Tweet
Released by: Arrow Video
Released on: April 25th, 2017.
Director: Riccardo Freda, Mario Bava
Cast: John Merivale, Didi Sullivan, Giacomo Rossi Stuart
Year: 1959
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
The story for 1959's Caltiki The Immortal Monster begins when an archeologist named Nieto (Arturo Dominici) wanders back to base camp in bad shape. This concerns the rest of his team - John Fielding (John Merivale), Bob (Daniele Vargas) and Max (Gérard Herter) - who decide to head back into the jungle to find out what happened to the missing member of their group, Ulmer, who was out to explore some local Mayan ruins.
As they explore the grounds, they come across a strange room inside an active volcano setup as an altar to the goddess Caltiki. They don't have any luck tracking down their associate but they do find his camera. When they head back to camp and watch the footage they find that it captured an assault on his person by two mysterious and unrecognizable men. With Nieto recovering with some help from John's wife Ellen (Didi Sullivan) and Max's better half Linda (Daniela Rocca), the three men continue to explore the altar and its surrounding grounds, uncovering the remains of those unlucky enough to have been sacrificed to Calitki. Soon enough, the men come face to face with a creature that they believe to be Calitki herself, a giant black blob that emits deadly flesh eating ooze! When Bob gets infected by the noxious slime, Caltiki starts to grow… it just might have something to do with the emergence of a comet that ties into an ancient Mayan doomsday prophecy - can anything stop it?
Borrowing heavily from The Quatermass Experiment and The Blob, Caltiki The Immortal Monster is a pretty entertaining B-movie in its own right. At seventy-six minutes in length it moves at a pretty quick pace and it offers up enough wonky, blobbish monster mayhem in its last half to keep creature feature fans appeased. Never mind the fact that not a frame of the picture was shot on location in Mexica and that this is all studio work - there's enough going on here that we don't think about that too much. The story is pretty predictable and this one won't win any awards for originality and the performances are nothing to write home about despite the inclusion of some interesting cast members. However, it does what it does well enough that it's hard not to have a good time with it.
It's interesting that the movie was co-directed by an uncredited Mario Bava, because while Freda handled the human element and most of the dramatic scenes, Bava was left to deal with the more technical side of things - the effects work, mostly. As this was made long before the advent of digital effects, all that we see here was done in camera, so expect a wealth of matte paintings, miniature work and practical effects and prop work to show up. What stands out here is how the work done by Freda, the more experienced director at this point in time, isn't nearly as interesting as that done by Bava. Obviously the effects scenes are going to be more exciting by their very nature but Freda's scenes of talky exposition just aren't all that interesting. The movie is at its best when it is dealing with interesting Mayan influenced sets or with the titular monster itself.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Arrow presents Caltiki on Blu-ray framed at 1.66.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer on a 50GB disc in a transfer taken from a 'new 2k scan of the original 35mm negative.' The black and white picture looks excellent here, showing virtually no print damage, dirt or debris. Contrast is solid, black levels are nice and deep and shadow detail remains quite good throughout. There are no noticeable issues with compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction and the end result is a pleasingly film-like image that should please anyone interested in the film.
Interestingly enough, Arrow has also included an open matter version of the movie on this release, and while there are times where obviously the framing doesn't look correct, some of the effects work that Bava was responsible for here is better showcased in this alternate version. Parts of the picture were shot with a 1.66.1 hard matte in camera, but most of the effects shots weren't. It's probably not going to be your 'go to' version of the movie as there's often times too much room in the compositions but this is worth checking out as an interesting cinematic curio.
LPCM 2.0 Mono tracks are provided in English and Italian with subtitles available in English only. Arrow is upfront about the quality of the English track, noting that the original elements are gone and that they had to put this together from different sources. As such, it doesn't sound great, but it's more than serviceable. The Italian track is cleaner and has better balance, however. It also has better depth and range - but it's great to have both options here, even if the English track is less than perfect (it has to be mentioned that the English dubbed track does have its own bizarre charm!).
Extras on this release start off with an audio commentary from Tim Lucas, author of Mario Bava: All The Colors Of The Dark. As you'd expect, Lucas' track is meticulously researched and very detailed. He gives plenty of background information on the film, how Freda and Bava came to collaborate on the picture, influences that creep into the film and loads more. A second audio commentary is provided by Troy Howarth, author of The Haunted World Of Mario Bava, that's also worth listening to. This second track is a bit more laid back and personable, and while it covers quite a bit of the same ground as Lucas' talk, Howarth also covers some new ground here. He talks a lot about the matte paintings and effects work, noting that some work better than others (the miniature shots involving fire don't always convince, for example) and that perhaps the filmmakers were okay with that. Both tracks are well done and interesting enough that hardcore Bava fans will probably want to check them both out despite the obvious and unavoidable overlap.
Featurettes start off with a new eighteen minute piece entitled From Quatermass To Caltiki, which is a talk with author and film critic Kim Newman in which he gives his thoughts on how various 'classic' monster films made in the United States and the United Kingdom in decades past had an influence on what we see take shape in Caltiki.
From there, we get a few supplements carried over from the old No Shame Films Italian DVD release, beginning with Riccardo Freda: Forgotten Master which is an interview with critic Stefano Della Casa that clocks in at nineteen minutes. Here he speaks about how he became familiar with the director's work, meeting the man himself, reception to his films in Italy and abroad, Freda's death and quite a bit more. Also carried over is The Genesis Of Caltiki, a twenty-two minute long interview with filmmaker Luigi Cozzi. Here he provides some history of the production, some insight into what makes it work and also some talk of the importance of writer Filippo Sanjust's contributions to the film and how they are, in some ways, just as important as those that Freda and Bava brought to the table.
Rounding out the extras on the disc is an archival introduction to the film by Stefano Della Casa that runs twenty seconds, the alternate opening titles for the US version running two and a half minutes, the film's theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection.
It's also worth noting that Arrow has included some nice reversible sleeve art featuring a newly created piece by Graham Humphreys on one side and some original poster art on the reverse. Included inside the clear Blu-ray keep case is a DVD version of the movie containing the same extras that were included on the Blu-ray disc. The first pressing of this release also includes a full color insert booklet that contains credits for the disc and the feature, some technical note on the presentation and writing on the film by Kat Ellinger and Roberto Curti.
The Final Word:
Caltiki The Immortal Monster is completely enjoyable B-movie nonsense, but it also offers the chance to check out some impressive visuals thanks to Bava's involvement behind the camera. It might not be deep, but it is a lot of fun and Arrow has rolled out the red carpet for the film's Blu-ray debut, presenting it in great shape with an alternate open matte version, two solid commentary tracks and some interesting featurettes. All in all, a fine release for a pretty entertaining film.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
