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?"
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
