"Def-Con 4" coming to Region A Blu-ray

It's difficult, at times, to keep up with the various new release titles that the fine folks at Kino Lorber are releasing or distributing. After all, they have (...checks notes...) 89 new titles coming out over the next nine weeks. But when a crucial title from my youth hits the "coming soon" slate, it tends to stand out.

1985's "Def-Con 4" is what I think of when I remember the heyday of video stores and VHS. There was a one-sheet hanging in a frame in the video store my mom managed that, at the age of 7, had everything my mind was looking for. There was a dead astronaut, a derelict satellite, killer tag lines. It was the tail end of the Cold War, and the Strategic Defense Initiative looked like a reality, so it just grabbed hold of me. I didn't know it at the time, but the poster artist, Rudy Obrero, was also responsible for some of the box art for Mattel's "Masters of the Universe" line. It made sense that I'd be obsessed. I recently ordered that same poster for the New World Pictures home release; it's an indelible part of my childhood that lives on beyond the reputation of a cruddy B-movie.

Now, the folks at Arrow UK released their own Region B Blu-ray in 2019, chock full of the kind of features that has them high on everyone's list of reissue labels. But not everyone has an all-region player, so it's nice to see that the folks at Scorpion Releasing are putting their own version out September 15. Per their Facebook page, it'll have most of the same features as the Arrow UK release. We'll get the same 2K transfer, a new interview with the film's composer, a lossless soundtrack, trailers, and brand new illustrations on the cover. I love the jankyness of that cover. All that said, I'll take full advantage of the reversible cover, and go back to that infamous Obrero artwork.

Click here to preorder from Kino Lorber. "Def-Con 4" on Blu-ray releases September 15, but the gang at Kino Lorber tends to ship preorders a bit early.