7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
After narrowly surviving an accident in which she nearly drowned, the wheelchair bound Penny Appleby returns home to live with her widowed step-mother Jane on the French Riviera. She begins to question her sanity after several times seeing her father's corpse around the house and its grounds, and enlists the help of the friendly chauffeur Bob while attending Doctor Gerrard acts in a suitably sinister manner. No one is who they seem in this tale of intrigue and suspense...
Starring: Susan Strasberg, Ann Todd, Christopher Lee, Ronald Lewis, John SerretHorror | 100% |
Mystery | 22% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (A, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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