Code Red champions THE DEVASTATOR (Review)

DEATHSTALKER's Rick Hill stars as a Vietnam vet who takes on a militant gang of marijuana growers in Cirio H. Santiago's THE DEVASTATOR (aka THE DESTROYERS).  Actors turned directors Katt Shea and Terrence O'Hara also star.

REVIEW LINK: Code Red Releasing (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

THE DEVASTATOR Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescren
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
• Introduction and post-script by Katarina Leigh Waters
• Interview with actor Terrence O'Hara
• Theatrical Trailer

Available from Screen Archives Entertainment.

Scorpion Releasing swelters in 92 IN THE SHADE (review)

Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton, Margot Kidder, and Burgess Meredith star in this sun-scorched character study of a beach bum who decides to become a fishing guide in a small Florida beach town only to run up against competition from two rival guides: one pressured by his wife's spendthrift habits and the other at the end of his tether.  "As the temperature rises, the tension mounts and someone just might get killed."  From the writer of THE MISSOURI BREAKS.

REVIEW LINK: Scorpion Releasing (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

92 IN THE SHADE DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• Scorpion Releasing Trailers

Big World Pictures presents AFERIM! (review)

In this award-winning Romanian period drama, a constable and his son travel across Wallachia in search of a runaway Romany slave.  Meeting with various sections of 1830's Romanian society, the son is exposed to their various prejudices and looks to his father for guidance, but the older man may be too set in his ways to take a stand when it appear that their captive is innocent of his crimes but may be killed anyway by his master.

REVIEW LINK: Big World Pictures (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

AFERIM! DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• Romanian/Romany/Turkish Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English subtitles
• Theatrical Trailer
• Short film THE TUBE WITH A HAT

Frightfest Presents LAST GIRL STANDING (review)

What happens after the slasher ends?  LAST GIRL STANDING explores the loneliness and psychological damage of the sole survivor of a camping trip massacre as well as her suspicion that the terror is about to begin again  when she makes friends with a new group of potential victims.

REVIEW LINK: Icon Entertainment (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

LAST GIRL STANDING DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English HoH subtitles
• Audio Commentary by director Benjamin R. Moody and producer Rachael Moody
• Behind the Scenes
• Outtakes
• Frightfest Introduction
• Trailers for the four other Frightest 2016 titles

Arrow Films investigates THE DISAPPEARANCE (review)

Likened to a French version of BROADCHURCH or THE KILLING, THE DISAPPEARANCE is actually a remake of a Spanish series, itself based on a true crime.  When Lea goes out with her brother and cousin to a music festival for her seventeenth birthday and never returns home, the police investigation unearths a web of secrets and lies that turn suspicion upon her family and close circle of friends.

REVIEW LINK: Arrow Films (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

THE DISAPPEARANCE DVD specs:

• Eight episodes on two dual-layer DVDs
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• French Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
• Optional English subtitles

Second Run unveils JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: 12 EARLY WORKS (review)

Before his provocative and award-winning works THE LOOK OF SILENCE and THE ACT OF KILLING, Joshua Oppenheimer honed his audio-visual style and explored his political and ideological concerns in a series of short films moving from the darker and desolate flipside of America the Beautiful to an Indonesia shaped by death squads in 1965 and globalization today.

REVIEW LINK: Second Run DVD (DVDBeaver) Region 0 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: EARLY WORKS DVD specs:

• 4:3 fullscreen presentations of LIGHT TEST (1995), CAMERA TEST (1995), HUGH (1996), THE CHALLENGE OF MANUFACTURING (1996), THESE PLACES WE'VE LEARNED TO CALL HOME (1996), THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE (1997), THE GLOBALISATION TAPES (2002), MARKET UPDATE (2002), A BRIEF HISTORY OF PARADISE AS TOLD BY THE COCKROACHES (2002), MUZAK: A TOOL OF MANAGEMENT (2002), and POSTCARD FROM SUN CITY, ARIZONA (2003)
  16:9 anamorphic widescreen presentation of LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (Bahasa Indonesian on THE GLOBALISATION TAPES and MUZAK: A TOOL OF MANAGEMENT with burnt-in English subtitles)
• Interview with director Joshua Oppenheimer
• Essay Booklet by Gareth Evans

Wolfe Video mixes with THOSE PEOPLE (review)

In this beautifully-shot and emotionally-resonant film, poor kid Charlie has long pined for his charismatic and wealthy friend Sebastian.  With his father in jail for fraud, Sebastian has become the most hated young man in New York and in need of his insulating circle of friends.  When Charlie starts a relationship with a charming pianist, it drives a wedge in his friendship with Sebastian that could have tragic results.

REVIEW LINK: Wolfe Video (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

THOSE PEOPLE DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Deleted "Christmas" Scene
• Audition/Reading/Final Scene Comparisons
• Theatrical Trailer
• Previews