Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Blood Harvest (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
Blood Harvest (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: October 30th, 2018.
Director: Bill Rebane
Cast: Tiny Tim, Itonia Salcheck, Frank Benson, Dean West, Lori Minetti, Peter Krause
Year: 1962
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
College girl Jill (Itonia Salcheck) has just returned to her small home town after a stint away at school to find that her father, the town banker responsible for a string of foreclosures lately, and mother are missing. She asks the town sheriff (Frank Benson) about it, but he's more interested in making it to his softball game on time than in helping her out.
Without much else to do, Jill reconnects with her childhood friend Gary (Dean West), a seemingly nice enough guy who has always had a crush on her. He and his brother, Merv (Tiny Tim), live alone now that their parents have disappeared. Merv, upset by this and by the fact that some of his animal friends were killed, now spends almost all of his time 'in character' as Marvelous Mervo, a strange clown. He's a friendly guy, if more than a little creepy… and obviously damaged goods. From there, Jill hangs out with her friend Sarah (Lori Minetti) and they talk about Jill's new boyfriend Scott (Peter Krause). After that little hangout, Sarah disappears, Scott shows up, and tensions between Jill and Gary start to mount. Before you know it, someone is poking about Jill's family home killing people in increasingly grisly fashion…
Directed by Bill Rebane (read our interview with him here), Blood Harvest is a reasonably effective low budget slasher shot, like most of the director's films, in rural Wisconsin. The authentic farm settings lend the production some appreciable atmosphere. The barn where the killings take place, for example, is sufficiently creepy and desolate looking and the fact that Jill's home is in the middle of nowhere lends believability to the fact that it's seemingly a magnet for danger. The movie was made on a low budget, that much is obvious in some of the lighting and effects featured in the picture, but to Rebane's credit he manages to create some gritty, dark atmosphere in the picture. The film also has some amusing eighties details in it - check out the posters on the room in Jill's bedroom and see if you can find all three Garfields, a Commando one-sheet and a portrait of Robin Williams!
As far as the performances go, Itonia Salcheck makes for a pretty decent scream queen. She's got a bit of charisma, she handles the material well and delivers a pretty solid lead. She's quite attractive as well, which never hurts. Dean West is a little hokey as the 'old boyfriend' and Peter Krause reasonably forgettable as the 'new boyfriend' but Frank Benson is amusing in his supporting role as the sheriff (essentially a comic relief character).
Of course, the real reason - in fact, the main reason - you'd want to see this film in the first place is for the presence of Tiny Tim. He delivers most of his lines with at least a hint of his trademark falsetto/vibrato vocal style and contributes some music to the film as well. While seeing Tim cast here might at first seem like a novelty, the fact of the matter is that he's far and away the best part of the movie. He's got a naturally creepy screen presence when he's all made up as 'Mervo' and anytime he's on screen, the movie is strangely mesmerizing.
Note that the version of the film that was previously released in North America was Bill Rebane's preferred 'director's cut' of the film and it was shorn of some of the stronger nudity and violence. The version contained on this Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome is the complete uncut version of the film, which means that Salcheck's nude scenes are intact and that the throat slitting scene that takes place in the barn is presented in its entirety.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Blood Harvest was previously released on Blu-ray by 88 Films in a 1.33.1 fullframe transfer. Vinegar Syndrome's issue, which is taken from a 4k scan of the original 16mm negative, is framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in AVC encoded 1080p high definition with the feature taking up just over 25GBs of space on the 50GB disc. The framing looks good here, we really only lose some extra empty space, no real important picture information. As to the quality of the image itself, it's strong. The picture is as grainy as you'd expect a 16mm source to be but there's a lot of strong detail here and good texture as well. There's some decent depth to the image as well, not in every shot but in a few of the outdoor sequences. Colors are reproduced quite naturally and skin tones look accurate. Black levels are fine as well. There's no obvious noise reduction here at all, nor are there any noticeable issues with compression artifacts or edge enhancement.
The only audio option for the feature is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track. Optional English subtitles are included. Audio quality is fine. Dialogue is easy enough to understand and there are no issues with any hiss or distortion and the levels are properly balanced.
Extras start off with an exclusive commentary track featuring producer/co-writer Leszek Burzynski moderated by Joe Rubin. They start off by talking about how and when Burzynski first met Tiny Tim and what he brought to the movie. Burzynski also talks about his relationship with Bill Rebane, and how they both contributed to the directing aspect of the production. He also talks about how he directed British television (a sitcom called Father's Day) before then going on to do some shorts at Paramount around the time he started working the United States. Burzynski also talks about the differences between working for Channel 4 and the BBC in the UK, how he came to meet and work with Rebane, how this picture differs from other Rebane films in that it's sleazy and fairly sex-obsessed, how the different cast members came to be involved and what they were like, the significance of Tiny's character being a clown, bringing the film to market at Cannes where a Japanese distributor liked it but wanted 'more cruelty' added to the picture and some interesting stories about Rebane's background, his father in particular.
The disc also contains a featurette called Every Critic Is Gonna Butcher It, which is an archival interview with Tiny Tim discussing Blood Harvest. This three-minute piece, shot in Niagara Falls in 1987, sees the tiny one talking about Rebane's directorial credits, before then giving out his phone number and talking to the press about how the film will likely be savaged by the critics.
If that weren't enough, we also get a full set that runs over an hour where Tiny Tim performs live inside what may or may not be a circus tent from a performance that took place in Niagara Falls, NY on September 3rd, 1987. Again, Tim puts his all into his performance, his vocals are all over the place and it's just completely bizarre… and kind of wonderful. He even does Oh, Canada.
Menus and chapter selection close out the disc.
As to the packaging, orders purchased directly from Vinegar Syndrome get a beautifully horrifying slipcover as well as some cool reversible sleeve art. Additionally, inside the red Blu-ray case there's a four-page essay from Justin A. Martell entitled 'Marvelous Mervo, At Your Service…' in which Tiny Tim's biographer presents some welcome background information on how Tiny Tim wound up starring in a slasher movie, Rebane's thoughts on working with the man and quite a bit more - it's a good read and a nice inclusion on this release.
The Final Word:
Blood Harvest is a fairly conventional slasher film made interesting mainly by the presence of Tiny Tim - who thankfully gets quite a bit of screen time here. The movie is also surprisingly sleazy, going harder with the nudity than you'd probably expect given the director's other, more family-friendly films. Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray release looks and sounds very nice indeed - and it contains nice selection of extras, most of which are focused on the film's most unusual star.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (272)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4162)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2513)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (391)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (300)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: February 22nd, 2022.
Director: Gianfranco Parolini
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance
Year: 1976
Purchase From Amazon
God’s Gun – Movie Review:
Directed by Gianfranco Parolini in 1976, quite late in the spaghetti western boom years, God's Gun (Diamante Lobo in Italy) introduces us to a bad, bad man named Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) who, along with his gang of equally bad, bad men, start wreaking...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:10 PM -
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: October 8th, 2019.
Director: Mario Bava
Cast: Christopher Lee, Reg Park, Leonora Ruffo, Gaia Germani
Year: 1968
Purchase From Amazon
Hercules In The Haunted World – Movie Review:
Directed by Mario Bava in 1961 and featuring a screenplay by Bava (and Sandro Continenza, Francesco Prosperi and Duccio Tessari), Hercules In The Haunted World (also known as Hercules At The Center Of The Earth and...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:08 PM -
-
Released by: Cinématographe
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jack Nicholson
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi
Year: 1978
Purchase From Amazon
Goin’ South – Movie Review:
Made at the height of his career as an actor, 1978’s ‘Goin’ South’ sees Jack Nicholson once again in the director’s chair, seven years after his directorial debut, ‘Drive, He Said,’ failed to set the...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:29 AM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: April 20th, 2024.
Director: Noburo Nakamura
Cast: Miyuki Kuwano, Mikijiro Hira
Year: 1964
Purchase From Amazon
The Shape Of Night – Movie Review:
Directed by Noburo Nakamura for Shochiko in 1964, ‘The Shape Of Night’ follows a young woman named Yoshie Nomoto (Miyuki Kuwano). In the opening scene, she’s working as a streetwalker on the outskirts of town and soon enough, she’s picked...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:26 AM -
-
Released by: Film Masters
Released on: April 23rd, 2024.
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Lugene Sanders, Susan Gordon
Year: 1963
Purchase From Amazon
Tormented – Movie Review:
The late Bert I. Gordon’s 1963 horror film, ‘Tormented,’ is an effectively spooky ghost story made with an obviously low budget but no less effective for it.
The story revolves around a professional piano player...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:19 AM -
-
Released by: Grindhouse Releasing
Released on: March 12th, 2024.
Director: William Grefé
Cast: William Shatner, Jennifer Bishop, Ruth Roman, Harold Sakata
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Impulse – Movie Review:
Directed by the one and only William Grefé, 1974’s Impulse is one of those rare films that allows you to witness what it would be like if a really sweaty William Shatner got mad at a lady carrying balloons. Before that...-
Channel: Movies
04-15-2024, 01:20 PM -