DRACULA A.D. 1972 (1972) (WAC Blu-ray Review)

DRACULA A.D. 1972 (1972)

Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: English DTS HD-MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Alan Gibson
Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Christopher Neame, Caroline Munro, Stephanie Beacham, Michael Coles

Warner Archive hace cracked open the crypt of Hammer Horror and the first blood-sucking release is the groovy 70's update Dracula A.D. 1972! The film is set in modern 70's London but opens with a prologue set in 1872, it's a brief but action-packed piece of work with Count Dracula (Christopher Lee, The City of the Dead) and his arch nemesis Van Helsing (Peter Cushing, Corruption) dueling atop a speeding horse carriage through the woods. It crashes and the bloodsucker is impaled by the spoke of a broken carriage wheel, the dying Van Helsing manages to plunge the wheel further into the vamp's heart, watching him slow-dissolve into smoldering dust before succumbing to his own injuries. 

A hundred years later in the then modern year of 1972 we find Dracula being resurrected by a descendant of one of Dracula's disciples, the tongue-in-cheekily named Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame, D.O.A.). Brought back to the undead through an overwrought black magic ritual performed in a decrepit old church in the heart of London. It's a campy blood ritual starring Caroline Munro (Slaughter High) as the centerpiece.

With the vintage vamp is back in action drained bodies begin showing up around town,  drawing not only the attention of Scotland Yard’s Inspector Murray (Michael Coles, Satanic Rites of Dracula) but also a descendant of the famous vampire hunter, Lorrimer Van Helsing (also played by Cushing 'natch). Dracula sets his sights on making Lawrence's hippy, fun-loving granddaughter  Jessica (Stephanie Beacham, And Now The Screaming Starts), hoping to have his revenge on his do-gooder nemesis by making her his newest vampire bride! 

Notably this was the first re-teaming of Peter Cushing's Van Helsing and Christopher Lee's vampire since Horror of Dracula (1958), a mod-world reunion that is certainly cheeky in places. I don't think it was made that way, but the swinging London scene has aged with humor, stuff like the Austin Powers series has probably forever tainted this era in that respect.

However, despite hating this movie as a kid, I sort of love it these days, from the wah-wah inflected grooviness of the score, to the fun performs from American hippy-rockers Stoneground, there's a lot of goofy things to love about it. Plus we have excellent turns from Lee and Cushing who are just fantastic. I will say that having Lee's bloodsucker confined to the church is a limiting thing, but he still manages a wonderful performance with his signature presence, as does Cushing who carries the film along.

Christopher Neame is pretty great as the wicked Johnny Aculard, I love the scene of him breaking some a Staffordshire porcelain figurine at an aristocratic party the hippies have crashed at the start of the film, and when he says "dig the music kids!" during the black magic ritual, stuff like that is why the film is regarded as campy, but I think it's more tongue-in-cheek than outright camp. Sadly Caroline Munro is here and gone, I do wish she had a more major role to play, but it is a memorable one, and Stephanie Beacham is damn decent as Van Helsing attractive blonde descendant, nicely filling the role and the prerequisite plunging neckline duties.  

Highlights for me would be the carriage scene from the prologue, the deliciously overwrought black magic ritual, and pretty much anything happening inside the church. Despite this being set in the mod 70's the church scene have a that familiar Hammer Gothic atmosphere we all love so much. There's also a fun scene of Van Helsing batting Aculard that is well-done, but also a bit comical, with the vampire hunter warding off the newbie vamp the reflected light from a vanity mirror, causing him to accidentally falls into a shower where is killed by the sunbeams from a skylight. Dracula A.D. 1972 is a film that's been maligned by Hammer fans for years, myself included, but watching it with fresh eyes I think it's kind of an under appreciated gem of the Hammer canon, the humor and modern setting is an adjustment, but not an awful one in my opinion.

  
Audio/Video: Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) arrives on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive with a new 2K scan from an interpostive, the image is impeccable. Free of blemish and sporting a filmic fine grain veneer that brings out some lovely detail. The garish 70's colors looks well saturated, with the dated fashions and decor looking wonderful, with deep blacks and solid contrast levels. This a HD lovely presentation of this maligned late-era Hammer entry, the sort of spiffy upgrade that might make one reconsider their thoughts on the film. 

Audio comes by way of English 2.0 DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles, it's crisp and clean, well-balanced. The fun but dated wah-wah score from Mike Vickers (At Earth's Core) sounds terrific here, as does the performance from 70's rockers Stoneground, including the awesome "Alligator Man" which always brings a smile to my face.

The single-disc release comes in a standard Blu-ray keepcase, the one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original key art, an excerpt of the same artwork appears on the disc. The only extra on this release is an unrestored widescreen HD theatrical trailer for the film that will certainly make you appreciate the new scan. I do wish that WAC would spring for at least a new commentart track on their releases, there's a lot to be told about these Hammer classics, and they're deserving of a decent commentary track at the very minimum, but the new A/V presentation is luscious and much appreciated. 

Special Features
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD

I've come around on this film quite a bit, I loathed in in my youth, I thought the anti-Gothic mod-70's London setting was awful, but now I can appreciate it for how fun and lively it is. Cushing and Lee are top-notch, and there's actually quite a bit of Gothic flavor here for those looking for it, but there's also some 70's lunacy and dated lingo from th era, but it all adds up to a damn decent Hammer entry. Very pleased to see it get the lush HD presentation it deserves from Warner Archive.

 

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS (1973) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS (1973) 

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0, Spanish Dolby Digital Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Stephanie Beacham

Gothic shocker And Now The Screaming Starts (1973) was directed by Roy Ward Baker (Asylum) and was a bit of a stylistic departure for Amicus in that it was not an anthology film and it's a Gothic period piece, which was first and only for them. Set in the 1700's we have Charles Fengriffin (Ian Ogilvy, The Witchfinder General) bringing his gorgeous new bride Catherine (Stephanie Beacham, Schizo) back to his ancestral home, there she is almost immediately spooked by a portrait hanging on the wall, one of Charles grandfather Sir Henry Fengriffin (Herbert Lom, 99 Women). She gets woozy at the sight of it and imagines a bloodied hand erupting from the painting... and that's when the screaming starts. When it turns out to be nothing her doting husband chalks it up to newlywed nerves and as they settle in for the night, when Charles steps out of the room for just a moment she is attacked in bed by a disembodied hand, and once again there's no proof of what frightened her and they move on as though nothing had happened.   

Elsewhere on the sprawling  property lives a woodsman (Geoffrey Whitehead) who lives rent free, telling Catherine that his grandfather was bequeathed the small property by Sir Henry Fengriffin himself, when she inquires to Charles about why the woodsman's family was gifted the land he refuses to say, but it has something to do with a dark family secret, which is revealed in flashback during the latter half of the movie, and boy is it terrible stuff. This might be one of Herbert Lom's most despicable characters, and that's saying something as he also starred in Jess Franco's 99 Women and Mark of the Devil!

Charles doesn't seem to believe his new bride's frightful visions are real - including an eyeless phantom who looks a lot like the woodsman - but nonetheless he calls in Doctor Whittle (Patrick Magee, Lucio Fulci's Black Cat) to assess the situation, but when he dies her must call in yet another doc, Doctor Pope (Peter Cushing, Frankenstein Created Woman) who both begin to look into the root cause of his new bride's frightful visions - and of course it all goes back to Sir Henry's debauchery fifty years earlier. . 

And Now The S Creaming Starts is reported to have been Amicus's most expensive production and it shows, this is the only Gothic period piece they did and they went all out, trying to out-Hammer Hammer with lush visuals, from the painterly rural locations to the atmospheric wafts of morning fog drifting across the property, this thing is dripping with Victorian melodrama and Gothic chills in every frame. The pace is a bit languid by Amicus standards which might be why this one is sort of relegated to lower-tier Amicus appreciation status in my opinion, it's just not a film I think gets it's due when one thinks of Gothic British horror. 

The direction from Roy Ward Baker (The Vampire Lovers) is top notch as usual, reuniting him with actors Peter Cushing, Partrick Magee and Herbert Lom who also appeared together in Baker's Amicus anthology Asylum (1972). I won't get anymore spoilery that I already have but Herbert Lom's character is absolutely the worst human being, he's the key to the curse that haunts the Fengriffin family and the comeuppance at the end is twistedly wonderful, I love the ending of this one and how it all comes full circle.  
   
Audio/Video: And Now The Screaming Starts (1973) arrives on Blu-ray from Severin Film remastered in 4K, and looking to have been sourced from a quality print, easily surpassing Ayslum (1973) in terms of picture quality. The grain is better managed, colors are more robust and the image density more uniform, with some scenes showcasing some very fine detail. There's some minor print damage by way of small scratches, white speckling and at least one cigarette burn I noticed, nut overall this is a very pleasing HD upgrade of this Amicus Gothic chiller. 

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English language DTS-HD MA Mono track, capably exporting dialogue without issue, the score from Douglas Gamley sounds great, the lush arrangements complimenting the Gothic visuals nicely. Also included is the option to watch the film with a Spanish-dub track presented in Dolby Digital mono, which is expectedly a much flatter audio presentation without the depth and separation of the DTS-HD audio. 

Onto the extras Severin have carried over the theatrical trailer and a pair of audio commentaries from the previous Dark Sky Films release, the first with Director Roy Ward Baker and Actress Stephanie Beacham moderated by  director Marcus Hearn (Marcus Hearn, Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years) and a second with Star Ian Ogilvy moderated by film archivist Darren Gross. 

Onto the new stuff, the 15-min Haunting of Oakley Court is a look at the iconic filming location known as Oakley Court, a Victorian mansion used in literally hundreds of films ranging from Brides of Dracula, to Girly and the cult-classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, one look at it and you will recognize it from multiple movies and television appearances, even if you cannot place the film you will know the unmistakable facade. The tour is a walk about the grounds with authors Allan Bryce and David Flint, walking and talking as clips from various movies made there play out, along the way they offer a history of the location, which was favorited by both Amicus and Hammer through the years. There's also a 12-min audio interview with Actor Peter Cushing By Denis Meikle that touches on his work with director Freddie Francis, Christopher Lee, and working with both Amicus and Hammer Films. Journalist Denis Meikle shows up for a brief 4-min dress-down of the film, he doesn't have a high opinion of it, speaking about the oddity of an Amicus Gothic production at a time when such things were on the down turn, as was the British film industry, also speaking a bit about Cushing's fragile state of mind following his wife's death. 

The single-disc release comes housed in a nifty black Blu-ray case with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, which looks to be the original VHS artwork, the disc features an excerpt of the same artwork. If I could have my everything I do wish we had a reversible option featuring the original movie poster illustration of a hand pulling back bed sheets, which Dark Sky used on their previous DVD edition. 

This release is also available as part of Severin's 4-disc limited edition of The Amicus Collection which also features the anthology Asylum (1972), the werewolf whodunit The Beast Must Die (1974), as well as a bonus disc stuffed with a complete set of Amicus trailers, TV commercials, rare interviews and more. The Beast Must Die and the bonus disc are exclusive to the limited edition set (of 3500) which is now sold out on the Severin site but still available for about $60 at various online retailers right now, so act quickly on this one if you want the 4-disc set, it's worth it, I'm glad I ordered mine the day that set went live at the Severin site!  

  Special Features:
- The Haunting Of Oakley Court – Featurette with Allan Bryce, Author of “Amicus: The Friendly Face Of Fear”, and David Flint, Author of “Ten Years Of Terror”, visit the classic horror film location (15 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and Actress Stephanie Beacham
- Audio Commentary with Star Ian Ogilvy
- Archive Audio Interview with Actor Peter Cushing By Denis Meikle (12 min) 
- Horror Journalist Denis Meikle Recalls And Now The Screaming Starts – Featurette (4 min) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min) HD
- Radio Spot (1 min) HD

And Now The Screaming Starts (1973) is an overlooked gem of British horror, a creaky Gothic tale of debauchery and ancestral revenge that is worth re-evaluating if you've passed it by previously, Lord know I have through the years. Maybe because I've acquired a taste for slow-burning Gothic chillers as I've grown older this played gangbusters for me, right up to the shocker finale that features a fevered desiccated corpse desecration. The new Blu-ray from Severin is the best this has ever looked on home video by a Gothic mile, so have no fear, this is worth the upgrade and some serious re-evaluation.