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Editorial Reviews
When a man in their Edinburgh boarding house dies, poor Irish immigrants Burke (Derren Nesbitt) and Hare (Glynn Edwards) discover they can make good money by supplying corpses for scientific study to a doctor at the university medical school. Inconvenienced by the lack of available cadavers, the cunning pair soon turns to murder to maintain their revenue stream. Vernon Sewell (Ghost Ship, The Blood Beast Terror) directs this classic horror film with a dose of dark comedy. Newly remastered in HD and in it s original aspect ratio for the first time. First time ever on Blu-ray!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
William Burke and William Hare are history's most infamous body snatchers, and the 1971 film The Horrors of Burke and Hare represents one version of their remarkable story. Unfortunately, the movie is just plain weird in a number of ways, and this takes away from the true horror of the events being chronicled. The year is 1828, and the place is Edinburg, Scotland. Medical schools want corpses, and the supply of dead prisoners just isn't enough to satisfy some university surgeons. Characters such as Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Herbert West might be willing to dig up dead bodies themselves, but the same cannot be said of the medical elite at illustrious universities. Dr. Robert Knox prefers to buy his cadavers, and he isn't too particular as to where they came from. Enter the evil odd couple of the malevolent, brooding Hare and his smooth-talking, supposedly less fiendish friend Burke. When a lodger in Hare's inn dies, Burke and Hare decide to sell the body, and they earn a whopping good price for him. The prospect of eight pounds per delivery quickly eliminates all of Burke's feigned misgivings. Simply waiting for people to die isn't the way to get rich quick, though, and the pair soon begins "helping along" a few old tramps and destitute women, developing a murder method that leaves no obvious evidence of their handiwork. Once their greedy wives find out where all the men's new money is coming from, they jump into the project with both feet. Burke and Hare eventually become less selective in their choices, thereby attracting attention to themselves (but not before killing 16 people). This movie doesn't follow the post-arrest events, but Burke was hanged while Hare escaped with his life (and basically nothing else) by turning King's evidence.
As far as I am familiar with the true story of Burke and Hare, this film isn't that far off in terms of its presentation. It clearly does portray Burke as a likeable fellow who got sucked into this evil enterprise despite a few moral twinges early on, a bias that I can't buy into completely. Hare, for his part, is as bad as the devil incarnate from the very start. The transformation of Burke into unhappy but willing accomplice to point man of the operation is particularly interesting to watch. Unfortunately, the film also sports a subplot involving a young, naďve medical student and the prostitute he falls in love with. We are presented with a plethora of voyeuristic peeks into the brothel rooms as the lady of the house checks up on her clientele, and the activities we see range from the comical to the ridiculous. Transitioning back and forth between cold-blooded murder and men in costumes chasing half-naked women around a room takes much away from the infamous activities of Burke and Hare themselves. Then there is the music. The centerpiece is a song about Burke and Hare, but it is a jaunting little number that makes you want to tap your feet and swing your arms; frankly, I love the song, but it just doesn't fit the atmosphere of the film. Not only is it played at the opening and ending of the film, it also jumps out for a command performance in the immediate wake of what should be a disturbing murder.
Put all of these strange aspects of the film together and you have one really weird film. It is actually fairly historical in terms of the crimes of Burke and Hare, but I would not consider it anything close to authoritative. I also think the story of these two men is more impressively presented in the 1959 film The Flesh and the Fiends starring Peter Cushing and, in the role of Hare, Donald Pleasance. There is really nothing gruesome about The Horrors of Burke and Hare, but those with an interest in the criminal annals of this body snatching duo will find much to interest (as well as bewilder) them here.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
Throughout the seventies, many British studios tried to compete with Hammer Films in the Horror genre output and few succeeded. Here we have a rare British title , Director Vernon Sewell's 'BURKE AND HARE'- 1972, which received limited distribution in the states and appeared in mom and pop video stores in the eighties via a muddy VHS transfer. The story of grave robbers doing murderous business with surgeons in 1800's Edinburgh had been filmed many times before and because it was the seventies , this version contains dark and crude sexual humor taking place in brothels and pubs making it hard to classify it as a Horror film or an exploitation comedy. It is peppered with many familiar British actors : Harry Andrews as Dr. Knox who seems to be slumming it, the always excellent Derren Nesbitt in a front and center role for once , an unrecognizable Yootha Joyce as Burke's Sweeney Todd/Mrs. Lovett-like unpleasant wife, and as the gorgeous brothel trollops ,Francoise Pascal and a blink or you'll miss cameo by Yutte Stensgaard who played Mircalla/Millarca Karnstein in Director Jimmy Sangster's 'LUST FOR A VAMPIRE'- 1970 who gave that role an underrated performance. Director Sewell directs the proceedings in a straight forward manner having come off the set of the much better guilty pleasure 'THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR' aka 'THE VAMPIRE BEAST CRAVES BLOOD'-1971 also available from Redemption Films in Blu-Ray or DVD. The Blu-Ray is a nice clear transfer in its correct 1.66 aspect ratio showing off the production design giving a you are there feel to the dirty alleyways and interior hovels enhancing the crisp cinematography by Desmond Dickinson although the negative fluctuates with bluish blemishes and brownish tones. The music score by Roger Webb is average but the main and end titles has an annoying theme song sung by a group called 'THE SCAFFOLD'. Extras include a featurette called 'GRAVE DESIRES:CORPSES ON FILM' ; a wonderful interview with actress Francoise Pascal who seemed to enjoy the shoot and trailers to this film plus other Redemption British titles. For those who want to see more of this type of material, scope out Director John Gilling's stylish 'THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS' aka 'MANIA' -1961 with Peter Cushing in the Dr. Knox role which may be the definitive version of the material and also Director Freddie Francis's intense work 'THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS'- 1985 with Timothy Dalton as Dr. Knox. Of course, Director Robert Wise's 'THE BODY SNATCHER' -1945 should be mentioned with the 'BURKE AND HARE' characters hovering over the proceedings of actor Henry Daniel as the good Dr. MacFarlane and the ultimate Boris Karloff performance :Cab man Grey. For British Horror completists only, it is an offbeat piece of British history come to life and should be much better if not for the seesawing of Benny Hill like humor and serious horror making the viewing of 'BURKE AND HARE' a frustrating experience.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By S. Boone
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
For those familiar with the Burke and Hare tale, (as also done in "The Doctor and the Devils" and "Flesh and the Fiends"), the story is familiar. There's a bit of fooling around to be had here, a bit of bumbling comedy, some womanizing, all mixed in with the more "grave" material. I did enjoy this to a point, but boo and hiss to Redemption for the quality of this DVD, which is quite poor. This is the best print they could come up with? I think my old New World Video VHS was better. I wonder if Redemption would have put something of this quality out if they were still affiliated with Image Entertainment?
At any rate, the film does have a rather fun theme song courtesy of Scaffold, a band featuring Mike McGear, who is Paul McCartney's brother.
But the DVD quality....OY! 3 out of 5 stars...
At any rate, the film does have a rather fun theme song courtesy of Scaffold, a band featuring Mike McGear, who is Paul McCartney's brother.
But the DVD quality....OY! 3 out of 5 stars...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
No John Landis
Perhaps the most important thing I discovered in the 15 or so minutes that I watched of this is that John Landis had a precedent for his delightful version of the film. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Polly Prissypants
2.0 out of 5 stars
No chance for Redemption
Gave it a shot just due to Redemption promoting it - but there are other more current films out there if you like the "Burking" films (which I do) and this is a good example of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by S. Banzhaf
1.0 out of 5 stars
Total Trash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When this was first brought to my attention via Amazon it was touted as the John Landis version. Now, I know that Landis is making a film on the infamous Scottish sickoes - and... Read more
Published on October 6, 2009 by Richard Masloski
