Corruption Review from Grindhouse Releasing!

Sixties horror from the UK can fall into two categories I guess, gothic and swinging. As in swinging I mean those very dated but so cool ones that look like they’ve been made by a group of dads who had no idea what’s going on in the parties and the youth scene.  Maybe it happened like this?  Dunno, does anyone really remember from that era?

Corruption is a swinging London movie and Peter Cushing, who plays Sir John Rowan, appears to be rather uncomfortable at the party he’s been forced into, after many hours performing surgery.  In fact he was asleep in his armchair before his fiancé, Lynn, telephoned to remind him.  All bright colors, mini skirts and face paint, John tiredly stares around, thin lipped (as only the late great Mr. Cushing could do) and has to endure a pointless conversation courtesy of a 60’s voiced London girl who, like Lynn, is a photographers model.  The photographer in question is a terrible character, who then has Lynn pose near enough nude for all the party dancers to watch.  John is understandably annoyed and grapples the grimacing man. “What’s the matter are you stoned? This is an expensive piece of equipment!”  Many punches and pushes later and a studio lamp crashes into Lynn’s face taking a large chunk of her modelling career with it.

Her sister, Val, keeps vigil by the bed and is very shocked by Lynn’s suggestion of assisted suicide.  She tells John who is feverishly studying books on ancient Egyptian methods of surgery and developing these ways for the modern times.

John visits the hospital morgue to remove fluid from the pituitary gland of a dead woman.  This gland is situated in the head.  As he finishes, a colleague and close friend of the couple, Steve Harris, catches him.  Due to their friendship, Steve swears to turn a blind eye unless it happens again.

With Val’s help, John operates at home on Lynn’s face, injecting the fluid into her cheek and then blasts her with a cool swinging laser, so a day later give or take, Lynn’s face is restored and apparently feels like a child’s skin.  Steve is astonished, insisting John goes public with his work, but also discusses the side effects.  A similar technique was performed in Germany and it failed because it didn’t last and the patient’s mental state was greatly affected.

John takes Lynn on a long cruise, however, they return earlier than expected.  Lynn shows Val, the cheap burn scar make-up has returned. “It needs to be living tissue!” stresses John to his freaked out partner.  Thus, what follows is an infamous scene restored for this release by Grindhouse of a wild haired Peter Cushing stabbing a topless prostitute to death accompanied by really ridiculous music.  He trails his bloody hand over her bare breast and then slowly and methodically cuts her head off and you can be sure that every old school Cushing fan squirmed in discomfort.

Obviously Val isn’t asked to help this time around.  Afterwards, Lynn visits the dickhead photographer, but he’s not interested since she’s been off the scene for so long.  The couple then take a break by the sea in their holiday cottage.  Lynn is visibly breaking, demanding John murders again for her, before the scars re-appear.  As luck has it, there’s a lonely hitchhiking teen on the beach.  John invites her to the cottage and struggles with himself and Lynn.  There’s a difference between a prostitute and a teen no one would miss apparently.

Terri stays the night.  She then lets a man called Rik into her room.  They are part of a Beatnik gang who robs holiday homes, etcetera.  Terri is scared on John, but more scared of somebody called Georgie.  By morning Lynn starts losing it because Terri is gone.  To calm her down, John goes hunting.  Sat in a train carriage, he glares at a girl who nervously bites her nails until he opens his bag, takes his blade and stabs her over and over.  More gore, more wild hair, and a generous helping of beheading.

Back at the cottage, John is about to cut through the skull when Terri appears somehow, quite unannounced: “I’m back!” and then she sees the head.

Corruption is so very dated, mainly due to the choice of clothes which looked out of date for the sixties.  Terri’s Beatnik gang are perhaps the worst, to the point of camp, especially the “animal” like Groper, played by character actor David Lodge.  All his grins, apple chewing and growls are quite annoying rather than disgusting and the fact that he laughs like a full-retard doesn’t help.  Georgie is a little less than impressive and doesn’t live up to his hype.

Then there’s the truly head-fuck Jazz music which blasts out at some pointless or wrong times.  A lot of the dialogue murders the scenes also.  However, for every negative there’s really a lot more positive.  For instance, the gore is so incredible and is an eye opener for those times.  The deaths are so slowly and almost lovingly lengthy that you cannot help but go, “Whooa.”  Thank you Michael Albrechtsen who also worked on The Uncanny and Death Ship, among others.

As stated in the review for Shock Waves, I am a big Peter Cushing fan and nothing he does puts me off.  As for Corruption it’s one of a kind and a good role for Mr. Cushing, who is as convincing as ever.

The final scenes collapse into sheer chaos with music, John screaming, fights, that mad laser spinning wildly slicing into bodies.  It never ends and you find yourself giggling.  Believe me, this version of Corruption is far superior to the original release and Grindhouse Releasing deserve respect for putting this out (the fact it’s a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack).  Hey you even get the choice of both versions, but choose the International one.  The clean up is very good but unfortunately shows some effects, too detailed (especially the skin burn on Lynn).  Some things are better in grey shadows.

I’m not going to comment on the much discussed ‘dream’ ending because I don’t think it’s that more of a future echo, due to John’s expression, but more likely a quick “we dunno what to write here” patch up job.

The extras are fine, including interviews with the stars (Cushing is audio only).  Billy Murray (as Rik) admits it was all good fun but hasn’t watched the film all the way through.  Wendy Varnells (Terri) had disagreements with the director, but got on well with Peter Cushing.  As for the star of the show, he doesn’t talk about his own films much but does describe how much A Clockwork Orange offended him.  It’s mainly about the state of the movies of that time (the interview is from 1974, by-the-way).  Stills, trailers, alternative scenes, are the usual suspects.  The audio commentary is supplied by author Jonathan Rigby and Cushing biographer David Miller.

Jolly good swinging release and much fun to be found, whether you are a Peter Cushing fan or not.

AKA : A Face de Corrupcao,Carnage, Corrupcion, Laser Killer, To ktinos me to nysteri, L’ossessione del mostro, Korupcja, Die Bestie mit dem Skalpell

Directed by: Robert Hartford-Davis | Written by: Donald & Derek Ford | Produced by: Peter Newbrook | Cinematography by: Peter Newbrook | Editing by: Don Deacon |Music by: Bill McGuffie | Special Effects by: Michael Albrechtsen | Cast: Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Kate O’Mara, Billy Murray, Wendy Varnals | Year: 1968 | Country: United Kingdom | Language: English | Color: Color |Runtime: 1h 31min

Distributor: Grindhouse Releasing

BLU-RAY SPECS:
 Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 16:9 1080p HD MPEG-4 AVC
 Region: Region Free
 Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono

 SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
 – Interviews with Peter Cushing, Jan Waters, Wendy Varnals, Billy Murray.
 – Audio Commentary by Jonathan Rigby and David Miller
 – Liner notes by Allan Bryce of The Darkside Magazine
 – Still galleries, trailers, TV spots
 – Isolated music and effects track
 – Coming attractions
 – Historic documents including script
 – Reversible cover
 – Alternative scenes
 – Director’s filmography