Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D (2012)

February 3, 2014 | By | Add a Comment

Yes, Dario Argento made a new movie, but Dracula 3D comes to home video from MPI / IFC after a typically long, delayed release schedule.

After the first sneak peek trailer was released, word of mouth wasn’t especially kind – the aim went beyond the CG effects, and targeted the film’s tone and potentially weak performances – and as usual, it failed to get any substantive theatrical play since no one’s cared to give any of his films even minimal screenings. (If one did in fact happen, it must have been a blink-fast and it’s gone situation.)

The good news is Synapse Films is prepping Argento’s masterwork – Suspiria (1978) – for a proper Blu-ray release, but what the director’s fans have had to settle for lately are big disappointments. Dracula 3D is especially shocking because it was photographed by Suspiria’s Luciano Tovoli. The only pluses are the film inspired composer Claudio Simonetti to write one of his best scores in years, and a poster campaign very evocative of classic bloody / bawdy Hammer horror flicks of the sixties.

For some context (and perhaps a chronology of the director’s sliding scale of qualitative work), I’ve added reviews of his last two duds – Giallo (2009) and Mother of Tears (2007) – to the mobile database.

Moving on.

Tomorrow’s slate of reviews will include jOBS (2013) and Welcome to Macintosh, a 2008 documentary on Apple’s founding and early products made while Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs was still alive, and had just launched their latest product – something called an iPhone.

Not long after the film’s release, three vintage video cameras used in the production went up for sale on eBay, and their prices were very, very low, and I jumped on one because I’d never heard of GBC before. I’ll have more info on the camera Tuesday in a related blog at Big Head Amusements, because I recently shot a camera test with this very blue monster which appears in jOBS during Apple’s launch at an electronics convention.

Here’s the camera:

A GBC CTC-5X colour vidicon tube video camera, minted in 1976. Blue, isn't?

.

And a snapshot from the trippy test – dubbed Flesh Tones – that’s dissected in the video:

Yes, there are 'tones' which accompany this 'fleshy' footage.

Cheers,

.

.

.

.

Mark R. Hasan, Editor

KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

Tags: , , ,

Category: EDITOR'S BLOG, FILM REVIEWS

About the Author ()

Leave a Reply