Conjuring
4: Last Rites 4K
(2025/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/7
Sins
(2020/IndiePix DVD)/Wicked
Games: Three Films By Robert Hossein
(Wicked
Go To Hell
(1955) Nude
In A White Car
(1958) Taste
Of Violence
(1961)/MVD/Radiance Blu-ray Set)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: X/B-/B-/B-/B Sound: A-/C/B-
Extras: C+/D/B Films: B-/D/B-/B-/B
Horror
and other thriller to know about as follows...
Vera
Farmiga
and Patrick Wilson return as Ed and Lorraine Warren in the fourth
entry in The
Conjuring series and ninth entry in the overall franchise from James
Wan and Atomic Monster, The
Conjuring 4: Last Rites 4K
(2025).
A bit darker and twisted than the previous installment, Last
Rites
proves that the Conjuring
franchise has a formula that works and effectively terrifies young
audiences as each one proves to be a success. The film also stars
Elliot Cowan, Ben Hardy, and Beau Gadsdon. Michael Chaves directs
this Warner Bros. production.
Our
other Conjuring
coverage includes The
Conjuring 4K:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16680/Conjuring+4K+(2013/Warner+4K+Ultra+HD+Blu-ray)/
and
The
Conjuring 3 4K:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15952/Cannibal+Man+(1972/Severin*)/Chariots+Of+The+God
The
Last Rites
sticks the Warrens against a demonic force in a Pennsylvania in the
1980s that ties to a demonic mirror. The creepy mirror affects not
only a family, but ties back to the birth of the Warren's daughter as
Elizabeth first saw the mirror when she was pregnant. The case jumps
timelines and crafts an interesting narrative and closes off one main
Warrens story in the franchise. Bonus points for a great cameo by
the demonic doll, Annabelle, who has two spin-off films of her own.
Special
Features include:
Last
Rites: An Era Ends
featurette
The
Conjuring: Crafting Scares
featurette
Michael
Chaves: Believer featurette
The
Conjuring
franchise and its spin-offs have all remained pretty true to the
formula the original film created in terms of tone and narrative and
have all been successful financially. It doesn't feel like the
franchise has run out of steam completely yet, which is surprising
given how many films they have rolled out over the years. I am
surprised that there hasn't been a massive box set for the Conjuring
universe yet (as of this writing.)
7
Sins
(2020) is
a horror anthology film is out now courtesy of IndiePix.
Centering
on the seven deadly sins, the gritty underground film is chaptered
sin by sin and illustrates them in different ways. Unfortunately,
none of the shorts are particularly captivating or memorable and the
concept has been done more uniquely countless times before.
Directors
of the shorts in this anthology are Dario Almerighi, Domiziano
Cristopharo, Michael J. Epstein, Francesco Foletto, Jason Impey, Sam
Mason-Bell, and Poison Rouge.
Dario
Almerighi's Wrath
is the first film of the bunch which centers on a jogger's who is
overcome with unhinged rage.
Sam
Mason-Bell's haunting Envy
follows a couple lured into a deadly erotic encounter.
Francesco
Foletto and Elisa Carrera Fumagalli's Sloth
may be a tough watch for some and it centers on self-harm, but is
pretty tame when put up against In
My Skin
(2002) which recently got released by Severin Films.
The
best of the bunch is Michael J. Epstein's Pride
which centers on religious repression and fractured identity.
Lust,
by Domiziano Cristopharo, explores a disturbing AI relationship.
Again we have seen this concept done so many times by now that the
shock is pretty minimal.
Jason
Impey's Gluttony
centers on cannibalism and finally Poison Rouge's Greed
centers on sex work. Overall, the concepts they are showing are
nothing we haven't already seen done countless times before so the
originality here is pretty minimal. Pair that with low budget
filmmaking that isn't very well shot or lit in some cases, 7
Sins
ultimately feels like an uneven film from a stylistic perspective.
No
extras.
Last
but absolutely not least, Wicked
Games: Three Films By Robert Hossein
is a set of three films by the internationally known actor who was
also filmmaker and a better one than he has ever received credit for.
We get three different genres of film, thrillers in their own way
and all worth a good look in this solid new set from Radiance.
The
Wicked Go To Hell
(1955) follows two convicts who knock out their warder and go on the
run when that helps them escape prison, soon finding a house to hide
in, but killing a painter in the process in case he reveals where
they are. But he has a girlfriend who they do not kill and things
are about to get complicated.
Nude
In A White Car
(1958) has Hossein as a guy who gets in a car with a mysterious
blonde, quickly getting physically and intimately involved, but as
soon as that ends, she tries to run him over and kill him.
Surviving, he starts tracing the car to her, but this leads to more
surprises and he just cannot seem to resist trying to find out what
it is all about.
The
Taste Of Violence
(1961) is a forerunner of the Spaghetti Western, in which a
revolutionary (Hossein) manages to capture the daughter of the
dictator they are fighting against, but when he has to take her back
to him for two of his men, you know it will be far from peaceful.
Dubbed a Zapata Western, it is well done and holds up very well.
Thus,
you get three really well made films that will make you ask, why did
we not know of and hear of these films to begin with? It is a solid
set worth your time and when I finished it all, hoped we'd see more
of Hossein's films. Glad they got save, restored and reissued.
Extras
are many and include
feature length audio commentary tracks on each film by critic and
author Tim Lucas (2025)
Picking
Strawberries:
A newly created 'making of' featurette with historian Lucas Balbo,
featuring archive interviews with Hossein and Jean Rollin (2025)
Behind
Marked Eyes: The Cinematic Stare of Robert Hossein:
A newly created featurette by Howard S. Berger about Hossein and his
work (2025)
Interview
with actor Marina Vlady (2014)
The
Evolution of the Femme Fatale in Classic French Cinema:
A visual essay by critic Samm Deighan (2025)
The
Taste of Violence
appreciation by filmmaker and Western authority Alex Cox (2025)
Interview
with author C. Courtney Joyner on The
Taste of Violence
and the Zapata Western subgenre (2025)
Trailers
Reversible
sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time
Tomorrow
Limited
edition booklet featuring new writing by Walter Chaw and newly
translated archival archival writing by Lucas Balbo
and
Limited Edition of 3,000 copies, presented in a rigid box with
full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging
free of certificates and markings.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, HDR (10;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on The
Conjuring 4: Last Rites 4K
offers lossless English Dolby
Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems).
As always the presentation from Warner Bros. is top notch on disc
specifically in darker scenes that still maintain a lot of detail.
The combination is fine and consistent with the series.
On
the Robert
Hossein
set, we get 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition
image transfers form 2K scans that rarely show the age of the
materials used in all three cases, with the 1.33 X 1 image on Wicked
Go To Hell
the oldest and has some slight issues here and there, the
1.66 X 1 image on Nude
In A White Car
looking a little better, but with a few issues and limits and the
2.35 X 1 image on Taste
Of Violence
looking the best.
Shot
in Dyaliscope,
a French anamorphic format Francois Truffaut shot many of his early
films in, as well as Resnais' Last
Year At Marienbad,
Expresso
Bongo,
The
Flesh & The Fiends
(aka Mania)
and many B-movies from Italy and Golden Harvest, it was a cheaper
French version of CinemaScope and not bad at all. This is one of the
best-looking films you can see in Dyaliscope
on home video (up there with the recent 4K and long out-of-print
Criterion Blu-ray of Marienbad)
for that matter and has some demo shots that will impress. It gives
an already impressive film more impact.
The
French PCM 1.0 Mono shows the age of all three films sonically and
budget-wise and I wished it was 2.0 Mono, but they have all been
restored as well as possible.
7
Sins
is presented in anamorphically
enhanced, standard
definition (480i) on DVD with a 1.85:1 (standard 16x9) widescreen
aspect ratio and a lossy 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio mix. The
films are all ultra low budget / underground style and shot on videos
so image quality isn't the best throughout mainly on purpose.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Games)
and James Lockhart
https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/
