BARON BLOOD

BARON BLOOD

(A.k.a. THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF BARON BLOOD;

Arrow continue to do a great service to the late great Mario Bava, with another stellar dual format release to follow on from their world-best editions of BLACK SUNDAY and LISA AND THE DEVIL.

This time around the film in question is 1972’s BARON BLOOD which, like LISA, stars Elke Sommer.

It begins with academic Peter (Antonio Cantafora) returning from America to his mother's native Austria. He's met off his 'plane by his uncle Karl (Massimo Girotti). Peter informs him he's there to take a break from his studies and brush up on his family's history - in particular the legend of the evil Baron von Kleist from whom his surname stems.

Karl obliges by driving Peter to the Baron's old castle - nicknamed locally as "castle of the Devil" - where they meet Eva (Sommer), a student researching the folklore behind the sinister legend.

She's invited along with Peter to his uncle's home for dinner, where we learn the Baron was a sadist who was eventually cornered in his castle by angry locals and burned alive. Only, his remains were never found...

Peter then reveals how he once found an incantation at his grandfather's house, said to be written by a witch once wronged by the Baron and capable of resurrecting him so he can suffer his bleeding wounds endlessly. This intrigues the uncle, but not so much as it does Eva and Peter: they sneak off after their meal to the castle, where they recite the spell in an attempt to raise the Baron's evil spirit.

Not convinced of their success, the hapless couple return to the castle the following morning and begin investigating further into its hidden rooms and cobweb-strewn vaults. Locating a mysteriously tucked-away portrait of the Baron, Peter grows ever more intense about his desire to resurrect his ancestor - and insists they try reciting the incantation once more.

Guess what happens this time? That's right; the rotting, charred (and hatted) corpse of Baron Blood (Joseph Cotten) - as the locals call him - rises from its grave and begins hobbling into the nearby town. "There's something horrible and terrifying out there, and we have released it" Eva wisely surmises.

The Baron's first port of call is a local doctor who fixes his bleeding wounds before being slain mercilessly, and then a random drunk ... the newly reborn nobleman clearly has murder in mind.

Karl is sceptical when Eva and Peter tell him about what they've done - leaving them to sort out this mess for themselves. But then, a new character turns up at the local auctions: the affluent wheelchair-bound Alfred (Cotten again), who buys the castle with an eye to renovating and living in it. Who is he, what are his motives and why has he taken such a shine to Eva...?

BARON BLOOD falls somewhere between the pretty Gothic aesthetics of KILL BABY KILL and the 1970s gore of A BAY OF BLOOD. Clearly the budget is low; the greatest asset of it being the Austrian castle located by producer Alfred Leone and put to superb use by Bava.

Indeed, each scene shot in the castle - an actual museum, it turns out - is wonderful in terms of ambience and setting. Lighting and colour complement the archaic decor and architecture perfectly during these moments, Stelvio Cipriani's paradoxically airy score lending a graceful ambiguity to the mood.

Performances are perfunctory, especially the leads who don't really cut the mustard in terms of conviction or persuasion. Sommer isn't up to much aside from looking half-decent, while Cotten makes for a curiously innocuous villain once his grotesque make-up has been ditched (about halfway into proceedings).

Another beef from me is that the initially brisk pace of the scenario set-up is not maintained and the film's 97-minute running time does become something of a slog at times. But Bava was savvy enough to punctuate BARON BLOOD with enough set-pieces of minor bloodletting to prevent things from ever stalling completely.

Is BARON BLOOD vintage Bava though? I'd argue not. If you're seeking the all-out nightmarish qualities of KILL BABY KILL, the consummate nocturnal aesthetics of BLACK SUNDAY or the colourful intrigue of BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, you're going to find this fall short of expectations. It's a film that feels dated for its time (1972), and yet gory for its Hammer horror trappings.

Lumbering at times, certainly a victim of budgetary restrictions and not blessed with any manner of reliable actors, BARON BLOOD is a flawed but interesting addition to Bava's canon. It's not a bad film, of course - and visually it sometimes is capable of flooring viewers with its technical beauty - but its shortcomings may be difficult for first-timers to overlook.

Though this is a 3-disc dual format release, only disc one – a 50GB blu-ray containing all features – was made available for review. Discs 2 and 3 are DVDs which, between them, split the content of the blu-ray in standard definition.

The film itself is presented in three variants: BARON BLOOD and GLI ORRORI DEL CASTELLO DI NORIMBERGA, which are largely the same save for language and bookending titles sequences (the former is an English affair; the latter is all in Italian), and the AIP release featuring English re-dubbing and an alternate, inferior score from Les Baxter.

Picture quality across the board is fairly excellent. Colours are much deeper and stronger than they’ve ever been before, detail is heightened noticeably during scenes that previously played out overly dark, and blacks are impressively solid throughout. Lighter sequences still fare the best, but interior scenes now really come alive too with the colour and texture of the art décor really shining through. There is occasional debris on the print, and a couple of night scenes do exhibit minor wear – but, overall, Arrow proffer very pleasing 1080p HD, 1.66:1 transfers here.

I haven’t seen the region A Kino blu-ray of BARON BLOOD to draw comparison from, but I have it on good authority that the Arrow transfer is a winner in this regard.

Likewise, the LPCM mono soundtracks provided are clean, clear and consistent for the most part of playback. The English export version had the best mix to these ears, although all three do suffer from occasional source damage which manifests itself in the form of muffling. Optional English subtitles (for both the English and Italian scripts) are well-written and easy to read at all times.

A nice animated main menu page opens the disc. From there, pop-up menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the film in any of its three versions via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with a typically thorough and engaging audio commentary from the ever-enthused Tim Lucas.

For those who are too lazy to sit through Mr Lucas’ erudite, entertaining notes, Alan Jones is on hand with an optional 3-minute video introduction which whizzes a couple of titbits past us: how Vincent Price was approached to appear in the film, and so on.

Two original trailers, English and Italian, are welcome diversions. Both look in decent shape here.

Ruggero Deodato has some loose anecdotes about wanting to meet Bava but, er, not really ever getting to meet him at any great length. Still, this 11-minute featurette offers a cosy chat with the CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST director that attempts to place him among the likes of Argento and Bava.

An extensive gallery of photographs of the maestro working behind the scenes on various films comes to us under the title of "Bava at Work", and is a very nicely composed attraction indeed.

Also available as part of this impressive set are double-sided reversible cover artwork and a collector’s booklet containing liner notes by James Oliver. Alas, neither of these were made available for review purposes.

If you like a bit of Bava, you already know you NEED this release in your collection.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Arrow Video
Region B
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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