TOWER OF EVIL (1972) Blu-ray Limited Edition
Director: Jim O'Connolly
Scorpion Releasing

Scorpion Releasing gives enhanced clarity to the things that go bump and "bang" in the night with their limited edition Blu-ray of TOWER OF EVIL.

Snape Island and its derelict lighthouse have had a bad reputation before American tourist Penny (Candace Glendenning, SATAN'S SLAVE) went mad and slaughtered her three friends Mae (Seretta Wilson, PSYCHOMANIA), Des (Robin Askwith, HORROR HOSPITAL), and Gary (John Hamill, BEAST IN THE CELLAR) along with fisherman John Gurney (George Coulouris, CITIZEN KANE) who discovered the bodies with son Hamp (Jack Watson, SCHIZO) whose brother Saul and sister-in-law Martha had lived in the lighthouse until their boat washed up on the mainland. As far as the police investigation is concerned, Penny is responsible and it is up to Dr. Simpson (Anthony Valentine, TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER) to try to bring her out of her catatonic stupor so that she can face trial. Since one of the bodies was found impaled on a two thousand year old golden Phoenician spear, museum curator Bakewell (Dennis Price, VENUS IN FURS) has appointed a team of archaeologists – icy Rose (Jill Haworth, THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR), her ex-fiancé Adam (Mark Eden, BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB), sexpot Nora (Anna Palk, IT) and her milquetoast husband Dan (Derek Fowlds, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN) – to investigate the possibility of a Phoenician burial in the caves beneath Snape Island. Joining them is American private detective Brent (Bryant Haliday, THE DEVIL DOLL) hired by Penny's parents. Brent believes that Penny only killed Gurney after having been driven mad by the horrors she experienced at the hands of another perpetrator, and informs the archaeologists that one of the words she kept saying while under hypnosis was "Baal" the Phoenician god of fertility. Stewarded across by Hamp and his layabout nephew Brom (singer Gary Hamilton), the team arrive on the island and almost immediately get sidetracked. Dan pines for Rose who snipes with Adam while Nora sizes up studly Brom, and Brent intermittently ventures off on his own. When the boat explodes and someone destroys the radio, the group are trapped on the island and may not be the only ones.

Produced by American expatriate Richard Gordon (FIEND WITHOUT A FACE) and helmed by Jim O'Connolly (BERSERK), TOWER OF EVIL is quite a radical departure from the likes of Hammer, Amicus, or even Tigon productions with some graphic gore and some even more graphic male and female nudity which was carried to even more extremes in Gordon's follow-up HORROR HOSPITAL. The film is also perhaps as much a precursor to the 1980s slasher genre as BLACK CHRISTMAS and BAY OF BLOOD, with a very noticeable influence on Paul Lynch's HUMONGOUS and particularly Tom DeSimone's HELL NIGHT with some killings (or their reveals) seemingly directly lifted from here along with the final twist. Setting it apart from those later films and even some of its low budget contemporaries is its old school approach, from the caliber of the main cast to the studio shooting – the overhead shots of the lighthouse are a scale model while the lighthouse exterior and rocky terrain of Snape Island are a massive sound stage set – which extends to rear projection shots during the boat trip and a painted sky backdrop on the island, along with some proficient camerawork by Desmond Dickinson (CITY OF THE DEAD) and thunderous scoring of Kenneth V. Jones (TOMB OF LIGIEA). It also possesses a wonderfully camp, bitchy atmosphere that never detracts from the suspense and scares with Nora given the best lines ("Masturbation's so boring," she offers as an excuse for her past seduction of Adam that ended his engagement to Rose), and a very out-of-touch depiction youth culture with the young quartet coming to Snape Island from a "jazz festival" and Brom saying things like "Bravery ain't my bag, man." The film is mostly well-plotted, with some backstory questions left open-ended and some diverting red herrings before the familiar ending. The film was co-produced by Fanfare Films' Joe Solomon who released it as THE HORROR OF SNAPE ISLAND in the United States while Independent-International would pick it up in the early 1980s and retitle it BEYOND THE FOG in response to John Carpenter's second horror film.

Released theatrically stateside with some trims for an R-rating – with MGM picking up the television rights – the film turned up on VHS as TOWER OF EVIL early on in the video age from VCI followed by a censored tape from Interglobal and uncut in an attractively garish clamshell edition from Gorgon Video. Elite Entertainment gave us an attractive non-anamorphic letterboxed DVD in 1999 when they licensed some of the Gordon titles, and this was the best available for quite some time with the 2006 UK edition also non-anamorphic. In 2013, Scorpion Releasing released the film on DVD and Blu-ray utilizing MGM's HD master with a featurette by David Del Valle. A Region B edition from Odeon followed in 2015 with a similar transfer probably from the same master but more equipped in the extras department. Scorpion's new limited edition Blu-ray is derived from a new 2018 scan of the original interpositive. The 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 image is darker but more colorful and nicely detailed. The rough edges of the production are more apparent, but the details of the sets and sound stage exteriors have a nostalgic charm and the textures of skin and clothing also aide the film in conveying its chilly atmosphere.

Besides color correction, Scorpion's cover text boasts of audio fixes, and the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono audio is clean with some sibilance issues that seem confined to Haworth's delivery, but the audio also seems to go a few milliseconds out of sync from 64:35 to 83:06, not enough to overlap the dialogue between the characters but enough that it is evident that lips continue moving just after a line finishes. The scenes shot on the exterior lighthouse set had to be post-synched but this starts with a scene in the lighthouse exterior with Palk and Haworth and also includes an exterior dialogue scene between Watson and Hamilton. Much of this running time has characters running around in the dark often with their faces averted or in shadow while talking (the effects seem better synced although it may be that one is more attentive to spoken dialogue), while the climax is back in sync. The sync issue is nowhere near the disaster of Code Red's THE CARRIER or even as distracting as the double audio track heard for about ten minutes of Scorpion's HUMONGOUS. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided and include one or two mistakes having to do with British phrasing with "in the dock" meaning on trial transcribed as "in the dark." While it seems doubtful that this will be fixed, the film at least looks better than ever before, and sounds it if you don't scrutinize the lip movements too closely during that stretch in the final third.

Scorpion has carried over the Katarina's Nightmare Theater introduction (4:05) and post-script (1:40) but dropped the Del Valle featurette in favor of Odeon's audio commentary by producer Gordon moderated by Tom Weaver. While Weaver provides capsule filmographies and biographies of the cast and crew, Gordon reveals that the film (and much of his British work) was made possible due to his connections with various British studio personnel during a time in British filmmaking when things were less cutthroat. The film was partially financed by Gordon and Solomon, and the story came from American writer George Baxt (SHADOW OF THE CAT) who was introduced to him by Amicus' Max Rosenberg but Baxt's finished script was unsatisfactory and initial director Sidney Hayers (ASSAULT) was in Baxt's camp; however, O'Connolly – who was recommended by Herman Cohen (HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM) – extensively rewrote it when he was hired. Shooting the entire film at Shepperton Studios was made possible thanks to associate producer John Pellatt who represented American International's interests in Britain and was coming off of WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? He attributes the casting to Rose Tobias Shaw who was supplied by Hammer's James Carreras who also recommended BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB actor Eden, and reveals that Lee Patterson (JACK THE RIPPER) was ready to step in for the lead when the British union initially objected to the casting of American Halliday. He also reveals that Baxt never forgave him for rewriting the script and that there was friction between Palk and Hamilton during their sex scene.

Also carried over from the Odeon edition is "Screaming Your Head Off" (12:21), an interview with actress Wilson who recalls that she was doubled for most of her nudity but was comfortable working with Askwith, had a head cast and also had to stick her head out of the set floor, she was the only one of the young quartet that was not dubbed with an American accent, and turned down a role in O'Connolly's next and last film MISTRESS PAMELA (a sexploitation adaptation of Samuel Richardson's "Pamela"). There is also an interview with composer Jones (13:10) that was not carried over from any previous release and may have been extracted from something else as he does not comment on the film at all, instead focusing on composing for low budget films with responsibilities including hiring and paying session musicians himself. Much more interesting is the interview with editor Henry Richardson (13:30) who recalls O'Connolly recognized that the film possessed a degree of humor that Gordon did not recognize, and that he had to sometimes shoot additional coverage that the director did not film as well as reshooting parts of the Palk/Hamilton sex scene which was not violent enough in the rushes. The disc includes the American HORROR OF SNAPE ISLAND trailer (1:48) along with trailers for THE PSYCHIC, MURDER-ROCK, DEATH SHIP, SILENT SCREAM, THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW, and HUMAN EXPERIMENTS. The disc is currently available from Ronin Flix and DiabolikDVD with a limited edition slipcover and 9x11 Mini Poster with artwork by "Kung Fu Bob" O'Brien. The cover is also reversible
. (Eric Cotenas)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Under "Product Details" for this Blu-ray of TOWER OF EVIL on the Ronin Flix website, there is currently a disclaimer that reads, "Update (02/15/19 4:35 PM PT): It has come to our attention that the TOWER OF EVIL disc goes out-of-sync at roughly one hour into the film. Scorpion Releasing has advised us replacement discs will be made available within 4 weeks. These discs will have revised artwork, so they will be easy to tell apart from the original.

Please contact customer service at info@roninentertainmentla.com if you purchased this Blu-ray from us and would like to receive a replacement. Once they are received from Scorpion, we will distribute to all verified customer requests and put the Blu-ray back up for sale.

We apologize for any inconvenience this situation has caused and thank you for your continued patronage."

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