Blu-Ray Review // Debbie Does Damnation: The Eric Brummer Collection (2026)

 

Right away if you'd like to know how much I enjoy this movie collection I will tell you this: There are two different posters to choose from when ordering- "Electric Flesh" and "Psycho Dog" and I definitely ordered two copies of this Blu-Ray so I could get both posters.  It's just that cool to me that I felt like I need to be a completist here.

This Blu-Ray itself contains two films by Eric Brummer, but it also has two variations of those films.  So to watch it and truly understand it all, you're watching four different films.   "Debbie Does Damnation" should be up first, followed by "Crimson Dust".  Then there is "Damnation Babes" which is an alternate cut of "Debbie Does Damnation" and a VHS extended cut of "Crimson Dust".  Both of the bonus films are longer than the originals.  

"Debbie Does Damnation" is such an interesting film.   It was made back in 1999 and if you're wondering what it was like back then, I remember because it's when I first started writing about music.  So when I would go to shows, I would typically bring a film camera.  However, more professional photographers did have digital cameras back then, but much like all technology as it evolves, a lot of the digital cameras back then were more expensive than one of similar quality would be now.  I honestly think most phone cameras are better than the diigtal camera technology that existed back then.

This just all means that in order to make "Debbie Does Damnation", it had to be a true labor of love because of the time and energy which went into it.  I remember when "The Lego Movie" came out I got this movie-maker kit where you could steady the Legos and make your own stop motion with an app.  There are apps now which you can use for stop motion that help you see where your last placement was and how to keep it going.  Though it is still a skill and takes time, you have more guidance now with stop motion than ever before.   To do stop motion in a way in 1999 which didn't seem tedious, you must have been Tim Burton.  

Aside from the stop motion part of this, there are some real actors in here but in one scene there is one woman who pulls another woman up and out of where she is stuck and it switches from humans to what look like dollar store Barbie dolls.  So one of the things which is difficult to imagine is not only having someone take the time to animate this in stop motion, which again seems very time consuming, but to see all these little characters like a skull on a spider body and know that they were also being made back in 1999.   So first and foremost I feel like this film needs to be recognized for the time in which it was made, as it could be easier to create in 2026 but you also have to have that artistic eye that Eric Brummer has.

The contrast between the two films "Debbie Does Damnation" and "Crimson Dust" is quite clear.   "Crimson Dust" is shot in mostly sepia and has some elements that aren't human, but largely it just feels like a noir film.   Characters have no memory and one writes things on their arm like "Memento" did with Polaroids.  It's about drugs and vampires and is a nice companion piece to "Debbie Does Damnation" but if you're looking for another film like "Debbie Does Damnation" this just isn't quite the same.

While I feel like "Debbie Does Damnation" is this true stand alone film that no other will ever compare with because of the content, the effects, the stop motion and the time when it was created, I feel like "Crimson Dust", which was released in 2004, paved the way for a lot of what we've seen in the twenty years since.  Other filmmakers who have been part of Blood Sick Productions and beyond can feel like they've reached this similar style of low budget and indie filmmaking which we've all come to learn doesn't mean we have to sacrifice quality.  

"Debbie Does Damnation" is available on Blu-Ray from Blood Sick Productions here.