6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Looking to spend a swinging summer at Lake Arrowhead, Carla, Beth, Brea, Heather, and Heather's shapely cousin Paula head to the picturesque hills for a little R&R... but a pall soon casts over the girls' sunny vacation when a mysterious murderer begins picking off the lake's bevy of beauties. Can the killer be stopped before the coeds' summer fun ends in blood-spattered chaos?
Starring: Pat Woodell, Roberta Collins, Marki Bey, Laurie Rose (I), Christina HartErotic | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Like many more famous directors, including Sydney Pollack, Richard Donner and Robert Altman (to name just a few), Arthur Marks learned his craft directing episodic television, including over seventy episodes of the landmark legal drama Perry Mason, which ran on CBS from 1957 through 1966. Marks was literally born into the film industry, growing up on the MGM lot where his father worked a variety of jobs and appearing as an extra in numerous films. Studio head Louis B. Mayer knew him by name, as he knew all of the regulars on the lot. But Marks's career took a different path, as the old studio system crumbled in the Sixties and Seventies under the multiple pressures of economic stress, a changing culture and the continued onslaught of competition from TV. As both producer and director, Marks chose to focus on the drive-in market that the studios considered beneath them. In that long-past era, drive-ins were one of the favorite locales to see films deemed less than respectable, including horror and the general category dubbed "exploitation", which today would probably be called soft-core porn. In those days, though, the legal landscape was sufficiently rocky that filmmakers showing sex and nudity had to be sure to include "socially redeeming value", and Marks had enough self-respect as a filmmaker that he always included a story. His connections in Hollywood were good enough that he often got real actors. Gorgon Video, one of the specialty labels under the umbrella of MPI Media, is issuing restored versions of two films from the Marks canon on DVD and Blu-ray. Released theatrically in 1973, The Roommates was the first film to be distributed by General Film Corporation, the company Marks created to eliminate obstacles he had encountered obtaining distribution for previous projects.
The source for Gorgon Video's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of The Roommates was not identified, but the company has provided a surprisingly well-defined and detailed image for a low-budget film from forty years ago. As one might expect, there is major damage in the form of scratches and blotches in the opening titles, where optical printing often locks in such issues, but the bulk of the film is in remarkably good shape. Colors are bright and vivid, which is important for both the locations of this film and the Seventies decor. The image has natural grain to it, although I cannot discount the possibility that some light degraining may have been applied to certain shots. Fortunately no artificial sharpening has coarsened the grain or otherwise marred the image. Because Gorgon is supplying The Roommates on a double-feature Blu-ray with a second Arthur Marks film, the 87-minute feature has been mastered with an average bitrate of only 21.99 Mbps. While this is somewhat low for a feature originated on film, The Roommates does not involve many edits (a point discussed in the commentary) or major action, so that a skilled compressionist can accomplish a lot with a little. Even with print damage, the image appeared to be free of artifacts.
The Roommates' original mono soundtrack is presented in lossless PCM 2.0 with identical left and right channels. The dialogue is clear, but the sound effects are frequently flat, which is strictly a function of the original recordings. The gunshots in the climactic sequence are particularly anemic. From a storytelling perspective, the soundtrack gets the job done, and in the days when the effects were pumped through a drive-in loudspeaker attached to a car door, I suspect no one noticed any deficiency.
The Roommates is a vintage film and has to be watched with that mindset. Anyone watching it expecting contemporary entertainment will almost certainly be bored. But if you want to see a classy example of Seventies exploitation cinema, this is some of the best. Gorgon Video's presentation probably looks better than many drive-in showings and, on that basis, the Blu-ray is recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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