Here’s a rare treat for horror fans, as Indicator release Corruption on Blu-ray on August 30th. The casual viewer could be forgiven for writing this off as just another old Peter Cushing film, but this is a long-unseen film that has never before been released on ANY home video format in the UK. Not disc, nor tape. From that perspective, it might as well be considered a lost Peter Cushing classic. Its release is pretty significant for fans of the genre.
Produced in 1968, Corruption stars Peter Cushing as Sir John Rowan, a top surgeon whose photographic model girlfriend Lynn (Sue Lloyd) is badly scarred by an arc light in an accident at a swingin’ sixties party. Rowan turns to experimental surgery to restore her looks, but the procedure is only temporary. Rowan must turn to murder to get the parts he needs as Lynn grows more demanding and unstable.
Well, it all sounds pretty familiar and in line with Cushing’s typical body of work, so to speak, in the sixties. But this one is different. Cushing, although cold and calculating and chillingly precise in the role, never goes “full Frankenstein”. It’s this restraint and the film serving as both a boundary pusher for its time, as well as a curious time capsule of the era that elevates this one. At a time when Hammer and Amicus were churning out formulaic horror films many still with a gothic setting, this embraced the surgical horrors of the modern-day. Indicator have pulled out all the stops, with a gorgeous 2K restoration from the original negative.
Three versions of the film are included – the censored original British, the uncensored American, and an altered continental release which featured a different victim in one sequence. Also included are a Guardian interview with Cushing himself toward the end of his life, commentaries, a look at the surgical horror sub-genre called The Unkindest Cuts, publicity material, and an eighty-page book. But you’ll need to move quickly to add this gem to your collection – it’s a limited edition of 5000!
CORRUPTION is released on Blu-ray on August 30th
