Severin Films' David Gregory made his feature directorial debut through Dark Sky Films with PLAGUE TOWN, now out on special edition Blu-ray from Severin Films.

Hoping to trace their roots as a means of family bonding, Jerry Monahan (David Lombard), his younger fiancée Annette (Lindsay Goranson, THE THEATRE BIZARRE), and his warring daughters – bitchy Jessica (Erica Rhodes) and introverted Molly (Josslyn DeCrosta) – along with Molly's third-wheel British boyfriend of a few days Robin (James Warke) get off the bus in the middle of the Irish countryside for a day of hiking among the ruins. Family arguments spoil the "fun" and a few encounters with unfriendly locals weird them out, and they soon find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere after a missed bus. Coming across a seemingly abandoned French car, the dysfunctional family takes shelter while Robin and Jessica go in search of help. They soon discover, however, that the local children are not your normal tykes. They have an appetite for cruelty (and possibly flesh), and their loving parents have even worse plans in store for anyone who survives "a slaughter in Plague Town."

Largely predating the more recent resurgence of what has been termed "folk horror," the Ireland-let, Connecticut-shot PLAGUE TOWN boasts elements familiar to seasoned horror viewers what with city folks stranded in the middle of nowhere, unfriendly locals, and killer kids but focuses less on developing the plot and characters into something innovative in favor of creating atmosphere and some unnerving moments – the ghoulish children call to mind such apparitions from films like LEMORA and the "Ghost Stories for Christmas" teleplay LOST HEARTS while blind, button-eyed Rosemary (Kate Aspinwall) calls to mind apparitions out of the works of Jean Rollin (particularly LIVING DEAD GIRL and GRAPES OF DEATH) – spiked with more modern brutal violence and gore. Director David Gregory manages to weave something of a nightmare fairy tale really let down only by a limp coda which seems unnecessary when what it explains is more unnervingly alluded to more than once in the dialogue, most effectively in creepily-maternal Sheila's (Elizabeth Bove) story to Robin about breeding rabbits.

Released theatrically to various film festivals, PLAGUE TOWN was released to DVD and Blu-ray in 2009 by Dark Sky Films in a version that was unrated but slightly trimmed of two brief moments that are fully restored to Severin Films' 1080p24 MPEG- 4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen transfer which bears the original title A SLAUGHTER IN PLAGUE TOWN. Although shot on Super 16, the film was presumably finished in high definition, and there is no indication in any of Severin's materials of a new transfers, so this is presumably the same 1080p master before the trims for the Dark Sky release version (85:17 versus 85:05). There is a certain softness to the image, but that helps in rendering the Connecticut-as-Ireland countryside as misty and dreamy, while the lighting during the night scenes has a brittle, weathered quality and the obscuring crush of blacks makes effective the emergence of the ghoul children from nowhere into heretofore unseen shafts of light. A 4K rebuild of the film materials might have resulted in a better presentation, but may have either been impossible given the availability/survival of the materials or simply not financially feasible for what was one of six limited edition titles for Severin's Black Friday sale and its standard edition reissue. Audio is offered in an effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix where cries, shrieks, and screams of human victims and "playful" children low in the mix may first be indistinguishable for the characters and the viewrs from more "natural" sounds in the night. A Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo downmix is also included. Unfortunately, the optional English SDH subtitles have a number of intermittent errors that suggest an OCR conversion of the subtitles from the earlier Dark Sky release that was not then proofed so odd characters pop up

Ported over from the Dark Sky disc is the audio commentary by co-writer/director Gregory and producer Derek Curl (STAKELAND) in which Gregory discusses the film's origins in a short script he wrote – set in Ireland because he wrote it while he was still living in England and the head of an Irish genre film festival suggested he may be able to provide some resources for a low budget production shot there – and developing it into a feature with writing partner John Cregan (who has since served as editor on several Severin video extras) while Curl recalls the difficulty of finding actual Irish actors even while casting in New York – encountering a lot of actors who had either studied Irish brogue in acting classes or people who simply claimed Irish ancestry – the difficulty of finding Irish-looking locations, local casting, and the various mishaps during the shoot.

Also ported over from the Dark Sky release are the 2009 making-of "A Visit to Plague Town" (28:35) and "The Sounds of Plague Town" (16:09), an interview with composer Mark Raskin who first worked with Gregory on his thesis film "Scathed" and would go on to score several Severin documentary featurettes; however, the best extra is the new Howard S. Berger feature-length documentary "White Lace & Button Eyes: The Making of Plague Town" (86:04) which compiles old video diaries from the shoot and contemporary socially-distanced interviews (conducted by Gregory) into a vivid portrait of the difficulties of the production with Curl fraying at the seams as he deals with his own inexperience, production delays, the perfectionism of cinematographer Brain Rigby Hubbard, and an accident with the grip truck. Gregory's initial enthusiasm in his video diary wanes with the long shooting nights, make-up effects issues, and a set visit from MPI's bigwigs. We also meet several of the child actors then and now, main cast members DeCrosta, Goranson, and Bove, and other crew members who got their first exposure to the rigors of production on the film.