Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Death Occurred Last Night Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 2, 2024

For anyone who spends even a few minutes watching American television, pharmaceutical ads are well nigh impossible to avoid, and there can be some passing amusement at times in listening to the voiceover performer rattle through an incredible number of potential side effects, up to and including death, all of which are typically recited in passive voice, as if to make the symptoms somehow less concerning. Even those with absolutely no interest in grammar may concede that "death has occurred" is probably a little less shocking than "taking this drug can cause your death". In that regard, while it may not be "truly" passive voice, Death Occurred Last Night is a kind of oddly dissociative title that offers the ultimate ending (in more ways than one) in a kind of weirdly "meh" formulation. If the title of this film is a bit on the strange side, the film itself is a rather interesting combo platter that at least hints at various aspects of two Italian genre stalwarts, gialli and Poliziotteschi. This UK release is evidently more or less a carbon copy of RaroVideo's offering for the US market, though it is distributed by Radiance Films in this case.

Per the above, RaroVideo's US branch released Death Occurred Last Night (almost a decade ago, kind of incredibly), and Brian Orndorf's Death Occurred Last Night Blu-ray review of that release should provide a more than ample plot description. While some of the supplements seem to be shared between the two releases, it does appear that this release offers an audio supplement that was not on the US version. For those interested, this played fine in both my Region B and Region A players.

Death Occurred Last Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Death Occurred Last Night is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of RaroVideo and Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. hose who keep track of data points may be interested to see RaroVideo's US release was encoded via VC-1 and had a just slightly narrower aspect ratio of 1.66:1. I've tried to come close to reproducing some of the screenshots that Brian included in his review, and to my eyes, this version looks a bit darker and better suffused than the older released, as well as offering arguably crisper fine detail levels in things like fabric textures on costumes. Brian mentioned that the US release looked like it had some filtering, and again when comparing screenshots, it looks to me that this version has a better defined grain field.

Death Occurred Last Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Death Occurred Last Night features LPCM Mono tracks in either Italian or English. The Italian track is in better shape than the English, with a more nuanced midrange and fuller low end, as well as much less crackle, hiss and other minor but audible damage that afflicts the English language version. Chris Alexander talks about how "controversial" Gianni Ferrio's score has supposedly been, but Brian mentioned in his review how it's almost a "supporting character", and while it's undeniably hyperbolic a lot of the time, I rather enjoyed it, and I'd argue it has a better overall presentation on the Italian language version. Optional English subtitles are available.

Death Occurred Last Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio essay by Francesco Massaccesi on the importance of Milan in Italian noirs, narrated by Howard S. Berger (11:06) is a really fascinating piece that expores the focal location. Given that "noir" in the title, this appropriately plays to a black screen.


• Introduction by Chris Alexander (HD; 7:13) offers the editor of Fangoria in his mancave which looks exactly like you'd expect it to offering his thoughts on the film and Tessari in general.


• Trailer (HD; 2:39)

Radiance provided a check disc for purposes of this review, and so I don't have any information on anything like an insert booklet.

Death Occurred Last Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chris Alexander makes an argument that there are at least some tethers to Hardcore in Death Occurred Last Night, and much like that harrowing George C. Scott film, there's some very provocative and dark content on hand in this piece. Technical merits are generally solid (video probably a bit more than audio), and the supplements are very interesting. Recommended.