The Strangler Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 6, 2024

It would be a mistake to dismiss writer/director Paul Vecchiali's The Strangler the moment it seems to retreat from showing the full violence of its own dark deeds. Vecchiali doesn't seem to have the stomach for blood, or really anything more gruesome than a string of romanticized "shhh, shhh, take a nap" strangulations, but that doesn't mean his 1970 serial killer thriller isn't a beastie all its own. Ahead of its time and subverting what would later become slasher convention, The Strangler skews every element to produce something that remains wholly unique. The victims? Suicidal women who all but welcome the end. The killer? A gentle, empathetic madman who believes he's doing each victim a mercy. Opposing him? Not much. A thief snatching valuables from the crime scenes, maybe; a local media more than eager to indulge in hyperbole and sensationalism (do they even want the killings to stop?); and a detective who bounds between extremes to his own benefit and interest. And our final girl? The one we're meant to hope beyond hope survives her fate? A forlorn, melancholic young woman who enters into a deadly game of cat and mouse, not to catch the killer, but in an attempt to become his next victim.

Unhappy women are being murdered by Emile (Jacques Perrin), a psychotic but exceedingly friendly young man suffering from the delusion that the brutal strangulations of his victims are actually mercy killings. More interestingly, he's a murderer we're introduced to almost from the outset, skipping over the usual masked killer trope to allow us access to the mind of our mild-mannered maniac. Detective Simon Dangret (Julien Guiomar) is soon assigned to track down Emile but resorts to seriously unorthodox and even unethical methods to get his man. In one instance, he impersonates a psychologist on a TV show he and Emile appear on together and attempts to provoke Emile into revealing himself. Falling into the path of Detective Dangret's investigation is Le Chacal (Paul Barge), a homicidal mugger in hot pursuit of the killer for his own reasons, and Anna (Eva Simonet), a beautiful but hopeless young woman whose interest in Emile involves becoming a victim in an effort to bring an end to her miserable life.

There's a haunted, dreamlike quality to The Strangler, lending the French film an air of Italian giallo. Fountains of blood are nowhere to be found, though. The killings, as depicted, are bizarrely humane, granting peace and serenity to a series of women, each struggling to push through the pain of her day to day life. Murder is all but accepted with open arms, which invites a disquieting feeling to the proceedings that favors inevitability over suspense. More odd is our relationship with Emile, who is easily the most -- perhaps only -- likable, or at the least, engaging person in the film. He's no antihero, nor does Vecchiali attempt to redeem Emile's killing spree or delusions of humble grandeur. But his code is far more honorable than that of Detective Dangret, and certainly more noble (for lack of a better word) than a more traditional killer like the greedy, opportunistic Le Chacal is capable of being. And Anna? Anna is a frustrating protagonist, happy to sacrifice her agency and well-being in her own sort of selfish entitlement. She only exhibits a spark of life when pursuing Emile as an exit strategy. Otherwise she meanders, lapses and sleeps her way through each day, giving her mind and body to Dangret in the hopes he will bring her one step closer to Emile.

Still, for all his lofty ideas and subversion, Vecchiali hesitates too often, particularly in the film's initially homoerotic, eventually predictable end. Another director would have pushed, accelerated and intensified, and likely delivered a Strangler that wasn't just unique and surprising on occasion but unnerving and unsettling throughout. The film is almost too light in its exploration of the dark, with little in the way of the enmity, heaviness or headiness you might expect. Even one small change -- allowing each woman to fight and cling to life at the bitter moment of their death, realizing all too late she doesn't want to die -- would have made things far more disarming and upsetting. Instead, the standoffish Vecchiali seems content with presenting his murders as painless assisted suicides, which hardly qualifies as deep horror, settling for melodrama in horror's absence. Both Psycho and especially Peeping Tom (a recent discovery I can't believe I haven't seen before now) strike a more dramatic and more sinister chord, creating a nauseating feeling in the pit of your gut; a feeling that at anytime, Norman Bates could rip aside your shower curtain or Mark Lewis could peer through your window, preventing you from ever again seeing the light of morning. Had The Strangler evoked that feeling, I'd be hailing it as a long lost horror classic. As it stands, though, it's merely a smartly penned curiosity that's worth watching but isn't about to keep you awake at night.

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Restored with the assistance of Le Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (The National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image), The Strangler arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Altered Innocence, with a masterfully remastered 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation that properly resurrects the now fifty-four-year-old film. Daylit exteriors boast striking lifelike colors and skintones, darker exteriors warm primaries and deep blacks, and nighttime environments a series of lovely blue-cast evening hues, all of which is precisely the look Vecchiali and cinematographer Georges Strouvé intended. Contrast is excellent as well, allowing the dreamlike haze of stalking sequences to register with haunting, smoky ease, while the bolder, more naturalistic palette of Dangret's investigation scenes infuse the image with a pragmatic reality. Detail is also quite impressive. Barring a handful of soft shots (a product of the original elements rather than the encode), film grain has been respectfully preserved, edge definition is clean and precise, fine textures are rejuvenated and revealing, and delineation is solid. Better still, banding, errant noise or unsightly anomalies that might show the seams of the restoration are entirely absent, resulting in a presentation that (presumably) looks as good as it possibly could.

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Those who prefer a faithful presentation of a film's original audio will be pleased with The Strangler's French-language DTS-HD Master Audio mono mix. Dialogue is intelligible and neatly prioritized, music doesn't under or overwhelm, effects are affecting (albeit a tad thin and tinny at times), and there isn't much to complain about. The Strangler also isn't the sort of film teeming with opportunities for a 5.1 remix to enhance the experience. It's quiet, methodical and subdued. I'm glad Altered Innocence didn't invest much time and effort into giving me something that wouldn't make the film any better. Kudos for sticking with mono.

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lost Boys and Sad Girls (HD, 15 minutes) - A video essay by Alexandra-Heller Nicholas.

• New Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2 minutes)

• Other Trailers (HD)

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Strangler is a largely forgotten French serial killer thriller that's worth watching, if only to see how effortlessly it bends and twists its way around tropes that weren't even tropes yet. Its subversion is its greatest asset, and what makes the film worthy of resurrection fifty-some years later. Altered Innocence does well by its Blu-ray release, thankfully, with a striking video restoration and high definition transfer and a solid lossless mono mix. I do wish there had been more extras available, or newly produced with modern critics and film historians discussing its importance. As is, though, the Blu-ray edition of The Strangler is still worth some attention. Give it a shot and see what you think.