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Inquisition (1978) - Blu-ray Review

4 beersMasked robed figures populate the landscape of 16th century France in actor/writer/director Paul Naschy’s Inquisition.  Fires rage, too.  Decapitated heads rot on wooden posts.  Red X’s appear on the doors of stone houses of the condemned.  And the women – always beautiful – are soon without their clothes.  They are often tortured and, having confessed to fornicating with the devil after hours of prolonged torture, subsequently burned at the stake.  It is not a pleasant time in the Catholic Church’s history, but it makes for damn good viewing. 

Welcome to the Spanish inquisition as seen through the eyes of horror legend actor/writer/director Paul Naschy, whose portrayal of everything the creeps and crawls in the genre made him, among his fans, the Spanish version of Lon Chaney.  Naschy definitely made a name for himself in the genre.  He was always willing to play interesting parts; complicated characters who did grotesque things in front of very beautiful women.  His chiseled looks made him a fan favorite among both men and women and Inquisition is among his very best. 

Naschy, who had long been at the mercy of other directors, was already a certifiable star of the underground, yet he never directed himself.  The success of his directorial debut makes me wish he had been behind the camera all along.  So many of his past efforts would have been significantly improved.  Making its demonic debut on blu-ray thanks to Mondo Macabro, Inquisition looks absolutely stunning. 

“Confess to being a witch,” shouts Witch-Finder General Bernard de Fossey (Naschy) while cutting off the nipples of yet another nubile young woman.  Ouch, man, just ouch!  Heresy is a big, big problem in the region of Peyriac and the devil, as theorized by Fossey, is the same everywhere.  So the response must be intense and unyielding in order to stop it in its tracks.  Perfect fodder for exploitation flicks like this one.

It seems – as the men sit around sopping up their meal and ogle the beautiful serving staff – that the devil, obviously a man, prefers his victims to be women.  The ratio of women to men worshipping the devil, according to their records, is astounding.  They are the weaker of the sexes, claim the men while championing their virility and their kills in the name of God.  Nom nom nom. More wine! More wine!  We know what’s best.  Thunderous applause follows.

Poor Catherine (Daniela Giordano) then as she is forced to play along with the rules of a paternal society where women get their necks slashed just for being beautiful and “causing” men to lust after them. She loses her handsome brown-eyed man in an unexpected roadside attack and - when all else fails - turns to the devil in order to find the answer to his hanging.   Who is behind it?  The hope is that Satan himself will reveal his attacker so that she might seek her revenge.

The answer she finds will take her to a dark place indeed full of witches, evil spells, and devil worshippers.

Naschy has a sharp visual sense and the camera is as shockingly effective as is the brutality against women that it films.  Cinematographer Miguel Fernández Mila’s camera is always moving with graphic purpose.  The gore – full of maggots, fresh cuts, and rotting skeletons hanging from nooses – is quite effective.    

And when Satan himself (also played by Naschy) is on the screen, there is a stylish creep in its use of shadows and the inferno.  It is indeed a shocking scene.  With ruby red eyes that seem to burn through the 1080p transfer, Satan  - complete with twisty horns and hairy face – seduces and commands his way through fire onto the soil of the earth once again to face down any holy object of man.

Inquisition is the devilish intelligent tale of one woman’s quest to overthrow the damnable vulture that is the Witch-Finder General.  He’s hellbent on purging the devil from the land and, in doing so, is as awful as that which he hounds.  She’ll use her mind AND her body in order to take him down to the underground, too. 

With Scream! Factory set to release The Paul Naschy Collection soon, I can think of no better place to start your obsession of his fine output of horror then with the gloriously blood-soaked release of Inquisition by Mondo Macabro.  So dance naked, Horror Hounds and Gore-Gore Girls, and rejoice for he has returned!  Naschy’s Inquisition brightly burns in tribute on the starry alter of the old goat himself.

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Inquisition (1978) - Blu-ray Review

MPAA Rating: ESP: 18.
Runtime:
90 mins
Director
: Paul Naschy
Writer:
Paul Naschy
Cast:
Paul Naschy, Daniela Giordano, Mónica Randall
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:
The Lord of darkness, in the body of a beautiful woman.
Memorable Movie Quote:
Theatrical Distributor:
No U.S. theatrical release
Official Site:
Release Date:

DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
June 13, 2017
Synopsis: Period piece set during the Inquisition about a witch-finder general who falls in love with the village beauty, who has made a pact with the devil to seduce and condemn the man who is killing off Satan's servants.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

Inquisition (1978) - Blu-ray Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Mondo Macabro
Available on Blu-ray
- June 13, 2017
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles
: English
Audio:
Spanish: LPCM Mono; English: LPCM Mono; English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Region A

Mondo Macabro presents Inquisition on 1080p with fantastic results.  The 1.85:1 aspect ratio is absolutely outstanding.  Sure, some elements of the source material are objectionable but that is to be expected.  There are some dark, dark bedrooms and jail cells in this production.  Yet, the crispness in the image cannot be overstated.  And the saturation – especially in the bright, bright outdoors – is especially engaging.  Skin tones are solid and black levels plunge into the darkness with explicit directness.  Some of the edges are lost in the all that blackness, though.  Not everything, but a noticeable amount with both rooms and lighting are on the darker side of the spectrum.  Yet, colors are pronounced and most of the dirt and debris seem cleared from the negative.  Some pops and scratches appear.  The sound is presented in LPCM Audio Spanish or LPCM Audio English.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  •  The feature length audio commentary by Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn is absolutely fantastic and enthusiastic.  Fans of Naschy will dig it.

Special Features:

Outside of the new commentary, you get a solid introduction to the film by Naschy himself, a new interview with Giordano, a two-part documentary on Spanish horror films, and other looks at Macabro titles.  All in all, this is a solid release for Naschy fans to scoop up.

  • Introduction by Paul Naschy (8 min)
  • Interview with star Daniela Giordano (14 min)
  • Blood and Sand - documentary on Spanish horror films (24 min)
  • More from Macabro (11 min)

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[tab title="Art"]Inquisition (1978) - Blu-ray Review

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