Night of the Blood Monster

In the words of reviewer Glenn Erickson, better known as cinesavant, “Life is too short to watch any more Jess Franco movies!”  Alternately hailed as a misunderstood genius or a barely proficient hack, few directors have had more of their work rediscovered during the DVD / Blu-ray era than Franco, a Spanish jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none with over 200 films to his credit (that we know about)!  Most of his work slummed in the sexploitation arena, where skin was essential, a coherent story was optional and focus on pretty much every shot was questionable.  But Franco could work at a competent level from time to time, mostly when partnered with notorious producer Harry Alan Towers, who convinced former Hammer star Christopher Lee to appear in several sleazy productions, among them 1970’s Night of the Blood Monster. 

As King James most merciless lawgiver, Judge Jeffreys (Lee) revels in the torture and mutilation of his primarily female victims.  So, when the sister of a woman he recently condemned to death for witchcraft comes under his influence, there’s no hesitation about using every political and perverse trick in the book to achieve his sadistic ends.  Meanwhile, the kingdom itself is in violent disarray as plots and counterplots work to remove King James from his throne…and Jeffreys from his courtroom.

 

Working in the same masochist wheelhouse as Witchfinder General and Mark of the Devil, the historical details are merely there to add a frame around the exploitation elements, which Franco delivers in his usual zoom-in-zoom-out style.  But he does stumble upon some terrific compositions along the way and gets a gruesome performance out of Howard Vernon as the chief executioner.  Lee, meanwhile, holds himself above it all; his short-temper and flaring nostrils might just as well be caused by the bad craft services as anything happening on screen.

 

So what’s the big fuss about another Franco re-release?  Well, as soon as you pop in Blue Underground’s new 4K Ultra-HD you’ll see why; it’s an astounding piece of restoration that drips with supersaturated colors and inky shadows.  The accompanying Blu-ray looks phenomenal too and comes with three audio commentaries, interviews with Franco, Lee and film scholar Stephen Thrower, a directorial profile, deleted and alternate scenes (the main feature incorporate some while switching to a German soundtrack), trailers and still galleries.  If you still can’t appreciate Franco after all that, you’ll at least enjoy the Bruno Nicolai score, which is worthy of a much better movie.