Review: The DIY Chewing Gum Kit from Glee Gum, and a Cautionary Tale (Involving Second-Degree Burns)

As a dedicated D.I.Y.er, I’ve successfully brainwashed my children to the point at which, when my five-year-old wanted to try out chewing gum for the first time, her question to me was not “Will you buy me some gum?”, but, “Can we make some gum?”

Hmmmn…could we make some gum? Turns out we could! I purchased the Make Your Own Chewing Gum kit from Glee Gum, and within hours after its arrival, we were chewing away. It turns out that DIY chewing gum can be a surprisingly eco-friendly project (hint–it’s the chicle), but be warned: in the process of making this chewing gum, I got a really, really, REALLY bad DIY chewing gum-making injury.

Commercial chewing gums generally contain a lot of unhealthy ingredients, and some may be 100% non-natural, but gum, REAL gum, has chicle as its primary ingredient.

Chicle is the boiled-down sap of the sapodilla tree, which resides in Central American rainforests. Chicle is sustainably harvested by tapping the tree throughout its lifespan, wherever it lives in the rainforest. The entire process is done by cooperatives of workers–these chicleros are making a living from the rainforest without decimating it.

Whenever you buy commercially-produced chewing gum that contains chicle, whatever other freaky ingredients it contains, you’re at least supporting real workers doing eco-friendly work in a commercially-viable and intact rainforest. However, if you make your own chewing gum–which is shockingly simple!–you’ll be doing that AND controlling the ingredients.

The DIY Chewing Gum Kit comes with all the ingredients required to make chewing gum–chicle, corn syrup, flavoring, and confectioner’s sugar–as well as the instructions and a plastic tray for heating the chicle (more on that plastic tray later). But if you instead purchase the Chewing Gum Refill Kit, which we did, you’ll still get the instructions, the plastic tray, and the chicle, but you can substitute your own kitchen ingredients. For instance, we used organic confectioner’s sugar in our gum, and although we did use corn syrup and Kool-aid in our first batch, for the next batch we’re trying out brown rice syrup and herbal flavorings.

The instructions are simple: heat the chicle, knead it with the ingredients, and chew! The instructions warn that the chicle is very sticky when it’s gooey, which is why the kit provided us with a microwaveable tray. I don’t usually use the microwave to heat plastic, and my instinct was to grab a thrifted china bowl that I could re-purpose if I couldn’t clean it, but after many years of kitchen disasters, I now try to follow a recipe to the letter at least the first time that I make it.

However, as we were kneading the corn syrup and sugar into the chicle at the pace of two small children, it cooled down and got stiff again, so stiff that we could no longer knead it. The instructions didn’t mention this, but I figured that I could probably just pop it back into the tray and microwave it a little more to soften it again.

And that’s how we came to the point at which, as I was carrying the freshly-microwaved plastic tray of my chicle, corn syurp, and sugar mixture across the kitchen back to the table where my children waited, the plastic tray’s bottom melted away and and entire batch of molten sugar, syrup, and gum poured out and landed on my bare feet.

Just so you know, the instructions told me that the tray would melt if it got too hot, but not being a plastic-microwaver or a candy-maker, I didn’t realize that the tray could melt nearly a minute after being removed from the microwave, and I didn’t realize how hot sugar and syrup can be even if it doesn’t look that hot. Thanks to the second-degree burns on my feet (not to mention the fact of the chewing gum now fused to those burns)–yeah, I have one more reason not to microwave plastic now, and I may never get up the courage to make that popcorn ball recipe that I have pinned for next Halloween.

Fortunately, the batch that did not melt all over my feet was perfect: chewable, flavorful, definitely able to be modified to use better ingredients, and my empowered little children have a little more proof that they can make what they want instead of buying it.

So, words to the wise: absolutely make your own chewing gum, because it’s totally worth it if you don’t seriously injure yourself in the process, and to avoid seriously injuring yourself, dispose of that disposable plastic tray (paint palette? Seed starter?) and pick yourself up a beater china bowl from the thrift store.

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Review: Stockmar wax crayons

Development of a green world authors are backed by a sharing agreement revenue with the company that operates the preparation of a green world, important media. Of course, it is never enough to earn a living real (would have heard about this problem, yes?), so if you want to make sure that this author continues to do great information is available, consider a suggestion for them through Paypal donation.

Let me just be honest with you: we use a lot of crayons based on oil in our House. We really do. We draw them, break them, merge them into other crayons, grate them to melt them some more, keep candles and drip them on canvas stretched (apparently, we love fire) - the Crayola company gets a lot of play here.

But now I've been a crafter green for a while, it has only been fairly recent that I started to look really greening art my sons supplies. It has always been my excuse, well, use too many pencils of crayons/color/pieces of clay to afford the luxury of very high quality brands. But then, in an attack by the Organization, took a hard look around our Studio shared space and thought…hmmm. Do two children really need a full gallon jug for the top with crayons half used?

Do if on the other hand, possessed a beautiful package, high-quality crayons would be perhaps treated these crayons so well that they simply do not need more?

It is difficult for me, because as a mother of teaching and an indulgent, boot, I often have the need to give my children a bounty of supplies, which is why any artistic or intellectual impulse that they feel they have the tools to bring to fruition.

Goodness, that seems silly. And so, as you may have noted from recent reviews, I've been on a quest regularly spend my earned money not in a large amount of supplies of cheap for my children this year art, but a small selection by…I can not escape from it…expensive sources.

These Stockmar wax crayons, for example, that they are my most recent acquisition, they are not cheap. The set of sixteen crayon I bought the girls ran, I am not kidding, almost 25 bucks. They consider that last month, threw a 24 packages of half a dozen of pencils Crayola cart destination and paid a quarter a piece for them and give notice that update our crayons is no joke!

Bucks 25 these crayons Stockmar bees wax should be the best crayons I've seen in my life, and are. They are highly pigmented color well to our Strathmore drawing paper, are not so soft that they look to be too soon, and smell to glory be-they like honey!

These beeswax crayons are now our "special" pencils, which we use when we're feeling artistic, with those based oil crayons, relegated to the millions of other craft uses that also make up our days. If he had had babies again, however, do everything differently, and would be the only such crayons tater tots would have. Crayons Stockmar seem about as toxic as it can be a source of commercially manufactured art. It seems to report materials extensive testing, so if your child has some kind of chemical sensitivity, can be an informed consumer if you read his stuff. And unless you're a vegetarian (in which case must prove soybean crayons), then beeswax is as benign and natural a material basis as you will be able to muster.

As our art "special" supply shelf-the Stockmar crayons, Prismacolor markers and crayons, the Strathmore papers-becomes the most well-stocked artist, is my hope that eventually replaced in quality, not quantity, the six shelves or less cheap supplies or art that currently govern our study, allowing us to less clutter, less consumerism, and even better access to the way of making art.

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Press review: endocrine disruptors are Deadandnbsp; - live the Redefiners

Business today's media is seeking to build on the legacy, rather than kill them

The World Wide Web is now two decades old. When he was still a traditional novelty, hear you much talk about "disruptive." Those companies and the people who will transform the world on the head with these new technologies in a way unexpected and frightening.

The language describing the disruptors seemed to be particularly frightening for traditional businesses, peppered with language on "chop," "eyes" and other words that the Unisex crowd uses only Halloween.

Their goals were actually disruptive: they wanted to make the traditional media companies kneel before the power of what was then called, "new media". If this is passed to all income market than collateral damage, while it; It is a small price to pay for a brave, new digital world.

Nothing can remain disruptive forever. Over time, the Web and the people who first of all, increased. Now, a generation of workers has been the Web in their lives for almost so that they can remember in today's labour market, they not seek, and obviously as hell down corporations that still give them pay cheques. More importantly, their ambition is more constructive than destructive.

Managed digital today, either virtual creation of independent companies or start-ups which were incubated within businesses, can still have an absolutely transformative effect on a market. But their goal is not to simply shoot everything what is there.

Instead, they want to do new, sustainable, substantial business.

The fact that they are also redefining the market containing the legacy companies is just an interesting side effect.

Take Netflix. Now that he arrived on a large scale, it is clear how it has changed the market for video-rental of physical previous Blockbuster and similar companies. But Netflix goal was never, "Let's destroy this bad, old society"; It was simply to offer its customers a better experience - an experience which incidentally redefined the way video rental market.

Consider things in this way, we can see the modern, digital companies like redefiners not endocrine disruptors. This means that our conversations on the transformation of digital media cannot take anything granted-, we must take into account what is changed in the generation since the Web was born.

Experience, no technology: endocrine disruptors were driven out by the pure joy, geek of the technology, often creating features for the sake of functionality. Redefiners are indigenous to the era Web and applications - strongly focused on actual experiences of customers and so view technology as an important tool, and not as a goal to end in itself.

The best customers, not most of the customers: instead of attacking traditional businesses by saying, "we want all customers to fly", or by settling for just a subset of the early adopters to a small audience, Geek, redefiners of today have a strategy focused on laser targeting of customers the most valuable, influential and profitable in a legacy business.

Live "freemium" or die: endocrine disruptors could be contained with a business model of "losing money on every sale, but make up volume", but redefiners have a default assumption of a "freemium" business model Payment systems arrived at maturity to make subscriptions or purchases a one click process, and combining a level paid with a free entry service range now helps companies around the world of media and technology to build serious new companies.

The objective is sustainable development: If the disruptors of old content to simply cause trouble or harm for legacy media companies, the ambitions of redefiners of today are much more wide, which seeks to establish important, growing businesses. A Web site, media starting today revenues, many employees and perhaps even a stock rated credible, while in contrast to the original dot-com bubble.

It is important to highlight these distinctions, because many decisions in the world of media today still cling to outdated views of objectives and success stories, new actors of the technology. Equally important, the era of the redefiner is not limited to start-ups: companies can play, too. In adopting the virtual model of startup, building a business redefiner is not inconsistent with a large, established corporate culture. In fact, given that large media companies bring existing assets such as public and deep content-catalogues to the table, they can have a significant advantage in this new era.

The intersection of technology and the media is no longer on turning things on their heads and in the hope that some good results come from it. Instead, it markets redefinition by constructing new significant businesses that are exempt from the burden of their analog ancestors. And this time, the combination of startup-style energy with the discipline of the leading brands of media in the world may cause really the best of both worlds.

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Review: Season of the Witch (US - BD RA)

Not to be confused with George A. Romero’s tale of housewives gone mad, or the ill-fated (eventually rediscovered) third film in the Halloween series, Season of the Witch follows two Templar Knights, Behman (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman), who desert the Crusade after finding themselves disaffected by the innocent bloodshed. The duo is discovered while moving through medieval Europe, and taken to  Cardinal D'Ambroise (Christopher Lee) as prisoners. D’Ambroisie, who is dying of the bubonic plague, orders Behman and Felson to escort a ‘witch’ suspected of cursing his land with the plague to a special monastery capable of determining her alleged evil. In no position to refuse, the deserters agree, gather a team, and take to the dangerous road ahead.

Nicolas Cage has become a brand name…and not the brand name he’d want. He makes movies so bad lately it’s hard to remember he also makes good, or at least okay movies with just as consistent a frequency (I count three genuinely good films since 2000). The question we tend to ask ourselves when faced with the unmistakably bad Nic Cage films (and it’s usually quite obvious which ones are going to be bad) is what kind of bad movie is he going to make – a fun bad movie, the kind you want to watch with a big group of friends while laughing, or a truly bad movie, the kind you’d rather not watch at all. Season of the Witch lies somewhere between the two, but is a definitive failure for Cage who is never the best thing about the middling feature. In fact, I’d argue the film is better every time he’s off screen. The lesser-known British cast classes up the joint a bit, and Ron Perlman continues his reign as the best reason to watch a bad movie, but Cage is a black hole of sleepy deliveries. It’s amusingly simple to tell which projects Cage cares about by his performances. His Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and Kick-Ass performances might have been skewed and strange (I happened to like both), but at least they constituted effort. Assuming I’m correct in these assumptions, Cage cared exactly zero rat’s asses about Season of the Witch.

I wasn’t expecting much from the plot given the trailers, and I wasn’t disappointed. I am surprised to learn that for some reason Bragi F. Schut’s spotty script was a hot property when it was written a decade ago, and since there aren’t any other names credited as working on rewrites I have to assume the studio interest came out of a desperate need for a nap. The basic idea is kind of neat – mixing elements of the historical Crusades and Knights Templar with supernatural and realistic horrors – but the execution is vapid at best. The characters are shallow (Perlman and Cage are supposed to share some kind of back story bromance, but there’s nothing to beyond their word to indicate they met each other before the first frame of the film), and driven mostly by solitary traits. There’s nothing beyond what each actor brings to the performance to make us love or hate these people. Schut makes a play for a bit of a twist at the end, which is kind of admirable, but there are so many bizarre holes in his plotting, and vital questions left unanswered, that much of the ‘evil plan’, as it were, doesn’t make sense.

Season of the Witch seems to have been made for a large grouping of niche fandoms, and in the end will likely end up pleasing no one. Hard horror fans won’t like it because it pulls its punches, and wallows in sentiment. Historical epic fans won’t like it because it makes about as much historical sense as one of the Stephen Sommers Mummy Movies (you’re likely to find more facts in Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead films, which feature blind, blood drinking zombies), and the battles hold about as much weight as an amateur rugby match. This is a slow, droning, lifeless plod between unspectacular set-pieces – like the time the witch gets loose and they unspectacularly recover her, or the time the party unspectacularly cross a rickety bridge, or the time they briefly fight wolves and lose unspectacularly. It all culminates in an unspectacular monster showdown. The brief behind the scenes material on this disc actually keys us in to why the film is so fractured and incomplete. The dopey first act Crusades battles, and the digital effects-infused climax were both added after principle production wrapped, and are the weakest, most narratively detached and cheap looking scenes in the film. The battles were shot almost entirely on a green screen back-lot, and look entirely bargain basement – and not in a stylistically sound way like 300 . There’s something handsome about the scenes actually directed by Dominic Sena (a once promising director that never went anywhere), at least in terms of empty visual calories, but handsome looks aren’t nearly enough to maintain a dull, predictable story.

It’s a crummy movie, but it looks good from a purely graphic standpoint, and this Blu-ray transfer is almost flawless, at least based on the intentions I’m assuming were set by the production. According to the imdb.com specs Season of the Witch was shot using ARRI Media digital cameras, making this another brand, along with RED, I can set above the more expensive, digital-blur inducing Sony and Panavision cameras (I’m not really familiar with this stuff, but to my eyes the bigger company cameras are consistently weaker). The stylized colour timing mostly swings between two extremes. The first extreme is that of high contrast photography that highlights the massive differences between black and white. These scenes, usually daylight, are tinged a sickly blue-green, and feature incredible depth of detail. You can practically count the dead leaves, gnarled branches and hairs on Perlman’s head (if you were in to counting things). The other extreme pertains mostly to night scenes and interiors. These are even darker, and are usually highlighted by harsh, neon blues and oranges. These scenes feature slightly less harsh contrasts, more grain (which usually adds some nice texture, and might have even been augmented digitally themselves), and slightly less pure blacks (which once again, kind of look purposeful). The general sharpness of the image, even when the camera and characters are swishing about, is enough to make the sub par digital effects stick out as smudgy, including both the obvious (creature animation), and the subtle (fog effects).
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track included here is a bit disappointing. I had to turn up my receiver loudly enough that I was initially afraid I’d disconnected a wire, or picked the wrong audio option. The low volume levels lead me to assume this is an over compressed track, and the general (though slight) lack of LFE punch or rumble seems to verify my assumptions. Beyond the compression this track gets the job done in terms of your basic action/horror expectations. There are directional cues that wander throughout the channels, more subtle additions that give a sense of immersion, and some aggressive clanging swords. Dialogue is appropriately centered, and consistently clear, though the lower volume levels do play havoc with some of the quieter performances, and some of the ADR work is mixed too loud over louder action effects. It works, but it’s all pretty underwhelming, as is Atli Örvarsson’s Howard Shore-lite musical score, which continually threatens to turn memorable, but never quite makes the leap.

The mercifully brief extras begin with seven deleted scenes, and an ‘unrated’ version of the prologue (10:00, HD). The movie didn’t need to be a second longer, and none of these scenes are particularly good, but they do add a smidge of much needed character development, and point us towards the possibility of a stronger cut of the film (which could only be an improvement). Not to mention the fact that anyone that would cut a Christopher Lee cameo short is clearly a bad person (glares at Peter Jackson). ‘Becoming a Demon’ (8:30, HD) explores the process of adding creature effects to the film with producer Alex Gartner, Tippett Studios art director Nathan Fedenburg, Tippett Studios CG Supervisor Aharon Bourland The character was changed to look more like an explicit monster, rather than a girl with skin problems after original production ended. I assume this had something to do with test audiences wanting something more from the lackluster film. In reality, the original ‘creepy girl’ edit is a better scene that makes more sense, and holds a lot more weight. You can see for yourself, as the scene is included as an alternate ending (9:20, HD). ‘On a Crusade’ (6:00, HD) covers the opening act battle scenes that were added in reshoots, featuring interviews with Gartner, stunt Coordinator Andy Armstrong, and 2nd unit director (I think that’s code for ‘guy that took over when Dominic Sena was fired’) Vic Armstrong. These include storyboards and basic behind the scenes footage. Things are completed with a trailer.

Season of the Witch has a lot in common with Christopher Smith’s Black Death, and though neither film is particularly great, I’d recommend watching Smith’s more pontifical and gruesome over this faceless bore. If you’re a fan of the era, and are looking for something off the beaten path, I also happen to have just caught Paul Verhoven’s Flesh & Blood the other day, and was relatively charmed by its off-kilter look at swashbuckling and the Plague. Other Plague and Knights Templar themed horror films more worth your time include Michael Reeves Witchfinder General, Michele Soavi’s The Church, and the aforementioned Blind Dead films. If you must see Season of the Witch I can at least ensure you that your HD set is in for a good workout, though your sound system will probably be a bit jealous. Extras are brief, but revealing.

*Note: The images on this page are not representative of the Blu-ray image quality

Review by Gabriel Powers Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English, Dolby Digital 5.1 FrenchSubtitles: English SDH, French, SpanishExtras: Deleted/Alternate Scenes, Alternate Ending, Becoming the Demon, On a Crusade, Trailer, Digital Copy
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Robert Sheehan, Stephen Campbell Moore, Ulrich Thomsen, Stephen Graham, Claire Foy, Christopher LeeGenre: Action, Adventure and Horror

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Review: Severin operating Bonanza! (US - DVD)

When Bloody Birthday arrived in my mailbox (along with the other three films I’m covering here), I thought to myself, ‘Great, here’s one of a few generally liked North American, ‘80s era slashers I hadn’t slipped under my belt just yet’. I had not really read a lot pertaining to the plot of the film, apparently, because it’s totally not a slasher. Granted the film starts like another by the numbers post- Halloween stalk and slash, featuring strikingly similar characters and setting (though this time it’s actually meant to take place in California). But quickly enough (about 15 or 20 minutes) things take an abrupt turn into the similar, but different ‘evil kids’ subgenre, which is more interesting. In the end Bloody Birthday isn’t a slasher movie at all beyond the adult character traits, setting, and fact that sex equals death (the little monsters actually rack up a body count Jason Voorhees would envy, however). The slasher elements do create comparisons within the evil kid subgenre. If Who Can Kill a Child is the subgenre’s equivalent to The Birds, and The Devil Times Five is the subgenre’s equivalent to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then Bloody Birthday is certainly the subgenre’s equivalent to Friday the 13th. It’s not as slimy, gritty or generally perverse as Devil Times Five, or as genuinely dramatic and horrifying as Who Can Kill a Child, but Bloody Birthday is a fun, politically incorrect little romp, and sets itself slightly apart from the pack by featuring another minor as a major protagonist (more often than not these things are aimed squarely at freaking out the adults in the audience by presenting the evil kids as ‘the other’). Some scenes feature real kinetic momentum, and director Ed Hunt has a good feel for shooting action on a miniscule budget (the junk yard car chase is quite good). Hunt also crafts a few clever suspense set-pieces (the climax verges on brilliant), but doesn’t really mange to raise any hackles. This films certainly has its heart in the right place, is occasionally funny (usually on purpose), features surprisingly strong performances, and an extended nude dance from Downtown Julie Brown.

Severin has done a decent job remastering this particular gem, though I’m not familiar with past releases and am unable to compare it to anything outside of basic expectations. The print is generally well scrubbed, featuring a few minor scuffs and scratches, and a fine grain mesh, but no major damage. Detail levels are actually pretty close to what I’d expect from a Blu-ray version of similar material, just lacking that extra bump of 1080p sharpness that would likely show in the form of cleaner edges in the backgrounds and finer grain size. Colours are decent, though inconsistent. The darkest scenes are definitely a problem, specifically the opening killing, which boils down to a series of light blue shapes moving throughout utter blackness. One real complaint though – on my set the film itself didn’t display at the appropriate 1.66:1, but 1.78:1, while the footage in the special features was set to the correct aspect ratio. Weird. The musical score is amusing in that it’s actually well produced and well written, yet so derivative John Williams and Bernard Herrmann’s estate probably should’ve received royalty checks. The two channel mono Dolby Digital sound is pretty weak and muffled overall. It’s often quite difficult to discern the dialogue, and sounds like the performances are being spoken through cheese cloth. The score comes off a bit better, but is also muffled, and bass heavy in all the wrong places. Extras include ‘Don’t Eat That Cake: An Interview with Lori Lethin’ (9:50), ‘A Brief History of Slasher Films’ (15:10), which is very similar to an extra on Lionsgate’s My Bloody Valentine release (and which proves how much Bloody Birthday isn’t actually a slasher), an audio interview with Director Ed Hunt (an ear-numbing 51:10, could’ve worked better as a commentary), and trailers.

While driving the road into Sleazeville one might find oneself overwhelmed by the utter bleakness of Bill Lustig’s Maniac and Lucio Fulci’s New York Ripper. These curious, but sensitive types might want to visit the more ‘fun’ side of town, where Juan Piquer Simón’s Pieces is shown on loop next door to John Lamond’s Aussie-flavoured blood bath Nightmares. Also known as Stage Fright, not to be confused with Michele Soavi’s similar and better Stage Fright (itself aka: Aquarius), or Romano Scavolini’s center of Sleazeville grotesquery Nightmare (aka: Nightmares in a Damaged Brain), Nightmares is among the more sexually explicit and generally naughty stalk and kill movies ever made, due in part to Lamond’s softcore smut pedigree. This tale of a genophobic actress and her misadventures while starring in a local play has a reputation for graphic gore as well, but the real messy stuff is mostly left to our imaginations in the form of blood smears on nekkid flesh. It’s certainly violent, disturbingly so at times, but there aren’t any spilled entrails, gouged eyeballs or spurting arteries, just consistently wet flesh wounds. Consistently wet flesh wounds set against fully frontally nekkid flesh.

Nightmares, like Stage Fright,   Pieces and New York Ripper, took a great deal of its inspiration from Italian Gialli, rather than the still budding slasher genre, but the feel of the film is closer to straight, American-born slasher, especially in terms of the killer’s ‘sex equals death’ motivation (technically it was released the same year as Friday the 13th, negating any real influence either way). For the most part the film is properly endowed in all the right places (splattering blood, T&A), but also strikes all the wrong chords with just as much aggression, which really makes the difference. The acting is all over the place (ironically enough the lead is a terrible actress in real life too), the dialogue is howl-worthy (quite often on purpose – the backstage culture aspects are very well done), and the editing is abrupt and spotty, yet the pace keeps things moving. The best ‘bad’ aspect is the laughable plot, which like most Gialli, is built around the mystery of the killer’s identity, and his or her motivations. In this case the writers make the mistake of sticking the motivation right up front, then explicitly name the character dealing with it – Helen: the main character. The murders are filmed using subjective camera views to cover the identity of the murder, but then, just to make sure we aren’t confused by this, Helen repeatedly flashes back to scenes from the stalk and slash moments. The cops have a few red herring suspects, but there’s absolutely no reason for the audience to agree with them. In the end Helen is, spoiler alert, revealed to be the killer, and the reveal is played like a shock. Delightful.

Despite its vile reputation, Nightmares is actually quite the classy picture on technical levels. It was filmed using Panavision anamorphic stock, and Lamond injects as much art into his framing as he can muster. The Halloween and Dario Argento influences loom heavily in the compositions. This transfer is very similar to the AU R4 PAL disc, though I think I’d give that disc a slight edge in terms of clarity. The details and edges here are a bit mushy. Colour and utter blackness both play vital roles (as any good Argento rip-off should have it), and are pretty well represented, though I did notice more compression noise on the solid hues than I’m used to for the type. The box art claims the film was mastered from the vault material like Bloody Birthday and The Baby, but I’m a little disappointed by the degree of dirt and other artefacts present here. The film also features a tactful, better-than-it-deserves Brian May score, though it seems that the much in demand composer was only available for a single elongated cue, which is played ad nauseum during every stalking, killing and nightmare sequence. The Dolby Digital mono soundtrack isn’t exactly demo worthy, but is clear enough to understand at all times, despite a little muffling. Extras include a relatively amusing commentary with director John Lamond and Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation (the documentary that features the film) director Mark Hartley (Lamond kind of sounds like he’s on the verge of death), the same ‘Brief History of Slasher Films’ (15:10), a John Lamond Trailer reel ( The ABCs of Love and Sex: Australian Style, Felicity, Pacific Banana, Breakfast in Paris and Sky Pirates), Nightmare’s trailer, and trailers for other Severin releases.

Since you’re already spending the night in Sleazeville, why not take a day trip over to WTF Town. The Baby ranks very high on the cluttered weird-shit-o-meter, and even earns special consideration for the relatively mainstream system that birthed it. This bizarre tale of a social worker who takes special interest in a full grown man being treated as an infant by his pseudo-psychotic family wasn’t directed by some random Italian exploitation king looking to cash-in on Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, it was ushered into existence by Ted Post, the relatively talented director behind action heavy films like Hang ‘Em High, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Magnum Force. It stars real actors including Ruth Roman ( Strangers on a Train), and ‘70s TV stars Marianna Hill, Anjanette Comer and Susanne Zenor, and they’re taking the production seriously. Perhaps the oddest thing is that The Baby is actually kind of good. At the very least it’s almost impossible to look away from the utter insanity. If you aren’t careful, you might even find yourself moved. The film is smart enough to keep up a campy façade, but the characters and plotting are straight-faced, which works both to make the comedic and disturbing bits hit with the same impact (and I’m 90% sure the big laughs are intended). Not content to rest on just an original exploitation concept, or even a solid execution, Post fills in the cracks with a little PG-rated T&A, garishly dated sets and wardrobes, and a jaw-dropper of a last minute reveal that gives the director a chance to flex his action movie muscles.

Of the three films discussed here I’d probably mark The Baby the highest for its anamorphic transfer. Like Bloody Birthday it’s comparable to many 1080p releases of similar films, just flatter and less sharp. Obscurity and age considered, this is a pretty clean transfer, with minimal compression artefacts, minor print damage, and solid detail levels. Colours are a bit on the yellow side, but the reds and greens of the party scene are quite expressive and vibrant. The Dolby Digital mono soundtrack is also pretty good. The sound is cleaner and less muffled than the other two films, with relatively sharp vocal performances (quite possibly the most disturbing thing about the entire film is the fact that Baby is overdubbed by an actual infant, though this seems to differ between prints) , and relatively warm music. Effects are quite minimal, but don’t feature a lot of crackle, and don’t spazz-out on high volume levels. Extras include ‘Tales from the Crib’ a phone interview with director Ted Post, set over scenes from the film (20:00), a phone interview with actor David Mooney (11:50), a trailer, and trailers for other Severin releases.

Review by Gabriel Powers This product has not been rated
Disc Type: Single side, dual layerAudio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono EnglishExtras: Audio Interview with Director Ed Hunt, Don’t Eat That Cake! Interview with Star Lori Lethin, A Brief History Of Slasher Films Featurette, John Lamond and Mark Hartley Commentary, John Lamond Trailer Reel, Audio Interview with Director Ted Post, Audio Interview with David Mooney
Director: Ed Hunt, John Lamond, Ted PostCast: K.C. Martel, Joe Penny, Michael Dudikoff, Max Phipps, Gary Sweet, Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman, Marianna HillGenre: Comedy, Horror and Thriller

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