Deranged – Blu-Ray Reviewed.

Hello Folks Jonny T here with my review of Deranged Blu-Ray newly released from Arrow Films,

Deranged, Hailed as one of the most accurate stories of Ed Gein, Now in my opinion this is THE definitive telling of the story with the most creepiest atmosphere of all the films that have been inspired by the events since, films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the lambs and even Ed Gein to name but a few.

The film is the story of Ed Gein A.K.A The Plainfield Butcher, The story that shocked the USA back in the 1950’s. Ed Gein’s name has been changed to Ezra Cobb played brilliant by Roberts Blossoms, every detail is perfect even down to the baseball cap and Lumberjack Shirt. Now the basics of the story are the Ezra is a simple man running his deceased fathers farm whilst tending to his dying mother and when she passes away he descends into madness.

The film opens up with a reporter (who appears at certain intervals during the film) telling us the story of Ezra and his plight, The scene is brilliant along with some ultra-creepy funeral style parlour music from composer Jeff Gillen who also went on to score Porky’s 1&2! We see old Ezra tending to his mother and in a truly stomach churning scene Ezra is feeding his dying mother in bed with god knows what, some kind of green slime when she starts chocking and throws up a mixture of the green slime and blood as he attempts to feed the slime and blood back into her mouth she dies, covered in the stuff, grim!

So we then get the funeral scene where poor old Ezra now alone is being comforted by the town’s folk, Now Ezra is known locally as what they call a Simpleton, Always friendly and polite and also the town’s handyman, helping out with menial tasks for the locals, But when he is left alone he has visions, sick twisted visions, Brought on as we find out by his Mother that ruled him with an iron rod and scared the shot out of him with religion, telling him that all women are Evil, Basically telling all these scare tactics so he never leaves her alone, as I transpires this works to such great effect that Ezra decides after her death to dig her up and take her back home where he keeps her room like a shrine, This leads to  a great scene where he is driving home late a night with his mother’s rotting corpse hidden in the cab of his truck when he is pulled over by the local Sherriff, he winds down the window and the stench hits the Sheriff, but as with this and many other occasions as with the true story of Ed Gein he told the towns folk that he had his mother back and everything else he is doing but they all just laughed it off as “Kooky old Ed!”.

So with his mother finally home where he believes she belongs he decides to get his mother some more what he calls “Friends” as goes on more grave robbing adventures, this eventually leads to the point where there are no more corpses to dig up so he takes to murdering local ladies, this is where the townsfolk suddenly realise there may be more to Ezra than they 1^st thought.

So I may be a little bias as this is one of my all-time favourite movies, this release from Arrow Films is quite simply superb, the transfer is stunning especially all the vibrant colours that really shine through all the grimness of the sets, the audio is brilliant as I mentioned before especially the soundtrack by Carl Zillner, As I also said that for me having read a ton of stuff on Ed Gein this for me is the closest and best telling of the Ed Gein story. A brilliant release and a definite must have.

Deranged is available now from http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/

10/10 Jonny T.

EXTRA’S

As with all the Arrow releases this comes with packed full of superb Extra’s.

Audio Commentary by Tom Savini, A Fascinating audio track with some great insights to the making of the film from Tom Savini.This being his second ever movie.

Blossoming Brilliance – Scott Spiegel talks all things Roberts Blossoms and it’s great to see someone appreciate Mr Blossoms as much as I do!

Ed Gein From Murder To Movies – An unexpected but brilliant extra featuring an interview with Lawrence R. Harvey of Human Centipede 2  fame, exploring the transition of Ed Gein from reality to the cinema screen.

Wages of Sin – Great insight into the film with co-director Jeff Gillan also featuring some fantastic behind the scenes footage and stills.Especially impressive for me was the rare scene that has now been fully restored into the main feature that is the Brain Scooping Scene.

Trailer, Trailer Commentary and stills also.

A solid 9/10