Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes is a 1978 musical horror black comedy film that was produced by J. Stephen Peace and John DeBello, and directed by DeBello based upon an original idea by Costa Dillon. The screenplay was written by Dillon, Peace, and DeBello. The film is a spoof of B movies. Made on a budget of less than $100,000, the story revolves around tomatoes becoming sentient by unknown means and revolting against humanity.
The overall success of the film led to three sequels, all co-written by the same three wirters and directed by DeBello.
The finished version of the film contains footage of a real helicopter crash that occurred during production. In a scene that shows law enforcement officers firing their weapons to ward off tomatoes in a field, a $600,000 Hiller Aircraft UH-12E that had been rented for the production was supposed to have landed in the tomato patch behind the officers, but during the landing, its tail rotor struck the ground, causing the aircraft to spin out of control near the ground, roll over, and burst into flames. The pilot managed to escape without any serious injury. The crash was caught on film as the cameras were rolling at the time and was later worked into the film.
The Film Itself (2/5):
It had been many, many years since I had last seen Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes that I had completely forgotten how stupid this movie was. It was so damn stupid and cheesy, that it really made for a fun experience as my wife and I watched this movie last night. While there really isn’t anything that’s significant about this movie that made it a great experience, the cheese factor with the fact that sentient tomatoes are wreaking havoc upon civilization really just screams goofy. Hell, the variety of camera angles that were used throughout this movie helped to add to the experience as there were a few that featured the smaller scale buildings and the use of forced perspective as the crew rolled tomatoes down a piece of plywood.
Picture Quality (5/5):
For a film of this particular caliber, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes looked really good as I watched this in my living room last night. This particular movie doesn’t really have a call for the use of special effects by any means, and considering its intended purpose from when it was originally released, the upscaled resolution helped my wife and I to better see the added effort that was put into making this silly story happen.
Audio Quality (2/5):
Packaged with an English LPCM 2.0 audio track, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes doesn’t really offer anything in terms of immersion for its viewers. While I do feel that this is a direct result of the source materials that were available as the production crew were working on making this release available, I feel that they could have put in some more work into remastering the audio track to accompany the improved video quality.
The Packaging (4/5):
This particular Blu-ray release of Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes comes packaged in your standard dual-disc Blu-ray amaray case. Within that case is the standard Blu-ray copy of the film and the standard DVD copy of the film, the discs featuring absolutely no artwork whatsoever and bears a bland white background and the standard release text. There are no digital copy redemption pamphlets. A poster has been included with this release that features the same exact piece of artwork that’s featured on the case art as well as a slipcover that’s been provided during the initial printing that also features the same piece of artwork as the poster and case art.
Special Features (5/5):
The Blu-ray release of Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes comes loaded to the brim with additional content that not only explores the film further, but explores the work that went into making the original film as well as the promotional efforts that went into the movie. Included with this release is:
- Feature Audio commentary With Writer/Director John DeBello, Writer/Co-Star Steve Peace and “Creator” Costa Dillon
- 3 Deleted Scenes
- Seven Featurettes
- Legacy Of A Legend
- Crash And Burn
- Famous Foul
- Killer Tomatomania
- Where Are They Now?
- We Told You So!
- Slated For Success
- Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes (the original 8mm short film)(with optional audio commentary)
- Gone with the Babusland (the original 8mm short that inspired Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes)(with optional audio commentary)
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Production Design Photo Gallery
- Radio Spots
- Easter Eggs
Technical Specs:
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
Subtitles
None
Runtime
Original Film: 83 minutes
Final Thoughts:
Generally speaking, I was really glad to have finally added Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes to my collection on Blu-ray. It had been many years since I had last seen this movie, and I vaguely remember watching the animated series as a child. Not to mention, owning one of the sequels on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video, I knew I had to grab this upon release. The movie itself is stupid, it is goofy, and overall it does call for a lot of laughs if you enjoy films like this. The video presentation was exceptionally done with its newly remastered 4K scan. The audio presentation does offer a lot to be asked for as it should have offered a cleaner, more powerful track to accompany this new scan of the video track. The special features on this release are extremely exceptional as they do a nice job of not only allowing for further exploration of the film and its story, but the work that went into making the film available. The poster that was included with this release was a nice touch, despite being a folded poster that will likely remain in the case with my copy of the release. If you’re considering adding this movie to your collection, I can only recommend it if you’re a fan of films like this. Otherwise, you may find it difficult to get into as movies like this really appeal to those who have the acquired taste for these movies. Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes was released by MVD on January 23, 2018.
