The Passing

Details

This listing is for the standard edition Blu-ray/DVD combo. The limited edition slipcover (designed by Earl Kessler Jr.) was limited to 2,000 units and is sold out. The two versions are identical, aside from the slipcover.

Ernie and Rose are two widower WWII veterans with no one but each other, living in a crumbling old house outside of Baltimore. Wade is a youthful, blue collar laborer with a wife and young child. Their lives seem predetermined to never intersect, until Wade's wife is savagely assaulted and, in a fit of anger, Wade accidentally kills her attacker, subsequently finding himself convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

Fears of morbidity are also affecting Ernie who, on the advice of his doctor, agrees to enroll in a mysterious program in which the minds and souls of the elderly can be implanted into the bodies of the young. Eager to experience youth once again, Ernie agrees, with Wade forcibly assigned to be Ernie's new physical self. But neither of the two men, one willing, one victim, are prepared for the true results of the horrifying procedure...

A seven-year passion project for director, writer, producer, and co-star John Huckert, THE PASSING is a dazzling micro-budget examination of love, loneliness, and the fear of death, set against an increasingly surreal science-fiction and horror background, as it builds to its unforgettable and unsettling body transfusion filled climax. Barely available after its one week theatrical run, THE PASSING comes to Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome in a loaded special edition and newly restored from the best surviving film elements.

directed by: John Huckert
starring: James Carroll Plaster, Welton Benjamin Johnson, John W. Huckert Jr., Wade Carney
1983 / 96 min / 1.33:1

Additional info:

• Region Free Blu-ray/DVD combo
• Newly scanned & restored in 2k from 16mm archival elements
• Audio commentary with director John Huckert, moderated by Tom Fitzgerald of EXP TV
• “Water Under the Bridge” - an interview with producer/co-writer Mary Maruca
• “Passing Time” - an interview with cinematographer Richard Chisolm
• Promotional & article gallery
• Short films directed by John Huckert:
• “The Water that is Passed” (1976)
• "Quack” (1976)
• “Einmal” (1979)
• “Ernie & Rose” (1982)
• Reversible cover artwork
• English SDH subtitles