Demon Witch Child and Friends

So, ever since I first did a "Catch-Up" series on this site, I knew it was only a matter of time until Code Red's.  There's just all these great, older Code Red releases that need covering on here: great but overlooked DVD-only horrors and yes, a couple more DVD/ blu-ray comparisons.  And we start out with one of my favorite horror DVD, which I can't believe isn't better known and in more fans' collections.  I mean, don't get me wrong; I completely understand why it isn't in most peoples' collections and isn't regarded alongside mainstream horror classics like A Nightmare On Elm St or The Omen.  We're talking crazy, cult, obscure 70's insanity, not slick, streamlined, and glossy high production values.  This is for a select audience only.  But that select audience should be all over this disc.

Update 11/26/17 - 5/4/24: Aw yeah, now it's on!  Demon Witch Child has been restored and released on blu from Ediciones 79 in Spain.  Big thanks to Bruce of Cinema Arcana for hipping us to that in the comments.  And thanks to JMan for pointing out that Help Me... has also been released on blu from AGFA, but I don't think I'll be reviewing that one anytime soon.  😜

Update 10/23/25: Another upgrade, this time from Vinegar Syndrome. Though, again, it's not available on its own, but in a 3-disc set of Spanish horror flicks, including Vampires Night Orgy and Curse Of the Devil, which we'll also be examining here.  But real quick, first, do you need a replacement?

When Vinegar Syndrome first released this new set, the sound for Demon Witch Child goes out of sync in the back half of the movie because of a repeated shot.  Just DWC; the other films are fine.  But yeah, they started a replacement program for that disc, so you can get one that plays correctly.  Now, copies you buy from places on Amazon mostly have the corrected disc in the set.  But to check for yourself, look for that "V2" on the blue stripe of their disc[see above].  If you don't have it, contact VS.  And again, it's just disc 3, the others should not have "V2"s on them.  So having gotten that out of the way...

Since Code Red's disc is a double-feature, before we get to the neglected masterpiece, let's get the other film out of the way first: the "piece of crap" from this post's title.  It's a little film called The Possessed.  Actually, both films have been called The Possessed.  That's why they're paired up on the same disc.  Otherwise, they have nothing in common.

This The Possessed - on-screen title: Help Me... I'm Possessed - is an American film from 1974.  Screenwriter Bill Green also stars as a doctor of a sanitarium/ castle somewhere in Southern California.  He has a hunchbacked assistant, a mad woman for a sister and a new bride who begins to suspect unorthodox things are going on behind closed doors.  Patients are tortured and killed, and an unseen monster chases a nurse through the woods.  But things aren't nearly as interesting as that description makes it sound.  It's mostly long, droll scenes of conversations as characters stand around in front of a static camera.  It's just tongue-in-cheek enough that there's nothing to get invested in, but utterly fails in its attempts at humor with dialogue like, "who are you?"  "I'm fine.  How are you?"

I have to admit... I do love this location.

The police come and just... mill about the grounds aimlessly.  The premise and marketing promise sleaze and shocks, but that mostly just amounts to women in their bras pretending to be dead and a rubber leg or two.  It's absolutely Mystery Science Theater fodder-level (Season 14 show runners, take note), and deserves a little credit for trying to be an 'everything and the kitchen sink' movie where you never know what's coming around the next corner - mad scientist, hunchback, lunatic or off-camera monster?  But it's all just so flat and lifeless in execution, the fun the premise could offer just makes the film all the more disappointing.  If you're in the absolute right mood, and very patient, you might be slightly amused, in a laughing at it as opposed to with it kind of way.  But it's definitely not the reason to add this DVD to your collection.

2013 Code Red DVD.

...Of course, it's not a pristine, or in any way cleaned or remastered, film print.  This is another one of Code Red's patented "grindhouse" experiences, where the print is covered in dirt and chemicals, with green spots and lines everywhere.  It's also got a faded, washed out and soft look.  But it's still 100% more authentic and satisfying than any of VHS dub.  It's 1.78:1 (or more like 1.76 with the dead space in the overscan area's edges) anamorphic, progressive, and the mono audio, well, it matches the print.  There's a bassline soft hiss that isn't too distracting, with plenty of pops, but surprisingly robust library music and clear dialogue.  There are no subtitles or alternate audio tracks.

But the real gem is 1976's The Possessed - on-screen title: Demon Witch Child - a delightful killer kid film from Spain.  This one's written and directed by none other than Amando de Ossorio, the man behind The Blind Dead and Lorelei's Grasp.  But Demon Witch Child may have actually usurped all his other work as my favorite de Ossorio film.  It's just so much fun.  If you appreciated Cathy's Curse, oh boy, this is like its equally nutty prequel.

The premise is perfectly simple: the local police bust up a coven of witches, so their leader takes revenge by possessing the chief's daughter.  It starts off in some predictable Exorcist rip-off territory - not that that's a bad thing - with the girl floating out of her bed and a priest being brought in to chase the evil out of her.  But she quickly transforms into a delightful, balding foul-mouthed witch child, using her powers to wreak havoc on everyone in her life.  She laughs maniacally as she displays all kinds of fun magical powers and goes pretty psycho in some edgy ways that I'm super tempted to spoil right now, but I won't.

Meanwhile, everyone's trudging around in super 70's earth tones, and there's a melodramatic subplot where the priest's ex-girlfriend has become a prostitute.  The local townspeople form a mob and dig up graves, the bad-ass police captain, the parents, the priest and an ace reporter are all following separate paths to find the truth, and the witch cult comes back to help their crazy little girl kidnap a baby.

Admittedly, the pacing drags at points, with dubbed dialogue and scenes which can only be honestly described as bad writing.  The score is also clunky, though it concludes with a pretty dramatic, rousing number, that reminded me of Frizzi's main theme for The Beyond.  And Code Red clearly agrees with me, because it's the music they use for the DVD menu.  There's also a weird aspect to the DVD  presentation where the first minute of footage repeats with alternate credits over it.  Unsurprisingly, Ediciones 79 fixes that.

This print's been badly damaged, but we've got the fingerprint of the man responsible!

This time Code Red's disc wasn't the only release of Demon Witch Child.  It was included in one of those no frills budget packs of multiple films called Grindhouse Experience: 20 Film Feature Collection from 2007.  But that's reportedly another one of those 4:3 VHS-sourced editions.  Meanwhile, just like the other The Possessed, Code Red's got another, much more satisfying anamorphic widescreen transfer of a film print.  That was a nice, if battered, upgrade for its time.  But as of October '23, we've got a brand new 2k restoration clearly using superior film elements on BD (no, not BDR) from Ediciones 79, and it takes the film into a whole new world.

1) 2013 Code Red DVD; 2) 2023 Ediciones 79 BD; 3) 2024 Vinegar Syndrome BD.

Code Red's transfer looks just like their other The Possessed.  I could pretty much copy the entire paragraph I wrote about that transfer and it would apply equally to this one.  1.78:1 anamorphic, progressive transfer, with slivers of pillar-boxing down the sides making it more accurately 1.76:1.  Tinted and drained colors with washed exposure, and yes, plenty more green chemical damage all over the place.  But now, just look at it!  The framing has been tweaked to 1.94:1, which is a little curious, but basically just means there's more information on both sides compared to the Code Red.  The washed colors, over exposure, chemical damage, horizontal pinching... all of that is completely gone, giving this film a total make-over, now looking far more vivid and life-like.  Plenty of detail that had been missing is now visible for the first time... look out the windows in that second set of shots.  Grain is light and a little patchy; the encode could probably have been better.

And now we've got Vinegar Syndrome's pass on it.  The back of their case clarifies that this was scanned in 4k from the original 35mm camera negatives, but it looks to be the same one Ediciones used.  Still, they've made some adjustments.  The framing is a much more expected 1.85:1, though that basically just means they've shaved a little off of the sides as compared to Educiones' transfer.  But still, that's probably the intended AR.  And VS's encode is a distinctly improvement.  Film grain is captured much more thoroughly.  A UHD could do it even better, but most of the grain is rendered here, where it was washed out and smoothed away on the previous blu.  This new blu is also slightly brighter and a pinch less red.

Meanwhile, the DVD's mono audio is about the same as the other The Possessed; except the crackly hiss and pops are just a little bit worse.  A word or two are dropped when damage causes the film to be spliced, but for the most part, you can get used to it.  You won't have to, though, with the new blus which are infinitely cleaner and clearer.

Better still, they now give us both the Spanish and English tracks.  On the Edicione 79 though, only the Spanish is in DTS-HD and the English track is lossy.  Both are DTS-HD now on the VS.  And more importantly, the only subtitles included on the Edicione are (removable) Spanish ones, so unless you're fluent, you were still essentially stuck with the English dub.  But VS now includes English subtitles, so we have our choice.  In fact, they include two sets of English subs: a faithful translation of the Spanish track and another set of "dubtitles" that match the English track.

There's basically nothing by way of special features on the double-feature DVD; we don't even get the films' trailers.  We just get the traditional Family Honor trailer on start up and a couple of Code Red bonus trailers.  But Ediciones 79 has some real goodies.  Unfortunately, the only English friendly one among them is the trailer.  That's nice to get, but some of the other stuff is so tantalizing and frustratingly untranslated.  Chief among them is a 20+ minute interview with the demon witch child herself, Marian Salgado!  There's also another brief featurette that talks to her a bit more at a film festival, and introduction by the Ediciones 79 guys, a longer discussion between the Ediciones guys about the film, and a short horror film from 2023 called Angustias, which also stars Maria Salgado.  Their release also includes fun, reversible artwork styled after an old VHS cover, and the first limited run of 666 copies also includes a slipcover, booklet and poster.

And Vinegar Syndrome?  Yes, they've translated the Ediciones 79 extras!  So we finally get Salgado's interview, as well as the other featurettes and the trailer.  The only thing they drop is Angustias, which is disappointing, but it's still a huge win for English audiences overall.  And, of course, this release includes the other two films and their special features, as well as reversible cover art: one that features art for just Curse Of the Devil, and one that includes all three.

Speaking of Curse Of the Devil, let's get into it!  Also known as Return Of the Werewolf, this is Paul Naschy's... sixth or seventh werewolf movie out of fifteen or so.  It gets complicated, and you have to figure out for yourself what to include, like the lost film that may never have actually existed, the modern day Fred Olen Ray one, or movies where he just has a brief cameo as a werewolf.  But this one's right there in the sweet spot, 1976; and once again, he's playing his regular character, Waldemar Daninsky, following his own script.  But don't worry, this is a stand-alone story that once again restarts his origin story.  There's no continuity to cling to, so you don't need to have seen any of the others to dive in.

And it's ambitious.  First of all, it's a period piece with some attractive locations and a large cast of interconnected characters.  And it has a prologue set even further back, in medieval times, with a castle and witches and knights on horseback.  On the other hand, it's a fairly bloodless, very traditional werewolf story that hues very close to the Universal classics and all the same werewolf story points you've seen before.  The wolfman himself definitely hasn't aged well, and even for its time looked fairly hokey, but I do like how he keeps taking huge, flying leaps at his victims.  Otherwise, though, it's rather quaint, with a lot of Hammer influence as well.  Honestly, I appreciate them more now, but I'm still not a huge fan.  And as a teenager, I found them fully sleep inducing.  Of course, my old VHS tapes were mostly censored, and we get a little more exploitative nudity now.  But you still have to be in the mood for something dry with these.

2024 Vinegar Syndrome BD.

Vinegar Syndrome again presents this film scanned in 4k from its original 35mm OCN in 1.85:1, so it looks about as good as it possible can in 1080p.  Well, except for the opening scenes which are going for a sepia tint, but are actually heavily shaded in a hideous yellow, but I assume that's an issue with the original filmmaking, not anything VS did wrong bringing this film to disc (although you can see it un-tinted in the extras, so I guess it doesn't necessarily always look like that).  Film grain is softer than it was on Demon Witch Child, and the image as a whole is maybe a pinch softer, but otherwise they're both comparable and excellent, with great colors, contrast and a lifelike image.

And, like the other two films in this set, VS has really done right by this film in terms of language options.  We get both the Spanish and English mono tracks in DTS-HD, again with our choice of subtitles and dubtitles.  We even get both the English and Spanish opening credits.

Speaking of nice bonuses, there are more goodies for sure.  First, we get the vintage Paul Naschy interview from the old Anchor Bay DVD.  Then, we get a new interview with his son and another interview with Angel Sala, the expert interviewed for the other two films.  Plus, we get an alternate clothed version of one of the film's nude scenes (that sheet isn't covering up so much in the international version of the film that we get).  And finally, there's the theatrical trailer.  So basically all three films get roughly 45 minutes of extras, including interviews with one of the movie's stars, and some experts/ affiliates elucidating the history.  It's a great set.

Code Red's presentations sure beat our dodgy, old fullscreen VHS transfers, but they were what they were direct, unrestored standard def scans from a pair of beat up old film prints.  But time has been kind, and we now have all these films looking much better in HD.  Or at least the Spanish ones; I still haven't brought myself to check out Help Me... I'm Possessed's blu, but from what I understand, it looks a lot rougher than these BDs.