A few winters ago my good friend Brad (who co-host the wonderful “Hello this is the Doomed Show!”, listen to it!) sent me a stack of DVD-R’s of films he thought I might have missed out on, or films that he knew I liked but weren’t out on DVD, Blu-ray, etc yet. One of these films was Queens of Evil. A film I watched at about 3 am while binging like minded Euro-fare. I take Brad’s cinematic opinions quite seriously, and when he told me that I’d really like this one, I knew I would, and dammit, he was on the mark. So when Mondo Macabro announced that they would be restoring this one for Blu-ray I got super excited. This is a film that defines the term underrated, and needs more eyes on it, not just eyes, but eyes that can see it looking GOOD, and if there is one thing Mondo Macabro does well (aside from insanely good curation of their catalog) it is restoring films to their best possible condition. I knew Queens of Evil was in good hands.

Also, as an aside before I continue I just have to ask, did Ray Lovelock appear on all 70’s EuroCult sets with a motorcycle, and director’s were just like “Yup, Ray we’ll put that in the film?”

So the film opens with David (Ray Lovelock) and his trusty motorcycle (seen also in Living Dead in Manchester Morgue, To Be Twenty, etc. riding the night away when he sees an older establishment fellow on the side of the road. This guy has a flat, and lacks the knowledge to fix it. Well David manages to fix it, and for his payment. The old man sticks in a nail discretely in David’s motorcycle tire forcing him to stop for the night in a shed, at a rural cottage.

Well it turns out the cottage is not some isolated, stripped down, rural thing, but a pop-art explosion lived in by 3 sexy ladies who seem desperate for a Ray Lovelock-esque man, and here he is! Over the course of the next few days the ladies bring them into their lives which include copious sexual activity, but also they seem to be having night time rituals in the nearby forest. Not everything is what it appears as David is to eventually find out…

Queens of Evil although is basically like if the pop-art aspects of the 60’s exploded all over a horror film. The sleazy elements are kept sort of at bay for the most part, even though sex is a strong element in this film. The film does get wild at the end for a pretty strong conclusion. That being said the film has a strange and dreamy atmosphere that puts it in line with so many of the great Eurohorrors of the period that I find myself coming back to this one again and again. The soundtrack from Angela Francesco Lavanino is a delight and strikes the right tone for the film.

Mondo Macabro’s transfer of Blu-ray of Queens of Evil is a splendid 1:85:1 1080p transfer that elevates this film immensely. The materials were not the greatest, but colors are solid, especially reds, detail is fine, and there is a nice organic film like presentation here. There are moments where SD content is used to fill in scenes, it’s rare and not distracting too much. There are 2 DTS-HD mono tracks in English and Italian both sound quite excellent and without issue. Extras include another fantastic and enthusiastic commentary by Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger. There is also an interview with Ray Lovelock, alternate sequences, and a trailer HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.