6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A young girl enters into the world of dangerous dreams – full of sex and evil…
Starring: Romualds Ancans, Liubomiras LauceviciusForeign | 100% |
Horror | 96% |
Erotic | 42% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Russian: LPCM 2.0
Actually Latvian LPCM 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Vasili Mass' "Spider" a.k.a. "Zirneklis" (1991) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mondo Macabro. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new video interview with director Vasili Mass; newly discovered footage from the Latvian State Archive; and trailers. In Russian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
The innocent girl
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Vasili Mass' Spider arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mondo Macabro.
The release is sourced from a very beautiful 4K master. I don't know when or where it was prepared, but if I had to guess I would say that it is a recent one. Regardless, Spider is exactly the type of film that needs a high-quality presentation because it has a very unique stylistic appearance with a wide range of gentle nuances that an ancient master almost certainly would not have retained. Thankfully, depth and fluidity are fantastic, and on a big screen even the trickier visuals look wonderful (you can see an example in screencapture #7). Elsewhere delineation and clarity are also outstanding, with the close-ups of Vita looking particularly good (see screencaptures #1, 5, and 12). Colors are wonderfully saturated and with beautiful nuances, some with more pronounced organic hues, and some with lighter surrealist overtones. There are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening adjustments. Image stability is excellent. Lastly, I noticed a couple of tiny blemishes, but there are no large cuts, debris, damage marks, stains, or torn frames to report. Fantastic master. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).
There is only on standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Russian LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.
Spider was not shot with a huge budget, but its creators were quite smart and did some pretty original things to enhance its surrealist atmosphere. To be honest, I was actually quite surprised how active its sound design is. Some of the sequences with the spider and the artist are great. The dialog is clean, crisp, stable, and very easy to follow. There are no audio dropouts or distortions to report.
During the Cold War era government censorship undoubtedly prevented a lot of very ambitious and talented directors in the Soviet Bloc from realizing their dreams, but the truth is that it also inspired many to be creative in some very special ways. Vasili Mass' Spider is a perfect example of a bold and very original film that exists only because it essentially tried to outsmart the people that were going to determine its fate. Unsurprisingly, it has multiple identities, though stylistically it fits somewhere between Sergei Parajanov's The Color of Pomegranates and Andrzej Zulawski's Possession. Mondo Macabro's release of Spider is sourced from a gorgeous 4K master and has a terrific new video interview with dierctor Mass. It was a pleasure to discover this film and I will make sure that it ends up on my Top 10 list at the end of the year. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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