Murderock – Vinegar Syndrome (UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1984
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Gianfranco Clerici, Vincenzo Mannino, Roberto Gianviti, Lucio Fulci
Cast: Olga Karlatos, Ray Lovelock, Claudio Cassinelli, Cosimo Cinieri

Release Date: April 15th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 94 Minutes 14 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $59.98

"Candice Norman operates the hottest dance academy in town, with hoards of hopefuls dying to be admitted, maybe literally. Shortly after a trio of new students are accepted into Candice’s tutelage, a young female pupil is found murdered on campus, stabbed through the heart with a long pin. With the backbiting staff and students alike all rendered possible suspects, Candice is also plagued by haunting dreams involving a sinister man. When Candice spots this man's face on a billboard, she decides to track him down, while yet another rising dance starlet winds up with a punctured heart. Is this handsome stranger as dangerous as the man in her dreams? Could a bloodthirsty maniac from outside the school be preying upon the dancers? Or has the intense competition between dancers and staff turned one of them into a depraved killer? And how does Candice herself factor into this shocking mystery?" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (4K UHD, Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative."

Murderock comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 61.5 GB

Feature: 60.9 GB

The source looks excellent; colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image retains an organic look.

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

Disc Size: 46.1 GB

Feature: 26.7 GB

This Blu-ray uses the same master that is used for the 4K UHD disc.

Audio: 4.5/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian), 4.25/5 (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. Both audio tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced. Range-wise, ambient sounds and the score are well-presented. That said, the Italian language track sounds more robust than the English language track. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable English SDH for the English language track.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include an audio commentary with film historian Troy Howarth.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 27 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio interview with director Lucio Fulci (16 minutes 24 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an audio interview with actress Geretta Geretta (25 minutes 11 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actress Silvia Collatina titled Child's Play (24 minutes 29 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Silvia Collatina titled Hellfant Prodige (9 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with make-up artist Franco Casagni titled A Pin in the Heart (8 minutes 15 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with music historian Pierpaolo De Sanctis titled Murder Prog (32 minutes 10 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with producer Augusto Caminito and film historian Eugenio Ercolani titled The Murder Instigator (17 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Eugenio Ercolani titled Augusto’s Empire (32 minutes, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio interview with screenwriter Gianfranco Clerici titled A Pen in the Dark (13 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with cinematographer Giuseppe Pinori titled Lightning Murder (26 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actor Al Cliver titled Lucio’s Pet (13 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actor Robert Gligorov titled Ballet in Blood (27 minutes 49 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), and an audio commentary with Troy Howarth.

Other extras include reversible cover art, a spot gloss hard slipcase + slipcover combo (limited to 8,000 units), and a 40-page perfect bound book (limited to 8,000 units) with an essay titled A Danse Macabre in Leg Warmers written by Justin Kerswell, an essay titled This Is Your Town You Can Make It Lucio Fulci’s American Dream written by Stephen Thrower, and an essay titled Let the Bodies Hit the Dance Floor Murderock and a Brief History of Dancing in the 1980s Horror Film written by Amanda Reyes.

Summary:

Lucio Fulci had a long and varied career as a director. He wasn’t afraid to take chances, and he worked in just about every genre. In the mid 1980s, after the release of Manhattan Baby, Lucio Fulci was in the most transitional period of his career. where he would make two less-than-stellar sci-fi films, Conquest and The New Gladiators. With Murderrock, Lucio Fulci would return to the thriller genre for the first time since his nihilistic masterpiece, The New York Ripper.

Besides returning to the thriller genre with Murderock, Lucio Fulci would also return to New York City, the setting of his previous thriller. Murderock would also feature a more restrained style of violence from Lucio Fulci, who just years before had pushed the boundaries of gore and sadism. And like many Italian films from this era, Murderock would draw inspiration from what was popular in Hollywood. Two obvious influences would be Flash Dance and Fame. There’s even a nightclub in which one of the girls gets drenched by water while dancing on the stage, which is almost exactly like a scene from Flash Dance.

Lucio Fulci pulls out all the tricks for Murderock; it’s a film filled with dazzling camera work that’s enhanced by breath-taking use of light and dark. Giuseppe Pinoli’s cinematography for Murderock is flawless. Every inch of each frame is given the utmost care and attention. Two standout scenes visually are a dream sequence where a man who’s holding the same weapon as the killer stalks the director of the dance school and a scene where a girl in a wheelchair captures the killer’s identity with her camera while the killer murders her babysitter.

When discussing Murderock, one must not overlook composer Keith Emerson’s infectious score for the film, which is highlighted by a song titled Paranoia. Murderrock is a truly unique score that perfectly captures the film's abundance of eye candy. This score is similar to his earlier scores for films like Nighthawks and Dario Argento's Inferno.

Murderock has an ample amount of tension and suspense, and despite its lack of gory set pieces, Murderock actually succeeds because of Lucio Fulci’s excellent direction. Needless to say, going into a film that opens with leotards and break dancing, I initially had my doubts that Lucio Fulci could pull off a solid thriller. Fortunately, Lucio Fucli proves that you don’t have to show every death in graphic detail to write an effective thriller.

Murderock has never looked or sounded better. This release from Vinegar Syndrome includes a wealth of informative extras, making it a definitive edition that comes highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer