5.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A country western singer goes back home to the hills of Carolina where he gots caught up in a feud between some homeboy moonshiners and "the Revenoores".
Starring: Charles Glore, Gordon Oas-Heim, Jeffrey Allen, Ben Moore (I), J.G. Patterson Jr.Horror | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Musical | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 2.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Note: This film is available as part of
The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast.
Mention the initials “H.G.” to most people, and my hunch is virtually everyone will default to thinking about H.G. Wells, the legendary author
whose
science fiction masterpieces resulted in such memorable films as
The Time Machine, The Invisible Man,
The Island of Dr. Moreau and War of the Worlds. Certain fans who have a slightly
different definition of what constitutes a memorable film might have a variant reaction to those same initials, however, positing one Herschell
Gordon Lewis instead of Mr. Wells. Lewis has long been known by the sobriquet “Godfather of Gore,” and his early exploitation pictures were, for
their
day, amazingly overt in their depiction of what ultimately came to be called “splatter”. Lewis, who only just fairly recently died at the age of 90,
had
an interesting if not especially distinguished career, though it’s notable that Lewis maintained a more than abundant sense of humor about his
films
and his contributions to the supposed art of cinema. Lewis’ filmography (it’s a bit of a stretch to actually call it an oeuvre) hasn’t been
especially well served in the Blu-ray era, though there have been at least a few releases of his work, including The Blood Trilogy, The Wizard of Gore / The Gore Gore Girls and The Lost Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Now, in
what
amounts to an elegy of sorts for Lewis, Arrow Video has assembled what will certainly go down in the annals of the Blu-ray era as one of the
most
lavish deluxe sets produced, at least within the confines of what can only be accurately described as “cult cinema”. Along with a collection of
fourteen
films (nine making their Blu-ray debut), Arrow also includes a glut of bonus content (some with Lewis’ involvement), as well as impressive
packaging
and non disc supplements.
Arrow has included some general verbiage about the transfers in this set:
All film materials sourced for restoration were scanned in 2K resolution on a pin registered 4K Lasergraphics Director Scanner at Deluxe Media, Burbank. Film grading and restoration was completed at Deluxe Restoration, London. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools. Overall image stability and density fluctuation was also improved when possible.Additionally, this film comes with the following disclaimer:
The original mono soundtracks were transferred from 35mm prints by Deluxe Audio Services, Los Angeles, and were conformed and restored at Deluxe Restoration, London.
Additional audio conform for How to Make a Doll and Just for the Hell of It by David Mackenzie.
Although the best existing elements were sourced for this project and every attempt was made to present the films in this collection in the highest quality possible, some of the films still exhibit varying degrees of damage that could not be digitally repaired to our satisfaction. The condition of the existing materials for Moonshine Mountain, The Gruesome Twosome, How to Make a Doll and This Stuff'll Kill Ya all contained extreme levels of dirt, scratches and debris as well as many instances of torn or missing frames. They all exhibited heavy degrees of colour fading as well. Likewise, the print sections sourced to complete A Taste of Blood were both faded and heavily scratched. Throughout the restoration workflow process, our priority was to retain the original photochemical look of the films rather than create unwanted digital artefacts by heavy handed picture cleanup. Therefore, many of the films in this collection exhibit "warts and all" appearance, in keeping with their distribution history and physical condition.
Restoration supervised by James White, Arrow Films.
Moonshine Mountain has been exclusively restored for this release by Arrow Films. The film was restored in 2K resolution using a selection of 35mm prints, as the original negative has been lost. Additional sections sourced from standard definition tape masters were also used to create the most complete version of this film possible. Due to the extremely poor condition of the film elements available, this presentation exhibits extreme colour fading that could only be corrected to a minimal degree through digital grading. This presentation also includes numerous instances of damaged and missing frames that were impossible to restore digitally. The audio was similarly affected and as a result the soundtrack contains many noticeable instances of damage. There is occasional loose audio synch but this is as per the original source materials.Moonshine Mountain is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This is by far the most problematic transfer in the Lewis set, and one that some people may not feel even merits a 2.0. The problems are pretty extreme from the get go, with quite a few missing frames in the opening credits that make the theme play like a polyrhythmic Frank Zappa spectacular, and with large blue vertical scratches. The color here is highly variant, at times almost nonexistent at others there, but faded and tinted toward the red side of things. Contrast is about as variant, and there are obvious differences between the film and tape elements, as can be seen by comparing screenshots 8 and 9.
Moonshine Mountain's LPCM mono track is "kin" to its video counterpart, with missing snippets of tunes and omnipresent hiss along with frequent if not constant distortion. Surprisingly at least some of the musical elements sound decently full bodied. There are occasional anomalies like low level hum (noticeable in the car attack scene), along with regular cracks and pops.
Arrow has packaged this set a little unusually, with two films per disc and one set of supplements for both movies available from a main menu. While some of the supplements are obviously geared toward one individual film, others are a bit more general in nature, and so I'm listing the complete supplemental package for each particular disc rather than for each individual film. The supplements for Two Thousand Maniacs and Moonshine Mountain are:
- Two Thousand Maniacs Trailer (1080p; 2:14)
- Moonshine Mountain Trailer (1080p; 1:29)
Moonshine Mountain has some enjoyable elements, but it's marred by the most substandard audio and video presentation in the Lewis set. Supplemental material is enjoyable, but this one is probably for Lewis completists.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1971
1967
1972
1968
1970
1967
1968
1965
1967
1963
1968
Special Edition
1964
1963
2004
1987
1991
Slugs, muerte viscosa
1988
1986
Limited Edition Slipcover
1992
1989