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Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Thriller > Slasher > Spain > Blue Eyes Of A Broken Doll (1973) + Human Beasts (1972/Paul Naschy/BCI Eclipse DVD-Video Releases)

Blue Eyes Of A Broken Doll (1973) + Human Beasts (1972/Paul Naschy/BCI Eclipse DVD-Video Releases)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Films: D/C-

 

 

BCI has been issuing various films in the Horror genre starring Paul Naschy and they have at least been interesting, but my least favorite yet are Human Beasts (1972) and Blue Eyes Of A Broken Doll (1973) which both offer attempts to do giallo-type films with more slaughter than story.  I was expecting more story as was the case even with the Italian equivalent, but these films are too self-impressed, tired, predictable, not even as stylish as past Naschy projects and really go nowhere.

 

Of course, they also have a strange obsession with hitting, stabbing, killing eating or being eaten by pigs, which does nothing for me and made me wish Ridley Scott’s Hannibal would be announced for Blu-ray soon.  Beasts is barely the better of the two where Naschy plays a mercenary who gets in the crossfire of sex, betrayal and double-crossing, but none of the characters (especially his) are developed well and it is all so boring that you hope they shoot each other up so we can move on or meet more interesting characters.  Eyes is worse, as ex-con Naschy is hired by three odd sisters to be caretaker of their estate, but a serial killer who lives to rip eyeballs out of the victims is on the loose.  It happens every time!

 

If you just want t see some slaughter, this is not as bad as sadistic torture porn, though Eyes has lame sadism of its own.  For diehard fans only, if that.

 

 

The 1.33 X 1 image on Eyes and anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Human are surprisingly about equal, with good, if not great color and some detail limits.  Like the preceding DVDs that were later issued on Blu-ray, since these are from original camera materials, we expect some of this is about limits on this format, but it is clear enough for the graphic moments.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on both (in either English dub or Castilian) show their age, but are pretty good considering the dubbing and low budget.

 

Extras on both include Naschy introductions, original trailers, a bunch of stills and liner notes by Mirek Lipinski.  Eyes adds an audio commentary by Naschy & director Carlos Aured moderated by Angle Gomez Rivero and Spanish credits sequence, while Beasts adds a Naschy Short called The Vampyre, co-directed by Alejandro Ballesteros and Antonio Curado.  They are a little more interesting than the actual films in this case.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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