Supervixens (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Tim Salmons
Review Date: Jan 10, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Russ Meyer

Release Date(s)

1975 (January 28, 2024)

Studio(s)

September 19/RM Films International (Severin Films)

Film/Program Grade: N/A
Video Grade: A-
Audio Grade: A
Extras Grade: A-

Review

After Russ Meyer had been kicked off the 20th Century Fox lot, despite proving himself to be an effective and profitable director with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, he chose to return to independent filmmaking and the genre he knew best: sexploitation. 1975’s Supervixens was a spiritual sequel to Vixen. from seven years before, and in true Russ Meyer fashion, was amped up with over-the-top characters and situations, as well as the buxom women he was so fond of.

This time around, we see a young man on the run after being accused of murdering his girlfriend, which was actually committed by the psychotic local sheriff, crossing the country and running into one spot of lady trouble after the next. Whereas Vixen. had been a much lighter affair and focused on parodying a certain kind of exploitation, meaning the old nugget about a lonely housewife and her many suitors, Supervixens seems to be about reversing the stereotype of the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks with a heart of gold that gets blamed for something terrible happening in a small town. In this case, the bad boy is more of the good boy up front and everyone around him is bad, not to mention that all of the women are mad with desire for him, though he repeatedly refuses their hyper-aggressive sexual advances.

In truth, this feels more like an “all-out assault” as the trailer’s commentator puts it rather than a straight satire. There’s hardly a redeeming character to be had in this crazy world, and to be honest, I don’t know what Russ Meyer was going for here. It feels like a mish-mash of ideas as it’s one nutty set piece after another that doesn’t feel quite as thought out or as satiric as the first film. The biggest hurdle is the murder scene in the first 30 minutes. Charles Napier as the psychotic sheriff brutally stomping and killing a woman in a bathtub who has been constantly teasing him about his manhood is so vile and unapologetically ugly that it stops the film cold. That said, you’re unlikely to see Charles Napier going so extreme as an actor as he does here.

After that scene passes, Supervixens is a much more tolerable romp. It doesn’t quite match up to the first film, but it has its fun moments. We even get an unexpected cameo from Garth Pillsbury’s character from Vixen., inviting Clint up North for a relaxing “fishing weekend,” which he passes on. The same great aggressive filmmaking style and incredibly animated characters are still on full display (not to mention the, as per usual, excessive amounts of female nudity), but that initial off-putting bump in the road in the first half hour is highly unpleasant and takes some time to get over.

Supervixens was shot by Russ Meyer on 35mm film, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Severin Films debuts the film on Ultra HD with a new 4K restoration of the original camera negative that’s been graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10, and presented on a dual-layered BD-66 disc. Like the UHD for Vixen., it’s another beautifully organic presentation with bitrates that tend to sit between 60 and 80Mbps, often spiking above that. It’s not quite as refined a grain structure or as high a bitrate as its predecessor, but the picture quality never seems to suffer for it. The HDR10 grade widens the gamut to allow rich blue skies and lush green foliage with perfect flesh tones to come through. The last reel is a tad unstable in terms of color, and can appear a little warped, but it’s not blatantly obvious due to the action on screen. Blacks are deep with perfect contrast, and the presentation is otherwise stable with only mild scratches and speckling. It’s another winner.

Audio is included in English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio (sourced from the original 35mm track negative) with optional subtitles in English SDH. It’s a clean track that offers excellent support for dialogue and score, with only mild hiss, but free of any dropouts, distortion, or sibilance. One need to look no further than the commentary track on this release that uses the LaserDisc audio underneath to hear the vast improvement in aural quality.

The 2-Disc 4K Ultra HD release of Supervixens sits in a black Amaray case alongside a Region-Free 1080p Blu-ray with an insert and a slipcover that features the original theatrical artwork, re-creating the original RM Films VHS and DVD artwork. This is also being released simultaneously in the US, Canada, and the UK, for those keeping score. The following extras are included on each disc:

DISC ONE: UHD

Audio Commentary with Russ Meyer
Trailer (HD – 2:03)

DISC TWO: BD

Audio Commentary with Russ Meyer
Russ Meyer vs the Porn-Busters (SD – 23:54)
The Return of Harry Sledge (SD – 18:45)
The Incredibly Strange Film Show (SD – 39:17)
Trailer (HD – 2:03)
TV Spot (HD – :33)

The audio commentary with Russ Meyer was first included on Image Entertainment’s 1997 LaserDisc release. Meyer, like his films, is extremely frank and doesn’t pull punches, offering his honest opinions about the people he works with, his various relationships with the women he’s known in his life, and his repeated battles with the censors. He goes quiet for several passages, but his input is absolutely invaluable and entertaining, but if you’re an overly sensitive person that has a difficult time with non-PC speak, you might want to steer clear (then again, if you’re watching this film, that statement is null and void). Russ Meyer vs the Porn-Busters is a 1990 interview shot by Mike Carroll with an unknown interviewer asking Meyer various questions about censorship. The Return of Harry Sledge features a terrific interview with Charles Napier in which he details his working relationship with Russ Meyer and where that relationship led him in the film business. Also included is episode five of the great UK TV series The Incredibly Strange Film Show with Jonathan Ross, who provides an overview of Meyer’s career, as well as interviews with Russ Meyer, Roger Ebert, and others. Last is the film’s trailer and a TV spot.

In many ways, Severin Films’ 4K Ultra HD releases of the Vixen films reminds me of the days when distributors like Something Weird Video, Image Entertainment, Elite Entertainment, and Anchor Bay Entertainment were re-introducing underground cinema to newer and younger viewers. Nowadays we can enjoy these films in a quality little seen outside of a movie theater, and perhaps not even then. In other words, Supervixens is another recommended release from Severin Films with a great picture and excellent extras.

- Tim Salmons

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