Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		1.0

Black Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 30, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle release.

Kier-la Janisse gave film fans one of the most outstanding boxed sets of the last few years with All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, a late 2021 release that ended up making my Best of 2022 list. Janisse is back now with another gigantic boxed set, one that's even bigger than the folk horror compendium, and one that may appeal to a certain niche audience who may not have been especially interested in that earlier set. Those who may remember the rating system of days of yore will probably recall the "M" designation, which meant "for mature audiences only", and if I may be permitted an orthographic joke that is admittedly a bit arcane, some might argue that Emanuelle gave up one of her "m"'s in favor of three x's, at least with regard to some cuts of the many Black Emanuelle films. For those not conversant with the history of this perceived franchise, and who may be scratching their heads at my "joke" (what else is new?), Black Emanuelle was a pretty blatant attempt to cash in on Emmanuelle, and in order to avoid any potential legal hassles one of those original "m"'s in the title character's name got dropped. Furthermore, as supplements on many of the discs included in this set offer, there were hardcore XXX inserts (in more ways than one) that at least some of the Black Emanuelle productions offered. Joke explained, hopefully. Perhaps even more comedically than my fitful attempt at humor, the Black Emanuelle series ended up offering many more films than its perceived progenitor, and 24 of them (with additional cuts) are aggregated in this at times overwhelming collection. This is a collection where the quality of the films may be highly debatable, though it's salient to note that the supplements both overtly reference and are in and of themselves examples of perhaps unexpected critical scrutiny this franchise has engendered, and anyone interested in this kind of bizarre franchise mash up of what might be called porno, mondo and gonzo will most likely find this an amazing set to dive into.

Luckily, my eldest son was already well into his twenties and simply home for a brief visit when he walked into my office one day while I was taking screenshots for my review of Deep Throat. Had he walked into my office while I was taking screenshots for this particular film, there probably would have been no issue one way or the other, since Black Deep Throat probably refers less to the Linda Lovelace property than the "informant" at the core of All the President's Men. That may be a punchline of sorts, but this is yet another film that has little to nothing to do with Black Emanuelle, though it includes any number of tropes from the franchise, offering Ajita Wilson as Claudine, a reporter hot on the trail of a story involving a sex cult.

This is an almost unavoidably cheap feeling knockoff, but it does offer the rather striking presence of Wilson. The supplementary featurette on Wilson is fascinating and helps to provide some context for both this film and Porno Nights of the World N.2.

Black Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black Deep Throat is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Severin's almost overwhelming book The Black Emanuelle Bible included with this set offers a brief description of the transfer, as follows:

Source: 2K scan from 35mm CRI o the extended international version, with opening and closing titles inserted from video master.

Additionally, the presentation begins with this informational text card:

The following presentation of Black Deep Throat was sourced from a 35mm CRI, which included everything other than the opening and end credit sequences. After extensive digging we were unable to track down a film element to source them from, so we have included them sourced from a VHS.

The credits are what they are, but the actual feature presentation here is actually surprisingly spry looking for a CRI source. The palette has a bit of the weirdness that can often be seen in CRI sources, and it arguably veers just a bit too much toward tealish greens and blues at times, but I found it to be generally quite natural looking. Detail levels are generally okay, though this is another effort that seems to want to dabble in near soft focus a lot of the time. Grain is a little mottled looking at times (see the area on the wall in screenshot 2 for one example).

Black Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Black Deep Throat features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono in English only. A probably overly repetitive score may annoy some, but it sounds fine, and similarly dialogue (such as it is) is rendered without any major problems. There's a bit of background hiss, but no real outright damage to report. Optional English subtitles are available.

Black Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Ajita Wilson: An Elusive Icon (HD; 16:03) is a video essay by Film and Gender Studies Scholar Matt Richardson.


• Trailer (HD; 2:17)

Black Deep Throat Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Black Deep Throat is a decided knockoff, and its title is probably deliberately misleading. This film and its disc mate are probably going to be of most interest for those wanting to catch a relatively rare glimpse of Ajita Wilson. Technical merits are okay in the video department, and fine in the audio department, and as mentioned above, the supplement about Wilson is very worthwhile.