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) 

 

IT: CHAPTER TWO (2019) (4K Ultra HD Review)

IT: CHAPTER TWO (2019) 

Label: Warner Bros.
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 169 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, TrueHD with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.39:1), 1080P HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Andy Muschietti
Cast: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustaf, Jay Ryan, Jack Dylan Grazer, Andy Bean

 It: Chapter Two (2019) picks up 27-years after the events of It (2017), with the adult versions of the misfit kids returning to their childhood hometown to once more fight against the nightmarish Pennywise the Dancing Clown. We have defacto team-leader Bill (James McAvoy, X-Men: First Class), the fire-haired Beverly (Jessica Chastain, Interstellar), the foul-mouthed Richie (Bill Hader, Bridesmaids), Derry historian Mike (Isaiah Mustaf), the formerly fat new-kid-turned beefcake Ben (Jay Ryan), hypochondriac Eddie (James Ransone, Prom Night) and the cowardly Stanley (Andy Bean, Swamp Thing) among them. All of whom with the exception of Mike years ago left the confines of Derry, but when the demonic clown re-awakens from it's 27-year old hibernation they are summoned back to Derry to do what they swore to each other they would if "it" ever returned. Each receives a call from Ben imploring them to come back to home, but it seems that their memories of the events years earlier have been strangely clouded, this memory-gap being an apparent side effect of those who have Derry.

All begrudgingly agree to return to with the exception of Stanley , who tragically chose to slit his own wrists in the bathtub rather than face the killer clown again. The surviving Loser's arrive in Derry and gather at a Chinese restaurant where they catch up with each other and mourn the death of their friend Stan, slowly beginning to remember the events of the past, but as dinner is about to wrap they are tormented by nightmarish hallucinations courtesy of Pennywise.

The group are shaken by the encounter but undeterred, setting about figuring out how to defeat the demonic-clown courtesy of some local native American folklore told to them by Ben, with a cool flashback to "it's" arrival on Earth hundreds of years ago, assisted some mind-altering drugs slipped into Bill's drink. To that end each of the Loser's sets out to face their biggest fears and to reclaim an artifact from their pasts that is to be sacrificed during an ancient native American ritual, that will hopefully rid the world of the otherworldly clown.

As with the original TV mini-series I still hold that the second half of the story centered on the adult versions of the kids  holds less appeal to me than that of the kids, the horror of it all is just more frightening experienced through the eyes of the youngsters than that of the adults. Add to that the over three-hour run time and the film feels unnecessarily bloated in spots, peppered with overly-long flashbacks to the kids back in the 80's and each of the adults having their own artifact-hunting trip. There's a weird vein of humor throughout that doesn't sit easily within the confines of film for me, including a very strange 80s music cue combined with a vomit sequence that still has me scratching my head, a scene that would not have been out of place in something like Sam Raimi's horror-comedy Drag Me To Hell, but here it just comes right out of nowhere.

That's not to say I didn't love this film, because I do, I just don't dig it as much as I did the first film. Bill Skarsgard is still phenomenal in the role of Pennywise, this is a character will probably be this younger generation's version of the bogeyman, the way that Freddy Kruger was to me in the 80's, he turns in a phenomenal performance, with the most effective being it's encounter under the bleachers at a local sporting event with a young girl with a birthmark on her face, it's an eerie scene that gave me the shivers. I do think that the film relies a bit much on digital effects for Pennywise this time around, a scene of his face slowly getting melty seemed unnecessary, and the image of an eight-legged arachnid version Pennywise still fails to impress in the final moments though Skarsgard's performance is still fantastic. 

There are some cool special effects to see here, though none in my opinion are as startling effective as Pennywise's toothy maw chomping down on Georgie's arm at the start of the first film, but he does kill two more young kids violently in this film, the aforementioned young girl under the bleachers and another kid is bloodily dispatched at a carnival fun house. There's also a fun homage to the spider-head from John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), with someone even uttering the same punchline when it appears!

I thought the cast was uniformly excellent, the adult versions of the Loser's Club kids are very well cast, it's almost uncanny, with my favorite being the always excellent and often under-valued Bill Hader as foul-mouthed Richie Tozier who stole the whole film. Jessica Chastain is also quite good as the traumatized Beverly, she being the only character with real character development, and I thought Jack Dylan Grazer was spot-on as the hypochondriac Eddie. The adult version of the local teen psychopath Henry Bowers played by Grant Teach also really taps into the demented mindset of the lunatic killer.

Audio/Video: It: Chapter Two (2019) arrives on three-disc Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD plus Digital combo in 2160p Ultra HD framed in 2.39:1 widescreen. The 4K Ultra HD presentation is sharp and three-dimensional throughout with deep blacks with the UHD showcasing outstanding fine detail in facial close-ups, clothing and interiors. The HDR color-grading is wonderful, vibrant primaries bathe the image with deep saturated hues, the shadow detail in the darker scenes looking phenomenal throughout. The accompanying 1080p Blu-ray disc looks impressive as well, lacking the HDR color-punch but dazzling in it's own crisp and finely detailed way.

Audio on both he Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD comes by way of an impressive Dolby Atmos presentation that has plenty of surround activity that enhance the more atmospheric chills while punching up the action with some surprising aggressiveness. The low-end really shakes the room during the more bombastic and action-ier moments, optional English subtitles are provided.

The three-disc release arrives in a two-spindle black keepcase with single-sided sleeve of artwork with a slipcover featuring the same artwork. Inside there s a code for a 4K digital copy of the film for the Movie Anywhere app. 

Special Features:
- Pennywise Lives Again! (10 min) HD
- This Meeting of the Losers Club Has Officially Begun (8 min) HD
- Finding the Deadlights (6 min) HD
- The Summers of IT: Chapter One, You’ll Float Too (36 min) HD
- The Summers of IT: Chapter Two, IT Ends (40 min) HD
- Audio Commentary with Director Andy Muschietti

It: Chapter Two (2019) is a worthy successor to the first film, this adaptation definitely improving upon the ending of the TV mini-series in a a lot of ways but still stumbling a little bit in the final stretch, still struggling to visualize the unknowable  terror Stephen King brought to the page. That said the story and the characters are fantastic, the frights are still pretty damn good and Skarsgard is phenomenal as Pennywise the demonic clown as are the adult versions of The Loser's Club. The 4K presentation is a knock-out, a lush A/V presentation with over ninety-minutes worth of extras, including interview with Stephen King, make this a very desirable release.