7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Four part anthology horror film, with segments featuring witchcraft, ghosts, Frankenstein and his monster, and Romans battling Celtic vampires.
Starring: Julián UgarteHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Danza Macabra: Volume Three — The Spanish Gothic Collection from Severin.
Since one might assume that one of the staples of Gothic media (film or otherwise), namely dank and spooky castles, were built in the veritable days
of yore
before the advent of the convenience of modern plumbing and water supplies, perhaps it's a more
apt metaphor than usual to say that Severin is "returning to the well" for a third volume of offerings branded as Danza Macabra, after their
previous releases of
Danza Macabra: Volume One — The Italian Gothic Collection and Danza Macabra: Volume Two — The Italian Gothic Collection. As can probably be
pretty easily gleaned from the subheading of this third collection, Severin is changing countries, and is here offering Spanish Gothic productions
instead of the two previous volumes' concentration on Italian Gothic films, and with production dates ranging from 1971 to 1975 (with two films from
each year). All four films in this collection are advertised as featuring new scans of the original negative for the first time. As with the other
Danza Macabra collections, the films may be of variant interest and/or quality, but as usual Severin offers a
really handsomely designed package that contains some outstanding supplemental features.
Cake of Blood is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. The back cover of this release touts this as "the worldwide Blu-ray premiere now restored uncut", and further specifies this was "scanned in 2K from the original negative for the first time ever". Rather interestingly, the back cover also mentions this film has never been available outside of Spain, which will probably mean it's a "new" film for many. This had some of the most consistently impressive saturation and fine detail levels in the third volume of Danza Macabra, even given the inherent variabilities introduced by different directors and crews. There's an undeniably misty, unavoidably soft, look to some of the imagery, no doubt by design, but overall detail levels remain intact and in less "artful" moments, fine detail on things like costume fabrics can be very impressive. The palette is very nicely suffused throughout. Grain resolves without any problems.
Cake of Blood features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track in the original Spanish, though some of these vignettes really are not traditionally "dialogue" driven, and can rely more on dreamlike imagery, ambient environmental sounds and score. One way or the other, the track encounters no real issues, though the low end may not be particularly forceful. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
If you kind of "go with the flow" and don't expect traditional Amicus trappings like some kind of through line and/or wraparound and/or interstitial material, Cake of Blood is really a rather fascinating anthology. I'm frankly not sure I could rationally explain any of these tales in sum, but they all emit a patently dreamlike, otherworldly, atmosphere. Technical merits are generally solid, and as usual Severin has assembled some very appealing supplements. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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