There's a special class of film that has arisen in the DVD age, the movie that is only (currently) available as a special feature on another movie's DVD. I'm not talking about double feature DVDs where both films are displayed prominently on the cover and are considered equals, or at least close in stature - I'm talking about when a whole feature film is listed in the special features of the DVD and not mentioned on the cover at all. Something Weird did this all the time with their jam-packed, special edition DVDs, such as including J. G. "Pat" Patterson's The Electric Chair as a special feature on their Axe DVD. Another notable case is the double-feature DVD of Nick Millard's Satan's Black Wedding and Criminally Insane featuring Criminally Insane 2 as a special feature, meaning it crammed three movies and other special features onto one disc (albeit three movies that don't exceed 65 minutes each). While this practice can make it seem that the "bonus" movie isn't worth as much as the feature I understand its place as a way to release films that might not have sold on solo DVDs and I've been thankful that a lot of really rare movies have become available recently even if they've had to piggy-back on other movies, some of which I don't like. Yes, occasionally the "B" movie surpasses the "A" movie, and such is the case with Troma's 2009 release of the "final cut" of The Hanging Woman, an obscure Paul Naschy movie from the early 70's. That movie belongs to a fine class of 70's horror movies that featured zombies in some capacity but weren't necessarily zombie movies, as what we think of as a zombie movie was actually really uncommon before Dawn of the Dead. A good example of this is The Child, a deliciously spooky 1977 flick that I featured in my Something Weird favorites roll-call. In the case of The Hanging Woman (which can be seen in full here) had a lot going for it, such as 19th century witches and hunchbacks, but just wasn't cohesive enough for my tastes. Luckily the DVD gave me a much better reason to pick it up - the first official US video release of The Sweet Sound of Death (La Llamada), a stylish and endearing Spanish ghost movie from the mid-60's. The movie had once been available from the great Sinister Cinema but that ship sailed long ago, and my boot-of-a-boot wasn't cutting it, so I was super glad to find the movie available in a clean transfer on a real DVD and at the low price of just under $6.
Pablo and Dominique are just the cutest young couple you've ever seen, though Pablo is a bit puzzled at Dominique's weird habit of taking him to cemeteries and making oaths to keep in touch beyond the grave. She leaves for Brittany to visit her folks, and Pablo thinks nothing of it...until he gets a spot of deafness out of the blue and then hears a loud explosion. As it turns out Dominique's plane crashed and Pablo got a premonition of her death. The weirder thing is that he gets a call from Dominique soon after saying that she's fine, but when Pablo questions the airline they insist that Dominique died in the crash. She comes back to him to visit, but when the airline drops off an official list of the crash's casualties Dominique acquiesces and admits that she's actually dead, which Pablo naturally denies. That, of course, is before he goes to see her family in a crumbling mansion in Brittany, after which Pablo may never see life and death the same way again.
One might think that they've heard plots like that before, and there's plenty of familiar stuff here (even the spots of deafness seemingly lifted from Carnival of Souls), but the goodness comes in the presentation. Director Javier Seto loads on the class in ever shot, from the frosty Autumn exteriors to the wryly dated, jazz-inflected score, spooky photography and capable acting all around. This is an old-fashioned horror tale with a 60's chicness, keeping the story straightforward and focusing on that classic, late-night-TV horror mood we all love. The lighting and atmospherics when Pablo goes to the mansion are about as lovably old-school as it gets, with lots of blurry close-ups, spotlights from below people's faces and spookhouse theatrics. The thing that puts The Sweet Sound of Death a cut above similar ghost movies is the steady, assured presentation of its materials, especially when it comes to Dominique's family and their dark secrets. Everybody involved knows that you might have seen a movie like it before, so they don't waste your time - but they don't cheat anything, either. It's a perfectly balanced programmer that doesn't need to show off, and it's always nice when those movies come around.
The Troma DVD is readily available at their online store, so don't fall for eBay and Amazon clowns who are asking $50 or more because it's "out of print". For those who don't like paying money a newish YouTube channel uploaded it in full a couple months ago; the print isn't as clean as the Troma copy but a bit of dirt and fuzz is welcome with this kind of flick. The Sweet Sound of Death is a programmer in the best way - dependable, professional and classy, perfect for a weeknight in with some popcorn and a root beer. After a skull-slammer like Angst it's nice to take a breather, isn't it?
Pablo and Dominique are just the cutest young couple you've ever seen, though Pablo is a bit puzzled at Dominique's weird habit of taking him to cemeteries and making oaths to keep in touch beyond the grave. She leaves for Brittany to visit her folks, and Pablo thinks nothing of it...until he gets a spot of deafness out of the blue and then hears a loud explosion. As it turns out Dominique's plane crashed and Pablo got a premonition of her death. The weirder thing is that he gets a call from Dominique soon after saying that she's fine, but when Pablo questions the airline they insist that Dominique died in the crash. She comes back to him to visit, but when the airline drops off an official list of the crash's casualties Dominique acquiesces and admits that she's actually dead, which Pablo naturally denies. That, of course, is before he goes to see her family in a crumbling mansion in Brittany, after which Pablo may never see life and death the same way again.
One might think that they've heard plots like that before, and there's plenty of familiar stuff here (even the spots of deafness seemingly lifted from Carnival of Souls), but the goodness comes in the presentation. Director Javier Seto loads on the class in ever shot, from the frosty Autumn exteriors to the wryly dated, jazz-inflected score, spooky photography and capable acting all around. This is an old-fashioned horror tale with a 60's chicness, keeping the story straightforward and focusing on that classic, late-night-TV horror mood we all love. The lighting and atmospherics when Pablo goes to the mansion are about as lovably old-school as it gets, with lots of blurry close-ups, spotlights from below people's faces and spookhouse theatrics. The thing that puts The Sweet Sound of Death a cut above similar ghost movies is the steady, assured presentation of its materials, especially when it comes to Dominique's family and their dark secrets. Everybody involved knows that you might have seen a movie like it before, so they don't waste your time - but they don't cheat anything, either. It's a perfectly balanced programmer that doesn't need to show off, and it's always nice when those movies come around.
The Troma DVD is readily available at their online store, so don't fall for eBay and Amazon clowns who are asking $50 or more because it's "out of print". For those who don't like paying money a newish YouTube channel uploaded it in full a couple months ago; the print isn't as clean as the Troma copy but a bit of dirt and fuzz is welcome with this kind of flick. The Sweet Sound of Death is a programmer in the best way - dependable, professional and classy, perfect for a weeknight in with some popcorn and a root beer. After a skull-slammer like Angst it's nice to take a breather, isn't it?
~PNK
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