Eaten Alive! – Severin Films (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1980
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Writer: Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Robert Kerman, Janet Agren, Ivan Rassimov, Paola Senatore, Me Me Lai, Mel Ferrer

Release Date: February 20th, 2018
Approximate Running Time: 92 Minutes 28 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English, DTS-HD Mono Spanish
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.98

"Insane assemblage of flesh-ripping mayhem, depraved sexual brutality, and even the Jonestown massacre." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3.75/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "now presented uncut, uncensored and fully remastered in HD for the first time ever."

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

Disc Size: 42.5 GB

Feature: 22 GB

Print-related damage is minimal and never intrusive. The grain often looks thick, the image generally looks crisp, and the colors fare well. When compared to previous home video releases for this film, this transfer is a marked improvement over all previous releases. Most notably, in regards to image clarity and color saturation.

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

This release comes with three audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in English, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian, and a DTS-HD mono mix in Spanish. All of the audio mixes sound good, are clear, and are balanced. The strongest of these three audio mixes is the English track. There are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable English SDH subtitles for the English language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include reversible cover art, a theatrical trailer (3 minutes 6 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a 2013 Q & A with director Umberto Lenzi from the Festival of Fantastic Films, UK (23 minutes 43 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian and English with non-removable English subtitles), an archival interview with actors Ivan Rassimov and Robert Kerman (12 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian and English with non-removable English subtitles), an interview with production designer Antonello Geleng titled The Sect Of The Purification (13 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with non-removable English subtitles), an interview with Umberto Lenzi titled Welcome To The Jungle (16 minutes 37 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with non-removable English subtitles) and a documentary titled Me Me Lai Bites Back (79 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles).

Summary:

With Eaten Alive!, Umberto Lenzi would return to familiar ground. Eight years earlier, he had directed The Man from Deep River, a film that is widely credited as the starting point of the cannibal film cycle. And though Eaten Alive! would feature many of the ingredients that were integral to The Man from Deep River’s success, the end result is two films that couldn’t be further apart in regards to their tone. Eaten Alive! takes on a much darker tone than its predecessor. That said, Eaten Alive! is terrifying for all of its ferocity, especially in its goriest moments. It is a film that never reaches the level of depravity of Umberto Lenzi’s most notorious cannibal film, Cannibal Ferox.

Content-wise, the cannibals in Eaten Alive! play a minor role. They are not the main focal point. With the main focal point being a religious cult leader who has brought his disciples to this remote area in the jungle, the premise is superbly realized, and the well-constructed narrative ensures that there is never a dull moment. Visually Eaten Alive! takes full advantage of its scenic locations, and the scenes where the cannibals attack are overflowing with gore.

The performances are best described as serviceable. With the most memorable performance being Ivan Rassimov (Spasmo) in the role of a megalomaniac cult leader named Jonas Melvin. Other notable cast members include Robert Kerman (Cannibal Holocaust) in the role of an adventurer named Mark Butler, Janet Agren (City of the Living Dead) in the role of Sheila Morris, the woman who goes into the jungle looking for her missing sister, Mel Ferrer (The Suspicious Death of a Minor) in the role of Professor Carter, and Me Me Lai (Jungle Holocaust). Ultimately, though Eaten Alive! is not one of Italian cannibal cinema’s stronger films, it is a film that fans of this sub-genre are sure to enjoy.

Eaten Alive! gets a first-rate release from Severin Films that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and a wealth of extras. Recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer

Nightmare City – Arrow Video (Blu-ray/ DVD Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1980
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Writers: Antonio Cesare Corti, Luis María Delgado, Piero Regnoli
Cast: Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Maria Rosaria Omaggio, Francisco Rabal, Sonia Viviani, Eduardo Fajardo, Stefania D’Amario, Mel Ferrer, Antonio Mayans, Ted Rusoff

Release Date: August 24th, 2015
Approximate Running Time: 91 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: 18 (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono Italian, LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £24.99 (UK)

"Our story begins with the arrival of an ominous, seemingly unmanned craft – in this instance, a military plane making an unscheduled landing at a European airport. Upon forcing the aircraft doors open, the waiting soldiers get a nasty shock when out bursts a horde of flesh-hungry, pizza-faced radioactive ghouls. The walking dead are here, and they're hungry!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3.75/5 (Negative Transfer 2K Restoration), 2.75/5 (Dupe Reversal Transfer)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Nightmare City has been exclusively restored in 2K resolution for this release by Arrow Films.

The original 2-perf Techniscope camera negative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered Arriscan at Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The film was graded on the Baselight grading system at Deluxe Restoration, London. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools.

Unfortunately at some point during their history the negative elements for Nightmare City were subjected to heavy damage and photochemical decay, resulting in regular instances of heavy density fluctuation/image flicker, color fluctuation and chemical stains. These instances of damage appear intermittently throughout the film.

Alternate source elements were examined, but the only other existing pre-print element, a 4-perf reversal dupe negative, proved to be of unacceptable quality. As a result, this project relied completely on the damaged but complete original negative as its picture source. In doing so, although much of the worst instances of damage have been minimised, this presentation still shows the considerable problems with the material.”

Here's additional information about the transfer, “Only two original 35mm film elements survive for Nightmare City: the Techniscope camera negative and a dupe reversal negative. Where conventional widescreen systems used lenses that squeeze the image, while Techniscope does not use lenses to squeeze the image. Instead Techniscope fits two widescreen frames in the same space usually occupied by one frame. With the end result is that Techniscope process has half the vertical resolution of a standard 35mm. Unfortunately large sections of the Techniscope camera negative have suffered chemical deterioration and this damage that now exits on the camera negative is irreversible. And this brings us to the dupe reversal negative was in very good shape. There source is not without its own issues which are a softening of the image due to the image being enlarged from 2-perf Technscope to 4-perf 35mm.”

Nightmare City comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 46.4 GB

Feature: 25.7 GB (Negative Transfer 2K Restoration), 17.1 GB (Dupe Reversal Transfer)

For this release, Arrow Video offers two transfers. The first transfer is a newly created 2K master that was created using the camera negative. The good news is that when it comes to image clarity and an image that retains film-like textures, this new transfer is easily the best this film has ever looked. The bad news is that throughout this transfer there are instances of density fluctuation, color instability, and, worst of all, chemical staining. This now brings us to the other transfer provided for this release, which was sourced from the same master that Raro Video used for the North American Blu-ray release.

Audio: 4.25/5 (LPCM Mono Italian, LPCM Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a LPCM mono mix in Italian and a LPCM mono mix in English. Both audio mixes are in very good shape, as there are no issues with background noise or distortion. Dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and range-wise, ambient sounds and the score are well-represented. Included are English subtitles for the Italian language track and removable English SDH subtitles for the English language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (3 minutes 45 seconds, LPCM mono Italian with removable English subtitles), alternate opening title sequence (2 minutes and 11 seconds, Dolby Digital mono), an interview with filmmaker Eli Roth titled Zombies Gone Wild! (10 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with director Umberto Lenzi titled Radiation Sickness  (28 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Maria Rosaria Omaggio titled Sheila of the Dead (7 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), a restoration featurette titled The Limits of Restoration (4 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles, text in English), an audio commentary with Fangoria editor Chris Alexander. reversible cover art, and twenty page booklet (limited to first pressing) with cast & crew info, an essay about the film titled Fade Away and Radiate: Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City written by John Martin and information about the restoration.

Included with this release is a DVD that has the same content included on the Blu-Ray included as part of this combo release.

Summary:

Nightmare City was directed by Umberto Lenzi, a versatile filmmaker who has worked in just about every prominent genre from Italian cinema’s golden age of cinema. A few of his more notable films include A Quiet Place to Kill, Almost Human and Cannibal Ferox. Key collaborators on Nightmare City include cinematographer Hans Burmann (Open Your Eyes), composer Stelvio Cipriani (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) and screenwriter Piero Regnoli, a filmmaker in his own right who is most remembered for directing The Playgirls and the Vampire. Alternate titles by which Nightmare City is also known include City of the Walking Dead and Invasion by the Atomic Zombies.

Nightmare City was made during an era where zombie films were in high demand due to the worldwide success of Dawn of the Dead. And though it was often the tradition in Italy to jump on whatever was successful in American cinema and then churn out countless clones. Umberto Lenzi was one filmmaker who refused to follow the trend, and instead he got them to make Nightmare City, a film that transcends all of those aforementioned clones.

Though not as well regarded as his contemporizes and at times maligned as being nothing more than a workman like director. These are just a few things that have plagued the legacy of Umberto Lenzi, a filmmaker whose contributions to the Giallo and Poliziotteschi genres should have cemented his legacy as one of his generation's best filmmakers. Not to be overlooked is how his film The Man from Deep River started what would later become known as the Cannibal film cycle. Years later, he would return to the Cannibal film cycle with Cannibal Ferox, which upon its initial release was banned in thirty-one countries.

One criticism that has been unfairly lobbed at Nightmare City over the years is how poor the zombie makeup looks. Unfortunately this film is not a zombie film and even in its opening setup it is clearly stated that they contaminated due to radiation exposure. And more importantly, Umberto Lenzi, Nightmare City's creator clearly states on numerous occasions that this is not a zombie film. For further proof those who have become contaminated run at a brisk pace, while zombie’s when Nightmare City was made where known to move slowly. This now brings us back to the aforementioned comments about the makeup, and upon closer examination, one could easily see that said disfigurement is due to radiation.

From a visually stand point, Umberto Lenzi makes sure that every inch of every frame is exploited for all they are worth. And this includes the way he holds on gore related moments or how the camera’s leers when there is eye candy to be devoured. Also the frantic pacing to the story at hand ensures that there is never a dull moment. With one scene that shines brighter than any other in the film. And that scene is when the dancers who are performing for a TV show are ambushed and bludgeoned to death by those who have become contaminated.

One thing that you can almost always rely on in Italian cinema from this era is that there was never a shortage of recognizable talent. And Nightmare City more than delivers in this regard when it comes to their cast which features Mel Ferrer (The Big Alligator River) in the role of a general named Murchison, Francisco Rabal (L’Eclisse) in the role of Holmes another high ranking military official, Maria Rosaria Omaggio (Rome Armed to the Teeth) her character is Rabal’s love interest, Antonio Mayans (Sex is Crazy) in the role of a camera man and last but most definitely not the least would be Hugo Stiglitz (Cyclone) in the role of the protagonist a reporter named Dean. Performance wise one would be hard pressed to fault any performances in this film as everyone involved give their all and then some!

Where most companies would pass on a release due to unsuitable elements to work with or, worse yet, put out a release from an inferior secondary source. This is not the case with Arrow Video’s release of Nightmare City, which faced those aforementioned problems head-on. With the end result being a perfect example of how to overcome obstacles while still delivering an exceptional product, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer

An Ideal Place to Kill – Mondo Macabro (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1971
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Writers: Antonio Altoviti, Lucia Drudi Demby, Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Irene Papas, Ray Lovelock, Ornella Muti, Michel Bardinet

Release Date: May 26th, 2020
Approximate running time: 89 Minutes 36 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
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.95

"Two free-spirited teenagers, Dick and Ingrid (played by Ray Lovelock and Ornella Muti), set out to spend the summer together in Italy. To pay their way they sell Scandinavian porn mags and pictures of Ingrid posing nude. But then they get busted by the cops and are given 24 hours to get out of the country.

Instead of leaving they take to the road, where they come up against a thieving biker gang and they are mistaken for a pair of bank robbers. Heading south in a hurry, they run out of gas in the middle of nowhere and take refuge in the house of Barbara Slater (Irene Papas), a seemingly bored, middle-aged housewife who appears to be up for some sexual shenanigans. The naive pair party with Barbara but soon discover she is hiding a terrible and deadly secret." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information given about the transfer, “brand new 2k transfer from a film negative”.

An Ideal Place to Kill comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 20.6 GB

Feature: 15.6 GB

The source used for this transfer is in excellent shape; colors are nicely saturated; image clarity and black levels look solid throughout; there are no issues with compression; and grain remains intact.

Audio: 4.25/5 (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 mixes are in great shape; dialog always comes through clearly; everything sounds balanced; and range-wise, ambient sounds and the score are well represented. Included with this release are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track. It should be noted that there are portions of dialog that were never dubbed in English, and while watching the film in English, these Italian dialog exchanges come with English subtitles.

Extras:

Extras for this include, a Mondo Macabro promo reel, a trailer for the film (4 minutes 7 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Italian with removable English subtitles), X Rated inserts: #1 (12 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), #2 (9 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), #3 (11 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles) and #4 (40 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Italian with non-removable English subtitles), an interview with director Umberto Lenzi titled Porn Smugglers (23 minutes 44 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles) and an audio commentary with film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson.

Summary:

An Ideal Place to Kill was directed by Umberto Lenzi, a diverse Italian filmmaker whose filmography includes Sandokan the Great, The Pirates of Malaysia, Kriminal, A Gun for One Hundred Graves, Paranoia, Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, The Man from Deep River, Gang War in Milan, Knife of Ice, Spasmo, Almost Human, Eyeball, Syndicate Sadists, The Tough Ones, Violent Naples, The Cynic, the Rat & the Fist, Brothers Till We Die, Nightmare City, Eaten Alive!, Cannibal Ferox, and Hitcher in the Dark, Also, An Ideal Place to Kill was released under the alternate titles Oasis of Fear and Dirty Pictures. 

An Ideal Place to Kill is a very satisfying mix of eroticism and thriller genre elements. And though An Ideal Place to Kill gets classified as a giallo, it actually lacks two of the giallo genre's key components: a rising body count and a black-gloved killer whose identity has been obscured. In fact, there is only one corpse in An Ideal Place to Kill. With the narrative revolving around a character who is looking for someone to take the fall for their murder.

Fortunately for a Giallo that’s limited to one killing, there’s never a shortage of tense moments. Besides anticipating the killer's exposure, there’s also mounting tension between the killer and two lovers that the killer tries to frame. With the tension building to a fever pitch by the time the film reaches its moment of truth.

Performance wise, the cast is very good in their respective roles, especially the three leads: Ray Lovelock (Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man) and Ornella Muti (The Most Beautiful Wife) in the roles of two free-spirited lovers, and Irene Papas (Don’t Torture a Duckling) in the role of Barbabra Slater, a chameleon-like character that draws her prey in like a black widow.

An Ideal Place to Kill is a different kind of giallo from Umberto Lenzi. Though An Ideal Place to Kill straddles the line between the psychological gialli of the late 1960’s and the in your face visceral gialli of the early 1970’s, The result is a film that’s unlike anything that's come before or since.

An Ideal Place to Kill gets a definitive release from Mondo Macabro; highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer

The New York Ripper: 4K Remaster – Blue Underground (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1982
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Gianfranco Clerici, Lucio Fulci, Vincenzo Mannino, Dardano Sacchetti
Cast: Jack Hedley, Almanta Suska, Howard Ross, Andrea Occhipinti, Alexandra Delli Colli, Paolo Malco, Cinzia de Ponti, Cosimo Cinieri, Daniela Doria, Babette New, Zora Kerova, Paul E. Guskin, Antone Pagan, Josh Cruze, Marsha MacBride, Rita Silva, Giordano Falzoni, Lucio Fulci, Barbara Cupisti, Martin Sorrentino, Violetta Jean, Cesare Di Vito, Elisa Cervi, Chiara Ferrari

Release Date: August 25th, 2020
Approximate running time: 93 Minutes 7 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Atmos English, 7.1 DTS-HD English, DTS-HD Mono English, DTS-HD Mono Italian, Dolby Digital Mono French, Dolby Digital Mono Spanish
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, English for Italian language track
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $49.95

"A blade-wielding psychopath is on the loose, turning The Big Apple bright red with the blood of beautiful young women. As NYPD detective Fred Williams (Jack Hedley of For Your Eyes Only) follows the trail of butchery from the decks of the Staten Island Ferry to the sex shows of Times Square, each brutal murder becomes a sadistic taunt. In the city that never sleeps, the hunt is on for the killer that can't be stopped!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (4K UHD), 4.75 (Blu-ray)

The New York Ripper comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD

Disc Size: 60.1 GB

Feature: 55.7 GB

This release was sourced from Blue Underground’s 2019 restoration, which they used for their 2020 Blu-ray release. This is a transfer for those who were blown away by Blue Underground’s 2019 restoration. Noticeable areas of improvement include colors, image clarity, and black levels, and there are no issues with compression. That said, it should be noted that at the eighty-four minute mark there’s a brief thirty-second sequence where the colors look different than they do for Blue Underground’s Blu-ray.

The New York Ripper comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 41.6 GB

Feature: 24.9 GB

Audio: 5/5 (Dolby Atmos English)

This release comes with six audio options, a Dolby Atmos mix in English, a DTS-HD 7.1 mix in English, a DTS-HD mono mix in English, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian, a Dolby Digital mono mix in French, and a Dolby Digital mono mix in Spanish. The Dolby Atmos mix is new to this release, while the other five audio tracks are the same tracks from Blue Underground’s 2020 Blu-ray release. The Dolby Atmos track sounds great, the dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and range-wise, this audio mix takes full advantage of the sound spectrum. This release comes with four subtitle options: English SDH, French, Spanish, and English for the Italian language track.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include a English language theatrical trailer (3 minutes 24 seconds, DTS-HD mono English, no subtitles), and an audio commentary with Troy Howarth, author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include a poster & still gallery (67 images), English language theatrical trailer (3 minutes 20 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a locations featurette titled NYC Locations Then and Now (4 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo), an interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci titled The Beauty Killer (22 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with poster artist Enzo Sciotti titled Paint Me Blood Red (17 minutes 14 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with non-removable English subtitles), an archival interview with actress Zora Kerova titled I’m an Actress! (9 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), a new interview with Zora Kerova titled The Broken Bottle Murder (9 minutes 24 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with non-removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Cinzia de Ponti titled The Second Victim (12 minutes 14 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with non-removable English subtitles), an interview with actor Howard Ross titled Three Fingers of Violence (15 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with non-removable English subtitles), an interview with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti titled The Art of Killing (29 minutes 14 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with non-removable English subtitles), and an audio commentary with Troy Howarth.

Extras not carried over from Blue Underground’s 2019 Blu-ray release include a lenticular slipcover, reversible cover art, a CD that contains the score for the film, and a 20-page booklet. This new release comes with a slipcover.

Summary:

The New York Ripper was co-written and directed by Lucio Fulci, a prolific and diverse filmmaker who, over the course of his career, worked in just about every cinema genre. He is most remembered for his work within the horror genre. Notable horror films directed by Lucio Fulci include Zombie, The Beyond, City of the Living Dead, and The House by the Cemetery.

The New York Ripper would in many ways mark the end of an era for Lucio Fulci. The films that he directed after The New York Ripper would be hampered by a lack of budget, and he would part ways with several of his key collaborators, many of whom he had worked with since Zombie.

A key collaborator on The New York Ripper was Luigi Kuveiller, who had previously worked with Lucio Fulci on A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin. His other notable films as a cinematographer include A Quiet Place in the Country, Property Is No Longer a Theft, and Deep Red.

Another key collaborator on The New York Ripper was composer Francesco De Masi, whose other notable scores include The Weekend Murders, The Inglorious Bastards, and Lone Wolf McQuade. He delivers a superb score that perfectly captures the mood of The New York Ripper.

From the opening moments, The New York Ripper establishes a grim tone that is in your face, violent, and undeniably gruesome. While there are slight lulls in between moments of bloodletting, The New York Ripper never stays too far away from its bread and butter: a killer with a chip on their shoulder who’s hell-bent on dissecting their victims in a symbolic way, which holds the key to their modus operandi.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is a detective who’s become disinterested in his job. That is until fate intertwines his destiny with that of the killers’. There is even a moment later in the film in which the killer specifically targets the detective by killing someone close to him. There are a few well-placed red herrings along the way, with the only constant in the killers’ identity being the killers’ duck-like voice.

The entire cast is more than adequate in their respective roles. The English dubbing is generally very good, even if some of the lines are unintentionally funny. With the most memorable performance being Howard Ross's (Five Dolls for an August Moon) in the role of a three-fingered deviant named Mickey Scellenda, other notable performances include Zora Kerova's (Cannibal Ferox) in the role of a sex exhibitionist named Eva, who performs like sex acts, and Alexandra Delli Colli's (Zombie Holocaust) in the role of Jane Forrester Lodge, a nymphomaniac housewife who spends her time looking for men to fulfill her sexual desires.

When it comes to violent murder set pieces, no Italian filmmaker does it better than Lucio Fulci. And with The New York Ripper, he delivers the most sadistic moments of his career. Some choice moments include a woman who’s stabbed in her vagina with a broken bottle and a woman whose breasts and eyeball are sliced with a razor blade. That said, The New York Ripper’s strongest asset is the POV camera, especially during the kill scenes. Ultimately, The New York Ripper is a grueling cinematic experience that is not for the faint of heart.

The New York Ripper makes its way to UHD via an excellent release from Blue Underground that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and a wealth of informative extras, 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 VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer

The House by the Cemetery: 4K Remaster – Blue Underground (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1981
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Elisa Briganti, Lucio Fulci, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Dardano Sacchetti
Cast: Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Ania Pieroni, Giovanni Frezza, Silvia Collatina, Dagmar Lassander, Giovanni De Nava, Daniela Doria, Gianpaolo Saccarola, Carlo De Mejo

Release Date: May 26th, 2020
Approximate running time: 86 Minutes 22 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Atmos English, DTS-HD 5.1 English, DTS-HD Mono English, DTS-HD Mono Italian
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, English for Italian language track
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $49.95

"A young family moves from their cramped New York City apartment to a spacious new home in New England. But this is no ordinary house in the country: the previous owner was the deranged Dr. Freudstein, whose monstrous human experiments have left a legacy of bloody mayhem. Now, someone - or something - is alive in the basement, and home sweet home is about to become a horrific hell on earth." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

The House by the Cemetery comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD

Disc Size: 61 GB

Feature: 54.1 GB

This release was sourced from Blue Underground’s 2019 restoration that they used for their 2020 Blu-ray release. And as phenomenal as that transfer looked, this UHD release looks even better. Throughout, image clarity, shadow detail, color saturation, and compression are all excellent.

Audio: 5/5 (Dolby Atmos English)

This release comes with four audio options, a Dolby Atmos mix in English, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English, and a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian. The Dolby Atmos mix is new to this release, while the other three audio tracks are the same tracks from Blue Underground’s 2020 Blu-ray release. The Dolby Atmos mix is a solid track that takes full advantage of the sound spectrum. This release comes with four subtitle options: English SDH, French, Spanish, and English for the Italian language track.

Extras:

Extras on disc one include poster & still gallery #1 (71 images), poster & still gallery # 2 (2 minutes 21 seconds, music from the film playing in the background), a T.V. spot  (32 seconds, DTS-HD mono English, no subtitles), U.S. theatrical trailer (1 minute 47 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), International trailer (3 minutes 22 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a deleted scene: Bat Attack Aftermath (1 minute, no sound), and an audio commentary with Troy Howarth, author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include an archival interview with actress Catriona MacColl and actor Paolo Malco titled Meet the Boyles (14 minutes 17 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival interview with actor Giovanni Frezza and actress Silvia Collatina titled Children of the Night (12 minutes 18 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actress Dagmar Lassander titled Tales of Laura Gittleson (8 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actor Carlo De Mejo titled My Time With Terror (9 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with screenwriters Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti titled A Haunted House Story (14 minutes 7 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival interview with cinematographer Sergio Salvati, special make-up effects artist Maurizio Trani, special effects artist Gino De Rossi and actor Giovanni De Nava titled To Build a Better Death Trap (21 minutes 32 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with screenwriter Giorgio Mariuzzo titled House Quake (14 minutes 46 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), a Q&A with Catriona MacColl from the 2014 Spaghetti Cinema Festival (29 minutes 37 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English with non-removable English subtitles), and an interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci titled Calling Dr. Freudstein (19 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles).

Extras not carried over from Blue Underground’s 2020 Blu-ray release include, a lenticular slipcover, reversible cover art, a CD that contains the score for the film and a 20-page booklet. This new release comes with a slipcover

Summary:

"No one will ever know whether the children are monsters or the monsters are children."

The House by the Cemetery is the third film in a trilogy of films known as Lucio Fulci’s Death Trilogy. The other two films are City of the Living Dead and The Beyond.

Though The House by the Cemetery has a simple setup, it is greatly aided by atmospheric visuals. And nowhere is this more clear than when it comes to the murder set pieces. which are meticulously laid out with the utmost brutality and are all always sufficiently gory. A knife through the head with the tip pointing out of the victim's mouth, a real estate agent being repeatedly impaled, and a young child's head being held to a door while an axe crashes through the door and narrowly misses his head are some of the more memorable moments. 

The one area of The House by the Cemetery that seems to divide most viewers are the performances of the cast, most notably that of the voice actor’s performance for the character Bob Boyle, who’s portrayed by Giovanni Frezza (Manhattan Baby). 

Besides this performance, there are no other major complaints about the cast's performances. With the standout performance coming from Catriona MacColl in the role of Bob’s mother. The House by the Cemetery would mark her third and last collaboration. She is also the only actor to have appeared in all three films that comprise Lucio Fulci's Death Trilogy. 

Other notable cast members include Ania Pieroni (Inferno, Tenebre) in the role of Ann, the babysitter, and The House by the Cemetery’s other child actor, Silvia Collatina, in the role of Mae Freudstein.

Though The House by the Cemetery is not held in as high of regard as the other two films that make up Lucio Fulci’s Death Trilogy, I have always had a fondness for The House by the Cemetery because of the way it puts its adolescent characters in peril and the film’s haunting coda, which is arguably one of Lucio Fulci’s finest moments as a filmmaker.

The House by the Cemetery gets an exceptional release from Blue Underground, who once again show why they are one of cult cinema’s premier boutique labels. 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 VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer