During the early years of the Home Video revolution, major studios were rather reluctant to release their most prized films onto VHS, Beta, Laserdisc or even Select-a-Vision. The brand-new video stores need the have boxes on the shelf so curious people that got a VCR for Christmas would want to pay the fee to join their video clue. Besides getting all the notable titles, the shops would get straight to video films that looked interesting. There were other video rental clubs that would get truly indie films to cater to the cult audience that wanted to see the stuff Hollywood was frightened to make and release. If you could make a low budget feature film with an interesting catch or nightmarish effect, you were going to get hooked up with a distribution deal. You might not get rich, but there was a chance you could make your budget back and perhaps pay your crew. Transfer quality didn’t matter in the ’80s. VHS wasn’t supposed to look like you were in a movie theater. There were pan and scan off Cinemascope transfers put out by big studios that looked like muck. While some low budget straight to video filmmakers shot in 16mm, director Bret McCormick dared to go smaller. He shot The Abomination on Super 8 film. This tiny format didn’t stop people around the country looking at the video box and admiring the bloody graphics. They were eager to rent the VHS tape at Video Depot to see if it was as gory as promised. As long as they could make out blood and guts on their 23″ Sony Trinitron, they were thrilled. Now the Super 8 cult horror film is getting upgraded to Blu-ray.
Cody (Scott Davis) keeps having disturbing nightmares about murder and a weird meat thing with teeth. can’t stand how his religious mother has been glued to a local televangelist’s show. Cody accuses Brother Fogg of being a shame that’s stealing her money. The minister has promised to remove the tumor in her lung when she called in and donate money. When she puts her hand on the TV to be healed by Brother Fogg, she ends up coughing up the tumor. Except the hunk of meat that came out of her, starts moving. It sneaks into Cody’s bed and “connects” with him. The tumor begins to grow in the kitchen and needs fresh people. Cody is compelled to hunt down and kill people. The tumor monster keeps growing as Cody does his bidding. Can Cody turn his little house into the Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas?
The Abomination is a fun indie horror film that shows how you could make a movie on an extreme shoestring and have an impact in the ’80s. Bret McCormick could have spent years hoping to raise a budget to shoot in 16mm. But grabbed a home movie camera and made a film with his producer’s family members to make the blood flow. He knew that in the VHS era, it was the effects of the tumor creature that was going to get more eyeballs than IMAX quality film stock. The lack of resolution probably helps the film seem a bit more realistic since we don’t get a clear picture of the tumor monster. The good news is the effects look like they cost more than the rest of the film. The acting in the film is also helped by the Super 8 aesthetic. You really only get close up on them when they get their throats slashed (which also comes off as effective on the screen). The movie remains fun and gruesome after all these decades. The Abomination will make you worry about anything you spit up eventually growing teeth.
The Video is 1.33:1 full frame. The 1080p transfer is an upgrade off the SD video master. You get all the glory of the original film’s Super 8 source. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 2.0. It’s a clean sound for a film that seems to be recorded mostly in post-production. The movie is subtitled.
12 page mini comic book with the meat of The Abomination movie. This is fun addition. It’s only available for the first pressing so grab it fast.
Commentary with Director Bret McCormick, Rob Hauschild and Matt Desiderio of Visual Vengeance gets into how the film came to be and make in onto the shelves of video stores around this country (and world). Bret admits the opening “nightmare” was the sizzle trailer. He did it to stretch the running time. He explains why he used Max Raven and Bando Glutz in the credits.
Commentary with Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine gets into the impact of the film over the decades. He enjoy all the gore on the screen.
Monster Kid Movie Maverick (73:37) interviews Bret McCormick. He talks about sneaking up late and seeing a babysitter watching From Hell It Came on TV. The killer tree terrified him. He also talks about how a relative with a film camera, helped him understand the concept of film.
Actress Blue Thompson Interview (6:30) has the actress that played Kelly talk about working on the movie because she was involved with Bret. This was the only time she acted. She was up for the gore and blood, but it was a lot of work.
Actress Victoria Chaney Interview (5:11) talks about her family being in the film. She was impressed by her son’s special effects work. She confesses to hooking up with a cast member. She shows off the monkey and the dog painting. She admits it is a copy so it’s not that valuable.
Interview with The Abomination’s Original VHS distributor: Michael Jack Shoel (14:47) talks about his early days at Donna Michelle Productions when he was trying to find a horror film to put out on VHS and Beta. He met McCormick at AFM. He sold the tapes to small mom & pop video store operations. They have photos of his Bret’s mom visiting the office to thank the folks working the phones to sell. He has a great tale about the phone guy who was on crack. This is great to understanding the days of home video from the distribution perspective. There was a convention for video store owners.
The Abomination – Filming Locations Tour (13:10) shows that in 2022, a lot of Poolsville, Texas hasn’t changed. We learn about the person who was extremely cooperative with the production. He also talks about things that were shot for Ozone: Attack of the Redneck Mutants.
Super 8 Outtakes and Raw Footage – Reel 1 (28:34) are all the outtakes. I’m not sure if they used a slate.
Super 8 Outtakes and Raw Footage – Reel 2 (17:47) is even more footage with audio. They did do second takes.
Behind The Scenes “The Stairway” (1:21) is people coming up a stairwell and having fun.
Behind The Scenes “Tumor Test” (1:37) has the effects folks spitting up stuff to see what works best on film.
Image Gallery (2:53) has behind the scenes photos snapped during production. You can see that he really used a Super8 camera.
Interview with “The Abomination” is a text interview with the creature at the center of the film.
Bret McCormick – Original Super 8 Films (5:55) includes innertubing over a dam in the river, jumping off a bridge and a dinosaur floating on a lake. Plus there’s a stop motion animated cartoons.
Visual Vengeance Trailer (1:05) sells us the family nightmare, the guts and the hungry abomination.
Bret McCormick Trailer Archive includes Ozone: Attack of the Redneck Mutants, Repligator, Highway to Hell, Reanimator Academy, Children of Dracula, Bio-Tech Warriors and Time Tracers.
6 page Booklet with Essay by Tony Strauss
‘Stick Your Own’ VHS Sticker Set to decorate your disc box.
Video Vengeance presents The Abomination. Directed by Bret McCormick. Screenplay by Bret McCormick. Starring Scott Davis, Blue Thompson, Suzy Meyer, Bret McCormick, Jude Johnson and Rex Morton. Running Time: 90:15. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: September 26, 2023.
