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Black Magic Rites
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Black Magic Rites
Released by: Kino / Redemption
Released on: August 28, 2012.
Director: Renato Polselli
Cast: Mickey Hargitay, Rita Calderoni, Christa Barrymore, Raul Lovecchio
Year: 1973
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The Movie:
Renato Polselli's Black Magic Rites (also known under the alternate title of The Reincarnation Of Isabel) is… weird. The storyline jumps around from one century to the next as it tells us of a Satanic cult's nefarious habit of abducting and sacrificing local virgins. Why? To resurrect the 'Great Mistress Isabella (Rita Calderoni)' of course! She was a witch who was burned at the stake for her crimes against God hundreds of years ago but she has not been forgotten.
When a man named Jack (Mickey Hargitay) buys up the castle that the evil cult has been using as their base of operations, the fact that his pretty niece Laureen (Calderoni in a double role) bears a striking resemblance to the late witch soon proves to be an issue. It isn't long after her arrival that the cult start working their evil mojo on her in an attempt to use her as their final sacrifice, the blood offering that will resurrect Isabella once and for all!
While the film's narrative is not one of its strong points, it thankfully goes so over the top in the visuals department that a lot of Euro-cult fans won't mind so much. Don't do into this one expecting much of a story as long stretches of the film don't really seem to make a whole lot of sense, just appreciate the wild mix of gothic atmosphere and sexy surrealism that Polselli has conjured up from the depths of his twisted mind. This one is really just all over the map, from the score that changes tempo at completely unexpected and wholly inappropriate times to the seemingly countless orgying that the cult members wind up dabbling in to the omnipresent sinister demigoddess with a big old hole in the middle of her chest. Most of the cast have got strange make up on for much of the film and there's so much wildly colored lighting going on here that it all gets very trippy very quickly.
The former Mr. Jane Mansfield, Mickey Hargitay sort of stumbles his way through the role of the castle owner looking somewhat puzzled by everything while the beautiful Ms. Calderoni vamps it up with the best of them and looks amazing doing it. While none of this makes much sense, it is all very nicely shot and shows not only a keen eye for interesting compositions but for color combinations as well. The sets are obviously of the low budget ilk but Polselli makes the most of them and what the film lacks in any sort of cohesive narrative it more than makes up for in impressive visuals and a winning combination of graphic sex and violence!
Video/Audio/Extras:
Kino's 1.78.1 widescreen transfer presents the film in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and generally looks very good. Mastered in HD from the original 35mm negative, there's a bit of mild print damage here and there but the colors look excellent here and detail is generally quite strong. There are no issues with compression artifacts or edge enhancement nor is there any noise reduction. Skin tones, and there are a lot of them on display in this movie, look lifelike and realistic. Black levels are strong, texture is good, and by and large the movie looks surprisingly strong here, the improved transfer giving fans a great opportunity to appreciate just how well it was shot.
Audio chores are handled aptly by an LPCM 2.0 Mono track in Italian with optional English subtitles. Again, no problems here - the levels are properly balanced and the score by Romolo Forlai and Gianfranco Reverberi sounds quite good. There are no issues with hiss or distortion and the mix is clean and concise sounding.
Extras are limited to a trailer for the feature as well as trailers for two Jean Rollin titles available on Blu-ray and two Mario Bava titles (Hatchet For The Honeymoon and Lisa And The Devil) coming soon to Blu-ray. Menus and chapter stops are also included.
The Final Word:
Some more extras would have been nice but it's kind of a minor miracle to have this oddball film on Blu-ray in the first place so we can't complain too loudly. Kino has done a fine job bringing this strange mix of devilish sexploitation and occult themed horror to high definition, and if it's a little too absurd to be rightly considered a masterpiece it is still a ridiculously entertaining and completely bizarre slice of Italian exploitation well worth revisiting on Blu-ray.
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#1Randy GSenior MemberFind all postsView Profile08-30-2012, 05:25 AMEditing a commentThis film has a delightfully stupid ending.
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#2WanyonJunior MemberFind all postsView Profile09-22-2013, 08:14 AMEditing a commentI am still not convinced they have the original camera negatives for this one. They had an inter-positive I think originally?
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