From the early 1960s, The Fifth Horseman Is Fear is a gloomily surreal and often sweatily tense drama set in the Nazi-occupied Czech Republic. It follows the plight of a Jewish Doctor who tries to help and protect a wounded political fugitive. The film moves between stark and grim realism, Kafka like surrealism, and very fleeting touches of coal-black humour. From Second Run here we have a new region free Blu Ray release of the film- featuring an HD transfer of the picture, a new commentary track, and a short film.

Appearing in the year 1964 The Fifth Horseman Is Fear( pátý jezdec je Strach)- was filmed in stark, yet expressive black and white in the City of Prague. The film was the seventh film from Karlovy born Czech Actor, Writer, and director Zbynek Brynych- in all he had twenty-nine feature-length director credits to his name. These went from a slice of life romantic drama Pet z milionu (1959), Crime Comedy Kazdá koruna dobrá(1961), Stark drama set in a Jewish Ghetto Transport z ráje(1963), and coming-of-age-psychedelia drama O Happy Day(1970).  

After the jarring pre-credits, the film opens with the bearded and bespectacled Dr Braun (Miroslav Machácek) going about his new job cataloguing the homes and possession of fellow Jews- in a huge building/ space filled to the brim. He carries out his job in an understandable state of glum oppression and is fearful that his own days are numbered. He lives on the top floor of a city apartment block, and one evening one of the residents asks him for help in removing a bullet from the shoulder of a political fugitive friend. initially, the Dr says no, but fairly soon his conscience and medical ethics kick-in, finding him going on a grim-at-points hellish odyssey to get the fugitive some morphine – stopping off at packed and smoky bar full of delirious people and looped string music, a crammed mental hospital, and the various apartments of his building- which move from the showy opulence, onto the piled and oppressive, to the cluttered and dusty, though to the stark bleakness of his own apartment.

Music is used throughout the film to great effect- be it the sudden loud darting jazz-to angular ‘n’ grimly clunking piano of the opening credits, or the use of grand and bright orchestrated music for starker/ more troubling moments. And throughout the film we get looped moments of muzak, badly played light classical music, and jaunting easy listening- when things are anything but easy. 

The film has a great and accomplished cast- going from Machácek who plays the lead Dr character with a believable mix of furtiveness, fear, and sweaty determination. Moving onto Jirí Vrstála who is sternly blond-haired Komisar, who is in charge of house searches- and does his job with a true cold and cunning focus. There’s Josef Vinklar as sweaty and obsessive bureaucrat Vlastimil Fanta, and Jirí Adamíra as Mr Vesely the apartments suave and stylish lawyer owner- who has his own issues/ doubts just beneath his seemingly in control and running smoothly life. 
 
There’s no doubt The Fifth Horseman Is Fear is a troubling and often tense study of control and fear, with much of its runtime been terminal bleak and oppressive, yet at the same time compelling. There are traces of dark humour, surrealism and pathos weaved throughout the whole thing. And ultimately you come away from the film sadden, yet uplifted by the human spirit- knowing that even in the darkest/ most difficult times it can shine and glow. 
 
Moving onto this recent Blu Ray, and on the region free disc we get an HD transfer sourced from Czech National Film Archive- this is largely a nicely crisp and defined affair aside from a few bits of damage at the start and towards the end of the film. We get a commentary track from The Projection Booth- which this time around features Kat Ellinger, Jonathan Owen, and Mike White. They start off by discussing the use of music in the pre-credits of the film, moving on to talk about the way the film was deliberately non-specific with its period elements to give the film a timeless feel. They discuss the film locations- first talking about building used for storing the possession of the Jewish people been a synagogue, moving on to talk about the apartment building- observing it has both noir and gothic horror feel. Moving on- they discuss the clever and detailed dressing of each of the apartments, and how they connect with each occupant. They compare the finished script and the novella it was based on, discussing their differences. They talk about similar/ related films, chat about actors in the film and when/where they turn up in other Czech new wave cinema, and much more. All in all, another very well researched and interesting track from The Projection Booth. Other extras wise we get two thought lost sequences from the Italian and American cuts of the film- taking in a four-minute intro to the film giving the film a more set and firm historic background, and an eleven-minute scene set in a Nazi brothel. We get Žalm- a 1966 short film that runs around the fourteen-minute mark, show ceremonies inside a synagogue. Lastly, the release is topped off with a twenty-four-page glossy inlay booklet featuring a new write up on the film by Jonathan Owen, an appreciation by filmmaker Dominik Graf, and stills/ full credits.
 
 
The Fifth Horseman Is Fear is a wonderful and much-needed addition to Second Run now rather large library of important and distinctive films from the Czech new wave. As always,  we get a great and classy presentation from the label- with a nice new HD scan, and a most informative/ interesting commentary track.