Five Dolls for an August Moon and I Vampiri The resurrection of the late, great Italian filmmaker Mario Bava continues unabated with these latest installments in Image Entertainment's groundbreaking Mario Bava Collection. I Vampiri (The Vampires) is where it all started for Bava, and for Italian horror films in general. The 1956 movie is a landmark both in terms of its being Bava's first directorial gig and for the fact that it is generally considered the very first horror movie made in modern Italy. I Vampiri was hugely important and influential (it almost single-handedly ushered in a decade-long wave of Euro-horror) but, amazingly, the film was never released in this country except as a dubbed and seriously emasculated version known as The Devil's Commandment that bears little resemblance to Freda and Bava's original vision.
Image's new DVD is a revelation, not just for its pristine treatment of Bava's lushly atmospheric black-and-white camerawork, but for the restoration of that never-before-seen original vision. The prototypes for many of the dark, occasionally lurid themes and Gothic imagery that would later define Bava's style are here — mad scientists, murder, eternally young vampire seductresses — but I Vampiri (The Vampires) is also notable for extended sections of unfussy, sun-bleached, almost documentary-looking footage that might have been lifted whole from some latter-day neorealist project. Other than Tim Lucas' typically excellent liner notes and some trailers and photos, there's not much in the way of extras on the disc, but the stunning, razor-sharp widescreen transfer of this uncut gem alone qualifies the DVD as essential.
On a lighter note, Bava's 1970 Five Dolls For an August Moon is almost devoid of the atmosphere-drenched horror stylings we associate with the director, but it's a hoot from beginning to end. The movie's minimalist plot is a near-rehash of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, in which a group of well-to-do Italian swingers gather on a secluded island and then begin turning up dead, one by one. In between the murders (all of which take place off-screen), much wild partying and sexual shenanigans ensue, and Bava depicts it all in high style and with tongue firmly in cheek.
The pop-futuristic settings and mod fashions are to die for (rotating beds, anyone?), the party-orgy sequences must be seen to be believed, and Piero Umiliani's incredible score is upbeat and eclectic to the point of absurdity. As an extra feature, Umiliani's classic soundtrack appears all by itself on one of the DVD's tracks (there's also an English and Italian language track), and the transfer does full justice to Five Dolls' intensely saturated color imagery. A great movie to play at your next party, maybe just accompanied by that groovy soundtrack.
—Lance Goldenberg
Rockers Set in the slums of Jamaica in the mid '70s, Rockers evocatively captures the life of reggae musicians and Rastafarians. The raw, low-budget effort tells the tale of an industrious reggae drummer, played by Leroy Horsemouth Wallace, and his attempts to shake up the notoriously corrupt Jamaican music business. The script is skeletal, the narrative virtually nil, the dialogue rambles mercilessly, but it's fun and illuminating to essentially follow Horsemouth through the ghettos, recording studios and parties of Jamaica. Rockers features cameos or performances by Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, Jacob Miller, Bunny Wailer and others. The revered soundtrack (digitally remastered from the original film) includes music by these artists as well as by Burning Spear, Third World, Gregory Isaacs, Abyssinians and more. The movie is English subtitled, and for good reason: most of the thick Rasta patois is thoroughly indecipherable. The DVD includes a patois glossary; seven previously unreleased bonus audio tracks; bios of the artists and actors and a lot of written info on reggae/Rasta culture.
—Eric Snider
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2001.