Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

REVIEW: CHROME SHELLED REGIOS – PART 2 / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: TODD HABERKORN, BRINA PALENCIA, MONICA RIAL, ERIC VALE, GREG AYRES, JERRY JEWELL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

After a lacklustre first part, Chrome Shelled Regios’ latter half picks up the pace somewhat as the contaminoids swarm around Zuellni, Layfon’s past as a disgraced former Heaven’s Blade comes back on him, and forces seemingly greater than anyone can hope to contain begin to surface.

One of the main problems with the first half of the series was that it largely consisted of inconsequential one-shot stories that did little to advance the narrative or maintain viewer interest. Thankfully, these now make way for multi-episode arcs involving electronic spirits – the consciousness and souls of the various regios – and various people being possessed by fallen ones, the violent and unpredictable electronic spirits of regios that have been destroyed by contaminoids. Although making for far more interesting viewing than the petty bickering of teenagers that has thus far dominated proceedings, the short space of time into which they have been crammed gives them far less of an impact than if they had been spread out over the rest of the series.

With pretty much all the character development we’re going to get out of the way, there is now more focus granted to the series’ intense battle sequences. The action is as vibrant as ever, the transforming weaponry continually variable as warriors perform gravity-defying acrobatics, their auras ablaze with chromatic fury, while the monsters fought are as varied in appearance as they are Lovecraftian in hideousness.

In terms of the animation, the Heaven’s Blades themselves are afforded the most lavish character design, but some of them only appear during an extended battle sequence towards the series’ end. Likewise, the mystical weapons they wield with their variant types and myriad powers are often the biggest appeal of premises like these, but the most we see of them is during said fight, where their spectacular abilities are wasted with mere minutes of screen time.

Further plotlines include the recurring appearance of an arrogant and irritating mercenary leader who calls everyone “bub” in an apparent belief that he’s Wolverine, and who is desperate to prove himself a superior fighter to Layfon and overcome his massive inferiority complex; and regular attacks by a doomsday cult in metallic wolf masks who wish to see their transdimensional deity rise to prominence. Also, the random sepia-toned interludes that appear every couple of episodes are finally given some relevance towards the series’ end. Beginning like a hybrid of ’40s noir and ’90s action, their development into supernatural horror ties into a vague explanation of how the world came to be a contaminated and abomination-infested wasteland. The series’ ultimate resolution doesn’t tie up all the loose ends, relying too much on viewers’ knowledge of the novel series, but while not furnishing a full explanation, it at least offers enough vague allusions to allow you to draw your own conclusions of what it all means.

While these twelve episodes are an improvement on the meandering first half of the show, they are still constrained by the limitations of the restrictive set up, meaning that the series as a whole remains fundamentally lacking in true significance.

Extras: Trailers

REVIEW: DRAGON BALL – SEASON ONE / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: MINORU OKAZAKI, DAISUKE NISHIO / SCREENPLAY: CHRISTOPHER NEEL, JOHN BURGMEIER, JARED HEDGES / STARRING: CHRISTOPHER SABAT, STEPHANIE NADOLNY, LAURA BAILEY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

We’re all aware of the Dragon Ball series right? Even people who aren’t au fait with every aspect of it will generally at least be familiar with Dragon Ball Z thanks to Cartoon Network showing the series all throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. The series, along with GT, have received DVD collections in the UK. However the less famous precursor to them all, Dragon Ball, had been beyond the grasp of the average UK fan until this release was announced.

Dragon Ball is a slightly different kettle of fish to its more famous cousins. To say the series is a touch more risqué would be a little bit of an understatement. Within the first episode you will see a naked child Goku kick a giant fish in the face before Bulma turns up, shoots a child and then offers to give him a peek up her skirt if he will give her the Dragon Ball that his Grandfather left him after he died.

So yeah, outside of sticking to the saga format that would be carried on later, Dragon Ball strikes a slightly different tone to the Z and GT series. Frankly, it’s all the better for it too. The humour is on just the right side of dirty, with a certain character’s issues with hentai perhaps venturing a little past the line, and the series doesn’t quite descend into the almost endless cycle of fighting between Saiyans and the various threats they face, which was something the Z series was occasionally guilty of.

Covering ‘The Saga of Goku’ and ‘The Tournament Saga’, Dragon Ball – Season One is the Funimation release, essentially acting as an introduction to a number of story tropes that the series would become famous for, in addition to a host of popular characters, including Goku, Bulma and Krillin.

So what’s in the collection for the people who already know that they are going to get it? Unfortunately, the answer is not a lot. The DVDs do come with the original Japanese audio track, which is a nice little novelty despite the fact that it has clearly not been remastered. However the additional features just seem a little… paltry.

All you get in addition to the first 28 episodes are a few character profiles, featuring a blurb and a picture, and a bunch of trailers. Admittedly the trailer for Curse of the Blood Rubies on the first disc is pretty cool but the rest are simply small trailers for old series that don’t really relate to Dragon Ball, even if they will appeal to genre fans.

Still, the collection does act as a handy introduction to the Dragon Ball universe and the episodes are presented without the heavy-handed editing that many such collections are subjected to. With the rest of the series set to be released across four more box sets, there is plenty here for fans, or prospective fans, of the series to dig into. Even if it’s a little short on the bonus material.

Extras: Trailers / Character profiles

REVIEW: THE ESCHATRILOGY – BOOK OF THE DEAD / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DAMIAN MORTER / SCREENPLAY: DAMIAN MORTER / STARRING: STUART WOLFENDEN, SARAH JANE HONEYWELL, DAMIAN MORTER, SAM CULLINGWORTH, TIM MCGILL GRIEVESON, PAUL COLLIN-THOMAS, DAVID FRAMPTON, ZOE SIMONE, CLAY WHITTER, NEIL ADAMS, FLYNN ALLEN, GEORGE NEWTON, ANNA BATHO, CHRIS KNIGHT / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Another day, another micro-budget zombie-flick and, if IMDb is to be believed, a very micro-budget one at that. That can’t be right; all those zombies must have had to bring their own sandwiches.

There are those of us who think zombie movies might have been a bit overdone of late, especially the low-budget variety. It’s almost become some kind of bizarre participation sport. So if you’re going to impress, it might be a good idea to bring something new to the party. To be fair, right from the off The Eschatrilogy – Book of the Dead (our catchy title of the week) does do something rather interesting: it’s a portmanteau. Three separate stories set during a zombie apocalypse with another story (involving the titular book) linking them. There’s even a bit of an overlap between the stories with some recurring zombies. The portmanteau was once a standard horror vehicle and it’s rather nice to see it have a comeback. In fact, we’re not sure we’ve ever seen an entirely zombie-themed one before (although there’s a zombie-themed everything else). Each of the stories explores a different drama from the z-apoc but unfortunately, as every possible angle has already been covered (we checked) in the 2.87 million (approx) zombie films that have gone before, we can’t say any of them are wholly original. It’s not like there were that many different angles available in the first place.

But director Damian Morter has done a pretty good job for the money. The framing story looks and sounds particularly classy even if the main tales don’t quite match up to it in the pretty stakes. But you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching something with real money behind it if it were not for the quality of the acting which is, shall we say, variable. Everyone looks like they were having a great time making this but that isn’t necessarily the vibe you want to be giving off, especially as Morter does manage to generate some creepy atmosphere. But it’s not all bad in that respect. There are a couple of reasonable performances in there, not least from Morter himself as a mysterious stranger in the framing story. If everyone had been as good him, this would have been a much better movie.

All in all Eschatrilogy is not bad as long as you can forgive the shortcomings of the casting budget and you’re a big enough zombie fan to still enjoy a genre that’s long since maxed-out the idea card. Mind you, it’s worth hanging in there for a cameo from CBeebies’ Sarah-Jane Honeywell (of Higgledy House fame). She’s not in it for long but she does threaten to cut someone’s balls off. Goodness. What would Mr Tumble say? 

Extras: None

REVIEW: THE FORGOTTEN / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: STEVEN BERRYESSA / SCREENPLAY STEVEN BERRYESSA / STARRING: DAVID EBY, LUKE HATMAKER, NOMALANGA ENIAFE,OLIVIA BISHOP, PHIL PERRY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Welcome to the end of the world – again. We’re not entirely sure exactly how the world ended this time but there seem to be a few zombies running around just for the hell of it. We don’t expect gag-a-minute comedy with party hats and silly string but does the apocalypse really have to be quite so grim, unpleasant and occasionally morally repugnant? The Forgotten (retitled from the original Falls the Shadow) is just another grimy, lo-fi, low-budget effort regurgitating tired old ideas and clichés and doing nothing especially interesting or entertaining with them.

The film’s clearly taking its cue from The Walking Dead, focussing on its characters and their predicament and with its token ‘zombies’ as the backdrop to the drama (and it even offers up familiar Walking Dead-style railway track/forest locations for some of its action); but the drama itself is flat and unengaging and the characters too cold and perfunctorily drawn to encourage us to really invest in their lives. The movie follows the fortunes of three disparate groups of survivors. Soldier Michael Colister (Eby) returns home to find his wife dead and his young daughter kidnapped by the vile, uncomfortably racist Reverend (Perry) and the gang of thugs and degenerates he’s enlisted to help him ‘reclaim’ the lost country. Elsewhere loner Noah (Hatmaker… brilliant, I’ll take two trilbies and a bowler) hooks up with feisty Elena (Bishop), and young mother Kina (Eniafe) is protecting her son Orlando (Jesse Warrick) who’s been bitten but hasn’t died and returned as a flesh-chewing zombie. The three groups eventually converge as the film trundles towards its predictable and inevitably violent climax.

The Forgotten compensates for its ‘seen-all-this-before’ status by at least looking quite good. Despite its bargain basement budget, it’s well-directed and its slightly bleached, burnished image manages to evoke a grimy world whose glory days are behind it and whose people have devolved into ruthless, desperate savages. But the insipid storyline, pedestrian script and half-hearted performances only serve to emphasise the amateur hour nature of the whole enterprise. The DVD cover suggests that The Forgotten is “set to be a cult classic” but we’re more inclined to suspect that the movie’s long-term fate lies hidden in plain sight in its own title.

Extras: ‘Making of’ documentary

REVIEW: FATE/ZERO – PART 1 / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: MATT MERCER, KARI WAHLGREN, BRIDGET HOFFMAN, CRISPIN FREEMAN, MARC DIRAISON, JAMIESON PRICE, GRANT GEORGE, DAVID EARNEST, DAN WOREN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

In the convoluted associations typical of Japanese fiction media, Fate/Zero is an anime adaptation of a light novel which was written as a prequel to a visual novel (a kind of interactive fiction game), Fate/Stay Night. The series takes place ten years prior to the action of the game and expands upon events previously only alluded to.

Every sixty years, families of magi compete for possession of the Holy Grail, a supernatural artefact capable of granting wishes to the victors. The war is fought by seven Masters, human magi the Grail has deemed worthy of participation, and their Servants, warriors from history and legend summoned from a pool of Holy Spirits classified variously as Saber, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Archer, Assassin and Berserker, signifying their various combat styles.

The most prominently featured is Saber, the female warrior Arturia Pendragon that legend knows as King Arthur, mercenary Kiritsugu who acts as her Master and his homunculus wife Irisviel. Principally opposing them are Kirei, a priest who is the Master of Assassin (Hassan-i Sabbah, grandmaster of the Persian Assassin order) and Tokiomi, the Master of Archer (Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh). Strategic manoeuvring between Kiritsugu and Kirei forms the centre of most developments, each of them recognising their own emptiness reflected in the other.

Further antagonism comes in the form of arrogant mage Kayneth and his equally confident but far more honourable servant Lancer (Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, a warrior from the Fenian Cycle of Celtic mythology and contemporary of the legendary Fionn mac Cumhaill). Rider (Alexander the Great) is commanded by Kayneth’s student Waver, while Berserker, a mysterious and mighty warrior shrouded black armour whose identity remains unrevealed, is commanded by coerced mage Kariya.

Seemingly uninterested in the war itself is Caster (Gilles de Rais, the Breton knight and serial child killer immortalised as Bluebeard) who is obsessed with Saber as he believes her to be Joan of Arc reborn, and his sociopathic Master Ryūnosuke, who follows Caster out of a desire to experience new and exciting ways of killing people, mostly children.

As befits an action series, the fight sequences are intense and intricate, the guns and magic at the command of the Masters and the various fighting styles of each Servant along with the powers at their disposal mean that no two altercations are alike, and often spill over from one episode to the next. Indeed, the final episode ends on a cliffhanger as three Servants combine forces to battle a summoned CG monstrosity, an epic battle doubtless to be begun as soon as the next part of the series begins.

As well as fight sequences, the story is driven by moral ambiguity, with everyone having various motives for seeking the power of the Grail. Some are in it for personal power, some to regain former glory, some for selfless altruism and some to protect others. This also leads to the only major criticism of the show: its pacing. Large chunks of many episodes are taken up by single conversations as characters discuss their beliefs and viewpoints. Although they serve to further develop the motivations of the characters, the depth of the philosophising undertaken is a little excessive and drags out the story to an unnecessary length.

Taken on its own, Fate/Zero is never anything less than entertaining, but when compared to Fate/Stay Night its storytelling achievement is amplified. Frustrating behaviours and motivations are given justification and context, while some characters make small appearances as young children and the genesis of their development is seen. One episode is entirely devoted to Rin, daughter of Tokiomi and one of Fate/Stay Night’s main characters, investigating the missing children tortured and murdered by Caster and Ryūnosuke.

As often the case with prequels, if you’re familiar with any incarnation of Fate/Stay Night you’ll get a lot more out of Fate/Zero, but even without any prior knowledge it’s still a highly engaging and multi-layered story.

Extras: Trailers

REVIEW: GOAL OF THE DEAD / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: THIERRY POIRAUD, BENJAMIN ROCHER / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: ALBAN LENOIR, CHARLIE BRUNEAU, AHMED SYLLA, TIPHAINE DAVIOT / RELEASE DATE: TBC

We’ll be honest, the first mention of Goal of the Dead had us rolling our eyes and expecting the worst. As it happens, this turned out to be a charming movie that regularly hits the correct beats throughout. Yes, the basic premise is football and zombies, but don’t let the bonkers notion put you off.

Goal of the Dead centres on glamorous, glitzy Olympique de Paris travelling to play lowly Caplongue in a cup match. It turns out that, years prior, Caplongue’s star player, Sam Lorit (Lenoir), had left his home town club for the bright lights of Paris. Once idolised, Lorit is villainised upon this homecoming. So much so, local player Jeannot (Sebastien Vandenberghe) is injected with a mysterious potion that sends him into a rage. The hulking Jeannot goes on a rampaging mission to make sure that former friend Lorit doesn’t leave the stadium alive. It just so happens that Jeannot’s rage-fuelled condition is contagious, passed on whenever the infected vomit on somebody. As the virus spreads, the small town of Caplongue falls into darkness.

Despite its ludicrous-sounding plot, Goal of the Dead is a massively enjoyable movie. As well as ageing star Lorit, we get introduced to young, arrogant teammate Idriss (Sylla). Then there’s a TV reporter (Bruneau) tasked with following the Paris team for this game, money-grabbing agents, fickle fans, well-meaning football managers, and even some football hooligans thrown in for good measure. Truly a movie of two halves, with each being directed by a separate director, the film works wonders as a football movie, looking at some of the things that are wrong with the modern game whilst the veteran Lorit is desperate to show that he still has value in a profession now driven by ego and money. Then there’s the zombie element, which has a feel of 28 Days Later meets Resident Evil 2’s Raccoon City, with a dash of Shaun of the Dead’s humour thrown in for good measure.

As a football film, the movie has some standout moments for that particular subgenre. As a zombie movie, it does more than enough to get by. At the core of Goal of the Dead, though, are some well-developed, interesting characters exuding humour, sincerity and appeal. The film is also stylish, with a slightly discoloured, apocalyptic vibe. All of the actors do a splendid job in their particular roles and Lenoir proves to be a very likeable lead, even if his character has some less-than-admirable traits.

Whilst the football elements are likely to be more interesting than the horror elements, Goal of the Dead balances balls and beasts as it delivers a perfectly executed finish into the top corner of the comedy-horror genre. Back of the net, son!

Extras: TBC

REVIEW: RE-ANIMATOR / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: STUART GORDON / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: JEFFREY COMBS, BARBARA CRAMPTON, BRUCE ABBOTT / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 2ND

God bless gore movies. Sitting through Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator is the equivalent of scrubbing your face with a blue steak and washing your eyes with moonshine. In many ways, too, the 1985 horror comedy classic’s outlandish, albeit deadpan, manner is reflected directly in the boundary-pushing figure of Dr Herbert West (Combs) – totally brilliant but definitely a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

It’s not bad at all for a director making his big screen debut and whose background was in political theatre. Gordon and his team treated the genre – and the source material – with the utmost respect, but their ‘more is more’ approach to the blood and guts quota, along with scenes of a striking transgressive nature, ensured Re-Animator would enter the annals of cult cinema history.

The film is loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, Herbert West – Reanimator, a minor work serialised in an amateur rag titled Home Brew. It might not be as well-known as the iconic short stories and novellas, but the piece does boast the fine distinction of introducing Miskatonic University into horror fiction lore.

Herbert West is a young medical student/nutcase whose aims can be read, theoretically, as entirely worthy. Pushing and revising the rules is a key remit in medical discovery and endeavour. Conquering death and bringing recently deceased people back to life is less an affront to nature and more a continuation of our traditional technological role in shaping our progress and history. Humankind is certainly malleable, but are the laws of nature? Of course, the subtext of the drama must be conservative and reactionary – creating life without the role of the female figure is seen as an aberration and all hell breaks loose when West’s super-serum is injected into a dead cat and then into a host of human species.

The film’s tone is akin to Lucio Fulci meeting The Three Stooges in a morgue. There will be blood. Lots of it. Re-Animator splashes the claret around like a butcher going loco in an abattoir. It’s sublime! Today’s use of CGI blood and other hard drive built desecrations of the flesh are no substitute for an old-school concoction of blood caps, food colouring, latex foam, plastic tubing, pigs’ innards and other viscera. Re-Animator proves such a notion, with aplomb.

Extras: Director’s Commentary / Actors’ and Producer Commentary / Making-of documentary / Deleted and Extended Scenes / Interviews / Behind-the-Scenes Gallery / Production Stills Gallery / Trailers

REVIEW: BOOMERANG! / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: ELIA KAZAN / SCREENPLAY: RICHARD MURPHY / STARRING: DANA ANDREWS, LEE J. COBB, JANE WYATT, ARTHUR KENNEDY, KARL MALDEN / RELEASE DATE: MAY 26TH

This latest Masters of Cinema release sees 1947’s Boomerang! get the remastered, special edition treatment. Kazan’s film, based on a true story, centres on a murder in an everyday American town. A priest is murdered on a street corner and all witnesses point the finger at out-of-towner John Waldron (Kennedy). With political pressure on the powers that be to charge somebody with the heinous act, the police, led by Chief Robinson (Cobb), finally get Waldron to sign a confession. Despite this, Waldron maintains his innocence. When District Attorney Henry Harvey (Andrews) starts to fight Waldron’s corner, the D.A. must essentially tear apart his own case. With corruption, blackmail and politics all firmly in play, this is the story of one man deciding to do what is ethically and morally correct.

Boomerang! is a film that stands up to this day, with its themes and thought-provoking nature still relevant and as strong as ever. Kazan delivers a beautifully constructed film which plays as if you’re watching a documentary. Central to all of this is the character of Henry Harvey. With pressure on him from above to convict Waldron, it’s Harvey’s strength of character that puts him on another path, a problematic path. Instead of taking the easy route and just convicting Waldron, Harvey makes a stand, with him left questioning what it is that he does for a living. With a trial shrouded in lies and blackmail, Harvey goes against the grain in order to try and achieve true justice.

With all of that said, it’s clearly Dana Andrews who is the star of the show here. As the D.A., Andrews is brilliant in the way his character flip-flops throughout, and he’s no better than when he’s exposing false witnesses. Also putting in a strong performance is Arthur Kennedy as the black sheep of the picture. His portrayal of a man desperate to prove his innocence, yet with the odds stacked against him and beaten down by the system, is a joy to watch. The other main players are adequate, although they sometimes suffer from so much of the attention being on Andrews. Then again, he is simply a cut above here.

Movies of this nature seem to be a rarity these days. When was the last time you saw a great courtroom-heavy film? Boomerang! is a thoughtful film that is handled brilliantly by Kazan, and the documentary-lite feel to it only adds to the overall product. And speaking of which, this is another Masters of Cinema release that has some nice extras, the most impressive of which is likely the accompanying booklet. Maybe the kids of today won’t appreciate Boomerang!, and it certainly is a movie of its time, but the nuances, style, pacing and performances, not to mention the new transfer, are all top drawer.

Extras: “Elia Kazan – An Outsider” documentary / Trailer / 44-page booklet

 

REVIEW: LURKING FEAR / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: C. COURTNEY JOYNER / SCREENPLAY: C. COURTNEY JOYNER / STARRING: ASHLEY LAURENCE, JEFFREY COMBS, JON FINCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Preceding From Dusk Till Dawn by two years, Lurking Fear (1994) performs a similar trick of starting out as a crime drama, then taking a sharp segue into the supernatural – only it does it on a budget and, you won’t be surprised to hear, not nearly as well. For starters, it tips its hand with a prologue featuring a scary taloned claw trusting out of an air vent, so that’s the big surprise ruined. Nor does it have Tarantino’s dialogue, George Clooney’s starry allure or Rodriguez’s Tex-Mex-inflected visual flair (it tries, but it was shot on a shoe-string in Bucharest). What it does have, though, is a pretty neat idea with some imaginative touches, plus Jeffrey Combs and that chick from the Hellraiser films.

The story concerns an ex-con looking to collect some buried dosh left to him as a sort of legacy by his father, and in turn being pursued by a cockney mobster (Jon Finch sporting a dangly earring) and his goons. He gets to the hiding place, an old cemetery, only to find that a small group of diehards are encamped there attempting to ward off a mysterious subterranean threat… well, it’s not that mysterious really, they’re sitting on a nest of goggle-eyed, tunnel-dwelling goons who want to drain their blood to feed their babies!

Give this to someone like John Carpenter, and you’d have the basis for an enjoyably shlocky B-movie. Unfortunately, it’s in the hands of one C. Courtney Joyner, a screenwriter for most of his career, and it’s a shame he didn’t pass it on to a more experienced helmsman, because he fails to make the most of some promising material and well-written characters parts. He has no luck getting decent performances from the less experienced cast members, and the action sequences and scare gags have a lumpy, under-rehearsed quality. In the event, the whole thing trundles along slightly awkwardly before being hastily wrapped up after an hour and a bit.

Still, the creature makeup is decent, as is Ashley Laurence, who – looking very buff and gym-toned – dons a singlet and combat trousers to play a Sarah Connor-type action heroine who’s good with guns and dynamite. Jeffrey Combs also puts in a lively turn as a drunken doctor tending wounds between sips from a pocket flask the size of a 1980s mobile phone. And it’s nice to catch a rare sighting of Jon Finch, a ’70s actor who seemed to vanish later in his career almost as if he actually had been dragged into a hole. You might find the poor production values and leaden direction totally off-putting, but if you can get over that Lurking Fear has more than a few lurking merits.

Extras: The Making of Lurking Fear / Trailers

As part of the upcoming Werner Herzog Collection, this 1979 classic finally gets a Blu-ray release. Herzog’s legendary vampire movie is a remake of sorts of F.W. Murneau’s 1922 Nosferatu, whilst also pulling other elements from Bram Stoker’s original source. When Count Dracula (Kinski) shows interest in purchasing a property, Jonathan Harker (Ganz) is sent to the Count’s Transylvanian lair to seal the deal. Of course, Dracula is revealed to be a vampire, and the Count sets his eyes on the affections of Harker’s ‘one true’, Lucy (Adjani).

Now we’ve all seen plenty of vampire movies over the years, so what makes this one so different? It’s no exaggeration to say that Nosferatu, the Vampyre is a masterpiece. The film is awash with style, texture and atmosphere. Visually stunning, complete with a haunting score, and exquisitely shot, this retelling of an old classic stands head and shoulders over nearly all of its peers. Central to all of the splendour of Herzog’s film is Klaus Kinski.

As Count Dracula, Kinski portrays a very different Dracula to the one that general audiences are accustomed to. Forget the vibrant, charismatic, charming and sexual Dracula that seduces ladies left, right and centre as if he were some gothic Don Juan. This Dracula is ghastly, ghoulish and straight-out ugly in appearance, and his face is etched with pain and suffering. This is a Dracula who has been cursed with immortality. Pained but at one with the lonely monster that he is, this version of the character is delivered stunningly by Kinski. No doubt about it, Kinski is simply mesmerising as the Count. Similarly, Ganz and Adjani are fantastic in their roles, whilst the rest of the cast are all pitch-perfect.

Nosferatu, the Vampyre is a slow-burning, delicate story that is masterfully presented by a director at his very best. Herzog’s movie is breathtakingly beautiful in the way it has been crafted and put together. The director takes his time to tell the tale of the tormented bloodsucker, and this effort is full of subtleties, both on the part of the director and of the actors involved. Not a single drop of blood is wasted here, and the film’s elegantly tragic narrative features not one moment of wasted motion.

Featuring both the English and German versions of the movie in remastered forms, this steelbook is crammed with impressive extras, including an informative audio commentary from Werner Herzog and an interesting mini-documentary featuring Herzog and star Klaus Kinski. With this Blu-ray steelbook, one of the greatest vampire movies of all time gets a fitting release. Yes, he’s often pretentious and treats animals/actors like shit, but when he gets it right, Werner Herzog is a true master of cinema.

Extras: Audio commentary with Werner Herzog / On-set documentary / Stills gallery / Trailer / 20-page booklet

REVIEW: NOSFERATU, THE VAMPYRE / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: WERNER HERZOG / SCREENPLAY: WERNER HERZOG / STARRING: KLAUS KINSKI, BRUNO GANZ, ISABELLE ADJANI, ROLAND TOPOR / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW