The Film (3.5/5)

    There is a pretty good chance that if your name starts with Dr. and you are mentioned in the title of a Jess Franco film you are going to die in the first scene. OK, this only happens here and the Diabolical Dr. Z, but I'd call that enough to make it a trend.  Franco's breakout picture into the world of international cult cinema was 1962's Awful Dr. Orloff.  He seemed to hold that film in some sort of special regard, as he came back that character for at least title purposes throughout his nearly 50 year career. 

   Dr. Orloff's Monster released this month by Redemption Films would probably be better released through its alternate title the Mistress of Dr. Jekyll seeing as the titular Orloff is dispatched of quite quickly as mentioned earlier. The film then picks up with Dr. Conrad Jekyll (Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui). Jekyll is a cliché mad scientist who works in the requisite gothic castle with his late brother, now murderous corpse-robot Andros. Things are as fine as can be with Andros doing the deadly work of Jekyll until Andros daughter arrives on the scene, and now has to deal with her deadly Dad, and evil uncle.

   I had a lot of fun with Dr. Orloff's Monster. The film is certainly in the early Franco gothic mold, and has a nice chilling atmosphere. The performances are decent with  Agnes Spaak being the most dynamic of the 3 main players, and Arroita-Jáuregui just sort of being a sort of mad-less mad scientist. The film has the required night club interlude from director Franco who cameos as a piano player here. 

   The film is more restrained from a visual standpoint, but that's to be expected from the Franco of this era. He still keeps his finger on the zoom here, but not as frequently as he would later on. The score by Daniel White has a nice energy to it, and helps give the film its mood and energy. One last note is that the film is shorter by about 5 minutes then the prior Image Entertainment DVD release.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

    Redemption does solid work with Doctor Orloff's Monster. We get a 1:66:1 1080p transfer. Contrast is solid for the most part, detail is fine, there are some scratches, vertical through the screen and otherwise, and some image fluctuation. Otherwise things are quite the improvement from prior DVD releases.

    The audio is presented in DTS-HD Mono in Spanish. The audio sounds quite solid for the most part I did notice a tiny bit of hissing and distortion, but rarely is it distracting.

Extras (2.5/5)

    Redemption provides fans with another excellent commentary by Tim Lucas that is deeply informative and interesting. We also get alternate explicit footage and 2 trailers.

Overall

    Doctor Orloff's Monster is a fun film from the end of Franco's gothic period. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great, and has some great extras. It does run a  bit shorter than the prior DVD release. RECOMMENDED.