it feels like a lucky break that Walken proved unavailable, as the eccentric actor’s hard-wired weirdness might have eclipsed the humanity at the heart of the monster. (On the other hand, Walken’s award-winning turn, in Michael Cimino’s THE DEER HUNTER, as a damaged ’Nam vet who never makes it home, is deeply affecting and not a little haunting.) Still largely unknown despite an estimable theatrical résumé and a late life career change to soap opera writer (for—dig this—ONE LIFE TO LIVE), Richard Backus sells Andy’s agony and essential strangeness without grandstand- ing, and his quietly intense per- formance is DEATHDREAM’s heart and soul. Bob Clark and scenarist Alan Ormsby scored a coup in landing John Cassavetes alum John Marley, whose best performances (THE GODFA- THER notwithstanding) were playing fathers. Marley was influ- ential in bringing onboard his FACES co-star Lynn Carlin (Linda Blair’s beleaguered mom in the post-EXORCIST PSA SARAH T: PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE ALCOHOLIC), who contributes one of the great unsung mother-from-hell performances in horror history. Blue Underground’s DVD re-
lease of DEATHDREAM is a splendid rescue of a criminally underrated title. The elements used to master BU’s disc bear the alternate title DEAD OF NIGHT, as the film was called when released by Europix Inter- national in October of 1974. Letterboxed (at last) at 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced) and looking crisp, clean and colorful, the fea- ture has been supplemented with a barrage of extras. Screen- writer (and uncredited makeup artist) Alan Ormsby contributes a second audio commentary; Ormsby’s talk is funnier than
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Clark’s, and also more critical (“Now, this lighting sucks!”) but, like his director, he fills in some interesting blanks, particularly in identifying the GI killed in the film’s precredit sequence as actor Gary Swanson (VICE SQUAD), who had tested for the role of Andy. Ormsby’s rec- ollection of why Swanson (rather than Richard Backus) was fea- tured in this opener contradicts the version told by Backus him- self in DEATHDREAMING (11m 37s), a video interview directed by David Gregory (who also sits in for both audio commentaries). DEATHDREAM’s assistant (but only credited) makeup artist is the subject of TOM SAVINI: THE EARLY YEARS (9m 58s), while a 1m 34s Easter egg concealed on the Extras menu affords viewers a quick contemporary peek at Alan Ormsby, who shows off some makeup appliances that he crafted for Richard Backus and has kept in a jar on his desk for thirty years. The remainder of the extras
consist of a surprisingly lyrical theatrical trailer (3m 49s) that misidentifies John Marley and Lynn Carlin as Academy Award winners, alternate opening titles (bearing the DEATHDREAM title), an extended, alternate end se- quence and credits crawl, and a generous gallery of onset candids, production photos, Alan Ormsby’s conceptual sketches, the film’s full presskit and poster and video sleeve art.
F3 MENAGE A TROIS
aka F3: FRANTIC FRUSTRATED AND FEMALE
1994/1995, Soft Cel Pictures, DD-2.0/MA/ST/+, $29.95, 76m 8s, DVD-1
By Shane M. Dallmann In Japanese anime, casual
nudity and playful sex are com- monplace in all but the most
child-oriented material (parents whose children enjoy DRAGON- BALL Z might be surprised at what The Cartoon Network doesn’t show in its broadcast versions), but when the material crosses the line into hardcore pornography, the result is known as a hentai (loosely, “pervert”) video. Even so, until approxi- mately 1995, the most graphic hentai were subject to strict cen- sorship laws that permitted any onscreen activity whatsoever— so long as below-the-waist nu- dity was obscured with various “shadow and fog” digitization effects. The best-known ex- amples of this genre are not only pornographic, but vicious and sadistic beyond belief. Such monster-rapist-serial-killer sagas as URUTSUKIDOJI and the shocking DEMON WARRIOR KOJI typified the hentai for West- ern viewers... but even this field has its lighter side. This Soft Cel Productions re-
lease was produced by Yutaro Mochizuki and Kinya Watanabe and directed by Kouji Hamaguchi under the supervision of Masa- kazu Amiya. It is actually a com- pilation of all three episodes of a whimsical hentai series known as F3: FRANTIC, FRUSTRATED AND FEMALE, a title which serves as an introduction to the show’s 17 year-old heroine, Hiroe Ogawa. According to the name of Wan- yan Aguda’s original manga, Hiroe is “The Physically Perfect Child,” but she is utterly inca- pable of achieving an orgasm, no matter how hard she tries and no matter how hard anyone else tries to help her. Upon witness- ing Hiroe’s interminable frustra- tion in the opening installment (26m 52s), a young woman named Mayata (who identifies Hiroe as her sister) attempts to provide advice and assistance, but to no avail. It’s Hiroe’s boy- friend Sumio who suggests they
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