Yaknow, nobody asked me, so I thought for today I would share two really neat titles from Dark Force that I haven't seen anybody really talking about online. These aren't brand new, but they're both from the last two years and seemed to have slipped out virtually under the radar. Like, I'm sitting here getting tired of all these posts about
John Woo 4ks, thinking: why is nobody giving
these titles some fanfare?
So let's begin with 1996's
The Ex. Do people realize this is a
Larry Cohen movie? It just came out this past October, right in time for Halloween. And it's one of those titles Dark Force released in conjunction with Kino, so it's easy to find inexpensive if you're allergic to the Dark Force Superstore (though I found it there the cheapest, personally). If you appreciate his more off-beat fare, like the kind of titles Scream Factory included in
his Mystery and Misdirection set, this should be right up your alley. In fact, it's a little closer to his traditional horror output than any of those; though objectively, you'd probably categorize it as a thriller.
And it's a
fun thriller. Here, Cohen is adapting a novel (
John Lutz's
The Ex,
which had just come out that year), so despite the fact that it went
direct-to-video and has a super generic title, it's actually smarter and
better made than you would've thought spotting it on Blockbuster's New
Releases wall. It's directed by
Mark L. Lester (
Commando,
Class of 1984) with some solid production values: big fire effects, plenty of locations, a constantly sweeping camera.
Yancy Butler (
Witchblade) is delightful as the titular ex, a woman who must've seen
Fatal Attraction
and thought, I can top that. She's constantly prevaricating between
cleverly twisted mind games, classic femme fatale speeches, and
rocketing up her body count.
Nick Mancusco (
Nightwing,
Stingray and the original prowler from
Black Christmas) is her unfortunate love interest who's sort of brought it all on himself and
Suzy Amis (a.k.a.
Mrs. James Cameron) has the fairly thankless role of the stoic, put-upon wife. Oh, and the kid they have playing their son is pretty great, too.
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2025 Kino/ Dark Force BD.
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Given that
The Ex was a direct-to-video title from the 90s,
and it never got a DVD release, this is already a treat just because
this is the first time any of us are able to see it in widescreen. One
might quibble why this is 1.78:1 instead of 1.85, but it's clear this
film was always intended to be seen wide. it looks great, almost
suspiciously good. I was starting to look at this like, is that gain
fake? It turns out, this isn't the old master retrieved from Live
Entertainment's basement like you'd expect. Apparently Lester is
supervising restorations his films these days, and the A-list results
speak for themselves.
That also goes for its lossless DTS-HD 2.0 sound mix with optional English subtitles. And
there are some solid extras. They got Yancy Butler and Nick Mancuso to
come in for a pair of great on-camera interviews (well, Yancy's is
better). They also include the trailer, to give a taste of its old,
boxy 4:3 home video framing, and seven(!) bonus trailers. And it comes in an attractive slipcover. First class all the way.
And
for our second recommendation, this one was a real surprise, in the
sense that I went into it with my expectations on the floor.
Deconstructing Dunning, about obscure but talented cult actor
Douglas Dunning, is presented as the first "Dark Force Original," though it becomes
clear listening to the commentary that Dark Force bought the documentary
after it was completed for distribution. They were selling this for
just five dollars, so I threw it in my cart with something else. It's
like when Code Red used to sell their DVDs of
A Day At the Beach
for $2.99, desperate to get rid of them. Frankly, I was expecting a
real piece of crap, but it's actually a very good, and quite
entertaining, documentary, and you should totally get it!
It's certainly flawed; but it's flaws are rolled into its appeal. Some of these interview subjects are beyond "off the cuff."
John Landis looks like he was stopped on the street, surprised but still happy to be on camera; and the film begins with director
Nicholas Meyer (
Time After Time,
Star Trek 2)
complaining about how they ambushed him for this interview. But that's
a heck of a lot more entertaining than your average talking head!
Dunning gives the filmmaker tremendous access as he's kicked out of
his home by his roommate, living in a storage space and getting
extensive oral surgery. We also get Dunning reconstructing his time in
prison like a sequence from
The Act Of Killing, and
Laurene Landon being perfectly candid, and still a bit puzzled, about how Dunning stalked her. Some of the people interviewed really hate him, and at certain points we find out why; but most people who've worked with him remain genuinely supportive, and this film had me feeling the same.
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2024 Dark Force BD.
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Deconstructing Dunning is presented in 1.78:1 and the HD footage
looks great when it does. Like many docs, this is composed of mixed
media, including some vintage rapes, interviews shot on lower quality
cameras, and some sections where Dunning is given the camera and allowed
to film what he likes on his own... which tends to be completely out of
focus. But that's the film, not the transfer, which is surely taken
from the official DCP and looks as good as it possibly could. Audio is a lossless stereo track in DTS-HD, but there are no subtitle options.
And there's a collection of great and terrible
extras. First up, we get "Savage Tracks Vol. 6" where
"Demon" Dave DeFalco
keeps walking away from the mic, calling Vinegar Syndrome on his phone,
and everybody is talking over each other about god knows what. A good
chunk of the time is devoted to somebody "sneaking" into the recording
session dressed as an ape? I've never listened to a Savage Track
before, but this one was enough for me. BUT, they did get Dunning and
the film's producer to join them, and when they get a word in edge-wise,
the producer adds some good tidbits of information, and Dunning
continues to be a wild character. They also include the entire,
unedited interviews with
Bert I. Gordon and
Franco Nero,
which Dunning himself interview, and are quite something. Dunning keeps
asking them questions about his life, and they are baffled. Finally,
we get the complete collection of abusive phone messages Dunning left his
former boss, which we heard highlights from in the film. There are also a couple promo trailers under the previous title
Resurrecting Dunning.
These are what I've been having a great time with lately.
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