Film Masters has once again gone into the Corman vaults for a highly anticipated pair of classic B-movies in a must own double feature. The latest Blu-ray presentation has a couple of late-night creature feature classics in Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Giant Leeches that were produced by Roger and Gene Corman and distributed by AIP, American International Pictures. Both movies have recently been restored for this release.
The main feature, Night of the Blood Beast is the story about a man who gets impregnated with space embryos by an alien creature who, along with the help of its own species that are grown within human hosts, wants to take over the Earth! A rocket that has Major John Corcoran (Michael Emmet, Attack of the Giant Leeches) inside leaves the Earth’s orbit on the first ever space mission, but something attacks the rocket causing it to crash back on Earth! Corcoran apparently dies, but later comes back to life, only to find out he has tiny alien embryos inside of him. The alien creature (the same monster suit that was in Teenage Caveman) appears and declares that his race will run our planet! At first Corcoran thinks the alien is going to benefit mankind, but later discovers that the creature is evil, forcing his will on the world! Corman regular Ed Nelson (Devil’s Partner, A Bucket of Blood) is the hero Dave Randall that must stop the invader and his children from conquering the world! He also has the unenviable task of killing Major Corcoran before he gives birth (of sorts) to more alien creatures.
Attack of the Giant Leeches has some man-sized leeches attacking and sucking the blood out of people in the Florida everglades. The creatures live in caves under the water, where they capture victims and take their blood, leaving giant hickeys on their necks. One of the victims is Michael Emmet from Night of the Blood Beast! In this movie, he’s Cal, one of several lovers (at least it is implied) of Liz Walker (former Playboy Playmate of the Month, Yvette Vickers, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, What’s the Matter with Helen) .She is married to, of all people, chubby Dave Walker (husky B-movie legend Bruno VeSota, Daddy-O, The Wasp Woman, The Wild World of Batwoman) , so it’s easy to see why “Liz baby”, as she is referred to throughout the movie, is having affairs with other younger studs! Gene Roth (Tormented, The Rebel Set) plays the non-believing Sherrif Kovis, which was just like his role in Earth vs. The Spider who doesn’t really do much in the film for a man with authority! The one who does something to kill the creatures is game warden Steven Benton (Ken Clark, South Pacific, Hercules Against the Mongols) and his girlfriend Nan Greyson (Jan Shephard, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin). It takes awhile for Steve to be convinced that there’s giant leeches, but after some evidence, he finally comes around!
Both films are a real blast to watch and enjoy and define what a “popcorn film” really is. This to me is one great double feature pairing with monsters, a few oddball characters and some whacky dialogue!
Film Masters presents Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Giant Leeches on Blu-ray in both widescreen and full screen versions. My personal preference for both is widescreen but at least both options are available.
Night of the Blood Beast, the main feature for this set was scanned in 4K. It is mentioned on the Blu-ray disc that the print cane from a “damaged original 35mm print”. Also noted, is that the image does have few jump cuts here and there and the title card came from an 8mm print. Outside of these few issues, Night of the Blood Beast is satisfactory and looks great overall with a nice clean black and white image. The picture quality shows strong, dark blacks and whites and a balanced greyscale. Gone are the vertical lines, print speckles and other damages. You will certainty notice the jump cuts, but you will see just how crisp and clean the video looks. Characters’ faces, outdoor and indoor shots look as sharp as I have even seen in this picture. Film grain is present throughout and no artificial image enhancers, such as DNR appear to have been applied.
Attack of the Giant Leeches is advertised as a newly restored HD version and to me it looked a little better but not worse than the previously released Retromedia Blu-ray. There are a few scenes that do look fantastic with some strong clarity to the characters and scenery, but, due to the elements a few scenes have too strong a black level, even for a black and white film, and details to the scenery and characters are a bit muddy. Overall, I did like enjoy the video presentation, even though there are inconsistencies with it.
Film Masters has gone with their usual audio options which are English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 and Dolby Digital 2.0. In my system, the pair of soundtracks sounded clear and there didn’t appear to be that much of a difference. The dialogue, action sounds and background noises sounded just fine with the fidelity not coming across as too aggressive where I had to adjust the volume levels. To me, it sounded balanced without some of the noises being too dominant. The musical scores by Alexander Laszlo (both movies have the exact same musical theme at the beginning) to me were also perfectly clear. No age-old anomalies such as crackling, hissing or popping were detected. English subtitles are available.
Film Masters always comes through with the bonus materials and this release is no different. Much of the supplements are basically the Tom Weaver show and that’s a great thing. You couldn’t ask for a better person to cover entertaining schlock from the fifties from the always enthusiastic Tom Weaver. He has a wealth of information about these movies and many of us could talk to him for hours listening to him and the stories he has!
Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Giant Leeches have a commentary track with Tom Weaver and The Weaver Players.
The booklet for this Blu-ray release has linear notes are written by Tom Weaver. He also has provided us viewers with his personal collection of Yvette Vickers photos.
There are even more special features for this Blu-ray!
Ballyhoo Motion Pictures presents a new documentary on Director, Bernard Kowalski. This is basically a telling of the career of the famous B-movie director.
Also included is an 8mm silent digest version of Night of the Blood Beast.
The MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000) episodes of Night of the Blood Beast and Attack of the Giant Leeches are also included. The video quality is no different than what’s on DVD, but if you do not own the MST3K versions on DVD, you can sit back and enjoy them on this Blu-ray! The two films were perfect for this popular television show!
Along for the extras ride are re-cut trailers of both films using restored elements and a publicity slideshow of both films, courtesy of Mike Barnum.
Last, but not least is the always interesting to see the Before / After film restoration comparison of Night of the Blood Beast. This is nothing short of amazing to see how much effort that goes into restoring these films and removing various print damages.
This release in my humble opinion is another winner with Film Masters knocking it out of the park! Even though the video quality is not 100% perfect, it is not the fault of our favorite boutique label for these films, as they have done everything they could to have the two films look the best that they ever had. The excellent A/V, along with the plethora of extras make this another highly recommended release!
Night of the Blood Beast / Attack of the Giant Leeches
Director – Bernard L Kowalski
Cast- Michael Emmet, Ed Nelson/ Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, Bruno VeSota
Country of Origin- USA
Distributor – Film Masters
Number of Discs –2
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/4/2024