Digi-Schlock: INVALUABLE (Synapse Blu-Ray)
Schlockmania recently covered Invaluable in film review form and found it to be an interesting documentary about the career and life of Tom Sullivan, whom you could call the secret hero of The Evil Dead. Nearly a decade after its production, it has finally made it to home video courtesy of Synapse Films in a blu-ray special edition. To their credit, they've put together a really impressive package for the fans that delivers an entire additional feature-length documentary as well as scads of other extras. Read on for all the Deadite-delighting details...
Transfer: Invaluable isn't as visually sleek as the kinds of documentaries genre fans have become accustomed to in recent years via special edition home video releases. It was shot on the fly using consumer-level cameras so it has a raw, sometimes soft look to it. The transfer does a solid job with what the film has to offer, bringing out as much color and detail as the source material can produce. The 2.0 stereo sound mix is presented in LPCM and offers a clear, solidly-mixed soundscape without any distortion or other flaws.
Other Mens' Careers (77:00): though included here as an extra, this is as good as the main feature and often better in certain ways (tellingly, the disc menu treats it as a second film rather than an extra). It focuses on Josh Becker, a director who rose up alongside Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell and has made several features of his own. He never quite broke through in a way comparable to Raimi and Campbell and this documentary digs into that, with Becker giving no-holds-barred interviews that reveal a big personality that is witty and intelligent but also uncompromising, confrontational and caustic. Campbell provides sympathetic commentary on his virtues and there are also interesting insights from Sullivan and Robert Tapert, who hired Becker to direct several Xena: Warrior Princess episodes. It's a fascinating piece of work that explores Becker's life and career in way that balances empathy with criticism, resulting in a piece of work as tough as the filmmaker himself.
Extended Josh Becker Interview (06:34): a bonus interview clip from Invaluable. Extended interviews are often lightweight stuff with one decent quip or moment but this is entertaining and revealing all the way through. Becker tells some great stories about Sam Raimi's obsessive yet uncommunicative and somewhat sadistic directing techniques as a young man, the suffering the FX crew went through and some great anecdotes about Sullivan that reveal his character as a person and an artist. Brief but essential.
Unedited Tim Philo Interview (48:17): Like Sullivan, Philo is one of the unsung heroes of The Evil Dead for translating Raimi's vision into celluloid imagery. This full-length version of the interview used for a few clips in Invaluable is a great listen for fans, with Philo offering a fond yet clear remembrance of the film's lengthy and often arduous shoot with Sullivan prompting him with questions by speakerphone. You learn about how the unique camera rigs were devised, just how long and challenging the shoots could be and a great memory of Raimi telling him during a break how it was both the worst and the best time they would have as filmmakers.
In The Spotlight (50:31): this is an interview show from a high school public access show that Sullivan appeared on in 1989. A pair of horror fan teens interview him about his career in films: the questioning is basic but Sullivan gives quality answers, offering plenty of detail and helpful tips for enthusiasts. Look for an interesting section about halfway through when Sullivan shows off an array of props and effects created for the first two Evil Deads, with detailed explanations of how they were made, the materials used and the concepts behind their design.
Cosmos Locos (29:52): a short film from Meade that plays like his version of a Kevin Smith Clerks-esque premise but set in a comic book store. It's very broad and slapstick in style but horror and comic book fans will appreciate its sense of place and well-observed details behind the lunacy. It's of interest to fans of the documentary because Sullivan plays a major role in the film, as does some Evil Dead lore, and you even get a comedic cameo from Becker.
Bong Fly (18:58): another Meade-directed short about a trio of stoned slackers who get in serious trouble when one of them crank calls the wrong cop. The latter character is played by Evil Dead alum Hal Delrich and you'll notice a snippet of source music from that film on the soundtrack, too. It's goofball in an amiable way and reminiscent of the kind of stuff you might see in a film school short film roundup.
Bong Fly BTS (10:29): Not really so much a behind-the-scenes piece as a series of outtakes and goofing around from the shoot. It looks like they were having a pretty good time.
Bonus Interviews: three brief snippets from Invaluable's cutting room floor that range from just under a minute to just over two minutes. "Turkey Or Chicken?" and "Boobies" are both amusingly sophmoric memories from the Evil Dead shoot, both involving Campbell. However, the most interesting of the three is "Cry Of Cthulhu," which tells the tale of an unproduced Lovecraft fantasy epic that Sullivan was involved in conceiving.
Other Extras: The bonus features are rounded out by a pair of trailers, both over three minutes each. They're very close to each other in structure and general use of clips from the documentary but the first is more emotionally complex, touching on the dark drama that pervades the film's second half, while the second is more a celebration of Sullivan and his work. Also included is an image gallery consisting of snaps of Sullivan at conventions, often interacting with fellow Evil Dead alumni.
Summation: consider Invaluable the deep dive item you pick up after you've consumed all the supplements available on past Evil Dead and Evil Dead II releases. Synapse has served up with plenty of bells and whistles in the extras department, with Other Men's Careers really standing out for fans of the filmmaker circle that Raimi emerged from. If you're already a fan of Raimi and his colleagues, there's plenty of deep-cut information here that's worth digging into.