6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A paranoid writer is unable to get started on his second novel. He hires a secretary, and then his troubles really begin.
Starring: Udo Kier, Linda Hayden, Fiona Richmond, Patsy Smart, Karl HowmanHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 35% |
Thriller | 7% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (1 BD, 2 DVDs)
DVD copy
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
It may strike our coarsened American sensibilities as downright funny, but in the late 1970s and (especially) early 1980s, the British were up in arms over what they termed (in that quaint English style) “video nasties”. With the advent of VCRs and home video viewing, a glut of questionable titles had arisen which shocked the supposedly delicate sensibilities of the British, or at least the British who were armed with power to make laws banning such fare. Two acronymed entities were at the forefront of this era, the BBFC, or British Board of Film Censorship (later the British Board of Film Classification) and the DPP, or Director of Public Prosecutions. Utilizing a then out of date law, individual constabularies raided video stores and made completely arbitrary decisions about which videotapes to seize for putative obscene content, which ultimately resulted in the DPP publishing a list of so-called “video nasties”, which of course made these supposedly “dangerous” films all the more alluring to a certain class of consumer. House on Straw Hill, which was released in various markets as Exposé and Trauma, was a 1976 low budget effort that has had a rather ignominious history, having suffered the slings and arrows of not only being outright banned, but of having had large snippets of it trimmed through the years in order to maintain what various censoring agencies have imposed as a sense of propriety. Now restored (a relative term, as will be discussed below) to its uncut version, House on Straw Hill will probably appeal to curious sorts who have long wondered what all the fuss was about, but even those guided by a perhaps prurient interest in the film may be remembering that adage from their youth, “the anticipation is greater than the realization”.
House on Straw Hill is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. The presentation includes the following introductory text card:
The following presentation of House on Straw Hill has been mastered from the three remaining elements known to exist. The original negative has suffered considerable water damage over the years so could only be used in instances where the other elements were missing scenes. Otherwise two vintage 35mm prints were used which over the years have faded and have been projected countless times. The color and the most egregious damage have been restored but anomalies still remain.The upshot of this is therefore not that House on Straw Hill looks less than stellar—for this is certainly a problematic presentation by any stretch of the imagination—but that it actually looks as good as it does. There are manifold differences between all three elements used for this transfer, which result in rather drastic changes in the appearance of the film, despite whatever ameliorative restoration efforts have been done here. Damage is quite prevalent throughout all three elements, including fairly consistent scratches and recurrent issues like small flecks and dirt showing up. Contrast and grain structure also fluctuate wildly depending on what element has been utilized. The biggest issue here however is with color, which varies substantially from moment to moment, sometimes within the same scene. The "best" looking sections here are still somewhat oddly colored, with fleshtones on the purple-red side of things (see the first screenshot of Kier), while the worst moments are blanched and very badly faded (see screenshot 19). Several scenes display color fluctuations that vary seemingly from frame to frame, where a sort of blue- to-green flicker or strobing effect will be noticeable even to the least well trained eye. The image, even that sourced from the negative, is often quite gauzily soft, though fine detail rises to at least acceptable levels in the more brightly lit sequences which feature close-ups. From a historical and contextual perspective, this is probably obviously the best that could be expected here given the film's "storied" past, but on a purely objective level, things don't look great here, as Severin is obviously very well aware of. This is therefore perhaps one of the few cases (if not the only case) where a video score of 2.0 is actually relatively good news.
We apologize for the imperfect presentation but every effort has been made to preserve the feature in its uncut form before the elements deteriorate further.
House on Straw Hill's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track actually reveals very little damage of even transitional differences between the three elements, aside from some very minor pops and cracks. Dialogue and Steve Gray's rather effective score are presented with good if not outstanding fidelity. Kier's English dubbed voice means that his lip movements don't always quite match the words being spoken, but that's a relatively minor issue.
Blu-ray Supplements
House on Straw Hill is obviously the very model of a niche product, and kudos need to be given to the Severin Film people who have gone to such lengths to reassemble the film and to present it in its complete form. Is it perfect? Far from it, but the fact that Severin has been able to offer an uncut version at all is testament to what a few "cult film lovers" can do. Even those who might not be particularly interested in the actual film may want to get their hands on one of the first 3000 copies of this release, for the bonus DVD documentaries are outstanding and give a really fascinating glimpse into a troublesome period in Britain's history. While the video issue here "is what it is", overall this release comes Recommended.
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