TOWER
OF EVIL (1972) Blu-ray Limited Edition
Director: Jim O'Connolly
Scorpion Releasing
Scorpion Releasing gives enhanced clarity to the things that
go bump and "bang" in the night with their limited edition Blu-ray
of TOWER OF EVIL.
Snape Island and its derelict lighthouse have had a bad reputation before American
tourist Penny (Candace Glendenning, SATAN'S SLAVE) went mad and slaughtered
her three friends Mae (Seretta Wilson, PSYCHOMANIA), Des (Robin Askwith, HORROR
HOSPITAL), and Gary (John Hamill, BEAST IN THE CELLAR) along with fisherman
John Gurney (George Coulouris, CITIZEN KANE) who discovered the bodies with
son Hamp (Jack Watson, SCHIZO) whose brother Saul and sister-in-law Martha had
lived in the lighthouse until their boat washed up on the mainland. As far as
the police investigation is concerned, Penny is responsible and it is up to
Dr. Simpson (Anthony Valentine, TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER) to try to bring her
out of her catatonic stupor so that she can face trial. Since one of the bodies
was found impaled on a two thousand year old golden Phoenician spear, museum
curator Bakewell (Dennis Price, VENUS IN FURS) has appointed a team of archaeologists
– icy Rose (Jill Haworth, THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR), her ex-fiancé
Adam (Mark Eden, BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB), sexpot Nora (Anna Palk, IT) and
her milquetoast husband Dan (Derek Fowlds, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN) –
to investigate the possibility of a Phoenician burial in the caves beneath Snape
Island. Joining them is American private detective Brent (Bryant Haliday, THE
DEVIL DOLL) hired by Penny's parents. Brent believes that Penny only killed
Gurney after having been driven mad by the horrors she experienced at the hands
of another perpetrator, and informs the archaeologists that one of the words
she kept saying while under hypnosis was "Baal" the Phoenician god
of fertility. Stewarded across by Hamp and his layabout nephew Brom (singer
Gary Hamilton), the team arrive on the island and almost immediately get sidetracked.
Dan pines for Rose who snipes with Adam while Nora sizes up studly Brom, and
Brent intermittently ventures off on his own. When the boat explodes and someone
destroys the radio, the group are trapped on the island and may not be the only
ones.
Produced by American expatriate Richard Gordon (FIEND WITHOUT A FACE) and helmed
by Jim O'Connolly (BERSERK), TOWER OF EVIL is quite a radical departure from
the likes of Hammer, Amicus, or even Tigon productions with some graphic gore
and some even more graphic male and female nudity which was carried to even
more extremes in Gordon's follow-up HORROR HOSPITAL. The film is also perhaps
as much a precursor to the 1980s slasher genre as BLACK CHRISTMAS and BAY OF
BLOOD, with a very noticeable influence on Paul Lynch's HUMONGOUS and particularly
Tom DeSimone's HELL NIGHT with some killings (or their reveals) seemingly directly
lifted from here along with the final twist. Setting it apart from those later
films and even some of its low budget contemporaries is its old school approach,
from the caliber of the main cast to the studio shooting – the overhead
shots of the lighthouse are a scale model while the lighthouse exterior and
rocky terrain of Snape Island are a massive sound stage set – which extends
to rear projection shots during the boat trip and a painted sky backdrop on
the island, along with some proficient camerawork by Desmond Dickinson (CITY
OF THE DEAD) and thunderous scoring of Kenneth V. Jones (TOMB OF LIGIEA). It
also possesses a wonderfully camp, bitchy atmosphere that never detracts from
the suspense and scares with Nora given the best lines ("Masturbation's
so boring," she offers as an excuse for her past seduction of Adam that
ended his engagement to Rose), and a very out-of-touch depiction youth culture
with the young quartet coming to Snape Island from a "jazz festival"
and Brom saying things like "Bravery ain't my bag, man." The film
is mostly well-plotted, with some backstory questions left open-ended and some
diverting red herrings before the familiar ending. The film was co-produced
by Fanfare Films' Joe Solomon who released it as THE HORROR OF SNAPE ISLAND
in the United States while Independent-International would pick it up in the
early 1980s and retitle it BEYOND THE FOG in response to John Carpenter's second
horror film.
Released theatrically stateside with some trims for an R-rating – with
MGM picking up the television rights – the film turned up on VHS as TOWER
OF EVIL early on in the video age from VCI followed by a censored tape from
Interglobal and uncut in an attractively garish clamshell edition from Gorgon
Video. Elite Entertainment gave us an attractive non-anamorphic letterboxed
DVD in 1999 when they licensed some of the Gordon titles, and this was the best
available for quite some time with the 2006 UK edition also non-anamorphic.
In 2013, Scorpion Releasing released the film on DVD and Blu-ray utilizing MGM's
HD master with a featurette by David Del Valle. A Region B edition from Odeon
followed in 2015 with a similar transfer probably from the same master but more
equipped in the extras department. Scorpion's new limited edition Blu-ray is
derived from a new 2018 scan of the original interpositive. The 1080p24 MPEG-4
AVC 1.78:1 image is darker but more colorful and nicely detailed. The rough
edges of the production are more apparent, but the details of the sets and sound
stage exteriors have a nostalgic charm and the textures of skin and clothing
also aide the film in conveying its chilly atmosphere.
Besides color correction, Scorpion's cover text boasts of audio fixes, and the
DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono audio is clean with some sibilance issues that
seem confined to Haworth's delivery, but the audio also seems to go a few milliseconds
out of sync from 64:35 to 83:06, not enough to overlap the dialogue between
the characters but enough that it is evident that lips continue moving just
after a line finishes. The scenes shot on the exterior lighthouse set had to
be post-synched but this starts with a scene in the lighthouse exterior with
Palk and Haworth and also includes an exterior dialogue scene between Watson
and Hamilton. Much of this running time has characters running around in the
dark often with their faces averted or in shadow while talking (the effects
seem better synced although it may be that one is more attentive to spoken dialogue),
while the climax is back in sync. The sync issue is nowhere near the disaster
of Code Red's THE CARRIER or even as distracting as the double audio track heard
for about ten minutes of Scorpion's HUMONGOUS. Optional English SDH subtitles
are provided and include one or two mistakes having to do with British phrasing
with "in the dock" meaning on trial transcribed as "in the dark."
While it seems doubtful that this will be fixed, the film at least looks better
than ever before, and sounds it if you don't scrutinize the lip movements too
closely during that stretch in the final third.
Scorpion has carried over the Katarina's Nightmare Theater introduction (4:05)
and post-script (1:40) but dropped the Del Valle featurette in favor of Odeon's
audio commentary by producer Gordon moderated by Tom Weaver. While Weaver provides
capsule filmographies and biographies of the cast and crew, Gordon reveals that
the film (and much of his British work) was made possible due to his connections
with various British studio personnel during a time in British filmmaking when
things were less cutthroat. The film was partially financed by Gordon and Solomon,
and the story came from American writer George Baxt (SHADOW OF THE CAT) who
was introduced to him by Amicus' Max Rosenberg but Baxt's finished script was
unsatisfactory and initial director Sidney Hayers (ASSAULT) was in Baxt's camp;
however, O'Connolly – who was recommended by Herman Cohen (HORRORS OF
THE BLACK MUSEUM) – extensively rewrote it when he was hired. Shooting
the entire film at Shepperton Studios was made possible thanks to associate
producer John Pellatt who represented American International's interests in
Britain and was coming off of WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? He attributes the casting
to Rose Tobias Shaw who was supplied by Hammer's James Carreras who also recommended
BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB actor Eden, and reveals that Lee Patterson (JACK
THE RIPPER) was ready to step in for the lead when the British union initially
objected to the casting of American Halliday. He also reveals that Baxt never
forgave him for rewriting the script and that there was friction between Palk
and Hamilton during their sex scene.
Also carried over from the Odeon edition is "Screaming Your Head Off"
(12:21), an interview with actress Wilson who recalls that she was doubled for
most of her nudity but was comfortable working with Askwith, had a head cast
and also had to stick her head out of the set floor, she was the only one of
the young quartet that was not dubbed with an American accent, and turned down
a role in O'Connolly's next and last film MISTRESS PAMELA (a sexploitation adaptation
of Samuel Richardson's "Pamela"). There is also an interview with
composer Jones (13:10) that was not carried over from any previous release and
may have been extracted from something else as he does not comment on the film
at all, instead focusing on composing for low budget films with responsibilities
including hiring and paying session musicians himself. Much more interesting
is the interview with editor Henry Richardson (13:30) who recalls O'Connolly
recognized that the film possessed a degree of humor that Gordon did not recognize,
and that he had to sometimes shoot additional coverage that the director did
not film as well as reshooting parts of the Palk/Hamilton sex scene which was
not violent enough in the rushes. The disc includes the American HORROR OF SNAPE
ISLAND trailer (1:48) along with trailers for THE PSYCHIC, MURDER-ROCK, DEATH
SHIP, SILENT SCREAM, THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW, and HUMAN EXPERIMENTS. The disc
is currently available from Ronin Flix and DiabolikDVD with a limited edition
slipcover and 9x11 Mini Poster with artwork by "Kung Fu Bob" O'Brien.
The cover is also reversible.
(Eric
Cotenas)
EDITOR'S
NOTE: Under "Product Details" for this Blu-ray of TOWER
OF EVIL on the Ronin
Flix website, there is currently a disclaimer that reads, "Update (02/15/19
4:35 PM PT): It has come to our attention that the TOWER OF EVIL disc goes out-of-sync
at roughly one hour into the film. Scorpion Releasing has advised us replacement
discs will be made available within 4 weeks. These discs will have revised artwork,
so they will be easy to tell apart from the original.
Please contact customer service
at info@roninentertainmentla.com if you purchased this Blu-ray from us and would
like to receive a replacement. Once they are received from Scorpion, we will
distribute to all verified customer requests and put the Blu-ray back up for
sale.
We apologize for any inconvenience
this situation has caused and thank you for your continued patronage."
BACK
TO REVIEWS
HOME