THE NEW KIDS (1985)
Label: 101 Films
Region Code: B
Rating: 18 Cert.
Duration: 98 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English Dual Mono PCM with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Cast: James Spader, Lori Loughlin, Shannon Presby, Eddie Jones, Lucy Martin, Eric Stoltz, John Philbin, David H. MacDonald
Synopsis: After their parents die in a car crash, two all-American teens, Loren (Shannon Presby) and Abby (Lori Loughlin) go to live with relatives in a small Florida town. But trouble begins when members of a vicious gang, led by Dutra (James Spader), bet on who’ll be the first to seduce the innocent Abby. When she spurns their obscene advances, the thugs embark on a sadistic campaign of vandalism, arson and assault. The savagery escalates until Loren must defend himself and his sister in a brutal fight to the death in a carnival midway. It’s The New Kids... trying to make it in this town just might kill them!
Nasty 80's gem The New Kids (1985) was directed by Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th), in it we have newly orphaned teen siblings Abby (future law-breaker Lori Loughlin, Amityville 3-D) and Loren McWilliams (Shannon Presley) whose parents are killed in an vehicle accident at the start of the film. After the funeral the teens relocate to rural Florida to live with their uncle Charlie (Eddie Jones, C.H.U.D.) and aunt Fay (Lucy Martin), who run a small-time gas station/roadside attraction called Santa's Funland.
They settle into their new digs and attend a new highschool where things start off decently, both teens easily making friends with Abby starts dating nice-guy ginger Mark (Eric Stoltz, The Fly II) and Loren going-steady with the Sheriff's daughter Karen (Paige Lyn Price, Silent Madness). Things begin to sour when Abby draws the unwanted attention of albino-looking bad-boy Eddie Dutra (the eternal 80's asshole James Spader, Wolf), the drug-addicted head honcho of a group of Floridian teen-delinquents, his underlings include Gideon (John Philbin, Return of the Living Dead), Moonie (David H. MacDonald, Joy of Sex), Gordo and Joe Bob.
The delinquents begin to make life hell for the siblings, starting off by vandalizing their uncle's amusement park, then peeping Abby nude in the shower, and giving Loren a bathroom beat-down at school. This mischief culminates in a violent kidnap of Abby from the school dance, bringing the film to a violent and over-the-top finale that takes place at uncle Charlie amusement park where the teen thugs menace the sibling and their family with shotguns, along with threat of immolation and attack by a vicious bloodthirsty pit-bull.
This film is a nasty bit of fun from the eighties with enjoyable exploitation elements, starring the sweet-faced Lori Loughlin and the always reliable 80's teen-psycho James Spader, with the latter appearing here as a pale-skinned bleached-blonde creep with a not altogether authentic Southern drawl. The gang of teen bullies get more than they bargained for though, the sibling's late father (a too short lived Tom Atkins, Night of the Creeps) who trained them in military style self-defense, so they're not about to sit back and take this shit from some vicious small town bullies, resulting in some satisfying carnage, including a decapitation on a kiddie-sized roller coaster!
Audio/Video: The New Kids (1985) arrived on region B locked Blu-ray from 101 Films, licensed from Sony Pictures. The film is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio in 1080p HD, slightly opened up from the original 1.85:1. This looks to me like the same HD master licensed by Mill Creek Entertainment for their U.S. Blu-ray last year, but there are appreciable differences between the offerings. 101's release offers a better authored disc with tighter compression, the image is still a tad on the soft side but overall this is the stronger more robust presentation, it's also smidgen brighter, revealing some minute detail not evident in the MCE release. Check out the screenshot comparison at the bottom off this review to see how they stack up against each other. Audio comes by way of an English Dual Mono LPCM 2.0 with optional English subtitles, the dialogue is always crisp and clean, and the score from Lalo Schifrin (Rollercoaster) sounds terrific, as do the cheesy 80's tunes from Bill Wray, Brock Walsh, Jess Harnell and Miriam Cutler.
101 Films advance on the MCE release by including some actual extras as well, beginning with a new interview with director Sean S. Cunnigham who discusses his first studio deal following the release of teen sex-comedy Spring Break. He touches on working with writer Stephen Gyllenhaal, the father of Jake (Donnie Darko)and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary), who came up with most of the story ideas. He gets into what it was like working with the dogs on the film, and how the teen cast developed what he calls a "group swagger", the benefits of having a studio behind him, and how much fun James Spader was having being a bad guy, and a fight-flub during the bathroom fight scene involving the Spader laying Presley out flat for real. Cunningham also gets into working with the legendary composer Lalo Schiffrin (The Amityville Horror) and his scoring process, and how the film was marketed by the studio as more of a horror film - "from the maker of Friday the 13th!" - even though it was really a thriller.
Writer Stephen Gyllenhaal shows up for A 16-min interview, the film coming at a time when he was both writing and directing, being recruited by Cunningham for this project. He touches always been fascinated by the idea of why people hurt each other, and enjoying Cunningham's work on Friday the 13th. His also gets into the inspiration for the roadside attraction setting of the film, having to write the script in only 10-days, and then having to work with another writer during filming who,m he didn't quite see eye to eye with, with Cunningham seemingly pitching them against each other in a way. He also debates the merit of a traditional 3-act story structure, and revealing the real life inspiration for James Spader's character's name "Dutra", based on a L.A. real estate slime ball, in addition to his take on violence on film and it's affect on society. He also makes sure to point out what a terrifyingly awesome scrabble player Eric Stoltz was at the time. There's also a new audio commentary from film experts Sean Hogan and Jasper Sharp, which I have yet to take in. Retail copies include a booklet and a slip, we were only set a "check disc" for this review so I don't have any comment on that particular aspect of it.
Special Features:
- Interview with director Sean S. Cunningham (18 min) HD
- Interview with writer Stephen Gyllenhaal (16 min) HD
- Commentary with film experts Sean Hogan and Jasper Sharp
- Limited edition booklet: Includes ‘80s Gang Violence Movies and The New Kids by Jon Towlson and Pushing the Envelope: Sean Cunningham by Barry Forshaw
The New Kids (1985) is an entertaining slice of highschool/teen exploitation, it's a bit uneven as far as the tone goes, but I enjoy it's trajectory from new kids at school teen drama to full-on nasty revenger, on top of that it's got a notable cast and some uncomfortable grit. This Blu-ray release from 101 Films is the best presentation of the film on Blu-ray to date and the only one O know of with any sort of extras.
Screenshot Comparison
Top: Mill Creek Entertainment Blu-ray (2019)
Bottom: 101 Films Blu-ray (2020)
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