6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Young Terry Lambert returns home from serving a prison term for a gang-rape he was forced to participate in. He seeks revenge on his lawyer and the girl who framed him. But his real problem is his overbearing mother, whose boarding house he resides in and who keeps bringing him glasses of chocolate milk. One of her boarders, Lori, becomes attracted to him. However, while he was serving his prison sentence, Terry developed an interest in rough, violent sex, and gory death. Now, one by one, some of the town's women pop up dead.
Starring: Ann Sothern, John Savage, Ruth Roman, Luana Anders, Cindy WilliamsHorror | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (96kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo verified
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Director Curtis Harrington creeps in the mind of a murderer in 1973’s “The Killing Kind,” which, in a way, could be approached as a kind of prequel to “Psycho,” observing the psychological thin ice created when a son has a special relationship with his domineering mother. Harrington doesn’t completely cross over into slasher territory, instead finding fright in the cracking of a young man’s psyche, surveying the sinister creep of dangerous behavior as it grows over the course of the run time. “The Killing Kind” isn’t lively in the least, but those able to tune into special frequency of dysfunction and dangerousness are rewarded with an unusual study of evil, brought to life by leads John Savage and Ann Southern.
"Newly scanned and restored in 2K from its 35mm original camera negative," "The Killing Kind" brings its strange ways to Blu-ray with a filmic viewing experience. The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation delivers a satisfying level of detail, working with softer cinematography to provide a textured sense of half-naked characters and facial surfaces, identifying Savage's youthful appeal and Southern's thick makeup. Locations are dimensional, and interiors preserve set decoration, taking note of boarding house age. Colors are satisfactory, coming alive with Thelma's housebound outfits and greenery. Skintones are natural. Delineation is comfortable, preserving frame information. Whites are a bit bloomy at times. Grain is thick but filmic. Source has some points of wear and tear, with a few emulsion scratches and speckling. One brief shot around the 41:00 mark explodes with blue scratches.
The 1.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix handles acceptably for this type of entertainment, providing scoring support with reasonably clear instrumentation, conjuring mournful moods and suspense. Dialogue exchanges aren't sharp but they retain passable clarity, battling age to secure dramatic interactions and a few violent freak-outs. Atmospherics are basic but appreciable.
"The Killing Kind" isn't a complete success, always a few steps behind greatness, but Harrington is doing interesting things with the picture, fussing with different perspectives and maintaining a longer arc of growing suspicion. There's a solid, mournful ending awaiting those who remain with the feature, with the production somehow creating a better payoff than set-up, finally finding its way to a natural conclusion for Terry and Thelma, which is more about family than the genre normally allows.
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