Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) - Blu-ray September/2012

[KingSimba]

Release Date: 10th/September/2012
Distributor: Studio Canal

[evilzedar]

According to Amazon release date is now October 22.

[NoirFan]

What is it with these guys and release dates?

[jrsl76]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

What is it with these guys and release dates?

Agreed, but it will be nice to have a little break after the madness of September.

[drac]

According to some, this disc has audio problems!

[ghostwhowalks]

Originally Posted by drac

According to some, this disc has audio problems!

That's putting it mildly. The audio is damn horrible. Can't wait to hear Hammer's response.

[Clark Kent]

I am starting to see why the Hammers aren't getting distribution in the United States. Has there been one trouble-free disc with no problems or issues?

[bgart13]

Yes.

Also bear in mind, there's been problematic Hammer bds in the US too.

[ghostwhowalks]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

I am starting to see why the Hammers aren't getting distribution in the United States. Has there been one trouble-free disc with no problems or issues?

"Quatermass and the Pit" is an absolute gem. It's how every subsequent Hammer release 'should' have been. And to be fair, The Reptile & Plague of Zombies were pretty good too.

[bgart13]

MUMMY'S SHROUD is fine, as far as I could tell. PARANOIAC is pretty good too.

Back the US bd comment, to clarify: VAMPIRE CIRCUS is too dark/dense and there's a line of dialogue missing (but that's inherent in the track fro some reason -- it's missing on the German bd too), and MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH starts rather rough and improves a bit but is still not very "HD" in appearance.

[NoirFan]

Other than several seconds of added CGI (a regrettable choice that nevertheless fits in relatively smoothly with the original footage), The Devil Rides Out looks superb. Regardless, there's certainly no connection between any controversies with the UK releases and the lack of any US counterparts - it's just that the rights likely belong to LionsGate, and they're infamous for sitting on their entire catalog.

[Rathbone]

Originally Posted by bgart13

Back the US bd comment, to clarify: VAMPIRE CIRCUS is too dark/dense and there's a line of dialogue missing (but that's inherent in the track fro some reason -- it's missing on the German bd too), and MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH starts rather rough and improves a bit but is still not very "HD" in appearance.

The German and US BD of Vampire Circus are based on the same old master. I had both and did a comparison. The US was DNR'd/softened to remove the digital noise and darkened to hide some ugly noise and artifacting issues in the darker areas of the image. The German BD is sharper and has balanced contrast levels but with the digital noise still in place.

The Man who could cheat death I think is pretty solid HD quality for a low cost catalog release.

[VeZius]

So, how bad are the audio issues? Bad enough that there's no point upgrading from the dvd?

[samuel1976]

I too would like to know about the quality of the audio as the user reviews on Blu-Ray.com give it 4 stars.

[Partyslammer]

The audio track on the Rasputin Blu-ray is very tinny, compressed sounding and at a low volume. Turning up the volume and perhaps fiddling with the bass on your receiver (and EQ if possible), it's liveable through most of the movie when it's just dialog, but any time there's a scene with action and/or music cues, it's very distracting how timid the audio is.

The opening credits music frankly sounds like it's coming from an AM radio playing in another room. I also have the old Elite laserdisc of this movie and the soundtrack on that disc blows the Blu-ray out of the water - the LD is much more full bodied (but is perhaps unrealistically boosted a bit on the low end) and mixed at a proper level. I don't have the old Anchor Bay dvd, but my understanding is that audio track is essentially the same as the older laserdisc. Here's some comparisons between the old dvd release and the Blu-ray release audio so you can judge for yourself:

https://soundcloud.com/sleep-cant/rasputin

What makes this a real shame is the video quality is fairly good, the best this movie has looked on home video by a fair margin, although the widescreen aspect ratio really reveals the poor quality lenses they used to film this in scope - it looks a bit "fish-eyed" on the sides of the image.

[HuggyBear73]

Yeah, the audio is horrible on it. After 10 minutes I turned if off and sold my copy.

[eChopper]

i was shocked at the sound when the fox logo came on.WTF ?? who does quality control at Studio Canal /Hammer ? They hit the picture quality outta the park then ruin it with a VHS quality audio stream . Its very Lo- FI and sibilant at times

[samuel1976]

Also why do the user reviews on this site give it 4 stars for audio quality??? What's that all about?

[eChopper]

Had another look at this the other day . Whilst the intro fanfare music over the 20th century logo sucked , it's such a great movie I can live with the audio being less than perfect
It's largely dialog driven film and what's on offer suffices.

Never heard the DVD which some say had better audio

It's such a superb transfer and story

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by eChopper

Had another look at this the other day . Whilst the intro fanfare music over the 20th century logo sucked , it's such a great movie I can live with the audio being less than perfect
It's largely dialog driven film and what's on offer suffices.

Never heard the DVD which some say had better audio

It's such a superb transfer and story

The DVD has significantly better audio. They've screwed up this release, plain and simple.

It's made all the more frustrating because the visual restoration is superb!

NuHammer and Studiocanal as release partners were a match made in hell. Cock-ups and bad decisions all over the place. This one could and should have been fixed and replaced, but Hammer insisted the master materials were like that. So what if they were? It was just a poor excuse. Restoration surely implies using the best available materials of which there are plenty of alternative audio sources.