Things get deadly when the MOON IN SCORPIO on Blu-ray from 88 Films.

Searching for an escaped homicidal maniac on behalf of the St. Annial hospital's Dr. Khorda (Robert Quarry, COUNT YORGA VAMPIRE), private detective Richard Vargas (Don Scribner, SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY) boards a boat adrift off the cost of California and is attacked by sole occupant Linda (Britt Ekland, THE WICKER MAN). She reveals to Khorda that she had just married Allen (John Phillip Law, DANGER: DIABOLIK) in Oregon and was bound for New York when her husband sprung a boat trip to Acapulco on her as a surprise honeymoon. She is less than pleased, however, to learn that they are not traveling on a cruise ship but on a yacht belonging to his Vietnam buddy Mark (Lewis Van Bergen, SPACE RAGE), with the trip seeming less like a honeymoon and more like a war buddies' reunion with Burt (William Smith, GRAVE OF THE VAMPRIE) along for the ride. Things do not get better when they set sail and Burt's boozy girlfriend Claire (Jillian Kesner, FIRECRACKER) goes overboard, and Mark's bitchy control freak girlfriend Isabel (April Wayne, PARTY CAMP) intuits that the "moon in Scorpio" will bring about more death and disaster as the survivors find themselves adrift with no radio, engine, or sails.

A shipboard thriller perhaps inspired by cinematographer/director Gary Graver's association with Orson Welles, whose 1970 adaptation of Charles William's novel "Dead Calm" currently remains unfinished as a workprint, MOON IN SCORPIO puts three volatile couples on a yacht set adrift but confusion reigns not only in the finished film but as to what was the original concept and how it was altered with the obvious post-production recutting and reshooting (post-production supervisor Natan Zahavi gets mention in the opening credits ). Ekland's incessant narration which even reiterates information apparent from the flashback dialogue is indicative of post-production restructuring while the presence of Quarry is the obvious contribution of co-producer Fred Olen Ray (the period in which Ray made the acquaintance of Graver and wife Kesner who would collaborate with him subsequently until their deaths in 2007 and 2008) including the parallel story of the escaped maniac (with Quarry saying "them" to make the gender ambiguous), and the make-up effects credit for Jon McCallum (SCALPS) under second unit suggest that the murders were either added or just embellished with gore. Was this originally a tale about three Vietnam vets and their significant others who turn on each other at sea and kill each other – we get enough hints beyond the Vietnam flashback that the three men are damaged in different ways – or was the revealed killer and their hinted at motivation always present or added to the reshoot? It seems pretty obvious that the escaped killer element was part of the reshoot since the timeline of the escape does not seem consistent with the length of the character's relationship with the couples. The poor performances from a usually good cast of character actors (and actresses) suggests why the film needed to be fixed – although not why Trans World did not just reject it in the first place unless they put money in the film earlier – but the reshoot never convinces as anything but, and the thriller is ultimately waterlogged. Ekland fares worst when the narration requires her to go beyond her limited range (not so the case in the original footage), while actor/writer James Booth (REVENGE) and Donna Kei Benz (LOOKER) are wasted as part of Quarry's medical staff, but they were presumably available for the reshoot because they were working on Trans World's Shô Kosugi thriller PRAY FOR DEATH (incidentally, Van Bergen would play the chief villain of Kosugi's follow up pic for Trans World RAGE OF HONOR).

Released directly to video by Trans World Entertainment, MOON IN SCORPIO sunk like a stone to the lowest rungs of the video store wall (sometimes in the horror section, and sometimes in mystery/suspense). The film got an HD overhaul when Scorpion Releasing put the film out on Blu-ray stateside last year, and the same master has been used for 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray. Compared to the old tape master, the Blu-rays are a revelation in terms of color with some really red blood making the killings seem more vicious, but that's about all it can do for this dreary film. No complaints about the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track which delivers the dialogue and narration as clearly as the usually dependable Robert O. Ragland's undistinguished score. Optional English SDH subtitles are also included.

While the Scorpion Releasing disc was barebones apart from trailers for other releases, 88 Films' has gone above and beyond with such an undeserving title, providing three full commentary tracks that do at least elevate it to varying degrees at least in terms of production information and a context in which the film could be produced and released. Most entertaining and informative is the track by co-producer Fred Olen Ray who reveals that he had finished COMMANDO FORCE – one of a two-picture deal with Trans World he landed after THE TOMB – under-budget and that Graver pitched the film to make use of the remaining money. The original concept was three Vietnam vets who had desecrated the temple of a snake goddess who comes to Los Angeles to avenge herself on them. Although Trans World's Moshe Diamant did not care about the story, producer Alan Amiel (DEEP SPACE) insisted on telling him about it whereupon he told Graver he wanted "HALLOWEEN on a boat" whereupon Graver rewrote the script during production while watching HALLOWEEN on a VCR. Ray even mentions slasher scenes that Graver shot that did not make the film including his own ten-year-old son Chris Ray stabbing a pair of porn stars (Ray also reveals that the scenes with actor Scribner as the private detective were reshoots of scenes featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis' father Blackie Dammett which he just felt were too odd). The finished film needed to a lot of work and Ray rewrote the already rewritten script but insisted that Graver direct it while he agreed to be a monitoring presence on the set (since Graver would not be returning from a Paris engagement at an Orson Welles film festival until the night before the reshoots). Ray also mentions that he made a deal with Trans World for five thousand dollars and weekend use of the three-day rental cameras during which he would shoot what became HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS. He discusses his friendship with Graver and his wife Kessner who became "martial arts star" after an hour lesson of karate to replace an actress who would not take off her top for Cirio Santiago's FIRECRACKER (an eighties remake of T.N.T. JACKSON). He also discusses his relationship with Quarry who he brought out of retirement after a bad car accident and who would babysit his son and housesit while he was on location before he convinced Quarry to move into the Motion Picture Retirement Home.