3 DISC COLLECTION INCLUDES 2 THOUGHT-LOST FILMS PLUS THE ACCLAIMED DOCUMENTARY THE DEGENERATE: THE LIFE AND FILMS OF ANDY MILLIGAN WITH 2 RARELY SEEN MOVIE PROJECTS AND 5+ COMBINED HOURS OF SPECIAL FEATURES
Gutter Auteur: The Lost Legacy of Andy Milligan is a definitive 3-disc tribute to one of cinema's most transgressive, misunderstood, and obsessively fascinating filmmakers. A pioneering outsider who clawed his way from the depths of 1960s underground filmmaking to the grindhouse gutters of 42nd Street, Andy Milligan remains, as Artforum called him, "The Fassbinder of 42nd Street" -- a volatile, visionary auteur whose work defied convention and decency alike.
This landmark collection from Severin Films assembles an astonishing array of newly unearthed and restored material, including two features long thought lost: The Degenerates (1967), a post-nuclear nightmare rediscovered in a Brussels vault, and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me! (1968), a searing psychodrama recovered from an Amsterdam archive. Both have been meticulously restored from their only surviving film elements, resurrecting Milligan's raw, handmade cinema for the first time in decades.
Also included is the acclaimed 2025 documentary The Degenerate: The Life and Films of Andy Milligan, hailed by RogerEbert.com as "an eye-opening look into one of the weirder and darker corners of cinema history." Directed by Josh Johnson and Grayson Tyler Johnson, it captures the chaos, creativity, and pain of a filmmaker whose work was as personal as it was perverse. The set goes even deeper with two rarely seen projects -- the early short Compass Rose and 1979's gothic curio House of Seven Belles -- alongside more than five hours of special features that peel back the myth and madness surrounding Milligan's legacy.
Among the extensive extras are Team Degenerate, a Tribeca Film Festival Q&A with directors Johnson and Johnson, author Jimmy McDonough (The Ghastly One), and Milligan collaborators Hope Stansbury, Natalie Rogers, Ken Lane, and John Borske; deleted scenes and trailers from The Degenerate; a feature-length audio commentary on The Degenerates with Milligan expert Alex DiSanto; the archival 1975 audio interview between Milligan and author Stéphane Bourgoin; and multiple new interviews with actors, scholars, and historians including Stephen Thrower (Nightmare USA). Other highlights include Two Weeks in Woodstock with actress Laura Cunningham, Magic Time! with Peter Ratray, Dove and Divine with Natalie Rogers, Licentious Lunacy with Alex DiSanto, and Thrower's multi-part analyses of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me!, House of Seven Belles, and Compass Rose.
A delirious collision of archival discovery, academic depth, and grindhouse sleaze, Gutter Auteur is essential viewing for fans of Andy Warhol's Bad, John Waters, and the darkest reaches of American exploitation cinema. As Screen Anarchy notes, Milligan "created a unique oeuvre that defies and defiles common decency at a level that is both shocking and admirable." Morbidly Beautiful called him "one of exploitation's most fascinating figures," and Video Watchblog's Tim Lucas described him as "one of fantastic cinema's most maligned--and malignant--originals."
Raw, angry, and unrepentant, Andy Milligan's legacy has finally been given the restoration and respect it deserves.
