Violent New Breed Blu Ray Review (Visual Vengeance)

Violent New Breed is a 1997 horror film written and directed by Todd Sheets (Bonehill Road, Dreaming Purple Neon, Zombie Bloodbath franchise, Moonchild, Zombie Rampage, Goblin, Bloodthirsty Cannibal Demons, HI-8, House of Forbidden Secrets, Grindsploitation, HI-Death, HI-Fear, Clownado, and Dead Things). A vicious new street drug called Rapture is flooding New York City. Two burned-out cops Jack (played by: Mark Glover from Lady Street Fighter, Bloodthirsty Cannibal Demons, and Zombie Bloodbath 2) and Steve (played by: Nick Stodden from Dead Things, Zombie Bloodbath 2, Vampire Holocaust, The Shivers, and Clownado) are sent to trace its source. What they don’t know is that the poison was cooked up by an army of demons festering beneath Manhattan–creatures who have also birthed the Antichrist! Now it’s a race through sleaze-soaked streets with Satan’s spawn in tow, hoping to deliver the hell-baby to the last Pastor (played by: Rudy Ray Moore from Dolemite, The Human Tornado, Disco Godfather, Petey Wheatstraw, Big Money Hustlas, and The Monkey Hu$tle) in the city for a baptism before it unleashes hell on earth!!!! Todd Sheets is one of the underground kings of shot on video horror. He has tackled all kinds of different sub-genres over the years when it comes to horror. This is one of his best earlier efforts behind the camera. Violent New Breed probably only had a limited VHS and small local DVD run back in the day. It was mainly just a regional low budget production. Sheets regulars Mark Glover and Nick Stodden are the two brave cops that investigate these weird situations, drugs, and crimes on the streets. I like how Sheets flips it with Violent New Breed, any character can be killed in this. No one is safe and the heroes are questionable. Ironically, the best performance comes from blaxploitation legend Rudy Ray Moore as The Pastor. He only shows up towards the end but his role is very important. He doesn’t back down from anything here. His sharp dialogue is perfect for him and it usually rhymed which made it even cooler. The supporting cast includes Rebecca Rose (Zombie Bloodbath 2), Jenni Geigel (The Shivers), Becky Stodden (The Shivers), Dave Miller (Moonchild), Jody Rovick (Zombie Bloodbath), Jerry Angell (Bloodthirsty Cannibal Demons), Kathleen McSweeney (Moonchild), Rod Will (Zombie Bloodbath 2), Shannon Breckenridge (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit), Lily Strain (Sinistre), Pat Stodden (Vampire Holocaust), Stefan Hilt (Dominion), Will Crews (Zombie Bloodbath 3), Cathy Metz (Prehistoric Bimbos in Armageddon City), and Kyla Pratt (Gone in the Night). As you can see, most of the actors were Sheets regulars from some of his other features in the past. Lots of over the top performances and live action cartoon stuff when it comes to Violent New Breed but it fits with the material. It’s very ambitious for a smaller budget demon gore fest but it’s definitely in it’s own little world which makes it more interesting. It has loads of nasty violence, brutal kills, and graphic action that keeps itself extreme in this from the special fx team that includes artist Dana Cheney (Madhouse, Nightmare Asylum, Zombie Bloodbath franchise, Goblin, Zombie Rampage, and The Witching). It delivers on sleaze with plenty of nudity. There’s some unintentional humor in Violent New Breed that’s hilarious in a variety of scenes. It’s about 15 minutes too long so it does drag a little at times but I do appreciate it’s full character development and the various subplots thrown in the mix. It’s pretty damn original for independent 90’s horror and it’s a blast. It makes up for it’s flaws just for it’s pure entertainment value. This would be awesome with a crowd or a group of friends with some alcohol. I never expected this to get the royal home video treatment but Visual Vengeance continues to resurrect these obscure and lesser known titles to the public again. I really appreciate movies like Violent New Breed getting a brand new life in cinema after all these years, RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Visual Vengeance! This 1080p (1.33:1) uncensored director’s cut (1:44:35) transfer is a brand new remaster from the original tape elements. This restoration was approved by director Todd Sheets. Violent New Breed is never going to be reference quality when it comes to HD but this is a massive improvement over it’s previous versions. It’s the best it’s ever going to look on home video. It has an English: Dolby Digital 2.0 track. This actually sounds much better than expected. The action and crazy violence plus it’s soundtrack makes the most impact when it comes to the audio. All of the dialogue is clean, the insanity is elevated, and music has a solid boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. There’s a total of 4 different versions of Violent New Breed for this Blu Ray. It has the original DVD version (1:49:55), the Rated R cut from the Movie Channel (1:35:50), and the original VHS version (1:55:16) that’s even more extended. So there’s plenty of options, you can change up on each revisit. It has an “Audio Commentary” with Todd Sheets for the director’s cut moderated by Visual Vengeance’s own Rob Hauschild. Sheets is very honest about his experience shooting this no budget horror feature. He dealt with someone that was damn near trying to sabotage everything it seems. He has a great sense of humor about everything here. Fun fact, this was made during the same time as Robert Altman’s Kansas City that was working in the same area as this one. He is extremely blunt about it’s interesting release history and issues over the years. He points out changes for this director’s cut and doing the newer restoration for this 90’s demonic flick. The thing I was personally waiting on was how the hell did he get Rudy Ray Moore in this? I always thought it was random as hell that he was in Violent New Breed considering the rest of the cast. Sheets comes through, he shares some inside stories and personal information about the whole thing. The original DVD version has a few different “Audio Commentaries” of it’s own. The first one has Tony Strauss from Weng’s Chop Magazine. The other one has director Todd Sheets plus cast members Nick Stodden, Becky Stodden, and Antwoine Steel. The Tony Strauss track is all about the information and if you want to learn more about this, it’s worth revisiting with it. The Todd Sheets and cast is more of a fun experience but there’s still some nice stories from it. It’s a quality companion piece to any of the other options for Violent New Breed. It has the almost 28 minute “Interview” with director Todd Sheets and actor Jerry Angell. They chat about it’s cult following. The rough shoot for it’s lower budget. They run through hot weather conditions, locations, the cast, the crew, ambitious script, the violence,and collaborating with the iconic Rudy Ray Moore. It has the little over 5 minute “Working With Rudy Ray Moore”. It’s a short interview with director and writer Todd Sheets. He chats about how he got the blaxploitation star to do a cameo in his smaller Violent New Breed. He talks about the overall experience with him on the set and he was nervous about directing him. He goes over his character from this. He added some additional dialogue for his role. He tells some funny stories about Rudy Ray Moore doing a random comedy show at the motel that he was staying at. He had a decent budget to bring in one bigger name to help grab more attention to the movie. He admits he was considering Linda Blair at one point. There’s an archive little over 36 minute “Behind the Scenes” documentary. It has all kinds conversations with the cast and crew from Violent New Breed. Some of the same stuff is repeated from the earlier commentaries but there’s still enough material here to make it worth checking out. Sheets said it was his biggest production at the time. He had a friendship with Rudy Ray Moore on the phone before they worked together on this. He chats about taking advantage of locations available to him at the time. It’s one of his favorite openings from any of his work. Everyone breaks down their involvement with Violent New Breed. It has the little over 25 minute “The Nitehawk Screening with Q and A” from 2023. It features director Todd Sheets and actor Antwoine Steel plus it’s moderated by Visual Vengeance’s own Rob Hauschild. Sheets goes over how they got funding for this. He says it was very controversial when it originally aired on the Movie Channel. Sheets said he had to compete with so much competition for video space at rental stores so they had to go to another level to make it stand out more. There’s some hilarious stories here. It has the almost 10 minute “Blooper Reel”. It has little over a minute behind the scenes “Image Gallery”. It has the little over 2 minute local “Kansas City News Coverage”. It has a few interviews and behind the scenes footage from the set including some words from Rudy Ray Moore. It has the little over 4 minute unedited “Strip Club Sequence” with additional nudity. It has the almost 7 minute short film “Fistful of the Undead”. It’s a western and horror hybrid from Todd Sheets. It has a few different “Trailers” for Violent New Breed which includes the Original and the newer Visual Vengeance re-release one. It also has a few select “Trailers” that are all related to other Visual Vengeance home video releases. The packaging is always amazing when it comes to Visual Vengeance. The slipcover has some Ghana inspired artwork. It has a brand new exclusive artwork underneath plus the original artwork on the other side. It has a mini poster with the Ghana artwork, a sheet of retro rental stickers, a promotional card, and a high quality booklet. Visual Vengeance is one of my favorite boutique labels, this sub-label from Wild Eye Releasing has been killing it since they started. This Violent New Breed disc is jam packed with so much bonus material, I think around 12 hours worth when you add everything up. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!