DVD Review: IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN (1971)

IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN (1971)

aka: Assault; The Creepers; Satan's Playthings; or Tower of Terror  

Label: VCI Entertainment 

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Dration: 91 Minutes

Rating: R

Video: 16x9 Widescreen (1.85:1)

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 and Enhanced 5.1 Surround 

Cast: Suzy Kendall, Frank Finlay, Freddie Jones, James Laurenson, Lesley-Anne Down, James Cosmo

Director: Sidney Hayers

Tagline: Don't Go Down in the Woods today...

Synopsis: In this slickly made thriller, a 16-year-old girl is brutally assaulted and raped in the woods near her London school. Struck dumb by her experience, she remains so until a second girl is murdered. The school art teacher (Suzy Kendall) claims to have seen the killer -- who looks like Satan himself -- and she decides to set him a trap with herself as bait. A British flavored giallo, and a ripping good whodunit!

The Film: In the Devil's Playground (1971) begins at the end of a school day as the kids are dismissed for the day, a young teen in a white blouse and pink skirt with knee high stockings cuts through the forest nearby. Listening to her transistor radio she walks carefree along earthen path. What she does not realize is that she's being observed from off the path by someone stalking her every move.When the attacker makes himself known she flees in terror and we get a pretty decent chase scene. Near an electrical tower she is caught, partially stripped and raped - she's left in a semi-catatonic state unable to identify the perp who's face is never revealed. The attack is violent but the film does not hang over it, the film instead chooses a close-up of the young woman's muffled suffering. This is perhaps the first clue that what we're in for here is more aligned with a police procedural whodunit than a stylish and violent Giallo along the lines of Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975) or Lucio Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling (1972), the sexualized violence is tame and the cinematography is very workmanlike, not dissimilar to a made-for-TV production. Likewise the score is obnoxiously 70's television oriented and took me right out of the moment, really ghastly stuff.

After the attack the young ladies of the academy are warned not to walk alone for fear of another attack but a girl named Susan unwisely cuts through the forest and pays for her ignorance when she is attacked and raped. When the school's art teacher Julia West (Suzi Kendall, Torso) realizes that young Susan is not among the group of girls she's driving home she is told that she went through the wood. Alarmed by the thought of harm coming to the girl she drives hurriedly down the forest path hoping to catch up with her but loses control of the car on a muddy stretch and spins out of control stopping askew in the road. Steadying herself and about to drive off she catches a glimpse of someone in the brake lights through the rear window illuminated by the red glow of her tail lights, someone whom looks strikingly like Old Scratch himself, Satan, it's a great effect and nicely framed. The figure quickly disappears from sight and she realizes that he was huddled over the body of young Susan who's been strangled to death.

As the typically incompetent authorities investigate they find it hard to swallow that Satan is the culprit and instead focus on more Earthbound suspects including an obnoxious crime scene reporter (Freddie Jones, Dune), Greg Lomax (James Laurenson, The Monster Club) a psychologist and the pervy husband of the school's strict head mistress - yup, there's a full arsenal of red herrings but it's not hard to figure out who the culprit is.

The Giallo elements are pretty weak, we get a unseen killer stalking young women adorned in the traditional black-leather gloves but none of the sexy style we get from an Argento, Fulci or Martino. When the killer's identity is revealed it's not a surprise, his identity having long been broadcast several times over thus the mystery of the whodunit is altogether lost. Slightly redeeming this entry is a snappy finale that starts with the use of an experimental drug called "Pentothal" meant to bring the first catatonic victim out of her dumb struck state, it's very solid and goes a long way toward redeeming the film with a "shocking" reveal followed by a close quarter struggle culminating at the scene of the original attack and ending with someone set afire in a crackle of high voltage electricity - it's fun stuff but not enough to fully redeem a film that starts in really fine fashion but labors to keep one's attention and in the end, despite a punchy finale, is an exercise in whodunit mediocrity.

The acting is pretty solid throughout, particularly Suzy Kendal who herself is no stranger to the Giallo having appeared in both Sergio Martino's Torso (1973) and Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) among many others. There's not a rotter in the bunch, but it's just dull in a dry, very stuffy British sorta way which might have had a lot to do with my lack of interest in the film. What I loved was pretty much anything shot in the forest which was well-shot, great atmosphere and creepy - particularly the numerous woodland chase scene with plenty of creepy POV shots.

DVD: VCI Entertainment presents In the Devil's Garden on DVD for the first time in the US with an anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) transfer. It's sourced from a clean print but I wanna say this is a PAL to NTSC conversion with some of the tell-tale video jitters, the image is soft, murky and colors are muted. We get two audio options, a English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix and enhanced 5.1 Surround Sound. The audio is a bit boxy with no depth to it and that awful score isn't helped by the poor fidelity either. The menu is a simple static menu and there are no bonus features on the disc.

Verdict: In the Devils Garden has some of the elements of a black-gloved Giallo but at it's heart is more of a straight whodunit and lacks the sleaze and style of an Argento, Martino or Fulci. As a thriller it's mildly successful but as a Giallo this is disappointing, maybe I am just a perv but I wanted a bit more sleaze with my blacked-gloved shenanigans, it almost went there but pulled back against it's darker nature much to my dismay. 2.5 Outta 5

Blu-ray Review: FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971)

FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971)

Label: Shameless Screen Entertainment
Region Code: Region FREE
Rating: 18 Certificate
Duration: 99 minutes
Audio: English and Italian 2.1 DTS HD, Dolby 2.0
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (2.35:1) 1080p
Director: Dario Argento
Cast: Michael Brandon, Mimsy Farmer, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Bud Spencer, Francine Racette

Synopsis: Dario Argento's "lost masterpiece" FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET concerns rock musician Robert Tobias (Michael Brandon, LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS) whom one night confronts a man who's been following him for several days. Catching up to the voyeur in an abandoned theatre the man pulls a switchblade and in the ensuing struggle Robert accidentally stabs the man in the abdomen, he falls from the stage into the orchestra pit, dead. In a bizarre turn someone in the upper wings of the theatre wearing an unnerving mask shines a spotlight on the altercation and snaps several incriminating photographs of the tragic event. Robert flees the scene and tries to put the events behind him but in the following days he is overcome with paranoia and fear when the dead man's ID shows up in the mail, pictures of the crime appear and the voyeur enters his home taunting him, but to what end and why?

FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971) is considered the last entry in what is known as Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy following the brilliant debut THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970) and CAT O' NINE TAILS (1971). The trio of films feature music scores from the master of film music Ennio Morricone and feature protagonists drawn into a murder mystery. BIRD featured an American writer, CAT a blind puzzle maker and FLIES features a rock drummer, all familiar character types to Argento enthusiasts. Dario would again bring an American writer to Rome with TENEBRE and a musician who witnesses a brutal death with the masterful DEEP RED, with FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET the twist is that our protagonist is the defacto killer.

The film starts off with a sweetly edited title sequence set to the tune of a tasty 70's rock freak-out (by Morricone) as Robert (a drummer) and the band jam on a psychedelic art-rock tune. There's a nifty scenario played out as we see flashbacks to the sun glassed stranger tailing Robert and a mosquito Hell bent on distracting him from keeping the beat during the band rehearsal culminating in a sweet hi-hat execution eliminating the pest. It's after the band's rehearsal that Robert sees the man who's been following him, at his rope's end he gives chase to the man who leads him into an abandoned theatre and the altercation ends with the strangers unfortunate death and documentation by the masked voyeur.

Soon the ID and photos arrive at his home but no blackmail demands are made, Robert's at a loss for what the voyeur's motivations could possibly be. Why has the crime not been reported to the authorities? Later the voyeur escalates matters when he enters Robert's home only to assault and taunt him pushing him to his nerves ends. His wife Nina (Mimsy Farmer, BLACK CAT) tries to comfort him when he confides the murder and ensuing taunting but he's inconsolable. He enlists the help of an odd duo of vagrants whom live in a shack by the city's river, a man known as "God" (Bud Spencer, MY NAME IS TRINITY)) and "The Professor" (Oreste Lionello, THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS). He also enlists the aide of an odd homosexual detective named Gianni Arrosio (Jen-Pierre Marielle, MICMACS).

The incident continues to haunt Robert nightly, his fear manifesting itself as creepy images of a beheading which take seed after hearing of a beheading incident from a friend whom describes how a stiletto knife is stabbed into the victim's neck to turn their body rigid and to upturn their head just as the swordsman's blade lobs it off. It's a nightmarish and vivid image and it's an effective fortuitous image that's seen several times throughout the film. Something also thrust upon us are flashbacks to what one would assume is the killer's troubled and abusive relationship with a father figure giving scarce clues to the motives behind the homicidal frenzy.

The night that Robert confesses the murder to Nina the admission is overheard by their maid whom hatches an ill-conceived scheme to blackmail the musician which leads to a well structured and pulse-pounding pursuit through a park at night as she attempts to evade the killer whom apparently doesn't want anyone intervening in their grand scheme of revenge. It's a wonderful scene even though I felt a bit cheated when the murder happens off screen, we hear only her death cries, our tormenting voyeur now a killer. Fear not though, there's a few key death scenes that while not quite gory are definitely brutal. When the voyeur sees fit to off an accomplices that's outlived their usefulness there's a particularly sweet repeated bashing of their skull sending the victim to the ground where a thick gauge wire is wrapped around his neck and slowly turned until death, just a really effective scene.

It's  after this that we're introduced to Nina's cousin Dalia (Francine Racette, AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS), a real European nymphish beauty. We also meet the wonderfully gay detective Gianni Arrosio. I have an affection for Argento's colorful secondary gay characters whom populate many of his films, some of whom surely have been imbued with a bit too much flamboyance and not much substance or purpose but nonetheless were colorful additions to the films. Jean-Pierre Marielle as the oddball detective is one of my favorites, I really felt his death and enjoyed his tragically triumphant parting words.

Meanwhile Robert and Dalia have kindled a impromptu romance under the nose of Nina after some fun splashing around in the bathroom. Who bathes their cousin's husband, really? It's a fun and flirty trist that ends with both naked in the tub, Racette is a sight to behold, a real beauty but even her unnaturual impish looks cannot save her from the voyeur turned killer as she is stalked through Robert's home in a tense scene resulting in a PYSCHO-esque tumble down the stairs followed by a knife plunge into her soft, supple flesh. In perhaps a sweet sci-fi ode to HORROR EXPRESS a laser is used to read the last image imprinted upon her retina in death, what they discover is the titular series of four flies.

With the bodycount steadily rising and Robert's fear and paranoia at a fever pitch he resorts to awaiting and confronting the murderer in his home, it's a nice shocker ending and the culprit is truly bug nuts insane, a wonderfully over-the-top villain with a unique set of motivations stemming from a scarred childhood and an insatiable need for revenge. The finale is marked by two wonderfully stylish slow-motion shots involving a gunshot and a beautifully staged car-crash slash decapitation, it's a thing of beauty.

Blu-ray: Shameless Screen Entertainment's 40th Anniversary Edition of Argento's FOUR FLIES IN GREY VELVET presents the film in a sweet region-FREE Blu-ray. It was only just three years ago that Mya Communications released the film on DVD for the first time and that release was a revelation when compared to the fuzzy VHS copies floating around at the time. Shamless's Blu-ray is an improvement over the Mya DVD and is clearely the best the film has ever looked. It has been fully remastered in HD from the original film negative with improvement in fine detail and black levels which are deeper and less murkey. We're given the option of viewing the legendary "missing forty seconds" of inserts either through seamlessly branching or viewing them separately from the film. The standard definition footage is less than stellar but is presented in the correct aspect ratio at least.

Audio options include both English and Italian 2.1 DTS HD and Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles for both the Italian language track and English SDH. The original English audio has been remastered exclusively for this release from the original magnetic soundtrack and while audio is not the most dynamic it is clear with few distortions, Morricone's score sounds great and the English soundtrack easily bests the Italian option.

Special features aren't in excess but enjoyable nonetheless. There are US and Italian theatrical trailers, the latter of which is a delightfully trippy and savage trailer, the UK trailers for Argento's films are usually far superior to the Englsih versions in my estimation. We also get a a poster and stills gallery, a short introduction from writer and assistant director Luigi Cozzi who also offers up a nearly 42 minute exclusive interview about the film and his involvement beginning with his introduction to Argento as a journalist following the release of The Bird with The Crystal Plumage leading to Dario asking him to collaborate on Four Flies with Grey Velvet, crafting the story around the elaborate death set-pieces and the many influences on the film from Sergio Leone to pulp writers like Cornell Woolrich (BLACK ALIBI) and Raymond Chandler (THE LITTLE SISTER). There's also a brief segment wherein Luigi Cozzi talks about the similiarties in Argento's film to his own earlier film THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH which Cozzi vehemently rebukes as mere coincidence based on a similiar Woolrich literary influence, then denouncing Martino as an Argento immitator, fun stuff. For fans of Cozzi, Argento or Giallo this is a must-see, essential viewing that covers many facets of the film from casting, shooting, the effcets and even UK rockers DEEP PURPLE originally scoring the film. An interview with Dario Argento or a commentary would from Argento experts Kim Newman and Alan Jones would have been a nice addition to the extras but the Luigi Cozzi interview is pure gold.

Special Features:
- Reversible Artwork
- Introduction to the film by Luigi Cozzi.
- New, exclusive and extensive recent interview on the making of Four Flies On Grey Velvet with writer and assistant director Luigi Cozzi.(41:23) 16:9
- Original English audio remastered in HD exclusively for this Shameless release from the original magnetic soundtrack and available for the first time since the film’s original theatrical opening in the 1970s.
- Shameless re-build edit of the complete version of the film including four inserts of previously missing footage known amongst Argento fans as the legendary “missing forty seconds” (the inserts are in Standard-Definition quality). The Blu-ray will allow for seamless branching of the four inserts giving viewers two versions of the film: one all HD without the re-inserted scenes and one longer version including the inserts.
- Restoration of all individual damaged frames, most notably with respect to the removal of the black diagonal frame line (caused by the film jumping the high speed camera gate) in the final car crash sequence.
- Optional Italian audio version in HD with English subtitles.
- Italian Trailer (2:35) 16:9
- English Trailer (0:55) 16:9
- Alternate English opening and closing credits (5:00) 16:9
- Shameless Trailer Park (Blu-ray only) (11:26) 16:9
- Photo Gallery (5:43)

Verdict: Shameless Screen Entertainment's 40th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray easily demands an upgrade from Mya's previous DVD edition with a wonderful presentation and a sweet slew of bonus content that should make any Argento enthusiast pleased as punch. This wonderful edition receives high marks from me, a must-have and an underseen Argento classic. Now that Four Flies on Grey Velvet is no longer the rarity it once was I would very much like to see his maligned comedy THE FIVE DAYS OF MILAN (1973) find it's way to DVD/Blu-ray if only to say that I've finally seen it. 4 outta 5

Blu-ray Review: HORROR EXPRESS (1972)

HORROR EXPRESS (1972)
Blu-ray +DVD Combo

Label: Severin Films

Region Code: Region FREE

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 90 minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.Mono Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.66:1)

Director: Eugenio Martin

Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Telly Savalas, Angel De Pozo, Julio Pena, Albert De Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Helga Line

Tagline: Your Non Stop Ride to Hell Boards at 8 P.M.

HORROR EXPRESS aka PANIC ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS stars the dynamic team-up of horror royalty Christopher Lee (THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD) and Peter Cushing (ASYLUM) in a rare instance of on-screen kinship as opposed to their usual Dracula vs. Van Helsing dichotomy. The film also features a memorable appearance from a scenery chewing Telly Savalas (LISA AND THE DEVIL) and Albert de Mendoza (A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN) as a Rasputin-like Monk. This classic 70's thriller-chiller features a prehistoric creature that turns it's victims into eye-bleeding zombies on the Trans-Siberian Express.
 

Alexander Saxton (Lee) is a British anthropologist who discovers what he believes to be the evolutionary "missing link" frozen deep in an ice cave in Manchuria. He crates this discovery and boards the Trans-Siberian Express bound for Moscow and then onward to England. At the train station in Shanghai Saxton runs into his British colleague Dr. Wells (Cushing) and his assistant Mrs. Jones (Alice Reinhart, RAT FINK). Shortly before the crate can be loaded onto the train a would-be thief is found dead after attempting to pick the lock of the crate. The thieves eyes have turned unnaturally white with blood streaking from the eyes, nose and mouth. This catches the watchful eye of Inspector Mirov (Julio Pena), the Polish Count Petrovski (George LIVES!) and his stunning wife Countess Irina (Silvia Tortosa, WHEN THE SCREAMING STOPS) plus their spiritual advisor Pujardov (Albert De Mendoza, A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN), the latter of whom begins to suspect that something evil lays within the crate, which Saxton, a man of science, scoffs at outright.

With the cause of death unknown the crate is loaded into the train and the passengers board the Russia bound steam engine. After the unexplained death Dr. Wells becomes increasingly curious as to what mystery lays within the wooden crate and offers baggage man Maletero (Victor Israel, THE DEVIL'S KISS) a small bribe to take a peak inside the crate at his next earliest convenience. Meanwhile Wells and Saxton accommodate themselves into their sleeper cars where Wells makes the acquaintance of an attractive petty thief by the name of Natasha (Helga Line, HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMBS) and we are then introduced to an engineer and amateur science nerd named Yevtushenko (Angel De Pozo, THE PASSENGER).

Meanwhile Maletero is attempting to open up Saxton's crate when he is attacked by the thawed primitive creature inside who it turns out is only too alive. When Maletero stares directly into the beasts eerie, red-glowing eyes he is stricken with the same fate as the would-be thief; whitened eyes and hemorrhaging from orifices. An autopsy is performed on the man by Wells and Saxton whom deduce that the creature is of alien nature and is inexplicably able to absorb it's victim's knowledge, so much so that it actually sucks the wrinkles right out of their brains leaving the vacant orb smooth as a baby's bottom.

 After a few more deaths the creature is shot and killed by Inspector Mirov, it would seem the culprit was a threat no more but when the killing of the trains more educated passengers continue Wells and Saxton further hypothesize that the alien threat is formless and able to inhabit the body of it's victims. The two men of science are left to sleuth whom among the passengers is the red-eyed, brain-sucking beast. Late in the film Telly Savalas makes an appearance as the larger than life Cossack officer Captain Kazan, he having been summoned to board the train with an attachment of officers by the Russian authorities after news of the murders is wired from the train. Savalas winds up momentarily stealing the show with his scenery chomping performance, it's fun stuff. One of my favorite aspects of the film involves the monk Pujardov's seduction by the evil entity which he mistakes for Satan, already seemingly near mad at the start of the film with religious fervor he is completely seduced by it's power, it's great stuff and an intense performance from De Mendoza.

The film certainly takes inspiration from John Campbell's story WHO GOES THERE (the inspiration for both Howard Hawks THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and John Carpenter's THE THING) the film masterfully isolates a core group of characters on a train speeding through a desolate landscape. As the mystery deepens the paranoia is ramped up to the breaking point, it's thick with atmosphere and this early 70's chiller is a grisly and macabre slice of sci-fi horror with a pretty steep bodycount for the day with no less than 15 by my count. At only and hour and a half the film's well-plotted structure keeps the momentum moving forward with thrilling twists and turns, there's no point at which the story becomes stagnant, it's a finely paced film.


Blu-ray: Having seen this film several times on terribly fuzzy VHS and DVD editions Severin's brand-new restored hi-definition transfer from the original camera negative is nothing short of a revelation, perhaps more true than any of the many times I've said it - this was like seeing the film for the first time. The print is not pristine by any means, there are plenty of blemishes throughout, but comparatively it's the best we're possibly ever going to see. There's a new depth and clarity to the image and the fine detail of the tweed and hounds tooth jackets are nicely resolved by the 1080p presentation. That said, there's scratches, dirt, speck and nicks. The film is dominated by muted browns and grays but some of the red, blues and greens are nicely represented, particularly the red-eyed creature and blue Cossack uniforms. The grain can be unsightly at times which is not helped by some digital artifacting and noise either but despite these shortcomings I must say visually this is a delight. After years of languishing in the public domain this is sure to be a revelation. Definitely check out the screenshot comparison below for a clear example of just how amazing the restoration is.

For reasons unknown Severin Films have chosen not to include an uncompressed audio track and we are instead given the choice of Spanish and English language Dolby Digital Mono with no subtitles, the exclusion of subtitles may be dismaying to those choosing to partake in the Spanish track. The fidelity may not be ideal but is relatively clean and strong when compared to my Mill Creek DVD edition, the fuzzed out guitar score and haunting main theme from John Cacavas (MORTUARY) sounds fantastic.

Severin Films have done a wonderful job complimenting the feature film with a wealth of bonus features. Beginning with an Introduction by Fangoria Editor Chris Alexander (6:50) in which the enthusiastic editor fondly recalls discovering the film on VHS, it's dubious public domain stature and delves into what makes the film such a classic.




Murder On The Trans-Siberian Express: New Interview With Director Eugenio Martin (13:50) in which the director recalls many facets of the film including the scripting, casting, using the train sets from PANCHO VILLA (also starring Telly Savalas) and working with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Savalas.

Notes From The Blacklist: Producer Bernard Gordon Discusses The McCarthy Era (30:30) is a 2005 interview with the film's producer whom recalls the tribulations of being a blacklisted writer during the McCarthy era. There's no mention of HORROR EXPRESS but it's an interesting watch.

Telly And Me: New Interview With Composer John Cacavas (8:04) features the composer of the score discussing his friendship with actor Telly Savalas through the years and working on HORROR EXPRESS, PANCHO VILLA and the TV series Kojak (which starred Savalas).

Also included is a 1973 Audio Interview With Peter Cushing (88 mins) conducted not too long after HORROR EXPRESS. It's a captivating interview with Cushing recalling his entire career up till that point, including his legendary work with Hammer and Amicus Films.The interview is an audio option that can be played while viewing the film.

Rounding out the features are a Theatrical Trailer (2:53), a trio of Severin Trailers: PSYCHOMANIA (2:45) 16:9, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (0:47) 16:9, NIGHTMARE CASTLE (3:20) 16:9 and a separate disc containing the DVD edition of the film with mirrored supplemental features. This marks Severin's first dual format release, I'm a fan of the Blu-ray +DVD combos and I hope it proves to be a trend for 'em.

Verdict: HORROR EXPRESS is a chiller classic and the new transfer brings renewed life to this musty public domain gem like never before. Not just a great transfer but a fantastic fright film, a gruesome sci-fi thriller that can now be viewed in a manner befitting of such a classic, say goodbye to your dark, scuzzy public domain prints and enjoy, your in for a treat. 4 outta 5

DVD SCREENSHOT COMPARISON: Here are some revealing DVD screenshot comparisons rather unfairly pitting the 4:3 transfer of HORROR EXPRESS from my Mill Creek Entertainment's CHILLING MOVIES 50 PACK against Severin Film's newly restored print presented in it's original aspect ratio of 16:9 enhanced widescreen (1.66:1) - it's an eye-opener...

TOP: Mill Creek 4:3

BOTTOM: Severin Films 16:9

DVD Review: THE DEVIL'S KISS (1975)

THE DEVIL'S KISS (1975)

Label: ArrowDrome
Region Code: 0 PAL
Rating: 18 Certificate
Duration: 89 mins
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, French Dolby Digital Mono
Video: 16:9 Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Jordi Gigo
Cast: Silvia Solar, Oliveir Mathot, Jose Nieto
Tagline: One kiss dragged the dead from their graves...

Arrow Video have unearthed director Jordi Gigo's (EXORCISMO) trashy French-Spanish production THE DEVIL'S KISS from the dusty vaults of Eurocine and spit-shined it for a right proper release through the ArrowDrome imprint, in all it's campy 70's glory to the delight of bad cinema lovers everywhere.

Claire Grandier (Silvia Solar, EYEBALL) is a former Countess turned occult spiritualist whom arrives at the Castle of the Duke de Haussemont's (Jose Nieto, FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR) to attend an awesomely terrible fashion show, you just gotta see it for yourself, it's a frightfully  groovy sight. When she discovers the Duke's desperation to contact his deceased son through occult channels she charms her way into castle following a spooky seance. What the grieving Duke doesn't seem to realize is that Claire is actually out to destroy him in revenge of her late husband's death, he having committed suicide which she blames the Haussemont family for. Once inside the castle walls Claire, along with her co-conspirator Dr. Gruber (Olivier Mathot, REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER), hatch a diabolical scheme to unearth a fresh corpse, inject it with regenerative micro cells (what?) and call upon the dark powers of Astaroth to possess the corpse which will carry out her vengeance with the assistance of Dr.Gruber's telepathy (Oh! That explains it). Unearthing a recently deceased villager the two macabre nuts carry out their fiendish plan. However, Dr. Gruber is afflicted with a worsening heart condition and as his telepathic powers wane it becomes increasingly difficult to harness the evil inside the blue-skinned ghoul.

The film has an odd cast of deviant characters including a pervy voyeur butler, a lusty maid, a rape-y dwarf and the Duke's douchey playboy nephew, no one is particularly likable here so don't expect to care who dies. There's a lot going on in this rickety Gothic schlockfest, it's crammed with wildly awful 70s fashion, ham-fisted erotic inserts, grave robbery, spooky seances, devil worship, necromancy, zombies and a kitschy retro Euro-sleaze aesthetic candy coated with a thick organ score that at times sounded as if someone had fallen onto the keyboard.


Reversible Artwork

While here's some cool set design going on and cinematography ain't half bad the stiff acting and poorly dubbed dialogue do the film few favors. That said, it tended to be just awful enough to be a good bit of fun. The Gothic atmosphere and kitschy elements just never quite seem to come together in a way that works but as a slice of trashy Euro-sleaze it's a fun watch.

DVD: ArrowDrome's DVD edition of THE DEVIL'S KISS is presented in 16:9 widescreen (1.66:1) with choice of English and French language Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. The film look surprisingly good even with some minor nicks, scratches and dirt, it's a pretty great print all around and was an unexpected treat. The mono audio while lacking depth and fidelity sounds pretty decent even with some snap, crackle and pop. For the purpose of this review I would occasionally toggle back and forth from English to French during the feature for comparison and I would say that the English dialogue sounds more crisp but the French effects and score sounded a more robust on the whole. Small amounts of print damage and hiss are the least of this film's worries,

The  screener "check disc" from Arrow Video did not include any packaging artwork or the collector's booklet but did include the Eurocine trailer reel which was a pretty great feature. Of the five trailers one that jumped out at me was ZOMBIE LAKE which I've heard so much about but have never watched, it looked wonderfully terrible and I sincerely hope that Arrow Video plan release it through their ArrowDrome imprint, it seems to be very much in the spirit of the grindhouse b-movies we've seen from them thus far and I think it would make a wonderful edition to the ArrowDrome catalog.

Special Features:
- Eurocine Horror Trailer Reel: FEMALE VAMPIRE (1:14), ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1:42), OASIS OF THE LIVING DEAD (2:5), ZOMBIE LAKE (2:46) and THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS (3:41)
- New Booklet by Author Stephen Thrower

Verdict: There's a smorgasbord of cheese-tastic Italian Euro-cult titles floating around on DVD these days but these Spanish co-productions like THE DEVIL'S KISS and THE MAN WITH THE SEVERED HEAD (with Paul Naschy) have been given short shrift, I'm very pleased to see that the Spanish schlock is getting it's due in the UK and elsewhere. If you're a connoisseur of cinema fromage, kitsch and bad b-movies gather your friends and give this a watch, definitely a film that benefits from a roomful of bad movie fans and a couple of sixers. If you're not a fan of bad 70's cinema move on, otherwise get your schlock on. 2.5/5  

DVD Review: The Baby (1972)

The Baby (1972)

Label: Severin Films
Release Date: June 28th 2011
Region: Region 0 NTSC
Rating: PG
Duration: 84 mins
Video: 1.66:1 Widescreen 16x9
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Director: Ted Post
Cast: Anjanette Comer, Ruth Rothman, Marianne Hill, Suzanne Zenor, Rod Andrews, Michael Pataki, Beatrice Blau, David Manzy
Tagline: Pray you don't learn the secret of... The Baby!

The crazy 1970's unleashed some strange cinematic experiences upon theatre goers and this is one of the strangest of all. Sure, there's the usual assortment of odd films, the offbeat and weird and then there's the really WEIRD - and this is one of those latter strange brews you'll not soon forget. Coming to us from Ted Post, the director of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) and Magnum Force (1973), the plot of The Baby deals with a social worker named Ann (Anjanette Comer) who's been assigned to the rather bizarre case of the Wadsworth family. The head of the clan is the intensely creepy Mrs.Wadsworth (Ruth Roman, Strangers on a Train), who along with her two knockout but equally nutty daughters Germaine (Mairianna Hill, Messiah of Evil) and Alba (Susanne Zenor), care for a child named only Baby.

No ordinary infant by any means "Baby" is in fact a 21 year old man with severe mental retardation. He wears adult sized diapers, has a crib and a playpen, bottle feeds, and soils himself. Social worker Anne is concerned by the man-child's lack of development and suspects that years of cruelty and negative reinforcement at the hands of the family have stunted his natural development. Anne tries to teach Baby rudimentary words and to stand and walk on his own but the family wants nothing to do with furthering his development which leads to a bitter war of words. Eventually Anne becomes more and more obsessed with the child for her own demented reasons and takes Baby from the home which sparks a vicious battle for the infant-minded man.

Well, Anne was right. There are indeed some sleazy goings-on at the household, and it's not just relegated to the women of the house either. The teen babysitter even gets in on the freaky action in a weird encounter that ends with Baby suckling her breast, what a sexually confusing scenario for all concerned, you just know she's gonna be fucked-up for life, just like everyone else in the film. Ruth Roman's mother character is a mix of Mommy Dearest intensity and John Waters' Serial Mom insanity. The sisters are an odd pair, too. Germaine is a creepy beauty with quite the hair-do whom lends some implied incestuous overtones to the proceedings by shedding her nightgown and crawling into Baby's crib while Alba is a cruel blonde vixen who enjoys punishing Baby with an electric cattle prod while screaming "Baby doesn't talk! Baby doesn't walk!". The film is offbeat from the get-go but only gets weirder as it goes along including a psychedelic birthday party for baby right up to a bizarre crescendo that defies expectations with a series of unexpected axe murders that had me muttering what-the-fuck.

DVD: Severin have restored from the film from original negative elements and present The Baby in an anamorphic 1.66:1 aspect ratio. A criticism of the transfer would be that the black levels are quite weak and appear more grey than black throughout. The colors also seem desaturated and muted, it's a very dull presentation in my opinion. The Dolby Digital Mono audio sounds fine and both the dialogue and the Gerald Fried (Paths of Glory) score sound quite good if not overly dynamic. There are no subtitle options.

Special features include two audio interviews performed over the telephone by the sound of it. Both interviews are intercut with footage from the film. Tales from the Crib: Audio interview with Director Ted Post is an interview with the now 93 year old director Ted Post who's still lucid and speaks about the development of the film, the actors and the odd nature of the subject matter. Baby Talk: Audio Interview with star David Mooney is with the man who played "Baby" and is now an high school teacher in San Antonio, Texas whom fondly recalls his audition experience and working with the women on the film including some possible hostlity between Anjanette Comer and Ruth Rothman. The third and final feature is the original theatrical trailer.

Special Features:
- Tales from the Crib: Audio interview with Director Ted Post (20:00)
- Baby Talk: Audio Interview with star David Mooney (11:47)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:46) 16x9
- Severin Trailers: Psychomania (2:51), In The Folds of the Flesh (3:21), Horror Express (2:54) 16x9

Verdict: This is a bizarre slice of oddball 70's exploitation cinema that will leave you in that most wonderful of states, dubfounded, while you wonder to yourself how the Hell did this twisted film get a PG rating? You may think you seen it all, been there and done that, but you haven't seen it ALL unless you've seen The Baby. 3.5 outta 5