Thursday, June 27

The Smuggler (Contraband) (1980) - Doberman Home Video Japan VHS

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This Japanese VHS of Lucio Fulci's '80 entry into the Italian police subgenre starring Fabio Testi arrived a few days ago. Despite being late in the country's screen crime sweepstakes, it's a great film further exhibiting Fulci's ease at adapting to varying styles quickly (although his panache for gore remains!). Yet there is a sour note and it's this release's horrid picture quality.

I know this is a common complaint on BoGD but damn this VHS looks so bad you'd swear it's been microwaved for a few minutes. Color, contrast, and brightness are terribly muddy with the frame looking zoomed-in far more than usual for pan-and-scan. The cassette itself is in excellent shape so it's gotta chalked up to an awful tape transfer. Still, this is one rare VHS (that's also fully uncut), but it mostly just shows Blue Underground's DVD was a godsend.

1 comment:

Drew Grimm Van Ess said...

Man, I remember this movie! Holy crap it's been ages!. Great post, thanks for reminding me about it haha.

I'm digging this site a lot. I just followed you.

If you wanna chat more horror sometime, come swing by my page.

http://grimmreviewz.blogspot.com/

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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