Blackenstein Does Blu-ray! Thank You Severin Films!
Steve Barton
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I never thought I’d see the day when Blackenstein, a movie which created a monster by squaring an afro, would hit Blu-ray. Now that it’s here, I just want to head to the Severin Film offices and hug them until it gets really friggin’ awkward.
From the Press Release:
On May 30th, Severin Films, in association with Xenon Pictures and Vinegar Syndrome, invites you to experience Mary Shelley’s horror classic through a Vietnam-shattered, micro-budget, entrail-smothered lens. Or as BleedingSkull.com put it: “Not just a horror picture, not just Blaxploitation, something greasier!” After years of lifeless home video presentations, Severin is proud to re-animate this lumbering monster with an immaculate transfer of the rarely seen original theatrical cut AND a new assembly of the home video release version, Frankensteined together from the best existing elements!*
You may have heard of this infamous Blaxploitation/horror hybrid, but the real story is even more bizarre: In 1973, criminal-lawyer-turned-wannabe-monster-movie-mogul Frank R. Saletri wrote and produced this grindhouse hit about a black soldier mortally wounded in Vietnam transformed into a rampaging monster by an L.A. mad scientist. Almost a decade later, Saletri himself would be murdered gangland-style in a crime that remains debated – and unsolved – to this day. John Hart (TV’s “The Lone Ranger”), ‘40s Hollywood starlet Andrea King (THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS), and even former mob moll/stripper Liz Renay (DESPERATE LIVING) star in this jaw-dropper directed by William A. Levey (THE HAPPY HOOKER GOES TO WASHINGTON), now with all-new Special Features that spotlight the entire twisted saga!
*The home video version has been the most widely seen version over the past few decades. It’s entirely possible that the original video master was created using a longer, unfinished cut of the movie, with the producer’s tighter edit being the version that was officially released to cinemas in the 70s.
Special Features:
- Theatrical Release Version (78 Mins.) and Video Release Version (87 Mins.)
- Monster Kid: Interview with Writer / Producer Frank R. Saletri’s Sister, June Kirk
- Archive News Broadcast on the Murder of Writer / Producer Frank R. Saletri
- Producers / Directors / Actors Ken Osborne and Robert Dix Remember Writer / Producer Frank R. Saletri
- Bill Created Blackenstein: Interview with Creature Designer Bill Munns
- Theatrical Trailer
https://youtu.be/6bxOc–RLtA
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