Drumwars [DVD]

After The Exorcist became a box-office blockbuster in 1973, the horror market was flooded with movies about demonic possession, and two of that film's illegitimate offspring are featured on this two-fer DVD from Substance Video. 1974's Abby has developed a cult reputation among fans of horror and blaxploitation, in part because Warner Bros. successfully sued the film's producers, claiming the film borrowed a bit too much from The Exorcist and making it all but impossible to see within a few years of its release. Given Abby's rarity, a DVD release of the movie is certainly welcome, but only the most forgiving fans will be satisfied with Substance's presentation. Abby has been mastered from a battered 16mm print (possibly drawn from another video source) that's scratchy, splicey and faded, with the color balance leaning precariously into the red. It's an open question if better quality elements exist for this picture, but Substance should at least warn customers of the haphazard quality of this print before they buy. This print of Abby has been pan-and-scanned to the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33. The monophonic audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo and sounds tinny and a bit scratchy, though it's certainly better than the picture. And Substance have at least thrown in some welcome extras, including selected filmographies for Abby's cast, galleries of stills, posters and production photos, a radio commercial for the movie and the original trailer (which was obviously taken from a second or third generation VHS video, though it still looks a bit better than the feature itself). Meanwhile, the German possession-meets-sexploitation thriller Magdalena: Possessed By The Devil (aka Magdalena von Teufel Besessen) has been letterboxed at 1.66:1 in a transfer that's reasonably sharp and colorful, but appears to have again been taken from another video source. The dialogue has been dubbed into English, with no subtitles or multiple language options (burned-in Japanese subtitles appear during the opening sequence for reasons that are not explained). Selected cast filmographies have been included as a bonus. This double bill DVD brings two hard-to-find features back into circulation, and Substance get an A for their archival skills, but barely earn a C for their quality control.