Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker 4K Review (Severin)

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (aKa Night Warning) is a 1981 horror film directed by William Asher (I Love Lucy, Bewitched, Johnny Cool, Alice, The Bad News Bears, and Bikini Beach). It was written by Steve Breimer, Alan Jay Glueckman (Russkies, Gross Anatomy, The Face of Fear, Swamp Thing, and Xena: Warrior Princess), and Boon Collins Abducted 1/2, The Protector, and The Chosen One). Michael Miller was the original director. It was shot by both Jan de Bont (Speed 1/2, Twister, The Haunting, Cujo, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Flatliners, Black Rain, Lethal Weapon 3, and Basic Instinct) and Robbie Greenberg (Swamp Thing, Free Willy, Under Siege 2, Save the Last Dance, Lucifer’s Women, and Wild Hogs). It was edited by cult filmmaker Ted Nicolaou (Subspecies franchise, TerrorVision, Bad Channels, The Dungeonmaster, Savage Island, and Remote). Billy Lynch (played by: Jimmy McNichol from General Hospital, Smokey Bites the Dust, The Fitzpatricks, and California Fever) lives with his protective aunt Cheryl (played by: Susan Tyrrell from Cry-Baby, Bad, Powder, Poison Ivy: The New Seduction, Forbidden Zone, Angel franchise, From a Whisper to a Scream, Fat City, and Big Top Pee-wee) who has raised him since his parents died in a car accident when he was younger. A gifted basketball player, Billy is offered a possible scholarship but Cheryl rejects that dream. At school, Billy is bullied by his jealous teammate Eddie (played by: Bill Paxton from Near Dark, True Lies, Frailty, Aliens, Twister, A Simple Plan, Club Dread, Predator 2, Weird Science, Mortuary, Streets of Fire, and Tombstone). He is one of the favorites of his coach Tom Landers (played by: Steve Eastin from Con Air, Field of Dreams, Dexter, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Hidden, Catch Me If You Can, When a Stranger Calls, and Robot Wars). Photographer Julia (played by: Julia Duffy from Newhart, Battle Beyond the Stars, Wacko, Intolerable Cruelty, and Designing Women) shows interest in Billy. So everything is starting to go great for the teen who’s used to having bad luck. Cheryl changes her mind about the scholarship and she tries to get on Billy’s good side. Billy witnesses a gruesome crime committed by his aunt. A ruthless police detective Joe Carlson (played by: Bo Svenson from The Inglorious Bastards, Kill Bill, Speed 2, Primal Rage, Curse II, Beyond the Door III, Maniac Killer, The Delta Force, and Walking Tall) is investigating the case. He continues to harass the family as he uncovers new information about the situation. Sergeant Cook (played by: Britt Leach from Weird Science, The Great Outdoors, The Last Starfighter, Silent Night Deadly Night, and Tales from the Crypt) doesn’t believe that Billy is involved unlike the mean spirited Carlson who won’t leave him alone. Cheryl becomes more unhinged as everything starts to change around her. Cheryl’s nosy neighbor Margie (played by: Marcia Lewis from The Ice Pirates, Who’s Watching the Kids, and Goodtime Girls) is suspicious about her so she does her own investigation. Cheryl is willing to do whatever it takes to protect herself and her family. Has Cheryl lost her grip on reality???? Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is one of those titles that instantly grabs your attention right away. Veteran television director William Asher is such an odd choice for this 80’s horror feature. He learned so much doing those bigger productions back in the day so his skills are definitely there but I feel like at times he was out of his element because this wasn’t his genre at all. Luckily, he had one of the best DPs at the time shooting his movie so it worked out for him when it comes to the visuals. I remember when I originally heard about this one and it ended up being totally different than I thought it would be. Just considering the artwork and the title alone, this has to be slasher right? It’s a psycho drama with incest and gay undertones plus a dangerous explosion waiting to happen anytime with it’s off the wall characters. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker technically gets into similar slasher territory during the 2nd half but it’s so much more than that. Character actress Susan Tyrrell gives one of the greatest unhinged performances in the history of cinema. She’s weird at first but she slowly becomes something else as her life starts to feel different. It’s one of my favorite over the top roles when it comes to horror. Bo Svenson is a nasty and hateful son of a bitch here. He makes everyone likeable when compared to him. That’s a special kind of talent considering Susan Tyrrell is batshit crazy and he’s worse than her without hesitation. Jimmy McNichol is a decent lead but he’s severely outshined by the two mentioned above. For this type of movie, the cast is very impressive. Lots of future familiar faces like Britt Leach, Bill Paxton, Julia Duffy, and Steve Eastin. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker provides enough gore to satisfy any horror fan. It has a nice twists and the finale is non stop chaos. Strong replay value, I personally think it gets better with each revisit. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Severin Films! This 2160p (1.85:1) transfer is a brand new 4K restoration from the original camera negative. It’s a major improvement over the previous Code Red release. It’s wild that this 80’s horror flick actually got the 4K treatment. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track on the UHD. All of the dialogue is very clean, the madness is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. Let’s talk about the special features from Severin Films! It has “Audio Commentary” # 1 with lead actor Jimmy McNichol. “Audio Commentary” # 2 with co-writers Steve Breimer and Alan Jay Glueckman, Moderated By Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson. “Audio Commentary” # 3 with co-producer Eugene Mazzola. Lots of variety and different information between all these commentaries. It has a “Trailer”. These are the only extras on the UHD. The rest of the extras are located on the blu ray. “Extreme Prejudice” is a brand new and exclusive 10 minute interview with actor Bo Svenson. He goes over his acting process and making it feel more natural. He chats about his hateful character in this. He talks about working with director William Asher. “Point And Shoot” is a brand new and exclusive 15 minute interview with director of photography Robbie Greenberg. He chats about coming to Los Angeles from San Francisco. He talks about getting into cinematography. He brings up replacing the legendary Jan de Bont for this project when the original director Micheal Miller was gone. He goes over his experience with the newly added director here and how he was such a surprising choice for this type of movie. He breaks down some of shoot and certain scenes. He chats about some of main cast from this production. “Family Dynamics” is a brand new and exclusive 17 minute interview with editor Ted Nicolaou. He chats about how he got into editing and other jobs when he first started out. He brings up some of the earlier films that he worked on including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Tourist Trap. He says cinematographer Jan De Bont got him this gig but unfortunately he didn’t stay long on the project when the first director got replaced. He goes over some of important characters and actors from this. He gives it props from being ahead of it’s time when it comes to horror. It has around 46 minutes of “Archival Cast And Crew Interviews” from the original Code Red release. It has separate interviews with Jimmy McNichol, Susan Tyrrell, Steve Eastin, Allan A. Apone and Steve Breimer. Susan Tyrrell steals the show here. She’s hilarious in this, she has some entertaining stories and reactions. She experiences watching this for the very first time which is so much fun to view. They chat about how they got involved with this. They talk about their characters, work, and their experience on the movie. They all show their appreciation for each other in this. It covers the special fx. A few bigger actresses brought up that originally auditioned for the film. It has a “Trailer” and a “TV Spot”. This version comes with a Webstore exclusive slipcover, reversible artwork, and a blu ray copy. It’s available on the Severin site right now. The standard release is available everywhere on May 28th, CHECK IT OUT!!!!