True Grime fans assemble!!!

If you grew up prowling the video store aisles for anything with blood, shock, or the words “based on a true story,” the new True Crime Triple Ripper Blu-ray set from AGFA and Something Weird Video feels like a time machine back to those glory days of cracked VHS cases and grainy late-night cable marathons. It’s a lovingly restored, double-disc plunge into three very different slices of vintage exploitation — all inspired, however loosely, by real-life killers.

True Crime Triple Ripper is a Blu-ray collection from American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) + Something Weird Video that bundles three exploitation horror films, all inspired by real-life killers.  The set packages three obscure exploitation-true-crime hybrids: The Sadist (aka Sweet Baby Charlie, 1963) which riffs on the Starkweather spree, The Other Side of Bonnie & Clyde (1968) a surreal Buchanan film, and The Zodiac Killer: Noir (1971/2025) re-edited to horror-noir form.

The first feature, The Sadist (1963), is the clear standout — a sun-baked, tension-drenched mini-masterpiece starring a young Arch Hall Jr. as a sadistic spree killer modeled after Charles Starkweather. It’s a scrappy, drive-in thriller shot by future Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, and it still hits like a hammer. The transfer looks sharp, the sound is clean, and the commentary track dives deep into its production quirks. It’s the kind of lean, mean shocker that defined the early ‘60s indie horror boom — rough, but full of raw talent.

Then there’s The Other Side of Bonnie & Clyde (1968), Larry Buchanan’s bizarre pseudo-documentary that plays like an educational film gone off the rails. It mixes re-enactments, awkward narration, and moral hand-wringing into something that’s part public-access curio, part fever dream. It’s not “good” in the conventional sense — but that’s exactly what makes it fascinating. It’s a window into the square side of exploitation, where Hollywood’s glamorous take on crime collided with regional filmmakers trying to moralize the mayhem.

Finally, The Zodiac Killer: Noir reimagines the notorious 1971 curiosity The Zodiac Killer as a stylized black-and-white horror-noir cut. The original film was already infamous for its bonkers tone and its director’s wild stunt of screening it in San Francisco to lure the real Zodiac to the theater. This new version adds a moody sheen and reframes the absurdity as something more hypnotic and surreal. It’s still pure drive-in delirium, but with a touch of art-house melancholy.

As always, AGFA and Something Weird know how to treat this material. The restorations are strong, the packaging is beautifully trashy, and the extras — including commentaries, galleries, and archival footage — make it a true collector’s piece. What ties these three films together isn’t narrative cohesion but an obsession with America’s fascination with violence, filtered through the cracked lens of exploitation cinema.

For the modern viewer, True Crime Triple Ripper may feel uneven — a mix of genuine craft, historical curiosity, and outright weirdness. But for Gen-X horror fans who came of age worshiping at the altar of sleaze and sincerity, it’s a perfect little shrine. It reminds you why these films matter: because they capture the unfiltered, unpolished side of horror history — before true crime became prestige podcast fodder and when “based on a true story” still felt dangerous.

A must-own for cult collectors and old-school horror fans. Uneven but endlessly watchable, True Crime Triple Ripper rips through the seedy heart of mid-century America with all the drive-in grime and low-budget soul you could hope for.

Home Video Distributor: AGFA
Available on Blu-ray - November 25, 2025
Screen Formats: 1.37:1; 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH 
Video: MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: The Sadist-English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono; The Other Side of Bonnie and Clyde: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono; The Zodiac Killer: Noir: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; two-disc set
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

AGFA + Something Weird Present the TRUE CRIME TRIPLE RIPPER! Torn from yesterday's headlines! A trio of pulpy exploitation volcanoes based on real-life killers torridly curated from the SWV Vault!

Video

If you’re buying this set primarily for image quality (expecting pristine visuals), know what you’re getting: a genuine restoration effort for obscure films — but still films with age, budget, and source-material constraints. If you’re buying because you love the content, the vibe, the historical value, and you’re okay with “character” in the presentation (grain, occasional flicker, print artifacts) — then yes: you’ll likely be satisfied with the attempt to bring the originals into proper HD.

Audio

The English DTS-HD MA 2.0 won’t break any speakers, but it does the job!

Supplements:

For a niche collector or fan of vintage/exploitation horror/true-crime cinema, the special-features package here is strong relative to what you typically get for obscure titles.

Commentary:

• See special features for the details,

Special Features:

Disc 1:

• The Sadist (aka Sweet Baby Charlie, 1963, B&W) — 2017 restoration from the dupe negative (92 mins) + 2025 preservation from a 35 mm print (88 mins)
• Archival commentary with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond on the restoration
• Archival introduction by Joe Dante
• Preservation from the Something Weird S-VHS master

Disc 2:

• The Other Side of Bonnie & Clyde (1968, color) — Preservation from the broadcast tape master; archival commentary with director Larry Buchanan
• The Zodiac Killer: Noir (1971/2025, B&W) — preservation from a 35 mm print; newly color-graded B&W and re-edited as horror-noir
• Trailer for The Other Side of Bonnie & Clyde + archival ephemera gallery

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