Experiment in Terror Blu Ray Review (Sony Pictures)

Experiment in Terror is a 1962 suspense thriller produced and directed by Blake Edwards (Pink Panther franchise, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Switch, Skin Deep, Blind Date, and 10). It was written by Mildred Gordon and Gordon Gordon (That Darn Cat, Men of Annapolis, The Detectives, and Make Haste to Live) based on their novel “Operation Terror”!!!! Kelly Sherwood (played by: Lee Remick from Days of Wine and Roses, The Omen, The Hunted, Anatomy of a Murder, Telefon, and The Running Man) works as a bank teller in 1960s California when she is attacked by a shadowy dangerous man (played by: Ross Martin from The Wild Wild West, Hawaii Five-O, Geronimo, Mr. Lucky, The Return of Mod Squad, and The Great Race) that orders her to steal $100,000 from her own bank. The psychopath threatens the lives of Kelly and her sister Toby (played by: Stefanie Powers from Hart to Hart, Survive the Night, Maggie, Die! Die! My Darling!, McLintock!, and The Magnificent Seven Ride!). FBI Agent John Ripley (played by: Glenn Ford from 3:10 to Yuma, Superman, Happy Birthday to Me, Midway, The Big Heat, and The Visitor) is assigned on the mysterious case. The strange investigation sends Ripley on a wild goose chase through the streets of San Francisco. Can Kelly survive all of this chaos???? Experiment in Terror is a very tense psychological thriller from the 60’s with the talented Blake Edwards behind the camera. He proves that he can direct more than comedies with Experiment in Terror. He pays tribute to Alfred Hitchcock for this, you can see his influence all over this. The Gordons wrote the script based on their own book. This is one of the better suspense productions from back then, you never knew what was going to happen next here. Lee Remick as Kelly Sherwood is great as the victim in this. Unfortunately, she’s put in a tough situation due to her job. Someone has been paying attention to her and she’s the perfect person to pull this off. Ross Martin as Garland Humphrey “Red” Lynch is extremely creepy as the ambitious crook looking for an easy score. I thought it was creative to keep his identity secret at first. You only seen a shadow and heard a commanding voice that set everything off. Veteran actor Glenn Ford is the law enforcement trying to track down this lunatic. He gets caught up in this twisted game. The supporting cast includes Stefanie Powers, Roy Poole (Network), Ned Glass (West Side Story), Patricia Huston (L.A. Law), Gilbert Green (Perry Mason), Clifton James (James Bond franchise), and William Bryant (Hondo). Noir was a very strong sub-genre at the time. The visual look is almost like an additional character, it adds to it’s thrilling atmosphere. The finale is pretty wild for when this was made. You didn’t really see too many go that big for it’s end. Experiment in Terror just keeps building up everything until it explodes. This feature clearly inspired David Lynch on a variety of projects such as Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart. I only wish it was around 10 minutes shorter so it could had a more consistent flow to it because there was a little too much that dragged a little. Regardless, it’s nice to see Experiment in Terror get re-released on home video after all these years because it definitely deserves some more attention. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Sony Pictures! This 1080p (1.85:1) transfer is an 2K restoration from the original camera negative. Experiment in Terror is a visual treat with it’s slick black and white cinematography. Blake Edwards really uses shadows and mystery to elevate it’s tension. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the disc. The score really adds to it’s suspenseful mood when it comes to the audio. All of the dialogue is crisp, the thrills are elevated, and the music has a killer boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. The “Theatrical Trailer” is the only extra on this home video release. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!