PERVERSION STORY (1969) (Mondo Macabro Blu-ray Review)

PERVERSION STORY (1969) 

Label: Mondo Macabro
Duration: 108 minutes
Region: Region-FREE
Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English & Italian DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Jean Sorel, Marisa Mell, Elsa Martinelli, Alberto de Mendoza, John Ireland, Riccardo Cucciolla, Jorge Rigaud, Jean Sobieski

Lucio Fulci came into my cinema-life as the the Italian "Godfather of Gore" with horror classic like The Beyond (1981) and Zombie (1979), it was his macabre and grotesque gore film that drew me in like a moth to a flame. It wasn't until the aughts that like many I suppose, we were given the opportunity to watch his earlier works, among them stylish giallos, a violent spaghetti western, and thrillers that while not the nightmare fuel of his later works, we well-crafted genre films. 

Which brings us to Perversion Story (a.k.a. One On Top Of The Other), a film I did not have opportunity to see until Severin Films released it on DVD in 2007. Watching it the first time I didn't really care for it a whole bunch, but subsequent viewings gave me a deeper appreciation for the erotically charged thriller, one that is often aligned with the stylish Italian whodunit series of giallo movies, but I consider it more of an sensual crime thriller than an actual giallo. It lacks the traditional black-gloved killer element, but it is stylish, and set in an urban metropolis, and at it's heart it is a multi-layered whodunit murder mystery with lots of intrigue, so I can see why it's considered a giallo.

 

Th film concerns handsome, young Dr. George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel, A Lizard In A Woman's Skin) who operates a struggling medical clinic in San Francisco. He's in a loveless marriage with wife Susan (Marisa Mell, Seven Blood-Stained Orchids) who is cold to him, he's carrying on an affair with pixie-ish fashion photographer Jane (Elsa Martinelli, (The 10th Victim). While away in Vegas with his lady friend he receives a call from his brother and business partner Henry (Alberto De Mendoza, Horror Express) informing him that his Susan has died suddenly, the victim of a severe asthma attack, a condition she was known to have. 

George is surprised to find out that he's set to inherit a 2-million dollar life insurance policy claim, which make the authorities think he might have had something to do with his wife's death, and some of his actions as seen earlier come back to haunt him, setting in motion a series of events that could land George in the gas chamber at San Quentin prison! 

Things become more complicated when George encounters a stripper named Monica Weston (Martinelli in a dual role) who bares an uncanny resemblance to his late wife, with him becoming increasingly obsessed with her, and he's not the only one. The authorities catch on to this lookalike, drawing their own suspicions of how she figures into the story, theorizing that perhaps Susan faked her own death to cash-in on the insurance policy, or perhaps this woman may have had something to do with George's plot to murder the wife. 

The film is fun, stylish thriller with plenty of mystery and intrigue, not to mention copious amounts of nudity, so it has a lot going for it. The way it resolves is both fun, thrilling and preposterous, with a healthy dose of karmic comeuppance right there at the the end that I found very satisfying. Fucli was known to have a dark sense of humor, and I love the way a spurned lover comes back to set things right in this film. 

The film is a bit of oddity as it's an American-set giallo shot in San Francisco, Fulci wisely makes full use of the scenic locations with gorgeous opening shots of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alactraz Prison in the San FRancisco Bay, lots of stylish cinematography from Alejandro Ulloa (The Devil's Honey) and a brassy, seductive score from Riz Ortoloni (Cannibal Holocaust). The film has touches of psychedelia, including a wonderful shot of a lovemaking scene from the POV of the bed their laying on through red satin sheets, and some fun use of split screen. 

Audio/Video: Perversion Story (1969) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro - cult-film lovers specializing in the wild side of world cinema. The film is presented in 1080p HD widescreen and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen, being from a scan from the original camera negative This is the longer 108-min extended European cut of the film, marketed as the long version available. It looks rock solid with a natural looking layer of grain, a few scenes looks thicker with grain than others, but overall it looks excellent and is free of unecassary digital tinkering. Colors are nicely saturated, those sixties fashions look terrific, and the textures and fine detail are at times modestly impressive. 

Audio comes by way of English and Italian 1.0 Mono with optional English subtitles, being an Italian production from this era all the dialogue is post-dubbed, so there are the usual dubbing, sync issues you would associate with it, but nothing alarming. The sultry, jazz-inflected score from Riz Ortolani (Cannibal Holocaust) sounds amazing in the mix, I would have loved an isolated music track on this release, for those keeping track the 2007 DVD release from Severin included a bonus soundtrack CD.

Onto the extras we get a 38-minute appreciation from noted genre film author Stephen Thrower who discusses the film in context of the director's body of work, the shooting locations, and defending the perfromance from star Jean Sorel. Thrower is always a solid listen, whenever I see him listed on extras for a release it certainly pushes me towards a purchase, even when that purchase might me a double or triple-dip!

 

We also get a new 24-min interview with star Jean Sorel and a 10-min interview with actress Elsa Martinelli, both of these are in Italian with English subtitles. Sorel speaks about the politics of Italian cinema in the 60's and 70s while Martinelli speaks about workibg with Fulci, describing him as eccentric. Sorel's interview is in French while Martinellis is in Italian, bth have English subtitles. 

The disc is buttoned-up with a 4-min trailer for the film and a swelection of Mondo Macabro trailers. 

 
Special Features:
- Interview w. star Jean Sorel (30 min)
- Interview w. star Elsa Martinelli (10 min)
- Interview w. writer Stephen Thrower (38 min)
- Original Artwork by Justin Coffee.
- Original Trailer (4 min)
- Mondo Macabro Previews (11 min) 

I really dig rediscovering these earlier films from Fulci when they come to Blu-ray, Mondo Macabro have given this erotic-thriller a spiffy looking HD upgrade with a nice array of extras, highly recommended for fans of stylish whodunits and fans of Fulci who are intrigued by his earlier pre-gore filmography.

  

SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS (1976) (VCI Blu-ray Review)

SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS (1976) 

Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 92 minutes 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78.1)
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Mono  with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Greydon Clark
Cast: John Ireland, Yvonne De Carlo, Jack Kruschen, John Carradine, Sydney Chaplin

Horny cheerleaders and a cult of Devil worshipers collide in this fantastic slice of drive-in exploitation from low budget director Greydon Clark (Without Warning) who begins the film with a fun beach scene of horny bikini-clad cheerleaders playing a game of very touchy football with the school football team.  The frustrated coach implores the boys to save their "precious bodily fluids" for the big game tomorrow, but the cheer squad have other plans, and the jocks will be scoring long before tomorrow's big rival game, and drained of the precious bodily fluids.

The following day the cheerleaders and their air-headed PE coach (Jacqueline Cole) are en route to the big game when they're car breaks down on the side of the road, luckily for them Billy (Jack Kruschen), the school janitor happens along and offers them a ride. What they don't know is that Billy is a sequin-studded peeping tom who regularly spies on the naked cheerleaders through a peephole in the shower room, and he has no intention of transporting them to the game. He whisks them away to his Satanic altar out in the middle of nowhere, revealing his plan to sacrifice the horny teens in the name of Satan ...and get his rocks off in the process. Unfortunately for old Billy things don't go as planned, a cheerleaders named Patti (Kerry Sherman) strips nude and lays on the altar and is raped by the Beelzebub, causing Billy to throw a bit of tantrum off to the side, screaming that this was not the plan! There are corny red flashes on screen and Billy drops dead, seems making a deal with Old Scratch never goes as planned. Now slightly dazed poor Patty is transformed by the Satan-rape experience, becoming a sinister disciple of Satan. 

The girls make off with Billy's truck and encounter a bum on the side of the road, played by b-movie hero/legend  John Carradine (The House of Seven Corpses), who directs them into the town of Nether where they find Sheriff B.L. Bubb (John Ireland, Red River) and his wife. Emily, played by Yvonne Decarlo, whom you might better know as Lily from TV's The Munsters, but who had definitely seen better days at this point in her career, having appeared in a string of low-budget dreck already. In a turn straight out of Race With the Devil the Sheriff turns out to be the leader of the satanic cult and he and his devil-worshiping wife plan to make a virgin sacrifice of their own at the stroke of midnight. There's only one problem, these cheerleaders have not been virgins for quite some time, which throws a wrench into the diabolical plans of the hayseed Satanists. 

Satan's Cheerleaders is a very silly and camp-infused seventies slice of Satanic cinema with oodles of poor acting and unintentional hilarity, it is truly am awful film but  manages to be immensely entertaining for those very same reasons, it's just ridiculous fun. These teen-ladies do not have an ounce of talent between them but they are super cute and very easy on the eyes, I just love these horny 70's babes. Add in phoned-in performances from b-movie stars John Carradine, John Ireland and Yvonne Decarlo and you have the makings of b-movie romp that's ready for ridicule with a few brews and a roomful of drunk friends, which really is the only way to watch something this bad. Of note, this was one of cinematographer Dean Cundey's early features, he would go onto a very storied career beginning with John Carpenter Halloween just a few year's later but don't go in expecting this to be an early example of his visual artistry, it's not. 

Audio/Video: Satan's Cheerleaders arrives on 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo from VCI who upgrade their previous 2015 widescreen DVD with a 1080p HD image framed in 1.78:1 widescreen, derived from a "new 2K scan from the original 35mm negative". The results are an upgrade over the previous standard definition release, though it is soft with muted colors, but still an improvement over what has come before. The source has some issues by way of speckling and print damage, and other minor issues that pop-up, it doesn't look like an image derived from the OCN to my eyes, grain structure is inconsistent, looking heavy at times and bereft in others, there's been some aggressive DNR applied in spots, but it's uneven. Audio comes by way of LPCM Mono 2.0 track with optional English subtitles. There's some wear on the audio track by way of hiss and pops, but overall it's not too bad, a bit boxy but perfectly listenable.  

Onto the extras VCI carry-over the photo gallery and the audio commentary from director Greydon Clark that accompanied their 2015 widescreen DVD edition, he tends to be technical and overly serious when discussing such a silly movie, but he does offer plenty of making-of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes info that fans of the film might enjoy. New stuff exclusive to this release comes by way of an audio commentary from Director David DeCoteau (Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge) and film historian David Del Valle, who are huge film buffs and offer up a lot of trivia about the film, director and cast. VCI also offer up an alternate version of the film, something titled "Original Transfer", not sure what the provenance for this is but the image is very similar to the "restored" version, a few more blemishes but not much more to my eyes, it doesn't look like a raw scan of the negative either, so it would be interesting to have more information about the source. 

This dual format release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, closely mirroring the key artwork from VCI's previous DVD release with some minor alterations, mostly by way of black banners with white lettering advertising that the film is widescreen and uncut, from a 2K scan of the negative. The 2-discs feature the same artwork, an excerpts from the sleeve.  


Special Features: 
- Commentary track with the director, Greydon Clark.
- Commentary track with genre film director David DeCoteau (Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge) and film historian and Journalist, David Del Valle.
- Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery (3 min) 

Satan's Cheerleaders (1977) is a silly slice of 70's cheerleader/devil-worshiping cinema that's sure to have your eyes rolling back in your head with loads unintentional camp and awful acting, but I wouldn't change a thing about it other than to say more nudity wouldn't have made it better, just more fun.
  

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME (1979) (Blue Underground Blu-ray Review)

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME (1979) 

Label: Blue Underground
Region Code: Region-Free 
Rating: PG
Duration: 98 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1, DTS-HD Mono with Optional  English, French, Spanish Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: George McCowan
Cast: Jack Palance, Carol Lynley, Barry Morse, John Ireland, Nicholas Campbell, Eddie Benton

The sci-fi future world of The Shape of Things to Come is described in the movie as "the tomorrow after tomorrow" wherein mankind has laid waste to the planet Earth and set-up a new colony on the Moon where we live an enormous domed city known as New Washington. There we are dependant on an anti-radiation drug only produced on the planet Delta Three which is run by the power-mad Emperor Omus (Jack Palance, Jess Franco's Justine), who has grand ideas of becoming the new King of the Cosmos. To that end he has cut-off the supply of the life-saving drug, in addition to launching robutt-piloted kamikaze attacks on New Washington. A team of scientists led by Dr. John Caball (Barry Morse, Space: 1999) launches a mission to destroy the dictator and his menacing robot army, joining him on this life-threatening adventure are the attractive security officer (Carol Lynley, Vigilante) and his son (Nicholas Campbell, of Cronenberg's The Dead Zone) and together they arrive on Delta Three and attempt to thwart the intergalactic tyrant with the aid of their tenacious robot and whole lot of cheesy sci-fi drive-in action.

This science fiction clunker was directed by George McCowan (eco-horror clunker Frogs) and so loosely based on H.G. Wells' visionary novel that I swear his very name threatens to fall of the Blu-ray artwork. In the wake of Star Wars there were wanna-be sci-fi epics coming out of every space wormhole in the cinema but this anemic Canadian entry was among the cheapest and most yawn-inducing of them all, and that is saying something when you put up against a few of those Roger Corman rip-offs, but somehow this has managed to stay right at the bottom of the pile, aging like the rancid turd that it is. 

The saving grace of the movie is the intrinsic schlock-value of such a poor production with low-rent sets made of cardboard and alien-worlds which are about as exotic as rural Canada where the movie was made - there sure are a lot of maple trees on Delta Three! The cast have to speak massive amounts of sci-fi verbal vomit but at least we have Jack Palance nicely chewing-up the scenery as he usually did when working for producer Harry Alan Towers. As the diabolical Emperor Omus Palance does what he can as the purple caped villain, but even his treacherous charms have their limits within the context of such an atrocious affront to science fiction cinema. 

Audio/Video: The sci-fi clunker arrives on Blu-ray from cult favorite Blue Underground who have been on a Harry Alan Towers kick of late, though this is by several parsecs the worst of his movies that I have seen. However, Blue Underground work their HD magic and have struck a new HD master from the original 35mm camera negatives, breathing new life into this schlocky space-movie. The image can be a bit dark and the cinematography has an ugly softness to it, through no fault of the new transfer, this is as good as this slice of sci-fi awfulness will ever look on home video. Audio options include your choice of original DTS-HD mono or surround sound, optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles are included. 
Extras on the disc include interview with star Nicholas Campbell (14 Mins) and composer Paul Hoffert. Campbell (17 Mins). Campbell is a hoot and seems like a wild man, giving some great insight into the anemic sci-fi movie and its notorious producer Harry Alan Towers. There is also a selection of trailers, TV spots, an image gallery and the entire pressbook for the movie. 

Special Features: 
- Jason's Journey - Interview with Star Nicholas Campbell (14 Mins) HD 
- Symphonies In Space - Interview with Composer Paul Hoffert (17 Mins) HD 
- French Trailer (2 Mins) HD 
- TV Spot (30 Secs) 
- Poster and Still Gallery (3 Mins) HD 
- Pressbook Gallery (2 Mins) HD 

The Shape of Things to Come is an awful sci-fi entry that came out in the wake of Star Wars but feels more like as on-the-cheap version of the TV series Battlestar Galactica by way of the science fiction movie of the fifties. This is a recommend to hardcore collectors of bad science fiction movies, and possibly a hard-sell to anyone else. Sometimes I wonder how Lustig and company choose their HD upgrades, were fans really clamoring for this on Blu-ray? Whatever the process I remain in awe of Blue Underground;s commitment to cult-film preservation. 

I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965) (Blu-ray Review)

I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965) 

Label: Scream Factory
Release Date: May 17th 2016 
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: William Castle
Cast: Andi Garrett, John Ireland, Leif Erickson, Sara Lane, Joan Crawford

I Saw What You Did is a pretty restrained thriller by the typical standards of shock-cinema impresario William Castle who usually adorned his b-movie productions with hokey gimmicks galore, but this time around there are no shocker-seats or skeletons on wires jumping out at you. This thriller stars two fun-loving teens Libby (Andi Garrett) and Kit (Sara Lane) who are home alone with Libby's younger sister Tess (Sharyl Locke), the trio amuse themselves with prank phone calls to random numbers pulled from the phonebook. Whoever answers the phone is told "I saw what you did, and I know who you are.", which is fun and annoying, but mostly harmless teen-stuff that most kids have done at one time or another, myself included.

However, on this particular night they call the one guy who just happened to have murdered his wife in the shower Psycho style and buried her in the woods. The man is played by John Ireland and he believes that the young woman on the phone has seen something she shouldn't have, but in an era before called ID they would have gotten away with if not for their teen hormones. After hanging up the girls begin to fantasize about how good-looking Steve sounded on the phone, and their curiosity gets the better of them and they make a trip to home to get an eyeful of the murdering hunk. 

Enter Steve's lustful and somewhat desperate neighbor played by the scenery-chewing Joan Crawford who lusts after her manly neighbor, the woman's panties are definitely moist for the man, even after she figures out that the guy murdered his wife, which certainly smacks of desperation When she catches the young Libby snooping around Steve's house peeping in through the windows the demented woman assumes her to be one of Steve's younger lovers and chases her off, but not before snatching the registration from her car, which is what allows Steve to find out who the anonymous caller lives, leading to him arriving at the teens home while her parents are out for the night. I love the simple and effective initial promise of the movie, while it is a bit far-fetched it is a William Castle movie after all. I liked that it was not as gimmick-riddles as some of Castle's but I found myself wanting it to be more visceral, there's plenty of situations that could have milked for more genuine suspense but Castle was never one to hold out for the true suspense of a scene, he was a schlocky sort of guy and he usually went for the cheap thrills - but that's why I love him. 

Audio/Video: I Saw What You Did arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a new 2016 HD transfer framed in 1.78 widescreen, the black and white cinematography is crisp with some great contrast levels, the black are deep and the gray scale and white look just fine. The print used for the transfer shows some minor grit and debris from time to time and doesn't appear to have had much clean-up applied to it, which I don't mind. The English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono sounds just fine, with dialogue coming through clean and crisp, including the somewhat aloof but suspenseful score from Van Alexander. Extras on the disc include a gallery of stills and publicity materials for the movie,plus two trailers for the movie, on featuring William Castle doing what he did best, hocking his b-movie wares to the masses. 

Special Features
- NEW 2016 High-Definition Transfer
- Original Theatrical Trailer and "Special World Premiere Announcement" Trailer Featuring William Castle (3 Mins) 
- Photo Gallery (4 Mins) 

William Castle's I Saw What You Did (1965) looks quite nice on Blu-ray from Scream Factory and should be a true treat for fans of William Castle's brand of schlock and shock cinema. This one has a very straight forward premise with a nifty initial promise, it might stretch on for a bit in places but I still loved it. Joan Crawford really camps it up here with her thick eyebrows and jealous-rage, and sort of steals the show for a large swath of the movie. I also loved the teen girls, who were a sweet blend of teen prankster mischief and naive. The distribution rights for William Castle's movies seem to be spread around a bit, but I would love to see an nice HD box set of his movies, if Scream Factory could do something along the lines of the Vincent Price Collection for William Castle I know there are oodles of fans out there who would snatch it up! 3/5  

 

SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS (1976)

SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS (1976) 

Label: VCI Entertainment

Region Code: Region Free

Rating: R

Duration: 93 minutes 
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78.1)

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles

Director: Greydon Clark

Cast: John Ireland, Yvonne De Carlo, Jack Kruschen, John Carradine, Sydney Chaplin

Horny cheerleaders and a cult of Devil worshipers collide in this fantastic slice of drive-in exploitation from low budget director Greydon Clark (Without Warning) who begins the film with a fun beach scene of horny bikini-clad cheerleaders playing a game of touch football with the school football team.  The frustrated coach implores the team to save their precious bodily fluids for the big game tomorrow, but the cheer squad have other plans, and the jocks will be scoring long before tomorrow's bug game.

The following day the cheerleaders and their air-headed PE coach (Jacqueline Cole) are en route to the big game when they're car breaks down on the side of the road, luckily for them Billy (Jack Kruschen) the school janitor Billy happens along and offers them a ride. What they don't know is that Billy is a sequin-studded peeping tom who regularly spies on the naked cheerleaders through a peephole in the shower room, and he has no intention of transporting them to the game. He kidnaps them and whisks them away to a Satanic altar out in the middle of nowhere where he will sacrifice them in the name of Satan, and get his rocks off in the process. Unfortunately for him things don't go as planned and one of the young cheerleaders named Patti (Kerry Sherman) strips nude and lays on the altar and is apparently raped by the Beelzebub while Billy throws a tantrum off to the side yelling that this was not the plan. There are corny red flashes on screen and Billy drops dead, seems making a deal with Old Scratch never goes as planned. Now slightly dazed poor Patty seem transformed by the Satan-rape experience, becoming more sinister herself. 

The girls make of with Billy's truck and encounter a bum on the side of the road, played by b-movie hero John Carradine (The House of Seven Corpses), who directs them into the town of Nether where they find Sheriff B.L. Bubb (John Ireland, Red River) and his wife. Emily, played by Yvonne Decarlo, whom you might better know as Herman's wife Lily from The Munsters TV program, but who had definitely seen better days at this point in her career. In a turn straight out of Race With the Devil it turns out that the Sheriff is the leader of the satanic cult and he and his devil-worshiping wife plan to make a virgin sacrifice at the stroke of midnight. There's only one problem, these cheerleaders have not been virgins for quite some time, which throws a wrench into the diabolical plans of the hayseed Satanists. 

Satan's Cheerleaders is a very silly and camp-infused seventies slice of Satanic cinema with oodles of poor acting and unintentional hilarity, it is a truly awful film but  manages to be immensely entertaining for those same reasons, it's just ridiculous fun. These ladies do not have an ounce of talent between them but they are super cute and very easy on the eyes, I love 70's babes. Add in phones in performances from b-movie stars John Carradine, John Ireland and Yvonne Decarlo and you have the makings of b-movie romp ready for ridicule with a few brews and a roomful of drunk friends, which really is the only way to watch something this bad. Of note, this was one of cinematographer Dean Cundey's early features, he would go onto a very storied career beginning with John Carpenter Halloween just a few year's later but don't go in expecting this to be an early example of his visual artistry, it's not. 

The disc from VCI offers the film in anamorphic widescreen for the first time but won't win any year end awards for the transfer, which is soft and flat with poor contrast, and muted colors. Day shots fare better than the under lit night scenes which are a murky undefined mess, but at least the source material is in fair condition without an abundance of print damage. There's a commentary from director Greydon Clark who tends to be technical and overly serious when discussing such a silly movie, but he does offer plenty of making-of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes info that fans of the film might enjoy.

Satan's Cheerleaders is a silly slice of devil-worshiping cinema that's sure to have your eyes rolling back in your head with loads unintentional camp and awful acting, but I wouldn't change a thing about it other than to say more nudity wouldn't have made it better, just more enjoyable. 2/5

Blu-ray Review: THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES (1973)

THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES (1973) 

Label: Severin Films

Region Code: 0

MPAA Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 88 Minutes 

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono 

Video: 1080 Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Paul Harrison

Cast: John Ireland, John Carradine, Faith Domerque
Tagline: Eight graves! Seven bodies! One killer… and he’s already dead!

The cult 70's drive-in chiller The House of Seven Corpses (1973) opens with a witchy looking Gayle Dorian (Faith Domerque, Legacy of Blood) performing what appears to be a satanic conjuring of some sort in a room with Satanic symbols on the floor, suddenly weird things start to happen and just when we think something strange and supernatural might happen we hear a director scream "Cut!", irritated that someone has ruined the scene. Yup, it's all been a sort of cheat on the us, the audience, there's no Satanic ritual taking place just a low budget film crew struggling to finish a low budget production.

Director Eric Hartman (John Ireland, Satan's Cheerleaders) and a small film crew have arrived at an old spooky mansion with a storied past to recreate the mysterious deaths that occurred at that very same place years earlier, seven members of the Beal family met tragic ends. On-set we have the middle-aged actress Gayle Dorian (Domerque), an alcoholic thespian Christopher Millan (Charles Macauley, Three O'Clock High), the younger starlet Anne (Carol Welles, The Cheap Detective) and the hero David (Jerry Strickler). It's a fun cast, Gayle's demanding and unhappy with her fading career, her leading man Christopher is a pompous lush and the is just trying to get this low budget movie made, but life ain't easy for indie filmmakers. The mansion is maintained by the creepy caretaker Edgar Price (John Carradine, The Howling) who interrupts numerous takes with stories about the deaths that occurred at the mansion, all of which we get to see during a fantastic and gruesome opening credit sequences, it's a fun montage and probably the most entertaining sequence in the entire film, talk about blowing your load early!

Not only does the director have to deal with the daily struggle of keeping the low budget production on schedule and dealing with a bitchy cast but he experience more difficulties than he could have imagined when one of the actors recite passages from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Wouldn't you know it, the reading of the words actually resurrect a ghoul from the nearby graveyard who wreaks a terrible horror on the film crew. That's pretty much the whole story right there, a small crew shoot a film at haunted mansion, a zombie is resurrected and people start dying, that's it. It's a low budget drive-in cheapie with a fun veteran cast, plus it's always a blast to see Carradine in one of these 70's schlockers.

My favorite part of this 70's drive-in flick would be the film-within-a-film aspect, the small crew struggling with temperamental actors and weird happenings to get their low budget film made, eventually they wind up the victims of a supernatural force and it's good goofy fun, definitely the junk food of b-movie cinema. Watching it I was reminded of the late night chiller TV shows I would watch as a kid, fun stuff. 

Blu-ray: The House of Seven Corpses (1973) comes to Blu-ray with an AVC encoded in 1080p widescreen (1.85:1), the print is well worn and bares the scars of a well screened print. There are scratches, burn marks, print damage and a nice heavy layer of grain, the first reel looks the particularly bad but it improves and is quite watchable. Transferred in hi-def from original vault materials it's the best we're gonna get for this 70's drive-in obscurity, while there's some fading the colors seem pretty accurate, the transfer even affording some modest depth and occasional fine detail and texture. Darker scenes are murky and grain-heavy. 

The English language DTS-HD Master Audio Mono 1.0 is decent, the atmospheric score sounds very nice, dialogue was a bit of a chore to decipher at times, the levels dropping low occasionally and there's some distortion when the screaming starts, overall a decent if unremarkable audio presentation that compliments the visuals.

Extras start with an audio commentary from Associate Producer Gary Kent Moderated By The Alamo Drafthouse’s Lars Nilsen, and it's a fun track with a lot of bits of trivia about the location, production and cast. There's also a half-hour video interview with actor John Carradine recorded in 1983. He speaks about his film career and seems downright annoyed that people are so fascinated by his work in horror films, which make-up only a fraction of his 400 plus films. He speaks of working on a few of the later Dracula films for Universal and Joe Dante's The Howling (1981). The quality of the video seems like it's sourced from a 3rd generation VHS but it's a great watch, Carradine is a gifted storyteller as he speaks about his relationships with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. When questioned about his favorite horror film he names the silent classic The Golem (1920). The last extra on the disc is a rough looking trailer plus we get a DVD disc which mirrors the feature and extras on the Blu-ray. 

Special Features: 

- Rare Archive Interview With Star John Carradine (28:03)
-Audio Commentary With Associate Producer Gary Kent Moderated By The Alamo Drafthouse’s Lars Nilsen
-Theatrical Trailer (2:08)

Verdict: The House of Seven Corpses (1973) is a fun low budget 70's haunted house flick with a neat film-within-a-film element which I loved, there's also some decent atmosphere and a creepy score that enhance the proceedings. It's no masterpiece of genre cinema but it's definitely a fun slice of cult drive-in cinema that should appeal to fans of late night chiller TV from the 70's and early 80's. Gotta love Severin Films for digging deep for these cult gems and putting the love that they do into polishing 'em up with some decent extras, love it. 3.5 Outta 5