The Vampire Doll Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

The Vampire Doll Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 13, 2018

Note: This film is available as part of The Bloodthirsty Trilogy.

Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years almost unavoidably if kind of tangentially documented the venerable British studio’s impact in the United States due to its partnership with what was then called Warner Brothers — Seven Arts, but Arrow’s new Bloodthirsty Trilogy proves that Hammer’s influence reached far beyond just the shores of the United States, in case there had been any doubt. As the cheerful Kim Newman mentions in an appealing overview included on this two disc set as a supplement, there have been a lot of iconic Japanese horror films through the years going back to the earliest days of cinema, including any number of so-called J-Horror outings that were ultimately adapted into English language entries (Ring), but what may interest horror fans most about The Bloodthirsty Trilogy is this trio of films’ obvious homages to Hammer stylistic proclivities as well as certain plot mechanics. That said, all three of the films in The Bloodthirsty Trilogy definitely have a Japanese sensibility often focusing on the influence of supernatural phenomena, a subtext of sorts that in its own way points both backward to some trends Newman outlines as well as to what would become the future of Japanese horror as evidenced by the glut of 21st century films that gained international audiences. All three of the films in this set are midlevel programmers (even Newman confesses that after having seen each of the trilogy several times he has a hard time remembering them and had to refer to his notes to prepare for his interview for the Blu-ray), and so those searching for obscure, undiscovered masterpieces may be at least a little let down, but all three films have spooky elements and some directorial flair courtesy of Michio Yamamoto.

While Kim Newman mentions a whole host of cinematic referents, both Japanese and international, that have informed the history of Japanese horror through the years, he leaves a notable film out that in some ways may come to mind for some viewers as they watch The Vampire Doll, namely James Whale’s legendary The Old Dark House . As with that hoary classic, The Vampire Doll begins in a torrential downpour with a traveler in search of refuge, albeit in this case Kazuhiko Sagawa (Atsuo Nakamura) knows where he’s going (kind of, anyway). He’s on a trek to the family home of his girlfriend Yuko Nonomura (Yukiko Kobayashi). When he arrives, he’s greeted by a character named Genzo (Kaku Takashina), a grotesque quasi-hunchback who is mute and more than a bit reminiscent of Boris Karloff’s lumbering butler in The Old Dark House.

After an initial tussle with Genzo (the character keeps assaulting various other folks at random moments throughout the film), Kazuhiko meets Yuko’s mother, Shidu (Yoko Minakaze), who informs a shocked Kazuhiko that Yuko was killed in a car accident two weeks previously. Kazuhiko doesn’t want to believe it, of course, even when Mrs. Nonomura shows him the shrine she’s erected in her daughter’s memory. Kazuhiko is even less inclined to believe his love is deceased when Yuko seems to be crying in her bedroom next door to where Kazuhiko is staying in the Nonomura house. That revelation leads to yet another kind of unexplained smackdown at the hands of Genzo, but ultimately Kazuhiko has a reunion of sorts with Yuko where some glowing eyes suggest that Yuko may not be totally alive (so to speak).

Or — does Kazuhiko have a reunion? In a nicely done jump cut, Kazuhiko’s distraught sister Keiko (Kayo Matsuo) awakens from a nightmare which is obviously implied to have been the vision of her brother being attacked by a vampire. The film then kind of strangely moves on to Keiko’s quest to find Kazuhiko, since he hasn’t returned from his visit to Yuko. She sets off with her fiancé Hiroshi Takagi (Akira Nakao), and the rest of the film is given over to their exploits, which of course leads them to Mrs. Nonomura.

There are some decent if never overwhelming scares in The Vampire Doll, but the film takes a couple of rather odd left turns along the way, including a late revelation about a long ago mass murder that ends up playing into the plot in a kind of weird (and, frankly, unnecessary) way. The film tends to lurch a bit in its narrative momentum, and Yamamoto chooses some odd framings at time (note the blatantly theatrical scenes of characters just standing in front of the Nonomura house’s entryway hall facing each other and talking, with no “coverage” with regard to cutaways or close-ups). That gives at least some of the film a relatively static feeling that perhaps makes the sudden occurrences of violence (including what seems to be a real killing of a raven) even more startling.

The Vampire Doll Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All three films in The Bloodthirsty Trilogy are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 2.35:1. Arrow's insert booklet provides the following fairly generic verbiage on the transfers:

The films in The Bloodthirsty Trilogy are presented in their original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with mono audio. The Vampire Doll, Lake of Dracula and Evil of Dracula were remastered from the original film preservation film elements by Toho Co., Ltd. and delivered as High Definition masters to Arrow Films. Additional picture restoration work was completed at R3store Studios, London.

All three of these films look pretty similar in terms of palette reproduction and grain resolution, and all three have been restored to a point where any age related wear and tear is virtually negligible. I'm assuming "preservation film elements" may not mean original camera negatives, since all three of these films have a slightly "dupey" look at times, with contrast fluctuations and blacks that can be on the milky side at times, as well as grain that can look fairly thick quite a bit of the time. Some day for night material also can have a slightly gray-green appearance. While the palettes in all three films resonate with some authenticity, things looked slightly brown to my eyes in all three films, skewing flesh tones toward "Egyptian makeup" territory and tending to push "Hammer red" blood tones slightly toward orange hues at times. Clarity is somewhat variable at times as well, and in fact it looks like focus pulling was a challenge in all three films at selected moments. Some opticals can look a little rough, including flashback sequences that are featured in all three films.

The Vampire Doll Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All three films in The Bloodthirsty Trilogy feature LPCM Mono tracks in the original Japanese. The trilogy sports some rather unusual music, with astringent modernist orchestral cues being mixed with some electronic instruments and even (in the third film) a more "pop-ish" almost Bacharach quality at times, and fidelity support good if sometimes kind of brash sounding rendering of the music in all three films. Dialogue and effects are also reproduced with good prioritization and no discernable damage like distortion or dropouts.

The Vampire Doll Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is the latest multi-film release from Arrow where at least some of the films share a disc, and so supplements on that particular disc are not necessarily tied to a particular film.

Disc One contains The Vampire Doll and the following supplements:

• Kim Newman on The Bloodthirsty Trilogy (1080p; 16:06) offers some nice background on Japanese horror in general and this trilogy in particular, delivered with Newman's typical enthusiasm and humor.


• Original Trailers

  The Vampire Doll (1080p; 2:04)

  
  

  Lake of Dracula (1080p; 2:12)

  
  

  Evil of Dracula (1080p; 2:22)

• Stills Galleries for all three films.

The Vampire Doll Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Vampire Doll may not have much new to add to cinema's long fascination with vampires (and in fact the whole vampiric element is almost tangential to the story), but the film has a fair degree of spooky ambience and a couple of well executed jump scares. Arrow has provided a disc with solid technical merits for those interested in a purchase.