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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: May 27th, 2022.
Director: William Malone
Cast: John Stinson, Diana Davidson, David Moses, Toni Jannotta, Mike Muscat, Pamela Bowman
Year: 1980
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Scared To Death – Movie Review:
Directed by William Malone, who co-wrote with Robert Short, 1980’s Sacred To Death follows a former cop named Ted Lonergan (John Stinson) who left his job in law enforcement to hopefully find his big break as a writer. He’s a pretty one-dimensional character and exactly the cliché you’d expect him to be but when he learns that someone…. or something… is boogying about Los Angeles and feasting on the spinal fluid of various innocent victims, he is recruited by his former partner, Detective Lou Capell (David Moses), to help investigate and hopefully put a stop to the killings.
Before long, Ted realize that it is indeed a something and not a someone that is behind the various gruesome murders and that, in fact, it is a rapidly evolving alien being dubbed a ‘Syngenor’ that is behind all of this. Elsewhere, a geneticist named Sherry Carpenter (Diana Davidson), who Ted is getting increasingly sweet on, winds up investigating things on her own and before long, they’ve teamed up to stop the monster not only from killing more, but hopefully from reproducing as well.
William Malone’s directorial debut feature is a far cry from the big budgeted, glossy, Hollywood horror pictures he’s made like The House On Haunted Hill but it is a really entertaining low budget picture more akin to Creature, a film he’d make a few years later in 1985. Made for a cool seventy-four grand and distributed by Texas-based Lone Star Pictures, it never feels like the most original picture ever made but if it keeps genre clichés close at hand throughout, at least it offers up a few solid murder set pieces and a little bit of grime and sleaze to keep things interesting.
The scenes where only the human characters are interacting are clunky to be sure. They aren’t shot particularly well and the cast members assembled for the production aren’t exactly great actors. That said, the scenes with the monster, which was clearly inspired by the works of H.R. Giger and therefore feel a little closer to Alien than they probably needed to, really do shine. The effects work might not have been done with millions of dollars and there are times when Malone and company keep things a little dark likely for that exact reason, but a gooey, slimy greatness to these moments that resonates and makes Scared to Death well worth checking out. The monster scenes are shot with a lot more care, a lot more style and a lot more enthusiasm, indicating that even at this early point in his career the filmmaker knew what his audience would deem to be more important.
Malone would later sell the rights to the creature, which he helped design, to producer Jack Murphy who would bankroll a sequel in 1990 with Syngenor.
Scared To Death – Blu-ray Review:
Scared To Death arrives on region free Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome with the 1.85.1 widescreen transfer taking up 28.6GBs of space on a 50GB disc. The AVC encoded 1080p presentation is “newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 16mm original camera negative” and it looks excellent. It is, understandably, very grainy and there are some small specks of damage here and there but the image is nicely detailed despite the thick, natural grain and it shows excellent colors and good black levels. Shadow detail is quite strong here as well, and there are no issues with compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction issues to discuss.
The English language 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono audio, which comes with optional subtitles provided in English only, sounds just fine. Audio quality is decent, seemingly very true to source. There isn’t a lot of depth to the track and its low budget origins are evident in the mix but the dialogue is clean, clear and easy to follow and the score sounds pretty solid.
Extras start off with a commentary track with writer/director William Malone, actor Bryce 'Kermit' Eller and actress Diana Davidson (who sounds like she joined in via conference call) that goes into lots of detail about the origins of the project, how Malone wound up working with Texas-based Lone Star Pictures, raising the seventy-four grand needed to make the movie, what was shot where and what sequence certain shots were done in, casting the film, how Rick Springfield almost wound up in the movie, last minute surprises that occurred on set, how Patrick Prince "did everything" behind the camera, thoughts on the different characters in the movie and their dated wardrobe, details of shooting specific scenes like the roller skating bit and a whole lot of making do with what was available.
Rise Of The Syngenor is a new making-of documentary that is made up of interviews with writer/director William Malone, actor Bryce 'Kermit' Eller, actress Diana Davidson, makeup supervisor James Suthers, effects artist Kevin Altieri, actor David Moses, actor Mike Muscat and actress Toni Jannotta that runs for seventy-five minutes. Malone looks back fondly here on the making of the movie, noting the camaraderie that the cast and crew enjoyed during the shoot, while the different cast and crew members share experiences from the time they spent together on set. There's a lot of talk here about how well everyone got along and how much everyone liked working with Malone, who is at one point as described as being able to "see the big picture." The different participants talk about their backgrounds, how they came to work on the movie, the effects work featured in the picture, the film's modest budget, California shooting locations, the influence of H.R. Giger and Malone's appreciation of his art, who wound up falling in love on set, shooting the love scene in the movie, the importance of cinematographer Patrick Prince's work on the picture and lots, lots more. It's a really nicely put together piece that covers a lot of ground in a lot of detail.
The Locations Of Scared To Death is a nine minute featurette that explores the locations used for the shoot with William Malone serving as host/tour guide. We get a look at some of the homes that were used in the movie as well as some of the more industrial areas, some of the stores that appear in the movie, the apartment building, the parking garage and more.
Finishing up the extras on disc one are a Dracula Party - Scared to Death music video, menus and chapter selection options.
A second Blu-ray disc includes the alternate cut director’s cut of the film, presented in a restoration not undertaken by Vinegar Syndrome but completely independently by director William Malone. The theatrical cut runs 1:37:20 versus the director’s cut at 1:34:25. It’s also presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and framed slightly differently at 1.78.1 widescreen with 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 audio and optional English subtitles. Quality is decent, but not quite as strong as the 4k restoration that the theatrical cut was given and there might be some light DNR and a bit more noticeable damage here. As to the differences between the two versions, there aren’t any massive, drastic changes to note. The color grading is different and sound effects that weren't included the first time around but which were supposed to have been added. Some scenes have also been trimmed a bit, which accounts for the shorter running time.
There are no extras included on the second disc, just menus and chapter selection.
It’s also worth noting that this release comes packaged with some nice reversible cover sleeve art and an embossed, limited edition slipcover Earl Kessler Jr. and based on the original UK Quad poster when purchased directly from Vinegar Syndrome’s website.
Scared To Death – The Final Word:
Vinegar Syndrome’s release of Scared To Death is a strong one, presenting two cuts of the film in great shape and with a nice array of extra features documenting the movie’s history. The film itself isn’t perfect, but it’s a pretty entertaining mix of slasher tropes and creature feature shenanigans that winds up being well worth seeing for those who appreciate low budget monster movies.