Color, 1988, 83 mins. 51 secs.
Directed by Mark Goldblatt
Starring Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Lindsay Frost, Darren McGavin, Vincent Price, Clare Kirkconnell, Keye Luke, Robert Picardo
Vinegar Syndrome (UHD & Blu-ray) (US R0 4K/HD), Image Entertainment (Blu-ray & DVD) (US RA/R1 HD/NTSC), Anchor Bay (DVD) (US R1 NTSC), Paragon Movies (DVD) (Germany R0 PAL), Boulevard Movies (DVD) (UK R0 PAL), Atlantis (DVD) (Germany R2 PAL) / WS (1.85:1) (16:9)
was in pretty lousy shape in the late '80s, that didn't stop folks from coming up with new 
ways to pull in audiences who seemed to only want action movies and comedies. One way of pleasing them? Mash all three genres together, which is exactly what you got in 1988 from New World with Dead Heat. Jammed in the studio's release schedule that year along with titles like Slugs, The Wrong Guys, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and Elvria, Mistress of the Dark, this one was breathlessly covered beforehand in the horror press with appetizing photos and coverage of its monster-tastic special effects (some of which ran afoul of the MPAA, of course). Obviously put into production after the success of 1987's Lethal Weapon and The Hidden, this zombie take on the buddy cop movie marked the directorial debut of ace film editor Mark Goldblatt, who had gotten his start at the Roger Corman-headed iteration of New World and proved his chops with films like RoboCop, The Terminator, The Howling, and Rambo: First Blood Part II, along with salvaging the bumpy Halloween II. Though this wasn't a big hit at the box office (with its cult following later finding it on VHS), this did lead to Goldblatt going to direct 1989's The Punisher and going on to edit many more films into the '00s.
method of taking them out. However, soon after they're informed by coroner Rebecca (Kirkconnell) that both men had recently died already and undergone full autopsies at her own hands. Hunting down clues from a chemical in the corpses, they end up at 
Dante Pharmaceuticals for a tour given by Randi (Frost), the daughter of deceased pharma innovator Arthur P. Loudermilk (Price). On the premises Doug stumbles on a bizarre hidden machinery room while Roger ends up being murdered in a decompression room. However, it turns out the facility's hidden device is a resurrection machine that brings Roger back from the dead... with a mere twelve hours to solve his own homicide before he decomposes into mush. However, for our two cops that's just the tip of a very grotesque iceberg that will lead to monstrous discoveries, an escalating body count, and several morbid plot twists.
limited to human 
mayhem. 
The Blu-ray also features the commentary, deleted scenes, trailer, EPK, and MIFED promo, but you also get a 
slew of new featurettes including some participants who haven't gone on the record before. First up is Goldblatt in "The Building Blocks of Movies" (25m55s) about his early days with Corman and Ron Howard, his entry into film editing, and the mounting of this film including its visual effects team, the gung-ho attitude of the actors, the influence of D.O.A., the dispiriting lack of promotion when it was released, and the positive feedback it's gotten in more recent years. "A Thousand Feet of Lightning” (15m51s)" features visual effects artist Ernest Farino (another Terminator and Corman alumnus) recalling his own experience doing rotoscoping and how that came in handy doing the lightning for this film, among other odds and ends. In "Seizing the Opportunity" (6m12s), second unit director and visual effects artist Patrick Read Johnson about how he had to step in and take over on the unforgettable butcher shop scene when the film ran behind schedule. In "How to Edit For An Editor" (12m6s), editor Harvey Rosenstock chats about how he approached the film under Goldblatt's genre-twisting guidance including the use of subtle jump cuts to punch up the action scenes, the challenge of getting the tone balanced out, and the industry innovators whose signature styles jump out to him. Finally in "Happy Accidents Happen" (7m56s), you get a new audio interview with Troost about lessons learned from Corman, his collaborative process with Goldblatt (who forbade the use of trumpets), the influence of '40s crime dramas, and the usefulness of scoring the film to a black-and-white tape copy. Also included here is an earlier "Dead and Alive" (19m) featurette by Red Shirt Pictures with makeup effects creator Steve Johnson, who explains how he tackled some of the tasks on the film (including a few subtle non-horror bits you might not expect), his dissatisfaction with one of his concoctions, and his memories of the shoot including Piscopo's mobile gym on wheels. Finally the disc wraps up with a TV spot and a new 4m37s still gallery accompanied by Troost's score.Vinegar Syndrome (Blu-ray)
Anchor Bay (DVD)
