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

ADDITION: Arrow Blu-ray (April 2021): Arrow have transferred Nico Mastorakis debut feature Death Has Blue Eyes to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "Brand new restoration from the original camera negative approved by the director". Yeah, it doesn't look great - very video-y and a bit waxy. But that are parts that look exceptional with strong detail seeing skin grain in close-ups. Despite the inconsistencies it didn't look fatally poor on my system. I actually wonder if it was different soft lenses used at production to create this image appearance in digital. Arrow offer both the original 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 (video?) versions of the film. The 1.33:1 may be superior in terms of detail but there isn't a wide discrepancy between the two. 

NOTE: We have added 62 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Arrow use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the English language (no Greek language option.) It is authentically flat with some DUB'ing obviousness, a few effects (motorcycle, planes) that export minor depth. The score is by Nikos Lavranos (Island of Death), plus there is an ABBA wannabe group singing occasionally and some traditional Greek dancing music. It supports the film adequately in the uncompressed. Arrow offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Arrow Blu-ray offers exclusive new interviews with Nico Mastorakis for 25-minutes (celebrating his 80th birthday) and a second with actress Maria Aliferi for 18-minutes. She's delightful. Dancing with Death has 3/4 an hour of tracks from the Death Has Blue Eyes original soundtrack. There are two original theatrical trailers and an image gallery. The package has a reversible sleeve (see below) featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys and for the first pressing we get an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Julian Grainger.

Nico Mastorakis's Death Has Blue Eyes shows what would be trademarks of the director's future career; exploitation thrillers with nudity and kink. Like Blind Date, Island of Death, In the Cold of the Night, and The Wind throw in themes of the supernatural, conspiracy, horror, or slasher angles and you have Euro-genre-sleaze at its most quintessential. Make no doubt, there is something to this filmmaker - an obviousness and extravagance, without pretense or shame, that makes interesting and fun, while extreme, films. Death Has Blue Eyes is relatively tame but fearless in cheesecake-like nudity and occasional romps in bed that have little to do with the major plot of a controlled Psychic and political assassination. Arrow Blu-ray have a soft-spot for Mastorakis and I would have never seen these exploitation larks without them bringing many of his films to 1080P. Trust me this is much better than it's IMDb rating (3.0/10) but you better be in a forgiving cinephile mood or at least let yourself have some fun with it. Maria Aliferi is certainly not hard to look at - a Greek actress who was very popular on 80's TV in her home country. Her interview in the extras is worth watching. Ohh... this isn't close to being Giallo. Director completists, Euro-film aficionados and exploitation genre fans in general are recommended to indulge.

Gary Tooze