Deadly Manor

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

Moderator: yoloswegmaster

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Deadly Manor

#1 Post by domino harvey » Tue Dec 03, 2019 2:45 pm

Image

An old, dark house... A maniac on the loose... An orgy of bloodlust! All the hallmarks of late master of Spanish macabre José Ramón Larraz (Edge of the Axe, Vampyres) are present and correct in 1990’s Deadly Manor - the final horror movie from one of the genre’s most unheralded filmmakers.

Whilst en route to a lake, a group of youngsters make an unscheduled stop-off at a remote, seemingly abandoned mansion where they plan to spend the night. But the property is full of foreboding signs - a blood-stained car wreck in the garden, coffins in the basement, scalps in the closet, and photographs of a beautiful but mysterious woman adorning every corner of the house. Before daybreak, the group will unwittingly uncover the strange and terrifying truth that lurks behind the walls of this dreadful place.

The last in a trio of transcontinental slice-and-dice co-productions helmed by Larraz towards the end of the 80s (all of which which he directed under the anglicized moniker of Joseph Braunstein), Deadly Manor - released on VHS in the US under the title Savage Lust - is a fitting capper to the director’s prolific career in fear, now finally unearthed for the first time on Blu-ray.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
  • Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements
  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
  • Original uncompressed mono audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Brand new audio commentary with Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan
  • Newly-filmed interview with actress Jennifer Delora
  • Making a Killing - a newly-filmed interview with producer Brian Smedley-Aston
  • Extract from an archival interview with Jose Larraz
  • Original “Savage Lust” VHS trailer
  • Image Gallery
  • Original Script and Shooting Schedule (BD-ROM content)
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais (TO BE REVEALED)
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by author John Martin

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Deadly Manor

#2 Post by zedz » Sun May 03, 2020 7:03 pm

Jose Larraz has chops as a filmmaker, but they’re not much in evidence in this late slasher. The script is so randomly slapped together that it verges on the amiably bonkers, but the performances of the victim pool are so bad and it never lifts off into memorable insanity. Bad acting is hardly a deal-breaker in a low-budget horror movie, but the problem here is that they’re bad in the wrong way. These performances are amateurish, dead-on-the-screen bad, not campy, over-the-top bad (which is the much more successful approach of the villains, but they’re hardly in the film). There’s a little fun in imagining how much fun the film could have been if it had been better executed, but I actually got much more enjoyment out of the extras. Kat’n’Samm TM give a very lively commentary. They’re a lot more besotted by the film’s ridiculousness than I was, but their glee is infectious. Jennifer Delora’s interview is hilarious. She had a blast making the film and is still having a blast thirty years later.

Post Reply