HIGH TENSION: FOUR FILMS BY LAMBERTO BAVA (1993-1999) 4xBlu-ray + 1 CD Set
Lamberto Bava, son of Italian horror maestro Mario Bava (A Bay of Blood), was a chip of the shoulder for sure, a prolific horror director in his own right who brought us some mind-bending fright-bangers like Demons, Demons 2, The Mask of Satan, The Black Cat and many others. In the late ‘80s, Lamberto Bava was contracted to direct a four-part anthology series for Italian TV under the title Alta Tensione (High Tension), but when he delivered the finished films they were so violent and over-the-top that they were deemed unairable for broadcast TV, even in the notoriously loose Italy, and so they sat on the shelf for over a decade before they were ever aired, and even then they have long since remained unavailable on home video, previously only seeable on dodgy looking bootlegs - that is until now, thanks to the herculean efforts of cult-film heroes Severin Films who have delivered all four films on Blu-ray via this box set, newly scanned in 2K from the original camera negatives with uncompressed Italian and first-time ever English audio, with over five hours of new extras and a Soundtrack CD curated by Simon Boswell featuring music from High Tension, The Mask of Satan, Demons 2, Delirium, and more.
DISC 1: THE PRINCE OF TERROR (1989)
THE PRINCE OF TERROR (1989)
aka Il maestro del terrore
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 91 Minutes 50 Seconds
Audio: English or Italian Mono DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Lamberto Bava
Cast: Tomas Arana, David Brandon
The first film is The Prince of Darkness, written by screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti (The Beyond) a twist on the home-invasion thriller that starts off with one of my favorite tropes, the movie-within-a-movie, we're on the set a horror film directed by the ‘Prince of Terror’ Vincent Omen (Tomas Arana, The Church) - what a cool name for a horror director - who is having an argument with his difficult screenwriter Paul (David Brandon, Stage Fright), whom he ends up firing on the spot with the screenwriter storming off. Returning home that night to his secluded villa he eats dinner with his wife Betty (Carole André, Yor, the Hunter from the Future) and daughter Susan (Joyce Pitti) as well as a producer and actress, but after the guests leave for the night Omen and his family find themselves the victims of a home invasion with some supernatural overtones.
I absolutely loved how this story involves a horror director, it's very meta in a fun way, we get a grisly special effects from horror icon Sergio Stivaletti (Cemetery Man), including a shocking and somewhat silly dog-skinning scene, and one of the home invaders played by Ulisse Minervini (The Card Player) has an unnerving menace that brought to mind Giovanni Lombardo Radice's turn in The House on the Edge of the Park. The finale is totally wild, and I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it, totally bonkers and awesome, making this perhaps the world's first golf-horror flick. The middle-third is a little soft and a bit of a slog, but I love that opening De Palma-esque film-within-a-film intro with a gruesome waterlogged zombie, and the finale is just unhinged in the best possible way.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years Of Italian Giallo Films
- The Adventure Of Anfri – Interview With Director Lamberto Bava On High Tension (16:46)
- We Call Him Maestro – Lamberto Bava On The Prince of Terror (17:52)
DISC 2: THE MAN WHO WOULDN’T DIE (1989)
THE MAN WHO WOULDN’T DIE (1989)
aka L'uomo che non voleva morire
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English Mono, Italian Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Lamberto Bava
Cast: Gino Concari, Keith Van Hoven, Lino Salemme, Martine Brochard
Next up is The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1989) is a nasty little piece of work which actually started out in the early ‘70s when Lamberto's father Mario Bava set out to adapt a poliziotteschi novelist Giorgio Scerbanenco (Caliber 9), and while that never manifested on fil from Mario, Lamberto eventually directed it in 1989, from a screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici (The New York Ripper) for the Italian TV anthology High Tension. In it the quite handsome and fit Fabrizio (Keith Van Hoven, The House of Clocks) and his gang of low-rent thieves are contracted by the Madame Janaud (Martine Brochard, Eyeball) to steal a piece of art from a luxury villa, however, things go sideways during the heist when one of his crew, Giannetto (Gino Concari, Massacre), attempts to rape the woman who owns the house, only to be grievously injured by her husband in the process, bashed in the head and bleeding profusely, the rest of the crew think he'll be a liability so they kill the husband and wife, and leave him for dead in the woods. When his accomplices discover he in fact did not die and he's recovering at the hospital they attempt to silence him forever before he can spill the proverbial beans, but can they stop him before he has his brutal revenge?
A nasty piece of work this one, it's a bit of a challenge that our protaganist is a rapey, violent hood, but when every character is a scumbag he's the least of the worst (???) and there's fun to be had in the vicious revenge, including a well-done death by toilet. A bit of a slow-burn but I enjoyed it, it's quite stylish with some giallo elements that appealed to me, and some great locations and set pieces make this heist-gone-wrong revenger quite a solid watch.
Special Features:
- The Scerbanenco Touch – Interview With Director Lamberto Bava
- Stephen King Italian Style – Interview With Screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti
DISC 3: SCHOOL OF FEAR (1989)
SCHOOL OF FEAR
aka Il gioko
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 100 Minutes 17 Seconds
Audio: English or Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Lamberto Bava
Cast: Alessandra Acciai, Daria Nicolodi, Stefano De Sando
School of Fear (1989) is a school-set thriller, directed by Lamberto Bava from a script credited to screenwriters Roberto Gandus (Macabre), Dardano Sacchetti (The Psychic), Giorgio Stegani (Cannibal Holocaust). Newly arrived teacher Diana Berti (Alessandra Acciai, The Black Cat) starts teaching mid-semester at a private academy, unbeknownst to her, at least at first, the previous teacher had been mysteriously killed at the school at the start of the film, we see her running through an underground labyrinth to her doom in the quite effective prologue. Diana starts to notice some strange behaviors from the student body, including a secret club where the kids wear animal masks and traipse around the school grounds at odd hours playing macabre, secret games, which is not odd at all. Believing that there is something strange happening at the school with the students she investigates, much to the ire of the school's stern headmistress (an underused Daria Nicolodi, Deep Red), finding herself caught up in a fog of mystery and gas-lighting, which reignites a childhood trauma she suffered. This was my least favorite of the four film, despite an interesting boarding school location and some interesting flashbacks the way it all pans out and the languid pace made it a bit of a slog for me. More a thriller than horror flick the gore is very toned-down this time around, but we do get some decent atmosphere and suspense, some cool looking locations, it's quite an interesting and stylishly shot deep cut from Bava, but in my estimation it's the least of the four film on this set.
Special Features:
- The Tale Of Evil Children – Interview With Director Lamberto Bava (18:15)
- Play The Game – Interview With Screenwriter Roberto Gandus (9:46)
- When Bava Met Boswell – Interview With Composer Simon Boswell (31:56)
DISC 4: BOSWELL/BAVA CD BY SIMON BOSWELL (46:21)
1. Snow (La Maschera Del Demonio) (3:09)
2. Red Sun (Demons 2) (3:20)
3. Opening Titles (L'uomo Che Non Voleva Morire) (4:36)
4. Main Theme (Il Gioko) (2:21)
5. Dinner (Una Notte Nel Cimitero) (2:11)
6. Shopping (testimone Oculare) (2:20)
7. Breakfast (A Cena Col Vampiro) (3:50)
8. Hitch (Per Sempre) (4:25)
9. Orch Chase (Le Foto Di Gioia) (1:47)
10. Demonica (Demons 2) (2:06)
11. Sex in the Bath (Le Foto De Gioia) (2:40)
12. Titles (La Casa Dell'Orco) (3:14)
13. Witch Burning (La Maschera Del Demonio) (2:45)
14. One Eyed Jill (Le Foto de Gioai) (3:50)
15. Imagination (Une Notte Nel Cimtero) (3:50)
DISC 5: EYE WITNESS (1989)
EYE WITNESS (1989)
aka Testimone oculare
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 99 Minutes 53 Seconds
Audio: English or Italian DTS-DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Lamberto Bava
Cast: Barbara Cupisti, Mary Sellers, Alessio Orano, Antonella Antinori
The final film in the High Tension series is a Hitchcockian thriller with some tasty giallo vibes, this one coming from screenwriters are Giorgio Stegani (Cannibal Holocaust) and Massimo De Rita (Blastfighter). In it a blind woman named Elisa (Barbara Cupisti, The Church) is the only witness to a murder at shopping mall, after she finds herself trapped in a department store after hours the blind woman witness the death of a secretary whose head is smashed through a pane of storefront glass and strangled to death. The cops show up and suspect Ilsa's facially scarred friend Karl (Giuseppe Pianviti, The Godfather Part III) or perhaps the secretary's boyfriend Marcello (Francesco Casale, The Voyeur) could be the main suspects, however, we know that it's the secretary's creepy store manager (Alessio Orano, The Killer Must Kill Again), and he is dead-set on tracking down Elisa, and anyone else who can identify him, so he can kill them. This was quite a fun later-era giallo, it's plenty stylish, with a terrific performance from the lovely Cupista, but the fact that the killer's identity is known to us takes away a lot of the suspense, fortunately Lamberto is a solid director and us still able to craft a taught thriller here, with an interesting finale that takes place in a commune of sorts where differently abled people live together and support one another, the killer unaware that the tables are about to turned on him in a most surprising way. Cupisti is quite charming in the lead role, and Orano is the killer is a deliciously vile, even though his reasonings for what he does are left completely ambiguous, and comes off as just a bad guy who likes raping and killing busty young women, it's pretty shallow in that respect. The story is also slightly bloated, mostly by a unnecessary subplot involving useless cop Marra (Stefano Davanzati, Dagger Eyes) who is more keen to woo over Elisa than do any real detective work.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years Of Italian Giallo Films
- The Last Giallo – Interview With Director Lamberto Bava (15:42)
- Love Is Blind – Interview With Actress Barbara Cupisti (12:26)
Audio/Video: All four films make their worldwide Blu-ray debut on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD framed in 1.66:1 widescreen, sourced from 2K scan of the original film negatives. The image on all four look terrific, film grain is intact with wonderful depth and detail, colors are warm and nicely saturated, and black levels are solid. There;s some occasional dirt and speckles visible, and of the four film School of Fear fares the worst with some
scratches and tears being briefly visible, but even still, these are impressive restorations, and easily the best the film have ever looked considering these are the first legit releases on home video. Audio on all four films comes by way of uncompressed Italian or English mno with optional English subtitles. The tracks are largely clean and well-balanced, some age related wear and source limitations are evident, but like the video presentation this is surely th ebest the films have ever sounded, and the Simon Boswell (Santa Sangre) scores sounds terrific.
The four-film, four-disc set arrives in a top-loading hardbox similar other high-quality Severin set like the Cushing Curiosities and Danza Macabra. The artwork on the box by Eric Adrian Lee is quite striking with spot-gloss highlights, the spines are adorned with the film titles. Inside the box films are each presented in their own black keepcases with single-sided sleeves of artwork, which I am assuming is also done by Eric Adrian Lee, inside the Blu-ray discs feature the same key artwork as the wraps.
Severin come through with a wealth of extras, we get new Audio Commentaries with Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson And Troy Howarth, Author Of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years Of Italian Giallo Films on School of Fear and Eye Witness, interviews n each disc with Lamberto Bava, plus interviews with screenwriters Roberto Gandus and Dardano Sacchetti, actress Barbara Cupisti and composter Simon Boswell, plus a bonus compilation CD of Boswell's music that is a terrific listen.
Severin's release of the High Tension: Four Films By Lamberto Bava 5-disc Blu-ray/CD set is a terrific deep-dive into four previously super hard-to-come-by, made-for-TV terrors from Italian director Lamberto Bava, all newly restored, and loaded-up with a wealth of extras. This is a terrific set that has been tailor-made for deep-diving Italian horror and Lamberto Bava fans who crave to see obscure and hard-to-find films, this set comes highly recommended.
Screenshots from the Severin Films Blu-rays:
School of Fear:
Extras:
Eye Witness
The Prince of Darkness
Extras:
The Man Who Wouldn't Die - Sorry, I was unable to pull screenshots for this one :(
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