Nostalgia Kinky

Bloodsick Productions has released the elusive and extremely rare Red Flag Down as a special-edition Blu-ray. A wild SOV production from 1992 made by Doris Wishman’s frequent cinematographer C. Davis Smith and his son, Chuck, Red Flag Down is a delightfully insane work that I found irresistible.
The Blu-ray is available to order now from MVD, and Lunchmeat has released the film on VHS!

Originally availbale only via C. Davis Smith’s website, Red Flag Down is like a Super 8 The Most Dangerous Game directed by Zabriskie Point era Antonioni. Running less than an hour Red Flag Down is squib-filled slow-motion action/comedy running on pure audacity and probably beer. Davis has made a deliberately ridiculous film, an almost anti-cinema that’s sort of glorious.

Smith and son made Red Flag Down with family, friends, and some local Florida talent about ten years after the notorious Doris Wishman film, A Night to Dismember (1983) they’d both worked on. Red Flag Down is neither a horror film nor an adult work, like the extraordinary masterpiece Neon Nights (1981) Smith shot for Cecil Howard.

The veteran Smith had become interested in the idea of making a weekend SOV for no money in the eighties. According to the excellent liner notes found in Bloodsick’s new Blu-ray, Smith initially worked on the script in this period. The film was finally made in the early nineties.

Red Flag Down is like a slo-mo 8mm fever-dream. Remember that last shot of Zabriskie Point? The slo-mo explosion? Well, about half of Red Flag Down is like that, only with firecrackers, squibs, and a family that knew Chesty Morgan. Red Flag Down might actually have only about twenty minutes of story once you factor in all of the slow-motion ‘kills’ but it all works deliriously well.

With nods to everything from Dean Stockwell’s Blue Velvet character to Predator, Red Flag Down is one of the most off-the-wall discoveries I’ve made this year. The Doris Wishman connection alone makes it like film-historian crack and, while it is hard to believe that a man who shot something as elegant and erotic as Neon Nights made this, I enjoyed this strange little film quite a bit.

Armed with a slipcover, a commentary and bonus film, this little nearly four-decade-old film, featuring fifty minutes of men shooting each other with obvious blanks in the Florida country, makes for a surprisingly delightful release. The commentary track, featuring Josh Schafer from Lunchmeat and Brewce Longo & Kasper Meltedhair from BloodSick Productions, is nearly as funny and endearing as the film. Informative and fun, this commentary track is a great addition for Red Flag Down.

As if everything about Red Flag Down isn’t shocking enough, imagine my personal surprise when I saw a buddy of mine featured in the early 2000’s bonus film Welcome to Mexico, Asshole included on this Blu-ray! Yep, lots of fellow film-historians will immediately recognize Adult-film and sexploitation researcher Michael Bowen, whom I haven’t messaged with in years, but I’ve both interviewed him and featured his work in the past. Imagine my shock seeing him, but it all makes sense when one considers Welcome to Mexico, Asshole. This short SOV documentary is based around an interview with Smith discussing his work with Doris Wishman and career in general. Arriving a decade after Red Flag Down, and I believe shot in the same house, this short makes an already valuable release all the more noteworthy if just for the chance to get to hear some fresh Joe and Peggy Sarno stories!

Needless to say, the deliberately primitive lo-fi Red Flag Down is not going to be for everyone. For both adult film historians and SOV addicts, this Bloodsick Blu-ray is dynamite. For fellow collectors, unless you group by company or name, Red Flag Down is gonna be a challenge to put on your shelf, as this thing has so many random and surprising connections. It is going with the rest of my growing Bloodsick collection but it now stands as the only disc I have that can also be placed near my Cecil Howard or Doris Wishman discs!
Highly recommended.

-Jeremy Richey, September 2026-