The Shout (2731) Blu ray quality

Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski adapted this deeply unsettling film from a very short story by Robert Graves and tells the tale of a psychiatric patient Crossley (Alan Bates) who claims he has learned a singular skill from his time with Australian Aborigines – he can kill just by shouting. He inveigles his way into the lives of experimental musician Anthony Fielding (John Hurt) and his wife Rachel (Susannah York), embarking on an emotionless affair with her and memorably demonstrating his power to him on a remote Devon beach. The story is told in flashback, related by Crossley to one ‘Robert Graves’ (Tim Curry) at a hospital cricket match. Is any of it true or is it just the deranged ramblings of a madman? Skolimowski isn’t telling (the ending is satisfyingly ambiguous) and the film is all the more disquieting for his reluctance. Given the subject matter it’s appropriate that this was the first British film with a Dolby soundtrack and Skolimowski makes stunning use of the technology, particularly dur