Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Blood of Ghastly Horror Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 20, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection.

Disc Two of The Masterpiece Collection offers three versions of the same basic source material, and as such may be of interest to "film archaelogists" who like digging into how Adamson and his team refashioned material in order to get ticket buyers into seats (at theaters or cars in drive-ins, as the case may be). This film, Psycho a Go-Go , and The Fiend With the Electronic Brain all share at least some of the same footage, so those interested might begin their "research" by looking at some of the screenshots in all three reviews.

Sam Sherman's fun commentary for this film gets into how he came up with the name for this third "at bat" for material originally seen in Psycho a Go-Go, but the name is only part of the problem with the completely crazy attempt to rejigger the pre-existing material seen in both Psycho a Go-Go and The Fiend with the Electronic Brain. Kind of hilariously, while The Fiend with the Electronic Brain tried to insert a kind of contextualizing story involving mad brain surgeon John Carradine, this version surrounds that material and the jewel heist and doll stuff from Psycho a Go-Go with a whole new round of mad scientist sequences, as well as scenes featuring Disney star Tommy Kirk. It's patently insane most of the time, but it provides another fascinating example of Adamson and Sherman living out that "if at first you don't succeed" maxim.

Blood of Ghastly Horror Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blood of Ghastly Horror is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer iin 2.34:1. While there are still abundant signs of age related wear and tear, along with variances in color temperature and grain resolution, this was to my eyes the overall best looking presentation of the three "versions" of the underlying material. Even the scenes seen in Psycho a Go-Go looked at least marginally better to me here, with a more accurate palette and noticeably better clarity, with a more finely resolved grain field. The "new, new" material still shows some damage, but offers above average detail levels and a good accounting of the palette.

Blood of Ghastly Horror Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blood of Ghastly Horror features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track which to my ears sounded the most consistent of the three "versions" of this basic material. The droning score effects, along with repeated use of bongo drums, sound rather nicely full bodied. There are still some intermittently slightly muffled sounding moments, Dialogue is presented cleanly throughout the presentation, though it, too, can sound a bit boxy. English subtitles are available via the button on your remote.

Blood of Ghastly Horror Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Archival Audio Commentary wtih Producer / Distributor Samuel M. Sherman


• Blood of Ghastly Horror Trailer (480p; 2:19)

Blood of Ghastly Horror Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blood of Ghastly Horror is just a silly mess most of the time, but this "version" offers what are arguably the best overall technical merits of the three films on Disc Two of The Masterpiece Collection. Samuel Sherman's commentary is a lot of fun and should be enjoyed by fans.