Tragic Ceremony

One of the horror movies Camille Keaton made during a sojourn to Italy in the seventies prior to attaining infamy with I Spit on Your Grave, Tragic Ceremony (1972) was also one of Riccardo Freda's last films as director.  I always hope that there is renewed interest in Freda's work, a fresh light cast on him as a film-maker to be savioured in the same way that Fulci and Bava might be.  As it stands only a handful of his films have made their way to disc for posterity and present fans to cherish, and a couple I think desperately need to be restored before they vanish forever (if they haven't already).  Tragic Ceremony itself is marginally clumsy at times but with enough going for it to make it an enjoyable, fairly unique viewing experience.

A group of teens are lazing about, generally having a good time thanks to one of them being quite well off before his time (Bill, played by Euro-horror regular Tony Isbert, the Spanish equivalent of James Franco).  Their ebullience is cut short when the jeep gives up the ghost during a stormy night.  They find refuge in an isolated mansion, with reluctant acceptance and little hospitality from their hosts.  Jane (Keaton), however, seems to receive superior treatment for reasons unknown, and she herself develops an uncanny affinity for the place and situation.  While the rest of the group grow increasingly bored cooped up in one room, she goes wandering in the dark, rainy night through the passages of the house, only to become the unwilling - or perhaps destined - participant in a black mass sacrifice that's already underway.  Before the ritual is carried through to logical conclusion, the rest of the group discover what's going on.  Unwittingly they become the catalyst for a bloodbath, as one bloody killing leads to another before their very eyes.  Somehow surviving the massacre the traumatised group head back to Bill's rich dwelling, only to be turned away from there.  It's not long before the mass murder is formally discovered and the police are fumbling through to figure out what happened.

Tragic Ceremony has some great moments and a slight supernatural undertone.  The black mass is a near-surreal nightmare preceded by Keaton fetchingly wandering around the mansion with flimsy attire and candlesticks, much as Barbara Steele might have in the decade before.  It also culminates in the aforementioned massacre, quite a scene as one kill triggers another.  The only complaint here is that either Freda or the editor decide to replay certain shots later in the film to ridiculous excess, thereby diminishing them of their power somewhat.  On route, the film delivers some trademarks of Italian gothic horror, a genre Freda had been involved with before on a number of occasions.  Here it collides - as it often did in the early seventies - with the contemporary, almost as if the horror baton was being handed on between the decades to suit a changing audience.  I think Keaton was brilliant in these European films, her facial expressions alluding to much more going on underneath combined with her very much being an appealing presence generally.  It must be stated that Tragic Ceremony is not all it could have been.  However, with its surreal edge and at times nightmarish logic ever present, over the years I've not grown tired of rewatching it, something that I cannot say for much that spews forth from identity-politics obsessed Hollywood this century.

The film was released by Dark Sky Films on DVD about 2008, and more recently by the incredible Vinegar Syndrome on Blu-ray.  They both present the same cut of the film (running a few seconds longer on Blu only because of the presence of VS's iconic ident at the end), albeit with revised subtitles on the later edition.  Amusingly the incredibly cumbersome onscreen Italian title is translated as is on the Dark Sky disc (roughly speaking to Extract from the Secret Archives of the Police of a European Capital), whereas the same title on the VS is simply translated as 'Tragic Ceremony'... Aspect ratio is 1.78:1 on each disc, perhaps a smidgeon more information being visible on the VS.  Italian language-only (I'm not sure if there is an English dub) audio quality is at a higher bitrate on the VS Blu, although it is limited to the standards of the time and thus the viewer would be hard pushed to notice much difference I think.  The picture quality itself is where the Blu-ray excels, being significantly cleaner and more detailed.  The DVD was reasonably good for its time but is put to bed here without much doubt.  The Blu-ray contains an audio commentary and picture gallery (of Keaton) that the DVD does not, while they both contain the same 13 minute interview with Keaton herself.  The DVD does have a trailer that the Blu-ray is missing for some reason; I wouldn't say this is a huge loss.  In terms of region locking, the DVD is fixed to region 1, whereas the Blu-ray covers all regions.  Finally the VS disc (at least the edition in the first run Camille Keaton in Italy boxed set that it came in) thoughtfully has a reversible cover adorned with appealing art on both sides.  Overall the 2K restoration (reportedly of the 35mm negative) performed by VS is superb, the best edition available, and preserves the film the way it should be for generations to come.