Oasis of Fear Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Oasis of Fear Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 21, 2025

Umberto Lenzi's "Oasis of Fear" a.k.a. "An Ideal Place to Kill" (1971) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shameless Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with star Ornella Muti, archival program with director Umberto Lenzi; remastered vintage trailer; and more. In English or Italian, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The porn smugglers

Note: The text below was first used for our review of American label Mondo Macabro's release of Oasis of Fear in 2020.

The short X-rated inserts that appear in the bonus section of this upcoming release of Umberto Lenzi’s An Ideal Place to Kill a.k.a. Oasis of Fear should make it clear to you how decades ago some distributors wanted to promote the film. But its reputation as a sexploitation gem is seriously exaggerated. In fact, it is entirely undeserved. The inserts reintroduce only a couple of dirty pictures, plus one very short and suggestive, not graphic, sequence featuring Ray Lovelock and a double, and all of them are meaningless. The real Italian sexploitation films from the ‘70s were completely different animals. Lovelock actually did appear in one such film a few years later, Play Motel, so it is very easy to establish what type of sleazy fun Lenzi’s film failed to deliver.

In Copenhagen, happy hippies Dick (Lovelock) and Barbara (Ornella Muti) visit a popular sex shop and purchase a large stack of pornographic magazines and records to resell in Italy and finance their dream vacation. The plan works as intended and with the money from the merchandise the two begin living the good life.

But the good life turns out to be a lot more expensive than anticipated, so a few days after arriving in Italy, Dick and Barbara run out of money. Shortly after, they get in trouble with the law when Barbara attempts to sell a few amateur pictures revealing the most intimate parts of her body to an undercover detective, and then another even less sympathetic detective behind a desk asks that they choose between leaving the country in twenty-four hours and getting booked in a local jail. The botched vacation becomes a full-blown nightmare when Dick and Barbara’s car stops running on a desolated road, and they decide to steal a gallon of gas from a secluded mansion whose owner (Irene Papas) is planning a murder that would help her start a new life.

The film is based on an original story by Lenzi, which is neither great nor bad. It places the hippies in two drastically different worlds – one in which they are smart players, and another where they get played by smarter players – and by highlighting the flaws of the choices that destroy their dream vacation reconfirms the old truth that life is a big roller-coaster ride. This is basically it because the story does not have the smart twists and unexpected character transformations that make Lenzi’s big thrillers fun to watch.

But the film is by no means disappointing because it has a very interesting cheeky sense of humor that makes quite a difference. Indeed, it infuses the suspense and action with lightness that makes it practically impossible to take the film seriously, and the clearer it becomes that this was Lenzi’s intention, the more attractive the exploits of the hippies become.

Lenzi was lucky to be able to book the services of the prolific Italian cinematographer Alfio Contini, who lensed Michelangelo Antonioni’s visual stunner Zabriskie Point, but there are only a couple of sequences that leave a lasting impression. The best one comes at the very end, where Dick and Barbara are seen heading to a spectacular romantic beach, but it looks like a fairly decent replica of the final sequence from the much more serious and twisty thriller Paranoia a.k.a. A Quiet Place to Kill with Carroll Baker.

*Shameless Entertainment's release presents a fully uncut presentation of the film, sourced from a recent 2K master struck from the film’s original camera negative.

Oasis of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Oasis of Fear arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Shameless Entertainment.

This release brings to the United Kingdom the excellent 2K restoration of the film that several years ago American label Mondo Macabro introduced with this release. I like this 2K restoration a lot. In fact, I think that it is one of the best done for an Italian genre film.

The 2K restoration gives the entire film a wonderful, incredibly strong and attractive organic appearance. If you have only seen the film on Shameless Entertainment's R2 DVD release of this film -- a copy of which I still have in my library -- you should expect the Blu-ray to provide an upgrade in quality that typically 4K Blu-ray releases deliver. This is not an exaggeration. Delineation, clarity, and depth are so much better that now there is visual material with completely characteristics. Because the main protagonists visit diverse locations with unique qualities, this upgrade becomes even more striking. Color reproduction and balance are exceptional. All primaries and supporting nuances are very healthy and perfectly set. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections. Lastly, I would like to mention that unlike the American release, this is a dual-layer release. It is Region-Free as well.

Oasis of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH and English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The English track is the one that has always been used in international terrorizes. However, the complete version of the film has a few short segments that were done in Italian. When they appear, you will see automatic English subtitles. The overall quality of the English track is excellent, meaning that it is very healthy. But because some overdubbing was done, the typical minor unevenness that is present on such tracks is noticeable here as well. There are no encoding anomalies to report.

Oasis of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Postcards From the Set - in this exclusive new program, Ornella Muti reveals how she accidentally entered the film business at the age of fourteen, and recalls her similarly accidental casting for Oasis of Fear, which was her third feature film. Muti also discusses in great detail her working relationship with Umberto Lenzi, who was apparently extremely kind to her, and friendship with Irena Papas, whom she admired a lot. There are some hilarious comments about the shooting of the footage from the sex shop as well. At the end of the program, Muti also correctly points out that Italian films have lost a lot of their charm, primarily because of the expansion of digital filmmaking. In Italian, with English subtitles. (22 min).

• The Porn Smugglers - in this archival video interview, director Umberto Lenzi discusses the conception and evolution of Oasis of Fear (apparently, his intent was to shoot a film that resembled Easy Rider, but producer Carlo Ponti turned it down), the casting of Ornella Muti, the use of the erotic content in the film and some of the problems it created, etc. In Italian, with English subtitles. (24 min).

• The Wilson Bros Trivia Track - a text-format commentary for the film.

• Legacy Trailer - presented here is a remastered vintage trailer for Oasis of Fear. In English, not subtitled. (5 min).

• Cover - a reversible cover with vintage poster art for Oasis of Fear.

Oasis of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Oasis of Fear is one seriously misunderstood film. It is not one of Umberto Lenzi's better films, either. However, the moment you realize that it was never meant to be a sexploitation gem -- which is precisely what many of its fans believe it is, and plenty of distributors wanted it to be -- it becomes quite a charmer. I always suspected that it was some sort of compromise because it has a cheeky sense of humor the legit Italian sexploitation films from the '70s very rarely tolerated, so Lenzi's admission in the excellent video interview that it was supposed to emulate Easy Rider finally puts everything that occurs in it in proper context. Shameless Entertainment's upcoming Blu-ray release brings to the United Kingdom the excellent recent, fully uncut 2K restoration of Oasis of Fear, with an outstanding exclusive new program featuring one of its stars, Ornella Muti. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.