The Sinister Dr. Orloff – Mondo Macabro (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Spain, 1984
Director: Jesús Franco
Writer: Jesús Franco
Cast: Howard Vernon, Antonio Mayans, Rocío Freixas, Tony Skios, Rafael Cayetano, Juan Soler, Ángel Ordiales, Maria Paz Uceda, Maria Amor Olmo, Jesús Franco

Release Date: November 14th, 2023
Approximate running time: 87 Minutes 20 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Spanish
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.95

"The film is set amongst the bright neon lights and gaudy tourist attractions of Alicante, on Spain’s Costa Blanca. Alfred Orloff cruises the bustling night-time streets, seeking out women, whom he takes back to his empty apartment. There he drugs them and has his blind brother, Andros, carry them off to a secret laboratory where Orloff has created a bizarre mind transference machine, hoping to transplant the consciousness of the captive women into the body of his comatose mother. Orloff’s father becomes aware that his son is starting to enjoy these murderous night games and decides that he must stop the deadly experiments that are being conducted in his name. But when Inspector Tanner’s wife becomes the next victim, events take a tragic and unexpected turn." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Brand new 4k transfer from film negative, digitally restored."

The Sinister Dr. Orloff comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 33.6 GB

Feature: 23.6 GB

The source used for this transfer is in excellent shape. Flesh tones look healthy, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic.

Audio: 4/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Spanish with removable English subtitles. The audio sounds clean, clear, and balanced. Range-wise, things sound good considering the budget limitations.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a Mondo Macabro preview reel, an interview with actor Antonio Mayans titled The Wild Years with Jesús Franco (26 minutes 43 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Spanish with removable English subtitles), an interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco (38 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and an audio commentary with film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson.

Summary:

The Dr. Orloff character originated in Jess Franco’s The Awful Dr. Orloff. Throughout his career, Jess Franco would return to Dr. Orloff. Other films directed by Jess Franco with Dr. Orloff include Dr.Orloff’s Monster, The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff, The Sinister Dr. Orloff, Faceless, and Revenge in the House of Usher, which use footage from The Awful Dr. Orloff.

The narrative revolves around the son of the infamous Dr. Orloff, who has concocted his own diabolic play to resurrect his dead mother.

The more Jess Franco films you see, the more you will begin to see a pattern. Most of his films are minimal, and a lot of this has to do with the limited resources he’s working with. This is the case with The Sinister. Dr. Orloff is a film that has a small cast filled with Jess Franco regulars, a central location where the bulk of the film takes place, and even when it comes to dialogue, his films can be sparse. Outside of some opening narration from Dr. Orloff’s son, no other dialog is spoken until around the eleven-minute mark.

Jess Franco was also a filmmaker who was known for recycling premises. And with The Sinister Dr. Orloff, it is essentially a remake of The Awful Dr. Orloff. The main difference is that the mother is dead, whereas in The Awful Dr. Orloff is the daughter. Also, it is the son in The Sinister Dr. Orloff who's trying to bring back to life his mother, while it was Dr. Orloff who was trying to repair his daughter's scarred face in The Awful Dr. Orloff.

The performances, like most Jess Franco films, suit the story at hand well. And though most of the secondary characters are forgettable, Jess Franco does deliver a memorable cameo in the role of a flamboyant witness. The two main performances are Antonio Mayans (Cries of Pleasure) in the role of Alfred, Dr. Orloff's son, and Howard Vernon (The Other Side of the Mirror) in the role of Dr. Orloff. In the case of the latter, he is underused in The Sinister Dr. Orloff; in other Dr. Orloff films, he is given a lot more to do.

Though Jess Franco’s other Dr. Orloff films are clearly horror films, tone-wise, The Sinister Dr. Orloff differs greatly. Instead of horror, it is better described as a melodrama with some sci-fi and erotica thrown in for good measure. And in the case of the latter, though there is nudity, it is lower than Jess Francoi’s other 1980s output.

From a production standpoint, Jess Franco once again works wonders with limited resources. Though the familiar premise is well executed, the narrative has no real surprises. The most Jess Franco moment in The Sinister Dr. Orloff is a scene where a prostitute is viciously beaten with a whip. Ultimately, The Sinister Dr. Orloff is a fun film if you're in the right frame of mind.

The Sinister Dr. Orloff gets an excellent release from Mondo Macabro that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and a trio of informative extras, recommended.

  Written by Michael Den Boer