Officially released on December 15, 2020, this 4K scan from the film's original color separation elements didn't have a chance to circulate till the early months of this year, so I'm including it. For decades, this seminal work by Terence Fisher has been declining in favor of other films he made, and this powerful release made it obvious that its restoration was much more than purely cosmetic, restoring not only the rich complexity of Jack Asher's color photography, but also its dense Gothic atmosphere and the pageantry of its wardrobe, deliberately placed to cause friction with its medical, cadaverous and sorcerous imagery. Going the extra measures to make a great thing still more essential, the restoration was also provided in a choice of 1.85:1, 1.66:1, and (in the Bonus Materials) open-matte 1.37:1. Watching this, I felt I was truly seeing it again for the first time since my first viewing in its 1964 theatrical re-release. It is always wonderful to see a film beautifully restored, but it's rare that that the process restores its power as well as its beauty. This release leaves absolutely no question that this was one of Fisher's greatest films, and a dramatic turning point for the horror genre. Order here.
2. THE DUNGEON OF ANDY MILLIGAN (1967-82, Severin Films)
Whether or not you consider Andy Milligan's films to be trash, or if you love them for that very reason, no other release of 2021 accomplishes more important work than this box set. It goes the earlier Scorpion Releasing Blu-rays of a few titles one better by preserving their original full-aperture aspect ratios, but its most valuable contribution to film history is not that all 14 titles collected here are presented in optimal form and framing for the first time; it is the set's additional recovery of Millgan's original, never-before-released THE CURSE OF THE FULL MOON and LEGACY OF BLOOD (the unreleased director's cuts of THE RATS ARE COMING! THE WEREWOLVES ARE HERE! and LEGACY OF HORROR), the uncut versions of BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS, TORTURE DUNGEON and THE MAN WITH TWO HEADS (pictured), and the only known surviving reel from a German print of the lost film THE FILTHY FIVE giving us a glimpse of a potent early performance by Frederick Forrest. What is gathered here proves without doubt that Milligan's work was seared through with personality and quirky charm, and a fascinating and sometimes appalling meeting place between the horror film, sexploitation, and the New York Off-Off-Broadway and arts scene of the late 1960s. Stephen Thrower's book ANDY MILLIGAN'S VENOM carries an already incomparable package even further with essential reading about the subject. Order here at a nicely reduced price.
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| Before/After restoration demonstration from the disc. |
Prior to this recent Blu-ray release, it was virtually impossible to see Louis Feuillade's magnificent, charming crime serial short of a scratchy bootleg copy with dodgy subtitles. To see a film of this age and drama treated to a 4K restoration from its original nitrate camera elements is nothing short of a long, sustained, emotional experience. Order here.
The big headlines concerning this release was the 4K restoration of its original Technicolor version, and what a ravishing thing it is - with Fay Wray in the flesh and the most luminous, unforgettable use of green outside THE WIZARD OF OZ. Here we see that two-color Technicolor was not a half-measure but an inroad to its own fascinating avenue of eerie fantasy. However, what pushes this release near the top of this list is its thoughtful inclusion of the overlooked black-and-white version, hard to see since a far-more pastel-looking transfer of the color version first came to home video back in the 1980s. A classic horror film, incontestably, presented and documented with class and skill by all concerned. Order here.
5. THE PUPPETOON MOVIE VOL. 2 (1934-46, www. puppetoon.net)
This is another December 2020 release that didn't reach most collectors' hands until early last year. Rondo Award-winning Arnold Leibovit's second two-disc treasure trove of stop-motion shorts by the much-beloved Hungarian filmmaker George Pal (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE TIME MACHINE) gathers 18 shorts "unseen in generations" - including "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (1935), "Love On the Range" (1938), several "Jasper" shorts (including 1944's "Jasper Goes Hunting," which features a cameo by none other than Bugs Bunny), as well as the especially early industrial shorts "Radio Valve Revolution" (1934) and "How An Advertising Poster Came About" (1938). Sourced from film archives all over the world, each of these rare titles has been fully restored in high definition (as the packaging reports) "from their original Successive Exposure Negatives or 35mm IB Technicolor Nitrate Prints." A non-stop parade of sheer joy in one's craft, teeming with personality, charm, and imagination, this is a set guaranteed to lift you higher than a glass of fine champagne. Order here.
6. THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE (1962-71, Severin Films)
Another home run by Severin Films, this set - while documenting the actor's early European period short of completely - nevertheless collects a goldmine of deep cuts never before available in America in such revelatory quality: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEADLY NECKLACE, THE CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD, CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE, CHALLENGE FOR THE DEVIL (pictured), THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM, as well as the 24 surviving episodes of the Film Polski series THEATRE MACABRE hosted by Lee, which includes two absolutely essential short films by Andrzej Zuławski. As with the Milligan set, the crowning touch is an accompanying booklet written by Lee's biographer Jonathan Rigby, a substantial postscript to that earlier work which is worth separating from the box and shelving alongside Rigby's other fine books. Order here.
This is the first release of Paul Morrissey's zany film on Blu-ray, and indeed its first release on disc in this century. Brave as Criterion was to release it (and its companion feature, BLOOD FOR DRACULA) back in 1998, a film like this really craves the particular passion that a boutique label like Vinegar Syndrome can bring to it. This box does not stop at a single 4K restoration; it offers that restoration in 4K UltraHD, as a 1080p Blu-ray disc that preserves the flat (yet surprisingly dimensional) cinematography of Luigi Kuveiller (DEEP RED) in all its beauty, and in two very different forms of 3D. The original theatrical 3D method - called "SpaceVision" - is not offered here, but the anaglyphic red-blue 3D (for which two sets of glasses are provided) is similarly eye-crossing and headache inducing and robs the film of its color. For those who can only enjoy the film in 3D this way, it's a fun and nostalgic option, and when the two kids are attacked by bats, the image has a most effective depth. The digital 3D presentation, on the other hand, is ideal, marrying this title to the technology this film always envisioned, making this release a most unique and fulfilling form of restoration. At the time of its original release, the film's daring and bawdiness, its humor and bloodiness were all far ahead of their time. Seen today, one is almost overwhelmed by the great refinement of its imagery, the heart-stopping poetry of the female zombie (Dalila di Lazzaro) being raised from her vat or gaining consciousness as her viscera is being palpated by the lovesick Baron (the brilliant Udo Kier), and the aesthetic sense that generally reigns throughout, not least of all in the exquisite music of Claudio Gizzi - simply one of the most beautiful film scores of all time. Order here.
Because its director Giorgio Ferroni did not specialize in horror (but rather in Italian westerns under the name Calvin Jackson Padget), this film is not so well-known as it should be, but this Arrow release - available in a standard single disc edition, as well as a deluxe two-disc limited edition - should go some distance toward correcting this. Historically speaking, this film is nearly as important as THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in that it was the first Italian horror film in color, and it is an often breathtaking adventure in psychological and sexual tension, Gothic atmosphere, and sheer delirium. Produced by Galatea Film (who had Mario Bava under contract at the time, working on CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER and BLACK SUNDAY), there are occasional outbursts of color saturation in the pervasive pastel hues which indicate that either Mario, or his father Eugenio, lent a hand at some point - you can hear my exact comments about this in my audio commentary. The first disc includes the original Italian and English export versions, while the second disc (grab it while you can) adds the French and American cuts (the latter adds narration and other unique touches provided by "US Supervisor" Hugo Grimaldi). A longtime curio here claims its long-overdue classic status. Order here.
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| From the episode "Demon In Lace." |
Since the 1990s, these episodes have been kept in circulation via old analog tape masters that were so dull, they made the show a rough challenge to watch in TV syndication. Here, all 20 hour-long episodes have been completely rejuvenated with 2K remasters that greatly enrich the show's engaging energy, atmosphere, and the performances of a remarkable number of the medium's great character actors of this period. Though its unrelated to issues of restoration, this set is further enriched by 21 audio commentaries by a number of published authorities on the horror genre in general and this show in particular, including Mark Dawidziak, David J. Schow, Kim Newman, Gary Gerani, Barry Forshaw, Constantine Nasr, Rodney Barnes, Steve Haberman, Amanda Reyes, Steve Mitchell, Cyrus Voris, Michael Schlesinger, Mike White and Chris Stachiw, and... yours truly (on "The Vampire"). Kino Lorber has also released a nicely refreshed set of NIGHT GALLERY - SEASON ONE, and while it's pretty great, the image upgrade is not as startling as this. Order here.
Some of you may be old enough to have first encountered Jorge Grau's version of the Erzebet Bathory legend (also covered around the same time in Hammer's COUNTESS DRACULA, Harry Kümel's DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS, and Walerian Borowczyk's IMMORAL TALES) when it played the US drive-in circuit as THE LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE or in very choppy form under the ironic title THE FEMALE BUTCHER. Once again, art triumphs of time and censorship in an astounding 4K restoration from the original uncut camera negative. What once looked like cheap, intermittently incoherent grindhouse trash is reborn here as a sumptuously produced and erotically transgressive historical tragedy, well-cast and well-played by the likes of Lucia Bosè, CANDY's Ewa Aulin, THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK's Silvano Tranquili, and LISA AND THE DEVIL's Espartaco Santoni. Mondo Macabro released Standard and Deluxe versions, but both include two versions of the film, both impeccably restored: the uncut international version as well as the alternate Spanish "clothed" version. The company's website declares this title "Sold Out," so order here while you still can.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
AN ANGEL FOR SATAN (1965, Severin Films): Never released to US theaters or television, and only ever released in English during a brief UK release, this release delivers a stellar presentation of Barbara Steele's final Italian Gothic, and one of her finest films - directed by Camillo Mastrocinque (CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE aka TERROR IN THE CRYPT), it's in some ways a forerunner of Mario and Lamberto Bava's TV movie LA VENERE D'ILE (1978) - beautiful, romantic, delicately erotic and inescapably morbid. With releases like this, one expects the original Italian track and English subtitles, but David Gregory and his team have also succeeded in unearthing the Holy Grail of this film's long-lost English soundtrack, which gives us the added treat of seeing this film as we would have seen it in theaters, in in the 1970s in a presentation by our local horror host. The fact that it's a well-done track, with Carolyn de Fonseca dubbing Steele, only adds to the myriad pleasures of this release. Order here.
THE FU MANCHU CYCLE, 1965-1969 (Indicator): The two Jess Franco titles were already in fine shape, but this set really brings Don Sharp's already respected THE FACE OF FU MANCHU and underrated THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU back into discussion, as well as Jeremy Summers' THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU, which had its US theatrical release in black-and-white! A further treat found in the extras are two chapters recovered from silent serials: THE MYSTERY OF DR. FU-MANCHU: The Fiery Hand (1923) and THE FURTHER MYSTERIES OF DR. FU-MANCHU: The Coughing Horror (1924). SOLD OUT.
DEMENTIA 13 - DIRECTOR'S CUT (1963, Vestron Video): This unexpected release finds Francis Ford Coppola going back to his first real movie as writer-director and erasing the material added to it in post-production by director Jack Hill at the behest of producer Roger Corman. Essentially a vanity project for Coppola, who wanted the film to be available as he made it, this version feels more all of a piece than the more familiar version, but also a bit softer and not quite as satisfying. In his commentary, Coppola mentions that his shooting schedule in Ireland was caught short and there were other things he had planned to do after returning home to Los Angeles - but he only got around to adding the wonderful pre-credits sequence. Though it would have gone against the spirit of this release, one wishes that both versions of the picture had been included to better facilitate comparisons. On the plus side, the film has never looked or sounded better and this version is an interesting curio. Order here.
FLIGHT TO MARS (1951, The Film Detective): Cameron Mitchell, Marguerite Chapman, John Litel, and Arthur Franz are all aboard. Not the best of 1950s science fiction pulp cinema, however this "70th Anniversary" 4K restoration presents eye candy of the first order. Sometimes that's enough to sail you through an evening. Order here.
Finally, I must make note of a veritable high tide of 2K vintage restorations released this past year by Kino Lorber, including THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923), James Whale's THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1935), THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK, THE SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM, AMONG THE LIVING, the long-lost mondo movie INGAGI (which is just one title in their ongoing "Forbidden Fruit" series of vintage exploitation programmers), THE BRASS BOTTLE (more eye candy!), a slew of ABC MOVIES OF THE WEEK titles (SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY, THE SCREAMING WOMAN, etc) restored to their original 35mm beauty, and the wild silent crime thriller fantasy FILIBUS.
Bear in mind that the focus of this list is restoration quality and its consequences only, and specific to VIDEO WATCHBLOG's main beat, horror and fantasy; it is not meant to be a Best of Year list, or to mention all the features on the discs of those titles chosen. I'm not able to cover 4K content and besides, I see 4K work as being more akin to customization than restoration, at this point. Also, please understand that I can only include what I have seen, and what I've seen is just a portion of what I have been sent or purchased myself. I'm sure to have missed some worthy titles. Write me if you want to bring them to my notice.
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