6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A spree of grisly murders is perpetrated in Frankfurt by a group of Satan worshippers. A school teacher almost runs over an old man with a box and takes him in. It's no accident that the old man has come into her life, and it quickly becomes apparent that he has plans for her, plans that involve a permanent future with the Satanic cult.
Starring: Kelly Curtis, Herbert Lom, Mariangela Giordano, Michel Adatte, Carla CassolaHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 45% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
It was of course no mere coincidence that Jamie Lee Curtis was a featured performer in Scream Queens, since she was famously branded with that very title due to her now legendary appearances in films like Halloween and Halloween II. Though she’s older than her sister by two years or so, one might cheekily label Jamie Lee’s sibling Kelly Curtis a “scream princess” of sorts, since she made her starring debut (after some featured roles, including one in Trading Places, not so coincidentally featuring her better known little sister) in the Dario Argento co- written and produced The Sect, which was released in some territories as The Devil’s Daughter. That alternate title probably gives one of the film’s central plot conceits away from the get go, as if Rosemary's Baby (to which this film bears more than a passing resemblance) had been titled The Devil’s Son. The film begins in what is somewhat hilariously labeled as “South California” (evidently the difference between nouns and adjectives falling by the wayside), in what is also labeled “1970”, despite the fact that the soundtrack is playing America’s “A Horse With No Name”, which any pop music fan worth their salt will tell didn’t make the airwaves in the United States until 1972. (A similar time shifting error occurred early in the run of Mad Men, where one of the early Bossa Nova classics sung by Astrud Gilberto was misplaced by several years.)
The Sect is presented on Blu-ray by a coalition of Scorpion Releasing and Doppelganger Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The back cover of this release touts a "brand new 2K scan of the original negatives, with over 45 hours of color correction done in America, exclusive to this release." This is by and large a really nice looking transfer, one that does indeed offer a very nicely suffused and accurate looking palette, and some perhaps surprisingly consistent detail and fine detail levels, despite several sequences that are bathed in blue tones or are otherwise fairly dimly lit. (Look, for example, at the downy hair on Curtis' face in screenshot 5, easily visible despite the omnipresent blue and purple tones.) A couple of moments are intentionally hazy looking, including Damon's mirage like entrance early in the film (see screenshot 6), as well as some of Miriam's hallucinations (see screenshot 11), but on the whole, this is a very sharp and appealing looking presentation. The only minor qualm I can see some having is some very brief and transitory clumpiness (see screenshot 19), something that I personally found not all that distracting.
The Sect's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix offers excellent support for the effective score by Pino Donaggio, as well as several well done sound effects, especially in some of the gore and/or hallucination scenes. Unlike many Italian films, I didn't get the sense that the entirety of this piece was post dubbed, and so synch to my eyes looked rather good. Fidelity is fine across the board, with dialogue, effects and score all rendered cleanly and without any discernable problems.
Some may see my 3.0 score for The Sect and wonder "who pushed a bug up his nose?", but I have to say I actually enjoyed this film quite a bit because of its decided and undeniable weirdness, not in spite of it. It's all largely incoherent (I still am not sure about several salient plot points, despite revisiting some sections of the film), but it hardly matters when the imagery is so imaginative (and occasionally extremely disturbing). It's a little surprising that Kelly Curtis didn't join Jamie Lee in the Scream Queens category, because she's rather effective here, aided by a traditionally outré and spooky Herbert Lom. Technical merits are great for those considering a purchase.
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