THE EPITAPH VOL. 20 - TV ON BLU-RAY ROUND-UP!

THE EPITAPH VOL. 20  - TV ROUND-UP!

THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE NINTH SEASON (2018-2019) - THE FLASH: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON (2019) - ARROW: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON (2019)

 

THE WALKING DEAD: THE COMPLETE NINTH SEASON (2018-2019)

The ninth season of AMC's long-running undead series The Walking Dead is a show I have stuck with for better or worse,which is not to say that I have been satisfied with every turn the show, but on the whole it still delivers on the undead apocalypse for me. This season we see lots of struggle - no surprise there - with the departure of one of the series flagship characters, which I won't spoil, plus we get a bit of a time jump, with the series moving ahead several years into the future. This allows for what amounts to a bit of a soft reboot for the series. Following the events of the eight season bad-guy Negan is still imprisoned at Alexandria, and the communities of Hilltop, Oceanside, and The Kingdom are all still facing hardships, with there being a push by Ezekiel at the Hilltop to unite the communities under a single united government, but there's a lot of baggage involved there that could be prohibitive. The best part of this ninth season for me was the introduction of a new threat, a group of wandering survivors known as "the whisperers". These creepers wear dead-skin masks and walk among the undead, controlling their movements and using the hordes as both cover and as a weapon. Episode eight this season was a definite highlight for me, taking place in the dark of night in a fog-shrouded cemetery, feeling a bit like vintage slice of Gothic undead horror from yesteryear, I think it's the best episode of the season. The whisperers are lead by Alpha (Samantha Morton), and this woman is a force of nature, working against everything that the communities are working towards. This season was a good upturn for me, breathing new life into the undead series that's been desperately needed. The five-disc set from Lionsgate looks and sounds terrific, the show is always easy on the eyes and the Blu-ray provide a stellar technical presentations. Extras include a handful of commentaries, deleted scenes, a farewell to a major cast member, the usual Inside Episode recaps and a memoriam for the dead, plus featurettes looking at the role of nature in this season, the whisperers, and the time jump. 

THE FLASH: THE COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON (2019) 

The Flash is my favorite of all the Arrowverse superhero shows on the CW, I love the comic sensibilities, the drama, the seemingly endless parade of speedsters, and the multi-verse angle, it all works for me, and even when it doesn't quite work I still love the core set of characters and their adventures. The fifth season saw Barry Allen's future daughter Nora taking a much larger role in the series, providing lot of parental drama for Iris and Barry Allen, which sort of sours with the revelation that Nora is working for one of The Flash's most powerful speedster enemies. On the downside this season is weighted down with a lot of personal detours for the characters Caitlin and Cisco, with the latter struggling with wanting to rid himself of his powers and the former getting a bit of an origin story that goes on a bit longer that I cared for. The baddies this season are the meta-human hunting Cicada and Cicada II, and they didn't do much for me unfortunately, I kind of miss the bad-speedsters. The best stuff this season came by way of the relationship between Barry, Iris and their future daughter Nora, but even that sort of falls apart in the latter half of the season. While I am still enjoying the show I would like to see it be more streamlined in the sixth season, with less tangential drama and a more focused plot line. The four-disc set from Warner Bros.  looks and sounds fantastic, plus we get all three of the elsewhere episodes, which are exclusive to the Blu-ray, the DVD version only has The Flash episode, but does not feature the Arrow or Supergirl episodes, so keep that in mind when making your purchase. Extras include a selection of deleted scenes, a fun gag reel, a Best of 2018 Comic-Con panel, plus an in-depth exploration of the Elseworld's crossover event with the show-runners, plus extras exploring the evolution of Killer Frost, and the motivations of the DC villains.

ARROW: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON (2019)

Strangely Arrow is the beginning of CW's Arrowverse but is the show I care least about. The character of Green Arrow has never been a draw for me in the comics and or this TV incarnation. I occasionally tune in every now and again for the crossover events, but Arrow's just not my superhero jam. The first third of it with our arrow-slinging hero incarcerated in prison following his public identity reveal in the sixth season, and then working for the local PD upon his release. This series in particular is the least fun of the Arrowverse series, and that's where it loses me, but I have to give it props for the fight-sequences, which are well-staged and action-packed. This season also saw flash-forwards set in the future where Oliver and Felcity's children now protect Star City, which was interesting, but not enough to make me an avid viewer, Arrow's just not my bag. The four-disc presents all 24-episodes, including the three-part Elseworld's crossover event with The Flash and Supergirl, plus deleted scenes and a gag reel. This set also carries the same Best of 2018 Comic-Con panel, Villains: Modes of Persuasion and Inside the Crossover: Elseworld's featurette that are on The Flash: The Complete Fifth Season set. 

THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE (2019) (Blu-ray Review)

Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.

THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE (2019) 

Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Duration: 86 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widscreen (1.78:1) 
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Danishka Esterhazy
Cast: Dani Kind, Finlay Wojtak-Hissong, Romeo Carere, Steve Lund, Sara Canning

Synopsis: One banana, two banana, three banana, GORE! The cult-favorite animal rock-band from Hanna-Barbera’s 1968 The Banana Splits Adventure Hour variety program is back with a blood-spattered vengeance!  

I was born in the early part of the 70's but I have only a passing memory of ever having watched The Banana Splits Adventure Hour as  a kid. It didn't have much impact on me to be honest, but when I was a bit older the punk band The Dickies cover of the theme song "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" 
definitely did, more so than the kids TV series ever did, which was produced by Hanna-Barbera with puppetry from H.R. Pufnstuf's Sid and Marty Krofft. 

This film takes that weird kids TV show and turns it into an R-rated slasher film, with a young kid and his family attending a live filming of the series, which in this film anyway, is a long-running kids TV show, but which in reality I think only ran for about thirty episodes. The kid, Hartley, is annoying, and a bit too old to be obsessed with these animatronic puppet characters in the show, but his family humors him and takes him to a taping if the show anyway. 

As the show is being filmed news begins to spread behind-the-scenes that the show has been canceled, and for some reason the animatronic puppets begins killing people in the studio after the taping. This corny bit of fun was a bit of a surprise for me, this is basically a slasher film with killer animatronic puppets, which is probably weird for anyone who loved this show as a kid, but as I have zero nostalgia for it I really dig the irreverent r-rated way they turned it on it's head. The kills are surprisingly gory, particularly a scene of someone being sawed in half, and while not all the gore-gags are awesome I appreciated the carnage in the spirit that it was intended.

I think all of the characters here are all fairly annoying, so it's fun to see them killed off as the film moves along. We have an assortment of meat for the grinder including a stage dad, various show-runners and cast members, the main kids awful father, and a pair of social media influencers, and they all get what they deserve and then some in a myriad of delightfully gory ways. 

Audio/Video: The Banana Splits Movie (2019) arrives on Blu-ray+DVD+Digital from Warner Bros. framed in 1.78:1 widescreen in 1080p HD. The transfer looks fantastic, it's crisp and finely detailed throughout. Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles, everything is well-balanced with some good use of the surrounds. 

Extras include a handful of featurettes and trailers for WB's Joker, It: Chapter Two, Batman: Hush, The Curse of La Llorona, and Critters Attack!

The 2-disc Blu-ray+DVD+Digital combo arrives in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, the same artwork is also featured the slipcover. 

Special Features: 
- Banana Splits: Behind the Horror (8 min) 
- Terror on Set (6 min) 
- Breaking News! The Banana Splits Massacre (1 min)

The Banana Splits Movie is a solid slice of gory entertainment, it deconstructs a beloved 70's kids TV show and turns it into an r-rated bit of bloody weirdness, that while silly and campy was a ton of fun. 

MY NIGHTS WITH SUSAN, SANDRA, OLGA & JULIE (1975) (Cult Epics Blu-ray Review)

MY NIGHTS WITH SUSAN, SANDRA, OLGA & JULIE (1975)

Label: Cult Epics
Duration: 85 Minutes
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: Dutch DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Pim de la Parra
Cast: Willeke Van Ammelrooy, Nelly Frijda, Hans van der Gragt, Marja de Heer, Franulka Heyermans, Serge-Henri Valcke

Erotic-thriller/black comedy My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie (1975) was the last of Scorpio’s “Dutch Sex Wave” exploitation films, directed by Pim de la Parra (Obsession) with cinematography by Marc Felperlaan (The Lift), featuring the last ever score by composer Elisabeth Lutyens (Never Take Sweets from a Stranger).

The film opens in the rural Dutch countryside where the sexy and promiscuous young women Sandra (Marja de Heer) and Olga (Franulka Heyermans) are picked-up by an American tourist driving through the area. Along the way the trio crack open and bottle of bourbon and before you know it they're pulled over on the side of the road getting to know each other intimately. While he's giving it to one of the ladies the other one for reasons not quite clear picks up the bourbon bottle and whacks him over the head with it, killing him instantly. The girls drive the corpse to a nearby pond and dump his corpse in the water attempting to cover-up their crime, unaware they are being spied upon while doing so. 

They abandon the car and return home, a sort of communal living arrangement where they share a house with a former model named Susan (Willeke Van Ammelrooy, Frank & Eva), the very-sleepy looker Julie (Marieke van Leeuwen) and an anti-social weirdo named Albert (Serge-Henri Valcke, The Lift) who keeps hidden away in a windowless room. Unbeknownst to nympho-killers Sandra and Olga Albert has a peep hole looking right into their bedroom, with him becoming privy to their murderous ways and erotic activities. 

The living arrangement at the house begins to sour with the arrival of new guy Anton (Hans van der Gragt), a young man who seems to be trying to recruit Susan back into modeling world. He ends up staying for a few days and becomes infatuated with all the young women at the house, bedding several of them, as you did in the 70's, I guess. During his stay he becomes increasingly alarmed by the activities in and around the house, including the presence of an dim-witted female weirdo named Piet (Nelly Frijda) who lives in a shack near the property, and who has gone and picked-up the water-logged corpse of the American tourist for her own amusements.

The film is a solid little thriller with plenty of skin, though it's no mere skin show, there are some rather interesting and notable moments of suspense and tension throughout, along with a strange sense of humor that I found very pleasing. 

Audio/Video: My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie (1975) arrives on region-free Blu-ray+DVD combo from Cult Epics with a new HD restoration & transfer sourced from a 35mm print of the film. The 2.35:1 framed image looks solid for a print, colors are nicely saturated, and blacks are decent looking. While there's a bit of white speckling throughout there's not as much as I anticipated, and the grain is well-managed if a bit course, but overall this is a pleasing HD image.   

The disc includes a par of audio options, both the original Dutch and an English-dub via DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono. The Dutch is more natural sounding with better fluidity and nuance. I found the boxy English-dub a bit distracting, probably adding a bit more humor to the film that was originally intended. The atmospheric score from Hammer/Amicus regular Elisabeth Lutyens sounds great. Notably the English dub is sourced from an eighties VHS cassette, so the fidelity of it is of much lower quality, and is also a different translation that the original Dutch audio dialogue, but I commend Cult Epics for the completest inclusion.

Extras on this release include an 11-min introduction from the director who speaks about the troubled production history of the film, as well as his intention to cast of Rutger Hauer  (The Hitcher) in the lead male role! We also get a trio of short films spanning from '66-'70, plus an image gallery and trailers for all four of the Scorpio films currently available from Cult Epics. 

The 2-disc DVD/Blu-ray combo arrives in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, the same artwork featured on the wrap also appears on the DVD disc, the Blu-ray disc features a tantalizing illustration of a threesome from the Italian poster artwork  which is available as a limited edition of 500 slipcover when ordered directly through the Cult Epics website. The DVD mirrors the exact same content as the Blu-ray, in standard-definition. 

Special Features:
- New HD Restoration & Transfer from 35mm original print
- Introduction by director Pim de la Parra (2019) (11 min) HD
- Scorpio Short Films: Heart Beat Fresco (1966)(10 min) HD, Joop (1969) (11 min) HD, Joop Strikes Again (1970) (11 min) HD
- Original Scorpio Films Trailers (HD)
- Poster & Photo gallery

My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie (1975) is a quirky Dutch thriller with ample amounts of naughty eroticism and weird little touches that keep it plenty entertaining. It never wears out it's welcome and ending with an odd bit of macabre strangeness that really put a smile on my face. Of the three that I've seen this is my favorite of the four Scorpio films released by Cult Epics, though I have yet to catch up with Blue Movie (1971). With it's broader appeal this ones comes highly recommended for fans of erotic thrillers with an offbeat slant. 

THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) (Film Movement Blu-ray Review)

THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) 

Label: Film Movement Classics 
Region Code: Region-Free
Duration: 96 minutes
Rating: R
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen(1.85:1) 
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Philip Ridley
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper, Sheila Moore, Duncan Fraser

The Reflecting Skin (1990) is a warped David Lynchian-Norman Rockwell-ish nightmare, wherein an impressionable and slightly disturbed eight-year-old named Seth
(Jeremy Cooper) is coming of age in rural 1950's Idaho. It's a slow-burning American Gothic tale populated by some strange characters, including a murderous band of greasers who travel the back roads in a shiny, black Cadillac looking for children to murder. It's the sort of place where bored young boys resort to blowing-up frogs for fun, and where Seth's young playmates are murdered one by one until his only companion in the world is the rotting corpse of a baby fetus he keeps in a box beneath his bed. 

Yeah, this is a weird one, and that's just the tip of the strangeness-iceberg, let's not forget the English widow down the road named Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan, Body Parts) whom Seth begins to believes is a vampire out to drain his older brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen, 
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III)
of his precious bodily fluids. Then there's his overbearing mother whose manages to drive her troubled husband to commit suicide in a gasoline-fueled inferno. Lots of weird stuff, so strap yourself in and prepare yourself for a melancholic Americana nightmare set to endless fields of yellow grain and big blue sky.

Audio/Video: The Reflecting Skin (1990) arrives on Blu-ray from Film Movement as part of their Film Movement Classics line-up, presenting the film in 1.85:1 widescreen and sourced from a 2K restoration from the original film elements. The image is crisp and clean, perhaps a bit too clean, with what looks to be some DNR-smoothing having been applied, with certain scenes looking a bit waxy, which is unfortunate. Digital scrubbing aside this otherwise looks solid, it's the first time I've seen it in proper widescreen on home video, and the color-grading is very pleasing, far superior to the shite fullframe DVD I had of it previously, a pleasing though not perfect upgrade.

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English PCM 20 stereo presentation with optional English subtitles. Everything is crisp and clean sounding, there were no issues with hiss or distortion, and the big score from Nick Bicât is magnificent and sounds terrific. 
   
Extras include an audio commentary with writer/director Philip Ridley that digs deep into the making of the film, plus a 44-min making of retrospective 'Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin' with interviews from the director, Viggo Mortenson,  plus a 20-page booklet with notes on the restoration from the director, plus a pair of essays on the film by writers Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche. For the sake of comparison I now that the UK Blu-ray from Soda Pictures also features a pair of Philip Ridley's short films and an isolated music score, which are not found on this release. 

The single-disc release comes housed in a clear Blu-ray keepcase with a two-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster, with the reverse side featuring a scene from the film, with the disc featuring the same artwork as the wrap.

Special Features: 
- Angels & Atom Bombs: The Making of The Reflecting Skin (44 min)
- Audio Commentary with writer/director Philip Ridley
- Booklet with introduction by Philip Ridley and new essay by Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche 

Fans of  disturbed youth cinema like Butcher Boy (1997) or The Other (1972) definitely need to check this one out, it's a kindred spirit, a film that channels the small town dread of Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) with a bit of that enigmatic children's allegory of The Spirit of the Beehive (1973). It's great to see this one finally getting a good-looking Blu-ray in the proper aspect ratio in the U.S., hopefully it brings this under-seen gem some deserved glory, and also be sure to check out Ridley Philip's haunting film Heartless (2009). 

THE EPITAPH VOL. 19: AMERICAN GODS - SEASON 2 - BLOOD PARADISE (2018) - WHITE LINE FEVER (1975) - LA LLORONOA (2019) - ROLLERCOASTER (1977) -ROXANNE (1987) - LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971)

THE EPITAPH VOL. 19 

AMERICAN GODS - SEASON 2 - BLOOD PARADISE (2018) - WHITE LINE FEVER (1975) - LA LLORONA (2019) - ROLLERCOASTER (1977) -ROXANNE (1987) - LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971)

AMERICAN GODS - SEASON TWO (2018)

The second season of the Starz series American Gods, based on author Neil Gaiman's novel, arrives on three-disc Blu-ray and digital from Lionsgate. The series follows ex-con Shadow Moon who has become the right-hand man/enforcer for the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, who at the end of the first season - SPOILER - is revealed to be the old world God of Thunder, Odin. The series pits Old Gods from mythology against the New Gods, which are represented by Mr. World (Crispin Glover), Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) and New Media (Kahyun Kim). Old Gods are also represented by Mr. Nancy (Orlando Jones), Bilquis the Goddess of Love (Yetide Badaki) Jinn (Mousa Kraish), and Czernobog (Peter Stromare) among others. We also have the reanimated corpse of Shadow Moon's cheating wife Laura (Emily Browning) and a hulking leprechaun named Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber), who is also in the employ of Mr. Wednesday/Odin. The series is a spellbinding and sprawling tale of the fantastical, there's a lot to take in but it tends to falter a bit without clear direction. I was absolutely down for the second season of the show after the intriguing first season, there were some satisfying revelations throughout the season, with hints of some bigger picture stuff yet to come, but the last episode while hinting at even bigger things, left me slightly unsatisfied, but not uninterested in a third season, which has already been green-lit. The themes and mythologies being played with here are what keep me tuning in though, plus the series is the blend of old and new mythologies, and the art direction and cinematography is truly gorgeous, which oftentimes is enough to keep me satisfied, even if the story itself is completely quenching my thirst. The three-disc set looks and sounds terrific in 1080p HD, the soundtrack is peppered with fantastic song selections, and the extras are plentiful, including a conversation with author Neil Gaiman, plus a behind-the-scenes piece about shooting at The House on the Rock in Wisconsin. If you're looking for something weird and different this comes highly recommended, here's hoping a third season will knock it out of the park. 

BLOOD PARADISE (2018) 

Swedish thriller/slasher film Blood Paradise (2018) comes to us from adventurous world-cinema distributor Artsploitation Films. It's  an offbeat bit of weirdness starring 
Andréa Winter as a world-famous horror writer whose last book was a bust. In the aftermath her agent sends her to a farm out in the middle of nowhere of Sweden to regroup and start a new book. The people she encounters on the farm are strange indeed, beginning with her driver Hans (Christer Cavallius), but the guy who owns the farm and his hired help are also far from normal! I think the best way to describe the tone of this Swedish thriller would be offbeat and quirky, with a distinct Coen Bros. vibe. The kills are decent, but this is by no means a bloodbath, the quirkiness  softening the harder slasher elements, but it looks great and starlet Winter turns in a solid performance as the oft-nude victim of writer's block and rural weirdness. This Blu-ray release from Artsploitation looks and sounds terrific, it's a very attractively shot film, and the extras include deleted scenes and a music video. 

WHITE LINE FEVER (1975)

70's trucker action-flick White Lines Fever stars Jan Michael Vincent  (TV's Air wolf) as an independent trucker in Tucson, Arizona just trying to live the American dream, but the local big-wigs wanna muck it up with smuggling and illegal activity. When the true-blue truckers refuses to play ball the big-wigs set out to make his life miserable, resulting in the trucker grabbing a shotgun and making the man pay for his meddling! The real appeal here for me is that this film is shot in and around where I live in Tucson, so on that level it had a lot of local appeal for me, I love seeing this pace in the 70's before I move out here. The film is a real blue-collar 'sticking it to the man' sort of film, but it's no great shakes, with hat said if you have a craving for a 70's trucker action-film this will fit the bill! This release is part of the retro-VHS style Blu-ray releases that Mill Creek Entertainment have been releasing, so it comes with a cool-looking VHS inspired slipcover with variant artwork on the wrap. 

LA LLORONOA (2019)

Based on the Mexican folktale of the weeping woman who brings misfortune when she appears we have La Llorona (2019). This is a Conjuring universe entry set in 1970's Los Angeles where a widowed mom who works as a social worker has the misfortune of crossing paths with a child-snatching specter, putting her young sons in supernatural danger. The film manages some generic startles throughout, and I dig the make-up FX of the wailing woman, but it never got under my skin or gave me the chills. It all seems a bit too familiar to me, but I bet this has more traction for a younger teen audience and I'm an old fart, for real. If you're a fan of the film the Blu-ray offers a strong technical presentation with a decent array  of extras, including deleted scenes, storyboards and a few behind-the-scenes featurettes.  

ROLLERCOASTER (1977)

The 70'S disaster flick Rollercoaster (1977) is a bit of a forgotten gem from the polyester-era, maybe because there's no swarming killer bees or towering infernos, it's a smaller scale sort of disaster film about an amusement park saboteur (Timothy Bottoms) who is threatening to blow-up amusement park rides, beginning with the derailment of a popular roller coaster. Planting an explosive device on the tracks which sends the cars hurling of the rails and sending people to their death crashing below! On the case is safety inspector Harry Calder (George Segal) who is the first to put the pieces together, as several amusement parks begin to experience horrifying accidents, with the saboteur then making ransom demands. The film plays out as the inspector and saboteur attempt to outsmart each other, culminating at another amusement park where a roller coaster is the target. The film has some good suspense and peppers in some humor, but falters a bit by front-loading the film's best set piece and never really rising to that level again. Still it' a solid 70's thriller, it's just too bad we do not the timber-rattling Sensurround track that accompanied this in the cinema back in the day, nor do we get any substantial extras - aside from a trailer - on this DVD. Rollercoaster arrives on region-free DVD from Via Vision presenting the uncut version of the film. It' looks solid for a DVD presentation, but be aware there is a U.S. Blu-ray from Scream Factory that has extras and the Sensurround audio! 

ROXANNE (1987)

Steve Martin' farcical take on Cyrano de Bergnac has been a pleaser for me, a comedic tale of love about a rather big-nosed fire chief in pursuit of the ever-lovely Daryl Hannah (Blade Runner), who seems more interested in the lunkheaded but physically attractive new recruit than the poetic chief with the big nose. The film also features supporting roles from Shelley Duvall (The Shining), Michael J. Pollard (Grumpy Old Men), and Fred Willard (Salem's Lot). This is not a film that comes up a lot when discussing Steve Martin's body of work, but it absolutely should, I think it's one of the best of the 80's romantic-comedies out there! This is also part of the retro-VHS style Blu-ray with a cool-looking VHS inspired slipcover with variant artwork on the wrap.

LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971)

This erotically-charged bloodsucker film from Hammer is the middle-film in the Karnstein Trilogy, following Vampire Lovers and right before Vampire Circus. I don't think this is a beloved entry in the series, or even within the Hammer filmography, but for me it hits a lot of the sweet spots I'm looking for when I watch a Hammer film. It's got the Gothic charms, the Hammer atmosphere and plenty of vampire tropes, including a blood ritual to resurrect a vampire! It's also got the plunging necklines and plenty of naked ladies, plus a lecherous horror writer who takes on a teaching position at an school for young women. He then proceeds to romance a young woman by the name of Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard), who is really the resurrected 
vampire Carmella, who in-between draining her co-eds begins to actually fall for the dark fiction writer. While this is my least favorite of the Karnstein Trilogy it is still plenty entertaining, and lives up to it's erotically charged title with a lovemaking scene at a graveyard! The Blu-ray from Scream Factory presents the film with a gorgeous new 4K scan in both 1.66: and 1.85:1 widescreen with a pair of commentaries and a new interview with actress Mel Churcher, plus a reversible sleeve of artwork. Another top-notch release for an under appreciated bloodsucker film from Scream Factory.

THE REPTILE (1966) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

THE REPTILE (1966) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1) & (1.85:1)  
Director: John Gilling
Cast: Noel Willman, Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel, Jacqueline Pearce

Hammer horror The Reptile (1966) is set in the rural Cornish village of Clagmoor Heath, a quiet community where people are found dead foaming at the mouth with strange wounds on their necks, their faces having turned black from some sort of venom. Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett, Terror From Under The House) arrives in the village along with his wife (Jennifer Daniel, The Kiss of the Vampire) to investigate his brother’s mysterious death, a recent victim of what's become known as the black death. 

Spalding as an outsider is shunned by the local folks but is befriended by a kindly bar owner, Tom Bailey (Michael Ripper, The Plague of the Zombies), and together the pair begin to sleuth the mystery of the black death that's befallen the village. The clues leading them to neighbor Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman, The Vengeance Of She), who lives in the mansion next door with his daughter (Jacqueline Pearce, Doctor Who), both who seem to me under the influence of a strange foreigner (Marne Maitland).

The film is a wonderful rural village shocker along the lines of The Plague of the Zombies, a film which was also directed by John Gilling and starred Michael Ripper and the lovely Jacqueline Pearce. It was great to see Hammer regular Ripper get a meatier role in this film, this being one of my favorites of his, and Pearce is wonderful as the cursed young woman. The film is well-made and moves at a good clip with plenty of classic Hammer atmosphere, plus the make-up effects of the reptilian woman are still pretty cool-looking to me. 

This is a totally solid Hammer shocker set in a rural village, lots to love for the vintage Brit-horror fans who are looking for something not starring icons Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. 

Audio/Video: the Reptile (1966) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in both 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 widescreen presentations in 1080p HD. The image is solid with well-saturated colors, and natural looking film grain throughout. Fine detail is also pleasing and the black levels are deep and inky. Notably, the film starts off a bit rough-looking during the opening title sequence but improves quickly from there. 

Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles. It sounds excellent for a track of it's vintage, with no issues with distortion or hiss, and the score from Don Banks (Torture Garden) sounds terrific. 

Extras include yet another excellent audio commentary by film historians Steve Haberman, Constantine Nasr and Ted Newsom. It's an in-depth and highly enjoyable track that gets not just into the scene-specifics but also into the nitty-gritty of the film. Also new is a 21-min interview with 1st assistant director William P. Cartlidge, plus an archival making of that appeared on the UK Blu-ray of the film, featuring Hammer Film Historian Marcus Hearn, actor and writer Mark Gatiss, plus writers Jonathan Rigby, David Huckvale, and Wayne Kinsey, who give their own appreciation of the film. 

We also get a 25-min episode of The World of Hammer focusing on wicked women, double-feature trailers and TV spots pairing the film with Rasputin the Mad Monk, and a still gallery.  

The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring an original movie poster illustration, the reverse side also featuring a striking black and yellow illustration also sourced from a vintage poster, with the disc itself featuring an excerpt of the a-side artwork.   

Special Features:
- Presented in two aspect ratios – 1.66:1 and 1.85:1
- NEW audio commentary by film historians Steve Haberman, Constantine Nasr and Ted Newsom
- NEW interview with 1st assistant director William P. Cartlidge (21 min) 
- The Serpent’s Tale – The Making of The Reptile (18 min) 
- World of Hammer – Wicked Women (25 min) 
- Theatrical Trailers (6 min) 
- TV Spot (1 min) 
- Still Galleries

This is another exceptional release of a vintage Hammer horror from Scream Factory, offering both a solid A/V presentation and a typically terrific set of extras to go along with it.