Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Cold Blooded Beast Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 4, 2017

Fernando Di Leo's "Slaughter Hotel" a.k.a. "Cold Blooded Beast" (1971) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors 88 Films. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; new video interview with actress Rosalba Neri; new interview with script supervisor Silvia Petroni; new audio commentary by genre expert Nathaniel Thompson; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Beautiful young women are taken to a secluded asylum where a team of doctors are paid to help them recover. Some of the women have suffered serious nervous breakdowns, some are suicidal, and some are addicted to sex. But some of the doctors do not seem entirely normal while a few of the nurses can’t stop flirting with the patients.

The fun activities in the asylum are disrupted when someone begins killing the beautiful women with the period weapons displayed in one of the institution’s elegant baroque rooms.

The key to enjoying this utterly absurd film from Italian maestro Fernando Di Leo is to be fully aware that it is not to be taken seriously. Indeed, it is a rather wild exercise in style whose one and only goal is to thrill with a very specific type of atmosphere. Everything else -- the structure of its narrative, the logic behind the twists, and even the character transformations -- is secondary.

The film combines elements from two different genres. On one hand, the killings were unquestionably choreographed and shot to make it appeal to giallo fans. Indeed, the camera movement, the framing and even the lighting clearly imitate the standards set by early giallo classics. (See Dario Argento’s The Bird With the Crystal Plumage). On the other hand, the prolonged erotic sequences are hardly surprising as Italian and especially French thrillers from the same period had a very lax attitude towards nudity. (See Lucio Fulci’s Perversion Story and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Trans-Europ Express). The end result is probably best described as an experimental psycho-sexual giallo which was meant to sell well in Italy and France, but for entirely different reasons. (More than likely this is precisely the reason why a more explicit version of the film was distributed in France).

Slaughter Hotel may appear slightly uneven at times, but it is undoubtedly a very elegant film. The young women look fantastic, with Rosalba Neri in particular looking stunning in her black outfit, and the period decors are great. Silvano Spadaccino’s score is also very elegant and perfectly fits the film’s atmosphere. (A few years later, Spadaccino will also score Di Leo’s erotic comedy To Be Twenty, with Gloria Guida and future adult star Lilli Carati).

Klaus Kinski and Margaret Lee have small roles as well, but Slaughter Hotel isn’t a film in which they deliver memorable character performances. In fact, both are clearly underused.

This release of Slaughter Hotel features a reconstructed version of the film that is approximately 97 minutes long (01:36:41). According to 88 Films, it is the longest version so far assembled. Apparently, the distributors used a variety of sources to complete the sound track as English dialogue was never recorded for some scenes. The extra footage from the more explicit French version of the film is also inserted, and from what I could tell there are some new edits that were introduced with them. (On the Raro Video U.S. release the rare footage that was taken from the 35mm negative print is actually included as bonus footage).

Cold Blooded Beast Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in aspect ratio of 2.30:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Fernando Di Leo's Slaughter Hotel arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films.

The technical presentation is very surprising -- and in a positive way. It is easy to tell that the release is sourced from the same Italian master that Raro Video U.S. accessed when they prepared their North American release, but the end result here is a lot more convincing. To be perfectly clear, there is still plenty of room for very important improvements, but some of the main limitations that seriously compromised the image quality on the Raro Video U.S. release are actually either noticeably less distracting or in some cases essentially minimized to a degree where it is quite easy to tolerate them. The most obvious difference is that the heavy digital smearing from the previous release is also completely gone. It is difficult for me to tell exactly what was done on the previous release but the flatness, smearing, and heavy artifacts lead me to believe that a filter of some sort was applied and then the poor encoding essentially added a second filter that collapsed detail. On this release there are still areas where it is very easy to tell that definition and clarity are not optimal, and there are also some odd anomalies that have been inherited from the master (see screencapture #12); however, the added filtering/encoding effects are missing (you can see how drastic the difference can be if you compare screencapture #25 and screencapture #18 from the other review). As a result there are really big portions of the film that boast far better delineation and even depth, and the larger your screen is, the easier it will be for you to see these improvements. The main limitations that are on the master, however, remain -- for the most part the film looks a bit harsher than it should because the grain does not have the natural surface that a proper scan and organic master would ensure; blacks frequently appear crushed and collapse existing detail; and brightness/color balance isn't managed as well as it needs to be. Image stability is very good. Finally, I wish to mention that for this presentation of the film 88 Films have included all of the archival and rare inserts that were uncovered in Europe and were made available as bonus content on the Raro Video U.S. release, so expect some noticeable drops in quality when they pop up (see examples in screencaptures #16 and 20). My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Cold Blooded Beast Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The original English track has plenty of overdubbing and there is some unevenness that comes with it. This is hardly surprising, however, as many of these genre films were done this way and this unevenness is quite common on many original dubs. Additionally, there are a couple of sequences on the same version for which there are no existing audio elements.

Cold Blooded Beast Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original Italian trailer for Slaughter Hotel. Music only. (3 min).

• Script Supervising in the Seventies - in this new video interview, script supervisor Silvia Petroni, daughter of director Giulio Petroni (Tepepa), explains how many Italian/European genre films were edited and ultimately put together by their creators during the 1970s. There are also some interesting comments about Fernando Di Leo's working methods. In English, not subtitled. (16 min).

• Interview with Rosalba Neri - in this new video interview, Rosalba Neri recalls some of the genre films she made during the 1970s and discusses some of the more challenging scenes she was asked to do, including the half-naked scenes in Fernando Di Leo's Slaughter Hotel. The actress also discusses the more explicit French version of Slaughter Hotel and the hardcore scenes that another actress did for it. In Italian, with English subtitles. (13 min).

• Commentary - presented here is a new audio commentary with genre expert Nathaniel Thompson of Mondo Digital who has some pretty interesting bits of information to share about Slaughter Hotel, its history and different reincarnations, and appeal.

• English Opening and Closing Credits - original alternative English credits/Cold Blooded Beast. (3 min).

• Cover Art - reversible cover with original Italian poster art.

Cold Blooded Beast Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even though this recent release of Fernando Di Leo's thriller Slaughter Hotel is sourced from the same Italian master that Raro Video U.S. accessed when they prepared their North American release of the film in 2014, I found it to be a lot more convincing. There are still obvious limitations on display and there is no question that ideally Slaughter Hotel should look quite a bit better in high-definition, but if you like the film I definitely think that you should consider upgrading. You will even get a very nice new interview with Rosalba Neri as a bonus. RECOMMENDED.