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Bloodbath at the House of Death
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Vinegar Syndrome Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (29th August 2024). |
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The Film
 In 1975, Headstone Manor hosted a businessman's weekend retreat and summer girls camp on the same night along with eighteen murders in a single night… well, sixteen murders and two lightning strikes. In present day 1983, give or take a year, a team of scientists – disgraced surgeon Lukas Mandeville (Kenny Everett) and partner Barbara Coyle (The Comeback's Pamela Stephenson), walking gay jokes Elliot (Fierce Creatues' Gareth Hunt) and Stephen (Rising Damp's Don Warrington), bickering Sheila (Percy's Sheila Steafel) and John (Take a Girl Like You's John Fortune), and American amnesiac Henry (The Hunger's John Stephen Hill) and British tart Deborah (Number One Gun's Cleo Rocos) – are converging on the manor to investigate "inexplicable radioactive readings." The locals, who are all tattooed with the same strange emblem, including the requisite blind doomsayer (A Shot in the Dark'sGraham Stark) warn them off the place apart from the barmaid (On the Buses' Pat Ashton) who is only too happy to rattle off the body count, but then she winds up hanging from a tree after closing and the local constabulary (Carry on England's David Lodge) seems unconcerned about the discovery. The "Sinister Man" (The Abominable Dr. Phibes' Vincent Price) and his band of hooded cultists, on the other hand, are eager to scare them off. When that fails, they are prepared to offer up the unwitting team as sacrifices in hopes that the devil himself might put in an appearance. Better known to audiences outside the U.K. (and Australia) as another Vincent Price horror comedy alongside the better-known (and generally better) House of the Long Shadows, Bloodbath at the House of Death was actually a feature film vehicle for British comedian Everett whose shows for Thames television, BBC, and ITV attracted the ire of "Clean Up TV" busybody campaigner Mary Whitehouse. The film is well-photographed by Dusty Miller (Sweeney!) and Brian West (Wake in Fright) with effective scoring by Mike Moran – whose accompaniment to Time Bandits was overshadowed by the contribution of The Beetles' George Harrison – and some reasonably accomplished special effects that one wishes that it had been better thought out, but the resulting film compares poorly even to other late British horror comedies like I Bought a Vampire Motorcyle, Unmasked Part 25, or Funny Man (on which Christopher Lee did a similar short stint as Price on this film but also provided a theme song). After dashing the exposition out of the way in the vaguest manner possible, the film hopes to get by on the British comedy personalities going through a series of comic vignettes that include references to An American Werewolf in London, Carrie, Jaws, Alien, The Shining, E.T., The Invisible Man, The Entity, and even Life of Brian amid sex and gore gags and gay jokes less edgy than your average episode of Are You Being Served? that are more often miss than hit. Although Price barely appears in the film, he does get the film's best scenes ("Piss off?!") and there is a certain Phibes-ian vibe to the climactic string of murders (during which the film actually manages a couple lukewarm shivers). One cannot help but feel that had an actual British horror practitioner like Norman J. Warren had the same meager budget and effects crew, something like Bloody New Year might enjoy the same type of cult reputation as this film. 
Video
Given scant U.S. theatrical release, Bloodbath at the House of Death gathered both dust and its cult audience on the video shelves by way of Media Home Entertainment's 1985 VHS and a later LP-mode sell-through edition from Video Treasures. The film got new life in the U.K. in 2008 when Nucleus Films released a DVD featuring a retrospective documentary and an anamorphic transfer that demonstrated that the elements were still in great condition. Nucleus Films hinted at a Blu-ray release in 2022 but that did not materialize (Amazon UK has an October 2024 street date but no pre-order link as yet), and their involvement is evident throughout the special features of Vinegar Syndrome's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray which comes from a new 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. Given the budget of the film, the transfer frequently looks stunning with bold pop in the bloodshed and more detailed views of some of the Monty Python-esque gore gags which one cannot help but feel would not have got past the BBFC if this were a straight horror film. If there was any archival damage, it has been thoroughly cleaned up. 
Audio
The mono mix has been given a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 encode which clearly conveys dialogue and foley effects while giving the underscore a nice presence that does a better job at stirring up some atmosphere than the onscreen content. 
Extras
New to the release is an audio commentary by film historians and writers Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons who discuss the career of Everett as well as director Ray Cameron and co-writer Barry Cryer who were also comedians and worked with Everett on his television shows and video productions. They also provide background on the rest of the cast who were all British comedy veterans – leading no doubt to the reported convivial atmosphere on the set – including Everett-regular Rocos and her later career highlights, as well as Stephenson who joined the Saturday Night Live cast the following year and more recently did a sexual advice column. They also discuss the film's various horror references – including parallels with House of the Long Shadows – noting that the horror elements got the film an 18-certificate which probably alienated Everett's audience as much as him not playing any of his familiar television characters. "Crying with Laughter" (27:55) is an interview with co-writer Cryer (who died in 2022) which along with the aforementioned retrospective documentary also included here goes a long way in providing context for Everett's career to American viewers. He discusses how he and Cameron ended up assigned to work on Everett's Thames show and the looser, freer atmosphere there compared to when they moved to the BBC, how Whitehouse's attack on the show was actually good promotion, and the two videos they produced before the film. He also discusses the film that they nearly made "Suicide: The Movie" and how it attracted the interest of Stanley Kubrick but Cameron feared losing control over the project. He speaks warmly of Price when he was on the set – noting that Price preferred camp to straight horror and only admitted after seeing Witchfinder General that director Michael Reeves's instincts were right – and how that lead to a lifelong friendship with actor Stark. Cryer also reflects on the film's reception, noting that had it been released just after Everett's appearance at the Young Conservatives rally – at the encouragement of director Michael Winner (Death Wish) – it might have been more successful.  Also new to this release is an interview with producer Stuart D. Donaldson (16:51) who wanted to move from the family's real estate business into entertainment, producing the Everett videos and then scrambling to find funding for the film which was mostly shot on his family farm property (Northaw Place which served as Headstone Manor was an empty house next to his property). He recalls trying to get some of his own jokes into the script which he was typing, attributes much of the producer heavy lifting to associate Laurence Myers (The Greek Tycoon), and notes that the film flopped theatrically and did not get TV sales because Everett had moved from BBC to ITV and they did not want to handle the film (he also states that the film did not get a U.S. release). Ported from the Nucleus DVD is "Running the Bloodbath: A Look Back at the Making of a Cult Classic" (22:48) which features Donaldson, Myers, and Everett (the latter via an archival television interview). Donaldson's comments will be familiar from the later interview while Myers chimes in occasionally, but it is interesting to hear Everett speak frankly about the film in the aftermath of its release, including some candid remarks like describing Stephenson as "snooty" while Donaldson and Myers counter the remark, stating that she was merely professional (as well as pregnant at the time of production which they did not know at the time). The disc also includes the U.K. theatrical trailer (2:47) and a similar U.S. theatrical trailer (1:57) as well as a still gallery (0:57). 
Packaging
The disc comes with a reversible cover while orders directly from Vinegar Syndrome come with the purchasing option of a special limited edition spot gloss slipcover designed by JJ Harrison limited to 5,000 units (the standard edition can also be purchased there at a lesser price).
Overall
Bloodbath at the House of Death may be the "movie it took a lot of guts to make" but one wishes it was a better film given the resources, the British comedy regulars, and the presence of Vincent Price.
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