Review: Jess Franco’s ‘Night of the Blood Monster’ on Blue Underground 4K UHD Blu-ray

Jess Franco’s The Bloody Judge, which was theatrically released in the U.S. by AIP under the nonsensical title of Night of the Blood Monster, is one of the filmmaker’s most lavish productions. It’s one that, absent the outrageous lashings of sadistic violence and nudity that are common to Franco’s work, could almost pass for mainstream cinema.

As a helpful voiceover informs the viewer while the opening credits roll, The Bloody Judge is set in 1684, during the last days of King James II, on the eve of the Glorious Revolution that put William and Mary on the throne. Allegiance to the current king is paramount to the storyline, providing the motivation behind the increasingly sadistic actions of Judge Jeffries (Christopher Lee). Like Michael Reeves’s Witchfinder General, from 1968, Franco’s film pits its youthful protagonists against the hypocrisy and intolerance of an authoritarian regime.

This is evident early on when Alicia Gray (Margaret Lee) is summarily tried and executed as a witch for nothing more than being caught canoodling in a field with her lover, who’s murdered on the spot by Jeffries’s goons. This miscarriage of justice prompts Alicia’s sister, Mary (Maria Rohm), to seek redress from the judge, which is unsurprisingly unforthcoming. Mary soon finds herself caught up amid the era’s larger political machinations when her aristocratic love interest, Harry Sefton (Hans Hass), aligns himself with the rebel army.

The sad saga of Alicia’s torture and execution is portrayed with just the sort of grim realism that Reeves uses in Witchfinder General, except for the fact that actor Howard Vernon plays real-life executioner Jack Ketch to the histrionic hilt, reportedly channeling the performance of Boris Karloff as Mord in 1939’s Tower of London. Later scenes set in the dungeon perform the same tonal balancing act, including one especially gruesome sequence, replete with bloody tooth-plucking and dismemberment, that’s apparently meant to depict Jeffries’s dream life.

For long stretches, The Bloody Judge seems to forget about its more exploitative elements, settling in as a rousing historical epic, chockfull of political intrigue and blustery speeches. These portentous showdowns give Lee and co-star Leo Genn ample opportunity to show off their chops. Franco even had access to a large enough budget to stage a couple of pretty impressively mounted battle sequences, showing royalist cavalry and infantry up against the mobile cannons of the House of Orange. Another of the film’s strengths lies in its strikingly evocative locations, which add quite of bit of production value in their own right.

The Bloody Judge shortchanges the sexual proclivities of the real Judge Jeffries, who apparently spent long periods wallowing in “the stews” (slang for London’s redlight district). Here we do get a scene where Mary needlessly offers herself to Jeffries in exchange for clemency, which he accepts as his due, but the film doesn’t seem to suggest that Jeffries routinely seeks out such encounters, as does Witchfinder General. Jeffries differs from that film’s titular character because, unlike the crass greed and cynicism of Vincent Prince’s Matthew Hopkins, he actually seems to believe in the righteousness of the social and political order he presides over.

Ultimately, Franco’s film is a more conventional than Reeves’s, ending on a happy note of reunion for the romantic couple. Jeffries also suffers a far less hideous fate than Hopkins. He pays, of course, but he gets off pretty lightly, dying of natural causes while incarcerated in the Tower of London. This may be historically accurate, but it also makes for a surprisingly muted finale. All told, The Bloody Judge is perhaps most notable for how conventional it is (albeit quite enjoyably so), released at a time when the director was about to take the plunge into uncharted realms of highly personal and radically experimental filmmaking.

Image/Sound

Blue Underground presents Jess Franco’s film under the title of Night of the Blood Monster and in an HDR 4K transfer “restored from various European vault elements.” Despite the fact that this sounds like it should result in a patchwork crazy quilt, this is a consistently gorgeous restoration. The 2.35:1 Scope image is incredibly sharp and clean, revealing suitably cinematic depth. Colors are extremely vibrant, at times practically leaping off the screen. Grain is impeccably well managed, and black levels betray no trace of crush. Audio comes in a robust English DTS-HD Master Audio mono mix, excellently handling Bruno Nicolai’s lush score.

Extras

Blue Underground compiles a wealth of extras for this release, spread across both the UHD and HD discs, including three commentary tracks. The first features critics Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson, who examine The Bloody Judge’s production history, the careers of key cast and crew, and Franco’s enthusiasm for the exploitation elements of the film. The second track with critics Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw goes deep into the true history of Judge Jeffries and how The Bloody Judge just might misrepresent the man and his motivations. And the third finds critics David Flint and Adrian Smith evaluating the legacy of producer Harry Alan Towers, the film’s unconventional mix of generic styles, and its complicated release history.

On the featurette “Bloody Jess,” Franco discusses his working relationship with Christopher Lee over the course of several films, while Lee sketches in the historical milieu of Judge George Jeffreys (the correct spelling) and how that affected some of his acting choices. Both men, incidentally, express nothing but derision over the film’s title change for its U.S. release.

Elsewhere, “In the Shadows” has author and critic Stephen Thrower diving deep into Towers’s colorful life and career, with some additional comments from filmmaker Alan Birkinshaw about collaborating with the producer. Thrower returns for “Judgement Day,” where he discusses The Bloody Judge’s production history, the cognitive dissonance of its myriad tonal qualities, and how the film marks a shift in Franco’s career between more mainstream productions and smaller-budgeted, more personal, and experimental works. There are also about 20 minutes’ worth of deleted or alternative scenes, as well as trailers, TV spots, and still galleries.

Overall

Jess Franco’s The Bloody Judge, a.k.a. Night of the Blood Monster, splits the difference between period-drama gravitas and exploitation-film titillation.