4.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A zombie wearing a Nazi SS uniform terrorizes the French countryside.
Starring: Véronique Renaud, Marcel Portier, Catherine Day, Nicole DesaillyHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 59% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
1985’s “Devil Story” entered production with a best of intentions, but director Bernard Launois was quickly overwhelmed by the demands of low- budget filmmaking. His attempt at something resembling a ghost story evolved (or stumbled) into an offering of dream logic, with the finished movie heading everywhere at once, becoming the French equivalent of an Ed Wood movie, but with a higher concentration on weirdness. “Devil Story” is bizarre work, with Launois almost proud of his nonsensical ways, delivering a nutso celebration of genre events, repetition, and gore, laboring to find some way to make audiences submit to his half-baked tale of death and animal agitation. And there’s a mummy in here for some reason.
The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation is sourced from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. "Devil Story" definitely wasn't made with care, but it looks as good as possible here, with Vinegar Syndrome giving the cult film an excellent refreshing for a new generation of admirers. Detail reaches as far as possible, capturing makeup textures and gory events, including goopy guts and spurting wounds. Skin particulars are compelling, along with exterior tours, which provide naturalistic and architecture highlights. Colors are nicely refreshed, with deep red blood and bright costuming, including yellow rain gear. Greenery is exact. Grain is heavy but film-like. Delineation is satisfactory. Source is in good condition, with some light scratches and debris.
The 1.0 DTS-HD MA mix is offered in French and English, with the latter providing a clearer listening experience. There's not much to this track besides tinny scoring selections and sound effects, which are repeated to a point of insanity. Dialogue exchanges are acceptable.
"Devil Story" entered production as a serious endeavor, but many things went wrong for Launois, transforming this effort into a prime Bad Movie Night selection. It's sincere in its oddity, but screwball in execution, watching the helmer figure out ways to piece together random imagery, often turning to obvious padding to fill the run time. "Devil Story" isn't a good film by any means, falling apart repeatedly as unexplained events start to stack up, but there's an undeniable level of lovable lunacy involved in the feature, especially with viewers who understand going into a viewing that nothing they're about to see makes sense, has technical skill, or is easy on the ears.
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