The Psychic: Special Edition – Scorpion Releasing (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1977
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti, Dardano Sacchetti
Cast: Jennifer O’Neill, Gabriele Ferzetti, Marc Porel, Gianni Garko, Evelyn Stewart

Release Date: July 16th, 2019
Approximate running time: 97 Minutes 23 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: R
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $32.95

"Jennifer O’Neill (Scanners, Lady Ice) stars as Virginia, who experiences clairvoyant clues to a violent crime that ends with the victim walled up alive. Her investigation soon uncovers a hidden corpse and a shocking secret that could make her the killer’s next target." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Brand New 2K Scan of the Original Camera Negative. With additional color correction."

The Psychic comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 33.8 GB

Feature: 23.3 GB

Though the source that was used for this transfer is in great shape, there are some minor instances of print-related debris. Colors are nicely saturated, flesh tones look correct, contrast, black levels, and image clarity look strong throughout, and there are no issues with compression.

Audio: 4/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian), 3.75/5 (DTS-HD Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Scorpion Releasing documented on their Facebook page the amount of extra work that they put into clearing up the audio for this release. And both audio mixes sound very good. Dialog comes through clearly; everything sounds balanced, and the ambient sounds and score are well-represented. The English language track is the slightly stronger of these two audio mixes. The dialog on the Italian mix at times sounds constrained when compared to the English language track. Included with this release are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include reversible cover art, a theatrical trailer (1 minute 6 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a still gallery with music from the film paying in the background (lobby cards/stills/posters), an interview with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti titled Defeating Fate (50 minutes 14 seconds, DTS-HD stereo Italian with non-removable English subtitles) and an audio commentary with film historian Troy Howarth.

Other extras include trailers for The Church, Murder Rock, Blind Date, Rituals, and The House on Sorority Row.

Summary:

Though The Psychic is widely regarded as a giallo, the look and feel of the film are more in line with supernatural and Gothic horror films made in Italy in the 1960s. And out of the five giallo films that Lucio Fulci directed, The Psychic most resembles his first giallo, Perversion Story (One on Top of the Other).

Early on, Lucio Fulci builds tension as Virginia drives through a series of tunnels on her way home after dropping her husband off at the airport. In this scene, Virginia's visions foreshadow events that are about to occur.

Without a doubt, The Psychic's weakest link is its special effects. In the opening moments, there’s an obvious mannequin that falls off a cliff. Lucio Fulci attempted this same effect in Don’t Torture a Duckling. This shot is hampered by the fact that Lucio Fulci insists on showing us up close the damage done to the body rather than taking a wider shot and hiding some of the limitations of these special effects.

The Psychic’s score was composed by the trio of Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi, and Vince Tempera. And, aside from the opening credits theme, it sounds like a cross between ABBA and The Carpenters. The rest of The Psychic’s score sounds like the type of music that could have been in Lucio Fulci’s horror films that he directed in the early 1980s. Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1 would feature a musical cue from The Psychic.

Casting wise, The Psychic has a strong cast that’s led by Jennifer O’Neill (Summer of ’42) in the role of Virginia Ducci and Marc Porel (Don’t Torture a Duckling) in the role of a psychiatrist named Luca Fattori. Other cast members of note include Gianni Garko (Night of the Devils) in the role of Virginia’s husband and Gabriele Ferzetti (Once Upon a Time in the West) in the role of Emilio Rospini, who holds the key to the answers Virginia seeks.

Whether intentional or unintentional The Psychic has one connection to Dario Argento. The Psychic’s protagonist, Virginia, searches an abandoned house that has a corpse hidden in the way. And this scene bears a strong resemblance to a scene from Dario Argento’s Deep Red.

The Psychic is another meticulously composed piece by Lucio Fulci, who specialized in creating foreboding visuals. Another strength of The Psychic is how effectively it uses soft-focus cinematography. And the screenplay does a superb job weaving a web of deceit that saves its most haunting moment for the climax.

The Psychic gets a good release from Scorpion Releasing that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and a pair of informative extras, recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer