Directed by Robert Martin Carroll 1989, Sonny Boy takes places in the deserts of seventies New Mexico. Here we meet a nobody, a hood, in the form of a guy named Weasel (Brad Dourif). He's a career criminal who finds a pair of tourists foolish enough to have checked into the wrong hotel and the wrong time. He kills them and then, after committing the ultimate sin, realizes that the car he's just stolen from his victims has an unexpected surprise: there's an infant baby boy in the back seat.

Weasel takes the car to his boss, Slue (Paul L. Smith), and drops it off. It's here that Slue's transvestite girlfriend, Pearl (David Carradine), who decides they're going to keep the little bugger and raise him as their own. And so they do, keeping him in a cage and teaching him to kill, essentially turning him into a guard dog or attack dog of sorts. But of course, it doesn't take a genius to realize that Sonny Boy (Michael Griffin) is going to eventually want his freedom… this won't end well, oh no, not at all, not when Sonny busts out and goes on a rampage.

While Sonny Boy is a little too long for its own good, it remains an interesting cult movie curiosity and a pretty entertaining watch. The big draw here, or at least what the movie is best remembered for, is the fact that Carradine plays a transvestite but that doesn't provide as much camp value as you might expect, as it turns out Carradine actually makes a surprisingly good transvestite. The guy shows some legitimate commitment to the role and Pearl winds up not only being more sympathetic than most of the other characters but better written as well. Yes, it is odd seeing the man best known for playing tough guys in TV shows like Kung-Fu and movies like Kill Bill in a part like this, particularly when he sings, but he handles this more abstract, unusual role really well. The rest of the cast shine too. Paul L. Smith is quite good as the sadistic patron of the clan, he seems to be having a good time in the role chewing just enough of the scenery to make you take notice. Throw the mighty Brad Dourif into the mix as a punkish thug, the type of role he excelled at in the eighties, and yeah, things shape up nicely in front of the camera.

Michael Griffin, in his feature film debut, doesn't quite deliver a performance that is on par with the rest of the cast, however. He's not bad, at times he's quite good, but for someone who grew up in cage in the desert and lived off of eating various animals, he's awfully clean cut looking. Which is in stark contrast to the movie's harsh, gritty, dirty look. It takes place in the desert for the most part, and it's a hot, sun bleached looking film full of some great, grubby locations that perfectly suit the tone of the picture.

The story itself is an interesting one. It's a little on the predictable side and for that reason you won't have too much trouble figuring out where it's going, but it does what it does well. There are some slow spots to be sure and some tighter editing might have made for a more intense watch but when it fires on all cylinders, as it does towards the finale, things are pretty gripping even when you know where they're headed.

Video:

Shout! Factory brings Sonny Boy to Blu-ray in a 2.40.1 widescreen transfer, presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition, and it looks quite good. Detail is pretty strong throughout the presentation and while a few minor specks pop up occasionally, for the most part the picture is sharp, colorful and quite clean. Detail and texture are quite a bit past where DVD could provide, clarity is typically pretty impressive and black levels stay nice and deep, only occasionally looking closer to dark grey in one or two spots. Colors are spot on, the dusty locales used throughout the movie appear appropriately dingy looking, skin tones look nice and natural and there are no noticeable issues with edge enhancement or noise reduction.