Craze — Craze( Blu- Ray/ DVD)
From the early 70’s, Craze is a British film focusing on an antiques dealer, who accidentally kills someone in front of an African idol, finds a fortune coming his way, and decides to take up murder. In the lead, we have Jack Palance, with appearances of the likes of Trevor Howard, Suzy Kendall, and Diana Dors. The film is a thriller/ horror crossbreed- with light touches of both gore and nudity, making for an engaging enough & lightly campy 70’s cinematic ride. Here from 88 Films is a recent release of the film, which is available as either a Blu-ray or DVD, taking in a 4k scan, a new commentary track, and a few other old/ new extras.
Craze (aka Demon Master, The Infernal Idol) is from the year 1974. It was directed by Islington, London-born Freddie Francis. Between the early 1960s and late 1980s, he had twenty-seven features to his name. These went from comedy-drama The Girl Swappers (1962), classic horror anthology Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), horror thriller The Ghoul(1975), and skyscraper-based supernatural horror film Dark Tower(1987).
The film kicks off showing towering, thinly moustached, and cigarillo-smoking Neal (Palance) carrying out a coven meeting in the basement of his antique shop. The group are worshipping a wooden, long-necked, bulbous-eyed, and one sharp-clawed idol. A nude woman dances in front of it- slashing her stomach- bright red blood splashing on idol.
Next, Neal gets a visit from one of the ex-members of the coven- an argument ensues, and she falls towards the idol, with her throat being ripped open. He disposes of the body, then a few days later large collection of cold coins appears, seemingly out of nowhere- so Neal decides to start killing, to gain even more riches.
His partner/ dogsbody at the shop is often denim suit jacketed Ronnie- played Martin Potter, who will be known to fans of British horror, playing the coldly demented son in Norman J Warren's Satan’s Slave(1976). And as the film unfolds, we get some recognisable faces turning up in bit parts- like Trevor Howard, Suzy Kendall, Diana Dors, and David Warbeck.
The film runs at just over the hour and a half mark, with the whole thing rolling on well enough, save to some rather convoluted/initially puzzling plot points. Palance shifts between being calm and slightly creepy to deranged, from strangling his victims to an axe-wielding madman. The rest of the cast is fine- Potter shifts from being a complacent yes man, to more emotionally fraught. And a thickly haired & sideburned Michael Jayston plays an effective cop that just won't give up.
As for the ways the characters are dispatched, we get a few implements on the idol's claw, a face burning(off-screen), a staking shown after the event, and close-up strangling. And a few moments of fleeting female nudity. All in all, Craze is a passable enough thriller/ voodoo horror crossbreed.
This new release takes in a 4k scan, which I believe is ported over from an early Vinegar Syndrome release. This looks good, with nice clarity and depth of picture throughout. Though in a few spots, the soundtrack did seem louder than the dialogue.
On the new extra side, we have two things- first of these is a commentary track from film historians Troy Howarth & Nathaniel Thompson. And as usual with these two pros, we get a very well-researched, observed, and entertaining track. They begin by talking about how the film straddles both the 1960s and 1970s. We find out the film was based on the 1967 novel The Infernal Idol by Henry Seymore, which producer Herman Cohen bought the film rights for in 1968. They talk about how the picture is an oddity, but never boring, blending the grubby and appealing. We get a brief bio of the film's composer, John Scott, with the pair declaring the score here is just fine/ nothing special. We find out the film was shot over six-week period starting from the 19th of February 1973, and was released to UK cinemas in May of the following year. They point out the set streets, which were originally used for Oliver. They talk about how they feel it’s a very misogynistic film, where female characters are treated unkindly & berated by unpleasant comments- though apparently this element was in the original book. They discuss how there is a homosexual subtex, but this doesn't come from the novel, and the script, which was co-written by producer Herman Cohen. Later on, they discuss their favourite films directed by Freddie Francis. They comment on Trevor Howard's rather sparse role and point out other cameo roles from known actors.
Otherwise, on the new side, we have Vicious Voodoo (26.53), which finds genre author/ commentator Kim Newman discussing the different facets of the film. He talks about how director Francis didn’t like the film, calling it a ‘dead horse’. He talks about how it fits in with the British psycho drama genre, though it has a rather fiendish villain. He discusses the roles and careers of both Jack Palance & Diana Dors, points out the rather amusing cameo from Suzy Kendall. We find out the film got a limited release in UK cinemas, though it went on to be released on VHS. He discusses the career of Herman Cohen and a few other things. So both, this and the commentary track are well worth a play.
Otherwise, we have Crazy Days- Making Of Craze( 31.10), which, judging by the age of some of the contributors, was from a few years ago. And we get an original trailer. With the finished release, we get a reversible sleeve and an inlay booklet.
Craze is an entertaining enough example of a 1970s Thriller/ horror crossbred, with more than a few recognisable faces from British cult cinema. The whole thing has a decent pace, with some neat moments of suspense, and dabs of both gore & nudity. This new 88 Films release takes in most interesting extras, and a nice 4k print