DVD Review: Box of Blood

After playing for hours with the blood pouch on the front of the box to Anchor Bay’s new collection, suitably titled 'Box of Blood', I finally opened the set like a creaking coffin, scared of what I might find inside. On the whole this is a great box, and the discs do range in quality from Anchor Bay’s vaults of past releases. And where would a box of blood be without the daddy of them all, yes Dracula is here in two versions. First off is ‘Dracula’, an Italian TV production starring Patrick Bergin as the Count, or rather Vladislav Tepes, but brought up to date in a modern day Budapest. This is more of a gothic drama than a blood drenched tale and the setting in Budapest is the movie’s high point. This is a truncated version that was released on US DVD with a running time of 104mins, for the UK viewers the full two part mini series can be bought separately from Anchor Bay too.

Next off is one of the sets better discs, the modern gothic ‘Near Dark’. Sporting only the audio commentary from director Kathryn Bigelow as per disc 1 from the previous 2 disc set release. This is a classic of modern day neck biting; here we have an antidote against those clichéd punky party vamps having a good time each night. This brings a realistic touch to the nightly activity; and we are not really given any details into Jesse (Lance Henriksen) and his crew, we know they have been around the block a few times and never has this been captured so well as in the character of Homer (Joshua John Miller), an adult vamp caught in a boys body. Actually vampire is a word never mentioned in the movie at all. A class act by all concerned, and a debut by Bigelow (co-written by ‘The Hitcher’s Eric Red) that she has not yet surpassed.

Another classic follows, and another tale based on Stoker’s book, Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake of ‘Nosferatu, Phantom Der Nacht’ starring a Klaus Kinski at his peak. This German movie is full of beautiful gothic scenery and touches, reflecting the 1922 classic, but still staying fresh, well as fresh as you can when dealing with the undead. Kinski has never been better than he is here as the sad and lonely tragic figure of Count Dracula, who yearns to be human and to be loved. Although the box mentions a German Version with an extra 12 minutes, that is not here. What is included is the 102 mins version with German dialogue and optional English subtitles. This is the same release as disc 1 in the 2 disc set and the same version as in the Herzog/Kinski boxed set. On the two disc set, also available from Anchor Bay, this includes a longer version, which runs 107 mins, and not 12 mins as stated. All that said and done, this is still a marvel with Herzog (who discusses the movie in the short 13 minute featurette) showing that he is a master storyteller. A few trailers and an exceptional audio commentary from Herzog finish off this one nicely. Things go down a few beats on the next disc, 'Vampires: Out for Blood' is one of those movies that I referred to above where 'Near Dark' served as an antidote. Welcome to the clunker of the set, that may be a little unfair but this is cliché hell, this is almost redeemed by a small role from the ever-reliable Lance Henriksen (yes him again). Kevin Dillon (I hear you groan, but he is not that bad) plays a cop who is messed up with the break up from his Vampire writing wife and then ends up in a whole nest of them with only the writer’s talents to save the day. This has all the clichés of bad cop movies and those punky vamp ones all thrown together. This second feature from Richard Brandes is not much of a better outing than his previous T&A comedy ‘California Heat’ and has one scene that has plenty of naked flesh in that Zalman King kind of way before it all gets bloody and ugly. With effects by the master of the overblown bladder effect courtesy of John Carl Buechler, the effects are not great in any sense of the word, and when you have shoddy effects you tend to hide them with shadow and lighting, but here they are paraded for all to see in close up for far too long, I guess working in that house of cheapies for Mr Corman has not rubbed off yet. Last and by no means least is an uncut print of the wonderful, erotic and gothic ‘Vampyres’ by Jose Ramon Larraz. Also called ‘Daughters of Darkness’ and bearing more than just a similarity with the Harry Kumel vampire flick that was three years its senior. This pair brought a touch that had not been viewed up to that point with the amount of naked flesh and lesbian trysts on show and where somewhat a handful for the censer of the time. Making a dangerously desirable pair we have Fran (Marianne Morris) and Miriam (Playmate of the Month from May 1973, Anulka Dziubinska) floating around a gothic manor house and thumbing rides from unsuspecting travellers to have their nightly feasts. The two walking through the misty woods, cloaked and sensual,resemble the best of Rollin’s vampire chic. The only problem here, apart from the budget, is the very wooden Murray Brown as Ted, who for some strange reason Fran falls for. There is an audio commentary, but please let that be for die-hard fans only, a few trailers and some stills fill the remainder. On the stills side of things, there are a few of the rumoured ‘lost’ scene.

If that was not enough to get your fangs into there is a bonus disc too. The History Channel presents ‘In Search of the Real Dracula’, a 43 minute delve into history’s bloodied past and into what inspired Stoker, from the tales of Lilith to Erzsebet Bathory to Vlad, to the cinema and theatrics of Boris Karloff, giving some dodgy facts along the way this passes the time quite easily. Anchor Bay has produced another wonderful boxed set, the contents might be questionable and this might have been a grand opportunity to present the likes of ‘Vamp’ to UK DVD for the first time, that aside there is more of a night’s guilty pleasure here, so well done guys and now I can't wait for the next one, 'Box of the Banned'. 'Box of Blood' is available now via AmazonUK, and as of yet there has been no US release date given.

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