Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

Taste of Fear Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 21, 2020

Note: This version of this film is available as part of Hammer Volume Four: Faces of Fear.

Powerhouse Films has already delighted fans of a certain iconic British studio with Hammer Volume One: Fear Warning!, Hammer Volume Two: Criminal Intent and Hammer Volume Three: Blood & Terror, all of which offered an admittedly sometimes odd grabbag of films. This fourth volume of offerings from Hammer is itself kind of an odd grabbag of sorts, with two more “traditional” Hammer opuses, at least in terms of offering a recognizable genre character like Frankenstein and/or Dr. Jekyll, included with two other, more contemporary, outings that at least may arguably offer some Gothic content in their own way.

If The Revenge of Frankenstein and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll represent Hammer offering lurid interpretations of some classic characters from the annals of horror, Taste of Fear and The Damned might be thought of as, to quote another British institution, “something completely different.” While both the Frankenstein and Jekyll offerings linked above exploit rather vividly suffused color, Taste of Fear (which is also known as Scream of Fear) and The Damned (which is also known as These Are the Damned ) are contemporary offerings in black and white, and each represent in their own way different niches Hammer sought to fill in addition to what was perceived as its main stock in trade. The Damned might be thought of as at least partially in the mode of Hammer’s science fiction tinged outings like The Quatermass Xperiment , while Taste of Fear might be thought of as trafficking in more psychologically acute horror which was becoming more and more popular in the sixties.

Taste of Fear focuses on a possibly neurotic young woman named Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg) who has already experienced a number of traumas (as evidenced at least in part by her wheelchair), but who arrives at the tony French Riviera estate of her estranged father to find him missing in action and everything under the watchful eye of a stepmother she’s never met, Jane (Ann Todd). Penny may or may not be hallucinating when she starts thinking she’s seen her father’s corpse pop up in various locations around the estate, something that draws the interest both of family chauffeur Robert (Ronald Lewis) and family doctor Gerrard (Christopher Lee), which ultimately leads to the involvement of a policeman named Legrand (John Serret).

Those who may be familiar with more contemporary horror outings like You'll Like My Mother may sense a few similarities here, at least with regard to a "mother" and "daughter" meeting each other for the first time, with some subterfuge lurking just beneath the surface, but in fact this film is actually much more reminiscent (as several of the supplements on this disc point out) to Diabolique. As with the iconic Clouzot film, some pretty unabashed red herrings are thrown into the mix here, and the final series of revelations, not to mention a completely over the top (in more ways than one) climax may actually tend to push this admittedly often creepy film into sillier territory, at least intermittently. The "Moishe the Explainer" section toward the end may strike some as downright hilarious, but it at least attempts to tie up several dangling plot points before a final bit of mayhem ensues.

Taste of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Powerhouse provided only check discs for purposes of this review.

Taste of Fear is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Powerhouse's Indicator imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. Since I'm working from check discs without the benefit of any supporting documentation, I can't include any verbiage from Powerhouse about the transfer, other than their website's statement that it is a "high definition remaster". Douglas Slocombe's evocative black and white cinematography generally looks very nice throughout this presentation, with some nicely deep blacks which help to up the angst factor in several spooky scenes where the wheelchair bound Penny is investigating various shadowy environments. Kind of ironically, then, it's some of the more brightly lit material that can look just a tad soft at times, notably a cliffside beach scene with Penny and Robert, the chauffeur. Aside from the obvious difference in titles, I noticed nothing substantially different between the two presentations, though I've split the screenshots in this review between the two, with screenshots 1 through 10 from Taste of Fear and screenshots 11 through 20 from Scream of Fear. Both credits sequences show just a tiny bit of wobble, but otherwise things look fine.

Taste of Fear Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both versions of the film feature a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which is reasonably evocative sounding, especially with regard to occasional sound effects like the chirping birds and rippling water of the film's opening moments. Dialogue and the occasional ear splitting scream are rendered with decent fidelity, though this is another track, somewhat like The Damned, where I felt the high end was just a tad brash sounding at times. I noticed no issues with regard to significant age related wear and tear.

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

• Alternate Title Versions allows the viewer to choose between Taste of Fear (UK Theatrical Version) (1080p; 1:21:37) or Scream of Fear (US Theatrical Version) (1080p; 1:27:28). The difference in timings is due to the inclusion of the British censor card at the beginning of the UK version.


• Audio Commentary with Kevin Lyons


• Body Horror: Inside Taste of Fear (1080p; 22:17) is another ingratiating retrospective, with Alan Barnes, Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby offering their analyses.


• Hammer's Women: Ann Todd (1080p; 11:35) features Melanie Williams discussing the actress.


• Archival Interviews

  The BFI Southbank Interview with Jimmy Sangster (1080p; 1:21:37) is an audio interview with the screenwriter conducted by Marcus Hearn in 2008. This plays as a kind of alternative audio track to the film.

  
  

  The BEHP Video Interview with Jimmy Sangster (1080p; 1:56:47) also stems from 2008 and is conducted by Jonathan Rigby.

  
  

  The BEHP Interview with Douglas Slocombe - Part Two (1080p; 1:21:37) is an audio piece (again playing as an alternate audio track under the actual film) with the cinematographer conducted by Sidney Cole and is subtitled From Hammer to Spielberg.

• Desmond Davis and John Crome: Fear Makers (1080p; 8:37) features the film's camera operator and assistant sound editor.


• Anxiety and Terror: Huckvale on Parker (1080p; 24:51) is another really interesting analysis of a score by David Huckvale, in this case Clifton Parker's work on this film.


• Scream of Fear Super 8 Version (1080p; 19:55) is the kind of hilariously quaint and antiquated (not to mention severely truncated) Super 8 version that enterprising showmen could exhibit in their homes back in the day.


• Original US Trailer (1080p; 1:09)


• Sam Hamm Trailer Commentary (1080p; 1:37) is culled from Trailers from Hell.


• Image Gallery (1080p)

Powerhouse only supplied check discs for the purposes of this review, so I can't comment authoritatively on non-disc swag, but Powerhouse's website mentions a poster (exclusive to sales from the website) and a booklet with essays.

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

You probably go into a film like this knowing that someone is being duped in some way, and part of the fun with regard to Taste of Fear is figuring out who is the "real" schemer and who is the "real" mark (so to speak). There is at least one glaring logical inconsistency in this story (all I'll say is, wouldn't some photographic evidence of a "real" identity have been around somewhere, considering the relationships involved?), but if you can get past a few lapses like that, not to mention a perhaps unintentionally humorous climax, Taste of Fear has some anxious moments. Technical merits are generally solid, and as with all of the releases in this latest Hammer volume, the supplements are outstanding. Recommended.