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Malabimba tells the story of Bimba(Katell Laennec), the teenage daughter of a wealthy family currently in decline. One night after the family holds a séance gone awry, Bimba finds herself possessed by the spirit of a disgruntled ancestor, and begins to act strangely. She begins to act out her sexual frustrations on her family from her Father, and sickly dying uncle, to a nun Sister Sofia(Mariangela Giordano) brought in to help cure her.
Malabimba plays as a mix of a high-brow family drama, a supernatural horror film, and a sexploitation piece. When I first saw Malabimba on the Severin DVD over 10 years ago I was not a fan. I can admit to being wrong, and found that this ins one of Bianchi’s trash masterpieces. It is completely and utterly off the rails with its mish-mash of genres, bizarre atmospherics, and over the top sexuality.
Severin has presented Malabimba: The Malicious Whore in a 1:85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. The film looks really good despite it's age, and budget. There is some grain present on the transfer, but it is barely noticeable in most parts of the film. I did watch the film in it's integral version, however, and the deleted scenes for the most part come from a sub-vhs source, and look pretty horrible. I would however recommend these scenes, because they do flesh out the story a bit more.
Vinegar Syndrome presnts Malabimba from a 2k scan of a 16mm negative. Everything here looks mostly solid though VS does preface the transfer with the fact the negative was not stored in optimal conditions and there are moments where flickering and mold do show up. It is not a distraction, and overall the presentation looks great.
The Severin released of Malabimba features a Dolby Digital Mono Italian track with optional English subtitles. The track for the most part is very clear with only minor instances of background noise throughout.
The VS audio presentation is a DTS-HD MA track in Italian with English subs with parts that are tape sourced. For the most part this sounds quite excellent with clear and crisp dialogue and sound.
Severin has provided us with a good amount of extras on this DVD. The most substantial of which is Malabimba Uncovered, a 17 minute long interview with Mariangela Giordano who plays Sister Sofia, and Franco Villa the director of photography on the film. The interviews with both are interesting, and they have many great anecdotes from the production. The DVD also includes 13 deleted scenes, that can be viewed as part of the film in what Severin has called the “Integral Version.” The quality of the scenes is quite lacking, having apparently been sourced from what appears to be a VHS tape. However, as I said earlier, I would suggest watching Malabimba with these scenes intact if you do not mind the noticeable decline in picture quality. The last extra is the original theatrical trailer for the film in Italian with English subtitles.
Extras for the VS presentation include an in-depth and excellent commentary track with Kat Ellinger, Samm Deighan, and Heather Drain. There is also a featuette called Malabima Uncovered that features interviews with Mariangela Giordiano and DP Franco Villa. The set is rounded off with a trailer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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