Enter The Video Store: Video Vengeance (1987 - 1993/Arrow)/Laurin (1989*)/Masters Of The Universe (1987/Cannon/Arrow/Toy Robot)/Re-animator Academy (1992/*Visual Vengeance/all MVD Blu-ray)

Picture: B-/B/B/C Sound: C+/B/B-/C Extras: C+/B/C/B Films: C/C/C-/C-/C+/C+/C/C

Here comes a group of B-movies of all kinds...

Enter The Video Store: Video Vengeance (1987 - 1993) continues of series of select B-movies that might have curiosity interest from Arrow hand-picked for your tortur... I mean pleasure. Each release has its own kind of 'unique' curiosity interest and as bad as they get, might be worth more of a look to you than you might expect. It includes the lesser-known works of some name stars of the recent past and what

Peter Maris' Ministry Of Vengeance (1989) was at the very end of the cycle of Vietnam films that were sometimes smart and usually exploitative or pulling revisionist history. This one is a little different with John Schneider (Dukes Of Hazzard) as a man who served and happens to be a priest, who goes back to his military training when his family is killed. Not great, but a little ambitious and has a surprisingly good cast that includes Ned Beatty, George Kennedy, Yaphet Kotto, James Tolkan and Apollonia. A little more ambitious than you might think, but it falls flat and was made too late in the game.

Mario DiLeo's The Final Alliance (1990) tries to put David Hasselhoff (Baywatch, Knight Rider) into a Southern-style action thriller (like Swayze's Road House from the year before,) that never clicks, I was never convinced of him in the role and even with the very likable Bo Hopkins and John Saxon (both overdoing it a bit) on board, cannot decide to be outright serious, comical or get a good combination of both going. I think this is when Hasselhoff was starting to have some personal issues, but the whole project has the wrong tone and plenty of missed opportunities. It all feels out of its element, but deserved to be in print just the same.

In 1987, when Robocop hit big and only a few years after the original Terminator (1984,) all movie companies big and small wanted to jump in. Cullen Blane's R.O.T.O.R. (1997) is a much-later entry into the cycle of 'advanced' killer robots and one that never works, though they keep trying throughout, hoping Robocop 3 bombing and the Terminator franchise could be on hold enough that they might get some kind of hit out of this. Well, they did not, but it is known as part of that cycle.

Sadly, the script, actors and editing are a wreck, with the visuals dating badly, but ironically looking interesting at times since some of the visual effects are not advanced CGI digital and what they use with their limited budget and limited tech can be more entertaining than the film itself. However, it is still pretty bad and the acting is weak, so only see this one if you are really curious.

Peter Maris' Hangfire (1991) is a curio simply by having Brad Davis in it, a star who was on his way to big things when uneven movie choices and eventual health problems ended it all, but you can see from this prison drama where he is the sheriff and its exceptional cast (including Kim Delaney, Jan-Michael Vincent, James Tolkan, Lyle Alzado, Lou Ferrigno and Peter Lupus) that the makers felt he could carry the lead and maybe this could be a surprise hit of some kind.

Davis had launched his career with accolades for his acting in the likes of the Oliver Stone-penned Alan Parker film Midnight Express (1978,) and kept that credibility for a long time, making the then-rare jump from TV success to the big screen. He bounced between the two mediums and this was his last leading role in a feature film (Altman's The Player would be his last big screen movie at all, playing himself) giving it his best to the end. This was not a hit or the best of its kind in prison dramas, but it too is ambitious and definitely a curio that absolutely needed to be in print.

Vic Armstrong's Joshua Tree (aka Army Of One, 1993) has the legendary second-unit movie director, whose work ranges from Martin Scorsese film to the James Bond films, then you had Dolph Lundgren off of various degrees of success with Rocky IV, Masters Of The Universe, the original Universal Soldier, The Punisher, Showdown In Little Tokyo and even surprise video hit Red Scorpion getting a larger indie action project together than was being made at the time.

Not as big as some of his later indie productions would be, it was enough that (save for an occasional big budget project) has him still making indie productions that do enough business over three decades later and as we post. George Segal, Geoffrey Lewis and Michelle Phillips lead the supporting cast and help make it the most interesting entry in this box set.

Extras include Limited Edition packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Laurie Greasley

• Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Yvan Quinet

• Collectors' perfect-bound book featuring new writing on the films by Paul Le, Jennie Kermode, Yasmina Ketita, Russell Lee and John Torrani, plus select archival material

• DISC ONE - MINISTRY OF VENGEANCE

• Brand new audio commentary by Rob Hill, author of The Bad Movie Bible

• Act Like It's Warmer, a brand new interview with actor John Schneider

• Lebanon in California, a brand new interview with director of photography Mark Morris

• Apocalypse Then, an appreciation of the Vietnam veteran genre by Douglas E. Winter, filmed exclusively for Arrow Video in 2026

• Trailer

• Image gallery

• DISC TWO - THE FINAL ALLIANCE

• Brand new audio commentary by Mike Hewitt, Russell Lee and Jim Smith from EatMyBrains

• Hasseling the Hoff, a brand new interview with co-writer/co-producer Harel Goldstein

• The Rise of DTV, Dave Wain from The Schlock Pit discusses the history of the direct-to-video boom

• Trailer

• Image gallery

• DISC THREE - R.O.T.O.R.

• Brand new audio commentary by Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain from The Schlock Pit

• A Matter of Character, a brand new interview with actor Bill Blair

• Machine Head: A Potted History of Robo Schlock, a visual essay from Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain from The Schlock Pit

• Interzone (1989), a bonus feature film in SD starring Bruce Abbott and Beatrice Ring (the 35mm original camera negative, shot on Agfa color film, is missing, so this is all they have)

• Trailer for Interzone

• Image Gallery

• DISC FOUR - HANGFIRE

• Brand new audio commentary by Russell Brodie, Ross Hendry, Scott Lyall, Pat McGarvey, Anna Westin and Lisa Westin of the Edinburgh Zombie Club

• Brothers in Arms, a brand new interview with actor Ken Foree

• Crash and Burn, a brand new interview with director of photography Mark Morris

• Image Gallery

• DISC FIVE - JOSHUA TREE

• Archival audio commentary with director Vic Armstrong and producer Andy Armstrong

• Vic Armstrong on Joshua Tree, a brand new interview with the director, recorded exclusively for Arrow Video in 2025

• A Look Back at the Joshua Tree, an archival featurette

• Archival interviews with director Vic Armstrong and producer Andy Armstrong discussing their careers

• Alternate ending with optional commentary by Vic and Andy Armstrong

• Trailer

• and an Image Gallery.

You can also read about the other Enter The Video Store Blu-ray set, Empire Of Screams at this link:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16299/Enter+The+Video+Store:+Empire+Of+Screams+(Dung

Laurin (1989) is an hypnotic German gothic murder / mystery that is very surrealistic and keeps you guessing until its final review. Brought to disc here in a new edition from Visual Vengeance that looks and sounds great and is loaded with extras.

The film stars Dora Szinetar, Brigitte Karner, Karoly Eperjes, Hedi Temessy, and Kati Sir.

Set in a remote German harbor village at the turn of the 20th Century, Laurin follows a young girl whose seemingly idyllic childhood is shattered by a series of disturbing events. After her sailor father leaves on another voyage, Laurin's mother, Flora, encounters a mysterious figure connected to the disappearance of a local boy. Later that night, Flora dies under suspicious circumstances when she falls from a bridge into the river, though her death is dismissed as an accident.

Left largely in the care of her elderly grandmother, Laurin becomes increasingly troubled by strange dreams and nightmarish visions involving missing children, a shadowy man carrying a sack, and the ruins of an old castle overlooking the village. When her school friend Stefan also disappears, Laurin begins to suspect that her visions are revealing something very real.

Following the clues hidden within her nightmares, Laurin ventures into the castle ruins and uncovers a horrifying secret connected to the missing children and her mother's death. What begins as a childhood mystery gradually descends into a dark Gothic fairy tale as Laurin is forced to confront the evil hiding beneath the peaceful surface of her village.

Special Features include:

An Interview with actor Dora Szinetar

Interview with actor Barnabas Toth

Interview with cinematographer Nyika Jancso

Film historian Jonathan Rigby on Laurin

The Making of Laurin, an archival documentary

Deleted Scenes

Trailer

Two of Robert Sigl's award-winning, unnerving short films:

The Christmas Tree (aka DerWeihnachtsbaum, 1983)

Coronoia 21 (2021)

a booklet featuring a new essay by film writer and critic James Oliver

and new and improved English subtitle translation of the German language version.

Gary Goddard's Masters Of The Universe (1987) is the first of now two live action feature films based on the hit toyline and hit animated series, infamous one of the few films made the the Cannon Studios to actually have some money in it. The leads of the title character (Dolph Lundgren) and main villain Skeletor (Frank Langella) could not have been better and even the supporting cast that includes Meg Foster, Billy Barty, a lesser-known Courtney Cox, James Tolkan, Christina Pickles, Barry Livingston, Robert Towers and Walter Scott, it does seem the energy was there and the cast seem to be having some fun (ala Flash Gordon (1980,) which this film owes something too, even if it is not ads good) so the cult following makes sense.

However, it could have had a much better script and outside of specialty work, the only other regular feature film Goddard ever helmed was the infamous 1981 Tarzan The Ape Man where Bo Derek was more well remembered than the guy who played the title character. This romp was barely better than that, but has fans, is a curio (especially with the new film we look forward to seeing soon) and any battles only pay off so well here. He-Man and his gang get transported from earth to this other world where Castle Grayskull exists and is the center of an ugly, evil world with a deadly dictator. Since this is for fans and children, that concept gets watered down more than a bit, but those who can go with it might find this fun. The rest will be disappointed and thanks to Cannon, I thought it had a bunch of missed opportunities, but that's about four decades ago and is one of the reasons the studio eventually collapsed.

Extras include a Preview Cut of Masters of the Universe

• New interview with actor Robert Duncan McNeill

• New interview with actor Anthony De Longis

• New interview with production designer William Stout

• Feature Length Audio Commentary with the director

• Behind The Legend, archival featurette

• Teaser Trailer

• Theatrical Trailer

• Stills Gallery

• Production Design Gallery

• and a New Audio Commentary with production designer William Stout.

This ultra-low-budget, shot-on-video spoof of Re-Animator and Frankenhooker is a must-see for fans who enjoy the sillier side of those films. Reanimator Academy (1992) is an unabashedly cheap but enthusiastic horror-comedy filled with mad science, severed heads, reanimated corpses, gangsters, college students, and an endless supply of deliberately corny jokes. Visual Vengeance has once again dug deep into the forgotten corners of the video-store era to rescue a movie that otherwise could have remained trapped on VHS.

The film stars Steve Westerheit, Connie Speer, Richard Perrin, Benton Jennings, Tricia Anderson, and Sarah Paxton.

Steve Westerheit stars as Edgar Allan Lovecraft (see what they did there?), the brainy outsider of the hard-partying Delta Epsilon Delta fraternity. While the other students are more interested in drinking and partying, Edgar has devoted himself to something considerably more ambitious: curing death. His experiments finally pay off when his mysterious serum successfully brings the severed head of a deceased comedian back to life.

Meanwhile, gangster Mugsy (Richard Perrin) has a problem of his own. After his henchman Bruno (Benton Jennings) kills a prostitute named Hot Lips (Connie Speer), Mugsy learns about Edgar's miraculous serum and decides that reanimation might be the solution to his predicament. Edgar manages to bring Hot Lips back from the dead, but, naturally, resurrecting the dead doesn't go quite according to plan. Soon, the reanimated woman is running loose and leaving a trail of ridiculous mayhem behind her.

Directed by Bret McCormick under the pseudonym Judith Priest, Re-animator Academy was created on an incredibly small budget and shot on consumer-grade video. Rather than trying to hide those limitations, the movie embraces them. The crude effects, homemade production values, goofy performances, and fuzzy video aesthetic become a large part of its charm. McCormick and company were clearly fans of horror and science fiction, and their affection for movies like Re-Animator comes through even when the production itself looks like something a group of friends decided to shoot over a weekend.

The film's greatest strength is that it knows exactly what kind of movie it is. There is no shortage of silly puns, slapstick violence, absurd dialogue, and intentionally ridiculous situations. The constant barrage of jokes helps compensate for the extremely low-budget nature of the production. The severed, wisecracking head is particularly memorable and gives the film some of its funniest moments.

Special Features:

Commentary from Sam Panico of B&S About Movies and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum

Talking Heads: director Bret McCormick Interview

Back To School: Reanimator Academy Location Tour

Brainwaves: Scoring Reanimator Academy

Interview with actor Tom Fegan

Fred The Head interview

Re-animator Academy: 2023 director's alternate soundtrack cut

Bonus film: Bret McCormick's Children of Dracula (1994)

Bret McCormick interview: Children of Dracula

Bret McCormick Re-animator Academy Q&A - Nitehawk Cinema

Visual Vengeance trailers

Folded mini-poster

Reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art

'Stick Your Own' VHS stickers (FIRST PRESSING ONLY)

Limited Edition slipcase art by Giorgio Credaro (FIRST PRESSING ONLY)

and Limited Edition Video Store Card (FIRST PRESSING ONLY).

Re-animator Academy isn't polished, sophisticated, or remotely scary, but that's hardly the point. It's a goofy love letter to mad-scientist movies made by filmmakers who seemingly valued enthusiasm and imagination over money. For viewers with an appreciation for obscure shot-on-video horror, ridiculous practical effects, and early-'90s video-store oddities, there's a lot of fun to be had enrolling in Re-animator Academy.

Now for playback performance. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the first four films in the Enter The Video Store: Video Vengeance collection can show the age of the materials used as expected, especially because of their low budgets, but the 2K scans are decent and they look about as good as you could expect. Still know there are flaws and softness in unexpected places, but color is usually more consistent.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Joshua Tree can also show the age of the materials used, but the surprise here is the combination of Clairmont Super 35 with some CineSpace 70, Todd AO (65mm negative) large frame format work that is rare for any low budget film. The result includes some nice shots and sequences that are more impressive than expected and shows how ambitious this all is. It makes it the one film in this set (either cut) worth a look if you are a big action film fan, no matter what does not work.

The PCM 1.0 Mono and PCM 2.0 Stereo is about even on all the discs sonically. Alliance and Hangfire were Ultra Stereo optical theatrical release (the lesser, cheaper version of analog A-type Dolby System,) while Joshua Tree was outright released in Dolby System, the company's old analog A-type noise reduction, making it the best-sounding of all five films. Too bad it did not have a 70mm print, or they might have been able to do a 6-track magnetic stereo surround soundtrack for this release, unless a blow-up print was never issued, though the mix could still exist an d such a print never produced.

Laurin is presented in 1080p high definition on 2K Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and lossy German & English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448 kbps) audio mixes new for this release. The cinematography is the main draw here as are the interesting locations specifically the castle ruins that are mentioned above.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Masters Of The Universe can show the age of the materials used in parts, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and was also issued in a 4K edition we'll catch up to soon. This is the best it has looked in years, cheap as it can look. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (presumably off of its 6-track, 4.1 Dolby A-type analog noise reduction 70mm blow-up magnetic master soundtrack) and 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes show the age of the audio, but both have their plusses and minuses. With a decent (if derivative) Bill Conti score, now you can judge for yourself.

Re-animator Academy is presented in 1080p high definition on 2K Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a full screen aspect ratio of 1.37:1 and an English mono track. The transfer on disc is the best it can look with this new transfer from existing SD tape masters and looks and sounds fine here considering the source material.

- Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (Visual)

https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/