The Flesh Eaters Blu-ray - Martin Kosleck / Barbara Wilkin

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Jack Curtis
USA 1964

Hungry for horror? Director Jack Curtis (the voice of Pops on Speed Racer in the USA!) offers you a feast to die for with The Flesh Eaters.

A flight chartered by a petulant film actress and her secretary goes haywire when a storm and engine trouble force their down-on-his-luck pilot to land on a remote island. But this island is inhabited by Prof. Peter Bartell, a scientist with a disturbing past … and an even more disturbing present. Experimenting on mysterious microbes existing in the waters surrounding the island, Bartell hopes to cultivate them into insatiable monstrosities capable of eating their prey’s skin in the blink of an eye!

An early entry in the Splatter Film subgenre, The Flesh Eaters boasts a screenplay by comics writer Arnold Drake, co-creator of four-color favorites Doom Patrol, Deadman, and the original Guardians Of The Galaxy.

***

An alcoholic actress, her personal assistant, and their pilot are downed on a secluded isle by bad weather, where a renegade Nazi scientist is using ocean life to develop a solvent for human flesh. The tiny flesh-eating sea critters that result certainly give our heroes a run for their money - and lives.

***

The Flesh Eaters is exactly why people subject themselves to bad sci-fi films. Every once and a while you come across a gem that elicits such sheer enjoyment, you are willing to forgive the previous five or six duds you sat through. This is a camp film of the highest order. A pilot, an alcoholic actress, and her personal assistant become stranded on an island with a mysterious Udo Kier-like scientist. All hope of escape seems lost however, when they discover that the waters around them are home to some ‘strange glowing things’ that like to feed on human flesh. Featuring some of the sharpest Z-grade dialogue this side of Ed Wood Jr. and an utterly absurd “suspense sequence” about traversing a two-foot span of rocks that simply has to be seen to be believed, this is the epitome of a bad drive-in picture. Simply put, I laughed from beginning to end, and loved every damn second of it.

Adam Lemke

Posters

Theatrical Release: March 18th, 1964

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Review: Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:27:04.260
Video	1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 33,392,113,205 bytes Feature: 24,577,935,360 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.00 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1684 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1684 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Shout! Factory 1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 33,392,113,205 bytes Feature: 24,577,935,360 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.00 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Alternate Cut Of The Film (Standard Definition) • Audio Commentary On The Alternate Cut With Writer/Producer Arnold Drake, Filmmaker Fred Olen Ray And Author/Film Historian Tom Weaver • “Flesh Eater’s Daughter” – Interview With Actress Liane Curtis (8:07) • Outtakes (0:50) • Storyboard Gallery (1:19) • Image Gallery (2:50) • Poster And Lobby Card Gallery • Trailers (4:16) Blu-ray Release Date: July, 2022 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (July 2023): Shout! Factory transferred Jack Curtis's The Flesh Eaters to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "NEW 2K Scan Of The Film From The Best Available Film Elements". Adam reviewed the Dark Sky DVD in 2005, HERE. Both of these are considered the "Director's Cut" as they remove the 'Nazi flashback sequence' sequence - partially shown as an extra. Released last year (I think) The Flesh Eaters was limited to 1500 copies on Blu-ray. I can only see it on eBay now. The 1080P image quality is decent, with a few speckles and marks infrequently surfacing. Contrast is exported adeptly but there may be some minor warping. We have compared captures to the included alternate version - which is in SD and the 2005 Dark Sky DVD. It is a notable difference - especially in-motion.

NOTE: We have added 80 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Shout! Factory use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. The Flesh Eaters has many funky effects and aggressive 'creature' sequences. They carry a modest, almost hollow, depth. The score was credited to Julian Stein, her only feature film credit. With a few wild flourishes, it didn't sound ineffective. It is augmented by samplings of It's a Wonder sung by Anita Ellis, Pete's Beat (in the opening) performed by Arnold Drake and Mars Calling by Noel Regney. Shout! Factory offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Shout! Factory Blu-ray offers a new commentary only on 'The Alternate Cut' (SD) with writer/producer Arnold Drake, filmmaker Fred Olen Ray and author/film historian Tom Weaver (A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde: Interviews with 62 Filmmakers.) As I understand it, this commentary was scheduled for a Retromedia DVD (supplements produced by Fred Olen Ray) that was cancelled once the Dark Sky DVD claimed the rights to the film. Arnold Drake discusses specifics about the production, ex. the post DUB'ing, dialogue, how there were two sessions of shooting - some shot almost a year later etc. It covered a lot of the making of the film, shot in Long Island, Montauk, and The Hamptons, editor Radley Metzger's (future director including Camille 2000, The Image and The Lickerish Quartet) perception of exploitation being utilized ("totally made up",) and behind the scenes production decisions. Quite informative. “Flesh Eater’s Daughter” is an 8-minute interview with actress Liane Curtis, daughter of director Jack Curtis and Paulette Rubinstein. She discusses her and her father's careers. There are 50-seconds of "Outtakes" with no audio. They seem to be extended from the Nazi experimentation flashback scenes (seen at about 1:06:00 in the included SD version)

but not the 'colorized blood shot' supposedly in the conclusion, that I could not find. The "Outtakes" have brief nudity where the sequences on the SD version do not. Lastly are a storyboard slideshow sequence (the opening scene) entitled "Arnold Drake's Storyboard Drawing" an image gallery, a poster and lobby card gallery and some trailers, or TV Spots, running consecutively.

Jack Curtis's low-budget The Flesh Eaters is provocative for extending the boundaries of it's gruesome gore content well before the wave of such films existed. The film offers 'high camp'-laden innovation in the visual effects with ineffective post cinematographic inclusions. The Flesh Eaters is often cited for its use of deep focus cinematography. In 1967, George A. Romero actually changed the name of his intended 1967 horror title from Night of the Flesh Eaters to Night of the Living Dead to avoid confusion with Curtis's 1964 film. The Flesh Eaters was destined for cult status - an unusual, but memorable effort early to 'push the envelope' in terms of graphic content and ambitious special effects. A definite keeper for this reviewer. Best of luck to anyone keen finding the Shout! Factory Blu-ray on eBay at a reasonable price. It's "so bad it's good" is probably an understatement.