NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Severin Films Blu-ray (June 2024): Severin Films have transferred another Danza Macabre boxset, volume three, to Blu-ray. There are four films; Necrophagous (aka "The Butcher of Binbrook",) Cake of Blood (aka "Pastel de sangre") both from 1971, plus 1974's Cross of the Devil ("La cruz del diablo",) and 1975's The Night of the Walking Dead (aka "Strange Love of the Vampires" or "El extraño amor de los vampiros") each on their own dual-layered Blu-ray disc and each have a max'ed out bitrate. Necrophagous, is advertised as "scanned in 4K from the recently discovered negative for the first time ever." Cake of Blood is advertised "4K from the original negative for the first time ever". Cross of the Devil is "scanned in 4K from the negative with English subtitles for the first time ever" and lastly, The Night of the Walking Dead is "scanned in 2K from the negative for the first time ever." They all look quite good in 1080P with Cake of Blood showing a bit of fame-specific damage. Overall - mostly flat with thick textures but true colors and pleasing contrast. We don't have anything to compare them to but I was content with the HD presentations. Cross of the Devil may have looked the best in terms of the transfer but León Klimovsky's The Night of the Walking Dead had the most vampiric trope imagery with plenty of fangs, blood, gold crosses, foggy graveyards and the most nudity of the three films. Hopefully the screen captures below will give you and idea of the image quality.    

NOTE: We have added 130 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Severin Films use DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original Spanish language with optional English (default) DUBs for Necrophagous and The Night of the Walking. There are aggressive moments that come through with modest depth including group attacks from monks to vampires rising from the grave. Overall the effects are fairly passive no challenge to the lossless capabilities. Necrophagous has a score by Alfonso Santisteban (The Killer is One of Thirteen), The score for Cake of Blood was by Juan Pineda (Creation of the Damned.) Cross of the Devil's score was by Ángel Arteaga (Trauma, Naschy's The Devil Incarnate, The Fury of the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's Bloody Terror.) The Night of the Walking Dead score was by Máximo Barratas (Paul Naschy's Inquisition). The later seemed fairly creative with a few awkward, jarringly dramatic, moments. I liekd it and all the scores seem to suit the film with Cake of Blood being the most unusual. The audio transfers seem as adept as the video with the predictable sync issues with the English DUBs. Purists may prefer the original Spanish. I tried both and, lazily, stuck with the DUBs. Severin Films offer optional English subtitles on all, as well as English SDH on Necrophagous and The Night of the Walking. The Blu-rays are all Region FREE, playable worldwide.

The Severin Films Blu-rays offers an audio commentary for each of the four films. Andy Marshall-Roberts, host of The Nasty Pasty Podcast for Miguel Madrid's Necrophagous. For Cake of Blood we get a commentary by Rod Barnett Of NaschyCast and The Bloody Pit, and Dr. Adrian Smith, co-author Of Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror. The film's four segments were directed by Francesc Bellmunt, Jaime Chávarri, Emilio Martínez Lázaro and José María Vallés. For John Gilling's Cross of the Devil there is an optional commentary by Kim Newman (author of "Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles",) and Barry Forshaw, author of Brit Noir. On The Night of the Walking Dead there is a commentary by Kat Ellinger, author of Daughters Of Darkness. Andy Marshall-Roberts cites the alternate titles and describes, Necrophagous, as referring to an animal who eats carcasses. He describes the Poe-like monologues, sense of discord, references HP Lovecraft, he wonder if the artwork is actually by the director Miguel Madrid (as Michael Skaife in the credits) and discusses some of the cast; Bill Curran, Catherine Ellison, John Clark, María Paz Madrid and gothic horrors of 1971. It's an excellent commentary - I don't believe I have heard from him before - but hope to in the future. I was interested in the commentary for Cake of Blood by Rod Barnett and Dr. Adrian Smith who describe it as an anthology horror title with four segments ("Tarot", "Victor Frankenstein", "Terror entre cristianos" and "La danza o las supervivencias afectivas") and that each director was in their 20's. They talk about the period, in Spain, with censorship under the reign of Franco, transgressive films being made and details on the directors, some of the cast and the, difficult to research, film. It's very good. Getting into the last two films, that I quite enjoyed, has Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman who talk about director John Gilling (of Hammer pedigree; one of my favorites The Plague of the Zombies, as well as The Mummy's Shroud and The Reptile) and his early writing career, penning several films for Albert R. Broccoli and Irving Allen, that he came out of retirement for his last film in Spain, Cross of the Devil. They cite interviews and quote the filmmaker informing us that it was one of his best experiences and dealing with an alternate language (Spanish), not wanting Paul Naschy as the leading man (debating which role he might have played) and more. It's as informative as their usual pairing of commentaries. The commentary for The Night of the Walking Dead was by Kat Ellinger who talks about director León Klimovsky, gothic Spanish films and their obscurity outside of Naschy, and the shared DNA, cross pollination, with Italian gothic although the funding and political climate were very different, the shortness of this 'golden era' of Spanish horror - the cast; Emma Cohen, Carlos Ballesteros, Viky Lussón, writers Juan José Daza, Carlos Pumares, Kat says that the 'anemia' concept not being from Bram Stoker, and so much more. Always a pleasure listening to her. There are many interviews spread over the four Blu-rays including multiple with Ángel Sala, Head Of Programming at The Sitges Film Festival, and people like Maria Pilar Rafáles, daughter of Sitges Film Festival Founder Antonio Rafáles, actress Marisa Paredes (All About My Mother, The Skin I Live In,) writer Juan José Porto (both Strange Love of the Vampires and The Devil's Cross), actor José Lifante (over 200 credits including 1988's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) etc. There are also two detailed video essays by Xavier Aldana Reyes, author of Spanish Gothic: National Identity, Collaboration And Cultural Adaptation, - I particularly liked Spain's Cinematic Vampires on the last Blu-ray disc. There are also a few trailers and an alternate credit sequence. The package offers original Keyart by Mark Spears.         

I thoroughly enjoyed Severin's, reasonably-priced, Danza Macabre #1 (Italian Gothic) - note: I have ordered Volume 2 and will be reviewing. So, I was quite looking forward to the four obscure Spanish Gothic films of Danza Macabre #3. Sadly, I was not that keen on the first two, Necrophagous and the oddball anthology Cake of Blood, in my initial viewings. I couldn't tell what was going on. I only gaining small appreciation after indulging in the included commentaries. However, John Gilling's Cross of the Devil started to turn my opinion with a plot involving a handsome hash-smoking British writer, Alfred Dawson (Ramiro Oliveros,) who travels to Spain to visit his sister, only to find that she has been murdered by a satanic cult of undead medieval Knights Templars. Isn't it always the way. Even more so, I enjoyed Argentine León Klimovsky's 'horrotic' The Night of the Walking Dead. Clearly the director is mirroring blood-sucking cinema sources filling it with excessive vampiric tropes. I was okay with that. Conspicuously absent is Paul Naschy in this Klimovsky film (and the entire set.) The collaborative pairing can be found in nine 1970's genre films including The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman and Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf. These latter two films of the set have 29-year old, Spanish actress, Emma Cohen (Horror Rises from the Tomb with Naschy, Cutthroat Nine) Amusingly she later portrayed Gallina Caponata ('Big Bird') in Barrio Sésamo, the Spanish version of Sesame Street. In the four films are voyeurism through peep holes and floorboards, suspicious empty coffins, gals with imposing fangs, a lurking 'Phyllis Diller-haired' vampire, garlic-draped front doors, unexplained murder, throat puncture-marks, hooded zombies, angry villagers, gold crosses, and a graveyard conflict. I was fairly displeased with Cake of Blood but am willing to give a pass to Necrophagous and will revisit the latter two; Gilling's Cross of the Devil and Klimovsky's The Night of the Walking Dead as they were effective, enjoyable, 70's Spanish horror films. Severin Films Blu-ray set is at their usual level of 'ultra-stacked' from solid a/v to commentaries / from visual essays to interviews. Great hard case box, too. Genre fans may enjoy!

Gary Tooze