6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Can an evil human being be cured? Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing), a 19th-century scientist, believes it can, and develops serum from the blood of evil men. While his half-brother James (Christopher Lee), who runs a mental institution, envies Emmanuel's accomplishments, his daughter Penelope (Lorna Heilbron) does not. Born of an insane mother, the girl is injected with her father's serum, slashes a sailor and kills an escaped madman. Sadly, she must then be committed to her uncle's asylum. Undaunted, Emmanuel continues his experiments on a primitive skeleton, inadvertently creating an evil monster when the skeleton comes to life. The trauma of the events that follow drives Emmanuel insane and frees the creature to spread its reign of terror...
Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Lorna Heilbron, George Benson, Kenneth J. WarrenHorror | 100% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (384 kbps)
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 2.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Note: 'The Creeping Flesh' is currently only available in a three-film collection from Mill Creek.
The Creeping Flesh arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek with an imperfect but nevertheless enjoyable 1080p transfer. The image opens with severe wobble over the opening titles. Minor instability remains through parts of the image thereafter. Flickering is occasionally problematic as well. Contrast lightly fluctuates in places and print wear is obvious, but never seriously distracting or debilitating. The image retains a mildly sharp but generally pleasing grain structure. Image clarity is quite good. Detailing pleases, particularly on close-ups of the bone props, gooey monster flesh and blood, and brass scientific instruments. Clothes and faces are nicely detailed, a little smooth but finding solid enough fundamental texturing with the 1080p definition. Colors are fairly neutral, often earthy, with some deeply saturated and bright red blood. Colors in various dreamlike sequences are a fairly diffuse. Black levels generally maintain good depth but are prone to mild crush. Flesh tones are a little pasty. The list of "problems" is rather lengthy, but in the aggregate none of it is of major concern, particularly for a budget release. This is a very watchable and in many ways pleasing vintage film image.
The Creeping Flesh creeps onto Blu-ray with a baseline adequate but frequently underwhelming Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Music is crunchy, unkempt, scratchy, shrilly. Definition flounders at every turn, whether score be light or more aggressive. It's unevenly flawed, too, with various pieces of music coming across as more accurate than others. Spacing is limited to the center area of the stage, never stretched to its limits. Dialogue is a little more stable, enjoying a fairly natural front-center imaging, though there's some underlying crunchiness. Atmospherics are nicely pronounced about the stage, such as bubbling liquids in the lab. Obviously it's limited to front-end placement but the effect is at least clear enough, pushed far enough out to the side, that a very basic sonic landscape is created.
This Blu-ray release of The Creeping Flesh contains no supplemental content.
The Creeping Flesh is a neither here-nor-there throwback British Horror film with a few good ideas, a tendency to meander, and just enough oddity to keep the viewer interested. Mill Creek's Blu-ray boasts solid enough video, troubled but passable audio, and no supplements. Worth a look, particularly at the price of the three pack in which it is included.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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