Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection

Talk about a labor of love! The amount of work that went into this box set is simply staggering. The so called "great" directors of the 20th Century, Hitchcock, Capra, Billy Wilder, Coppola, Huston, Scorsese, Kubrick etc. have nothing as nice as this box set to represent their careers! I already had every Al Adamson film available on DVD, but the new transfers in this box absolutely BLOW AWAY every previous version available. Everything is brighter and clearer with better sound. Horror of the Blood Monsters, for example, now looks absolutely stunning! Adamson was famous for shooting a film, then re-shooting more scenes, often years later and then editing them together and re-releasing a "new" film. A well known example is Blood of Ghastly Horror which is actually made up of 3 different films each shot several years apart. Rather than just giving you the final version (which has been meticulously restored from original elements and looks amazing) you get ALL THREE versions (Psycho A Go Go, Fiend with the Electronic Brain and Blood of Ghastly Horror) so you can see how the movie changed as new scenes were shot. One thing you can appreciate after looking through this box is how Adamson made movies in every genre imaginable, perhaps more than any other director in history. He made horror films, science fiction, crime dramas, westerns, biker movies, classic blaxploitation, children's films, nudie films, comedy, UFO stories and even musicals! He may not have done anything that some critics consider great, but he sure did it all! Like Ed Wood (except way more prolific) he had a company of "stock" players that appear over and over in multiple films like John Carradine, Greydon Clark (later a famous bad film director in his own right), Vicky Volante, wife Regina Carrol, Robert Dix, Kent Taylor, Jennifer Bishop, Zandor Vorkov etc. You get to see a lot of older actors like Lon Chaney Jr, J. Carrol Naish, Jim Davis, Broderick Crawford doing their best under the circumstances. Adamson's films are almost always entertaining and I am thrilled his work will be preserved for eternity. Can't say enough great things about this box set! You also get the documentary that covers his horrible murder, and numerous bonus features on each disk. Buy this before they are all gone because they will start selling for crazy prices in the future.

Some of these movies have little to be desired, even Russ Tamblyn admitted that in one or the interviews on this set. Some of these movies were shot at different times and then put together to make a film that has changed its name several times. One of the stars of the female bunch said she did not even take off her clothes and yet they have someone else doing a sex scene of her character, that she did not even know about. These films were made in ten days or less and if it did not work why not put in a Dracula or Frankenstein to liven the picture up. These were drive in movies pure and simple. Sex, Horror, Motorcycles, old actors secret agents Kung Fu, and Stewardess. Even Al's death was just as weird as these movies. I wish they could have found more info on his UFO movie that was never finished. These were purely gems from another time. Just be warned that a lot of these movies were put together with the best quality they could find, which means you will see lines, distorted movie frames, even scenes being jumped. Its not the greatest Blu ray quality by any means. I even had several of the discs freeze up. But that how they looked at the drive in.

This is a fun collection if you like super campy low budget B movies from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I've only made a dent in this 32 film collection. Figured it will probably take me all summer to get through but I'm looking forward to watching all the films. The packaging is pretty unique and comes with a really cool book that tells you all about each film in detail. I don't think we will ever see another one of these releases ever again. This is a limited release so get it while you can!!!

Expensive set, make sure you know what you're in for! Al Adamson's movies are an acquired taste. Not for most people! I have been a fan for years so I was stoked when this was announced and I pre-ordered it direct from Severin.

I never heard of Al Adamson but bought this box anyway. I was curious what this masterpiece collection was about. I'm very pleased to discover it to be a lot of fun. Having watch 7 movies now, I really liked 6 of them. Great discovery! Highly recomended!

This set is packed with so many movies and extras. whether you are a longtime Al Adamson fan or someone wanting to check him out this is may be the best collection of films from one director.

Everything was exactly what I ordered. I'm very pleased.