Arrow Video digs up the Wisconsin-lensed slasher TRAPPED ALIVE from obscurity with their new Blu-ray.

On a snowy Christmas Eve, Robin (Sullivan Hester) gets permission from her attorney father John (Cameron Mitchell, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE) to leave the old fogies behind and go out to a party with his secretary Monica (Laura Kallison). Unfortunately, their car gets swerves right into the path of escaped prisoners "Face" (Alex Kubik, BAD GIRLS), hulking Mongo (Michael Nash, THE COLOR OF MONEY), and reluctant young "Hot Rod" (Mark Witsken) who take them hostage. Forced to turn off the main road when road blocks are set up, they crash through a barrier and plunge down into the derelict Forever Mine. As claustrophobic Face vacillates between searching for a way out and threatening the girls with rape, Hot Rod tries to get the generator going while also striking up a rapport with Robin. Investigating tire tracks turned onto the mine road, Deputy Billy Williams (Randolph Powell of the LOGAN'S RUN television series) must impose upon the hospitality of Rachel (Elizabeth Kent, MINDWARP) – desperate housewife of the mine's caretaker – when he has no radio signal. While Rachel demonstrates on Deputy Williams how to go down the mind and "find the shaft," Face, Hot Rod, Robin, and Monica discover that they are not alone beneath the surface.

Not released until 1993, TRAPPED ALIVE is either a late entry in the eighties body count cycle or one of the earlier entries in pre-DESCENT mine horror films. While there is a throwaway reference to H.P. Lovecraft comes in the form of Hot Rod's real name "Randolph Carter," the film has little in common with some of that author's tales of subterranean horrors, going through the stalk and slash motions until a climax that reveals the film's true source of inspiration in American director Gary Sherman's British horror outing DEATH LINE. Although lensed in Wisconsin, the film is not a regional flick a la the works of Bill Rebane – whose BLOOD HARVEST was scripted and partially directed by this film's writer/director Leszek Burzynski – but the first production of Windsor Lake, a studio built conceived by British producer Christopher Webster (who had hits with New World in HELLRAISER and HEATHERS) to take advantage of the scenic possibilities offered by the state. Performances are overall decent and production values are impressive with the mine sets attributed to Oscar-winning production designer Brian Savegar (A ROOM WITH A VIEW), some slick photography by Nancy Schreiber (BLAIR WITCH 2: BOOK OF SHADOWS) – one of the few female cinematographers of the decade – and some good if underutilized prosthetic effects appliances and gore; however, the end result is quite ordinary however much enthusiasm went into it as detailed in the extras. The film was co-produced by picked up by Alexander W. Kogan Jr. and Barry Tucker whose Films Around the World had also branched into horror film production in the late eighties with Andy Milligan's MONSTROSITY along with DOOM ASYLUM and DEAD MATE the same year as TRAPPED ALIVE. Kogan and Tucker would also executive produce Windsor Lake's subsequent two horror films INHERITOR and THE CHILL FACTOR (not to be confused with the big budget 1999 Cuba Gooding Jr./Skeet Ulrich abomination).

Produced as FOREVER MINE in 1988 as finished as TRAPPED, the film went unreleased until 1993 when David Prior's Action International Pictures picked it up for VHS and changed the title to TRAPPED ALIVE (it is possible Webster might have been courting New World to release it before then). Arrow's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen transfer from a 2K scan of the original camera negative cleans away the NTSC video haze and smeary colors of the older transfer, revealing some considered lighting choices in the mine sequences and improved textures in the make-up effects appliances. The mono soundtrack is presented in LPCM 2.0, delivering clear dialogue and effects while also drawing attention to the grating synth score and the sappy end title theme attributed to the make-up effects supervisor Jeffery Lyle Segal (HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER). Optional English SDH subtitles are also included.

Arrow have gone overkill with the extras providing no less than three (!) commentary tracks. The first features director Leszek Burzynski and is moderated by Joe Rudin (who also moderated Burzynski's track on Vinegar Syndrome's BLOOD HARVEST). Burzynski attributes the story idea to producer Webster who is credited under the pseudonym "Julian Weaver" and that he had auditioned Kubik before the production went after Michael Berryman (THE HILLS HAVE EYES) for the role. Berryman was cast and came to Wisconsin but Burzynski recalls that he became obstructive during a table read, and that Webster fired the actor. In discussing the studio and the shooting conditions – sometimes seventy below zero at night with the threat of frostbite and hypothermia – he notes not only Savegar's intricate three story set but also how the inexperience of the local carpenters in set construction resulted in sets built more solidly than the usual Hollywood flats. The second track features special effects artist Hank Carlson (SEVERED TIES) and is moderated by horror writer Josh Hadley who recalls having little experience beyond making monster kits and working in a local cinema that Webster chose for the U.S. premiere of HELLRAISER to attract local investors, during which Burzynski informed Carlson that he had been hired as the studio's in-house effects artist assisting the hired special make-up effects artists. Here, he finished some of the prosthetics that Segal had brought to the set as well as creating the gore appliances and the spear-through-the-mouth effect himself. Hadley, who had worked on later horror projects with Carlson, both prompts him with questions about the film and Windsor Lake, as well as providing some more background including Windsor Lake's subsequent productions for Fangoria (and suggesting that perhaps the title TRAPPED ALIVE was meant to capitalize on the studio film ALIVE). Carlson also recalls getting off on the wrong foot with Mitchell. Of Berryman, Carlson claims that the actor was fired because he disapproved of the script's elements of rape and gave Burzynski an ultimatum. The final track is from podcasters The Hysteria Continues for whom the film was entirely unknown even from the video era. They draw background information from the disc extras and place the film in the context of horror films set in mines, mentioning similarities to THE BOOGENS and MY BLOODY VALENTINE while also noting the debt owed to DEATH LINE. It's a free association track that is not as scene-specifically informative as the other tracks but not a bad listen for viewers who are accustomed to their style via their slasher podcasts and other commentary tracks.

"There’s EVIL Underground…" (30:52) is a making-of documentary featuring Burzynski, cinematographer Schreiber, production manager Alexandra Reed (CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT), and actors Kubik and Hester. Burzynski conveys some of the same information from the commentary while Schreiber recalls the cold shooting conditions, how her camera assistant Stacey Cohen nearly got hypothermia, and production designer Savager building a rig to aid her in making the poor man's process car interior shots more believable. Reed recalls that TRAPPED ALIVE was the first of three planned pictures but that the other two – which would become INHERITOR and THE CHILL FACTOR – would be written to take advantage of the same sets redressed, as well as sourcing crew and equipment from Chicago. Apart from discussing replacing Berryman and finding his character through his "mask" (the unsightly birthmark appliance on his face), Kubik spends much of the interview fixated on the lack of seasoning in the food supplied by the Wisconsin caterers and Fedex-ing Thai food back to the crew upon wrapping and returning to Los Angeles. Hester recalls being glad her "good girl" character did not have to do nudity and provides an anecdote about working with Mitchell in their final scene (which was actually one of the first things shot as location scene and in grouping the name actor's scenes together).