Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 95 Minutes 4 Seconds
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Mario Sabato
Cast: Sergio Renán, Osvaldo Terranova, Carlos Antón, Christina Banegas
Argentinian slow-burn tale of conspiracy and paranoia The Power of Darkness (1976), directed by Mario Sabato, and based on a chapter from the 1961 novel On Heroes and Tombs, which was written by his father Ernesto Sábato. In it Fernando Vidal (Sergio Renán) is a man who has been on hard times after having lead a privileged life, he now finds himself living in a tiny single room in Buenos Aires. One day while on the street a man approaches him and says that he was a childhood friend of his, telling him of a secret worldwide conspiracy involving a cabal of nefarious blind people intent on controlling the world. The unnerving experience brings about suppressed memories and nightmares from his childhood, after which he begins to notice more and more blind people in the city, he becomes paranoiac and increasingly detached from reality, believing he is being followed through the streets and subways of the city by blind agents, ending with a wild descent into the darkness of a subterranean labyrinth, leaving us to wonder if he's been driven to madness by delusional paranoia or a victim of an insidious worldwide conspiracy perpetrated by the sightless.
The film has an oppressive and paranoid atmosphere, the streets of Buenos Aires are dark and dilapidated, the film walks a fine line between depicting our protaganist as either being either mental ill or someone with a justified paranoia, and Sergio Renán is terrific in the lead role as a man on the edge of madness. The psychological thriller looks terrific as well, handsomely lensed and drenched in shadow, shot by cinematographer Leonardo Rodríguez Solís who would go onto shoot a couple of notable low-budget Roger Corman produced sword and sandal flicks like Deathstalker, Amazons, and Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans, plus we get a wonderful score by Víctor Proncet that supports the thematic elements quite nicely.
Audio/Video: The Power of Darkness (1976) gets it's first English friendly Blu-ay release from those lovers of niche world cinema over at Mondo Moacabro, advertised as being as being "newly restored from the negative", presented in the 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio. The image looks quite nice, the source is in terrific shape, I found the film to have a weird contrast to it during the darker scenes, I am not sure if these are somewhat faded original elements or a stylistic choice to have a diffuse look, but it almost has a wonky day for night quality to them. The color scheme is generally very toned down, there are not a lot of highlights, just browns, tans and slate greys. The sole audio option is a Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 track with newly created optional English subtitles, the track is clean and well-balanced, unremarkable but clean and well-balanced.
The extras are slim for this one, we get a 5-min “About the Film” Video Short which is just text that talks about the book and the film, noting the John Malkovich may have acquired the rights to the film and speculates that perhaps we will see some sort of forthcoming adaptation, plus we have the 3-min Trailer. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided wrap featuring artwork by Justin Coffee.
Special Features:
- Newly restored from negative.
- “About the Film” Video Short. (5:02)
- Trailer (3:03)
- New and exclusive artwork by Justin Coffee.
Screenshots from the Mondo Macabro Blu-ray:
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