Probably best-known as the writer of family flicks like 1997’s Mouse Hunt and 1998’s Small Soldiers, Adam Rifkin attempted something different earlier in his career. 1991’s The Dark Backward brought a wholly weirder experience, one he directed and wrote.

Along with his pal Gus (Bill Paxton), Marty (Judd Nelson) works as a trash collector. He aspires to become a successful stand-up comedian but his utter lack of talent holds back this dream.

However, when a third arm mysteriously grows out of his back, Marty finds himself able to use this bizarre new limb to push toward fame in show biz. This comes with various ups and downs.

On the front of this Blu-ray’s case, we get an LA Times blurb that claims Backward gives us a project “reminiscent of Eraserhead, Pink Flamingos and Brazil”. Rifkin desperately wants to follow in those footsteps but he fails miserably.

Backward provides a movie that wears its weirdness on its sleeve – and on its jacket, and on its pants. Rifkin creates a movie that revels in its quirky grotesqueries and he hopes that if he creates a bizarre and unpleasant experience, this will pass for cleverness.

It doesn’t. Backward feels like the product of a person with zero sense of innovative weirdness who thinks he can emulate the “Wizards of Odd”.

Rather than find any inspired lunacy, Rifkin makes Backward loud, garish and disgusting. Rarely a minute passes during the movie that doesn’t seem either obnoxious or idiotic or intentionally offensive.

Case in point: in one scene, Gus finds a nude female corpse in the trash dump and he sexually molests it. Rifkin wants this atrocity to prompt laughs.

It doesn’t, and neither does anything else in Backward. Rifkin always seems self-consciously weird, as the movie wants to become something Rifkin that lacks the skill to achieve.

Perhaps Backward would fare better as a short. Given that it doesn’t include an actual plot, maybe if Rifkin boiled down the rambling tale to 20 minutes, it might entertain.

Well, probably not, but at least a 20-minute Backward would go down easier. Rifkin stretches out this intensely thin tale to 104 minutes and that makes it a chore to endure.

Backward did the seemingly impossible and made me hate Paxton. I’ve been in the bag for the actor since he appeared in Aliens 40 years ago and almost always enjoy his presence.

But not here, as Paxton’s Gus turns into the most irritating character imaginable. Paxton goes so far over the top that he forms a massive roadblock to the film’s success.

But Paxton comes with plenty of company, as nothing about Backward works. Stupid, disgusting and totally devoid of cleverness, it winds up as an unwatchable mess.

The Dark Backward appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. An intentionally ugly image, the disc appeared to reproduce it pretty well.

In general, sharpness seemed pretty good. Softness popped up at times, especially due to the movie’s perpetually murky look, but overall delineation felt satisfactory.

No concerns with jagged edges or shimmering occurred and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt appropriate and print flaws failed to manifest.

Given the film’s tone, it came with an intentionally palette. The Blu-ray replicated these ugly colors as intended.

Blacks felt reasonably deep and shadows offered adequate clarity. Nothing made this a visual showcase but the disc reproduced the movie in a satisfactory manner.

1991 seemed late in the game for a basic DTS-HD MA stereo soundtrack but that’s what we got for Backward. Given the film’s low budget, I guess that made sense.

Overall use of the front channels worked fine, at least. Music spread across in a reasonable manner and effects popped up in the right places.

The mix simply didn’t have a whole lot to it. The lack of surround information also dated the track.

Audio quality held up fine, with speech that largely came across as natural. Music showed appealing range.

Effects brought pretty good accuracy and punch. For a 35-year-old stereo mix, the track seemed fine.

All the set’s extra seem to stem from the movie’s 2006 DVD, and we find an optional two-minute, 55-second Director’s Introduction from writer/director Adam Rifkin. He makes this a quirky and fairly useless little chat.

An audio commentary features Rifkin, producer Brad Wyman and actors Judd Nelson and Bill Paxton. All four sit together for a running, screen-specific view of story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, costumes and photography, music and effects.

On the positive side, we get a decent look at a mix of areas here, but on the negative side, the recording sounds terrible and tends to ramble/devolve into praise too often. While the end result merits a listen, it comes with too many issues for me to really endorse it.

Blump’s Squeezable Documentary runs 30 minutes, six seconds. It involves Rifkin, Wyman, Nelson, Paxton, editor Pete Schink, and actor Wayne Newton.

We hear about how Rifkin got into movies and Backward's development as well as casting and performances, retrospective reflections and various anecdotes. Some of this repeats from the commentary but "Squeezable" becomes a worthwhile overview.

Taped in 2006, we get a 15th Anniversary Q&A (39:10). It followed a Hollywood screening of the film and brings back Rifkin, Wyman, Paxton and Nelson.

They talk about getting Rifkin's inspirations and financing for the film, the title, casting, sets and locations, the movie's reception, and general notes. Inevitably we find repetition from elsewhere but the Q&A still provides some new info.

Along with a brief intro from Rifkin, 26 Deleted Scenes occupy a total of 17 minutes, 50 seconds. Nothing substantial appears here, as the clips all seem brief and forgettable.

A collection of outtakes lasts six minutes, 12 seconds. A gag reel, it comes with the usual goofs and silliness.

Next we get an assortment of Cannes Promo Shots (5:04) from 1988 that existed to attempt to raise funds for the film. They offer an intriguing archival collection.

Called “Catch My Dreams”, we get a Clip Compilation (3:31) that shows movie snippets accompanied by a bad rap song. It feels like a waste of time.

Animation from the Film occupies one minute, 31 seconds and offers a better look at the Tom and Jerry-style cartoon briefly viewed in the flick. It becomes a good addition.

After this we get The Head Nerd, a one-minute, 26-second chat with Rifkin as he relates how he appeared as an extra in Sixteen Candles. Rifkin brings an interesting anecdote.

Finally, James Caan takes up one minute, 59 seconds as Rifkin tells us how he recruited Caan for the movie. We find another informative chat.

When Wayne Newton delivers the best performance in a movie, I know I’m in trouble. The Dark Backward tries hard to seem inventively warped and weird but it just becomes stupid and offensive. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio as well as a reasonable roster of supplements. I can find no redemptive value in this complete disaster.