The Corruption of Chris Miller — The Corruption of Chris Miller( Blu Ray/ DVD)

The Corruption of Chris Miller is a moody, at times slowly paced & drama filled Spanish Gallio from the early 70s- it's not the goriest, or gruelling of the genre, but it does feature some chillingly memorable & fairly bloody set pieces along its nearing two-hour runtime. Here on Vinegar Syndrome is a duel Blu Ray/ DVD reissue of the film, which apparently is released here for the first time in digital format- and as we’ve come to expect from VS, you get a nice new scan of the film, along with a splattering of extras.

The Corruption Of Chris Miller( aka La corrupción de Chris Miller) originally appeared in 1973, going onto be re-released in the USA in 1975.  It was directed by Madrid based Juan Antonio Bardem- who between the late 1940s & late 1990s helmed twenty-eight films- moving from comedy farces, crime dramas, Sci-fi Adventure, and in the 70’s Euro-horror with the likes of this film, and Bell From Hell- also from 1973- seemingly after this he went onto work in Spanish TV.

The films centres around middle-aged temptress Ruth Miller (Jean Seberg), and her troubled Step Daughter Chris(former child star & singer Marisol)- who live in an isolated mansion in the green, and often rain bound Spanish countryside. One day Ruth finds a nude young drifter Barney in her shed- he's played by Barry Stokes- who was the alien in Norman J Warrens Prey, and lead in late 70’s brit sexploitation film The Ups & Downs of a Handyman. Fairly soon a decidedly twisted, though low key love triangle develops between the three- and in the meantime someone is killing local rich women.

The whole thing opens in fine moody, darkly comical, and fairly shocking manner- as we find the killer, dressed as Charlie Chaplin, murdering an ageing female singing star- with lots of red stuff, and a great greenly sinister & rainy setting. From here until just past the hour fifteen-minute mark, the pace & the gore dies back- as we focus in on the threesome love triangle. Later in the film, we do get an extremely memorable & damn brutal quasi-slasher scene- where the killer dons a caped black mack, sunglasses & black tights over his face- before brutally & rapidly butchering a family.  The remainder of the film features a quite intense & prolonged stabbing and some neat plot twists.  It’s certainly a picture you have to give a bit of time & patience to, and at times it feels a little jumpy & jarring in some of the scene set-up/ plotting- but it’s certainly an interesting addition to Spanish horror/ gialli genre- so it’s great to see VS putting it back in print again.

The new print is a 4k scan taking from the original 35 mm negative, and aside from the beginning/ end of the film- is very nicely balanced & colourful, with the lush greens, reds & often elaboration costume changes of Jean Seberg really coming to live nicely. The sound on the disc, in particular, the score by Waldo De Los Rios, does have the odd booming/ overloud moments- but I’m, guessing VS did the best they could with this. Extra wise we get a few things- first, we get a Spanish( with English subtitles) TV interview with director Juan Antonio Bardem- it looks like it comes from the mid/ late 90’s- this comes in at just shy of the hour mark and finds him discussing his wider career. Next, we get Jean Seberg: movie Star- this is an around twelve-minute featurette, with family & friends discussing the often fairly tragic life of the actress- who starred in 35 films between the late ’50s & mid-’70s, lost a child & committed suicide in the late ’70s. Lastly we get an alternative ending & opening for the film, as well original trailer

It’s nice to see Vinegar Syndrome spreading their genre wings releasing a giallo with The Corruption of Chris Miller- it’s certainly a worthy watch if you like largely slow burn/ moody takes on the genre, and certainly the key creepy/ gory set piece in the film will stand out in Euro-horror fan minds.