New 4K Restoration of Iván Zulueta's ‘Arrebato’

Arrebato (Rapture) is the 1979 cult-hit from Spanish director Iván Zulueta that has thrilled and mystified international audiences for decades and will soon be available for the first time in the United States. A new 4K restoration of the film, presented by Altered Innocence, hits digital VOD services on December 21, 2021, with a Blu-ray and DVD release to follow on January 25, 2022.

In Arrebato, José Sirgado (Eusebio Poncela) is a heroin-addicted filmmaker who is introduced to Pedro (Will More), himself a filmmaker of sorts, though he shows his films to no one. Though childlike and eccentric, Pedro fascinates Sirgado, who seems rarely to find anyone with whom to speak so candidly about his passion for cinema. When Pedro shows José one of his films, he begins crying and convulsing, seemingly unable to bear revealing his soul to another. When he passes out from his fits, José leaves him.

From this point forward, things get a little hazy. Pedro describes to him his obsession with filming at a precise rhythm, with nostalgia’s relationship with memory, and with cinema’s ability to manipulate these. It’s a real mindtrip—not necessarily visually, but the content of the plot, Pedro’s monologues and narration, will undoubtedly have you thinking about it for days. The film’s been thematically compared to David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and Żuławski's Possession, though, with a much smaller budget and de-emphasis on elaborate monster effects. The proximity to those films should give everyone a fair litmus test on what they might expect, though.

The real surprise, however, isn’t the film itself—that stands on its own—but the restoration work done by Altered Innocence. Since Arrebato has never been released in the States, this was my first chance seeing a licensed copy, but dozens of clips of the film can be found online, and it was these that I compared the new restoration to. Both the picture and audio see significant improvements with the restoration. On the old print, there was a lot of visual noise that gave many scenes a hazy feeling and, particularly on darker scenes, made it nearly impossible to watch. This has been completely cleared up, not just in terms of artifacts, but the colors seem truer and the contrast is improved, yet it doesn’t lose the film grain that gives it such a classic look. While the audio quality might be more important to a native Spanish speaker than to anyone using subtitles, it’s still a much better viewing experience without the scratchy, tinny sound of a damaged audio track. 

Where to watch Arrebato:

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This is a film that has quietly stayed just out of my reach for a long time, giving it almost mythical appeal. Finally getting to see it, and with a fresh coat of paint, makes it worth it. This is the kind of movie that makes me so thankful for boutique labels like Altered Innocence—difficult to find cult-hits that would otherwise risk being lost to time and deserve every shot at getting a new lease on life with a new audience. Arrebato is a bizarre, difficult but inspiring film that shows boundless creativity. It is available now on VOD platforms and will release on physical media on January 25. I highly recommend checking it out.

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Article written by Ande Thomas

Ande loves the intersection of sci-fi and horror, where our understanding of the natural world clashes with our fear of the new and unknown. He writes about monsters and foreign horror and can also be found over on Letterboxd.

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