6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A preacher is accused of adultery and he and his followers are chased out of town and become stranded in an isolated forest which is haunted by the spirits of long dead Native Americans.
Starring: Dennis Lipscomb, Guy Boyd, Rebecca Stanley, Sally Klein, Karlene CrockettHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as both this standalone release and as a part of All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror.
All the Haunts Be Ours advertises itself as "the most comprehensive collection of its kind", which may initially beg the question as to "kind of
what?". But the release also comes with a front cover sobriquet
proclaiming it "a compendium of folk horror", which may then beg the next obvious question as to what exactly "folk horror" is. In that
regard, this set
begins with a fascinating and diverse documentary which has its own subtitle referencing folk horror, Woodlands Dark and Days
Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, which provides a veritable glut of clips from international films which director (and this entire set's guiding
light) Kier-La Janisse has assembled to help define the genre, but perhaps the best answer is to simply echo a certain Supreme Court Justice named
Potter Stewart who was trying to decide a case involving supposed pornography, and who famously opined, "I shall not today attempt further to define
the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I
know it when I see it. . ."
Eyes of Fire is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Severin's insert booklet states this is a "4K restoration from the original negative", and for anyone who has only seen this film in various shoddy home theater or even theatrical release versions this should be something of a revelation. While there are some rough spots (more about those in a moment), this is often gorgeously saturated, especially in the brightly lit outdoor material, and detail levels are frequently excellent on the often finely textured fabrics on costumes and the like. Some of the "quaint" special effects may not pass muster with those raised on CGI, and some of the actual effects involving reversing polarity can definitely lead to a diminution in detail. There are a number of dimly lit sequences, including some blue graded material that I'm assuming is supposed to be day for night (or something like that), and those are considerably more gritty in terms of grain reproduction, with, again, less fulsome fine detail levels. Recurrent if minor damage has made it through whatever restoration gauntlet was undertaken.
Eyes of Fire features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix that has a bit of thinness on the high end at times which can make the score sound slightly brash and strident. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly (witch Leah often "speaks in tongues", so don't go looking for comprehensibility there), though there are some minor signs of age related wear and tear, including some errant pops and cracks and some background hiss. Optional English subtitles are available.
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (HD; 13:12) is an animated piece from 1972.
- Transformations (HD; 8:34)
- Backwoods (HD; 15:25) is a Myskatonic feature based on Lovecraft.
In some ways it's easy to see why Eyes of Fire has attained such a cult status within the annals of so-called "folk horror", and in fact this entry checks off a bunch of the hugely variant boxes that various talking heads list in Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, the documentary about this (sub?)genre also included in All the Haunts Be Ours. But as even Colin Dickey admits in his interesting commentary, the film probably goes off the rails somewhere late in the second act, and the climax in particular is patently weird. There are some interesting angles in terms of patriarchal and matriarchal dominances that Dickey gets into which may provide some interest in addition to the whole haunted forest aspect. Technical merits are generally solid (video probably more than audio), and the supplementary package very well done. Recommended.
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