Macabre – 88 Films (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1980
Director: Lamberto Bava
Writers: Antonio Avati, Pupi Avati, Lamberto Bava, Roberto Gandus
Cast: Bernice Stegers, Stanko Molnar, Veronica Zinny, Roberto Posse, Ferdinando Orlandi, Fernando Pannullo, Elisa Kadigia Bove

Release Date: May 18th, 2020
Approximate running time: 89 Minutes 47 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: 18 (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono English, LPCM Mono Italian
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £14.99 (UK)

"Still recovering from a pair of tragic and traumatic bereavements, Jane Baker (Bernice Steggers; Xtro, Sky Pilots) moves into a new apartment in New Orleans. The owner’s son, Robert, is blind – but that doesn’t stop him hearing what Jane gets up to. It sounds like she’s resumed her passionate affair with her lover, Fred. Except that Fred died a year ago…" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "NEW 2K Restoration from the Original Camera Negative".

Macabre comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 31.8 GB

Feature: 25.8 GB

The source used for this transfer is in excellent shape; the colors are nicely saturated, the details look crisp, the black levels look strong throughout, and there are no issues with compression.

Audio: 4.5/5 (LPCM Mono English, LPCM Mono Italian)

This release comes with two audio options, a LPCM mono mix in English and a LPCM mono mix in Italian. Both audio mixes are in good shape; dialog comes through clearly; everything sounds balanced; and range-wise, ambient sounds and the score are well-presented. Included with this release are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 16 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), Italian opening and closing titles (3 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital mono), an interview with director Lamberto Bava titled Don’t Lose Your Head (22 minutes 4 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an audio commentary with an audio commentary with film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth, reversible cover art, a slipcover (limited to first pressing), and a twelve page booklet (limited to first pressing) with an essay titled Familial Trauma in Lamberto Bava’s Macabre written by Rachael Nisbet.

Summary:

Though Lamberto Bava has forged a four-decade career as a director, most of his contemporaries have stopped making films. There’s no denying that it must have been difficult living in the shadow of his father, Mario Bava, Italian cinema’s most celebrated director of horror cinema. Looking over Lamberto Bava’s filmography, there are a few standout films that have held up well over time. His best films are the result of collaborations with other prominent Italian filmmakers. Case in point: Macabre, a film that is unlike any other film in Lamberto Bava’s filmography.

That said, how much of Macabre is due to Lamberto Bava or filmmaker Pupi Avati's creative influence? The idea for Macabre originated with Antonio Avati and Pupi Avati, who then reached out to Lamberto Bava with the idea of directing it. Besides coming up with the idea, there are many elements throughout Macabre that bear a strong resemblance to Pupi Avati’s The House of the Laughing Windows, which ultimately furthers the premise that Lamberto Bava was a director for fire whose contributions to the film were minimal.

Content-wise, there are many elements in Macabre that are widely associated with horror cinema. To simply approach Macabre as a horror film would be doing this film a great disservice, since the result is something that is closer to a psychological melodrama.

And though Macabre has an ample amount of visually tense moments, Outside of a few moments, like the scene where the protagonist’s lover's head gets decapitated and he drowns children in a bathtub, Macabre’s level of carnage is minimal. Fortunately, Macabre is a film that relies heavily on atmosphere.

When discussing a film like Macabre, one must not overlook the elephant in the room. At the heart of Macabre’s narrative is a deranged love story that involves necrophilia. The protagonist, a woman named Jane Baker, procures her deceased lover's severed head and keeps it in a freezer. Though some of the shock derived from this plot device remains, it’s rather tame when compared to other similar-themed films that succeeded it, like Nekromantik.

Macabre’s heart and soul are Bernice Stegers’ (Xtro) portrayal of Jane Baker. She delivers an utterly convincing portrayal of a character who’s consumed by obsessive love. Other performances of note are Stanko Molnar in the role of a blind man who runs a boarding house and Veronica Zinny’s (in her one and only role) terrifying portrayal of Jane’s equally demented daughter Lucy. Ultimately, Macabre is an exceptional debut film that set the bar so high that Lamberto Bava never made a better film.

Macabre gets an excellent release from 88 Films that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a pair of informative extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer