Ruby — Ruby(DVD + Blu Ray)
The film was directed by once avant-garde, turned offbeat horror director Curtis Harrington- who was known for 60’s cult classic like Night Tide, Queen Of Blood, and Games. As well as 70’s TV movie Killer Ants. I’ll have to admit I’d heard Mr. Harrington name, but never seen any of his work. So Ruby was my first taste of his work, and I’ll have to say I came away more than a little torn between respect & indifference.
Ruby is a mostly chatty & slowly paced thriller- with some effectively staged deaths, and one or two effective moments of chilling atmosphere. The film opens with a flashback to 1935, when Ruby Claire’s ( Piper Laurie- who played the mother in Carrie) gangster boyfriend is gun down in a swamp. Then we fast forward to the early 1950’s, where Ruby now owns a drive-in-theatre, employing her ex-gangster mates. Fairly soon her employers start ending up dead, and supernatural occurrences start to occur. It turns out it’s centered around Ruby's mute teenage daughter Leslie, who is channeling the spirit of her gunned down father. We get a selection of possession scenes ripping directly off The Exorcist, Carrie like telekinesis shenanigans, and lots of dark & murky camera work.
On the plus side, Piper Laurie is effective as an aging singer/gangster moll, we get effective male support/ love interest from Stuart Whitman. And the girl who plays the daughter has quite a creepy & disturbed look. And at times there is a good & eerier use of the Drive-in-theatre setting, and some of the murders/ body discoveries are staged effective enough. Sadly these plus points are not really enough to rescue the whole film- as it’s often painfully slow, lacking any real feeling of dread or atmosphere for much of it’s run-time. And worse of all you can barely see what’s going on for much of the film, as it was filmed so dark. And this darkness doesn’t seem to have been improved in any way by the 2k transfer.
As I mentioned in my introduction this reissue it’s quite heavy in the extras department- and for me, this was the real saving grace/ interest thing about the release. You get two commentaries- one with Piper Laurie & Curtis Harrington, and one from David Del Valle & ‘Curtis Harrington’ expert – Nate Bell. I've listened to the whole of the Del Valle/ Bell track, as I had enjoyed the one Del Valle did on the Count Yorga Collection for Arrow, and I must say the track here is informative & well researched. I played parts of the Laurie/ Harrington track, and this also had its moments of interest. Next, from 2001 you get a one hour filmed interview between David Del Valle & Curtis Harrington, and two episodes of Sinister Image- the horror/ sci-fi chat show hosted by David Del Valle that run between 1987-1989. And both of these half-an-hour features are once again focusing in on Harrington. Topping it all off we get new liner notes from Nate Bell, as well as the expected original trailer.
I can’t really say I can recommend Ruby, as ultimately I thought it was slow paced, often lacking in both atmosphere & any real scares. You can see flashers of Harrington's talent & flare from time-to-time, but not enough to make it a consistent experience. Certainly if you have a keen interest in either 70 genre films that riff on more known horror films, or Harrington himself it would be worth picking this up, otherwise, it best passing it by.