Blood Tide

Summary

“You are on Greek soil!”

Like many other cult film fans, I have a soft spot for writer/director/producer Nico Mastorakis. The filmmaker gave the world films like Hired to Kill, The Zero Boys, and Nightmare at Noon. Recently Arrow Video gave fans of the director reason to celebrate by releasing a Nico Mastorakis overseen film from 1982 called Blood Tide, and a Nico Mastorakis directed film starring Mel Foster called The Wind. I was in the mood for his particular brand of inspired lunacy so I watched both films this week. I started by watching the Mastorakis produced and co-written film Blood Tide. It was directed and co-written by Richard Jefferies. It still has a lot of Nico’s fingerprints on the final product.

The film begins in Ancient times. The Ancient Greeks sacrifice a virgin to some sort of sea monster. The film cuts to present day as two newlywed Americans, Neil and Sherry Grice (Martin Kove and Mary Louise Weller) arrive on a small Greek island via a rented speed boat. They are looking for Neil’s sister Madeline (Deborah Shelton,) who is an artist that has been drawn to the island. The townspeople, including the town mayor Nereus (Jose Ferrer,) claim to have not seen her. Upon further investigation of the town, the newlyweds stumble upon a hard drinking Othello quoting archeologist named Frye (James Earl Jones,) his vagabond lover Barbara (Lydia Cornell,) and Madeline. Madeline seems to have lost her marbles and is transfixed on figuring out a painting hidden beneath an ancient Christian painting. Frye has discovered a cave underneath the city only accessible through diving and he wants to see what is behind a walled off area. When Frye demolishes the wall in the cave with dynamite, he unleashes the ancient being trapped there. Meanwhile – Madeline has strange inexplicable feelings and she communicates with a nun named Sister Anna (Lila Kedrova) regarding the meaning of the hidden painting as she restores it.

Blood Tide is structurally a bit of a mess, but that should come as no surprise when one understands that the original title for the script was Man Shark. Like many of the Mastorakis films, the setting is in Greece and the film gains a lot from the visual beauty of the Mediterranean. The scenery of the film is at times very pretty. The film also gains a lot from the random A-list talent that is in the film. It is fun to watch the great James Earl Jones slumming it and seemingly having a blast in a C-grade film. It should come as no surprise that he steals the whole picture in every scene in which he takes part. Jose Ferrer and Lila Kedrova had both won Oscars for supporting roles in Zorba the Greek and Cyrano de Bergerac, so it was nice to have them in small roles. Martin Kove went on to achieve fame for his role in The Karate Kid, and Deborah Shelton went on to a memorable role in Body Double. Overall, it is a pretty stacked cast. The script may not have demanded a ton out of them, but it is still fun to have them all in the picture.

A film like this is going to either be enjoyed warts and all without much thought, or it can easily be dissected to death. The film obviously borrows from other films like Jaws and The Deep, in its reliance on underwater sequences, but until the monster is revealed these sequences work well enough. I found the premise intriguing, but, as might be expected, the monster was a tremendous letdown once it showed up on-screen. The monster actually looked even worse than I expected and drew some unintentional chuckles. Up until that point, the film maintained enough mystery to keep my interest. Writer and director Richard Jefferies does a good enough job given the difficulty of staging the production in a small town in Greece with the small amount of funding and as a first time filmmaker. The film doesn’t totally work, but it definitely is an enjoyable enough way to spend time for genre fans.

Overall, while this is not my favorite of the Mastorakis productions, I was still happy to spend time in the Mediterranean setting watching James Earl Jones and Deborah Shelton. This is about a C grade film.

Video

Presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an MPEG-4 AVC Encoded image, the presentation is sourced from a new 4K scan done by Arrow Video. Here is what the liner notes mention:

“Blood Tide has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono sound. 

The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution at R3Store Studios. Color grading and restoration was completed in 2K resolution at Silver Salt Restoration, London.”

As fans of the label have come to expect, the film has been restored to the best it has ever looked.  The fine grain over the film lends to a good filmic look and the Mediterranean scenery looks very nice on the Blu-Ray format. This was still a very inexpensively made film from the Eighties, so don’t anticipate anything miraculous, but the overall video presentation is very pleasing.

Audio

The audio presentation on Blood Tide sounds pretty good. The film features a well balanced LPCM Mono track that fits the film very well. The restoration of the track by Arrow is up to their usual high standards and should not dismay any fans of the film.

Supplements:

• Swept by the Tide – this interview with Blood Tide‘s producer and co-writer Nico Mastorakis by Ari Gerontakis is very entertaining and enjoyable. Nico is always boisterous and fun in his interviews and this one is no exception. He discusses his start in film, his years working at Paramount, and how he financed Blood Tide. Good stuff.
• Original Trailer 
• 2020 Trailer 
• Audio Commentary – Director and Co-writer Richard Jeffries is interviewed by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Productions whom I consider one of the very best cult film experts. The track is very entertaining and funny.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 3.5/5

Overall – 3.5/5

Blood Tide is a C-grade film with some A-grade talent. For genre fans, especially Nico Mastorakis fans, there is a lot to enjoy. Even for many of them, this film may just be a little too poorly done to hold their interests. For myself, the beautiful scenery and the great cast made the film an enjoyable enough way to spend an hour and a half. Arrow Video’s release has a great looking 2K scan from a 4K restoration. The special features are not numerous, but they are very enjoyable.