Midnight Son (2011/Image Entertainment DVD)/Twins
Of Evil (1971/Hammer/Synapse Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
C/B- & C+ Sound: C+/B- & C+ Extras: C+/B Films: C+
The
following vampire films might have their flaws and share of problems, but still
have some moments worth seeing along with some good performances.
Scott
Liebereich’s Midnight Son (2011) is
the story of Jacob (Zac Kilberg), a young man who keeps to himself, has an
overnight security job, issues with sunlight and a hunger for blood. He does what he can to keep this in check
until he starts to kill for what he needs and then meets a female (Maya Parish)
he becomes more interested in than he expects.
The latter two break up his pattern of quietly protecting himself and
his addiction (think Michael Fassbinder in Shame)
and he then starts finding himself in other problematic situations.
This is
one of those vampire films that make a big deal out of the hunger aspect of the
protagonist, which is still rare and was much more rare only a few decades
ago. The ending does not work and
between predictability later on and some scenes that do not work, this
eventually is not the success it could have been. Shot a few years ago, it was finished
recently and is still consistent for a low budget work, but narrowly misses
becoming a minor classic of the genre.
Too bad, because I liked the cast and the look achieved.
Extras
include a trailer, Cast/Crew Interviews, Deleted Scenes of interest and a
feature length audio commentary with Director Leberecht and Co-Stars Kilberg,
Parish and Jo D. Jonz.
John
Hough’s Twins Of
Evil (1971) is an older vampire film, with its source material going to the
beginning of the genre in literature, as it is loosely based on the writing of
Sheridan La Fanu, who created the lesbian vampire Camilla and whose work
influenced Bram Stoker. It also led to
Carl Theodore Dreyer to make one of the first great films in the genre, Vampyr in 1932.
However, Hammer
Studios had already made two films built and based on the material and this
film is considered the conclusion of an unofficial trilogy that includes the
following films we reviewed at the links listed:
The Vampire Lovers (1970/here on MGM DVD with Ingrid
Pitt in Countess Dracula)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/490/Vampire+Lovers/Countess+Dracula
Lust For A Vampire (1971, on Anchor Bay DVD)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/643/Lust+For+A+Vampire
Synapse has
issued the film on Blu-ray with a DVD they recently issued a few years ago and
though the film is the least of the three and not always successful, it is
interesting and has some classic Hammer moments that makes it worth the deluxe
set here.
This
time, Peter Cushing plays a puritan leading and let loose with a group of men
called The Brotherhood burning innocent women at the stake anytime they think
they might be witches. They enjoy doing
this, though the way the film makes it out is logically problematic. As this is going on, twin nieces (Mary and
Madeline Collinson) whose father just died are orphaned and arrive to stay with
him and his wife. However, they will
become pawns in the battle soon to come.
Count
Karnstein (Damien Thomas, recently of Never
Let Me Go) is a Satanic-worshiping vampire out to challenge the Witchfinder
and this will lead to a wild climax as one of the twins is lured to lusty evil
and no one can tell one from the virginal other.
The title
of the film has multiple meanings, covering both the actual twins, the two
opposing parties (would-be witchhunters versus Satanists) and even subliminally
the church vs. Satan. It is never
pretentious about this and at 87 minutes does not have much time to be, but the
film holds up well for what it is 41 years later and is worth revisiting, even
if you have not seen the films before it.
Hammer would have liked a longer, more profitable series out of all
this, but they used up the source material and moved on as they tried to
reinvent themselves.
Hough
worked on the British TV spy classic The
Avengers for five years from second unit before directing key episodes of
the final Linda Thorson/Tara King era, so he brought some solid sensibilities
to making this film that still make it interesting to watch. It is never as slick or modern though,
rightly choosing a period approach that feels authentic enough. Besides more spy work later, he directed more
in the horror/thriller genre including The
Legend Of Hell House, The Incubus
and Sudden Terror. This is a film the capable journeyman
director can be proud of.
The
together link in the trilogy (besides characters that show up, but are played
by new actors each time) is writer Tudor Gates (who also penned Peter
Collinson’s thriller Fright (1972))
wrote or co-wrote all three films and Harry Robertson (credited as Harry
Robinson) scored all three films. That
closes another interesting chapter in classic Hammer history. Dennis Price also stars.
Extras
include a trailer and new featurette The
Flesh And The Fury: X-Posing Twins Of Evil (84 minutes) on both format
editions, but the Blu-ray adds three TV spots, a double feature trailer, a
Deleted Scene, Motion Still Gallery, Isolated DTS-MA music track (with sound
effects) of the score by Harry Robertson and another new featurette The Props That Hammer Built: The Kinsey
Collection that shows what survived from the company. It is quiet a story. All in all, that is a terrific group of
extras as strong as a Criterion release and among the best of many such Synapse
releases.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Son
is expectedly dark, but is also much softer than I would have liked and has
some motion blur throughout. Director of
Photography Lyn Moncrief does the best he can to give this a distinct look on
the low budget there, but some problems remain on this transfer. Maybe this looks better on Blu-ray. The 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfer on Twins was filmed
on 35mm film and then processed by Rank Labs, so no fancy dye-transfer prints
were made.
The
result is color that is a little more shaded and grain in the darker/darkest
shots, but this is how the film is supposed to look and Synapse could not have delivered
a better, more authentic representation of the film on Blu-ray. The age of the materials used can show, but the
film is supposed to look like it is from the past and the print source is in
good shape. In addition, this version is
far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film with the best
definition reproduction you will see outside of a good, mint film print. I have seen this film over the years and this
is right on the money on how it should look and feel.
Director
of Photography Dick Bush, B.S.C. (Blood
On Satan’s Claw, Toomorrow, Phase IV, Dracula A.D. 1972, Russell’s Tommy,
Friedkin’s Sorcerer) delivers some
smooth work here with just enough atmosphere to not overdue it and still make
it present and work. That is not as easy
as it would seem. The included DVD is
also not bad and looks as good as the film will look in that format, but it is
no match for the Blu-ray.
The lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 on Son is not
badly recorded for an independent production, but it is obvious this is a simple
stereo recording and they are stretching things out a bit to get a soundfield
that is not always there. This is also a
film with silences, so only expect so much activity. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the Twins DVD is cleaned up and on par with
Son as it is a professional
recording with consistent audio, hardly any silence and not bad for its age,
but neither can match the warmth and relative fullness of the DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless track on the Twins
Blu-ray which is the best the film has ever sounded or will sound.
- Nicholas Sheffo