Home Video
DVD Review: ‘The New Blood’ Special Edition
I’ve already reviewed the film proper at Horror Movie A Day, as well as put together a little summary/capsule thing for our 13 Days Of Jason retrospective series from this past February, so if you want my in-depth(ish) thoughts on the film, check those out by clicking the links above. In short – I don’t really like The New Blood much. Jason’s look is awesome and some of the kills are great, but the kids bore me to tears, the rushed production shows at every turn, and I never quite shined to the telekinesis plot, since it was obviously an attempt to compete with the (then more popular) Nightmare On Elm St movies, which had “superpowered” characters in its 3rd and 4th films. This review concerns the brand new special edition DVD and whether or not you should upgrade (spoiler: you should).
Regardless of how I feel about the movie, Paramount and Dan Farrands have put together a fine special edition for it. For some reason it was the only one of the films that had a 5.1 soundtrack on the previous releases, so nothing new to report there. But the video quality is practically night and day. Since no one sent me the other new discs (ahem!) in time for a worthwhile review, I never bothered to compare the video quality with the previous 2004 releases. Below are screenshots from the 2004 boxed set versions and their counterparts from these new 2009 releases (click to enlarge):
Not only is the color much improved, but I was shocked to see how much picture information the 2004 releases were missing. In the shot of Jason in the kitchen, notice the decoration on the left side of the frame that is completely missing from the identical frame on the old release. And in the forest shot, notice the sharper detail in the trees and on Jason’s ratty clothes (and again, far more picture information).
As for the extras, Kane Hodder and John Carl Buechler’s old commentary is gone, but the pair have recorded a new commentary, this time joined by (a separate) Lar Park Lincoln. It’s not a bad track; Hodder and Buechler repeat some of the stuff they said on the last one, but Lincoln’s thoughts are obviously new, and thankfully she takes up the bulk of the track (unless you haven’t listened to the old one, in which case you might want to hear more from the guys). And Buechler admits that the story isn’t up to par, which I don’t think he fessed up to on the last one.
We also get about 15 minutes’ worth of deleted footage. The footage isn’t in particularly good shape – it seems to be taken from a VHS tape with a bad tracking problem, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the damn cassette had been stored in someone’s flooded basement. It’s an even split between excised character stuff and kills, some of which were on the boxed set. Of most interest is a deleted epilogue in which Jason resurfaces from the water, which would have been nice to have (the theatrical cut of New Blood is one of the only films in the series that doesn’t end on a scare). Of course, we also get the usual retrospective with cast and crew, though it runs a bit shorter than usual and skimps over the more interesting things about the film’s production (such as its origin as Freddy vs. Jason). Then there is an interesting look at “real” telekinetic cases, as well as how realistic the film is at portraying this power (spoiler: it isn’t).
Of no use to anyone is a three minute fluff piece of actresses Diana Barrows and Elizabeth Kaitan going for a makeover, spurred by one of the film’s few memorable lines (“Need a little touch up my ass”). I could see maybe this thing having some merit had the girls at least talked about the movie a bit while they got their nails done and tried on new clothes, but nope. Even at three minutes, it’s a fucking waste of disc space, time, energy, and any other abstract object you can imagine. The only good thing I can say about it is that at least it’s not another episode of “Lost Tales From Camp Blood”, which has finally been `canceled’ (or maybe it just concluded its run – I stopped watching these worthless things after the 3rd entry).
In my opinion, it’s the weakest film of Paramount’s series, but like all of the others, it’s not without merit, and blood or not, is fun to watch with a bunch of friends and some beer. The extras aren’t quite as extensive as they are for Final Chapter or whatever, but if you’re a fan of the film there is no question you should be picking this version up. The fact that a proper special edition exists at all is a laudable achievement; after years of bitching, Paramount has finally tried to make amends for the previous releases – for the good films and the bad ones.
Film Score 4/10
DVD score 8/10
Night School, director Ken Hughes and writer Ruth Avergon‘s tale of a headhunting slasher on the streets of Boston, arrived in the early Golden Age of the slasher film and never quite broke through the endurance test that other films in the subgenre, like Friday the 13th, managed to pass with flying colors. Blame it on a more cerebral tone, a crowded market, whatever you like, but saying it’s a shame that the film didn’t break through doesn’t begin to cover it.
Night School isn’t just an underrated slasher, or an underseen one. For my money, it’s one of the best films the subgenre has ever produced, full stop, and Vinegar Syndrome’s new 4K UHD restoration, arriving just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, is must-have proof. Stacked with special features highlighting the craft of the film and its place in slasher history, and headlined by a gorgeous restoration showcasing the wonderfully textured production, this is Night School as it’s meant to be seen for slasher devotees everywhere.
So, what makes the film so effective? It starts very simply, with the revelation that a killer with a very cool knife and a motorcycle helmet as a mask is murdering young women in Boston, taking off their heads, and dropping those heads in the nearest body of water (no matter how small).
Solving the case falls on Judd Austin (Leonard Mann), a detective with an academic background who traces all of the victims in one way or another back to a local night school. There, suspicion falls on a womanizing professor (Drew Snyder) who sleeps around on his research assistant and romantic partner, Eleanor (Rachel Ward), whose own death could be right around the corner.
I’m doing my best to stay as spoiler-free as possible here, not just because I think plenty of slasher fans still need to see Night School, but because the film is quite determined to be a whodunit in the classic Italian giallo sense. The kills are brutal and elaborate, the killer deliberately covered head-to-toe in leather and a gleaming black helmet, the knife and the headhunting a disturbing signature. Avergon’s script is well-versed in the trappings of exactly this kind of story, complete with red herrings galore. And yet, by the time it’s all wrapping up, there’s also the sense that the answer was right there in front of you the entire time, something the very best films by legends like Mario Bava and Dario Argento could also achieve.
But on to the restoration: Like the best of the gialli, Night School is also a beautifully engineered film full of colors and delicate camera compositions and sound design. The opening kill, which takes place on a playground carousel outside of a daycare, is rich in exactly this kind of thing, from the cityscapes that lead into the scene to the sound of a motorcycle slowly rolling forward, its engine already dead. Cinematographer Mark Irwin, best known for his many collaborations with David Cronenberg, paints the film in rich reds, absinthe greens, and haunting, chilled blue-white light on wet Boston streets, all of which are preserved beautifully by the restoration team at work on this one.
It’s a movie that very deliberately evokes a specific place – the aging streets of Boston in the 1980s, and the halls of relatively low-level academia – and then takes that place into haunted territory, saturating every frame with color and shadow that suggests a killer lurking just out of view.
Night School is not a massively gore-heavy film, but it does deliver the slasher goods with a series of tense, often unpredictable kills and body discoveries that range from the darkly comic to the flat-out jaw-dropping. That’s thanks to the sound design, the score, the editing from Robert Reitano, and more, all of which add to the film’s giallo soul.
In every case, the scene’s geography is outstanding, and it’s easy to see where the simplest possible kill shot might land, but the film never goes for the obvious. Throw in a surprisingly (for 1981, anyway) feminist bent to the storytelling and some very progressive moments for an early slasher film, and this one fits right in with Black Christmas and The Slumber Party Massacre as a film with depth you can just keep unpacking.
That depth, helped along by a load of featurettes and two new commentary tracks featuring members of the crew, is what stands out the most in this new 4K set. Night School may be a niche film recognized mostly by horror addicts and the slasher faithful, but it deserves to be something more, a landmark on the roadmap of slasher cinema history. It’s one of the best in the genre, and this restoration highlights, underlines, and shouts that from the rooftops.
Night School is now available in 4K UHD from Vinegar Syndrome.
You must be logged in to post a comment.