DANZA MACABRA VOLUME 2:
THE ITALIAN GOTHIC COLLECTION (1964-1972)
8-Disc UHD/BD/CD Box Set
CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964)
JEKYLL (1969)
THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE (1971)
THE DEVIL’S LOVER (1972)
Synopsis from Severin: New Collection Delivers North American Premieres Of 3 Classic Films & A Landmark Mini-Series, Including UHD Restoration of CASTLE OF BLOOD
For this second collection of Italian Gothic shockers, Severin Films again ventures into cobweb-shrouded worlds of violence, madness and sexual deviance that remain unmatched in genre history: Gothic goddess Barbara Steele stars in Antonio Margheriti’s certified masterpiece CASTLE OF BLOOD and its Italian version DANZA MACABRA, both restored, scanned in 4K and presented in UHD for the first time ever. JEKYLL is 1969’s award-winning four-part RAI-TV sceneggiati from writer/director/star Giorgio Albertazzi that contemporizes the classic tale of man’s darkest impulses. Writer/director Corrado Farina reinvents the Dracula legend as a modern-day capitalist conspiracy with his startling and long out-of-print 1971 debut THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE. And a sizzling Rosalba Neri is seduced by Satan himself in 1972’s THE DEVIL’S LOVER, finally available restored and uncut. All four titles are now presented in their North American Premieres, newly mastered from the best available elements with over 13 collective hours of Special Features.
CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 78 Minutes (Castle of Blood), 91 Minutes 19 Seconds (Danza Macabra)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Closed Captions (Castle of Blood), Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono, Partial English Mono with Optional English Subtitles (Danza Macabra)
Video: 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Sergio Corbucci, Antonio Margheriti
Cast: Barbara Steele, Georges Rivièr, Silvano Tranquilli, Umberto Raho
The Gothic chiller Castle of Blood (1964) is directed by Antonio Margheriti (The Long Hair of Death), in it a cynical American journalist Alan Foster (Georges Rivière, Minnesota Clay) visiting London has a chance encounter with none other than Edgar Allen Poe (Silvano Tranquilli, Syndicate Sadists) and his friend Lord Thomas Blackwood (Umberto Raho, The Crimes of the Black Cat) at a tavern. There he accepts a wager from Poe to spend the evening in Blackwood's abandoned and supposedly haunted mansion until sunrise, and is warned he will bare witness to those who have died violently at the mansion reliving their deaths. Being a skeptic he does not believe in the supernatural and arrives in the creaky old dark house full of bravado, but throughout the night his skepticism is put to the test, as he falls in love the deathly gorgeous Elizabeth (Barbara Steele, An Angel for Satan), and he falls under her thrall, and skeptic or not, he might not survive the night, but he might find eternal love!
A wonderfully Gothic chiller with the ghostly inhabitants reliving their violent deaths, some bloodsucking, a creepy painting, and a wonderfully spooky old house dripping with cobwebs and shadows, all beautifully shot by
cinematographer Riccardo Pallottini with atmospheric score by Riz Ortolani (Day of Anger), that when combined with the eerie ruins of a castle, it's cobwebbed corridors, creaky doors and fog-shrouded cemeteries makes for one of the best slices of Gothic cinema you will ever set eyes on, it's eeriness just washed over you like a pleasant nightmare. On top of the chilly atmosphere we also get the haunting beauty of Barbra Steele whose ethereal beauty entraps us as viewers as it does Mr. Foster. Notably this release offers both the shorter U.S. cut Castle of Blood and the longer French cut Danza Macabra in 4K UHD and 1080p, with a brief topless nudity scene with Sylvia Sorrente quite intact, if you're curious.
Audio/Video: Both Danza Macabre and Castle of Blood arrive on 4K UHD from Severin Films in 2160p UHD, presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, scanned in 4K from the original negative and restored by Cinématographique Lyre. This is far and away the best the film in either incarnation has ever looked on home video, the source is in gorgeous shape, or restored as such, and blessed with a HDR10 color-grade the Gothic charm of this one bleeds through like never before with impressive black levels, superior grayscale and lush contrast. Audio on the Castle of Blood version comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono, while the Danza Macabre version gets a either a Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono or Partial English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles, because there are parts of the film that were never dubbed in English, so we get them here in Italian. Both tracks are clean and well-balanced, and while it sounds appropriately vintage the dialogie is east to decipher and the eerie Riz Ortolani (Warriors of the Year 2072) score delivers the goods.
Extras on the UHD include an insightful Audio Commentary With Rod Barnett Of NaschyCast And The Bloody Pit, And Dr. Adrian Smith, Co-Author Of Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror, plus the 2-min Trailer and 1-min TV Spot. Disc 2 is a Blu-ray containing the 1080p HD version of Danza Macabra plus special features, expanding on the UHD extras with the addition of 17-min of Selected Scene Commentary With Actress Barbara Steele And Barbara Steele Archivist Russ Lanier; plus a very welcomed and quite lengthy dissection of the film witht he 44-min Exploring The Castle Of Blood – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Books On Jess Franco And Lucio Fulci. Disc 3, another Blu-ray features a 1080p HD version of Castle of Blood plus a selection of extras. Among them we have 14-min The Director Who Didn't Like Blood – Interview With Edoardo Margheriti, Son Of Director Antonio Margheriti; the 31-min Enigmatic Elegance: Unveiling The Haunting Legacy Of Barbara Steele In The Italian Gothic; Video Essay By Rachael Nisbet, Film Critic And Co-Host Of Fragments Of Fear explores the Steele's Italian Gothic run, not only jam-packed with info about the star but dripping with oodles of stills and promotional images of Steele's haunting beauty; while the 23-min Return To The Castle – Location Featurette features Corrado Farina touring the 'Castle of Blood' in Bolsena, Italy in search of the gates of the castle that appear in the film, but we end up getting quite a bit more thanks to chance encounter with the wife of the gardener who worked at the castle at the time of filming. The 5-min Antonio Margheriti Remembers Castle of Blood and Barbara Steele a 5-min archival clip of the director discussing the film, and a rumor that Steele was afraid of Italians, partially because she was told Mario Bava had invented an x-ray film negative that would capture clothed actors niude (!), plus we get the 2-min Trailer and a TV Spot. for the film that's a double Bill with Hercules and the Haunted World.
Special Features:
Disc 1: UHD (Castle of Blood/Danza Macabra + Special Features)
- Audio Commentary With Rod Barnett Of NaschyCast And The Bloody Pit, And Dr. Adrian Smith, Co-Author Of Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror
- Trailer (1:38)
- TV Spot (1:04)
Disc 2: Blu-ray (Danza Macabra + Special Features)
- Audio Commentary With Rod Barnett Of NaschyCast And The Bloody Pit, And Dr. Adrian Smith, Co-Author Of Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror
- Selected Scene Commentary With Actress Barbara Steele And Barbara Steele Archivist Russ Lanier (17:12)
- Exploring The Castle Of Blood – Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of Books On Jess Franco And Lucio Fulci (44:22)
Disc 3: Blu-ray (Castle of Blood + Special Features)
- The Director Who Didn't Like Blood – Interview With Edoardo Margheriti, Son Of Director Antonio Margheriti (13:44)
- Enigmatic Elegance: Unveiling The Haunting Legacy Of Barbara Steele In The Italian Gothic – Video Essay By Rachael Nisbet, Film Critic And Co-Host Of Fragments Of Fear (30:35)
- Return To The Castle – Location Featurette (22:23)
- Antonio Margheriti Remembers CASTLE OF BLOOD And Barbara Steele (5:10)
- Trailer (1:38)
- TV Spot (1:04)
JEKYLL (1969)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 262 Minutes
Audio: Italian DTS-HD 2.O Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Giorgio Albertazzi
Cast: Massimo Girotti, Ursula Davis, Marina Berti, Giorgio Albertazzi, Claudio Gora
In 1969 the RAI, Italy's equivalent of the UK's BBC in England offered a 4-episode mini-series adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's gothic novella and explored the allegory of depraved duality in modern times. The film opens just after an attack at a roadside stop by a lunatic named Edward Hyde, the investigation leads to molecular biologist Henry Jekyll (Giorgio Albertazzi, Five Women for the Killer). Among the characters include lawyer John Utterson (Massimo Girotti, Baron Blood) who leads the charge to find out what the connection between the animalistic Hyde and the brilliant Dr. Jekyll is, plus Prof. Lanyon (Claudio Gora, The Facts of Murder), Ingrid (Ursula Davis, An Angel for Satan) and Barbara (Marina Berti, Night Train Murders). A very intriguing take on the classic tale that posits it with references to the late-60s drug culture. The flick features stark black & white cinematography Stelvio Massi (Convoy Busters) who would go onto make a mark as a director with Italian crims flicks, plus a solid score by (Planet of the Vampires). The Jekyll/Hyde transformations are minimalist and little seen, but still quite effective.
Audio/Video: The 4-episde Jekyll (1969) arrives on Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD framed in 1.33:1 widescreen, sourced from a tape master. The RAI-TV tape master source does not offer a superior viewing experience, it's like watching a VHD and not a great one at that. The B&W image is very flat, with VHS type anomalies like warping and ghosting, looking squeezed in spots, stretched in others, but always watchable, just less than stellar in every way. The scan lines offers some VHS-era nostalgia for sure, but is a low-point on this set in regard to picture quality. With that said, I love that Severin plumb the depth and come up with these obscurities clenched between their teeth and digitally spit-shine them as best they can to perverse them for future audiences Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles, which offers a much more stable audio presentation than expected. The Italian dialogue sounds fine, and the score by Gino Marinuzzi Jr (Planet of the Vampires) has a nice showing in the mix.
Extras include the the 7-min Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Albertazzi – Interview With Actor Giuliano Disperati; the 9-min Building The World Of Jekyll – Interview With Set Designer Emanuele Taglietti; and the 15-min The Double Spiral Staircase Of Jekyll And Hyde – Video Essay By Film Scholar Joseph Dwyer.
Special Features:
Disc 1:
- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Albertazzi – Interview With Actor Giuliano Disperati (7:24)
- Building The World Of JEKYLL – Interview With Set Designer Emanuele Taglietti (9:13)
Disc 2:
- The Double Spiral Staircase Of Jekyll And Hyde – Video Essay By Film Scholar Joseph Dwyer (14:42)
THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACE (1971)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 95 Minutes 39 Seconds
Audio: Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Corrado Farina
Cast: Adolfo Celi, Giuliano Disperati, Geraldine Hooper, Francesca Modigliani,
Director Corrado Farina only made two feature films, Baba Yaga (1973) and this bizarre 70's consumerism take on Bram Stoker's Dracula, with Alberto Valle (Giuliano Disperati, Violent Rome) a mid-level manager at the AAM motor company, in the Jonathan Harker role, who finds himself summoned to the remote mountain villa of owner Giovanni Nosferatu (Adolfo Celi, Naked Girl Murdered in the Park). Driving through what might as well be the Carpathian Mountains he arrives in a tiny village seemingly trapped in a bygone era looking for petrol to no avail, though he does meet a free-spirited, and oddly topless hippie chick named Laura (Francesca Modigliani, White Sister) who catches a ride with him, during their drive together she attempts to talk him out of his meeting with Nosferatu. Failing at that once they arrive at Nosferatu's estate Laura stays outside the gates while Alberto enters the walled-in estate, greeted by Nosferatu's somewhat androgynous and totally sinister secretary Corinna (Geraldine Hooper, Deep Red) who says that her master, I mean employer, will arrive after dark for dinner, and what follows in an interesting version of Harker arriving at Dracula's castle, not with bloodsucking vampire brides but with product advertisements that are triggered when entering rooms or sitting on furniture and using appliances, this is a vampire that isn't so much a blood-sucker as a corporate overlord, later hosting a board meeting with his manger-minion who oversee art, commerce, religion and resources around the globe, even screening a series of black and white TV commercials for a commercial form of LSD that are hip and youth oriented, name checking Fellini, Bergman and Godard. Outside the walls of the mansion Nosferatu's estate is patrolled by ominous Fiat superminis driven by jumpsuited henchman, who are ever-present as they patrol the fog-shrouded forest like creatures of the night.
I'd never even heard of this one previously and I was quite enamored by it during my first-time viewing, a capitalist-slanted vampire tale that brought to mind other contemporary 1970 vampire tales The Satanic Rites of Dracula and Thirst a bit. It bleeds contemporary Gothic atmosphere throughout, and while it offers very little in the way of actual horror or scares I loved the modern take on it, and how Nosferatu has his fingers in all facets of modern life, even the Catholic church. I also quite liked the mash-up of Gothic atmosphere, including what looks to be a crumbling mansion that inside is 70's ultra-modern with an antiseptic white-walled aesthetic. Likewise, Celi is no gaunt vampire, he's a vampire that has profited and fed well from his capitalist exploits, a bit plump, and quite suaze, it's a different kind of bloodsucker we have here. If you're looking for traditional Gothic bloodsucking there's an alarming lack of it here, but if you're in the mood for a very weird and satirical and intelligent vampire tale that's more interested in taking the piss out of capitalism than delivering frights there's a lot here to love.
Audio/Video: They Have Changed Their Face makes it;s U.S. debut from Severin Films scanned in 2K from the best-existing 35mm elements – approved by his son, RAI film critic and preservationist Alberto Farina. The elements are in solid shape, there's some minor speckling, and colors are mostly pleasing with only a tad bit of fade in spots. Audio comes by way of Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The track is solid and show any age-related audio wear and tear.
Extras include an Audio Commentary With Director Corrado Farina Moderated By Alberto Farina (In Italian but subtitled in English); another Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author of Daughters Of Darkness; the 43-min The Farina Method – Interview With Film Critic Alberto Farina, Son Of Director Corrado Farina; the 31-min Bloodsucking Capitalists – Interview With Actor Giuliano Disperati And Editor/Screenwriter Giulio Berruti; 6-min of Outtakes Of De Sade; 37-min of Short Films By Corrado Farina; the 84-min Praised Be My Lord – Documentary Directed By Corrado Farina; and 10-min of Commercials Directed By Corrado Farina.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With Director Corrado Farina Moderated By Alberto Farina
- Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author of Daughters Of Darkness
- The Farina Method – Interview With Film Critic Alberto Farina, Son Of Director Corrado Farina (43:14)
- Bloodsucking Capitalists – Interview With Actor Giuliano Disperati And Editor/Screenwriter Giulio Berruti (30:59)
- Outtakes Of De Sade (6:14)
- Short Films By Corrado Farina:
IL FIGLIO DI DRACULA (THE SON OF DRACULA) (20:34), GIRO GIRO TONDO (RING AROUND THE ROSIE) (11:14), IL CANTICO DELLE CREATURE (THE CANTICLE OF THE CREATURES) (5:15)
- Praised Be My Lord – Documentary Directed By Corrado Farina (84:16)
- Commercials Directed By Corrado Farina (9:32)
THE DEVIL'S LOVER (1972)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 78 Minutes
Audio: Italian Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Paolo Lombardo
Cast: Rosalba Neri, Edmund Purdom, Robert Woods, Carla Mancini
In The Devil's Lover (1972) aka Lucifera: Demon Lover, which was written/directed by Paolo Lombardo (The Embalmer), produced by the notorious sleaze-meister Dick Randall (Pieces), a trio of min-skirt clad young women in the modern day – led by a smoldering Rosalba Neri (Lady Frankenstein) seek out and spend the night in a castle that legend has it is owned by the nonother than the Devil himself. Arriving they get a tour and are invited to spend the night by the caretaker (John Benedy, Patrick Still Lives), during dinner they take note of place set at the table that is empty, when asked why the caretaker says it is set for the owner of the castle who will not be joining them - he must mean the Devil! That night Neri's character roams the corridors of the castle by candelabra and sees the portrait of witch named Helga who was burned at the stake, who has an uncanny likeness to herself. That night in her dreams she is transported back in time to the 16th century to relive the life of the witch, during a time she was to be married her suitor Hans. The ill-willed Magda (Maria Teresa Pingitore) is the former girlfriend of Hans (Ferdinando Poggi, Massacre at Grand Canyon) and she is none to pleased that her former lover is marrying another woman, so much so that she conspires with her new beau Helmutt (Robert Woods, How To Seduce a Virgin) to murder Helga, unaware that Helga has promised herself to the black-robed, red-hooded Gunther (Edmund Purdom, Pieces) - who is actually the Devil, who asks Helga to commit a he heinous act on her wedding night.
This is a fun bit of euro-cult ridiculousness, it feels cheap and the story is cobbled together in such a way that it feels more like a pastiche of separate events than a linear story. There's a witch who lures Helga's friends to a cave where they are forced into a bizarre vampire orgy that's clearly tacked-on, a cursed necklace, the a sword-duel with the teleporting devil, a tongue gets ripped out, a burning at the stake, loads of nudity and sex, including some pretty wonderful sex scenes with Neri biting her hand lost in carnal pleasure! Those are the highlights, but there are pacing issues that slow this one down quite a but, but in the end I thought it was perverse and exploitative enough that I was entertained without regretting my viewing, it's just no great shakes, but worth a watch for the sleaze, and turns from Rosalbi Neri and Edmund Purdom.
Audio/Video: The Devil's Lover (1972) arrives on Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen scanned uncut in 2K from the vault negative for the first time ever in America. This looks quite wonderful with warm colors and accurate looking skin tone throughout, black levels are pleasing as well, and film grain looks organic and unmolested. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles, which sounds terrific. Dialogue is non-problematic and the score by Elvio Monte is full-bodied and well-balanced.
Extras include an Audio Commentary With Annie Rose Malamet, Film Scholar And Host Of Girls, Guts, Giallo; the 16-min Lady Of The Night: The Feminism Of Rosalba Neri – Video Essay By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Author Of The Giallo Canvas that makes the case for Nero being a feminist/transgressive cinema icon; the 25-min Out Of The Woods – Interview With Actor Robert Woods and a 12 song 27-min CD Soundtrack with the Elvio Monte score.
Special Features:
Disc 1:
- Audio Commentary With Annie Rose Malamet, Film Scholar And Host Of Girls, Guts, Giallo
- Lady Of The Night: The Feminism Of Rosalba Neri – Video Essay By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Author Of The Giallo Canvas (16:14)
- Out Of The Woods – Interview With Actor Robert Woods (25:21)
Disc 2: The Devil's Lover Soundtrack CD (12 Songs, 27 Minutes)
The three-film/one mini-series 8-disc 1-UHD, 6-BD, 1-CD set arrives in a top-loading hardbox as did the first set. Inside the box films are each presented in their own Viva Elite black keepcases with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster artwork, which are gorgeous, inside the Blu-ray discs feature the same key artwork as the wraps. Tucked away inside The Devil's Lover release is an insert with the CD track list.
Severin's Danza Macabra Volume Two: The Italian Gothic Collection is another cobweb covered deep-dive into the Italo-Gothic sub-genre, with the headliner being the supreme Italian Gothic Danza Macabra (aka Castle of Blood) in 4K UHD - that's the main course and the most satisfying of the four presentations but it's absolutely stuffed with more euro-cult curios and obscurities that are quite satisfying in their Gothic depravity, be it satirical capitalistic vampires, a horny Devil bride, or the drug-addled duality of human nature there's tons of Gothic depravity here to enjoy. Severin's fervent dedication to the most cult of culty titles is intact and as passionate as ever, I absolutely love the Danza Macabra box sets and I hope there's enough interest in these sordid Italian Gothics to keep the series alive because I am loving the the deep-dive, and I just want to continue to sink deeper into it all.
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