5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 1.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Bloodsucking menace Count Dracula seems to have met his match in the form of courageous Dr. Seward... but no one counted on the arrival of Dr. Frankenstein, who carts along his monster and devises a plan to bring the Count back to life for his own insidious means. Soon the countryside is overrun with seductive vampire vixens, a bloodthirsty werewolf, leering servants, and two horror titans at each other's throats! It's another wild, colorful, Euro-flavored creature feature from director Jesús Franco (Rites of Frankenstein, Vampyros Lesbos), also known as The Screaming Dead and Dracula vs. Frankenstein.
Starring: Dennis Price (I), Howard Vernon, Paca Gabaldón, Alberto Dalbés, Geneviève RobertHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 98% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.51:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
German: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
When even the venerable Stephen Thrower warns against trying too hard to make even one iota of sense out of Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein, while also overtly mentioning what might be called the directorial "sloppiness" of Jess Franco at this point in his long career, expectations had probably best be set accordingly. Thrower smartly compares Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein to Universal's House of Frankenstein, at least insofar as both films offer a "who's who(m)" of "all time monster greats". That said, the Universal films for all their cheesiness could be models of narrative clarity, a quality that Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein most definitely does not share. The film is almost willfully nonsensical a lot (all?) of the time, and as Thrower also gets into in his really interesting analysis of the film included on this disc as a bonus feature, Franco tends to subvert "accepted canon" at least on occasion with regard to Dracula (Howard Vernon).
Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.51:1. The back cover of this release states this was "scanned in 4K from Spanish, French and German release prints to create the longest and most comprehensive version known to exist". That variety of elements may be one early indication of how variant this presentation can be. There's manifest damage to be seen throughout, though it's probably most noticeable in the early going, with abundant scratching, noticeable vertical wobble during the credits, and an obviously faded palette. Things improve as the film progresses, and some of the last half in particular can show marked improvement in densities and accuracy of things like flesh tones. Detail levels are all over the place, and are perhaps at least intermittently subject to some of Franco's own failings in the technical department vis a vis "little" things like focus pulling and lighting regimens. Grain is also noticeably variant, but does give the presentation a decently organic look.
Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track in English, along with several foreign language tracks in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. The English track is decently balanced and offers a relatively full bodied rendering of a rather well crafted score from Bruno Nicolai, but the entire track sounds just a tad muffled on the high end, especially when toggling over to one of the arguably brighter sounding lossy tracks (notably especially the French and German). Dialogue and sound effects can come off as slightly boxy at times, but there are no major issues in terms of being able to hear everything clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.
This is one of those gonzo Jess Franco outings that may not even totally appeal to his diehard fanbase due to some inherent issues in clarity and even technical precision, as Stephen Thrower isn't especially shy about mentioning. But as a Blu-ray release, Severin may have done fans a favor by offering the Thrower supplement, which may in fact be enough to warrant checking this disc out, despite some technical limitations of the video presentation in particular.
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