The Houses of Doom 6-disc box (4 Blu-rays, 2 CDs) pre-order is LIVE from Cauldron Films!

The Houses of Doom box pre-order is LIVE!

The Houses of Doom 6 disc box (4 Blu-rays, 2 CDs) includes 4 Italian horror films (The House of Clocks & The Sweet House of Horrors directed by Lucio Fulci and The House of Lost Souls & The House of Witchcraft directed by Umberto Lenzi) plus 2 never before released CD soundtracks, and more!

More details at Cauldron-films.com and DiabolikDVD.com. 

Regular price

$129.99

Sale price

$94.99 Sale

This item is a pre-order and ships July 2024

**LIMITED TIME OFFER: All orders placed prior to Monday 3/18/24 will receive a limited Houses of Doom metal keychain and pay the special preorder discounted price of $95!**

**International Customers can order through DiabolikDVD**

Enter The Houses of Doom …. a 4 film horror series that was made for Italian television in 1989, but things didn’t quite turn out “safe for TV” when producers enlisted cinematic madmen Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi to direct! Far too gory and violent for television and essentially shelved until home video many years later, Cauldron Films is proud to release all 4 films (The House of Clocks & The Sweet House of Horrors directed by Lucio Fulci and The House of Lost Souls & The House of Witchcraft directed by Umberto Lenzi), collected on Blu-ray for the first time in a 6 disc set (4 Blu-rays / 2 CD soundtracks) fully uncut and restored from 2K scans of the film negatives, housed in a rigid outer box with 4 folded posters!

Disc 1 (Blu-ray):
The House of Clocks

1989 / Italy / 1.66:1 / 83 minutes / Horror / Director - Lucio Fulci

Three young thieves looking for a big score set their sights on the most lavish house they can find. Little do they know that this house and its inhabitants have murderous impulses of their own. Will they make it out alive? Only time will tell…

This bloody and violent tale of time and revenge is directed by Lucio Fulci (Zombie) and stars Keith Van Hoven (Black Demons), Karina Huff (The Black Cat), Paolo Paoloni (Cannibal Holocaust), Carla Cassola (The Sect), Bettine Milne (The Avengers TV series) and Al Cliver (The Beyond) with soundtrack by Vince Tempera (The Psychic)

Details: 
- 2K restoration from the negative / 1080p presentation
- English audio
- Optional English SDH subtitles
- Italian audio w/ English subtitles

- All Region

Extras: 
- Lighting the House of Time: An interview with cinematographer Nino Celeste
- Time and Music: An interview with composer Vince Tempera
- Working with a Master: An interview with 1st AD Michele De Angelis
- Time with Fulci: An interview with FX artist Elio Terribili
- Archival interviews
- Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani, Nathaniel Thompson, and Troy Howarth
- Poster (folded) featuring artwork by Matthew Therrien with title treatments by Eric Lee

Disc 2 (CD):
- The House of Clocks (original soundtrack by Vince Tempera)
- Soundtrack artwork by Alexandros Pyromallis

Disc 3 (Blu-ray):
The Sweet House of Horrors

1989 / 1.66:1 / Italy / 83 minutes / Horror / Director - Lucio Fulci

A wealthy couple in a mansion are brutally murdered, leaving their two young children in the care of their aunt and uncle. The distraught kids seek to communicate with the ghosts of their parents, but they aren’t the only spirits in the building. Chaos ensues as the confused aunt and uncle try to sell the property, prompting the dead to clearly make their desires known.

Sitting somewhere between a ghostly episode of Goosebumps and your tried-and-true gory Italian horror film, The Sweet House of Horrors is directed by Lucio Fulci (The Beyond) and stars Cinzia Monreale (Beyond the Darkness), Jean-Christophe Brétignière (Rats: Night of Terror), Lino Salemme (Demons), Franco Diogene (Midnight Express), Vernon Dobtcheff (Day of the Jackal), Ilary Blasi, and Giuliano Gensini with soundtrack by Vince Tempera (The Paganini Horror)

Details: 
- 2K scan of the negative / 1080p presentation
- English audio
- Optional English SDH subtitles
- Italian audio w/ English subtitles
- All Region

Extras:
- Fulci House of Horrors: Interview with set designer Massimo Antonello Geleng
- Sweet Muse of Horrors: Interview with actress Cinzia Monreale
- Editing for the masters: Interview with editor Alberto Moriani
- Archival interviews
- Poster (folded) featuring artwork by Matthew Therrien with title treatments by Eric Lee
- Commentary TBD

Disc 4 (CD):
- The Sweet House of Horrors (original soundtrack by Vince Tempera)
- Soundtrack artwork by Alexandros Pyromallis

Disc 5 (Blu-ray):
The House of Witchcraft

1989 / Italy / 89 minutes / Horror / Director - Umberto Lenzi

An over-worked journalist recovering from a breakdown has been suffering from nightmares. To help ease his struggles, his wife takes him to an idyllic country home for the weekend. Nightmares soon turn to reality as the dark truth about the house threatens to undo all who dare stay the night.

Featuring haunting imagery, ghosts, twisted mysteries, and a knife wielding witch, The House of Witchcraft is directed by Umberto Lenzi (Nightmare City) and stars Andy J. Forest (Lambada), Sonia Petrovna (Indian Summer), Marina Giulia Cavalli (Alien from the Deep), Maria Stella Musy, Maria Stella Musy (Frivolous Lola), Maria Cumani Quasimodo (Five Women for the Killer), and Maria Cumani Quasimodo (The Commander) with soundtrack by Claudio Simonetti (Goblin)

Details: 
- 2K scan of the negative / 1080p presentation
- English audio
- Optional English SDH subtitles
- Italian audio w/ English subtitles
- All Region

Extras:
- Artisan of Mayhem: Interview with FX artist Elio Terribili
- The House of Professionals: Interview with cinematographer Nino Celeste
- Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani, Nathaniel Thompson, and Troy Howarth
- Poster (folded) featuring artwork by Matthew Therrien with title treatments by Eric Lee

Disc 6 (Blu-ray):
The House of Lost Souls

1989 / 1.66:1 / Italy / 87 minutes / Horror / Director - Umberto Lenzi

A group of young geologists get stranded in a dilapidated old hotel when their path home is washed out by the rain. This proves to be a wrong turn as the hotel comes alive with the vengeful spirits of the dead, hell-bent on taking their head chopping revenge upon the living. No one is safe in The House of Lost souls!

Directed by Umberto Lenzi, this bloody haunted house of horrors is full of atmosphere, skeletons, tarantulas, fire, slashers, killer washing machines, demonic forces, decapitations and more! Stars Joseph Alan Johnson (Iced), Stefania Orsola Garello (King Arthur), Matteo Gazzolo (Body Puzzle), Laurentina Guidotti (Spectres), Hal Yamanouchi (Off Balance), and Charles Borromel (Absurd) with soundtrack by Claudio Simonetti (Goblin)

Details:
- 2K scan of the negative / 1080p presentation
- English audio
- Optional English SDH subtitles
- Italian audio w/ English subtitles
- All Region

Extras:
- Working with Umberto: Interview with FX artist Elio Terribili
- The House of Rock: Interview with composer Claudio Simonetti
- The Criminal Cinema of Umberto Lenzi: Career spanning interview from 2001
- Commentary TBD
- Poster (folded) featuring artwork by Matthew Therrien with title treatments by Eric Lee
- Limited to 2500 copies

DUE TO CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS WE CAN ONLY SHIP THIS ITEM TO THE US AND CANADA. ALL ITEMS ORDERED TOGETHER WILL BE CHARGED AT THE TIME OF THE ORDER AND SHIP TOGETHER WHEN EVERYTHING IS IN STOCK. PLEASE PLACE MULTIPLE ORDERS IF YOU WISH TO HAVE ITEMS SHIPPED AS THEY ARRIVE. ALL DETAILS, INCLUDING RELEASE DATE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. LIMIT 2 PER CUSTOMER.

101 Films to release MANSION OF THE DOOMED (1976) Limited Edition Blu-ray on May 6th

MANSION OF THE DOOMED (1976)

Available on Limited Edition Blu-ray

May 6th 2024

101 Films presents gruesome exploitation shocker Mansion of the Doomed (1976), available in the UK for the very first time. This limited-edition release includes a brand-new documentary on producer Charles Band’s Full Moon

Features, an interview with editor Harry Keramidas, artwork from the original UK ‘video nasty’ release and a booklet featuring brand new essays on the film by Chris Alexander and Andy Marshall-Roberts.

Seized and confiscated under the Obscene Publications Act in the UK during the Video Nasty panic of the 1980s,

Mansion of the Doomed (aka The Eyes of Doctor Chaney & House of Blood and known variously as The Terror of Doctor Chaney and Massacre Mansion in the UK) was the first horror film from Charles Band’s Full Moon Features,

the legendary B-movie studio that endeavoured to create low-budget horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films while retaining a somewhat "big-budget" feel, which led to the creation of cult classics like Trancers, Puppet Master and Demonic Toys. Led by Richard Basehart, star of TV’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, with stellar support from Hollywood

icon Gloria Grahame and genre film legend Lance Henriksen, Mansion of the Doomed provides a fascinating look at what was to come from Charles Band and his fearless studio.

Title 035 on the 101 Films Black Label, this limited-edition release includes a brand-new documentary produced exclusively for this release on Charles Band’s Full Moon Features. Enclosed in a limited-edition slipcase featuring the original artwork from the confiscated Video Nasty release of the 80s. This package also features a limited edition booklet with brand new writing on the film: ‘On Mansion of the Doomed’ by filmmaker and critic Chris Alexander and ‘The Eye is blind if the mind is absent: The legacy of ocular violence & video nasties within Mansion of the Doomed’ by writer Andy Marshall-Roberts.

Richard Basehart stars as the maniacal Dr. Leonard Chaney, a brilliant surgeon who compulsively kidnaps people and rips out their eyeballs, dumping their bleeding bodies into a filthy basement cage. His masterplan? To transplant
These ill-gotten orbs into the skull of his daughter, who herself was blinded in a tragic accident years before.

SPECIAL FEATURES
• The Charles Band Empire - A new documentary on the career of horror legend Charles Band.
• Cutting Teeth - Editor Harry Keramidas on ‘Mansion of the Doomed’.
• Limited edition booklet: Includes ‘On Mansion of the Doomed’ by filmmaker and critic Chris Alexander and ‘The Eye is blind if the mind is absent: The legacy of ocular violence & video nasties within Mansion of the Doomed’ by writer Andy Marshall-Roberts.

101 Store: https://101-films-store.com/products/mansion-of-the-doomed-1976-limited-edition-blu-ray

FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 29! DEVIL HUNTER (1980) (Severin Films BLu-ray Review)

CANNIBAL TERROR (1981) / DEVIL HUNTER (1980) 

Label: Severin Films

Region Code: Region FREE

Duration: 93 Minutes / 102 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Audio: English 2.0 PCM Uncompressed, Spanish 2.0 PCM Uncompressed 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen 

Director: Alain Deruelle / Jess Franco

Cast: Robert Foster, Pamela Stanford, Burt Altman / Ursula Fellner, Al Cliver, Robert Foster, Gisela Hahn

CANNIBAL TERROR (1981)

There are awful b-movies and then there's Alain Deruell's Cannibal Terror, a French/Spanish co-production that is just mind-numbingly dumb from start to finish, with a minimal plot that involves a pair of kidnappers and a kind hearted whore who abduct the adolescent daughter of a wealthy couple. Afterward they head for the jungle with the kid while they wait for the ransom, but wouldn't you just know it... their headed for cannibal country!

The movie is straight-up horrible beginning with a cast of truly wooden stiffs. At least one of which, actress Sylvia Solar, being kind enough to bare her ample bosom on more than one occasion, enough to spice it up a bit but not enough to save it from trash cinema Armageddon. There's a rope bondage rape scene that is a thing of true b-movie bullshit, a scenario so traumatic the victim finds herself dancing topless in the very next scene in front of the man who raped her just moments ago, standard b-movie logic.

The stand-ins for the "cannibals" are pale-skinned actors with moustaches and lamb-chops, their faces are painted with dayglow grease paint leaving them looking more like Ziggy Stardust rejects than the flesh-hungry cannibals they're meant to be. Some of whom are very obviously laughing through the more "gruesome" gut-munching scenes, if you look closely several of the young child actors playing cannibals can be seen wearing tennis shoes, yup, it's that sort of production, a Eurocine cheapie for sure.The gut-munching is like most everything else in the movie, horrible, with too few scenes of pale-skinned cannibals tearing away a pig intestines, it's amusing stuff, but this falls rather short of rivaling Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal Ferox, in fact, this falls short of being as on par with those nineties era Bruno Mattei cannibal movies. Adding annoyance to injury is an awful score that at times feels like an epileptic organist scored it, and with a sound design that loops in a cycle of bird, duck and hissing reptile noises ad nauseum. This is pretty cheap and mighty awful and by several measures one of the worst cannibal movies I have suffered through yet, plodding along painfully with way too many scenes of walking through the jungle, this is the Lord of the Rings of cannibal films in that respect. 

Special Features:
- The Way Of All Flesh – Interview With Director Alain Deruelle in French with English Subtitles (3 Mins) HD
- Spicy Deleted Scene (2 Mins) HD
-Theatrical Trailer (3 Mins) HD

DEVIL HUNTER (1980) 

Onto the second feature on this disc I must say that I expected a bit more coming from Eurocult pioneer Jess Franco, a director who can be a bit odd, but who has made more than a handful of movies I dig quite a bit, usually of the erotic variety. Cannibalism is a genre he did not dabble in very often from what I can see, and unfortunately I can see why, but just to put it into perspective this is nowhere near as brain-burning awful as the first half of this double bill, Cannibal Terror.

This time out we again have another kidnap gone wrong scenario, when actress Laura Crawford (Ursula Buchfellner, Hellhole Women, a.k.a. Sadomania) is whisked away by thugs into the South American jungle. There they encounter a tribe who are not so much cannibals themselves as they are sacrificing victims to a nude, bug-eyed, cannibal God who stalks the jungle in search of naked prey, natch.

Peter (Al Cliver, The Beyond) is hired by the movie studio to recover the kidnapped starlet and heads into the jungle to do just that... and there you have the whole movie in a nutshell. This time out the native people are slightly more realistic in appearance than in Cannibal Terror, but not less stereotyped and exploited by Franco for his own movie. There's plenty of blond eye candy by way of a mostly nude Ursula Buchfellner and loads of dancing ebony-skinned natives, Franco's a bit out of his element here but ticks to what he knows, naked people and weird scenarios.

Franco manages to squeeze a watchable movie out of this one with some decent cheapie production value and some much appreciated nudity, but falls woefully short of the seminal Cannibal Ferox and Cannibal Holocaust, but it does manage to be trashy fun that is at least competently made, which is more than I can say about Cannibal Terror.

Special Features:
- Sexo Canibal – Interview With Director Jess Franco (17 Mins) HD
- Spirit Of The B Hive – Interview With Actor Bertrand Altman (11 Mins) HDAudio/Video: Severin have done a fine job of bringing these trashy cannibal terrors to Blu-ray with new HD transfers, they appear properly polished without having been overly manipulated, while the source material limits just how good these are gonna look in HD they do a damn fine job, all things considered. Audio comes by way of both English and Spanish uncompressed PCM 2.0 Mono with no subtitle option available for either version. The Blu-ray errantly lists the audio options as English and French, while I may have flunked both French and Spanish back in my school days the track certainly didn't sound French to me.

Extras for Cannibal Terror are a deleted scene with some more nudity, a 20-minute interview with director Alain Deruelle and trailer for the movie. Extras for Devil Hunter include a fun interview with the typically chain-smoking director as he discusses cannibal movies and how he doesn't care for them, speaking a bit about Ruggero Deodato's iconic cannibal movie and discussing a few of the actresses on the movie. There's also an interview with actor/stuntman Bertrand Altman who speaks about transitioning from stuntman to actor, and his experience on this movie and others.

While I do think these are some of the worst cannibal movies I have seen to date I do applaud Severin Films for putting them together on a reasonably priced double feature disc with some decent extras. If bad cinema gives you a chubby you best get out the Kleenex, it's gonna be a sticky night.  

FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 29! JESS FRANCO'S FORGOTTEN FILMS VOL. 1 (Dorado Films Blu-ray Review)

JESS FRANCO'S FORGOTTEN FILMS VOL. 1 

THE SILENCE OF THE TOMBS (1972)/ THE SINISTER EYES OF DR. ORLOFF (1973)

Label: Dorado Films 
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 85 Minutes / 81 Minutes 
Video: 1080p HD Full Screen (1.33:1) / Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital Mono 2.0 with Optional English, Italian, and Spanish Subtitles
Director: Jess Franco 
Cast: Montserrat Prous, Albert Dalbés, Glenda Allen, Mario Alex / Montserrat Prous, William Berger, Robert Woods,  Edmund Purdom

THE SILENCE OF THE TOMBS (1972)
When movie star Annette (Glenda Allen, TV's Space: 1999) invites her Hollywood friends to her isolated island home for a weekend getaway they get more than the expected 70s loving, drinking and dancing, the weekend quickly devolves into a whirlwind of kidnapping, murder and weirdness. 

We're introduced to Annette's weird sister, the suspicious Valerie (Montserrat Prous, The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff) who lives on the island where she cares for the movie stars young son Christian. No sooner has Annette arrived on the island with her movie making friends when we are treated to some sinister voice-over narration from Valerie, who hates her sister, wishing her dead, and loathes \ her Hollywood type friends, which include a lawyer-lover Vincent (Mario Álex, School of Death), former lover and Christian's father Jean-Paul (Francisco Acosta, Sinner: The Secret Diary of a Nymphomaniac), movie producer Jerome (Luis Induni, Night of the Howling Beast) photographer Vera (Yelena Samarina, Murder Mansion), and Annette's personal bodyguard Juan (Alberto Dalbes, Cut-Throats Nine)  

Thing begin to go awry when Valerie overhears Annette, her lover and the boy's father arguing about who Christian should live with, which angers Valerie, who threatens Annette. Later that night the boy is kidnapped by someone who demands a large ransom through a note left next to the boy's bloodied bed. Soon after Annette's guests begin to be killed off in a very Ten Little Indians sort of way. The guests cannot escape the island as the only transport to the mainland has been blown up with one of the guest's aboard, and with no other boat coming till Monday. The kidnapping-murderer must be one of the guests, or perhaps the increasingly erratic sister, or maybe the suspicious housekeeper Laura (Kali Hansa, Countess Perverse) or the caretaker Pongo (Manuel Pereiro, Extra-Terrestrial Visitors). 

Franco's love for Mediterranean island locations is in full swing, however, the lurid eroticism is toned way down, and the story is a fairly linear one, a psychological murder mystery along the lines of an Agatha Christie story, though it is actually adapted from a novel by author Enrique Jarber. The film has some decent lensing from cinematographer 

Javier Pérez Zofio (Franco's Night of the Assassins) who also did some second unit on the Agatha Christie adaptation Ten Little Indians(1974). There's also a cool jazzy score from Jess Franco himself plus contributions from composer Fernando García Morcillo (Cannibal Man).  

Montserrat Prous as Valerie really anchored the film for me, I love her wide-eyes, she doesn't have the sexual allure of later Franco muses Soledad Miranda or Lina Romay, but she does cast her own spell with those deep, mysterious eyes, and an unhinged performance  with with the weird voice-over narration. She makes for an easy suspect early on, but when the bodies begin to pile-up Valerie winds up with a double-barrell shotgun in hand and is a total badass at the end. 

Franco manages to muster up some great atmosphere towards the end with Prouse wandering through the darkened island house with a gas lantern in one hand and the shotgun in the other, casting shadows and expecting danger around every corner, ready for just about anything, except maybe that shocker-twist of an ending, which is nutso.  

THE SINISTER EYES OF DR. ORLOFF (1973) 
In Jess Franco's The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff (1973) Melissa Comfort (Montserrat Prous, Diary of a Nymphomaniac) is a young woman who is without the use of her legs since childbirth. Nightly she is haunted by nightmares of her father's mysterious death years earlier. In the horrific recurring dream her father (played by Franco himself) stumbles to her and drips blood onto her nightgown, she awakens terrified and screaming. Melissa lives with her conniving step sister Martha (Loreta Tovar, The Night of the Sorcerers), her aunt Flora (Kali Hansa, Countess Perverse), a loyal butler Mathews (Jose Manuel Martin, Curse of the Devil). 

The family calls in a psychiatrist friend of the family, the titular and sinister Dr. Orloff, played by the steely eyed William Berger (from Mario Bava's Five Dolls for An August Moon). However, it turns out that Dr. Orloff and members of her family are conspiring against the wheelchair bound invalid, his diabolical plan involves using drugs and hypnosis to coerce Melissa to violently murder the other members of her family. In a weird twist Melissa is able to walk, but only under the post-hypnotic commands of Orloff. 

I think Berger is fantastic in the role as the evil master of hypnotism, this is definitely his show, he steals nearly every scene in the film in my opinion. A suspicious folk-singer neighbor alerts Inspector Crosby (Edmund Purdom, Don't Open Till Christmas) that something just ain't right over at the Comfort house, but will it work in her favor? 

I remember watching this movie the first time, I had to double check and be sure this was a legit Jess Franco film as it was a nearly bloodless affair with only a hint of nudity, not what I'd come to expect from the master of Euro sleaze at that point. However, the film is pushed along by some good psychological horror elements and atmosphere which was enhanced by a haunting score composed by Franco himself. Spoilers, my favorite scenario in the film has the butler Matthews whisking Melissa away to safety in the trunk of a car after overhearing the conspiracy against her, only to be murdered by Melissa (under the hypnotic command of Dr. Orloff)on a misty road. 

I didn't love this one, it was my first disappointment from Franco when I first watched, but certainly not the last, they guy made over 200 films, and they vary in quality from film to film, era to era, ad from producer to producer. Orloff was a recurring character in Franco films, and sadly lovely Lina Romay (The Hot Nights of Linda) appears only briefly, which was a serious let down for me. The movie is slow paced, but it picks up towards the end, it has some decent visuals but largely lacks the visceral erotic flavorings I crave when watching a Franco film, this one is for the Franc0 lovers and completest only I think. The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff (1973) is not the stuff of euro sleaze legend but it is a tasty slice of 70's Spanish psycho-sleaze featuring a mesmerizing performance from William Berger as the evil hypnotist. 

Audio/Video: The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff (1973) was previously released on DVD from distributor Intervision a few years ago. Sourced from a 1" tape it was a soft, smeary VHS quality image that left a lot to be desired. Thankfully, here comes Dorado Films, who I knew in the past for DVD releases of euro-spy films (Mission Bloody Mary) and spaghetti westerns (The Three Musketeers of the West), this is their first foray into Blu-ray, pairing up two slice of early 70's Franco-philia. Both films are sourced from 35mm theatrical prints, and scanned in 4K. The boost in quality for sinister eyes is clearly evident, detail, clarity and colors are richer, but the print is well-worn with loads of white speckling and some print damage and fading, but this is a step-up in every way, but come to it with lowered expectations, the elements were not in the best shape.

The Silence of the Tomb(1972) is making it's digital home video debut with this release. It is also sourced from a 35mm theatrical print, but nicely framed in the scope widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio. It looks overly bright and a bit washed out in places, softer than the full frame Sinister Eyes, also sporting some print damage and celluloid wear, but still very watchable and treat to see in HD.

Both films feature lossy Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono with optional English, Spanish and Italian subtitles. There's some minor audio distortion but overall a solid, though lossy, audio presentation.

Extras on the disc include 24-min of movie trailers for possible upcoming releases from Dorado Films, a 15-min chat with ageing actor Robert Woods (The Sinister eyes of Dr. Orloff) who speaks about the collaborative European style of movie making in the 70s, working with Franco, the audio syncing process of the time, and being convinced by William Berger and Edmund Purdom to come down to Spain and work with Franco. Woods also touches on how Jess appeared in his films like Hitchcock, and his distaste for his more erotic fare. There are also script pages which include an alternate ending for the movie. Additionally there's a 2-page booklet with writing on the film from  Alex Mendibil. There's also an Ultimate edition of this release from Dorado Films with alternate artwork and a 24-page collector's booklet, but the on disc  extras are exactly the same.

  

Special Features:
- Video Chat With Robert Woods (15 min) HD 
- Script of Original Ending for Silence of the Tomb
- Trailer: El Asesino No Está Solo (4 min) HD, Camino Solitario (6 min) HD, The Counselor (4 min) HD, Crimes of The Black Cat (4 min) DH, Horrible sexy Vampire (3 min) HD, Knife of Ice (3 min) HD 
- Collector's Booklet with writing by Alex Mendibil 

This is a nice Jess Franco/Montserrat Prous double-feature from Dorado Films, both films look reasonably solid in 1080p HD, with the previously issued The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff looking significantly better than the previous DVD release from Intervision. Franco-philes should be very pleased with this double-feature, a must-have for their collection. It's too bad that the Dorado films nose-dived after this releases and that the planned Vol. 2 never appeared. 

FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 29! DIAMONDS OF KILIMANDJARO (1983) (MVD Classics Blu-ray Review)

DIAMONDS OF KILIMANDJARO (1983) 

Label: MVD Visual/MVD Classics 
Duration: 83 Minutes
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English LPCM 2.0
Director: Jesús Franco 
Cast: Katja Bienert, Aline Mess, Antonio Mayans, Daniel Katz, Lina Romay, Olivier Mathot

While I do love me some Jess Franco directed Euro-cult I must confess his 80's jungle films are usually awful endeavors of flesh and cannibal trash badness, anyone whom has watched Devil Hunter (1980) will attest tio that. Well, this doesn't have the gore of Devil Hunter, but it does have plenty of young women traipsing nude through the jungle, but there's no cannibalism to speak of, so right away it loses some love from me. The film opens with a rather poorly assembled edit of a plane crashing into the jungle, young and lovely Diana (Katja Bienert, German Angst) and her step dad (Daniel White, Barbed Wire Dolls) survive the crash. Having fallen from the sky the local tribe believe them to be white gods of sorts, going so far as to promote her Scottish step-father to tribal chief status! Diana becomes something of a female version of Tarzan, a defender of white people who become lost in the jungle, sort of treading on where  Amazonia - The Catherina Miles Story (1985) would follow, but nowhere near as fun, good or interesting.

Meanwhile back in the land of the civilized we find her ailing mother, played by Franco muse Lina Romay (The Hot Nights of Linda) in a decidedly un-sexy role) on her deathbed, made up in some godawful old-age make-up. A pair of adventurers report to her that they think they have spotted her daughter in the African jungles, so she sends them, along with Diana's Uncle Mathieu (Oliver Mathot, Cannibal Terror) and his unscrupulous sexpot wife (Ana Stern, Night of a Thousand Desires), back to the jungles to find her daughter and return her.

Uncle Mathieu however has little interest in returning the young woman to her family, if she never returns he stands to inherit the family fortune, so they plot to make sure she never returns, but in the process run afoul of the tribe, lead by the blood thirsty and wild-haired Noba (Aline Mess, Devil Hunter) who is far and away the best part of the film, wicked and wild, just the way we like our warrior ladies! 

As Jess Franco films go this is on the way-lower end of the spectrum, a Eurocine film clearly designed to cash-in on the jungle/cannibal cycle of films happening at the time, but it's a Franco for hire production, you can see his heart was not into it in way whatsoever, lacking his signature style and sexiness. There is some effort to sex this film up but it's just not working in anyway, it's a nearly incoherent dud of a jungle adventure film.

Audio/Video: Diamonds of Kilimandjaro (1983) arrives on Blu-ray from MVD imprint MVD Classics in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen, The source looks to be a fair-looking print, there are scratches and nicks throughout, softness can be an issue but the quality varies from scene to scenes. There's a lot of stock footage of wildlife thrown, often appearing much grainier and hazier than the main film. Some scenes showcase some nice depth and clarity, but it comes and goes throughout. There's a lot of nude lady flesh in the film, oftentimes it looks quite nice with natural looking skin tones. 

Audio comes by way of English-dubbed PCM Mono 2.0, fidelity is not a strong suit, not helped by the atrocious editing and bad-dubbing. Speaking of bad dubbing, there's an crocodile attack scene that is repeated, the first time around we get a music track and no dialogue, as soon as it ends it starts up again with dialogue. I am assuming this is a padded-for-run time sort of thing. 

The only extras on the disc are a trailers for the film and some other MVD titles including Golden Temple Amazons, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and The Violence Movie. The single-disc release comes housed in a clear Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, the artwork is repeated on the slipcover that accompanies it. The artwork is rather good, I love the illustration and the font of the logo, it promised much more than the film can actually deliver. 

Diamonds of Kilimandjaro (1983) is really only going to appeal to die-hard fans of the director, or jungle trash completest, I fall into the former category myself, so I was pretty excited just to have another slice of Franco in HD - even if it is ripe pile of trash. This is the sort of film that brings you more joy when you see the spine on your movie shelf than it does actually watching it, if that makes sense, and if you're a collector I am sure it does.  Franco's like-minded Golden Temple Amazons (1986) is also available from MVD Classics on Blu-ray, and the two films can be found together on an MVD Classics double-feature DVD that will be released in March 2019. 

FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 29! SINFONIA EROTICA (1980) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

SINFONIA EROTICA (1980)

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 84 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Audio: Spanish DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Lina Romay, Susan Hemingway, Armando Borges, Georges Santos, Aida Gouveia,, Candice Coster, Armando Sallent 

The same year that the prolific euro-cult purveyor turned out the reprehensible cannibal film Devil Hunter (1980) he also returned to the the more baroque carnal pleasures of the Marquis de Sade with Sinfonia Erotica (1980). The film stars his long-time muse Lina Romay (The Hot Nights of Linda) as wealthy estate owner Martine de Bressac who returns to her palatial mansion in the countryside after a stay at the asylum following a nervous breakdown. Soon after arriving she is informed by her sympathetic housekeeper Wanda (Aida Gouveia, Women in Cell Block 9) that while she has been away convalescing her mind her philandering 

husband Armand de Bressac (Armando Borges) has taken up with a young male lover named Flor (Mel Rodrigo, Slave of Crime) who now lives at the mansion, and that furthermore the young lover has has been a corruptive influence on her already morally challenged husband, a man who even prior to her stay at the hospital was cold and dismissive towards his wife. Despite this Martine makes an effort to win back the attention of her husband, who continues to be more drawn in by the charms of Flor's rear-end than his voluptuous wife. The discovery of a wayward nun named Norma (Susan Hemingway, Women in Cellblock 9) who is found unconscious and bloody on the property also proves to be a further distraction for the husband, with Armand and Flor having quite a bit of fun corrupting her into their sexual plaything.

During a visit to the home Martine's physician Dr. Louys (Albino Grazian, Oasis of the Zombies) informs Armand that his wife is physically frail and the slightest strain on her mind or body could prove fatal, thus a scheme is hatched to poison her and invoke a shock that will send her over the edge and into the chasm of death, a plot that the naughty nun Norma is to be complicit in. 

The film is nicely lurid but is not one of Franco's more erotic and sex-filled outings, though there's plenty of sex, including some a surprising man on man love and a not-so-surprising graphic lesbian love scene with the voluptuous Lina Romay and Susan Hemingway. This time around Romay is a blonde which is not my preference, but her role is interesting, playing a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, helpless to not love her awful man, her expressive eyes telling a lot of the story as her character narrates flashbacks and inner monologues. This was has a seriously delicious and delirious final leg with so many wonderful twists and turns and wrapping up quite nicely with a wholly satisfying psych-sexual finish with a surprising amount of murder, proving to be one of my favorite Franco entries of this era with it's sensual mix of sex, arthouse atmosphere and lurid twists.

The film set in a grand Victorian era mansion on a sprawling 

countryside estate with gorgeous gardens and mazes, the baroque setting has a whimsical dreamy quality highlighted by some artful soft-focus cinematography that brought to mind the lurid arthouse films of Walerian Borowczyk (Immoral Tales), it definitely feels like an older early 70's Franco film, not one from '80, a credit to Franco's savvy eye for the period setting, realizing it with minimalism and not grand overkill.

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Audio/Video: Sinfonia Erotica (1980) arrives on Blu-ray from Severin with a new 4K scan of the only known decent film element, a 35mm print, framed in 1.66:1 widescreen, which is similar to the Sadist of Notre Dame Blu-ray, but this print is in significantly better shape than Sadist, it's got some natural wear and tear, but nothing egregiously awful. The grain can heavy in some of the oddly lit scenes but physical damage is mostly relegated to minor white speckling and some occasional scratches. The diffused light and soft focus cinematography looks great but doesn't offer a lot of fine detail, more atmospheric than crisp, that said the colors look accurate and but tend to fluctuate a tiny bit, all things considered, given the scarcity of any other elements this is a very pleasing presentation. Audio comes by way of a Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono track with optional English subtitles, the track is dubbed and has a lot of reverb laid on it, with the lush score coming through nicely.   

Extras include a 7-min interview with the late Franco who discusses his first wife Nicole Guettard - it seems slightly skewed in regard to facts and timeline but it's touching, he also discusses his relationship with Soledad Miranda and Lina Romay. There's also a 22-min interview with Franco-authority/author Stephen Thrower, author of 'Murderous Passions - The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco'. Thrower is always a welcome addition to any Franco reissue, a vast well of euro-cult knowledge never failing to stun and entertain, going into the works of Franco with direct or indirect De Sade influence, speaking about the locations and visual style, and that damn anachronistic earring worn by Flor, plus Franco's ability to make a sumptuous meal with only a few small potatoes. 
  

The single-disc Blu-ray release comes housed in a cool looking black Blu-ray case with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, a painting of a blond Lina Romay in a lustful way,  the disc itself featuring an excerpt of the same artwork. This is obviously from the same artist that did the illustration for the Sadist of Notre Dame Blu-ray for Severin, so they look great on the shelf right next to each other with Romay on one spine of one and Franco on the other, so you might as well buy both!

Special Features:
- Jess Franco on First Wife Nicole Guettard - Interview with Director Jess Franco (7 min) HD 
-  Stephen Thrower on Sinfonia Erotica - Interview with the author of "Murderous Passions - The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco." (22 min) HD

Sinfonia Erotica (1980) is a lush, erotic and deliciously twisted psycho-sexual thriller from Jess Franco, the new Blu-ray from Severin looks as good as it can, all things considered. I wasn't expecting to discover an all-time Franco favorite with this first time viewing, but this is right up there with She Killed In Ecstasy (1970), making this a top five Franco film for me. 

FRANCO FEBRUARY DAY 29! 99 WOMEN (1969) (Blue Underground Blu-ray Review)

99 WOMEN (1969)

3-Disc Unrated Director's Cut 

Label: Blue Underground
Region Code: Region FREE
Duration: 90 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA MA 1.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Maria Schell, Mercedes McCambridge, Maria Rohm, Rosalba Neri, Herbert Lom

Strap yourself in for a raucous mix of eurocult sexploitation and filthy WIP action with the yet another Jess Franco/Harry Alan Towers team-up! This time around we are watching 99 Women (1969), wherein a new female inmate Marie (Maria Rohm, Eugenie ...the Story of Her Journey into Perversion) arrives at the infamous "Castle of Death" island women for prison, a grim place ruled with an iron fist by the wicked prison warden Thelma Diaz (Mercedes McCambridge, The Exorcist), a cruel woman who strips the women of their names and gives them a number, poor blond Maria (Rohm) becoming number "98". 

We find out that Maria was convicted and sent to the island prison for killing one of her rapists, how dare she, right? She arrives at the island via boat alongside a prostitute named Helga (Elisa Montes, The Girl From Rio) and a drug addict in withdrawal named Natalie (Luciana Paluzzi, The Green Slime), though poor Natalie is not around for too very long, dying within minutes of the start of the movie. When nice girl Maria calls on the guards for help to assist the dying woman she is punished for her troubles by the Warden who locks her away in a secluded cell with rapey-lesbian named Zoie (a very sexy Rosalba Neri, Lady Frankenstein) who forces herself on Maria. Afterward she is pimped out to the corrupt official, Governor Santos (Herbert Lom, And Now the Screaming Starts). It turns out that the Warden has been treating Santos to a steady supply of the more attractive female inmates for his own sexual delights. It just wouldn't be a WIP movie without the rape, torture and cruelty of the women behind bars, and Franco is only too happy to oblige in all department with his usual array of kinky perversity and zoom-in auteurism. However, this arrangement in threatened when do-gooder prison administrator Leonie (Maria Schell, The Hanging Tree) arrives to investigate the recent string of inmate deaths, the most recent being the drug-addict Natalie. She is appalled by the conditions at the prison after witnessing the humiliation and abuses suffered by the women, including that of Maria whom she takes a liking too. Of course, the wicked warden and naughty governor are none happy with her idea of reformation, but it seems that the reforms have come too late, and a daring escape through the jungle is hatched by Maria and the other women who are fed up with the abuse.

Maria Rohm gives a good dramatic performance in a movie with no shortage of attractive women, all of whom are used and abused by the corrupt warden. The usual WIP tropes apply here with plenty of nude women, a bit of woman on woman love/rape, a couple of cat fights, and the tropical air is thick with jailer-corruption, but it's all in good fun. To be honest the movie is not all that brutal when compared to what would follow in the coming years, but it is a seedy slice of Franco-directed WIP that is hard to forget, particularly for the troubling sexual politics/crimes perpetrated on poor Maria, who is forcibly raped by an fellow woman inmate, only to succumb to her own lust as she begins to enjoy the rape! Peckinpah (Straw Dogs) would be proud, haha.  As a slice of WIP you sort of have to expect these sort of troubling and improbable male fantasies, right? The movie is visually pleasing on all fronts with some great set decoration and tropical locations with some nice Franco lensing, including a nightmare of the rape Maria endured, the one which sent her to prison for murder, and it has a nice arthouse voyeuristic quality to it, well done Mr. Franco.

While this must have been some of the worst filth to find its way into the cinema in 1969 I will say that 99 Women doesn't have a whole lot of shock value these days, it seems quite tame compared to some of the '80s WIP flicks, but the draw for me is the allure of Jess Franco's brand of delirious exploitation, and this was notably his first foray behind bars, but it would certainly not be his last, or even his best. Also pushing this movie along are the performances of Lom and McCambridge as the corrupt prison officials, Lom is sort of quietly corrupt with a stately demeanor, but McCambridge really gets to camp it up here as the authoritarian jailer, she gives a wonderfully wicked performance that made the movie for me and keeps me coming back time and time again.

Audio/Video: 99 Women (1969) arrives on Blu-ray with a fresh 4K scan from the original negative and colors are lush and nicely saturated, skin tones look natural and the black levels are decent. Unfortunately the image looks like it has been treated to a massive dose of digital noise reduction, wiping away trace amounts of grain and smearing away fine detail, leaving behind a waxy and plasticine image that takes away from the viewing experience, which for some will be a deal-breaker. Audio on the disc comes by way of a DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0 track which sounds damn good, dialogue is crisp and clean, no issues with hiss or distortion. Notably, the cool Bruno Nicolai score comes through strong with some decent depth, even that annoying pop/theme song, optional English subtitles are provided.

Onto packaging and extras we have three discs housed within a clear Criterion-style keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork plus a 20-page collector's booklet with cast and crew info, CD track listing and chapter selection plus writing on the film from noted author Stephen Thrower adapted from his book  Murderous Passions: The - Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco, which is a great read, no one writes about Franco with such intelligent passion as Thrower. 

Onto the discs, we have a DVD and Blu-ray with the same feature and extras, plus a third disc, a CD with the Bruno Nicolai score, licensed from Beat Records. Special features begin with a 2005 interview with Jess Franco who speaks about the production, cast and his collaboration with producer Harry Alan Tower, this is a carry over from the previous BU DVD release. New is a 16-minute interview with author Stephen Thrower who speaks about the film within the context of Franco's body of work, commenting the director's collaboration with the notorious producer who would apparently wine and dine the big name stars of the movies at the expense of the shooting budget! There's also a selection of three deleted scenes, including an extended rape scene and two other scenes sources from inferior VHS sources which don't add up to much. Finishing up the extras there's a poster and still gallery, the salacious original trailer, the collector's booklet and CD soundtrack.  

Special Features: 
- Jess' Women - 2005 Interview with Director Jess Franco (17 Min) HD
- Jess, Harry and 99 WOMEN - Interview with Stephen Thrower, author of "Murderous Passions: The - Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco" (16 Mins) HD
- Deleted & Alternate Scenes (23 Min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Min) HD
- Poster & Still Gallery (70 Images) HD
- Collectable Booklet includes writing by author Stephen Thrower
- 99 WOMEN Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD by Bruno Nicolai (27 Tracks)

A prime slice of Jess Franco WIP on Blu-ray from Blue Underground, this one slightly marred slightly by the unfortunate digital clean-up, but if you're a Franco-phile and enjoy his collaborations with the notorious producer Harry Alan Towers you're probably still gonna want to own this one. If you're a next-level perv Blue Underground have also released a 3-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray containing the same extras and the director's cut, plus the notorious 98-minute French Version with hardcore sex inserts not shot by Jess Franco, which doesn't interest me. 3.5/5