Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Stop Me Before I Kill Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 22, 2020

Stop Me Before I Kill is currently only available in the twenty film Hammer Ultimate Collection.

Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis) is a world-renowned race car driver know for his abilities behind the wheel on the track. But when he and his wife Denise (Diane Cilento) are out for a drive on public roads, they're involved in a horrific crash. Some time passes. Their physical wounds are healed but Alan is still reeling, mentally. He's lost his ability, and his will, to drive. He slowly regains the desire, however, but his mental state remains clouded. He finds himself a prisoner to his increasingly violent tendencies, many of which are directed at Denise. While vacationing in France, the couple meets Dr. David Prade (Claude Dauphin), a therapist obsessed with man's violent tendencies and who, while helping Alan recover from a deteriorating mental state, may be holding a dark secret of his own.

In Stop Me Before I Kill, Writer/Director Val Guest crafts an impressively engrossing tale of mental deterioration but beyond that a portrait of emotional disfigurement that may very well exist beyond the subject in question. The film is both gritty and tidy, gritty in its capable presentation of a wounded mind and a failing essence but tidy and even elegant in how well the story flows and weaves both broader arcing storylines and intimate subtleties into the experience. Performances are first-rate; Ronald Lewis walks that mental and emotional tightrope with knowing depth and attention to detail, often making the emotional transformation in a moment and switching gears with uncanny grace. Claude Dauphin likewise turns in a part that is perhaps more complex below the surface; his character may not broadly define much of the movie but his is certainly the most critical essence of it; Dauphin does well to play the part to expectation and allow the audience to gradually witness his own arc in time and with impeccable physical and mental work alike, both of which are vital to selling the character through the film and along his own personal story.

Stop Me Before I Kill Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The film's 1080p Blu-ray presentation is fair, holding to a light grain structure and capable detailing. There's a certain smoothness to the image but it's not bereft of sharpness and clarity. It's just not razor sharp and intimately well defined. Essential textures are handsome enough, whether considering core, close-up skin and clothes or various location elements, whether interiors or exteriors across a fairly wide spectrum of sets and settings. The grayscale lacks pinpoint contrast precision but the image works well through the spectrum, offering a stable, nuanced midrange, crisp whites at the top, and solid blacks at the bottom. The print exhibits only the rare sign of deterioration; it's remarkably clean and free of only the most innocent and inconsequential bits of wear. The encode is strong, too, with only mild macroblocking in evidence and not particularly bothersome at normal viewing distances at the 65" screen size.

Stop Me Before I Kill Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Stop Me Before I Kill arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The opening Big Band music is shrilly and sloppy, severely lacking detail at any point in the range. Rescue vehicles arriving on the scene likewise struggle to deliver brakes and various engine noses with any sort of lifelike detail; the sounds are crude but identifiable as much through context clues as audio engineering. Worse, it's cramped in the center. The stage never expands even along the modest limits of its two-channel configuration. Dense traffic sounds at the 27-minute mark also struggle in similar fashion. They're over amplified, underperforming, a mess of screeching tires and revving engines that lack any sort of spatial awareness or precision clarity. Lighter atmospherics are a little more forgiving for clarity but not so much for spacing; various environmental elements simply push to the center area, too. Dialogue is shrilly but is clear enough to move the film forward. It also images well to the center.

Stop Me Before I Kill Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Stop Me Before I Kill includes no supplemental content.

Stop Me Before I Kill Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Stop Me Before I Kill is a quality Thriller that puts all its pieces in proper position from the outset. Story, characterization, and performances are quite good, pulling the audience in from the beginning and on through some of the twists the story has in store. Mill Creek's Blu-ray is sadly featureless and video and audio barely rate above "decent." Still, this is one of the better movies in the Hammer Ultimate Collection and is well worth a watch.