Vinegar Syndrome and Their Partner Labels

[TVC15]

The Keep: "inventory_quantity": 3769. And continues...

They've already sold close to 9,000 copies in less than a day

[colinr0380]

I do love The Keep as kind of a more 'serious' Nazis-vs-the supernatural film than your average Indiana Jones entry, which to be honest is probably the entire reason why the project got greenlit in the first place in a post-Raiders of the Lost Ark search for similar types of stories. Its got a really nice dreamy atmosphere about it, and I remember liking the weird sense of there being no one particularly sympathetic outside of the main female character - the Nazis weirdly become more humanly fallible and fragile as the film goes on and they receive their much deserved comeuppances, whilst the people we are probably meant to sympathise with are literally inhuman seeming (the Scott Glenn character) or thinking that they can get into a kind of Faustian pact with a Golem they did not even play a part in unleashing in the first place! (the Ian McKellen character)

Although I should also say that I first saw it in the mid-90s around the same time as Mariano Baino's similarly vibe-heavy Dark Waters, which also has a dreamy-verging-on-the-illogical religiously-tinged nightmare tone to it! (Plus thematically nicely pairing together 'boat trips to the main location' scenes early on!)

[CSM126]

I’ve heard so much good and bad about The Keep that I couldn’t resist. Stacked it with an existing preorder (Mr. Goodbar and feardotcom). I really can’t justify buying more physical media right now (I am out of shelf space and have Christmas shopping to do), but I couldn’t say no to two long out of print films I’m curious about (and one fascinating failure).

[colinr0380]

Feardotcom has a ridiculously stacked cameo-laden supporting cast for what was basically an attempt to do The Ring but for the internet but with the tail end of the look and feel of the perpetually rainy and gloomily dourly urban Se7en serial killer trend mixed in too, just before that particular subgenre took a turn into the Saw series: Stephen Rea, Udo Kier turning up in the opening scene as the first victim; Jeffrey Combs as the 'crazed explainer' character; Nigel Terry as the gruff police superior officer. Even Michael Sarrazin in one of his last film roles!

It is interesting as one of the few films that is not re-making something from Asia directly (and because of how early on in the period it was made - in 2002 - it didn't seem to be particularly aware at that early stage of Japanese horror's incursion into the West of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse, which tackles 'Ring but the internet' in a more melancholy and truly haunting way, which did not seem to fully penetrate the US until its mid-2000s DVD release to tie in with the official US Pulse remake) but I can understand why it disappeared as relatively unnecessary almost as soon as The Ring remake from the same year was out there fulfilling the 'US take on Japanese horror' remit, which was the thing that really kicked off all of the directly named remakes for the next few years. Its also really dark - not just content wise, but literally pitch black for the majority of the film, with the most light coming from the harsh glow of computer screens all the better to highlight the character's pallid faces to look extra pasty and haunted, beyond even those of the stereotypical goth characters!

[CSM126]

Yeah, the visuals are probably the best thing about feardotcom. I like Ebert’s comparison to early horror films, as I got much the same feeling when I saw it way back when. It’s kind of amazing that such a muddled script could at least inspire the director and cinematographer to craft such a fascinating film in spite of itself. Hopefully this new restoration does them justice better than the DVD I watched. Well, it would almost have to.

I’m also hopeful that the extras are going to explore that process in some depth. There’s potential for a strong edition here.

[TechnicolorAcid]

If anyone's interested The Keep has a little under 2,000 copies of the limited edition now.

[John Cope]

For those who have never seen The Keep, I recommend checking it out before blind-buying the release. As young tweens when this was first released, I and my horror/fantasy-loving friends (who had even read and enjoyed the F. Paul Wilson source novel) were hoping this was going to be a revelation when we were finally able to get the VHS for a movie night, and we were left absolutely befuddled at the complete and utter mess the film seemed to be.

I revisited it as an adult a few years ago, hoping that I simply wasn't old enough to appreciate it charms, but I thought it was absolutely fucking terrible (and not, I might add, in the wonderful almost outsider artist way that many of those 80s genre films are). It doesn't surprise me that Mann wants to disown the picture. That being said, I know it has its fans and I'm happy a nice edition finally exists for them. But for anyone without a nostalgic glow for the film, approach with caution and check those expectations. Great Tangerine Dream score, though.

And I suppose I have to ask, are the genre nerds now so desperate that they're reclaiming Sliver, for fuck's sake?

FWIW, I wrote about The Keep here (and elsewhere); certainly my own love and admiration for it extends beyond "a nostalgic glow". But then again I also love Sliver and have since its original release, though I don't think I've written on it extensively anywhere yet.

[andyli]

The Keep: "inventory_quantity": 3769. And continues...

They've already sold close to 9,000 copies in less than a day

Not in a day though… since this is the mysterious pre-order title back in early November I suppose a lot of people already pre-ordered this thing long ago to lock in the special price without knowing for sure the identity of the title. I should imagine at least some of them were not completely satisfied when it’s revealed.

[jazzo]

For those who have never seen The Keep, I recommend checking it out before blind-buying the release. As young tweens when this was first released, I and my horror/fantasy-loving friends (who had even read and enjoyed the F. Paul Wilson source novel) were hoping this was going to be a revelation when we were finally able to get the VHS for a movie night, and we were left absolutely befuddled at the complete and utter mess the film seemed to be.

I revisited it as an adult a few years ago, hoping that I simply wasn't old enough to appreciate it charms, but I thought it was absolutely fucking terrible (and not, I might add, in the wonderful almost outsider artist way that many of those 80s genre films are). It doesn't surprise me that Mann wants to disown the picture. That being said, I know it has its fans and I'm happy a nice edition finally exists for them. But for anyone without a nostalgic glow for the film, approach with caution and check those expectations. Great Tangerine Dream score, though.

And I suppose I have to ask, are the genre nerds now so desperate that they're reclaiming Sliver, for fuck's sake?

FWIW, I wrote about The Keep here (and elsewhere); certainly my own love and admiration for it extends beyond "a nostalgic glow". But then again I also love Sliver and have since its original release, though I don't think I've written on it extensively anywhere yet.

It’s worth a lot, Nathaniel! What an excellent piece of writing. You’ve convinced me not to buy the disc, per se, but at least give it a third chance in some other form, now with the echoes of your fine appreciation as a guide.

[dwk]

There is a YouTube interview with someone from VS and he said The Keep came about because someone at Paramount asked Mann's people and he/they gave the OK to release it.

[swo17]

The Keep LE is down to 860 copies

[TechnicolorAcid]

I guess you could say the orders KEEP coming.

[swo17]

And now 450. This thing's going to be gone in an hour

And I suppose I have to ask, are the genre nerds now so desperate that they're reclaiming Sliver, for fuck's sake?

There is an enormous portion of physical media buyers who will simply buy anything they ever remember appearing on cable in the 80s or 90s. Literally anything. Once you realize this, a lot of these releases start making (financial) sense

Isn't this also why Trump won? "You remember him from the '90s! Now uncensored!"

[TVC15]

The Keep LE is down to 860 copies

99 now

[swo17]

And it's gone

[MichaelB]

I'm definitely in the "nostalgic glow" camp - it's certainly an artistic failure (and was arguably irreparably hobbled from the moment VFX genius Wally Veevers unexpectedly died just as post-production was starting), but much more towards the "weirdly fascinating" end of the scale. I suspect I'll be spending more time with the first half than the second, where it seriously falls apart, but I can't wait to see it in a halfway decent copy for the first time - for decades, pan-and-scan VHS was my only option.

[beamish14]

It’s just so puzzling that not even scenes from the television version of The Keep are on this release, but that might be Mann’s doing

[luxta]

...but that might be Mann’s doing

Why? Maybe there just wasn't any good material.

[beamish14]

...but that might be Mann’s doing

Why? Maybe there just wasn't any good material.

I mean, it would’ve been nice to have stuff like this in HD

[MichaelB]

You can bet your bottom dollar that VS tried to get hold of everything conceivable, but if Michael Mann and/or Paramount said no, that is very much that.

And whether that material even survives in a format that qualifies as "high definition" is an open question in itself. When I've worked on Universal-sourced TV versions, I can think of just one occasion when we managed to get our hands on actual film footage (Secret Ceremony), but otherwise the best we could hope for is a standard definition 4:3-framed video master - that's literally all they still have on the shelf.

[JamesF]

Yes, just to echo that major studios (if it is Paramount who kiboshed the inclusion of the TV ending along with any other deleted footage) are often frustratingly inconsistent with their policies regarding cut footage as extras, and no citing of precedent or even offering to sign a quitclaim to take on any legal hit will make a difference - if they don’t want to stick their neck out by letting a licensee feature material that may not entirely be filmmaker-approved (if it was never finished) or isn’t legally cleared for home video, that is indeed that. I’m positive VS would have included any additional footage if they could for The Keep or Sliver.

[MichaelB]

Major studios aren't absolutely impossible to reason with - Sony, for instance, have just conceded on appeal that their usual ban on using screengrabs instead of official production stills was never intended to cover a situation like an extra on Indicator's upcoming Edge of Eternity in which José Arroyo deconstructs the film while pausing individual shots every so often to analyse them in more detail - but for the most part it is indeed their property and their rules, and you have no choice but to stick to those rules because they're contractually enforced.

It can't be emphasised enough that ambitious boutique labels - and VS certainly qualifies here - will typically start every project with a wishlist of a ton of stuff that they want to include, and will have had to whittle it down deeply reluctantly once it becomes clear that certain things just aren't going to be possible. Or of course they could have simply not bothered, but for all sorts of reasons I think that's a much less likely scenario - not least because they're fully aware of how sought-after a title this is.

[thekeystobarton]

I went ahead and bought their UHD of "Who Killed Teddy Bear" just because how stacked the release is for an admittedly uneven film. If anyone out there has not seen this and is on the bubble about whether to add it into your cart for the sales, I will just very briefly add my two-cents to say it is worth a bind-buy:

Spoiler

Ironically, the least believable scenes are generally any of the ones which include Jan Murray, even though it is in many of his scenes that many interesting (and proto-feminist) contradictions about the level of female agency desired by the "normal" everyday single working woman get examined (albeit a bit too obviously at times and without much assist from Prowse's limited acting chops). The overall tone is far and away much more like if "No Way to Treat a Lady" had been adapted even just three years later. There is no way to downplay the uneven-ness, except perhaps to mitigate by saying the film faced many cuts during filming and in post-production. Also, the almost Law and Order:SVU approach to the character of the sister to Sal Mineo's character does nothing to add to the film since the film quickly spoils any possibility of Mineo's character being a red herring in his very first shot in the bar (could his ring *be* any more obvious?!). Now if the purpose of having the sister was not to throw off suspicion from Mineo, then the tone feels akin to Guy Green's, "A Patch of Blue"- which means you'll either hate it or maybe accept it but certainly not love it. In my opinion, the camera work and sharp humor at times makes this feel like a John Waters piece without his typical boistrousness, or what a grand dame guignol film would feel like by taking the focus off the older woman and making that character merely a supporting player/red herring (and in this case a lesbian with a thing for fur coats). Teddy Bear rightfully deserves props for its almost Weegee-like use of New York exteriors, much like Dmytryk was doing the same year with "Mirage," and for the flashback moments for Mineo which owe so much to Aldrich's Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte I am amazed that more people did not mention it in the wake of FX's Feud. The moments in Teddy Bear where there are true insights into sexuality, both for the "vanilla" female protagonist and for Mineo's voyeur (and indeed there are many) I would say do lift a film out of mere indie-shlock/B-movies realm, and kept in context of the year of the filming itself, are remarkably astute, on the level of the scene with the psychologist at the end of Psycho.

There's so little scholarly material out there on this film that it is hard to know what exactly is in the restored scenes that apparently have never been released before (I re-read the section in Michaud's biography of Mineo about Teddy Bear, and even there, not too much to clarify the cut scenes). It would be wonderful to know if the Cinématographe people actually did get the one-and-only Phoebe Cates to talk about to them about her dad and this film even if it was just off the record (her involvement is not listed in the specs for the supplements).

[senseabove]

There's so little scholarly material out there on this film that it is hard to know what exactly is in the restored scenes that apparently have never been released before (I re-read the section in Michaud's biography of Mineo about Teddy Bear, and even there, not too much to clarify the cut scenes).

This blog post, linked from DVDBeaver, is the only delineation of cuts that I've found, though it's unclear if the poster is citing from memory or had access to a 16mm print or what—plus they have a screencap of the unblurred credits that reverse image search thinks only exists in that blog post.

Another wrinkle is that all the screenings I can find evidence of in the past decade—New Bev, Film Forum, Roxy, UW Cinematheque—cite a runtime of 94 minutes, which is the uncensored runtime, though none of them tout that it's an "uncensored print," while of those, the two that list a print source (New Bev, UW Cinematheque) say it came from Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, who themselves list a runtime of 90 minutes!

Really hope there's more info on how they tracked the original materials down in the booklet...

[dwk]

Partner Label titles:
A Little More Flesh (Art Label)
Blood-A-Rama Triple Frightmare II (AGFA)
Candy Mountain (Film Movement)
Carnage for Christmas (Dark Star)
Cash Calls Hell (Film Movement)
Chris Claremont's X-Men (ETR Media)
Close Your Eyes (Film Movement)
The Coffee Table (Cinephobia Releasing)
Dad & Step-Dad (Nobudge)
Death Laughs Among Us: The Complete Works of John Schnall (VHSHitfest)
Dogs in Quicksand (Saturn's Core)
Hippo (Memory)
Hundreds of Beavers (Cartuna)
Kuso (Shudder)
The Line (Utopia)
Maybe It's Love (Kani)
No Home Movie (Icarus Films)
Orders (Canadian International Pictures)
The Sacrifice Game (Shudder)
Starve Acre (Brainstorm Media)
Sweet Sweet Lonly Girl (Yellow Veil Pictures)
Larry Kent's Vancouver Trilogy (The Bitter Ash, Sweet Substitute, and When Tomorrow Dies.)(Canadian International Pictures)
The Tales for All Bundle (The Christmas Martian, The Dog Who Stopped the War, and The Great Land of Small)(Canadian International Pictures)