DEVIL'S
KISS (1976) Blu-rayDirector: Jordi Gigó (as Georges Gigo)
Redemption Films #56/Kino Lorber
Redemption Films is marked by the obscure Spanish/French horror DEVIL'S KISS, on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
The extravagant Duke de Haussemont (Jose Nieto, FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR) throws a fashion show and has invited Claire Grandier (Silvia Solar, THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI) to conduct a surprise séance. Claire is the former Countess of Moncoran, whose husband killed himself after his family fortunes dwindled and Duke's late brother Laurent bought up his stables. Claire has gone back to her maiden name and lives in anonymity as a spiritualist in collaboration with Dr. Gruber (Olivier Mathot, REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER) who has been experimenting with cell regeneration and also possesses powers of telepathy. During the séance, the Duke asks Claire to contact his late brother and is sufficiently impressed to invite Claire and Dr. Gruber to stay at his chateau and continue their experiments in exchange for teaching him the ways of the occult. Claire accepts his proposition, takes on a dwarf sidekick (Ronnie Harp), and digs up a blue-skinned corpse (Moisés Augusto Rocha, HORROR STORY) to wreak her vengeance against the Duke. The professor injects the body with a serum to regenerate its cells and Claire invokes the spirit of Astaroth to possess the corpse and do their bidding with the professor's telepathic powers used to control the creature. After the Duke's mysterious death, his photographer nephew Richard (Daniel Martin, DEMON WITCH CHILD) inherits the house and allows Clair and Dr. Gruber to stay on, but Gruber has a weak heart and is losing control of the zombie, who goes on a murderous rampage.
The French/Spanish DEVIL'S KISS (aka THE WICKED CARESS OF SATAN) is a bit of a clunky throwback to the Italian gothic horror pics of the 1960s spiced up with some 1970s nudity. Had the sex scenes not been so ugly (and so obviously inserted into a production tailored for the still strict Spanish censorship of the time), the special effects more proficient, and the script more focused (dwarves, scantily-clad models, and affairs between servants, and servants and masters merely fill out the running time), this film might have made a good double bill with the 1970 Spanish/Italian gothic horror IVANNA/SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER. Martin's playboy heir makes for an uninteresting hero in the second half of the film. Maria Silva (TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD) shows up late in the film to be menaced by the monster. Carlos Otero (THE KILLER WORE GLOVES) turns up as chateau's butler, Victor Israel (HORROR EXPRESS) briefly appears as a leering party guest, and Evelyne Scott (SHINING SEX) is the chambermaid who is killed by the monster and reanimated by the professor to cover up the crime; unfortunately she proves even less controllable than the creature. Mathot, Solar, Otero, Israel, Scott, and Richard Kolin (EYEBALL) would all turn up together again in THE MAN WITH THE SEVERED HEAD/CRIMSON, a French/Spanish co-production by Eurocine (who picked up DEVIL'S KISS).
Previously released on VHS in Canada as DEVIL'S KISS and in the United States from Something Weird Video utilizing a US grindhouse print with the Spanish title translation THE WICKED CARESSSES OF SATAN, THE DEVIL'S KISS became more widely available when Image Entertainment released it on DVD as part of their Euroshock Collection line. While the Eurocine master was missing roughly two minutes of footage including a graphic extension of the sex scene between the groomsman and the maid as well as body double inserts into the sex scene between Martin and Silva that appeared in WICKED CARESSES version, the anamorphic transfer was nevertheless a major improvement. Kino/Redemption's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen Blu-ray runs 95:08 compared to the 92:57 of the Image DVD, restoring the aforementioned sex scene extension utilizing a digital dissolve to bridge the original scene and restoring the inserts to the later sex scene in coarser quality. Colors are richer than the DVD edition and some shots may have come from a different print source (note the quality shift from the crisp-looking séance scenes intercut with the shots of the model wandering around in the dark). The title card is different from the DVD edition, matching that font of the rest of the credits which like the DVD are far less complete in content than that of the WICKED CARESSES version which includes other technical credits (DEVIL'S KISS includes the title, a complete cast listing, and then the director's credit). As with the earlier DVD, one shot at roughly 30 minutes is also in lesser quality. Overall, the flaws of the source are far more apparent here than in standard definition. The print source is riddled with minute scratches intermittently (more visible in darker shots) and there is jitter from sprocket damage here and there that affects the English LPCM 2.0 mono track which was apparently the optical track. Although the English track is louder than the lossy French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track, it seems less detailed while the French track is also not affected by the same damage. The lack of extras apart from back cover copy by Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas suggests that Kino did the minimum on this release. (Eric Cotenas)