Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Cake of Blood Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 26, 2024

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 something of an outlier in this newest volume of Danza Macabra from Severin, insofar as this is a kinda sorta portmanteau a la Amicus, though that said, as some of the supplements on this disc get into, that isn't to suggest that this resembles a typical Amicus offering in any substantial way. During the final days of Franco's tyrannical reign in Spain, one which proscribed filmmakers with pretty serious censorship, a quartet of perhaps provocateur filmmakers banded together to offer an "anthology" that, as the back cover of this release states, "examined classic themes through transgressive perceptions". There's a(n) "historical" approach here, as each of the tales is set in a different era, ranging from Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages to (then) contemporary life.

Tarot offers a "1000" as its year, and it is a patently dreamlike tale involving a knight who may not be playing chess with Death, but who is still ultimately dealing with the Plague. Victor Frankenstein attempts to reinvent Mary Shelley's venerable character, and does at least as interesting a job of it as the much more recent I, Frankenstein 3D. The "monster" here is rather interestingly almost more like a cobbled together naïf in the mold of Chauncey Gardener from Being There, as admittedly odd as that may sound. The really interesting Terror Among the Christians documents the "escape" efforts of two "believers" trying to get away from Nero's Rome that segues into a vampire story. The Dance purports to be a ghost story, and is the one tale here set in "contemporary" times.

All four of these stories can be variably opaque, and each can at least occasionally tip over into nascent magical realism. This is a film perhaps better approached as something to be "experienced" rather than "understood" in the traditional sense.

Cake of Blood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Cake of Blood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Rod Barnett of Naschycast and the Bloody Pit, and Dr. Adrian Smith, co-author of Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror


• My Generation (HD; 4:31) is an interview with actress Marisa Paredes. Subtitled in English.


• I Just Wanted to Have Fun (HD; 21:06) is an interview with co-director Jaime Chavarri. Subtitled in English.


• To Whoever Wants to Watch (HD; 11:39) is an interview with actor Jose Lifante. Subtitled in English.


• An Arthouse UFO (HD; 11:00) is an appreciation by Angel Sala, Head of Programming at the Sitges Film Festival. Subtitled in English.

Cake of Blood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.