Coming
on the heels of Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, there are those
that call William Castle’s HOMICIDAL ($25) a rip off of the
Master of Suspense. Castle fans tend to think of HOMICIDAL
as an homage to PSYCHO, and I will give them that conceit, since
I count myself amongst their number. However, even I recognize that Master
Showman William Castle was "cashing in" on the enormous popularity
of PSYCHO by advertising HOMICIDAL as The Story Of
A Psychotic Killer! No matter what one thinks of the film’s
originality, HOMICIDAL is a highly entertaining scare-fest with
that William Castle touch.
The
plot of HOMICIDAL concerns Emily, a sexy blonde, who checks into
a hotel and pays a bellboy $2,000.00 to marry her and have the marriage
quickly annulled. Unable to resist the easy cash, he agrees to her proposal
and the two go off to see the Justice of the Peace. At the end of the
wedding ceremony, Emily pulls out a large butcher knife and commits a
grisly murder. Fleeing into the night, Emily is able to disappear back
into her small-town existence, where she serves as the nurse and chief
tormentor of a mute, wheelchair bound old woman named Helga. Not content
in torturing the old woman, Emily also sets to destroy Miriam Webster,
the half sister of Warren, the man who may or may not be her husband.
Not
wanting to disappoint his target audience, director/producer William Castle
provides the requisite suspense and grisly murders that one would expect
from The Story Of A Psychotic Killer! With HOMICIDAL,
Castle developed the gimmick of a "fright break" that allowed
the audience a forty-five second countdown, in which anyone too scared
to stay for the film’s climax could slink out of the theater and
stand in the "coward’s corner." The cast of HOMICIDAL
features Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce,
Richard Rust, James Westerfield, Gilbert Green and Jean Arless aka Joan
Marshall.
Strangely,
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has made HOMICIDAL available
on DVD in a 4:3 full screen presentation, unlike the other recent William
Castle movies, which where were released in 16:9 enhanced wide screen.
Looking at the excessive headroom in the compositions, one can clearly
see that HOMICIDAL was intended to be matted for a wide screen
presentation. Apart from being issued in the wrong aspect ratio, the black
and white transfer looks quite good. The image is pretty sharp and provides
a nice level of detailed. There is mild film grain at various times throughout
the presentation, but nothing objectionable. The film element itself doesn’t
display very many blemishes and is in really solid shape for a movie over
forty years old. Blacks are deep and inky, plus whites are clean and completely
stable. Contrast is very good and the picture has a good level of depth.
Digital compression artifacts are well disguised throughout the presentation.
HOMICIDAL
is offered in clean sounding Dolby Digital monaural. At normal listening
levels, there is no audible background hiss or signs of distortion. Dialogue
is crisply rendered and is completely understandable. There are the expected
frequency limitations in the recordings, but otherwise Hugo Friedhofer’s
music sounds fine. English and French subtitles have been encoded onto
the DVD.
The
basic interactive menus provide access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as a few extras. Running a bit over seven
minutes is the featurette, Psychette: William Castle and Homicidal.
Like the other featurettes on the recent Castle DVDs, this program includes
interviews with recognized horror historians David Del Valle, Don Glut,
as well as monster enthusiast Bob Burns and director Fred Olen Ray, all
of whom discuss William Castle, HOMICIDAL and the film’s particular
gimmick. Also included on the DVD are trailers for MR. SARDONICUS
and STRAIT-JACKET.
HOMICIDAL
is a whole lot of horror fun, and a film that benefits from the William
Castle touch. The presentation is something of a disappointment because
the movie is in the wrong aspect ratio. Castle fans will probably want
to rent HOMICIDAL before contacting Columbia TriStar to offer their
opinions on the full screen presentation of this wide screen film.
Coming
on the heels of Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, there are those
that call William Castle’s HOMICIDAL ($25) a rip off of the
Master of Suspense. Castle fans tend to think of HOMICIDAL
as an homage to PSYCHO, and I will give them that conceit, since
I count myself amongst their number. However, even I recognize that Master
Showman William Castle was "cashing in" on the enormous popularity
of PSYCHO by advertising HOMICIDAL as The Story Of
A Psychotic Killer! No matter what one thinks of the film’s
originality, HOMICIDAL is a highly entertaining scare-fest with
that William Castle touch.
The
plot of HOMICIDAL concerns Emily, a sexy blonde, who checks into
a hotel and pays a bellboy $2,000.00 to marry her and have the marriage
quickly annulled. Unable to resist the easy cash, he agrees to her proposal
and the two go off to see the Justice of the Peace. At the end of the
wedding ceremony, Emily pulls out a large butcher knife and commits a
grisly murder. Fleeing into the night, Emily is able to disappear back
into her small-town existence, where she serves as the nurse and chief
tormentor of a mute, wheelchair bound old woman named Helga. Not content
in torturing the old woman, Emily also sets to destroy Miriam Webster,
the half sister of Warren, the man who may or may not be her husband.
Not
wanting to disappoint his target audience, director/producer William Castle
provides the requisite suspense and grisly murders that one would expect
from The Story Of A Psychotic Killer! With HOMICIDAL,
Castle developed the gimmick of a "fright break" that allowed
the audience a forty-five second countdown, in which anyone too scared
to stay for the film’s climax could slink out of the theater and
stand in the "coward’s corner." The cast of HOMICIDAL
features Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce,
Richard Rust, James Westerfield, Gilbert Green and Jean Arless aka Joan
Marshall.
Strangely,
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has made HOMICIDAL available
on DVD in a 4:3 full screen presentation, unlike the other recent William
Castle movies, which where were released in 16:9 enhanced wide screen.
Looking at the excessive headroom in the compositions, one can clearly
see that HOMICIDAL was intended to be matted for a wide screen
presentation. Apart from being issued in the wrong aspect ratio, the black
and white transfer looks quite good. The image is pretty sharp and provides
a nice level of detailed. There is mild film grain at various times throughout
the presentation, but nothing objectionable. The film element itself doesn’t
display very many blemishes and is in really solid shape for a movie over
forty years old. Blacks are deep and inky, plus whites are clean and completely
stable. Contrast is very good and the picture has a good level of depth.
Digital compression artifacts are well disguised throughout the presentation.
HOMICIDAL
is offered in clean sounding Dolby Digital monaural. At normal listening
levels, there is no audible background hiss or signs of distortion. Dialogue
is crisply rendered and is completely understandable. There are the expected
frequency limitations in the recordings, but otherwise Hugo Friedhofer’s
music sounds fine. English and French subtitles have been encoded onto
the DVD.
The
basic interactive menus provide access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as a few extras. Running a bit over seven
minutes is the featurette, Psychette: William Castle and Homicidal.
Like the other featurettes on the recent Castle DVDs, this program includes
interviews with recognized horror historians David Del Valle, Don Glut,
as well as monster enthusiast Bob Burns and director Fred Olen Ray, all
of whom discuss William Castle, HOMICIDAL and the film’s particular
gimmick. Also included on the DVD are trailers for MR. SARDONICUS
and STRAIT-JACKET.
HOMICIDAL
is a whole lot of horror fun, and a film that benefits from the William
Castle touch. The presentation is something of a disappointment because
the movie is in the wrong aspect ratio. Castle fans will probably want
to rent HOMICIDAL before contacting Columbia TriStar to offer their
opinions on the full screen presentation of this wide screen film.