Saurians / Colony Mutation / The Paranormal

Blessed be the tastemakers! All due respect to those leaning on Letterboxd, but it’s boutique physical media companies like Visual Vengeance that are really introducing fans to films they might have otherwise overlooked. And in the case of their latest trio of titles, films even their creators never expected to debut in such extravagant special editions.

Tapping into that specific strain of low-budget ambition, Saurians (1994) has the kind of earnestness that’s too hard to fake. Filmmaker Mark Polonia shoots for Jurassic Park-level action using a blend of stop motion, hand puppets and oversize models...all on Super 8. But it’s the awkward dubbing, sleepy acting and hammy dialogue that will be most appealing to fans of homemade cinema. Saurians is cringey in the best possible way, but Polonia stays fully committed to the idea he’s making something special. And, in that respect, he succeeds.

Colony Mutation (1988) lifts its inspiration from the work of David Cronenberg, whose early films remain a blueprint for aspiring no-budget auteurs. But director Tom Berna takes things a step further, crafting the story of a corporate sleazeball whose body parts take on a life of their own. Not only does he sport a detachable penis, but arms, legs, fingers and even his cranium go rogue! And they’re all very hungry. Shot on Super 8 (with some later digital enhancements), Berna’s twisted tale of genetic mutation and marital dysfunction holds up surprisingly well on a technical level considering the practical effects involved. But even when it’s not convincing, it’s still weirdly endearing.

Then there’s The Paranormal (1991). Shot on video, cramming in love interests, ghost hunters and a haunted reel of celluloid, this one should be the weakest of the bunch. But director Todd Norris’ knocks it out of the park with clever compositions and a narrative hook that sends its characters jumping into a cheesy zombie movie to prevent the undead from escaping into the real world. Blessed with sync sound, professional lighting and locations that add some nice production value, The Paranormal comes at you with a confident swagger of a calling card film, complete with jump scares, magic portals and the walking dead…all shot at 525 interlaced scan lines.

Specializing in just these sort of obscure fan convention oddities, Visual Vengeance knows that the features themselves might not be enough to justify a blind buy. So each title is loaded with a significant amount of extras. Colony Mutation comes with two commentaries, interviews, the shooting script, liner notes and the alternate 2013 DVD version of the film. Saurians gets a commentary, Making Of, interviews, stop motion outtakes, raw footage, home video version, complete semi-sequel The Dinosaur Chronicles and even a collectible frame of Super 8 film. The Paranormal tacks on two commentaries, plenty of interviews, bloopers, deleted scenes, storyboards, a trio of standout short films and a cardboard “ghost finder” for viewing your own paranormal entities.

Each film has been restored to the best possible condition, frequently much better than when originally produced with new artwork and slipcovers that promises way more than they actually deliver. But that’s the real magic of what Visual Vengeance is doing here; not just preserving films, but reframing them for audiences to appreciate the wild ambition behind them all. And, honestly, that’s more than most movies can manage these days.