Death Laid an Egg

This is as arty as exploitation films can get and has a fairly heavy handed message about animal cruelty. I bought this as alternative Easter viewing, watched with cream egg in hand but be careful if you do the same because one scene in particular might bring it back up. This isn’t really a horror film but does have a horrific concept at the story’s centre.This blu-ray looks great and is well served by its bonus features! I’d heard about the film for ages and finally there is a version out there worth having for Region B.

This is a superb giallo.There is a surreal plot, brilliant atonal soundtrack and Gina Lollobrigida and Ewa Aulin.While you are watching it, it seems very disjointed, but all the strands come together in a surprising and highly original finale.Well worth digging out.

As strange a film as the reputation that precedes proving that Jean Louis Trintignant could play any role, likeable or otherwise ... a very watchable transfer of a previously impossible to find objet d’art

I was well aware, care of social media of Nucleus Films' laudable efforts to raise money to get this Italian movie from the 1960s restored and released on Blu-ray. I was given the impression that it must be some great film, unjustly overlooked for many years, one that desperately needed to be restored and made available in the highest possible quality.Having now seen Nucleus Films' Blu-ray, the restoration, presentation and special features simply cannot be faulted, but sadly, the film is quite awful. Disjointed, with plot points that go nowhere and are often not resolved, characters whose relationships to each other are not explained, and some who do not justify even being there (the mentally ill friend who keeps popping up but serves no purpose in the plot whatever).The music, if you can call it that, doesn't help, its discordant clangs and screeching not actually helping anything outside of the suspense scenes.Finally, there's a sequence filmed in an abbatoir that is entirely gratuitous, which serves no purpose in the narrative, that is deeply unpleasant. If I wasn't already a vegetarian, I would have been after seeing that.A bizarre film that fails on just about every level despite a fine cast. Directorially, it makes one re-evaluate the likes of Ed Wood.Not one I'd ever think of recommending to anyone. A shame as obviously Nucleus have put in a lot of time, love and hard work into producing this Blu-ray.