The Visitor Home Video Release Will Knock Your Socks Off
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I’m a big fan of Drafthouse Films. The movies they curate are some of the most fascinating and extraordinary selections of forgotten genre movies such as Miami Connection and Wake in Fright, contemporary foreign films like Bullhead, and interesting and offbeat documentaries including The Act of Killing and The Final Member. Drafthouse Films has a keen eye for the eccentric, and their new home video offerings are no different. They’re handling the home video release of the most obscure “mockbusters” of the last 35 years, The Visitor.
Drafthouse Films, along with Cinedigm, will finally release the you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it movie on home video in March. While the film is extremely obscure, it features a hodgepodge of recognizable celebrities and filmmakers. Actors like Lance Henriksen and Shelley Winters put in appearances, while director John Huston plays the character of Jerzy Colsowicz and The Wild Bunch‘s Sam Peckinpah makes a cameo as well. Hell, even the original Django Franco Nero appears in the film as a shaman of sorts. The movie is packed to the gills with strangeness, and it includes one of my favorite science fiction moments of 2013. It has to be seen.
The Visitor follows a young girl named Katy Collins, a Christ-like alien eight-year-old with telekinetic powers. Her mother Barbara needs to give birth to a male with the same powers as Katy, so they can one day mate to keep the telekinetic bloodline going. That’s right, Katy has to mate with her future brother in order to save humanity. The film gets stranger when “The Visitor” and his legion of telekinetic children arrive to help Katy’s telekinetic powers stay on the side of good.
The bonus features for The Visitor are a bit sparse, but there’s probably not much out there for such an obscure 1970s science fiction movie. Still, the bonus features it does have are worth the purchase for the digital download alone.
- Interviews with star Lance Henriksen, screenwriter Lou Comici and cinematographer Ennio Guarnieri
- Theatrical trailer
- 16-page booklet
- Digital download
Drafthouse Films and Cinedigm will release Abel Ferrara’s masterpiece Ms. 45 on Blu-ray/DVD on March 25 as well. Ms. 45 is a brilliant film about revenge and female empowerment that is as relevant today as it was during its 1981 release. The film is full of style and charm, and it’s a must-see for any film fan. It also features one of the best performances from a non-actor with the debut feature performance from the late Zoë Tamerlis Lund. It’s a fantastic picture!
The Visitor was dubbed a “knockoff blockbuster movie” and drew comparisons to more popular sci-fi and horror flicks such as The Omen, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Wars. The film also stars Glenn Ford, Mel Ferrer, Neal Boortz, Steve Somers, Joanne Nail, and Paige Conner. Italian filmmaker Giulio Paradisi (aka Michael J. Paradise) directed the film, while Ovidio G. Assonitis produced.
The Visitor will be released on Blu-ray/DVD on March 4.
