The Night of the Sorcerers / The Loreley's Grasp Scream Factory Double Feature [Blu-ray]

This review is about Shout Factory’s Amando de Ossorio (director) Blu-ray double feature.Night of the Sorcerers (1974): The sillier of the two features, Night is presented in full frame aspect ratio. The picture is still beautiful though.Here’s the important info: if I told you this is the kind of movie that has pretty actresses dolled up in mini skirts and go-go boots for an African jungle expedition, would you need to hear any more? Yes? No problem, because Night’s major draw is it is the only movie I’m aware of that features vampire jungle girls. I’m talking leopard skin bikinis and fangs. And if you’re still not sold I can’t help you. No one can.The Lorely’s Grasp (1973): de Ossorio obviously put a great deal more care into this film. Although, like any good Euro-cult horror film, it has its goofy moments, it’s otherwise played straight and has many creative and interesting set pieces and costume designs. It also has Helga Line and the enchanting Silvia Tortosa, each a treat for the eyes. The picture quality is superb.This massively entertaining double feature is a real winner and heartily recommended.

BOTTOM LINE: A decent combo release of 2 Spain-lensed horror flicks. Neither film is going to change your life, but they're fair enough time killers for fans of bloody exploitation Euro cinema. Good quality remasters that look pretty spiffy in hi-def. Limited extras include trailers for both films, plus some brief alternate footage scenes for NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS and a full-length audio commentary track for LORELEY'S GRASP. Good value for the price. 4 STARSTHE STORIES...NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS: Unlucky explorers trekking thru Africa happen upon sight of the mass slaughter of Voodoo worshipers from times past. Sacrifice & blood rituals allowed these practitioners of the occult to become deathless, vampire-like ghouls. The ancient curse is reactivated when the explorers trespass on the sacred grounds. Mayhem & macabre murders soon follow. Will anyone escape alive?LORELEY'S GRASP: Ages-old demonic fiend survives by ripping out the hearts of her unsuspecting victims and feasting on them. A local Girl's Finishing School hires a rugged big game hunter to protect the ladies AND kill the creature. But the beast's daylight form - a lithe, leggy, lovely (and lonely) redhead - tempts the hunter to join forces with her and become her mate... and live forever!THOUGHTS: I've owned LORELEY'S GRASP for years, and while it's no Oscar winner, it is a fun diversion that differs enough from American horror films of the same period to make it worth a watch every now & again. When I saw it was making the leap to hi-def I jumped at the chance to upgrade. Worth it, too, because this edition is in widescreen - with a much-improved picture & soundmix. I'd never seen NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS, and feel it's easily the lesser of the two, simply because it's so obvious; you can predict the entire film just from the plot. Lots of nudity & gore, typical of Euro horror. LORELEY has considerably less nudity (all of it in the first few minutes), but it does have the same excessive gore levels, although they're pretty timid compared to today's torture porn horror. The monster is pretty cool, reminding me of a sort of Gorn/Sleestak hybrid, and it's what sold me on the film when I first bought it years ago from PD supplier Sinister Cinema. Good, old-fashioned man-in-suit scares. :-)THE BLU-RAY: Both films come loaded on one, single-sided disc, courtesy of Shout!Factory. There are no compression problems that I could detect. Both film feature very clean pictures, with essentially zero artifacting, pixelation or edge enhancement, and only occasional crush (video noise) in certain low light scenes. Audio tracks on both are clean & clear. You can choose from original language or English dubs, and English subtitles are offered for both as well. As I mentioned above, the bonus content is a little thin, but not bad. SORCERERS has a few brief alternate footage sequences that feature MORE clothing on ladies in certain edited scenes, while LORELEY's GRASP offers a full-length commentary track from Rod Barnett & Troy Guinn, a couple of guys who co-host a Paul Naschy-themed podcast called, unsurprsingly, NaschyCast. They're obvious fans of the genre and this film. It's a fun, informal listen that fills in lots of interesting details on the production, giving viewers an appreciation for (and better insight into) Euro horror.

Great double feature at a low price, which is unusual these days from a small label. The picture quality is excellent on both films, although Sorcerers is in 4:3. Both films are wild and bloody, but you get to see the ever stunning Helga Line in hi def in little clothing. Hubba hubba!

Great product

If you're into the European horror like myself this is a must have in your collection.

This is all in all a great release and highly recommended. The only problem I have with this Blu-ray is that The Night Of The Sorcerers is presented in the wrong aspect ratio (academy ratio). Now, this is clearly not how this movie was intended to look. IMDB states that the aspect ratio is 1.85:1, and while the IMDB is not always right about this, in this case I agree.While watching the movie it's easily noticeable that the upper and lower portions of the picture are rarely used; it has "open matte" written all over it. Fortunately, my TV has a zoom built in which allows me to watch the movie in (roughly) 1.66:1 and 1.78:1. It's in 1.78:1 where the movie becomes alive and looks much better (doesn't improve the story, though).Apart from this, if you know what to expect from these movies (fortunately, The Loreley's Grasp is easily the better one), you really can't go wrong with this release. On a side note ... cough ... you DO know, Shout! Factory, that there are more than just ONE Blind Dead movie?

The first movie was enjoyable but forgot what the second movie was about.

I'm not reviewing the upcoming Blu-Ray release from Scream, but I have to say that a previous review is wrong. LORELEY'S GRASP from BCI was released way before the current Blu-Ray from Germany. In fact, for various reasons, the BCI disc may be superior. It was also HD, but not available as a Blu-Ray. I have the German release and the quality is not noticeable. Sorry.

I love it and it arrived very quickly!

Estas dos interesantes películas Night of The Sorcerers y Loreley's Grasp del director español especialista en cine de terror Amando de Ossorio que ya dirigió la gran serie de los zombies templarios.Espero ver estas dos películas cuando disponga de un reproductor en blu-ray multiregion ya que las películas parece que vienen editadas en la zona A de Estados Unidos.

I highly rate Amando de Ossorio's Blind Dead series and would recommend this to anyone who likes any of those films. The Night of the Sorcerers has the same sort of atmosphere whereas The Loreley's Grasp is different, almost like a werewolf movie where you're trying to guess the identity of the night-time monster!Each film has English and Spanish soundtracks which are clear, good subtitles, and really good picture quality. It's not exactly packed to the rafters with extra features, but there's an interesting commentary on The Loreley's Grasp to make it much better value for money than if it was completely barebones.

The Night of the sorcerers was OK but not as good as the second billing. All in all, the price was right. Good entertainment. Film quality was top notch.

Just like roger corman..sorcerer movie veeeerrry cheesy but fun to watch...loreley movie good because of helga line being so 😍 gorgeous..story line entertaining