Mill of the Stone Women

[DarkImbecile]

Before Black Sabbath, before I Vampiri, director Giorgio Ferroni (The Lion of Thebes, Blood for a Silver Dollar) introduced audiences to period horror Italian-style with his chilling 1960 shocker Mill of the Stone Women – a classic tale of terror redolent with the atmosphere of vintage Hammer Horror.

Young art student Hans von Arnam (Pierre Brice, Night of the Damned) arrives by barge at an old mill to write a monograph about its celebrated sculptures of women in the throes of death and torture, maintained and curated by the mill’s owner, the hermetic Professor Wahl (Herbert Böhme, Secret of the Red Orchid). But when Hans encounters the professor’s beautiful and mysterious daughter Elfi (Scilla Gabel, Modesty Blaise), his own fate becomes inexorably bound up with hers, and with the shocking secret that lies at the heart of the so-called Mill of the Stone Women.

The first Italian horror film to be shot in color, Mill of the Stone Women prefigured a raft of other spaghetti nightmares, including the work of maestros Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Arrow Video is proud to present this brand-new restoration of one of the foundational titles of Italian horror.

2-DISC LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• New 2K restoration from the original negative by Arrow Films
• 1080p Blu-ray™ presentations of four different versions of the film: the original 96-minute Italian and English export versions, the 90-minute French version, containing exclusive footage, and the 95-minute US version, containing alternate dubbing, re-ordered scenes and added visual effects
• Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Roberto Curti, an in-depth comparison of the different versions by Brad Stevens, and a selection of contemporary reviews
• Fold-out double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais - Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards

DISC 1 – THE ITALIAN AND ENGLISH EXPORT VERSIONS

• Restored original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks
• Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• New audio commentary by Tim Lucas, author of Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark
• Mill of the Stone Women & The Gothic Body, a new visual essay on the trope of the wax/statue woman in Gothic horror by author and critic Kat Ellinger
• Turned to Stone, a newly edited featurette containing archival interviews with actress Liana Orfei and film historian Fabio Melelli
• A Little Chat with Dr. Mabuse, an archival interview with actor Wolfgang Preiss
• Rare opening titles from the UK release, re-titled “Drops of Blood”
• German opening titles
• US and German theatrical trailers
• Image galleries

DISC 2 – THE FRENCH AND US VERSIONS (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE)

• Restored original lossless mono French soundtrack for the French version
• Restored original lossless mono English soundtrack for the US version
• Newly translated English subtitles for the French soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack

[Banasa]

"before I Vampiri"

I mean, it's not.

[Orlac]

I think this came out one week before Black Sunday. And this film is pretty much what you get if you mixed House of Wax and Eyes Without A Face in a blender.

[L.A.]

Mondo Digital.

[Finch]

Beaver

[Finch]

Cinesavant review

First-generation Euro-horror stressed the potential beauty of gothic cinema, bridging the gap between trashy pulp and surreal art. The accomplished Mill of the Stone Women extends the erotic/horrific use of Victorian settings and sensual color beyond the example set by Hammer’s Technicolor Jack Asher classics. The bright cinematography abounds with expressionist effects. Professor Wahl makes an entrance through a narrow aisle of carved emblems and religious sculptures, with a blast of unmotivated blood-red light on the floor. Elfi stands holding a crimson rose (much like Annette Stroyberg in Blood and Roses) or lies draped across her bed awaiting the arrival of Hans, bathed in chroma contrasts that heighten her sensuality. In a two-shot embrace she moves from rim-lit backlight into a careful composition with a Joan Crawford-like eye light across her otherwise dark face.

This is more than ‘pretty pictures,’ it’s the kind of careful lighting abandoned by most genre efforts of the 1950s. The ‘aesthetic delirium’ has an impact similar to that of Vertigo. In horror, only Freda’s The Horrible Dr. Hichcock and Bava’s Black Sabbath front a comparable color atmosphere. (...)

The Arrow disc’s near-perfect Eastmancolor images allow us to appreciate cinematographer Pier Ludovico Pavoni’s work — the color lighting is right up there with that of Mario Bava and Raffaele Masciocchi. The suffused hues outdoors with canals and Dutch buildings are hazy and cold, and a carnival of textures and hues inside with Wahl’s art objects and the bizarre carousel of female horror. In widescreen, scarlet curtains open on the parade of wax figures, the 1912 equivalent of Cinerama.

(...) Adam Rabalais new key art for the show is really attractive, complementing nicely the deliciously trashy (but also attractive) original U.S. poster art. A handsome reversible poster carries both. The year is almost gone, and this set is one of its best fantastic-fare disc offerings. The restoration raises our estimation of Mill of the Stone Women to the top rank of first-wave gothic Eurohorror.