Verdict
Summary
A very well produced historical film from Jess Franco, whose usual penchant for kinky sex and perversion is on full display here, but this time he seems to have hit his stride with telling a compelling story with solid performances, big, roaring battle scenes, and a plot that remains consistently engaging.
Plot:
A 17th century high judge becomes infatuated with a suspected witch.
Review:
Guilty by association, an attractive young woman named Alicia (Margaret Lee) is brought before a court and accused of being a witch because her lover was supposedly practicing witchcraft before he was murdered. The judge, Jeffries (Christopher Lee) has her found guilty, but not before he gets a good look at the woman’s sister Mary (Maria Rohm), a beautiful young woman who sits in the court, hoping and praying that her sister will somehow be found innocent. At her sister’s execution, Mary witnesses the cold cruelty of Jeffries in action, and she takes solace with a man whose father is a politico under Jeffries’ district. Jeffries warns his associate to beware of Mary because she too could be a witch, and later on when an enforcer tries to rape Mary, she disfigures him. The enforcer comes after her with a vengeance and vows to bring her to Jeffries for justice, and when she’s finally brought, Jeffries has a very difficult time with his own lust towards her, and ultimately he believes that she has bewitched him, but that’s only part of the story …
A very well produced historical film from Jess Franco, whose usual penchant for kinky sex and perversion is on full display here, but this time he seems to have hit his stride with telling a compelling story with solid performances, big, roaring battle scenes, and a plot that remains consistently engaging. Star Lee is as electrifying as usual, even if the sex scene his character engages in was performed by a double, and co-star Rohm is sexy and alluring here. Bruno Nicolai’s score is solid, and the entire production is on par with some of the best that ’70s exploitation had to offer.
Blue Underground has just upgraded their uncut release of Night of the Blood Monster to 4K, and their two-disc set (the other disc is a standard Blu-ray) comes with a whole bunch of choice special features, including three separate audio commentaries, interviews, deleted and alternate scenes, trailers, and more. The film obviously has never looked or sounded better, and the treatment here is exemplary for collectors of exploitation and erotica films.
Bonus Materials
- Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) and HD Blu-ray (1080p) Widescreen 2.35:1 feature presentations
- Audio: 1.0 DTS-HD MA (English)
- Subtitles: English SDH, Francais, Espanol
- Audio Commentary #1 with Film Historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
- Audio Commentary #2 with Film Historians Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw
- Audio Commentary #3 with Film Historians David Flint and Adrian Smith
- Bloody Jess – Interviews with Director Jess Franco and Star Christopher Lee
- Judgement Day – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco”
- In The Shadows – Interviews with Filmmaker Alan Birkinshaw and Author Stephen Thrower on Harry Alan Towers
- Deleted and Alternate Scenes
- Trailers and TV Spot
- Still Galleries
