Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants Blu Ray Review (Visual Vengeance)

Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants is a 1986 horror film produced and directed by Matt Devlen (Hollywood on A Shoestring, Tabloid, and The Remainees). It was written by Brad Redd. It was produced by Bret McCormick (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Shark, Time Tracers, The Abomination, Highway to Hell, Armed for Action, Night Trap, Blood on the Badge, Cyberstalker, Rumble in the Streets, and Repligator). When a toxic chemical spill tears open the ozone above rural Texas, backwoods locals mutate into drooling, slime-choked ghouls with an insatiable appetite for consuming flesh. Environmental science student Arlene Wells (played by: Blue Thompson from Highway to Hell, Tabloid, and The Abomination) and hitchhiker Kevin Muncy (played by: Scott Davis from The Abomination, Roller Blade, Witchcraft III: The Kiss of Death, Necessary Roughness, and The Swordsman) stumble into the madness as small-town life collapses into a grotesque carnival of green vomit, yellow pus, and blood-soaked carnage!!!! Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants is a no budget experience with some wild looking monsters in it. It’s from the same creative team that put out The Abomination so you already know what you are getting into with this one. Herschell Gordon Lewis once called director Matt Devlen “one of the future young talents to watch out for when it comes to exploitation”. This 80’s production is all about it’s unique special fx and gruesome gore from a crew that only worked on this somehow. The mutants kinda remind me of a mix of the zombies from both Hell of the Living Dead and Nightmare City. I just wish it was more consistent towards the first half. Regardless, that’s the main reason to explore this. Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants takes awhile to really get somewhere. It’s a little boring for the first 40 minutes to be completely honest besides the awesome opening. It tries too hard with character development that doesn’t go anywhere. So it does require patience but it makes up for it’s last 30 minutes. It has some familiar faces as the leads, both Blue Thompson and Scott Davis were in several crazy horror movies over the years. The rest of the supporting cast includes Brad McCormick (The Abomination), Janice Williams (Tabloid), Rhonda Rooney (Tabloid), Barbara Dow (Nudist Colony of the Dead), and Richard Hawk (Hart to Hart). The additional performers in this only did this film and they never went back to acting again. All of the performances are way over the top and wacky here. It’s an interesting entry when it comes to Hillbilly Horror. It’s actually worth looking into just for it’s violence and brutality. It’s not really a long movie by any means but I think it would have been better if it was shorter because the pacing and flow for it is very sluggish. That’s the biggest challenge with Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants. I personally thought after it hit 40 minutes, it was easier to enjoy. It rewards the audience for staying around. Visual Vengeance delivers another rarity to home video. I love discovering unknown films especially when it comes to horror. It’s something that I’ve never heard of until it was announced for this!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Visual Vengeance! This 1080p (1.33:1) unrated transfer is from a new remaster from the original tape elements. I haven’t seen it before so I don’t have anything to compare it to. It looks better than expected for what they had to work with. Those special fx pop out the most when it comes to the visuals. It has an English: Dolby Digital 2.0 track on the disc. The audio is solid but it’s not going to blow your mind or anything. It has it’s moments especially towards the finale. All of the dialogue is clean, the gore is elevated, and the music has a big boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. It has an “Audio Commentary” with producer Bret McCormick and lead actress Blue Thompson. It has an additional “Audio Commentary” with Sam Panico and Bill Van Ryan. Both are very different from each other so it gives you some variety. Lots of entertaining information and detailed stories shared during these tracks including doing more than one job while working on this independent production from the first one. The other is more focused on fans and critics sharing their honest opinions on everything. It has a little over 10 minute “Interview” with lead actress Blue Thompson. She chats about some of the projects that she worked on which includes The Abomination and Ozone: The Attack of the Redneck Mutants. She talks about getting a bigger role in this one compared to the previous. She didn’t have much time to learn the script but she pulled it off. She got to shoot a gun for the very first time. She goes over working with both Matt Devlen and Bret McCormick. She points out some differences between them. She brings up her overall experience and the people from this shoot. She dives into the special fx and some of the crazier stuff from the 80’s feature. It has the little over 9 minute “Interview” with director Matt Devlen from Cinema Wasteland. He goes over his beginnings as an actor. He chats about his working relationship and collaborations with producer Bret McCormick. He brings up having bad luck with distribution early on. The VHS and Video market made it easier to do whatever you wanted back in the day. He’s very honest about how Muther Video was started because of previous problems and issues with his debut movie. It has the almost 11 minute “Director Matt Devlen – Producer Trailer Reel”. It has the little over 7 minute “Barbara Dow – Acting Reel”. It has the little over 18 minute “Ozone Interview” with director Mark Pirro. He chats about being an inspiration for Matt Devlen and one of the reasons that got him behind the camera after seeing “A Polish Vampire in Burbank”. He says he made one of the first made for video features. He talks about his work over the years. He brings up his relationship with Matt Devlen and them bonding over Super 8. He explains that they had to keep it secret that they were using Super 8 for full lengths back in the day. He mentions the differences of filming from the past to right now. The conversation gets very weird towards the end and it doesn’t have anything to do with this movie or it’s director. It has the little over 13 minute “Ozone / The Abomination Locations Visit”. I love these types of extras. It shows what these locations looked like during the 80’s compared to present day. There’s a big difference between all of that time. It has the little over 6 minute Super 8 short film “Babies”. It has a little over 2 minutes of “Deleted Scenes”. It has a little over 15 minutes of “Ozone Outtakes: Reel One”. It has a little over 14 minutes of “Ozone Outtakes: Reel Two”. It has a little over 12 minutes of “Ozone Special Effects Outtakes”. There’s plenty of additional footage from this independent production on all of these. I think it’s really cool that they were able to save all of this material for this long. It was perfect for a home video release like this. It has almost 37 minutes worth of “Muther Video – Original VHS Intros Reel”. There’s some crazy entertaining stuff here for their earlier VHS stuff. It has the almost 9 minute “Hollywood Unseen: Public Access Ozone Review”. The critics break down the story and their overall thoughts on it. They even compare it to Romero which is wild. It has little over a minute “Ozone Image Gallery”. It has the Visual Vengeance “Ozone Trailer”. It has a “Trailer” for Matt Devlen’s Tabloid. It has a variety of Visual Vengeance related “Trailers”. It comes with a high quality slipcover. It has brand new artwork underneath and the old school cover on the other side. It comes with a mini poster, sheet of retro rental stickers, a Muther Video sticker, Ozone mutant puke bag, and the comic book adaptation. As always, Visual Vengeance kills it again when it comes to it’s top notch packaging. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!