Night Of The Werewolf + Vengeance
Of The Zombies
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Films: C+
The last
great period of Horror/Monster films in the 1970s was so great that it extended
to other countries. This included Spain,
where the genre made a star out of writer/director Paul Naschy (aka Jacinto
Molina) who is the star of Vengeance Of
The Zombies (1973, directed by Horror helmer Leon Klimovsky) and Night Of The Werewolf (1980) now
released by the Deimos division of BCI Eclipse.
Zombies is not the typical living dead
film we know of now, all of which are in the “rotting flesh/cannibalism” mode
of George Romero films, but is more like Hammer Studios and that is not a bad
thing as the living dead has a Satanic cult to go with it. The much later Werewolf combines its monster with the weaknesses of vampires,
which may not work for some people, but shows that the cycle was winding down
to go for such a hybrid approach.
The films
have no problem with blood and though were racy for their time, are not as
horrifying now despite being graphic enough to still justify an “R”
rating. Acting is slightly heightened
and expressionistic while sets and the use of color can be exceptionally
atmospheric. Though they are not
masterworks of their genre, they have the distinction of a different feel and
flavor not just because they are imports, but because their take on the genre
and its monsters remain distinct. Real
fans sick of digital effects and bad retreads (sequels or remakes) will want to
see these at least once.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Werewolf
and 1.33 X 1 image on Zombies have
transfers in digital High Definition and though the detail of these DVD-Videos
is limited and shows the fidelity of the old film stocks, the color is often
very impressive. No wonder Victory and
BCI want to put these out in the HD-DVD format, where there is bound to be a
jump in color, detail, depth and richness of the image regular DVD cannot
handle.
Werewolf is in regular color, while Zombies was reportedly shot in 2.35 X 1
Techniscope from some sources and was even blown-up to 70mm outside of the U.S.
meaning there may be a six-track magnetic stereo version lost somewhere, but
BCI Eclipse has informed us that the original camera negative is 1.33 X 1 with
1.66 X 1 soft matte consideration.
Either way, I liked the way it looked and I could see why a 70mm blow-up
was made.
Both are
here in Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish and English Mono and English 5.1 Surround
versions that just spread the dubbed sound all over, the sound is nothing
special and certainly nothing from a multi-track mix. Both are about the same in fidelity, despite
a five-year difference in production.
Extras
include stills sections, intros by Naschy before each film, U.S. Trailers,
Spanish opening credits, liner notes with rare stills & photos (www.naschy.com offers more) and some more for
each title. Werewolf has deleted scenes, while Zombies has alternate clothed sequences to avoid censorship for key
scenes. All in all, a nice set of extras
for interesting genre films worth a look.
- Nicholas Sheffo
