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The Apartment on the 13th Floor - Blu-ray

5 beersAlways pay your cab drivers, kids.  That’s one lesson to take from watching Code Red’s Blu-ray release of The Apartment on the 13th Floor, a psychological horror film about a slaughterhouse worker who loses his shit one night and just snaps.  Eventually, he finds it necessary to buy a whole hell of a lot of cologne in order to chase off the dogs attracted to the lingering scent of death from his home.

Just wait until you see the glass in the Virgin Mary globe get clouded over with air freshener.  It is a wonderful scene that is sacrilegious and raw as hell and, no matter what he does, everyone notices the smell.  Everyone.  This film is a masterpiece of of slow burn horror.  It does everything right in its wicked tale of murder and meat.

This is a gritty film, full of REAL slaughterhouse mutilations while buckets of blood are filled, and – as this fellow is insanely good at killing on his weeklong bender of cracked perversion and crazy kills  – he finds himself needing somewhere to put all the bodies…

…and it just so happens the meat he’s carving up is going straight into the mouths of the community he serves.  It’s a win-win!  Until, of course, he discovers that doesn’t really have a taste for it. 

This art house horror is a schlock filled monstrosity that has earned a sizable cult following over the years and deservedly so.  It’s shoestring budget is no limiting factor here as the camera – doing some very interesting things with extreme close-ups and long takes as it glides though the slaughterhouse – remains expressive and wholly unique in a spellbinding manner.

Directed by Eloy de la Iglesia (The Glass Ceiling) and starring Vicente Parra as Marcos the meat-grinding maniac, this “Video Nasty” has many titles due to the different versions that exist of this tasty tale.  Originally released as The Cannibal Man and then as The Week of the Killer, this unedited version – clocking in at a quick 107-minutes – has never before seen the light of day here in the States. 

It is downright eerie in its study of a man on the edge in a world that doesn’t want him.

And, once seen again thanks to Code Red’s release, this HD version won’t soon be forgotten.  It is twisted, comes across a bit like a documentary, and – as blood fucking spews out from this murderous tale like a busted pipe – never settles for the easy way out of things.  The kills – all sudden and violent in their nature – happen without even a blink.  A wrench to the forehead?  Sure!  And we see the contact.  OUCH.  There’s more, though.  Each new kill gets a bit more dramatic in its set-up and fatally brutal.

Marcus takes out a cab driver, his best girl, his brother, and more in the film’s running time.  He isn’t sure why, either.  He just does it all within five days, losing grip on the reality around him with each fresh murder.  And then, thanks to a series of unfortunate events, the dead bodies keep piling up and so does the smell.  Maybe it is because of all the death around him at his job; so many gutted cows. 

There is a scene, about 44 minutes into the movie, in which Marcus starts posing the bodies on the bed.  There’s one corpse under the bed and two on top.  He rolls them together and makes sure they are comfortable.  Either that or he is making room for more bodies on the bed.  It’s disturbing and damn effective.   And it gets creepier still when his neighbor, who seems to be into him, arrives to go for a midnight stroll.

Masterfully edited and brutal as hell, this is a cult classic that deserves a wider audience.  It is a crude and atmospheric tale of madness and murder during a time of strict repression in Spain thanks to the Franco regime. 

So many tools, so little time.  Enjoy your stay in The Apartment on the 13th Floor.  Trust me, you get used to the sounds of chopping.  They always do.

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The Apartment on the 13th Floor - Blu-ray

MPAA Rating: Not rated.
Runtime:
94 mins
Director
: Eloy de la Iglesia
Writer:
Antonio Fos
Cast:
Vicente Parra, Emma Cohen, Eusebio Poncela
Genre
: Crime | Horror
Tagline:
When the butcher goes berserk ...
Memorable Movie Quote: "What strange and foreboding secret is within his room."
Theatrical Distributor:
Hallmark Releasing
Official Site:
Release Date:
June, 1973
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
August 11, 2015
Synopsis: After slaughter house worker Marcos accidently kills a man during a fight, he begins to lose grip on his sanity. As his brutal crimes escalte and the body count grows, the killer must find a way to dispose of his victims. The solution is simple but shocking – you are what you eat! The Apartment on the 13th Floor (aka Cannibal Man), is reminiscent of such classics as Repulsion, Rear Window and Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer. Banned in many countries for it’s graphic violence, this intense study of a decent man drive to murder is now available fully uncut.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

The Apartment on the 13th Floor - Blu-ray

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Code Red | Diabolik
Available on Blu-ray
- August 11, 2015
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles
: English SDH
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Code Red’s HD transfer of The Apartment on the 13th Floor is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and features a crisp DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 audio track.  While colors don’t exactly pop, the subtleties in the black levels are palpable.  Shadows run deep and remain engaging.  Skin tones are fair and some of the blood effects – looking like a mixture of corn syrup and red paint – remain gooey and textured.  Browns and blues carry more weight in this release.  Overall, it is a very nice presentation of a film that feels all sorts of new as one man discovers he has no taste for murder.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • None

Special Features:

  • Just trailers from Code Red.

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The Apartment on the 13th Floor - Blu-ray

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