DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The anamorphic widescreen transfer is a vast improvement over the previous snapper-case pan and scan DVD release of this movie. It is always clear and concise, preserving the look of a glossy 1970s film. The opening credits make good use of a montage sequence of a young couple enjoying themselves in the city and there is a sense of organized glamour to those scenes dealing with Raines’ modeling profession. Winner’s compositions are often jarring and there is a fine sense of increased constriction within the frame the more unwell Raines becomes. Nudity is graphically deployed and there is a coarse delight in the seedy sexual undercurrents throughout the film, particularly in the characterization of the neighbors, who are played with deliberately sinister eccentricity (with Burgess Meredith in a sexually ambivalent role). It is often shadowy and Winner uses pans and zooms to good effect as he keeps the visuals stylized. He favors long medium shots and there are some good uses of symmetry and objects looming at the corners of the frame. Wide angle lenses add a quality of distortion to the compositions in depth and when needed the film is shocking, dizzy and disorienting – one of Winner’s more stylized genre works. Raines is slyly eroticized in terms of her fear and danger as the film proceeds and the final set-piece involving the actual freaks is one of the most disturbing of such uses in cinema.
Sound
The sound transfer is available in Dolby Digital 2.0 and is clean and concise with some sense of depth on occasion. The score is solid and eventful, nicely cued to Winner’s sense of increased garishness and sensationalistic provocation. Ambient details are minor in their use, with the emphasis on traditional foley work. Voices are always clear and concise and the overall aural design of the movie neatly complements the visual glossiness of the enterprise. Footsteps work well, voices can be strained and shocking and there is the sense of macabre debauchery to the neighbors, particularly the sinister Meredith. The offbeat approach to the characterization and vocal mannerisms of the neighbors has a touch of deliberate and sly caricature in its notion of eccentricity – Meredith in particular seems to have a lot of fun with the role, although derivative of material in Rosemary’s Baby. The black and white dream sequence features an effective use of disoriented voices and the score is always eventful and effective. Some minor details, such as a stuck record, work well although the transfer does not allow for much depth or play with ambient effects, the score doing much of the work in this horror film. Good use is made of the horror cliché of things that go bump in the night in the scenes where Raines has difficulty sleeping due to noises from above. Although the film is effective in aural design, like the visual style, it is not subtle. read more
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