This wildly eclectic selection of newly remastered cult films on Blu-ray makes me an April fool, for sure. One from the director affectionately called “Mr. B.I.G” Bert I. Gordon, a big-budgeted Jess Franco chiller, two sleaze greats from Bob Cresse & Lee Frost (who brought you the delightfully appalling Nazisploitation classic- Love Camp 7), a suspenseful Fritz Lang thriller starring Joan Bennett, a bonkers French action film, A delightful new Francois Ozon film, a “pinky violence” classic; an arty and mad Greek neo-Noir, and a Mexican “Chucky” rip-off that will unhinge your jaw.
Tormented (Film Masters) I admit I have great affection for the films of Bert I. Gordon, a 1950s Drive-In hero for his movies about gargantuan grasshoppers (Beginning of the End), radiation-exposed giants (War of the Colossal Beast), shrunken humans (Attack of the Puppet People) or oversized arachnids (The Spider). This 1960 ghost story, set at a seaside community, stars Richard Carlson as Tom Stewart, a jazz pianist engaged to pretty Meg Hubbard (Lugene Sanders). At a nearby old, dilapidated lighthouse Stewart confronts a sexy old girlfriend- Vi (Juli Reding) who threatens to stop his nuptials any way she can. When she accidentally falls from the top of the lighthouse (and Tom doesn’t do anything to save her) she seriously begins haunting the shit out of him. Invisible footprints in the sand. Weird perfume smells. Vi’s disembodied head appears to Tom and warns, “No one will ever have you but me!” The director’s daughter Susan Gordon plays Meg’s spunky younger sister who begins to suspect Tom. This new raw scan of the film comes with audio commentary; a new documentary about Bert I. Gordon; a color booklet with an essay by Tom Weaver; plus, a bonus of the hilarious Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV episode riffing on Tormented.
Night of the Blood Monster (Blue Underground) (Also known as The Bloody Judge). Christopher Lee stars as the imperious and outlandishly evil Judge Jeffries in 1685 England, delighting in passing sentence on unfortunate women for “witchcraft,” ordering them to be tortured by his executioner (played with lip-smacking glee by Howard Vernon) and then burned at the stake. A cross between Witchfinder General and Mark of the Devil, this was another international co-production by producer Harry Alan Tower with prolific filmmaker Jess Franco at the helm. Towers’ gorgeous wife Maria Rohm plays the frequently nude damsel in distress Mary Gray, whose own sister was condemned as a witch by the Judge. An expensive-looking production with lavish costumes, historical accuracy, great settings, big battle sequences and plenty of sex and violence to sell to other countries. America bought it and cut it down to a PG rating. This is the most complete version yet, with a brand new UHD 4K master and it looks spectacular. The 2-disc set comes with vintage interviews with Jess Franco and Christopher Lee, a great overview of the film by Stephen Thrower (who has written two excellent books on the director), and an extra about the fascinating, slightly sketchy, producer Harry Alan Towers.
Hot Spur (Severin) Producer Bob Cresse and writer/director Lee Frost’s 1968 rape/revenge western sexploitation sleaze classic. It’s about a young Mexican who is hell bent on getting back at those cowpokes who raped his sister. He kidnaps the wife of the horse rancher he plans to attack, strips and whips her in a shack out in the woods, while laying traps for the men who will come to look for her. This is a 4K scan from a recently discovered negative, with great special features including two excellent audio commentaries- one, a hilarious and informative one, with Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin and Severin’s Andrew Furtado, plus a recently discovered audio discussion between legendary exploitation producer David F. Friedman and the late, great, Something Weird Video founder Mike Vraney. There’s also a wonderful nudie/cutie short called The Casting Director starring Hot Spur director Lee Frost directed by David F. Friedman.
The Scavengers (Severin) Another down-and-dirty 1969 sexploitation wonder from producer Bob Cresse and director Lee Frost. The disc includes both the unrated version and the R-rated version, although we all know which version to watch. A psychotic confederate Captain refuses to tell his starving men that the Civil War is over and drags the rag-tag army to a deserted town in order to ambush a Yankee supply wagon under the mistaken idea that they are carrying “$300,000 in Yankee dollars- all in gold!” They kill the salon owner and ravage all the women (Super Vixen’s Uschi Digard plays one of the saloon girls). They ambush the passing wagon the next day and torture the travelers when they only find $3,00 on them. A black maid escapes and rounds up a bunch of armed ex-slaves to go after the soldiers and it ends in a bloodbath (and with eagerly waiting vultures). The Captain has a bonkers monologue about his family being eaten by slaves that is jaw-dropping. Great audio commentary by Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin and Severin’s Andrew Furtado. There’s even a theme song: “They spell love like you spell lust. And they’d already turned 10 towns to dust. Hearts made of ice. Gold rules their mind. They’d rob from the cripple and they’d steal from the blind. They’re the Scavengers! Bad, bad, men!”
The Crime is Mine (Music Box Films) The new film by Francois Ozon is a delightful, dark comedy about the triumph of sisterhood and how to handle murder. Set in the 1930s, Madeline (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) is an aspiring actress who lives with her best friend, an unemployed lawyer Pauline (Rebecca Marder). When Madeline is falsely accused of the murder of a sleazy producer, quick thinking Pauline decides the most successful strategy to defend her is for Madeline to admit to the crime, but with accentuating circumstances. This results in fame and fortune for both women. That is, until a former silent film actress Odette (Isabelle Huppert) shows up. She actually committed the murder and is annoyed that these two women have profited from the crime and she has not. Francois Ozon, after Covid, was determined to make a comedy, and adapted this 1930’s play by giving it into more of a feminist slant. The result is a fizzy, fun time, with Isabelle Huppert particularly funny as the madcap former star.
Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Unbelievably wild 1985 French cop vigilante action movie that opens with helmeted men riding up on motorcycles (carrying shotguns) who mow down a group of transvestite prostitutes luring motorists on the side of a road. They were hired to target a police informant but their massacre causes the authorities to go into overdrive, trying to track down the crime kingpin called the “Greek” and his squad of killers. Sex clubs, pimps, pornographers, drug dealers, prostitutes- the film merrily wallows in the sordid underworld of Paris until the thugs mess with the detective’s (Thierry de Carbonnieres) family and he goes all “Dirty Harry.” He supposedly takes some “vacation time,” but actually goes after each and every one responsible. Too outrageous to even begin to describe- the vigilante even dresses like a leather queen to hunt down a homicidal killer in a gay bar. It’s the best!
Special Silencers (Mondo Macabro) The 1970s and 1980s was a boom for Indonesian cinema thanks to tax breaks and the public’s hunger for the kind of crackpot action/fantasy/horror films they turned out. Barry Prima (The Warrior) was a cult hero in the country. In this 1982 movie he rides a yellow motorbike and comes to the aid of the mayor’s pretty daughter (played by Prima’s future wife Eva Arnaz) to battle a fiendish politician who uses supernatural powers to get rid of his opponents. Black magic was a staple of these films. A red pill in someone’s food causes tree branches to bloodily push out of their bodies. Filled with non-stop action- Prima has a wild scene hanging underneath a moving truck and then leaping up to use martial arts on the machete-wielding bad guys. There’s a fun extra on Indonesian cinema which only made me yearn for a gorgeous Blu-ray of Mystics in Bali– one of my favorites.
Secret Beyond the Door (Kino Lorber) A 2022 HD restoration and 4K scan by Paramount Pictures of a 1947 Fritz Lang thriller (moodily shot by Stanley Cortez) about a wealthy American woman who impulsively marries a stranger she meets while on vacation and then begins to suspect he might be a killer. “I have a hobby,” says architect Michael Lamphere (Michael Redgrave) to his new bride Celia (Joan Bennett), while on their honeymoon, “I collect felicitous rooms…Certain rooms cause violence, even murders.” Celia is whisked off to Michael’s family mansion in Levender Falls, outside of New York City, where she meets his sister Caroline (Anne Revere), his ominous, disfigured secretary Miss Robey (Barbara O’Neil) and a moody son David (Mark Dennis) he failed to have even mentioned. And his collections of strange rooms- all meticulously replicated exactly as they were, filled with the original furnishings, and each haunted by tragedy and murder. Only one door- Number 7- is permanently and mysteriously locked. A great gothic chiller. It comes with audio commentary by film historian Alan K. Rode.
Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (Neon Eagle Video) A sleazy action-packed high point from Japanese Toei studios, part of their sexploitation sub-genre “Pinky Violence” movies of the 1970s, which has been nicknamed, “sexed-up, bad girl action films.” Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs is based on a Manga by Tooru Shinohara (who also created Female Prisoner # 701: Scorpion). Miki Sugimoto plays a cop named Rei, who wears a long scarlet coat and uses a pair of red handcuffs and a ruby-colored gun. Thrown in jail for shooting (in the crotch) a sadistic diplomat who murdered her good friend, she is offered a “get out of jail” card if she helps rescue a politician’s (Tetsuro Tanba/You Only Live Twice) kidnapped daughter. Rei worms her way into the fiendish gang holding the kidnapped girl hostage and endures torture and sexual abuse herself before she turns the group against one another. Utterly nihilistic and outrageous, with a caustic view of family, the police and politicians. Miki Sugimoto plays Rei with a chilly, detached deadpan manner- she’s impossible to read, but looks amazing. (Supposedly, after the actress left the film business she became a schoolteacher). The violent finale in a deserted part of the city with trash and papers blowing everywhere is dazzling as it is cracked. The disc is a gorgeous HD restoration and the colors really vibrate- especially red. There is a terrific extra narrated by Patrick Mancias: “Sex + Violence= Pinky Violence.”
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (Vinegar Syndrome) Stunning 4K UHD 2-disc set of British Amicus Studio’s first, and arguably best, anthology horror film. Five strangers board a London train to Bradley, when the seedy, mysterious Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing) joins them in their rail car, and, by using a Tarot deck, shows the dire fate that awaits each one of them. The stories include vampirism, a murderous creeping vine, werewolves, a jazz musician and voodoo. Christopher Lee plays an arrogant art critic tormented by the dismembered hand of a painter (Michael Gough) he disfigured. A young Donald Sutherland is one of the doomed travelers. Expertly directed by master cinematographer Freddie Francis (who doesn’t get enough credit for his work as a director). The eye-popping visual boost makes you really appreciate the film even more. The extras include a new featurette with cast and crew who worked on the film, all of which agree it was a jolly experience. Author Stephen Thrower gives an expert overview on the film and there is an archival “making-of” documentary.
Singapore Sling (Vinegar Syndrome) Notorious 1990 Greek cult film directed by Nikos Nikolaidis, gorgeously lensed in black and white and shot like a modern film noir. A detective (Panos Thanassoulis) is searching for his lost love- Laura, and shows up with a gunshot wound on the doorstep of remote chateau and taken in by a weird mother (Michele Valley) and daughter (Meredyth Herold), who may be responsible for Laura’s death. The women have just buried their chauffeur (alive) and delight in playing all sorts of S & M sex games with each other. They tie the detective to a bed, torture him with a portable ECT machine; have sex with him; even pee and vomit on him. The women recreate scenes from the 1944 movie Laura and repeatedly play the Glenn Miller or Julie London record of the main theme song. The acting by the women is all heightened- they always twitch or grimace, or jerk their bodies violently while they talk. It’s either an avant-garde masterpiece or pretentious nonsense. Who cares? It’s enjoyably insane. This is a 4K restoration from the original 35mm negative and looks beautiful. It also comes with a 2011 documentary about the director and new interviews with cast members Michele Valley and Panos Thanassoulis and cinematographer Aris Stavrou.
Herencia Diabolica (Degausser Video) (aka Diabolical Inheritance). An inadvertently hilarious 1993 Mexican rip-off of Child’s Play. This was shot on film and finished on tape but the original film materials are lost and presumed destroyed, so what you see is the best you are going to get. Tony (Roberto Guinar) inherits his great-aunt’s mansion in Mexico. He brings his wife there and she discovers a Satanic altar in a locked room and a creepy clown doll that the aunt cherished. The possessed devil doll is played by (“the world’s smallest actor“) Margarito Esparza. The wife gets pregnant, but the possessed doll terrorizes her and pushes her down the stairs. She dies but the son “Roy” survives, who adores his clown doll and loves playing hide and seek with it in the garden. The husband remarries years later to a blonde bimbo in skin tight white outfits, teased hair and plenty of fringe. She tries getting rid of the Mexican “Chucky” but it keeps returning, eventually killing the nanny and chasing her through the woods with a knife. It even creeps into her bed at night and feels her up. There’s an extra with actor Roberto Guinar on his disappointment with the finished film. But, trust me, you will die laughing.
