Tweet
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: July 30th, 2023.
Director: Miguel Madrid, Various, John Gilling, León Klimovsky
Cast: Bill Curran, Julián Ugarte, Ramiro Oliveros, Emma Cohen, Carlos Ballesteros
Year: 1971/1971/1974/1975
Purchase From Amazon
Danza Macabre Volume Three – Movie Review:
The third volume in Severin Films’ Danza Macabre collections of vintage gothic horror films sets its sights on Spain and offers up a quarter of genre obscurities in restored special editions. Here’s a look…
Disc One – Necrophagous:
Also known as The Butcher Of Binbrook and released in North America as Graveyard Of Horror, Miguel Madrid’s 1971 film, Necrophagus, introduces us to a young man named Michael Sherrington (Bill Curran), a nobleman who returns home from some work abroad only to learn that his wife, Elizabeth (Inés Morales) died while giving birth. Making matters even worse, the baby was stillborn. Michael learns this from his sister-in-law, who is married to his brother, Sir Robert (John Clark), a brilliant scientist who has gone missing.
When Ann tells Michael if he wants answers about his wife’s death he should talk to Dr. Kinberg (Antonio Jiménez Escribano) he does just that, but Kinberg tells him all he did was sign the death certificate and that Ann was actually treated by Dr. Lexter (Frank Braña). Michael doesn’t like the answers that he gets from Lexter either, and, suspicious of Elizabeth’s passing, decides her grave needs to be dug up. He talks to caretaker of the cemetery, Mr. Fowles (Víctor Israel), but he’s shocked by the request and declines to help him.
Michael then takes matters into his own hands, digs up Elizabeth’s grave by himself and finds her coffin empty. This would seem to tie into to a criminal racket wherein Fowles supplies local doctors with skulls for their studies. Complicating matters further is the presence of… something, prowling about the woods and attacking people and some cultists who hang out around the cemetery clad in masks and dark robes. When Michael himself disappears, his various young and attractive nieces and/or in-laws all seem to throw a fit. Things only get stranger and more baffling from this point on… oh, and there’s a bad guy with big eyebrows skulking about and a man with great sideburns investigating all of this. Sort of.
Distributed domestically by Sam Sherman’s Independent International Pictures under the Graveyard Of Horror title, this movie is, in a word, wonky. Not wonky in a bad way, mind you, just wonky in that you’ll definitely be left wondering about some of the decisions that Madrid and company made on the film. Plenty of characters are introduced in the story but many of them don’t really factor into the core plot for them to get as much screen time as they do and keeping the various women in Michael’s life straight can get a bit complicated. The subplot with the monster, as awesome as it is, seems tacked on while the actual monster suit created for the film is absolutely goofy as fuck. It’s also quite creative, with some handheld camerawork and POV shots creating an atmosphere atypical in horror films from this era.
Still, the movie spends lots of time in a snow covered cemetery, offers up plenty of pretty women and throws in plenty of screwball plot twists to keep things as entertaining as they are frequently perplexing. Bill Curran is decent enough in the lead, he does the tortured and sad thing well enough, with Inés Morales doing a fine job as the stern sister-in-law. Víctor Israel steals every scene that he’s in with his perfect portrayal of a shady gravedigger type, hamming things up in all the right ways. There’s no nudity here and very little bloodshed, so keep your expectations in check as far as exploitative elements go, but the movie has plenty of atmosphere, great scenery and a pretty cool cast all working in its favor (even if the main musical theme is so repetitive that you might want to stab yourself in the ear by the time the movie is over).
Disc Two - Cake Of Blood:
A four-part horror anthology film made in 1971, the oddly titled Cake Of Blood starts off with José María Vallés' Tarot, which begins with a man on a crutch running through the forest. He's injured, clearly, and freaks out when he comes across a body hanging upside from a tree. When he makes it to the shore of a nearby lake, he uncovers a dead woman buried in the sand, her face covered in sores. From here, six figures dressed in dark robes gang up on him and beat him while various people walk by, almost as if nothing is happening. The robed figures then light him on fire.
From here, we get a text screen telling us that the story takes place at an unknown place in the west circa the year 1000. A man in armor (Julián Ugarte), a knight, rides on horseback while nearby a woman gives an ominous Tarot reading to an unseen customer. The man arrives at an old, seemingly empty castle and discovers a beautiful woman lying on a stone altar clad in a purple dress, seeming to be dead. He leaves the castle to bath and feed himself but returns a short time later and finds a boy (Marti Galindo) playing nearby. The boy then accompanies the man on his travels and he tells the boy of a dream in which a woman has called to him from a castle like the one we saw earlier. The boy then places a mask on his face and on the knight's face and we cut to the knight in the castle with the dead woman. He weeps, and after he leaves, she comes back from the dead...
A very atmospheric and beautifully shot story, Tarot is arthouse horror at its best. It's moody and intriguing, very mysterious and strange, leaving much of its narrative open to interoperation. There isn't a lot of dialogue here, the visuals do more to explain what's happening than any of the dialogue, but you'll find yourself engrossed in this one right from the start, maybe even wishing it were feature length.
Up next is Emilio Martínez-Lázaro's Victor Frankenstein, which is set 19th Century. Here we're introduced, of course, to Victor Frankenstein (Ángel Carmona Ristol), some brief narration altering us to his activities and his studies. While outdoors one day, he sees a man try to have sex in the woods with a woman named Justine (Charo López) and puts a stop to it. The woman recognizes Victor and brings him back to Elizaeth (Marisa Paredes), who scorns him for having been gone so long.
Upstairs, Victor's mother is on her deathbed. She asks, as her dying wish, that she marry Victor, who doesn't seem especially pleased with this idea. Regardless, the wedding goes on and that night he tells her he's sending a man to her that she must trust as if he were Victor himself. The next morning, Victor is gone. His replacement (Eusebio Poncela) arrives, his behavior immediately strange to everyone he meets as he seems to be copying what he sees them do. This includes trying to have sex with Justine, which doesn't go well with her boyfriend. A short time later, Justine and her lover are dead at the man's hands after he hits them both on the head with a rock. From there, he meets Elizabeth...
Stylishly shot with some great location work, this is unique and well-made take on a story adapted to film countless times. Again, playing with art film conventions as much as horror film tropes, this chapter of the anthology features great acting from all of the cast members and very impressive costume work and cinematography. It's take on 'the monster' is really what sets it apart from other versions of the story, as he doesn't appear to have been pieced together from various corpses at all but is instead a handsome man who Elizabeth is quite happy to let into her bedroom. It leads up to a pretty interesting finish wherein the creator meets his creation once again, but don't expect it to follow Mary Shelley's novel in this regard, at least not literally.
The third chapter, Terror Among Christians, directed by Francesc Bellmunt, takes place in Rome in the years after the death of Jesus Christ. Emperor Nero has mandated a limited on luxury, having public feasts repurposed and Christians tortured. From here, we see two men, one, Candido (Carlos Otero), in robes and the other, Marco (Fernando Rubio), in gladiator garb, travelling together through the woods. The argue about whether or not they'll be safe from the Romans in the forest and decide to head for the caves in the mountains to meet up with their brethren.
As they make their way through the woods, darkness falls and the rest for the night. Marco tells Candido that this is the most dangerous part of the journey and that many Roman soldiers died during an incident in these same woods. Candido talks about how his feelings for Rome have changed since converting to Christianity, and then falls asleep, leaving Marco, who finds a corpse hanging from the trees, to deal with burying the dead man and the mysterious woman (Marta May) who emerges out of the woods a short time later.
In many ways the most traditional horror story of the four tales told in the film, this one, like the other entries, is just as much an art film as anything else. Bloodier than the other three stories by far, it makes great use of dark, smoky exteriors and its period setting makes the allegorical aspects of the story (which are tough to discuss without spoiling its finale) all the more effective. Light on dialogue but rife with atmosphere, it works quite well and features solid acting, great visuals, strong production values and an interesting, thought provoking finish.
The fourth and final chapter, The Dance Or Emotional Survivals, directed by Jaime Chávarri (who co-wrote Vampyros Lesbos!), opens with a POV shot through a lens wherein we see a beautiful young woman named Ana (Romy) light up a cigarette. The man watching her is a homeless man (Luis Ciges) and, at first, he simply admires her from afar while enjoying some food and a bottle of wine. He's interrupted by a man in a suit (José Lifante) and he proposes that since the woman is alone, the two of them could rob her and split everything in her house between the two of them.
Inside, the woman washes up but when she hears something in the house, she grabs a knife and goes to investigate. The homeless man grabs her and ties her up while the other man goes to explore the house. Alone with the woman, the homeless man starts to touch her, imagining that she's interested in him. The man in the suit asks her some questions and notes that her house is dark, like a grave.
When the man in the suit disappears, leaving Ana alone with the homeless man, the lights go off. The homeless man, flashlight in hand, goes to explore and finds a comfortable bed and some food that he helps himself to. The man in the suit reappears and leaves some broken glass on couch, while Ana tries to escape only to be caught in the act by the homeless man who then cuts himself on the glass. And then the homeless man finds an unusual picture...
One thing you can't help but notice is the great use of color with the purple suit and yellow door and the splashes of red blood all contrasting in the otherwise very dark interior of the house in really eye-catching ways. An atypical ghost story, this one is paced nicely and keeps you guessing as to where things are going. The acting is strong – once again, there isn’t a lot of dialogue here and the performers use body language more than anything else to communicate much of what they need to – and the art direction top notch.
All in all, Cake Of Blood turns out to be a genuinely great movie, a truly effective horror anthology made by some clearly talented filmmakers that manages to effectively straddle the line between genre trappings and arthouse style in ways that are sure to impress.
Danza Macabre Volume Three – Blu-ray Review:
Each of the four films in the set sits on their own 50GB region free disc with the feature film it holds presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. Necrophagous is framed at 1.85.1 and scanned in 4k from the original 35mm negative. Generally speaking, it looks really solid. There is some trailing here and there but colors are good and detail is pretty strong. Shadow detail, even in the darker interior scenes that take place in the Sherrington family’s castle, is generally pretty good and we get nice black levels as well. Cake Of Blood is framed at 2.35.1 scanned in 4k from the original 35mm negative and it looks great. Colors are perfect and skin tones as well, and black levels are nice and deep. There’s plenty of impressive detail in the picture throughout the duration of the movie and while natural film grain is there, along with the texture it provides, there aren’t any issues with print damage outside of a few small white specks here and there. The picture is free of noise reduction, edge enhancement or noise reduction issues – it looks excellent.
Audio options for Necrophagous include English or Spanish 2.0 Mono tracks in 24-bit DTS-HD with English subs. Both tracks (each one is dubbed) sound fine. The audio is clear and there are no problems to note with any hiss or distortion or sibilance. Cake of Blood has a 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track, in the film’s native Spanish language, with English subs. It also sounds fine, with properly balanced levels, clean and clear dialogue and some decent range given to the score at times.
Extras are specific to each film and spread across the discs in the set as follows:
Disc One – Necrophagous:
An audio commentary with Andy Marshall-Roberts, the host of The Nasty Pasty Podcast, that goes over the different titles that the film has been released under, the themes that the movie deals with it, the influence of Poe and Lovecraft on the movie, the film's setting and locations, details on the cast and thoughts on their work here, the gothic elements that are all over the picture, the different subplots that don't get especially well resolved, the film's strange tendency to focus on shoes, the movie's Sitges debut and distribution, the film's editing style, the state of Spanish cinema when the movie was made and General Franco's impact on all of this and the film's screwy ending.
Something You've Never Seen is an appreciation by Ángel Sala, the Head Of Programming at The Sitges Film Festival, that runs eight minutes,. He talks about how this film is unique in the pantheon of Spanish horror films and what sets it and its director apart, Madrid's obsession with British culture and how this affected his filmmaking, how the film mixes different horror subgenres, the experimental elements in the picture, how the film compares to some of Madrid's other work, thoughts on the cast and more.
The First Horror Film Festival In The World is a remembrance by Maria Pilar Rafáles, the daughter of Sitges Film Festival founder Antonio Rafáles. Here, over eleven minutes, she speaks about her father's work in the Spanish film industry, why he decided to start a horror film festival in Sitges, how the festival evolved over the years, how the festival came to become an international event, dealing with censorship restrictions in the early days and some of the more memorable films that debuted there, including Necrophagus.
Finishing up the extras on the disc are two trailers for the feature, one as The Butcher Of Binbrook and the other as Graveyard Of Horror.
Disc Two – Cake Of Blood:
Audio Commentary With Rod Barnett Of NaschyCast And The Bloody Pit, And Dr. Adrian Smith, Co-Author Of Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror. It’s an interesting talk that dissects each of the four installments in the film, going over details on each of the directors associated with the project, lots of facts and details about the cast members, thoughts on the effectiveness of each of the four segments, the film’s production and release history and lots more.
My Generation is a five minute interview with Actress Marisa Paredes where she talks about getting her role in the film without auditioning, how she was hired based on her existing TV and film work and the fact that she was considered an A-list actor, why she got into acting in the first place, thoughts on Cake Of Blood and getting along with her director.
Co-Director Jaime Chávarri is up next in the twenty-one minute I Just Wanted To Have Fun where he talks about how he got into filmmaking by doing Super 8mm productions on an amateur level, working his way up to become a professional filmmaker, this thoughts on underground films, what it was like making movies in Spain during this period, his appreciation of horror cinema, how he came to collaborate with the other directors on this project, the film's distribution, memories of shooting his contribution and working with his cast and crew, his appreciation for the good script he had to work with, getting the house location prepped for the shoot, why he dislikes jump scares and how he feels about the movie overall.
To Whoever Wants To Watch interview Actor José Lifante for twelve minutes. This interview goes over how he came to be cast in the movie, his thoughts on the story that he worked on in the movie, working with Chávarri, getting along with his co-stars (Romy in particular), how he had a lot of fun working on this project, the political and art scenes in Barcelona at the time, what it was like on set, other directors that he's worked with over the years, why he feels that the movie wasn't especially well received and his work on Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue.
Last up is the eleven minute An Arthouse UFO – Appreciation By Ángel Sala, Head Of Programming at The Sitges Film Festival. This piece goes over various creative scenes happening in Spain in the seventies, how Cake Of Blood tries to do something different in the horror genre, how the project came to be, details on the different directors that worked on the film, how the movie was released as an arthouse film rather than a horror film, thoughts on each of the four stories in the film and what makes them unique, influences that worked their way into the film and the experimental nature of the movie.
Danza Macabre Volume Three - The Final Word:
The first two discs in Severin Film’s release of Danza Macabre Volume Three both work as gothic horror, though in very different ways, with Necrophagus working as a strange, and truly bizarre, genre entry and Cake Of Blood really impressing with its mix of gothic horror tropes and arthouse style. Both films are given very nice presentations on discs loaded with interesting extra features. Now on to part two!
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Danza Macabre Volume Three Blu-ray screen caps!
