My dream of William Friedkin’s underrated Rampage coming out on Blu-ray is finally a reality. And for vintage horror fans, Warner Archive is putting 6 classics on one collection. Ben Wheatley’s terrific The Kill List gets an upgrade from Severin, and Blue Underground releases a stunning 4K UHD of a fantastic British horror film Raw Meat. Ken Russell’s psychedelic Altered States on Criterion. Richard Stanley’s cult classic Dust Devil gets a Blu-ray release and John Carpenter’s exceptional H.P. Lovecraft adaptation In the Mouth of Madness gets a 4K UHD release from Arrow. Vinegar Syndrome showcases rare Italian thrillers from the 1970s. Kino Lorber is releasing a fiendish Italian chiller Body Puzzle and the hilariously over-the-top urban action film Death Wish 3. More treats than tricks this month.
Rampage (Kino Lorber) William Friedkin’s 1987 film Rampage is based on the true story of Richard Chase, dubbed “The Vampire of Sacramento.” Rampage is the story of Charles Reece (Alex McArthur), an unassuming, good-looking young man with a psychotic compulsion to randomly enter suburban homes and shoot everyone in sight. Then he calmly mutilates the bodies and drinks the victim’s blood. Changing locations to Stockton, California, the movie follows Reece’s sporadic “rampages” to his subsequent arrest and trial for murder. It’s also the story of Anthony Fraser (Michael Biehn), a liberal D.A. who is forced to prosecute the killer, arguing in favor of the death penalty. And have the case prosecuted by a man tormented over the recent death of his daughter, as well as politically uncomfortable arguing against an insanity plea. Michael Biehn has never been better. Looking trim and handsome, he has the thankless task of spouting diatribes about the judicial system and victims’ rights over those of a murderer, which he handles with passion and grace. He never makes a wrong move on the screen. He is solid and right “there,” and you can’t help but empathize with his struggles throughout the grueling trial. Alex McArthur makes a frightening killer. With his beautiful, angular face framed by long hair and his cold eyes staring out smugly during the trial, he creates an incongruous portrait of a murderer. He even causes one jurist to comment, “I can’t understand how a decent boy could change so much.” He is an enigma to everyone and Friedkin purposely reveals very little about him, aside from some allusions to a fucked-up family life. When they scan his brain in a hospital, a doctor states: “What it shows is a picture of madness,” but it is merely colors. Friedkin shows restraint when it comes to the killings, but what he does show has chilling impact- a scene where Reece drags a victim to an upstairs bedroom is made all the more horrific when the camera cuts away to a child playing in a backyard, while in the distance Reece calmly lowers the blinds of the upstairs window. Sound is also skillfully layered and frightening- voices in the killer’s head mingle with the victim’s screams at alarming intervals. And Ennio Morricone’s score is haunting and evocative- seductive and nerve-racking at the same time. Friedkin created an extraordinary film. The film is beautifully directed with an ending that is all the more terrifying because it suggests that the horror continues, reaching out to damage its victims over and over and over again. This includes two different cuts of the movie and many extras.
Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection (Warner Archive) Talk about the ultimate Halloween gift- here are 6 vintage chillers beautifully restored by Warner Archive and some with hilarious early cartoons. Doctor X. A glorious restoration of an early color horror film. Police are investigating a maniac they’ve dubbed the “Moon Killer.” While checking out suspicious doctors at an Academy one doctor (Preston Foster), an amputee and researcher on cannibalism, is experimenting with a beating heart in a glass beaker. This 1932 Warner Brothers film was one of the rare two-tone color films at the time and starred Lionel Atwill as “Dr. X,” Fay Wray as his daughter, Lee Tracy as an annoying reporter and a creepy-faced hooded killer. The Return of Doctor X. Humphrey Bogart’s only horror movie and he hated the film so much he never talked about it. Supposedly a sequel to Doctor X, Bogart plays the deceased doctor brought back to life by a hematologist with synthetic blood but he needs to kill and drink real blood to stay alive. With a shock of white in his hair and pale skin he certainly looks the part. To be honest, this 1939 Warner Brothers film, directed by Vincent Sherman is a lot of fun. Wayne Morris plays the wise-cracking reporter for the Morning Dispatch and Dennis Morgan his good doctor friend. Rosemary Lane plays a near victim of the nefarious vampire Doctor X. The Devil Doll. Lionel Barrymore plays a former banker and family man falsely accused of embezzlement and murder by his three duplicitous partners and sent to Devil’s Island for 17 years. He escapes with a crazed scientist who shrinks dogs and people to doll-size and controls them with his mind. The banker returns to Paris to get revenge and runs a toys store dressed like an old woman, sending out his “little people” to rob and paralyze his prey. He also watches from afar his lovely daughter (Maureen O’Sullivan), who works in a laundry and is tragically bitter about her father. Director Tod Browning’s lesser-known film is a real treat- with a tremendous performance by Barrymore and a script co-written by Erich von Stroheim. Wonderfully weird, with remarkable special effects for the time and surprisingly moving as it is macabre. With two fabulous vintage 30s cartoons from Warner Brothers. Mark of the Vampire. A 4K scan of the original negative of Todd Browning’s 1935 remake of London After Midnight about the suspicious death of a wealthy nobleman, which the superstitious villagers attribute to a vampire. When the dead man’s body disappears from its coffin and his daughter and her fiancé seem to be attacked by a weird caped figure that resides in the cobwebbed nearby castle (Bela Lugosi) and his ghastly partner (Carroll Borland with waist-length long hair and ghostly makeup- the prototype for Morticia Addams and Vampira), a vampire hunter is called in (Lionel Atwill). The gorgeous, atmospheric cinematography by James Wong Howe is sensational- and now looks superb on Blu-ray. Not as well known or loved as it should be. Mad Love. A true horror classic starring an unforgettable Peter Lorre as the bald, bug-eyed Doctor Gogol, lovesick over an actress in a Parisian Grand Guignol theater- Yvonne (Frances Drake). But Yvonne is married to a famous pianist (Colin Clive), so Gogol keeps a wax figure of her in his apartment. When the pianist’s hands are mangled in a train wreck Gogol amputates and successfully sews on the hands of an executed murderer. Later he tries to convince the husband he now is capable of murder. The direction by Karl Freund is visionary, with striking imagery (from cinematographer Gregg Toland) filled with unnerving camera angles and a great score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Lorre’s performance is legendary and the Blu-ray looks just astonishing. The Mask of Fu Manchu. Outrageous 1932 pre-Code shocker starring Boris Karloff as the villainous Fu Manchu in a quest for a golden sword and the mask of Genghis Khan to help fulfill his quest for world domination. Myrna Loy plays his insanely sadistic daughter. Several minutes were cut from the original release and are now put back in, with Fu Manchu screaming “Then conquer and breed! Kill the white man and take his women!”
Altered States (Criterion) God, I miss Ken Russell. Sure, he could be excessive. But movies like Women in Love, The Devils, Crimes of Passion and The Music Lovers thrilled me with their extravagance, daring and lunacy. I always forget about Altered States. Not because I didn’t love it (and saw it repeatedly when it came out in 1980). It just seemed more mainstream for Russell, even though watching this gorgeous 4K UHD Criterion disc reminded me what a real acid trip it was (and is). This was based on a Paddy Chayefsky novel, and supposedly he and Russell butted heads on the set. On an extra on the Criterion disc, William Hurt describes an actual fist fight in a closet of an Italian restaurant between Chayefsky and Russell. William Hurt (at his most brainy and beautiful) plays Eddie Jessup, a physiologist at Cornell University doing experiments with sensory-deprivation (lowering himself into tanks of water for hours on end with his academic partner Arthur (Bob Balaban) to monitor him. He meets and marries Emily (sublime Blair Brown), a physical anthropologist, and they move to Boston where his studies continue. But now mixing sacred mushrooms from remote tribes in Mexico, which kick the sensory-deprivation into uncharted realms. Religious imagery, visions of rams with seven eyes, or flashes of his dying father become part of the experiment. As Eddie pushes further, something frightening emerges out of his body and out of the tank. Chayefsky’s screenplay is verbose and occasionally pretentious, but Ken Russell speeds up the dialogue whenever he can. The visual special effects by Bran Ferren were pretty out there at the time and there is a nice extra where he explains how he managed it in pre-CGI days. A psychedelic wild ride.
The Strange Woman (Film Masters) Beautiful Hedy Lamarr is perfect as the scheming vixen Jenny Hager, living in the 1820s Bangor, Maine with an abusive, drunken father. She manipulates the situation into becoming the wife of a wealthy lumber man (Gene Lockhart), while seducing his weak-willed son (Louis Hayward). What’s fascinating about Jenny is that she also tirelessly attends her husband during his illness while seeing to the poor and needy in town, and helping raise funds for the church. It’s as if she needs people to think of her as a good person, when in actuality she schemes to get rid of her husband and steal the handsome boyfriend (George Sanders) of her good friend (Hillary Brooke). She’s what my friend would call “a real piece of work.” Based on a best-selling novel by Ben Ames Williams, it’s the first feature Lamarr starred in (and produced) after leaving MGM. It’s a fascinating character part and she’s terrific in it. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, but Douglas Sirk was brought in to reshoot some earlier scenes which didn’t show a younger Jenny nasty enough.
Kill List (Severin) This nerve-shredding, awesome 2011 film by Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace) defies easy categorization. A former soldier, Jay (Neil Maskell), has been out of a job and arguing with his beautiful wife (MyAnna Buring) about the sorry state of their finances, when his old army buddy Gal (Michael Smiley) comes to him with an offer he can’t refuse. Kill some people, make some money. Jay reluctantly agrees, but with each individual murder (a priest, a librarian, etc.), he gets more and more brutal and out of control. The movie ultimately takes a supernaturally bizarre turn that is as diabolical as it is brilliant. This 4K UHD 2-disc set is scanned from the 35mm digital intermediate negative and comes with audio commentary by the director, plus archival commentary with the actors, and 6 hours of features.
Raw Meat (Blue Underground) (aka Death Line) A 4K UHD restoration of a terrific British thriller about cannibals hiding deep in the tunnels of the London Tubes, grabbing innocent stragglers late at night. Donald Pleasance plays a police inspector and every aggravated gesture and snappy aside is arch and drolly hilarious. In this sensational 1973 film, directed by Gary Sherman, and released in America as Raw Meat, it’s hard to shake the image of the pitiable cannibal muttering “mind the door” for eternity in the catacombs under the city. Blue Underground did a great job with the restoration and there are excellent extras.
Bloodstained Italy (Vinegar Syndrome) Three super-rare 1970s horror films from Italy making their U.S. debuts on home video. Obscene Desire (1978) is a Rosemary’s Baby-influenced chiller starring gorgeous Marisa Mell (Danger Diabolik) as Amanda, traveling with her new husband Andrea (Chris Avram) to his weathered villa run by a creepy caretaker (Victor Israel). Her only friend is a historian she meets at the local market/coffee shop (Lou Castel), who is secretly a priest. Meanwhile prostitutes are getting picked up and killed nearby. Then a weird couple come to visit who secretly meet with the caretaker in the dead of night, lighting candles and chanting in the basement. When Amanda gets pregnant something more sinister seems afoot. Listening to the many extras, a clearer picture forms of what this film originally was going to be and along the way got drastically changed. It makes one wonder what might have been. Not that it’s terrible- it’s weirdly over-the-top with its eroticism. And the whole supernatural stuff at the end is a hoot. Director Giulio Petroni took his name off the film when producers changed the ending. But luckily Vinegar Syndrome was able to restore the original ending for this Blu-ray. The Bloodstained Lawn (1973) is considered a “rural horror film” and the final one for director Riccardo Ghione. It’s set in a mysterious gated villa where drifters, prostitutes, alcoholics and gypsies are invited to hang out. They end up drained of their blood by the claw of a giant robot machine designed by the crazed inventor (fond of wearing oversized colorful silk bowties). A hitchhiking hippie couple spy a field of poppies and nickname it a “bloodstained lawn” and then are picked up by a man who drives them straight to the evil villa. Meanwhile a detective is tracking down who is responsible for sending out cases of wine (that secretly contain blood). It’s the damnedest movie, weirdly paced and genuinely bizarre. Even film historians consider this film a real mystery. Marina Malfatti (The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave) plays the Wagner-loving lady of the villa. Nino Castelnuovo (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) plays the investigating agent. Death Falls Lightly (1972) Giorgio (Stelio Candelli) returns from a weekend in Milan to find his wife murdered. His shifty lawyer whisks Giorgio and his girlfriend to an abandoned 80-room hotel to hole up for a while. The place has no electricity but does have running water. Giorgio is hoping the politicians he has incriminating information on will concoct a good alibi for him. Then really strange stuff starts happening at the hotel. Weird music playing. A dead woman is found in the hall. Giorgio gets conked on the head by the mysterious owner of the hotel who admits to killing his wife, whose body is in the hall, and gets Giorgio to help him dispose of her. The film was shot in 1971 but didn’t come out until 1974. All three movies look sensational and have excellent extras and each with audio commentaries.
In the Mouth of Madness (Arrow) A 4K UHD special edition of this underrated 1994 John Carpenter take on H. P. Lovecraft. Sam Neill plays an investigator assigned to find a missing horror author named Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow). He discovers that Sutter’s books have a disorienting, hallucinatory effect on the reader, and his sleuthing leads him to Hobb’s End, a monstrous town from Cane’s novels. Not to mention a manuscript that may be ushering in the apocalypse. There is a real nightmare logic to the film that is genuinely unnerving. The 4K UHD adds a clarity and audio intensity to this really unique creep-fest.
Dust Devil (Kino Lorber) Richard Stanley’s legendary, haunting, beautifully photographed 1992 film about a woman (Chelsea Field) driving aimlessly through South Africa who crosses paths with a supernatural, shape-shifting killer (Robert John Burke). Mixing magic and politics, this dreamy film was drastically cut by American distributers. This 2-disc 4K UHD Blu-ray includes the director’s cut and theatrical release and is a 4K scan from the original 35mm camera negative. Audio commentary by Richard Stanley on the director’s cut.
Death Wish 3 (Kino Lorber) Along with 10 to Midnight, this may be my favorite Charles Bronson film. It’s also directed by Michael Winner, who directed the first of Bronson’s vigilante action films- Death Wish. Bronson once again plays Paul Kersey, retuning to New York to visit a friend who lives in a tenement, only to find him murdered by a gang of thugs who rule the streets there. Martin Balsam plays a tenant who fills Kersey in on the living hell the elderly go through with this punk posse. The lead bad boy is Fraker (Gavan O’Herlihy), who has a strip shaved down the middle of his head (where a Mohawk should have stood). A young Alex Winter (from the Bill & Ted films) is one of the gang. Bronson decides to arm the tenants and booby-trap their windows. Eventually senior citizens are walking down the streets with bazookas, merrily gunning down the creeps. It gets pretty insane. This 4k UHD Blu-ray is superb- the movie looks crisp and colorful. One has to applaud the care given to loony wonders like this one.
The Cat & The Canary (Kino Lorber) We have MoMa to thank for this glorious 4K UHD restoration of director Paul Leni’s wonderfully expressionistic 1927 “old dark house” silent horror comedy. Based on a popular play by John Willard it’s set in a spooky old mansion for the reading of a will, twenty years after the eccentric millionaire who lived there died. A sinister housekeeper Mammy Pleasant (Martha Mattox) creepily greets the greedy relatives but the ceremony is interrupted by a guard who shows up saying that an escaped lunatic is at large and had been spotted near the house. “He’s a maniac who thinks he’s a cat and tears his victims like they were canaries!” Laura La Plante plays Annabelle, who inherits the fortune under the provision that she isn’t judged insane. Creighton Hale plays the lovelorn Paul, the cowardly hero. There are secret passageways in bookcases and walls where dead bodies fall out of. Hairy clawed hands suddenly appear out of a hidden panel in the headboard to steal priceless jewels around the throat of our heroine. A gloved hand wipes away cobwebs just to see the credits. Leni had them drill holes in the floor of the set to light the characters in a certain way. Later versions include the 1939 Paulette Goddard/Bob Hope smash hit and an underappreciated 1978 Radley Metzger version.
Body Puzzle (Kino Lorber/Raro) A fabulously perverse 1991 “giallo” by Lamberto Bava (Demons) about Tracy (Joanna Pacula), still mourning her husband who died in a car accident. She finds herself targeted by a mysterious psychopath who keeps breaking into her house leaving body parts. The investigating detective (Tomas Arana/The Church) finds himself falling for the beautiful widow, as the macabre trophies begin to pile up. The killer’s motive is really wild. Surprisingly grisly, this is the uncut version and contains an alternative Italian track to choose from. Audio commentary by Adrian Smith and Rod Barnett. Above average and strikingly bizarre.
Black Sheep (Umbrella) A 2-disc 4K & Blu-ray (all region) edition of a wonderful 2006 dark comedy from New Zealand. Believe it or not this isn’t the first mutant killer sheep movie. That honor goes to a whacked-out little American 1973 movie called Godmonster Of Indian Flats. But that certainly wasn’t the gory, wild, exuberant, fun that director Jonathan King’s film is. Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) returns to his family home in New Zealand to sell off his share of the land to his brother Angus (Peter Feeney), who has been doing some creepy genetic experiments on the livestock. Before long Henry is fleeing the countryside with an animal rights activist named Experience (Danielle Mason), chased by a rampaging herd of baaaad cannibalistic sheep. Riotously funny as it is sick and twisted. This new 4K Blu-ray looks astonishing and has new commentary by director Jonathan King. The Blu-ray includes deleted scenes, bloopers and all sorts of other fun extras. Pass the mint jelly.
Dan Curtis’ Late-Night Mysteries (Kino Lorber) Dan Curtis was the legendary TV producer, director and screenwriter who brilliantly brought horror to the small screen with The Night Stalker, Trilogy of Terror, The Norliss Tapes, Curse of the Black Widow, Dead of Night, among many others. Not to mention the epic gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. The four included in this collection were for ABC’s Wide World Mystery and it’s a joy to have these stand-alone thrillers finally on home video. Shadow of Fear (1974). Anjanette Comer plays Danna, the wife in peril when a mysterious intruder keeps breaking into her home, smashing things and leaving threatening messages in lipstick on the mirror. Her womanizing businessman husband (Jason Evers/The Brain That Wouldn’t Die) hires a former cop (Claude Akins) to protect her, but the attacks continue, intensifying. A young Tom Selleck plays Danna’s good friend. The Invasion of Carol Enders (1974). Meredith Baxter plays Carol, hospitalized after an attack. When she wakes, she believes she is Diana Bernard, the wife of a doctor at the hospital who died that night in a suspicious car accident. Is the spirit of Diana out to unmask her killer? Come Die with Me (1974). Ne’er-do-well Walter (George Maharis) drives from New York to beg his aristocratic doctor brother for money for a gambling debt. In a rage, Walter kills his brother with a fire poker and the plain, mousy housekeeper Mary (an astonishing Eileen Brennan) steps in to help him escape arrest just as long as he stays there in the house with her- trapped in her delusional romantic fantasy. You can well imagine this doesn’t end well- but more surprising than you think. Nightmare at 43 Hillcrest (1974). Jim Hutton and Emmaline Henry play a suburban husband and wife who get invaded by police one night, accusing them of being heroin dealers. But the police have gone to the wrong house. So, they plant heroin to implicate the poor family to cover their mistake. A decent cop (Dark Shadows alumni John Karlen) figures it out and alerts the assistant District Attorney (an excellent Mariette Hartley), but it’s an uphill battle to nail the corrupt cops. All were shot on videotape and the bonus features include informative audio commentaries and an introduction for each movie by Jeff Thompson (author of House of Dan Curtis).