WARNING: This review covers adult films and is not meant for younger readers/viewers.

In the 1970s, notable Outsider Artist Edward D. Wood Jr. Made his living by writing and directing explicit adult films, mostly to aid his alcoholism. Now Severin Films has put together three of his notable adult films for this Blu-Ray collection, along with commentaries and new bonus features that help to understand the notorious director and this particularly tragic time in his life.

Ed Wood would have turned 100 this year, and while he’s known for films like Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda?, this collection consists of three adult films: Necromania, The Only House in Town, and the previously though lost The Young Marrieds.

The collection is now available on Severin’s webstore, and the company kindly sent me a copy of this collection upon release.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that this type of film is not really in my wheelhouse, and if they aren’t your thing, I’m not here to convince you. My point of interest in this set is really in relation to Ed Wood’s involvement. I am by no means an Ed Wood aficionado, but his career has always fascinated me, and I only recently learned about his time as an adult filmmaker.

I’m no prude, but these types of films aren’t my thing. That being said, I firmly believe that artistic merit can be found in a number of places and styles of film. If you find this type of film offensive, then I would advise you to go no further.

For review purposes, we’ll be discussing the softcore versions of these films when able.

First, let’s talk about the films included in this set, starting with Necromania, subtitled A Tale of Weird Love.

-NECROMANIA: A TALE OF WEIRD LOVE

This Ed Wood feature follows a couple having issues with their sex life, particularly husband Danny’s erectile disfunction. When they arrive at a house owned by Madame Heles, a necromancer capable of saving their marriage and sex life. Assistant Tanya allows them to settle in, and she begins a ritual to aid in the necromancy.

What’s rather interesting about Necromania is that, if removing the actual sex from the film, it doesn’t seem all that different from a standard Ed Wood film. There’s a horror movie hidden away behind all the provocative material, involving the resurrection of a necromancer and the creepy coffin (which supposedly belonged to The Amazing Criswell, a colleague of Wood’s). It’s a rather dull affair, even with the sex. Wood’s fairly pedestrian direction makes for an underwhelming experience, really only entertaining during the actual spooky horror-adjacent scenes.

-THE ONLY HOUSE IN TOWN

This feature was unfinished, so it makes very little sense. In fact, about 20 minutes in, I was curious if there would be anything that could be considered a plot. Eventually, a plot makes itself known, a collection of stories about Freckles Flossie, who had one of the best whorehouses ever. Most of The Only House in Town is bad actors writhing about, pretending to be enjoying themselves and not being successful with their performances. It doesn’t really seem like an Ed Wood film at all, missing out on any of his usual genre stylings.

Uschi Digard stars in the film as Flossie and our narrator, and she’s mostly known for appearing in several Russ Meyer films. She’s not a convincing actor, and neither is the production design for a film set during the turn of the century. The Only House in Town is a terrible film, likely not just because it was unfinished. This feature was supposedly based on a book by Wood, the same one adapted into Necromania, but it’s hard to see any similarities, so I’m a little lost with this one.

-THE YOUNG MARRIEDS

Wood’s final picture, released here in hardcore and softcore versions, features husband and wife Ben and Ginnie. Ben is looking to help Ginnie loosen up and experiment with more open sexual relationships with other partners. Really, Ben’s looking for some strange but also wants a wife. As he eventually discovers, it is Ginnie who is far more interesting to their new swinging friends, and Ben doesn’t realize the sexual favors he is signing up for.

There’s a twist ending to The Young Marrieds that makes for an interesting final note as Wood examines the current (circa 1972) state of marriage in America, and he makes some bold swings with the ideas he is playing with. In fact, the movie kind of feels like a dirty Twilight Zone with its ending zinger, but far too much of the film just slogs along, and again, Woods directs the sex with a pedestrian eye, once that lacks any excitement.

-SHOTGUN WEDDING

The final feature on the set is the best one, written by Wood and directed by Boris Petroff (Anatomy of a Psycho). This feature is considered a bonus feature, not a hardcore sex flick but a provocative film in its own right. It’s missing Wood’s signature bad-but-commendable style, but his writing is better here, with slightly more fleshed-out characters and story, and it feels like such a time capsule of schlock that it was hard not to grin at.

Sold as an ADULTS ONLY feature IN FLAMING HILLBILLY COLOR, Shotgun Wedding follows a number of risqué-adjacent characters, including Buford Anchors, who is being pressed into marrying a gold-digger, and his son Rafe, who longs to wed the teenage daughter of Buford’s enemy Silas. This leads to a showdown between the Anchors and the Hellers that threatens to bury all of them. Shotgun Wedding showcases all of Wood’s “strengths” and ends up being a peculiar but welcome addition to the collection.

-BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:

On the first Disc of the collection, which features Necromania and The Only House in Town, we get a commentary track for Necromania featuring Ed Wood Summit Host Greg Javer and Author Paul Apel and also one for The Only House in Town featuring Javer again and Spicy Goldman of Capri Show World. There’s also a trailer for The Only House in Town.

The commentary track for Necromania is rather uninformative and unnecessary. It mostly consists of the two guests discussing the importance of the hallway being reused several times, and it’s mostly notable for a small discussion on Criswell’s coffin.

The commentary track for The Only House in Town is a much more interesting commentary with information on the filming location, the question of whether Wood directed it or not, and a pretty fascinating deep dive on a review for the film that was supposedly written by Wood under a pseudonym. I also found the interpretation of the film’s plotless plot being somehow similar to The Shining to be a funny little anecdote.

The Only House in Town also features a trailer which somehow has less plot than the film, and it’s a trailer that would not have convinced me to see the finished product.

On the second Disc, The Young Marrieds features a commentary track with Javer again and Porn Archaeologist Dimitri Otis, and it’s an interesting dive into finding the film once again, the restoration process it underwent, and some of the hidden money-saving techniques used by Wood. The commentary is more interesting than the film without it.

The second Disc also features an assorted collection of vintage sex loops, which provided nothing really of interest unless that’s your thing (no judgment here).

The third Disc features, along with Shotgun Wedding, several bonus materials that are arguably the best elements in the whole set. There’s an episode of The Incredibly Strange Film Show on Ed Wood Jr., and it mostly covers a quick summation of his life with a few notable anecdotes about Wood that I didn’t know prior. The Mad Genius of Ed Wood and A Brief Encounter With Ed are both perfectly fine, with the former being an essay on the director and the latter being a small story about the almost-collaboration between director Fred Olen Ray and Wood on Beach Blanket Bloodbath.

Without a doubt, though, the single best item in the entire set is nestled into the third Disc, a conversation between comedians Dana Gould and Bobcat Goldthwait where they discuss and often faun over their mutual love of Ed Wood Jr. It’s a delightful interaction, a hangout piece, and I wish it were longer because I just wanted to hear them riff on this passion they share.

-FINAL THOUGHTS:

Hard Wood: The Adult Features of Ed Wood is a very specific set for a very specific viewer. If you’re comfortable with the material, it’s a treasure trove of rare Ed Wood films that work better as Ed Wood films than as hardcore features, as most of them feature awkward direction and ludicrous filmmaking choices, but it functions as a record of his work in the adult film genre, something casual fans of his might not have known. It’s a mixed bag, but what is here is cleaned up better than expected, and the special features on the final disc were well worth checking into, so if this type of film fascinates you, you’ll probably find value in adding this set to your personal collection.

-Kyle A. Goethe