spot some familiar faces in the cast, including MODESTY BLAISE’s Rosella Falk as the dwarf’s mother and DEEP RED’s Gabriele Lavia as a potential sus­ pect. Most significantly, the film marks the director’s reunion (for the last time, apparently) with the rock group Goblin, who reformed to score the film and broke up again just as quickly. Despite its box office success


in Italy, the film has yet to gain a US distributor. Considering the lukewarm reception given to TRAUMA (1993), Argentos most obvious bid for American accep­ tance, his willingness to embrace primarily Italian audiences may be a wise career move. The DVD release itself offers a fascinat­ ing example of how fuzzy the determination of a film’s origi­ nal language can be; the origi­ nal Italian dialogue sounds graceful enough, but it destroys the rhyming patterns of the cru­ cial “Death Farm” nursery rhyme (written in English by Asia Argen­ to) and dubs over Von Sydow’s warmhearted performance, one of the most accessible and in­ gratiating since DEEP RED’s David Hemmings. The Italian track is also DTS-encoded and sounds marvelous, with clear channel separation which turns the throbbing Goblin score into a wall-shaking delight. For the first few minutes, the English dub (encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1) appears to be preferable as it more accurately matches the actors’ lip movements, but un­ fortunately it also stops the story cold with a number of uninten­ tional howlers, including virtually every line delivered by one character’s dullard fiancé. To add confusion, Argento also spoofs his own films with tongue-in- cheek nods like a parody of the witness line-up from THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1969) and another absurd


variation on the “ I know I saw/ heard something important but I just can’t place it” device. The disc also offers optional


English or Italian subtitles, allow­ ing the viewer to compare both tracks with ease. The film is com­ pletely intact, preserving its re­ freshingly non-PC levels of gore, nudity, and brutality; interest­ ingly, this is Argento’s second film in a row to feature unflinch­ ing frontal nudity, a marked switch from his relatively chaste films in the 70s and ’80s (1982’s TENEBRE notwithstanding). Those who saw the film during its sparse CIS industry screenings (under its current English title SLEEPLESS, though advance word referred to it as I CAN’T SLEEP) will be amazed at the improvement in quality over Medusa s hastily prepared theat­ rical prints, which featured dull, brownish colors and a virtually nonexistent, lopsided, and fre­ quently muffled two channel Dolby Stereo soundtrack. The disc retails for 49,900 Italian lire (a little over $20 American), and is available from Italian retailers or online sources like www.dvd.it.


Burn Baby, Bum Given MGM Home Enter­


tainment’s recent track record of sneaking out previously unseen footage in its exploitation re­ leases, it should come as no sur­ prise that their under-the-radar VHS release of the 1981 slasher cult favorite, THE BURNING (#1001925, 89m 27s), is hardly the R-rated version advertised on the label. One of the more notorious


casualties of the MPAA’s anti­ gore backlash in the wake of FRIDAY THE 13TH (with other butchered celluloid victims in­ cluding MY BLOODY VALEN­TINE and particularly FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2), the unlikely


maiden voyage for Miramax Films became lost in the hack- and-slash shuffle before gaining a moderate following, thanks to cable television and home video. For years the rights were con­ trolled by HBO and Thorn/EMI, whose badly cut master was put to shame by an uncut Venezu­ elan video release that contained a tremendous amount of extra carnage, diminished by extremely poor image quality and distract­ ing subtitles. Available as part of Ama­


zon.corn’s exclusive deal with MGM, the $7.99 tape (which is packaged in the same generic box art found on other titles like A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUN­TRY) features a much improved transfer compared to previous versions, allowing one to more easily spot the amusing youthful appearances of such familiar faces as Holly Hunter, SEIN­ FELD’S Jason Alexander, Laur­ ence Fishburne, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH s Brian Backer, and Fisher Stevens as the ill-fated Woodstock. The be­ hind-the-scenes crew is actually no less interesting, including a wild score by prog rocker Rick Wakeman, editing by future genre director Jack Sholder (THE HIDDEN), and splashy latex ef­ fects by Tom Savini. The restoration of said effects


affirms this film’s entire raison d ’etre, as the teen cast now runs into fates as violent as any un­ rated gorefest like THE PROW­ LER or an early ’80s Lucio Fulci title. All of the extra gore amounts to a few fleeting seconds per shot, but the boost to the film’s intensity is unmistakable. The most significant restorations oc­ cur as follows:


12:34 Three close-ups of the hooker being stabbed in the stomach with a knife, intercut with her reaction shots.


5

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