Review by Gary Tooze

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• Commentary by Nathaniel Thompson and Tim Greer

• Stills Gallery (11:56)

• Trailer (1:37)

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Description: Brace yourself for the maddest Hollywood story ever with this stylish, decadent look at what happens when the upper crust meets the down and dirty. Full-figured debutante Tara Nicole (folk singer Holly Near) returns home to her former stag film star mother (Jennifer Jones, Best Actress Oscar winner for The Song of Bernadette) only to fall under the influence of a charismatic, dangerous rock singer (Jordan Christopher) and his way-out deviant band mates (including Roddy McDowall and Lou Rawls). Making its first-ever release on home video, this colorful cult shocker (originally released as Angel, Angel, Down We Go) from Robert Thom, the writer of Death Race 2000, Bloody Mama, and Wild in the Streets. Cult of the Damned is part horror, part pop musical, part black comedy, and all outrageous!

 

 

Excerpt from TV Guide located HERE

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

Much to the delight of cult-cinema fans, Robert Thom's Cult of the Damned has made it to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.  The image is surprisingly stronger than I was anticipating.  This is single-layered with a decent bitrate and I expect this is as good as the film has ever looked on digital. There is a tightness and depth - skin tones may be a tad warm at times but I'm not complaining. The colors are what would be pleasingly advanced over SD and contrast rises with some adept layers. It is a shade soft - indicative more of the production limitations than a flaw in the 1080P transfer. Pretty solid. This Blu-ray probably provides batter-than-expected HD preentation.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The DTS-HD Master track at 1702 kbps does a competent job of exporting the film's modest sound requirements. Aside from the Jordan Christopher performances in the film (all written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil), there is a odd score by Fred Karger who has done soundtrack work for The Big Heat, The Miami Story, The Eddy Duchin Story, My Sister Eileen and Picnic among other films. The audio here is subject to the weakness of the production and this is probably as good as it will get. There are no subtitles offered and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

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BOTTOM LINE:
Yes, Cult of the Damned is horrible, but you can easily see why it has elevated itself to such a niche status. The hippie-engrained atmosphere has a weird, highly unusual, appeal and the fact that it has been, previously censored and largely unavailable these many years. It's a film I might revisit if I felt like punishing myself for some guilt-ridden deed. Actually the Kino-Lorber Blu-ray has the commentary which is infinitely a better way to watch the film than without it.  I only wished I had saved my viewing for a time when I was under some 'influence'. This presentation was not ideal and the film is not as painful as I am making out. A terrible way to remember Jennifer Jones though... better watch, a Buñuel favorite, Portrait of Jennie, tonight. :) 

Gary Tooze

February 6th, 2015