I am sitting here having just watched the Paul Naschy directed/starring the Frenchman’s Garden. A film I could only have sat through on a bad bootleg just a few years ago. 10 years ago even I could only get a handful of Naschy’s more popular horror works on DVD, and now I could pull so many of his titles off of my shelf on fully restored Blu-ray, and now we’re getting to his more obscure, but also best loved titles like this one.

The Frenchman’s Garden is one of Naschy’s favorites of his own films. The film is based on the life of one of Spain’s most notorious Juan Andrés Aldije Monmejá, who was nicknamed “The Frenchman”. Naschy plays Juan, the titular Frenchman who is an innkeeper at the turn of the 20th century in Spain. As the film begins we see that he is running a prostitution business out of the inn, as well as killing his richer customers and burying them in the garden in order to make a bit of a side-profit. This works out fine for a while, until Juan impregnates one of his “employees” Andrea, who discovers his “garden” and makes things more complicated for him.

I would not go into the Frenchman’s Garden expecting a Naschy horror film, even knowing it’s based on a serial killer, it’s still not filled with the splatter and over-the-top vibes that some of Naschy’s films wee known for. That being said Naschy directed this one in a very strong manner, and it really shows his directing chops coming out strongly. On top of that his acting here is absolutely top-notch, as he channels the deviant murderer Juan.

Mondo Macabro presents The Frenchman’s Garden in a solid 2:35:1 1080p transfer that looks quite solid. I did not detect any issues, and it was very filmlike with excellent color reproduction. Audio is a HD Spanish language track with English subs, and sounds perfectly clear without issue. We get an excellent commentary with Troy Howarth, Rodney Barnett, and Troy Guinn. There are also 2 interviews with Naschy himself, one is longer and is more broad in subject and the other is shorter and deals with this particular film. This film is another excellent Paul Naschy release from Mondo Macabro and comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.