Best American grindhouse Horror flick? Perhaps
Best DVD packaging outside of Something Weird? No Doubt
The first thing you notice when you pop this DVD in is how much stuff there is. There is a commentary track, interviews and biographies of all the actors and directors, including a fantastic nearly 10 page one on visionary producer Jerry Gross whose numerous credits are like a history of exploitation cinema in itself, from vd scare films to blaxploitation and slasher flicks. The 10 or so previews are long and range from classics like Cannibal Holocaust to the impossibly obscure ( "american hippy in Israel???")
The film itself is amazing. Swings for the fences, runs on all cylinders, etc. You can't really mess with it. the commentary is great, especially the directors preposterous obsession and pride in the medical / scientific aspects of the plot, which can be boiled down to the fact that when humans get rabies they also develop an aversion to water before they die. But he goes on and on about it. and no one cares.
