Porno Holocaust (Code Red) (Blu-ray) Review

Distributor: Code Red Edition Details: Limited Edition Blu-Ray Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film, Foreign, Horror Also known as: Insel der Zombies, Orgasmo Nero 2: Insel der Zombies Run Time: 114 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1981 Director: Joe D'Amato Written by: George Eastman (as Tom Salina) Cast: George Eastman, Dirce Funari, Annj Goren, Mark Shannon (as Mark Shanon), Lucia Ramirez, Joe D'Amato Release Specs: Audio: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono Subtitles: English Video: Widescreen, 1.78:1 (anamorphic) Video Format: NTSC Format: Blu-ray Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): A (North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia) Number of discs: 1

Porno Holocaust is an attempt at an adult/horror film hybrid that Joe D'Amato shot in conjunction with Erotic Nights of the Living Dead with mostly the same cast. In Porno Holocaust, a team of scientists goes to a Caribbean island to check into mutations due to past atomic testing that occurred on the island. There they find a mutated zombie-like monster that attacks the scientists.

Sadly, Porno Holocaust is a failure as a horror film. There isn't any attempt at any horror elements for the first roughly hour and fifteen minutes of the almost two-hour long film. And even when they are introduced, they are anything but scare-inducing. The gore effects are poorly done and unrealistic. The make-up on the mutated zombie monster is, well, let's say very fake looking. There are no real attempt at chills. For attacks, the camera walks up to the person being attacked with some less than scary music playing. Then a look of fear when they stare upon the monster, and the attack happens. While I'm sure that some of the attacks are trying to play with the adult genre, they don't come across as overly creative. An additional loss of horror happens by trying to humanize the monster. While I get that the primary purpose of this film was the adult material, more care to the horror elements and more of the horror elements would have aided the film.

Speaking of the adult material, Porno Holocaust fails at that too. The sex scenes are rather poorly shot and not overly erotic. Some of the issues are from trying to deal with the tropical landscape that Joe D'Amato has to deal with and the lack of budget for equipment that would have removed the terrain issues. The other problem is that the sex scenes lack energy and seem to lack direction at points too. Joe D'Amato does manage to pack a bunch of sex scenes into the film though, so it does have that going for it.

The other major issue with Porno Holocaust is it is very slow and doesn't seem to go anywhere. There isn't much to the plot and story, and screenplay writer George Eastman has filled all of the time without sex or attempts at horror with dialog. But none of it seems to go anywhere. Often the film lags on while one wishes something, anything, would happen. The acting is rather atrocious too.

All in all, I can't recommend Porno Holocaust. The sex scenes are a failure, and the horror is even more of a failure. The film doesn't even succeed as camp material.

Code Red has done an excellent job with their limited edition Blu-ray release of Porno Holocaust. Porno Holocaust was shot on 35mm film, and it looks like Code Red may have used a high definition scan of the camera negative for this release. If they used a print, it was in great shape. Porno Holocaust is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p. The image looks beautiful with grain and some instances of print damage and artifacts. The colors in the film look beautiful.

Porno Holocaust is presented with an Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 monaural audio track. The sound has no apparent issues with a few pops and clear, and it is easy to understand the dialog. There is an optional English subtitle track included for the film.

Code Red has included a few extras on the release. “Real Italian Stallion — Part 1” is a 25-minute interview with Mark Shannon in Italian with burned in English subtitles. There is one part where the subtitles are cut off at the bottom of the screen. The second part of the interview is on Code Red's Blu-ray for Erotic Nights of the Living Dead. “An Interview with George Eastman” is a 12-minute interview also in Italian with burned in English subtitles that has been ported over from the old Media Blasters DVD.

Porno Holocaust is a poorly made adult film that fails at both being an adult film and at being a horror film. Sadly, there isn't much to interest anyone here. Code Red has done an excellent job with their Blu-ray release with excellent video and audio quality that is sure to please all fans of the film.

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