4K UHD Review – Last Embrace

Throughout the 1970s, director Jonathan Demme started to form a career, doing so via help from Roger Corman, who took a chance on a young man with a vision for exploitation entertainment. Demme delivered "Caged Heat," "Crazy Mama," "Fighting Mad," and "Citizens Band," crafting escapism for the drive-in crowds, maintaining a sense of humor through most of his cinematic adventures. 1979's "Last Embrace" offers a maturing Demme hoping to replicate some moves from Alfred Hitchcock, overseeing a mystery/thriller that tries to remain twisty and agitated. The screenplay by David Shaber is an adaptation of a 1977 novel ("The 13th Man") by Murray Teigh Bloom, and the material remains very literary in design, following a paranoid man's quest to understand who's trying to kill him, often doing so through research. "Last Embrace" isn't a nail-biter, but it has a few explosive moments of suspense and strong performances to support the viewing experience, finding star Roy Scheider hitting all the right beats of anxiety as Demme attempts to make something involving and familiar. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com