Revenge of the Blood Beast Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Revenge of the Blood Beast Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf January 19, 2017

An Italian chiller, 1966’s “Revenge of the Blood Beast” (aka “She Beast”) is a peculiar endeavor to merge horror with broad comedy, using extremes to give the picture a level of liveliness other productions tend to avoid. Director Michael Reeves barely holds the feature together, but he’s rather good with macabre details, putting time and effort into gruesome encounters and fiendish turns of plot. But for every bizarre, demonic scene in the movie, there’s a slapstick counterpart, including a conclusion that appears to be a tribute to the Keystone Cops brand of mischief -- an unexpected addition when dealing with a film that’s primarily about a witch’s rampage.

Long ago, Italian villagers decided to take charge of the area and kill the local witch, Vardella, drowning her in the local lake. Centuries later, newlyweds Philip (Ian Ogilvy) and Veronica (Barbara Steele) make a pit stop in town, deciding to stay overnight in the care of local pervert, Groper (Mel Welles). Experiencing a car accident the next day, Philip sends his automobile into the cursed lake, awakening the vengeful spirit of Vardella, who possesses Veronica. Unable to process what’s going on, Philip finds help from local nut Von Helsing (John Karlsen), who knows a thing or two about supernatural entanglements, helping the poor man return Veronica to the land of the living.

“Revenge of the Blood Beast” starts off straight, with Von Helsing recounting Vardella’s original punishment, where the witch was strapped to a wooden device made specifically for dunking witches in water, seemingly killed off in the process. It’s a pretty severe punishment, and a memorable one too, coupled with wild make-up work on Vardella, who’s as gruesome as can be, making for a memorable antagonist. The picture doesn’t exactly lighten up when back in 1966, as it insists on detailing Groper’s grotesque sexual appetites (including voyeurism, porn consumption, and attempted rape), but “Revenge of the Blood Beast” settles into creature feature mode, pitting Philip’s confusion against Vardella’s return to power. There’s sizable amount of exposition to work through, but violence comes along periodically, keeping the witch a threat.

Revenge of the Blood Beast Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (2.35:1 aspect ratio) presentation handles the limited visuals of "Revenge of the Blood Beast," leading with a generous refreshing of colors, gifting primaries vibrancy and dimension. Bolder hues are found with blood reds and automobile yellows, and costuming offers highlights. Skintones are appropriate, noting heavy make-up. Detail is acceptable, making close-ups of demonic faces vivid, and location particulars are retained, preserving distances. Delineation is adequate. Source is in fine shape, with limited speckling. Slight judder is detected.

Revenge of the Blood Beast Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix is perhaps the quietest track I've ever encountered, necessitating a major boost of volume just to make the listening event palatable. And once a comfortable level is found, major hiss is present, along with periodic popping. Dialogue exchanges are dubbed, preserving broad performances, and they lack crispness, making for muddier lows. Scoring also suffers from a lack of precision, with only the loudest swings of dramatic accompaniment making its intended impression. Sound effects are dulled, without flavor. A few brief audio hiccups are detected, identifying missing frames.

Revenge of the Blood Beast Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Booklet (six pages) contains an essay credited to "Nocturno."

• "A Bloody Journey to Italy" (28:30, HD) is an undated audio interview with Barbara Steele, who discusses her early career disasters, including a role in an Elvis Presley film where she was harassed by director Don Siegel, inspiring her to abandon Hollywood, eventually finding her way to Italy. Steele recalls her whirlwind experience with the Italian movie industry, interacting with various directors (including Mario Bava), and dealing exclusively in the horror genre, despite interest in doing something else.

• A Theatrical Trailer has not been included.

Revenge of the Blood Beast Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As previously mentioned, "Revenge of the Blood Beast" goes crazy in its final act, delivering a car chase that's pure cartoon, complete with bumbling cops. It's a severe tonal change for the picture (which runs only 79 minutes) to make, and it doesn't exactly know what to do with its new direction, with Reeves trying to steer things back to horror in the film's final moments. As awkward as the inclusion of comedy is, "Revenge of the Blood Beast" isn't destroyed by the iffy idea, instead claiming such nonsense as another reason to sit through its occasionally plodding delivery and uncomfortable concentration on sexual violence. And for Steele fans, the actress receives a few moments to shine, using her innate glamour to class up a B-movie where most of the budget was clearly spent on building a wooden witch-drowning machine, not on screenwriting.