THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (1971) (Second Sight Blu-ray Review)

THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (1971) 

Label: Second Sight Films
Region Code: B
Duration: 102 Minutes
Rating: Cert.12
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Peter Duffell
Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Nyree Dawn Porter, Denholm Elliott, Jon Pertwee, Joanna Dunham, Joss Ackland, John Bennett, John Bryans, Wolfe Morris, Tom Adams, Ingrid Pitt

The House That Dripped Blood (1971) was the third anthology horror film from Hammer Film's arch rivals Amicus Films, a delightfully macabre and fun set of stories based on the writings of Robert Bloch (Psycho) with a wrap around story featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Holloway (John Bennett, Split Second) investigating the disappearance of an actor living in the area. The inspector speaks to a local cop who in turn spins a yarn of the peculiar property the actor was living in at the time of his disappearance, a spooky mansion whose past tenants have all met with mysterious ends, and thus begins our story proper. 

The first segment 'Method For Murder' is the tale of a horror writer named Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott, Trading Places) who as he types away in his study on his latest murderous opus is haunted by one of the characters from his story, a sadistic killer named Dominic (Tom Adams) whom has seemingly manifested from the written page into mind-bending reality. As Dominic lurks in the shadows the writer's sanity begins to slip away, slowly losing his grip on reality as the threat looms ever larger. It turns out that Charles is the only one who sees the phantom, but is it a figment of the writer's disturbed mind or is there something supernatural afoot, or possibly something more reality-based? The truth is a mix of all three and it's a deliciously tasty EC Comics inspired bit of comeuppance at the end, a great start to one of the all-time great horror anthologies. 

The next unfortunate renter is Philip Grayson (Peter Cushing, Corruption) in the vignette 'Waxworks', Cushing plays a lonely older man who one day visits a creepy (is there any other kind?) wax museum and is struck by how one of the figures bares an uncanny resemblance to a former flame. The  mysterious caretaker of the wax museum (Wolfe Morris) informs him the figure's likeness is based on his own deceased wife, a murderess whom was executed by the authorities. 
Even after leaving the establishment Grayson is all-consumed by the likeness and has a surreal nightmare of visiting the figure at the museum, only to be awoken by an estranged friend named Neville (Joss Ackland, 
Lethal Weapon 2) who's unexpectedly come calling. Grayson shares his waxy nostalgic  encounter with the man, who it turns out also has a flame burning for the same woman, leading to an investigative trip to the wax museum with dire consequences for both men. Peter Cushing is typically great here, with an shocker finale at the wax museum that will leave your head rolling. 

In 'Sweets to the Sweet' we have the other Hammer horror legend, Christopher Lee (Dracula - Prince of Darkness), appearing as a seemingly cruel father and widow named John Reid who leases the house of horror with his adolescent daughter Jane (Chloe Franks, Who Slew Auntie Roo?). He comes off as unnecessarily strict in regard to his daughter's upbringing, refusing to allow her to attend school or have friends, to that end he hires a nanny named Ann (Nyree Dawn Porter, From Beyond the Grave), who home schools the girl. We learn that Jane fears fire and is not allowed to play with dolls or candles, which seems odd at first, but when it is revealed that her mum was a suspected witch things begin to come into focus, but is it all unfounded fear on the part of her father or does the young girl have the dark magic of the occult within her? Lee is in fine form as the harsh father, and young Chloe Franks is pretty great as the fresh-faced and mischievous little girl who is none to pleased with her father's restrictive ways, with a wonderfully twisted finale.

The fourth and final story as told to the inspector is the case of the missing person's report that brought the attention of Scotland Yard in the first place, the disappearance of a veteran horror star obviously modeled after Vincent Price in 'The Cloak'. Price was the first choice of the director for the role but whom for contractual reasons with AIP was not available to play fictional horror star Paul Henderson, instead we have Jon Pertwee of TV's Doctor Who in a wonderfully fun performance as an aging actor who is very unhappy, even bitchy, about the state of modern horror films with their cheap sets and lack of imagination. Striving for authenticity on the set of his latest vampire picture the actor refuses to wear the cheap-looking cloak supplied by the production and goes to a local vintage store to find something more sinister and vampyric looking. Sure enough, with the help of a strange shop keeper (Geoffrey Bayldon, Asylum), he finds a cloak that not only makes him look like a vampire, it turns him into one! Ingrid Pitt (Countess Dracula) plays against him as his voluptuous co-star who has her own secret to share with the difficult star. This one is so much fun and well-done, with tongue planted firmly in cheek it's a nice send-up, complete with a jab against Christopher Lee's Hammer bloodsucker! The scenes of Pitt and Pertwee flying around on strings is also a goofy delight, coming to an end with the inspector finally visiting the storied house to dispel any notion of it being evil or cursed, which of course does not end well for him!  

Audio/Video: The House That Dripped Blood (1971) arrives on region-B locked Blu-ray from Second Sight Films in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. This appears to be the same HD master used by Scream Factory for their U.S. Blu-ray. The image looks solid, though never reference quality, though there is a pleasing layer of grain throughout. Colors look accurate and saturated for the most part, though there's some inherent softness and the shadow detail suffers a bit with anemic blacks that can be a bit grainy.  Check out the Scream Factory versus Second Sight Blu-ray image comparison at the bottom of this review. Audio on the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0 with optional English subtitles, the score from Michael Dress (The Mind of Mr. Soames) comes through with some good depth when called upon, and the dialogue is clean if a bit thin sounding at times, owing more to the original source limitations than anything.  

Like the HD master we also get the same set of extras as the Scream Factory release, this these include a pair of commentaries, the first being a vintage track with with director Peter Duffell and author Jonathan Rigby, the other a more recent contribution from the always great film historian/author Troy Howarth, detailing some great insights into the production and the cast and crew.

There's also a 9-min interview with second assistant director Mike Higgins who mentions that this was hist first film for Amicus, going into a story about actress Nyree Dawn Porter regarding her almost leaving the production, and speaking fondly of director Peter Duffell. We also get a vintage 2003 VisArt featurette, the 17-min 'A-Rated Horror Film' – featuring interviews with director Peter Duffell, actors Geoffrey Bayldon, Ingrid Pitt and Chloe Franks, it's vintage but quite good, and one I hadn't seen before. 

We also get a full-frame English theatrical trailer plus a widescreen Spanish-language trailer, plus an image gallery with stills, promotional images, lobby cards and various movie posters, newspaper ads, and home video releases. One of my favorite inclusions on the disc are 14-min of vintage Amicus radio spots that play along to images of stills and movie posters from all the films. 

The single disc release comes housed in oversized black Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork, the a-side featuring new artwork from by artist Graham Humphreys, the b-side featuring the original illustrated artwork for the film, without the blemish of the ratings logo obscuring the front cover and the spine, with the Humphrey's artwork option also being featured on the disc itself. 

The film was previously issued by Second Sight Films as a limited edition release with a rigid slipcase along with a 40-page booklet with new essays by Allan Bryce, Jon Towlson and Kat Ellinger. While that edition is now out-of-print the film has kindly been reissued by Second Sight as this attractive standard release. 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with director Peter Duffell and Jonathan Rigby, author of 'English Gothic'
- Audio Commentary by film historian/author Troy Howarth
- Interview with second assistant director Mike Higgins (9 min)
- Vintage Featurette: A-Rated Horror Film – featuring interviews with director Peter Duffell, actors Geoffrey Bayldon, Ingrid Pitt and Chloe Franks (17 min)
- Theatrical Trailers (English and Spanish) (4 min)
- Radio Spots (3 min)
- The Amicus Radio Spots Collection: 
Asylum (1 min), At The Earth's Core (1 min), From Beyond the Grave (1 min), Madhouse (1 min), Scream And Scream Again (2 min), Tales from the Crypt (1 min), The Beast Must Die (1 min), The Land That Time Forgot (1 min), The Mind of Mr. Soames (1 min), The People That Time Forgot (1 min), Vault Of Horror (2 min)
- Still Gallery (5 min) 

The House That Dripped Blood (1971) is an anthology that wonderfully mixes the macabre with a darkly comedic touches, in my opinion there's not a bad apple in the bunch, what's not to love?  Sure, some of the special effects, a faulty looking severed head vampires flying around on wires among them, are a bit hokey looking, but this is one horror anthology that remains a high point of the British portmanteau movies. Very pleased to see it get a solid release in the U.K. with great-looking artwork and an excellent set of extras from Second Sight Films.

Top: Second Sight Films Blu-ray (2019)

Bottom: Scream Factory Blu-ray (2018) 

 

WATERSHIP DOWN (1978) (Umbrella Entertainment Blu-ray Review)

WATERSHIP DOWN (1978) 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG
Duration: 92 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Martin Rosen
Cast: Denholm Elliott, John Hurt, Nigel Hawthorne, Richard Briers

Screenwriter/director Martin Rosen's (The Plague Dogs) adaptation of the Richard Adams source novel is a film that was sort of traumatic for me when I saw it as a kid still in my single digits. It was an animated film with much darker and heavier themes than I had been exposed to previously, a dystopian tale of a warren rabbits who become displaced by the intrusion of land developers, and the perilous journey they embark upon in search of a safe home. 

The film begins with a stylized genesis story of the sun-god called Frith who created all life, initially making all of the animals of the world vegetarians, living peacefully together and feeding on the plants and grasses. However, it came to be that the rabbits of the world began to eat more than their fair share of the grasses, and hunger set in. To fix that Frith then created flesh eating predators who would prey on the rabbits, keeping their numbers in check, but he also gave rabbits the advantage of long-legs and cunning instinct, and the ability to flee quickly and burrow beneath the ground. 

After this prologue were introduced to a rabbit named Fiver, who is plagued by nightmarish visions of blood sweeping through the warren, a premonition of doom. Fiver tells his older brother Hazel about his vision, and the pair decide to approach the warren's leader, but he dismisses the rabbit's worries outright, instructing the warren's law enforcer Captain Holly to prevent any rabbits from leaving the warren. 

Ignoring the will of their leader Fiver and Hazel manage to escape the warren along with a handful of like-minded rabbits, fleeing to the unknown English countryside, making their way towards Fiver's vision of a new, idyllic home, which he has also glimpsed in a vision. Along the way they encounter a friendly gull, hostile warrens of rabbits, and predatory cats and dogs. Danger seems to be lurking just beyond every hill, they even lose the only doe rabbit among them to a bird of prey, which sets them on a path to free doe rabbits from a neighboring farm and a militaristic warren of rabbits ruled by tyrannical General Woundwart.

As a young kid it exposed me to the heady themes of war, death and religion that at that point, still in the single digits, I had never had never really thought about, and to be quite frank I found very troubling, and I suffered strange Orwellian rabbit nightmares for days after seeing it. There's definitely no shortage of disturbing images,with numerous bloodied bunnies being savaged by one another and by predators, or being shot, suffocated and choked out by snare traps, it's really kind of devastating. 

The is an animated film that elevates the format, an artisenal blend of illustrated

animation and simple yet superb watercolor backgrounds, with a gorgeous score from Angela Morley that also pushes the emotional depth of everything. The voice cast is also rather good, including John Hurt (Alien) as Hazel, Ralph Richardson 

(Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes) as Chief Rabbit, Richard Briers (Cockneys vs Zombies) as Fiver, Denholm Elliott (Raiders of the Lost Ark)as Cowslip, and John Bennett (The House That Dripped Blood) as Holly, among many other well-known British actors who all give wonderful emotive nuance to their furry animated counterparts.

Audio/Video: Watership Down (19178) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment presented in 1080p HD and framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. The image is solid, I own the Criterion Blu-ray so I was keen to put compare one another, there is a slight framing difference but it negligible, with Umbrella's 1.78:1 slightly losing a sliver of information along the left and right. 

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono track that delivers dialogue and the score from Angela Morley 

without issue, there are no subtitles on this disc of any sort, nor any extras, this is a bare-bones release, there's not even a start-up menu, it goes right into the film when you drop the disc in the player.

Watership Down (1978) is a wonderful, but dark, animated film, the type of movie that lures young kids in with the magic of  animation and the promise of anthropomorphic rabbits, and then it turns around and sucker punches you right in the gut with the sort of allegorical kinder-trauma that you'll carry around with you well into adulthood. Umbrella Entertainment's Blu-ray offers an A/V presentation that is absolutely on par with Criterion's release, but it is a no-frills presentation with no extras or subtitles. While it lacks the extras this is a cool, budget-minded and region-free alternative for those who don't want to splurge on the Criterion release, which is region-A locked as I recall.