Glenn Erickson's Reviews: Month: October 2025

Altered States  — 4K 10/28/25

Science fiction goes psychedelic, with an audiovisual light show that far outstrips 1960s efforts with oil smears and surreal imagery. Maverick director Ken Russell was the man for the job, interpreting a powerhouse script by Paddy Chayefsky through a well-chosen young cast: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid. We think it works like gangbusters, but many audiences of 1980 didn’t seem to agree. We also think its special effects makeup is just as good or better than the werewolf movies of the same year. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
10/28/25

The Beast of the City 10/28/25

Is this the most violent crime film of the pre-Code era?  It takes an extreme Law ‘n’ Order position, one that downplays the need for Civil Rights while glamorizing brute vigilantism. Police chief Walter Huston takes the law into his own hands, while his detective brother Wallace Ford screws things up by getting all warm and fuzzy with the seductive gun moll Jean Harlow. As the old song goes, it all ends in gunsmoke and mincemeat — like, 45 cops and crooks dead in a pool of blood, man!  Nothing like it recurred in Hollywood until the mid-1960s. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
10/28/25

The Curse of Frankenstein  — 4K 10/25/25

Whoa — this Halloween, horror fans are up to their severed necks in fancy restorations of Hammer’s first Gothic horror film, the worldwide smash that singlehandedly revived the genre and made stars of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. This Baron Frankenstein lies, kills and profanes the dead in his quest for god-like power; he’s a dastard with the ladies as well. We’re reviewing the lavish but not decadent domestic disc set, direct from the WAC, the disc house of welcome surprises. We’re hoping that we’ll be seeing more UHDs of Hammer masterpieces from the Warner Bros. and MGM libraries. On 4K Ultra HD from The Warner Archive Collection / Hammer.
10/25/25

The Man Who Could Cheat Death   — 4K 10/25/25

Hammer special editions are the craze in 2025, and another fine disc label gets in on the action with a vintage title directed by Terence Fisher, with the sumptuous ‘original’ Hammer Technicolor look provided by cameraman Jack Asher. Anton Diffring murders to maintain an indefinite, if shaky, state of immortality; Hazel Court is the beauty who discovers his criminal secret. Chris Lee is good in a ‘straight’ role. For Hammer fans there’s another obvious attraction — a version of the show that reinstates the film’s sexier Continental version. All this and 4K too. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.
10/25/25

Outland  — 4K 10/21/25

Peter Hyams both wrote and directed this lavish ‘space hardware’ movie, set in an off-world mining colony of the future. The show looks good, but what saves it is the committed performance of star Sean Connery, who remains a class act all the way. Peter Boyle and James Sikking flesh out underwritten characters, in a story too much like a town-taming western. Frances Sternhagen’s camp doctor walks away with the film because she’s given a lively personality to play, along with Hyams’ best lines of dialogue. The clever special effects process ‘Introvision’ made its debut with this feature, which looks 100% better than old cable TV versions — it’s a handsome show all around. On 4K Ultra HD from Arrow Video.
10/21/25

Malpertuis 10/21/25

In a strange house, strange people await a new spiritual life … or will it be a new imprisonment?  Orson Welles’ Cassavius may be dying, but his will holds the secret lair called Malpertuis under a strange spell. A young man is offered the job of ‘new keeper’ for what might be a strange menagerie of spirits, including three women — all played by star Susan Hampshire. Michel Bouquet and Jean-Pierre Cassel co-star in a Gothic horror from Harry Kümel, adapted from a ‘brilliantly weird’ book by Jean Ray. Is it possible to translate such a strange fantasy to film? On Blu-ray from Radiance Films.
10/21/25

Flow  — 4K 10/18/25

A philosophical animated film about animals in peril?  This thoughtfully conceived, beautifully-crafted winner for Best Animated Film gives us something new in a genre dominated by safe family fare with sentimental characters, jokes and songs: a rumination on the life struggle for living things in an unstable world. Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis builds a fascinating fantasy environment, in which a small group of animals cooperate to survive. From what we see, Man appears to be extinct, but even that interpretation is up for debate. It’s a ‘what happens next?’ puzzle picture that weaves a satisfying, existential spell of enchantment. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
10/18/25

The Amazing Mr. X 10/18/25

It’s part film noir, part haunted house movie and a 100% atmospheric triumph for director Bernard Vorhaus and cameraman John Alton. Eagle-Lion’s spooky tale of a spiritualist conning a widow and her daring younger sister works up a nice charge of suspense. Turhan Bey stars as the smooth soothsayer, and Lynn Bari and Cathy O’Donnell are the women he mesmerizes. Did the producers recognize the story concept as a good mix of The Uninvited and Nightmare Alley?  This PD restoration plays very well. On Blu-ray from Film Masters.
10/18/25

The Snow Queen   Treasures of Soviet Animation Vol 2 10/14/25

Reviewer Charlie Largent snaps up the opportunity to review the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale released here in 1959 as ‘The Snow Queen,’ with an added prologue with TV host Art Linkletter. Directed by Lev Atamanov, the original Soviet feature Snezhnaya Koroleva is a real beauty of classic animation. Gerda struggles to rescue her beloved Kai, the prisoner of a queen who is turning Kai’s heart to ice. It’s part of the set Treasures of Soviet Animation Vol 2, with ‘The Scarlet Flower’ and ‘The Key,’ produced between 1952 and 1961. The films come with commentaries by Rolf Giesen. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile.
10/14/25

Eyes without a Face  — 4K 10/14/25

It was the impossible, intolerable taboo horror of its day … does it still shock as it once did, or are audiences now too jaded to appreciate its brilliance?  George Franju & Eugen Schüfftan ride the divide between clinical brutality and dreamy surrealism.  Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli and Edith Scob brought horror up to date with this one, initiating an international flood of medical horror cinema. Friend Steve Nielson once noted the film’s seminal effect, comparing it to the rock band Velvet Underground. Not very many people bought their records, but everyone who heard them started a band. Now on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
10/14/25

Ms .45   — 4K 10/11/25

An ‘almost’ icon and a vivid memory from the New York cinema front of the early ’80s, Zoë Tamerlis graced exploitation screens in Abel Ferrara’s minimalist ode to sisterly vigilantism. The victim of two brutal rapes in one night, a meek mute seamstress is transformed into an avenging angel — ambushing the men that would abuse her. The concept should be offensive, but the treatment makes us question which attackers do and which don’t deserve a bullet to the brain. The new remaster makes Ferrara’s Manhattan grit look very attractive. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
10/11/25

The Strange Woman 10/11/25

The independent-minded Hedy Lamarr put this ‘Americana noir’ into motion with director Edgar G. Ulmer and excellent talent on both sides of the camera; the result is a superior, fairly uncompromised tale of beauty and ambition, spun into the realm of the ‘Evil Woman’ genre. It has a telling resemblance to a similar film from the same source author, masking misogyny in Bible prophecy instead of modern psychology. The supporting cast is excellent: George Sanders, Louis Hayward, Gene Lockhart and Hillary Brooke. On Blu-ray from Film Masters.
10/11/25

The Hard Way 10/07/25

Underdog Warners actress Ida Lupino could hold her head high, turning out pictures like this — a Bette Davis reject that proved a winner. It’s a backstage musical soaper using some of the studio’s ‘A-minus’ talent, and definitely an overachiever. Lupino moves heaven and earth to carve out a starring showbiz career for her younger sister Joan Leslie, only to make everyone miserable. With a screenplay rooted in real-life anxieties that the actors knew well, Vincent Sherman’s direction makes everybody look good: Gladys George, Dennis Morgan and especially Jack Carson. When Crawford ‘went noir,’ she must have seen this movie as something to emulate. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
10/07/25

Nate and Hayes 10/07/25

This New Zealand pirate adventure had bad luck theatrically, but we welcomed its old-fashioned thrills when it appeared on cable TV. It now looks super on widescreen Blu-ray. A young Tommy Lee Jones is Bully Hayes, a South Seas adventurer competing with Michael O’Keefe for the hand of Jenny (sigh) Seagrove. His piratical crew fights no end of colonial despots, cheerful cannibals and his own former partner, the villainous Ben Pease (Max Phipps). It’s got exciting sailing ships, handsome location photography and all manner of corny but energetic action scenes, wrapped up with a music score that would win Errol Flynn’s approval. CineSavant doesn’t really have Guilty Pleasures but this one comes close. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
10/07/25

The Cinema of Powell & Pressburger Collection One 10/04/25

This impressive import collection of ‘Archers’ pictures is just one classic after another, including three of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Technicolor masterpieces. The boxed set also carries good extras, new input from experts plus a selection of the best existing documentaries on P&P. Plus, a couple of the transfers are big improvements on older discs: The Spy in Black, 49th Parallel, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus. On Blu-ray from Viavision [Imprint].
10/04/25

The Quatermass Xperiment  — 4K 10/04/25

Wonder of wonders — Hammer’s massive boxed sets seem unreasonable until one sees the depth and breadth of the extras. Nigel Kneale’s original ‘organic invasion’ scare show hasn’t lost its power, thanks to Richard Wordsworth’s compelling performance and the dogged intensity of Brian Donlevy. The 4K encoding is superb; they’ve added the U.S. version plus an extra stereophonic mix. Aimed at wealthy Sci-fi addicts, I suppose, but it is a thing of beauty. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Hammer Films.
10/04/25