Deadly Manor – Arrow Video (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Spain/United States, 1990
Director: José Ramón Larraz
Writer: Santiago Moncada
Cast: Patty Shepard, Scott Thompson Baker, Lorin Jean Vail, Dorothy Malone, Jack Taylor, Fernando Bilbao

Release Date: February 24th, 2020 (UK), February 25th, 2020 (USA)
Approximate Running Time: 86 Minutes 11 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: 18 (UK), R (USA)
Sound: LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £24.99 (UK), $39.95 (USA)

"Whilst en route to a lake, a group of youngsters make an unscheduled stop-off at a remote, seemingly abandoned mansion where they plan to spend the night. But the property is full of foreboding signs - a blood-stained car wreck in the garden, coffins in the basement, scalps in the closet, and photographs of a beautiful but mysterious woman adorning every corner of the house. Before daybreak, the group will unwittingly uncover the strange and terrifying truth that lurks behind the walls of this dreadful place." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "An original 35 mm interpositive element was scanned in 2K resolution on a 4K Arri at OCN Digital Labs, CT. The film was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master and restored at R3Store Studios in London."

Deadly Manor comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 37.3 GB

Feature: 24.8 GB

This is another solid restoration from Arrow Video and the source that was used for this transfer is in excellent shape. Colors are nicely saturated, image clarity and black levels look solid throughout, grain looks natural, and there are no issues with compression.

Audio: 4.25/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English, and included with the release are removable English SDH subtitles. The audio is in great shape; the dialog always comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced and range-wise, ambient sounds are well-represented.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an image gallery (170 - images/stills), original promo for Deadly Manor (4 minutes 23 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a VHS trailer for Deadly Manor under the title Savage Lust (1 minute, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an extract from an archival interview with José Ramón Larraz (3 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with producer Brian Smedley-Aston titled Making a Killing (7 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actress Jennifer Delora titled House of Whacks (32 minutes 53 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with film historians Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan (Daughters of Darkness podcast), reversible cover art and a twenty-eight-page booklet with cast & crew information, an essay titled The House That Kept Reappearing: José Larraz’s Deadly Manor written by John Martin and information about the restoration.

Summary:

José Ramón Larraz is most remembered for directing erotic psychological melodramas and thrillers. By the 1980's, it had become increasingly hard for foreign filmmakers who worked outside of Hollywood to secure financing. And because of this, there was a shift towards cinema that followed whatever was popular in Hollywood. Case in point: Deadly Manor, José Ramón Larraz’s third and last foray into the slasher film sub-genre.

Content-wise, though, Deadly Manor has many elements that have become synonymous with slasher cinema. The result is a film that actually owes more to Gothic horror than it does to slasher films. And nowhere is this clearer than in Deadly Manor, a rather bloodless film that spends most of its time building a foreboding mood.

From a production standpoint, Deadly Manor is the strongest of José Ramón Larraz’s three Slasher films. The premise is superbly realized, and the well-executed narrative does a great job of maintaining tension. Another strength of the narrative is how effectively it employs backstory.

However, the performances are best described as serviceable. Jennifer Delora’s portrayal of a disfigured woman named Amanda is the one performance that leaves the strongest lasting impression. She delivers a strong performance that perfectly captures her character's state of mind. Another performance of note is that of William Russell in the role of Amanda’s husband.

Not to be overlooked are the atmospheric visuals and how they take full advantage of the isolated mansion location. Standout moments visually include the opening credits, which feature naked corpses on the ground near the mansion, a seduction scene that’s undeniably José Ramón Larraz, a flashback sequence that explains how Amanda became disfigured, and one last moment of shock in the last moments of Deadly Manor.

Deadly Manor gets an excellent release from Arrow Video that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and an abundance of insightful extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer