Why So Blu?

Breeders (Blu-ray Review)

Breeders director Tim Kincaid AKA Joe Cage is the Grabby Award-nominee for Men’s Room: Bakerfield Station.  The film stars Lance Lewman (Riot On 42^nd Street), Teresa Farley (Bad Girls Dormitory) with co-stars Frances Raines (Disconnected) and Natalie O’Connell (Bad Girls Dormitory).  The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Empire Pictures in May 1986. Naturally, the film was panned across the board by those who saw it, citing it for reasons that it can be enjoyed now in an unintentionally entertaining and whacky fashion.  It was subsequently released on VHS by Wizard Video.  The film was officially released on DVD by MGM in 2001.  Now, the folks over at Olive Films have carried this one over to Blu-ray, making its legacy leap forward to another format.

Film 

Fearing that their city is the target of a serial rapist, Manhattan Detective Dale Androtti finds an unlikely ally in Dr. Gamble Pace when they are teamed up to investigate the brutal crimes. Their suspicions, unbelievable as they may seem, will lead them to a terrifying discovery that an alien life form is impregnating women to reproduce his species.

Looking for a crazy, late night, exploitative excursion?  Breeders has got you fully covered!  The film dabbles in silliness and ridiculousness to deliver a highly entertaining experience.  No, this film is not intending itself to be taken in the way you’re going to see it, but damnit if it that isn’t the reason it succeeds in being so.  The only thing I think they intended to overdo in the film is tits and blood.  And yeah, this movie has a plenty abundance of naked women and grossness.

The film’s plot is pretty much outright absurd.  Helping matters in selling this is the either loose or wooden performances to carry the film.  These are some of the most fun.  Teresa Farley, who plays Dr. Gamble, might be a redwood in terms of all time performances like hers.  Nobody here can sell anything well and they all try to do it as straight as possible.  This isn’t quite Troma-level poor, but its almost like a Troma film with a serious direction and a bit more talent behind the camera.

I had never taken in Breeders before, but I’m super happy I did now.  I had an absolute riot with the craziness this film has to offer.  Lots of naked women, lots of b-movie level practical effects and gore.  Some of it is actually pretty cool and some of it feels like a radioactive horror of the 1950s throwback.  Its got all the makings of something like a Troll 2.  Its not quite near that level of shit production, but it plays in the same league.  If you’re a midnight movie fan, a RiffTrax/MST3K fan or addicted to schlock, you HAVE to see this.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Clarity/Detail:  I was really surprised at how good this one looked.  It features a pretty crisp transfer for what it is.  The image features a good clarity and good enough sharpness consistently throughout.  Detail is well above average as clothing patterns and texture look good as can be when clothes are loud colors.  Details on the creatures are very good too as well as walls, flooring and other surfaces.  No, its not the transfer of the year, but I think it’ll surprise some people.

Depth:  This one has surprisingly good depth.  No, its not wowing and merely more average, but it has some solid spacing work and the movements are very smooth and cinematic.

Black Levels:  Blacks are pretty accurate and have good shading and the like.  It isn’t perfect, detail on dark articles of clothing, surfaces and hair can lose some detail or be hard to make out a texture.  But its overall an above average presentation of blacks.

Color Reproduction:  Colors are pretty bold.  80s coloring come across as vivid and pop right off the screen, but don’t go as far as to bleed.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones are mostly natural but look a little lightened up.  Facial features such as make-up, cracks, lip texture and wrinkles all show through nicely in close-up shots.  Medium shots can very between some good detail and being smooth looking.

Noise/Artifacts: Some grain and very light specs/grain.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: N/A

Dynamics:  The film has a nice sounding analog sourced track.  The ambiance and vocals mish mash a bit here and there in a couple environments, but its not really that bad.  You’ll be surprised how clean this does sound.  The score is rich in this mix and sounds lovely.  Effects are also quite well rounded.  Overall, with the video, it makes for the solid presentation you didn’t imagine this movie would have going in.

Low Frequency Extension:  N/A

Surround Sound Presentation:  N/A

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is a bit analog sound and a hair low in the mix.  As mentioned, there are some environments visited in the movie where the ambient noise gets a little in the way of the track’s clarity.  But, its not distraction or anything, just something I have to point out.

Extras 

Trailer (HD, 1:40) 

Summary 

I really enjoyed Breeders.  Its a silly movie featuring b-level effects and c level direction and d- level perfromances.  Its schlcok, its exploitation and its pretty 80s.  No, not a good movie at all, but its a damn entertaining one.  I found Olive Films’ Blu-ray presentation of it to be quite surprisingly very good.  No, nothing but a trailer for bonus features, but you don’t need them.  It should come with a case of brew for you and some friends to share while having a good time watching.  Please, Olive Films, lets have some more output like this on your release slate in 2016.