5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Michael's health club is beseiged with a series of terrible murders involving killer saunas and other grisly devices. Michael's wife, Catherine, killed herself a year ago, and her brother, David, blames Michael. Can Michael stop the bloodshed before he loses all of his clients?
Starring: William Bumiller, Brenda Bakke, Merritt Butrick, Robert Lipton, Alexa HamiltonHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
MPI Media Group is relaunching the Gorgon Video label, and their first offering is the campy 1987 cult classic Death Spa, a cheap but cheerful schlock-fest that has been unavailable in a legitimate edition for some years. Made by a cast and crew brimming with youthful excitement, Death Spa is certainly no cheesier than the John Travolta bomb Perfect (1985), which was based on the same series of Rolling Stone articles about health clubs that also inspired first-time producer Jamie Beardsley to set a horror film in the upscale world of Nautilus machines, juice bars and nubile flesh just begging to be punished for its sinful ways. If Death Spa had received more effective distribution, it would be much better known today. MPI/Gorgon is releasing the film in a dual format package that offers the film on both Blu-ray and DVD with a newly recorded commentary and an original 50-minute documentary tracing the film's production and subsequent slide into obscurity. Even with a transfer from the original camera negative, the film can't escape its low-budget origins, but it certainly looks better than anything that has been previously available. Most importantly, this version is billed as complete and uncut, which has not always been the case with previous video releases. Just as Eighties horror films were as much about sex as mayhem, the era's fascination with health clubs had as much to do with animal attraction as with fitness. Director Michael Fischa exploited this connection as overtly as possible, including hiring female extras from a casting agency for porn films. For fans of Death Spa, old and new, it would be a crime to frustrate Fisha's intent by cutting back his lingering explicit shots. (Unfortunately, Blu-ray.com's rules preclude me from including any screen captures.)
According to MPI/Gorgon, its new 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray has been created from a 2K scan of the original camera negative (or "OCN") of Death Spa, which was shot by cinematographer Arledge "Ace" Armenaki (Howling V: The Rebirth ), one of the most experienced members of the young production crew. On the newly recorded commentary track, director Michael Fischa opines that, even with the latest refinements, none of today's digital cameras have yet achieved the look of film. The Blu-ray image is a mixed bag. On the plus side, it features deep blacks and vivid, saturated colors, with rich primaries. The bright shades of spandex, the florid illumination and the overripe effects are all reproduced with the comic-book vividness that the material deserves. Also, for most of the running time, the elements are in acceptable shape with only minor damage (at least by my standards; others may be more sensitive). The major exception is the opening credits, which suffer from numerous major scratches and blotches, many of which are probably a function of the optically superimposed titles. On the negative side, the image is unusually soft for a contemporary scan of a 35mm OCN. There's a lot of detail in the image, but long shots are blurrier than one would expect from a 35mm image, and fine detail tends to get lost. To my eye, this does not appears to be a result of any obvious filtering, but it may reflect the limitations of a 2K scan in an era when the best transfers of older films are routinely done at 4K or higher, regardless of whether or not they are advertised as such. Also, the average bitrate is an unusually low 17.997 Mbps. As several recent remasters have shown, most recently Blazing Saddles , the same image harvest can produce a sharper image in motion with better mastering and a higher bitrate. Having taken the trouble to produce a new scan, MPI should have gone the extra distance to use a BD-50 and author Death Spa with sufficient bandwidth to ensure the best possible image.
Death Spa was released in mono and is presented on Blu-ray in a two-channel mono configuration in lossless DTS-HD MA. A good surround decoder can occasionally steer a specific sound effect to left or right, but overall the sound remains firmly anchored to the center. In the new documentary, composer Peter Kaye (Born in East L.A.) says that, if he had it to do over, he would have scored more sparingly, but in fact Kaye's barrage of synthesizers works well with the subject matter, since health spas of the era always had music blaring. The film's sound mix reflects its low budget origins, but the dialogue is clear, and Kaye's score has a surprisingly wide dynamic range with deep bass extension that the Blu-ray's track is able to bring out probably better than any theatrical audience ever heard it.
Regardless of any question about its video quality, fans of Death Spa will want this release, because it trounces any video version previously available. Fans of Eighties horror will want to check it out as a lesser known but worthy entry in the genre. Anyone eager to encourage MPI's reentry into classic horror with the revival of the Gorgon Video label may also want to consider supporting those efforts by investing in this first title, which has more than enough good points to justify the expenditure. Recommended.
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