Danza
Macabra Volume Three
(Cake
Of Blood/Necrophagous
(both 1970)/Cross
Of The Devil
(1974)/Night
Of The Walking Dead
(1975)/Severin Blu-ray Box Set)/Ghoulies
II 4K
(1987/MVD 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B & B- (Necro)/B+
Sound: B- & C+ (Necro)/B+
Extras: B- Films: C+
Now
for some restored horror releases that have their moments, even some
big fans, but are not necessarily great, yet always interesting and
different...
Severin
is great at rescuing and handling all kind of great and unusual
horror cinema, so their latest set of saved Gothic feature films
thoroughly restored move from Italian films to Spanish ones. Danza
Macabra Volume Three
features four very interesting supernatural films with plenty of
atmosphere, including an anthology. Involving as much eroticism ad
blood and gore, the four films include Cake
Of Blood,
Necrophagous
(both 1970,) Cross
Of The Devil
(1974) and Night
Of The Walking Dead
(1975) all on separate discs in their own cases.
The
Cake
Of Blood
anthology, made when Franco
was in power, includes Jose Maria Valles' Tarot
set in the Middle Ages, Emilio Martinez-Lazaro's Victor
Frankenstein
with a few twists on the book, Francesc Bellmunt's Terror
Among Christians
has vampires roaming around in Roman times and Jaime Chavarri's The
Dance or Emotional Survivors
is an all out ghost story. All offer some political context and are
more ambitious than most of the titles in the set since they had to
be. Though not always successful, they are worth seeing just to see
what the filmmakers where trying to say, even when they could not
come out and outright say it.
Miguel
Madrid's
Necrophagous
(aka The
Butcher Of Binbrook
and Graveyard
Of Horror)
has a young man (Bill Curran) returning to his family's old castle
hime, falling apart as it is, because his sister has died giving
birth to a stillborn baby. When he looks to pay his respects, her
body is not in the grave! What happened? He decides to find out and
discovers more than just the castle is in decay. Madrid (listed as
'Michael Skaife' in its English-language release) does a decent
directing job, but the results are still uneven, with some parts
working and aging better than others. Still, it has its suspense and
can be interesting.
British
director John Gilling's Cross
Of The Devil
turned out to be his last film and was only made because he happened
to be retired in Spain after a very long and successful career that
included Film Noirs, hammer Studios films and some great episodes of
hit ITC TV shows like The
Saint
with Roger Moore, The
Champions
and Department
S. A
solid journeyman director, this was his last film and he melds well
with the Spanish Gothic aesthetic. A British writer (Ramiro
Oliveros) goes to visit his sister in Spain, only to find out
Satanists have killed her. From there, he starts to investigate, but
keeps having strange, bad dreams. Can he figure out what is really
going on before its too late?
Its
good, but has some off parts, which is also typical of some of
Gilling's otherwise solid work. Glad he got this one in before
retiring forever.
And
Leon Kilmovsky's vampire fest The
Night Of The Walking Dead
with a beautiful young lady (Emma Cohen) lured and stuck with a
stuffy family of aristocrats with more secrets than expected,
blood-sucking madness is about to let loose and who knows what will
happen next. With some good moments, it does remind me of some Paul
Naschy/Jacinto Molina horror films we've seen over the years and the
fact that Kilmovsky worked with him a lot makes sense. Like the many
Naschy/Molina films in the genre, some of the make-up has dated
badly, but other aspects are interesting and the makers go all out
with what they have to deliver a tale with impact. It too might not
always work, but it is interesting to see them try.
Obviously,
it is Guillermo del Toro who dominates this territory, look, feel and
atmosphere in his film and in cinema, but he was not the first and it
used to be much more common. Cheers to the actors, locales and hard
work with limited budgets it too to make these films. They may not
be to everyone's taste, but are finally here saved and for you to see
for yourself.
All
the films here are from new 2K scans, save the 4K scan on
Cross
Of The Devil,
all also
presented in 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers,
save Cake
Of Blood
in 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition. All can certainly show
the age of the materials used, but color is usually good if not
always great and sometimes there is fading or color shifting in small
amounts. The
sound is here in Spanish PCM 2.0 Mono in all cases, save Walking
Dead
in Spanish and English PCM 2.0 Stereo. Necrophagous
also adds an English PCM 2.0 Mono option, but the Spanish track fare
best and are the most authentic, despite obvious dubbing and other
small sonic flaws not due to age. Dialogue and music are clear
enough and the Spanish tracks are very likely the best any of these
films will ever sound. Much hard work was done to get them this way
and subtitles notwithstanding, they sound good for their age and
budget limits.
Extras
in this solid box
packaging include for each film:
NECROPHAGOUS
Audio
Commentary With Andy Marshall-Roberts
Something
You've Never Seen:
an appreciation By Angel Sala
Trailers
The
First Horror Film Festival In The World:
Remembrance By Maria Pilar Rafales, Daughter Of Sitges Film Festival
Founder Antonio Rafales
CAKE
OF BLOOD
Commentary
By Rod Barnett And Dr. Adrian Smith
Interviews
With Marisa Paredes, Jaime Chavarri And Jose Lifante
An
Arthouse UFO:
an appreciation By Angel Sala
CROSS
OF THE DEVIL
Commentary
By Kim Newman And Barry Forshaw
Fascinated
By Becquer:
an interview with Screenwriter Juan Jose Porto
The
Real Templars Knight Movie:
an appreciation By Angel Sala
Fantasy
And Imagination: The Legacy Of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer,
a Video Essay By Xavier Aldana Reyes
THE
NIGHT OF THE WALKING DEAD
Commentary
By Kat Ellinger
A
Deadly Invitation To Another Dimension:
an appreciation By Angel Sala
Interviews
With Juan Jose Porto And Jose Lifante
and
Spain's
Cinematic Vampires,
a Video Essay By Xavier Aldana Reyes.
The
sequel to Ghoulies
is a lot more fun than the original with much better looking creature
and special effects on the whole by the late legend John Carl
Buechler, who was a master of special effects that didn't get enough
credit. In my opinion, this Ghoulies
II 4K
(1987)
sequel is far superior to the original, and is more akin to the kind
of cult movie goofiness as Killer
Klowns from Outer Space
or Critters, and definitely on the high end of Full Moon productions
of the same era. Think of this as a more R-rated version of
Gremlins.
The
small demons known as Ghoulies run amok at a traveling carnival /
circus and stake up in a haunted house called Satan's Den. The
handful of ghoulies terrorize the locals who enter the haunted
attraction and hide their bodies within the haunted house themselves.
They keep things quiet at first, until one disastrous murder turns
the town wise and a few carnival workers must figure out the best way
to send them back to hell. In the process though, they resurrect a
giant Ghoulie who has quite an appetite. While the plot isn't
anything terribly special, Ghoulies
II is
a pretty fun B-movie popcorn flick to watch with friends.
Directed
by Albert Band, the film stars Damon Martin, Royal Dano, Phil
Fondacaro, J. Downing, and Kerry Remsen.
Ghoulies
II is
presented in 2160p on native 4K UHD disc with Dolby Vision/HDR (10;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced HEVC / H.265 codec, Ultra High Definition
image, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and an audio track in
lossless English LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit) Stereo sound mix from the
original Ultra Stereo analog noise reduction tracks. There is more
detail and improvement in the upscaled image, although this isn't
exactly cinematic art. It is always nice to see a film (I think in
this case) beyond what the filmmakers intended.
There
is also a 1080p high definition version included on 2K Blu-ray disc
with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and the
same English LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit) Stereo sound mix. The special
features are divided over both discs with the lot of them being on
the Blu-ray.
Special
Features are the same as the previous Blu-ray release from MVD:
Introduction
by Screenwriter Dennis Paoli
More
Toilets, More Terror: The Making of Ghoulies
2
Under
A Magic Moon: Interview with Dennis Paoli
Deleted
Scenes
Photo
Gallery
Theatrical
Trailer
2-Sided
Artwork
Collectible
Mini-Poster
and
Limited Edition Slipcover (First
Pressing Only).
The
Ghoulies
movies are pretty fun to look back on as little creature features,
and perfect for a cheesy movie night. However, aren't well
constructed classics in the same way that Gremlins
or even Critters
are.
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (4K)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
