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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: November 23rd, 2018.
Director: Robert Hartford-Davis
Cast: Ann Todd, Patrick Magee, Tony Beckley, Suzanna Leigh, Madeleine Hinde
Year: 1972
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Beware My Brethren - Movie Review:
Robert Hartford-Davis' 1972 film tells the strange tale of a young man named Kenny Wemys (Tony Beckley) he works as a security officer. At night, however, Kenny has an unusual hobby - he finds women that he deems immoral and strangles them to death! See, Kenny was raised by the members of The Brethren, a hardcore Evangelical group led by 'The Minister' (Patrick Magee), a cult really, that puts chaste morality and a strict moral doctrine at the forefront of their belief system. Kenny does what he does with the best of intentions - he believes he's helping them, cleansing them even and getting them right for God. He also seems to enjoy playing back the tape recordings he makes of the killings.
Kenny's outlook changes when his sick mother, Birdy (Ann Thomas), a devout member of the group, is assigned a new home health aide named Patty Lynch (Suzanna Leigh). Birdy is so involved with The Brethren that she's even had a chapel constructed in her home where meetings are often held. It isn't long before Patty realizes that Kenny isn't quite right, wondering if he may, in fact, be involved in some rather dubious activity and if the so-called church he's so heavily involved with could have something to do with all of this.
Released on DVD domestically by Redemption as The Fiend in a heavily trimmed version, Beware My Brethren makes its uncut debut on disc with this issue from Vinegar Syndrome and in its uncut form it's a pretty solid thriller. The film wears its social commentary plainly on its sleazy sleeve, it's clearly taking pot-shots at fundamentalism and blind faith, but as heavy-handed as it can be it's quite an effective picture. The movie doesn't want for sex and violence either. The killings are fairly harsh, especially for a British film of this vintage, and the nudity is frequent. Davis, probably better known for helming Corruption and The Black Torment than for this unjustly lesser known film, does a pretty fine job behind the camera. He manages to take a somewhat predictable storyline and manages to keep it tense and interesting. The cinematography from Desmond Dickinson (who did Horror On Snape Island, Burke & Hare, A Study In Terror and quite a few other rock-solid British cult films) is more than competent and occasionally brilliant, while the score from the score, which comes courtesy of composers Richard Kerr and Tony Osborne, does what a good score should do by heightening drama, tension and suspense.
Of course, a big selling point here is the cast. Tony Beckley (of Get Carter, The Italian Job and Hammer's The Lost Continent) makes for a believable enough perverted psychopath. He brings a realistic sense of conviction to Kenny that makes him frightening enough to carry the film. Patrick Magee is fantastic in his supporting role of The Minister. Best known for A Clockwork Orange, Zulu and Barry Lyndon he's absolutely perfect in the role, bringing all that crazy screen presence he seemed to have so much of to every line and making the movie all the better for it. Ann Thomas is also great here as the matron of the film while lovely Suzanna Leigh, of The Deadly Bees and The Pleasure Girls, also does fine work here.
Beware My Brethren - Blu-ray Review:
Vinegar Syndrome brings this one to Blu-ray 'newly scanned & restored in 2k from 35mm negative elements.' The 1.85.1 widescreen framing looks great and the quality of the image is definitely impressive. There's excellent depth and clarity here and loads of texture as well. The colors look spot on, the black levels are nice and deep while avoiding crush in the darker scenes and the image is virtually spotless, while still retaining that ever important filmic grain. Skin tones are nice and natural looking, never once appearing too pink or even slightly waxy, the whole thing just looks really, really good.
The English language DTS-HD Mono track on the disc is fine. Dialogue is easy to understand, there are no problems with any hiss or any distortion and the levels are properly balanced from start to finish. Optional English SDH subtitles are included.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary by film historian and author Samm Deighan that is as thorough as it is interesting. We get some welcome background on religious-themed horror pictures that came before this one and some insight into pictures that likely influenced this one. We also learn how this ties into British social issues of its day, along with the expected notes on the cast and crew, the locations, the direction and more.
Aside from that we also get a six-minute scene comparison between the UK theatrical version and the uncut International version, the film's original theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection.
As this is a combo pack release, we also get a DVD version of the movie taken from the same 4k restoration and featuring the same extras that are included on the Blu-ray disc.
Beware My Brethren - The Final Word:
Beware My Brethren is reasonably twisted stuff, quite well-directed and full of fine performances from a quirky but effective cast. Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray release of the full-strength, uncut version of the film is a treat, presenting the picture in beautiful shape and with an interesting and informative commentary track as its main extra feature.
Click on the images below for full sized Beware My Brethren Blu-ray screen caps!
