MACABRE (1980) Blu-ray
Director: Lamberto Bava
88 Films

88 Films gives Italian horror fans a different kind of head with their Blu-ray of Lamberto Bava's MACABRE.

New Orleans housewife Jane Baker (Bernice Stegers, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL) leads a double life, leaving her daughter Lucy (Veronica Zinny) to look after son Michael when her husband Leslie (Fernando Pannullo) is away, ostensibly to take social club meetings but actually to meet her lover Fred (Roberto Posse, ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN) in a secret pied-à-terre in the house of elderly Mrs. Duvall who lives with her blind son Robert (Stanko Molnar, A BLADE IN THE DARK). Jane and Fred are interrupted mid-coitus by a phone call from Lucy telling them that Michael has drowned in the bathtub. They race back to Jane's house in her car only to crash into a guardrail which decapitates Fred. A year later, Jane is released from the psychiatric hospital and returns to the Duvalls to discover that Mrs. Duvall has passed and Robert is making a living repairing musical instruments. Infatuated Robert has kept Jane's apartment just as she left it, but she adds her own special shrine to Fred. Soon, Robert hears Jane in the apartment above him entertaining someone who she calls Fred. She seems to be okay for the most part; that is, until Lucy comes back into her life and starts snooping around her belongings, and her husband Leslie wants nothing to do with her. His curiosity aroused, Robert attempts to discover the identity of Jane's lover as well as what she keeps padlocked inside the kitchen freezer.

Even if the American release of the film had not been titled FROZEN TERROR with a spoiler art on the poster, it would not be difficult for even the least savvy viewers to figure out what is going on; however, MACABRE is not really a mystery, and certainly not a giallo, it is a grim study of longing, mourning, and madness. Jane is certainly insane, but she is conflicted over her morbid desires and a want to be normal and to go back to the way things once were. Robert is not stupid, and it becomes apparent watching the film again that he knows what he is going to find and tries to get find help for Jane; but he is nevertheless compelled to discover the truth with terrifying certainty (a touch common to the protagonists of the genre works of co-scripter Pupi Avati with the grim conclusions of ZEDER and THE HOUSE OF THE LAUGHING WINDOWS. After assisting his father Mario Bava on his last films SHOCK/BEYOND THE DOOR II and the made-for-TV adaptation of Prosper Merimee's VENERE D'ILLE, Lamberto Bava made his striking feature debut with MACABRE with the help of Avati and his producer brother Antonio. While Bava's follow-up slasher A BLADE IN THE DARK took gothic conventions into a modern villa of white walls and dark shadows, MACABRE's world is made up of misty or oak-shaded New Orleans exteriors and baroque interiors where the saturated colors of set dressing give a sense of over-ripened decay. Although Stegers goes quite over the top, she retains some sympathy for most of the running time as makes attempts at normality from an attempted cordial meeting with Leslie and Lucy to searching out a living, breathing partner before coming to suspect and falsely believe that everyone really is out to get her (it is a pity that Stegers did not dub herself since the role makes a great companion piece to her other extraterrestrially-imperiled mother in XTRO). Molnar gives a compelling performance, conflicted over his suspicions and his desires, vulnerable but also incredibly resourceful, and not entirely saintly. Zinny, the younger sister of DEMONS' Karl Zinny and half-sister of his co-star Urbano Barberini (OPERA), is another one of Italian horror's creepy kids, comparable to Nicoletta Elmi (although in Argento's DEEP RED rather than Bava Sr.'s BARON BLOOD). The Ubaldo Continello (MEET HIM AND DIE) jazz score at first seems on first viewing seems like New Orleans backdrop music but quite effectively conveys a sense of longing and loss (including a theme song performed by saxophonist Gil Ventura released as single titled "Jane in Love").

Released theatrically in 1983 by Film Ventures and then on VHS from Lightning Video as FROZEN TERROR, MACABRE along with A BLADE IN THE DARK and the DEMONS films were the most accessible of Bava's genre works stateside, but it was not until Anchor Bay's 2001 anamorphic DVD that the film's gothic veneer truly restored with considered framing and the combination of pallid skin tones and rich colors spiking the wardrobe and set decoration; an these qualities are further enhanced in 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen transfer – the third Blu-ray release of the film following an German edition from X-Rated and a French one from The Ecstasy of Films – in which the trim of the Italian villa interiors gleams as much as the decaying flesh of its thawing occupant. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 English track sounds good for the most part, only seeming to get a little crunchy late in the film as both music stings and hysterically-pitched voices overlap while the Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is free of those godawful Southern accents and the English subtitle translate suggests that, although the performers acted in English, the dubbers sometimes had to futz with lines to match the mouth movements since the Italian dialogue sometimes sounds more coherent.

The French Blu-ray had interviews with Bava, the Avati brothers, and co-scripter Roberto Gandus (DAMNED IN VENICE) while 88's Blu-ray features a different array of extras. First up is an audio commentary by film historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson who discuss Bava's work on his father's films as assistant director and how the splitting of directorial duties in BEYOND THE DOOR II and VENERE D'ILLE with Bava Sr. working on effects and suspense scenes and Bava Jr. working with actors prepared him for his subsequent solo work (along with Bava Jr.'s assistant director turns for Dario Argento and Ruggero Deodato). Howarth reveals that Bava Sr. did not want to know anything about the project so as not to influence his son, and that it would end up being the only one of his son's works which he got to see theatrically. They note that Michele Soavi (THE CHURCH) was initially considered for Robert, but it was one of a number or roles he lost to other actors including characters eventually played by Giovanni Lombaro Radice in THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK and CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, but also suggesting that Molnar was better suited to the part.

Lamberto Bava appears in "Don’t Lose Your Head" (22:04) in which he recalls being called up by Antonio Avati and being shown a newspaper article by his brother about a New Orleans woman who kept the head of her lover when he died in an accident. They started developing a script but it was the Avati's who shopped it around with Bava learning that it was a go while he was in New York in September 1979 to shoot pickup scenes for Dario Argento's INFERNO. The script was rapidly written after that and went into production in late November of the same year. He discusses the casting of the film, including picking between Soavi and Molnar, wanting writer/actress Marina Ripa di Meana (BAD GIRLS) for the lead and being pointed to Stegers who had just appeared in Federico Fellini's CITY OF WOMEN, and working with the child performers. He also discusses the New Orleans shooting, with cinematographer Franco Delli Colli (THE NIGHT CHILD), brother of the great Tonino Delli Colli (THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY), using mostly natural light on the non-permitted shoots (the dancing woman in the opening credits really was a crazy or drunk passerby), and that the Italian consulate driver found the New Orleans house exterior to match the Italian interiors, while Bava's architect friend showed him the cemetery seen under the opening credits in the Italian village of Crespi d'Adda. The Italian opening and end credits (3:33) are also included, with the Italian end credits not only running thirty seconds longer but also solarizing while the English end credits defocused. The theatrical trailer (2:16) is also included. The cover is reversible and the first print run includes a soft-touch slipcover and a booklet by Rachael Nisbet who looks at familial trauma and the role of the mother in the film and comparing the theme as explored in the Bava co-directed BEYOND THE DOOR II. (Eric Cotenas)

BACK TO REVIEWS

HOME