5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
A deranged 15th Century prison colony chaplain exploits his power to get money for his church including murder and grave robbing committed by his vampire mistress and one-eyed hunchback assistant.
Starring: Irving MetzmanHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
Note: This film is available as part of
The Dungeon of Andy Milligan.
Lovers of what might be charitably termed Grade Z Cinema have had a number of outstanding releases by a variety of labels over the past few
years.
Arrow has offered fans surprisingly deluxe-ified (that's a word, I insist) editions of The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast and Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection, among others, while Severin Films has gotten
into
exploring this decidedly
odd nook and/or cranny with releases like
Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection. Severin's back with more, um, "masterpieces" with this inventively packaged homage to the
late Andy Milligan, a kinda sorta auteur whose professional life had more than its fair share of hurdles, and whose personal life
unfortunately
ended up not being much better. The 14 films (with one bonus film in HD, Toga Party) aggregated in this set are exploitation outings at
their "finest" (?), which means those with more
patrician tastes are probably well advised to steer completely clear of this release. Those with grittier sensibilities will find some at times oddly
entertaining
movies and Severin's usual supply of appealing supplements.
Guru, the Mad Monk is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.33:1 and 1.78:1. Severin's booklet included with this release has the following information on the transfer:
Guru, the Mad Monk has been scanned and restored in 2K from a 35mm release print held at the American Genre Film Archive. All pre-print materials are believed lost or destroyed. Due to Milligan's strange framing style, the film is presented in both 1.33:1 and 1.85:1 [sic]. It is unknown how he preferred the film to be screened.I've included more or less duplicative screenshots from the 1.33:1 and 1.78:1 transfers included on this disc, and for me, anyway, the most interesting difference really isn't in the framing (since, as kind of hilariously mentioned above, Milligan was "strange" in that regard), but for the slight differences in brightness and palette, which can probably be gleaned by opening similar screenshots in full resolution and doing a side by side comparison. Those differences aside, both of these transfers show pretty bad damage at times, as can also be gleaned in some of the screenshots, with some massive (and again often green) scratches marring the frame. Both versions offer a fairly thick grain field and at times actually pretty decent detail levels, all things considered.
Guru, the Mad Monk features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that delivers dialogue mostly intelligibly, though, this being a Milligan film, there are some curious passing deficiencies in recording acumen at times. There are no huge issues with regard to outright damage, and optional English subtitles can help those struggling to decipher individual moments.
Guru, the Mad Monk is one of the more confounding films in this set, with an at least occasionally unclear narrative and probably without enough traditional horror trappings to hook fans of that genre. Milligan fans will no doubt delight in being able to see the film in two different aspect ratios, and the commentary track offers some potentially provocative analysis, for those who are considering making a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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