The Sorcerers (1967)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Blood Beast Documentary Gallery-Posters And Stills Theatrical Trailer Trailer-The Haunted Strangler, Corridors Of Blood Trailer-The Abominable Snowman
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	81:50
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Michael Reeves
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Boris Karloff Catherine Lacey Ian Ogilvy Elizabeth Ercy Victor Henry Susan George Sally Sheridan Ivor Dean
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	Paul Ferris

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.70:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    “Dazzling indescribable experiences - complete abandonment with no thought of remorse. Intoxication with no hang-over - ecstasy with no consequence.”

    Disgraced hypnotist/inventor Professor Marcus Monserrat (Boris Karloff) creates a device that allows him and his elderly wife, Estelle (Catherine Lacey) to control and experience the thoughts and sensations of others. Finding a young thrill-seeking groover, Mike Roscoe (Ian Ogilvy) to use in their experiment, the increasingly unbalanced Estelle becomes infatuated by Roscoe and his lifestyle and begins to incite him into acts of violence.

    The Sorcerers was the late Michael Reeves’ second feature after the comically deranged She-Beast (1966). Frustrated by censorship problems enshrouding his most famous film, The Witchfinder General (1968) and plagued by self-doubt, Reeves sunk into a drug and alcohol aggravated depression. He died at age 25 from an accidental (some believe deliberate) barbiturate overdose on 11 February, 1969. His dark frame of mind was further exacerbated by the residual effects of his privileged, yet rebellious upbringing and almost pathological need for artistic freedom.

    Touted by fans and many in the film industry as a filmmaking wunderkind, the tortured artist left a legacy of only three low-budget, but highly impressive features. Each of them bled with social metaphor and personal insights into his own psychological problems.

    In The Sorcerers, Reeves teases the audience with the voyeuristic nature of cinema itself. The old middle-class married couple are in essence like the viewer - for a brief moment in time they live out their fantasies through someone else acting on their behalf. Perhaps mirroring his own internal struggles, he also highlights stereotypical notions of the young being fatalistically led by their sexual and violent impulses. And like David Lynch, Reeves demonstrates how easily good people can turn bad. He pulls these concepts together with masterful precision by drawing powerful and resonant performances from all the key actors.

    As an aside, actor Victor Henry (Ian Ogilvy’s best buddy, Alan) was hit by a bus shortly after the film was finished. He lay in a coma for 17 years and died in 1985 when he was taken off life support.

Video

    The 1.70:1, 16x9 enhanced transfer shows its age and appears to be taken from a slightly beaten 35mm print.

    The rendering is quite noisy, with a thin to medium layer of grain evident throughout. Although reasonably sharp, shadow detail clarity can at times be obscured by the darkness of the print, making images appear murky and ill-defined (12:40, 12:51, 39:30, 43:29 for example). Regardless, black levels are deep and show only minor signs of low level noise. Contrast tends to fluctuate with some scenes looking too bright and others too dark.

    Colours are reasonably vibrant, especially on the groovy 60s fashion, but can look a bit faded at times. The use of pink and blue gel lighting during the psychedelic sequence at 15:12 is handled reasonably well by the transfer.

    A lot of film artefacts such as speckling, fine hair lines and blemishes appear throughout. This is more evident during the reel changes. But rather than being a distraction it actually enhances the visual experience by reminding the viewer they are indeed watching an old obscure film from the 50s.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The eerie oboe score by Paul Ferris is a constant presence and is reminiscent of the otherworldly score used in Blood on Satan’s Claw.

    Ferris also delights in using those funky musical pieces found in British spy thrillers from the 50s to connote intrigue to worthwhile effect.

    The score is also filled with the rich sounds of old-fashioned instruments such as the harpsichord, piano, violin and trumpet which are an aural feast and appropriately enhance the grammar of particular scenes – a sombre mood invoked by the ticking of a clock is suddenly broken by the wildly high-pitched feedback and throbbing effects of a psychedelic sequence. In another instance a sense of age and youth is achieved by forcing the groovy strains of a 60s pop song to juxtapose with the classical music played over scenes with the elderly couple. Quaintly dated, but effective nevertheless.

    The spoken word is clearly audible with no hiss or distortion.

    Being a mono mix the surrounds and subwoofer are silent.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Blood Beast documentary (un-countered approx. 23 minutes)

    This well-produced and fascinating mini-doco is centred on the late Michael Reeves. A still very good-looking Ian Ogilvy and a number of key film professionals reminisce about Reeves, his films and eventual slide into depression.

    Although more of Reeves’ personal life could have been explored, it is still a solidly recorded time capsule of his brief career. It also contains some terrific footage of The She Beast with the exotically creepy Barbara Steele. I hope some enterprising company restores this film and releases it soon.

Image gallery

    A series of 28 badly scanned posters, publicity, and behind-the-scenes stills.

Theatrical trailer (uncountered approx 2-minutes)

    Intoxication with no hang-over, ecstasy with no consequence…

Horror trailers for The Haunted Strangler, Corridors of Blood and The Abominable Snowman

    The Sorcerers is only available in Region 2 (UK) on a single disc edition through Prism Leisure Corp. The transfer, sound and extras appear to be identical to our own.

    Our Region 4 is excellent value as it comes with two other essential Karloff films: The Haunted Strangler and Corridors of Blood in a nicely presented Superstars of Horror: Volume 2 box set.

    The relatively obscure Sorcerers is a highly intelligent, thought-provoking gem that straddles the grey area between the horror and sci-fi genres. The film is part shocker and speculative satire, but mostly a bleak depiction of lost youth and bitterness.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall