In the early 1990s, I discovered a sci-fi cult gem called HARDWARE. For a low budget film made in the United Kingdom (with some filming in Morocco), It was the debut of a promising filmmaker with an energetic sci-fi/ horror film. Director Richard Stanley would go on to direct DUST DEVIL only to have his directorial career stopped in its tracks with the mess over THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (which ended up with him being fired three days into shooting by New Line). Stanley has done documentaries and short films and one feature film starring Nicolas Cage since then. He wanted to a sequel to HARDWARE only to have the fight over who owned HARDWARE get in the way. There have been a couple of documentaries on Richard Stanley with a third on the way that tackles the issues with his life in the recent years (and I will review that one when it gets a blu-ray release.

Mo (Dylan McDermott) is a drifter who joined the military in a post-apocalyptic future. He comes home to see Jenny (Stacey Travis), his girlfriend, and brings with him parts he bought off a Zone Tripper (a drifter of sorts). His girlfriend is an artist living on welfare in a society that is falling apart. She starts to incorporate the droid parts that Mo brought her. However, the parts belong to a new type of military droid called the M.A.R.K. 13. The M.A.R.K. 13 puts itself back together and starts killing people in an apartment building. It is battle for survival as Mo tries to protect Jenny with the help of his druggie friend Shades and the apartment building security forces.

HARDWARE is a twisted broken down version of the future. The visual look and production design stick out in this energetic film which starts out as a science fiction film to dive into horror film territory. It is an energetic ride that takes off and doesn't let go until the very end. Sometimes it is the low budget sci-fi/ horror films that provide a jolt that bigger budget films are missing. HARDWARE has its own stories during filming and after it was made. Still HARDWARE is a cult film that deserves to be watched.

HARDWARE looks gorgeous on blu-ray as it is sourced from a new 4K scan of the original negative. Also the 4K disc has plenty of grain and it is a high bit transfer averaging 85 MBps to 100 MBps in many sections of the movie. This is a new transfer down by Umbrella Entertainment and I will look to see how it compares to the previous 4K transfer done by Ronin Flix (in 2018) which I remember was a great improvement over the Severin Films transfer from years before that.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
DISC 1-
There is also an Audio commentary with Director Richard Stanley which is done in an interview format as Stanley answers questions and talks about the film. The commentary is a good compliment to the making-of documentary on disc Two

DISC 2-
New interview with Director Richard Stanley (about 40 minutes) where he talks about HARDWARE, why there is no merchandise or sequel, his Weinstein story, storyboards for the first movie, some scenes were cut due to lack of money, and his plans for HARDWARE 2
25 minutes of deleted and extended scenes from a VHS archive that Richard Stanley has of the scenes

Video Essay- RICHARD STANLEY'S BITTER MESAGE OF HOPELESS GRIEF by Brynn Tilly which explores the themes in the first two movies directed by Richard Stanley with the main focus on HARDWARE

Interview with Iggy Pop
RICHARD STANLEY ON HARDWARE 2 as he talks about the unmade script for the sequel which never got made because the rights were too complicated for the first film. The sequel would have expanded on ideas introduced in the first movie and featured two of the characters from HARDWARE
NO FLESH SHALL BE SPARED is a detailed making-of documentary that is over 50 minutes long. It starts with the beginnings of Richard Stanley as a filmmaker to how HARDWARE was conceived to the difficulties faced during production and releasing the film to the fight over who owns the film due to how much money it made on its release. Also the cast and crew relate the story of their trip to Morocco (from airport security being surprised by the fake head they brought into the country to the very rainy weather that impacted shooting and prevented a dream sequence from being shot).
INICIDENTS IN AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE- an early Super 8 version of HARDWARE
RITES OF PASSAGE- early Richard Stanley Short Film
THE SEA OF PERDITION- early short film by Richard Stanley set to music from MOONRAKER
Vintage hardware promo videos and theatrical trailer

FINAL ANALYSIS: The new 4K transfer is the best you are going to see HARDWARE with this high bit rate transfer with all of the previous and a few new ones (the deluxe edition available directly from Umbrella has two books with one being the script for HARDWARE 2).

This review is (c)4-11-2019 and 3-15-2025 David Blackwell and cannot be repeated without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com and look for additional content/ news at http://enterlinemedia.tumblr.com