Home Grown Horrors is back with another trio of tantalizing treats from the outer reaches of 80s American horror cinema!
HAUNTEDWEEN
One Halloween night, a little girl visiting the Burber family’s “House of Horrors” attraction is brutally hacked to pieces by their young son, Eddie. Having fled the scene, Eddie is taken away by his mother to live in solitude at a remote cabin. Twenty years later, Tophill State College’s Sigma Phi fraternity are desperately trying to raise some cash, so they decide to throw a raucous fundraiser party for their peers. In the midst of the festivities, a mysterious figure arrives at the door, offering them the key to the old abandoned Burber house and suggesting that they turn it into a haunted house. Seizing the opportunity, the youngsters quickly set about transforming the property into an elaborate - and potentially lucrative - Halloween attraction. Little do they realize that Eddie Burber has returned home and intends to have some All Hallow’s Eve fun of his own - setting up his own “Kill Room”, where the line between fantasy and reality quickly becomes blurred…
A passion project through and through from late director Doug Robertson, HAUNTEDWEEN stands as one of the more entertaining and imaginative efforts to hail from the latter years of the slasher golden age. Filmed primarily in Robertson’s hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky, HAUNTEDWEEN is a decidedly ambitious regional horror effort packed with fun gore set-pieces, including victims being chainsawed, necks twisted, heads being taken clean off by baseball bats, as well as a handful of wild fire stunts. Now restored in 4K from its original 16mm camera negative and presented alongside a host of newly-produced and archival bonus features, Vinegar Syndrome is thrilled to celebrate Eddie Burber’s long-awaited return in the world Blu-ray premiere of HAUNTEDWEEN!
REVENGE
In a small college town, a recent spate of grisly slayings dubbed the “sorority house murders” has led to rumors of a so-called “blood cult” at large, composed of a number of prominent local citizens. Despite the main perpetrator having apparently jumped to their death, the gruesome murders continue unabated, with each victim bearing the signature of the cult - a golden amulet depicting a dog’s head left at the scene. Returning to his hometown following the murder of his brother, Michael begins to suspect that the blood cult may have had something to do with his sibling’s grim demise. Finding the authorities ineffectual, Michael teams up with his elderly childhood neighbor Gracie Moore - whose husband has recently fallen prey to the cult - and together the pair hatch a plan to put an end to the gruesome goings-on.
The sequel to the Tulsa, Oklahoma-lensed shot-on-video favorite Blood Cult (1985), often touted as the first film made specifically for the home video market, REVENGE - the third and final horror feature from husband and wife directing/producing duo Christopher and Linda Lewis - picks up immediately after the events of its predecessor, upping the ante by throwing supernatural elements into the mix and enhancing production values by switching to 16mm film and pulling in star power in the form of Patrick Wayne (Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger) and John Carradine (Buried Alive), appearing in one of his final screen roles. Culminating in a wild, fiery climax featuring a show-stopping turn from Carradine, 1986’s REVENGE is at last summoned up in its world Blu-ray premiere by the celluloid cultists at Vinegar Syndrome, painstakingly restored from its original 16mm camera negative and loaded with an array of new and archival extras.
DEADLY LOVE
Young Annie and biker boyfriend Buddy are hopelessly in love and planning to run away from her cruel and overbearing father, who keeps an eye on her every move. Their plans are cut tragically short, however, when the family’s unhinged caretaker Clint shoots Buddy dead as he arrives on the property under the cover of night. Years later, Annie, now an old reclusive, continues to pine after her lost love, even practicing magic rituals in an attempt to bring him back. Eventually, one day after suffering ridicule and harassment from some local teens, she decides to end her own life. Coming to the farm in the wake of her aunt’s passing, Annie’s niece Hillie soon learns from reading her diary that Annie actually believed she’d been able to resurrect Buddy. Sure enough, when some of the youths responsible for driving her aunt to take her own life show up looking to cause trouble, a mysterious figure in biker gear appears and begins picking them off one by one. Has Buddy risen from the dead to avenge his dearly departed?
The debut feature film from director/writer Michael O’Rourke, who would go on to helm camper-stamping slasher favorite Moonstalker using the same Nevada locations and much of the same crew, 1987’s DEADLY LOVE is an unjustly overlooked and under-seen entry in the annals of 80s genre fare, infusing stalk-and-slash tropes with a decidedly 1970s-flavored regional horror ambiance. Criminally absent on home video since its original VHS release, DEADLY LOVE is at last resurrected by Vinegar Syndrome for its Blu-ray world premiere, lovingly restored in 4K from a recently unearthed film elements and accompanied by a host of newly-produced bonus features shedding light on this obscure slasher gem.
