Director Sam Raimi takes an acting holiday in Josh Becker’s THOU SHALT NOT KILL... EXCEPT, playing a Charles Manson-like cult leader.
onscreen role, but the actor was heavily involved in the story and sound design departments and also (unsurprisingly) managed to work a faceless “Fake Shemp” cameo into the project all the same. As such, unbridled, un- rated carnage and gleeful slap- stick are the order of the day as the cast and crew enthusiastically demolish rural Michigan. Schulz is fine in the stoic lead, but the first thing anyone thinks of when this film is invoked is Raimi’s wild- eyed, scenery-chewing perfor- mance as the nameless cult leader: he and his followers (in- cluding brother Ted Raimi as the “Chain Man”) manage to score multiple laughs with their antics but, lest anyone mistake them for “lovable,” they’re also responsible for multiple atrocities both on screen and off (what do you think is going to happen to Stryker’s faithful dog, for instance?), the better to sweeten their inevitable graphic comeuppance. The film does everything to please the hardcore micro-budget audience
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that Raimi had no small part in creating, but its remarkable suc- cess can be attributed to a mar- keting maven that knew far more than the filmmakers when it came to selling such a project, starting with the new title THOU SHALT NOT KILL... EXCEPT. Although the company was working with a 25-year-old film shot on 16mm stock, the relent- less restoration efforts of Syn- apse Films have paid off with a Blu-ray/DVD transfer that pre- sents the film in the best pos- sible light while allowing the original (and uneven) mono soundtrack to remain just as it was heard in theaters. The many available behind-the-scenes an- ecdotes are exhaustively covered in the supplemental package, starting with two feature-length audio commentaries. Bruce Campbell and Josh Becker go to town on the first such track, while the second finds lead actor Schulz offering his side of the story to knowledgeable modera- tor Michael Felsher. Everyone
else is accounted for in the half- hour retrospective MADE IN MICHIGAN, which recounts the making and selling of both the original STRYKER’S WAR short and the feature rendition, while allowing for such highlights as clips from Becker’s previous Su- per-8 works and a look at actor Quill’s side career as a Mr. T im- personator. Campbell also goes solo in a 9m segment shot in 2007.
By far, the most generous supplement is Becker’s com- plete 48m STRYKER’S WAR demo. Though the main attrac- tion for most will be the substi- tution of Campbell for Schulz, the short film also serves to prove the remarkable fidelity the feature version maintained to its inspiration. Also included is the legendary missing sight gag (emphasis on “gag” and avail- able with or without director commentary) involving the af- termath of a barroom brawl and the contents of one unfortunate character’s helmet, which was
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