5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.6 |
The Police follow a serial killer, who drains his victims for blood is on the loose in London, to a house owned by an eccentric scientist (Vincent Price), who's creating a race of zombies...
Starring: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alfred Marks, Michael GothardHorror | 100% |
Mystery | 5% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
An actor by the name of Ronald Wilson Reagan, a guy who I believe may have gone on to some kind of political career, wrote an autobiography whose title quoted a famous line he uttered as a character in the 1942 film Kings Row, namely, “Where’s the rest of me?” While Reagan’s 1965 tome was a neat play on the concept behind that phrase, in the film it’s a patently disturbing moment when a young man awakens to discover a villainous doctor has amputated the young man’s legs for no medical reason. Reagan’s character of Drake McHugh has nothing on a poor man seen at several interstitial moments in the often patently odd Scream and Scream Again, and in fact that repetitive title is obviously referring at least in part to the wails of woe the character emits in scenes that find this guy, who apparently has a heart attack while jogging, initially awakening in a hospital to find his right leg has been removed. That’s just the beginning of this patient’s horror story, one that slowly begins to assume certain elements of Johnny Got His Gun (in a manner of speaking). Scream and Scream Again probably got a lot of people into the theater by dint of the fact that it quite wisely advertised an iconic trifecta of horror stars, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, though once those ticket buyers were well ensconced in their seats, many of them may have been asking, “Hey—where’s the rest of them?”, for the film really doesn’t depend on any meaningful interaction between the three actors, and in fact in some ways, all three are consigned to glorified (and maybe not so glorified) cameos. In other ways, however, Scream and Scream Again may actually offer too much, for it’s a kind of odd hodgepodge of disparate elements which are never really woven together completely artfully. The fact that the names Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg appear as producers might lead some to assume that this is simply “another” Amicus portmanteau (like the recently released Dr. Terror's House of Horrors) but here instead of some kind of linking mechanism uniting varied tales of woe, there’s a kind of willy nilly aspect where the individual stories just kind of collide into each other, leading to a somewhat confusing ambience that even David Del Valle and Tim Sullivan, the two commentators offering their assessment of the film on this Blu-ray, have a hard time explicating at times.
Scream and Scream Again is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Elements have relatively minor but still ubiquitous damage in the form of scratches, nicks and speckling (some of which can be seen fairly readily in the some of the screenshots accompanying this review). The palette is variably saturated throughout the presentation, with some sequences looking nicely robust (see screenshot 1), while others are at least relatively anemic looking (see screenshot 18). Clarity is likewise somewhat variable, with studio set sequences perhaps understandably looking more solid, while the long chase sequence (which obviously takes place outside) looks slightly softer. There's acceptable if less than overwhelming shadow detail in many darker sequences (the film was lensed by Dutch cinematographer John Coquillon, who went on to collaborate several times with Sam Peckinpah, and who became well regarded for his ability to capture imagery in natural lighting conditions). The grain field is fairly heavy at times, but resolves naturally and presents no compression anomalies.
Scream and Scream Again features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that provides very good support for the film's dialogue, but perhaps a bit less force than some might hope for in sequences like the Amen Corner theme song scene in the discotheque. Fidelity is excellent overall, despite some slight prioritization issues in some of the noisier moments.
Scream and Scream Again is a bit of an odd duck, especially when compared to other Price, Lee and/or Cushing films. In fact, it's probably best to not think of this film as a typical Price, Lee and/or Cushing entry, especially given the fact that the true stars of the story are lesser known character actors. The screenplay is a mess, unable to organically knit together the triptych of plots the film offers. Still, Scream and Scream Again is a one of a kind experience (for better or worse), and this release offers some really excellent supplements. Recommended.
Standard Edition
1959
2013
מי מפחד מהזאב הרע / Mi mefakhed mehaze'ev hara
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2017
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2017
Unrated Director's Cut
2009
2001
2001
The Pact II
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2000
2004
2013
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Special Edition
1977
2016
2010
Il gatto a nove code | Special Edition
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1980