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Amuck! – Camera Obscura (Blu-ray/CD Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1972
Director: Silvio Amadio
Writer: Silvio Amadio
Cast: Farley Granger, Barbara Bouchet, Rosalba Neri, Nino Segurini, Dino Mele, Umberto Raho, Patrizia Viotti, Petar Martinovitch, Bruno Alias

Release Date: April 28th, 2017
Approximate Running Time: 100 Minutes 37 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English, German
Region Coding: Region B
Retail Price: OOP

“Pretty Greta travels from London to Italy in order to start her new job as a secretary for the successful writer Richard Stuart who lives in a remote villa near Venice together with his seductive wife Eleonora. Greta’ friend Sally - who also used to work for Richard - disappeared for inexplicable and mysterious reasons. In collaboration with the ambitious local commissioner Antonelli, Greta follows the tracks of her missing girlfriend and stumbles into a raging maelstrom of lust, violence and debauchery." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "a brand new 2K master".

Amuck! comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 44.8 GB

Feature: 31.4 GB

The source looks excellent; flesh tones look correct, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and grain remains intact.

Audio: 5/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian, 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. Both audio tracks sound excellent; dialog always comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, ambient sounds are well-represented, and the score sounds appropriately robust. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable German subtitles.

Extras:

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include an image gallery with music from the films playing in the background (107 images - posters/stills/Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri magazine pictures and articles), English language theatrical trailer (3 minutes 52 seconds, DTS-HD mono English, no subtitles), an interview with actress Barbara Bouchet titled In a House of Sin (18 minutes 11 seconds, DTS-HD stereo Italian with removable English and German subtitles), an interview with actress Rosalba Neri titled Death in Venice (15 minutes 15 seconds, DTS-HD stereo Italian with removable English and German subtitles), an interview with Stefano Amadio, son of director Silvio Amadio titled Amadio! (20 minutes 58 seconds, DTS-HD stereo Italian with removable English and German subtitles), and an audio commentary with film experts Marcus Stiglegger, Pelle Felsch and Kai Naumann, in German with removable English subtitles.

Other extras include a CD with Teo Usuelli’s score and a 12-page booklet with an essay titled Thus Spoke Amadio written by Marcel Barion (text in English and German). This release also comes with multilingual menus, English and German.

Summary:

Silvio Amadio, a filmmaker whose filmography is diverse, wrote and directed Amuck!. His notable films are Wolves of the Deep, Assassination in Rome, Smile Before Death, and That Malicious Age.

A young woman looking for the answers behind her friend’s disappearance gets a job as a writer’s secretary. Will she uncover the truth behind her friend’s disappearance, or will she become the next victim?

One of the key elements that plays a large role in Italian thrillers is their locations. And when it comes to locations, there are few that match that atmosphere of Venice, a city that is comprised of 118 islands, and these islands are linked together by water canals and bridges. Italian thrillers that used Venice as their main location include Who Saw Her Die?, The Bloodstained Shadow, Giallo in Venice, and Amuck!. Another thriller that was made in Venice that bears many of the traits that have since become synonymous with the Italian thriller is Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now.

Though Amuck’s! narrative is rooted in the elements that one has come to expect when watching an Italian thriller. The way its narrative unfolds provides a fresh take on familiar tropes. When it comes to red herrings, Amuck! delivers in spades, saving its most devious moment of misdirection for its finale.

When Amuck! was made, the majority of its contemporaries were body count whodunits with killers’ who wore black gloves and other clothing to disguise their identities. That said, Amuck! is more in line with Italian thrillers that are more rooted in psychology, like A Quiet Place to Kill (Paranoia), So Sweet… So Perverse and One on Top of the Other were popular in the late 1960s.

Another strength of the narrative is how its protagonist is fed information about her missing friend, whom she suspects has been murdered. Also, Amuck! effectively uses eroticism to enhance the story that unfolds. Nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to the decadent behavior on display.

Performance-wise, the entire cast is excellent, especially its three leads: Barbara Bouchet (Don’t Torture a Duckling), Rosalba Neri (Top Sensation), and Farley Granger (Strangers on a Train). Barbara Bouchet portrays Greta, the young woman who poses as a secretary to expose the truth behind her friend's disappearance, and Rosalba Neri portrays the nymphomaniac wife of the author who employed Greta. Their characters provide a perfect balance between purity and perversity, and the visuals never miss an opportunity to showcase their beauty. Then there is Farley Granger’s ambiguous portrayal of Richard Stuart, an author who knows more than he lets on.

From a production standpoint, there is no area where Amuck! does not excel. The visuals in combination with Teo Usuelli’s (Dillinger is Dead) superlative score reinforce the mood by creating an ample amount of atmosphere. Some of the more striking moments visually are a slow-motion lesbian kissing scene, a “Most Deadly Game”-like scene where Greta finds herself the prey while on a hunting trip, and a karma-infused finale that provides a very satisfying conclusion. Ultimately, Amuck! is an exemplary Italian thriller, making it a must-see for fans of this genre.

Amuck! gets an exceptional release from Camera Obscura that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and insightful extras, highly recommended.

Note: This release was limited to 1,000 copies.