Williams, and Justin Hewitt-Drakulic.
Special
Features:
Mini-Poster
Audio
Commentary
BTS
Featurette
Photo
Gallery
and
Trailers.
Dream
Eater
is pretty average in terms of demonic possession films. Not bad but
not particularly memorable either.
Bryan
Fuller's Dust
Bunny 4K
(2025) is a fun mix of fantasy and action that centers on an
imaginative young girl named Aurora (Sophie Sloan), who sees a
monster under her bed eat her family alive. After robbing a church
collection plate, she hires her neighbor, a John Wick-style hitman
played by Mads Mikkelsen, to kill the monster for her. The hitman
reluctantly agrees and ends up bonding with Aurora, which works well
in the performances here. This is Bryan Fuller's feature film debut
after being very successful in the TV world with the Hannibal
series (which also stars Mads Mikkelsen) and Pushing
Daisies.
The
film stars Sophie Sloan, Mads Mikkelsen, David Dastmalchian,
Sigourney Weaver, Rebecca Henderson, and Sheila Atim.
Dust
Bunny
is certainly inspired narratively by Leon:
The Professional
in its portrayal of an older hitman developing empathy through his
relationship with a young girl. The stylistic choices are colorful,
perhaps taking some inspiration from Big
Trouble in Little China
by John Carpenter, and some of the digital VFX come off as a bit
cartoony, though the film is not without its violent moments.
I
feel like the film could have been toned down from its R rating and
potentially performed a bit better at the box office. It has
kid-friendly fantasy elements mixed with adult themes and violence,
which makes it feel a bit uneven at times.
Overall
the film has really unique cinematography and production design that
crafts a dream-like feel throughout. Shot with Arri Alexa digital
cameras, the money is on the screen and overall presentation here is
of a high standard.
Special
Features include:
Making
Dust Bunny
Monster
Craft
Q&A
Sizzle
Cute
to Cutthroat
Mads
Choreography Video
Cast
Explainers
and
an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Dust
Bunny
is pretty imaginative and fun time with some great performances from
its solid cast even if the narrative feels a little dim at times. It
at least has some creativity and imagination to it and was definitely
well thought about from a production standpoint.
Jean-Pierre
Mocky's Solo
(1970) starts with a massacre at a party with young women and some
much older men who turn out to be more prominent than first appears
(the gals are supposed to be underage, but the gals cast may not)
while we then meet a violinist (played by the director well enough)
who is also a jewel thief. Nothing like that was stolen from the
party, but they are connected. The killings have to do with a
political fringe group.
I
like how the film looks and is both edited and cast, but it has some
odd things going for it. For instance, as much nudity as we see
before the killings, the actual massacre is surprisingly low-blood
and lite in impact. If this were more of a mystery, you might think
it was all faked, but that would make no sense. The murders are for
real in the script, but its approach to all this does not start the
film off well. It never recovers its realism in any way from there,
though it still has its moments and the supporting cast is not bad.
Despite all of this and a few other items holding the film back, it
is worth a look just the same, but it is sure different when all is
said and done with no surrealism intended.
Extras
include a
4K restoration by Eclair Classics supervised by Mocky Delicious
Products
Archival
interview with screenwriter and star Jean-Pierre Mocky (2018, 12
minutes)
Interview
with actor Anne Deleuze (2022, 16 minutes)
Interview
with Jean-Pierre Mocky's assistant and friend Eric Le Roy (2022)
Reversible
sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
and
Limited Edition booklet featuring archival interviews with Mocky.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 3.00 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Dust
Bunny 4K
is very easily the best-looking release here, with an HEVC / H.265
codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 3.00:1 and an audio track in
lossless English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older
systems @ 48kHz, 24-bit). The film is a bit on the darker side
intentionally and not as bright as it could have been which was an
interesting filmmaking choice and not a reflection of the
presentation itself. It sounds great with its English Dolby Atmos
mix.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Aesthetics
Of A Bullet
can sometimes show the age of the materials used, a color scope film
that has some flaws too and a little distortion from the lens and the
way the film was stored. The PCM Japanese 1.0 Mono is more limited
and seems more aged. Wish this were 2.0 Mono.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Cold
Steel
can show the age of the materials used, including the HD master. You
get some good color, but definition and detail are mixed. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix is from the
theatrical Ultra Stereo analog and that means slight harmonic
distortion and sonic limits throughout that lesser version of old
Dolby System A-type Stereo was known for.
Colony
Mutation
is presented in 1080p high definition on 2K Blu-ray disc with an
MPEG-4 AVC codec, a full frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and a lossy
English 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo mix. The film looks and sounds as
good as can be expected from the original Super 8 film elements and
this is likely the best the film will ever sound and look.
Dream
Eater
is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect ratio
of 1.78:1 and a nice sounding track in lossless English DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 sound. While it's not as impressive as Ultra HD,
the film looks and sounds fine and doesn't have any glaring issues on
Blu-ray that hinder the presentation. Also included is a standard
definition DVD of the film with a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, the
film looks and sounds fine for the format. Compression issues
evident (especially when comparing directly to HD), but the overall
presentation doesn't have any noticeable issues outside of its
limitations.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Solo
can
show the age of the materials used, but this looks good often with
consistent color, some nice detail, some depth and some slight
atmosphere to boot. The PCM French 1.0 Mono is more limited and
seems more aged. Wish this were 2.0 Mono as well.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Bullet,
Cold,
Solo)
and James Lockhart
https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/
